Sakura stared at the rhombus sitting between her collarbones.
It was, without a doubt, a completed strength of a hundred seal. It was also, without a doubt, where Tristan had touched her as she'd been brought back to life.
She lifted her hands in the sign to release the seal. The rhombus warmed and seemed to buzz angrily, refusing to release.
"Sorry." She mumbled and it immediately settled back down. Sakura pondered the fact that a seemingly sentient, massive source of chakra was living between her collarbones for a moment before deciding just to roll with it.
Most of her clothing had high necklines, anyway.
"There's so much I want to talk about with Tsunade-baa-chan." The Uzumaki said.
"She'll be fine." Sakura said, running a hand through her hair and leaning further back against the pile of wood. Once the invasion had ended they'd been drafted into the rebuilding effort. Every muscle in her body was aching from the work and she hadn't had any much needed down time to think. At the very least she wasn't one of the people being charged with their actions during the invasion, according to what she could pull out of Cheetah the Hokage had grumbled about 'the favour being worth more than that' and subsequently pardoned Sakura's actions publicly enough that the council couldn't overrule the decision, even if she was now permanently removed from the guard routine.
Sakura would miss the steady influx of firsthand information about the comings and goings of the village but she wouldn't miss the long hours of doing nothing and surprising lack of murder.
"It's been a super long time, Naruto! Sakura!" An old man yelled at them, a black haired kid next to him. Sakura did not recognise these people, but clearly they recognised her so she acted pleasantly surprised.
"I never thought I'd get another meeting with a hero, Naruto-nii-chan!" The kid said.
"Inari! Tazuna!" The Uzumaki cried, proving that they weren't just weirdo's trying rub off on their fame. "Ah man! Inari you shot up! And Tazuna you… got older."
"Bah!"
"I'm a carpenter now, too. We're both here to work on official Konoha projects. I wanted to say hi to you guys before we got started." The kid said and smiled at her. "You sure got pretty, Sakura-nee-chan."
"Haha! I was always pretty!" She smiled, not allowing how lost she was with the conversation to show.
"I'm so sorry we let Gatou get away with what he did, thanks to you Wave country is prospering like never before." The old man said, bowing and making the kid do the same. The pieces clicked into place.
No wonder she didn't recognise them or know what the fuck they were talking about, Wave was the weeks she spent in a migraine induced haze.
"We're here to return the favour!" The kid said determinedly.
Sakura focused on smiling and nodding politely for the rest of the conversation. She only really tuned back in to her surroundings enough to be frustratingly hyper aware of Hatake's arrival and then fully when she heard the footsteps of a giant dog approaching.
"Ah! There you are!" The Inuzuka said, his giant dog skidding to a halt next to them.
"Kiba?"
"Okay, don't freak out when you hear this, but Tsunade-sama's been replaced as Hokage!"
Sakura's brows furrowed. Her eyes flickered to a Hatake that was tying to hide his surprise. He wasn't chosen?
"They chose some guy named Danzō as the Rokudaime! I don't know everything but apparently he's some behind the scenes power player."
"Oh fuck." She breathed.
"Yeah but that's not the half of it! The Rokudaime just authorised the elimination of the 'rogue ninja' Sasuke!"
"What the hell?!" Uzumaki exclaimed. Sakura's mind was whirling.
"They wouldn't wait for Tsunade-sama to recover, and it does make sense. Sasuke is a rogue ninja. Any other village would've had him killed a long time ago. The one reason he's been left alone was due to Tsunade's benevolence." Hatake said, trying to calm the rapidly reddening Uzumaki, though one or two worried looking glances were shot her way.
"They can't kill Sasuke! I'm going to go talk to him and make him change his mind!" The Uzumaki yelled, taking a step in the direction of the village centre.
Sakura registered Hatake stepping forward to talk him down and tuned out the rest of the conversation. She had to think.
Shimura was hokage. Sakura had a few options. The easiest would be to simply let the man be Hokage.
The problem with that was that he would bring the village to ruin. Sakura would likely be forced into extremely high risk, low reward jobs. People like Hatake would be forced back into ANBU service. The country would end up going to war within half a year. People she cared about would die and her life would turn to shit.
She could try to destroy him politically, all she would have to do is distribute the files she had collected for Tsunade. Doing so, however, would create a large amount of dissent in the village, weaken their defences during such a vulnerable period and lead to chaos. Dragging out the man's dirty laundry would be dragging out the village's dirty laundry. There was a reason Tsunade had asked her to simply assassinate the man.
Her third option was to carry out the orders of the Hokage and ensure the man was killed.
She looked up, Uzumaki and Inuzuka were gone. Only Hatake remained, staring at her with the frustratingly complicated expression he'd been watching her with since they'd died.
"Just hypothetically." She started. "What would happen if Shimura Danzō were to suddenly die?"
