36. Results from the polls are in :) It's close, so I'm not sure if I'll be re-writing this message closer to the end of the month when I finally finish Chapter 36, but right now more people would rather I start a side-story collection. However, upon adding in the votes from reviews and PMs from older reviewers, I think there's been a little confusion over interludes and AUs. Interludes will be Chains!Canon compliant, so they're involved in future plot. AUs will be completely separate, not affecting future plot. So, those will be in a separate place.

Dear xiu (Guest),

I am happy to hear that you enjoy it haha, though it probably won't happen officially here. I welcome you to write your own spin-off if you'd like? Other than that, if there really is demand for a Shikaku/Sakura AU, I'll think of it

Dear Guest,

:( I was quite excited to have a Spanish review for once, I am sorry you did not enjoy the first chapter. Though I doubt you would have ploughed through the rest of the chapters, here's to hoping? I hope that the chapters get better over time.

In the future, once I complete Chains, I will likely try an edit because (particularly for the first 5ish) earlier chapters are really not how I would I have liked them to be. However, having lost files from so many years ago after crashing my computer, edits of those chapters will have to come from scratch.

As we get on this chapter, I'd like to extend my greatest appreciation for tatata03 whose conversations helped me start writing early, Crystal Blue Butterfly's numerous questions that reminded me where this story is going so I could finish in time.


"Nagato-san? What do I do now?"

Their connection fizzles like static, incoherent words like the wisps of chakra being transmitted through the chakra rods still pierced through her chest.

She's in a little temple compound, complete with the stone lions guarding the gates.

Some tufts of grass on yellow dirt, no monks in sight. Typical Fire Country temple, unassuming and non-threatening.

A wind blew through the gates and coalesced into a human figure, Sakura stands still, patiently waiting.

"I guess I should welcome you to the World of the Dead, yes, Sakura-san?"

She bows, stepping up to the figure, "Forgive me for trespassing, I will leave as soon as I have found the spirit promised to me."

The figure chuckles as the mask hardens to show the Lord of Hell whose maw she had stepped through.

A raised, red collar framing dull and long blond hair, a three-point crown in black with the kanji for 'King' written in gold in the centre.

A perpetual grin full of teeth made of clay, a large nose and white eyebrows that extend upwards like a feathered headdress.

The King's white cape extends to the floor, covering his feet – Sakura wouldn't know if maybe the head is all there is to him.

Purple ringed eyes flicker before fading to a neutral grey, through the mask's eye-holes she notes that Nagato-san's influence is gone.

Similarly, the light tug on her chakra through the receivers almost entirely disappears.

"Here, you are out of the reach of the child who steals from me at a whim. Even if he was the one to deliver those souls into my grasp, I don't like giving things away. Sakura-san, I will let you take one soul back. One and one only."

She bows deeply, "Thank you, Meifu-sama."

The King chuckles again.

"Don't thank me too soon. You'll find that there are people whom you would kill to bring back. Your first consideration is just beyond that door."

Hand on the door handle to pull it open, she pauses before thanking the King again.

A feathered eyebrow raises a couple of inches before the teeth-grin melts into a more contented smile.

"If you linger too long, Sakura-san, I will be tempted to keep you this time, and no one will be allowed to take you away."

Her hand lowers from the door handle, looking over her shoulder to see the edge of the white mask.

"If time permits, will you tell me why you let me go in the first place, Meifu-sama?"

The Kind opens the door for her and pushes her through.

"I will be by your side throughout. There will be plenty of time for us to speak."


She tripped on the ground and immediately Naruto was there, helping her up, "Sakura-chan! Are you okay? Oh no, your dress is stained!"

She nodded her head and brushed the soil off her skirt – unable to stop the reflex of biting her lower lip.

And her stupid mouth refused to open to even say 'thank you,'.

Meifu-sama? Why can't I say I what I want to say?

Her legs walked without her choice, without her even having the foggiest idea of where they were going.

"Just because I hid the soul you want in this universe doesn't mean I want to ruin this world. Both of you are confined by the personalities you all have due to the different circumstances in your lives."

"Sakura, are you okay? You look a little dazed there."

"Yes, sensei, I'm okay," comes her textbook perfect response to a Kakashi that doesn't seem to really mean his expression of concern.

Their team dynamic is completely absent, Sasuke-chan is a brooding child and Naruto always seems to be overcompensating. Then there's her, acting like a normal girl for once and that's not too bad.

She can imagine how things became like that.

"You cannot say the things you want. You have to say the things you think this you would want."

And she blurts it out, "Sensei, I want a hug."

Her team stops short, Sasuke-chan, in particular, reacting in shock.

