No cursed seal, no man or woman or army could keep me from bringing you back.

Even if I am ripped apart, limb by limb, I will still find you,

Sasuke.

You are my goal, always have been since we were children.

At just a whisper, I would track you down to the ends of the earth.

At your command, no seal could keep me, and I will, definitely and without fail,

Return.

.

.

.

Beyond War

By Om0cha

Chapter Five: The world that I cannot know

It had been a small, typical room, the type originally furnished with only an adjoining bathroom and a table and bed for furniture. The bed remained, taking up half the space since Sakura did not plan on leaving until her work was finished, but a few extra tables had been squeezed in so that there was now only a narrow strip of floorboard left to walk on. The tables were put end to end and covered with a variety of equipment and liquids that she had deemed necessary for the distillation process. Natural light from the fourth storey window bequeathed everything in the room with a softly glowing edge.

She thought that the small, makeshift laboratory was relatively cosy considering its location. It had been privately set up for her use in sampling and distilling Gaara's chakra and only a few people knew about its temporary existence in a shabby, old apartment building two streets away from Hokage Tower.

She sealed away a test batch of liquids that had failed to yield anything and checked the pendulum clock clicking away on the wall above a rack of silently smoking, multicoloured test tubes. It was about time for Sai's visit and she quickly squeezed another pipette of liquid onto her scroll, hoping to get a few more batches tested before he arrived for her report.

A few minutes later, the door opened with a click and Sai came in at the exact time that they had arranged. He always was very punctual. Kakashi's habit had not rubbed off on any of his students. The door was closed behind him and the little seal that was drawn where a lock should have been automatically glowed and reactivated itself as he stepped further into the room.

"Good morning Sakura."

"Morning Sai," she said without turning from her work, face stern in concentration. She extended her left hand blindly. "Could you pass me the rack next to you please?"

She scowled at the table when her next test went cleanly through the parchment and left thick, gluey marks on the surface. Stretching forward, she retrieved a damp cloth from the shelf hanging on the wall to clean it up with.

"You haven't been eating?" the other asked disapprovingly, placing the requested rack down closer to her. He must have noticed the half full cup of cold instant noodles sitting on the corner of the table.

"I have. The noodles were breakfast."

"That hardly counts as sustenance, don't you think?"

"You're talking to a proficient medic, Sai," she reminded him as she wiped away the sticky liquids. "I could sustain myself on tablets for months."

"Yes, but it does seem very hypocritical," he said mockingly.

"Oh, be quiet." Sakura threw the cloth over her shoulder and she heard the wet slap as he caught it before it could smack him in the face.

There was shuffling in the narrow space and Sai entered the side of her vision, a white ANBU mask cupped in one hand and the other reaching out to place the discarded cloth back on the shelf, next to a scrap of material that she had taken from Sasuke's old room in the Uchiha district. Catching sight of Sai's long, black sleeve, she turned sideways to face him and stared, tilting her head and looking him up and down. She had never seen him in the long sleeved ANBU outfit. He had always stuck to the more form fitting tank and black pants.

"You look good," she said with a praising smile. "Are you going on a mission?"

He shook his head. "No. Kakashi just thought that wearing this would be less obvious than an unfamiliar henge wandering around the village." With pursed lips he lifted the thick, hooded cloak hanging behind him. "I never did like how heavy this was," he scoffed.

Sakura chuckled as she turned back to her work. "Trust me, it looks much better than that midriff shirt you used to wear."

"But clothing should be comfortable and easy to move in," he protested, sidling around her to get to her other side. "You never know when an extra bit of speed could save your life."

"Well, we can always petition for a new outfit later."

Sakura cast her eyes to either side of the desk before remembering where she had placed the daily report. Bending over, she pulled out the small wad of papers on top of the little deep freeze underneath the table and slapped them to Sai's chest.

"Here. I still haven't managed to get anywhere yet," she informed him a bit sombrely, waving a hand at her work as he flicked through the sheets. "And I'm starting to run thin on the original sample of Gaara's chakra."

Sai nodded, shifting the papers and his mask and holding them to his side in one hand. "Don't pressure yourself too much. We all knew that it was a small chance from the beginning."

"I never said I'm giving up."

Sai smiled. "No. You didn't."

Sakura spread out a clean scroll. "Tell me about what's happening outside," she said as she painted a deep purple base onto it. "Has anyone been asking questions about us?"

Sai shook his head, a finger tapping away at his chin. "No. Your letter to Ino did the trick," he said. He sat down on the edge of the bed so as to not get in Sakura's way as she darted around gathering different items. "Just about everyone believes that we have been assigned to a last minute recon mission. Shikamaru probably has his suspicions, but that's to be expected."

"I knew Ino would tell the others," Sakura said with a smirk, self-satisfied that she had been right.

"It is more believable though because the fighting outside the village has escalated," Sai pointed out. "Otherwise, I don't think that anyone would believe that you would willingly miss Tsunade-sama's funeral." Sakura spared him a glare for both reminding her of her master's death and pouring figurative cold water on her. He tactfully refrained from telling her that doing that made her look like an inflating frog.

"There isn't any direct threat yet but Kakashi has put everyone on the maximum level of security," he said instead. "The Tower itself is in lockdown."

"Already?"

He nodded. "Yes. The majority of the great villages believe that war is about to begin again. Delegates have already begun arriving and it is best if we don't give the enemy any chances. The Mizukage is here in person. If anything goes wrong it will be on our heads."

Sakura sighed and her hands stopped moving across the scroll. She put her fingers flat down on the table edge and leaned her bodyweight against it. "I thought that we would have more time."

