Quietus

by Seraphina Scribes

When first he laid eyes upon her, he thought her the very personification of spring. He watches, from the depths of shadow; waiting to steal her away from the land of the living. Waiting to make her Queen of the Dead. Hades/Persephone retold. SasuSaku/AU.

86. Chapter 85

Thank you to everyone who left feedback for the last chapter.

---

Chapter LXXXV

---

The hunt for the tailed beasts ensues,
A most desperate trail to pursue,
As two sides wrestle to retain,
Hosts with ancient powers ordained,
A race to track them down and win,
Their ancient demons, sealed within.

---

~x~

---

"Looks like your mother just grabbed any old thing from your closet without even looking," Ino remarked distastefully, neatly folding the third white T-shirt she'd come across from the pile of clothing resting beside her.

"She probably did," Sakura agreed, pulling another pair of jeans out of the box Tsunade had collected for her from the ruins of their home.

They were in one of the High Council grounds' simply-furnished healing rooms that had been converted into a makeshift bedroom which the girls shared together with Hinata. Two clothing racks had been provided for them to hang up some of the attire that they'd gone back to their houses to collect; the rest were stacked in the wooden storage cubbies lining the left wall of the room.

The cosy-sized chamber was large enough to accommodate three low beds and an extra sleeper on the floor. Sakura was grateful to have her friends for company in a time where they all had to adjust to new surroundings. Several days had passed since the arrival of the Olympian Guardians, and much of that time had been spent discussing the surface gods' next course of action and the priority of finding the remaining Jinchuriki before the enemy did. The other deities had also gone back to their homes to pick up fresh changes of clothing and other provisions they needed for their stay at the High Council's quarters.

Naruto had immediately started his training with Jiraiya and Killer B, and teams had been assigned for the Jinchuriki retrieval missions. Scouting groups of three had been deployed to search different villages but there wasn't much else that Sakura found she could do except wait for the locations of the tailed-beast hosts to be confirmed. She'd spent her days learning about how fresh chakra-crystals were harvested by the robed apprentices that worked in the grounds, and between the library and medicine rooms. Using the breather to recuperate following what had been an intensely turbulent time for her, Sakura had also made the decision to completely defer her studies to the following spring and was relieved that the university granted her request, in large part due to her exceptionally high grades.

Her dreams of becoming a doctor and of someday running her own medical team would have to wait. She simply couldn't afford to return to the university and risk any other innocent mortal lives.

She wrote an apology note to Kenji's grandmother, overrun by suffocating guilt with every word she penned. The loss of his life weighed heavily upon her conscience, the image of his glazed, lifeless eyes, of him lying in a pool of his own blood, permanently ingrained in her mind. She gave the slip of paper to Kakashi, asking if he could arrange to have it delivered to the woman when he next went out with his scouting cell and passed through the village.

The days passed by without any other remarkable events otherwise, with Sakura was glad for it.

"Here," Ino handed Hinata some metal wire hangers. "I've split these between us. Those are enough to hang up seven things."

"Thank you," Hinata politely accepted them and moved to place some of her clothes on the rack.

Sakura reached into the box again and pulled out the next item. She blinked in surprise, finding the same, floaty cream skirt she'd been wearing back when she had been abducted from the surface, leading her to deduce that her mother definitely hadn't been paying attention when she'd collected her clothes. Biting her lip, she felt for the pocket, and sure enough, her fingers found cold metal. She withdrew the bracelet, looking down to find beautiful, gold-cut leaves wrought around a circular gold bangle, set with exquisite emerald gems.

She ran her thumb over the stones. It had been a gift from Sasuke. A small, sad smile pulled at the corner of her lips at the thought of him.

'I will find you.'

The words he'd telepathically conveyed to her caused her stomach to flutter.

"What's that?" Ino peered at her, noticing the piece of jewelry she held in her hand. Leaning closer to get a better look, she cooed, "Oooh. Pretty."

"It was a present." Sakura replied evasively.

"Let me see," Ino held out a hand, and after only a second of hesitation, Sakura placed the bracelet into her open palm. "Wow. Hinata, look at this." The moon goddess walked back over from the clothing rack, and bent down to inspect it more closely.

"That is very pretty, Sakura," she complimented softly.

"This looks really expensive. These stones are so brilliant." Ino slipped it onto her wrist, admiring it. "It's stunning. Where'd you get this, Forehead?"

Sakura felt her cheeks warm. She cleared her throat, suddenly embarrassed. "Sasuke made it for me," she said, trying to keep her tone as casual as possible.

Hinata gasped in surprise. Ino's eyebrows shot up.

"Wait, what? He actually made it for you?" she gaped. Sliding the bracelet off, she handed it back to Sakura, who slipped it onto her own slender wrist, admiring the skill of the craftsmanship. She had no reason not to wear it anymore, she told herself. She certainly didn't want to lose it.

"Must be nice," Ino scoffed. "To be so desired, by the King of Riches."

"Stop it, Pig," Sakura muttered.

"Wait." Ino smiled slyly. "Hinata doesn't know yet, does she?"

Hinata glanced uncertainly between her two best friends, and lifted a hand to the base of her throat nervously. What were they talking about?

"I haven't had a chance to tell her," Sakura replied. Her cheeks were dusted bright pink now, she was quite certain.

"T-tell me what?" Hinata squeaked anxiously.

"Sakura..." Ino whispered scandalously. "Kissed the King of the Underworld. Can you believe it? The little hussy."

Hinata's lovely features registered astonishment and alarm.

"B-but, Sakura," she stammered. "I thought you… disliked him?"

"It's a long story," Sakura sighed. She didn't add that it was a really complicated and confusing one, too.

"I'll give you the breakdown," Ino said. "They were secret lovers in her first life." Hinata's lips parted in shock as she listened to Ino continue dramatically, "and thanks to Fate, they were destined to cross paths again."

"Not Fate," Sakura corrected in a mumble. "His cousin and brother."

"Right. Them." The love goddess paused, recalling thoughtfully, "They were really hot, those two. I couldn't get anywhere near that Thanatos, but Hypnos? He was a stuck-up asshole." She frowned, remembering the one time he had shot down her attempts at flirting completely. Almost ruthlessly. "I think I see a pattern with these Uchiha men."

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, Sasuke screwed up and kidnapped her instead of politely asking her out on a date like any respectable guy would, but now, she says he's changed for the better, so she's forgiven him, they kissed after he saved her life, and we all know what's going to happen when she goes back down to the Underworld for six long months," Ino summarised.

Hinata placed a hand over her mouth, her cheeks ablaze for Sakura. She was shocked by what she was hearing. Sakura and Sasuke? How was that even possible, given everything he had done? She didn't know him well at all, but everything she had seen of him and heard about him pointed to him being a very volatile and unpredictable sort of deity.

"I-Ino!" Sakura swatted her on the arm, mortified. She hadn't decided on what was going to happen between them yet. She had no plan. Ino was getting far too ahead of herself. "Can't you at least try to censor that mouth?"

"Not when it comes to matters of the heart," Ino teased with a grin. "Anyway, your mother knows now, so there's no reason to hide it anymore, right?"

"Sakura…" Hinata began tentatively, sitting down on the beige-hued rug beside them. "But… are you sure? I just want you to be happy… with someone who deserves you." She hesitated. "He- he did some terrible things..."

"He did," Sakura replied, looking down at the bracelet on her wrist. She was quiet for a moment, before she added, "But it's like Ino said; he has changed. If you knew what I did about him..." She went on to explain Sasuke's past, the events that had led to him existing in solitude, his heart closed off and bitter, frozen cold with hatred. By the time she was done, both Hinata and Ino were left open-mouthed and stunned.

"That's..." Ino shook her head, rendered momentarily speechless. She had heard parts of the information when she'd listened in on Sakura's conversation with Tsunade, but to hear it clarified in greater detail cast to light just how much Sasuke had truly suffered. "That's really messed up."

"It is," Sakura sighed. "And it explains a lot about how he is."

"How awful," Hinata whispered.

"I guess he really is a victim, too," Ino resumed folding some more clothes. "That monster Cronus doesn't care about anyone but himself. That he can treat his own family like that... forcing them to kill each other..." She shuddered in disgust.

"Everything that's happened is his fault," Sakura's eyes narrowed. She wasn't someone who hated anyone so easily - but after meeting Cronus, witnessing his true, diabolical nature, and discovering everything he had done, there was little room for any other emotion except absolute abhorrence.

Hinata folded a long-sleeved top, keeping her head bowed. The conversation about Sakura kissing Sasuke brought to mind the passionate kiss she had shared with Naruto several days prior, on the private balcony of one of the study rooms. Her face felt like it was on fire and she dared not look up and meet her friends' eyes for fear that her expression would openly betray her, grateful for the concealing curtain afforded by her long silky hair.

"What do you think of the Guardians?" Ino was going on conversationally.

"They seem nice," Sakura shrugged, trying to match socks her mother had carelessly thrown into the box.

"That Gaara's kind of cute."

"Ino," Sakura pulled a face. "You've got enough on your plate. What's even going on with you and Shikamaru these days?"

Ino's expression grew glum. She sighed deeply. "Nothing. We're the same as we've always been."

"You've really let this drag on way too long," Sakura shook her head. "You never have any trouble with guys; why's he so different?"

Ino shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because..." she put the clothing item in her hands down, searching for the right words. "Maybe it's because he actually respects me for my mind, who I am, and not just my looks. He doesn't see an air-headed, vain goddess like all the other gods always did. I guess I'm scared of messing that up if we got involved." She was silent a moment, before venturing, "Sometimes I feel like that's why he keeps me at arm's length, too. Like, we've always been so close, he doesn't want to ruin anything, either."

"Maybe," Sakura agreed. "But if you guys keep sitting on the fence about it, how will you ever know?"

Ino picked up a hairbrush. "Honestly? I think if he'd wanted us to be together, he would've made a move already by now. Any way I think about it, he's had the opportunity, and chosen not to take the next step. I don't always want to be the one doing the chasing. Just once, I'd like someone to chase me, you know?" she glanced at a sympathetic-looking Sakura. "I mean, maybe not to the extreme extent of literally being hunted down by a guy from another world like some people have been," she lightly teased, "but just... being asked if I'd like to go to the movies, to the restaurant, something as innocent as that."

"Perhaps..." Hinata began softly. "Perhaps you can talk to him about it, Ino?"

"I agree. I don't get why you haven't," Sakura's eyebrows drew together.

"Because-" Ino scowled. "Because he's too important, and I don't want to make this weird for him, or either of us."

"Well..." Sakura began awkwardly. "You'd better make up your mind soon. That girl who arrived with Killer B and the others has been looking his way a lot."

"Temari? Yeah, I know," Ino's lips formed a small, wry smile. "He looks her way a fair bit, too. Don't think I haven't noticed. They talk as if they've known each other for months already."

Sakura hesitated, exchanging an uncertain look with Hinata. "Are you alright with it?"

