Part 4 in the Obelisk Series:
Kingdom of Man, Kingdom of Beasts, Kingdom of Monsters, and Kigdom of Gods.

OBELISK:
KINGDOM OF GODS

Why aren't you with me? Oh, why? I do want you so frightfully.

— Vita Sackville-West, "Letter to Virginia Woolf," 29 January 1927

Recap: There was one dead body on the floor, masked all in black.

Genma was bleeding.

The man struggling with Genma drew back quickly and Sakura heard the knife cutting flesh as Genma clutched at his chest and man looked up to Sakura now, blade still weeping with Genma's blood.

This wasn't a dream, this was the waking world, and Genma was on her floor bleeding out. She could see the red pooling out all around him, following the groves of wood.

The man advanced but all Sakura could see was Genma's still body. It was too dark to tell if he was breathing or not. He was bleeding but she couldn't tell if he was breathing anymore.

This was the real world and Genma wouldn't come back again if he died here.

The man grabbed her throat and Sakura felt the knife there. He didn't hesitate and the pressure was quick, but the knife didn't slice her colored neck in time.

This was the real world.

Genma was on the floor.

The assailant in black choked, writing in place as more and more smoke from Sakura poured into him, thick black and sparking with veins of gold light from an old sort of ichor.

This was the real world.

Genma wasn't moving.

Sakura's tattoos were burning on her body.

The assassin gagged louder, head twisting painfully as the smoke lifted him off his feet and then yanked him down onto the ground where his neck broke in two places with a deep snapping sound.

This was the real world and Sakura felt on fire.

Sakura grabbed for her friend and turned him over. She never felt more relieved then when he coughed and groaned in her arms before breathing heavily, eyes fluttering open.

"Oh God," he whispered, looking to her. "You're safe. Thank-" his voice dissolved into coughs and Sakura could feel the blood seeping into her hand as she pressed it to his chest.

"You're hurt. We need to get you help."

Genma sat up with her help, but didn't look to her as his eyes took in all the details of the room available to him. "It's worse than it looks, shallow wounds usually are. I'm more worried about the ribs. I think one's broken. Where is the last one?"

Sakura helped him stand and with the new perspective he could see over her bed where the body crumpled at an odd angle on the floor, neck painfully mouth, nose, and ear areas were all tinted black with soot from the smoke's escape.

"How?"

Sakura could still feel the heat from each of her new tattoos and didn't want to answer. "It's not important right now, we need to get you help."

Genma stood and gripped the sides of her arms, stopping her and forcing her to face him. He took in her face, touching her cheeks and checking for injuries and signs of shock in textbook fashion. "You're really alright?"

She couldn't help but laugh. "This is hardly the worst thing that's ever happened to me, honey."

"Not here in the real world?" he challenged.

"Its not like I feel that much of a difference anymore. Can you walk?"

He nodded, leaving her support to stand on his own. He held his one side where the ribs were likely broken and took a few steps before dropping his hands and nodding. He held out his hand for her to take as the pair of them picked their way over the fallen bodies. Genma kicked out the gun that had fallen in the scuffle and pocketed it.

"I have a terrible feeling about tonight. Several of the elders left the compound this afternoon. I don't think that was coincidence and neither did Danzo."

She felt her heart hammer as the pair made their way out into the hallway. "Yamato and Danzo, the two of them were together, weren't they?"

He held her hand more for the contact than anything else, tugging her along. "They're fine I'm sure. He's in no danger if the two of them were together. Yamato is a bit more of a badass than you would expect, and Danzo isn't just some old guy."

"What about Jugo and his grandfather Log? They're not special ops like you guys." She hated how scared she sounded all of a sudden.

At her words Genma froze in the hallway. Looking to her he tugged on her hand again and backtracked down a different hallway to where Jugo's room was. There were several different rooms with the doors left open, but one on the end of the left side was still closed and locked.

"Oi, Jugo, you alive in there?" The question was paired with a heavy banging of tired fists on wood. Genma didn't care about being quiet anymore, but constantly glanced about, searching the halls for signs of their next attack.

"You think there will be more?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know. Thinking about numbers, I wouldn't have sent just two people in to kill a person I knew was guarded. I don't think this is over just yet."

