Author's Note: I am so sorry for the wait! My schedule is just so chaotic with work and the move! T.T I'm truly sorry! Thanks for over 400 comments, guys! You are all way too kind! I wish I could keep answering your comments but there is just so many! I really appreciate it! I will not give up on this story, I've just planned out a good part of it! So don't give up on me, okay? Thanks, guys! Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
Dedicated to: Mistra Rose, who game me the idea to bring the founders into Sakura's memory!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language.
Word Count: 6,578
If Sakura was asked, she would have no way of explaining what events lead up to the moments that she felt she was betrayed by the three men she'd dared to call friends. Perhaps it truly was an accident, as they claimed, or perhaps they were embarrassed to stoop to such lowly tactics. They were men of legends and were revered as better than most others in both battle sense and honor. If Sakura was of a more sound mind, she would be inclined to believe them. Let them feed her whatever their words were - nonsense or truth - but Sakura was stuck thinking logically from the shinobi part of her brain.
Sakura was an unknown. No one there knew Sakura before she showed up. No one knew where she came from, how exactly her village was destroyed - other than the vague "a really strong man did it" - how she was the sole survivor of said destruction, why she is so backwards in comparison to what they are used to, even if the name she gave them was really her name and so much more. They had no way of knowing any of that being truth or false.
So of course they would try and learn more about her - she's surprised they waited for as long as they did and used the tactic that they did - but Sakura never imagined that she would feel this violated, this betrayed at the end of it. She's not sure what she had expected to happen, but this wasn't it.
Perhaps it was naïve of Sakura, to think that she could live in her village - experience it's founding - and not hit rough spots. A childish view for a childish girl. Sakura would like to believe that she had grown wise in the ways of the world, especially the shinobi world in which she treaded as one of them, but she had to wonder how much of that was true. Sakura was a shinobi in title only. She wasn't really in the business of ending lives, in fact, if anything, Sakura was more of a doctor rather than a shinobi.
She was capable of taking lives, certainly, but that was everyone. Anyone with enough force or will power, or even hate, could be capable of killing. Sometimes circumstance is all that's needed.
Over the years perhaps the term: Shinobi, has become too loosely defined. In Sakura's day and age a shinobi could really be explained as a person capable of using chakra. Now, the actual definition is a tool to be used by ones village, or clan, to further its own devices. Something that can be used then thrown away without a care, but in Sakura's time, there are very few that can really hold a candle to the people of this time. Those that can, in Sakura's opinion, end up becoming Hokage. Or perhaps Kage is the best term.
But first, back in time a few hours to what would later be training ground 7. It was early in the morning, the birds were chirping and the sun, ah, Konoha heat, beats down on them. Madara and Hashirama are actually surprisingly loud as they compete on who can skip rocks the furthest. They were like young children, laughing and goading each other, getting more and more competitive.
Sakura and Tobirama sat side-by-side a few feet away from the two older young men watching them skip rocks in silence. Sakura leans back on her hands and accidently brushes the future Second Hokage's fingers with her own. She slides her hand away, blushing deeply. "Sorry," she murmurs.
"No harm done," Tobirama says softly, not pulling his red gaze away from the bickering clan leaders. His long, bushy white hair is almost translucent in the sunlight and his lashes are long and just as pale, nearly unable to cast shadows across his cheeks.
"I've been curious about this for a while," Sakura says slowly, drawing those keen red eyes down to her. "How are you doing in the sun?"
He raises an eyebrow. "I'm fine. I'm used to it."
Sakura nods. "Sure, but your albinism must make it hard to be out here in the blistering heat."
He looks at her curiously now. "You know about my condition?"
Sakura nods again, turning a bit to face him. "Sure. It's a genetic condition where your body doesn't have a lot of melanin and no pigment in your hair, eyes or skin, which is why I asked about the heat. You must get sunburnt so easily."
Tobirama nods slowly, still looking curious. "I was, as a child, but I now use my chakra to protect my skin from the sun."
A thought just came to Sakura, so suddenly. "You're an amazing sensor!" Tobirama's left eyebrow quirks up at that. His expression telling her that he has no idea what she was saying. "When someone looses a sense, whether it be hearing or seeing, the others enhance in order to pick up the slack. Tell me, if it's not too much trouble, how's you sight?"
He shrugs, looking away, but his actions say it all. His extraordinarily good sensing abilities stem from his albinism. Fascinating.
