Sakura trembled where she stood, her kunai a hair's breadth from Obito's Rinnegan eye.

"Hurry and destroy my Rinnegan," he growled. "I can't hold off Black Zetsu any longer."

Conflict seized control of Sakura's limbs as she stared down into Obito's face. Locked in his pained gaze, she tried to summon the will to stab the kunai into his Rinnegan eye, as he wanted her to do — but something about him disallowed her from advancing her blade. Frustrated, terrified, she shook where she stood, sweat pearling along her forehead.

"Hurry!"

"I know!" Sakura steadied her blade, her teeth clenched. She hated her own hesitation: Obito was still her enemy, no matter what information had come to light about his identity and his change of heart. It was imperative that this cursed eye be destroyed. She didn't know all of the details, but Obito's conviction and fervent words had been enough to instill fresh fear within her: If both Rinnegans are restored to their true owner, I fear no one will be able to stand against him.

With a quavering inhale, Sakura steadied her blade, focusing upon the strange, powerful eye. It was open wide in the Zetsu-possessed half of Obito's face, its pupil dilated as if it in itself was afraid of being destroyed.

Such a sight perpetuated Sakura's hesitation. Nausea rolled over her stomach as she stood at the precipice of its unnatural depths. Obito's urgency was falling on deaf ears as she was continually struck by the Rinnegan's image that was all the more frightening from this close.

It became all she could see for a moment, slashing through her mind's eye — Konoha's fall. Bodies, smoke, destruction, death; Pein high above staring down, arms raised as Sakura's world was obliterated around her. Naruto skewered to the ground as Konoha shinobi died in every direction — Hinata folding beneath Pein's brutal attack, those metallic eyes aglint with cold, abject apathy.

With clenched teeth, Sakura advanced her blade.

She barely processed the synchronous sweep of events that followed, too fast for her to react to. Madara's enraged shout rang through the void as Kamui swirled somewhere to her left, blood spraying beneath Sakura's kunai. Flinching from the pain, Obito fell back as Sakura was thrown aside in a whoosh of rushing air and movement. Impaled through the chest and side, she impacted the cement hard enough to crack it, collapsing to the ground in blinding pain.

Sakura curled into herself, hands gripping around the blood-drenched staff through her ribs, surrounded by a spreading pool of red.

Standing tall in the space between their two battered figures, Madara glared down at her for a moment, gloved hand at the ready. Sakura did not move but for the ragged breath she released, shuddering around the staff that skewered her to the ground. Her head slowly bowed, her limbs slackening. Her skin paled; she breathed no longer, and Madara turned away from her, his murderous glare switching to Obito.

Black Zetsu continued to keep his hold of Obito's left half. His head was bent, his white hand clasped over his left eye. Breaths hissed in and out through clenched teeth as Obito maintained thin but constant control.

Madara tilted Obito's face up just enough to see the blood seeping from his Rinnegan eye. It was barely recognisable through the gash seeping horizontally through the metallic rings. Blood welled up around the sliced pupil and sclera, dripping down his cheek.

Plunging fingers tore the damaged eye out. Removing his stolen left Sharingan, Madara slipped the Rinnegan into his now-empty left eye socket. Tilting his head back, he blinked away the fresh blood that streamed down his scowl.

Obito's head inclined once more as Madara held still. Sensing, alert, he waited in a tense suspension of silence interrupted only by slight dripping sounds.

Opening his twin Rinnegan eyes, Madara stared out into the dimension's symmetrical expanse. He waited patiently, but his left eye remained blind, as if it wasn't there at all. Blood flowed slowly down his unnaturally pale features in a dark, viscous tear.

He exhaled slowly, forced to come to terms with it. There was no telltale steam of his regenerative healing; no signs that the damaged, precious Rinnegan was mending. It was obvious to Madara now that something as complex as the Rinnegan must be beyond even the Hashirama cells' healing capabilities.

With a twist about his mouth, he swerved towards Obito, gripping his throat and lifting him into the air with a snarl. "You bastard. It's damaged beyond repair."

