Author's Note: Oh my goodness! Over 600 comments? You guys are awesome! I am so thankful to have all of you, I just love hearing what you have to say! Things are getting kind of intense now! So, sorry about the long wait, my life is getting hectic, and my account is doing something weird. I'm having shoddy access to it. It's better now, but I am so behind on updating and have a long work week ahead of me. Thank you all for being so patient with me! Let me know what you think! Let's see if anyone called that plot twist! Haha! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Warnings: Nothing much, maybe language and OOCness.

Word Count: 6,547

Sakura stares at Shikamaru for a moment, half expecting him to burst out laughing, punch her in the shoulder and tell her that he was just messing with her and to not take him so seriously. But after a moment of awkward silence Sakura realized that this wasn't Naruto. This wasn't Kiba. This was Shikamaru. Shikamaru wasn't the type of person to joke around in a serious situation like this. Especially when it's obvious that he's not feeling well. He may give a bit of teasing jab sometimes, but rarely does he go out of his way to make a joke. He's smart enough to think them up on the fly.

Sakura quickly walks over to her teetering friend, noting that his moments of somewhat lucidness is fading quickly as his fever is taking him again. She wraps her arms around Shikamaru's waist to hold him up. The skin of his waist and ribs is burning under Sakura's finger tips, alerting her that while his fever has lessened since he got here, it's not over yet. Normally, it would be a sign of great worry for someone to have a fever for as long as Shikamaru has had his, but two things work in their favor: one being that Sakura is a powerful medical shinobi capable of healing the damages. The second is that Shikamaru's place as a Nara makes his big ol' brain more durable than most others. It can take the heat a lot longer than most others, no pun intended.

"Shikamaru," Sakura says slowly, "let me take you back to bed, you really shouldn't be standing around right now." Shikamaru mumbles something incoherent before pushing his weight away from the door frame and onto Sakura. She easily accepts his weight without a problem, but his height makes it a little awkward for Sakura to hold him, but she manages and helps him back into the bed. Akamaru follows after her, sitting down by his side while he sleeps.

Sakura knew Shikamaru needed to be resting now, but there was another reason she insisted he lie down. She could feel a cold, strange atmosphere surrounding them now. What Shikamaru said was no doubt both alarming and suspicious. For both Sakura and the three founders. While she can understand why she should have stayed away from the two major founding clans for her home village, it's strange that it was an "at all costs" type of order.

Chewing on her bottom lip, Sakura debates the possibility of the three founders just leaving and calling it a day, but she's not dumb enough to humor that notion for long. On top of that, it would be foolish of her to let them simmer in their own thoughts on the issue for longer than necessary, and while Sakura needs those precious seconds to come up with a believable theory or explanation for Shikamaru's words, but for them, it's time for their imaginations to run wild.

Kami, Sakura hated Shikamaru right now. He must have been out of it enough to forgo both common sense and self-preservation instincts. If he had a healthy dose of either of them, he wouldn't have put Sakura into the position that he did. Now she has to hope that she can somehow talk her way out of this no doubt dangerous situation he put her in, or hope that she's given the benefit of the doubt.

Sakura makes sure Shikamaru is comfortable before pushing herself to her feet and walking out of the house to see that Hashirama, Tobirama and Madara were standing right where she had left them. Three sets of eyes locked onto Sakura as she walked out. Sakura closes the door behind herself, hoping that will somehow keep Shikamaru from waking up and coming out to put the pressure on her more. He's already made a big mess of this situation.

When Sakura was the victim, she could get away with just about anything. Especially with Hashirama. But now the tables have turned. Now she could be very dangerous and she isn't even sure she knows how to make them believe otherwise.

"I'm sorry about him," Sakura says, sitting down on the porch, hoping that she looked unthreatening. "He's delirious with fever right now." She runs a hand through her hair, sighing.

"What did he mean?" Tobirama asks bluntly, red eyes like liquid magma, staring down at her.

Sakura's heart rate picks up and she brings a hand to her neck to try and cover for the artery there. She takes a moment, wondering what she could say to that, she didn't really know what Shikamaru meant.

"I don't know," Sakura says softly. "I... I thought everyone was dead. I was certain I was the last one..." She shakes her head. "But... they aren't. They are alive and out there." Sakura's emotions fluctuate from relieved to worried. Why is there more people here? Not that she minds, but it was hard to wrap her mind around why she was here, she couldn't even begin to figure out why others were too. What happened after the war? Why can't she remember it?

