The Last Ones Standing

Chapter 10

She ran and collided with him forcefully embracing him when Katsuyu reverse-summoned him to the slug dimension after the council of slug elders (Madara was quite shocked that such a body even existed) deemed Sakura done with her training. Since that unfortunate incident from two weeks prior was still fresh in his mind, he grabbed her at the waist and relocated her at arm's length.

Sakura frowned at the treatment. "What? Didn't you miss me at all?"

"Not particularly."

She frowned some more. "Bullshit. I know how you sound when you lie. If you don't want a hug, it's enough to say it." She grimaced at him. "But you know, it is customary when people didn't see each other for a long time. And I, for one, don't have any problem admitting that I did miss you," she stated falling into step by his side as they climbed up to their semi-permanent camping place.

She chatted non-stop entire evening long, describing the past weeks in minute detail.

"And then during the training I noticed that my speed and dexterity really deteriorated. I should make a habit out of training some plain taijutsu, because I'm so slack and stiff. It would be great if we could spar?"

"Only taijutsu? Or do you want to practice your Senjutsu as well?" He really wanted to see this power in action once again.

"Then you would need to answer with your ninjutsu. I'm not sure if I'm ready to see your jutsu in a context of combat." She stopped eating and fiddled with the spoon. "Kind of brings back the wrong memories... And my point is to get my muscles to move. I will be using natural energy as a reservoir, it's not that I will be doing any fancy stuff with it. Just summoning Katsuyu and healing you, as always." She looked up to him, chewing on her lip. "I only hope that it will turn out to be wisely invested three months… That we will really make use of it."

Madara didn't comment on her nonsense. How could such a power as Senjutsu not be useful? "Will there be a limit to it?" he asked instead.

"Yes, there will be lots of limits. I can only gather and use natural energy with the balance of my own chakra. When I have little chakra of my own, I can absorb respectively less natural energy. And I will be always using my own chakra as well when I perform a jutsu. So, one can say that I doubled my reserves this way."

"So, eight Katsuyus and my healing?"

"Maybe nine or ten if I make them smaller. That would equal to the number of your jumps if I heal you in parallel. I can finally become more of a use than a hindrance."

She really had a screwed perception of herself, Madara decided. She always found a way to see herself as inferior, not sufficient in some way. He low-key wanted to find and strangle the people who had engrained such a self-image in her. "Just listen to yourself," he spat out in irritation. "Without you I would manage my seven jumps and get stranded in a random dimension with my system perpetually damaged. You make me move; again, and again, and over again every time you fix me. How is that not a use? How was that 'no use' even long before the Senjutsu?"

That evening, as soon as they lied down, she crawled into his embrace and pressed so tightly as if she wanted to bury herself in him.

"I missed the cuddling," she told him, clearly anticipating some form of retort from his side. Not that he was planning to give her one – the nightly cuddling was their established custom, and he wouldn't take it away from her. "Slugs are no good for cuddling, you know?" she quipped burying her nose into his chest and maneuvering her tight between his legs. "Too cold and slimy."

He held her until she fell asleep, and then long afterwards in order not to wake her up; and tried his hardest not to find pleasure in it. Not to think about small and warm body interlocked with his in a show of unconditional trust.

After that pitiful incident, she appeared once again in his fantasies – that time underneath him, opening her arms to him. Or at least he assumed it was her – because he stopped at the first hint of familiarity of the face and hadn't even tried again since. He despised himself for those thoughts. She was not an instrument of fulfillment of his low desires. She was his way to redemption. A gift from gods, if they even existed. Not something to satisfy his urges with.

.

The first void that they found – somewhere forty dimensions down the second branch, showed them another limit of Senjutsu. There was no natural chakra to harvest there, which in retrospect was only to be expected. If there was nothing in a dimension, why would it contain natural energy? Another limitation they learned somewhere around the hundredth dimension in a rocky, mountainous world when Sakura, jumped up as soon as she sat down to harvest the natural energy.

"There is nothing here! It's all empty!" She looked around. "I don't feel any life, anything at all. Now I can feel the sterility, not only see it." She shuddered. "How awful. How absolutely awful…"

"Can you feel my natural energy?"

