Author's Note: I am so sorry for the long wait! Welcome to the new year, everyone! I have a lot of mixed feelings about this chapter, but I curious to see what you think of it! Thank you for over 1900 reviews! I appreciate it! I hope everyone had a wonderful start to their new year so far! Let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Warning: Language, talk of death for adults and children, OOCness and unbeta'd.

Word Count: 5,976

As Sakura's people threw themselves at one another, crying tears of joy and relief hugging anyone and everyone around them unbiased, not caring if they were shinobi, civilian, enemy or friend, Sakura felt like she could finally breathe again. The relief was so strong that they didn't care who it was. They wanted to share skinship with others for the sake of finally finding a glimmer of light after all of the terrible shit they've been through these last few weeks - or months, depending on how long some of them have been here - and the bonds between all of them grew stronger and stronger with every day that passed.

Sakura got more than a few hugs herself and with each and every one of them, a part of Sakura's heart feels empty for all of the people that they were still missing, all of those that may never make it to them. Like those that they know are gone, those they suspect are, those that should be here but for some reason, they aren't - whether it is because something went wrong when they went through to this side, or they were killed somehow once they got here. If Sakura had to think about it, as hard as it is knowing that someone is gone, not knowing, and wondering how it happened, is so much worse.

Sakura's last hug is to the old woman from the marketplace who makes - made or may still make - the best dango in Konoha. She is Anko's favorite.

Anko, Sakura hasn't seen her yet. Hopefully, she's out there somewhere. Sakura can only hope. She has a lot of people she's hoping about.

At the edge of her hearing, Sakura could hear her former sensei defending his poor taste in jokes with, "Don't you think the baited silence made the reveal more delightful?"

Only to be silenced with a sharp, "No, Kakashi, I don't," from an annoyed Tsunade and another crack to the ribs that Sakura's certain he's gonna feel tomorrow.

Someone in the corner of her vision - a flash of white and red - catches her eye. Over the old woman's head, Sakura's eyes find Tobirama's standing off in the forest, almost out of sight. He is quiet and in everyone's jubilance, Sakura wouldn't be surprised if he was missed by everyone. Or if they did notice him, they don't find him threatening. Well, why would they? They see him as their Second Hokage - even if there is a chance he may not be.

But Sakura sees him. She could pick him out of a crowd, she thinks. He's hard to miss.

Sakura didn't know she was walking up to him until she was already a few feet away from him. She blinks once, and she's already leaping into his arms, hugging him tightly. She knows. She can feel how hard this is for him. Whether he voted for them to stay or not, she didn't know, and couldn't just tell by the look on his face. But that didn't matter, not now. What's done is done. What matters is that Sakura knows that this has to be his biggest fear coming to life. Being so mistrustful by nature, even if he did vote in favor of them staying, it had to of been hard for him to hear this decision.

She's not sure why he's out here, but the deceptive little voice in the back of her whispers quietly of hoping that he was there to see her. That he was there to see how happy this made her, even if it made him miserable.

Like it was the first time in forever, Sakura feels relief wash over her in waves so powerful, she feels the tears sliding down her cheeks. She was willing to accept if they didn't want to mold the two Konoha's together because it was their home first and the true burden was being placed on the Founders, their clans, and their allies that all banded together to try and make this village work. She was willing to accept it if they weren't able to make that sacrifice. It was a lot to ask of anyone, especially strangers.

And while she was able to accept rejection, she really really wanted them to accept her and her village. She hadn't realized just how much until she tuned in to herself, holding tight to the future Second Hokage, wrapped around him like a viper, hugging him hard enough that it probably should hurt, alternating between "thank you" and "I'm sorry" in a shaking whisper in his ear.

He hugs her tightly back. Sakura doesn't know how he feels about any of this, other than the apprehension that is so tightly coiled in his muscles that she can feel in her fingertips along his shoulders. She can feel the muscles rippling along his shoulders and his jaw where her cheek is pressed against his. It couldn't have been easy, it couldn't have. But Sakura's going to do everything she can to make this as easy as she can. He has apprehension now, and maybe forever, but she will do what she can. He will know how thankful she is for this, no matter what.