To the man's credit, he didn't freak out or try to talk her down, he simply seriously considered the question. "Likely, not much. He's only just been given the position and he hasn't gained the jōnin leadership vote, so he's not implanted into the village as the Hokage yet. Someone else would simply step up as the Rokudaime." He looked seriously down at her. "I do not recommend the Hokage suddenly dying."
Sakura smiled, just a small upturn of her lips. "If I do anything, it'll be according to the orders of Tsunade-sama before the invasion." Hatake's eyes widened and Sakura grinned cheerfully. "I'm afraid I've got a lot of work to do to help with the reconstruction, so I might not be around for a few days, Kashi." She patted his arm as she passed and disappeared, heading for Tsunade's tent with her full amount of stealth.
Fifteen minutes and a needle full of fresh blood later, Sakura was headed for the archives.
(Thank god for shinobi and their paranoia, building their archives right into the rock so that they would stay safe through even the village being levelled.)
The blood was swiped on a blank wall, far in the back of the records rooms and hidden behind a series of bookcases. A pulse of Tsunade's chakra and Sakura was sliding through a narrow passage and into a small room with five scrolls on a table in it's centre.
Technically, she wasn't supposed to know this existed, but Sakura spent a lot of time in Archives and when the Hokage appears only to disappear into a room filled with old import orders, you get curious and follow the Hokage.
She couldn't risk that one of Shimura's had followed the Hokage, too. Sakura slipped the scrolls into her pack and disappeared.
Sakura was crouched behind the tent, hearing focused on the conversation happening within and mind whirling.
There was going to be a five Kage summit. If Shimura Danzō made it to the summit, he would either cement his position as Hokage or mess up entirely and start a war.
He could not be allowed into that summit.
Fortunately, the summit provided an excellent opportunity to kill the old bastard without getting tried for treason, she would just be adapting Tsunade's plan a little. It would be easy enough to kill the man on the road, where anyone could have done it.
The road to the summit was clear, with a convenient pack of Forest country ANBU sitting in ambush just up ahead.
Sakura perched in the trees, her chakra signature down to nothing and her transparency jutsu almost perfect. She wore a fresh set of an ANBU-level, scent dampening uniform, gifted courtesy of the Hokage for this very purpose. She breathed slowly, letting herself fall into the rhythm of nature as she waited.
She became a part of the bush. Nothing anyone would notice.
The minutes passed. Three figures rounded the bend.
As they passed their position Sakura moved like a creeping vine, completely silent. Almost completely still. Lowering her body temperature to that of the air. She made no indication of her presence as she approached the centre man and she gave them no reason to notice her as she positioned Kusanagi behind his head. On the outside she was entirely still but underneath her false calm her heart beat wildly in her chest, the wonderful rush of adrenaline filling her and pulling her mouth into an uncontrolled grin.
An involuntary burst of killing intent and the guards either side of Shimura whipped around, weapons drawn. Shimura moved but he was old. No matter how skilled, nothing could be done to overcome stiff joints. Her chokutō buried itself through his skull. Lightning wrapped itself down the blade, cauterising the wound and ensuring the old man was dead.
She pulled her blade out with a satisfying shluck.
The guards launched at her. The ginger one tried… something that felt like a genjutsu entering her system but she simply directed her own chakra away from the foreign energy and the technique quickly failed. He startled badly, his grip on his tantō becoming too tight and meaning that it jarred and flew out of his hands when Sakura met it with the flat of her chokutō. The next moment her lightning covered blade was though the underside of his chin.
She twisted to meet the taijutsu attack of the other guard, blocking a kick with a weakly chakra enhanced punch- the most she could with little to no time- and sending his leg flying. He lifted a hand as he twisted and sent a rapidly darkening cloud of bugs in her direction. Sakura mentally cursed, held her breath and wreathed her body in storm, melting through the insects. She jumped through the cloud, coming face to face with a shocked Aburame as she buried her chokutō in his chest.
With him dead most of the bugs dispersed but a few particularly stubborn ones clung to her clothing, just small enough to escape the strips of storm and she grimaced. They weren't actively attacking her without the Aburame to direct them but it was gross. She was covered in bugs and didn't have enough chakra to cover herself in enough storm to melt all of them.
She felt purple stripes unravel from the seal on her collarbones and the subsequent influx of chakra thickened the storm around her for a moment, melting the last of the stubborn things before the energy sunk bak into the seal. It was covered by her scent masking uniform but Sakura blinked down at the seal all the same.
It felt distinctly smug.
"Thanks, even if you are an asshole." She muttered and then, in a valiant effort to ignore how fucking weird the whole situation was, she focused on dealing with the bodies. Sakura strode over to Shimura's corpse, curious as to what he had meant by "the problems with my right eye and arm."