Sakura suddenly feels anxious, looking around as if her friends and family would suddenly start coming out of the woods and back into her life as if they never left in the first place. But no one came walking through the trees. Wherever her loved ones are now, it's not here. They are still out there, and when Shikamaru is healthy enough and they have some semblance of direction, they'll go looking for them.

"Sakura," Hashirama says, walking closer to the pink haired girl, drawing her emerald green eyes up to his warm brown ones, "did you honestly not know that anyone from your home was out there?"

Sakura lowers her hand to her lap and look deep into those kind brown eyes, that have been nothing but sad since they accidently invaded her mind. She knows that he deeply regretted breaking her trust by looking at her memory, but she knows it wasn't malicious on his part. Now that there is something shady going on that puts her in a particularly bad light, he is giving her the chance to explain as much as she can without the pressure Madara or Tobirama would have no doubt put on her in their suspicion.

It took Sakura a moment to realize that one of Hashirama's hands was on the wood floor that is beneath Sakura, right next to hers. It was a strange thing for her to notice right away, but only seconds later, she realized why. He could feel her heartbeat through the wood. If she lied, her heart rate would pick up, along with other physical tells a body gives away when under stress.

Sakura blinks slowly, looking up into his deep brown eyes, pink brows pulled together slightly as she says, "No. I had no idea. I thought... I thought I was the only one."

Hashirama stares at her for a few moments, looking for any tells that she was lying before nodding slowly and leaning back to give her some respectful space. "I believe you," he says. "Do you know why you were... told to stay away from us?"

Sakura shakes her head slowly. "No, not really. I don't remember any of that. I can only theorize."

A quick glance at an obviously unhappy Tobirama makes Hashirama ask, "We would love to hear it. I'm sure it's better than what we are thinking."

"I sure hope so," Tobirama mutters, eyes locked onto the side of Sakura's face, making her uncomfortable again.

"If we were brought here," Sakura says delicately, hoping that her vagueness wouldn't make them think she's with holding something possibly dangerous for them from them, "then it was probably because we were put into a situation that we couldn't get out of..." She shakes her head. "I haven't the foggiest idea what, though, and as for where the Uchiha and Senju clans come in, it's probably because you've been embroiled in war for so long that it's counter-productive to even come here looking for help. It would just be pulling two war-torn clans into a problem that they have no reason to be part of. But that's only if I had to guess."

"That..." Tobirama says slowly, "is logical. And your leader, how close do you know them? The way they think and possible reasoning?"

Sakura looks into the red eyes that have settled significantly. She's not out of the woods yet - no pun intended - but using logic against such a logical thinker like Tobirama was the best way to settle his mistrust.

"We are close," Sakura admits. "She's my master. Lady Tsunade."

All three of their eyebrows shot up. Sakura looks between them confused, unable to understand their shock. It's Madara who finally clears it up for her by asking, "Your village is run by a woman?" Then, a split second later, he says, "I'm sorry. That sounded..."

"Sexist?" Tobirama asks.

"Pretentious," Hashirama guess a moment later. They both look at each other curiously.

Madara glares at them, cheeks coloring a bit. He obviously didn't mean to sound like either of those. Regardless, Sakura was both impressed by Tobirama using 'sexist' and unaffected by Madara's surprise and perhaps skepticism about Tsunade - who was a woman - being the leader of anything short of a small clan. It's usually males that ran the families. Even heiresses would marry husbands and either meld the two clans or families together, or he would take her name and reign over the clan.

"Well, either way," Madara says stiffly, "I don't mean for that to come out as offensive. I apologize."

Sakura shrugs her shoulders. "I'm not mad about it. I know Lady Tsunade is a good leader, despite being a woman. But I do accept your apology. Thanks."

"You said something about a war," Tobirama says, crossing his arms over his chest. "and about a village. How big are we talking? Is it a large village like the capital cities of the Lands or like us?"

Sakura crosses her legs, happy that their questions has stopped being suspicious and is back to being curious. Thankfully Sakura has earned a lot of cookie points, but also a lot of believe-me-on-good-faith points too. "Well, if we're thinking logically, your village; with the Senju, Uchiha, Akimichi, Sarutobi and Yamanaka clans, would probably be a couple hundred people. Somewhere between 2 hundred to mid 3 hundred at the most. My village maintained a standing force of around 13,000 active shinobi."