Ino was quiet for a long moment. Was she? It had certainly surprised her to witness the ease with which Temari interacted with Shikamaru. The effortless light teasing and the way she drew him into banter. Shikamaru wasn't standoffish as Ino would have expected; he rose to the bait and responded to the guardian's attempts at conversation. Did it hurt? Ino couldn't deny the disappointment she felt, and yet, what right had she, truly, to feel jealous, as if she had a claim over Shikamaru? She'd had hundreds of years to make a move and had instead always chosen to flirt around the issue. Their friendship had been shaky and frivolous at first, but given way to genuine care, trust and affection over the years. Shikamaru was no stranger to Ino liking him. He'd indulged it - but had never moved in to seal the deal, to take their relationship to the next level.

Ino was no fool. She knew all about love, romance, lust and desire. She recognised those emotions, in all their forms, courtesy of her function. She knew that when a god truly wanted a goddess, he didn't hesitate to pursue her. The fact that Shikamaru had, for so long, spoke volumes enough to her. She'd simply chosen not to address it, to turn a blind eye to it. Partly in arrogance - and partly because she'd told herself what they had was better than nothing at all. And because he saw her in a light very few others did, she hadn't ever wanted to push it, or risk making a fool of herself. She didn't want to do anything that might alter the respect he had for her.

She shrugged. "I learned long ago that love works better if it isn't compelled. If Shikamaru sees me more as a close friend or a sister... what can I do about that? I've tried for centuries to get closer to him. My feelings for him, I know they're deep and real. I genuinely love him but..." her voice trailed off.

"You love him," Sakura repeated. "But Ino, are you in love with him?"

Ino considered her words. Finally, she responded, "I always thought I was. But anyone I've fancied myself to want before, I never hesitated to chase after. With him I just... it's like there's a boundary, a line, and neither of us have the guts to cross it. Isn't it funny?" Ino released a rueful laugh. "That the Goddess of Love has made countless matches, but hasn't ever experienced true love for herself?"

Sakura gazed thoughtfully at her. "What about Sai?" She asked suddenly. "You guys get on well?"

"Sai?" Ino's eyes widened. She grimaced. "Ugh. He's so socially awkward and frustrating."

"Maybe he likes you?" Sakura suggested. "I mean, he talks to you way more than he does anyone else."

"Well," Ino appeared embarrassed. "That's probably only because I decided to try to teach him more about emotions in general. He's just weird." But her mind went back to the moment when Sai had regained consciousness after protecting her from the Zetsu. How her heart had skipped a beat when their eyes had met. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. She didn't like Sai in that way. Did she…? He was completely not her type, at least not in personality. The complete opposite to her in every way imaginable. She'd always seen him as someone she could harmlessly flirt with, knowing he would safely never reciprocate, and she supposed she had grown to enjoy his company - up until he said or did something that pissed her off.

"You always thought he was cute," Sakura reminded her. "He seems nice enough, if you ignore the weird."

"Can we not talk about Sai?" Ino shifted uncomfortably. "He ruined my jeans, and right now I don't want to talk about him."

"Okay," Sakura reluctantly conceded. "But I still think you should speak to Shikamaru. Maybe it's best to just clear the air. So you guys are clear on where you both stand with each other."

"I think... that's a good idea," Hinata agreed gently.

"Mmm, maybe," Ino hummed, not very convincingly. She'd spent so long hoping for more with him, but what if she took the step and it wasn't what he wanted? What if it turned out to be a mistake? What if it wouldn't be as magical as she had always entertained and imagined in her mind? And why ought she to be the one to make the first move? Wasn't she worth chasing? She had so many worries and doubts, so many insecurities around him. They hadn't ever been in her mind before. She'd always been so confident about herself and when it came to pursuing anyone. Ino supposed she'd changed over the last year, too.

"Pig..." Sakura shot her an exasperated look, recognising the dismissive tone in her words.

"Don't worry about it, Forehead," Ino reassured her. "Besides, your love life is way more interesting than mine right now."

"I don't have a love life," Sakura countered.

"Well, not right this second, but it's incoming, right? Did you get to see him before he left?" Ino asked conversationally, turning to the undergarments pile next.

"Only for a minute. Naruto was there too, so I couldn't really talk to him."

"Bummer. That Knucklehead," Ino rolled her eyes. "Can't take a hint to save his life."

Hinata's heart leapt and she tensed at the mention of the sun deity's name. Both Ino and Sakura noticed, and exchanged glances.

"So..." Ino began slowly. "Since we've talked about our guy issues... Hinata! What's the scoop with you and-?"

"N-nothing!" Hinata gasped, her cheeks flushing scarlet. Inside her chest, her heart raced as panic seized her. She ducked her head, shoulders hunching, the tantalising recollection of Naruto's warm lips moving against hers dancing across her memory. She had never known what it meant to be consumed by fire until that moment, locked in the sun god's embrace.

"Oh geez, Ino, don't tease her," Sakura winced, feeling sorry for the moon goddess. "She'll faint."

"I'm not!" Ino raised her hands defensively. "It's just a question, since we're talking about boys!"

Hinata covered her face with her hands. Should she tell them? Or keep it private? She was so flustered that she felt she might wilt on the spot. What if Naruto-kun didn't want anyone knowing yet? What if he didn't want to make it public knowledge? It had only been a kiss. It wasn't as though they had agreed to anything more. Her heart sank. She knew she was only deluding herself from the knowing, hopeful twinkle Naruto had had in his vivid blue eyes, anytime he had looked at her since.

"Okay." Ino's smile waned and she frowned at Hinata in concern. "Something's wrong. She shouldn't be that embarrassed."

"Hinata?" Sakura reached out to her worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"F-fine," Hinata squeaked nervously.

"Okay, then put your hands down?" Ino said.

"I- I-..." Hinata stammered, mortified. She was hopeless at hiding her emotions. She knew her friends could read her like an open book. Especially the Goddess of Love herself.

Sure enough, it took Ino's experienced eyes only seconds to catch on and she gasped, "Wait. Something's happened hasn't it?"

Hinata's shoulders hunched higher. Sakura gasped in turn, a huge grin breaking out on her lips.

"Hinata!" She gently tugged at her friend's wrists. "Tell us! Did that goofball say something?"

Ino watched her like a hawk as Sakura finally succeeded in pulling her hands down.

"No..." the blonde began. "He did something. By Olympus! You'd better spill the ambrosia right now!"

"He- he..." Hinata gulped, looking like she was on the verge of collapsing.

Ino shrieked. "No way! Don't tell me. He made a move?"

"I..." Hinata stammered faintly.

"Did he kiss you?!"

"Hinata!" Sakura slapped a hand over her mouth in delighted shock. "Did he?!"

Hinata's face flushed beetroot red. Sakura and Ino grinned at each other, taking it as confirmation, then flung their arms around her, thrilled.

"I- I'm so- so embarrassed," Hinata whispered, trembling in their embrace.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about," Sakura beamed, squeezing her affectionately.

"It's about time!" Ino laughed. Finally, a piece of good news for them to celebrate. "We're so happy for you!"

"Th- thank you," Hinata squeezed her eyes shut, grateful for their support.

"I can't believe it," Sakura exclaimed. "He finally did it!"

Their jubilation was abruptly interrupted by a sudden knock on the door. Ino jumped up to answer it, pulling it open to find Tsunade standing on the other side. She was holding another box in her hand.

Giving Ino a curt nod in greeting, she said, "May I have a moment with Sakura? I won't be long."

Ino blinked, feeling awkward. "Umm, sure. Hinata?" she glanced back and motioned for the moon goddess to join her. "Sakura's mother wants to talk to her."

Hinata rose to her feet and exited the room with Ino, who closed the door quietly behind them. Sakura remained sitting in place, watching as her mother approached her. Tsunade set the box down in front of her, and then lowered herself to sit beside her.

"Sakura," she greeted, her voice strained.

Sakura hadn't spoken much to her since telling her the truth about her past involvement with Sasuke several days prior. The air was still tense between them, a fact that Sakura greatly lamented.

"Hi," Sakura offered her a small, tentative smile.

Her mother reached into the box, and lifted out a familiar book. Sakura's eyes widened. It was her diary, safely retrieved and intact, its lock still secured. She'd believed that her mother had forgotten it, or left it behind.

Holding it out to Sakura, Tsunade began with difficulty, "I know that..." she swallowed, falling silent for a few moments, before going on, "I have failed you, Sakura. In so many lifetimes, I have failed to save you. I have failed to protect you."

"Mother, please-" Sakura protested in distress, reaching out to take the diary from her mother's hands. She knew her mother had done everything out of love for her, out of the sincere desire to keep her safe. Even smothering her and being overprotective had stemmed from good intentions.

"Let me finish," her mother cut her off, her lips pressed into a thin, resolute line, the way they did whenever she was determined to see something through to its completion. "But perhaps my greatest failing is that I failed to instil in you the wisdom and knowledge you needed to keep yourself safe. I look at you now - at how much you have grown. How brave you have become. How you take matters into your own hands and make your own decisions with courage and conviction - and I see that much of the blame of what befell you in your first life lies in my own shortcomings."

Sakura stared at her, open-mouthed and stunned. That her mother was admitting to her mistakes - taking accountability for her own actions - meant that she had reflected on and processed their conversation. It filled Sakura with an emotion she could not place, one that had her eyes welling with tears.

"I have only known love once." Tsunade stated quietly. "His name was Dan, and he was taken from me. It changed me. I came to fear that anything I held dear could be lost in a moment. The day of your creation was the happiest of my existence and yet - I was also afraid," she confessed. "I feared that you would one day be taken from me, too, and when that came to pass, when I believed you to be truly gone at first, I did not know how to continue on. Shizune-" Tsunade's voice wavered. "Shizune was the one who picked me up. She was my sister, my strength. She would always tell me that I protected you far too much. That I sheltered you to the extent that you were spoiled and ignorant, naive in the ways of the world." She paused, before adding bitterly, "She was right. It is easy to point the blame at others, at Ino, at Sasuke, but now that you have told me the truth, I recognise that I, too, am at fault. Perhaps more so than anyone else."

"Mother..." Sakura whispered. She reached out, taking her mother's hand. Tsunade gripped hers, looking grimly down at their intertwined fingers. She had spent days ruminating over everything Sakura had told her, her initial anger at being lied to giving way to deeper musings and contemplations, pointing to glaring conclusions she could not ignore about the faults of her own behaviour.

"Had I not kept you so isolated back then," she reflected bitterly, "perhaps you would have read the threats around you better. Had I not wrapped you in cotton-wool before your abduction in this life, had I told you the truth about us all, you would have been stronger, more empowered. As you have grown to be now. You would not have been so afraid and confused. You would have recognised where you were taken, known how to seek help. Instead of giving you the tools to protect yourself, I took it upon myself to be your sole guardian. Those are my mistakes. And if you can be more honest with a piece of parchment, and tell it more secrets than you can to your own mother…" she nodded at the journal, assuming that was what it contained - Sakura's true thoughts and feelings. "Then that is another fault of mine."

