Author's Note: Hello, my lovelies! I know it's been a long time and you all hate me, but know that I love you and always will. XD I am so sorry about the long wait and the short chapter! I'm liking this chapter, but it's 1:30 at night right now and I've been working all day so we will have to see how I feel in the morning. Thank you all so much for your support! I just love hearing what you have to say, it really inspires me! We are finally getting some answers and more questions. Let me know what you think! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Warnings: Language, OOCness, Un-beta'd.
Word Count: 5,081
It's a few hours later that Sakura happened to run across Madara on her way over to his house. She had been looking everywhere for him since she left the main household for the Senju, leaving Tobirama and Hashirama behind to talk. Apparently, a messenger had arrived from the Capital in regards to their discussion. It took Sakura a moment to recall when this discussion had occurred. But it was right before she left. In fact, the meeting was held just before she left the village to go to the Valley of the End.
She went from the meeting house, the training fields, to all around the village until finally heading for his home. Thankfully she made it only two feet into the compound before Madara called out to her.
He waves her over to the house he's standing by. There are three men with him, all significantly older than both of them. Their hair graying and faced lined from many years in wartime. She meanders over to catch the tail end of what Madara was saying to them.
"Ensure that the cave is marked for the patrols. Winter is upon us so the bears are going to be sleeping until spring comes around, but we don't want to risk them waking up early and wandering into the village," Madara says, crossing his arms over his chest. The three men's heads bob up and down. They tip their heads to her before leaving to do as asked of them.
"Bear problems?" Sakura asks, raising her eyebrow curiously as she stops next to the Uchiha clan leader.
Madara shakes his head. "It's being handled. I wouldn't worry about it." Sakura quirks an eyebrow. "It's fine. I'm assuming that bears were a problem in your village too?"
Sakura nods. "Yeah, there was this den that seemed to be picked every few years by bears to inhabit on the west facing part of the mountain that we would have to keep an eye on." Sakura notices the bland look that crosses over Madara's face. "Oh, oops. I guess I could have mentioned that, right?" Sakura lets out a little laugh at the irony. This might not be her past, but there is still enough the same to make it feel like it is. "I'm sorry! At this point, I don't know what could help and what would put needless worry on your plate."
Madara waves her worry away like it was an annoying buzzard. "Was there something that you needed, Sakura?"
"Hashirama-sama said I should check in on you," Sakura says, crossing her arms over her chest. Then she remembers that she wasn't supposed to say that, and offers him a sheepish grin when he glared at the ground. His anger was more annoyance but it passed easily. He lets out a long winded sigh, reaching up to scratch the back of his head, suddenly appearing to be nervous.
His dark eyes flicker around to ensure that they were alone before looking back over at Sakura and dropping his voice low to ask, "Do you have time?"
Her interest is perked, to say the least. She nods. "That's why I'm here." A sudden thought occurred to her and worry stabs at her gut. "Is it Izuna? Is he okay?" She thinks about the cough he had the last time she saw him. She should have checked up on him to ensure that he would be okay. Stupid, stupid, stupid! If he's sick because of her negligence, she's going to scream.
"No," Madara says quickly. "It's not about Izuna." Sakura lets out a sigh of relief. "Well, actually, it is." Sakura gasps, eyes widening. Seeing her alarm Madara quickly pushes on before she can lose her mind and smack the hell out of him for just lying to her so blatantly, "It's about Izuna but he's not hurt or anything. It's about Izuna and myself, actually."
Sakura sucks in a deep breath, trying to swallow her instant anger and worry. She holds onto her anxiety for a moment longer to see if he was going to change his answer on her again before finally letting the worry drop from her shoulders and a whoosh of air from her lungs. She eyes the Uchiha patriarch wearily to see if he'll jerk her around anymore today or if that was going to be the extent of it before asking, hesitantly, "Is something wrong?"
