It seemed simple enough. Sakura would have an unofficial meeting with Inoichi and see if he could break the genjutsu hold Madara had on her through her own mind and memories. If he could bring enough of her real memories to the surface maybe she would remember on her own but more quickly than if she were left to her own devices.
The Hokage also sent for Itachi. If Inoichi was unable to help her recall her real memories then Itachi would use his Tsukiyomi to try to fight Madara's genjutsu, Minato knew that is what it was, with his own genjutsu.
Yamato had told the Hokage all that he could all that he had heard and remembered. Minato had his own spies that had been watching Sakura and Itachi over the years and all the pieces fell into place.
Sakura sat in a chair in the middle of an open room. She was not a prisoner, this was not an interrogation so there were no restraints, no drugs, she just sat there waiting for Inoichi to finish tell her what they were doing, how to relax her mind and to let him in.
She nodded once he was done and he placed his hand on her forehead and she fell limp. Inoichi saw Sakura crying in the park, the crow fly away, her in the library, her trying to master jutsu on her own, her spying on kakashi, kakashi watching her practice her jutsu, the crow talking to her, her teleportinginto the lake, sasuke following her, sakura mastring two of the seconds jutsu, her inner voice talking to her, her blood lust, her rage and killing intent, itachi turning into his human form, the inn at the village, deidara kissing her, kakashi in bed with her, sasuke holding her, Naruto attacking Konoha, sasuke getting burned by Itachi's fireball jutsu, Itachi carrying her to Rain, Itachi training her in Kamui, Itachi training her with Shisui's eyes, Madara as tobi, Itachi and Sakura argueeing, Madara in her room beside her bed pressing a hand over her heart, a waterfall, cave, underground forest, a cabin by an underground waterway, Madara fucking her, sealing her chest with a concentrated chakra through her back, Itachi breaking the window, her with her team running back to Konoha.
Inoichi took his hand from her head. "Shit."
He turned to Minato who had been standing by watching. "She has been sealed and is under an unknown genjutsu. I think it is a mind warping genjutsu that can only be utilized when someone sleeps and it controls their dreams. We need to break the seal but I don't know how. It was done with Madara Uchiha's own concentrated chakra."
"It is worse than I thought but I think it can be done." Minato hadn't been married to an Uzumaki and learned nothing of seals. He had to do this right though, he didn't want to draw the seal out and do further damage to her mind.
"Show me what you saw." Minato told Inoichi.
Inoichi stepped up to his Hokage and placed his hand on his forehead and let his chakra flow into the Hokage revealing all that he saw.
Minato sat down in a chair by Sakura after Inoichi had shown him her memories and what had happened.
"We need to help her regain her mind, she is remarkable, so much talent and her eyes now, she is stronger than me." Minato was amazed.
'I have to do a little research, this is as you know an unusual situation. I have some scrolls at home about rare seals I want to look at before I try to draw her seal out or try to break it. In the meantime Itachi Uchiha is expected to return to Konoha in the next few hours. He will try his own Uchiha way to help her regain her mind, I will meet him at a prearranged location. See that he is not harassed, it is not time to reveal the truth yet but soon we will welcome him back to Konoha where he belongs." Minato flashed out of the room.
Sakura continued to sit there in the chair, the mind invasion had worn her out.
"I'll get Kakashi for you, he can take you back to your cabin, it is best if you stay out of view for now till The Hokage can take care of your seal." Inoichi tried to say kindly to her.
"You mean , so I can be watched because I am a threat with an unknown seal on me by a crazed maniac killer Uchiha." She said.
"Yes." He replied.
Thirty minutes later she was in Kakashi's arms and they were jumping through the trees back to her cabin. Her fists were bunched up in the front of his vest and he hopped from tree to tree, her head turned into his chest as she cried. The emotions that had flooded her mind while Inoichi has pulled the memories from her had overwhelmed her. She didn't know what was real, she was having a hard time concentrating on any one thing at a time and her head hurt, a dull throbbing that hadn't left her and only seemed to get worse as they left the interrogation department.
"Kakashi, Sakura called to him over the rush of wind as he ran with her,"Kakashi stop for a moment please."
He landed on the next tree and stopped looking down at her. "You okay, feeling a bit sick, Inoichi tried to be gentle but it isn't a gentle procedure."
"Do you, do you love me Kakashi? I feel like I'm missing something, something important. I think it has to do with you, us. Do you love me?" She looked to his face trying to find any hint of denial or confirmation but his face was blank and almost, in pain?
"Yes." and he continued on to her cabin with her in his arms hugging her close. She had never told him she loved him back, had never told him she cared for him at all in a romantic way. If that was even possible, their relationship wasn't romantic, not in the common way. He was a killer, she was a killer. What would they even have together if she did want him over Itachi, he wondered. Lust, blood? Was it right for him to even think of her as his. He could only offer her more blood and death...and maybe devotion, but was that enough.
They landed outside by the river, Sasuke was sitting by the big rock and nodded to them as they set down.
"Itachi is coming I can feel him." He told them
Sakura had felt a chakra approaching but hadn't said anything, they were by the village afterall. The chakra had been familiar but non threatening and she had simply ignored it but now, she knew, it was Itachi.
He landed as a crow on the ground at her feet and morphed back into a man before she could blink.
"Crow." She looked at him.
"Weasel." He said.