"Yes. Yours I do feel."

"Then you can act as a sensor. Wait here as I fly away, and let's try to define your radius."

Sakura's eyes immediately shone with enthusiasm. "Yes! Then I can be of use in such way!"

After several back-and-forths they established her range at some ten kilometers. Sakura was disappointed. He didn't understand why.

At the first glimpse the dimension 234 seemed a very promising one. Huge stone towers surrounded the plaza they stood on from every side. They were tall and so rectangular, clearly man-made. Rectangular and evenly spaced were also the windows that each tower sported in thousands.

On the second glimpse it was clear that the windows were empty. No glass, no curtains, no trace of inhabitation. The stone-like surface of the plaza was covered ankle-deep with fine, grey dust.

"Well, it looks like we found the first civilization," said Madara carefully. "Only that no one is home."

They walked the passages between the towers – much too broad than the normal streets should ever need to be. Through the layer of dust, they could feel hard surface covering every square meter of the city. The street they walked morphed into a long bridge and divided into multiple branches that bent in a strange, four-leaf trefoil pattern in order to connect with another street beneath it.

There was no trace of life as far as eye could reach. Only strange paintings on the walls that looked like shadows of people – walking, standing, passing by.

"It is empty. There is no life here. And don't you feel something is wrong? Like, unhealthy? I feel a little dizzy…" said Sakura turning around. The place sure felt creepy.

Madara sniffed. "I don't feel anything. Let's fly and see how it looks like from the air."

When Susano'o climbed above the towers what they saw was a crater some kilometers away from the place where they enter the dimension, lodged into the very tissue of the city. It was perfectly round on the edges. And enormous. As Susano'o climbed higher, next craters of the same kind became visible – left, right, whenever they looked. And whenever they looked the landscape was just as grey as in the city they started from.

"Those look like Bijū bombs…" mused Madara.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Kind of. But not quite… The crater in Konoha was oblong, you could see from which direction the hit had come. Those ones… They are too symmetrical. As if the bombs fell from the sky… How can you throw them from the sky? And so many of them?"

"Let's take a closer look at one." Madara made Susano'o plunge down directly into the center of the closest crater.

Something felt off. Like a mixture of tingling and nausea. Sakura sent a diagnostic chakra pulse into her system.

Damage. Damage everywhere, in each and every cell.

"Madara, stop! Don't go any lower! And jump! We cannot stay here!"

"What's wrong?!"

"I don't know, but there is something here that harms us, with every second we spend here!"

"Ok, I'll land and…"

"No! Don't land! It's only worse down there."

"So how should I? Jump in a free fall?"

"Yes!" Sakura grabbed at his belt with both hands. "Jump!"

In the next dimension Sakura went on to painstakingly repair cell after cell in both herself and in Madara. Many she had to kill because they were too far gone, which in turn gave them quite some inflammation. They went through a good deal of puking that set on two days after the visit in the destroyed dimension. After a week, their hair started to fall out, but by then Sakura was mostly done with repairing their bodies, so she took care of it relatively easily.

All that time she couldn't stop thinking about that irreversibly damaged world. "That was an advanced civilization… How could have they perished this way?"

"Advanced in terms of war as well, it would seem. Human nature doesn't change, wherever you go," pondered Madara.

"Do you think… that our world would have ended up like this as well?"

"If we were inventive enough…"

"Do you think it will? Once we wake everyone up and it all will be back as it was? Will we also end like that? Does it all even make sense?" The chakra that she was sending into Madara's body quivered and fluttered. She should concentrate better but the questions and doubts were multiplying in her mind.

"The responsibility will be theirs. Not mine. I tried. And it was a failure. I can only try to reverse my mistake. That's all that I can do."

Sakura's hands fell limp on her lap. She still had some healing to do in Madara's muscles, but she just couldn't. "Is that how our world will look like when we fail?!"

"That is nothing worth spending your thoughts on. Mark that dimension as a dangerous one and let's move on."

"Aren't you sad? Shocked? Moved? Don't you have an impulse to mourn for all those people? To mourn for that world?"

