Thank you so much to Piro (x3? o.0 You flatter me, sorry for making you wait!), Mistralle, operagirl76, SUPERANON, Rosebunse, ovicati (x2, thanks for coming back to let me know), TaeMint, dazedeyes, Melikalilly, gummybear1620, Hyouhaku, Fireotaku18, Voere, Protozoa, kiki2222 for reviewing on the last chapter! I really do appreciate all of the feedback.

Disclaimer: I suffer from Drama-Queen Syndrome. So does Naruto, but only because I made him that way.

…

So maybe Kishimoto was the one that made him that way. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto and Sasuke.

Warnings: There will be BL (gradually), character deaths (it's a fact of life sadly), and drama (definitely plenty of that...*sprinkles every chapter*).

Beyond War

By Om0cha

Chapter Three: The Healer's Treachery

The clouds had been steadily brewing ever since Sasuke parted ways with Tsunade. At first they were but mere dabs of innocent grey above him, just a cloudier day than normal and nothing to indicate that anything special was about to happen. Before long however, streaks of black had snuck across and eagerly smeared the entire sky, shadowing the path up the mountain and making it extremely treacherous for any normal human to scale. What had been the occasional cold breeze that nudged at his elbows as he made his way back to the cave had become a drizzling rain in the short time before he was standing with Naruto on his back in front of Tokoyo's gates, the both of them garbled in their long cloaks that were thankfully waterproof and warm.

Sasuke felt Tsunade's chakra still within the town's walls behind them but he brushed it aside. She had given him her word and he would take it at face value, if only because he trusted her slightly more than he did Gaara. He examined the horizon stretching out to the East before him. The land and sky was blurred with grey tones at the middle. The rain could not have come at a better time and he smirked despite the icy water that trickled in rivulets down his face. It was ironic. Madara –the man with the most powerful eyes in existence – had not been able to correct a major flaw in his Zetsu army's vision. The creatures depended largely upon their superior smell and chakra sensory. They were almost blind in this weather to all but a person standing point-blank in front of them.

He turned left to look over his shoulder, where Naruto's head was resting with his hood pulled down to his eyebrows. He actively searched for the miniscule, ghosting puff of air on his neck and he found it with the appreciation of an expert. His eyes slid behind the blonde and he took one last glance at Tokoyo and its tall wooden fences before he lowered his head beneath his own hood and turned around, trudging through the quickly forming mud.

This was his home for 7 years.

His lips thinned bitterly at the ground and the pattering of falling rain became louder.

It'll be gone tomorrow and he'll never have known it.

It was just another memory that he would have but which Naruto wouldn't. Another memory to remind him of the differences in the time that they were living.

He increased his pace once they were over the first hill and the gates of Tokoyo were no longer visible. He estimated that the genjutsu on them had an hour left, which should be sufficient time to get well away from the Zetsu if he kept at his current speed.

Under normal circumstances he would have just cast a genjutsu upon himself and walked calmly by the barrier of Zetsu without concern. But Naruto was with him this time, and a genjutsu projected to cover the both of them required significantly more chakra. There was a huge chance that the Zetsu would detect and identify the large amount of chakra preceding the genjutsu as his and raise the alarm before they were actually put under the lure of his eyes. To avoid that happening, he used one of the Tokoyo shinobi to cast the genjutsu upon them and suppressed his own chakra. The Zetsu would not sense him; they would feel only the weaker signal of a near-chakraless villager as they passed each other.

They entered the closest forest without incidence. The nearest Zetsu were a measly half a mile away from them when they infiltrated their lines but hadn't bothered to investigate the seemingly weak individual. Sasuke was sure that the group would be severely punished once Madara realised that he had yet again failed to attain the nine-tails.

Safe under the cover of twisting branches and foliage so thick that even the rain couldn't penetrate it, Sasuke felt the telltale tingle of the genjutsu slipping away. He shifted Naruto upon his back and tightened his fingers beneath the other's thighs as he kept on running. The place that he had in mind to become their next conquest was the abandoned residence of a bloodline limit clan that had been wiped out decades ago. They would stay there until Madara's rage had blown over. It would take around four days journey if he kept up this pace. He would have to be alert at all times.

They were fair game now.

He pushed himself without stopping day or night for the next three days, keeping at his speed until at least five countries were between them and Tokoyo. He was occasionally forced to change his course every now and again when somebody was nearby. He had been tempted to rest in the tea country, with its infinite fields of tall, lush green plants that were easy to take cover amongst, but it was a risk since they had had a mission there in the past as Genin. Sasuke knew that shinobi had scoured many of the locations that they had gone to back when they were younger.

