Deadication: For Miss Dany, a wonderful encourager and godsend, at your request, here are those Kiri boys. :)

Sakura could hear the voices in the steel long before she knew what this meant. Years later she's nearly killed for this reason and is sent running out of the Land of Fire and into the neighboring country of Water for refuge. But her life is still not safe and very well never will be considering that's she's one of the only Sages alive, a person with the power to animate the nonliving as human soldiers. In her hands blades become warriors more fantastically loyal than any human born legion. She's a dangerous player in the world of warring shoguns, but all she wants to do is dirty her hands and make beautiful blades in the forge.

In order to stay alive Sakura animates several Kiri treasured blades and is a little surprised with what happens next.

Touken Revolution
刀剣 -革命

刀
Tou = a word for swords/knives/bladed weapons

剣
Ken = usually refer to swords/katanas
刀剣

Touken = (multiple) swords/bladed weapons and katanas

revolution : [rev-uh-loo-shuh n]

noun

1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

2. Sociology. a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.

3. a sudden, complete or marked change in something: the present revolution in church architecture.

Review: Haku was slow about it, and clearly displeased with his current situation, but he still dressed and stood. A moment later he padded over to the doorway and stopped just before leaving her room. Sakura walked back in and pushed the door open wider, waiting for him to leave.

"I'll go on my own, but I…I may be drunk but I don't want you to think I didn't mean it."

Haku looked up through the curtain of his dark hair and Sakura saw the idea seize him. Before she could stop him, he reached for her and this time his lips slanted over hers. Wrist in hand, he pressed into her, cupping the underside of her head and pressing in close to her so that she felt all of him in that kiss.

Her lips didn't know how to stop him as he pressed his tongue into her and tickled the roof of her mouth in ways that betrayed his inexperience. Sakura staggered under the kiss but he held her as the last of her breath started to burn away. Before she could take no more, he pulled away and then kissed under her jaw once, whispering something before leaving.

'I don't think I'd share as well.'

Sakura slept in the forge that night, relying on the voices of the swords to keep her from burning away in her sleep from steamy dreams that hadn't haunted her in half as many years.

Part 3

Tsunade had forgotten her jacket and found herself on the walkway back to the dining room when she spotted Kakashi, hands in his pockets, shoulders slouched as poorly as his posture, staring dully up at the moon.

She had remembered him walking back with Rin, but by the look of things, events had not unfolded as he had hoped. The man had a long way to go if he had any intention of picking up from where he left off with that girl.

Tsunade was naturally protective all all the ladies she drew under her wings, being so selective about holding others so close to the heart in the first place. A part of the blonde sage wanted things to work out between the old lovers, but another part of her wanted Kakashi to wallow in heartache a little longer because he would never be worthy of Rin no matter what he did.

"Oi," she called out.

Kakashi turned towards her, postre still as horrible as ever. His eyebrow rose in question but he didn't say anything else in response. Typical Hatake behavior.

"I'm not done drinking. You want to be able to sleep tonight?" she taunted, jabbing with her thumb back at the room she had been heading to in the first place.

She wasn't sure if she was surprised or not when she looked back to see him hanging in the doorway. Tsunade found the wine and didn't bother with the cups, but passed a whole jug to Kakashi and took one for herself. The pair settled on the edge of the porch, staring across the scraggly inner courtyard that was set into haunting contrast with a silver light paining every edge like a blade. It was quiet but not silent. Somewhere there were boys talking and arguing, maybe drunkenly.

"So what's keeping you up?" she teased, knowing full well what kept the lonely man awake during the most recent nights. The way he looked at Rin and looked for Rin was impossible to ignore.

"Lord Jiraiya hasn't written any peach paper books in a while and I've worn out my old volumes," Kakashi sighed in mock sarcasm. "What about you, Lady Tsunade? Shizune not giving you any these nights."

"Humph, no wonder Rin is keeping you at arm's length. Not even the kid made things easier for you, huh."

Kakashi slumped further, his shoulder blades standing up like peaked mountains as he took another pull from the jug. When he spoke he sounded too tired to keep up the verbal spat much longer. "Shut up."

Tsunade let a moment of silence stretched between them before speaking up again. "Huh, have it your way. There are other things that are worth worrying about. Have you heard anything back from your dog runners on the inside?"

"Nothing new since what I reported to you last time. My informant is not at liberty to press his luck anymore than he already has."

Tsunade snorted. "I've never known a Nara to be lucky. They're too crafty to be anything else. When he's ready he'll bark, but not before."

"You know you could just get your own spy network and work with them yourself instead of always coming to me or Lord Jiraiya for all your dirty little tidbits."

"Ah, but you're so much better at it than I am. Why bother trying to improve something that works so well? No, I'll leave the spying to the experts and stick to what I do best. I told Sakura I would see her in the morning for something to keep the snake from hurting her again. It would be bad if he trapped her or worse, he killed her."

Kakashi paused, staring into the mouth of his jug before tapping it against his lips. The cloth normally stretched tight around the bottom half of his face was bunched up around his neck, another sign he was depressed about the whole Rin thing. Tsunade waited for his words, knowing he was muling them over.

"Can he do that across such a distance...kill?"

"Not the way he tried. If he could, Sakura would be dead. With a spiritual connection he could only bind her soul in place and keep it from returning to her body, which is just as bad. A body without a soul forgets how to live around one and in some extreme cases, after days or weeks apart, souls are sometimes unable to enter their original bodies without aid."

"We'd really be fucked if that happened."

Tsunade snorted. "I bet. I've seen Orochimaru's sword men and I've seen Sakura's. They are as different as night and day. No one would weep for the snake's death, but I think each and every one of those boys would burn the world twice over if something really did take her away from them."