Sakura wiped at her eyes, her heart breaking for the pain she could see her mother was wrestling to keep in check. "I know you were doing your best," she choked out emotionally. "I know it must have been so hard to watch me pass over and over again, growing attached each time, just to lose me again. Mother, I... I can't imagine what that's been like for you, because you've remembered it all. I know you tried to tell me the truth in my past lives, too, and how that ended up with me passing sooner. You've done everything you could. I don't blame you for that. Everything you've done, has been out of love. I know it has."

"Even so. You are my daughter," Tsunade gulped down the lump in her own throat, fighting back the stinging of tears that threatened to pool into her own eyes. She was not one to be so forthcoming with her emotions, and yet she owed it to Sakura, as her mother, to try and make amends in their relationship. She did not want her daughter to leave her for six months on bad terms. Not when her future was so uncertain. "That will not change, regardless of where you are, or what you choose to do. I am only sorry for the pain my mistakes, my own blindness, has caused you.

"I did not see it back then. I was afraid to let you drift too far. I clung to you too tightly, instead of allowing you to learn, to grow, to experience things for yourself. I believed by controlling all risks, I could spare you pain. Quite the opposite occurred. Every calamity that has befallen you, could have been avoided had you not been raised in ignorance. I am well aware of this, and not a day has passed that I have not blamed myself for your fate. Had you not kept your affair with Hades a secret, had you felt comfortable to approach and tell me the truth instead of fearing my reaction, and choosing to keep it concealed, then perhaps, all of this suffering might have been avoided."

Sakura dropped the diary from her hands, and sobbing, threw her arms around her mother. Tsunade tensed, before returning her embrace. Mother and daughter trembled against each other, overcome with their emotions and the mutual love they shared for one another.

"Sakura-" Tsunade said thickly, unable to keep her own tears at bay any longer. They spilled down her cheeks, hot and overflowing, the full extent of her wrongdoings, the bottomless well of her regret and grief, catching up to her in that moment. "I am... truly-"

"Shh. Mother, don't," Sakura interrupted, burying her face into Tsunade's shoulder, stroking her mother's hair soothingly. She didn't need to hear her apology. Her mother had suffered enough guilt, enough pain. The words she had spoken, the mistakes she had conceded, the regret in her voice, were all more than enough.

---

~x~

---

Ino carried the bag full of snacks back toward their new bedroom. After Tsunade had shown up to talk with Sakura, she'd decided that it was a good opportunity for her to grab some food and had briefly left Hinata in the hallway to retrieve some from the kitchen. Over the course of the previous few days, they'd taken it in turns to pick up items from supermarkets that would help make their stay at the High Council grounds more comfortable.

She crossed over the second floor landing that overlooked the large entrance hall below, rounding the corner - only to release a startled gasp when she collided bodily into Sai, who had stepped out from around the coffee-brown marble pillar that climbed up to the high ceiling above them.

"S-Sai!" she sputtered. "I didn't see you!"

He gave her a polite smile. Ino rubbed at her right arm, disconcerted as she eyed him with suspicion. She was never quite sure whether his expressions were genuine or not. It was difficult to tell just what the Messenger deity's true thoughts and emotions were, given that most of the time his face and voice were infuriatingly devoid of any expression.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked.

"I saw you head this way," he answered simply.

"What?" Ino stared at him in confusion. "You followed me?"

"Yes," he said. She noticed then that he was carrying something in his hands. It looked like a square shaped canvas of some sort.

A brief, awkward silence ensued, in which Ino raised her eyebrows expectantly. "And... why were you following me, exactly...?" she prompted, once again thinking to herself that he was the strangest god she had ever met.

"I believe..." he began thoughtfully, "a few days ago... that you were displeased at my ruining your clothing."

"Oh, that," Ino scowled. "It's whatever-"

"So I made this," Sai added bluntly, extending the canvas to her. Bewildered, Ino accepted it from him, turning it around to look upon it.

She felt her breath catch in her throat. Staring back at her was a beautifully sketched, black and white portrait - of herself. Sai had perfectly captured her features, down to the finest of details. Staggered, Ino gazed down at it, at a loss for words. It was a magnificent piece of art.

"I hope," he began lifting a pale hand to the back of his neck somewhat awkwardly as he offered her what appeared to be a genuine smile that reached his dark eyes, "you consider it your likeness?"

Ino shook her head, unable to tear her eyes from the portrait. Very few things had the ability of stealing her voice, and at that second, she floundered to find an appropriate response, her very thoughts jarred.

"Uh..." she scrambled to reply, stunned. "It's..." she finally looked up at him. "It's really amazing. I think you made me look even better than I actually do," she joked, unable to fathom why she suddenly felt so self-conscious, and oddly nervous.

Sai's jet-black eyes seemed to light up. "I don't think so," he answered. "My meaning being, I do not think that's possible."

Before Ino could say anything else, he turned and silently left, exiting through one of the doors to her far left.

She gaped after him, her heart racing fitfully inside her chest, her cheeks ablaze with heat. What was the matter with her? It was just a sketch. And yet, she knew - it wasn't. She hadn't posed for Sai. He had drawn this from his own memory.

A sudden thought struck her, that caused her pulse to climb higher still. Is this what she looked like, in his eyes?

The drifting sound of laughter echoed from the hallway below. Ino snapped out of her dazed stupor, and glanced over the golden balustrade railings to find Shikamaru walking with Temari, Lee, Gaara and Kankuro. She watched Temari angle an amused, teasing look Shikamaru's way.

It was obvious to her, given the many millennia of experience she'd had serving her function, that there seemed to be a mutual degree of attraction between them. The spark was there. Ino could tell, from their body-language alone, without the need of hearing any words spoken.

She had always imagined, in the past, that she would feel deeply jealous if any other girl attempted to make a move on Shikamaru. But all she felt instead at that second was a bitter, sinking disappointment at her own self. It wasn't Shikamaru's fault; it was her own, for failing to read the signs sooner. For entertaining fanciful notions in her mind, of anything more than friendship ever blossoming between them.

Perhaps, at times, they had skirted close to blurring the lines. Flirted with the idea. With lingering looks and touches and the way he tolerated her hanging off his arm. But it had never been anything concrete. Certainly nothing substantial that gave Ino any manner of claim over his heart or affections. He cared for her deeply. He loved her sincerely, that much she believed. But not in the way she'd thought she'd wanted. Not in the way she needed to be loved. He did not hold her close to him, or whisper sweet-nothings into her ear, or kiss her tears away in the manner a true, romantic love would.

She wouldn't be selfish. She couldn't. He was unattached. She wouldn't stand in the way of his happiness, wherever it lay. Whether the tentative friendship with Temari bloomed into anything more or not, her stance would not change. She cared too much for Shikamaru to do anything of the sort. It pained her to step back, and yet, she knew in her heart, that it was probably for the best that they remained close friends, than to risk ruining even that. In her heart, she knew it was the right, the fair thing to do. He had not chosen to move in for a reason. She couldn't turn a blind eye to that anymore.

Swallowing down the lump in her throat, she blinked back her tears, and forced her gaze to return to the sketch in her hands. Sai had meticulously drawn every lash in life-like detail and even captured the faintest of freckles on her nose. She shook her head in awe at the work, and hastily left the landing, making her way back to Sakura and Hinata. She could only imagine what Sakura's response would be. No doubt her best friend would insist that Sai had to be violently in love with her.

The thought made her face burn all over again.

She passed Tsunade on her way back, lowering her gaze as she did so. She supposed that Sakura's mother was still angry at her, and didn't want to say or do anything to provoke any further displeasure. And so she was surprised when Tsunade called out to her just before Ino reached the room that her friends were in.

"Ino."

Ino paused, glancing over her left shoulder.

Tsunade stood with her back to her. Without turning around, she questioned, "Why did you stay silent all these years?"

Ino's eyes lowered sadly. "Every single day, I've lived with the guilt of knowing that had I spoken up about their relationship back then, maybe she could've been saved." Her vision blurred with tears. "But I made a promise to my best friend. To my sister. To Sakura. She was terrified that you'd find out. She was so scared of disappointing you. In her head, she'd made a terrible mistake, because Hades left her without explanation and she couldn't stand to face you so ashamed. She'd cry to me for hours. I wanted to take the attachment from her heart, but she thought she deserved the pain. She told me she wanted to remember it, so that she'd never make the same mistake again."

Tsunade swallowed, releasing a quiet exhale. The pit of her own guilt was intensified at hearing, once again, how frightened Sakura had been of confessing anything to her.

"I don't think it was a coincidence that this all happened shortly before the war. Maybe he really did leave her to protect her. I had no reason to believe that Hades would ever..." Ino shook her head, catching her thoughts. "I believed it to be over between them, and that was it. I didn't know that Cronus had found out about her. It didn't cross my mind until it was too late."

Tsunade finally turned to look back at her. "And Hypnos and Thanatos? Why did you not tell me about their involvement in weaving her seal?"

Ino was silent. The memory of stabbing, mesmerising crimson eyes blazing into her own caused her stomach to churn with an almost nauseating combination of dread and fear. She had never before dared to interact with or ever spoken to Thanatos of the Uchiha until that moment, holding a dying Kore in her arms - and in that moment, she had understood, completely and without question, why his reputation had always preceded him so. Why his name had always been uttered in hushed whispers, feared by mortals and immortals alike. The regal Thanatos had not been one to be trifled with. He had not been one to be defied or disobeyed. His words, his actions, were final, absolute.

She had feared him then, in a way she had never feared any other god save for Cronus himself. His overpowering aura, his calm, refined poise, so at odds with the coldness of his unforgiving Sharingan, were things Ino had never been able to shake from her mind.

Slowly she walked up to Tsunade. Coming to a stop before the older goddess, she miserably opened her mouth, and wordlessly pointed beneath her tongue. Her heart thundered riotously against her ribcage, slamming almost painfully. Such had been Thanatos's chilling effect on her, she feared even gesturing to the binds he had placed upon her tongue, swearing her to eternal silence.

She watched as Tsunade's light brown eyes widened, realisation dawning upon her, giving way to understanding and horror.

"You couldn't..." she breathed. "You couldn't speak. They silenced you?" Composing herself, she pressed, "But why...?"

"Cronus asked me what Sakura was." Ino replied. In her mind, she knew - that it had likely been a precaution, on the guileful Thanatos's part, to ensure the truth about Kore could not be extracted from the only one who had witnessed what had truly happened to her.

With that telling answer, she gave a visibly disturbed Tsunade a regretful look, before turning away, entering into the room and closing the door quietly behind her.

---

~x[Three surface weeks later]x~

---

"Iwakagure," Tsunade remarked, slipping her hands into the pockets of her dark green slacks as they walked along the cobbled pathways of the Hidden Stone Village. "Here's a place I've not seen for a while."

"That's because you stopped travelling, old girl," Jiraiya replied, a small smile playing upon his lips.

"Some of us have responsibilities," Tsunade retorted.

Jiraiya looked affronted. "Well, now, Tsunade!" He boomed. "Have I not been responsible and at your service this last year?"

"You wouldn't be, if all was well." She muttered. "You'd be drinking and at a hot spring somewhere, doing all the stupid things you enjoy doing."

