Hey guys, sorry about the long wait.
About this chapter: I haven't actually seen every episode of Naruto Shippuden, or read every chapter of the Manga, haha, so please forgive me if I get anything wrong about the shinobi world. I've tried to look up everything I'm unsure of but I still may have missed something.
Since this fanfiction is taking place after the Fourth Great Shinobi World resolved and the canon has yet to finish the war plot, I'm going to make up a few things about how the war ended and the world that is the aftermath.
Just go with it okay? :)
Sakura couldn't sleep at all that night.
She was far too worried about Sasuke and Gaara's forms to even think about anything except their well being. Sakura knew tomorrow would be the third day, and as such, if they still hadn't woken up by then, their bodies would start cannibalizing itself for nutrients. She could only take care of them so much in the wilderness: giving them water at periodic intervals, wiping clean their faces of cumulated sweat or dirt. Sakura had tried feeding them mashed tubers for meals once but they'd only unconsciously started choking on it and she'd had to hastily force the food out by patting the back of their necks.
Sakura knew of a multitude of techniques she could use to coax them into swallowing, but all of them relied on sending chakra into their bodies.
Naturally, this was just a dead end for her.
Sakura knew that when shinobis fell into a coma, they were typically sustained by flowing chakra levels from an assigned medical-nin, that controlled their bodies to a very small extent. Just enough to force them to chew, swallow and a few other minor mandatory functions, until they woke up.
She felt so useless to Gaara and Sasuke.
Regardless of their reasons, each of them had still gone out of their way to take care of her, to make sure she stayed alive and healthy. Why couldn't she just do the same for them?
Yes, even for Sasuke.
Especially for Sasuke.
If, for no other reason, Sakura wanted him to stay alive just to help clear up the confusion in her life, both about him and for him.
To answer why he'd done everything he'd did to her.
To help her clear up her confusing feelings for the boy.
There was too much she couldn't stand and at the same time so much she felt like she couldn't live without. Her feelings fluctuated so much, at times Sakura got a migraine just thinking about them.
And right now, as she sat on the matted dirt of the forest, staring into Sasuke's sleeping face-
-she just wished he would wake up.
The Uchiha did not comply and merely stayed in his peaceful slumber, the rise and fall of his chest the only sign that he was alive. After shifting her gaze to Gaara, to observe the same inactions more or less, the pinkette decided to turn her attention to the stars.
She wasn't going to get any sleep tonight, Sakura knew, so she mind as well pass the time staying vigil by staring at something less worrisome.
Fake memories or not, Sakura still had vivid memories of staying awake with her mother all night, whenever school was out, to stare at the various constellations across the sky. There was Cato the Crab, Tyrus the Giant, Alcintour the Boar...and so many more. Her mother had told her that each one was supposed to be a guardian of life, overlooking each and everyone's lives and stepping in when guidance was needed.
Sakura needed their help now, more than she'd ever had before. She muttered a quiet prayer to them with her hands folded in front of her. Sakura had never been a religious person before -having always been too focused on her schoolwork- but for this one instance, she gave in.
Because everything was far too hopeless.
Not even including Sasuke or her allegedly fake childhood, Sakura still had a thousand troubling questions. Why had Tsunade betrayed her? To give her sign off with the other four Kage to have her arrested? That didn't sound like the nurturing mentor she'd always known growing up.
The first group of ANBU that Gaara had fended off, from Iwagakure, had claimed Sasuke had murdered the Raikage for her. What the hell did that mean? Had it been just like the way things happened at Gaara's alleged death? When he'd come to try and rescue her, unwittingly eliciting Sasuke's fury and subsequent murderous rampage?
Gaara had thankfully, and skillfully, escaped…
Speaking of which, how in the world had he done that?
Sakura knew Ino inside and out, and she could tell that the tears her childhood had shed for Gaara's death (when she'd finally owned up to having lied to Sakura), had been real. Tenten and Choji had confessed to their subterfuge too, and Sakura could tell by their contriteness that they were sincere. Even Sai, an ANBU, had exclaimed that their secretiveness had just been to keep her from getting anymore depressed.
And if Sai hadn't known...
That meant the whole "fake" death ordeal, hadn't been a planned deception on the village's part to capture Sasuke. Gaara had done it of his own volition, purposely abdicating his position as Kazekage to live as a masked Shinobi...
Why had he done that?
Sakura really couldn't fathom.