It feels like years, but it's only been a few weeks of working to build up the new section of Konoha, in no way segregated, thankfully, for Sakura and her people to live in so that they can co-exist peacefully in Konoha until they are officially unified. Winter is upon them now. One night the rain turned to snow and coated the Land of Fire in a thin layer of white. Most of it melted the following day, but since then it has steadily been getting colder and colder days and nights. Thankfully, many of the able-bodied civilian men and women were used to rebuilding their homes after the traumatic events that tore Konoha to the ground more than once, and seeing as they weren't strangers to expansion in the Leaf, a lot of people knew how to build homes. Teams of builders banded together to start making homes for the people and with the monstrous amounts of available free labor from the Shinobi, they were able to build multiple homes every few days.

They weren't pretty and people had to huddle together in pods of unusual groups, but they were able to adapt and accept it until more homes were built. They were just happy to get out of the cold and somewhere relatively warm. People are willing to accept anything at this point so long as it gets them out of the cold. Sakura has opened up her home to orphaned children. She was going to allow it to be somewhere to put the injured to keep them out of the cold and help their recovery, but their saving grace appeared before she had the chance. She even cleared out all of her things when Captain Yamato came from the forest.

He was tired and grim, having awakened somewhere in the Land of Lightning, and had spent over two weeks running as fast as he could, first to the Valley of the End, where he found a few other people waiting there, a few civilians, a Hyuuga, two Inuzuka ninken and a genin, and with them came all the way to Konoha. He was quick to get debriefed by Kakashi before going straight to work using his Woodstyle to create a large, one-story building off to the side for them to put the injured from both Konohas.

There was still injured on the Founding side from the war and resulting wounds from growing a village and everyday problems, so everyone is being pulled together to open up more room. The medical space set aside for the Founding clan's injured is moved over to the other side for more of their people to get out of the cold. It was strange for them, and people were anxious about being around so many strange people, but Sakura's presence, someone everyone recognized, gave them a bit of relief.

Ino was quickly becoming familiar and Salma and Aya were welcomed faces. Sakura's people were in awe being around Uchiha and Senju, looking at them as if they were ethereal beings. Everyone was respectful to Tsunade. The Founding clans picked up quickly that Tsunade was someone very important and were quick to offer theirs as well. Women aren't as highly respected in this time, but when scores of people keep bowing to one every time she walks past, in order to not feel left out, the Founding clans follow suit to not feel left out.

Social norms are a hell of a thing.

Respect came more naturally when they realized she was a Senju and connected to the Senju main bloodline.

Needless to say, someone else using Woodstyle brought forth a lot of questions. Kakashi took some time to speak with the Founders again, no doubt to explain what happened with Yamato and how he became what he is. She knows that had to of been hard to hear, but Sakura, in the middle of running some errands for the foreman of the expansion of Konoha, Sakura spotted Hashirama pulling Yamato aside and talking with him.

It was the next day when Sakura was taking a walk with Izuna to ensure he was still healing well from his injuries, Sakura spotted Hashirama and Yamato in what would one day be one of the training grounds, showing each other their different techniques. Something that Sakura had noticed being different between the two of them was that Yamato's woodstyle was like smooth blocks of wood, whereas Hashirama's were like branches from a tree.

"They are getting along well," Sakura murmurs, offering a little smile. Izuna nods, coughing a bit into his elbow.

"Yeah, like a married couple."

Sakura offers him a coy smile, making a mental note to make something for his cough and hope that his compromised immune system is to blame and not the unwelcome wave of bacteria from all of the new people, both of her time and his. "Your brother is going to be so jealous." Izuna grins playfully, dark eyes twinkling in mirth.

"I think this will be good for us," Izuna says, wrapping his arms around himself to block out the cold a bit more.

"What, this union?" Sakura asks, walking by his side. They leave Yamato and Hashirama to continue what they were doing.

Izuna nods. "Yeah, we all have our worries, but so far, so good. Hopefully, I'm not jinxing it, and there is definitely some strong shell shock, but we are managing better than I had hoped as of right now."

Sakura couldn't agree more. She is just going to keep the mindset of one day at a time and proceed with that thought. There is a lot of culture shock right now and everyone - of both Konohas - are scrambling to get their people out of the cold. Before Sakura's people showed up, there were still people living in tents outside. Now everyone is hustling and don't have a lot of time to stare vacant-eyed at one another. That will come in time, she's sure.

"How do you feel?" Sakura asks, walking leisurely beside the younger Uchiha brother.

"I'm okay," Izuna says. "Stronger every day. I've gotten back into my jutsu, but Madara is still hovering." He shakes his head. "He still worries, I know, but I need some space. This integration has taken so much of his attention, it's been the reprieve that I needed."

Sakura rolls her eyes playfully. "He's just worried about you."

Izuna gives a little half smile. "I know."

