Title: Sakura's Home
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto-sama. I don't own anything about Naruto, this is just for fun and if I did own Naruto I wouldn't have to right this, because I would have a team of very talented people turning this into a saga right now...
Rating: K+
Warning: this not only has spoilers until Manga 270ish, but it's kind of required for you to know what's going on. I use a lot of the Gaara mission, just made it AUish.
Summary: Sakura was kicked out of Konoha five years ago but now has been asked to return… She will meet old friends and be faced with the consequences of her actions. Future AU Sakura centric. No pairings, and you need to be up to date in the manga and series.
Authors Notes: This chapter is where the Kakashi Gaiden from the manga becomes really important. I hope you all enjoy this. Not too far to go. I am still updating, don't worry. I won't let this fic die. I've been working on it for way too long.

Chapter 17 – Mending Him

Sakura turned around in small circles in the dark. She was in a deep haze, but through the blurred images, she seemed to be caught in some kind of genjutsu. She looked down at her body, but it wasn't hers. She was wearing a different outfit, and she was shorter. There were bandages on each of her cheeks, and she had brown hair.

"Kai!" There was a familiar voice, and then the world cleared and it was Kakashi who was looking back at her. But he wasn't as Sakura had ever seen him. He was a boy. He had a bandage over his left eye. And there was another boy standing next to him. He had black hair, and red eyes. But he only had two sharingan in each eye, instead of three.

And Sakura realized then what was happening. He was reliving Kakashi's childhood, and she was now Rin. The other boy was Obito. She knew this, because there seemed to be something else inside her mind that told him this was Uchiha Obito.

"Kakashi… Obito…" And when she looked at Kakashi, she could feel her heart skip a beat. She loved him.

Sakura shook her head. That couldn't be right. This was Kakashi she was talking about. But the voice in her mind kept insisting that she loved him. She always had. It was then that Sakura's battered mind began to catch up. Rin loved Kakashi, not her.

"We came to save you, Rin. It's alright now." Obito spoke first, and Sakura was surprised to find that he reminded her of Naruto. They was his eyes sparkled when he looked at her, and his boyish features. Her heart tightened.

"Right, we'd better get out of here fast." Kakashi looked to the left, and Sakura could feel herself watching him. This girl loved him like she did Sasuke. Even at such a young age, she loved him already. Sakura knew this feeling; at it was no wonder to her now why Kakashi thought of her like Rin.

"Indeed that was a good combination. But you're still brats. You're right in my hands now." There was an evil, slick voice from behind them. Sakura looked past them and saw a tall, bloody man getting to his feet.

"Doton: Iwa yado kuzushi!" The man shouted, and the rocks that surrounded them in the clearing began to crumble away and fall towards them.

"Oh, damn!" Obito shouted over the roar of boulders falling.

"Everyone, get out of here, quickly!" Kakashi's warning was unnecessary. All three of them were running, shoulder to shoulder as fast as they could. Sakura didn't have time to think or even to react. The voice inside her already took action, as if it'd done this many time and knew it was coming.

It was then that she considered that it was Kakashi in her mind telling her these things, and not Rin. After all, how could Rin be inside him? More than likely it was Kakashi telling her things, and his anticipation of this moment. This was what he was forced to relive over and over.

Then it all seemed to happen at once. Kakashi was hit by a rock a fell. Obito pushed him aside, and the rocks came tumbling down. And when all the smoke cleared, Obito was crushed under a bolder, the left side of his body dripping with blood.

She could hear Kakashi swear and run to him. But there was something else happening inside of her. She could feel a sense of purpose mounting in the back of her mind, like an itch. But this wasn't real. It didn't matter is Sakura was a medical shinobi. She couldn't actually save Obito. This all happened years ago.

Obito spit blood, and Sakura was moving faster than she knew she could. "Obito!" She was at his side, kneeling and scanning over his body. Sakura knew then that this girl, Rin was also medic-nin. They were both healers. And Sakura was fighting to catch up in all the panic and confusion.