"This is funny. I'm used to this being the safe world, but right now things are reversed." She wondered if this was also part of the dream somehow, and that the assassins were nothing more than nightmares made flesh by the power of the Obelisk.

Her thoughts cut off as Jugo yanked the door open with a dark scowl and bleary eyes that didn't see clearly.

"I'm going to kill you," Jugo growled, swaying a bit on his feet. He looked like they woke him from a deep sleep that hadn't quite yet surrendered it's hold on the boy.

"Get in line, sleeping beauty, someone else just tried. You look safe though."

Jugo blinked, starting to see the world more clearly in the dim moonlight before Sakura rushed forward and grabbed him around the chest and hugged him tight. "You're safe," she breathed.

Jugo snapped awake and hugged her back, arms snapping around her like locks as he gazed over her shoulder to Genma who was still bleeding from the front of his shirt, though not terribly. He hadn't lied about it being a shallow wound.

"No," Jugo breathed on a broken whisper. "No, they didn't."

"Someone did. We're joining up with Danzo and Yamato but someone insisted on making sure you were alive, so you're our pit stop. You coming?"

"Like this?"

Jugo pulled out of the hug to notice how little he was wearing, basketball shorts and no shirt. He started to flush a dark shade when he noticed how little Sakura wore, just a long blue nightshirt that stopped several inches about the knee, showing off ample thigh. Genma was the only one actually dressed, but Jugo was the only one who seemed to care.

"J-just give me a sec to grab a sh-shirt,' he coughed, scrambling to find something discard on the floor he could slip on.

"Hurry," Genma hissed, reaching for Sakura again and tugging her closer as he scanned the halls.

The pair of them were ready in less than a minute and moving just as soon. Genma's steps only became more rushed when he noticed the door to Danzo's room had been left open to swing wide. She heard his breath of surprise before they all looked in and saw two more bodies clothed in black dead on the floor. Danzo sat in a chair at his desk with his cane between knees, looking peaceful.

"You brought her here safely, good work," the old man congratulated when he heard them come in. He looked Genma over and grunted at the sight of wounds. "You had best clean that up in the bathroom, young man."

Genma ushered the other two in and shut the door behind them, locking them in safely.

"Where's Yamato?" Sakura asked, expression worried when she didn't immediately see the other occupant of the room. She glanced behind her at the locked door and then at the bodies on the floor.

"He's out worrying about you, I take it. He ran off as soon as there was an opportunity to. He's smart enough to run back here once he realizes what happened." He pointed with his cane to one of the couches. "Have a seat?"

Jugo took her arm and led her over, shaking at the sight of the bodies. He tried to be helpful and supportive, but Sakura found herself grabbing his head to tuck into her shoulder and cut off his staring of the dead bodies. She lowered him to a seat beside her and rubbed circles into his back. From where he sat Danzo chuckled.

"Is it your first time seeing a dead body?" he asked Jugo, sounding far too delighted with the boy's reaction.

"No," Jugo whispered. But he glanced over Sakura's shoulder once more at the still forms before screwing his eyes shut. "I'm fine."

"It's okay that you still find it disturbing," Sakura whispered next to his head, still rubbing circles into his back. It's a good thing for this to still be shocking."

Jugo chuckled dryly. "You're not even phased, are you?"

Sakura looked up, feeling Danzo's attention. "It's been a bloody two years more or less, but it's still disturbing to me, I just deal with it differently. I know if I freak out it's worse than if I keep my cool."

"I know that too."

"Ah," Danzo interjected, raising his cane. "But does your body know? The mind and the body are a relationship. What you know in your head needs to be known in you bones and the fibers of your flesh. It's what separates the experienced from the novice."

Sakura could feel Jugo tense under her fingers and ran the hand on his back up into his hair. "If it makes you feel better, I also freaked out a little when I thought Genma was dead."

There was a clattering in the bathroom next door and Genma popped his head out a second later. "I didn't look dead!" he protested, standing shirtless with several bandages in the appropriate places.

She grinned, tiredly. "I know, but I was scared, so that's what I thought at first. This is not the dream world of the Obelisk. If you die here it's not like I can see you again once I make it to the next kingdom or gate. You're a bit more important than that."