Kakashi snorted. "What a romantic."

"I've already lost a lot of money tonight, Kakashi, don't tempt me and just shut up on this. I know what I'm talking about. The education Orochimaru's swords need to go through lasts anywhere between a few days to weeks and even then they're all as dull as a box of rocks. I don't think he would have been able to work with a sword that has a strong soul. Most of the ones he animates are lacking in character. They're mindless tools without personality most of the time. Sakura's swords have soul so it's no wonder giving them bodies exhausted her as much as it did. It was taxing spiritually."

"I'll believe that. I've run missions with most of them. They're all top notch. I'd feel safe with any of them on my squad, even Sai for as young and dense as he is."

Tsunade snorted. "Yeah, I think he has it the worst out of all of them, but he's not the only one who wants to be adored by his pretty sage master." A new look came into her eyes and she turned to Kakashi suddenly. "Who do you think has it the worst out of all of them? You saw Yagura tonight, right? And even Utakata had his hands on her."

"You want me to rank them on…"

"Who's got it the worst for Sakura."

Kakashi chuckled to himself, going back to sip at the booze. "And here I thought you weren't in the betting mood."

"It's not a betting mood, I'm not offering any more money or massages, I just want to know what you think and don't say you haven't considered it. You read too much of that sappy smut to not have some interest in this. What other entertainment is there out here in the hills, eh?"

Kakashi hid his smile behind his hand and glanced over his knuckles at the older woman. He tried not to let the smile into his eyes, but doubted he had managed so much. She was spot on because Kakashi really had been paying Sakura and the swords a bit too much attention when there was really no need for it.

"I think Haku has it the worst," he finally admitted.

Tsunade recoiled a bit. "Huh?"

The thought made him laugh, but Kakashi nodded and went along with it. "He's a brat and it doesn't seem like it at first, but he's the worst about it. He lies all the time saying he doesn't care or worse, he bullies her with his words for the attention and it's been building and building and building ever since he was a sword."

Tsunade finished off her jug of sake and set it to the side, leaning back on her elbows as a fullness settled in her belly. "I would have thought Kisame and Zabuza for sure. They were like lion dogs, loyally keeping watch over her while she slept."

"Oh yeah, but they're honest about it and actually have some level of communication with her. Haku doesn't, which makes it harder for him to keep it in. You're right about those two relics though, they're completely devoted to Sakura. She worked really hard to win them over as swords and they've been dedicated ever since."

"I'm still surprised the Mei gave you relics. I thought Kiri was supposed to be super uptight about their traditions and their swords. Last time I saw her the brat wouldn't even treat me to sake."

"You're not her type."

Tsunade reached out and kicked Kakashi in the leg. He hadn't tried to dodge because it was only a kick but the impact made him see stars and he cursed at the feeling. When he looked back over he saw that Tsunade was glaring.

"Shit, sorry you crazy old woman."

"Doubt that, but I'm fine with just seeing you in pain. Don't forget I'm a sage too and not the sort of person you trifle with."

"I'll not mention it anymore. If I limp I can't do missions and you'll be stuck with my ugly mug around camp for that much longer."

The blonde woman rolled her eyes. "You can catch up on the gossip and quit pretending like you don't just live for it. I know you better." She pointed to a far end of the manor where there were low voices muffled through the wood. "What do you think of the other swords?"

"They're all trustworthy and capable."

"Not that. You know what I mean," Tsunade snapped.

Kakashi put on a sad face and reached for his shin, holding it up and moaning lowely. "If only I wasn't in so much pain then I could think straight. Ohh, oh, the pain. Yeah, still can't think straight even though I know I should know the answer to this question."

Tsunade's hand glowed green and she grumbled loudly, but moved to heal his leg before he could whine about it much more. He hadn't moved the fabric of his pants away so there was no wound to see shrink away, but Kakashi relaxed at the feel and could tell the injury was gone by the time she pulled away.

"Now you can talk."

"Well, it doesn't matter who else has an interest in our cute little Sakura if she's still the way she is, unwilling to look at the big picture. She's an interesting brat if you ever think to study her motivations a bit. Not the typical romance heroine and I would know. You see," Kakashi raised his hands to demonstrate, "she's lacking sight. She doesn't see romance as an option anymore and it's going to take some aggressive advancements on the boy's end to remedy this. Maybe it's because she's a forge monkey and never had a boyfriend in her life, I don't know."

"I don't know if I've had enough wine for that to make sense," mused Tsunade skeptically.

"It makes sense, it makes sense."

"But the others?" Tsunade prodded.

"I think Mangetsu is sweet by nature, and Suigetsu is okay enough, but neither seem to have what it takes. The same could be said for Kagura. He's a kid compared to Yagura and he's got a better disposition so I don't see him being worth watching. I'm not sure about Shizuma yet, I've had the least amount of time to observe him."

"I saw Utakata tonight. Him and Yagura. You can't tell me those two aren't worth watching."

Kakashi chuckled. "You're worse than I am."

"I live for this sort of drama, remember?" Tsunade mocked.

"Yeah, yeah. Those two are the type to keep your eye on. Yagura is the type to be interested once he gets some sense smacked into him and Utakata is the clever type. You won't see him coming until it's too late."

Tsunade mulled his words over, thinking to herself about what it had to be like to live in such a stagnant situation, where leaving the manor meant a heavy risk. Sakura didn't leave, she was stuck and confined to the immediate grounds and for some people that would be enough to drive them up a wall. But it was necessary because of what they knew.