Sakura opens her mouth, to tell him not to be embarrassed by something that he couldn't control when a female voice calls out to her. "Sakura-sama! Sakura-sama? Where are you?"
Sakura jumps to her feet and spins around, eyes scanning the area for the voice. "Over here!" She yells. "Who's there?"
A Senju woman, long brown hair wild and frazzled by her no doubt running to Sakura. Her eyes lock on to the pink haired girl and she sprints toward her with new vigor, even though she's breathless and practically collapses into Sakura's arms when she gets to the green eyed girl.
"What's wrong?" Sakura asks, holding the older woman up.
"My son, oh please, Sakura-sama! My son, he's not breathing! Please, save him!" She grabs hold of Sakura's arms in a white knuckled grip, making Sakura flinch slightly at the strength.
"What? Where is he?" Sakura asks, forcing the minor discomfort away.
"The village!" The woman rasps, blue eyes wide. "Oh god, he wasn't breathing!" She crumbles partially to the ground, sobbing, Sakura being the only thing holding her up. "My baby! My baby!"
Sakura lowers the woman gently to the dirt, knowing that she needs to be somewhere else. She runs a few feet away before turning back to make sure someone was tending to the woman - Hashirama was - before she breaks into a sprint back to the village. It didn't take Sakura long to get to the village, and locate where the child in question is, due to the mass of people circling around.
As she gets there and elbows her way through the crowd, there is an Uchiha boy, about thirteen or so, a few feet away, pale as a ghost and shaking as a leaf in a harsh wind. His back is pressed tightly against the tree behind him while his large black eyes are focused on the unmoving body of a brown haired Senju boy, around the same age, in the middle of the half circle of bystanders. People let Sakura through and she heads right over to the unmoving boy, dropping down to her knees next to him, looking over his person for any noticeable injuries.
Sakura puts a hand over his heart and sends chakra to it, letting her hand light up in the familiar green, she scans his injuries, not really finding any indication for the boy's heart to suddenly stop, but she had an aching suspicion. She pulls open his shirt to see a telltale darkening mark over the boy's heart making Sakura frown deeply. Sakura swallows down the dark feelings and forces herself to become the medical shinobi she's needed as and detach herself from how she's feeling.
She rolls her shoulders back, giving her a second to really go through the transition before setting to work. She lifts him up a bit, one arm under his knees and one under his shoulders and moves him to more flat ground, making note of how Hashirama is kneeling down in front of Sakura, on the other side of the boy, looking down at him somberly. Sakura lays the small Senju boy flat on his back and tilts his chin up before leaning down and putting her ear up to his mouth, just in case she somehow missed it.
No breathing. No heart beat.
She turns to face him, plug his nose and breathing into his body. She watches as his chest rises at the action, then lowers when she pulls away. She positions herself over him, placing her hands onto his chest and begins performing CPR. Fifteen long seconds. That's how long Sakura listened to herself going through the motions of CPR and the Uchiha boy behind her sobbing inconsolably before she leans down and breaths into the little body beneath her and he gasps for air, brown eyes opening a bit before squinting into the light.
Sakura puts a hand over his chest and feels his heart rate jump up before pumping strong. She waits a couple of minutes, people murmuring quietly around her but trying not to distract the medical ninja in action, just keeping an eye on his heart rate, as it slowly falls back to a regular pace. The Senju boy was looking up at the sky with a dazed look on his face, as if he wasn't all there yet. Trying to process what happened to himself. She pulls her hand away from his steadily rising and falling chest and stands up slowly.
Turning around, her eyes find the now quiet Uchiha boy, his face is red, as are his eyes - but not with the Sharingan - and he's still shaking. Madara is a few feet from him, looking down at the Senju boy that Hashirama was softly talking to, smoothing the boy's brown hair down. Behind Hashirama is the woman that got Sakura, the boy's mother, she's in Tobirama's arms, shaking with relief only being held up by the future Second's strength.
Sakura stops in front of the Uchiha boy. He flinches, looking up at Sakura like at any moment she could reach out and strike him. He falls down onto his butt, as if trying to put a bit of distance between them.
"I'm sorry..." the Uchiha boy rasps, his voice hoarse from all his crying. Sakura lowers in front of him onto her hunches.
"Did you do that to him?" Sakura asks. The boy visibly pales. "Do you even understand what happened?" He shakes his head slowly, pressing his back tighter against the rough bark of the tree behind him.