Her fingers caught on the bandages and pulled them back to the man's forehead. She forced the lid open.
Now that was a temptation.
A Sharingan. Just sitting there. That no one knew about.
That Sakura wouldn't be able to explain the sudden appearance of, would cause more problems then it would solve and that she didn't have the tools on her to store for later use. Not to mention with her reserves she would probably just open her eye once and find herself in the hospital. She scowled.
If she couldn't take it then she certainly wasn't letting any random have it.
A storm laced kunai stabbed into the socket and the billion-ryo eye melted.
She pulled out the man's arm and immediately wished she hadn't. It was fascinating in a truly disgusting sort of way. She couldn't stop staring at the grotesque, half formed face and embed Sharingans.
She pressed her lips white, resisted the urge to puke and started stabbing.
Five minutes later and three figures walked only slightly clumsily down the road. The only indication that anything was off was their glassy eyes, the missing tantō and the singed holes in their body.
A group of forest ANBU launched at them and Sakura let their attacks hit for a while, let the bodies be mauled by the men until their cause of death wasn't immediately obvious. Then, she stopped feeding the strings and let them fall like puppets they were. It wouldn't fool an Inuzuka but would hopefully hamper the investigation enough she could dodge any suspicion.
Before the bodies had hit the ground she was already moving, tantō sliding through the flesh of the Forest-nin. She went through the first few like butter. The pathetic ninjas unable to react to a mostly invisible opponent slashing through them.
The others seemed a little smarter. An earth jutsu smashed through her approximate position and she leapt, setting a single foot on the massive boulder only for it to immediately start trying to suck her in. A burst of pressurised chakra cracked it away from her and she rode the momentum into the trees, landing on a woman's back and slicing through her jugular.
She dug a hand into the dying women's weapons pack and jumped, twisting over a fire sickle and throwing a stolen kunai into a man's throat. She fell through the air to land on a nearby tree trunk, stuck with chakra and raced back up to leap towards a pair of enemy-nins.
Her tantō swiped through one's neck and the other aimed a kick at her general direction. She ducked under it and nicked the guy's femoral artery, adding another swipe up his stomach for good measure.
She went to go for the next one but they were already bounding through the trees, one of the ANBU having clearly given the order for retreat. Sakura took a moment to just pant through her smile and turned back to the road, adding little bit of burning here and punching a log there. Just generally doing her best to make the battle as confusing to follow as possible.
She grabbed the bloody lump that was the Hokage for a few short hours and tossed him in the general direction of Konoha. He went a lot farther than she would have managed before training with Gai but nothing close to what the Hokage could accomplish. Sometime she wondered if it would be worth it to go through the years of medical training to achieve the Hokage's insane strength, rather than just her ability to smash things, but then Sakura would remember that part of that medical training included helping sick and injured people and any interest in the subject would sour.
After rifling through the bags of one of Shimura's guards- finding and setting off the emergency beacon, something that would bring jōnin crashing down on the point within a half hour- she carried the guard into the trees, spreading his blood around and positioning his dead body in the branch tops.
The very edge of her hearing had picked up the sound of running footsteps so she figured that would do and made a beeline for a nearby river, washing the enemies' blood off and restoring her gear to scent neutrality.
She made it back to the village and positioned herself at Tsunade's beside before anyone had noticed her absence. The guards watching the woman would report her having not being there if anyone asked, but Sakura wasn't going to give anyone a reason to.
For now, she had some plans to create.
Her level of attachment towards Hatake was both surprising for Sakura and not. She'd known, of course, that she was attached to him but she hadn't realised just how central he was to her life until he was gone. Looking back at her feelings for him in the harsh light of a post-death day it was perfectly clear to Sakura that she'd do anything to keep him. Forever.
Unfortunately that would be easier said than done.
Tristan had experienced a similar feeling, though in his memories it was a little less extreme, towards one of his close friends and, at the time, roommates. They'd met and become fast friends in law school and years later Tristan had watched her as she'd rebuffed another man who wouldn't take her clear disinterest for an answer. She'd spent a minute giving the guy straightforward 'no's before she'd evidently reached the end of her patience, turned to him, and with just a few sentences had torn the guy's ego asunder. Tristan had been looking for a wife- both to stay under the radar of a society that expected marriage and kids by their mid thirties and because the idea of having children, creatures that were made from him were truly his in every sense of the word, appealed greatly- and he'd decided then and there that he'd spend the rest of his life with that wonderful woman. That she'd been one of the most independent and highly moral women he'd ever met- aiming to become a family lawyer so she could genuinely help abused kids instead of using her fantastic marks to gain a high paying job at in a less morally orientated field- hadn't deterred him in the slightest. Instead he'd buried everything about his personality that could be considered unsavoury behind layers of masks and followed an involved and careful seduction process. They'd been dating within a year, married within two.