And how had he managed to show up right at the moment the ANBU had come into her room to arrest her that night?
Had he been watching her? The entire month she'd returned to Konoha?
The pinkette turned to stare right into the slumbering Kazekage's face, like she'd previously done with Sasuke. Gaara's face held far more lines than the Uchiha's, probably symptoms of all the stress he'd had to deal with being ruler of Suna. The iconic dark bags under his eyes were undoubtedly the result of many years of insomnia and restless nights too.
Her lime green eyes wandered towards the man's lips, being reminded of the kiss he'd forced on her.
Sakura wasn't a simpleton, she'd seen through the action's purpose as soon as Sasuke had gotten sealed in the glass cube: it'd been meant as a distraction. To infuriate the Uchiha enough to make him lose his bearings and act purely on impulse.
She couldn't believe the extent to which Gaara had everything planned.
At this thought, a shiver ran down Sakura's spine. Did he have anything else planned? What if he'd had other plans but he'd fallen unconscious before he'd been able to implement them?
Right as she thought that something shifted in the shadows, right at the edge of her peripheral vision. Oh god.
Sakura stood up instinctively.
There was no denying it: the distinct force of power that could be nothing else except a strong Shinobi's chakra entering the clearing. In a second, a tall imposing figure materialized right in the center of her haven. They stood right on top of both Gaara and Sasuke's slumbering forms, one foot on each of their chests.
The person's sudden appearance caused Sakura to stumble back in shock and fall painfully on her romp.
Their appearance frightened her even more.
Like Gaara previously, it was another masked figure; this one had a white mask with a large spiral encompassing all of the front while two eye holes and then a third, seemingly arbitrary hole stood right above the two where his forehead was. It took Sakura a second to recognize the pattern looked just like the first stage of the Sharingan she'd read about in her textbooks during her return to Konoha.
The books had said only the Uchiha had these eyes. Was this person an Uchiha like Sasuke? In her history books she'd read that all of the Uchiha had been slaughtered, except one...
In addition to the mask, the individual was wearing blue robes that covered all the way down to his arms and legs, splitting in the front, at the center to reveal loose black leggings. Finally, he had a thick white sash bound across his waist.
The man stared down at her.
"Wh-who in the world are you?!" Sakura cried in panic. Then she saw that they were presently standing on top of Sasuke and Gaara's forms.
Irrational and stupid though it may have been, Sakura felt the need to defend them. "Get off of them!"
The man didn't listen and merely stayed where he was. Sakura had to fight off the urge to push them straight off, knowing that she probably wouldn't succeed and would just anger the clearly stronger shinobi.
Were they an enemy? A friend?
"What do you want?" she asked, subconsciously leaning away from them as the wind started picking up around them, blowing her hair in front of her.
The man's clothes got blown in the wind as he without warning raised his arm so that it lined lined straight perpendicular with the ground. His black gloved palm opened flat above his head and Sakura knew instantly he was casting a jutsu.
His other hand moved to position right above the center of his chest, weaving a series of signs that told Sakura what jutsu he was casting: it was a transportation spell. Standard and taught during her time at the academy. His signs included boar and ram so it signalled he was transporting all four of them-
-just as she thought that the world around her started spiralling, like a molten mixture. Sakura had experienced transportation jutsu before but none that had such a vivid effect across the world. It told her that whoever this person was had a great deal of chakra at their disposal and a near mastery of material manipulation.
In a second, the spirals ended and Sakura found herself in a whole other setting altogether.
It wasn't even night anymore: the sun hung bright and vibrant atop her head as she sat sprawled on her legs, between Gaara and Sasuke's sleeping forms while the masked man stood in front of her.
They were on a bridge, of sorts.
It was broken in almost every spot on the surface, and even down it's foundation, but somehow it still stood erect above a wide flowing river, almost seven hundred feet beneath them. Sakura estimated as much anyway. At the very far end of the bride was a sign that had kanji on it, unfortunately, where she was right now, Sakura was too far to read it.
On all sides of the bridge were odd pillars with strange half circle markings carved down their surfaces, undoubtedly meant for decorative purposes but because they all had large chunks or severe cracks running their their surface, it looked more morbid than appealing.
The sun was shining brightly which was odd because just a second ago, in the forest, Sakura calculated that there were still five hours until dawn. But now, she guessed it to be about afternoon.
Was this a genjutsu?