Tsunade sighed and when she looked up again she felt old in her bones because she was staring at the same sky from her youth but nothing in them changed-just like the world. They were still wringing their hands in blood with no end in sight. If anything, the state of the world was worse.

"Sometimes I wish all we had to worry about was which sword boy is the best one to ship with his master. I'd be happy if that was it."

Kakashi's tone turned somber. "I know, but if what Nara said is accurate, Danzo's not even trying to be subtle about his aggressions. It's put a huge wedge between the Uchiha clan and the shogun. Even the Hyuga are seeing signs of taxed resources. At this rate we will be in open war before the year is over."

"You think The land of Waves can brave it?" she asked.

"Let's hope so. If not, there aren't many more places to run to."

Sakura blinked her eyes open and stared at the room around her. "Is that it?" she asked, looking up.

Tsunade huffed and reached for a hand mirror. "Not so loud kid, some of us still have hangovers."

Sakura accepted the hand mirror and shot the older sage a look of accusation. "That's your choice. You could have avoided it if you wanted."

"Yeah, well some of us like how booze makes us feel. Be grateful you don't have to be numb to get to sleep most nights. Now shut up and look at yourself already."

Sakura grunted teasingly but looked down into the mirror she had been handed to see the familiar reflection of her face with only one major change. A dark purple rhombus was colored into her skin, shimmering with light from the still adding magic of another sage. As Sakura watched it the rhombus dulled to a faint lavender color and didn't shimmer as much.

"It'll grow darker when you use your powers. It's not the cutest thing to have on your face, I get it, but you won't have to worry about Orochimaru taking advantage of you with that in place."

Sakura thanked Tsunade and spent the rest of the day in the forge working on her sword. At one point, when she was dirty and sweating from tempering the blade she thought she saw someone watching her on the crest of a low hill behind the manor, but when she turned to look that way Haku wasn't there and she wasn't sure if he had been something her mind made up, or too fast to catch.

Sakura wiped her hands on her apron and lifted Gaara back into the furnace, soaking the flames with the bellows until they were white blue under the pine charcoal. When she drew Gaara out he was blinding red and the steam from when she slipped him into the water sounded so much like his voice.

Gaara was one of the more bloodthirsty blades she had ever worked with. Most of the time she didn't want her blades to be so vicious, though that sometimes gave them the most carelessly sharp edges that always seemed to find a way to draw blood.

'You'll be a sharp blade, but you won't be consumed by bloodlust,' she told him as the day drew to a close.

'Blood is mine to spill.'

She frowned at the response. 'Not all blood. You were made to protect and yes, to avenge, but only in the name of justice. You are not a soul meant for evil, Gaara.'

'What is evil and good in the face of my edge?' It didn't really sound like a question when he said it.

'Good and evil are still two very real and present forces you must not forget.'

'Craft me with a good edge, give me an edge I can cleave the world open with.'

Sakura set Gaara aside and pulled off her smock.

"That's enough for today, little devil. I'll come back when I'm not as worried about your mental health."

She felt a sense of fear from Gaara and his presence, once bloodthirsty and feral, melted into one of pain and longing that cried out without words to be loved, to be held, and to be tended to. Sakura ignored his cries because she had said she would.

When she returned in the morning, asking if he had slept well, she was met by a grudging silence that told her Gaara was awake and aware of her presence, but chose not to respond to it. Like a child, he was trying to manipulate her into seeing things his way.

'Should I work here or should I leave today?' she asked him.

When he didn't reply she reached for the draw filled with kera metal and started to pick through the, turning them over and listening for voices in the metal that would work well together and one day become a fine sword. It didn't take long before Gaara's silence broke up and he dissolved into angry speech that demanded she not ignore him in favor of some other project.

'I thought you were asleep, you weren't answering me.'

'I'm here, I'm here and you're supposed to be working on me!'

'I'm scared of you right now.'

Gaara was silent for a while in a way that made Sakura think she must have stunned him with her words. Finally there was a hesitant, 'why?' in the back of her brain. He meant to whisper it so only she could hear.

'You're hungry for blood just like I've been hungry for it, and I think that's my fault. I hate Orochimaru for what he did to me and my teacher. He's evil and cruel and holds himself like he's god of all our lives and that's wrong.' Her voice wavered towards the end but stayed stead enough to reflect her control over her emotions. She didn't let herself sound like her hate ruled her.

'But he hurt you.'

Sakura swallowed and nodded. 'Yes, he hurt me, but that's not why I want to hurt him. I want to stop him from hurting others. I don't want anyone else like me to suffer ever again because of him. I want justice.'

He was quiet a moment more before asking. 'Why would you care of others? Only love yourself. Life will not be so hard then.'

Sakura laid a hand on the smooth side of his blade and hummed. "But I love you, and I love Sai, and I love all the swords I've made. I love my friends and I loved Sarutobi before he died. Loving someone can be the most painful thing you feel as a human, but it's also the most amazing thing, and I think that makes the heartache and misery all worth it in the end. Is that wrong? Should I not love you?"

More silence stretched between them, but she knew he was thinking.

'I think….I think I like being loved by you.'

Sakura smiled wide and settled in to work. "It's time to sign the tang, and I think I know exactly what you need."

When she was done, the character for Love was etched into the metal along with her name and then his name. Another day was dedicated to making his sheath and wrapping his hilt, all things she called Inari in to help her with.

In less than a week he was ready.

She was used to Kisame bringing her gifts back, but didn't stop to consider it to be a family trait until Shizuma came back with a wrapped parcel tied up in ribbon.

"I asked them to make it like a present for a lady," he explained as he studied the gift in his hands, avoiding her eyes. When he looked up it was almost as if the effort was painful for him. "I realize I never apologize properly to you."