Sakura and Izuna make their way over to the two woodstyle users. Both greet them with smiles. Yamato's dark eyes land on Izuna curiously, but there isn't any sort of shift in his expression to reveal his thoughts or feelings. Sakura gives her former Captain a hug, this being the first time that she's been able to get close to him since he returned. His ability to build structurally sound buildings in almost no time has made him invaluable.

This has been one of the few times that he's had any time to himself.

"How are you, Captain Yamato?" Sakura asks.

Yamato smiles, hugging her tightly before pulling back. "I'm good. How about you, Sakura? Kakashi-sama told me about your memory loss. Are you okay?"

Sakura smiles back at him, having missed him too. "I'm okay, Captain. Does that mean that you aren't experiencing any memory loss?"

Yamato nods. "Yes, I'm one of a few that isn't experiencing any holes in my memories. I hear a lot of people have it pretty bad. But it is coming back, right? I think that was what I heard."

Sakura crosses her arms over her chest as she nods, sparing a smiling in Hashirama's direction, which he's quick to return without a second thought, before looking back over at ANBU member. "Yes. It's coming back for me, and I've heard that a lot of people are starting to remember the things that they forgot. It's a slow process but with so much else to focus on, people have been able to take it in stride. Which is good."

Yamato nods in agreement. "That's good to hear. I just wished that I could have been here sooner. I might have been able to get more done."

"You're here now," Sakura says, and means it. If she had known - or remembered - that this was a possibility then she would have taken all the steps that she could to ensure that more people were out of the cold today than there are. And she was here for months! She would have been able to help get a lot of things done in that time before now, but she couldn't because she didn't remember that her people would have nowhere to go. Nevermind that she wouldn't have been able to know if they would have been able to stay or not.

It's the principle.

"I'll make the best of it," Yamato says, then turns dark eyes toward Izuna, tipping his head in greeting. "My lord, I am called Yamato. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Izuna tips his head back. "Same to you, Yamato-san. I am Izuna Uchiha, Madara Uchiha's younger brother." Yamato's facial expressions are well controlled from his years of working as an ANBU, so it would be hard for anyone to be able to read his expression, but even after knowing him as long as she had, Sakura didn't see even the slightest shift in Izuna's words. If Sakura didn't know any better, she would assume that he hadn't heard Izuna say that he was Madara's little brother. Or, maybe Yamato just isn't the type of person to hold a grudge like that.

"Captain Yamato was the co-Captain of my team with Kakashi-sensei when he led it," Sakura says. "Before he became Hokage. Kakashi-sensei becoming Hokage, not Captain Yamato."

Izuna and Hashirama's heads bob up and down in understanding. Sakura's not sure how much they understand, but at least it's enough that they aren't asking any questions. Curious about the uniqueness of Yamato and his situation, the two take a moment to step aside and speak, giving Hashirama the time to step closer to her and say, "I saw you hug Tobirama the other day."

Sakura blinks in confusion, a splash of heat washing across her face. She swallows a few times to push down the feeling. "Oh? I didn't know that you were there."

Hashirama smiles. "I didn't want to overwhelm you." He folds his hands neatly in front of himself. "It may not seem like much, but it means a lot that you are so understanding of his position."

Sakura's green eyes widen in surprise. "What do you mean? Of course, I'm understanding! I know how he is. At least, enough to know that regardless of which way he voted, this was going to be the toughest thing for him to do. I understand, and I'm sympathetic. I want to try and make this as easy as possible for him. Well," she waves her hand around, "for all of you, I mean."

Hashirama reaches up and tucks some loose brown hair behind his ear. "And I thank you. This hasn't been easy for any of us, but you and your people are trying your hardest to make this the best that it can be. It's nice to see my ideas that I want to imbue into my people, is working full force in your own. It's a relief to see that it is possible. It gives me a lot of hope."

Sakura feels so touched. It's empowering to know that she helps that. That she lives her life believing in what her version of the First Hokage wanted them to learn and live by, and it mirrors what the man standing just a few feet away from her wants too.

"It may seem really late now, but I never got the chance to say something to you earlier about the seal Tobirama made for you," Hashirama says suddenly, surprising Sakura. She blinks a few times fast, taking a moment to try and remember what it was he was talking about. It feels like these last few months have been jam-packed full of things that the seal that Tobirama made for her just before she left feels like an eternity ago.