"Perhaps you can join me, next time," he suggested slyly. "Unwind for a change. Have a few drinks with me. What do you say?"

Tsunade released a derisive snort. "Not on your life, Dionysus."

He roared with amused laughter.

Sakura listened to the exchange with interest, her eyes darting between the two. Was Jiraiya flirting? She knew he was fond of her mother - but just how fond, exactly?

"We're back again way too soon, huh, Sakura-chan?" Naruto's voice broke her out from her musings.

She nodded in agreement, mulling over the recent turn of events. Had it already been a month since they'd returned from their quest to retrieve the relics? How the time had flown. It was fast approaching the end of May. Spring was well and truly in bloom, on the cusp of summer, with flowers and trees growing abundant and the weather was turning warmer, much more pleasant.

They'd steadily worked to pinpoint the locations of the remaining Jinchuriki. It had been no easy feat, even with the assistance of Killer B, Gaara and Naruto, whose own tailed beasts were capable of sensing any others that were nearby. The difficulty lay in coming across the host individuals, who were disguised as civilians.

The entire process had been a slow, frustrating one. It had taken weeks - including multiple visits to various locations all across the world - to track them all down. Sakura had learned that the Jinchuriki were humans who had been made immortal too, so as to be able to contain the force of the great power slumbering within them. If their tailed beasts were ever extracted from their bodies, their immortal souls would be extracted with them, leading to their deaths.

It was precisely because they were immortal that they were so challenging to find. Capable of changing form, moving quickly, and keeping themselves hidden, they were known to travel often, to ensure they never remained in any given location for too long so as to avoid raising any suspicions about their true natures.

Sakura's five-person cell had been deployed to the Hidden Stone village following the successful location of a Jinchuriki in the vicinity, while the other deities and guardians were out searching other locations around the globe.

"So if we've only found three," said Sakura, shifting her backpack and adjusting the light blue windbreaker jacket she'd paired with comfortable blue, stretch-fabric jeggings and white sneakers. "And three are already with us, then does that mean Cronus has already captured three?"

"That is most likely," Jiraiya answered. Like her mother, he wore a casual green jacket thrown over a white top, but had paired it over baggy grey jeans and black combat boots. His dark eyes scanned the compact stone houses beyond the tidily kept lawns. "Given how powerful Obito is."

"It's... larger than I remember," Hinata said quietly in awe. She walked beside Sakura, dressed in pale lavender, ankle-grazing jeans, a white top and a loose purple sports jacket. Like Sakura, her hair was drawn back into a neat ponytail.

"Still not as big as Konoha," Naruto commented.

"Alright," Tsunade pursed her lips. "We're not here on vacation. Where is the Jinchuriki, Naruto?"

"Right!" Naruto lifted his hands, focusing.

Kurama, he communicated to his tailed beast. I could use your help!

'Useless brat', came the growling reply. 'You should be able to tap into my powers and locate it yourself.'

'Ah, c'mon, give me a break,' Naruto complained. He'd spent much of his training sessions over the course of the previous month, trying to make friends with Kurama, to convince him that he would obtain vengeance on Cronus, and find a way to free all the tailed-beasts safely. He wasn't sure how successful he had been, given that the demon fox was temperamental with him, and seemed to despise him entirely, snapping at Naruto whenever he attempted to make conversation. 'I'm still learning to fine-tune your abilities!'

There was a displeased pause in his mind. Then, the simple answer, 'North.'

Naruto led them in the direction indicated, and they walked for almost twenty minutes through the village before Tsunade demanded, "Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?"

"That's what he's telling me, 'ttebayo!" Naruto protested. "This Jinchuriki keeps moving around!"

Hinata engaged her Byakugan, scanning the chakra pathways of the civilians wandering around them. The tailed-beast hosts would be disguised as mortals, but her eyes would allow her to notice fluctuations in and changes to ordinary chakra.

Sakura shifted restlessly on her feet as they paused by a market-stall.

"They're close!" Naruto confirmed.

"We need to proceed with caution," Jiraiya cautioned shrewdly. "In the event our enemy shows here, we must protect the village-"

He didn't get to complete his sentence. As if deliberately timed, a sudden, loud explosion blew fragments of debris into the air to their far right, approximately two-o'clock from their location, immediately sending the locals screaming for cover around them.

"What was that?!" Sakura exclaimed, pressing a startled hand over her chest.

"Trouble, no doubt!" Naruto shouted.

"There!" Hinata gasped, pointing in the direction of the billowing smoke. "I just detected a disturbance in chakra! It's moving fast!"

Tsunade took hold of Sakura's hand and flash-warped them to the location. As the others alighted behind her, and they approached the building that had lost its front wall entirely, she warned her daughter, "Stay back with Hinata while we check inside, Sakura. Be ready to fight whatever comes out."

"Right!" Sakura braced herself, nodding. She'd equipped her chakra crystals and watched as Jiraiya, her mother and Naruto ventured into the smoke-filled building.

Jiraiya ducked to avoid the broken planks of wood hanging from the ceiling overhead. He proceeded with caution, Sage Mode activated - only to tense suddenly.

"Everyone, out!" he warned.

They flickered back outside, and Sakura gasped as she was scooped up by Jiraiya and they warped down to the end of the road, just before another violent explosion ripped through the building.

"Explosive tags," Tsunade's eyes narrowed, as panicked civilians in neighbouring buildings rushed out of the street, soon leaving it empty of anyone but the surface deities. "The enemy is here!"

"How considerate of you," a familiar voice said, laced with amusement, "to assist us in locating the Jinchuriki."

They whirled to find Kabuto, cloaked in a heavy brown robe, standing behind them.

Tsunade's expression darkened, open disgust contorting her features. Killing Orochimaru's precious apprentice would surely hurt him. He had likely assisted in the creation of the very abominations that had stolen Shizune from her. Her hands balled into tight fists, itching to strike the former mortal medic who had been physically altered into another form of being entirely.

"Have you been following us, you freak?!" Naruto demanded, pointing angrily at him.

Kabuto chuckled, adjusting his spectacles. "Our Zetsu are deployed in all villages, lurking beneath the ground. Spies that watch everything." His lips curved into a chilling smile. "I am certain you do not wish for a confrontation here. Not with so many innocent civilians about. So we'll be taking the four-tailed Jinchuriki, and going along our way."

"Like hell you are!" Naruto lunged at him, faster than Sakura's eyes could discern, charging his fist with trails of bright flame afforded by his very function. As soon as they connected with Kabuto, he exploded into smoke, signalling the use of a body substitute. Naruto landed on the ground, gritting his teeth, his blue eyes darting around him, seeking to pinpoint Kabuto's location.

Tsunade had already found him. She flash-warped behind the disfigured doctor, delivering a devastating drop-kick to his head. But he evaded, melting rapidly into the ground, dissolving to liquid. Tsunade stared at the puddle of water in alarmed confusion. She knew only Suigetsu was capable of doing that.

"Damn!" Jiraiya cursed.

"Up there!" Hinata pointed behind them. Along the tall, rocky mountain ridges that enclosed the village, a red-haired man clad in brown was fleeing, closely pursued by an individual cloaked in black. Light flashed in the air as they jumped over the protective wall encasing the town, the Jinchuriki seeking to conceal his identity by drawing the battle away from mortal eyes. An explosive ball of lava crashed against the top of the stone wall, sending large fragments crumbling down toward the village streets.

Naruto pivoted to head up toward them - but White Zetsu immediately spawned from the ground, surrounding them all.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya shouted, quickly assessing the situation and realising that the enemy was simply trying to slow them down long enough for Obito to steal the Jinchuriki away. "With me!"

"Got it!"

The two easily escaped the Zetsu, leaving them to Sakura, Hinata and Tsunade.

"Sakura, don't let them touch you!" Tsunade warned, punching the ground with enough chakra-charged force to uproot slabs of pavement. She decimated the pathway around them in seconds, ensuring that they would spot any Zetsu that rose up from the soil beneath them in good time.

Thinking quickly, Sakura channelled her lightning orb and dropped low, pressing her hands against the ground, pumping volts of crackling electricity through the soil that forced the White Zetsu to either retreat further or surface. She then jumped back, engaging her speed orb, ensuring that she moved faster than they did and remained out of harm's way. Hinata stunned the surfacing Zetsu, using her Byakugan to aim precise pulses of energy at their internal chakra-pathways, essentially crippling their ability to attack. Tsunade followed up with physical kicks and punches, easily dodging their attempts to catch her, breaking them apart limb from limb, leaving a trail of writhing white bodies around them.

They braced themselves as the Zetsu cloned each other, and attacked once again.

On the other side of the wall, Naruto and Jiraiya charged at Obito, aiming long-distance elemental attacks his way - but Kabuto was swift to intercept, unleashing giant snakes from beneath the long sleeves of his cloak that shot out toward them. Jiraiya sliced through them with ease, and Naruto summoned a humongous ball of Rasengan, combined with the flames of the sun itself, and flung it viciously at Obito. Kabuto once again jumped between them, calling upon a gushing wall of water to negate the attack and shield the masked Uchiha who continued to fight with the red-haired Jinchuriki.

The tailed-beast host skidded down the mountain trail, summoning forth lava blasts of burning rocks that rained down upon Obito. The Uchiha moved in a blur of movement and slammed an elbow into the Jinchuriki's midsection, sending him flying backwards, winded - straight toward a swirling Kamui portal.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya shouted.

Dragging a small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra and combining it with Sage Mode, Naruto flew forward at breath-taking speed, catching the red-haired man across the waist, bodily tackling him away from the vortex. They fell roughly down the side of the mountain, landing hard on the ground.

Naruto coughed. "O-ouch!" He winced. "That hurt, 'ttebayo!"

He ducked, barely avoiding a devastating punch to the side of the head from the enraged Jinchuriki.

"H-hey!" he protested. "What gives? I just saved you, Mister-!"

"You're with them!" The bearded man's dark eyes burned into him. "Do you take Roshi of Iwagakure to be a fool?!"

Obito, who had made it down the mountainside, raised a hand above his head. Dark energy began to gather at his palm.

"Shit!" Naruto cursed, his heart lurching in recognition. "Jiraiya-sensei! A tailed-beast bomb!"

Within seconds it had grown into an orb of destruction - one that Obito let loose straight toward the village wall, forcing the deities to shift their focus on protecting it to avoid it tearing through and wreaking havoc upon the innocent civilians beyond.

Jiraiya swiped his thumb across his lips and rapidly formed hand-seals, summoning his largest toad. It caught the enormous bomb just in time and hurtled it up into the sky instead, where it exploded into the atmosphere, charging the air with negative static.

Kabuto rematerialised to their left, and eight white hissing snakes attacked them, spewing venom. The Jinchuriki slammed another ball of lava at Kabuto, as Hinata, Tsunade and Sakura finally alighted on the opposite side of the wall, having decimated the Zetsu behind them. Tsunade immediately grabbed hold of one of the snakes and yanked on it, hauling Kabuto forward. But he shed the creature, and flash-warped behind Sakura, who spun quickly and summoned a wall of earth-chakra to shield herself from the snake that attempted to ensnare her.

