Sakura awoke with a soft inhale, her eyes fluttering wide open as she reemerged from memory-thick dreams.

With the warmth of new recollections drawing back over her like a sheet, she closed her eyes again, settling back against her pillow with an exhale of pure, unfettered relief.

Relief, but soon the memories of warmth sunk into those boiling with heat, her heartbeats hammered out with new harmonies like piano strings at play. Her skin flushed with sensation like she was still living in those moments only just passed, her reactions and emotions violently colourful still in their minted arrival in her head. Relief wrapped around a bouquet of completeness, resolution, bliss, and release.

Release. Sakura was barely aware of her own hands as she pressed them over her face in a belated extension of her previous embarrassment, her skin flushing hot beneath her palms. Ah. She drew a breath in through her teeth, trying to ease her mortification at her clones' unintentional release. The only comfort Sakura could offer herself was her memory of that forgiving, pleased glint in Madara's eyes, his main reaction as she had disappeared against her will that of amusement more than anything else.

It would have been nice to linger. Sakura sighed, sinking further back into her pillow as she continued to digest her clone's experiences. To have "pillow talk" for once; to have unwound and processed the overwhelming reconciliation they'd had, side-by-side, in a relaxed setting both new and infinitely memorable.

Sakura let herself imagine that for a minute, her lips quirking with a subtle smile. Someday; in due time, it would happen. Perhaps, if things played out the way she wanted… on a regular basis.

As she exhaled softly, her mind half-emerged from the new memories that felt like vivid dreams, she became increasingly aware of the environment around her; sounds and scents long familiar. The usual white noise hum of distant fans filtering the musty subterranean air, the buzz of lab instruments down the hall, the cold around her scented with rubbing alcohol and tea and compacted earth — a year of awakening into this place had made her fond of it, even though she missed the touch of the sun.

With further consciousness came the unwelcome reminders of her current situation, the gravity of her reality, and Sakura kept her hands pressed over her face as she slowly sat up, taking in a deep breath as she did so. She held the musty air in her lungs, willing herself to stay calm, but found that she felt deeply at ease already.

Sakura inclined her head, letting the feeling sink through her, welcoming it. No matter what the future held now that she'd made her decisions, she had no fear of it now, her resolve complete with the warmth plucking new music from her heartstrings. No… she wasn't afraid. Not anymore.

Rustling alerted her to look around just in time to see her familiar three roommates descending around her, excitedly exchanging glances and sitting around her in a semi-circle. Sakura blinked as she registered that knowing look consistent between their different expressions, and it was enough that she knew they'd seen how she had felt when she'd first awakened, enough for them to glean some of what had happened in her single clone's newly-ended experiences.

She bit her lip, uncertain of what to say, pulling the covers around her shoulders and looking between them nervously.

Sakura could immediately tell they had been waiting for a while, milling about the fairly large shared quarters and busying themselves; Karin was covered in shed white fur from brushing her cat, who had now leapt away to explore. Suigetsu was stretching his arms, a nearby punching bag gently swinging back into a still equilibrium, and Jugo was sliding a bookmark into a thick tome he had been reading. To Sakura's surprise, Orochimaru was also present, leaning back into the partial shadow of intersecting walls beside the shut door.

She took a breath, then paused again, scowling at Karin and her shit-eating grin.

"Nope. Don't tell us a thing yet." Karin pulled out a clipboard and jabbed at it, showing it to Suigetsu and Jugo before summoning a pen from behind her ear and leaning forward, her eyes shining. "We have some new bets going and I'm going to win this one."

Sakura's brows twitched with confusion. Jugo leaned over; Suigetsu tilted the clipboard in Karin's hands so he could see, and though she couldn't see the whole thing, Sakura glimpsed enough to realise that it was some kind of bingo-board.

Flushing red, she drew a breath to shout at them, only for Orochimaru to raise a halting hand, his slitted eyes flashing sharply. "Keep your voices down." He glanced warningly among them, gesturing at the door to the quarters, and Jugo nodded sagely in agreement as he looked between the others. "Sasuke and Obito don't know you're up yet," he expanded upon Orochimaru's warning. "We all wanted a chance to speak with you, Sakura, before you have to go."

She glanced down at her hands, shutting her eyes briefly.

"But first, before all that," Karin waved dismissively, brandishing her clipboard, "let's find out." She pointed at Sakura, gleeful. "Okay, so… first question. In your latest encounter with Madara, did you—"

"Did you guys really make a prediction list of stuff I did or didn't do?!" Sakura huffed, her arms folded and her scowl something akin to a pout with a pretty pink flush across her cheeks.

