Apologies if this chapter feels a biiiiiiiiiit like filler, but it is necessary for laying down some grounding for later chapters (plus it just didn't make sense to have them going straight into fighting the Mother without at least a bit of prep!) That and I want to save most of the fighting scenes for the actual battle and not end up repeating bits. All that said: I hope you enjoy! This chapter is rated Mature for sexual content! Underage eyes and those not wanting to read please skip ahead to the first page-break! For those of you who do read it, I'm so sorry! It has been a very long time since I've written anything like this and I've spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out where limbs go? How do hands work? What are noises? Needless to say: please take with -pinch- tablespoon of salt.

Hakujitsumu IX

Sakura awoke slowly, keenly aware of how comfortably warm she felt and how soft the leaves were beneath her, until she realised they weren't leaves at all but a bed. She cracked her eyes open to see the pale, struggling strands of sunlight across carpet, huh? She shifted slightly and felt the arms around her tighten,

"Mornin'," Kakashi mumbled as he pressed several lazy kisses to her bare shoulder; Sakura turned over to face him, her memories returning of the previous evening and where she was. His lips gladly met her's in a long and lazy kiss, his taste and scent so deeply familiar but somehow novel, it felt as if she had been starved of his touch for years. His large hands smoothed gently up her back, pulling her closer as her own hands found their way into his fluffy, tangled hair. They kissed and kissed, Sakura wasn't even conscious of pausing for breath as she instinctively pushed herself against him, desperate to get just a little closer. Her leg hooked itself over his hip and the feel of his hardness rubbing through her folds drew a satisfied groan from her throat; Kakashi again slipped his tongue into her mouth, his hand smoothing down to squeeze her ass. She rolled her hips into his in a silent request for more and the hand continued its journey and finger parted her folds in its decisive journey to her clit, rubbing slow firm circles when it found its treasure. But just as soon as he began his hand was gone, suddenly pulling at her knee, readjusting it over his hip and as soon as Sakura's cry of protest was formed it died when the blunt tip of his erection pressed against her clit and his fingers fluttered over her entrance. Sakura couldn't keep herself quiet, even with Kakashi's mouth on hers.

"Yes?" He breathed,

"Yes!" She replied, her arm pulling his lips down to hers, and the moment they touched, he thrust in full and hard, drinking down her cry as he bottomed out; he held still for a brief moment, but only for a moment before he pulled back and rammed himself forwards, again and again. He leant down to rest his chest on hers, he kept a hold of most of his weight, but it was still enough to crush her against the bed. As frustrating as it was to be so powerless, the thickness of his cock, the neediness of his mouth and the weight of his body against hers felt incredibly good; she clenched tightly about him, which had him snap his hips roughly into hers, Sakura's legs jumped up to clamp around his hips and his pace picked up and his body sunk completely into hers, his arms coiled around her chest holding her flush and tight to him as his hips rocked furiously in hers, he didn't draw far out but he made up for it in strength. Sakura's hands wandered restlessly from his back up to his hair and down again, frustrated by her inability to influence his movements. He grunted sharply, slowed his pace now merely rolling his hips into hers,

"No, not yet-" She protested, released her legs from around him, and her hand found her clit, her finds rubbing and teasing the small nub to catch her up to her partner squeezing around him as she did so. He couldn't hold off any longer; barred his teeth to her neck, not biting painfully but it was enough to set a deep arch in her back which he took advantage of by thrusting forwards, once, twice and cementing his hips to hers. Sakura was moments from completion, instinctively opening her legs further, waiting for the next thrust that would carry her over the edge but instead of pulling back he released and the sudden spurt was just enough to trigger her orgasm. She held him close as her body shook with her release, the twitches of his hips prolonging her high.

How long they laid there Sakura had no idea, but eventually he pulled out and slid off her, pulling her against his side as they pressed their lips together in a few lazy kisses,

"I came too fast." He mumbled,

"Mmh," She agreed, "I think it's just been a while, in my professional opinion."

"And what does the Doctor prescribe?"

"Practice."

"Do you agree, Kakashi?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama, I think it is the right decision. What does Sasuke have to say?"

"He has begrudgingly agreed, I want to get on with the surgery as soon as possible to give you maximum recovery and some time to practice."

"I was able to use the transplanted sharingan almost instantly and, from what we saw with Madara, he was able to utilise the eyes he gained without any delay, though I realise there is some significant differences between he and I."