"What of you, Sakura?" Jugo asked, sitting up and touching her shoulder. "You're supposed to be in that world now. What happened?"

"It's fine. Nothing major is happening right now. We're resting at the palace and I'm waiting on Gaara to get things put together to set out again. I was talking to Sai when I started to feel funny, like I was in danger. I was in a cold sweat, short of breath, and super paranoid but there was nothing endangering me in the dream. When I realized it was something else I was able to wake up. That's when I saw the body of the one assassin and Genma fighting with the other. I don't know how the dream world is doing, but it never seems to age or advance significantly without me."

Genma washed the blood off his hands with a final hand rag and then tossed it back into the bathroom before walking forward into the center of the room where the bodies lay limp and dead. He started to poke at one, pulling the face mask away, before going through their pockets.

"Anything to identify them?" Jugo asked.

Genma made a face before answering. "We'll run their prints later, but if its anything like the last few times, there won't be anything coming up. This guy has partial prints anyway."

There was banging on the door that made Jugo flinch, but Danzo and Sakura only turned to look with matching blank looks while Genma stood from the bodies to get the door. He checked with a special knock before swinging the door open and allowing Yamato to stumble in.

"Is she-Sakura! You're safe." He seemed to deflate where he stood as a bead of sweat rolled off the edge of his face. "I saw your room, I was worried."

She offered a comforting smile. "Me too. Genma did a good job though. I was safe."

"With or without me, right?" Genma joked, smiling slyly.

Danzo's gaze latched onto her like a lego piece fitting perfectly in a place made for it. Yamato was no different.

"Wha-?" Jugo breathed. "What are you talking about?"

Yamato swallowed, glancing sideways at Genma. "That second body then…the one with soot in all its orifices…"

"Your pretty little dreamer," Genma said, pointing his fingers like guns in her direction with a wink. "Bad ass both in and out of all your dreams, my friend."

Jugo looked the most lost out of all of them. "How?"

Danzo stood and stepped over the bodies before stoping just out of arm's reach of Sakura. Slowly, he lifted his cane and tugged up the sleeve of her night shirt up over her shoulder to show off the Egyptian Eye and star band below it. "Is this number three or is there a fourth one hidden on your back."

"You knew where to look for the tattoos?" Sakura asked, leaning away from his walking cane to let her sleeves fall back down. When he hummed in reply she turned her hands over and curled her fingers. The matching black marks on her fingers showed. "Yeah, that's number three. Gaara has the fourth tattoo and he's helping me with the storm, so it's…almost over."

Jugo went cold beside her. "Sakura."

"Who else knew this?" Danzo asked, leaning forward on his cane once more, no longer sitting.

Sakura shrugged. "No one I knew about. I tried to keep it as hidden as possible because of something like this. No good seems to come from showing your hand, it seems."

"Wise words," Danzo agreed.

He turned back to his chair and carefully moved himself back down into a sitting position where he could ease the strain on his body like a man older than what he was. He seemed aged since the last Sakura saw him, and she wondered if that had something to do with the attack on her life.

"But you mentioned Gaara dragging his feet when we last spoke. Is that…what you were talking about? Is he taking you to the Obelisk, finally?" Jugo breathed. "The end?"

Sakura ducked her head, realizing that she had been found out by the people she claimed to trust. She had kept this secret from even them and it likely wounded Jugo's pride at least. "Yeah. He seemed to want to drag it out and Sai said something about him appreciating being awake and useful for once. So few make it to the Kingdom of Gods, he said."

"No, it's more than just that!" Jugo's voice hitched and picked up. "Sakura, Gaara made it to the Obelisk in his journals. That's where he finally died."

Sakura felt herself become a single question. "How?"

Sakura came back into the dream where she left it, but the hallway was empty and the day was barely aged. Sai was gone, but she knew she needed to find Gaara. Based on what Jugo told her, there was something worse at the Obelisk waiting for her than any of the other bastard gods or god killers.

Of course.

How dare she think anything inside the nightmare that was the Obelisk trials was ever going to be that easy. She should have known better. The worst boss is always saved for the end of the video game.

The sandstorm was abated, but Sakura could see it still swirling far off on the horizon. The pools would be clear enough to visit, so that's where she went, feeling somewhere in her gut that was where she needed to go.