Madara has the decency to look enough ashamed that she can't be mad. "Not really," he says illusively. "If you have time, I would like to speak with you in private. Well, with Izuna there, as well, as it also concerns him."
Concerned but not nearly as anxious anymore Sakura says, "Well, I'm free now if you want to talk."
Madara nods, looking a bit relieved that she wasn't mad at him, although in those twelve seconds of conversation she felt like she aged ten years. "Izuna should still be at my house. Let's try to catch him before he goes out to training."
Sakura agrees and follows him back to his house, timing it perfectly that Izuna was walking out the front door as they were walking up the steps. He jumps at the sight of them before looking between the two of them.
"What's up?"
"Do you have a minute?" Madara asks. "I wanted to have that discussion with Sakura now. Can you hold off training for a minute?"
Izuna nods before beckoning one of their clansmen over to him. "Do me a favor and go to the lake and let Ino know that I'm going to be late." The Uchiha nods and races off. Izuna looks over at the two and pushes the door open, stepping back into the house and kicking his shoes off again. "Well, let's do this."
"Oh," Madara says slowly, following his brother into their house, also removing his shoes. Sakura follows in last, closing the door behind herself. "I'm sorry, bother, I thought that you were going out to train, not..." He didn't seem to know what to call his baby brother meeting with Sakura's best friend. "Were we... interrupting something?" He quirks an eyebrow, intrigued. Sakura and Madara both share looks, eyebrows raised.
Izuna waves his apology away, ignoring the looks that his brother and friend were sharing with each other. "It'll be fine. It wasn't anything so pressing that she won't mind waiting for a moment. Besides, she said that she was probably going to be late this morning anyway."
Sakura snorts as she sits across the two brothers at the table. Unable to help herself, she looks Izuna up and down and asks, "How do you feel? How's your cough?" Madara seems like more of the worrywart when it comes to his brother, so she's sure he's not too bad, but it doesn't mean that she can't worry about his health independently.
Izuna waves his hand around dismissively. "I'm fine, Sakura. Thanks. I think it's all better."
"For now," Sakura says slowly. "Winter is still coming and there is a lot of foreign bacteria being introduced to everyone. On both sides. Make sure to keep yourselves as healthy as you can. Wash your hands, cook your food thoroughly and don't sneeze or cough on anyone."
"Yes ma'am," both brothers chime in obediently.
Sakura cracks a smile at that for a moment before getting down to business. "So what's going on? What did you guys want to talk to me about, if not Izuna's health?"
Both brothers share a look as if trying to decide on who was going to be the one to explain to her what was going on. She's not sure how she feels about that. Surely it isn't anything bad, right? And neither seem too much worse for wear considering the situation that they are in. Everyone is looking a bit haggard if she has to be honest. She's not a beacon of beauty and perfection either. This transition has been kinder than expected but not as smooth as they were all hoping. The weather isn't helping either.
Sakura hopes that they are going to be okay. No doubt the public health has been the center of Tsunade's focus, which is why Sakura probably hasn't seen her Master in a few weeks.
Izuna lets out a long-winded sigh before leaning forward so that his elbows rest on the table and he turns his dark eyes toward her. "Okay, so Madara and I have been talking, and going through my training has helped me regain my strength I'm almost back to where I was before I was injured." He hesitates for a moment, looking down at the table before returning his eyes to hers. "Even after all this time, my body remembered how to get back into the groove of everything, but it's getting harder and harder for me to see. I was able to live with it before when I never left my room and couldn't even use my Sharingan, but I think my sight is getting worse."
Sakura's eyebrows pull together a bit and she lets out a little sigh. "Oh no. Noticeably so?"
Izuna nods. "I know that we figured that this was going to happen, but I didn't think it would happen so quickly." He taps his fingers against the table, wilting a little bit. "So Madara and I have been talking about solutions."
Sakura stares back at them, interlacing her fingers together. "Yeah? I thought that you didn't want to... well, desecrate the bodies of your family. And I'm saying that not because I disagree, but because I just wanted to make sure we were all still on the same page." She looks between them.