She feels the invisible seals burn against her skin in remembrance. She travels back in time to that moment, sitting at her table with Tobirama's hand on her wrists, and her ankles, and then the back of the neck. The seals still filling with chakra burn, but not as hot as the memory of his hands.

Sakura quickly shakes the feeling away, feeling her face flush a little bit. "It's nothing. He really helped me out."

"You made him happy by asking him." Hashirama crosses his arms over his chest. "It meant a lot that you asked him for help."

"He told me that people would tend to ask you for those things after learning that you both can do the same thing," Sakura admits. Hashirama looks surprised by that like he couldn't believe that Tobirama would have admitted that to her.

Carefully, Hashirama says, "I know that I am particularly talented. I take pride in my talents, but I can promise you, I wouldn't have been able to make a better seal than the one you got form Tobirama. It's terrible, I know that he is amazing. It makes me happy that you were able to see that too." He smiles and Sakura can't help but smile back.

"I can."

"He has been living in my shadow ever since I awakened my ability in woodstyle, and he doesn't deserve that. He's better than anyone gives him credit for. I don't know exactly what you said to him, but you made him very happy that night. So thank you."

Sakura smiles a bit brighter at him. It meant a lot to her that he was willing to help her. She's happy that he got something out of it as well. And has to admit that Hashirama is a really good big brother. He genuinely cares about his little brother. He wants people to see how awesome he sees his little brother is because that is exactly how he sees him.

"We should let you two get back to training," Izuna says, giving a little nod to Sakura. His words pull Sakura back to the training field. Yes, they had interrupted the two woodstyle users. "It was nice meeting you, Yamato."

Yamato tips his head, with a little smile on his face. "You as well, Lord Izuna. I will see you later, Sakura."

The pink haired medical shinobi nods, giving the men a little wave before following Izuna away to give the other two a chance to return to what they were doing before they were bothered.

"Hey, Sakura!"

Sakura and Izuna stop a few yards away, turning to look over her shoulder to see Ino walking over to them, long blond hair swaying behind her. She stops in front of them, closing the circle between the three of them.

"What's up, Ino?" Sakura asks.

"So, you're house has been cleared out for the orphanage. It's not ideal, but it definitely works and gets the kids out of the cold. It's tight, but we can make the best of it." She turns light blue eyes to Izuna, offering him a sweet smile. "Hi."

"Hi," Izuna says, offering a little smile back. "I'm Izuna Uchiha."

Ino's smile grows a bit. "Ino Yamanaka. Nice to meet you, handsome." She winks at him before looking back over at Sakura, who is staring back at her with a raised eyebrow. "Thanks for giving up your house, Sakura. Old lady Miya is going to look after the kids there. She wanted to talk to you whenever you're free."

Sakura nods, crossing her arms over her chest, amused. "Alright. I'll go speak to her in a bit."

Ino nods back, turning her pretty blue eyes toward Izuna, offering him another sultry wink before turning and heading off. Sakura turns to look at the Uchiha heir, noting how his dark eyes watch her go with a curious look on his face, pursing her lips contemplatively before giving him a playful elbow to the rib to draw his attention back to her.

"What?" He asks a hint of a defensive note in his tone.

"I was just making sure your eyes didn't pop out of your head by watching the way her hips sway," Sakura says teasingly.

Izuna's face turns bright red, an indignant look crossing his features. "No! I would never be so disrespectful! I didn't! I mean..." he stutters, staring at Sakura's amused expression. "I would never be so vulgar and rude! Not to your friend especially."

Sakura laughs, shaking her head. "I'm just messing with you. Trust me, I'm used to people oogling after my best friend. She's gorgeous."

Izuna flushes deeply, looking away from Sakura, embarrassed. Sakura can't help but grin at him. It's true, though. Sakura's very much used to her beautiful best friend getting a lot of attention. Izuna's attention is surprising, but not unbelievable. Even amongst the Yamanaka, Ino's got the brightest blond hair and the clearest blue eyes. Compared to an Uchiha who's all dark eyes and hair, she's very appealing to the eye.

"Come on," Sakura says, giving her friend a little playful nudge. "I want to make you something for that cough."

"I'm okay," Izuna says easily but follows along.

"Sure," Sakura says, lowering her eyes to the ground to keep an eye out for herbs she'll need. "But your immune system is still compromised. We want to make sure you stay strong okay? Better to give you something to boost your immune system rather than try and beat down a sickness after it's already taken hold." Sakura's not sure if it's Izuna's already compromised immune system, the change in weather, the influx of foreign bacteria, or perhaps a mixture of the three, but she doesn't want this to become a problem.

