...for wisdom never lies.
The time is nigh, child.
Sakura did not know how she knew the location of the fabled Ryuuchi Cave, but her legs carried her as if possessed by something she did not understand.
When all is lost...
Kisame followed at a cautious distance, her speed not too much for him alone but enough of a problem when he had to mind Itachi. She'd taken to the trees, the namesake of the village that raised her however poorly, effortlessly bounding from branch to branch as fast as she could. Her hair caught across her face as it tangled in the force of her breeze, but she paid it little mind.
... find your way back to me.
The edges of her vision were hazy from both effort and shock. Konoha had been destroyed, and nearly everyone she knew and loved had been killed right along with it. So many people, civilian and shinobi, innocent and guilty, involved in the conflict or not—gone.
She'd been planning on doing exactly that, hadn't she? But no! Not killing civilians, not killing any nin who had nothing to do with it! But then, she supposed, the Fifth Hokage had nothing to do with Itachi's situation, and people like Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke simply did not know any other way of life. They were all products of the system; was Sakura prepared to cut down ninja who were just protecting the only way of life they knew?
And what would she have done, anyway? Blow up the village? Fight through the main roads and hold the Hokage and the council hostage in the tower until her demands were met? What was the goal? What was the point? Would anything ever truly change for the better in this world?
Not that any of it mattered now...!
"Oi!" Kisame roared from far off behind her. The sound of his voice startled her, but she did not slow. If her earlier display was any indication of her mental state, Kisame should've known better than to try to talk her out of anything.
"Karin," she'd said flatly before darting off, "take Fuu and find the Six-Tails. Suigetsu, Juugo, go with them."
Suigetsu sucked at his teeth. "I don't see why we—"
"Will you just fucking listen to me?!" she'd snapped, her inner voice leaping to the surface. "For once will you not argue? Karin is your best chance of evading the Akatsuki, and Fuu risked her life to come help us out. The absolute least you could do repay that is this. I'm not asking for you to die for her or for Karin or for Juugo—just swing your goddamn sword when you need to and shut up, or leave."
She had not meant to be so harsh. The others just stood by awkwardly as she heaved her angered breaths in and out. Suigetsu, she had always assumed, was as lonely as she often felt and stuck around just to have someone there. That his tendency was to bicker was annoying, to be sure, but in a way it was an endearing thing. But even though in this moment it was the last thing she wanted to hear, to see the way his face twisted in response tugged at her heart.
"What about you?" Karin asked tentatively, her brows pinched together in her worry.
Sakura's thoughts had so quickly spiraled into chaos that she did not even know how to answer with any shred of politeness. "There's something I need to do," was all she'd said, before taking off in a sprint. "So just do what I ask and leave me the hell alone. I'll find you when I'm done."
Of course it was only Kisame who'd had the balls enough to follow. Her heart felt near to shattering, like if she stopped for even just one second she would fall apart. She did not dare answer for fear of her voice cracking in her sorrow and rage. If that pissed him off, well, so be it.
It was dusk when finally she slowed. They were deep in the wetlands at the northeastern edge of Fire Country, the trees a deep green and the air heavy with humidity that filled her aching lungs. It was there that she saw it, what seemed to be the ruins of a palace from a long-bygone era. There were squared, red stones plastered against a rocky wall, large holes cut out where doors and windows once stood guard to the outside world and the elements. Vines snaked along the ruins to give them an enchanted appearance. She leapt from the treetops, and the moment her feet hit the ground she was overcome with a strong sense of an otherworldly calm.
She would swear she could hear a whisper, somehow both faint and deep both at once.
Kisame had caught up as she slowly approached the largest curved entrance, craning her neck to take in the sight. His chest heaved as he caught his breath, taking Itachi from over his shoulder to prop him against a tree on a patch of dry ground. He slammed Samehada next to him and leaned on it for support.
"They built a castle," he said as his breathing finally calmed, "into a mountain full of caves?"
She hummed but did not answer. To speak in a place like this...she did not know why, but she shivered at the thought. It seemed a sacred place; her feet had brought her here almost entirely without her own input, after all.
"Oi," he called. When she turned, his expression was pained in his concern for her in a way that twisted in her chest like a knife. "When you grieve, I grieve. What happened to your village will not be easy, but we can fight through it together. Is getting lost in a place such as this truly the answer? The energy in the air is..."
He did not go on, but she crossed the small way to take one of his hands in hers. She was well used to his monstrous form, her smallness next to him more a comfort now than it was a point of fear. There were many things she wanted to say for the myriad of things she was feeling, and she swallowed down that strange feeling that she was speaking out of turn here in this holy place.