Tsunade nodded in understanding, "I have really nothing to go on when it comes to speculating your ability to handle the eye, but the rinnegan is a variant of both the sharingan and byakugan, both of which have been transplanted into non-inheritors in the past, I think it will be possible, but what effect it will have on your chakra levels will be down to you to figure out. I'll tell you this now: don't take risks and recklessly exhaust yourself. Given that you'll be with Naruto and Sakura — and what they're both like — they might well falter at a critical moment and won't be there ti save you if you're in too much danger. Or worse, put yourself in a coma before we've even left Konoha which knocks you out for a month or two."

"Hai." Kakashi agreed, wanting to believe in his students but he knew all too well what they were like. And what he was like.

Ino had spent a long time talking with Hinata the night before and she had been shocked to realise that they had far more in common than Ino had ever realised; they laughed loudly and often over everything and nothing and talked at great length about who they thought they were and who they'd suddenly found themselves to be. Hinata had looked so at ease and seemed so comfortable in her own skin, for what was probably the first time in her life and Ino couldn't feel anything but thrilled for her. Ino wasn't proud of who she'd been as a teenager. As a child, she remembered not being afraid to defend Sakura, of not being intimidated by bullying boys, but before she'd realised it, she found herself looking at other women as competition; she found she'd somehow internalised the idea that men were the right way to be humans and women were the wrong way. That women had to be prettier, skinnier, more desirable, strong but not too strong, clever but not too clever. And whatever another woman was good at, it reflected poorly on Ino. When this started she couldn't remember but Ino did remember when she suddenly realised that she had no need to destroy other women in order to prove her own worth.

She'd been shadowing Ibiki and Shimon on an interrogation, a woman from Ame territory. She'd appeared to be civilian and played the part masterfully, but after they'd used their jutsu on her, all that remained was how and why. Ino had sat in on the interrogations and it had only been then, on that day, that she actually listened to the language everyone, all the men, around her were using. In front of them sat a kuniochi, a jounin as strong as any of them: she'd killed three and had severely injured four others in her capture. But a woman and fat. The derision and dirty words thrown her way, both in and out of earshot appalled Ino: they all focused purely on her gender and weight. They almost seemed impressed at the people she'd killed, impressed that a fat woman should be capable of such things. Even Ibiki hadn't seemed to care, he never really stated that he agreed, but he didn't correct them, either. It had been the tipping point and right after, was when she'd begun to train with Gai and his honest, unprejudiced view of the world had been such a radical juxtaposition again the men she worked with — and the bigotry that she had internalised — that Ino had found her perspective had flipped almost upon its axis in a matter of days and she felt like she didn't recognise herself anymore.

Gai, true to his style, had sensed her internal conflict and had happily offered her an ear; she'd awkwardly explained what was bothering her, ashamed for admitting her unkindness and narrow mind. When she'd finished, Gai had merely looked at her and said, "I'm proud of you. It is not easy to find our own flaws and it takes a good deal of courage to face them and try to be better after but it is some of the most important work we will ever do. It's okay to be in turmoil whilst you are battling those elements of yourself you don't like." And then suggested they dive right into training to help clear her mind for a little while.

"Ino? Are you all right?" Hinata's voice brought her back to reality,

"Huh?" Ino blinked,

"You looked a million miles away."

"Sorry, sorry, I was just thinking about Gai." Ino replied, shifting on her zabuton, a little embarrassed that she'd been so lost in thought,

"Gai?" Hinata queried,

"Under the Infinite Tsukikomi and we trained together a lot, he's a fantastic instructor, you know."

"Really? I wouldn't have thought that." Hinata said, not unkindly, as she poured Ino out a cup of tea.

"I wouldn't have either, but once you get past the flamboyance he's very insightful and kind, he never once talked down to me, or made any sort of negative — or sexist — remark… you know, that reminds me, what was Kurenai like as a Jounin sensei?" Ino asked, leaning forwards both as an expression of her interest in Hinata's answer and to pick up her cup of tea,

"Uh, Kurenai? In what way?"

"Did she focus mostly on the boys? Did she ever have anything negative to say about women? About you because of your femininity?"

Hinata thought for a moment, "I don't directly recall her doing so, but I think she did make some effort to not behave 'too girly' in front of the other jounin, she seemed rather different in front of others than when it was just her and I. But I wasn't really paying all that much attention in those days, I suppose."

"You were always so shy back then," Ino offered gently, "I guess you must have been under a lot of pressure as heir to clan."

Hinata nodded, "There was that and I was kept from doing so many normal childhood things, the things that gives kids confidence in themselves, because of my status, and Father was hardly a patient man at the best of times."