Unfortunately, Sakura couldn't just marry Hatake.
Not only were the cultures completely different, marriage in the shinobi world seen more as a political move than a common occurrence and relationships in general usually not monogamous, but following Tristan's footsteps and fitting herself into a box in order to seduce Hatake would ultimately be damaging the relationship she wanted to protect. The conversation with Tristan rang in her ears and Sakura knew if she did anything to keep the man but not the transparency than that would be as good as losing the relationship all together.
Suddenly, without the option to twist herself to fit, making any kind of romantic pursuit towards Hatake or even shaking up the status quo at all became a risk. A giant, terrifying risk.
No. She wouldn't, she couldn't, risk losing him. Instead she'd just be the best possible friend he could ever need and try and gently encourage a level of emotional codependence between them. Sakura couldn't quite convince herself that she wouldn't slowly and painfully murder anyone that he showed interest in but everyone had their flaws.
For Konoha's sake she hoped the rumours about the man's post-ANBU dry spell held true.
When the older version of the Nara entered the tent Sakura used surprise to cover a thick layer of trepidation.
"Shikaku-san. What are you doing here?" She asked, all wide eyed and innocent like. He did not have his son's mindset of assuming everything she did and said was a lie to lure them into a false sense of security before she killed them in their sleep, so the older Nara believed her act.
"You have a mission." The older version said, face grim. "Shimura Danzō is dead, Hatake Kakashi has been appointed the Rokudaime Hokage in his stead." Sakura's eyebrows rose as the man talked. "Kakashi has unfortunately decided to go on an unsanctioned trip with Yamato and Uzumaki Naruto. Since we're technically not allowed the move shinobi through the borders, you're to stealthily track them down and head to the Hokage summit ASAP." He handed her the Hokage hat.
"Wouldn't this be violating my ban from Hokage guard duty?"
"That ban was put in place after you proved you'd put others above Tsunade-sama's safety." He looked distinctly unimpressed. "Somehow I don't think that will be an issue in this instance."
"Understood, I'll leave immediately." Sakura stood with a sheepish smile and headed to the corner where her pack was sitting. Nara sighed quietly and made to leave but she caught and before he could hurry off and pushed the pack into his hands. "Don't let anyone else read these." Her voice was deadly serious and she saw curiosity burst to life in his eyes. "Shikaku-san." She nodded to the man and headed for the outskirts of the village.
She begun speeding through the summoning hand signs but paused at the sound of tiny paws hitting the earth.
"That won't be necessary." A familiar, tired sounding dog said as it appeared next to her.
"Pakkun! You're a lifesaver!" She said, one hand digging through her weapons pouch to the scroll with the caterpillars for her summons and a bag of dog treats sealed inside. "My summons always insist on double the caterpillars when we go anywhere cold." The dog treats appeared and she held one out for the pug.
"Kakashi thought something like this might happen, so he left me behind to bring you to him." The pug said between chews, tail wagging. Sakura packed her weapons pouch back up.
"I'll follow your lead then, Pakkun." She said and the pug nodded, launching up into the branches.
The trip was silent and fast, the pair pushing quickly through Fire country and into the land of Frost. It was there that Pakkun paused.
"I smell them up ahead, but they're with a group of six others." Pakkun said.
"Okay, hold on a moment." She closed her eyes and focused on her hearing, stretching it to the very edges of her range. She could hear a group talking, but there were no sounds of fighting. She opened her eyes again to see the pug looking curiously at her. "It sounds like they're just talking, so we'll wait for them to finish and split up on their own again."
"That's some good hearing, girly." Pakkun said and Sakura beamed.
"Thank you, it's a by product of my summons and I've trained it a lot."
They didn't have to wait long, they must have already been at the end of the conversation because the pug reported that the six signatures abruptly sped away.
Sakura followed Pakkun through the trees and came upon the three of them, Uzumaki kneeling in the snow and looking like he'd had the shit kicked out of him. Sakura raised an eyebrow and turned to look at a very downcast looking Hatake.
"I was hoping you wouldn't show up." He groaned and Sakura smiled.
"Cheer up, Sensei! You're the Hokage now!" She chirped and placed the ridiculous hat on his head. His shoulders slumped even further. The Uzumaki straightened.
"Wait what?! What happened to that Danzō guy?" He asked.
"Ah, it seems he was ambushed by a team of Forest country ANBU on his way to the Hokage summit. He did not survive the attack." She said. Uzumaki looked conflicted between joy and guilt at feeling joy over a person's death. Sakura rummaged in her pack to pull out another dog treat and handed it to the pug, his tiny tail wagging. "Pakkun was kind enough to lead me here, since we technically aren't allowed to move shinobi between the borders but someone needed to let Kakashi-sensei know he was Hokage and had to show up at the summit."