"Good," Obito choked.

Madara's scowl deepened. "Beyond that, the Cursed Seal Tag I placed on your heart has disappeared."

"I had Kakashi stab me and remove it." Obito grimaced, glaring back at Madara. "I wasn't going to keep doing what you wanted."

A stone's throw away, Sakura twitched where she lay in a pool of blood. She kept herself perfectly still; with her hands pressed hard over her pierced chest, she remained as unmoving as a corpse.

"No matter. Do not think you've stopped me, Obito… you will die soon enough, knowing that you failed both your side and theirs." Sakura heard Obito's grunt of pain and the heavy sound of his body falling to the ground. Robes swished as Madara turned once more.

Sakura's skin rashed with frightened warning as she felt his gaze briefly sweep over her.

The cubic dimension was silent once more, Madara's oppressive presence abruptly absent.

She waited several full beats of quiet no matter how badly she wanted to move. Only when she was absolutely certain that he was gone did Sakura sit up. She pressed a glowing green hand to her wound, ripping the staff from her ribs and tossing it aside with a clatter. Turning her head, hair dripping with red, she called to Obito, the only perceptible signs of her pain expressed in the unsteadiness of her voice. "Are you all right?"

He lifted his head, one incredulous red eye falling upon her. Noticing the green glow about her hand over her chest, his brows twitched with understanding. He looked away with a sigh. "You're a medic… it figures."

Sakura was already on her feet. She knelt beside Obito, helping him sit up, being careful not to touch the ebony-black half of his body. He waved her away before she could try to bring healing hands to his swollen left eye. "No, don't." He shook his head. "Don't waste your chakra on my pain. Save it for yourself and your teammates."

"How do you still have the Rinnegan?" Sakura asked, a knot between her brows as she saw the way Obito twitched with agony. Black Zetsu was forcing the eye to stay open, and she shuddered at the sight of the gored ringed eyeball, having to set her hands in her lap to resist the urge to bring soothing to what was no doubt Obito's excruciating pain.

"He put it back before leaving," Obito explained, wincing repeatedly and settling into a tense crouch. "You successfully rendered it useless. His regenerative cells couldn't fix it."

Sakura found that she couldn't feel good about this particular victory, and she swallowed hard, running one of her hands over the exit wound through her side where the staff had impaled her. As her skin mended, she steeled herself once more. "What's his plan now?"

Obito hissed through his teeth as Black Zetsu fought harder. Sakura sat back, forced to only watch as he wrestled again for control; after a minute, he grew still once more, letting out a pained exhale through his nose. Lifting his head, he held her gaze grimly. "He's doing the one thing he possibly can now to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi; to win this war. He's going after the only other Rinnegan in existence."

"Sasuke," Sakura breathed, eyes widening with horror. Obito nodded once. "I'll send you back to help them. You've done your part here. I'll hold off Black Zetsu for as long as I can."

"But—" Sakura sat up taller, her hands aglow with green. She leaned forward, her expression earnest and searching. " —if I can help get Black Zetsu away from you, if we can kill him." She ignored the slight narrowing of Obito's possessed, damaged left eye as she went on, "then I can fix the ruined Rinnegan, and you'll be free to use its power against Madara again."

Obito grew very still, his already pale skin going snowy white. "Sakura—"

"Madara's regeneration might not be able to fix it, but I'm a skilled medic." Sakura clenched her fists. "I'm confident that I can fix Uchiha eyes. I've studied them in secret for years, hoping to help Sasuke should he ever need it. I know that I can do this; trust me."

"Dammit, Sakura!" Obito slammed his fist into the cement, Sakura flinching backwards as rage twisted his features. "It's not about trust. You just gave away dangerous, vital information to your enemy. This changes everything."

"What do you mean?"

Obito fought Black Zetsu's control with fresh anger, his working eye burning upon Sakura in bright red. "Don't you get it? Now Black Zetsu will tell Madara that you can fix my ruined eye, should he be unable to get Sasuke's Rinnegan. Damn it all. This gives him a second chance." He swept a cutting hand through the air, rage rattling his grooved features while guilt tightened Sakura's. "I'm sending you back. But don't try to help them," Obito growled as a Kamui portal opened behind Sakura, "you need to run. Take this."