"It's...funny, in a way," she began quietly, staring at the cursed seal on her wrist as she squeezed Kisame's hand. "When Orochimaru gave me this mark, I had a strange vision. One of the things I heard was a voice telling me that when all is lost, I should find my way here.
"Something moved me when Konoha was...well, my legs just seemed to run all on their own." A guilt gripped her heart the more she spoke, tears stung in her eyes as she looked up and searched his face. "How long am I going to care about what happens to the Leaf and everyone I left behind in it? Even when I wanted to destroy it with my own hands? I pushed away Karin and Suigetsu and Juugo—and Fuu, who was counting on me. And if you weren't so persistent...Aniki, do you think...that I'm cruel?"
He was quiet, contemplating; it was what he did best. Would he be hurt? Angered at the notion that When all is lost somehow did not count him into the equation? How could all be lost when he was right here, and when he'd brought Itachi along, too? And though Kisame himself had been cruel, he'd also been lost and afraid and betrayed in his time. Would he see her as the monster she felt like?
"What is worse?" he finally said, almost as if wondering aloud to no one in particular. "To feel alone when you travel the world with no companions, or to feel alone even among the closest of friends?" He pushed his hand forward, freeing it from hers and splaying it across the flat expanse at her sternum. "You must do what you feel is right in your heart. I will not fault you for that."
When he pulled back his hand, she flung her arms around his middle. He held her briefly, then brought a hand to ruffle her hair affectionately before giving her a small shove towards the cave. "Be careful, my sister, and be assured that Itachi-san and I will be here waiting for your return."
She took a slow, cautious step. Suddenly when she looked up and down the length of the ruined wall crumbling around the rock face she swallowed, intimidated in a way she hadn't quite been before. But Sakura was nothing if not an expert in facing the unknown, and so she took another step and another still, a thick fog enveloping the world around her the closer she came to the cave's mouth.
When she stepped through the threshold, all went black as if the grand doors to the palace were back in their frames, shut in a rush behind her.
She took in a breath through her nose, holding it there to calm her frenzied nerves before letting it go slowly through her mouth. She shut her eyes and channeled chakra through her optic nerves so that when she opened them, her ability to see through the dark would not be quite so bad. It was with a strange sense of fondness that she silently thanked Orochimaru for not only his guidance, but the dim corridors he liked so much to live in. Surely she would be out of luck without her time in his compounds to fall back on.
Glancing here or there to get a general idea of the layout, she noted that it was not entirely unlike the estate. Tunnels veered off in many directions, some of them even lit by small torches deep inside. She pushed for signatures but found none, not even Kisame's—not that her range was very far, and inwardly she cursed that she'd been so callous with Karin. Not only because she could use her help, but because she could use a friend at her side, one who was as used to dark, winding caves as Sakura herself was.
When she took her next step, she bumped clean into another person. Biting back the urge to yell in surprise—she swore no one was here, especially not so close!—she made to give a brief bow in apology and ask, well...ask where she was? But she knew this was the Ryuuchi Cave, so maybe she should ask for directions. Was that too obtuse?
The person was a woman in an ornate dress, far too fancy to possibly be living in such a place. Genjutsu, then? But she did not feel anything in the air, not even the faintest trace of chakra. Sakura blinked, her eyes still adjusting to the dark, but the vagueness made what she saw there all the more terrifying:
The woman was sneering at her as if she were little more than a piece of meat.
Then she lunged; Sakura hadn't the time to unsheathe her sword, instead bursting wooden appendages from her back. Three of them wrapped around her defensively, the other meeting the sudden strike. Sakura sent what chakra she could spare to her ears, knowing she couldn't rely on her eyes entirely, dark as it was. She thought of Itachi, his sight failing him, and drew her courage from him—she heard where the woman's foot fell, somewhere off behind her, and quickly formed the seals to send an earth-style jutsu to throw her off balance. But she was a crafty opponent, and Sakura could hear the faint whistling sound of senbon expertly thrown. She swatted them away with her wooden arms, shutting her eyes entirely to more effectively rely on her other senses.
Her blood was racing, enthralled by the battle and greatly worried she would simply be killed here in this cave, her body never found. It was as she made to attack once more that there came a small hand on her shoulder, someone of astonishing strength keeping her in place.