A day's travel away from their destination he finally allowed himself to take a break. He veered off the path and towards a bubbling brook that he could hear after making sure that there was no one around. At the water's edge he removed Naruto's cloak and lay the blonde upright against the base of a tree on the shore before removing his own boots and stripping down to his pants. He washed the mud from his clothes and Naruto's cloak in the shallows, leaving them on the grass to dry before he waded out into the flowing, waist-deep water. The water was invigoratingly cold against his skin in the morning chill and he submerged himself fully a few times to clear out all of the grainy muck that had collected in his hair. Slowly, he felt his tensed muscles loosening beneath the soothing liquid. Once he felt more refreshed he dipped a clean piece of cloth into the water and went back to Naruto with it.

With light strokes, he wiped away the small amount of dirt that had managed to get past the hood and onto Naruto's skin and hair. He ran his fingers through the blonde locks a few times to untangle them before reaching around to undo the red twine tying the longer hair into a ponytail at Naruto's neck. He untangled the locks there too, pulling his fingers leisurely down the soft, golden expanse that had been freed. While retying the twine he shifted himself and Naruto so that he could sit against the tree trunk with Naruto in front of him, his body twisted with one leg settled casually on Naruto's left. When he was done he pulled Naruto back against his chest and wrapped his arms around the blonde, letting Naruto's head fall back naturally against his collarbone.

In that position, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to slip into a very shallow sleep. Mostly awake, but with shadows of strange thoughts and dreams starting to occupy his mind and threatening to drag him under. He swore that there was movement in his arms, loud laughter in his ears, brilliant blue that flooded his vision when he opened his eyes…

Not a second past an hour later his eyes snapped open. He looked down at Naruto, still sealed and slack against him, and pressed the bottom of his chin against the blonde's head for a moment, his grip tightening. He pulled himself up and rested Naruto back against the tree while he retrieved their dry clothes.

The remainder of the journey to the abandoned district went by uninhibited and relaxedly. Most of the travel was through a large forest that formed a border between two countries and so was very rarely visited by shinobi, for peace and diplomacy reasons. The district itself was located at the end of the forest, sheltered by the overhanging branches of giant, ancient buttress trees. When they finally arrived it was night and he leapt over the stone walls without bothering with the gates.

Within the borders it was much like what the Uchiha district back in Konoha had been. The houses were traditional, the streets were paved with stones marked with clan designs, and the typical fung-shui trees had been allowed to overgrow the place. There was an aura that spoke of what had once been a prestigious clan. Unlike in the Uchiha district however, much of this district had fallen into ruin. It had obviously been deserted for much longer and particularly near the entrance where the wind was stronger, the delicate paper covering the windows and door panels was tattered and leaves and debris had blown through the buildings. A lonely silence reigned over everything.

He chose a large house near the heart of the district to become their living quarters. It was in a much better condition than most of the other buildings because of the sheltered location that it was situated in. Fifty metres above it, the intertwining buttress branches were so thick that only cracks of light would penetrate through to light up the house during the day. The inside of the house was rather complicated, with many intricately painted sliding doors and rooms that could be connected to each other in a multitude of different ways. Sasuke took them well into the house and to a room from which candlelight would not escape before he was satisfied.

In the pitch darkness he lowered Naruto onto the thankfully still-existent tatami mats. He took off the blonde's cloak and shoes and put them to the side. He was wary of the cold making Naruto sick however –which had never been a worry in the cave in Tokoyo— and so he released two thick duvets from a scroll and pulled one of these up to the blonde's shoulders. Only when he had settled Naruto into their new dwelling did he light a single candle and tiredly deactivate his sharingan.

He sat back against the painted wall with the other duvet covering his crossed legs. His eyes were fixed on Naruto's face and the way the light threw long shadows across it, accentuated by his nose and eyelashes. His mind automatically tried to fill the silence but he fought against it. If he allowed himself to think then his mind would begin wandering. He would notice nagging, important things like how there just didn't seem to be an opportune moment to unseal Naruto, and then unimportant things like how he hadn't eaten in 4 days and would need to find something other than soldier pills tomorrow.

He lowered his chin and in a house that reminded him of the one his parents had been killed in, he discarded these thoughts and slept restlessly.

The way back to Konoha was long and tiring. Not for the first time in 5 years, Tsunade felt a deep yearning to just be able to see and trudge through those huge gates and back into civilisation. The time she had spent in populated towns or villages had been sadly lacking ever since she left.

