Content warning: graphic depictions of violence and death.
Happy MadaSaku Weekend!
"It's the Nakano… They're all dead."
Izuna's words cut through Sakura like a knife, her heart dropping in her chest and the warmth she had felt just a moment ago turning to ice.
Madara was the first to recover, rising to his feet and asking, "What happened?"
"The squadron we sent out the other day to respond to Lady Nozomi's mission request just returned. When they arrived to the Nakano lands, they found the massacre. As far as they could tell… There were no survivors."
"But…" Sakura quietly started, Izuna and Madara turning to look to her with pained expressions. She swallowed, trying to clear the lump in her throat, before saying louder, "What about Nozomi? And Nobu and Akane?"
"I'm sorry, Sakura…" Izuna apologized softly, "They're all gone."
"But what about the children? There were kids in their village… What about them?" she pressed.
Izuna simply looked away, Sakura's blood running cold. Her heart was so heavy in her chest that she struggled to breath around the weight, the silence that hung in the air between them choking her words.
The Nakano were dead. Nobu, Nozomi, Akane, and their entire family had been killed. Not even the children had been spared in the massacre...
"I'm sorry but I need to go," Madara spoke gently, breaking the silence between them all, "I'll be back soon. We can... talk then."
"I know, just…" she started as she stared at the wooden shingles on her roof, struggling for the words she wanted to express what she needed to say, "Will you find out what happened? I don't want- or, I mean, I just..."
Sakura felt a hand on hers, interrupting her rambling and her messy thoughts. Her eyes rose up to meet Madara's worried gaze as the Uchiha kneeled down at her side, his large, warm hand wrapped around hers.
"I'll find out what happened. We'll give them the justice they deserve," he vowed, squeezing her hand.
She knew that violence like this was not out of the norm here. The first time she had ever sat down to eat with the brothers, Madara had told her how they had been on the battlefield when they were just four years old. War and death were things so familiar to them and, even though she lived in a world not so far removed from this one, having people that she cared about killed…
She realized she had never lost anyone like that.
On top of the terrifying realization that may never see the people she loved again, it felt as if she was being dragged out to sea by an unforgiving riptide and that the familiarity of shore was something she would never see again. But looking into Madara's eyes in that moment, feeling the warmth of his hand and the sincerity in his voice, she knew that he was a lifeline she could hang onto.
Squeezing his hand in return, she forced a smile. "Please be safe. No matter what."
"Always," Madara replied, reaching down to grab the edge of the blanket she was still partially wrapped in and pulling it over her shoulder.
He gave her a brief smile before him and Izuna stepped off of the roof and disappeared into the darkness, leaving her alone with her thoughts. The smile she had forced dropped from her face as she pulled the blanket closer around her. Folding her legs to her chest, she dropped her head onto her knees and quietly grieved the deaths of her friends.
She had succeeded once before in saving their lives but they had still been killed despite her efforts. Did she actually make a difference? Or was this the way it had to be? Was she even capable of truly changing anything in the past or would the flow of time ultimately right itself no matter what she did to alter it?
Had the Nakano been destined to die and she had only prolonged the inevitable? Or were they yet more casualties to add on to the thousands who would die during this bloody era, victims not of fate but of war?
Wrapping her blanket tighter around her shoulders, Sakura struggled against the wave of hopelessness. Tormented by her fears, her grief, and her lack of certainty in the past, she floundered for any sort of answer that would comfort her. No matter her thoughts on whether or not she was capable of affecting the future - and the consequences of either reality - they did nothing to bring her relief. Pain from losing people she cared about and pain from the fear she would lose more lingered like a stain on her thoughts.
Whether she lost her family, her mentors, and her friends from her time or the man and the friends she loved during this time, the inevitability that she would be forced to say goodbye to one or the other stole the breath from her lungs.
Sitting on the roof of her home as she quietly mourned - the night sky above her feeling more like an uncaring, looming void than a comforting blanket of stars - she had never felt so powerless.
That night, after dragging herself from the rooftop and into her bed, Sakura had hoped to fall into a dreamless slumber. It was a hope that had not been rewarded, her sleep plagued by ill-defined nightmares of wandering through a city of ghosts.
Startled awake by a voice in her dreams that almost sounded like Naruto, she found herself unable to return to sleep despite the hazy light filtering into her bedroom signaling it was just before sunrise. Unable and unwilling to return to her nightmares, she dragged herself from bed, trudging into her bathroom to begin her day early.
After cleaning and dressing herself for the day, Sakura busied her hands and her mind with chores for her clinic. Washing empty medication bottles, organizing her cabinets, and discarding expired ingredients, she tried to focus her attention on anything but her anxiety.
Although her efforts were all in vain, she at least felt productive while dwelling in her fears.
It was while Sakura was tending to her garden, her skirts already dusted with soil and her basket already full of fresh herbs, that Izuna came to visit. His approach was more hesitant than normal, as if the Uchiha was unsure of how to approach her while she mourned for her friends - and perhaps for something more.
"Madara left this morning to go investigate what happened with the Nakano," Izuna answered, seeing the question in Sakura's eyes, "He's one of the only sensors we have left in the village. Between those in Sora-ku and everyone who's out on missions, we're spread too thin. So he went himself."
"Do you think it was the Senju?" Sakura asked.
"We suspected them at first but the people who came back were convinced it wasn't a Senju battle. It was more like…" Izuna paused, weighing his words carefully as he looked into Sakura's eyes, "Whoever did this wasn't as... finessed as the Senju."
Izuna didn't need to say it aloud but his delicately phrased explanation spoke volumes. Sakura's heart ached in her chest at the thought of the Nakano being subjected to such a violent death. She felt a deep sense of loss and futility, her fears from the night before returning to the forefront of her mind.
"Madara told me to tell you that he takes his promise seriously. He's going to find out who did this to Lady Nozomi and her family. We'll hunt them down and get revenge for everyone who was killed," he promised darkly, the severity of his tone brokering only inevitability.
Sakura's voice was quiet when she asked, "Does it ever get easier?"
Izuna frowned before answering honestly, "Yes... But only because it happens so often you stop thinking about it."