Jugo nodded, offering her an apologetic look while the other two had matching toothy grins. "It seems they can't help themselves." Across the room, Orochimaru had rolled his eyes, dipping his attention into a scroll he held while being silently watchful of the door.

Suigetsu and Karin weren't apologetic in the least, and he stretched an arm behind her back with a happy sigh. "When I win, she's going to have to do all my lab work for the next month."

"Same for me when you lose," Karin shot back, elbowing him hard in the side and causing him to jab hers in turn. Sakura and Jugo shook their heads in weary tandem while the other two shoved at each other, their antics long-tolerated and familiar to them all — shove after shove until they both remembered the clipboard between them. Seizing it with sudden urgency, Karin pointed at Sakura, reading from the page's text. "Did you cry?"

Sakura opened her mouth, then shut it with a rankling scowl. "I mean… yeah. I guess."

Suigetsu was nodding as Karin went on, crossing something off. "Did you fight somebody?"

"Um…" Sakura cleared her throat, recalling angered cultists shoved out of her way and verbal battles with both Madara and Sasaki. She turned redder. "Yep."

"Damn! I'm losing!" Karin nearly threw the clipboard as Suigetsu chuckled. "You bragged about how well you know Sakura. Look at you failing your own dumb game," and Karin and Suigetsu were swatting at each other again as he laughed through her protest — "These are the easy ones anyway!" — with Sakura sinking further back against her tangled bedcovers with a groan. Shoving a pillow back behind her head and slouching against the wall, she sighed. "Go on with the rest, then…"

Suigetsu asked the next question, violet eyes narrowing playfully. "Did you two make up in a matter of seconds, minutes, or hours?" He exchanged a grin with Karin. "Because it's pretty obvious from your happy awakening just a bit ago that you and your favourite Uchiha definitely kissed and made up."

"Which is the only thing I bet would happen for sure," Jugo supplied with a smile. "We all did, of course. We know you." Karin hummed. "Well? Answer the question, Sakura! We probably don't have a lot of time. I know Orochimaru wanted to have a word with you too before we tell Sasuke and Obito that you're up."

They all peered at her this time, interested stares bright and searching. Even Orochimaru was watching now, golden eyes glittering behind shadows of glossy black hair. Sakura could feel the smug confidence emanating from each of them, unwavering and sheer; they all knew of her mission, and none doubted even somewhat that she was going to end up making peace with Madara in the end, no matter what she'd said to them or to Obito.

She swallowed thickly, feeling unexpectedly emotional about that. They did know her, better than she expected. Their almost kindly confidence in her suspected course of action was a stark contrast to Obito's dark, steadfast sureness that she'd do the very opposite and complete her mission in killing Madara at last.

Sakura dipped her head, shoving a hand through her hair and sighing. When she lifted her head, she was smiling wryly. "Not sure what you expected when you bet 'seconds', Karin. Thought you knew from what I've told you that he's as stubborn and difficult as me. It was definitely hours."

The other two laughed, Karin scribbling furiously across the clipboard. "Told you," Suigetsu chortled, soaking up Karin's annoyance as she eyed the next question written. "They're not so different from us, huh? Got to fight about something before getting to the good bits."

"I'll rip off your 'good bits' if you keep talking," she growled back, and he snatched the clipboard from her, causing the two to have another squabble of slapping hands and jabbing elbows. Sakura rolled her eyes, stretching her arms and cracking her knuckles, shoving the bed covers away from herself and kicking her legs. "All right. I've humoured your game enough."

The clipboard tossed aside, all three of their heads turned as Karin interrupted Sakura with another question. "Did you guys…?"

She made an obscene gesture with her forefinger and thumb, Suigetsu completing it with eager emphasis.

Sakura bolted to her feet with a hiss like an affronted cat, swatting in their direction with fingers like claws. "I swear, you're both dead! I didn't — well, I…"

That telltale red scorching across her cheeks, Sakura shoved the wild, mussed hair from her face before shoving her palms over her features to hide her expression. They were all chuckling amongst themselves at her obvious reaction, telling plenty of the truth they expected to hear. "Shut up, all of you," Sakura grumbled, adjusting her ruffled clothes, patting the tank in its trusty place upon her nightstand.