"If heirs are so important to a clan, you'd like to think that they'd dedicate some actual effort into raising their children into stable, well rounded people, wouldn't you?" The words were out of Ino's mouth before she could think better of them, "oh, uh, um—" She fumbled to backpedal but after a moment of silence, Hinata merely started laughing so hard she started choking, bring Yiro running from another room,

"Hinata-sama! Hinata-sama!" He skidded to a halt beside her and slapped a hand on her back, which had apparently been enough to dislodge whatever morsel of food which had clogged in the heir's throat,

"Tha-thank you, Yiro, I'm—I'm all right," She panted slightly,

"Are you okay?" Ino shuffled around the table, Hinata nodded,

"Yes, I'm fine, I just took a bite at the wrong time." She nodded to Yiro who reluctantly rose to his feet, "I really wish we'd been friends as teenagers, Ino, you could have taught me the confidence I needed a long time ago!"

Ino smiled in return, "I doubt you would have liked me much as a teenager, I didn't. I think it's much better as we are now."

Hinata thought for a moment as she and Ino looked at each other, "Yes, I think you're right."

Naruto let out a deep breath and opened his eyes, feeling the sage energy flow through him like cool water; he rose to his feet and looked around, the ground before him was empty save for the long grass swaying gently in the steady breeze. He could feel her energy and her presence and looked around slowly for her; she'd made no real attempt to hide, stood to his rear several paces away. Her own sage energy wafting off of her like steam from a hot spring, the only tell of what enormous power lay within: a silent threat to those which might disturb it. As soon as he set eyes on her, however, a bubble of laugher rose up from within him until it exploded as a guffaw,

"Hahaha you really do get the eye stalks! Hahahah! Can you see out of them? Do you have four eyes now?"

"Naruto! Take this seriously!" Sakura barked before unleashing a barrage of shuriken which Naruto easily dodged, still laughing at Sakura, who merely rolled her eyes and ran at him. They exchanged a few kicks and punches for a few moments until Naruto created his clones and this fight began proper; Sakura seamlessly fought them off, absorbing and redirecting the clones' chakra and physical force back on themselves until they exploded into dust. Naruto's own sage energy seemed to have met its match with Sakura's for every attack he threw, Sakura was able to dodge and return the energy back to him, which his own gathered energy protected him from. Chakra seemed of little use, any ninjutsu they could think of to throw at each other became laughable attacks with their heightened perceptions and reflexes. They quickly reached a stalemate, even as their natural energies failed them and they continued the fight with little more than their fists, their waning chakra and ill tempers.

"What the hell? Why is it like fighting a mirror?" Naruto eventually managed through his panting as he leapt back a few spaces to create some distance, "If you're only absorbing the chakra and returning it to me, it's, it's—"

"I know," Sakura cut him off, "Our energies are different but they still come from the same source… so doesn't it sort of make sense that we're evenly matched? But I didn't expect it to be like this, it's like we're not even really fighting."

"It wasn't like this with Fukusaku; that felt like a normal fight."

"Wasn't like it with Mageruko-sama, either…"

"Well, that's at least given us some idea of your respective power levels, let's take a break for now and review." Kakashi wandered over, a stubborn line embedded in his brow visible even from beneath his large bandage over his left eye, "You are surprisingly evenly matched, but you'll be fighting a near-literal goddess, who has an enormous source of chakra at her fingertips—"

"So?" Naruto argued back, "We know who we're fighting, we fought her before—Oh! Kakashi! How did the surgery go? Are you okay?"

"Hai, I'm fine, I'm just resting it for today."

"She's familiar with sage energy, hell she could even have access to that energy herself for all we know." Sakura offered, redirecting the conversation before taking a long drink from her water bottle, her eyes fixed on Kakashi.

"Right. It will be you two against her, the rest of us will be pretty much useless in this fight. We need to focus on how to use your energies effectively together. Can you combine attacks?"

"But Sakura can't use rasengan."

"That isn't what he means, Naruto… and… I don't think chakra will help us here, she's going to be near the tree, isn't she? And you remember how attracted it was to our chakras?" Sakura said,

"Yeah! But it didn't seem affected by my sage mode!"

"Right, so you two need to find an attack that can effectively take out both the tree and Otsutsuki." Kakashi spoke calmly though there was certainly an undercurrent of tension in his voice,

"Naruto, do you still have the ability to utilise chakra from Kurama, in the way you did at the climax of the war?"

"Um, I think so, but Kurama is still gathering his chakra and it's really hard to get him to even talk to me." Naruto said, eliciting a quiet though frustrated sigh from Kakashi; the Naruto described the Nine Tails always made it sound as if he was merely living with a strong but grouchy housemate rather than a sealed mass of living chakra within him.