Sakura felt grief for her friends, uncertainty for her place in the past, anxiety over whether she'd ever return to the future but, more than anything, she was scared. Scared of losing Madara and Izuna, Hitomi and her children Ryuta and Kaida, the twins Katsumi and Katsurou, all of her friends in the Uchiha clan who made their village feel like home. She had already lost her village, maybe permanently, and she wasn't sure she could handle losing another one.
"As long as we're around though…" Izuna spoke, distracting her from her thoughts, "We can keep the people closest to us safe."
While the smile she attempted was brittle, her words weren't, "I'm happy you're here with me, Izuna."
He smirked, "I'm grateful you're here too."
They both perked up as the familiar chakra of Katsumi approached, the kunoichi walking around the bend of the path and into Sakura's garden.
"Good morning, Sakura," she greeted with a warm smile and a wave, something Sakura could not help but return.
"Good morning, Katsumi."
"Sorry I can't stay to talk," she apologized briefly before turning to face Izuna, "The squadron from the western villages has returned. You're needed for the debriefing immediately."
Izuna nodded in understanding and, in a moment of hesitation, he turned to look to Sakura. She could sense in the look in his eyes that he was going to ask if she would be okay but interrupted him before he could voice his concern.
"It's okay, you don't have to hang around me all day," she tried to joke, her laugh sounding hollow even to her, "Don't worry about me. I'm fine."
Izuna frowned. "You're lying."
Sakura just smiled as she picked up her basket of herbs and brushed the fresh soil from her kimono.
"Be sure to send the team my way to get patched up if they need it," she replied instead, waving her hand dismissively as she perched the woven basket on her hip and returned inside without another word.
She felt as Izuna's chakra signature disappeared alongside Katsumi's, the two Uchiha leaving to tend to whatever issue the kunoichi had brought to Izuna's attention. She sighed heavily as she placed her basket next to the sunken hearth in her living room, the normally blazing fireplace dormant in the warm spring months. Perching on one of the cushions surrounding her table, the low surface already piled with glassware, she set to work.
Reaching into the woven basket, she pulled out a bushel of feverfew, stripping the stems of their leaves but leaving them with their small white flowers. She gathered the leaves in a bowl for drying, the herbs destined to be made into a medication for fevers and headaches.
As Sakura worked, her thoughts were quick to wander, returning to what Izuna had told her. With how Izuna spoke, the deaths of friends and family were so commonplace that investigations such as the one she asked - especially investigations into the deaths of people who were customers before companions - seemed to be a rarity. Despite this, Madara had not only promised her that he would discover who had killed her friends but he had left to investigate it on his own.
"Madara told me to tell you he takes his promise seriously."
She felt her heart swell at the thought of Madara, her scattered thoughts of loss and fear making way for the excitement in her chest. She thought of his warm hands, his comforting smile, the private moment they had shared on her rooftop before it had been interrupted by tragedy.
Sakura was no idiot. She knew exactly what Madara had been in the middle of telling her. His confession may have been cut short, a moment that they should have been able to treasure lost to the war surrounding them - like so many moments were during these times - but he didn't have to finish his sentence for her to know what he wanted to tell her.
He was in love with her just as she was in love with him.
She wanted that realization to fill her with unhindered joy but the happiness she was so desperate for was tempered by her profound sense of helplessness and fear.
Sakura felt like she wasn't allowed to be happy when so many people had been killed. She wasn't allowed to be in love when she was trapped in the past, separated from her family and friends. She felt ashamed for wanting this happiness between her and Madara. She didn't feel worthy of that love despite wanting it so badly.
After all, what kind of person thinks of love when there was so much suffering around them? What kind of person thinks of romance when they should be plotting a way home, no matter how hopeless it seemed? Naruto would never give up and she was already losing hope after just a little more than a year in the past.
Was it wrong to want to be happy with the man she had fallen in love with?
Reaching down, Sakura plucked one of the simple white flowers from her table, rolling the long stem in her fingers. It wasn't nearly as striking as the many flowers which bloomed around the Uchiha village, that criticism reminding her of Ino. She smiled as she thought of how Ino would have berated her for such a thought, saying that feverfew may not be as flashy as other flowers but it's beauty came from what it could accomplish.
Her fragile smile fell as she thought of how she may never see Ino again. How she may never hear her voice; her yelling and her insults or her comfort and her advice.
Advice from a friend was something she desperately needed in that moment.
"What would you tell me now? You were always so strong and sure of yourself and you always knew exactly what to do," she whispered as she absentmindedly ran her thumb along the soft petals of the small flower, frowning at the splash of yellow in the center of the unassuming herb, "I thought I knew what I had to do but I don't know anymore and I've never felt so helpless."
"I don't belong here and… I'm scared. I don't want to lose more people I love." She took a shaky breath before dropping her head and muttering, "What would you do, Ino?"
"I don't know what Ino would do…" Izuna spoke from behind her, startling her into whipping around to look back at his apologetic face, "But I know what I'd do."
There was a moment of strained silence before she quietly asked, "What would you do, Izuna?"
"Anything I could to protect the people I'm capable of keeping safe. It's easy to get lost in what ifs and could haves and that distraction is a moment of thought that could be spent protecting the people you can right then and there," Izuna answered without a moment of hesitation before continuing.
"I don't know exactly what happened to you and I'm content not knowing. Striking burnt matches doesn't light new fires. But I do know that you belong here. That you have people here who love you." He smirked. "Some more than others."
His smile faded as he spoke seriously, "There isn't a lot of opportunities for happiness in lives like ours. I promise you that it will be so much harder if you hold back. Because not only will you still hurt but you'll have regrets too."
"You sound like you're talking from experience," Sakura commented sadly, not having to try to hear the familiar tone of regret in his voice.
"Perhaps," he answers vaguely with a shrug, "You have a much greater chance of seizing your happiness than me though."
"Who was it?" she asked.
Izuna just smiled, sadness and a secret in the curve of his lips.
Sakura nodded in understanding, respecting his privacy by changing the topic. "So, to what do I owe the visit?"
