Sakura awoke to find Sasuke gone but her three children with her, asleep. Her eyes shut again to drift back off to sleep, happy they were with her.

"Rise and shine, Sakura-chan."

How are you feeling?

Her blood froze and her eyes shot open to find Kuromaru laying on the other side of Sarada where Sasuke had lain, smirking at her cruelly. Sakura scrambled off the bed with a scream, almost falling off the side as she rose to her feet, backing up towards the door. Kuromaru followed, getting up to stand across from her at the foot of their bed.

Sakura.

"No!" Sakura cried out. "It's not p- you're dead!"

"You can't kill me, Sakura-chan," he taunted. "We both know that."

Calm down, Sakura.

Sakura shook her head. "You're wrong! I tore you apart! I saw it!"

"When you were mentally unstable? Does that sound plausible to you? How can you be sure?"

"I don't care what you say, you're dead!"

"Are you willing to bet your family's life?" He asked, gesturing to the children on the bed.

Sakura's eyes darted to the children. Itaru began to stir and Kuromaru moved towards the bed. Sakura had him up against the wall before he'd even finished taking a step, her hands tightening around his throat, the fear giving way to anger.

"I would sooner die then let you lay your hands on my kids!" She spat and squeezed harder.

A scream tore her gaze from Kuromaru to look at the bed where Sarada sat up, staring at her fearfully.

"Mama!" She screamed.

"Sarada, grab your brothers and run!" Sakura ordered.

"Stop, Mama! You're hurting Papa!"

"What are you-"

Turning back to Kuromaru, he was gone, replaced by Sasuke who had managed to stave off Sakura's crushing grip by getting his own hands between hers and his neck. The bone in his left wrist had given way, shattered by her strength.

Sakura let him go and stumbled away from him as a tortured sob escaped her lips as she made sense of what had happened. She looked back to Sarada who still had that look in her eyes.

Fear.

Fear of her mother.

"What have I done?"

"Sakura, it's okay-"

She turned and ran, ignoring the calling of her name.

"You can't run from me, Sakura-chan."

"Leave me alone!"

A sick, twisted laugh echoed around her.

"You will never escape from me."

The trees whipped passed without distinction as she headed for an unknown location. Anywhere that would get her away from him. Away from herself.

"I may be dead by my legacy lives on."

"No!"

"You."

"Go away!" Sakura screamed.

Her run eventually came to a stop when she saw a familiar tower in the distance. She hadn't even realised she'd entered the Forest of Death. Upon the horizon she could see the building that housed the preliminary rounds all those years ago.

It will do.

"Oh, I see," Kuromaru sneered. "Please, do."

Sakura took off again, this time with the building as her final destination.

The sun was setting and Sakura stood in the middle of the arena, where she had fought Ino so long ago. Things were so much easier then. She would give up anything to go back to those simpler days.

"Now you're a broken woman."

Sakura covered her ears as his voice echoed around her.

"You're a danger to your own children. Couldn't even separate the dream from reality."

"Can't be trusted."

"Turn on your own friends."

"Hurt yourself."

"She's scared of her own mother."

Sakura screamed to drown out the sound of Kuromaru. Everywhere she looked, everything she heard was Kuromaru. He was right. She would never be rid of him. Not after what he'd put her through. She was a ticking time bomb, waiting to go off.

She had tried to break Sasuke's neck with her fingers.

What if she mistook one of the boys for Kuromaru when they got older?

Sarada was scared of her. She would grow to resent Sakura. She wasn't safe to be around anymore. If she hurt her children...

Sakura dropped to her knees as the tears began to fall. She stared at the hands for guidance where there was none to be had. She knew what she had to do to make sure she didn't harm her children.

She was broken. So very broken and she didn't know if she could ever be normal again.

But she knew of one final thing that would ensure her children were safe. At least from her.

Besides, Tenten was on the other side with Neji and she guess she could finally meet Sasuke's parents. Her resolution forced the fear from her, knowing Kuromaru couldn't follow her in death. He'd be lost in hell and she would take her place beside her loved ones and relatives. At least she held hope she would go to where good souls went.