Sakura was even more lost than before. "Apologized for what?" she asked. She wiped her hands on the edge of her yukata, knowing that they were still dirty from work in the morning and hating how she never seemed clean or pretty enough for polite company.

Shizuma wasn't an odachi like his 'older brother' so he wasn't as tall as Kisame, and he wasn't made with the same blue steel, so his coloring was closer to her own, but at moments and times she could see the painful resemblance that made her feel like a fool for doubting their relation. They were both Hoshigaki blades with the same wide smile too sharp for polite company.

He pushed the package into her hands and she took it, rubbing her fingers over the paper before starting to dig into where the papers overlapped.

"It's for...you know, when you got sick. That was my fault."

Sakura stopped unwrapping and looked up, eyes wide and face pale. "What?"

He tried to smile again but it looked more like a wince. "It's because you gave me a body that you were weak enough for Orochimaru to do that to you. If it hadn't been for me you would have been find, but you suffered for days. I just wanted-"

She grabbed his arm and the contact jolted him into abrupt silence. When he looked to her face again it was stern, lacking the surprise from earlier.

"Don't believe that, Shizuma. Listen to me now, that was not your fault and it's not something you should be blaming yourself for. Have you thought that way this entire time? Has someone said something to you to make you think it was your fault?"

"No, Kisame was actually trying to convince me of the opposite, but that's just because he's my older brother and he is looking out for me. It doesn't matter what the others think though, I think it was my fault."

Sakura put more pressure to where her hand held his wrist and he swallowed, watching her and waiting for her to speak. "Look at me. I'm telling you right now that it was never your fault. Don't even think like that. It does no one any good for you to blame yourself. No one is to blame, but if someone were, that person would be me, not you. I should have known better but you did absolutely nothing." She almost laughed. "There's no way it would be your fault."

He turned his wrist over so his hand grabbed her wrist back. They were each holding the other's wrist in a shared grasp. "Somehow I suspected you might say that, but I was afraid that was my wishful dreaming."

"It's not," Sakura stressed.

He nodded but then nudged his chin at the package in her hands. "Okay, but you still need to take the gift and open it. I found it during my last mission where Kisame picked up the wine. I didn't want to give you this until you had already gone through his gift."

Sakura chuckled, dropping his wrist and returning both hands to the paper. She pulled it apart and turned over the outer jacket with a laugh. He had found for her an indigo colored haori that faded to a lighter blue color at the bottom. On the sleeves there were different aquatic animals like sharks, whales, and turtles as well as some sea birds. Sakura recognized right away what the design was of.

"It matches the anklet your brother got me, the one from the stories." She ran her fingers over the raised design of a narwhal, breaking through the ice with its spiraling horn like tooth. If she remembered correctly, the narwhal was a character that came from a prince from the deepest parts of the ocean, sent to break through the ice and make access to his lover possible.

"It's one of the reasons why women are not often allowed on fishing vessels. The superstition is that they'll attract the old ones who live at the bottom of the sea with their beauty. This will entice the old gods to steal away the women as brides."

"I thought women couldn't be sailors because men were just sexist assholes."

Shizuma shrugged. "That's the reason sometimes too, but I liked the stories better. Hoshigaki blades are romantic like that I guess. Both Kisame and I had masters who were also sailors at times and samurai at others."

"I do really like the stories, so I'm not going to complain or tease you for it," Sakura said. "Do you have a favorite?"

He touched the shark on the haori. "These guys were said to be born from the broken teeth of an ancient titian who was killed and sank into the sea. His mouth bled and from where his teeth had fallen came forth the monstrous fish who never ran out of teeth. They are always waiting for the day when they might once more be the instruments of a greater reckoning. They say at the end of the world these guys, the sharks, will swim back into the secret places of the ocean and become teeth again, so sailors are told to be grateful when they see sharks at sea because that means the end of the world isn't here yet."

His hands drifted over the sharp to another part of the sleeve where there was the design of waves.

Sakura watched his fingers trail across the fabric. "That makes them sound so fierce, but it's sad to think that they're thought of so fearfully. Kisame told me that sharks aren't even that aggressive with humans, and most attacks are accidents."

"They're still scary, which I think is cool."

Sakura allowed herself to laugh. "Okay, okay, you're allowed to like what you like. Help me put this on, I want to try wearing it for a bit when I know I won't get it dirty."

The younger Hoshigaki huffed but helped her into the jacket. "You can get it dirty, it's not expensive. I'm sure I could find another one like this."

Sakura rolled her eyes and stepped away once she had her arms through the sleeves. She turned around to face him while pulling her hair out. "It doesn't matter if its expensive or not, this one is important to me because it was a gift. Really, between the two of you brothers I'm terribly spoiled."

"That's fine. We feel bad that you're not able to leave whenever you want to. If there is something you want you have to wait until someone else goes out to get it for you. Kakashi said you were used to having independence so it might make you grumpy when you can't go and come as you please."

"Oh, he said that did he?" She was going to have to have a talk with that man later. She held out her arms and smiled. "How do I look?"

He smiled wide in a way that made her think he could be no one other than a Hoshigaki. He was all teeth. "You look good enough to steal away."

He let her go and Sakura walked back into her room and spared herself a single vanity. She pulled the long mirror out from behind a folding screen left in the corner. There was dust over the glass she wiped away with a stray rag. Her reflection was warped in one corner where a fire had melted the glass at some point, but other than that she recognized the person staring back at her.

With the haori the shape of her shoulders and bulge of her arms was hidden. No one would be able to see how unfeminine she really was under the extra layer.