Sakura gasped as he unceremoniously tore the ruined eye from the possessed half of his face, an arc of red splattering as he shoved it into her hands and pushed her backwards. She had no chance to protest, scrabbling to stop the Rinnegan from slipping out of her fingers. Obito's rasping hiss was the last thing she heard him say as she fell through dizzying spirals. "Run while Madara is distracted killing the rest of us. Run and never let him find you."

She landed hard, catching her weight with her palms pressing into the rocky earth of the devastated warscape. Leaping to her feet, Sakura's head swivelled towards where bright lights flashed and burned across nearly the whole of the horizon. Her face hardened with a determined grimace as she recognised Naruto and Sasuke's distant combined attacks; she strode in the direction of the fight far up ahead, adrenaline fuelling the fire in her veins.

"No, wait, Sakura!" Sakura halted at the sound of Kakashi's call, her figure lit in the burning light of the power-blasted horizon. She glanced backwards, green eyes flashing with concern. Swerving, she saw where Kakashi waved at her, alone in the rocky warscape, half-crouched with a hand over his sliced vest. Jogging up to him hurriedly, she skidded to a halt, helping him to his feet.

"Thank you," he grunted, running a hand through his shock of silver hair with a sigh. He grimaced as Sakura held him up, worry wringing her features. "What happened?" she pressed, "and how is your left eye restored?"

"Never mind my condition right now," Kakashi answered hurriedly. He glanced over to the distant destruction before returning disconcerted attention to Sakura. "What happened in Obito's dimension? Madara took my Sharingan and went in there after you both. Now that he's returned, he's claiming Sasuke's eye will help him end this war."

"That bastard." Sakura's features twisted as she and Kakashi looked out at the distant battle. They shuffled together as she moved with him towards it, her lean but strong arm supporting his weight and preventing his exhausted frame from faltering. "I destroyed Obito's Rinnegan," Sakura sighed, earning Kakashi's sharp glance that she ignored as they walked. "At his request. He knew Madara needed it."

Kakashi's frown deepened, the distant flares of purple and gold light catching in his charcoal irises. Sakura swallowed, adjusting her supportive hold around his shoulders; she briefly shut her eyes, her brows pinching. "Sasuke's Rinnegan is what Madara understands is his only hope to win. That's what Obito told me." She bit down on her teeth, hatred and frustration constricting her throat. "He can't cast his world-ending jutsu with only one; he needs two."

A new flash of violent light and crashing, thundering earth had Sakura and Kakashi both tensing, their pace picking up. Sakura nearly clenched her fist until she realised it was occupied.

She looked down at her hand, bloodied fingers unfurling, revealing the gashed Rinnegan that rested in her palm.

Kakashi let out a low hiss of surprise. "How did you get that! Why do you have it?"

Guilt crossed Sakura's expression. She looked away. "I made a mistake. I said I could fix it," she bit out, "now Black Zetsu's going to tell Madara, and Obito told me to take this and run. But I won't leave you, or Sasuke, or Naruto." Her lips curled into a ferocious, resolute snarl. "I'm not going to run away like a coward. I'm stronger now. I've caught up to those two, and I refuse to be a burden any more."

Kakashi was silent as Sakura glared out at the scorched night skies. Smoke rose in the distance, blooming into the stars; it reflected in the fierce glow of her eyes, her lean, toned muscles tensing beneath her dark wartime clothes. "It doesn't matter if Madara finds out I can fix this stupid eye. I'd never do it, no matter what torture he comes up with. I'll destroy it first. In fact, I'll finish destroying it right now."

Kakashi caught Sakura's hand, stopping her from crushing the Rinnegan in her palm. Her eyes widened as he shook loose of her supportive hold around his shoulders; his dark eyes were shadowed as he pointed towards the opposite horizon, where dark forests stretched far into the distance.

"Obito was right. You should have listened to him the moment he sent you back out here."