"I'm needed outside of the village. The returning squadron spotted a few dozen shinobi nearing the edge of our lands," he explained, revealing the reason behind Katsumi's urgency earlier that day, "They're getting far too close for comfort and we can't dedicate the scouts to go fight this melee. I'm going myself to take care of it quickly and without needless casualties."
"Do you need my help?"
"Yes but I need it here in the village. I'm going to direct the scouts to report to you directly and I need you to keep everyone safe while I'm gone."
Sakura's expression hardened with her determination before she promised, "I will. I refuse to allow anyone else I care about to get hurt."
"I believe you. And I trust you," he answered with a smile as he rose to his feet and turned to leave. As he got to the door, however, he hesitated for a moment before turning and saying, "I'm sorry for ruining your moment with Madara. In retrospect, I wish I had the foresight to wait a minute longer. I hope your next moment is much better."
Before Sakura could answer, he was gone.
As Sakura continued her work, the sun slowly descended in the sky, Sakura considered Izuna's words. With the simultaneously comforting and curious conversation swirling about in her mind, she found her fears lingering on the edges of her thoughts while brighter contemplations took center stage.
She wondered who this mystery person Izuna spoke of was and what his relationship with them had been like. He was quick to tease, frequently made things seem less serious than they truly were, and spoke little of his personal life, so deciphering the true meaning or history behind his advice was a difficult if not impossible task. One thing that was clear, however, was that Izuna valued his privacy and it would do little good to ponder on his secrets.
Shaking her head as she finished stripping the stems of feverfew, she stood to place the bowl of loose leaves on the shelf to dry. Returning to her seat and to her basket, she removed a branch of ginkgo biloba and investigated the seeds scattered throughout the broad leaves. As she began the process of separating the leaves from the seeds, the leaves to be used for a medicine for respiratory issues and the toxic seeds destined to be made into a poison for the battlefield, she allowed her thoughts to wander.
Izuna had talked of seizing happiness where one could find it and that opportunities to be happy weren't common for ninja such as themselves. That it was easy to become lost in thoughts of what could have been or what someone could have done. That holding back because of fear would not only leave someone with the hollowness of loss but the despair of regret.
He had said that she belonged here. As the days trapped in the past stretched on, she began to wonder if this was indeed the case. And if so… Why should she stop herself from being happy with the man she loved?
Even though thoughts of grief still weighed down her already heavy heart, a spark of warmth flared within her chest at the thought of allowing herself to be in love. Fear of losing more people she cared about still threatened her delicate calm but the promise to Izuna - and to herself - to do anything she could to protect them was a cool balm on a burning wound.
Dread of what the future might hold for her lingered like a bad taste on the back of her tongue but hope that everything would be okay someday made the dismay easier to bear.
Allowing herself a private smile as she stood, Sakura placed the plate of ginkgo biloba leaves on the shelf to dry alongside the feverfew. Returning to her table, she picked up a bowl of dull yellow ginkgo seeds, intending on beginning the process of distilling the poison from the unassuming bulbs.
As Sakura walked to her alchemy stand, the sound of a nearby explosion startled her so badly that she dropped the bowl to the floor, the numerous seeds scattering across the tatami mats.
Instinctively dropping into a fighting stance, she immediately expanded her senses outward to search for the source of the blast. Even with her being on high alert following her conversation with Izuna, nothing could have prepared her for the numerous malicious chakra signatures which greeted her.
There were so many... Where had they come from?
"Lady Sakura!" she heard the familiar voice of Katsurou yell from outside of her home before he burst in through the door to her clinic.
"Katsurou, what's happening!?" Sakura demanded, already channeling her chakra in preparation for the battle ahead.
"I'm so sorry, we couldn't sense them at all until they were already here! It's like they came out of thin air! It's the Hagoromo!" he apologized quickly, shock flooding through Sakura.
She remembered reading about the Hagoromo clan during her time. They had been an ally of the Uchiha during the Warring States Era and she remembered hearing the name spoken in passing a handful of times in the Uchiha village. They were supposed to be their allies. Why were they attacking? Were these the force of shinobi that Izuna had left to confront earlier?
More importantly, where was Izuna? Was he okay?
"There's so many!" Katsurou continued, interrupting her thoughts, before flinching as another explosion sounded, this one much closer, "We need your help!"
Sakura could worry about the reason why they were attacking and Izuna's location later. Now, she was needed to keep the people she loved safe. She was needed to keep the promise she had made not just to Izuna but to herself.
She wouldn't allow anyone to get hurt.
"I need you to relay a message to the scouts. Tell them to focus on evacuating everyone from the north. They know the forest surrounding us better than anyone. I need you and Katsumi to stay behind and help me keep the Hagoromo at bay," she ordered as she turned on her heel to retrieve her scroll from her bedroom. She had no time to don her armor but her scroll contained her axe and all her tools. "Go now!"
"Yes, Lady Sakura!" she heard Katsurou yell from behind her as she bolted into her bedroom, yanking her scroll off of her armor rack and strapping it across her shoulder as she ran to her front door.
Hardly stopping to even don her sandals, she was reaching to open the door leading outside when she felt a sudden heat and paused. Without a moment of hesitation, she shot backwards into her home, narrowly avoiding an explosion of debris as the front of her home was engulfed in a fire jutsu. Rushing out the back door as the flames continued to grow, she escaped from her own home and was immediately greeted by the head of a sickle descending onto her from above.
Channeling a burst of chakra into her hand to protect the bare skin of her palm, she reached up to parry away the blade of her attacker. Taking advantage of the opening in the Hagoromo's guard, she shot out a fist which connected with the man's chest. His sternum crumpled beneath her knuckles before the force of her strike launched him off of her porch. He disappeared into the darkness of her plum orchard, his body colliding with several trees and snapping them at their hearts. The colorful trees, their boughs heavy with ripening plums, collapsed to the ground in heaps.
Spurred forward by the scalding heat behind her, Sakura shot off of porch as well, just in time to avoid the flaming rubble as her home collapsed. Soot rained down from above as her house toppled, the wreckage launching a plume of sparks and smoke into the night sky. The sound of screeching wood and shattering glass filled the air as the ruins of her home and her clinic burned, filling the air with acrid smelling smoke.