"Well. If you wanted a hug, Sakura-chan, I too, can take on a corporeal form," the king cheerily muses.

Kakashi-sensei pats her on the head.

"I think your father might kill me if I touch his precious daughter. But I'll carry you to the hospital if your leg is still bothering you."

(Also, has she mentioned that she's even shorter? They're children again, she's probably about 13, fresh out of the academy.)

She nods mutely and sensei obliges, folding her into his arms with all the precision of a machine.

Purely business and she feels his muscles tense up when she hooks her arms around his neck – a child's thin arms that sensei could have snapped like a twig.

Her sensei would never have let them feel him tense – in this sense, this Kakashi is less polished.

In general, she would describe this world as one where Team 7 hadn't been friends before forming a team, a world where Kaka-sensei was more hurt than before. All the same, this Konoha hasn't been flattened by Pain, she can't complain.

Sakura is still a child that craves the comfort that a hug provides.

The medic heals her leg as her team watches on.

She cocks her head aside and says, "Naruto, I want a hug." The stupid 'please' doesn't come out.

The blonde infuses his hug with love beyond the stages of infatuation and Sakura could cry at the cuteness or laugh at the irony.

"Hey hey, remember that after this, you will have to leave. Spare some thought for the child whose life you're borrowing."


Her leg was numb, so upon standing, she tripped.

A shadow snagged her before her team did.

She felt it pulling on her shadow, going deeper than just the surface, trying to yank (Oh, her chains. Meifu-sama, I don't suppose I can use my chains?)

The King forms a ghost of an image by her side, "I'm afraid not, I'm manifesting myself in the chakra you would usually reserve for your chains. Besides, it is not a skill this Sakura can use."

"Troublesome. Hatake you got Kizashi's baby girl hurt?"

Sensei protests weakly as Nara-sama admonishes him.

Immediately she gets this sense that this Nara clan head is finer – sharper, more intentioned.

"I'm Nara Shikaku. Your dad and I are friends."

She, polite because it's the way you should, replies, "Oh! Nice to meet you, you're Shikamaru's dad?"

Then, she spun a story that amused them, one from the other world where they caught leaves together during a recess break.

"Is that true? I didn't know you and Shikamaru were friends."

She nods enthusiastically.

"You should come over to eat sometime, Sakura-chan."

She smiles, gracefully accepting, "I tell my dad, and we can arrange for a day."


Because it was urgent to build clan ties, Shikamaru picks her up at the gate of the Haruno mansion the next day for dinner.

Or something like that.

Because Sakura is a child and dad told her to "Go make some friends."

Shikamaru looks bored, stuffed into a yukata and walked to her gate by the Nara matriarch.

Sakura is a child dolled up with a kimono and all – a servant did all the picking, all she did was walk.

(Because this time, only Mother died and now Father is overly, obsessively protective of her. Also, the Harunos have a complete monopoly over trade in and out of Konoha and are out of the control of the ninja. Which is why she's being targeted with the idea of marriage.)

She would laugh, but, Meifu-sama hovers over her anxiously.

The Lady Nara is as fiery as she remembers, the face she knew as Tenkawa-san stares back at her.

And Shikamaru nervously tugs on his mother's sleeve – Sakura's heart aches.

My fault.

Even if this Shikamaru is inwardly her Shikamaru, she questions if she is being selfish in asking him to come back with her.

And Yoshino-sama pushes Shikamaru towards her – Shikamaru's reluctance is so obvious she bites her lower lip.

The lady gently chides her son, pointing out how uncomfortable and rejected he's making Sakura feel.

The walking is symbolic in choice and the Shikamaru in Shikamaru knows that.

The moment he leaves his mother, he will come back with her.

Yoshino-sama walks away hastily, but the moment Shikamaru looks toward her she can feel the tears gathering in her eyes.

Well, now, who am I tearing for in this overly emotional body? You or me or for Tenkawa-san who never got to see her son grow up?

It's a child in front of her, not her younger brother but a child with his baby fat (hm the days where she would still pinch his cheeks) or the day where she first met him and she stole his seat.

"Sakura-san, shall we go?"

She tucks her hands in her kimono sleeves and holds her hands behind her back, hardening her expression with all the indignance she can muster.

They maintain the hardness in their eyes till they pass from the watch eyes of the compounds – they're watched and they know it.


"I am not hungry, Shikamaru-san. I must leave soon."

with or without you, her eyes seem to say.

"I've been here for three months, Sakura-nee."

And she can't speak.

"Mom is alive. Here. Right in front of me but I feel so guilty. Nee, I'm not even her son. And yet she loves me."