"Seven years has already been good for us," Sai reasoned. "Considering how little time Naruto must have had to plan, I daresay things have gone better than what he would have hoped for."

"I suppose…"

Naruto's last act before his sealing had indeed been impressive, but Sakura would always remember that he had not done it alone. There had been someone else there for him, someone extremely unexpected but who was the only one that mattered at the time because he had done what none of them could.

The room was suddenly stifling and she cast her gaze around at all her complicated equipment and swallowed.

She could not deny that she had gotten to where she was today because of Naruto and Sasuke's influence. It was ironic that at the same time, their great –and terrible, in Sasuke's case –achievements would overshadow and sometimes plunge her into a dark well that made her feel completely helpless and trapped on all sides, wanting only for someone to pull her out. Much too often, she felt that she was left in the dark by those two and unable to do anything but wait.

They were her light, her positive influence, but at the same time they were the source of her deepest, unreachable agonies. They had forced her to become the woman that she was today and for that she desperately wanted to be able to do something for them, rather than always the other way around.

She so desperately wanted to atone herself for not believing in them, for not being there.

She twisted her head to the side. Even now, she thought in disgust, she was still motivated by so much selfishness.

There was a squeaky creak to her right and she turned to see Sai pushing open the window, letting in the air and noise from the street outside. The black haired youth leaned against the sill next to the green pot-plant, inhaling the fresh breeze that forced itself through. Sakura felt it ruffle her hair refreshingly and her muscles automatically loosened beneath its soothing touch.

"You are not alone, Sakura," Sai said suddenly. She looked up at his face.

He was turned to her seriously, trying to convey with his eyes how sincere he was. If Sakura didn't know that that had been one of the last things he learnt from those damn books before they were done away with, she would have maybe found him somewhat romantic at the moment.

Nonetheless, she smiled at him and watched him take encouragement from it. "Thanks Sai."

The other smiled back and she grinned widely before making a dramatic shooing motion at him with her hand, pointing her forefinger at the door.

"Now get out so that I can finish the rest of this lot before night!"

"Are you sure you don't just want someone to replace the light?" Sai asked her as he was marched to the entrance. "Or I could always get you candles? I hear girls like candles because they're romantic." He cast a sceptical glance at the single hanging light bulb that Sakura had complained about being too dim to see even her own two hands with.

"What? I don't even..." She sighed. "No candles. And unless you're changing the light bulb for me then no, I don't want anyone else in here. And you," she said warningly, "are not supposed to be strutting around the village either, so don't even think about going out there."

"I could just wear my mask –"

"And get kicked out of the shop?" Sakura queried disbelievingly. Most store owners nowadays had their customers remove any face coverings before entering the store –Kakashi was the obvious exception, talk about leading by example –and some of the few higher class establishments that remained had even set up jutsus that automatically banished basic transformations.

"Fine," Sai relinquished with a pout of all things, "but I am bringing you proper food from tomorrow."

"Your own cooking?"

"Of course," he said, like he couldn't understand where else she thought he'd get it from.

Sakura threw her hands up in a do-what-you-please motion but smiled as she went to open the door for him.

"See you tomorrow," she said as he walked out past her.

He lifted his free hand to her in the corridor before putting his mask back on and disappearing.

She closed the door again, sliding in an extra lock now that she wasn't expecting any more visitors for the rest of the day. Taking a deep breath she turned back into the room, not missing the noodle cup on the desk. She clicked her tongue resignedly at it.

She ended up reheating and eating the noodles before diving back into her work, sitting on the bed near the window and trying to finish them without rushing and choking as she looked out over the streets that were still peaceful for now. She was pleased to see children running around despite the lockdown, although their parents were keeping a watchful eye nearby. Chewing slowly, she looked up to where half of Tsunade's face in the mountain was visible, Kakashi's face directly next to it on the right. She prayed that Kakashi's reign would last for longer than her master's had.

Her eyes dimmed regrettably. The idea of Hokage had changed in the people's eyes. It was still revered and the Hokage was still naturally associated with power and good traits, but the word 'martyr' had also silently become linked to the position. Perhaps it was because Naruto was no longer around to spout long monologues on the greatness of the Hokages or how big of a dream of his it was, but Sakura felt that aside from Konohamaru, there was not really anyone who consecrated the position anymore. It had simply became too much of a burden, a risk that families would not allow their loved ones to even think about.

We will end this, she thought with determination. We will end this and Kakashi will become a senile old man and be forced to retire.

She swallowed her last bite and stuffed the empty foam cup into a paper bag on the floor next to the bed. It was straight down to business now and she tied back her hair and rolled up her sleeves, knowing that it would probably get humid later in the day. It was rarely sunny but it definitely got humid at times, thanks to all of those clouds. She let out a huff and reached for a test tube.

By the time early afternoon came around, the table on her right was covered with a few more long racks of tested liquids, several of them spilling their contents everywhere. Her hair was messy and loose around her sweaty face from the speed with which she had been spinning around from table to table and the bed was strewn with several scrolls that she had gotten sick of trying to stack up neatly so that they wouldn't roll. She opened the deep freeze to get some more solutions out, basking in the cold air for a moment and sighing heavily when she saw that she was only just over two thirds of the way through.

She continued her mechanical process of painting a base liquid onto several places of a scroll, dripping her test batches on then waiting a few seconds for the reactions before rolling the useless scroll back up and tossing it behind her. She worriedly swirled the purple base in its shallow bowl with the brush that she was using. There wasn't very much left and she couldn't keep on diluting it. It was already spread so thin on each parchment that very soon, she would have to begin squinting for the reactions.