She had exited Gaara's lands a couple of hours before and the change in scenery was almost dramatic. Her circumstances went from sweating in the sweltering desert to focusing on not getting lost in this forest of leafless, black trees, gloomily depressing at night and without a sliver of greenery in sight. She had considered stopping until morning but there didn't seem to be any caves around, and rather than shiver her way through her sleep on an uncomfortable tree branch, she figured she may as well keep on going by moonlight and sooner return to a warm mattress. She salivated a little at the thought.

She had missed Konoha indeed.

When she first stood aside 7 years ago for Kakashi she hadn't yet been fully decided on leaving. Shizune was gone and if she were to depart then it would be a lonely path, and Sakura was meant for much greater things than being her assistant on a journey with no end in sight. Instead, for one and a half years she stayed and advised Kakashi, teaching him what she could –it was rather unfortunate that he picked up on her lazy habits as well— while enduring the infuriating criticisms of the daimyos as she did. Eventually, she had gotten sick of them and taken a leaf out of Jiraiya's book after she felt that Kakashi was prepared well enough.

She could say without remorse that she hated those old cranks. Her blood never failed to churn at those fancily dressed men that thought the war could be solved by throwing money at it. The council were close runner-ups for that special position in her heart— the blacker side of it, that was. If she were a bit more vengeful she would have let them try to implement their grand plans and then cheerfully picked up their corpses for them afterwards. They failed to realise that Madara could no longer be considered a mere human. He was not restricted by such trivial human necessities as economic need. It was why negotiating a resolution with him was impossible. The bargaining skills which every Kage had trained right down to a tee were useless. War was the only option, and it just so happened to be the only thing that Madara wanted. It had ceased for now but no doubt Madara would strike it up again the moment Naruto's location had been pinpointed. The sooner the world was rid of that madman, the sooner they could focus on what was truly important – the future. It was incomprehensible how one man could bring the world to a standstill.

Yet sadly, it was possible and warily, Tsunade came to a screeching halt in the dirt now.

A plume of the upset dirt blew around her legs and her eyes searched the darkness all around her, blonde pigtails whipping across her neck. In her years of being alone in her travels, the very feeling of solitariness had burnt itself into her body. She had wondered with a great sadness whether Jiraiya, a hermit since his own departure, had also found it natural. Her life was filled with regrets. She should have never let him go. Now, being alone was such an inherent feeling for her that being surrounded by people sent her senses into overload.

It might not have been more than one person, but she still smelt a rat invading her space.

"Show yourself," she barked impatiently, much too cold and grouchy to entertain a game of cat and mouse.

Her eyes darted over the bare trees. They were far too thin for anyone to hide behind. The forest seemed more silent than it had been a few seconds ago. Her instincts filled in the gaps for her and she jumped away as she correctly guessed the mystery person's hiding place. A huge, reptilian, hissing head burst with a large bang from the ground that had been beneath her feet and snapped at the air, its fangs dripping with yellow venom that flew everywhere with the dry dirt as she slid to a landing on her feet some metres away. The serpent pulled the rest of itself lethargically from the huge hole that it had made in the ground and Tsunade instantly knew who was behind this ambush.

She had almost forgotten about that one other particular madman.

"Kabuto," she hissed in displeasure, craning her face up to see the rearing snake.

The young, grey haired male was standing upon the giant creature's head and leering down at her with a grin full of sharpened teeth, his features illuminated by the moonlight. The hallowed youth looked very different to the last time that she had seen him. There was, in particular, a certain insane gleam to his slitted eyes that reminded her of Orochimaru after his fall into darkness. The man was scaly from his neck down to his fingers and nauseatingly, Tsunade glimpsed a long, white snake's tale protruding out from beneath the back of his cloak.

A chimera. He has turned himself into a chimera.

"You've becomes as twisted as your master," she said in disgust. If things had been a little different, Kabuto could have ended up as one of the greatest medic-nins of his generation together with Shizune and Sakura. As it was, she had no doubt that his specialised medical knowledge had been put to all the wrong uses to create his current mutated form.

"We meet again, Tsunade-sama," Kabuto called down. The honorific was mockingly attached with a contempt that Tsunade whole-heartedly shared.

"Cut the crap," she snapped, preparing herself to fight. "I don't believe that you'd be here by coincidence. Did Madara send you?"

Kabuto jumped off the snake's head and it disappeared with a deafening explosion equivalent to its size as he landed on the ground closer to her.