All three of their jaws dropped. They stare at her as if she was insane. Like she pulled that number out of thin air. Sakura looks around at the three men, eyebrows raised.

"What?" She says after an entire minute of silence.

"Y-Your village was capable of maintaining a population of 13 thousand people?" Madara mutters, face pale.

Sakura scratches the back of her head, realizing their surprise. There are very few villages, especially during this time of Sengoku Jidai, that had so many people in it besides capital cities, like in the Land of Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning and Earth. That sounds about right for this era. The capital cities in this era would be somewhere around 15-20 thousand people.

"No, that was our standing shinobi force," Sakura says slowly. "They didn't all reside within the village, we had many bases outside the village and outposts in all kinds of nearby villages. But the village alone, that doesn't include the force that was stationed in the village - that means civilians, merchants, regular diplomats, the likes - the village held about 30 thousand people that don't have even an ounce of shinobi training," Sakura says. "Lady Tsunade is an amazing leader that had to care for populous on a grand magnitude. She may not be a perfect leader, but she was damn good one. And while women aren't thought of very highly here, I want to tell you that she would destroy anyone who would harm the village her family built. So something must have happened, something must have made her agree to... whatever measures we are taking because of whatever happened." Sakura sighs deeply. "I just don't know what. I'm sorry."

Tobirama whistles, shaking his head as if he didn't know how to fathom those numbers. Madara looks greatly impressed, wrapping one arm around his ribs and the other on reaches up and cups his chin, lips moving but no sound coming out.

But not Hashirama. His face was twisted in a look of horror. "30 thousand people... died in the attack on your village...?" That sombers up Tobirama and Madara really quickly.

Sakura looks away, letting out a slow whoosh of breath. "I don't know how many were there when it was attacked..." She brings a thumb up to chew on the nail for a moment, trying to force away the image of Pein destroying her home, blasting all the buildings away like they were paper in his path. The power of the Rinnegan, or perhaps it's just Pein, is something to be both admired, and feared. "But it was a lot," Sakura says softly, trying to block out the defining sound of building exploding and people screaming. Sakura shakes her head hard, trying to dislodge all of the memories.

"How could someone like that be stopped?" Hashirama asks hesitantly. He didn't have to say it, or perhaps he didn't want to, but Sakura knew what he was trying to say - or maybe not say? - all too well. But this was a part of the story that Sakura could say without horrible flashbacks. It was a part of the story she was proud of. Proud enough to admit.

"That would have been Naruto. He may not be the smartest person in the world, or the most tactful, but no matter how many times you beat him down, he'll get back up and beat you down three times over," Sakura says, smiling faintly. In her mind's eye, she could see the beaming blond that was once a person of great annoyance to her, but was now a great source of love and comfort. And she didn't realize until just this moment, that she missed him so much. She's not sure what happened near the end of the war, but obviously he survived since he was telling them orders before they were sent back in time, but she's still worried.

Silly, goofy, but reliable Naruto could be out there somewhere. Like a child, lost, confused and a little dense. But it'll be okay. Sakura will keep her eyes and ears open for him and all their other friends. Whomever else is out there, Sakura is going to find them, figure out why they are here and what they need to do before doing what they can to return home.

So badly, Sakura wants to see the knucklehead. Who knew she'd miss him so much?

"Your friend must be amazing," Hashirama says softly, eyes wide. "That is... is truly impressive."

Sakura lets out a breathy laugh. "Yeah, he is. Dumb as a box of rocks, but you'll never meet anyone else with more heart."

Hashirama offers a little smile at that. But there was a touch of weariness too. That was a lot to swallow. Those were big numbers and the power of a god on a shadowy face. Sakura can't blame them for their unease.

"So what now?" Madara asks, breaking a long winded silence with his soft, low voice.

Sakura blinks a few times, feeling her stomach plummet. "Well, do you still have someone that you need me to look at, Madara-sama?" Sakura asks, running a hand through her long pink fringe.

Madara blinks a few times, confused before he suddenly remembered what he had asked of her. He looks around for a moment, appearing to be organizing his thoughts, before clearing his throat and saying, "Yeah, I did. But.. that... that can wait for a while."