Maybe she is going to need to get with Lady Tsunade to talk about this the next chance they get. The last thing she would want if for sickness to begin running rampant around their village, especially since they don't have a hospital - a real hospital - and the staff to be able to handle a village-wide sickness. They just have to be on top of things and hope that if something happens, it doesn't happen until after they are more established. It's wishful thinking and sickness will hit on its timetable, not theirs, but she can hope.

"Yes, ma'am," Izuna says, letting out a sigh.

Sakura grins wickedly. "Maybe I'll ask Ino if she can come to take care of you for me. You know, for a change of pace."

Izuna's face turns red as he glares at her. "That's enough of that, Sakura."

Sakura throws her head back to laugh, rubbing at her arms as a particularly cold chill brushes through them.


A few more weeks go by and with Yamato's help, coupled with a bit of training for Hashirama in constructing structures with his woodstyle, there is a dramatic increase in the number of homes and buildings put up. Plus with the master builders that are from Sakura's people are able to educate the Founding clans and their people how to properly build bigger, better building that can support more people and are up to building codes for Sakura's time rather than the degree of trial and error that their time would have.

At least, outside of big cities like the Capitals.

The idea is, right now, to make single story homes, but they want to build a strong enough foundation that they can make apartment building which will house more people, but the idea is for them to be temporary. A lot of the families that founded this village are large, a few dozen people per family at least. They are more interested in large family compounds, which is fine, and how Sakura can imagine her people are going to eventually transition. For now, people just need large, sturdy homes for their families to survive the winter. When summer comes back around, they then can become more particular.

As that time went by, more people showed up as well. One of Kakashi's ninken, Biscuit shows up alongside a team of Chunin, an Inuzuka, two Genin and a few civilians was the largest of the groups that appeared. Needless to say, Kakashi was so happy to see Biscuit, going so far as to make a public display of admitting to everyone around that Biscuit was the one he was worried the most about. Sakura knows that wasn't true, but it got him a few laughs as he cuddles the little dog to him with a happy smile on his face.

Sakura's Yin seal was finally filled up enough to appear again as well, which drew her into a conversation with Tobirama when he saw it, intrigued to see it in person. He had a lot of questions and Sakura was happy to answer all of them. It was nice to spend an afternoon talking about seals, namely Sakura's seeing as her knowledge was limited about any others, and it eventually moved on to them just talking about anything. Jutsu, Konoha, how they are doing, really anything that they could touch on.

It was nice after so many stressful weeks that they were able to just down and talk about anything and everything. They were able to move to the meeting building to talk for a while, and eventually, Hashirama, Madara, and Izuna found their way to them. Sakura had a good time laughing and joking with them when there was a knock at the door.

Mid-laugh, Hashirama calls out, "Come on in!"

The door slides open and Salma pokes her head in. Her bright green eyes scan the room and land on Sakura, smiling faintly, looking very nervous. she wore the expression on her face so clearly that Sakura could sense the anxiety spike in the room as all four men immediately assumed something was wrong. Even Sakura began to worry.

"Is everything alright?" Tobirama asks, voice falling flat, ready to take on each and every threat that could be coming their way.

"Oh," Salma says, stepping inside slowly. She flushes in embarrassment. "Yes, my lord. I'm sorry. I thought that you would be alone, Lord Tobirama, Lord Hashirama. I am so sorry for interrupting."

The room visibly relaxes.

"I thought that the world was ending," Hashirama says, rubbing his forehead. "And you're okay, Salma. What's going on?"

Salma hesitates, looking around the room. Sakura's eyes lower to her friend's hands, seeing them clenched tightly into fists around one another, shaking. She looks absolutely terrified. She looks away as if looking for her backbone. Whatever she came here for, she looks like she's losing the will to broach the topic. Sakura can't even begin to imagine what it is that would make her so scared, especially of Hashirama!

"It's nothing," Salma says, eyes on her toes. "I am so sorry for bothering you, my lords, Sakura-sensei."

"Salma," Sakura starts but Hashirama's already picked up on her behavior.

"Salma? Are you okay?" He stands up and walks over to her. "Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you?" He looks her up and down, searching for any injuries. The closer he gets, the more she pulls herself inward, as if to fall into herself.

Sakura can't imagine what it could be that has Salma so scared. She hopes that no one has actually hurt her. Sakura is gonna kick some ass if someone hurt her friend. No questions about it.