"No. What good would that bring? I cannot do anything for them. That world is dead. Probably for good couple of hundreds of years. I'd rather focus on the task at hand."

"How can you…? Don't you even have a heart? Don't you feel anything at all?"

"Not feeling anything at all is a worthy and noble goal. It allows you to make decisions basing on what you believe is right and wrong. So that you don't have to be ashamed for your actions afterwards."

Sakura was again rolling fruitlessly in her bedroll. There were those pebbles under her mat, and the ground was uneven, and she couldn't switch off her head. There was nothing to hang her attention on, nothing that was even remotely pleasant or soothing. Heck, she didn't even remember how experiencing a single positive emotion felt like. As far as she could reach with her memory there was only the same endless routine of sickening jumps, draining her chakra to near-exhaustion through healing the same damage over and over again, eating the same rice and with beans for every meal and then trying to fall asleep on hard ground. Even exploring a promising dimension – like the one they were currently in – was laced with drilled-in preparedness for yet another failure.

And that dead dimension really got her. Even though it was almost two months she still couldn't banish it from her mind.

"Would you stop that. I cannot sleep," chastised her Madara lying behind her.

The promising dimension turned out to get impossibly cold at nights. Dangerously cold. Camping in usual rock crevices didn't provide enough protection, so they resorted to creating a shelter submerged deep under the surface. Using a Doton technique Sakura made a hole in the steep mountain slope – with long, turning entry passage to shield them from the cold of the outside. They were lying tightly cuddled, under all the covers they could find, and in all clothing they had. It was freezing anyhow.

"I cannot sleep. I feel so unhappy. Like there is no and never was and never will be anything good in my life. I cannot anymore. I just cannot."

Madara didn't say anything, only tightened his hold on her waist.

"And I know what you will tell me. That there are ways and that I should take care of it," continued Sakura. Her irritation was fighting with the desire to explain herself. "I… I tried." The urge to explain herself in front of him had won. "But it didn't work."

"What do you mean 'didn't work'?"

"I couldn't think about anything that would… bring me into mood… It was only unpleasant." She couldn't believe she was talking about it. But she was feeling so miserable, and it was yet another thing that made her feel down. Yet another way in which she was useless. "Just say something!" His silence was condescending, at least that's how it felt like to her. And plunged in that silence she was starting to regret her honesty. "If I already told you as much then at least say something!"

She felt Madara shaking his head. "What can I say? How can anything that I say bring you comfort?"

"Talking brings comfort. Talk to me."

"Maybe it's not the right way for you."

"Do you know any other?"

"No."

"Well, then…"

Madara sighed. "Just do it as you did it before," he said carefully. "Because you did it before, right?"

Was there a jab in that last sentence? She chose to ignore it and focused on 'before'. "Before it was easy, I would just think about Sasuke…" she curled more inwards and felt him shifting to keep her in the embrace. "Now when I think about him… All that comes to my mind is that he is somewhere out there, lost, needing my help, maybe wounded… Or maybe he's long dead already…" Tears pooled in her eyes and she wiped them against the blanket.

They lied in silence for a while. The blanket under her cheek was rough and Sakura's toes were freezing. Her tears had long dried out. Madara was silent and still but Sakura was sure he wasn't sleeping. Her own sleep was as far as it only could be. She needed a distraction, something to feed to her thoughts. "And what do you think about?" This was as crude as it could be, but that was only for the better – that would re-direct her thoughts alright.

"Women."

"And more specifically?"

"Women I had to do with in my life."

"That's as generic as it can get."

She felt him shrug behind her. He was holding her by the waist, so she could feel his every move. "Because it is pretty generic. There is nothing particularly interesting in that."

Normally she would leave it at this. But there was something in his tone that was slightly off. "And what it is that you're not telling me?"

She heard Madara smack his tongue. She could almost see his annoyed expression – she got him, and he didn't like it. Well, at least she will have some entertainment in this gloomy night. She gave him nudge with the elbow to the side. Her mood just significantly improved - it wasn't often that she could make him uncomfortable and she was going to enjoy the opportunity. "Tell me!"

"I think you will be upset with the answer."

"I'll take my risk. You are supposed to tell me things, that's how we agreed. If you don't I will start imagine horrible things, and.."