Sakura slowly shakes her head. "I may not have a lot of time," she says. "Once Shikamaru wakes up, I'm sure he'll want us to get going so I'd better tie up loose ends now while I'm-"

"'Going'?" Tobirama interjects. "Where are you going?"

"I have to go," Sakura says, looking over her shoulder for a moment, pausing her breathing to listen inside the house for any sounds. She'll have to check on Shikamaru soon. "Now that I know my friends and family are out there, alive, I have to go find them. Plus, we were sent here for some reason and something tells me that it is of the upmost importance. As much as I like it here - love it, even - I can't stay. I have to return to the real world. If my family is out here, I have to find them and complete whatever mission I was put on."

"I can understand that," Tobirama says slowly, "the mission is always what must come first."

There is a strange silence that follows. The four of them just look around at everything but each other, not really knowing what to say. Sakura always knew she would have to leave and return home, no matter what trials she would have to face before doing that, but somehow it seems too soon now. While there is a slight bump in the road at the end of the contest, for the most part this entire experience has been both eye-opening and rewarding. Sakura has always been very interested in the founding of her home, but to see it happen was an actual honor.

Sakura came to really like the three founders and their village. She knew she'd have to leave someday, and even though she's been missing home like crazy since the beginning, but now that the beginnings of the opportunity to go home is appearing, Sakura's a little sad. She wants to go home and see everyone, make sure they are all okay, but she always wants to stay here, keep building the relationships that she has been with everyone here. The three founders, Aya and Salma, they were all becoming important to her.

She was really going to miss them.

"Who is this... Shikamaru?" Tobirama asks, probably more so to break the strained silence rather than actually caring about the answer.

"We went to school together," Sakura says.

"School?" Hashirama says, like the word didn't make sense to him.

Sakura tries to think back to this time. "Um, lessons. They gather a bunch of children together under a sensei and teach them - or in this case, us, - in a room and teach us about shinobi life. What it means to be a shinobi. How to react in certain situations. Our history and even the basics. The main weapons of a shinobi; kunai, shuriken, senbon, makibishi spikes and bomb tags. The ranking system within the village, things of the like. Then we are tested on all of that and if we pass, we are recognized by the village as shinobi and allowed into the ranks."

"Huh," Hashirama says, blinking curiously. "That sounds... effective."

"It cuts down on specialized training," Madara says slowly. "Now it's not so surprising that they were able to get numbers in the thousands. They've a new standard that perhaps is easier to reach and then what? Are you just put into a preset position in the force or what?"

"We... stop being Academy students," Sakura says slowly, wondering if this was still okay, "and move on to students under an experienced teacher. More specialized training for three students and one teacher. A four man squad. Then we take on missions to support the village while learning shinobi techniques. The sensei can give one final test to see if the graduates can work together as a team and decide if he or she will take them on as students or send them back to the Acadamey for another year of training."

Hashirama lights up. "What a way to build comradery! Getting older and more experienced ninja to take on young students to show them the way!" He's practically bouncing up and down in excitement.

"There was something else that stuck with me," Tobirama says, bringing up his right hand to cup his chin while closing his eyes. "While I agree with Hashirama that it is a good idea for experienced shinobi to take on newbies and show them the ropes. In a less controlled environment, it allows them to learn how to act on the fly with missions that don't always go according to plan. Interesting."

Sakura nods. "Yeah, so I was in class with Shikamaru, we graduated together. That's how I know him."

"I recall you having once said something about graduates usually had missions that kept them within the village..." Madara says, looking over at Sakura.

She nods again, running long thin fingers through her fringe. "Yeah, do little helpful things around the village. Like painting fences or walking dogs. The villager who wants the mission goes to the mission office and tells them the specifics of their request, the office decides the rank and then puts the order in. They pay for the mission once it is completed. The village takes a portion of the payment and rest is split amongst all that were involved in the mission's success. D-rank missions, which is typically what we would get after graduation don't pay much but are numerous in number. It only escalates from there."

"How so?" Tobirama asks.