Rapidly looking around her, she saw as a group of Uchiha worked together to combat the fires spreading across the village. While the Uchiha were not a clan adept at water jutsu, each member had extensive experience with fire. With how many blazes spawned from training and sparring, they were adept at battling wildfires that would destroy unprepared cities.
The Hagoromo must have attacked with the thought that the Uchiha would be unable to fight the fires without water jutsu. While the Uchiha were skilled firefighters and were not caught unprepared for the blaze, they were not able to effectively battle the growing inferno while under attack.
As Sakura considered running out to join the group of Uchiha in combating the growing fires, her skill with water jutsu something that would be of enormous help, her attention was drawn to three terrified boys who ran out from behind one of the burning buildings. She recognized the young men as being a few of the hunters who had dedicated their lives to pursuing game in the forests surrounding their home but people so gentle hearted that they had never hurt a person in their lives.
One of the boys fell to his knees, the strap of his sandal having snapped and tripped him, and he quickly rolled over to scramble away from his pursuer. A much older man emerged from behind the building, the Hagoromo crest emblazoned across the back of his shirt and a gnarled club in his hand. He descended upon the downed Uchiha, raising the club high over his head, and the boy cried out in fear, raising his arms to defend his head.
Channeling a burst of chakra into her feet, Sakura rocketed forward with a furious cry, rushing the Hagoromo who dared to try to hurt her friend. The man turned to face her, trying to redirect his attack towards her instead, but he wasn't fast enough as Sakura slammed her fist into his lower back.
The familiar crumpling noise of bones breaking within flesh greeted her attack before the man was rocketed into the burning home behind him. His scream of rage and agony was silenced as his body broke through the unstable wall, the rest of the broken building collapsing on top of his broken body.
Sakura reached down, grabbing onto the hand of the young man and dragging him to his feet.
"Go to the northern edge of the village. The scouts will be waiting to help you all escape," Sakura ordered as three more Hagoromo emerged from the other side of a rubble, "Hurry!"
"Of course! Thank you so much, Lady Sakura!" the young hunter answered in a rush before running over to his frightened friends, his steps staggered as he tried to run with only one shoe.
"What the hell are you doing here!?" Sakura snarled as she turned onto the approaching Hagoromo, "I thought you were our allies, you traitors!"
The man in the center of the group, a long bow held in his hands although he carried no arrows, laughed at her. The two people on either side of him, both of them brandishing spiked polearms with U shaped heads, didn't react, the entirety of their attention focused on her. The group kept their distance, as if already aware of her strength, and she theorized that was the reasoning for their restraining polearms and long distance weapon.
"There's no such thing as allies in war. Just people who are more useful to you alive," the leader of the trio sneered, "Now do us a favor and give up, Angel of Kiso."
Without another word, the two men with the polearms rushed towards her, their weapons raised in front of them like jousting spears. They gave her no time to consider how they knew her and why they had addressed her in such a war, her focus directed entirely at the attacking Hagoromo.
Bolting forward, Sakura met the charge of the one to her right, dropping beneath the swing of his spiked polearm. She struck out but, instead of attempting to block her, he shot backwards, the second man stabbing at her with his weapon in an attempt to capture her by her neck. She leapt to the side, evading his snare, but he continued his momentum with a barrage of strikes she backflipped to avoid.
As she was on her back hand, a flash of movement from behind the two Hagoromo caught her eye. Channeling a burst of chakra into her arm, she launched herself upwards into the air, dodging a bolt that embedded itself into the house behind her. Instead of an arrow, however, the projectile was a spear made of stone.
On her descent, she watched as the archer swiped his hand across the ground, gathering a handful of dirt that he formed into a stone bolt. Notching his makeshift arrow, he smirked at her before letting it fly.
With no room for error in her timing, Sakura focused on the approaching projectile, the entirety of her focus funneling down onto the spear until even the chaos surrounding her was silent. In the time between heartbeats, Sakura caught the stone spike midair before it impaled her, the cacophony of the battle surrounding her returning to her in a burst.
Turning the makeshift weapon downward, she used her enhanced strength to launch it at the men beneath her, the Hagoromo waiting for her to land so they could attempt to ensnare her. When the spear slammed into the ground beneath them, the earth exploded and knocked them off of their feet, affording her a safe landing.
Her attack also created a tremor which toppled a nearby home, the sound of breaking wood and trembling earth filling her with dread. She realized that she couldn't afford to use her full strength in her own village. She would have to restrain herself or she would destroy more than just her enemies.
Sakura didn't know who had been evacuated and if there were still people hiding nearby. She couldn't take a chance knowing that she could topple a building with someone injured trapped inside. More than that, she couldn't do anything to impede the evacuations and destroying the village would do nothing but close off routes for her friends to escape the assault.
This also meant that she couldn't summon Tora or Hyo for backup in this battle, the boss summons far too large to maneuver without destroying more than they could save.
Sakura landed on her feet in the heart of the upturned earth and immediately sprung away, putting some distance between her foes as she ran through a short string of handsigns. Nipping the tip of her thumb and drawing a drop of blood, she slammed her palm to the earth.
"Summoning Jutsu!" she cried out, a seal erupting from her hand and a burst of smoke obscuring her figure.
While she couldn't summon Tora or Hyo, she knew just the feline who would be perfect for this battle.
When the smoke cleared, it appeared as if she was alone, the three Hagoromo's visible anxiety melting away as they laughed at her.
"Guess whoever you tried to bring out doesn't want anything to do with you!" the archer taunted as he notched another stone arrow.
With a burst of chakra enhanced speed, Sakura breezed passed the two men with polearms, charging towards the Hagoromo armed with the bow. The man narrowed his eyes at her, letting his arrow loose with no regard for his companions behind her.
When Sakura dodged, dropping down and beneath the projectile, it was as if a demon broke free from her shadow.
Kuro lept high in the air, bounding over the projectile and descending upon the unsuspecting archer without a sound. The man tried to yell as he landed on him but his cry was cut short as he sank his fangs into his throat. As the Hagoromo collapsed under Kuro's attack and his weight, the panther springboarded off of him and into the shadows of one of the houses, disappearing like a wraith.