"We are both going to regret it."

Sakura gave him a more forceful shove with her elbow. "You are supposed to tell me right now!"

Madara sighted. "The longer it goes," he said in the end making a gesture, and Sakura knew he meant their trip, that endless, hopeless mission of theirs, "the more those women in my thoughts resemble you."

Sakura stiffened. She would shift away but she was too shocked.

"You see – now you're upset. I shouldn't have said that. And the main reason for it is that it doesn't matter. It won't translate into reality in any form or way. I have absolutely zero intention of pursuing such form of relation with you. I am not interested in contact of this kind with you. I suppose that it's just my mind's reaction to seeing you every day, after day, after day. Don't read anything into it."

"I… I need to go out." Sakura scrambled on all fours and crossed over Madara. He was lying closer to the entrance so she had to scrambled over him.

He didn't stop her in any way until she got off him. Only then he grabbed at her ankle. "No, I'll go," he said. "You stay here. I'll find someplace else to overnight."

"No! I just want to go out for a while. I.. I need some air. I will be back, I promise, I won't do anything stupid. Don't worry. I'm sorry, now I've costed us another hour of sleep. But I'll come back soon; I promise."

"Take a blanket with you, at least." Sakura felt the blanket pushed into her hands.

She crawled out of the hole. It was so freezing cold outside, she could see her breath, not only as vapour but as small ice crystals. She blew out again – it was like tiny snowflakes. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and started pacing around. Ok, that kind of backfired. And she only wanted to once have fun at his expense! Maybe got him to reveal some embarrassing details from his past…

So, what now? He said not to read anything into it. That he wasn't interested in her. And in that he was honest. She could spot a lie in him immediately. She shouldn't overreact, it was no big deal, he scolded her time and time again about being childish about those things. It was nothing disgusting. Definitely not more than holding someone puking. And nothing more intimate that holding someone during sleep.

Sakura sighted. Her toes were simply freezing. She was wearing everything she found in her clothing scroll, three pairs of socks included, but still these temperatures were simply dangerous. She should go back to the shelter. He is for sure worried and reproaches himself for going along with her damn nosiness.

But her heart was still racing. She climbed on a nearby boulder and crouched – sitting was out of question; she would probably freeze her bottom to the stone. So she crouched and then she felt cold between her legs. Sakura wiggled around – it seemed that her underpants were damp... Perplexed, she stood up and maneuvered her hand into her trousers, bypassing three layers she slid her hand into her underwear. Wet inside. Wet and slippery, exactly that sort of slimy that used to accompany her sneaky thoughts about Sasuke. She touched herself between the legs – the slimy wetness also there, without any doubt.

Why was she excited? Because of what he said? Because it was, independently how weird and artificial, the first real sexual situation that she was in? What should she do? Think about Madara next time? No, that wouldn't work. Sakura shook her head at the awkwardness and discomfort of the thought. He was too… Too alien and in the same time too familiar. It wasn't about her thinking of someone. It was her body reacting to the sexual context. A completely theoretical context, because there would be no continuation. But maybe she could use her own body's mistake? Maybe she could trick herself this way, and then her brain would finally produce those damn transmitters and she would feel happy for a moment?

Sakura chewed her lip. Madara was right – it was simply one of the functions of the human body, nothing profound about it. Trivial. And she could make it useful.

Sakura crawled back into their make-shift hideout.

"I'm back." She was sure he was awake. He would never fall asleep with her out there.

.

.

She crawled back in. Hopefully her spot was still warm, he made sure to lie on it and keep the temperature and had shifted off it only when he had heard her coming back.

"Good. Let's consider this topic closed and let's finally go to sleep, shall we?"

He didn't lie saying he had no intention of pursuing his desires. He was glad he managed to phrase it the way he didn't lie to her. Of course, there were traces of desire, he couldn't chase them all away, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe it was inevitable. What man wouldn't have them being in a permanent presence of a young woman? That realization was coming with a good dose of self-disappointment, but Madara was able to admit that he wasn't perfect. The events of the war had proven it to him painfully so.

Nevertheless, he cared too much about her to act on those desires.