They're sitting on a park bench with mochi between them – there's a festival ongoing but they've never liked the noise.

"Well, Sakura-chan? Do you understand what I mean now? Your limited time here… I am afraid that once you become too comfortable in a place you can no longer leave. Do not eat in the Underworld, Sakura-chan. If not I will have to keep you."

She can't really drag him away from his mother, but she can't leave him here either.

"I want to go home."

Speaking is a chore, her mouth often forms shapes that she doesn't want to – but the stilted obvious irrelevance of her remarks tells Shikamaru that she is who he thinks she is.

Had that been the remark of an heir to another heir, the clans would both have face-planted into the floor because that was the worst kind of rejection.

He eats the mochi.

"Let's go home, nee-chan. I miss dad."

Sakura gives him a side eye.

"Don't you miss your mom?" comes Shikamaru's question.

She shrugs.

"I never knew her. I don't think I can miss someone whom I've never had," a callous reply and Meifu-sama shakes his head.

Shikamaru is quiet.

"Let's go home quickly, nee-chan. Before I miss mom too much to leave."

Sakura reacts like a jilted lover, moving to stand, a parting, "Thank you for tonight, Shikamaru-san. But I think I had better go back alone."

She hasn't the heart to pull the child away from a dream.

She can't.

He holds her sleeve, pushing the boundaries of what 'he' would actually have done.

(The guilt is eating her up inside and she wonders, if I go back without him… would I be blamed?)


Shikamaru woke up. Sakura hasn't.

Kabuto doesn't understand why this Shikamaru keeps asking for his mother and he's going to keep their status quiet for now.

He sedates the Nara heir.

Knows it's unethical but he somehow doubts that that is indeed the child that his kouhai crossed the boundary of the spirit world to reclaim.

Nagato watches them both closely with a sense of helplessness – the man granted power over the world has no way to fix a problem of his own creation.

Kabuto can't release them without the other, and he will not release Nagato until Sakura wakes up.


A week passes. D-ranks and avoiding eating with a father who cares far too much about her.

She's thrown.

A month passes and Shika-chan keeps coming to look for her and to bring her out to dinner.

Still, she can barely control her own movements.

She stops hitting Naruto-chan on reflex but she somehow can never tell him, 'thank you'.

"Both of you are fraying the fabric of space-time by interacting. If you don't move faster, Sakura-chan, you will bleed into each other's worlds."

Sometimes without even noticing it, she is altering the behaviour of the Sakura who had been here before 'her'.

Meifu-sama, can I ask, how much time has passed in the other world?

Sakura drops the arm that was raised to her teammate and she manages to apologise.

Naruto, the sweetheart, tells her that it's okay.

"Shikamaru has slept for 3 hours more than you."

She launches herself at Tora, catching the feline in a tackle hug, sustaining multiple scratches in the process.

Another D-rank done.

How much more time do we have here?

"Until you begin to feel hungry, Sakura-chan. You are the tether to the other world. The other is bound only by the force of his emotional ties."

Today, Shikamaru will tell her that he can leave now.

She went to pick him today and saw him hugging his mother.

"Love you, mom," he said, and she hid behind a tree, feeling guilty.

They fell asleep on the park bench.

Everyone was happy.

"Well, off home you two go then."


They woke up, no worse for wear and Kabuto was so relieved.

But then Nagato-san had to butt in and ask Sakura what happened.

She looks at the man like he's a criminal and her chains have bound him.

The chains are purple.

"Kouhai," Kabuto starts cautiously, "Nagato-san is the de facto leader of Amegakure who offered to treat you."

"I can explain, Sakura, if you were to release me."

Sakura turns her bright green eyes – glowing unnaturally, "You will not take from me again, child. She is the last I will return you," a voice too low to be his kouhai, a voice too commanding to be earthly, and the Amekage bows in deference.

Her natural voice returns.

"That aside, I am grateful for your aid, Nagato-san. I wish to speak to Itachi, please call him to us."

She dismisses the leader of Rain like he is nothing and Kabuto is curious.

Even more so, that the leader obliges.

He wonders, Sakura are you going to overthrow Konoha?

"Shika-chan, I think your father would like to see you as soon as possible."

The not-child, baby fat all gone nods quickly, slipping from the room faster than Kabuto can say, "You are discharged."

She holds her hands out to him, a respectful, 'please check me over, medic-san' that he hasn't had in years.

He gently pats her on the head, bathing her in a wash of healing green chakra.

"You've been out for a couple hours. Causalities have been surprisingly few and we executed the invaders. Konoha has been secured and rebuilding plans are being drawn up. Don't worry so much about other things. How are you feeling?"