"You couldn't have just been saying hi or something, couldn't you." The man whined, his lone eye looking pinched.
"How many guards can the Hokage take?" Tiger interjected and Sakura grimaced.
"A maximum of two."
"Sakura and I will head to the summit, Yamato, you will escort Naruto back to fire country." Hatake said and Tiger nodded. The Uzumaki looked mulish.
"Why aren't I going with you?" He said, both Tiger and Hatake looked vaguely horrified at the idea of a the Uzumaki at a political talk. Sakura calmly smiled at him.
"Sorry, Naruto but it's not your thing anyway." She said. "Think hours of crotchety old men arguing over taxes." The Uzumaki suddenly seemed very keen to go with Tiger. Hatake had the air of a man walking towards the gallows.
The five Kage summit was set in a set of giant, mouth-like mountains. They loomed ominously over the white countryside, massive beasts poised to devour the very earth itself.
Hatake sent her a despairing look. "Could you not have worn something a little more appropriate for the weather?"
Sakura looked down at the yellow sundress- a henge hiding the purple rhombus between her collarbones, it was one of her few pieces of clothing with a low neckline- and back at Hatake with a frown. "It's one of the few things that survived the invasion and I thought it looked nice." She turned wide, glassy eyes and a teasing pout on the man. "Do you not think it looks nice?"
Fuck, shit, was she flirting? Her entire game plan was to not rock the boat. Sakura hoped dearly that her face didn't convey any of her growing panic.
His eyes flitted over her and his expression tightened as he sighed, turning back to looking where they were going. "It looks very nice, but normal people would freeze to death if they wore that."
"I have the chakra control to keep everything warm." Sakura said with a shrug firmly ignoring any sparks of happiness at the compliment. The colour on her cheekbones was clearly because of said chakra use. She didn't even notice how Hatake's hair looked particularly striking flecked with delicate flakes of snow and the cloak he was wearing emphasised the broadness of his shoulders. "I don't see why I should pretend otherwise."
Okay so maybe she did but wanting to climb the man like a tree wasn't exactly a new experience for her and so to pretending she didn't really shouldn't be this difficult. Hatake was one of the few people she'd experienced sustained attraction towards and had spent her younger years pretending otherwise knowing she was far too young and firmly not wanting to make their relationship awkward. She'd decided not to upset the status quo and absolutely wasn't about to risk another psychotic episode just because of some hormones.
Hatake mumbled something about Sakura 'staying a genin' that was too garbled for her to catch, even with her enhanced hearing, before they approached the bridge to the Summit area and they both quietened.
A very serious looking man approached them.
"I am the commander in chief of the Iron country, Mifune." He greeted.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Hatake said, his tone impressively self assured and leader-like. "I am Hatake Kakashi, the Hokage." The serious man nodded and begun walking towards the doors.
"Please follow me, we have hot tea inside." He said, though he threw Sakura a bewildered look. She grinned.
The inside of the building was overly cavernous, theoretically any chance that the place would stay even slightly warm destroyed by the sheer height of the rooms yet the building was somehow comfortably lukewarm. They were led to an amphitheatre-esque room with a central table with seats for the five Kages and an upper row of seating for the guards. Sakura settled into her spot above the Fire seat, waved at the Suna siblings and winked at a particularly nervous looking Kiri teen. Her grin widened when the kid blushed and began to visibly panic, only to be clapped on the back and laughed at by the second, giant of a guard.
"Remove your hats." The serious looking man said and the Kages set the ridiculous looking hats on the tables. "As per Raikage-sama's request, the five Kages are gathered here today. I, Mifune, will act as moderator. I herby call this summit of the five Kages to order."
"I'll start. Everyone listen up." Said the Kazekage, a surprising amount of steel in the reportedly easygoing kid's voice. Though she supposed it wasn't that surprising considering last time she'd seen the kid he'd been crowing about feeding the voices in his head blood.
"The five Kages have certainly changed over the years." The Tsuchikage interrupted, his voice the perfect timber of crotchety old man. "You're certainly something special to have earned your title at such a young age, Kazekage-dono. It reflects well on your father and how he must have raised you, although it seems he forgot to teach you manners."
"I suppose. I am the Kazekage, am I not?"
"Guahahaha! What an impertinent kid!"
Tsuchikage-sama please don't interrupt." Said the Mizukage. "Continue, Kazekage-sama."
"I am a former jinchūriki. Akatsuki extracted the bijuu from my body and nearly killed me as a result. Therefore, I consider Akatsuki the most dangerous organisation in existence today. I've sought the cooperation of all five Kages but have been ignored with the exception of the previous Hokage. And now, with so many Bijuu's in their hands, it's too late."
"Hmph. Who would want to tell the hidden villages of the five great countries that their jinchūriki have been abducted!" Crotchety old man whined. "It's shameful! It's only natural to keep your attempts to recover them a secret! Who asks another nation for help recovering their own stolen weapon?"