"I see that you have survived, Sakura-chan," Kabuto said gleefully. "How fortunate, indeed."

Tsunade intercepted, slamming a ferocious fist into his back, sending him sprawling into the dust.

"Keep your filthy hands away from my daughter!" she spat.

Kabuto was quick to recover. Another assault of snakes hurtled toward them. Hinata lifted her hands, summoning a wave of cosmic, lunar energy that stunned the serpents. Sakura snatched the blade secured to the belt at her waist and sliced one of the snake's heads off. Tsunade pulverised the other two, before throwing a huge rock at Kabuto. Anticipating where he would move, she succeeded in grabbing him by the throat midflight.

"Tell Orochimaru," she snarled, her fingers crushing around Kabuto's windpipe, "that his days are numbered!"

Kabuto released a manic laugh. It didn't sound sane to Sakura's ears - and she watched in revulsion as he once more took liquid form, vanishing into the ground. She clenched her teeth and slammed the heel of her foot down, channelling the lightning chakra into the base of her sneakers, seeking to root him out.

He re-materialised beside Obito, smiling widely at her.

"Clever, Sakura-chan," he complimented.

"Don't call me that," Sakura glared, repulsed.

"Who are you people?" The tailed-beast host, Roshi, demanded, as the deities and Sakura formed a protective barrier around him.

"We've come to help!" Naruto summoned a spinning wind-shuriken, its edges burning with golden flame. "Those two bastards know what you are! They want to extract your tailed-beast!"

"Why should I trust you?" The bearded man's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Because," Naruto angled a glance back at him over his shoulder. "I'm Apollo! Son of Zeus!"

The red-haired man's dark eyes widened incredulously. He stared at Naruto in disbelief.

"Apollo?" he echoed. "You mean - the sun god?"

"That's me!" Naruto nodded, turning his focus back to the enemy.

Jiraiya sent pellets of flame bullets soaring through the air at their opponents, forcing them to scatter. Hinata stiffened, sensing the sudden flaring of chakra in Obito's body.

"His chakra!" she cried. "It's-!"

"Look out!" Jiraiya warned. "He must be channelling the powers of the beasts he possesses!"

Steam radiated from Obito's body, propelling him forward at great speed. It spewed outwards as he travelled like a speeding bullet through the air, melting the rock surrounding them. Tsunade's eyes widened and she grabbed Sakura, transporting them both out of harm's way, before attacking Kabuto once more, seeking to keep him away from Roshi. The red-haired man's body was surrounded by a shield of lava and he launched himself at Obito with an angry yell.

"You'll not defeat me so easily!" he shouted.

Obito's Sharingan swirled. Roshi's stomach lurched as his hand passed straight through the cloaked masked man's body. What manner of sorcery was this? A choking hold on his throat cut off his air supply as Obito bodily slammed him into the ground, another transportational vortex rippling around them.

Jiraiya swiftly intercepted, slamming a knee toward the side of Obito's head to interrupt his attack. The Uchiha skirted backwards to avoid it, just as a whistling, giant wind-shuriken flew toward him. It exploded into smoke as it grazed by him, revealing Naruto who had disguised himself within it, and with an enraged shout, the sun deity slammed a golden, glowing fist straight into Obito's mask, cracking it cleanly in half.

Obito stumbled back, stunned that the sun deity had managed to score a hit.

Kabuto lifted his hands, calling more Zetsu to materialise around them. Tsunade once again created huge fissures in the ground, hurtling giant rocks at their enemy. Roshi streaked through the Zetsu, burning them with his lava shield, stopping their attempts to capture him, interrupting their attempts to clone themselves. Out in the open field, with more space to move, they were able to avoid the creatures much more easily.

Obito's eyes narrowed. They locked onto Hinata, whose back was turned to him, swiping at Zetsu with the palms of her hands, hitting the creatures at chakra-critical points. Wordlessly he lifted a hand, summoning another humongous ball of ominous chakra.

"Oh no you don't!" Tsunade yelled, lobbying a mighty clump of earth at him. He flash-stepped to avoid it and the ball of energy vanished abruptly, causing the surface deities to pause - when it suddenly rematerialised right above their heads, tearing out the Kamui vortex that Obito had used to move its location unseen. Vibrating with terrible dark-matter, it slammed into the ground, sending hurricane force winds exploding outwards, forcing the surface gods and Roshi to scatter desperately in all directions to avoid its devastating impact.

Smoke, flying rocks and debris filled the space, and Sakura coughed violently, her eyes burning, struggling to make anything out beyond the thick haze. Something cold wrapped around her ankle. She looked down, horrified to find a Zetsu crawling out from the ground and instantly severed its wrist before it could send spores through her body. Her heart raced as she searched for her mother and friends in the fray.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice behind her made her sag in relief. A great gust of wind blew the smoke away - to reveal a sight that made them cry out in alarm.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled.

Snakes were coiled around Hinata's form, holding her hostage. She stood frozen in place, a White Zetsu beside her, grinning widely. The creature's hand gripped onto her throat.

Naruto's heart seemed to stop in his chest, before thundering impossibly fast. Jiraiya's hand shot out, clamping onto his shoulder, halting him in place.

'Wait, Naruto!' he cautioned, telepathically. 'Don't be reckless!'

"Hand over the Jinchuriki," Obito said calmly.

"You son-of-a-bitch," Tsunade snarled. "Fight us, you coward!"

"Let her go!" Sakura raised her hand, preparing to strike the Zetsu with a bolt of lightning.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Kabuto, who stood behind Hinata, smirked. "You see, this Zetsu has not yet infected her, at my command. Make any wrong move, and she will be, in a matter of seconds. Is the Jinchuriki really more precious than one of your own? We have already taken one Hyuuga from you."

Roshi's face darkened. "How cowardly," he said, "to use a hostage."

"And what a hostage," Kabuto declared smugly. "The Moon Goddess herself."

"If you hurt her..." Naruto's voice trembled was fury.

"That's up to you," Kabuto said. The Zetsu's fingers tightened, prompting an alarmed gasp from Hinata's lips.

"The Jinchuriki," Obito repeated. "I will not ask again."

"Give us the tailed-beast host," Kabuto added. "And we will return little Hinata-chan to you."

When they hesitated, Kabuto began to lift a hand.

"No!" Sakura cried, her heart leaping into her mouth.

The White Zetsu suddenly stiffened, and so did the snakes surrounding Hinata's body, paralysed by the freezing chakra she had sent through both. She broke free of Kabuto's hold, but before she could warp away to safety, Obito caught her once again by the throat, holding her in a vice like grip. Hinata's attempts to pump disabling chakra into his pathways were negated by the terrifying darkness she detected flowing through his veins, that her own reserves were smothered by and could not break through.

"Her life or the Jinchuriki's." He warned coldly. "Choose now."

A livid Naruto chanelled the Kyuubi's chakra and blurred into existence behind him at lightning speed, slamming a large fiery hand that extended from his body, straight at Obito, just as Tsunade struck the heel of her foot against the ground with such force that it caused the earth beneath Obito and Kabuto to fracture entirely. Jiraiya unleashed a huge flaming sphere at them, and Roshi supported the attack, directing further balls of lava at the pair.

Naruto scooped Hinata up in his arms, safely retrieving her, and glared defiantly at the enemy as he gently set her down.

"Hinata," he murmured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yes. Thank you, Naruto-kun," she whispered, trying to calm the adrenaline-fuelled pounding of her heart.

Kabuto lifted his hands, and more White Zetsu began to surface from the ground.

"You had it easy before!" Naruto yelled. "Now our powers are unsealed, your Aloe-Vera circus freaks won't stop us anymore!"

Obito raised a hand, calling into being another devastating orb of gravitational energy. He unleashed it at them, just as another enormous tailed-beast bomb suddenly roared over their heads, flying straight toward the pair, crashing into the sphere Obito had summoned and nuking the field of all Zetsu.

A great gust of wind propelled the force of impact away from them, sending its full concentration straight toward the enemy.

"Ooooh yeah!" A voice crowed loudly. "Motherfuckers! Fools! I'll kick your ass, you useless tools!"

Sakura's lips parted in astonishment. She knew that voice.

"We came as soon as we could!"

Tsunade turned to meet Kurenai's eyes, nodding at her in greeting. Behind the dark-haired goddess were Shikamaru, Killer B, and Lee. Temari landed beside them, her giant, metallic fan open, having harnessed the wind to protect them all.

When the smoke cleared, they found that Kabuto, Obito and the Zetsu had vanished.

"Tch. So they fled, huh?" Shikamaru noted. "What a drag. We were hoping for some payback."

"They wouldn't have risked a fight with us so outnumbered," Jiraiya commented. "Not without a great loss to their Zetsu army. But there is no doubt they will try again."

"Oooh yeah! Take that! Made those suckers retreat, right off the bat!" Killer B rapped triumphantly.

"Put it there, B!" Naruto fist-bumped his fellow Jinchuriki and training partner.

"Any luck on your mission?" Sakura asked.

Temari shook her head. "We couldn't find them. They'd moved on again by the time we arrived."

"Never fear, Sakura-chan!" Lee assured her passionately. "Youth is sure to prevail! We will locate the Jinchuuriki again, and definitely succeed in bringing them in next time!"

"Is this the four-tails?" Shikamaru nodded at the red-haired man who stood awkwardly amongst them, watching with interest as the shield of lava finally dissipated from around his form.

"Roshi," he introduced. "And judging from your chakra and abilities, you are all immortals, too."

Kurenai nodded. "Please come with us," she said. "It's too dangerous for you to stay here anymore."

"Who were those men who attacked me?" Roshi demanded.

"Servants of the God of Chaos, Cronus himself," Tsunade informed him.

"They want to extract your tailed-beast!" Naruto said.

"Cronus?" Roshi frowned dubiously. "But the myths say he was trapped away eternally."

"So he was," Shikamaru sighed.

"Those accounts failed to mention that he left his servants on the surface to do all his dirty work," Temari gave him a wry glance. Shikamaru grunted in agreement.

"This village has been kind to me," Roshi argued. "I can't leave it unprotected. What if those men return?"

"You wanna stay? Don't be a fool!" Killer B rapped. "If they steal your beast, it won't be cool!"

Roshi gave him an odd look, wondering why he spoke in rhyme, but kept the thought to himself.

"It's unlikely that Cronus will waste his resources killing off masses of civilians," Jiraiya said. "He has a plan to enslave humanity, and needs every tailed-beast host he can get to execute it."

"They won't stop hunting you until they capture you!" Lee warned.

"Please," Sakura entreated. "You have to come back with us. For your own safety."

Roshi hesitated, and shook his head unhappily. "That masked man. He has the chakra of several tailed-beasts. That steam attack belonged to just one of them. How can he contain such energy?"

"We'll explain everything when we get you back to our base." Jiraiya answered.