He shakes his head again. He's just a child - an ignorant child, of course he wouldn't understand - and he stares back at her with wide black eyes.
"You have amazing chakra control and a keen eye. You mimicked my attack against Hashirama, I could tell by the wound on the Senju boy's chest," Sakura says. "And it worked out a little bit better than you may have hoped for, huh?" The boy nods slowly, looking like he was going to cry again.
"I didn't want to hurt him! I didn't mean to..." he says, tears welling up again. "He'll be okay..?" He sounds hopeful.
Sakura nods. "Yes, he'll be alright. But, sweetie, you have to really think about what happened. Sure, he's okay, but any number of circumstance could have made that not so. A great part of being a shinobi isn't learning new skills, but learning to control the skills that you have. You've shown me a talent for chakra control, but you have multitudes of different things that you need to practice on rather than people. Okay? Do you understand how dangerous of a situation you put that boy into?"
The Uchiha nods, tears sliding down his face again. "I'm sorry..."
Sakura reaches out and pats the top of the Uchiha's head. "I don't need an apology. The boy your hurt does. Be sincere. You scared his poor mother half crazy, so make sure you apologize to her too."
The Uchiha boy nods remorsefully, blinking away his tears. "Yes, ma'am..."
"Kota...?" The Senju boy in Hashirama's arms rasps, looking around dazedly until he finds the Uchiha boy - Kota - staring back at him. He blinks a few times, trying to clear his vision before smiling goofily at the black haired boy. "That was crazy. Let's not do that again for a while, okay?"
Kota nods briskly. "Deal."
Hashirama laughs, patting the top of the Senju boy's head. "I think we can all agree with that."
It was because of that incident that Sakura was out of it the rest of the day. She was just walking around, stuck in her own head. That boy had tried to mimic her attack and ended up hurting someone because of it. Sakura knows that she can't really be blamed for it, but she still feels like there should have been some way for her to have known that was going to happen. Sure, they were kids and shouldn't be expected to always be thinking logically, but she still felt bad. Thankfully the Senju boy was going to be okay, and his mother was willing to be forgiving so long as both boys promised to be careful.
Still, Sakura was sure to sit down with both the boys and properly explain to them why is was wrong to practice techniques they knew nothing about. They apologized and promised to not practice on each other anymore but Sakura was still weary. She also made them promise to keep their eyes open for any other kids trying to mimic their actions and encourage them to come and see her for guidance.
Sakura was wandering around aimlessly when she heard someone call out her name. Then, she felt the intrusion and everything went black.
"Oh no," the Yamanaka clan leader says as the four men float in darkness. "I think something went wrong..." He looks around.
"'Something'?" Tobirama echoes, narrowing his eyes. "Where are we?"
The Yamanaka clan leader - Inojo - looks around for a few moments more. "There's nothing here...?" He shakes his head, eyebrows pulled together. "I'm not sure what happened..."
"You told us that this ability would allow us to see the memories of one of your clansmen," Madara says, black eyes burning holes in the side of the blond's head, making the man vastly uneasy. "You said this wasn't dangerous. That you had done it hundreds of times. Was that a lie?"
"No," Inojo says, turning to an angered Madara. "We are in someone's head... I'm just not sure whose. I'll have to access the memories to see..."
"Shouldn't we just leave?" Hashirama asks, wringing his hands nervously. He never liked this idea from the beginning. He was willing to believe the Yamanaka when he told them about their clan abilities but as per usual his brother and best friend had to be difficult. They wanted an actual demonstration but it couldn't be done on them or either of their clansmen due to clan secrets. Inojo could still protect his clan secrets inside of a Yamanaka clan member's head. But now they aren't in anyone's head they know. It could be in some kind of civilian's head if they had to guess.
The three other men stare at Hashirama for a moment, as if trying to see if he was serious. When he just stared back at them blankly, eyes telling them that he was in fact very serious, they looked at each other.
"I suppose you're right," Tobirama says.
Madara sighs. "Agreed." Hashirama sighs as well, but in relief that both his hard-headed brother and best friend were willing to compromise now.
Inojo opens his mouth, about to say something when a small girl appeared between the three founders, making them jump at the suddenness.
She was small, probably seven years old, hunched into a tiny ball on the floor, crying into her hands softly, little shoulders shaking. Normally, none of the men would have any idea who this small child was, but there was one signature thing about her that gave way to her identity. Jaw length messy pink hair. All the men were shocked at the sight of the normally abrasive pink haired girl reduced to a smaller, weeping version of herself.