"Madara is quite furious at the moment," he commented with the air of a man discussing the weather. "You took away not only his victory, but the consolation prize as well." He smirked here. Obviously, he did not share Madara's irritation. "However, I'm not interested in his little tantrums. I am here of my own free will."

Tsunade regarded him suspiciously. Secretly, she began pushing chakra into her right hand, the green glow hopefully hidden behind the wide edges of her vest. She vindictively made sure that it was enough to knock him straight over the trees and out of the woods if he pushed it.

"Regrettably, I need your…assistance," Kabuto said.

Tsunade frowned, her shrewd eyes never leaving the other and the way he seemed to sway perpetually on the spot like the upper body of serpent. She had been tempted by Orochimaru's offer once before and had almost made a terrible mistake as a result. As his apprentice Kabuto could not be after anything any less unsavoury.

"Becoming ambitious?" she asked loudly, testing his intentions. "Have Madara's plans for world domination wiped off onto you?"

Kabuto chuckled and his white tail swayed side to side across the dead leaves canvassing the forest floor.

"No, that's not it," he assured her. "Mine and Madara's goals have…diverged. We are partners only so long as he can help me to reach my own goal. It seems though that lately he has lost sight of his side of the bargain."

"And what bargain would that be?"

Tsunade made a mental note that the ranks of the enemy were even more discordant than they previously believed. Across from her, Kabuto's lips spread wide again on his face, the bone structure of which had deformed into a snout-like appearance. A sharp-tipped tongue flicked out to lick his lips.

"Tsunade-sama," he slurred, "As a medic-nin that was once more superior than myself, what would you say is every healer's darkest dream?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. Kabuto's grin widened at her silent declination to answer.

"Every healer wants to conquer sickness, injury…death. Is that not the case?" he suggested.

"You want to become immortal," Tsunade deduced with a wry smile. "I told Orochimaru this when he asked me the same question years ago and I have no worries about shattering any fantasies that you might have now - It is impossible."

"And Madara?" Kabuto asked in amusement.

"A monster," she hissed. "He will die eventually and it will be exactly what he deserves."

"Now, now," Kabuto's scaly hand came up defensively from beneath his sleeves. "I remember that you were once tempted to bring back that man, Dan, wasn' it? You didn't seem to mind making him a monster at the time."

"Some of us learn from our mistakes," she replied grimly, then added pointedly, "and some of us keep on making the same ones."

"So perhaps the edo-tensei is an incomplete jutsu," here, Kabuto shrugged offhandedly, "but with our combined knowledge we could perfect it." His eyes gleamed hungrily in the shadows at this prospect and the moonlight glinted wetly from his unnaturally large pupils.

"Not on your life," Tsunade growled out.

Kabuto's smirk didn't go anywhere.

"Fine," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He looked away from her. "I didn't expect you to agree anyway. How about you just tell me where Sasuke-kun's run off to instead?"

"Are you still trying to avenge your master?" she sneered. "I'm afraid that you'd just be walking to your death."

"Actually," Kabuto watched her with sadistic anticipation, "I'm more interested in his little pet this time around."

His yellow eyes lighted up gleefully as Tsunade froze and her expression reformed into a combination of anger and shock.

"I thought you said that you weren't interested in Madara's plans," she said, gritting her teeth and forcing herself to think levelly. She couldn't help the feeling that she was missing something vitally important.

"I'm not," Kabuto answered flippantly. "I don't want the Kyuubi, although it does make for a tempting bonus."

"Then why are you looking for them?"

Kabuto appeared to have been waiting for her to ask this question. From the insane expression on his face, it seemed as though he thought he already held the entire world in the palm of his hands.

"For immortality, of course," he said loudly, sounding as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Orochimaru-sama, although he was brilliant and made huge progress in that direction, got one thing wrong."

And Tsunade thought that she could see where this was going, but it was impossible.

"The key to eternal life lies not with the Uchiha clan's Sharingan," Kabuto said silkily, "but with the Uzumaki clan, a bloodline that had already unlocked the secrets of longevity. And considering Naruto's ability to house the Kyuubi, I have no doubt that he's inherited more than a few of those qualities."

Ice dropped into Tsunade's veins. It wasn't hard to see where Kabuto had gotten his delusions. The Uzumaki clan was a race that had lived like gods within their island city, seemingly untouchable and separated from the rest of the mortal world. Their jutsus both inspired and kept the world in fear, both kept them away and drew them in. But in the end they had been destroyed, infallible proof of their mortality.