"Tagorihime," said the voice of an elderly woman. She was so short that Sakura had to glance down to see her face—she was as finely dressed as the younger one, though her clothes reflected her age and status by being a good deal more humble. She wore a headdress that framed the roundness of her face in a way that made her seem jovial, if not a bit mischievous. "The wanderer of blossoming hair was to be escorted to the Lady's chamber at once. What is the meaning of this?"
Two other women, rivaling the first in beauty and fashion, stood off watching the scene unfold.
"She has so much chakra, Grandmother!" the attacker whined. "I couldn't just let someone like that get away. If she loses, she's hardly a child of prophecy—and she'd be mine to devour!"
"She must undergo the trials," protested one of the women who hadn't yet spoken. Her voice was smooth and delicate, as gorgeous as her appearance. Sakura's heartbeat was finally beginning to slow to normal, but to hear the word trials made it spike suddenly.
"Nonsense," said the old woman. "The Lady has summoned her here herself. Though, girl, were you one of our snakes I'd have you excommunicated. Three years is an awfully long time to answer a summoner's call."
"I—" Sakura started, trying to mind herself. This encounter was growing stranger by the second, but people dressed like royalty in a fabled cave were not to be disrespected, she figured; at the waist she bowed low to show her respects. The only thing that made sense was that these were part of the Great Snake Sage's court, she was sure of that. "I apologise, ma'am. I suppose I misunderstood the Great Snake's meaning all that time ago."
But she merely waved her hand for Sakura to follow, taking off at a brisk pace down one of the halls. "Loss means something different for us all. You merely arrived when you needed to. Come. I will call for an audience with the Lady."
Sakura kept her head down, unsure what to make of such a turn of events as they tread further into the cave. The three women had slunk off elsewhere, but they passed a few more exquisitely dressed men and women on the way, each of them eyeing Sakura like she was an intruder with foul intentions. The old woman only had to send but one glance to each of them that would send them straight as bamboo before they scurried off into the darkness.
"They don't take kindly," she said quietly, "that our Lady has permitted you to bypass the trials. But time—at least for you humans—is a force frequently fought against. We've none of it to waste."
"May I ask? Why have I been allowed to skirt something so important?"
But the woman did not answer, for they had crossed into a large room at the heart of the cavern. It was lit far better than the tunnels, a large, detailed monument carved into the stone behind an ancient throne of equal detail. Sakura stared, pursing her lips as she took in the sight of it.
With a shocking grace the old woman took a step and leapt atop the stone seat, and before Sakura's very eyes she became no longer a human at all, but a snake so large that the scope of it was at first beyond comprehension. She was coiled many times around the room, some of her long, jagged-scale tail cutting into the walls themselves as if part of the landscape.
"Genjutsu?" Sakura found herself whispering as she stared dumbly.
But we didn't feel anything at all! Inner said, her guard up.
But when the snake chuckled, Sakura's heart nearly stopped at the ethereal sound of it, seeming so much in tune with the damp, musty rock all around them that it bordered on unnatural. The tip of her tail crossed before Sakura, so elegant despite its size, and wrapped around a long pipe that she brought to her mouth. She took a long drag, giving a content hum, a smoke so sweet it was sickening as it billowed all around them.
"The illusory prowess of my clan is unmatched," she said. "I understand you to be quite proficient, but you have quite the journey ahead of you to ever claim dragonhood." Her voice was both quiet and loud, both harsh and soft all at once, a mesmerizing thing to behold. It took Sakura a moment to reign herself in back to her senses.
"Pardon my bluntness, ma'am—how do you know my skills?"
"That mark on your wrist...Orochimaru brings me both great pride and great shame. As far as humans go, he is ambitious, his spirits not easily defeated. Though he has bastardized the very power of senjutsu, the natural chakra of the world itself, what he's discovered is an interesting development. We sages are connected to those marks he's created, in a sense. Through them we can see as if we are there ourselves. When he bestowed this one upon you, I was blessed with a prophecy."
Sakura's head spun at such an overload of information. The memory of that day when she'd given Orochimaru permission to bite her wrist and give her that power he'd created was hazy as if driven by fever. She recalled the sun and the moon rising and falling at an alarming pace, slugs marching before her, toads leaping so high they cleared the very sky, and that voice—
"But...why?"
"I am old, child," she said sharply. "Long ago did I cease my attempts to understand this thing called Fate. I received a vision of you, lost and alone, standing here before me as you do right in this moment. And then I could see you standing at the very crossroads of destiny, your arms folded before your chest in confidence and your skin thick with the scales of my clan—staring at a tree that reached so high into the heavens it grazed the moon."