Sakura crawled over him to her sleeping spot and lied down on her back. "Actually, it might have been a good happenstance that it came up. It gave me, uhm.. an idea…" she paused and he could hear her swallowing. "Maybe… maybe it will work if you… If you would touch me?"

Good that it was dark, because Madara was sure he just gaped.

"Come on, it's not that it's such big effort, and I think it could really make a difference," scoffed Sakura at his silence. "Don't be such an ass. I'll show you how. Alright?" She touched his shoulder and suddenly sounded no longer irritated but rather completely vulnerable. "Alright?"

"You are crazy."

"No. You keep telling me that to get my spirits up. And that it will help. And you know what – I believe you. I really do. It's all about the chemistry in my brain. If I cannot have anything positive here, any repose, any pleasure at all, then why not this? I need to keep going somehow, and if that's what it takes… And if I cannot manage alone, then why don't you help me?"

"No!"

"Why not?! You keep telling me it's not a big deal."

"I don't 'keep telling' you. We had this conversation only once."

"Twice. And I agree with you. It comes hard for me, because I'm naïve little girl with head full of romantic shit, but I am capable to grasp reality. So don't be hypocritical and help me out." She grasped blindly at his arm, located his wrist and pulled his hand towards her stomach. "Alright?" she asked. "I don't want to fight over such a thing…"

Her stomach was warm, even though she just came back from the outside. She pulled at his wrist.

That was insanity. He didn't know how will they get out of this number. She hung on the hope of getting her life back, on the future with her Uchiha teammate. He would never ruin it. Ruin her. She needed to keep her path to her normal life open. Any contact with him would undermine her hopes. Would mean capitulation. He didn't want her to give up. Her fire needed to burn, and he would never, ever extinguish it.

"Alright?" she asked once again and she sounded so gentle, so pleading.

"Alright," he found himself saying despite of himself.

Sakura guided his hand more downwards until it was between her legs. He had to roll to the side to reach her, because she was lying quite far away from him.

She intertwined their fingers and put his hand on her mound. "Can you… press here?"

He let his hand cup her sex. She was wearing at least two pair of trousers, as far as he recalled, but still the shape was distinguishable. Round mound with slight depression of her slit. He pressed at the middle. "There?"

"Uh-oh. There. Once again?"

He repeated the movement. Sakura was silent. Without visual cues it was really hard to determine if she was liking what he was doing. She wasn't making any sounds either. But she didn't stiffen, and her legs were still open, so Madara assumed that she was fine. He moved his middle finger faster, pulling entire palm a bit up every now and then. The warmth radiating from her core intensified.

"Sakura? Say something."

"Uhm… What should I say?" Her voice sounded strained, as if it was difficult for her to talk. "You're doing it right…" she trailed off and shifted her hips so that they pressed harder into his palm.

He didn't know how long it lasted. She uttered nothing more, so he continued. A some point he had impression that her breathing got deeper.

Then he felt her hand clutching his and she pressing his palm to her crotch harder. She curled her entire body inwards. He kept the throbbing of his finger trying to maintain both the pressure and the speed. She made a small, as if painted whimper, and then laxed releasing the grip on his wrist. She dropped back to the mat and pushed his hand away.

"It worked," she laughed airily. "It really did… Thank you!" She rolled to the side and wiggled her way into his embrace. "Thank you!" He couldn't see her, but judging from the sound she was exactly nose-to-nose with him. "You were right, I really feel better now." Funny how obvious a face expression could be just from the voice… Madara knew exactly how broad her smile was.

He closed his arm around her, and hoped she wouldn't notice his erection. It will die down; he only needed to endure couple of minutes of this unpleasant pressure. Sakura snuggled closer and made herself comfortable. There was solace in hearing her steady breathing, in feeling her muscles finally relaxed. She didn't seem perturbed by the deed, and he hoped dearly it will remain so when she wakes up tomorrow.

Her sleeping form was the best gratification you could imagine, incomparably better than some pathetic sexual satisfaction. His erection was already softening. She was breathing so calmly as if she had no care in the world.

AN: Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think! Your thoughts really matter for me, so please, do share them!