"Yo, yo, Nine Tails ain't looking so hot but that slug lady know's what's what!" The obnoxious voice of Killa Bee interrupted the moment,

"Octodude!" Naruto yelled, his eyes sparkling like mercury, "You finally woke up! What took you so long?"

"Ay-yo, I had to let the hachibi sleep, fightin' that long haired crazy biyatchi took a lot out of my boy Hatchi."

"Eh?" Naruto replied,

"He means Madara," Sakura replied, "Are you here to help us train?"

"Yeah, yeah! Kakashi asked me to help you guys out and I could use the work out!" Kill Bee replied enthusiastically, Sakura could only assume he'd intended his words to rhyme.

"Perhaps a good place to start would be getting Naruto to access Kurama again; Sakura, you and I will work on genjutsu." Kakashi helpfully interjected,

"Genjutsu?" Sakura queried, walking over to Kakashi,

"I agree it's unlikely she will attempt such a technique given her power, but we don't know what control she still has over the tree or if she can make it bloom again; Naruto had Kurama to break any genjutsu, but its wise if we test how your sage mode might be disrupted by it."

"Are you sure you're going to be all right?" Sakura asked, glancing over his bandage, "I'm not sure you should even be out of bed."

"Sakura, I assure you I am fine, the eye doesn't hurt and Tsunade performed the surgery quite easily. Besides, casting a genjutsu doesn't require much chakra. I promise not to over exert myself."

"Ino, you're here, good." Tsunade said without even look up as Ino stepped into her office, "How are you feeling? Any headaches or disorientation… beyond what could be reasonably expected, given the current state of the village."

"No, Tsunade-sama."

"Good. How's your medical ninjutu? Did you practice as a medic in the Tsukikomi?"

"No, I worked with Ibiki-sampai in Intel."

"Really?" Tsunade put her pen down and touched her hands together, "With Inoichi?"

Ino shook her head, "No, I dreamed that he'd died and Ibiki trained me to take his place."

"Did you like working there?"

"Hai, it sort of felt like… I'd been preparing for it my whole life."

"Oh?"

"People always looked at me and saw me as some frivolous gossip, but there was next to nothing I didn't know about the Konoha 11 or the jounin who were considered to be our senseis before I even took my graduation exam. Gossip is a powerful currency and all those traits I was ridiculed and dismissed for as child were almost exactly the ones a shinobi village relies upon to be successful."

"True." Tsunade simply responded, "You want to restart the Intel department one we've dealt with Otsutsuki?"

"Yes, I would… assuming we can actually defeat her, how is Naruto and Sakura's training going?"

"They're sparring now but they've only got two weeks to sort out the kinks, the longer we hesitate, the longer she has to plan a counter. But for this mission specifically, I will need you on medic duty, Sakura will be needed specifically to help defeat Otsutsuki and so we will be acting on the assumption that she cannot provide any medical aid."

"I understand Tsunade-sama, I will practice until we're ready to deploy, that will be some time next week, I assume?"

"Yes, but I will holding a briefing early next week to run over final plans with everyone who will be going. But in the mean time, your Shitenshin jutsu works on non-humans and non-shinobi, doesn't it?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama,"

"Would it work on Zetsu?"

"Zetsu? You mean that—"

"Yes him, he's been hanging around, helping us, though we can't say with any real certainty if he's on our side or not."

"Hmm," Ino hummed a note, though whether it was one in intrigue, distrust or simple acknowledgement, even Ino wasn't quite certain. "You want me to look inside his mind if he shows up again?"

"Yes, potentially Otsutsuki too, if you're able. Does the power of your target have an impact on you or the technique?"

"I'm not certain, to tell you the truth, whenever I've used the technique on missions it's usually been directed at a low level target for reconnaissance purposes and even at the Intel department, we were rarely lucky enough to have powerful detainees and even so, the jutsu was slightly different and we worked in groups."

"Hmm, care the speculate?" Tsunade asked patiently and Ino thought back over everything she knew about her clan jutsu,

"I can't speak with any certainty, but since our jutsu only relies on the user's chakra and not of the target I don't see that it should present much of a problem, I've taken over animals' minds before… the only issue might be whether Zetsu actually has a mind of his own and isn't some sort of kage bunshin."

Tsunade quirked an eyebrow, "That is something to consider, nonetheless we'll proceed as if white and black Zetsu and Otsutsuki have real bodies and are entities unto themselves for now."

"Understood Tsunade-sama."