Madara and Izuna share a look with one another before Izuna nods slowly and Madara picks up where Izuna left off, finally getting to the point, "We were spitballing ideas and came to the conclusion that there might be an option we hadn't thought of."
Or, maybe there was still a bit more prompting until they got to the point. "Oh?" Sakura inquires, not sure where they were going with this.
"Izuna and I trade eyes," Madara says. Their idea slapping Sakura across the face. Her mind starts racing a million miles a minute running through all sorts of scenarios in her mind, trying to do the math and run the probabilities. She's never performed a surgery like this. She's done complex transplants with the eyes of Hyuuga, but Sakura is aware of the difference between an Uchiha's eye and a Hyuuga's eye.
Given, Sakura hasn't done extensive study on an Uchiha eye as she has with a Hyuuga's but just from the preliminary stuff she'd seen with Izuna's eyes while she was caring for him, she did note some differences. She knew there was a chance that she would have been asked to transfer eyes to Izuna's, but she figured that it would have been the eyes of a dead Uchiha. But Madara was going to have to convince him of it, no doubt. He seemed really adamant about not wanting it before, and Sakura was ready and willing to respect that, but she also guessed that Madara would press the issue as Izuna's sight declined.
She hadn't thought of the brothers switching eyes, though. She wasn't even all that sure it was possible. Or if it would even work out in their favor if they had. It just wasn't something that she had considered. She drums her fingers on the table between herself and the brothers, trying to get her brain to function properly, but it's splitting into a hundred different pieces trying to cover all the information that she's been offered int this one sitting.
A knock at the door draws all three sets of eyes toward it. After a breath, Madara stands up and goes to it. He vanishes around the corner and a few minutes later he reappears with Ino at his back.
"Oh, hey!" Ino says, catching Sakura's eye. She looks over at Izuna. "You okay? Your clansmen said that you were being held up. I just wanted to check on you."
Izuna blushes, looking away. "I'm fine, Ino-san."
Sakura props her elbow onto the table and her chin onto her fist, staring at her best friend. "Why hello there, stranger. What are you doing here?"
"Hey," Ino says, offering Sakura a sheepish smile before taking the place next to her. "Izuna-sama offered to show me around the village." Ino shrugs her shoulders, not really looking Sakura in the eye.
Sakura sticks her tongue onto the inside of her cheek, casting a slow look over at Madara, who looks beyond amused, staring pointedly at the side of his younger brother's head, who seemed unable to look at him. He meets her gaze for a moment, quirking his eyebrows, a smile spreading across his face before he looks back over at Izuna.
"Show you around?" Sakura clarifies.
"Yep," Ino says, still avoiding eye contact.
"Around our own home village?" Sakura asks, just so she understands this correctly. The smile on her face almost hurts.
Ino's eyes find the ceiling, staring at it for a moment, as if trying to see if there was a way out of this but doesn't appear to come up with anything as she says, very slowly, "Yep."
Madara leans in really close to the side of Izuna's head, watching with sick glee as his little brother shrinks beneath his gaze, fair skin turning bright red in embarrassment. "We should lay off, Sakura. My sweet, loving little brother would never dare lie to his older, caring brother. He wouldn't dare sneak behind my back just to try and secretly woo a pretty girl. My baby brother wouldn't do that." Sakura tries to control her snickering. "Not my little Izuna."
"Kami, shut up," Izuna grumbles, pulling his fringe into his face to try and hide his embarrassment.
Madara grins over at Sakura, who shakes her head. "You're right, Madara-sama, I apologize for giving them the third degree," she teases.
"Bitch," Ino mutters, shooting a glare Sakura's way. Sakura offers her an innocent smile.
"Actually Ino," Sakura says, sobering up, "in all seriousness, you came at a good time." The mood returns neutral as they all get back into the conversation at hand. Both brothers focus on the pink-haired girl again. Sakura tells Ino about the brother's plan to switch out their eyes before asking her best friend, "Do you think something like that would work?"