"What?" Her fingers were quivering with tension as she held back from squishing the eyeball that rested in her blood-soaked grip. Kakashi shook his head, a grim resoluteness lining his eyes. "If you actually have the skills to fix a Rinnegan, Sakura, then that's extremely advantageous to Madara and Zetsu. All he would have to do is capture you and the eye, and put you under a powerful genjutsu. It's not just about torture."

She stared at him in disbelief as he again pointed towards the opposite direction from where Naruto and Sasuke continued to battle Madara. The shuddering booms and thundering of power from their fights lit Kakashi in mismatched contrasts of shadow and flickering colour, shading his resigned, almost sorrowful expression. He looked to Sakura like he was about to give her a death sentence, and she inhaled slowly, her heartbeat slowing nearly to a stop.

Kakashi nodded towards her loosely clasped palm, blood oozing gently along her fingers and seeping down her forearm beneath her dark sleeve. "That, without Sasuke's eye, is Madara's last hope for his plan. It is his key to this war. He has everything else he needs to cast that jutsu otherwise, despite our best efforts." A knot appeared between his brows as Sakura's fingers closed over the eye tightly. "You can't destroy it, Sakura. You and our side of the war in general can use it against Madara and Zetsu once you're safe. It will be an invaluable bargaining chip to forcibly stay his hand in this war… to save lives. To slow him down."

Her eyes widened, and she stared down at the eye. It gazed blankly back up at her, the slice through its center an oozing maw that made her wince.

"Do you understand what I'm saying, Sakura?" Kakashi's voice was low, fervent with tentative hope. "We can use your rare healing skills as another bargaining chip, even if we know that we'll never actually let either of them have the second Rinnegan back. But first… you have to escape, like Obito told you. You must preserve it and make yourself safe."

Sakura lifted her head, stress tightly stringing her features. She and Kakashi were lit in a cloud of violet as distant Susano'o battled; roars in the distance continued to shake the earth beneath their feet, the battles worsening. Her voice was barely audible, her face as pale as the untainted moon that shone above them in the smoky night sky. "But what if he steals Sasuke's Rinnegan, sensei? What do we do then?"

Kakashi looked away, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Then it's likely that it'll be all over anyway. Our chances will go down to just about nothing if he gains both of his original eyes. It's only a danger for you and that Rinnegan to stay here now." He exhaled slowly. "I know you want to be here to help us, but this is major, Sakura. It's worth our lives if it means we stop Madara from winning this war."

"Well…" Sakura said softly, trying to feel the hope he'd expressed, "If Madara is distracted hunting me down for this eye, he won't be here, killing anyone."

Kakashi nodded once. "Yes, depending how long you can keep him looking."

Sakura looked away, her hands pressed to her chest as fear for Naruto and Sasuke turned over and over within her. "But what if they…" She trailed off, unwilling to give voice to the possibility of their deaths aloud, her heart aching with worry.

"I have my own plan." Kakashi caught his breath, Sakura reaching out and supporting his elbow as he looked out at the bright flashes of light in the distance. "I have to get to them and tell them."

"I'll help you. Then I'll go."

"No." Kakashi gestured towards the opposite horizon, his eyes utterly dark as he met Sakura's searching gaze. "This is your mission, Sakura. Run. Keep yourself and our bargaining chip safe at all costs. You must escape and keep Madara on a fruitless chase for as long as you can until we're able to take him down. Do this not just for your teammates… but for the sake of everyone — the fate of this war now depends upon you."

Endless thundering in the distance orchestrated Sakura's desperate speed, hurtling towards the treeline without looking back. She ran as hard as her legs would allow, racing into the treeline where the destruction of the warscape had stopped. She darted through dense forest at a breathless pace, feeling much less exposed as she ducked and dodged through branches and thick, leafy underbrush.

Leaping higher into the heart of the trees above the forest floor, Sakura soared, careful not to clutch the eye in her palm too tightly as she surged forward. Adrenaline carried her as uncounted minutes flew past. She changed direction several times, varying her paths; she was careful even while at high speed not to break any branches that she brushed against, knowing it would create a trail.