Her head rests on the shoulder offered to her and Kabuto feels the gentle rise and fall of her chest, "Tired mostly, but well."

They're both quiet before she apologises.

Kabuto is quick to assure her that she has nothing to be sorry for, though she persists.

"I'll explain once Itachi says his piece. I trust you, senpai, but don't trust Nagato-san. He is the leader of Akatsuki. Jiraiya-sama has been blinded by his guilt."


It's not a particularly safe way of outing your enemies, but Sakura is careful in how she sets up the situation.

Of course, as expected, Itachi sides with her.

Always Konoha – now Nagato-san is in their control.

"Nagato is the leader of Akatsuki. Under his orders, I manipulated the Chunin into attacking you. That was our set-up to place you in a genjutsu so that we could bring you out during the main attack. I scoped out the weaknesses of the barrier system and directed the summoning of the other Paths."

Sakura forms her fingers into a steeple.

"What about the jutsu that levelled the village and revived the rest of the people?"

Nagato claims responsibility, his purple-ringed eyes meeting her green eyes as if he wonders where she's going with this.

"Has Konan-san been recognised as well? Itachi, you already settled Jiraiya-sama?"

"Of course, Sakura-san. I gave him the peace fighter story and he vouched for Nagato to Tsunade."

Kabuto hovers awkwardly by her bedside, unsure if he should leave or stay, Sakura places a hand over his.

Itachi cocks his head aside as a crow lands on the closed windowsill.

"It looks like Jiraiya-sama and Naruto-kun have returned home."

"Itachi, stay to brief me on the cover story we have created. Nagato-san, please meet with Naruto-chan. Jiraiya-sama will not let you go if you hurt him, I trust that you will place your Akatsuki days behind you. Though we can argue semantics later, I expect Akatsuki to disband and release the tail beasts into the wild steadily."

Of course, if that can't be done then all we need to do is find orange mask and kill him. After him, Nagato-san. As long as that ridiculous image of peace is erased from the minds of man then peace can be maintained.

"I wouldn't mind having them to eat, Sakura-chan. If you so wish, I wouldn't begrudge myself their souls."

Nagato-san has left in the middle of her thoughts and Itachi looks at her cautiously.

"Nagato was in the middle of a journey to Konoha to negotiate an alliance. He hired me as a guard from Akatsuki and sent me ahead when we realised you all were under attack. I took you because you were in a bad shape and I thought the attackers wanted to kill you. He healed you. Then to explain your reappearance we said that you two used a collaboration jutsu to heal the Konoha inhabitants."

Kabuto-senpai looks increasingly concerned.

"I will tie you and the Mizukage up. They don't like Sharingan users there, so I expect Nagato-san to go in person."

Somewhere along the way, I have gotten lost.

"Have you? What do you want, Sakura-chan?"

Senpai shoos the Uchiha out and she lays back down on the comfortable hospital bed.

Meifu-sama materialises, hovering over her bed.

"I hope you do not mind that I wander about in this form for a while. It has been long since I could. I will not go far, nor will I cause trouble."

While he is around she cannot summon her chains. While he is around she is reminded that she is not meant to be.

Why was I allowed to go in the first place?

She feels him pass through walls like her chains would have.

"I don't know. I suppose I was amused by the idea of it. And seeing how you have turned out, I don't think it's too bad an idea, Sakura-chan."

She feels him step bare feet across dew-coated grass, damp earthiness coating his soles.

Has this happened before? Where did I come from?

Senpai tucks her into bed, telling her to sleep.

"You're my first, Sakura-chan. Which is why I don't mind attaching myself to you like this. As to where you came from, now, that would erase the meaning in bringing you here to start anew. It's irrelevant now. I hope that your precious Shika-chan remembers who he is."


I'm not late this month thanks to some really lovely reviewers (especially 24Irinia) who popped into my inbox. Just a teeny bump, that even if it's just to ask me to write, I deeply appreciate people who review and talk to me, regardless of the time/date/length of review. I reply everyone who does so!

Onto more serious things, I hope that this chapter helped to clarify many of the gaps in Sakura-POV last chapter. It was a stylistic choice but I hope it wasn't too jarring to read and have so many holes in awareness.

By the end of this month, I intend to add a mini (really mini, like 1000 words tops) here re: Sakura likes me more, ft. Kabuto and Shikamaru.

Additionally, I'll officially launch the Chains AU side story collection, entitled: Links, but I need some ideas for AUs. These will be spin-offs not related to Chains!Canon, but could-have-beens.

So, do review with prompts for AUs you all want to see :)

Much love, hope to see you soon,

Kayo