Sakura could scarcely breathe anymore, let alone know what to think to hear this. It seemed straight out of a fantasy novel she would've read back in Konoha, some adventure she'd get whisked away with in her head only and sigh wistfully with Ino about after class.
Haruno Sakura, the girl overlooked by her sensei in favor of her teammates, the girl surpassed by those same teammates as she fell further and further behind, the girl no one believed could run away of her own volition and make her own name for herself, the girl stupid enough to ignore her gut and fall in love with a clan-killer—and the girl desperate enough to make a world good enough to deserve the kindness of that same boy, a world that was not run on the blood of children and the blood spilled by children.
"Because of that cursed seal you bear, you are in a unique position to accept my boon with little training. It has been gathering senjutsu from all around you for quite some time; with the might of a true sage coursing through your veins, it will likely transform, your connection to your master severed."
Sakura wasn't even sure that the old man still lived, but the idea of that bond being broken made her equal parts devastated and excited. He had taught her well, believed in her when she needed him—but he was, well, him. To the Great Snake she nodded, listening to one last instruction:
"Tell me, o wanderer: should I gift you my strength, what is it you wish to accomplish?"
Sakura stared. This was the moment of truth, wasn't it? Though the entire trek to the cave her mind had swirled like a whirlpool with all manner of mixed-up thoughts and plans she'd had over the years, she was almost staggered by the calm resolve that sat within her very soul as she met the eyes of the Great Snake once more.
"I want power," she began slowly. "Even when I was a useless genin, I've only ever wanted to protect those I love—even if they hate me, I want power for their sake, too." In her mind she saw flashes of Sasuke, of Naruto, of Kakashi, these people she'd managed to hurt the most. She hoped so hard that she ached for it that they'd somehow survived that blast in Konoha, so that she may one day make it up to them. "I'm sick to death of fighting, Lady Sage, but I'm not afraid of it. I've always done what I had to do, even when it's hard.
"My path has been wayward since the day I left home, but no matter how far I've come, there's still so much I don't understand; so much I want to understand. There are so many things I need to say and do." She thought of Itachi—with the power of a sage, would her healing be enough to wake him from his coma? She would give anything to talk to him again, to help him atone for what he'd done and finally live his life for real instead of counting down the days until his death.
"I came to you because my natal village was destroyed, even though I'd planned to destroy it myself. Even with all of the hatred I had in my body, each time I imagined going through with it my heart was heavy as a stone in my chest. I wonder, what good would it do the world to bring about more violence in the name of stopping violence? I want to change it for the better. I want it to be the vibrant place my friends deserve to live in. I want it to be the world Itachi gave up everything to protect.
"So my answer is this: I want power. The power to mend, and the power to defend—so I can make the world into one that's worthy of all of the kind people who love it."
The Great Snake had listened intently, her gaze piercing, ancient, and wise. The two of them stood there staring for a long moment before she took the pipe with her tail, blew the remnants of smoke from her mouth, and slithered her large form to hover before Sakura.
"Give to me your hand," she commanded, unhinging her mighty jaw. On the roof of her mouth, far behind her large double fangs, sat a smaller one like a thorn. When next she spoke the voice was disembodied, echoing all around the walls and the great stone carvings. "I will grant you the power of a sage, so that the prophecy may come to pass and your ambitions may be within your range to strike."
It was not like when Orochimaru applied the cursed seal. As that small fang sunk down into Sakura's flesh directly over those stark black marks, a warm chakra pulsed through her veins. It did not induce that fever-like state, instead filling her with a surge of energy the likes of which she'd never felt. Each of her breaths felt in sync with the earth itself, and she watched as her vision flashed—she could see the overwhelming nature chakra flowing through the body of the Great Snake and feel her own reserves swelling, too. Through the walls of the cavern she now noticed that the tunnels were filled with other snakes, members of the clan who called Ryuuchi home.
Her skin changed not to that stony grey she was so accustomed to, but an off-white so pale it was nearly blue that was flecked here and there with thick, layered scales. She could feel horns sprout from her head not unlike the decorative ones on the Snake's headdress, and without her command four living snakes burst forth from her back, their senses combining with her own. She could see where they saw, smelled what they smelled, felt what they felt.
When the Great Snake withdrew, she curled back to her place upon the throne with a sparkle in her eyes that held the good humor matched by her human form.
"It has been some time since a human sage has walked this earth," she said lightly. "I forget just how beautiful the mingling of our chakra can be."