"Come on, that's no surprise to any of us either," Karin teased as she and the other two got to their feet in turn, her sharklike grin nothing short of predatory. "Screw you, Suigetsu," she added, nudging him beside her with a fist in the air, "I win. I told you I know her better. Those two weren't gonna be able to help themselves after three whole months apart. Now, last question," she returned her attention to Sakura, who was midway through swiftly exiting this conversation, brushing past them. Sakura paused, holding in a tolerant breath before sighing. "What?"

"Well, how was it?"

"How many times?" Suigetsu added. Jugo scowled at him and Karin both, setting his book aside. "You should lay off of it now, you two… You've tormented her enough, with all she's about to go through."

Sakura had her back to them, standing tall where she'd paused, and after a long moment she turned just enough to meet Karin's eye, a hint of a devilish grin visible beneath falls of pink hair. "It was good," she answered.

This was enough for Karin to squeal in glee, shoving at Suigetsu in the victory it was to get this honest answer from Sakura, but Sakura wasn't done, turning away with a smug little hum. "I wasn't just on cloud nine… both of him made me turn into cloud nine by the time we were done."

She left them standing there with mouths agape, stopping before where Orochimaru eyed her with raised brows. She smiled at him as if she'd said something perfectly innocent just moments before. "Karin mentioned you wanted to have a word with me?"

"Yes." He regarded her calmly, gesturing towards a small side-room. He and Sakura both ignored the whispers exchanged between the other three behind their hands, heads together; they strode away like nothing had happened with gossipy whispers falling away behind them, though Sakura's ears were still visibly red through her tucked-back hair. "That's how her clone was dismissed?!" "What about the 'both of him' part!" "Gross…" "You asked!"

Sakura slid demurely into a chair she'd pulled up as Orochimaru shut the door behind them both. She accepted the scroll he handed her, glancing over it as he took a chair of his own, sliding into it across from her. Glancing down the contents of the scroll, Sakura nodded, recognising it easily as the contract she'd drawn up with him nearly a year ago. It was signed once more in fresh, gleaming ink; this time, not to trigger it to begin, but to complete it.

Sakura reached over, taking a pen from the nearby counter of the small examination room with intention to sign; but a white hand stopped hers, Orochimaru shaking his head. She met his slitted stare with a questioning hum. "I'm happy with the contract, and feel that our parts have been completed fairly, regardless of some… bumps along the road. I'm ready to finish it, just as I thought you were with your signature here…?"

"In a moment." Sakura's eyes widened as she realised he was offering her a small metal box with his other hand. Orochimaru's expression was as neutral as ever, though there was a glint in his golden eye as she set the scroll aside and gingerly accepted the plain little box.

She frowned down at it. "No. I thought this idea got scrapped when we had to keep relocating too frequently. Surely…" Her breath caught as she carefully pried the lid open, her pupils flaring wide as she stared at its contents. Her soft, drawn breath became a sharp exhale, her expression glowing like she was staring into direct sunlight. "...Wow."

Orochimaru sat back in his chair with folded arms, a slightly weary crinkle about his eyes.

Sakura shut the box after a moment, staring at him for a long moment before summoning her voice once more. "Does it… work?"

He scoffed, reaching up to accept a small white snake that had slithered down from a cupboard and cradling it across his hands, stroking a finger along its pristine snowy-coloured scales. "Sakura, we might have had a successful alliance thus far, but do you really think I would simply give such a thing to you if it did 'work'?"

She blinked at him a few times before nodding. "Hm. I understand." She opened the box again, admiring its contents; she drew a finger carefully along the interior with a thoughtful expression. "I'm sure you've tested it, then."

"Many times. I'm certain now it's not possible to artificially create a true version with all of its power." Orochimaru watched Sakura as she examined the box with increasing admiration and delight. "I expect that you will make good use of it."

"It's so perfect," she breathed, holding the box closer to her face and examining it with extreme interest, her green eyes aglow. "Honestly, I don't know how one would tell the difference without actually trying it out. It's flawless… it even feels alive," she said, looking between her slightly damp finger and the box's contents.

"With this," Orochimaru said smoothly, "our arrangements are finished."

Sakura sobered with this, shutting the box and hugging it beneath an arm. Lifting her head, she searched his face with a thoughtful frown, many shades of respect steady beneath her tone. "I never thought in my life that I'd ever speak with you cordially," she said carefully, "let alone trust you as I have with my mission and ultimately, my life." Fires of her will and her gratitude shone behind her eyes as Sakura stared Orochimaru down, fingers digging in to the fathomlessly valuable box in her grip. "You've genuinely changed since you came back from death, you know. I'm glad I got over my doubts and chose to believe it was even possible."