---

~x~

---

"You're certain that's her?" Kakashi peered around the lamp-post, at the petite young girl who stood in front of a grocery stall, picking out some local fruits. She had tan skin, short, mint-green hair and was dressed in a cropped white T-shirt top, paired with white shorts and sneakers. To the average onlooker, she didn't appear to be older than sixteen at most and seemed innocuous enough, a regular kid save for the strange hue of her choppy tresses. There was no way to tell, on the surface, that she was host to a powerful, seven-tailed beast.

"Positive," Gaara affirmed beside him.

"I can go talk to her," Ino suggested. "I think that might work better than us all springing up on her. She might freak out."

"That's a good idea," Kankuro nodded. "We can wait here. Give us a sign if you need any backup."

"Shall I accompany you?" Sai offered.

Ino gave him a nervous little laugh. He'd likely startle the girl with his unconventional mannerisms, or worse still, say something wildly inappropriate that would cause the tailed-beast host they'd spent weeks trying to track, to bolt off again.

"Uh, no. Thanks but I've got it!" she replied hastily. "Leave it to me, boys!" With that she straightened her shoulders and marched purposefully toward the girl, leaving Sai staring after her, nonplussed.

"Gaara," Kakashi glanced at the Olympic guardian and holder of the one-tails. "I have a quick errand I need to run. I'll be five minutes."

"I will watch them," Gaara assured him solemnly with a curt nod.

Kakashi thanked him and turned away. Being back at the very place where Sasuke and Sakura had been kidnapped returned the feelings of guilt he'd experienced at letting his guard down. Unlike back then, this detour would take only a few minutes at most.

He asked the local villagers for the location of Kenji's grandmother's house. She seemed to be a well-known, respected woman in Yugakure. Holding the note that Sakura had given to him, he came across a brown-haired boy of around ten years of age who nodded enthusiastically at Kakashi's offer of one silver coin in exchange for delivering the message to the woman.

"I'll do it," he agreed. "I know that old lady, she's a friend of my grandma's! Leave it to me, Mister!" He turned away, only to halt abruptly, as if he'd forgotten something. "Wait, Mister? Who should I say it's from?"

Kakashi considered this. "A friend of her grandson's, who is very sorry for her loss, and promises justice for him."

The boy blinked large blue eyes, nodded, then turned and sped away.

Kakashi watched him for a moment, before making his way back to his cell. He found Ino chatting away to the mint-haired girl, who looked back toward them with wide, sunset-orange eyes. They were unnatural for mortals, and certainly made her stand out, yet she had made no effort to conceal herself amongst the villagers like most Jinchuriki did.

She was either exceptionally naive or exceptionally cocky, Kakashi thought to himself, wondering which of the two it was.

At length the girl accompanied Ino back to them.

"This is Fū," Ino introduced. "Fū, meet my friends, Sai, Kakashi, Gaara and Kankuro."

"Hi!" the friendly girl grinned, extending her hand. When she shook Gaara's, she snatched it back quickly.

"Whoa," she exhaled, looking shaken. "You-? Are you like me, too?"

Gaara nodded.

"Which number?" she pressed.

"One," he answered simply.

"Neat! And is it true you're two of the three guardians of Olympus?" She lifted her hands, forming excited fists. "I've heard so much about you guys! This is such an honour! I always wanted to be a guardian too!"

"Really?" Kankuro smiled, amused by her near-infectious energy.

"Totally! I never thought I'd meet you! Or any of the Olympian gods or goddesses! This is so, so cool!"

"Maybe keep your voice down," Ino suggested, looking around them in concern.

Kakashi gazed at the chirpy girl in dismay. It was a good job they had found her before the enemy. She was far too trusting. They hadn't even had to prove their identities. But he supposed the tailed-beast sealed within her allowed her to detect immortal chakra on some level.

She walked up to Sai, peering closely at him. "Who are you?" she asked.

"He's Hermes," Ino replied. "Messenger of the Gods."

"Oh! I was expecting some weird old geezer. But you're really cute," Fū remarked, smiling at Sai brightly.

Ino shot her a surprised look, taken aback by her direct nature. "Aren't you a little young to be flirting with a god?" she demanded, folding her arms across her chest.

"Huh?" Fū looked at her, perplexed. "Actually," she supplied. "I'm seven hundred and fifteen years old."

"Minus seven hundred years, maybe," Ino scoffed.

Fū giggled. "It's true, I'm young at heart! But I guess I am a kid compared to you, old lady."

Ino's lips parted. She'd thought the outgoing girl had been spunky and sweet just minutes earlier, but was starting to question her initial assessment. "Excuse me?"

"Well," Sai began thoughtfully. "I suppose she means, in comparison, you do appear to be-"

"Sai," Ino held up a hand, cutting him off. "Not now. Seriously."

"It looks like you've been well educated in history," Kakashi observed.

"Why are you wearing an eye-patch, Mister?" she blurted, staring up at Kakashi with wide, curious eyes.

"Ah. It's sensitive. To the light," Kakash supplied vaguely.

"Huh?" Fū blinked. "Really?" Then she shrugged. "Sure, I've heard about you guys. The seven-tails has been passed down through my family for centuries! We all know the past." Then she suddenly gasped. "Wait, wait! Do you guys know Apollo? Son of King Zeus?"

"He's a friend of ours," Ino replied warily. She hoped the little brat wasn't entertaining any thoughts of hitting on Naruto next.

Gaara and Kankuro scanned the area carefully, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious around them. It was almost too good to be true, that they had located the host without interception from the enemy. The other squad hadn't been so fortunate, a week earlier.

"Oh neat!" She jumped up and down. "I've always wanted to meet him!"

"Well," Kakashi sighed. "If you come with us, you can."

Fū met his gaze and beamed. "Right on! I've always wanted to go on an adventure!"

---

~x~

---

"And how long are we expected to stay here?" Roshi demanded. "Cooped up in an elaborate prison?"

Several days after Fū had arrived at the High Council grounds, they'd received the devastating news from the cell that had been deployed to Kirigakure that the six-tailed Jinchuriki had already been captured by the enemy ahead of their arrival at the Hidden Mist Village. Shikamaru, Temari, Kurenai, Killer B and Lee had entered into it to discover a town rampant with panic, a cluster of its wooden houses set on fire and hysterical locals speaking reports of witnessing demonic creatures locked in battle. The three monsters that the enemy had left behind - chimera - had promptly been disposed of by the gods, and a memory-reversing seal had been placed on the townsfolk to remove the trauma of what they had seen.

"As long as it takes to keep you out the enemy's clutches," Tsunade responded.

"Poor Utakata," Fū lamented sadly. "I liked him. He was a cool guy."

"That could be months, years," Roshi argued. "Are we to remain trapped uselessly here?"

"Would you rather be dead?" Temari asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because that's what you'll be, if Cronus's rats get their hands on you."

"I am a proficient fighter," Roshi replied proudly, folding his arms across his chest.

"More like he was proficiently losing, 'ttebayo," Naruto muttered underneath his breath to Jiraiya, prompting a small, smug smile to tug at his teacher's lips.

"We understand your frustrations," Koharu stated evenly. "However, we cannot risk returning you alone to the open world for now. The enemy has already assembled four of nine tailed beasts. We are fortunate, indeed, that he had not attacked any of you sooner."

"It took them a long time to assemble their own forces," Kakashi mused. "I suppose that is fortunate for us."

"Make no mistake, we've been targeted before over the years," Roshi replied gruffly. "Why do you think we keep moving? But it's within our training to avoid capture and detection."

"So you'd seen that masked man before?" Shikamaru questioned.

"By various creatures, yes." Roshi replied. "I have also encountered that masked man in another village. I was almost captured by his vortex before, but Utakata helped me escape. The other man with the glasses, and those white creatures that rose from the ground, are new to me."

"You too?" Kankuro glanced at where Fū sat, with her legs crossed on the backrest of the bench in front of her, munching happily on a bag of crisps.

"Oh, yeah," she nodded. "I've been running all my life. It's exciting, that's for sure!"

Sakura stared at her. She'd only known the girl for a few days, but the words excitable and eccentric came to mind.

"At least let us help out on the field," Roshi suggested. "Whatever tasks you need to do, if Cronus's plan is what you've told us, then we also have a responsibility to help you defeat him, too. I cannot simply remain here idle. Are the eight and nine and one tails not fighting? Why not us, too?"

Fū straightened. "Mister Roshi has a point!" she exclaimed. "I can fight. Don't underestimate me!"

Tsunade exchanged glances with Jiraiya, Kakashi and Kurenai.

"There is safety in numbers," Kurenai pointed out. "And we're able to hold our ground against them, now."

"They haven't coordinated a full attack yet," Shikamaru warned.

"Even if they do," Jiraiya reasoned. "There are now more of us than there are them, and we have the ability to warp ourselves away."

"Those Aloe-vera freaks!" Naruto frowned. "We need to take them out!"

"They do get in the way," Sakura agreed. "They slow us down."

"Perhaps," Kakashi suggested, "we can enlist Sasuke's aid in that, the next time they appear. Though ideally, we need to locate Orochimaru's base, so that he can disable them all at once."

"That son-of-a-bitch is probably cooking up some more abominations," Tsunade scowled. "The longer we take to find the bases, the more time he has to create his monsters."

"That does sound probable," Gaara agreed.

"Perhaps then," Koharu suggested, "it would be prudent to focus on locating his base next, now that we have retrieved all the Jinchuriki we can."

"It's not like we haven't been trying," Ino threw up her hands in exasperation. "Those traitor ANBU probably know all of Danzo's seals. There must be a barrier keeping it hidden somewhere."

"Perhaps we can search underground," Sai suggested.

"Yes!" Lee agreed. "That is an excellent idea!"

Jiraiya rubbed thoughtfully at his chin. "Hmm. Orochimaru has been known to burrow himself away in the past. Alright. We'll head out and search again tomorrow." He paused, before nodding at Roshi and Fū. "All of us. The more we have out on the field, the better chance we have of hunting him and the remaining ANBU down."

Roshi and Fū nodded, satisfied.

"Alright!" Fū gave them a thumbs up. "You can totally count on us!"

---

~x~

---

An hour later, after the meeting had been disbanded, Sakura sat in the library, studying a text about blending different elemental chakra energies. She wondered if she could somehow fuse two elements together, to use them as a combined attack, the way she'd seen Naruto merge fire and wind seamlessly. Or was she being too optimistic? She wasn't an unsealed deity like her friends were. Her chakra control, though much improved, was still limited. Her mortal body still grew fatigued.

Frustrated by her own limitations, she closed the book with a heavy sigh and rose from her seat to return it to its rightful shelf. As she reached up to slot it into the correct place, a sudden sharp stabbing pain radiated in her abdomen, so intense that it snatched the air from her lungs. Alarmed, Sakura dropped the book which landed with a dull thud onto the floor and doubled over, clutching at her belly as the discomfort throbbed outwards - before waning as suddenly as it had appeared.

She exhaled slowly, bewildered and shaken. Still holding onto her abdomen, she took a few deep breaths, steadying her breathing, seeking to calm her galloping pulse before she began to straighten cautiously.