For the next few racks she continued to see undesirable results, frustrated that each time a little more of the precious base was wasted. Perhaps a couple dozen tests later, she raised an eyebrow and then panicked when there was no reaction at all.

Frantic, she picked up the bowl and swept the brush across the bottom. She calmed a little when she could still clearly see the tiny purple crystals clinging to the bristles, reflecting the colour of Gaara's original chakra. It had not yet been overly diluted and she put it down, turning back to the scroll quizzically.

Looking at the still liquids, her confusion slowly turned into excitement and with wide eyes, she unfurled a new scroll and allowed herself to layer on a slightly more generous coat of the base than before. She took the remaining test tube solution, colour coded a shade somewhere between red and orange, and this time poured it directly onto the scroll without bothering with a pipette.

The reaction was instantaneous. She watched as before her eyes, the two liquids seemed to amalgamate into an ugly brown before a bright, navy blue vapour began wafting from the combination. She quickly grabbed a small vial from the bookshelf and held it upside down, using it to capture the stream of rising vapour. It took a few minutes for the sluggish reaction to end, by which time she had collected a decent volume of the chakra. She carefully capped the vial before turning it upright, examining it closely and holding it like the most delicate piece of crystal in the world.

"I did it," she whispered. Within the glass the deeply coloured chakra rolled stubbornly against its prison, fighting to escape as uncontrollably as its master.

She wrapped her hand tightly around the vial and looked out the window. Night was falling and the streets had been deserted in its wake. Her eyes narrowed as she cast them around the silent, dark room, suddenly no longer as cosy and inviting as before. Paranoia was creeping upon her, a worry –no, a feeling that something might happen before morning, like those vibes that Tsunade had claimed to feel when she won a gamble and something would inevitably go wrong afterwards.

She knew that she should tell Kakashi now. The sooner that they were able to utilise this the better, and she hoped that she could catch him before he met with the other delegates.

She pushed the vial into the pouch on her skirt and walked quickly to the door, grabbing a dark cloak to throw over herself so that hopefully she wouldn't be spotted and questioned as to why she was in Konoha instead of on her mission. She undid the seal on the door and then pulled the handle almost violently in her excitement, just managing to stop the door before it could slam into the wall in a way that would most definitely shake the entire floor and the ones above and below it.

Hurrying down the corridor, she practically flew down the staircase at the end, only stopping at the bottom floor to peek out from behind the wall and check whether the coast was clear. After pulling her hood up and making sure that all of her hair was covered she darted out into the street, sticking to a path that did not have as many streetlights.

A couple of minutes later she materialised in the shadow of a building in front of the Hokage Tower and looked up, the wind billowing in her cloak and waving the leaves from the trees that framed the Tower. She could see more lights that usual lit at the top, indicative of the extra foreign guests that were living in those rooms.

"How to get in without anyone noticing…?" she muttered to herself, eyes darting all around the vicinity. Going through the main entrance while the building was in lockdown was not an option at the moment.

There.

She pinpointed a tree well placed to jump onto one of the higher, concentric ledges of the Tower. Placing her hands and fingers together, she cast a genjutsu along the path that she intended to take and quickly dashed across the street before leaping up onto the ledge, using the tree as a platform.

She deactivated the familiar seal on the window to an empty room in front of her and pushed it open carefully. When it was wide enough she jumped through and landed silently on the plush carpet before letting the glass back down, at the same time scanning the room for anything suspicious.

From memory she knew that she was a floor above Kakashi's office and in the high security living quarters. Nobody was able to use ninjutsu upon entering this area. She hurried across the finely decorated room and was about to slide open the door when she heard voices from the neighbouring room. Her hand paused on the handle and her heart rate increased dramatically when she identified the voices of the Mizukage and one of her guards, Chojuro. She bit her lip nervously, suddenly realising how bad this would look if she was caught.

She had to get out of here without them noticing. If she was caught eavesdropping as a shinobi of Konoha –and in particular the Hokage's own assistant— then there might be repercussions for the relationship with Water. She internally scolded herself.

Sakura, you big idiot.

"…tell Madara we've got it."

She froze. Her head turned sharply to the painted wall in disbelief.

"Got you."

In the next split second she whipped around and pirouetted on one foot, just barely avoiding the punch that was aimed for the back of her head as she span out of the way. The hand swept by her side and her stomach dropped when she felt her pouch grabbed from her waist. Through the darkness she saw the Mizukage's other guard, Ao, taking several steps back and lifting it in one hand. The man opened his mouth to shout out to his comrades and thinking fast, she dashed forwards. She grabbed his arm so that he wouldn't crash into the glass with the momentum and drew back her free fist.

She pushed all her weight behind the movement and even without chakra, her punch to Ao's chest literally knocked the breath from his lungs and he gasped weakly at the cracked ribs perforating his flesh, sagging with the words caught in his throat as the pouch slipped from his fingers and into her waiting hand. Eyes flashing, she flicked her wrist and a kunai from the inner pockets of her cloak was withdrawn. With a blink of metal she dragged it across the muscle and nerves in the front of the man's throat.

Pure shock filled her in the next moment when instead of beginning to shift into a deformed, humanoid white mass as expected, blood gushed uncontrollably out from the deep wound in the dead man's neck. In horror, she released Ao's arm and he slumped into a twitching heap the carpet.

Staring down at Ao's upturned face, she saw the sharingan shining ominously in the light from outside. She numbly took a step back and only the reminder in the back of her mind that more enemies were next door stopped her from collapsing loudly into one of the chairs there, her hand moving to shakily grip the back of it instead. One thought ran through her mind, echoing despairingly.

