A/N: Here we are, the end of Sakura's adjustment to the past. Thank you all for joining me on this journey. Again, if you have anything you want to see in the sequel, drop it in the comments. Or shoot me a PM. While I'm not sure exactly when I'll have LMS2 ready, it should be sometime in early 2021... Assuming the world is still around then.
"Uzumaki-sama?" a pale white woman stood in front of Sakura's lopsided door.
The Uzumaki compound hadn't been hit as hard as other areas of Konoha. There was still structural damage, but the houses in the area had been deemed livable by the Uchiha Construction Brigade.
Naruto screamed over her soft voice from his spot in Sakura's arms. Thankfully, Asuma-san had been willing to help out with Saku-chan, or Sakura might have resorted to using soldier pills round the clock.
Bright eyes from behind Yuki Hoshiko peered up at the child with curiosity. Haku couldn't be older than two at the moment, and Sakura could already see the signs of the bright, kind boy he would become.
"Can I help you?" Sakura yawned.
"I…" the woman paused, "It's common knowledge that you've been elected as the interim Hokage. I saw you with Young Master Uzumaki and…" she cleared her throat, "The Yuki clan formally requests the Protection of the Uzumaki clan."
Sakura resisted the urge to drop her head in her free hand. "Please, come in."
Whether or not she accepted the Yuki clan as a vassal of the Uzumaki clan, there would be a whole desk load of paperwork. Not to mention the obligations of a Lord to a vassal was another layer of work on top of all her clan head duties, interim Hokage work, and keeping track of Danzo.
She got the pair seated and began to brew some tea. With the changing of the seasons and the icy grip of emotional distress, everyone needed some good hot comfort foods. Though she was stretching the definition of 'food' here.
When both mother and child were seated with mugs of tea, and Naruto was happily feeding on his warm milk, Sakura finally spoke up.
"I was under the impression the Yuki clan was integrating well in the Konoha ranks."
"Konoha is… very different from Water. Everything from the weather to the people." Hoshiko gave a soft smile, "It is rather unnerving, to be honest."
"What does this have to do with Naruto?" Sakura asked bluntly. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in a week, since she had been watching her baby self even before the attack. The last thing she wanted to do was get involved in more brain bending politics.
"Young Master Uzumaki?" Hoshino smiled again, "I remember what it was like to have a new baby in the house. Such great care has to be taken with such precious burdens. I had my husband to help. You…"
Sakura sighed. She had no one but subordinates and nothing but obligations.
"You are now mother to a whole village. Young Master Uzumaki will need round-the-clock care, as will Konoha. Allow me to help. To lift your burdens, if only just a little."
"I'm only an adopted member…"
"We are both women, strong in our own ways." Hoshino set down her mug, "I am not thriving in the ninja community. I can't kill my heart.
"I don't know if you know this, but we were kidnapped from Water. ROOT came for us in the dead of night. Instead of turning us over to his horrible boss, though, our ROOT gave us a chance to live the lives of free people. If I can't be a ninja, I need to ally myself with one of the great clans. If not for my sake, then for Haku."
Sakura gave a wan smile. "Thank you for being honest. I can't trust you, not all the way, but I'll give you the chance."
Sakura knelt next to the Memorial Stone, Obito beside her. They had both arrived of their own accord. Though she had no idea how long Obito had been there before she arrived, she could guess it had been long past time for him to move.
She pressed her hand into his shoulder, a bit hard but nowhere near enough to bruise. She was supposed to be wise, but what could she say? There were no words to cover the bone deep depression that settled over them both.
"I could have…"
"No." Sakura cut him off, never once looking away from the stone, "You can't see the future. There's no way you could have done anything other than what you did. We all do the best we can with the information we have. No one goes into a situation like this half-assed."
Sakura, though. She had known this was a possible future. She'd seen the aftermath, years down the line. She knew what actions to take, and it still wasn't enough.
"If I had just been on time…"
"And if I had listened to my intel more closely. If Minato-kun had extra measures in place. If no one fell in love…" Sakura sighed. "We all did what we could. It wasn't enough, but it could have been worse."
There was a long silence, gray clouds overhead threatening rain but not quite letting it fall.
"You remember, on the beach… That man?" Sakura didn't look up, just kept talking. "He had a plan to kill Rin by manipulating Kakashi. You were supposed to see your best friend kill your crush and let that twist you into his pawn. You were supposed to free the Kyuubi and control it with those special Uchiha eyes. And you were the one who was supposed to be behind the destruction, gone before anyone could see and sewing chaos in your wake."
"Why?" Obito jerked around to look at her.
"He's a madman." Sakura shook her head, "And he wanted the world."
"How did you know? About him, I mean."
"There's a lot of years in my past that aren't accounted for." Sakura made a little noise of strangled, stillborn hysteria, "Some of those years, I spent sussing out every dark secret I could find from every corner of the Hidden Nations. More often than not, it got me in trouble, but I could bring the world to its knees with what I know. But that's just between you, me, and the dead."
When Minato had closed his eyes, he had expected to be going to the Pure World. He had hoped that, wherever he went, Kushina would be there waiting. He didn't expect to open his eyes ever again.
A voice was singing an old lullaby. An old Samurai lullaby from times long past where girls were kidnapped to take care of highborn babies. His eyes fluttered open.