Sakura could only stare, in awe at the surge of power. Orochimaru's seals had nothing on this at all, and she nearly swore out loud for not having come here sooner. She felt like she could take on the world just unleashing the cursed seal—now, though? She was sure she could've taken down the Akatsuki and had the chakra to spare to save the Jinchuuriki.
"Do not be fooled by your ease at accessing this form," she warned heavily. "It will take rigorous training to master it. I will say, it is a strange choice to take my power with the intent to heal—the Lady of the Shikkotsu Forest will get a kick of it, I'm sure." She snickered, the sound like bells chiming in the wind. She replaced the pipe to her mouth, taking another long drag of it. "But to defend those you love, well, you will discover the full scope of my strength in time, I am sure of it. Be well, child, and bring pride to my clan."
Before Sakura even had time to call out, Wait!—there was much she wanted to ask and talk about, more of the prophecy and more of the power and more of, well, just what the hell was really going on—she found herself back outside the cave, the crumbling red wall standing quietly against the rocks. Night had fallen, but she could see things in a strange way as if it were broad daylight. And though she stood in the middle of muggy wetlands she heard only the chirping of crickets, no frogs or toads or other nightlife.
"S—Sakura?!" It was Kisame's voice, and so startled was he that he'd forgotten his usual honorific. She turned just as he scrambled to his feet, taking Samehada's hilt tentatively.
"It's me, aniki."
"I thought you were a ghoul, looking like that. And what happened to your chakra? I don't feel your signature at all, but you're right here. Perhaps I'm dreaming."
Her gaze had been drawn, though, down to where Itachi lay on the dirt. She did not deliberate, marching toward him as if pulled by fate itself. Kisame watched her quietly as she knelt at their partner's side, staring down into his unconscious face. Even comatose he was so handsome it hurt, his wounds from the battle with Sasuke long-since healed by her hand.
It was those same hands—but changed now, too—that she put upon him next. The difference was staggering at first: where before she needed an extreme focus and outpouring of chakra to zero in on that flame-like soul within the body, she could now see it in her mind's eye the very instant she channeled her own healing chakra through her palms and into him. With one hand on his head and the other on his chest she set about combing through his tangled-up chakra, the intricate details of even his tiniest blood vessels and nerve endings visible to her the more she concentrated thanks to the Great Snake's gift. She altered the flow of his blood, healing all the while. The boost in power had been substantial indeed; she'd never dreamed of being able to see things so clearly without the assistance of a microscope back in one of Orochimaru's laboratories.
His stagnated chakra began to flow like a cork had been popped from a bottle. Still she labored, the inner workings of his body visible to her as if he were a chart she'd seen in her Academy days on the nervous system and the various pressure points of his swirling, powerful chakra.
Kisame's breath caught as the pink glow of health returned to Itachi's skin. His chest rose and fell more deeply than it had in days, and when finally he opened his eyes, Sakura was so taken aback that she gasped, her control over the sage mode faltering and receding back into nothingness. She blinked harshly, the dark of night returning to normal all around her, the feeling of her own chakra alone replacing that incredible senjutsu.
Ever given to dramatics, Itachi slowly reached up his hand just as he had the day she saved his life. But instead of dropping it and fading back into unconsciousness, he threaded his fingers through hers. He was shaking slightly, still weak, and it was with a grim sense of humor that she realized this was likely the weakest he'd ever been.
"Sakura," he said quietly, his voice hoarse. "You keep...surprising me."
Overwhelmed by everything that'd happened today and now this, she let her tears finally spill, leaning down to cry into his chest.
"Oi, sis," Kisame chided gently, "give the man some space."
When she sat back, Kisame stooped to help Itachi upright. His face was flushed but his lips were pale, his skin covered in a cold sweat as their partner brought his canteen of water to his mouth and instructed him to drink. Sakura rounded behind him, monitoring his condition with her hands pressed at his back.
"Aren't you—" he tried, and she could feel his heart squeeze once. Was he anxious? Afraid? "Where is this? Last I...you were furious with me." He looked down at the ground while Kisame and Sakura exchanged glances.
She lowered her healing hands and wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling her face between his shoulderblades and taking in the scent of him. His hair was tangled and dirty, but she didn't care—he was alive and he was here, and if she'd been only a moment later that day atop the mountain, he wouldn't be.
Long ago did I cease my attempts to understand this thing called Fate.
"So much has happened," she whispered into his back. "I'll tell you everything, but I need you to tell me everything, too. No more facades." She held him tighter, closer; he brought his hand to close around one of hers just as she bit out another sob. "I'm just so glad you're here."