The Water Country had fallen. And Madara had been there to do it personally.

The realisation that the shinobi alliance was no longer complete sent a choked sob through her chest before another, darker thought wormed itself through. How did they get into Konoha, she thought frantically, despite all of the men specially trained to see when a genjutsu was in play? How did they get past all of the examinations? How did they know where she was? How, how, how? Her blood went cold.

Traitors. There are traitors amongst us.

She held her breath when she heard a door sliding open and listened to the Mizukage –the puppet Mizukage–and her faux guard walk down the hallway. Only when they had gone down the stairs did she release it. She bit down on her lip viciously to stop any whimpers and tried to rationally think over everything.

The meeting would be underway now and she would not be able to see Kakashi until it was over, assuming that he didn't have other matters to see to. Acute fear gripped her in its claws. How many of those delegates in that meeting were fakes, sent by the enemy? Would Kakashi and the real delegates be overpowered? Would they launch an attack now?

Her hand snaked into the pouch with the vial and she gripped it tightly, trying to calm herself with its assurance. If the other countries had been infiltrated to such a degree then Konoha could not be untouched. At the very least, she knew that at least some of the shinobi in charge of the vital task of identifying enemies were enemies themselves.

And of the traitors, one of them had known that she was here. She wasn't naïve enough to hope that they didn't also know what she had been doing.

There was no point guessing who the person or people were and a part of her mind blacked out Sai and Kakashi, unwilling to go on an analysis of their actions for the past few weeks. She knew only one thing for sure now and that was that she couldn't let anyone get Sasuke's chakra. She had to protect those two. She had to.

She had to leave.

She exited through the same window, a ghost flitting down the empty street, untouched by the street lights. The levity of what she was about to do took her back to another time when she had been willing to abandon this village of her own complete volition. Grimly, she thought that perhaps she had always been meant to follow in Tsunade's footsteps.

At the apartment she took the test tube that had contained the successful solution and poured the remaining quantity down the sink in the bathroom. She hesitated when she remembered that Sai would be coming the next day but eventually scribbled down a note and shoved it into the empty foam cup from before, coating an extra genjutsu over it. She trusted that Sai knew her chakra well enough to identify the taint in the room. Hoisting her light backpack onto her shoulder, she took one last look around the room before stepping up onto the window sill.

Ironic, how her teammates had taken this path before her. It seemed that she would always be tailing after them.

She leapt forward into nothingness.

She was in a lush forest, every direction of which offered her the exact same, serene scene. Golden light poured enchantingly from behind every tree trunk and Sakura allowed herself to appreciate the rare beauty, inhaling the musky, wet smell of nature with each fresh breath.

Sasuke's chakra. This way.

She walked in a South Westerly direction through the forest and not long later the sound of crashing water could be heard. The tree trunks began to grow less dense before disappearing altogether and she stepped out from springy foliage onto a rocky shore. She stood at the very edge of the gently lapping water and looked up the churning river to the great sheet that was crashing down and giving the water its life.

Her eyes travelled further up the falling mass and she instantly knew that this was the place. There, where the cliff edge should have continued smoothly around the mouth of the waterfall, the rock was broken and cratered as though some great force had exploded from beneath.

This was the place, definitely. The very air reeked of power.

Excitement growing, she turned and walked quickly along the shore, pausing at one point when she saw some bloated white matter floating in the water. She inwardly shuddered but ignored the otherwise harmless bodies and scaled the cliff-face in front of her easily, jumping through a gaping chasm that had once been a cave entrance halfway up.

Brushing the water from her outer clothing, she looked around and the first thing she saw was that almost the entire roof of the cave was gone. Sunlight, water and refracted rainbows were pouring in through the hole above her so that the waterfall was staggered backwards some metres from where it had originally been. A once over of the cave revealed that nobody else was there.

She swallowed the disappointment that crashed down on her like the coldness of the waterfall and looked around more carefully. She should have expected nothing less from them. At the very least she now knew that Sasuke had been here and she bypassed the water to step further towards the back of the cave, hoping to find something that could give her an idea of what had happened. A few items littered the ground including a flask, some twine, and some scrolls that Sakura was surprised had not been taken with their owner. She suspected that said owner must have left in a hurry.

Something dark on the base of the wall in the shadows caught her attention and she moved towards it. As she got closer she could see that the dark patches were also on the floor beneath it. She swallowed when a refracted light beam allowed her to see the rusty hue.

She crouched down next to a dried, dark puddle on the ground. Tentatively, she reached out and touched it with the tips of her fingers, hesitating before bringing her hand up to her face.

It was weak. So very, very weak. But as she ran her chakra through the blood, something told her beyond a doubt that it was Naruto's.

Her hands went to grab each other over her knees and she remained hunched over, wide eyes moving over that corner of the cave in shock. Given any other circumstances she would have been exhilarated at finding a sign of her missing, blonde teammate. Instead, she was now fearful and desperately wanted to know what had happened here. There was so much blood.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "Naruto!"

She stumbled to her feet, thinking unclearly for a moment. Then she got back down on her knees and rolled out a cloth storage that she always kept on her person. From one of the pockets she extracted a small surgical knife which she used to scrape away some of the blood into another vial, feeling somewhat sick as she did so.

After the vial was secured in her pouch next to the one containing Sasuke's chakra, she made her way slowly back to the cave entrance, wondering despairingly how she was going to continue her search now that one dead end had been reached. After this discovery she felt even more harried to find them faster but to her frustration, her sensory abilities were sadly weak. She had only been able to locate this one place because of the unnaturally high density of chakra in the air.