"Anyone can take D-rank missions, they are basically odd jobs. C-rank is slightly more advanced and usually require leaving the village for and some form of combat against weak human opponents like bandits and highwaymen. B-rank missions are more important, require battling against ninja combatants. A-rank missions are of vital importance to the village and could range from infiltrating and exfiltration from enemy bases or even villages, kidnap, espionage, the likes. S-rank is everything above that. I've heard rumors of SS-rank missions, but I've never been on one. But the official ranking only went up to S," Sakura says. "The higher the rank, the more one would have to pay to have it completed."

"Another way to build funds for the village," Madara says. "We may not need their help after all. The profits from this event look promising thus far."

"Help?" Sakura asks, blinking in confusion. "Someone is offering to help the village?"

Hashirama sighs. "Somewhat. We are trying to get people to acknowledge the idea of a shinobi village. Most believe it is doomed to implode because of our nature as warring clans, but hopefully after this event more people will be willing to back us without so many... strings attached." He scratches the back of his neck, running the toe of his shoe through the dirt, drawling circles.

Sakura tilts her head, wanting to ask what exactly was going on, but is given the impression that Hashirama didn't really want to talk about it. It's obviously a source of great stress for him, judging by the worn, annoyed look on his face. So Sakura let it drop, figuring if it mattered, she would learn about it eventually. But if Sakura's ideas were helping relieve some of that stress and help form the Hidden Leaf, who was Sakura to complain?

"So..." Sakura says slowly, "have you guys thought of a name for your village yet?"

"Not yet," Hashirama says, cheering up a bit at the change in subject, "but once it's become an actual village, then we can think of a fitting name." He beams, excited now. "I can't wait."

"Well contain your excitement for a bit longer, Hashirama," Tobirama says, dropping his hand from his chin and opening his red eyes again. "We have to name the victor of the competition and count up the donations... though, they do appear to be promising by preliminary count. Although no where near what we need to get this village on it's feet."

"How very optimistic of you," Madara mutters, ignoring the droll look Tobirama sent his way.

"I'm a realist," Tobirama says blandly. "And while the numbers look pleasing so far, they still aren't what we want. Optimism is nice and all, but ultimately won't mean anything in real life. If optimism is what will get us the rest of the money we need, then by all means, you tell that optimism outlet over there," he gestures toward a doe eyed Hashirama, "to keep up the good work, but until it starts getting us the numbers, I'm going to keep being a realist."

Madara lets out a whoosh of breath before looking away. Hashirama walks over to his friend and puts a hand on his shoulder, smiling kindly down at him when black eyes flickered over to him.

"Don't worry, Madara, I can be the optimistic one, Tobirama can be the realistic one and you can be our happy medium," he says, patting his childhood friend on the shoulder.

"Whatever," Madara says dismissively. "We should be getting back soon, our meeting is going to start soon."

Hashirama sighs, as if the meeting has already drained the life out of him despite it having not happened yet. It reminds Sakura that they need to give Hashirama a day off to relax before she leaves. This is probably a pretty good reason for why the First Hokage died young. If she remembered correctly, the First died in his sleep while in his forties. Or was it fifties? While that is old for this time, Senju are cousins of the Uzumaki clan and have longer lifespans than average humans. The Uzumaki moreso, but still, being a pureblood Senju, he died way too young. It was theorized that it was stress from building the village and years of war under his belt.

The stress ended up shortening his life significantly.

If Sakura can do something to help ease the stress on him to give him more time with future Tsunade, then Sakura would be willing to do just about anything to make it so. Every time Sakura got Tsunade to talk about the First it was always with such love and affection. She must have greatly missed her grandfather and only have a few short years with him was not enough. Sakura didn't know how well their relationship was, but it had to be good enough for Tsunade to miss it and for that, Sakura hopes this might selfishly give her beloved master more time with the First.

"Yes," Hashirama sighs, pulling Sakura from her thoughts. "We should be heading out now. Sakura-chan," he looks pensive again, like he's worried Sakura will bite his head off for what he's about to say, "if you need something, please come ask me, alright?"

Sakura wanted to hold onto her earlier anger but didn't have the strength, nor the will to do it. She doesn't know how much time she'll have with them and doesn't want to waste any more of it angry. Maybe she can seethe about it later, but for now, she will forgive.

She smiles faintly and nods. "Yes, sir. Thank you."