The archer uselessly grabbed at the gaping wound on his throat, blood pouring through his fingers and onto the ground beneath him. Unable to channel the focus or the chakra to be a threat any longer, Sakura turned to face the two men with polearms. Despite their attempts at not showing weakness, she could see a growing fear in their eyes.
The remaining Hagoromo turned their backs towards one another, not wanting to allow Kuro to sneak up behind them, but their maneuver proved to be their downfall.
A length of chain, pulled taut by two different sources hidden on the rooftops, shot out from the darkness, wrapping around the two shinobi. Their spiked weapons were trapped against their bodies, injuring them as well as immobilizing them as the ensnaring chain wrapped around them both three times. The dual wielders of the chain emerged from the shadows, wrapping the excess length around their forearms as they pulled their shared weapon tight. Two weights were attached to the ends of the chain, draped over their shoulders and ready for use at a moments notice.
"Sorry it took us so long to get here!" Katsurou apologized, digging his heels into the ground to fight against the Hagoromo's struggling, "These bastards are everywhere!"
"Go on ahead of us! We've got this!" Katsumi called out, already forming half of a handsign with one hand which Katsurou completed.
Like the two poles of a battery being connected, a current formed along the length of chain between the two Uchiha. Sakura could feel static dance across her skin as the lightning jutsu charged the air with power, the chain glowing red with heat as electricity passed between the siblings. The men captured in their dually wielded weapon went rigid as they were electrocuted, their skin blistering and burning from the red hot links of the chain.
Turning her back on the smell of burning flesh and hot metal, Sakura rushed farther into the village, knowing that Katsurou and Katsumi had the battle well in hand. As she sped through the buildings, passing by fights between Hagoromo and Uchiha fighters as she searched for evacuating Uchiha, she felt Kuro's presence keeping pace with her from the shadows.
Her attention snapped to the sudden appearance of a particularly malicious chakra near the center of the village, the sheer force behind it alarming her to her core. She hadn't felt anyone as powerful as this individual since she had battled with Toka and Tobirama, this stranger well on the level with Izuna and undoubtedly far more dangerous than anyone remaining in the village aside from her.
She had no choice but to be the fighter who would challenge this threat before it hurt one of her friends. She had made a promise to Izuna that she would never allow anyone she cared about to be hurt but, more than that, she had made that promise to herself.
As Sakura ran towards the unknown foe, she reached within herself, opening the gate on her reserve of chakra and activating her Strength of a Hundred seal. A wave of energy ran along her skin as black lines grew from the seal on her forehead, lacing around her body. Her heart sang in her chest as the sheer power of her reserve chakra ran through her veins like fire, a strength beyond compare settling within her as she released her completed seal.
Sakura felt as the opposing force noticed her sudden spike in chakra, the attention of the malicious energy feeling like danger.
Emerging from behind the rubble of the collapsed buildings near the center of the village, she came face to face with the source of the malevolent chakra. A young man, dressed in the same armor worn by both the Uchiha and the Senju, turned to face her, a friendly smile spread across his lips. The man was surprisingly unassuming with a head of messy brown hair and a gentle expression but the bloodlust in his aura made her sick to her stomach.
Her eyes snapped across the battlefield, the kunoichi immediately taking note of the large seal printed across the ground. Recognizing the pattern of the seal, she knew it was a summoning jutsu, not unlike the ones tied to the ninja animals. This one, however, was different. Instead of being designed to transport items or summoned animals, it was designed to transport people.
So that was how such a large force of Hagoromo had invaded their village without anyone noticing sooner.
"Pink hair, mysterious markings, strikingly beautiful eyes…" the man flirted in greeting, his eyes raking up and down her body and making her stomach turn, "You must be the Angel of Kiso. Or perhaps I should address you as the Miracle of the Uchiha? Maybe I should just call you the War Goddess like everyone else?"
Sakura silently narrowed her eyes, unamused by his games and his unusual nicknames for her. She had known about her title as the Angel of Kiso, a name she had earned working as the Kiso city doctor, but the others were unfamiliar to her.
"Ah, but I feel like I already know you so well! I don't see any need for such formalities," he laughed before greeting with too much familiarity, "It's wonderful to finally meet you, Sakura. I've been waiting so long for this moment."
"You know me but who are you?" she growled, fighting against the sickening sensation his gaze left her with.
"Oh, you don't know? You wound me," he sighed dramatically, holding a hand to his chest like he was a long time friend and she had forgotten his name, "I am Junshi Hagoromo, patriarch of the Hagoromo clan and future ruler of this world. I think I just might be able to find it in me to forgive you for not knowing my name if you smile pretty for me."
"I'll just have to survive with your disappointment," she snarled, channeling chakra into her feet and launching herself towards her opponent.
Junshi dodged her punch almost effortlessly, skirting out of the way of each strike that followed without losing the smile on his face. Sakura was alarmed by how fast he was, the strange shinobi even quicker than Izuna, and she struggled to land a single hit. Chaining together blow after blow and chasing after gaps in his seemingly lazy guard, she refused to give him a moment to plan his counterattack.
"Why are you doing this!?" Sakura demanded as she channeled more chakra into her body, increasing her speed as she relentlessly attacked the elusive Hagoromo.
"The Uchiha are too powerful now with Sora-ku at their backs. They need to be destroyed before they win this war," Junshi explained with an eerie calm.
"I thought you were allies with the Uchiha!"
"We're mercenaries, not friends. There's a difference between allies and enemies of enemies, Sa-ku-ra," he hummed in the same tone one used when correcting a child, "You and I can be friends though, if you obey me."
Sakura snarled, continuing in her fruitless assault as she chased the man across the growing ruins of her village. Junshi simply chuckled, his amusement making her blood boil as her strikes slowly became more and more powerful with her growing rage.
"The Nakano used to call you their savior! Funny, considering you couldn't do anything to protect them," he mercilessly taunted, "They screamed for help when we killed them. The children were especially loud. Couldn't you hear them, goddess?"