Ino turns a bit to look out the open sliding door behind her, staring into the open backyard for a moment, considering, before she looks back over at Sakura and nods."Yeah, I think that it will work. I mean, I don't know if it's ever been done before, so I don't know for sure, but it sounds kind of like a loophole." She turns her body back toward them completely, looking between Sakura and the brothers. "I mean, from what we understood, Itachi's vision was almost completely gone when his eyes were transferred to Sasuke."
"Who's that?" Madara asks. "I remember Sasuke, but who's Itachi."
"Sasuke's older brother," Sakura says, before looking back over at Ino. "How was Sasuke's vision afterward? I don't really remember. I know he could see, but he had his Sharingan activated at the time." In Sakura's memory, she does see Sasuke without his Sharingan briefly, so maybe that answers her question. He didn't seem to have any problems from the flashes that she sees.
"Good," Ino says, shrugging her shoulders. "As far as I know, his vision was perfect again. I think it had gotten to the point where he has started utilizing his Mangekyo so much that he was starting to notice the loss of sight. Not a lot, though, mind you. But it went away with the transfer. It also gave him the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan."
"It doesn't have to be the eyes of someone who's dead, does it?" Sakura asks.
Ino shrugs her shoulders, "How would the eyes know that?"
Sakura doesn't respond right away, realizing how silly her question was, and wondering why she hadn't thought of that to begin with. There wasn't a way for the eyes to know that, and unless there was some sort of curse that they didn't know about still, then surely it should be able to work. Sakura is starting to feel a little bit better about the thought of this. Now that she had at least something to go off of, her mind was starting to plan out how they would proceed with all that.
Both brothers look at Sakura. "Do you think it'll work?" Izuna asks, hope laced with the words. He wants to believe. He wants to have hope. But he doesn't want to be let down.
Sakura considers how it would all work. If everything Ino said was true and what they believe is true, then Sakura doesn't see a reason why not help them. Sakura is pulled back in time to the last time they talked about this when Izuna was just getting better. He had denied exchanging eyes because Sakura thought it could only be done with the eyes of a member of the family who passed away. But it makes sense that it wouldn't have to be. She's just an idiot and hadn't thought about it. Maybe because the only stories she knew of were done by one living and one dead.
Still, she feels really dumb.
But then again, she is basing all of this on stories and half-memories so she's trying her best. Even if her best is sub-par.
"Yes," Sakura says slowly. "I think it might. But just know, I have never done a surgery like that involving Uchiha. As you must know, the eyes of an Uchiha are different from the eyes of everyone else, seeing as you are one of the few clans in the world with doujutsu. The only other clan that I have operated on that had anything to do with their eyes, was the Hyuuga, and from what little I've seen of an Uchiha's eyes, yours are trickier than theirs are."
Fascinated, Madara asks, "How so?"
"I'd been helping out in the clinic, as well as my treatment of Izuna so I know only the basics, but from what I'd seen the veins and chakra vessels running into the eyes that allow both blood and chakra to run through are structured differently. A Hyuuga's veins expand when chakra runs through them, an Uchiha's does not. They have more elasticity than yours do which makes them a little bit harder to damage and more malleable."
Izuna considers for a moment, taking in what Sakura's said, before asking, in complete seriousness, "Will you do it?"
"I've never done it before," Sakura admits. "There is a chance Lady Tsunade has dealt with - "
Izuna and Madara are already shaking their heads before Sakura can even finish. "I know that you trust Lady Tsunade, as your sensei," Izuna says, sharing a look with his older brother before looking back over at Sakura, "and maybe this is foolish of us, but we don't really know her. We know you, and we trust you."
"This is your clan's secret," Sakura points out.
"And I don't want it in the hands of a Senju," Madara says, straight-faced. Sakura bulks, completely thrown off by that. Ino jumps too, surprised as well. Madara's lips quirk up a second later, showing that he was joking. "I'm kidding. But we want you, Sakura."