Hashirama looks genuinely relieved. "You're welcome. Alright gentlemen, let us go and brave the other clans." With that and a little wave, he heads back toward the growing village. Tobirama bows his head in farewell before following after his elder brother. Madara doesn't move as the white haired man passes him, big black eyes glued to the dirt a few feet in front of him. He listens to the sound of Tobirama's retreating footsteps before raising his eyes to Sakura once the white haired man is no longer within hearing distance.

"Pardon me for brushing you off earlier..." he finally says.

Sakura tilts her head to the side, not remembering what he was talking about. "Um, it's fine..."

"About the person I need your help with, will you be able to see them tomorrow morning? I'm sure they are resting today," he says with a soft hint of hesitation to his voice, as if worried that Sakura would take her word back after having already agreed to help.

"Sure," Sakura says. "I'll have to make sure that Shikamaru is safe to be left alone for a bit before I go. I'll let you know tomorrow, if that's alright?"

Madara looks relieved. "Thank you." Then he too tips his head a bit in farewell before walking away as well. Sakura watches him until he's disappeared between the trees that surround her house before standing up and heading back into her house to tend to a peacefully, yet slightly feverish, Shikamaru Nara. She settles down next to him, reaching out to pet the top of Akamaru's head, his tail wags a bit at that, before looking down at her friend, relieved to have dodged a potentially deadly situation earlier.


Sakura managed to break Shikamaru of his fever in the middle of the evening and helped him sleep restfully throughout the night. About midnight is when Sakura managed to finally fall into a light, dreamless sleep.

It was late into the morning when Akamaru licking her cheek woke her up. She groggily crawls to her feet to let him outside, filling up his bowl of water and putting it out there for him while checking on Shikamaru. She feeds him more medicine for infection and fever, should it come back, and a bit of water. A few barks from Akamaru pulls Sakura's attention from Shikamaru and she heads to the door, stepping out to see Akamaru was barking at a cautiously approaching Madara, who was keeping a weary eye on the small bear of a dog.

"It's alright, Akamaru," Sakura says and he immediately settles, tilting his head to the side curiously squinting at Madara before sniffing the air and continues wondering around Sakura's yard. Sakura closes the door into the house and crosses her arms over her chest to protect herself from the slight morning chill seeping into her light yukata she had put on the night before. "Good morning," she says.

"To you as well," Madara murmurs, stepping up a few feet from the porch. "How is your friend?"

"Better," Sakura says. "How is your morning going so far, my lord?"

"Fine, and yours?"

"Same," Sakura says pleasantly. "Would you like for me to come see whomever is hurt now? I think Shikamaru should be fine for a bit."

Madara nods slowly. "If you can," he says softly. "I'm not sure what you'll be able to do... but if you can do something then I will be eternally grateful."

Sakura blinks a few times at that. "Oh, this person must be really important to you."

"Yes..." Madara says illusively, obviously not comfortable talking about it out in the open, or maybe at all. He does appear to be a very private person it's kind of an honor to be let into his world. Even if it is only a little bit.

Sakura nods slowly, waiting a moment to see if he was going to say anything more, but when he shifted his weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably, she figured that was all she was going to get from him for now.

"Alright," she says, "give me just one moment to change and get ready then we can go."

"Very good," he says, letting out a soft breath before turning around and quietly watches Akamaru sniff around the new surroundings, barking happily at a squirrel taunting him from a high up tree branch of the tree in front of the dog.

Sakura gives a little laugh at the Inuzuka partner and heads inside, quickly changing into her regular attire, check on Shikamaru one more time before bringing in Akamaru's water bowl and laying some food down for him - more scraps. When Akamaru is back in the house, looking after Shikamaru, Sakura seals up the house behind her and turns to see Madara talking to an Uchiha in hushed tones. Sakura waits patiently until the Uchiha bows and runs off before approaching the Uchiha patriarch.

"Ready?" Madara asks, turning to the pink haired girl.

"Hai," Sakura says. Madara nods his head once, curtly, before spinning on his heel and leading the way toward the Uchiha compound on the opposite side of the village with Sakura following closely behind him. The village is starting to wake up. People are opening the shutters to their homes, husbands and sons are leaving to defend the village and do other odd jobs trying to get the village onto it's feet.

"Madara-sama?" Sakura calls out.

"Hm?" He hums, tilting his chin toward her a bit to show he's listening.

"Who ended up winning the competition yesterday?" Sakura asks. "I heard everyone cheering yesterday but I was too busy taking care of Shikamaru to hear."