Sure enough Gaara was sitting crouched down at the edge of the pool with his feet in the water, watching his reflection as he held onto his tall crown.

Sakura didn't bother to hide her approach and purposefully scuffed her feet for sound he was far too sensitive to. Like painful clockwork, he turned and his eyes widened at the sight of her safe and sound.

"You're unhurt!" he exclaimed, tossing his crown to the side and climbing out of the water. "Sai said you were just-gone. What..?" His words got caught in his throat.

Sakura waved it off and came over to stand beside him, moving to sit on the same ledge he had just stood up from. She dipped her toes into the water and pushed away the ripples that bloomed around her ankles as she sank further. "It's fine, obviously." Once seated she pat the ledge beside her, inviting him to sit again.

"Were you in danger?" Gaara asked as he accepted her invitation.

"Yeah, but we took care of it. Apparently these god powers can be used in life threatening situations in the waking world. No one ever told me that before."

"Likely because they didn't want you to use them." Gaara waved his hand and the tiny grains of sand floating in the water were blown away leaving the pools clear once more.

"Yeah, well I was trying to hide the new tattoos from them too so it's a family of secrets, I guess. It's a mess, Gaara. I don't know who's out to get me, and I trust so few."

"Trust fewer."

She smiled sadly. "That's a sad life that I just can't live."

"I know that painfully well. Sasuke was asking after you again and not even the dancer girls seem to distract him for that long. I am tempted to think it was better you just leave him be, but I'll admit I've never seen this outcome before."

Sakura couldn't help but fall back into a painful thought. "Sasuke was able to defy his script and reject the role he was assigned in this world as an actor. He rebelled. Pity Sasori couldn't have done the same sooner."

Gaara watched her carefully. "Yes. Pity." His hand reached for hers and she felt his fingers weave in between hers.

Sakura sat in the calm of the moment before breathing deep. "Gaara, what waits me in the center of the storm?"

"You mean the final Obelisk?"

She nodded, still staring out across the horizon, feeling his fingers around hers but not looking to see what sort of face he was making for her.

"It's godhood…a guaranteed death." His fingers shook and turned tight around her. "There's nothing you can do there and that's how the game is. It's rigged, always has been and always will be."

She looked over to see his shoulders hunched and face twisted painfully. "Gaara, what are you talking about. You never recorded what happened at the end into your journals before you died, so I don't know if you don't tell me. What happens at the end that makes you think it's an instant death for me?"

He looked off to the side, away from her. Sakura tugged on the hand still holding her and reached with her free hand to touch his face and guide it back to her. His eyes were shaking and wet with new tears.

"It's not fair," he whispered. "You're going to go after that thing no matter what I say, aren't you?"

"I can't stay in this dream world forever. My life is in danger here."

"That's not true, this is the safest you will ever be. The bastard gods are all dead, Sasuke is an ally now. The king of thieves is dead and even the Dream Killer is a ghost without a body to fit into. I'm here beside you to protect you when you can't do it yourself. The enemy has run out of pieces to play apart from his last one. More than any other world, this close to the end, you are safe."

"That sounds an awful lot like what Madara tried to sell me at the end of the Kingdom of Monsters."

"Because he knew better. He knew what happened at the end even if he didn't make it there. That's why he and I are the only self aware actors in the whole dream. He knew there was no winning, that the game was stacked from the beginning. Listen, the whole thing is a test to see if mortals are worthy of godhood."

"That much I know now," Sakura said.

"But there are no mortals that are capable of godhood! Even if you're worthy…even if you make it to the end, to that spring at the heart of the Obelisk where the fruit dangles, once you partake the godhood you realize it right away, there is no space in you that can store all that power. You're human and you'll never be a god and there is nothing that changes that. Even if you make it there, even if you win, there is no way you could survive trying to claim your prize."

Sakura felt a cold fear settle in behind her heart. "What do you mean?"

"You're never worthy, never enough." He pulled her closer, tugging on her shoulder until their foreheads touched. "There was never any hope from the beginning, but you don't deserve this harsh truth. I'm so sorry."

"There has to be a way," Sakura whispered, voice pleading for the desperation of her friend. "There is always a way."

"Not for us. We've killed and dirtied our hands, haven't we?"