But it was also an immediate indicator of whose mind they were inside of.
"Oh no," Hashirama says slowly, "we shouldn't be doing this. We shouldn't be in here-"
"I don't have a big forehead!" Little Sakura weeps, looking up at them with huge, watery green eyes. Immediately all men were uncomfortable. None of them knew how to deal with a crying child, even if rationally Inojo knew that the girl wasn't really there crying, it still caught him off guard at the power in the memories. It was such a silly thing to be crying over, even for a child.
"Ha ha, Sakura's got a huge forehead!" A group of girls appear around Sakura. They start chanting, "Forehead girl! Forehead girl!" Louder and louder despite Sakura's insistence that she wasn't such, only furthering to distress the small pink haired girl until she was inconsolable, full-blown sobbing.
"Don't be so mean to me..." Sakura cries softly to herself as the girls vanish into blackness. "I didn't do anything wrong..."
"Sakura-chan..." Hashirama says softly, looking over at his brother. They never had to deal with bullies, but bullies were in fact everywhere and it was no fun watching a friend get hurt by them.
Tobirama frowns, but says nothing, his red eyes are locked on the little girl in front of him.
"Hey!" A different girl's voice calls out, making Inojo jump at the sudden shift in memories.
A girl appears in front of Sakura, standing over her with hands planted firmly on slim hips. Her hair is also jaw length and a bright, beautiful blond color. As soon as Hashirama saw her, he knew who she was.
"Ino," he says. At Tobirama and Madara's blank looks, he quickly explains, "Sakura's friend. That brush's owner. She told us about her after she first woke up. Do you guys remember?" Their blank looks are his answer, making him sigh.
"What're you crying over?" the blond asks, tilting her head. "Don't let those girls bring you down! They don't know anything. If you want some help," she holds out her hand for Sakura to take, "I can help you! I'm Ino, by the way!"
The image changes, it's a slightly older Sakura, standing in front of an older Ino. Both of them could be in their early teens. Now the three men could tell the difference. She was really skinny and small but wearing her signature red, but this time in a dress. Her pink hair was to her lower back, long and uneven being held up by a red ribbon. They didn't say anything, just stared at each other, but there was something in their eyes that said it all; they were no longer friends. There was a tenseness to the two girls.
Ino's attire immediately made all four men uncomfortable. Her skirt only went to her knees and was cut straight up both sides to her waist with only a thin layer of bandages covering her legs and mid-drift, leaving little to the imagination.
The image changes again and the Uchiha fan is practically thrown in their faces, making them take a collective step back. It took a moment for Hashirama to realize that the Uchiha fan was on the back of a young man, walking away from Sakura.
"Please don't go!" Sakura yells, tears streaming down her face. "I love you! Please! If you go, I'll scream!"
The boy, now no doubt an Uchiha, turns his head slowly, making Madara and Hashirama both jerk in surprise. Uchiha genetics weren't very diverse, but when this boy turned to look at Sakura, it was scary how much he looked just like Madara did at around that age. His hair style is a bit different, but the similarities were almost astounding.
"Sakura," the boy says, looking at her from over his shoulder, smirking a bit. "You're annoying."
The look on Sakura's face was utterly heartbroken as the boy turns away again and starts walking. Sakura whimpers, pained, before running after him taking only a few steps before he disappears, making her stop, arms wrapped around her body as if trying to physically hold herself together. The boy appears behind her, looking down at the back of her neck, pink hair now cut short again.
Hashirama shifts uncomfortably. His heart goes out to Sakura, the girl was obviously in pain, and he felt strange watching something so personal happening.
Sakura takes a moment before looking up slightly, suddenly noticing the boy's presence at her back, but she doesn't move, afraid of scaring him away. The boy leans in close, a strange look in his eye that she couldn't see, but somehow felt. "Sakura," he says, softly this time, "thank you." He brings up one hand, palm parallel to the ground, while the other one wraps around Sakura's waist slowly. His hand flies toward the back of Sakura's neck and the image disappears.
"The boy she loved..." Tobirama says slowly, "...was an Uchiha." He shakes his head slowly. "Where did she meet an Uchiha that wasn't on the field?"
"I'm wondering the same thing," Madara says, frowning deeply.