There is a moment of hesitation before Sakura also points out, "But this is your sight that we are talking about. Both of yours." She looks between the two brothers. "If I mess up, you could be blind. You could get massive headaches for the rest of your lives. I could somehow cross wires and make it impossible for you to use your Sharingan. I don't know if you guys understand."
Izuna and Madara share a look, communicating with their eyes. Sakura watches as Izuna squints, wondering how she didn't notice how bad it has gotten. Sakura shoots Ino a sad look, which is returned with a sympathetic frown.
"We want you, Sakura," Madara says, turning to look at the pink-haired girl. "We trust you. We don't care who else you bring into this, or what preparation needs to be made, but we want you no matter what."
Sakura opens her mouth when Izuna cut her off, "And before you ask, yes, we are sure."
Madara is nodding in agreement and Sakura sighs, shaking her head. She really can't win against Uchiha. She rolls her eyes and waves them off. "Alright, if you two are sure. I'm going to speak with Lady Tsunade and start getting things in order so make sure that your schedules aren't set in stone."
"Yes, ma'am," the brothers chime.
Sakura brings her fist back, charging it full of chakra before slamming it into the chest of Madara Uchiha, watching as his body soars backward, hitting the ground in an explosion that kicks ups dirt and rocks. His body rolls over itself a few times before he lands on his feet, stumbling back as the momentum wears off. He shakes his head, long bushy black hair swaying with the movement.
Red Sharingan eyes roll around in his head as if dazed. His already cracked face from the reanimation jutsu splinters a bit more but he doesn't bleed. A hit like that on anyone else would have been the death of them. But seeing as he's already dead, Sakura's not surprised that he's left standing. Well, she is, but she isn't.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto calls, the same time Sasuke resounds with a more controlled, "Sakura."
She looks over her shoulder, relishing for just a moment, the sight of both of her teammates together again. Naruto and Sasuke both look worse for wear, but not as bad as they could have been. They aren't dead, and they are side-by-side. It seems hat Sasuke really was back with them. But she didn't dare ignore the evil little, for now, whispered into the back of her head. She wanted to believe though. Maybe that's why she never seems to learn.
"Naruto, Sasuke," Sakura grins at them, pushing her fear deep into her gut.
"S...Sakura...?"
Green eyes flicker over to the person who spoke her name. At first, her eyes land on her sensei, her eyes scanning his body for any life-threatening injuries that she could see, but he didn't appear to have any obvious ones. She can hope that he'll be okay. She is anxious to get her hands on her boys, just to make sure that all of them are going to be alright. All three of them.
But when her eyes reach Kakashi's face, he's not looking at her. He's down on a knee, shoulders heaving. He doesn't seem to be listening. He keeps rubbing at the sides of his head as if hurt there. Sakura has to fight the impulse to run over to him and heal him right away. He clicks his fingers next to his ear, flinches like he finally heard something and shakes his head again.
Sakura is about to go to him until she finds herself staring at the astonished face of the First and Second Hokage. Both of them are staring at her as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. They look at each other, then her, back to each other, back to her.
Naruto and Sasuke even offer them confused looks.
"You know old man First and Second, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asks, bewildered, blinking wide blue eyes rapidly.
Sakura glares at him for his disrespect. "No, I don't. How would I know them?" Sakura asks before looking back over at the First and Second Hokages.
"Sakura," Hashirama Senju says, his face twisted in agony and pain. "Is that really you, Sakura?" He looks over at Tobirama, as if unable to believe his eyes. Brokenly, he asks, "Is it really her, Tobi?"
Red eyes, wide and pained, only grow wider. "Yes, Hashirama. It's her chakra. It's her." A look of deep-rooted agony crosses his face and his fingers twitch at his side as if trying to hold back from reaching out to touch her.