Sakura helped him stand and with the new perspective he could see over her bed where the body crumpled at an odd angle on the floor, neck painfully mouth, nose, and ear areas were all tinted black with soot from the smoke's escape.

"Shit."

Gaara's eyes softened, looking into hers so close. "It's not fair," he admitted. "I thought I would be a god, bloody and cruel and terrifying like the ancients themselves. But I remember too well how that power tore me asunder and there was nothing left of me. I made it all the way to the end and there was nothing to show for it. I've been damed here ever since until you. It's been a terrible cycle until you. Don't become a part of it."

But she already was. There wasn't a way out of it. "Gaara…I have to."

His eyes flashed. "No, don't become a part of it, Sakura. There are ways out. A substitute-"

Sakura reeled back but he tugged on the hand he had his fingers in, keeping her from running off. "They've already talked to me about that and the answer hasn't changed. I don't care. I'm not going to go down that road."

"You'll die and become a slave in this world. Even if you're like me, even if you're self aware, it's ages of darkness and absences. There are no sensations, no hopes, no escape. You can't suffer like that for eternity with us."

Sakura grimaced and then knelt back down beside him. She bowed her head to him and let their eyes stay level. "I'm not going to, Gaara. I understand none of this is fair, but that's not me. I can't give up hope this time either."

"Don't go to the Obelisk in the desert. Stay here with me and that brat and your friend. We'll play board games every night. I'll give you a kingdom to love. I'll fill your tables with food and nectar. I will dress you in silks and gold. You will never know want again. You will be loved all your days."

"I've heard this story before," Sakura sighed, hating how hard it still was to turn down the offer from Madara.

She was badly tempted. The world around her was terrible and a rest was attractive. She wanted to quite and be done, but there would always be a part of her that knew what was right and what she needed to do even if it was hard. She hated and loved that part of her. The moral compass in the center of her heart ripped painfully into her sides whenever she turned down the wrong path.

"You can't."

"Gaara…"

"No! You'll die. There is nothing there for you but your death. There is no hope for you there and you need to understand that I can't watch you throw your precious life away when you don't even understand the value of it. You-yo-you are, you are everything this wretched world doesn't deserve. Sasuke didn't deserve you, Sasori didn't deserve you, and this dream doesn't deserve you."

Sakura swallowed, still connected by interlocked fingers to the boy who looked smaller and weaker than she ever remembered seeing him. "I know you're trying to protect me, Gaara. I know you believe what you're doing is for the best."

His voice was a strangled whisper. "Don't."

"I still have to see this through."

She thought of the way Sai looked at her saw something worth believing in. Sai, the Sigh of Dejection who knew the secrets of the Obelisk, he believed in her. She had to believe in herself too. It was hard to find that sort of confidence for herself…it felt too much like pride, but Sakura knew it would be vital to her survival. Because she would survive. She would win. She would be the one that could. She had to.

Also, the real world she was awake for was becoming more and more dangerous. She didn't know how many more days she had until another assassination attempt and she didn't want to wait around to find out.

"I don't want to have to watch you die."

Sakura felt her heart crumple into her chest. She pulled Gaara into her arms and folded him into the curve of her. He started to cry and she let him.

The sun speared the dark sand clouds and light from a new sunset turned the desert to fire. Sakura felt the light fall on her and bowed her head atop Gaara's, watching as his hair seemed to ignite against the sunlight.

She didn't tell him to believe in her or ask him to understand, but let him cry it out. There were tears for her and tears for himself. He didn't want to watch her die, but Sakura knew there was more to it than just that. He didn't want to have to die. He didn't want to be bound by an unfair trail where there never was any hope. A lifetime of frustrations spilled onto her dress.

Behind her, back at the edge of the palace, she spotted Sai leaning against a wall watching the pair of them. His expression was neutral and she couldn't tell if he knew what they were talking about or not. He caught her staring back at him and shifted, nodding once and slipping back away, giving them their moment alone.

After a while the sun was half consumed on the horizon and Gaara had no more tears to shed.

"Better?" Sakura asked, playing with the curls of his hair.

Gaara shook his head, burying it deeper into her shoulder. "I hate my hair."

"I love your hair," she chuckled.