Her hair was loose and a little messy but she combed her fingers through it until it fell neatly over her shoulders. She hadn't noticed how much longer it had grown since leaving Sarutobi, but it was past her shoulders by a good couple of inches. It was almost long enough to style and she contemplated letting it grow out. Maybe she could learn to braid it some new ways. Maybe she could...

"Stupid," Sakura huffed, looking away from her reflection. She laughed bitterly before reaching up to tug the mirror back behind the junk where no one would see it.

What had she been thinking? Why would she bother with something so silly now after all this time? Things were going nicely and she was as happy as she believed she deserved, but she wasn't stupid. She hadn't changed that much. She had no use for a mirror.

'That doesn't sound like healthy thinking my dear.'

The voice was loud, louder than it needed to be and Sakura wondered if it was because Konan didn't know how easy it was for Sakura to hear the voices of her swords.

"I forgot there were opinions other than mine that had to put up with my depressing thoughts," Sakura chuckled.

She turned around and hobbled over on her knees to where Konan sat on a sword stand. She was polished and nearly ready to be given a body. Sakura took her time getting to know each blade before the summoning. She meant to give Konan a body soon, once Rin came back from her herbal run.

'I think you look lovely as you are. You're unique. You need not trim yourself to seem like other girls.'

Sakura thought that Konan had probably seen more girls in her lifetime as a ladies' blade. Like Rin had admonished her for, Sakura's life had been oddly saturated with the male presence and laking in female relationships. Konan was kind in a way that was easy and open and Sakura wondered if that was because Konan was Konan or because that was a trait nurtured by female society.

Sakura reached and lifted Konan off the sword stand. The connection that had been fairly strong between them swelled and Sakura could hear Konan in her head that much clearer. The lady sword hummed in appreciation at the contact and Sakura remembered how swords loved being held.

"Konan, what sort of life have you lived so far that you're such an expert on the subject of hair?"

It was a simple question that was light enough on its own, but the two were a little more connected than that and Konan knew what Sakura really was asking. 'What sort of life have you lived: tell me.'

"Ah, it's not been as long a life as some of those relics you've worked with. I've had several masters before Rin, sweet girl that she is."

"Tell me about it."

Konan vibrated in Sakura's hands and she felt the tickle of the blade's chuckle. "Ah, well where to begin...Let me tell you about my first master who learned how to do hair in the red light district where she went to visit her lover."

Sakura listened to the stories and talked to Koan about her own, though Sakura felt like her own life failed to pain nearly so interesting a picture. The more she heard from her swords the more she understood how little she actually knew about the world.

"What do you want now that someone can hear your voice?" Sakura heard herself ask.

The answer didn't surprise her.

"To be useful and be used."

Things were going well, too well, so they had to fall apart somehow. Sakura knew in her heart that happiness couldn't last forever because it never did, but she never suspected things to go as they did.

She heard Kakashi screaming and it sounded like a man possessed by agony ripping through the sky. The sound made her drop the work she had been busying herself with and run back down to the inner courtyard from the trees behind the forge where wood was split. As she passed her hands reached for whatever they could and she dropped her ax in favor of the heaviest hammer that just so happened to be the closest to her fingers.

There were arrows sticking up out of the ground like stalks of infant wheat and a smeared trail of blood through the dust leading to where Kakashi cradled Rin in his arms. The girl was pale and gasping at the arrow that had pieced just under her collarbone. Sakura also noticed that the girl's hair was covered in cloth and impossible to see from a distance.

'They thought she was me.' The guilt hit her along with that thought.

"It's fine!" Rin gasped as loudly as she could, still wincing in pain. "Kakashi, go."

But he was a man with a single mind and ignored her. Kakashi screamed for Tsunade even as the figures in black slipped over the walls, wearing a myriad of different porcelain animal masks.

"Inari, go with them," Sakura barked as she slipped her arm back through the loose sleeves of her yukata, letting one half side flap free behind her. "Go!"

Inner took off after Kakashi who was helping Rin back into the house. Sakura heard louder footsteps and then Yagura was beside her, his blade drawn and pink eyes flashing with anger. Behind him Mangetsu and Suigetsu trailed, all looking flushed or angry.

"What the hell?" Suigetsu cursed, drawing his own sword and crouching ready. An arrow flew towards them and he deflected it easily before falling back into a stance. "I don't recognize these guys. They're not bandits or mercenaries."

"No," Sakura said. "They're Danzo's elite forces, the swords Orochimaru turned."

"They're after you, Sakura, go back inside, we'll handle this."

Further back Utakata was running through the halls to join them, but Sakura knew that Kisame, Zabuza, Haku, Yagura and Shizuma were all out on dispatch missions. Sai was also on watch when-

Sai! Her brain was screaming with the question, where was he?

"Where's Sai?" she asked. Her voice sounded near frantic.

"Sakura, go! He'll be fine."

She didn't know who said that but she turned and ran, ducking under the cover of a nearby roof just in time to miss the arrows. She heard them hit the dirt and sink deep or scatter in broken bits. Near blind, Sakura ran like a bolt through the halls, slamming doors back so hard they broke. She stumbled, but pushed back up with her knee to make the hard turn into her room and roll over Konan and Gaara who were both left at the foot of her bed. She meant to give them bodies but-

Sakura ducked low in time to miss the swing of a sword and cursed when she dropped both swords to grab her hammer with both hands. She rolled and popped up far away enough to just miss his blade, but she had been practicing, and she swung with the hammer in a stance any good swordsman would block. He reacted like she thought he would and saw too late that there was no way to block her hammer. She wasn't a swordsman, after all, and the head that splattered like a watermelon across her wall proved that.