Another stab of pain had her releasing a strangled cry, her fingers spasming over her stomach. Her skin began to prickle, and she broke out in a cold sweat, trembling against the book-case as her heart pounded in her chest. Was it an attack? But no. That made no sense. Spring had already been safely triggered for that year. They were in June, and the pain she was experiencing wasn't central in her chest. It was coming from a different place entirely to the discomfort that related to the sealed Essence of her powers, locked away inside her. She had never felt anything like it before.

A violent wave of nausea rushed over her and Sakura clamped a hand over her mouth. The pain in her belly continued to pulse, like a hundred tiny needles were being stabbed straight through her gut.

What's happening…? She thought to herself, startled and frightened. She struggled to move, overcome with a strange sensation. The room seemed to be swimming around her, tilting precariously.

Then, as suddenly as her cramping symptoms had started - they vanished. The discomfort ebbed away. Sakura stood frozen to the spot, heart thumping, too afraid to move for several minutes, terrified that the mysterious symptoms would return. Only when ten minutes passed with nothing amiss occurring, did she finally dare to bend slowly down to retrieve the book she'd dropped, replacing it in its shelf before hurriedly exiting the library to rejoin her friends.

---

~x~

---

Sasuke stood by the water fountain in his mother's garden, staring down at the crystal clear pool of liquid that rippled almost hypnotically before his eyes. How many times had he perched on the edge of its smooth, white-stone basin as an infant god? How many happy hours had he spent in this very place, his mother's secret sanctuary, a private location that she had shared only with her beloved husband and children? How often had Itachi sat beside him in the past, quietly eating a sweet treat, while Sasuke compared the length of their legs, ever envious that his brother's had been longer, that his feet had always been closer to touching the ground?

He had ensured his mother's garden was perfectly tended following her passing. With its glowing, ghostly-white trees and abundance of other luminous flowers that were so carefully cultivated within it, the white-stone courtyard was a perfect reflection of Nyx's timeless grace, elegance and beauty. He walked to the slender, milky tree that sparkled with the sheer brilliance of diamonds in its centre, placing a hand upon it.

"Mikoto was fond of nature."

Sasuke raised his eyes to the phantom night sky. He ought to be used to the old crone sneaking up on him unannounced. She'd been doing it for millennia, after all. She went where she willed and did as she pleased within his Kingdom - much to his distaste.

He was in no mood for company. He wanted to reflect, in solitude, in privacy. Why did she insist on disturbing him when he was doing just that?

"What do you want?" he questioned. Though the words held an exasperated edge, they bore no animosity.

"Ever so courteous. I imagined that you would be interested to know the developments that have occurred on the surface," Chiyo responded.

Sasuke lowered his hand from the tree and glanced at her askance, waiting expectantly for her to elaborate.

"Two of three Jinchuriki have been safely retrieved," Chiyo reported, slowly lowering herself to sit on the edge of the very fountain Sasuke had been peering into minutes earlier. "The seven-tails and the four-tails have taken refuge within the High Council grounds. The six-tails, however, was captured by the enemy, which no doubt will mean that Obito will grow even more powerful."

Sasuke's eyebrows drew together. "How is it possible that he can be host to so many?"

"Not without great strain to his physical form," Chiyo mused. "I suspect the stronger he grows, the more unstable he will inevitably become. Switching between the tailed beasts and the different abilities they hold surely drains a great deal of chakra in itself. But he is only a temporary holding vessel in Cronus's designs. Inevitably, he will also be discarded."

Sasuke considered this. "Madara's mind control," he said. "Can it be broken?"

Chiyo gave him a thoughtful look. "It is unclear if he retains any conscious thought of his old life, besides the circumstances surrounding his mortal sweetheart Rin's death. I would imagine that Cronus has ensured the erasing is permanent." She sighed. "It is unfortunate. Obito is a victim in this also, and yet there is no choice but to deal with him the way we would any other enemy."

"And the serpent?"

"Orochimaru's base has not been located as of yet. Their search continues, both for that, and the ANBU who are concealing themselves like cockroaches from us. It is likely Danzo taught them all his tricks." She paused, before adding, "Ares also possessed the body of one of their slain, Asuma."

"Ares." Sasuke repeated, eyes narrowing at the name. He recalled the mortal boy that had been possessed by the same deity, leading to his and Sakura's abduction to Olympus. "His body is sealed in Tartarus, and yet he retains all his abilities?"

"Not the full range, as expected." Chiyo explained. "But he has enough chakra to summon some."

"How were the Titans sealed?" Sasuke turned to face the goddess fully. "Are they capable of being released?"

Chiyo's thin lips pursed together. "Itachi marked the Titans with the Hiraishin seal, and used the Sword of Totsuka to seal each of them away."

"Then it is impossible for them to escape," Sasuke responded, knowing that any sealing by Totsuka was eternal.

"To attempt to reverse its seal would surely beget grave consequences, indeed," Chiyo mused.

"Was that blade not part of Itachi's Susano'o?"

"The sword was indeed wielded by his Susano'o," the goddess confirmed. "But in truth, it took any form that Itachi willed. A steel blade similar to your Kusanagi - a shadow sword or a blade of flame - or in this instance, in the sealing of the Titans, it was a gourd."

"A gourd," Sasuke repeated. "Discarded into the pits of Tartarus?"

"That is so. Before the war, your good brother and cousin planted a marked kunai at the edge of Tartarus. Using Hiraishin, they threw the gourd containing the sealed Titans into the flames and erected the barrier that remains upon the pits of hell until this day. An extra precaution, if you will, after Cronus had removed it prior to the war's beginning."

Sasuke's eyebrows drew together. There was something that didn't make sense to him.

"Only the Underworld's King can place and remove the seal upon Tartarus."

"That is correct," Chiyo croaked. At Sasuke's troubled scowl, she raised an eyebrow. "The moment Cronus was trapped on Olympus, do you think the shades came to claim you first? No, little King. They claimed their rightful heir."

Sasuke released a quiet, astonished breath. Then Itachi, the crown-prince, had been the Underworld's ruler for those brief few minutes before he had passed on? Judging by that fact, Shisui had to have died either shortly before or immediately after, because the shades had then dragged Sasuke underground.

"Then..." A stillness befell Sasuke as he processed her words. "They did not pass on the battlefield?"

"At the edge of the chasm is where their life-forces faded." Chiyo informed him solemnly. "I believe the kunai itself is still embedded there in the rock, to this day."

Sasuke was silent. He had never seen it - but then, he had not known, up until that moment, that it was even there. Was it any consolation that they had passed in the Underworld itself? He didn't think so. Somehow, it made their ends seem even more barbaric and cruel. The only consolation, he supposed, was that they had died not alone, but together. He swallowed back the bitter taste in his throat. It had been a tragic, terrible end regardless.

Another thought suddenly occurred to the death deity, something he had been wondering to himself for a while.

He walked toward the goddess. "If Madara implanted senju cells centuries ago, should not have something occurred to at least begin the process of his obtaining the Rinnegan? He is the purest in blood of the Uchiha."

"That is so," Chiyo conceded, as he came to a stop before her. "But do not forget - the Rinnegan is activated through great suffering and personal cost. As you have discovered for yourself, little King, it is no simple process. Cronus's heart is cold and selfish. He thinks only of himself. Pure in lineage he may be - but that alone is not enough to warrant its manifestation. Nor are emotions of anger and hatred.

"He has known no loss following the war. Only the loss of power. He has no kin, nobody of importance, to grieve or to mourn. It is the very emotions he has killed in his heart, that are required to manifest the eye. A cruel paradox - and another reason he chose to provide you with those cells. He intended to torture you the moment he made the trade. A master of manipulation he is, indeed."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he silently agreed. Then, hearing the incessant call of souls who begged for an audience with him, he wordlessly turned away from the old goddess, before taking his leave from the garden.

---

~x~

---

"This line. No, this one, idiot!" Karin pointed to the line standing before the black ship. The soul of the man being directed to it turned terrified eyes to her, and she released a heavy, impatient sigh, turning away to leave the discipline to the other servants stationed on the island.

How many centuries had it been since she'd taken up this role? Every day had been the same, with little variation. She took pride in her duties, and yet, the single thing that had always kept her so motivated, so happy, now barely stopped by at all. The sight of Sasuke was becoming a rare occurrence, and Karin found herself irritable, impatient, even growing bored of her duties.

Travelling with him on the surface had filled her with excitement. A renewed sense of wonder and freedom. It was only when she had been standing in the forests, that the fact occurred to her that she had missed the upper world greatly. She'd never really stopped to think about it before. Sasuke had always consumed her thoughts. Daydreams and hopes of getting close to him. Of becoming something meaningful and significant. But countless centuries after she had entered into his service, nothing had changed.

He did not look at her. He barely talked to her. He only addressed her when he needed her to complete a task for him. He did not value her for who she was.

She swallowed back the bitter taste in her mouth. She was a fool. And it was only Sakura's arrival, and the way Sasuke looked at her, that had made Karin realise and snapped her out her delusions - she truly stood no chance. She had never stood a chance. She had been misguided, disillusioned. Her head had been filled with romantic, fantasy notions of Sasuke being her knight in shining armour, a saviour to her, the object of her happiness.

But he was no knight. He was King of the Dead. Reticent, aloof and unyielding. There would forever be a boundary between them, a clear line, that Karin knew she could never breach or hope to cross.

Why had she failed to see it before, that he held absolutely no interest in her? Dismissing his behaviour as shy, or telling herself he was playing hard to get - Sasuke was neither shy, or someone who seemed like he enjoyed playing games. On the contrary, Karin imagined that if he wanted something enough - the way he clearly had wanted Suckura - then he would go after it himself, with conviction, without hesitation. The way he clearly had done, kidnapping the girl to his realm.

"Oooh. Someone's in a sucky mood," a voice remarked snarkily.

She tensed, and whirled around, to find none other than the King of the Oceans standing behind her. He was dressed in a pale grey, short-sleeved tunic and baggy, darker grey pants, the legs of which were tucked into the shin-pads of the black gladiator sandals he wore.

His disconcerting, luminous amethyst eyes locked onto her, making her feel on edge. They'd had the same effect on her since she'd first met the sea god. A sensation that made her skin prickle. Disgust, she had always assumed it to be. The physical manifestation of the intense dislike she felt toward his loud-mouthed, uncensored, uncouth self. Where every inch of Sasuke was lined with refinement, maturity, nobility and dignity, Suigetsu, in stark contrast, was wild, irresponsible. A deity who delighted in the making of mischief and rule-breaking.

"What're you doing here?" she demanded sourly.

"Heh. I was bored." He tilted his head at her, before nodding at Jugo. "What's up, Jugo, my man?" he greeted, flashing him a toothy grin.

Jugo cast him a wary look, before returning quietly to his duties.

"Geez," Suigetsu rolled his eyes. "Don't you guys ever get bored doing the same thing? What do you even do for fun around here? Or does His Royal Grouchiness outlaw that word for everyone else here, too?"