The next moment, there is a flurry of images, so quickly it was hard to pick up what was happening. All three of the founders are tensed, like that will somehow hold them into place. But there are people and places and battles and snippets of conversation. A woman, beautiful with long blond hair and brown eyes. She looks down at Sakura over a busty chest, lovingly. She smiles. A man with ringed purple eyes. A boy, wild blond hair and big blue eyes. Fear. A name screamed out in Sakura's voice.
"Naruto!"
An image, the Uchiha from before, but this time, he's holding Sakura up off the ground by her throat. She kicks a bit, holding onto his wrist. His eyes are bleeding, he appears delusional. The image becomes blurry, fading into black as she loses consciousness. She's saved by a man with wild gray hair and a single black eye that glares at the Uchiha. She's crying, begging with her eyes for the boy to stop. Whatever he was doing, to stop doing it.
The blond boy and the Uchiha fight, the blond begs the Uchiha to come home, to stop being so difficult. But the Uchiha sneered, not seeming to be interested in what either of them had to say. But someone else appears, a man in an orange swirly mask and the Uchiha boy is gone.
Endless nights of crying, curled up into a ball, begging the boy to return. Going through the ages, from when she was a young teen with short pink hair, to some time far more current. And then she stopped. She just stopped. No more tears, she had something else that she had to focus on.
War.
All the signs of war. Battle cries, soldiers, a marching army, a lot of injuries. A lot of the images is of Sakura saving lives, and loosing a lot too. A lot of dead eyes staring up at her vacantly. A lot of people that Sakura couldn't save, that left a horrible imprint on her mind. A village left in ruins. Death everywhere. Explosions. Blood. A giant, monstrous form against the starlight, blackened out.
And then there is the moon. Huge, like, exaggeratedly huge, with what looked like some kind of strange three layered sharingan with 9 tomoes and a pupil in the center, glaring down at them. It bathed the blackened out area red, giving it a very eerie feeling.
"Her mind is chaotic," Inojo explains, speaking again for the first time in a long time, reminding the other men that he was there. "The images are flashing because in her mind, the experience is a blur. Only a few things stand out in her memory."
There is a moment of silence before the image of the red moon disappears, fading into blackness. There is a silence that swiftly becomes uneasy. A pressure settles around them, drawing Inojo's attention, making him suddenly look around, alarmed.
"What's with that look?" Madara asks slowly, frowning.
"Something is coming..." Inojo says, looking around quickly.
"What does that mean?" Tobirama asks. He crosses his hands over his chest to keep himself from summoning Rajin to his side. Could he summon it here? In someone else's mind? "What's coming?"
Inojo looks around, hands raised up in a defensive pose. "I'm not exactly sure. It wasn't here before. It was hiding somewhere in her memories..."
"What does that mean?" Tobirama asks again, more annoyed this time.
Inojo looks over at Tobirama. "I've heard about it from clansmen, thought this is the first that I've seen it myself, that sometimes there are minds that aren't necessarily easy to both enter and leave without the person waking up..." At Tobirama's blank stare, he keeps going, "I'm not sure how to explain it. I think that she's becoming aware. That's amazing. She must have powerful spiritual control!" He sounds slightly impressed.
"You're wrong, bub," An angry voice snarls, echoing through the darkness. Then a large figure of Sakura with the characters "Inner" written across her forehead appears. There was no color to her, just a white outline of a blackened out figure. She appears towering over the men, head to waist visible, the rest of her is obscured into the darkness. "The powerful presence is me!"
Inojo blinks up at her in surprise. "Wait... a different..." his eyes fly around in confusion for a moment before realization hits him. "A separate soul? She has a separate soul inside her body?" His eyes widen. "Oh no..."
Inner Sakura sneers down at them. "How dare you get into my head? I'll kill you all; founders or not!" She reaches out and grabs all of them, pinning them together in her hands. "Get the hell out of my head!" She snarls, squeezing them. The men struggle but in this mindscape this Sakura has absolute control.
"Sakura-chan, please!" Hashirama says, looking up at the angered soul. "We're sorry for being here."
"Sorry doesn't give me my privacy back!" Inner Sakura snarls, leaning in close to them. "Sorry doesn't help me at all. Sorry," she mocks. Inner Sakura sneers at them but Hashirama doesn't appear to be put off.
"We're sorry for invading your privacy, Sakura-chan, please forgive us," he says softly.