The wall behind her caught an arrow and Sakura had to dart out before she could catch her breath. She reached for the swords but they both fell through her hands as she ran, faster and faster, ducking for cover. She took a corner too hard and rolled sideways, through a door that cracked and split open. She was spit out and just missed another projectile. They were tossing throwing stars at her now.

Sakura ran, screaming in her head for Sai, begging him to answer her. She didn't hear her Sai, but she heard voices…voices she recognized only slightly.

"The Kaguya," she realized with a start. Orochimaru had accelerated his time table. There were at least six of their voices and then four or so more that were not Kaguya. All others were out of range or without a sound.

'Fine the girl.'

'Kill the girl sage.'

'She has to die.'

'Kill her!'

'We're here to kill the sage girl for Danzo, then he will be proud.'

Sakura felt sick but turned and headed away from those voices, careful to run like a fawn in the forest, white tailed and silent on as a ghost.

When the house was barely in view she felt something and had to stop. It felt like a thought, a white noise voice. It was impossible to tell, but her gut told her it was Sai. She turned towards it and ran.

The house came back into view and there were even more voices, louder than before, in her head. They said awful things and then her boys said angry things, and then there were messy voices she couldn't tell apart.

It all added when she found his body.

Her heart stopped as the horror gripped her and her hammer fell limp from her fingers. She covered her mouth with both hands to stop the sob as she staggered forward. There was so much blood from where he had been cut nearly clean through. His beautiful tantou self lay in two broken pieces in the dirk, cut through in the same place as his body. His eyes were wide open and staring at the sky, more white than ever before.

She remembered what she told Gaara a few days ago. "I love you, and I love Sai, and I love all the swords I've made. I love my friends and I loved Sarutobi before he died. Loving someone can be the most painful thing you feel as a human, but it's also the most amazing thing, and I think that makes the heartache and misery all worth it in the end."

An arrow lodged in her side, between two ribs just under her lung. Another one whizzed by just shy of actually hitting her. She didn't even flinch when the second arrow landed two ribs above the first, around her back. She couldn't feel it.

She heard their footsteps and the voices were crying out for her blood. They wanted to strike her down with their blades and had missed on purpose. They raised up their arms behind her and she knew exactly where they were when the seal broke into black lines across her body and her will became a physical force that knocked them back.

Sakura rounded on them in rage, her eyes glowing green. She extended her hand and saw them for what they were, steel and scabbard, blade and edge. With a snarl soaked in anguish she pushed her power into them, over them, through them and all three of her would be attackers shuddered under the cloud before their bodies became unmade. There was a hiss and black smoke as their skin and bones disappeared and all that remained were their swords.

Was was made could be unmade.

Sakura turned her attention to where she could hear the other voices of the blades. She couldn't see them but she could hear them and she reached for them all the same, grabbing at what held them together to snap like celery, and tear like wet paper. There were cries, but one after another, their voices dimmed and stayed stuck in their blades until only her own boys remained.

The seal on her forehead stuttered and then added back to a pale purple and then vanished completely. Sakura fell off her feet into the dirt and turned towards Sai.

Sai, her beautiful, jealous, growing boy. He had been terrible upset with her last they spoke. She had wanted him to get along with Gaara because they would be brothers, but Sai didn't want another brother. He complained that he was enough and then left on an exclamation about how she was throwing him away for better blades. She had meant to let him cool down before she confronted him.

That had been last night.

She knelt at his side, and where she set her knees the blood in the ground soaked up the fabric. Her hands were dirty with it when she reached for him. She wanted to close up the wound and put him back together, but there was nothing she could do, even as she reached for his ends and shake too terribly to move or even touch him.

"Sai," she cried. "Sai, please don't…oh gods why did they do this to you?" It wasn't a real question, but her brain didn't work well enough for those. She called out to him again and again but his eyes were already glassy and watching heaven.

That's how they found her.

Mangetsu tried to reach for her and bring her back, but Utakata held the other boy back, wordlessly shaking his head. Sakura could hear their wordless conversation in her head just as well as if they were still swords.

'Leave her be. Let her cry it out.'

'She's in pain, I want to help her.'

'You can't.'

...

Sakura sobbed until she couldn't anymore. Then a bone weary exhaustion took hold of her and she fell asleep, only just remembering that there were two arrow heads still stuck between her ribs. She hadn't felt either one, but the blood loss didn't care. All she wanted was to put Sai back together like a blade and have him be angry at her all he wanted because she deserved it.

"It's not safe, we have to move!"

"Shit, not so loud. We can't right now."

"That doesn't matter, we need to make sure Sakura is safe."

"What are 'ya talking about? She's safe if we're all here. We're cutting back on away missions, remember?"

"Also, their invasion was a terrible failure. None of them survived. We can hold them off here. We'll be better prepared next time with traps and better alert systems."

"That's beside the point. I don't want this sort of thing to happen again. There are other abandoned mansions in the mountains, ones better hidden."

"They'll find us no matter where we go. We should stay and fight."

"But look at what they did to her!" Something shattered. "Shit, I didn't see that there. I got it-I said I got it! Move off."

"…It's not the wounds that have debilitated her, but the loss."

A longer silence stretched between them all.

"I don't like seeing her like that. Isn't there something we can do?"

"We need to let her process this loss in her own time. It's not something you can rush or help with. Her relationship with Sai was special compared to yours or mine. He was the only one of us she actually made, and he was by far the youngest and maybe the most attached to her."

"Ah, and I'm sure she unfairly blames herself and feels this responsibility in a way we can't understand."

"…I still hate seeing her like that. I wish I could fix it for her."