His face grew warm where it hid and Sakura bit back her smile. She heard him mutter something and pretended she didn't, fingers trailing lazy lines across the curve of his scalp. After a beat of silence he pulled out of her arms just enough to see her face before he pushed himself forward onto her lips.

Sakura shouldn't have been surprised, but she was. He kissed her, moving his mouth against hers with the full force of his frustrations and desperation. His lips trembled on hers, but still managed to force her's into a dace. She let him, closing her eyes to it and going along.

There was only a knife's edge of sun above the horizon when he pulled away to breath, flushed and panting. Sakura was a bit pink in the face as well, eyes hazy.

"It's not fair, but I love you," he repeated, tugging her closer.

There wasn't a lot of time left for her in the dream and she knew it. She also knew it wasn't fair to let him go on any further when her feelings were still wrapped up around a different redhead. But he had cried for her and she didn't have the heart to push him away and hurt him any more than she already had.

"I have to go to the Obelisk."

He pulled her down, lips on her neck, kisses like butterflies up along the curve. She reached for the front of his tunic and her nails dug in on reflex, making him smirk in victory.

"I know," he whispered back, trailing kissed over her collarbone, following the pattern of the black sun rays painted like hands. He tugged the front of her dress down just enough to kiss the space under the hollow of her collarbone, making her catch a breath and hold on tighter. His other hand was on her waist, thumb rubbing circles into her hip and dipping low-lower.

"I won't stay here with you forever."

"And I won't let you go alone. I'm with you, wherever you wander, until the end of it all."

Sakura gasped at his touch and like an arrow drawn too far back on a hunter's bow, she felt herself shot out of the dream. She woke up on a gasp and Jugo looked up from his work to see her come back so dramatically.

"Sakura, are you hurt?" he was quick to ask, rushing for her side.

She tugged on the sheets around her, dragging them up and bending into them. "No, no, I'm fine. I'm back. It's fine." She closed her eyes and rubbed the palms of her hands into her eyes. "It's fine. I just need to clean up and wake up."

A cold shower would do her good.

Sakura had lost weight but not enough that her old things didn't fit her anymore. She combed back the half of her head that still had soft curls of hair to brush and painted her eyes with black liquid liner the way Ino had taught her to so many years ago, back in high school when they were trying to be that extra on the weekends.

Carefully, like a ritual, Sakura peeled open her make up bag and used everything in it, taking her time to dress herself up. She wasn't an expert or anything like Ino, and didn't have the same amount of practice as someone like Karin, but Sakura knew what she was doing as she painted herself into a masterpiece.

There was a black gauze long sleeve shirt that did nothing to hide what lay beneath it, other than color her skin darkly. When Sakura wore it, her black bra was clearly visible as well as the winged goddess below her breasts, the eyes on her shoulders, and the hands down the length of her neck. Nothing was concealed anymore.

In the mirror she looked as terrifying and bad ass as she believed herself to be.

"Time to take it to them," she said aloud.

Jugo was waiting for her on the other side and Yamato was at the door. Jugo looked up first, but Sakura knew that Yamato heard her too when he shifted his posture towards her, listening.

"Are you ready?" Jugo asked, standing up. He licked his lips and then swallowed nervously. "You look ready to murder someone."

"I take it that means I look good," Sakura chuckled.

"I mean yeah, that too, but your posture is like…murder ready."

She smiled easily and fell into step alongside him. "It might be that sort of day for me. I'm no sure yet, I guess it depends on what they have to say to me."

"And how they answer when you ask about why and where they left last night," he added.

Sakura hummed in acknowledgment. "If that comes up. I think I'm perfectly content to let them dig their own grave. Let's see who the first person is that says it's good to see me, neh?"

Yamato chuckled, letting them pass him as they all headed out the door. "I am glad I get to see this."

"I never took you for a sadist," Jugo commented dryly.

"Not interested in their suffering, just Sakura coming back to her usual self, bad ass and beyond controlling." He looked to Sakura and addressed her. "I'm glad you're doing better about all this. Someone tries to take your life and you don't let it bring you down, do you?"

"Like I said before, it's not the first time and I don't think it'll be the last." She reached up and rubbed the back of her neck before turning it sideways enough to make it pop. "And I'm sick and tired of being depressed all the time. It's not healthy and I'm no good to anyone being less than my very best."