A hand was immediately over his mouth.
"Don't speak."
Sakura! If she was dead, then who was watching…
"Na-uu."
"Naruto is fine. Say hi to Daddy, Naruto-chan."
A small, too small, wiggling baby was placed on his chest.
"You're in the hospital. You didn't die, though I expect that you'll wish you did soon enough." Sakura's voice was calm, quick and efficient. "Recovery is going to be a bitch. Don't repeat that, Saku-chan."
Another baby babbled, lower to the ground.
"The Kyuubi was stopped. The sealing worked. Kushina…"
His heart froze.
"Kushina's gone to take care of Kakashi and Rin."
Dead.
"Interim Hokage-sama! There's more reports of instability in the vendor's district."
The sound of papers shifting hands drew his attention. He sat part way up, opening his eyes finally.
Sakura was wearing the Hokage hat, but not the rest of the vestments of office with a small, babbling baby that looked astoundingly like her balanced expertly on one hip.
Naruto slipped down his chest and one of his hands automatically came up to catch the child. His head rested against Minato's chest, looking up with eyes as blue as the summer sky and with infinitely more trust than he had even seen before.
"Thank you, Hoshiko-chan. I'll take it from here." Sakura spoke with authority, waving the woman off.
"Wha…" he choked.
"Lie back." Sakura pushed gently on his chest, just left of Naruto's tiny head. "Cough."
He did as she commanded, and some sort of tube was pulled from his throat.
"Feeding tube." she explained as she put it to the side, "Standard practice for all coma or coma-like events."
Healing chakra washed over his throat from her fingertips. A damned sight better than she had been last he saw, but nowhere near as skilled as she was before the heart transplant.
"You've been out for three weeks." Sakura managed a smile for him, "This is Otomo Sakura, Mebuki's kid. No, I don't have a secret family somewhere."
"Get that a lot?" Minato tried to make small talk.
A paper cup filled with water was pressed into his hands. As soon as he grasped it, Sakura's hands came up to help him sit again.
"From time to time." the dryness of her tone made Suna look positively oceanic. "What's the last thing you recall?"
"I was stabbed while writing the seal." his brow wrinkled as he thought.
"Alright. So, the seal broke when Biwako-sama had a heart attack during the birth. As far as we can tell, there was no foul play. Just bad luck." Sakura rattled off, steady and calm, "The Kyuubi broke free. You and Kushina were injured trying to contain it enough to seal him. Hiruzen-sama finished the seal for you and took your place in the Shinigami's stomach. I showed up just in time to stabilize you. Kushina was dead before the ritual completed. Right after that, the clan council met up to decide what to do in the meantime. I've been selected to act as interim Hokage for the time being."
"Who's been watching Naruto?" he knew exactly how demanding the job could be when the whole village was running fine.
"My assistant, Yuki Hoshiko and her son, Haku have been helping me. Mostly running errands for the council and the like. I've been watching him most of the time, though Haku makes a good babysitter. Most of the time, I've been here helping out with minor healing in between watching the brats," a fond smile played on her lips giving lie to the harsh words, "and keeping track of the rebuilding efforts. Most of the stuff has been based on securing food before winter, creating a rationing system, and starting the rebuilding efforts. While Konoha can't come out of this looking strong, per se, we can save some face by bouncing back quicker than expected."
"ROOT?"
"A sticky issue." Sakura sighed. "I've contracted them to handle higher level missions for us with a 30/70 split and the ability to act as Konoha nin on any sanctioned Konoha missions. Those require a hell of a lot of red tape on my end, don't repeat that Sakura-chan, with almost no repercussions to the Honookage."
That left a bitter taste in Minato's mouth, and from the pinched look on Sakura's face, she felt the same.
"It's bringing us money, but food is the real issue. I've been in contact with the Daimyo, and I believe he'll send aid if things get too hairy this winter, but…"
"It's never good to rely on outside help." Minato finished gravely. The last war had taught them how fickle allies could be.
"I wouldn't expect much help from that quarter. Most nations are reporting particularly bad harvests this year. Not surprising, considering we're still rebuilding after the war."
"A cascade of failure." Minato snorted bitterly.
"There's one other thing I feel I should report…" Sakura chewed on her lip.
That didn't sound good.
"We… No one was certain if you'd ever wake up and... " Sakura looked lost, downtrodden, "Naruto needed a safe home. He's officially an Uzumaki, now. We decided it was for the best if he was adopted into the clan so he'd have some form of political protection. I'm sorry. I know he was supposed to carry the Namikaze name."
"Don't be." Minato placed the hand not cradling his dear child to his chest against his sister-in-law's arm. "I didn't expect to wake up, either. I'm glad to know that Naruto had you to watch his back."
"ROOT almost got him." she breathed out in a rush.
Minato's blood ran cold.
"Da… The Honookage wanted Naruto in exchange for his help."
"How did you manage…"
"I think I made a deal with the devil." Sakura looked down at the papers in her hand.
"You didn't give yourself…"
"No. Worse, I think." she sighed heavily, mimicked by the baby in her arms who giggled happily, "Orochimaru. We have to let him do his experiments for a full year."
Hundreds of lives in exchange for one.
Neither adult could look at the other.