The tension eased from her body and she stared ahead with love as she thought of her family. She smiled a watery smile as she drew a kunai she'd found inside the building.

"I won't be a liability to my family."

"Mama?"

She froze. Her head turned to see Sarada standing in the large archway into the arena area.

"S-Sarada," she gasped. "What are you doing here? How did you make it through the forest? How did you find me?"

She stood and turned fully. Sarada began to cry when she saw the kunai, knowing what she had interrupted. Sakura, realising her folly, put the kunai away.

"Please, Mama, no," she cried.

"I'm...I'm sorry you had to see that, Sara-chan."

Sarada ran for her mother, wrapping her arms around Sakura's waist and burying her head in Sakura's stomach. The pinkette looked at her in shock.

"Y-You're not scared of me? Sara-chan, I'm unstable. You shouldn't be near me."

Her body spoke otherwise as she held tight to Sarada, unwilling to part with her.

"I'll never be scared of you, Mama. It wasn't your fault!"

"Sara-chan, I hurt your Papa. I don't know if it's something I can control or if I'll be able to stop next time-"

"No, I need you!" She cried.

"Sara-"

"We can get through this, Mama," Sarada pleaded. "You're the strongest woman I know!"

"Sarada-"

"Please, Mama," Sarada sobbed. "I know it'll be hard but I need you and so do Itaru and Natsu! So does Papa! You can't leave us!"

Sarada pulled back to look up at Sakura, the tears not stopping for even an instant.

"I'm not scared of you and Papa isn't mad at you! We just want to be with you! Stay with us! I promise we'll make you happy again! We won't let you regret it!"

The words echoed in Sakura louder than Kuromaru's taunts.

"Sasuke-kun, if you'd only be with me, I promise! I'd never let you regret it! I can give you happiness!"

"Please don't leave me," Sarada sobbed.

She couldn't do it.

She was too weak to go through with it and instead, she embraced Sarada and fell to her knees with her. She buried her face in Sarada's hair and together they cried with Sarada's repetitious plead for her to stay. Sakura trembled, praying for forgiveness for being unable to follow through. For not being strong enough to protect her children as she'd planned.

"It's alright, baby," Sakura whimpered. "I'll stay here. I promise."

Sarada only continued to cry, clutching tightly as if Sakura were to disappear any second and in the grand scheme of things, she almost did.

"I'll try to get better, baby, for you. For you and Papa and the boys. I promise. We'll fix this somehow."

Not far from them stood Karin, the one who had led Sarada to her mother. She wiped at her eyes, glad she was able to help.

"Not this time, Kuromaru. You won't win this time."

Epilogue

A couple of months later found Sakura in deep meditation.

With the help and support of her friends and family, Sakura did in fact try to heal. Meditation was helping Sakura come to terms with the horrors that had been inflicted on her. Inner had taken Sakura's madness into herself and at times of distress, Inner would take control in order for self-preservation. Her situation was a delicate one and even on the best days, Sakura could have an episode of madness. It was discovered the meditation helped to keep these episodes few and far in between. Ultimately, so long as she stayed away from stress inducing situations, everyone would be okay, more or less. She had also been banned from using chakra for the moment.

Sarada and Sasuke kept a very close eye on her and so did Karin, who Sakura had accepted as part of not just her life but the boys too. A month after Sarada had found Sakura in the Forest of Death, Sakura named Karin the godmother of Itaru and Natsu. Sasuke argued vehemently against it but couldn't deny the fact that if it hadn't been for Karin, Sakura and the boys wouldn't be there. Even if Karin had been to blame for the kidnapping to begin with, Sakura would have died during childbirth and Natsu more than likely wouldn't have made it either.

"So you haven't been feeling well lately?" Tsunade asked Sakura as she interrupted her meditation.

Sakura's eyes opened and looked to her before nodding.