"Orochimaru-sama picked the wrong child," Kabuto continued, "but I will correct his mistake and continue his work. I will go further than either of you –and even the Uzumaki clan— ever did."

"You're dreaming," Tsunade retorted bluntly, now extremely uneasy about the psyche of the man before her. "There is no such thing as true immortality."

She knew that the elder Chiyo of Suna had come very close to the area by creating a forbidden resurrection jutsu, but like hell she was going to tell this man that. Suna would be attacked before sunrise. She didn't need him getting any more ideas. Kabuto shook his head as if pitying her.

"Their clan was too afraid to go beyond that void and see what they could achieve on the other side," he said testily, as if to a child. "If they had then who knows what they could have become." He sighed heavily, breath condensing in the air that had grown colder with the descent into true night. "I'm disappointed that you stopped your own research into the subject all those years ago. It would have saved me a lot of energy but I'm ready to test my own theory now. All I'm missing is the Kyuubi brat."

"You'll stay away from the both of them!" Tsunade snarled and her eyes flashed. She brought her glowing right fist up in an arch as she materialised above the grey haired man, long green vest and pigtails flying in the air behind her. The moon silhouetted her clearly and Kabuto watched her dark, falling form calmly.

"Tsunade-sama," he leered as she grew closer. His sharp teeth glinted. "You will help me."

Around every two days Sasuke went into the nearest village for an hour, a nameless, small place 20 minutes away from the district. It's occupants were largely merchants for travellers who, other than for the purposes of their trading, were otherwise uncaring of the scuffles of the outside world. Sasuke replenished his weapons supply there –plenty of his favourite demon wind shuriken and flammable wire – with gold slipped from the pockets of people on the streets, and sometimes used the leftover money to eat before going back.

One day while he was sitting by himself in one of the few food establishments in the village, a small glass of sake in hand to wash down his meal –he had first acquired the habit out of sheer boredom for something new— two shinobi ducked in under the entrance cloth hangings and took up seats at a table half the restaurant away. Sasuke continued to sip his sake beneath his genjutsu but began paying more attention to their voices when he caught wind of their discussion topic.

"—glad I didn't live anywhere near there."

His ears pricked and he swivelled casually on the bench to survey the men.

"You're lucky," one of the men informed the other after the waitress that took their order had left. "My village wasn't too far away. I told my family to leave. It was a miracle so few people died." His companion nodded.

"Yeah. And it's all thanks to the Godaime Hokage. I never really thought much of her before."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow as the man with cropped brown hair beneath a hitai ate he didn't recognise raised his glass and the other man met it with a dull clink of his own.

"May she rest in peace."

The man had tilted his neck back and was about to take a long draw from his glass when a cloaked figure sat down at the table with them.

"Hey, what –"

"Was the Godaime Hokage killed by Madara?"

"…"

Sasuke lifted his bowed head to take a sip from his glass, just enough for both men to glimpse the glowing red underneath the edge of his hood. The rest of the occupants of the restaurant continued chattering and eating around them. They looked only like a group of travellers having a chance meeting and casual conversation to follow. The eyes of the two men clouded over as everything else seemed to fade away into the distance.

"No. They don't think that it was that guy."

"By 'they' you mean Konoha?"

"Yes."

"Who killed her?"

"No one knows," crew-cut mumbled. "After she convinced everyone in the North-West of the Lightning country to flee she just disappeared. Next thing we know there's Konoha shinobi swarming everywhere and she's found dead on the route to Konoha."

"Where?"

They told him an approximate location and Sasuke closed his eyes with a deep breath. Coldness had settled into the base of his stomach and he stood up and left the establishment.

"I don't believe it."

"I knew you would say that."

Sasuke couldn't see where Naruto's voice was coming from in the bright daylight, but he fancied that it was issuing from the blonde that was currently on the tatami next to him as he sat there storing some new weapons into his wristband seals. His ears traitorously advised him however that it was more like somewhere near the back corner of the room.

"You…you don't believe she's gone…right?"

Sasuke's lips thinned and he exhaled heavily through his nose as another shuriken disappeared from beneath his fingers.

"I don't know, Naruto. I don't know who else could kill her."

"Baachan's old but she isn't one of the legendary sannin for nothing, you know. She can defend herself just fine."

And yet the other two sannin are both dead, Sasuke thought darkly without voicing it.

He knew that Tsunade was powerful. The woman also had that impressive regeneration seal that was like a one-off version of Naruto's healing capabilities when the Kyuubi interfered. But there were many other stronger people in the world, and he also didn't dismiss the possibility that some formidable enemies unknown to him had sprung up sometime between the end of the war and now.