At the callous mention of the murder of innocents, Sakura lost control of her temper as well as her control over her strength. Roaring in fury, she flooded her fists with chakra, unleashing her full power. The air was rent apart with deafening booms with every one of her frenzied strikes, the earth cracking beneath her feet and erupting beneath her fists.
Leaping upwards, she raised her heel high into the air and descended upon the Hagoromo with an axe kick. In a feat of speed and bravery that Sakura had never faced in an enemy, Junshi neatly evaded her kick but did not dart away from her overwhelming strength, instead leaping a short distance into the air to evade the explosion of power which destroyed the ground beneath their feet.
She looked up at him, open shock in her eyes, and he just smiled as he reached through the gap in her guard to grab her forehead.
Sakura screamed.
It felt as if her head had been cracked open, pain unlike anything she had ever felt shooting through her entire body and lighting up every nerve. Her vision went black from the intensity of the pain, Sakura struggling to maintain consciousness as Junshi shattered the stability of her seal. In an explosion of raw power, her seal was destroyed, the overwhelming surplus of chakra escaping her body so quickly that every cell within her screamed in agony.
For the first time since Sakura had been trapped in the past, she thought she was going to die.
When she finally regained control of her senses, the first thing she heard was Junshi's sickening laughter. Her vision followed shortly after, although she struggled to see the Hagoromo towering above her with her blurry sight, darkness still bleeding outward from her vision and into her peripherals.
"It's a shame you aren't actually a goddess, Sakura," Junshi hummed as he stepped on her head, stomping her face back into the dirt when she struggled against him and tried to stand.
"But don't worry, I can still-" he continued before being interrupted by Kuro lunging from his place hidden in the shadows of the wreckage surrounding them.
Junshi dodged out of the way of his pounce, skirting around his claws as he corraled him away from Sakura. The panther snarled and roared as he chased him, clawing and snapping his jaws at the Hagoromo who has still yet to lose his smile.
"Sakura! You need to get up!" Kuro yelled as he fought, not landing a single strike on their evasive foe, "Get on your feet!"
Sakura desperately tried to stand, knowing she needed to return to this battle to protect the people she loved. She fought to get her feet under her, her entire body screaming in agony as if she had been burned from the inside out. Her legs shook as she struggled to her feet, stumbling but standing. Her vision swam and she had to blink against the blur and the darkness in her peripherals before she could finally see clearly.
Junshi met her gaze from across the battlefield, watching her as if he had been waiting for her full attention to make his next move. In one smooth motion, he drew his katana for the first time in their fight and, catching him midair, ran Kuro through his chest.
"Kuro!" Sakura screamed as the Hagoromo ripped his sword from her friend's gut and spun on his heel to kick him to the ground.
Kuro's limp body slid across the dirt and the rubble before he skidded to a stop near her, trying to lift his head before collapsing back onto the ground. With one last pained warble as he looked into her eyes, a sound she had never heard Kuro make, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
She didn't even know if he would live or die. She couldn't even go to help him unless one of the cats summoned her and she didn't know if Kuro would even be able to tell them about the Hagoromo invasion. Kuro might be dead. This man might have killed Kuro.
This man might have killed her friend.
With a shriek of rage, Sakura charged towards Junshi. Midrun, she tore her scroll from her back, letting the paper fly open in her hands. She tried to focus her chakra and, despite finding so little at her disposal that she felt a very real fear bubble up within her, she gathered enough to summon her axe.
Dropping the scroll to the ground and gripping her axe in both hands, she rushed at Junshi with the intent to kill him before she collapsed from chakra loss. She focused just enough chakra to wield her massive weapon and to increase her strength and speed, the slow, steady pull draining away her already skant chakra.
Just like before, the Hagoromo dodged her swings, still never losing that sickening smile that only seemed to grow wider. She panted, desperately trying to drag the smokey, acrid air into her aching lungs. Her vision swam with each movement she made, the kunoichi having to blink just to see her opponent. Sweat dripped down her face as she struggled to fight when her entire body burned from the destruction of her seal and the rapid loss of so much chakra from within her.
"You're much slower now!" he teased before sidestepping one of her swings and planting his foot in her stomach.
The power behind his kick forced the air out of her lungs as she staggered backwards, just able to keep her feet under her. The few moments it took to maintain her footing gave him all the time he needed to run through a set of unfamiliar hand signs.
"Stone Sealing Jaws!" Junshi called out as he pressed his hand to the ground between them, two jaws of stone laced with pointed teeth immediately erupting from beneath Sakura with a roar.
Channeling her scalding chakra into her feet for a boost of speed, she tried to leap out of the way of the jutsu. While she escaped at first, the jaws simply turned on her, snatching her out of the air and snapping closed around her.
The razor sharp teeth of the jutsu speared through her shoulders, her arm, and her thighs, dragging a pained cry from her chest. Her axe clattered to the dirt, falling from her now numb arm, before the jutsu dragging her to the ground, partially trapping her in the earth itself. The jutsu tightened around her, crushing her and making it nearly impossible to breathe against the weight.
Sakura tried to focus chakra into her arms to break free from the jutsu but, as she tried, she was horrified to discover she could not manipulate her chakra. With a glance down to the side of the fly trap like jaws, she spotted a very familiar seal painted on the stone.
A chakra sealing jutsu.
Footsteps drew her blurry gaze back to her opponent, the Hagoromo still smiling as he unhurriedly walked over. He stopped before her, picking up her axe with ease and turning it over in his hand.
"Did you really think you could hurt me with this toy?" Junshi commented, investigating the seals carved into its face like one looked at a child's plaything.
Sakura just bared her bloody teeth at him, hardly able to catch her breath with the weight of the jaws crushing her let alone form words.
"Don't worry, you won't need this anymore," he decided before he snapped the hilt over his knee like it was a twig, the two halves of her gift from Madara clattering to the ground.
Junshi crouched down next to her, reaching out to grip her chin in his hand. She tried to fight it, ripping her face out of his grasp, but he just dug his fingers into her skin, grabbing her by her jaw.