Their Anbu names, she remembered. It seems the genjutsu they said she must be under had taken more than they all realized. It seemed she had lost more of her memories than just certain people or was it that the person she was made to forget was such a large part of her life. Her head hadn't stopped throbbing but now it almost seared with pain.
She stood before him wincing and holding her head.
Itachi took her chin in his hand and his eyes bled red tomes spinning, "Look at me."
She looked up into his eyes and they were taken into his Tsukiyomi. They stood as they had by the river facing one another her chin in his hand and he leaned forward and kissed her. She pushed against him but her pulled her into him, "Remember" and kissed her again and more and deeper.
"Crow," She broke away from his kiss.
"Wife." He called her.
"I don't remember being your wife."
"We were not married for more than a day before Madara violated our union, before I lost my control and pushed you away. The blame is mine. I will not ask you to forgive me, but there are things that have happened that you don't understand but I know you can fix. I will show you, about our past, the Uchiha's past. You are my wife, it is our family's past." Itachi turned her and light faded away.
It was like a movie playing out in front of her, images floating in the air. Itachi was a small boy walking in the park, he saw her crouched over on the ground and stepping behind a tree he morphed into the crow and flew to the park bench beside her and watched her cry. Another fading of light and they were at the academy, she was being picked on again and she punched the ugly girl in the face telling her not to judge what she didn't understand. Sauke and Itachi , fishing off the dock together, clearly having a good time, smiling at the water and at each other. Shisui and Itachi by the cliff, Shisui falling back over the side, Itachi's eyes spinning, fade…
…..Itachi crying as he cut down Uchiha after Uchiha, tears in his eyes. Standing over his father as he knelt in front of him telling him to do it, that it was okay, it was for the good of the village. His mother smiling at him telling him she loved him and that it was a sacrifice for the good of all. Itachi taunting Sasuke with lies making him hate him.
Sakura sleeping in the grass by the river, worn out from training too hard as he leaned over the water beside her cleaning the blood from his hands, stripping his clothes and throwing them into the river. Him carrying her inside and laying her on the futon kissing her forehead. The years and memories floated by passing over her eyes like smoke, making her eyes tear up and her head hurt.
The last memory, Itachi and Sakura in their cabin, making love to one another, becoming husband and wife before they left for Rain.
A pain, a searing burning pain shot through her heart and she fell to the ground. Itachi took them from his Tsukiyomi.
Sakura sat up on the futon and looked around wildly , her hair in her face, her heart aching.
"Itachi." She whispered, "Itachi, I remember."
"What do you remember?" He was sitting beside her holding her hand.
"I remember everything, my husband." and she threw her arms around him clutching his chest tears running down her face, "I'm so sorry."I'm sorry, please forgive me."
-Finally! Now let's make all this right, you know what we have to do-
Itachi took a deep breath and held her close, his heart had been breaking and now, it hurt but it was a healing hurt, a hurt he could live with. They had so much to talk about so much to discuss but for now, in this moment , he just wanted to hold her to him.
"Welcome back Sakura ." Minato said from a chair by the table.
"Hokage Sama." She smiled at him.
"So Sakura chan, feel up to taking a small trip for us?" Minato winked at her.
"I'm already planning it in my head." She smiled back.
It was an instant in their world but 4 years in hers. She had used her Kotoamatsukami combined with her Kamui and her seal on her forehead to go back in time. First she saved Minato from dying of the Nine Tailed Fox sealing by healing him as she pulled him from it's claw. Kushina had already died before she could break the barrier he had put up and the Nine Tails had already been sealed inside Naruto.
Sakura moved forward in time from there and killed Danzo before he could take Shisui's eye, the shock and revelation of events still caused Itachi to activate his Mangekyou so she left to move forward to stop Orochimaru from fleeing the Leaf. She used her monstrous strength to demolish his secret lab revealing all his heinous crimes to the village, he was executed publicly two days later.
Naruto was saved because Sasuke never abandoned them to look for more power from Orochimaru. She wasn't sure how this would affect her current time line but she would give up everything to see her boys both back and safe again even if changed a bit by the changes she made in the past.
She dropped down in front of their cabin nervous as to what she might find. She walked to the front door and it opened. Just as her hand reached fr the knob.
"Sakura, you're back." Itachi smiled at her like she had never seen before. "We were waiting for you."
"Not that long lover boy." A curly hair Uchiha smiled at her from a large table in the large room.
"Shisui? But how, and the cabin, Itachi, it is so large, what?" She got out before she was blindsided by orange.
"Kura ! Kura! I have missed you so much!" Naruto was hugging and crushing her to his body.
"Easy there idiot she just got back and probably needs to work through all the changes , she doesn't need you hanging off her right now." Sasuke hugged her.
"I don't understand, you all know? How do you know?" She was gawking at them she realized and quickly shut her mouth.
Kakashi came up to her now, "It is a part of history, in the Hokage archives. It was all written down, Minato wrote out everything he thought you would and could do, how you would do it and sealed it with a time seal he had learned from Kushina. Your deeds were written like a story for us all to read."
Kakashi seemed different, kinder, his eyes had a more gentle quality to them, and he looked...happy.
"Obito is alive, Rin never jumped in front of my Chidori." He noticed her scrutiny.
"Thank you Sakura." He hugged her in a rib crushing hug.
"Thank you Sakura." Minato came into the cabin, "Sorry I'm late."