Had they been attacked? There certainly had been enough chakra to indicate such and Naruto had definitely been somehow injured. She quivered at the thought that the other side may have already found them and desperately pleaded to whoever would listen that they were at least still alive.

A sudden, shrill bark from outside made her cast her gaze wildly to the light gleaming through the water in front of her, hand flying instantly to her weapons holster. There was another bark.

"Sakura! Down here!"

Half hidden behind the waterfall, she pressed herself against the wall and glanced out the gap it made with the cliff. Down on the surface of the water, a very familiar and small dog was sitting on its haunches, muzzle raised up to where she was.

"Pakkun?"

"Yo."

She lowered her chin and stayed behind the rock wall. "How did you find me?"

"It was hard," the dog grumbled. "You did a good job of messing up your chakra, but fortunately for me I never forget a signature. I figured it out soon enough."

When she still didn't move the dog sighed loudly. "Mizukage," he said. "Your secret message to Sai was about the Mizukage."

Good enough.

She jumped down the twenty odd metres to the water and landed neatly in a crouch, her cloak trailing the water behind her and ripples dancing from beneath her feet as she stood up and approached the nin-dog.

"What did Kakashi say?"

"He was mad at first when he found out that you had left. Completely understandable. First Sasuke runs off to a madman, Naruto runs off with Sasuke, and now you disappear and chase after them like a lovesick pup," the dog rounded off eloquently. Sakura's eyebrow twitched. Do not hurt the dog, she willed herself. Remember, it will disappear with its pudgy tail between its legs.

"Don't worry, he was more understanding after Sai showed him your note," Pakkun droned. He suddenly puffed out his chest and laid a paw over it. "And that's why I'm here. The best tracker of the nin-dog league, at your service."

"And the Mizukage?" Sakura questioned.

"Alive for now. Kakashi is preparing to ambush her soon. If he's lucky he'll be able to dispel the genjutsu without resorting to killing her. The spies in the village will be a bit more fiddly though."

Sakura nodded, she had expected nothing else from her Hokage. Reaching behind, she took out the two vials, first raising the one with Sasuke's chakra. "I need you to follow these. I don't have much of this one left, so make sure that you remember it."

"No problem."

She leaned over and the dog sat up, raising its snout towards her hands. She uncapped the vial for only a split second before quickly recapping it, pulling away while Pakkun sniffed gingerly at the air.

"Definitely the Uchiha," he muttered and raised himself up again as Sakura uncapped the vial with the flecks of Naruto's blood.

He took slightly longer with this one and his expression was as disturbed as a dog's expression could be when he finally pulled away. Sakura re-pocketed the two vials and made sure to redo the clasps of her pouch tightly so that they wouldn't slip out the gaps.

"They are together," Pakkun said after a minute of concentration. He got on all fours and began trotting towards the shore, Sakura following close on his tail. "This way."

The air became colder as they travelled North and Pakkun informed her that the blood and chakra scent were both strongest in a surprisingly populated village very near to the Land of Iron. It didn't take long to reach it and Sakura was unnerved at how close the village was to the cave that Sasuke's chakra had been permeating like poison. Security to the village was also a deal more lax than she was used to -probably due to the peaceful culture of the samurai- and a simple genjutsu did the trick.

She pulled up her hood and weaved agilely through the crowds of people, Pakkun going mostly unnoticed as he stepped between and around the sea of ankles. He stopped in front of a narrow flight of stairs squeezed between two shops and Sakura saw from the worn, dangling sign that an inn was upstairs.

"It might be a trap," Pakkun warned her.

"I don't really have a choice," she answered.

The dog shrugged and began leaping up the stairs. Sakura climbed up more slowly, trepidation clenching her chest like a vice with each step. The inn was on the second landing and she pushed open the peeling entrance door, letting Pakkun squeeze in first.

"Greetings!"

Pakkun threw her a sharp look as the man behind the counter –evidently the inn owner – clapped his hands together and smiled brightly the moment Sakura was through the doorway. The dog pawed pointedly at the dimly lit, tiled hallway to the left of the counter.

"Are you looking for a room for one?" the man asked Sakura eagerly. He hadn't noticed Pakkun yet.

"Actually," Sakura said, pulling off her hood and forcing a smile, "I'm looking for someone."

"Oh." The man's face fell and his welcoming demeanour slipped away instantly as he waved his hand flippantly. "Well, there's only one room taken at the moment, and I highly doubt that they're the ones you're looking for. Some man and his sick wife."

He grinned lecherously then and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, hand fiddling with the old-fashioned bow at his neck. "Unless you're the third party?" he leered.

"What? No!"

"Well, you'd probably best get going then, shouldn't ya?"

"Sakura."

The three pairs of eyes in the reception turned simultaneously to the deep voice that had spoken from the hallway.

Sakura's hand flew up to her mouth at the sight that met her and Pakkun growled, walking backwards until he met with her ankles.

The inn owner spluttered.

"You…who are you!" he screeched, running behind the counter defensively. "And why are you covered in blood!.?"

Sasuke's eyes flickered to him, terribly dark compared to the crimson that was splattering his entire front like a grotesque design. Sakura lunged towards the counter but was too late to stop the kunai that went cleanly through the inn owner's neck the next second, the metal thudding wetly into the wall with a chunk of flesh still attached.

"Get in the room, Sakura," Sasuke said, turning away from the fallen corpse. His eyes slid liquidly down to Pakkun and Sakura quickly recovered a position in front of the dog, hands held out by her sides.

"Pakkun, leave," she muttered.