"I'm… the only one… who didn't… get you a present…" Obito was saying to Kakashi. But Sakura wasn't listening. She was trying to figure out why her hands were tingling. It was like the voice was trying to tell her something.

"This Sharingan of mine… please accept it." This was where Kakashi got his Sharingan; this was when he lost his best friend. "Rin… with your medical jutsu… please take out my sharingan… and implant it into Kakashi's left eye."

There were tears on her cheeks now, and her heart was breaking in so many ways, she didn't think she'd ever be whole again. But that wasn't her thought. That was the voice inside her. Now, Sakura realized this was her chance. This was her opportunity to synchronize the chakra from the sharingan to Kakashi's so that he could pull himself from this endless dimension.

"Kakashi, come over here so we can start quickly." Her hands were buzzing, and Sakura focused all her energy on finding the frequency of Kakashi's chakra. She touched his child-face and closed her eyes. She sought for a moment with her own chakra for the familiar feeling of his swirling power.

She'd always recognized it as somewhat unstable. It was always strangely out of phase with his movements. She'd always thought it was because part of him was existing in the future with the sharingan. But she saw now that it wasn't like that at all. There was a piece of him, the eye, that didn't fit. It was too large, too boisterous to fit with the rest of the slow moving, cold current of his chakra.

And it was always cut off, just on the edges, like he was frayed. This was what was keeping him from using the sharingan without fear of the danger it could cause. Sakura emptied her mind of everything except Kakashi.

She focused on his eyes, the multicolored, mismatched eyes that saved her countless times. She thought about his voice, and it was soothing when she was younger. She thought about his hands on her shoulders, and the way he'd always hide behind his orange book. She thought about the feel of his chakra rushing over her, and what it felt like to heal him.

Forgetting completely, that she'd never healed him before; she could feel the shift in the chakra. There was a wave through her mind, like a ripple from the two chakra's becoming harmonized. And when she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see the girl she had just been.

Rin's face looked back at her. She was older, and her hair was longer. But she still wore the bandages on her face, and her brown hair seemed darker. She looked about Sakura's age now.

"Thank you, Sakura. For doing what I couldn't." She spoke, softly and bowed at her.

"I don't understand. Are you part of Kakashi?" Sakura struggled to understand what this all meant.

"You could say that." She smiled, but it didn't seem to really reach her eyes. And out of the darkness that Sakura hadn't even realized was surrounding them, she read footsteps. She turned behind her and found Kakashi walking towards her.

"Kakashi!" She made a move towards him, but he held out his hand and she stopped.

"Thank you, Sakura. You saved me." He looked just like she remembered him. Mask and forehead protector tilted. He touched his face and she could see the corners of his mouth crinkle from behind the mask.

"But, I don't understand. Was it you telling me what to do?" She looked back over her shoulder at the women who was still standing, her hands clasped behind her back. "Or was it her?"

"Rin is a part of me, now. She has been for a long time." And his face seemed to melt into a heartbreaking expression. "Not as long as this eye, but long enough."

"What?"

"Have you even wondered how it is that I'm able to use the Mangekyou Sharingan?" He spoke evenly and walked past her, closer to the other women.

"You mean…" Sakura fought to understand what he was saying.

"I killed Rin." Rin smiled at this. And it almost seemed so out of place that Sakura wanted to yell at her. "But before she died, I took part of her with me. Now that you've balance my chakra with Obito's I'll finally be able to balance myself with what's left of Rin."

"So it was you who told me you loved Kakashi?" Sakura understood, but it still didn't make any sense. "How could you do that?" She watched as Kakashi turned, and stood right next to Rin in the darkness. They looked good together, right, somehow.

"It was a complicated decision." Rin spoke. "I bear no grudge to Kakashi for it." And she smiled again, but this time Sakura could see that she loved Kakashi. She reached out a hand and Kakashi took it.

Together, they both began to fade away.

"Wait!" Sakura rushed towards them. "You can't leave me like this. Take me with you, you have to!" But they were already becoming more and more transparent. And Kakashi just shook his head.

"It's not your time yet. You still have something you need to do."