The trio walked through the compound, coming up upon the sliding rice paper doors that lead into the meeting room that doubled as a tea room when the times were different. As Sakura planned, they were the last to arrive. She had taken so long getting ready she was sure there would be nobody else they needed to wait for.

Genma and Danzo were seated next to each other at one end of the room, but Yamato stayed with Sakura all the way until she sat down in her seat at the head. Jugo went to his grandfather's side which was close to where Sakura sat.

"Oh good," Sakura murmured. She reached forward to pluck a peach off the plate in front of her. "There's food here this time."

"We're glad to see you like them," Log said from beside his grandson, smiling to Jugo and then to Sakura. "The apples aren't in season just yet."

"Soon, though," Sakura said into the skin of her peach before biting down. The juices dribbled off her chin fast but her make up didn't smear a bit. "I'm looking forward to the harvest."

"Speaking of harvest, it appears you've reaped some without mentioning it to us."

Sakura looked up through her lashes at the old man at the direct end of the table. Homura Mitokado glared back at her, with the equally displeased Koharu Utatane sitting opposite Danzo to his right. Though, Koharu looked more displeased with the way she was dressed. The old woman was a bit more conservative when it came to appearances.

"Whatever could you mean?" Sakura coyly asked, looking to Homura.

He huffed in agitation. "You mean to mock us as if this were some trivial situation."

"You mean this isn't a trivial situation? I thought this was only tea with the seniors. Or were you referring to something else?"

"We are not as blind as you would believe us, my dear," Koharu said, not unkindly. The dead in the compound are nameless and faceless, but they are not unnoticed."

"You are well informed then," Sakura answered.

"Yet not well enough," cut in Homura. "You will be made to provide a summery of events. What transpired in our absence and what you did about it."

Sakura all but snorted. "What makes you think I did anything about it? I have people with me all the time in case something does happen. Danzo is the one you should be asking, yet you demand answers from me."

"You are refusing to answer."

Sakura bit into her peach again and let more juice run. "You're too loud."

Homura's eyes went wide as he looked to Log for guidance. His expression was of angry disbelief. Log raised his hands, trying to be placating before someone started shouting. Sakura bit deeper into her peach with her teeth.

It was actually Danzo who spoke up next.

"The incident last night was minor and has been dealt with. There is no need for a scene to be made like this, gentlemen. Nor is there a need for a meeting like this. Log, you indulge too much."

"I think it would be best for everyone if we opened the veins of communication a bit more. Sakura, Homura doesn't mean to offend, but he would like to hear from you what happened and what you know. Also, for myself, I would like to hear how you are doing in the dream world. You've not yet caught up with Jugo in regards to current affairs inside the dream."

"It is a work in progress," Sakura admitted. "There was a lot for your grandson to record from previous kingdoms and this recording work is not simple or easy. If you have a question for me you can ask it."

"Did you kill another god?" Koharu asked, surprising everyone else in the room. This had been the first time she spoke up. Sakura noted that her hair was perfectly rolled into a bun and on her ears there were pearls large enough to choke on.

Sakura ran a thumb under her lower lip and wiped away some of the juice. "Yes, I did. That's where the new tattoos came from. Anything else?"

"The haircut?" She raised a single brow in question.

"That's something I wanted to do." Sakura cocked her own brow in response. "You have a problem with that?"

Koharu closed her eyes and turned her face away from Sakura without responding. There was plenty of judgement there, held back behind her teeth.

"Then how about the reason you withheld this information from us?" asked Homura. "This situation will impact not only you but everyone here at this meeting. This is our legacy, a legacy we have hoped to leave buried. You don't seem to understand that."

"I'm sorry," Sakura began, voice soft and even. "You want to talk about who this impacts?"

"You think this protection and catering is simply for the fun of it?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Ah, you think because you provide me with a roof over my head and food on my plate that I owe you the intimacies of my dreams."

He leaned back in his seat and brought the small white cup of sake to his lips. "Don't trivialize it so. These are not dreams we speak of, but the works of a curse older than the ages, containing the unbidden spirit of the divines. You treat too much like a game. If these powers are to come into the world we should know how and where and when."