"Roger," he replied nervously, and Sakura felt the smoke from his departure curl around her legs.

She met Sasuke's eyes steadily, cold and piercing beneath all of the blood. Her mouth opened and closed, searching for the question that she should ask after so long.

The blood…Naruto…

"Sasuke," she mumbled a bit dazedly, "what –"

"Get in the room, Sakura, and heal him."

He reached forward and she didn't even think to avoid his hand as it grabbed her wrist and yanked her with him down the hallway, his grip strong enough that she would not have stood a chance even if she had used chakra. He pushed her ahead of him through the very last door on the left and she stumbled over the uneven tiles in the doorway, rubbing her wrist before lifting her head to look into the room.

It was dark, and only a glimmer of light escaped through the closed blinds, but that single break of brightness was enough for her to see everything with clear vision. Cheap picture frames and other decorations had been thrown everywhere as though in a fit of violent rage and the room in general had been reduced to a complete and utter mess.

She gulped as she saw the thick smears of red that splattered one corner of the room, so similar those she had seen in the cave. The smell that met her was like something from a warzone.

Her eyes moved with dread to the still pile on the floor close to the corner and there, she finally found the centre of the war that had changed everything.

"Naruto!" she choked out.

Sasuke didn't stop her as she ran forward and slid to her knees on the tatami next to the body on the futon, the blonde hair and whiskered face unmistakeable even when covered with a thick crusting of both dried and fresh blood. Eyes wide in disbelieving horror, she looked up and down his body, seeing the slight emaciation beneath the thin clothes, the paleness, and most of all, the terrible, multiple wounds in the left of his chest that were still bleeding and beginning to get infected.

She fought back sudden tears and snarled, turning around accusingly with her hands fisted in the sheets in front of her. Sasuke stood against the opposite wall next to the open door, for all intents and purposes looking as calm and collected as ever as he watched her slowly break down.

"What the fuck did you do to him?.!" she shouted, rage and sheer grief uncontained. "For god's sake, did you even try to help him?.!"

"His blood wouldn't clot," the Uchiha answered hollowly. She saw his gaze roll over the blonde's face. "Just heal him Sakura."

Sakura wanted to interrogate him more –namely, how did Naruto end up with such mortal injuries– but controlled herself and turned back to her other teammate, shrugging her backpack off to the side. She roughly wiped away the moisture at the edges of her eyes and could only stare for a moment–he still looked so young – but then Sasuke growled impatiently and she placed both hands above the deep cuts over his heart, telling herself that she could not make a mistake at now of all times. With a deep breath and a flare of chakra her hands began glowing green, channelling life in waves back into the blonde.

She looked back up at Naruto's whiskered face and her concentration wavered again, forcing her to quickly return her focus to her hands. Her eyes blurred. She couldn't even begin to identify what she was feeling right now, everything was just so meddled up. She had thought that she would be relieved when she met the blonde again but now, that had been corrupted by the grim circumstances in which she had found them.

Her chakra began fluctuating fifteen minutes later and sweat was dripping profusely down her face and neck. She knew that she was running out of energy but thankfully, the top layer of skin had already knitted itself back together and had stopped most of the bleeding. She pushed on stubbornly for another ten minutes before the glow disappeared and she collapsed weakly on her side next to Naruto. Trembling, her hand reached out and tried to wipe the blood from his face. He didn't stir. She hadn't seen him so much as twitch the entire time.

She turned her head to look at Sasuke, wetting her dry lips.

"Is he still…?"

"Sealed? Yes."

With great effort, she pulled herself up, supporting her body on quaking arms. She had had to put everything into healing those wounds but it was still not enough. The flesh underneath remained torn in places and she would have to continue when her chakra had recovered some.

Silently, she pulled out a few blood capsules from her medical pack and lifted Naruto's upper body carefully, placing his head on her thigh. Sasuke wordlessly passed her a glass of water and she crushed the capsules into the liquid before tilting the glass to Naruto's blue-tinged lips. It was slow but she made sure that the mixture had all gone down his throat before she lowered him back onto the futon.

"I thought you were supposed to be protecting him," she muttered, turning dulled emerald eyes to the other.

She thought that she saw contempt on the features that she had once daydreamed of as a teenager.

"What would you know about protecting?" was the only thing that Sasuke said in reply before walking out of the room.

Sakura lowered herself back onto the tatami mats, debating a bit about the dangers of closing her eyes and resting. Outside, she could hear the sounds of latches flicking and blinds being pulled as Sasuke closed down the inn.

I'll believe him, she thought, and relinquished her hold on consciousness.

It took longer to patch Naruto up than she thought it would.

Until now, she had never really appreciated just how much the Kyuubi's chakra and Naruto's own strong immune system had contributed to his fast recovery time. Sasuke told her early on during their unplanned reunion that in his current state Naruto's body had all but shut down, maintaining only the minimum activity necessary to keep him with the living. Sakura confirmed it grimly.

A day turned into days, into a week and then two. She spent each of those days healing Naruto for an hour before taking up the remainder of it to rest and recuperate her chakra for the day after. She would lay beside the blonde, never losing sight of him until her weariness forced her into dreams, and even then she saw only Team 7 and what they had once been.

The cycle continued but outside of her dreams she felt used, like some tool that was easily disposable. The fact that Sasuke was willing to prepare and bring food for her instilled this idea deeper into her mind. He would acknowledge her existence and feed her like a short-lived pet, but he rarely gave her the respect of conversation that would make her human.

"Promise me you won't leave," she said to him one day, as he walked into the room after finishing his short shower next door.

That you will not take Naruto away from me again.