Karin could think of no suitable response. It was unnerving, how close to her own earlier thoughts his words came. What did she do for fun? The answer was that she never had any fun. It was simply duty, duty, duty, day in, day out. No life or purpose beyond that.

She was struck, in that moment, by how very lonely an existence it had been, with only Jugo for any real company - and the gentle-natured giant certainly wasn't much of it.

"Are you here to see Sasuke?" she huffed, irritated.

"Nope." Suigetsu said casually. "I'm just passing through, reminding myself of how depressing this haunt is. Aren't you flattered I came to say hello? Who else ever bothers to look at your ugly face?"

"If it's so ugly," she retorted crabbily, "why are you looking?"

"Because it's funny as fuck." He gestured. "Kinda like… an animal in a circus."

She swung a fist at him, insulted, and he instantly liquidated on the spot. Cackling, he reappeared right behind her, leaned forward, and whispered into her ear, "You missed, bitch."

She stiffened, and aimed a kick back at him, knowing full well that he would evade.

"Get lost," she scowled, pointing another soul toward the correct line. "I'm working, and not in the mood."

"Who the fuck cares?" Suigetsu chuckled. "I am, and that's all that matters."

She stopped, turning her eyes skyward. "Ugh! You dumbass! What do you want?"

"I wanna know what you're still doing down here, when the King of Assholes clearly gives no shits about you."

"Stop calling him that," Karin glowered, though internally, she was starting to agree. Sasuke was indeed an asshole. Albeit a very attractive one. She hated how attractive he was.

"I can call him whatever the fuck I want. He's a total asshole, sold me out and cost me Samehada. But anyway, back to you, you stupid dumb bitch."

"What's it to you, what I do with my life, idiot?" she snapped. "I told you to butt out. It's none of your business."

"Nuh-uh," Suigetsu lifted a finger, waggling it at her almost comically. "Now that's not right. You're a naiad." He pointed at her, then to himself. "I'm the King of the Oceans. If we're gonna be all proper about it, you're technically a denizen of my realm, which means..." he gave her a wide grin. "It's totally my business."

She glared at him. "I serve in Sasuke's realm, which makes him my King. Not you."

"Wrong again," Suigetsu slurped from the bottle of water in his hand. Karin wanted to smack it out his hold and shove it down his throat. She didn't understand such urges, or why she felt the need to be so violent with him. Everything about Suigetsu got under her skin - and she was dismayed to realise that he very much knew it. "See, the way I see it, I'm only loaning your worthless ass to Sasuke. If I want, I can call you back to the oceans anytime."

"You wish," she sneered at him contemptuously. "I'm bound in service to the Underworld. There's nothing you can do about it."

Suigetsu's eyes glittered with interest. "You sure?" he tilted his head again at her, in that maddening, mocking way that made Karin want to throttle him. "Is that a challenge, bitch?"

"No," she snarled back at him. "It's reality, so suck it up, loser." With that, she bodily shoved past him, leaving him smirking behind her, a delicious, devious idea brewing in his mind.

'Challenge accepted,' he thought smugly to himself.

---

~x~

---

Sakura turned restlessly onto her left side, her thoughts hinged on the strange episode of pain she'd experienced earlier that day in the library. It was well past midnight, and Ino and Hinata had already fallen sound asleep. Fū, who had joined them in their room so as not to feel left out on her own, was also snoring softly in her bed.

Sakura stared at the wall in frustration, her right hand resting subconsciously, almost protectively, over her abdomen. She hadn't told her mother about the event - or anyone else. She'd hoped it had been a one off, and yet couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that it somehow related to the pomegranate seeds. She felt it in her bones like a premonition, a warning that something wasn't quite right.

She dreaded to feel it again. A disorientating, dizzying pain that had debilitated her for those brief few minutes. Sakura worried about it occurring again. What if it happened mid-battle? What if she was caught off-guard by it in a moment where she needed to move? Perhaps she ought to notify her mother and the others, so that they were aware, just in case it did happen in the future.

But she needed to understand it herself, first. She had just over two months remaining on the surface. Was it because her time to return to the Underworld was fast approaching? She suddenly recalled having a number of brief bouts of quick-passing nausea over the previous few weeks. Nothing substantial or out of the ordinary, which she'd assigned to the food she'd eaten, or feeling tired in general.

She bit her lower lip anxiously, wondering for the hundredth time whether she should communicate what had happened to Sasuke, for her own piece of mind. Once more, however, she found herself hesitating. He had been through a great deal of stress. He needed time and space to himself. She didn't wish to bother him again so soon, though the month that had passed since she had seen and spoken to him last already felt like an age following the passionate kiss they had shared.

It wouldn't hurt, she tried to convince herself, to just tell him. Would it? Maybe he wouldn't even answer her, just as he never had before. They'd shared a kiss. She'd forgiven him. But they still had a lot of issues to sort through yet. Lots of bridges that still needed to be mended. Sakura hoped, when she returned to the Underworld, to try to start doing just that.

Inside her chest, her pulse quickened, as she tentatively called out to him, a part of her dreading that he would ignore her once again. He was a busy god. He had an entire Kingdom to run by himself, and she still didn't know how the mechanisms of the seeds worked, exactly. She could make out no hum, no signal that indicated she was doing anything other than thinking to herself.

'Sasuke?' she attempted. 'Can you hear me…?'

Silence rang in her head. A minute passed. Followed by another, and another. Nothing happened.

Undeterred, she went on, 'I need to talk to you. Something weird happened to me today. It wasn't a normal attack, and I wanted to…'

Mid-thought, she fell into sudden, deep slumber.

---

~x~

---

Her eyes fluttered open to pitch-blackness, save for the stream of moonlight that filtered through the double-casement windows. She found herself standing alone in the bedroom and looked around in confusion at the empty beds. Hadn't Ino, Hinata and Fū been with her just moments earlier?

"Sakura."

An imperceptible shudder ran along her spine when a voice like seductive, silk-wrapped steel caressed her ears. She could sense him, standing just behind her - the near-oppressive, crackling, electrifying aura that radiated from his form - and this time she could not help the shiver that zig-zagged through her.

"You're here," she spoke in a hushed whisper, her gaze fixed on the bed Ino should have been sleeping in. She felt strange. As if she were floating. As if everything around her was not quite as it ought to be. "Is this... real? Am I awake?"

"No," he answered quietly, confirming that he had not only heard her call, but chosen to respond to it by infiltrating and manipulating her dreams.

And yet, it felt so frighteningly real. The warmth of his body. The way her heart had started to canter in response to his proximity. Sucking in a deep breath, she turned to face him, and immediately felt herself coming undone when obsidian eyes, as black as the night itself, speared intently through her, smouldering and stifling in their intensity.

He was so close. Her fingers itched to touch him, but she kept them by her sides, focusing on her question. She didn't know how much time he had to spare for her, and didn't want to miss her opportunity of gaining an explanation.

"I felt a terrible pain in my stomach in the library earlier today," she told him. "What was it...?"

His eyes trailed slowly over her features. They seemed to leave a blaze of flame in their wake, for Sakura felt the heat like the kiss of fire. "You know," he murmured, his powerful gaze holding hers meaningfully.

"The seeds?" she breathed.

Sasuke angled his head slightly, affirming her words. "Your time," he stated, "is almost up. The closer the hour draws, the more you will feel their effects."

Sakura gulped and placed a palm over her abdomen, looking down at it in concern. "Is there any way you can stop it? What if it happens in the middle of a battle?"

Sasuke shook his head, something akin to regret dancing briefly acros his heavy-lashed, midnight eyes. "I can suppress them no longer. Each seed," he paused, before supplying, "is a timer. In the final months, they grow unstable, and will gradually begin to bleed their dark essence into your bloodstream. It is for that reason, you are compelled to return to the Underworld. To stabilise them once more."

Dark essence? Sakura's eyes widened. Were they essentially poisoning her blood-stream? That explained the stomach-churning nausea she had experienced, along with the cold sweat and burning pain in her belly.

"Six months in my Kingdom will restore the balance, neutralise the shadows from your blood, and allow you to return six months anew to the surface," Sasuke added.

"That fruit," Sakura shook her head. "Was it made as a trap? To have such terrible effects?"

He was silent for a long minute.

"Only," he replied at length, his eyes slipping from hers in recognition of the trap his own actions had ensnared her in, "for those unwilling."

"And..." Sakura whispered, taking a step closer to him, her heart pounding harder still when he made no move to step away. "For the willing?"

His eyes returned to her face, boring into hers.

"The seeds were exchanged by the Uchiha, as a pledge of loyalty, ensuring that they were never far apart from those with whom they shared the fruit."

Worded that way, the pomegranate sounded less damning, and more like a serious commitment. A pledge, perhaps, of everlasting love. A way to ensure that friends, family, or lovers, could always reunite, forcing a reunion, even if the world turned against them.

Her eyes lowered. Now that she understood the effects of the seeds, she knew she needed to be careful when they ventured out beyond the High Council's protective walls. She would need to tell her mother - though she knew it would not please her, and would likely alarm her further.

Her lips twisted to form a rueful smile.

"I told my mother," she confessed on impulse, feeling as though her heart was on the verge of leaping out of her throat. "About our past. She knows."

Sasuke was silent. She could feel the weight of his stare on her as he watched her. She swallowed, before continuing, "She was upset that I didn't tell her sooner. I think that I... that I was always too afraid to think about it. I was too afraid to accept it. But...we were meant to meet again. I believe that."

She peeked up at him, almost shyly. Something glimmered in his eyes, an unreadable look that set her pulse racing faster still.

Suddenly embarrassed, and thrown by his continued silence, she averted her gaze, and rambled, "I haven't told all the others." Still refusing to meet his eyes, she smiled grimly. "Besides Naruto and Kakashi-sensei, they'd probably just think you're no good for me, too."

Another long pause ensued. Then she saw him step forward, and her heart lodged itself into the base of her throat when he leaned over her, bringing his lips to her left ear. Sakura barely suppressed another shudder at the feel of his warm breath tickling over the sensitive flesh of her earlobe, and she instinctively reached out to him, gripping onto the front of his cloak to steady herself, closing her eyes when she felt his fingers graze over her wrist. Over the bracelet she wore, the one he had made for her.

It was a simple yet dangerous, sensual touch. Sakura wondered how it was possible that she felt so displaced by it, how it was possible that it moved her so profoundly - when it wasn't even really happening at all.

He tilted his head, his soft, warm lips ghosting over the outer shell of her ear.

"They," he whispered harshly into her left ear, "are right."

---

~x~

---

When Sakura next opened her eyes, Sasuke was gone and she found herself lying on her back in her bed, in the room she shared with the other girls, returned to reality and wakefulness, her heart drumming erratically in her chest at the phantom memory of the death deity's lips brushing against her ear.

---

~x~

---

Author's note

That brings an end to the third update this month. If you're a silent reader, remember it takes just two minutes to leave a comment, versus the hours I spend typing up this content. I don't skip over any reviews; I read every single one, so feedback is very much appreciated.

Next chapter finally brings to a close this arc. Thanks for reading.