"You think there's a chance someone could actually win these trials. Say then, would would it mean to you if right now, right here, the trials were won and I became the nightmare you fear. Would you want me dead, or would you try to endear yourself to me at long last?" Sakura mocked, tilting up her chin. "Because I think that ship has sailed, old man. I don't like you, any of you for that matter, no matter how well you mean."

Log looked hurt, offering up a single hand as if to placate her, but Sakura stood and the hand fell away.

"I'm leaving. I'm going back to my grandmother's house, where it all started, right now."

Several head turned quickly, searching in fear for an explanation as Sakura got up to leave. She made it to the door before a hand reached out and stopped the door from sliding out. Sakura glared hard at the man who worked for Log, but the nameless worker didn't move.

"You are not your own, girl. It's the price you pay for playing with powers beyond your understanding, Koharu said, speaking up finally. Her voice was not as sharp as it could be.

"What, you saying I asked for this? You think I knew or ever wanted something like this?" Sakura mocked.

"The Obelisk would not have gone to such troubles to break out of the wards and bindings your own grandmother put on it for anyone else. Your heart called to it, or your grandmother destined you for it. Either way, there is a responsibility there you refuse to see. Deny it all you like, the ink still bleeds black."

"I didn't ask for any of this, and I am not to blame for these trials," Sakura hissed. She tried the door once more. "Let me out!"

"You are not leaving as long as those stains mark your body," Homura said, standing and turning to face her. "Log…"

The older man stood and smiled apologetically to Jugo who looked as lost as anyone before facing Sakura. "I'm sorry it has to come out like this, but Sakura you are safer here. The world won't understand when you go sleepwalking next, or wake up with lion bites on your ribcage."

"I managed just fine for nearly two years."

"You were in the hospital when I found you, honey."

Sakura huffed, turning to Danzo. Her eyes were full of questions that came out looking like demands. She was done asking for things. "And what are you going to do about it? I'm leaving."

It was the first thing he said the entire meeting, and when he spoke he didn't meet her eyes. "They're terrible people, Sakura. You are right to see that. However, I believe that as long as you are close to me and my own, that is best. I will not let their dirty shinobi touch you."

Sakura was nearly unable to suppress a growl as she turned her eyes to Genma and Yamato, but she didn't address either of them. Instead she spoke to Danzo, never once meeting his eyes.

Done.

"Fine then. If you want it like this, then know that I never trusted you. Know I never trusted any of you."

"The dreams will do that to a person," Log said, sounding as if he was trying to make an excuse for her. It was as if he didn't think her words meant anything because they were said in anger. It was terrible how familiar that felt, to have a man excuse the words of another because she was meerly angry. There is still truth in anger, sometimes too much truth.

"I'm going back home."

She tried the door and the worker let her slid it back. Sakura stalked out, her footfalls heavier than they needed to be. She got to the end of the house and stepped outside, only to be stopped by a wall of bodies. Over a dozen workers on the apple orchard, usually out of sight and busy, stood shoulder to shoulder, staring her down. It made her stop on the threshold and still.

"What is this?"

She turned around and stared down the hall at Homura who stood just ahead of Danzo. The first looked smug while Danzu just seemed tired the way old men always seem tired.

"You may be king in the dream world, but you're not a god here," Homura said. "Try if you like, you'll just be brought back, one way or another."

Sakura swallowed.

Danzo said nothing.

AN:/ Another update! Now you see some more of Danzo's colors? And Gaara is a bigger deal than we thought him to be in the Obelisk world. He's as close as they've ever gotten to a winner but for some reason he just wasn't worthy? Couldn't handle it? Didn't make the cut? Theories abound but the single fear most pressing is: Is Sakura worthy? Even if she wins, is the game all rigged?

If this follows the outline there are three chapters left. I outlined it really well and there are two chapters and then one kind wrap up chapter. I want to try and get this baby finished by the end of summer, but I don't know if that will happen. School has started for me and it's another shit storm-as per usual. But I think I can do it. I think I can make it.

The last chapter is a mess because I was in a rush to update at the airport. I apologize for that. Just ignore that. I'll go back and fix it much later when I have enough motivation or when I get harassed enough into doing it.

If you can, please leave me a review to let me know you're still on board with the story and still find it interesting. I love to hear back from you and know my work is reaching people. Thank you!