Or had she been transported straight to the other side of the world, where the sun actually was shining?
"Where are we?" Sakura asked, turning to look at the masked man.
"More or less, the Land of The Iron," a male voice answered her. She didn't recognize it at all.
"Iron?" the kunoichi reiterated because of her own disbelief. This was Iron? The place she'd read about that was supposed to be never endingly snowing?
"B-but how? The weather it's..." Sakura trailed off, taking in the warm spring atmosphere and weather. Surrounding the bridge, and on both sides of the river running below them were high inclining rocky walls, the sides of distinctive mountains. Trees remarkably grew on the rocky surface all across the cliff sides.
"We're right on the edge, close to the border, right before the Land of Earth. As such, the climate is significantly altered here."
Sakura blinked a few times, kind of surprised he was being so straightforward and honest. Part of her had expected him to be aloof or even outright standoffish.
She opened her mouth to question him again, this time about his identity but the man intercepted her words: "Follow me, I'll show you to where you'll be staying."
Sakura stayed expectedly still, watching him with suspicious eyes. Her fears were immediately squashed when the man suddenly bent down and came to drape Sasuke's form over his shoulder.
"You have to carry Gaara, I need one hand free to enter the sanctuary," the man stated matter-of-factly.
Before Sakura could even think of a response, he'd started walking away, with Sasuke.
The pinkette bit her lip, squashed all her worries, and bent down low to hoist Gaara's sleeping form onto his feet. Literally, it took all her strength just to keep him upright with one arm draped over her shoulder. Sakura realized that her muscles must have gone through atrophy because of her long term neglect and disuse of them.
No matter.
She would get through this. She would get through this.
Sakura chanted that statement inside her head as she half pulled, half dragged Gaara's body over the cracked blue stone surface of the bridge, following the masked man as he made his way down it's length, heading right towards the gate at the end. When they got close enough, Sakura saw that it read Samurai.
They were indeed in Iron.
Sakura had no time for anymore thoughts about the scenery because the masked man never actually made it to the gate. Instead, about four feet away from the ornate torii, he stopped short and knelt down to one part of the bridge that was not broken. In fact, it was the only part that was still solid on top. Most of the bridge was actually still intact, it was just the superficial surface that people trekked on, that was severely damaged.
Facing the ground, the masked man did a series of complex hand signs, these ones far too fast and too numerous for Sakura to read, before concluding with an extended index and middle finger conjoined together into a tip before tapping the blue stone.
Instantaneously, a bright azure light leaked from where his fingers touched the rock, leeching into the carved design across the surface on all sides of his hand until a perfect circle of radiant blue designs displayed around his gloved palm. A second later, the circle shrank and revealed a hidden passage.
The masked man stood up and stepped in halfway, motioning with his hand for Sakura to follow, which the pinkette did without much thought because of her curiousity.
As soon as she went in, the circular stone moved back into place and sealed the entrance. Now, Sakura was getting second thoughts.
But the guy seemed pretty okay, so far, anyway. He didn't seem like he meant her, or any of them, any harm.
Well, in any case, it was too late to go back now.
They traversed a narrow stone passageway lit with oddly glowing rock on all sides of them. Truth be told, it was eery, and remarkably creepy because the stone radiated a dull green light that shaded everything like rotting cadavers.
She tried to keep the trembling out of her voice but Sakura couldn't help stuttering as she asked: "Wh-where are we going?"
"I already said, a sanctuary. You will be safe here," he answered simply without turning around.
"Why are you helping me?" she asked quickly, hoping to catch him in conversation for this answer.
"Because..." now he did come to look at her; it was only then that Sakura realized one of his eyes was different from the other, one having the characteristic Mangekyo Sharingan she'd read about and...she didn't recognize the second design. It was light maroon with black spirals.
She gulped as he stared straight at her, to whisper almost disturbingly: "...you're family now."
With that simple statement, he turned back around casually and started walking towards the bright exit (that had finally become visible now). Sakura found herself frightened again but had no choice but to follow him once more since the only other exit was blocked and he still had Sasuke over his shoulder. If this guy attacked her, Gaara or Sasuke, before any of the latter two woke up...
Sakura shuddered at the thought.
As soon as she exited the tunnel, Sakura saw where the light was coming from: a lit torch near the entrance…
Sakura gasped, immediately backing out of the room as soon as her eyes took in the setting. She unwittingly dropped Gaara in her panic as she scrambled to back out. The masked man turned to look at her sudden impulsion, right as Sakura tripped on her own feet across the stone.