The sky bled with night as she ran. Sakura glanced up in paranoid bursts, hoping against hope that the moon stayed silver. Each time she saw that it was not yet bleeding red with the Infinite Tsukuyomi, she let herself keep trusting the hope she felt, hurtling ever-forward.

She ran without rest nor relief, ignoring the need for sleep aching behind her eyes as the hours began to pass. The questions sped through her head unanswered but by the light of the untainted moon, streaming across the sky, the sunrise bleeding out through the trees behind her. How long had it been already since she had taken off from the warscape, cursed eye in hand? How long would she have to run before she was safe?

Fear bit her vision, and Sakura shook away unshed tears. The corpses of her teammates fell through her mind, followed by Madara's victorious, hateful grin, his gloved hands dripping with their blood. Anxiety and hatred, determination and sorrow strung deep threads of perseverance through her, pushing her painfully and endlessly onwards. She would escape. She would excel. She would succeed.

It was well into the early evening of that day before Sakura dared to slow down and rest a moment. The whole of her body screamed for relief, and she ran healing through the burning, trembling muscles of her legs as she knelt, taking in a greedy breath of air to soothe her lungs.

A slight squelch in her clenching hand had her inhaling sharply, ducking her head and hunching over her stolen prize with a curse. Unwrapping the eye from the bandage she'd used to protect it to some extent, she assessed its condition, her stomach flipping over.

It was worse for wear. Smears of dirt and bits of grass were stuck in the slightly fleshy sclera. The cut was seeping, already showing signs of infection, and the whole of the strange metallic eye was swollen and reddened.

With a curse, Sakura's hands glowed as she healed it hastily. It would not do to let her one bargaining chip become completely useless. Hurriedly she soothed away the damages and superficial debris that she could, pulling the infection from it like she would ease poison from a wound, healing everything but the main slash through the pupil. She made sure that it could not be used, but could still be restored.

She looked back, heart pounding. There hadn't been any signs that she was being pursued in the near full day she'd been running. Her body was demanding rest soon, but she dared not stop longer than this brief respite.

She bent, biting into her thumb and pressing her hand to the ground with a quick swirl of summoning commands. Sakura scooped up the small clone of Katsuyu, setting her on her shoulder as she forced herself back onto her feet, a pained exhale hissing out through her teeth. Pushing herself back to a jog, Sakura acknowledged Katsuyu with a respectful nod.

"Sakura," Katsuyu said in her soft voice, "tell me the situation. I am not near Team Seven. Why are you in the woods on the run?"

"I don't have much time to explain." Sakura swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth, ducking her head from a swinging evergreen branch and leaping over another. "I need you to get eyes on my team as soon as you can. Where is Lady Tsunade? Can she get to them?"

"She is… not in the condition to move, right now," Katsuyu replied carefully. She shifted upon Sakura's shoulder to get a better grip, her neutral tone carrying to Sakura's ear as she leapt over a gully and landed gracefully. "I can send clones to your teammates' location, but I'm not sure how long it'll take." Katsuyu's eyestalks waved slightly as she peered at Sakura. "Are they gravely injured?"

"I don't know," Sakura answered curtly, feeling Katsuyu's curious stare. Though she knew Katsuyu was unjudging, defensiveness hardened Sakura's features regardless. "I couldn't stay with them without risking everything. I have Madara's Rinnegan and am making my escape to keep it from his clutches."

"His Rinnegan?"

"The one the man pretending to be Madara had… his name is Obito. This is Madara's original eye. It's damaged—" Sakura bit her lip as she dodged tree trunks and darted through the underbrush, Katsuyu holding on to her shoulder as she went. "I'm holding it hostage. That's my new mission. If Madara can't get Sasuke's eye, then everything falls on me to keep him from winning this war."

"Your teammates are holding him off from chasing you?"

"Yes," Sakura replied tersely, wincing at the burning in her limbs as she continued to run. "I don't have a choice. This eye will be all we have against Madara other than our best efforts to kill him… he's so strong." Sweat pearled along her brow.