"Beg to be my healer and maybe I'll give you a pretty cage," he purred, Sakura's stomach rolling in revulsion.
"I'd rather die," she hissed before spitting blood in his face.
As he flinched back from the splatter of blood, for the first time in the fight, Junshi's smile fell. Releasing her, he used the back of his sleeve to wipe the blood from his face. He slowly rose to his feet and, when his hand returned to his side, his grin was back although far more predatory than before.
"Oh, we can't have you dying! I might have no need for the Uchiha but I can think of plenty of uses for you. For now…" he explained before he stepped on her head, Sakura clenching her jaw in rage so hard her teeth creaked, "You need to learn your place."
When Junshi kicked her, blinding pain stole her vision. He struck her again and again, stomping her face into the ground over and over. She couldn't think with the pain and with her entire head rattling with every strike, blood filling her mouth and pouring from her nose as bruises bloomed across her face.
"Leave her alone!" a familiar, feminine voice screamed, his relentless attack finally stopping.
Sakura could hardly make out the sound of footsteps running toward her and, when she was finally able to open her eyes, she saw Hitomi rushing over.
"Get off of her!" Hitomi demanded, trying to shove Junshi away, the man laughing as he was unmoved.
"Oh, look! Another pathetic creature comes to try to fight!" he declared as Hitomi grabbed onto the edges of the jaws that trapped Sakura.
Pulling as hard as she could, she desperately tried to free her. Even putting all of her strength into it, she couldn't budge the stone sealing jutsu, the Uchiha uselessly pulling at the jaws in an attempt to free her friend.
With a single punch, Junshi struck Hitomi across the face, the strength of his attack knocking her to the ground. With a cry of pain, she fell to the dirt but, shaking off her stunned state, she scrambled to her feet. Bolting forward, she grabbed onto the sealing jutsu and, cutting her hands on the razor sharp teeth, she tried to pry it open once again.
"Let her go!" Hitomi screamed, "Let her go, you-!"
Junshi struck her again, the Uchiha falling to the ground but once again rising. This time, she was unsteady on her feet, a thick trail of blood dripping from her hairline and sliding down her cheek.
"Please, Hitomi… Run," Sakura begged through broken breaths, "Please run."
She would rather die than watch another one of her friends get hurt. She would rather lose her life here and now than see her friend get killed.
Hitomi stumbled towards the stone jutsu, grabbing onto it with weak hands and trying to pull.
"I'm not leaving you like this," Hitomi gasped out, cutting open her hands even further on the teeth of the jutsu as she tried to release Sakura.
"People like you shouldn't even try. You should know when to give up!" Junshi laughed mercilessly as he grabbed Hitomi by her hair.
Pulling her backwards by her long hair, he knocked her off of her feet, dragging her across the dirt. She clawed at his hands in an attempt to free herself, smearing her blood across his fingers tangled in her locks. With that same sickening smile spread across his lips, he lifted her up by her hair.
"Weaklings like you should know your place."
"No! Please let her go!" Sakura begged, her lungs aching as she struggled to raise her voice with the jaws crushing her, "Kill me instead! Leave her alone! Please don't hurt her!"
"I'm not going to kill you, that would be such a waste! I'm going to be keeping you, Sakura. I have plans for you," he revealed, a menacing smirk spreading as bloodlust danced in his eyes, "I have no use for a burden like this though."
"No! Hitomi!" Sakura shrieked.
"Sakura, please! Keep my babies safe!" Hitomi cried out, "Tell them their mama loves-!"
With a sickening crack, Junshi snapped Hitomi's neck. Releasing her hair, she slumped to the ground lifelessly, like a doll whose strings had been cut. Life and fear still lingered in her eyes - her bright, blue irises so unlike any Uchiha - as she stared into Sakura's eyes.
Sakura watched as the last shred of humanity left Hitomi's trembling gaze, her friend slowly suffocating as she was unable to control her lungs. She watched as tears broke free and slipped down her face, the Uchiha only able to blink as she fought a losing battle to stay alive. She watched as she lost consciousness, her eyes sliding half closed, before her pupils dilated widely, blue being overtaken by black.
Sakura watched her friend die and something broke within her.
Like a string that got pulled too tight in her chest, something deep within her strained and frayed and split until it finally snapped. An agony unlike anything she had ever felt before erupted from within her, like shards of glass in her veins that tore her open from within. An unfamiliar energy spilled out of her in a burst of power so painful and unrelenting that she could do nothing against but pour it into the world around her.
She screamed and jagged branches, barren of leaves but strewn with thorns, erupted from the earth beneath her.
The branches reach down, forming a curtain of barbs which dug into the jaws of the sealing jutsu and tore it apart. Sakura staggered to her feet, gasping for air as she struggled to breathe with the raw, jagged chakra pouring from within her with such force that it tore at her chakra pathways like thousands of splinters.
The branches continued to grow, writhing around her as the thorns adorning them grew longer and sharper. She drew in a burning lungful of air to scream, reaching out towards the man who had killed Hitomi, the jagged vines lurching forward at her command and shooting across the battlefield. Junshi shot backwards, rapidly evading the numerous vines that grasped at him.
The barren tree continued to grow, upturning the earth as branches strewn with thorns emerged from the ground. The twisting tree snatched up fleeing Hagoromo, lifting them into the air to tear bodies apart, blood and gore splattering across the decimated homes of terrified Uchiha.
The trees were erratic and ill controlled, new growths toppling buildings and uprooting roads, further destroying the burning village as readily as it destroyed the invading army.
Even as Sakura's deadly forest continued to bloom, rapidly spanning across the village and exploding into deadly thorns, her jutsu grew docile around her frightened friends. Some of the jagged branches and whipping vines grew into walls and barriers to protect the Uchiha, defending them from opportunistic invaders as they ran away.
Sakura failed to notice the Uchiha looking on in horror as she cut a bloody path through the invading army. Tearing the Hagoromo to shreds, she decorated their homes with blood and viscera before skewering their corpses on her thorns and branches like macaber decorations.
All she knew was her bloodlust, her violence the only thing giving her any semblance of control over her assault. All she could feel was blinding pain and rage, her body and her mind consumed by it.