"I won't believe rumours," Naruto's voice echoed firmly in the room.

Sasuke didn't answer, but in the deep recesses of his mind he thought he already knew the truth.

The next day he travelled out further to other villages to gather more information.

He was unpleasantly surprised and unnerved to find out in the very first shoddy bar he went to that Tokoyo had become famous overnight. It seemed that it was all that every pub and alley was talking about. What he managed to glean for sure as he meandered inconspicuously in the throngs of alcohol drowned men was that Madara had burnt Tokoyo and several other surrounding villages to the ground. The flames were still burning now and it would take some time before a proficient sealer would dare to go and free the village graveyards of the amaterasu curse. However, it had been confirmed with equal certainty that the casualty rate was unexpectedly low. It was said from many different voices that Tsunade's role in the affair had been to successfully urge the villagers to flee, and Sasuke acknowledged with respect that the feat was something only a scant handful of people he knew could have achieved.

There were also some other, more extravagant tales that he came across, shouted across the premises as he lounged on a stool at the bar and which he took with a teaspoon of common sense. Men with their bellies bulging with the drinks paid for by eager listeners recounted how monsters had come crawling down the mountains with Madara's rage, how the streams and sky had turned red as if contaminated and how zombie-like villagers had trudged, covered with blood and guts, from their ransacked homes. Sasuke snorted into his drink at the account that saw Madara run screaming and enraged from the vicinity with his mask hanging off the side of his face. Let it never be said that Team 7 had had vivid imaginations when it came to what lay underneath Kakashi's mask, because a mummified face with blue lips and no nose must definitely take the cake.

However, the temporary comic relief gave way soon enough to a level mourning, especially amongst those whom he identified to be passerbys on their way to Konoha for some kind of ceremony for the late Hokage. He knew after hearing that that Tsunade was definitely dead. No one would attempt to make the perilous journey to Konoha without extremely good reason.

He wasn't sure what he felt. He didn't care about Tsunade in the way that Naruto did but he suspected that she had conversely been genuinely concerned about him, if only a little. And then there was the meek voice in his head that quailed at his failure to ensure that Naruto's precious baachan survived, at least until the blonde was amongst the living again. Although he had commanded her to leave and she hadn't been killed in Tokoyo, the events were definitely linked in his mind and he wondered if there was something more that he could have done to prevent her death. Confused at the belligerent route his mind was taking, he stayed at that bar for longer than he had planned to as he brooded.

He left around an hour later when bets on his and Naruto's whereabouts were naturally brought up, and a loud shout of "they could be in your village next!" reached his ears. The talk was becoming quite heated. Sasuke glared at one thoroughly wasted man with a full jug of beer still waiting for him when he began spouting about the wretched Uchiha family and Naruto. His family he could understand, somewhat. One only had to look as far as Madara to empathise. But Sasuke drew the very short line at where the drunkard started encouraging wild theories about his and Naruto's relationship. He did not take well to being painted as a manipulative and ambitious kidnapper whose intentions ranged from seeking more power to the disgustingly perverse.

The man collapsed face-first onto the table as the heavy wooden door closed behind Sasuke. To anyone else it would appear that he had downed one too many drinks. They would be unpleasantly surprised when they discovered that he couldn't be awoken in the morning.

Sakura kneeled down and lay the large wreath of white chysanthemum flowers gently in front of Tsunade's grave. She lifted a hand and tentatively touched the simple wooden cross, forcing back a choked sob before she stood up and took a step away from the final resting place of the Godaime Hokage. Sai leant against a tree far behind her to give her some privacy while simultaneously keeping a sharp lookout for potential threats.

"Shishou," Sakura whispered bitterly to the air. "I miss you."

She shook her head quickly and pulled off her glove, rubbing furiously at her eyes with her hand to get rid of the dampness that had suddenly collected at the edges. When that didn't stop the flow she blinked rapidly and tilted her head upwards, biting her bottom lip and looking around at anything but the lonely grave in a bid to distract herself from the memories.

In her mind's eye she saw the first time that she had met Tsunade and witnessed how she could help the two teammates that she herself could never do anything for. At that moment, she had been blinded by a deep feeling of inferiority before this amazing woman, and it was obvious that the other had not really noticed the silent, self-absorbed girl that stood in the corner of the hospital room. The deep bond between them had only started months later when through a stroke of inspiration, she had entered Tsunade's office and demonstrated that she was just as strong-willed as the boys by asking to become her apprentice. Years and years of almost daily interaction after that and until Tsunade's departure had fortified that bond. For Sakura, Tsunade was not only an idol. She had become an important part of both her mind and soul, through both her shinobi teachings and her motherly nurturing.