"Do you want me to let Tsunade know about your mission?"

"Yes, tell her," Sakura managed. Katsuyu drew a soft breath to speak when Sakura's skin rashed with goosebumps, her heart dropping to her feet. She nearly stumbled with the instinct that stabbed through her middle, settling hot claws around her heart and scoring terror through it.

Madara.

Sakura gasped, throwing herself through the trees at an even more desperate speed. Katsuyu was nearly thrown from her shoulder before tucking herself half-beneath the collar of Sakuara's shirt. "Sakura—?!"

Hot adrenaline burnt Sakura's veins. Every inch of her skin tingled with sharp awareness, every sense alert, her heart thumping at a painful, pounding pace in time with her feet. Was it too late to make a full escape? Had her single break cost her everything already?

"I have to dismiss you," Sakura let out in a choked breath, hurling herself over a ravine before skidding to a halt. She glanced downwards, realising the ravine led far down and into a distant complex of jagged canyons. She dove down into the dark after a thought, clutching the bandage-wrapped eye. All too aware of the dangers of it being out in her hand, Sakura shoved it into a more secure spot on her person, dashing down the sides of the deep ravine. As Katsuyu whispered protests at her dismissal, Sakura soared forward into the shadowy depths, the frightening sense of doom persistently imminent from somewhere above.

"I can communicate with the others through all my clones. Should I become smaller to hide? I could—"

"For your safety and mine, no, Katsuyu," Sakura hissed back. She was discovering that the canyons were as wide and full of twists and turns as a maze. Shadows sliced through silver moonlight, casting each winding crevasse into darkness.

With a sense of renewed hope, Sakura hurtled through, varying her paths. She avoided cave openings, knowing that would be a death trap for her; hiding wasn't an option when her pursuer was as sharp as he was.

"I will get away," Sakura assured Katsuyu, glancing down at her while running, "I won't let my team down. When I can, I'll summon you again." Affection and stress shone in her green eyes. "I'll see you then."

Katsuyu didn't have further chance to protest as Sakura dismissed her, a little plume of steam fizzling away from her shoulder where her slug clone had been moments before.

Sakura could not shed the tearful fears that clung to her thoughts as she vaulted across a chasm and threw herself down a steeply winding canyon path, conscious of keeping her feet silent and breaths held as she ran. Did Madara's pursuit now mean that her teammates were dead?

No. Sakura refused the thought, veering around a sloped corner and zig-zagging through a gravelly expanse far beneath the high jagged canyon tops, breathing hard with the effort of going her top-speed this long. Something else had happened, probably involving damage to Sasuke's eye, or Sasuke making his own escape; something major had forced Madara to seek out the plan B of hunting down Sakura and her captive Rinnegan. Either way, her teammates had bought her a significant amount of time to make her head start.

And what good had it done her? Sakura sucked in a sharp breath as her skin prickled with warning again, this time from a different direction, high across the yawning time-sculpted canyon. She automatically rerouted, vaulting through a different leg of the natural maze than she had been going, propelling herself with a new level of desperate speed. Sakura was all silent determination and hope, forcing forward through her pain and exhaustion with unending resolve.

She hurtled out onto a vast plain, biting back a curse as she soared forward. The trees had gone, leaving grassy hills that offered no cover, nowhere to hide. Veering towards the thick treeline of an evergreen forest, Sakura didn't dare to look back, her teeth grinding as her sprint kept her going at a painful speed.

She let out a strangled breath when she made it to the trees. She had been sure that being exposed in the open would be her end, but she'd made it across the vast field uncaught. Sakura kept going, breaths heaving, ducking through trees and sharp underbrush, blindly pushing through the forest with the undying hope that she could make her escape if she just kept going.

Sakura stumbled out onto a riverbank, her feet sending rocks flying as she skidded to an abrupt halt.

She stared out at the wide river. It was far too large to cross, too wide to leap over. Its waters rushed in white-capped currents. Her heart stopped in her chest: she had been corralled here, where she could not cross. He had known.