"Karin said it was the last of the backwash chakra leaving my body and I should be fine but I thought it would be best if I got a second opinion and since the doctors orders disallow me to use my chakra..."

Tsunade rolled her eyes but smiled at her old student.

"It's only temporary, Sakura," she stated as she touched Sakura's stomach with a glowing hand. "Before you know it, you be back in the hospital...and..."

Sakura watched as Tsunade's eyes went from confusion to shock in half a second.

"Shishou?" Sakura asked warily. "Am I okay?"

Tsunade looked at Sakura and the pinkette didn't even need to hear it.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"What is it, Naruto?" Sasuke asked as he entered Naruto's office.

Inside, Kakashi was already waiting which showed how serious the situation was and beside him stood Orochimaru and Karin. Sasuke had been urgently called to Naruto's office during his training outside his house where he could watch his wife meditate. He was lucky Tsunade had arrived just as he received the message.

Naruto was looking outside the window again, something he did when he was worried or deeply troubled and Sasuke knew he wouldn't like what he was about to hear.

"I've received reports from Iwa and Suna. Entire squads have been disappearing, and their trade has been slow."

Sasuke waited patiently for Naruto to continue.

"I had Orochimaru get his snakes to take a look. It appears the last of Kuromaru's have finally made their move."

"What do you mean?"

"From what I could gather," Orochimaru started. "Kuromaru spent several years performing experiments of his own."

"What kind of experiments?"

"The kind that derives men of conscious thought, leaving with the only instinct to kill. I suspect this is how he developed his jutsu to invade ones mind."

"You're saying these people-"

"Are just like the Sakura-chan we came across when she'd first killed Kuromaru, yes. They know only madness and it appears Kuromaru's second in command, Youma, is leading them."

"How many?"

"Approximately twenty thousand."

Karin shook her head. "No, that's only from Jomae. Kuromaru had several bases. Moyagakure, Yugakure, Ainokura and Busan also housed experiments though he never went into detail with me. Jomae was supposed to be a smaller base."

"How the hell does someone have twenty thousand experiments?"

"Youma was the one in charge of Jomae. The other four bases have their own chain of command. I know Shigure Mirako is in charge of Ainokura and Mitashi Rugen is the leader of Busan. The others are unknown to me."

"So these people ran their own experiments similar to Kuromaru and now face an army that's potentially one hundred thousand strong?!" Naruto barked out.

"The Allied Shinobi Forces was about eighty thousand strong," Kakashi stated.

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions," Sasuke spoke. "We should check out the other bases Karin mentioned and see what we find. Orochimaru and I can send out our snakes to scout."

Naruto nodded gravely.

"Do that and then tell me what you find but..."

He fell silent. Kakashi stood from his lean against the wall.

"Naruto?"

Naruto turned from the window, his lips in a thin line, his eyes cold and hard.

"Prepare for war."

Thank you everyone for following me on this journey!

It was a doozy with so many ups and downs.

Can you imagine the army of crazed ninja?

Try not to focus on the number but the chaos that it will bring.

So yes, I will be writing a sequel but only after I've completed some of my other stories.

Thank you again for following the story.

I know it was hard at times but I'm glad you all stuck until the end.

Let me know what you think about the next story and what you wish to see in it!

I promise I'll try to use it.

Thank you to those for the suggestion of the forest and suicide. I had some doubts because I felt Sakura wouldn't abandon her family, no matter how fucked up she was but if she thought she was doing her family a favor by removing herself from the equation, it worked.

So thank you all again and keep the reviews coming or even personal message me here.

Thank you thank you thank you!

Also, im really into Mass Effect right now, so I'm making ME amv's

My Youtube name is Azura Songstress, just like here so subscribe to me if you'd like. I only have one video up. Well, two but ignore the dance one coz that was for my acting course.

Anyway, goodbye for now and I will post another chapter on this story letting everyone know wen I start the sequel.

Bye!

Signing off for the last time on this story.

- Mee 3