"Are you alright?" he asked her, sounding concerned.
"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" Sakura called as she started hyperventilating.
Simultaneously, her eyes fell back to the interior of the room: a central thick metallic column with the Uchiha fan symbol embedded straight in the center of it. Beneath the fan, in front of the column was a large table draped by a red silk cloth. Resting on top of the silk were literally hundreds of Uchiha ancestral plaques, on kanji in each of them were the year they were born and died, then their names and finally position or importance to the clan.
Sakura didn't have to get close to know what each one said.
Because she'd been here once before.
He'd drugged her again.
Sakura knew because she could feel the distinct numbing heaviness across her skull as her eyelids lifted. As she expected, Sasuke was right in front of her.
They were in some kind of dark circular interior with rock walls on all sides. The only light came from a solemn candle sitting on top of a red satin cloth, on top of a table next to her.
She was propped up against a thick metal with her head turned sideways to face Sasuke as he locked eyes with her. He was kneeling in front of the table, before the candle. It took Sakura a few moments to regain the strength in her limbs; it was moments, Sasuke gave her time for.
Only until she could sit up properly on her own, did the Uchiha grab and literally pull her to his side, making her join him in kneeling just like they'd done in front of Itachi's grave.
Sakura just hoped it had a different ending.
"Where am I?" she asked, terrified and leaning away from Sasuke even as he held her wrist in a deathlike grip.
The man, like always, ignored her.
It'd been….quite a while since the day at the cemetery….weeks...months...Sakura wasn't really sure but more than four weeks. She knew because every day since then, he'd made it a routine to have sex with her. Sometimes two or three times in one day, that was when she'd lost her sense of time inside that metal prison.
Originally he'd kept her inside the log cabin but soon after crippling her chakras, Sasuke had relocated her into an iron prison, chaining her ankles to a solemn bed with iron fixtures and a single window for her to look into the world. Always, whenever she'd looked through it, the only thing visible was just the sky: either the sun, moon or stars. Never could see grass or water.
Occasionally, Sasuke wanted to take her someplace, and during those times he always drugged her before taking her out. Sakura had no doubt it was to prevent her from figuring out where she was.
Right now, he had a hold of her hand and was keeping it tightly in place across his chest, as he faced the altar. Suddenly, his other hand lifted from his side, having previously been hidden by his trousers, to reveal a long intimidating dagger.
Sakura panicked and immediately started backing away, struggling with all her strength to try and break free.
Sasuke's head whirled around to glare at her. "Don't struggle, Sakura. You'll make me cut you more than I have to."
What did that mean? More than he had to?
In the moment she took to stop and contemplate his words, the man used his dagger and pricked the very tip of her index. The cut wasn't too big but went in deeper than Sakura expected and she emitted a short scream halfway, biting her lip in the end to bide the pain.
Sasuke dropped the dagger and it clattered noisily to the ground but he still wouldn't let go of Sakura's hand, instead he clutched her bleeding finger and allowed her blood to drip into a bronze tray that contained a clumped black mess of indistinguishable dry substance. When Sakura was close enough, she smelled a rather foul odor coming off it.
After only a few seconds, Sasuke finally let go of her and Sakura immediately retracted her hand, clutching the burning appendage close to her chest as she scrambled, staying on her butt, to get away. Unfortunately, the room was only so big and her back collided against the wall that was less than four feet from the altar.
Sasuke seemed to know that there was nowhere she could go because he ignored her for now and turned his attention back to the altar. In a second, Sasuke had raised his own index to his lips and unflinchingly bitten down into the skin to release his own blood, before pouring it into the bronze bowl as well.
What was this? Some sort of archaic ritual where he sacrificed to an insane god? Was she now going to become a live sacrifice for a deity? Sakura had read about insane religions like this in the past…
Just as she thought that, Sasuke turned back to face her again.
The candlelight revealed only one side of his perfect face, creating sharp shadows down his alabaster skin. It made him look all the more menacing...
He extended his hand out, meaning for her to take.
She gulped, so terrified of him in that moment...but her hand slipped into his nonetheless. The Uchiha pulled her once more to his side, this time albeit gentler.
"Do you know what these plaques are, Sakura?" Sasuke asked her with an unemotional tone in his voice. The pinkette watched him for a second with a quivering stare, then turned to look at what looked to be hundreds of wooden ornate plates standing upright on the table.