Sakura's eyes blurred as she took in the surroundings, her lips parted slightly. The forest they were in was a typical scene from the wilderness. The trees were bare but for the thick vines that twisted up their trunks and hung from their branches. The ground was covered with the decaying leaves of the last Fall. Seeing them, Sakura knew that the dead forest would come alive again when Spring came. It would probably be a quickly blooming forest, one that would only last a few transient months before dying again. Tsunade's grave would be covered by grass and flowers, almost hidden from sight as it became a part of nature for those few months. Sakura smiled sadly and looked at the grave again.

"You wouldn't have it any other way, would you?"

She had fought fiercely against having Tsunade's body exhumed and transported back to Konoha. She knew her master well enough to be sure that she wouldn't want her final resting place to be in the crypt where all previous Hokages were moved to. Tsunade would have wanted her grave to be free to the wind, wild and world, just like Jiraiya's was. Not trapped within stone walls as decided by the Council. Sakura smiled sadly, a chuckle caught in her throat. The current arrangement was like her shishou's final rebellious spit in the Council's face.

She had been free for 5 years. She wasn't about to go back to a prison after death.

When Tsunade left Konoha Sakura had always known that there was a chance the blonde woman would never return. There was even a whimpering part of her heart that had told her that Tsunade was looking to die doing something important like Jiraiya had. It had almost made her revert to her genin self, unable to do anything but wail and whine for the other to change her mind. She knew now that it had been selfishness speaking. She let out a long breath and bowed three times to the master that would always, always remain with her.

The era of the legendary sannin was finally over.

Orochimaru had perished on his quest for immortality.

Jiraiya on his quest for peace.

And Tsunade…

Shishou, what did you find in the end? Sakura wondered, and the wind blew and ruffled her pink hair, as if trying desperately to tell her something.

She brushed her hair away from her face with her fingers and cast a glance over at Sai, who lazily made a 'go on' motion with one hand, letting her take her time. She smiled gratefully at him. The black haired boy had officially grown out of the title of 'Sasuke's replacement' and was now truly a personality in his own right. She hadn't seen one of those wretched guidebooks in his hands for years. Although he had been ordered to 'supervise' her for this journey, he was on Sakura's side moreso than on his superior's. His will was stronger than it had ever been.

Sai watched as Sakura smilingly began speaking out loud to Tsunade, but he noted clearly that it didn't reach her eyes. He knew that she would take awhile to recover from this blow and he could only hope that the process wouldn't take as long as it did when Sasuke and Naruto had disappeared. That particular wound was still being continually ripped open for all of them with every time that more 'news' about the pair was received. Even now, Sai couldn't get away with calling Naruto 'dickless' without Sakura tensing and threatening to maim him. Something about 'rubbing it in her face'. He still didn't really get that.

He sighed and leaned back against the bark with his arms crossed over his chest as the question that he'd mused over thousands of times occupied his thoughts again.

Where on earth could those two have gone?

If he rather easily ignored his superior's orders and was honest with himself, Sai had no idea what he wanted to happen. There were so many people searching for Naruto and Sasuke right now. Every city and town of the alliance was searching, along with Madara's army and the renegade bounty hunters that had abandoned the stagnant war.

The latter 2 meant almost certain death, but Sai thought that it was rather unlikely that the psychopath Sasuke (as he had dubbed him) would allow that to happen. It would be rather shameful if the proud Uchiha could be taken down by something as pathetic as a bounty hunter.

In the hypothetical scenario that they did manage to somehow defeat Sasuke however, Sai knew that the gang would almost certainly collect their prize from Madara rather than from Konoha, despite both sides making it clear that they would pay well. Bounty hunters knew that Madara could offer so much more than the shattered alliance ever could. Sai had had the personal displeasure of entering negotiations with one of their leaders once, where the deal had been for information and the guarantee of Naruto's safety, should they find him. It was like trying to hold a serious talk with Chouji when the fat boy had a banquet laid out before him. Every second sentence that dropped from the scarred bounty hunter's lips had been about money.

What could Konoha afford to pay? How much was the Kyuubi worth? How much would they give them for Sasuke's eyes?