Ironically, the only jinchūriki who wasn't dead after being captured by Akatsuki, even if they still lost the bijuu.
"Protecting status and honour. A foolish way of thinking from a time that has passed."
"Even if they've stolen the Bijuu there's still no immediate threat. It takes skill, knowledge and, above all, time to be able to control them." Said the only female Kage.
"One needs to grow with the beast, find common ground and harmonise. Even then, fully controlling them is no small feat. Is it, Kazekage-dono?" Crotchety old man said, apparently mad that the Suna kid was making valid points and in response taking petty shots at his past as more than mildly insane.
"There have only been a few people in history able to fully control a bijuu." Hatake interrupted. "Notably these included Uchiha Madara and the Shodai Hokage Harashima. Unfortu-"
A roar of ozone-laden chakra filled the room and a massive fist crashed on the table. Sakura didn't twitch from her seat until she saw all of the other guards leap down between the Kages, weapons drawn.
"Enough of this jibber-jabber!" The Raikage roared as his guards protected him from a swarm of attackers, looking to defend their own Kages. Sakura belatedly jumped over the railing and landed next to Hatake, looking bemusedly at the mess.
"Shouldn't you be more invested in protected me?" He drawled quietly.
"From him?" She asked with a smile. "Aside from the fact that he looks like he'd snap both of us in half with a finger." She said and his head tilted in reluctant agreement. "He's just like Naruto and, you know, getting his need to be loud and distracting once an hour out of his system." He didn't laugh but Hatake's eye became a little less painfully creased and his shoulders relaxed slightly. "Will Naruto be that big when he's Hokage?" His hands twitched violently.
"This is a forum for conversation. All parties will observe the protocol." The serious one said.
"Stand down, Kankurou, Temari." Said the Kazekage.
"Ao, Chōjirō, its alright." Said the woman.
Hatake waved a hand at her and she smiled. "Of course, Hokage-sama." She whispered, sounding entirely serious unless you knew her well in which case it came across as teasing, as she jumped back up and into the stands. She ignored the flat look he sent after her.
"Konoha! Iwa! Suna! Kiri! Akastuki is composed of rogue ninja from your villages!" The giant man yelled. "And that's just the start! I've learnt that the previous Kages, plus some of you, have been making use of Akatsuki."
"Using Akastuki?"
"I don't trust any of you! I didn't even want to talk to you people! The only reason I requested we hold a summit was to determine once and for all where your loyalties lie!"
"What do you mean, we've used Akastuki?"
"Look at you! The Kazekage and you don't even know anything! Go back to the village and ask those old relics! They'll tell you that Suna used Akatsuki during wartime!"
"These day's the great nations have all achieved an equal level of peace. We've gone from expanding our arms to reducing them. As relations improve and the threat of war grows smaller, a large military becomes a drain on the budget. Of course there's risk involved, as well. If war breaks out then they're saddled with nothing but inexperienced shinobi to defend them. Then the war's good as lost."
"And the only option for mitigating that risk is mercenary groups with no loyalties. In other words, Akatsuki."
"Every village has mistakes in their past." Hatake interrupted. "Right now, what we need to do is move on from these mistakes and focus on the future, for the sake of the next generation. As I was saying earlier, it's highly likely that Akatsuki's leader is Uchiha Madara."
The Kages froze. Sakura's brows shot up. What had happened when she was in the hospital to lead to that conclusion? Also, how the hell did she not know about it?
"Hasn't he been dead for years?" The crotchety old man asked nervously.
"I fought him myself. It's almost entirely certain."
"Talk about a living, breathing monster."
"Speaking from our position as a neutral country, I feel Akatsuki's leader has studied the lessons of the past well. He has observed exactly how comfortable each nation is with trusting the others, and has exploited this knowledge to build his power. At this rate he'll even get to the Iron country.
"However, all clouds have a silver lining, it is unheard of for all five kages to be in agreement on any issue. I propose that until Akatsuki is completely eliminated, the five great hidden village's, for the first time in history create a single joint military force."
"A joint force?!"
"I agree, we must work together to defeat Akatsuki." Hatake said.
"Command shou-
"HELLLO!" A nightmare plant shot out of the middle of the room, Sakura was already moving, landing on the desk before Hatake with Kusanagi drawn and rippling electric blue. She recognised the thing from the information Kabuto had given them but… it was only half of it?
That was worrying.
She frowned, a niggling feeling was building in her chakra system.
"They just keep coming, who're you?!"
"Akatsuki." Hatake confirmed.
"Uchiha Sasuke's infiltrated your village, why don't you try to find him before he escapes, hmmm?" The thing said. "How about we all go find Sasuke? C'mon!"
"What?!"