She leaned in closer to read the kanji and saw that they had the death and birth dates of...Uchiha. Every single one represented an Uchiha.
This was a memorial.
Sakura was bewildered and didn't know how to make of any of it. She turned back to Sasuke, intending to ask him but the man cut her off.
"Bow to them."
The pinkette hesitated in her confusion and this wore down on Sasuke's patience after a few long moments. His left palm that still clutched her hand, tightened excruciatingly across the appendage, causing Sakura to screech. Sasuke jerked her up close so that her face came to line with his. "BOW. TO. THEM."
Sakura's vision blurred with tears and she quickly nodded her consent, prompting Sasuke to let go.
Immediately, she turned to face the altar and the hundreds of his ancestors, lowering herself in a traditional kowtow.
As she did this, Sakura realized, Sasuke was doing the same thing simultaneously.
When she raised herself and looked at the man again, Sakura saw that he was smiling. It was short and small.
Odd even.
And certainly uncharacteristic of him.
Before she could move away, he suddenly pounced on her, shoving her sideways onto the ground while his body came to smother hers on top. His mouth met her ear as Sakura trembled frightfully.
Sasuke kissed the side of her jawline, reaching up until he got to her ear to whisper: "Now you really are mine."
Sakura shivered as his hand reached for the obi to her shirt, undoing it in a flash.
The kunoichi broke off the flashback there, not wanting to think about that day anymore. Yes, he'd taken her again on that day, forcing himself into her as always...but he'd been gentle that time. Probably the most gentle he'd ever been with her.
Not that Sakura still made it any easier for him to rape her; she'd still struggled violently but Sasuke managed to quell all of her flails without much force or strength. Then with a single glare, that she identified now as being his sharingan, she'd found herself subdued, left weak and defenseless to his ministrations.
Sakura squeezed her misted eyes shut as she shuffled, on the ground, to get away from the advancing masked man.
He was in cahoots with Sasuke. He knew of this place, this ancestral shrine. He really was an Uchiha and...who knew what he wanted to do with her!
"Stay away from me!" Sakura cried as she scrambled to her feet, immediately trying for the door she'd came in on. But as soon as her head turned to face it, the heavy wooden door swung close of it's own volition and Sakura found herself trapped. She turned back to look at the masked man, who was now considerably closer.
With an agility she didn't know she had anymore, Sakura managed to dodge out of his ensnaring arms and made a race for the opposite end of the small room, where an inviting stairwell presented as her only escape.
Throwing caution to the wind, the Haruno girl raced up the stone steps three at a time, finding that they were a spiral staircase wound around a stone pillar.
Heavy footsteps behind her told her she was being chased.
Sakura reached the top of the stairwell and found herself in a huge expansive...dojo. It looked to be a circular training room that spanned at least two hundred feet wide in diameter and probably a seventy feet tall. A thick layer of dust was caked across the entire surface of the carved stone ground, indicating that this place hadn't been used in a long time. There was however, one single trail of fresh footprints before her, leading from the staircase she'd just come up on, into the back of the room.
Sakura didn't care about that then. She just wanted to find at least something to defend herself with.
Lucky for her, there were literally thousands of weapons lining the wall in it's entirety, ranging from close range axes to cross bows and arrows. Brute force wasn't going to be her ally here, Sakura knew she'd never be able to summon the strength needed for wielding any of the heavy weapons so she sprinted straight for the bows. Picking up a simple elephant toothed bow bound by sinew, Sakura strung a quiver of bows behind her back, right as the blue garbed masked man stepped into the room.
He eyed her weaponry and stayed where he was.
"What are you going to do Sakura?" he asked right as the first arrow was sent straight for his chest. He easily knocked it out of the way.
The kunoichi wouldn't give up, moving her trajectory, she shot another one towards his knee.
Again he parried it.
More and more arrows she aimed towards him and each one got knocked out straight through midair until her quiver hung despairingly empty behind her.
"Now will you calm down?" he asked but this question only irritated Sakura. Everyone was treating her like a petulant child. Do this. Don't do this. Follow me. Sit. Be quiet.
Calm. The. Fuck. Down?
Sakura suddenly screamed in fury while simultaneously chucking her bow straight towards the masked man's head. He knocked it away with his wrist.