"I think we all do."

Sakura couldn't hear Sai's voice anymore. She kept the broken pieces of his blade under her pillow, listening and dreaming for that sound but it never came. She could hear Gaara and Konan, but couldn't bring herself to touch them, especially Gaara. She was too afraid to see him split open and staring wide eyed just like Sai.

Zabuza let himself in and closed the door behind him. She didn't hear his footsteps but saw his shadow and knew his outline too well to mistaken it. He knelt down beside her bed and stayed there, silent for the longest time until eventually she turned over in bed to face him.

He inclined his head and tugged the cloth that sometimes covered his mouth away to speak with her. "I heard about what happened when we got in. I wanted to check in on you. Kisame did too but I told him you weren't in the mood for his stupid gifts."

Sakura blinked, staring up at the taller man who seemed impossible big with the sunlight casting rays behind him. "I'm glad you're all back safely."

He nodded stiffly. "I don't think anyone else is going out on anymore missions for a while now. I'll be here."

Sakura felt like it took all the effort in the world to blink. Her eyes wanted to stay closed and it was too easy to leave them shut, but she forced herself to stare up at Zabuza and really see him. He didn't flinch or look away when he saw her tear swollen face. She didn't know how she felt about that.

"Thanks. I'm sorry I'm not…more put together."

He watched her push herself up in bed and drag her hand out from under the pillows. Her fingers were nicked in places from moments of carelessness, and she suspected he knew exactly why.

"Is this harder?" he finally asked. "Harder than when you miscarried?"

That was an old pain that throbbed like a dull wound in her heart that was only ever noticed when she pressed against it. That memory hurt, but she answered him honestly. "Not like this. This was worse."

"I was afraid of that. Not unlike a child, he was a life you forged, formed, and brought into this world. We all knew how much you loved him and he knew it too."

"No he didn't." She didn't want to but she let the bitterness slip into her words and it sounded like she had sharpened each one with resentment.

Zabuza calmly nodded along. "Maybe not as well as he should have, but then when does any child understand or comprehend the love of their mother? I don't think he or I or anyone could have understood how much you loved him, but he knew you did love him. He was proud of that."

"You weren't there. The last things he said to me…he was hurt and I let him run off because I thought that was best. I was-I didn't want to spoil him so I let him go and I should have never done that! I should have chased him down and made sure he knew that he wasn't being replaced, that I loved him still. I messed up, Zabuza."

"You can't blame yourself. That's the last thing Sai would have wanted."

She snorted, looking down at the red cuts across her fingers. "Sai was only three years old. You don't know what he wanted."

"He wouldn't have wanted to see you like this. As much as you loved Sai, remember that he loved you too. There was no one alive he was more proud of or who he looked up to than you. He loved being your creation and beamed when he talked about it. You know there weren't many people Sai really liked even though he got along with all of us to please you." He reached out and touched her chin with the underside of his curled fingers to get her to look at him when her eyes lowered. "Hey! He loved you. He'd hate to see you like this."

"I feel like someone took my heart out of my chest, Zabuza."

"If someone did that do you think you would still be able to feel this much pain?"

Sakura laughed but it came out sounding like a sob and there were a few tears she had to wipe away with the heels of her hands. Still, she was smiling when she looked back up at him.

"You are strong. You will survive this. It will leave a scar on your heart, but you will survive this."

She believed him when he said it with so much conviction, so she nodded and wiped her face with the blankets, not caring that it wasn't a ladylike thing to do. Zabuza left right after that, sliding the door shut but in time for her to catch a shock of blue and piece together the fact that Kisame was sitting on the edge of the porch outside her room. Even with the door closed she could hear through it when she listened.

"I don't think now's the best time to be giving gifts."

"Dumbass. Don't think I know that? Shut up. I'm just keeping watch is all."

"You need to do that with a lady's kimono?"

Kisame growled low. "Shit face, you better keep walking."

Sakura woke in the middle of the night and she thought it was because she heard his voice.

She bolted up and threw away the pillow, reaching for the two pieces of Sai only to feel how cold and dead they really were, two empty pieces of steel, broken just like his body. She hadn't even seen them take it away to be buried. Someone mentioned how the body started to break apart hours after death and how there was nothing left to bury. Sakura wasn't sure if that made her feel better or not, because the image was burned into her brain with no hope of ever being forgotten anytime soon.

"Sai," Sakura called, knowing there would only be darkness to hear her.

Silence.

"Sai, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't run out after you. I'm sorry I didn't chase you down that day and I'm so sorry you felt that way. I should have never let it come to that. I love you, I've always loved you and…and you didn't know this but love isn't something that diminishes when new people come into your life. Nothing new or different would have changed how I felt about you. Sai, you're always going to be special to me."

More silence.

Sakura laid the two pieces atop each other and held them close to her heart and waited. There was less of a moon out, but the sky was clear of clouds and each star in the heavens was on display when she pushed open her door to look out.

Kisame kept watch from a distance but at night she couldn't see who was watching her. With how little sleep swords needed she knew it wasn't hard for them to work out a rotating schedule.

The metal on her skin warmed.

Something deep inside her told her that what she wanted was probably unfair, but she stood up and walked to the forge with both pieces of Sai.

There was enough to start a fire the burned blue and then white with help from the bellows. Sakura pushed back her sleeves and grabbed a pair of tongs. She thrust both pieces in under the coals and fed the fire. The room around her turned sweltering very quickly but Sakura didn't let up. Once the two halves of metal were heated she pulled them out and laid the white hot pieces together on the anvil. They fit like puzzle pieces and she hammered them back into place, melted them back together and hammered again. Again and again she repeated the process, smoothing the scar out with each heating until there wasn't even a noticeable trace, but Sakura kept heating Sai again and again until the sky started to burn with a new sun rising.