Sakura shifted uneasily, looking back at a grim faced Hatake. The Raikage moved, little more than a blur as he grabbed the Akastuki by the neck.
"WHERE IS UCHIHA SASUKE?! ANSWER ME!"
The niggling sensation in Sakura's chakra system was growing larger, five little points sucking away at her energy. She forced her chakra way from them, circulating her system out of those areas for a moment. When the chakra returned, the points were gone.
"ANSWER ME NOW OR YOU WILL PAY THE PRICE!"
"Fine I guess I can give you a hint."
The Raikage snapped the Akatsuki's neck. "Shii, get to work!"
"There was no need to kill him! We could have interrogated him and gained valuable information about Akatsuki!"
"Akasuki members don't reveal anything about their organisation, they're loyal if nothing else."
"Okisuke, Urakaku, send orders to begin level two battle preparations immediately. And to hunt down Sasuke."
"Uchiha Sasuke is a former Konoha-nin." Hatake said, rising to a stand. "I ask that he be captured to be brought back to Konoha to be tried as such."
"You have no right to request anything, bringing that vermin before me!" The Raikage boomed, pointing a massive finger a Sakura. Damn, she probably should have covered her scars with a henge. She heard Hatake tense behind her and she abruptly cut off the flow of storm to her chokutō. "And Uchiha Sasuke lost the right to his life when he took my brother! SHII! DARUI! MOVE OUT!" The man yelled and then punched through the wall behind him.
"Sorry about the desk and the wall." One of the guards said sheepishly.
"Forget that Darui! Get the lead out!"
"Sensei? What do we do?" Sakura asked and Hatake sighed.
"We cannot risk starting a war over Sasuke." He sounded tired. "We will back up the Raikage's forces and hope that we get an opportunity to capture him." She nodded.
"Konoha isn't going anywhere!" The giant Kiri guard said. "It's your traitor that's attacking this summit! How do we know you haven't been helping him!"
"That's enough Ao." The Mizukage interrupted. "We have no reason to distrust them. Though I do think that the Raikage will be more than enough to handle him." Her eyes drifted to Sakura. "Throwing the Null-Storm in his face will just anger him further and do more harm than good.
"Sakura. Stay unseen." Hatake ordered. She nodded and slammed on full stealth, ignoring the shocked protests of the people behind her and disappearing through the hole in the wall to follow the sounds of fighting.
The fight was happening a few rooms back from the entrance, the group having been caught mid-escape by the Raikage and his men. Sakura entered the room to find the Raikage and the Uchiha rushing towards each other in a massive burst of chakra, a man from each side knocked out, and one of the guards fighting a kid wielding what looking like half of Momochi's sword, his body turning to water rather than taking damage.
Sakura paused and focused on her hearing. Just on the edge of it, above near the ceiling, there was a lone set of panicked breaths. It could be a samurai, but Sakura's gut instinct made her doubt it.
She headed up the wall at record speed, leaping up and over the small railing to see a panicked looking girl launching away from her, her hands in a sensing sign. Sakura's eyebrows rose, it would take a very good sensor to be able to feel her chakra.
She eyed the extremely red hair. Was the girl an Uzumaki?
The girl barely even put up a fight as Sakura darted forward, fingers smashing into a pressure point. She hauled the girl over her shoulder and and hopped back over the banister to see the Raikage having smashed the Uchiha into the ground hard enough to form a small crater and one of his guard leading the other away from the fight. The follower of the Uchiha that Sakura had seen briefly turn into water had been pinned by a lightning conducting sword against the wall.
She'd turned off the transparency jutsu when she'd grabbed the girl, unable to force her invisible as well, but she raced to appear next to one of the rushing samurai on the outskirts and handed the girl off. "Please take care of her, she's a valuable prisoner." The Samurai nodded and disappeared down a hallway. Sakura let the glassy feeling of the transparency jutsu wash back over her and set to work searching the rest of the room.
She couldn't find anyone other than the visible four intruders. There was no sign of any other Akatsuki that could have helped the Uchiha get in but she had the crawling sensation of being watched the entire time. An alarming feeling considering only someone with the Sharingan should have been capable of following her and the Uchiha was well and truly busy with fighting the Raikage.
In the centre of the room the Uchiha rose out of a crater. His eyes distinctly not the traditional pinwheel. She sucked in a breath and froze to watch, pressing herself into a shadowy ceiling corner.
The Uchiha rose in a monstrous construction of chakra. Great purple ribs of pure energy surrounding him in a morbid image. His flower patterned eye formed balls of black fire and it bled. The eye visibly straining and going unnaturally bloodshot.
The Raikage was ruthless. Using a technique similar to Sakura's own storm transformation to move at inhuman speeds and attack with unparalleled strength, he sacrificed his own arm and send the Uchiha flying. Sakura was mesmerised as she watched him prepare to sacrifice his own leg as well to the flames, just for a chance at a killshot.