She had had enough of this. Didn't any of them understand that the last thing she could do was calm down? That the last thing she could do was accept these insane circumstances as her life without anyone being considerate enough to explain to her WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON.
Sakura ran towards the nearest sword rack and pulled out a slender, double edged, tachi sword from ancient times. She quickly unsheathed it and threw the scabbard behind her as she came to face the man once again. In the time she'd taken to choose a sword, he'd drawn considerably closer than before and now stood less than ten feet away.
No matter.
Sakura couldn't be afraid anymore.
Making the first move, she charged straight towards the man with her blade extended, aiming for his unguarded abdomen. The man blocked it quick with a chakra infused gloved hand.
His other hand made a few short hand signs.
Instantly, Sakura felt her ankles being constricted deathly tight, causing her to lose her balance and fall flat on her side. She looked down and came to see that a thick snake had been summoned and was now coming to choke her ankles. She quickly stabbed the tip of her tachi straight into the python's head, skewering him straight.
Sakura unwrapped the snake and stood back up, taking a considerable amount of time doing so.
She turned around in a three-sixty and saw the man merely standing with his arms crossed in front of his chest, watching her the entire time.
"I don't want to fight you, Sakura," he stated simply, devoid of any real emotion.
This only infuriated the pinkette more. Was she not good enough to be fought with? Was she not even worthy enough for him to spend his chakra on?
"Who the hell do you think you are?" she screamed.
With incredible strength and speed that surprised even the masked man, Sakura leaped high into the tall training dojo and did a backflip straight in midair, using the spin to give her momentum when she fell from her apex to come crashing sword first towards the man.
Only at the last second was the man able to raise his gloved, chakra infused hand to block the attack. He pushed Sakura away with immense force and it looked like she was going to hit the wall but at the last second, the kunoichi managed to land remarkably on her feet, straight on the wall.
Before gravity could act on her, Sakura had propelled herself once more into the air, leaping straight horizontally towards her opponent once again. Her sword once more collided with his gloved hand to which Sakura now saw was torn and shredded at the center, undoubtedly from her aerial attack before.
The masked man heaved a sudden breath and instantly chakra came from all around him to cover his entire body, sending Sakura flying backward through the air once more. She lost her grip on the tachi this time and it plummeted to the ground, a second before she collided back first against...something soft, and strangely wet.
Most of Sakura's fall was broken before she collapsed to the ground so she was hardly injured. The girl stood up and saw that what had saved her was a misplaced sea anemone, unnaturally the size of a mattress, clinging onto the wall.
In a second, it was gone.
Sakura couldn't believe her eyes. This man had an anemone as a summoning? She'd never heard of this in all her life. Another part of her was surprised he had saved her...even though he'd technically, already done that just by bringing her here.
This partially quelled her anger.
"Who are you?" Sakura asked, adamant and resolved. She wasn't going to be mollified until he answered some questions.
The man shifted his weight onto one foot. "Call me Tobi."
"Are you an Uchiha?" Her question came fast.
The man laughed, causing Sakura to stiffen in agitation again. The masked man raised his hands up, in a peace gesture, intoning: "Sorry."
"Answer me!" Sakura had virtually lost all of her patience by now.
"Yes, I am," he folded his hands across his chest, clearly amused. "I did say we were now family, didn't I?"
Sakura scrunched her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"
"Well you're Sasuke's wife, I'm a distant uncle of sorts, so as such-"
"I'm what?" Sakura cried indignantly. "I never married that sadistic psychopath."
Tobi laughed once again, amused at her bluntness. "Alright, I see I'll have to show you."
He motioned for her to follow him and then stepped casually towards the stairwell. Bewildered but still curious, Sakura complied and followed him back down once again to the Uchiha altar.
"You freaked out because you think you've been here before, right?"
"I have been here before. Sas-Sasuke took me here once," it disgusted her that saying his name caused her voice to stutter, especially when she had finally found her strength again.
Tobi shook his head. "No, you went to the Mother Shrine, this is a sister one, one of literally thousands, secretly located across the Shinobi world. Each one is linked through jutsus and only accessible when a blooded Uchiha opens the door."
Sakura scrunched her eyebrows. "What do you mean a Mother Shrine? This looks completely identical."
Tobi shook his masked head, a second before extending his hand to point towards the center of the altar, with all the memorials, where a bronze bowl should have been...but only had nothing.
"Only one shrine can legitimize the marriage ceremony between an Uchiha and his chosen mate."