Sasuke looked at her from the corner of his eye before resuming to pat his damp hair dry with a towel, turning to the drawers to retrieve a fresh shirt that he pulled over his head when he was done. The both of them slept in the same room as Naruto and they silently agreed that it was because they could not trust the other with their precious person.

"Promise me," she echoed again, when he had settled down on his bedding on Naruto's other side.

Sasuke could decline. He could refuse her this assurance and still be sure that she would continue to heal Naruto. But he didn't, and he met her eyes for the first time since she'd seen him in the entrance hall covered in blood. They were impossible to read so it barely made a difference anyway. Delicate lips on a bewitching face parted, and issued a curse.

"I promise."

Perhaps that should have been the first warning.

For the days after that, she noticed that Sasuke was in the room more, especially never leaving around the time when she would continue the slow process of healing Naruto's wounds. He never watched her, his obsidian eyes much too taken with the blonde that lay still like the centrepiece in the small room.

Sakura wasn't blind. She saw the darkness that had only grown more omnipresent since his defection. What disturbed her was that that darkness, that deeply embedded insecurity and anomaly and practically everything that made Sasuke the unstable individual that he was, somehow seemed to all go back to Naruto. Itachi had been an interlude that was now over. Destroying Konoha was a pastime that was never realised. No other dream could last him forever.

She realised then that she wasn't the only one who could consider her teammates both a blessing and a curse and it awoke in her something ominous. Perhaps, team 7 were fated to destroy each other…

"How much longer?" Sasuke asked her one day, unblinking eyes still on Naruto.

"Soon. Maybe a few days," she had replied.

She shouldn't have given him a time.

It was that hour of the day and she was healing Naruto again, a small smile cracking her face as she sensed that this would be the last round before he was back to full health. Physically anyway. She wasn't forcing herself to use as much chakra now that the blonde was out of imminent danger and she was pleased with the way that his lips and cheeks had regained a light pink hue.

She didn't give much heed when a few minutes into the therapy, Sasuke looked away from Naruto, obsidian eyes sliding sideways and fixing instead on the slight quirk of her lips. She did notice, however, when he shifted on Naruto's other side, getting out of the casual position that he had been in with one leg bent in front of him. Hands still glowing, she watched him fold his legs beneath himself and sit closer to Naruto upon his knees.

She thought that he probably just wanted to get closer so as to watch Naruto better and so she cast her eyes back to Naruto's chest and studied the seal there, the black design nicely set off by the unbuttoned white shirt that framed it. The intricacy of it continued to awe her, ever since the day that the bruising of Naruto's skin had finally cleared up enough for it to be visible. When Sasuke continued to shift some more however she looked back up, because the Uchiha never had been known to be fidgety. He could remain still for hours when a mission called for it.

It took just one look at the kunai in his hand for everything that she had known in the past few weeks to fall away.

"Sasuke, what…?" She felt fear spark through her veins but she did not move away, continuing to push chakra through her palms.

Maybe she was too arrogant. Too self centred, to think that this had ever been about her. Sasuke was rearing up like a regal serpent with kunai in hand and she was so certain that in the next second, she would find it cutting through her own heart or neck. She tensed, preparing to take the hit.

So when the kunai went flashing right past her eyes before continuing in a downward, arching descent instead, she could only sit back and watch in disbelief.

I'm dreaming. No…

The splash of blood beneath her hands shocked her from her stupor. It splattered all over Naruto's chest and neck in fine droplets, as well as on her own and Sasuke's clothing. She stared for a moment, the crimson burning itself into the back of her eyes and mind, even as tan skin paled rapidly in contrast. Then the kunai twisted at an angle and her mouth dropped open to issue a piercing scream.

The green disappeared from her hands and she moved them to desperately grasp the kunai handle, fingers finding a purchase wet with blood over Sasuke's own hand. She tugged frantically, trying to dislodge the kunai from between Naruto's ribs, gasping and falling forward when she felt it forced further down instead.

Why?

Had they really both just been tools all along? Mere means to an end for their renegade teammate?

"Stop," she wailed. "Stop!"

Sasuke ignored her and leaned over, knocking her back with his shoulder so that she landed hard on her behind on the tatami. She pulled herself up onto her elbow just in time to see the metal sink down to the hilt, the tip of it without doubt now deep inside Naruto's heart.

"What are you doing?.!" she shrieked wildly, scrabbling back up to her previous position and trying to shove Sasuke away. Sasuke didn't budge from over Naruto, only lifting his other hand before his face, two fingers raised.

"No, stop, stop it, Uchiha!"

"If you don't want him to die, Sakura," toneless and heartless, "then continue your jutsu."

"You—!"

He twisted the kunai more and her words were cut off. Blood pooled on the carpet like water from an overflowing sink and with another cry she lunged forward, this time plastering herself over Naruto's front as her hands reached out and resumed glowing over the kunai and wound.

"Take it out!" she cried, trembling with rage and terror. "Traitor. You traitor! Uchiha, let him go!"

She wanted to strangle him. But doing that would mean stopping the green glow that was keeping Naruto alive, and so she could only watch as Sasuke coolly continued whatever jutsu it was that he was performing, completely still except for his two hands. Large, swirling spirals were appearing on the floor beneath all three of them, forming from Naruto's blood and becoming an archaic, cursive font that decorated the inside of…the seal?

I don't know! Sakura thought, cracking. I don't know anything anymore!

Only that she must not let him break Naruto apart.

Yes. Protect Naruto. Protect him from the Uchiha.

"Traitor," she breathed again, and glared at Sasuke with passionate hatred, clear liquid staining her cheeks. "Was this what you wanted all along?"