Tears streamed down her bruised and bloodied face as she staggered forward, chasing after the man who had killed Hitomi. Her entire body screamed at the sheer outpouring of chakra, every last cell within her crying out in agony.
All she wanted in that moment was to kill Junshi. All she needed was to kill him. She needed to get ahold of him, to tear away the hands that killed Hitomi, to rend the limbs from his torso, to rive the organs from his chest and rain his blood onto the earth. She needed him dead, she needed to kill him, he needed to die.
Kill him. Kill him. Kill him.
Kill him!
"Why won't you die!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs, barbed branches erupting from the ground beneath him at her beckoning.
Junshi barely escaped as they snapped shut beneath him, so much like the jutsu he had trapped Sakura in just minutes ago, but he was unable to dodge as vines whipped out at him, snaring his wrist. Fear in his eyes, he swung his katana down onto the thorny vines but was unable to cut himself free, the vines creeping higher up his arm as he fought.
Sakura stumbled forward towards her captured foe, the vines tugging at Junshi and dragging him towards her. He tried to fight back against the strength of the branches but was unable to stop them as he was pulled closer and closer to the kunoichi. In a move fueled by fear and desperation, like an animal caught in a trap, he raised his blade and instead swung down onto his own forearm.
He gritted his teeth against the pain as he severed his own hand, blood pouring free from the stub of his arm as he scrambled backwards, escaping Sakura's snare. She roared in fury, a wellspring of barbed branches erupting free from the earth to desperately grasp at Junshi's legs as he ran, the Hagoromo barely dodging her wild attacks.
The pain within her was unbearable now, every cell in her body screaming like she was drowning. She struggled to find the power to continue to stand - let alone to walk, her legs trembling beneath her as her body shook from her rage and her agony.
"I'll be back for you! Just you wait!" Junshi roared as he fled, joining the few of his clan that were able to escape her assault, "You belong to me, Sakura!"
Sakura moved to chase him but dropped to her knees instead, unable to take another step on legs that felt like they were broken. She wanted to chase after him, she was desperate to chase after him, but she couldn't even get a full breath of air into her lungs. As he finally disappeared into the forest, the edge of the treeline brightly lit by their burning homes, she dropped her forehead to the ragged earth beneath her.
Dragging a shaky breath into her searing lungs, she screamed into the dirt. When she forced herself to draw another breath, it was to fuel a broken sob as hot tears continued to stream down her bloodied face.
She had promised that she wouldn't let anyone get hurt - that she would protect the people she loved - and she had failed.
No. Not yet.
Forcing her weak lungs to take another breath, she refused to give up just yet. If she had life left in her, she could still try. The flicker of light left in her might just be enough to save Hitomi.
"Hitomi!" she whimpered, her entire body trembling as she forced herself onto her hands and knees.
Sakura's vision swam as she dragged herself across the dirt, desperately seeking out her friend's body. She just barely spotted a head of long black hair hidden beneath one of the trees she had brought forth in the center of the village, her friend's body having been thrown aside by her attacks.
Weakly crawling towards her, her vision quickly grew darker and darker. As she struggled to reach her, the writhing branches of her jutsu began to sag, the trees hardening into jagged giants. The barbed vines began to shrivel and die, leaving behind trails of bloodied thorns which connected the bodies like macabre strings of fate.
Finally reaching the corpse of her friend, Hitomi's limbs bents at unnatural angles, she turned her over. Her eyes were still open, her beautiful blue irises swallowed up by her unnaturally dilated pupils. Her tangled hair stuck to the wet tear tracks and blood on her cheeks.
Sakura wobbled as she sat up on her knees, pressing her hands to Hitomi's shoulders. The familiar glow of her healing jutsu was nothing more than a flickering light, the kunoichi unable to gather the chakra she needed.
"Damnit, work!" she sobbed through her tears, reaching deep within herself for whatever chakra she could bring up.
Scrabbling at what little remained, her jutsu glowed brightly before flickering out like a dying sun.
"No!" she cried out, the darkness at the edges of her vision growing and growing until all she could see was Hitomi's wide, unseeing eyes staring up at her.
"Please, please, please!" she begged, desperately forcing the last spark of chakra she had into her friend.
Sakura's vision faded to black as she finally lost control, her body limply falling to the ground at Hitomi's side. As she finally lost consciousness, her entire body screaming in agony as her heart screamed in sorrow, she has one final thought.
'No…'
A/N: I have been so excited to finally reveal that Sakura has wood style! I left a tiny hint in chapter sixteen in the scene where chakra paper "wouldn't work" for Sakura. The reason for this is because paper is made of wood so her chakra nature did not affect it. I know one person for sure noticed this hint!
I've been planning for this reveal since chapter one! I am a firm believer that Sakura should have had wood style. I think it would have balanced her character out with Naruto and Sasuke much more, at least in the sense that she would have a flashy move set like them. She already stands side by side with them but seeing her get wood style would have been the perfect development for her. I can see why Kishi held back though because Sakura with wood style would have been so OP that she just would've mopped up the Fourth Shinobi War real fast.
(I'm still holding out hope in Boruto that Sakura will secretly have wood style, especially with Moegi of all people getting it for no reason. Let me dream!)
Feverfew and ginkgo biloba are both medicinal herbs used even in today's date and time. Feverfew is used to treat fevers (hence the name), migraine prevention, and even to treat the pain from arthritis. Ginkgo biloba is used to treat respiratory conditions like bronchitis and asthma as well as fatigue and ringing in the ears (tinnitus). It's also thought to improve memory and prevent brain disorders like dementia. The seeds, however, contain ginkgo toxin which can cause seizures and death.
When someone breaks one of the cervical vertebrae in the neck (specifically C2, the second bone down from your skull), it's called a Hangman's Fracture. A person with this kind of break doesn't die instantly but instead dies of suffocation since they can no longer control the muscles that inflate/deflate their lungs.
Junshi's name is comprised of "Jun" which can mean "obey, submit" and "Shi" which can mean "will, purpose". I named him this because he has a will that he forces everyone around him to submit to him and obey.