Sakura's face paled.
Was that...what the strange ceremony had been about? Sasuke...had married her? Without her knowing? Or consenting?
He'd wanted to marry her?
"Sasuke made you prick yourself and drop blood into a bronze basin, correct? That is called the Rune of Union, our clan has cast a lasting jutsu over it, so that any pair of blood that falls in together will be bound in matrimony. It's our wedding ceremony, if you may."
"But how did you know about it?" Sakura asked. "That it took place with me?"
Tobi snapped his fingers, as if he'd been waiting for her to ask just that. He excitedly bent down and picked up the closest plaque on the desk. As he lifted it, a red string was revealed on the bottom and when he pulled enough, another plaque was carried along with it up into the air. Tobi handed the pair of memorial plaques to Sakura.
The kanji on them denoted her name on one, and Sasuke's on another. It labelled her "Wife of Sasuke Uchiha." Even more creepily, the plaques had her birthday and birthplace on it as well.
This was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard of in her life.
But there were far more pressing matters for her to worry about than a false title as Mrs Uchiha.
"Fine, whatever," Sakura cried while shoving the plaques back into Tobi's hands. "I'll just divorce him when he wakes up."
Tobi chose not to say anything in that moment, knowing that she would most likely not be able to accept the other side effects of the Uchiha marriage ceremony.
"Any other questions?" Tobi asked blithely.
Sakura chewed her lower lip. "What in the world is going on...in my life? Tsunade says I'm a reanimated Shinobi? She says Sasuke brought me back to life, using a new way to revive the dead but it caused me to get altered memories…is that true? How did I die in the first place?"
Tobi was either bewildered or tactfully staying silent until all her questions were asked. Finally, when she was done, he cleared his throat and said:
"Um...truth be told, I don't know." He offered a placating laugh to soften his folly. "I mean, I wasn't there when it actually occurred. All I know is that you died about a year after the Fourth Shinobi War ended."
Sakura stiffened. "Anything else?"
Tobi shrugged and shook his head nonchalantly.
His carelessness was grating on Sakura's nerves again. "You're lying! You know more than you're letting up! I can tell!"
Tobi scoffed. "Oh? And so what if I am? What are you going to do to take it out of me?"
Sakura locked her jaw, blinking a few times to think of what she could do...it was obvious he was stronger than her and if he hadn't broken her fall earlier, she probably wouldn't even be walking right now…
But still…
Sakura suddenly got an idea. Shoving him out of the way, she came to scoop up all the memorial plaques on the table messily into her arms. "Tell me, or I'll smash all of these onto the ground. Wood splinters easily, I'm sure you're well aware. You said you Uchiha care more about family than anything else, right?"
Tobi laughed again. "Do it, see what happens."
Sakura was getting so sick of his merry attitude. Not even hesitating, she smashed all of them onto the floor.
Just as she expected, they all splintered upon impact. But as quick as they'd broken, they just as sooner vanished. Sakura turned and saw that they were all intact once again on the table, lined in the order they'd first been in.
What the-
Suddenly, Sakura felt herself being shoved up against the wall with a palm constricting tightly around her throat. Tobi's two separate eyes glared into her lime green ones. "Now, I'll have to teach you what it means to dishonor our clan."
His palm constricted tight around her throat; it wasn't enough to kill her but the pain was still excruciating. Sakura screamed and-
-a kunai knife suddenly came striking straight towards Tobi, the man skillfully dodged it just in time. He dropped Sakura and turned around to face his attacker.
"Lea...ve….Sakura...alone," Gaara's labored breath wracked across his chest as he stood leaning against the wall of the small altar room. It was clear he was still heavily hindered by his injury.
"Gaara!" the pinkette cried happily as she ran to his side, clutching him by his elbow to make sure he was supported. Truth be told he looked extremely wobbly on his legs and his face was pale with heavy sweat across his forehead.
Sakura knew by his symptoms that his wound must have gotten infected. Her attempts to tend to it must have not been enough, being constantly exposed to the wilderness and outdoors for three days.
"Tobi…Tobi…" Gaara exclaimed through labored breaths. "You were supposed to have been killed in the war."
"Well, so was she but I don't see you questioning her!" the man exclaimed childishly, comically even.
Gaara pursed his lips, telling Sakura that he knew something about her too.
"Sakura…" he said hoarsely. "This man...is not...safe. Don't-" he winced, clutching the wound on his abdomen. "...trust him."