"Che," Inner Sakura scoffs, obviously not buying his placating act. "Why should I forgive you? I don't owe you anything! You were the one who was looking for some friends! You're own best friend and brother consider you to be annoying." She sneers again, an ugly look on her face, completely unlike the Sakura they've come to know. "Some shitty friends you guys are."
"That's not true," another Sakura voice says, this time calmer. An image of Sakura appears beneath them. "They aren't bad friends," she says, but there is a sadness in her eyes. "They are only doing what's expected of them. They are shinobi after all. We all are. Trust isn't something that's magically given. It's something that should be earned. I was a fool to think otherwise." She shakes her head.
Hashirama peers down at her, frowning deeply. "Sakura-chan-"
"Get out of my head," Sakura says, looking away. "I think you've seen enough."
"Sakura-"
"Just," Sakura cuts him off, eyebrows pulling together tightly. She sighs. "Just get out of my head." Inner Sakura gives them a threatening squeeze before Inojo manages to pull his hands, which trapped between his body and Madara's, free and does the necessary hand sign and mutters, "Release."
All of them jolt back into their bodies.
Sakura opens her eyes to see Salma looking down at her with thin, twin brown eyebrows pulled together tightly. She looks relieved when Sakura stares back up at her, her shoulders sagging a bit. "Oh thank goodness," she says, smiling faintly. "I'm glad you're alright!"
"'Alright'," Sakura mutters, "is a relative term."
"What?" she asks.
"Nothing." Sakura pushes herself out of Salma's arms and onto her feet. She shakes herself a bit, to wake up her tired body, feeling violated. She runs her hands up and down her arms, looking around slowly. She catches Hashirama walking toward her, an apology already on his lips. She steps back as he draws near, making him pause.
"Sakura-chan," Hashirama says, looking distressed, "I am so sorry that happened to you. That was a violation of your privacy and totally disrespectful of us. Trust me, that was never my intention. Please believe that."
Sakura doesn't respond, her unhappiness and obvious feeling of betrayal is expressed on her face. When Hashirama tries to take another step toward her, she takes a step back, not trusting herself to not do something she'll regret later. If he reaches out and touches her, she doesn't know if she'll be able to not just break his hand, or at least try to. It's best not to give herself the chance to find out.
Sakura's mind is just racing. She can't believe they did that to her. She just couldn't believe that she couldn't believe it. She should have known. She shouldn't have blinding trusted. She was crazy to blindly trust. While her feelings were like crushed gravel on the streets, she knew she should have expected that. As is the life that she's chosen.
Admittedly, something like this never would have happened if she wasn't a shinobi.
It's not a matter of questioning her choice to become a shinobi, because she honestly can't see herself doing anything but this job, but with this life comes with a lot of things that perhaps aren't so favorable. Like, at the end of the day, one really can't trust anybody. It's just not smart. Not in this type of world. Especially now, where there isn't a soul in sight who honestly would do anything for her. Like Naruto, or Lee, or Ino. Hell, any of her friends would do anything for her. But not here, not these people. There is too much mistrust and no history.
Sakura was a fool to think otherwise.
As had become a trend in dealing with the things of the past, Sakura turns on her heel and runs away, this time, heading toward her home. She was wrapped up in a flurry of emotions, not really knowing how to pick them apart. Everything was happening, and crumbling, so fast.
It wasn't just a matter of them peaking into her life, seeing all of her personal thoughts and feelings, everything that ever went wrong or right in her life, that was all laid bare to these men. It was the fact that everything, including the fact that she was born and raised in the village that is currently being built could be seen. Every-thing that she had been trying to hard to protect. Her future, her loved ones, her friends, all of them could disappear without a trace now. For one reason or another, everything could be destroyed now.
Because of her, everyone could be gone. Forever. And any chance she would ever have to go back to her time has slipped through her fingers like water. It was all lost to her now. And it was all her fault.
"Damn it!" Sakura screams at nothing, stopping in front of the house that Hashirama had built for her. "Damn it all!"
She swings her fist around wildly, hitting the ground, a nearby tree, anything. She didn't add any chakra so all she was really doing was hurting herself, but it did nothing to pierce the fog of agony that has settled over her soul. At this moment in time, she would give anything to be able to see the ones she loved again. Anyone! It didn't matter who. Something to confirm that she hadn't destroyed any chance for any of them to exist.
Her right hand, which was still swinging around, was caught in an iron tight grip around the wrist. Sakura spins around to face the person responsible. It's Tobirama. He stares back at her with his lips pressed firmly together.