"Ahh," Madara hums. "It was Keiga Uchiha."

"Keiga!" Sakura says, mildly surprised. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be shocked. He did wipe the floor with me when we had our battle. He was very gentlemanly about it though," Sakura says, bemused. "I find it hard to believe that he has a bad bone in his body."

Madara makes a noise of agreement. "He's a good boy. Extremely modest. Perhaps even to a fault. Hashirama had to practically drag him in front of everyone to get him to acknowledge his victory. Even then he was mumbling something about donating it to the village." Madara shakes his head. "He's a good kid. I'm proud he's one of my clansmen."

Sakura smiles, surprised at Madara, almost glowing with pride. There is a small, happy smile on his lips. It surprises Sakura somehow that Madara was able to talk so positively about someone. Most of the time he's monotone or dry witted, but family is different. It should have been obvious to Sakura, but somehow the fact that Madara seems to deeply love his family is surprising to him. In some ways, it's almost like she's looking for reasons to not like him. Make it easier to fight him in the future, but he's making it very hard to. Sakura's beginning to understand what Hashirama saw in him.

For all of his short comings, one being his inability to really express himself, Madara is not a bad guy.

They walk up to a nice big home, no doubt Madara's, in the center of the compound. He opens the door and steps aside, gesturing for Sakura to enter.

She doesn't move right away from right in front of the doorway. Instead, she asks dumbly, "I thought I was going to heal someone."

Madara looks down at her curiously. "You are," he says simply. Then after a moment of Sakura blankly staring at him, he elaborates, "He's in here."

"Ahh," Sakura says, stepping inside. She pulls off her shoes, laying them neatly in the corner before following Madara deeper into the house.

He stops outside a door and wraps on it with his knuckles, pausing to hear the soft, "Come in," before opening the door and stepping inside. Sakura follows him into a relatively plain room. There was very little presence in this room. If Sakura didn't plainly see a bed in the center of the room with someone sitting up on it, she would assume that no one lived here.

The man in the middle of the room is around Sakura's age. His black hair is long and bushy, going to his shoulders, contrast to his very pale skin. Uchiha naturally have pale skin, but this guy looks like he hasn't seen sunlight in a long time. When he turns his head toward them, his black hair falls into his large, pitch black eyes, obscuring them a bit. The dark blue kimono he was wearing is almost too big for him. The front is opened up a bit, revealing a thin strip of pale flesh. The covers are pooled around his waist.

"Madara," the boy says, black eyes strangely unfocused on them as the two approach him slowly, "welcome back."

"This is Sakura Haruno," Madara says softly, hands curled up into fists at his side. "She is the medical ninja I was telling you about."

He tilts his head slightly before saying, "You may sit," he makes a gesture vaguely to his left, closest to them. Sakura doesn't move for a moment, wondering who he was talking to before noticing Madara's eyes flickering over to her. Embarrassed, she lowers herself next to the Uchiha.

"How are you, Sakura-san?" the boy asks pleasantly, turning his black eyes toward the wall in front of him.

"I'm fine," Sakura says slowly, looking at him a little closer. He has lines under his eyes, similar to Madara's, and dark circles. "Having trouble sleeping?"

"A bit," he says, uninterested. "But that is nothing new."

Sakura doesn't say anything for a moment, looking at his prominent collar bone sticking out from under his kimono. She could almost make out the lines of his breast plate. He's no doubt malnourished.

"I see..." Skaura says, glancing over at Madara, who was looking between them anxiously.

The boy must have picked up on Madara's anxiety, even without looking at him, because he gruffly says, "Stop hovering, Madara. Go away. You wanted me to do this, so at least let me do it in peace."

Sakura blinks in surprise at the Uchiha's lack of respect, looking over at Madara, hoping to avoid some kind of altercation between the two. But instead of looking pissed off at the lack of formality from the younger boy, Madara looks ashamed. He mumbles something under his breath before slipping out the door, closing it softly behind him with a soft, "call me if you need me."

Once the door is shut, the boy sighs, "Clingy bastard."

Sakura's eyebrows shoot toward her hairline. "Well... you two are... close."

The boy laughs, smiling a bit, but never taking his eyes off the wall. "I should hope so. He's my big brother. Oh, forgive me for not introducing myself. I'm Izuna Uchiha."