Needless to say, negotiations had broken down and the next time they tried had ended up with several of the bounty hunters dead. Sai grit his teeth. Even now, the hunters were tracking down Hyuugas on missions like nothing more than game meat. Sometimes the carcasses would be delivered with the eyesockets bloody and empty back to Konoha as a mockery for the earlier bad blood between them. Madara was paying well for their eyes indeed. Almost half of the clan had been wiped out since the war ended. Desperate, Hiashi had even attempted to prevent Hinata from taking missions, but the heiress would not be persuaded. Every shinobi was needed and she would not be treated differently.

"Sai."

Sakura was walking towards him and she nodded her head at him when he looked up, indicating that they were good to go. Sai had already thoroughly searched the vicinity for any clues as to Tsunade's assassination but to his frustration, any evidence left by a fight or otherwise had already been covered up or removed.

As they walked back down the path overhung by a tunnel of thin branches, he thought he saw something, a movement from the corner of his eye. He paused and turned around but found nothing except for the leaves blowing in the wind against the pale sky.

"What is it?" Sakura asked from ahead, having stopped shortly after him. She began walking back towards him. "Did you find something?"

Sai shook his head and continued walking, tugging her arm gently in the opposite direction when Sakura stayed where she was. "Nothing. Just the wind."

Sakura covered her disappointment and Sai berated himself.

On a branch above them, Sasuke waited until the sounds of leaves crunching beneath their feet were completely gone before he jumped down from the tree and approached Tsunade's grave. He had almost been caught when the wind blew the leaves from the ground up into the air and in his direction. If Sai had had a proper angle he would have clearly witnessed leaves sliding off of an invisible barrier. That man was observant. It was dumb luck that stopped Sasuke from being exposed.

He walked calmly to the front of the grave, stopping and standing in the same spot that Sakura had been minutes before. He dropped his genjutsu but rather than revert to his own form, he transformed into Kakashi before the smoke cleared, just in case. It was believable that the Hokage would sneak out of Konoha to visit Tsunade's grave, believable also that he would hide himself for his own safety while travelling.

Sasuke felt that he had to at least appear before Tsunade, but he wasn't foolish enough to do it out in the open as himself. He owed her that much for not granting her final wish.

"I'm afraid you can't see Naruto this time either," he murmured with Kakashi's now unfamiliar voice.

He bowed three times respectfully as Sakura had done. This was a woman who had done what he could not, and had somehow rescued Tokoyo in its entirety. Definitely respectable.

"He'll be livid once he wakes up," Sasuke said with a dry chuckle after he had straightened. "I'll bring him to see you once he's calmed down."

Unheard to him amongst all the other rustling leaves, something slithered away into the bushes. Sasuke sighed heavily before turning around and walking in the opposite direction to the path Sai and Sakura had taken.

Who was it that killed you?

With a wet squelch caused by the jelly-like liquid that it had been sitting in for the past three days, the pale eye was successfully eased into its new home. Kabuto held up the eyelid with one scaly hand and ran the fingers of his other hand over the socket to check that the nerves had attached themselves to the new eyeball. He smiled to himself in satisfaction when his prognosis returned positive results. He turned around and began working on the Zetsu on the next table while his tail sneaked out and pulled a blanket over the one that he had just completed.

He had just pulled out another byakugan from its jar with a pair of sterilised tweezers when there was a pop and he paused, the eyeball in his grip now dripping clear goo in a thick trail back into the jar.

"Kabuto-sama," a low voice called.

Kabuto put the eyeball back into the jar and lay down his instruments on the metal table top beside him. Wiping his hands on his coat, he turned around to look down at the small snake that had appeared on the grimy stone floor of his lab.

"You were right," the snake hissed up at him, "he came."

Kabuto only raised an eyebrow sceptically but on the inside, he felt a rare excitement start to bubble over.

"Are you sure that it was him?" he demanded.

The snake nodded its head and upper body lethargically, forked tongue flicking in and out quickly.

"He may have broken his contract with us," it said, anger underlying its voice, "but we have been summoned by him enough times in the past to recognise him."

Kabuto grinned widely.

"And did he notice you?"

"We sent only our weakest, such that he would not be able to tell them from the chakraless ones of our kind."

"You have done well. I will prepare your sacrifices over the next week."

The snake nodded approvingly at his promise and disappeared, leaving Kabuto with his creations. He could barely contain his sadistic glee. It was time to set the next stage of his plan into motion, and he turned around to continue transplanting the eyes with a great flourish. Madara would not know what had hit him.

The news had pleased Kabuto very much indeed.

END OF CHAPTER 3

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