"You'll probably have had a lot of muscle wastage from the time spent under the Tsukikomi, but I can't afford the time to let you get back to full strength, I'm afraid."

"I understand, I'll target my training."

"Start with the medical side of things since that might well become most urgent, Shizune's at the hospital."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama."

"Dismissed."

Ino was back out onto the street in a few moments, the sight of so many foreign shinobi milling about the streets and conducting repairs was still a strange sight, but the oddness of it seemed to reaffirm to Ino that she was, in fact, now facing reality.

"Long time no see," Shikamaru fell into step beside her and Chouji the other,

"Shika! Chouji!" Ino exclaimed, "How are you both? How's everything been going since you were awoken?"

"Ah, busy and tiring, we have meetings all the time and all the kage's arguing over what needs to be done and who should take the lead… it stresses me out."

"Hahaha," Ino laughed genially, "I'm glad to be back with the real Shikamaru."

"Eh?"

"There was a facsimile of you in the Tsukikomi after you'd been awoken."

"How long'd it take you realise?" He grinned,

"Not long, your brand of laziness, Shika, is apparently hard to replicate."

"I was annoyed they took so long to wake you up," Chouji said,

"Well, I suppose I was valuable intel at the time, it was amazing to see the difference in you, Chouji, once I knew what was going on when you showed up to a training session one day and were completely different."

"You noticed?"

"Yeah."

"You two trained together?" Shikamaru asked,

"Uh-huh, with Gai,"

"Gai?"

"Yup, a criminally underrated sensei, if you ask me. But we should train together later, we'll need a good InoShikaChou formation, but I've got to work with Shizune-sampai in the meantime, how about later this evening?"

"Sure, you're staying with Hinata now, right? We'll stop by later. How's the house-sharing thing going, anyway? Hinata's changed a bit."

"Tell me about it, I am loving this new confident Hinata! And she's actually very good company, I like spending time with her but I really wish I had my old apartment and own space back, feels kinda weird living in someone else's house, you know?"

"Yeah, I know the feeling… no offence Shikamaru." Chouji agreed a breath of laughter in his voice, "His compound mostly survived, but mine didn't."

"I'm sorry, Chou." Ino said though the Akimichi merely shrugged,

"We're both on rebuild up duty for today, so we'll get started on you apartment as soon as we can, okay?" Chouji offered and Shikamaru nodded with a broad grin,

"Really? You guys are the best!" All three shared smiles that told of how clearly pleased they were to be back together.

The near two weeks had passed swiftly and Tsunade stood sombrely in her dark office overlooking the village, everything that could be done, had been: training, planning, briefing. The only thing left was to wait for dawn. At best estimate it would be a four day journey back to the tree, assuming no hold ups and the party was fit enough to maintain their speed. It was hardly ideal circumstances, though war rarely was, especially when one was on the defending team. Naruto, Sakura, Killa Bee and Kakashi had developed a good formation and worked well together. Kakashi himself had adapted well to his new eye, though it had certainly proved a far greater drain on him than the sharingan had but by the same token, had afforded him ten times the power. The shinobi were hungry for retribution and all seemed to have dedicated themselves tenfold since Sakura's return and the spark of real hope she'd brought with her had proven a powerful motivator. Tsunade was proud and hopeful but quietly uneasy; even with the disposal of the entire shinobi forces and Naruto and Sasuke, they had still failed to defeat Otsutsuki once and here they were trying again with barely half the resources, strength or intel.

So much could go wrong, there was everything to lose and what they might be able to win back, might still take years of rebuilding for it to again have any resemblance of the world they were fighting for. In the cool darkness of her office, Tsunade felt her age, she felt the weight of what had been lost, she'd peeked beyond the veil and seen a sweet dream calling back to her. It was as beyond her grasp as it was a false positive: no amount of wishing would see her return to it and nor could she be happy if she did. Many had oft thought that shinobi were cursed to live long, hard eras and for whom happiness was not meant to truly reach. It was a sentiment Tsunade had often rebuffed, such negativity was neither useful nor healthy, yet at every turn things seemed determined to prove it right; perhaps it was more that shinobi went in search of death and danger and often times it found them.

Only this search toward death and danger was a noble one, what good would it be for them to continue living like cockroaches just out of sight of a malicious goddess, snatching at their survival one moment to another whilst others lay trussed in her clutches? These clever and noble cockroaches would rise and fight and see to it that there was another way.

..

.

A/n - I am aiming to finsih Hakujitsumu for this year's NaNoWriMo, though I am off to a sorry start having injured my back making sitting, standing and walking painful T.T but I will endeavour to focus on this story and get chapters out more quickly!