"No," Salma says, shaking her head. "No one hurt me, my Lord. I promise. I just... I know now isn't the time, but I just wanted..." She rubs at her forehead, turning her green eyes past Hashirama to Sakura, as if begging the other girl to help her. Sakura would love to, she just didn't have any idea what she needed help with. Sakura couldn't help but wonder if this has anything to do with the boy that she's been dating in secret. When she's feeling particularly bold, she will tell Sakura about him. Apparently, he's wonderful and kind and perfect for her in every way possible.

But she's keeping him close to her chest. She hasn't told Sakura a lot of personal stuff about him, keeping his identity a secret. Sakura isn't sure why, but she can understand not wanting to share every aspect of her personal life, but Sakura would be lying if she said that she wasn't curious. At least a little bit. She didn't want to push the issue, and so long as Salma is safe, Sakura will keep her distance respectfully.

But what if she wasn't safe anymore?

"Is this about that guy you're dating, Salma?" Sakura asks, narrowing her eyes dangerously. "Did he hurt you?"

Salma's nice lightly tanned skin turns white in horror. "Oh, no! Of course not!"

"You're what?" Hashirama asks dark eyebrows pulled together in confusion and worry. "What's a date? What is going on? Did he hurt you?"

"No!" Salma shakes her head briskly. "No! We aren't... we..." She looks around, nervously. "We are seeing each other... not officially, of course. I figured I should hold off with everything that's going on... because you don't need more to think about... but..." She fiddles with her fingers in front of herself, looking more and more frightened. She can't even look at him.

"You aren't bothering us," Hashirama says, settling his hands on Salma's shoulders.

"It's just..." Salma says softly right as another knock on the door makes her stop. She looks over at the door as it opens up to reveal Keigo Uchiha. He slides his shoes off and steps into the room.

"Keigo?" Madara murmurs, confused.

It takes Sakura a second to figure out why he was there, but as soon as he stepped up next to Salma, she knew. He didn't touch her, but the look he gave her said it all. He is in love with her. And for the life of her, Sakura can't figure out why Salma is so afraid. Why she would be so against speaking about him, especially because of the look that she gave him in return. She loved him too.

Why is she so scared?

"What's wrong, Keigo?" Izuna asks. "Is something wrong?"

Keigo shakes his head slowly, looking much more composed, but just as nervous. "No, my lord," he murmurs. He looks down at Salma again, as she looks up at him and it's in that moment that Hashirama seemed to realize what was going on. And instead of playful curiosity or innocence, like Sakura had expected, he frowned and pulled his hands back from Salma's shoulders. A dark, unreadable look crosses over his face that seems to frighten both of them more.

"Hashirama-sama, I know it is forbidden for a Senju and an Uchiha to fall in love but..." Salma says slowly before reaching out to take Keiga's hand, looking absolutely petrified. "But I do..." Sakura's heart picks up in her chest, realizing in horror why Salma was so scared now. Forbidden? Of course it would be! Two warring clans would punish those that somehow fell in love with one another.

Keigo gives Salma's hand a squeeze before lowering down to his knees, then to his hands as well bend down so low that his forehead touches the floor. "I know that I have no right to ask, my lords, but I wish to marry Salma Senju." Salma is quick to drop to her knees, her hands being the only thing that stopped her forehead from smaking into the ground.

"Please, my lord... with the new alliance with the Uchiha..."

"Oh," Madara says, frowning as well. Hashirama looks over his shoulder at his best friend.

"This is a problem," Hashirama says, a split second of sadness crosses his face. The two clan leaders communicate with their eyes before Hashiram turns back to look at the two. "It is against our laws to marry outside of the clan without the clan leader's permission, and it is forbbiden to marry an Uchiha or their allies."

Both of them flinch. Sakura moves to stand, to intervine to protect her friend from these obviously archaic and no longer realistic law, but Tobirama grabs onto her arm to stop her, pulling her back down next to him. She opens her mouth to protest but the hard look he sends her way stops her.

"It is one of our oldest laws, Sakura," Tobirama says. "There will be no mixing of the bloodlines. Since the war began people have tried to bridge the family gap by having the children of a warring clan or marrying in secret, but it has all ended the same."

"How?" Sakura asks, terrified she already knows the answer. Keigo and Salma physically flinch again, knowing the answer all too well.

"Same with the Senju as it was for the Uchiha, huh?" Izuna says, his voice cold and his expression dark. "They die. The betrayer of the clan, the man or woman of the opposing clan is hunted and killed, and any children born from it? Killed. Called mongrels and half-blooded abominations."