He suddenly leaned down so that his mouth came to line up with her ear. His breath blew hotly into it. For a strange reason, Sakura found herself blushing. Gaara didn't seem to take notice as he whispered just for her to hear: "Where do those…stairs lead?"
Sakura leaned in to whisper as well: "It's not an exit, just a training ground, and then more stairs."
Simultaneously, Tobi on the other side shouted: "HEY YOU TWO, THIS IS SACRED GROUND. WE'LL HAVE NONE OF THAT GOING ABOUT HERE."
By his tone, it was obvious he didn't take himself seriously but there seemed to an underlying threat anyway inside of it. In any case, it was clear he didn't take either of them as much of a threat, otherwise he would have attacked by now.
Gaara did a quick sweep of their surroundings with his eyes, then said with finality. "No matter...we'll have to try it, it's…the only way out. When...I make...my move, grab Sasuke...and we'll...make a run for it."
Sakura felt afraid...but for some reason, being next to Gaara gave her hope and strength. She gave her nod of consent.
In an instant, Gaara had gone straight charging towards Tobi, knocking the man to the ground and once more making the table of Uchiha ancestors spill onto the ground. Sakura reacted quick, just like Gaara had told her to do and in a second she had Sasuke by his underarms and was half dragging, half lifting him up the stairwell. His weight slowed her down considerably and she started to panic when she heard Gaara's scream.
She wanted to go back to help him, she really did but Sakura knew she would just be a burden to him if nothing else, especially needing to lug Sasuke's body all the way and down again. Resolute, Sakura gathered her strength and finally her way up onto the top of the stairwell.
She plopped down Sasuke onto the stone floor in the center of the room and turned back, intending to run down the stairs to aid Gaara but just as she took three steps, that very same red haired man raced out of the top of the staircase too. As soon as their paths crossed, he grabbed her wrist and raced away with her into the center of the room, joining Sasuke's still unconscious form.
Sakura saw that a heavy bloody gash was crossed right above the Fifth Kazekage's forehead, cutting into the "love" kanji sign on his temple. That must have been the scream she'd heard.
Tobi came to step casually into the room, making Sakura anxious with his cool careless disposition. He obviously knew that even at two to one, he had an advantage.
Gaara's breathing was still labored and rang already out of breath from the exertion he'd had to make. Another disadvantage he had was that his sand gourd was nowhere to be found.
Lucky for him, however, there was a considerable amount of dust across the entire training room…
"Sakura," Gaara turned to face her again, his eyes frighteningly serious. "I'll do my best to fight him...but if I fail…"
He raised his right palm and dust particles suddenly started accumulating into it, only a miniscule amount though before it stopped. The dust had taken to the size of a diamond, floating right in the center of Gaara's palm. The Fifth Kazekage uttered a quiet jutsu and made a few fast hand signs, causing a bright blue light to encapsulate the grains. When it dissipated, instead of dust, a real diamond floated right on top of Gaara's hand.
He took Sakura's hand and quickly wrapped it around the shard. It was extremely cool to the touch.
"Break this, alright?" Gaara's instructions were mysterious and confusing but Sakura gave her nod. "But only do this if all else fails, got it?"
Again Sakura nodded.
Gaara suddenly pulled her in close by her upper arm for the last part of his speech.
"If you get a chance to escape," he iterated with their faces parallel and unbearably close to each other. Why was her heart pounding so loud?
"Don't come back for me, you understand?" He punctuated the word by shaking her lightly. "Save yourself, Sakura."
And with that he let go and raced into the battle stage with Tobi.
Explanation about setting: So in the case that my descriptions weren't good enough, the bridge they landed on was the bridge that Sasuke and Danzo fought at which I assumed was right on the edge of the Land of The Iron (since in the episode it's the only place that's not snowing, and I assume it's like this because it's right on the edge. Tobi cornered Danzo on it because well, he was leaving the Land of the Iron as he was going on it and of course he and Sasuke fight there.
I LOOKED EVERYWHERE, and I couldn't find out SPECIFICALLY where the Land of The Iron was located. I couldn't find any of it's neighbors. Like nada, lol. So I just hypothesized that they were next to the Earth and Wind Country since on the naruto map there's an unmarked spot of land between those two countries. Don't kill me if I've gotten this wrong loyal Naruto fans!
Alright that's it. Please tell me if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them, without giving away the plot of course haha.