"Sai, speak to me. I know you're still there. Listen to my voice and come back."

She thrust him back into the fire and burned the last of the coals.

"Sai, listen to me. I love you, you're my precious person. Nothing can ever change that and I'll always love you so please come back to me."

Her tears were falling on the blade and sizzling into steam when they touched the metal.

"Sai!"

The hammer was ringing out like a bell, again and again she worked. Daylight burned the world into color and all around her things began to stir and wake up, but there had been no rest for her and there would be none for a long while at this rate.

"Listen to me, listen, listen. Sai, listen to the sound of my voice and come back to me. I love you, I've always loved you and I always will. Come back Sai, you're not gone, you're not. Sai, come back. Sai, listen to me. Sai, you are my proud and beautiful tantou that I treasure. I could never part with you and I refuse to let you go.

He cooled on the naval and she took him to be sharpened once more, laboring over his edge until he reflected her tear stained face back up at her with a wicked gleam. The purple yin seal Tsunade had put on her forehead was back and she breathed deep, reaching for that power.

"I love you Sai, so come back to me. I believe in you."

The seal flashed and she felt the power she utilized as a sage flow out. It was like a cork being pulled free. All of that energy that thrummed with life burned a little hotter as it washed over Sai on Sakura's command. She had seen Orochimaru perform the ceremony before but she wasn't cold and precise or perfectly analytical about it. She was sloppy and didn't know the theory of what she was doing as well, she just knew she loved Sai and wanted him home.

"All I have is my love to offer you, Sai. Please come home."

She had never poured herself into a dead blade before with so much determination. Like the empty swords she had fallen into before, Sai was void. He was an empty maw she could pour and pour and pour into all day long. There was no end to him, nothing for her to reach and pull into life. He was a dead sword, a well without a bottom.

"Come back to me, please."

Sakura poured more of herself, as much of herself as she could reach, tipping out all the power she had into him and she felt like breaking herself when her lungs seized and the lines across her body burned before snapping back to their source like a whip. It knocked her back off her feet and Sai clatter limp to the ground.

Still dead, still steel.

Sakura didn't have any tears for sobbing, but she let her body shake with grief once more. That last bit of hope hurt the most.

Sakura closed her eyes and sang into the dirt. It was the only thing she could do that felt appropriate. It wasn't a dirge, and she didn't have ashes to scatter, but her mother had said the dead wanted a song to bid them farewell, which was why funerals were always somber concerts. She had never sang for one before, never been that close with any of the dead.

Flowers of the fields

Where do they go, where do they go?

Petals in the wind

Where do they fly, where do they fly?

The mountain calls us home, so carry on dear wind

No one walks away from this battle, from this power over us

No one walks away from this calling, from this power over us

So carry on dear wind, and carry on us home

She didn't think she had any left, but she felt the tears on her cheek. They were cold when the rest of the world around her was still warm from the forge's fire.

She rolled over, sat up, brushed the dust off, and put out the fires before walking back to her room to sleep in her dirty robes. She didn't take Sai's blade with her, but left it on the anvil and maybe that was the closest she would ever get to putting his body in the ground.

The moon was barely in the sky, hanging on the sliver of its own light in a sickly present gleam. When she opened her eyes she saw an empty room, but felt the presence of the man that had been trying to trap her once more in that moment of weakness. He knew he couldn't do anything to her with the seal still in place, but he still lingered to taunt and rub salt in her wounds.

"Did you think you could raise the dead? No even sages have authority over the deceased. You can't bring back what's already been broken no matter how hard you try and wish and pray. Dead is dead."

She felt him hover close.

"It's almost a shame to see you lose your will like this over such a trivial matter. I'm afraid of what will happen to you when we come to kill off the rest of your petty little swords. You know we have armies, right? You know that a handful of blades won't be able to survive. Maybe one or two might, but you'll have to bury a lot more blades before this is over."

If she closed her eyes she was sure she would see some manifestation of him in her mind. She was too weak to will him away, unlike any other time.

"Sweet child, don't think this is anywhere near finished. This is only the beginning of your suffering. I will come for you like the thief in the night. I will steal away all your happiness before you can even recognize it. And hope? Ah, hope will hurt the worst of all. There will be no relief from me."

Sakura imagined her brain on fire and burned away his form inside her mind, finally angry enough to muster the will to push him back. She spit a mouthful of blood from a bit lip out onto a handkerchief.

"Then come at me you snake," she hissed to the silver highlighted darkness. "I'll make you taste this grief ten times over."

Part 3 End

Author's note: Yes, someone is going to hate me for this, I'm well aware. But the story isn't over and Sakura is learning the weight of the stakes in this war she never signed up for. It may be unfair, but life takes what it takes often without reason or rhyme and she'll have to do something about it.
Also, I know I've literally done this before, with the same character, and I am also worried about what that means. I'll go off to hide now. Next week you might see Uchiha so take that as a peace offering please.

I'm working on the next chapter that may just be the final one for now. If I find the right muse for it, plot well enough for it, and stuff I'm considering adding a second part to this story. (Like a second season after a hiatus). I honesty intended to publish it all in one chapter, but the last time I posted more than 60K in a chapter it broke ff-net and several people said that made it hard for them to read, so I partitioned it up. I'm thinking that's better for reading? I don't know.
Speaking of that, what device do you use mostly to read fan fiction on. I know they have the app now, but I've been told that others still prefer laptops or PCs to read.

Thank you for reading and don't forget to review.