"Sakura," he starts but she cuts him off, struck with so much grief and pain she's unable to think clearly.
"Ruined! Everything! Now it'll never happen! Now I'll never get to see them again or go home or anything!" She screams at him. "You betrayed me! Those were my memories! Mine! Those were the only things I had left that were mine alone and you took them from me!" If he would release her hand, Sakura's almost delirious enough to believed she'd swing at him. She tugs at her hand but he doesn't let go.
"Sakura," Tobirama says calmly, "what happened earlier, was an accident. I'm sorry you're upset-"
"'Upset'," Sakura echoes. "Upset?" She asks incredulously.
"Tobirama," Hashirama warns from where he and Madara were running up behind the future Second.
"I'm not upset," Sakura snarls, narrowing her eyes. "I'm pissed. This isn't right at all! I know we live in a shinobi world, but damn! If you were in my shoes, Tobirama-sama, you'd be pissed too! I may not have secrets that pertain to my family that could be used to destroy both myself and them, but I do have secrets! I do have thoughts and I do have feelings! My secrets aren't any less important than yours!" She tries to yank her hand away again but Tobirama holds strong.
"I'm sorry that we saw your secrets," Tobirama says, voice raised so that she couldn't talk over him. "It was not something we intentionally planned, and I apologize. But you can't go running around being too upset over this. It's just as you said, a shinobi world, and as unfortunate as it is, this is how the world works. Luckily, you seem to have been exactly what you portrayed to us, but we are still allowing you, a stranger, near our families. You can't expect a welcome like that without a grain of salt. I do wish things could have been handled better, but this is how it happened."
"Tobirama, stop it!" Hashirama snaps, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "That's enough!"
"You make it seem like nothing!" Sakura yells, yanking at her arm again but still to no avail. "It's not nothing! It's my life, you've invaded!"
"You are alone," Tobirama says coldly, making Sakura freeze. "Your secrets; about your village, about your family and about your friends, can't be used anymore. You said it yourself. Everyone you know is gone. I'm sorry, but if what you say is true, then there is no dispute."
"Tobirama!" Hashirama gasps. Even Madara looks surprised at the white haired man's words. So callous. So cruel. So unlike Tobirama. Especially at a moment like this.
Sakura stares at him for a long moment, trying to find some way to dispute his words. Some way to magically prove to him, and herself, that he was wrong. But the truth was; she couldn't. She had no way to prove him wrong because she didn't even know for certain that he was. She could be here with no chance in returning home because there was no home to return to. Something could have happened and everyone could be gone. Forever.
Tears trickle over Sakura's cheeks, falling silently to her chin. Tobirama's hard look turns immediately to shock.
"Uh," he says, probably not having expected Sakura to start crying. He looked like he'd prefer for her to do just about anything but that at that moment. Maybe even hit him.
Sakura's shoulders pull together and she just starts crying. She felt so lost, so hopeless, and even though Inner Sakura, whom she never thought she'd see or hear again, was trying to calm her down; switching between encouraging her to knock the future Second on his ass with a chakra infused punch and telling her that there's no way this won't somehow turn out alright, she just cried. She was pulling weakly at the grip on her wrist, but he still didn't let go.
Just as he was about to open him mouth - to say what? Sakura didn't know - a blur of white came racing out of the forest, so fast Sakura missed it all the way up until it was right on top of them. It went right for Tobirama's arm, easily wrapping it's massive jaws around his wrist. Tobirama grunts out in both surprise and pain, letting go of Sakura and letting her fall to the dirt. She hadn't realized when she started crying how much she was using Tobirama's strength to keep standing.
Sakura quickly wipes the tears from her eyes so that she can see and scrambles to her feet, ready to fight off the attacker. But it wasn't going after her, it was going after Tobirama, practically pulling him around by his own hand. It was huge, like a bear, snarling and growling darkly deep in it's throat and pulling him, a grown man, around like he was nothing.
"Tobirama!" Hashirama calls out, moving forward to help his little brother after somehow being thrown back a bit in the two's struggle. Madara falls into a defensive crouch, one hand reaching behind himself at the waist to summon his fan at a moments notice.
Sakura took a moment to really look at the bear attacking the future Second, and recognized it immediately. Despite it's clumpy and dirty fur; rigid and standing on end, tail straight back and backside facing her, Sakura knew what it was.
It was Akamaru.