This was grief she understood. She flexed and unflexed her right fist.
Then a wall of sand appeared between the combatants and the Kazekage and his guards were pouring into the room, closely followed by Hatake. Sakura dropped to land and walk behind him silently, still essentially invisible, a slight tilt to his head signalling he knew she was there. Bloody enhanced sense of smell.
The Raikage's leg was saved by a wall of sand and his arm was cut off before it could spread further and consume him completely.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, KAZEKAGE?!" He boomed. "YOU'D BETTER HAVE A GOOD REASON FOR INTERFERING!"
"If I'd let you connect your leg would have been engulfed by the black flames, too." The Kazekage replied calmly. "Also I need to say something to Uchiha Sasuke"
But the Uchiha was ignoring the Kazekage entirely. Instead, his eyes were fixed on Hatake with a mixture of disbelief and growing rage. His voice was poisonous as he spoke. "Kakashi. And is it Sakura?" His eyes flicked to where she was standing. Sakura let her transparency jutsu drop. She was surprised he'd guessed it was her, but she supposed she had used the jutsu in front of him before. "Where is Shimura Danzō?!"
"He was killed in an ambush." Kakashi replied. Sakura's mind raced. She stepped forward.
"The fifth condemned his actions." She said. Sasuke's face twisted and she prepared herself to leap out of the way of the black flames. But they never came.
"What would you know?!" He spat.
"Quite a bit more than you." She replied matter of factly. "Surrender yourself and I'll share all of it with you. Physical files. Not suspicions or hearsay." She took another step forward, Kakashi laid a warning hand on her shoulder.
Sasuke was hesitating. His face a mixture of confusion, hope and anger. It didn't take long for the anger to win out. He wouldn't come.
"NOW WAIT A MINU-"
A masked man appeared behind the Uchiha and sucked him… into his eye?
Kakashi moved in front of her. She took a heartbeat to glare at the wall of shoulders blocking her view before she leant sideways and peered around his arm.
"HOW ARE YOU?!" Boomed the Raikage.
"My name is Uchiha Madara. I am here to explain something to you." The masked man said. At this distance Sakura's eyesight could just catch the telltale flash of red of a Sharingan behind the hole. At least that explained who'd been watching her. "I will be waiting in the summit room, this is a question I wish to ask all of the Kages." The man disappeared in a similar swirl to the one that took the Uchiha.
There was a moment of silence before.
"SHII!" The Raikage boomed.
"He's with the other Kages sir." The half dead one said, his fingers held up in a hand sign. He sent a disturbed glance at Sakura and she let her hold on her signature slip a little with a grin. He grimaced.
The Raikage roared and disappeared after the masked man. After a half moment, everyone else in the room raced that direction too.
They entered to find the masked man standing on a balcony overlooking the group, the Kage's watching from down below. As the Raikage entered he launched towards the Akastuki, aiming for a punch only to fly through the man instead.
He didn't miss. He went straight through.
Sakura had read the mission report- though none of it had mentioned the masked man apparently being Uchiha fucking Madara- but it was far more alarming to see in person than to just read about. It really hammered home just how grossly overpowered the ability was.
"I am Uchiha Madara. You will hear out my ultimate plan. The 'moon's eye' plan."
"HAND SASUKE OVER!" The Raikage yelled. The mask turned to look at him.
"After you listen to me and only if I like your response."
"Settle down Raikage, we'll let him say his piece."
"What do you want with Sasuke?" Hatake asked, once again having positioned himself in front of her.
"You have no idea how rare it is for a Sharingan user to awaken Susanoo. I'm just stockpiling good eyes." The masked man said, turning to focus in on the Hokage. "I also wanted him to further refine his eye techniques by putting him against the five Kages in real combat, so I helped him sneak in here. At best I thought he could weaken you all enough for me to take some hostages, but I guess that was asking too much."
"Hostages?! For what?"
"To speed along my 'moons eye' plan, of course."
"I admit I'm shocked to learn you're alive, Uchiha Madara. But why skulk around the shadows? You're powerful enough to get away with whatever plan you can think of."
"My fight with the shodai Hokage… with Hashirama left me severely wounded. I no longer have my former powers. Frankly, I consider myself a shell of my former self."
Sakura's eyes narrowed. Masked man won't take off his mask and cannot demonstrate Madara's powers because he was 'weakened' from the fight with Hashirama? Convenient.
She listened. She listened and her mind whirled and her skin crawled with disbelief.
But it didn't matter if it was true or not. At the end of the day, she believed that the masked man believed it. That he would go to war for the last two jinchūriki.
The masked man disappeared and white monsters started growing from everyone but her. Duplicates of the one that the Raikage had killed.
Sakura dearly hoped the masked man had an army. The monster was roaring for blood.