A smile, bitter or sadistic, Sakura couldn't tell, twisted Sasuke's lips.

"Yes."

The seal beneath them began glowing, golden light filling the entire room. The blood that had painted the spiralling designs was now like liquid gold that bathed everything with its blinding touch.

Murderer.

"Murderer…"

She winced and began breathing heavily as she poured everything that she had into her precise healing jutsu, her mind and body weakening fast. She watched Naruto's flesh try to close over the blade, only to cut itself open again as it met with the sharp edge. Healing, only to be torn apart again. She couldn't keep on healing forever and she looked again to the source.

Sasuke was causing this. He was hurting Naruto –hurting her –and she lashed back in kind, throwing abuse after abuse at him until her throat was aching and she could only glare death. Sasuke ignored her, closing his eyes and focusing on whatever cursed jutsu it was that had Naruto spiralling dangerously close to death.

All those wounds in the beginning, she thought in fury, everything had been caused by Sasuke all along!

Why?

Uzumaki blood...

The perfect sacrificial lamb.

Precious...

His selfish desires.

Precious person...

You must kill.

Sasuke opened his eyes and Sakura was not surprised to see the pinwheel in his pupils. It was like Kakashi's mangekyou but more beautiful and terrible all at once. She knew that it was close to all powerful, under the control of a true Uchiha.

"You killed him!" she screamed, and that was all that made sense to her. Kind of.

Sasuke pulled the kunai out suddenly and flung it uncaringly to the side, the red stained metal clanging loudly where it landed. Sakura realised that the golden glow beneath them was waning and she looked at Sasuke's face, flinching at the inhuman hunger that she found there even though she thought that she couldn't possibly see anything worse in this ordeal.

"Naruto."

The murmured name came from him.

"Don't you dare say his name!"

Sasuke looked down to where the wound was and she did too, shocked when she saw that it was no longer there and the skin appeared as smooth as silk. She knew her own limits. It had not been her that healed it. Then she noticed something else and her eyes sought out Naruto's neck, his wrists, his ankles in bewilderment.

The seals were gone.

Sasuke abruptly pulled Naruto from the sheets and to his own body, and the movement combined with her confusion caused Sakura to fall. She collapsed onto the ground, panting and struggling to stay awake as she attempted to regain her proximity to Naruto, the overuse of her medical arts taking its costly toll.

"What…?"

Her emerald eyes widened when Naruto's hand that was hanging limply in front of her suddenly spasmed, fingers twitching in a way that was soon mimicked by his other hand. Sasuke was gripping that other hand tightly in his own while his other arm held Naruto to him, the blonde sitting in his lap with his side propped against his chest.

Naruto's head was resting on the older male's shoulder and when the twitching movements reached his lips and eyes as well, Sakura found that time abruptly froze. The room was still as the two of them awaited the return of something as vital to their world as air and the sun. They waited with bated breaths.

Golden eyelashes flickered. Sasuke's hand clamped around Naruto's like a vice.

Sakura saw Sasuke whisper something against Naruto's ear but she would never know the words meant for them alone.

Then like the answer to a command, eyelids lifted slowly. A previously dormant chest heaved with the difficulty of sudden breaths. Eyes fluttered to life and with them, azure blue was returned to the world for the first time in seven years.

Sasuke's arms tightened around Naruto and what might have been joy was abruptly wrested away from Sakura. Instead of calling out to Naruto, she watched helplessly instead as the blonde slowly tilted his head back until blue connected with obsidian. They stared at each other, blinking slowly, and Sakura understood in that moment what it meant to be the third party. Naruto's lips parted as though to speak but the ghost of a frown crossed his features when no sound came out.

He was disorientated, Sakura realised. He was confused and Sasuke could do anything he wanted and Naruto could do nothing!

"Naruto," she finally whispered weakly, unable to manage anything more. She begged for him to look her way but he either didn't hear her or was already caught in Sasuke's sharingan, which at some point had flared back into existence after fading.

Sasuke glanced over at her dismissively before he returned his gaze to Naruto's face. He shifted and rewrapped his arms more securely around the blonde. Naruto's eyes closed but his breathing remained strong and steady.

Sasuke lifted his hands behind Naruto's back in a familiar jutsu and Sakura's heart plummeted.

"No," she whimpered in little more than a croak. She tried to pull herself closer. "You promised! You promised!"

Leaves were swirling in the room, forming a mini whirlwind around Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke looked at her one more time, already fading away. Then, as though to mock her for ever thinking that she could have either of them, he pressed his lips to Naruto's forehead. Sakura screamed.

The leaves fell to the floor, abandoned now that their cause was served.

Sakura fell with them.

End of Chapter 5.

As always, my love and homebaked cookies go out to those that reviewed. I need to give an ESPECIALLY big thank you this time because you guys have gotten me to that magical 100 review mark! To SurefirePhoenix, ovicati, Fireotaku18, TaeMint, Damp, Sanz0girl, Rosebunse, Italian Roulette, Crazy Irish Lass, clio1111, Jena, The Darkness Of Your Fall, GoTrinba, Mizuiro Yuki, Imaginary Boy, WolfSong, bridmatt, kiki2222, gummybear1620, operagirl76, missmonti, Piro and Voere, I thank you all dearly for giving this story your time, and I hope that you will continue to read :)

Also, I got my first critical review last chapter and it really made me think. In a good way. You know who you are, and I am nervous about if I've managed to improve this chapter, but I would love to hear from you if you do end up reading it.

To everyone else, whether it be concrit, pleasure, or pain, I would love to hear from you too. Until next time.