Now Sakura is completely confused. She can't believe the founders of her village know her name! She knows that she's never met them before. First of all, she was born way after all of them died. And secondly, the only time that they were summoned - that she knows of other than this one - was during the finals of the Chunin Exam, and Sakura was nowhere near them that time. There is no way that they should know her. She would definitely remember having met two of the founders of her village and previous kage.
"What are you..." Sakura starts, then shakes her head, realizing that they don't have time to dally. "Nevermind! We need to stop Madara Uchiha!"
"Old man First says that isn't Madara Uchiha," Naruto says, stepping up to Sakura, casting a look over at the other man. "He says his name is - "
Sakura jerks awake, heart pounding. She looks around the crowded room she's sharing with some of the people of her village. Ino is there next to her, as well as Tenten on the other side of the room. Sakura climbs to her feet and starts for the door, ready to hunt down her sensei. She has to know. She has to know what happened. He was the only one there at that moment that she can talk to. She needs to talk to him.
"Where are you going?"
Sakura looks over to see Tenten is already on her feet, making her way over to Sakura.
"I... I didn't mean to wake you, Tenten," Sakura says, her voice shaking against her will. She can feel this odd tremble in her hands despite the sweat pour down her back between her shoulder blades.
Tenten studies her in the dim light of the moon outside the window before reaching over and grabbing her arm, pulling her out the room, down the hall and outside so that they could talk privately. They both slipped their shoes on but neither of them is wearing coats. The air is frigid and their breaths are like clouds around their mouths, but Sakura is thankful. Her body is covered in sweat. The cold air feels good.
"Are you okay, Sakura?" Tenten asks, brown eyes wide with worry. "You seem like you were having a nightmare."
"Not a nightmare," Sakura admits. "A dream. Or maybe it is better to say; a memory. I was remembering meeting up with Naruto and Sasuke to fight Madara. Or who we thought was Madara."
Tenten crosses her arms over her chest to conserve some body heat. "Yeah? Did you remember everything?"
"Not really," Sakura admits. "The Uchiha. The one that was pretending to be Madara Uchiha but wasn't. You know who I'm talking about?" Tenten nods slowly, shivering a bit at the cold but doesn't insist on going inside. "Who was he, really?"
"They said his name was Kokoro. Kokoro Uchiha."
Naruto's voice rings in her ears, haunting and distant. "He says his name is Kokoro Uchiha."
Sakura's heart pounds. Something in her stirs painfully. Her chest tightens, making it harder to breathe. She wants to remember, she's on the verge of remembering, but it's not quite there yet.
"Who is he? Or, was he? How did he do all of this? Why? Why did he frame Madara Uchiha for something he didn't do? Did he have a vendetta against him or something? Why? Why would he do that?" Sakura wanted to know. She needed to know. She couldn't pretend like living in this lie was healthy anymore. She felt like she was going to split apart at the seams. She just needed someone to tell her.
Tenten has a strange look on her face as if she's not sure what to say. "Well, there was a lot of confusion around all of that. I don't really know the truth behind it all, seeing as it was made an S-ranked secret, but what I do know is his connection. But we aren't supposed to speak of it."
"Tenten, this is me," Sakura says, putting her hands on her chest, desperation edging into her voice. "I was there. I should know this. I just don't remember! Tell me, please. I think I'm going crazy."
Tenten looks hesitant for a moment before deciding that Sakura was probably right. She was bound to remember in time but Sakura felt that she had to know now. It was an important piece of the puzzle that she was missing. Sakura wasn't sure what puzzle but felt she really needed it now. Tenten wouldn't be breaking the law seeing as Sakura should already know!
The brown-eyed ace shot steps closer to Sakura, lowering her voice to a deep whisper that the pink-haired girl had to strain her ears to hear. "The impersonator? The man behind all of that nonsense? The Fourth Great Ninja War?"
Sakura nods quickly, feeling the pain in her chest increased as her heart and stomach clench in anxiety. "Yeah?"
"He was Madara Uchiha's son."