Orochimaru rose to his feet. "We're not made of stone," he answered her as he offered her a pale hand, his golden eyes luminescent as he spoke. "Distortions will appear somewhere."

Sakura accepted, letting him help her to her feet; she nodded, smiling slightly as she translated him aloud to herself. "People change."

They both turned towards the shut door, and glanced at each other, Sakura holding on tightly to the box she held. She found that the silence between them was steady, without the tension and braced hostility of many months before; she respected Orochimaru now, more than she ever had. The strange snake sannin she'd feared throughout childhood through rumours and stories in his infamy had, in his passage of time through something much like death, become someone wiser. Sagely; respectable. Still strange — still much too attached to snakes, and ever a walking enigma, but without his former vicious, frightening aura, possessing a calm somewhat comparable to Madara's that she admired. Death had changed Orochimaru, and she knew he continued to observe both Sasuke's and her choices, deciding for himself how else he might adjust his future paths in turn.

It gave her a buoyant lift of parallel hope for the resolve she had just cemented for Madara himself, and it was with a tight throat that Sakura spoke now, her tone still flatly respectful and her words heartfelt. "Let's be research partners again, when everything's at peace." She offered Orochimaru a wan smile, though it was warm enough. "As long as it's ethical work, anyway."

Orochimaru's slitted eyes contracted over his fanged grin. "Certainly. You proved a good student." His smile widened. "Tsunade has taught you well. Let me know if you would ever like to become an official student of mine. You and Sasuke could have matching marks."

Sakura paled, stiffening, before letting out a shaky laugh with her recognition of his half-joke and waving a dismissive hand. "Absolutely not. No curse marks for me, please. I'm glad enough that was never snuck in to the small text of the contract. Oh!" She swerved, hurrying over and scribbling her signature into said scroll, handing it back to Orochimaru with a huff. "There. I nearly forgot."

"I put in a good word for all of you already," Sakura added softly as she opened the door, holding it for Orochimaru as he stepped through after her, tucking the scroll into his robes. "Sakura," he said, catching her attention before they approached the others that were murmuring together across the quarters, and she met his eye with a small smile that slowly fell as he spoke with deadly seriousness. "I trust that in the trials ahead you will choose… wisely."

She absorbed his words for a moment, caught in the tense pause of quiet that followed.

"Sakura!" Their heads turned as Jugo led their group over to join them, Suigetsu mid-argument with Karin. "—too much. That and the month of lab work? Karin—"

"A bet's a bet! Stop whining, our projects are done with now anyway so there's not much to do anymore. Don't tell me you're too chicken?"

Orochimaru cleared his throat, which was cue aplenty for them to fall silent. Looking between them, Jugo, Karin and Suigetsu noticed the box in Sakura's grip. To her surprise, they said nothing about it, only a weary, glad look flitting across their expressions; soon replaced by sad, knowing smiles, a rare moment of unison among the group she'd grown to love.

Sakura drew up tall, realising this was goodbye. Stepping forward, she wrenched them all to her, heads knocking together and breaths huffing with surprise as she pulled her newfound friends close in a moment of heartache. "I'll miss you guys. Thank you — for everything."

When Sakura emerged from her quarters, she was fully dressed in her travelling cloak with a bag slung over her shoulder and the tank under her arm, its chakra-chains aglow. Her face was fresh; her skin aglow as her expression was utterly resolved and unafraid. Her teammates emerged behind her, their own faces similar to hers; calm, unruffled by the piercing dark stares of Obito and Sasuke as they rose from their seats in the commons room.

Obito's growl echoed as he addressed Orochimaru, who strode past him towards a nearby lab. "You were supposed to tell us the moment she woke up."

"I am not beholden to you, nor your Konoha loyalties," Orochimaru answered smoothly. Karin, Jugo and Suigetsu followed him as silent shadows, their narrowed gazes upon Obito mistrusting and silent.

Parting from their group, Sakura had approached Sasuke, and though her voice was soft as she handed him the heavy tank in her arms, she was heard by all. "I'm ready to leave, Sasuke. Let's go."

He accepted the tank with both hands and secured it in his grip. Lifting his head once more, he searched her face, his features drawn and pale with hesitation. "Sakura, did your mission…?"

Obito's single-eyed stare slid back over to her as well, echoing Sasuke's question. For a moment, his and Sasuke's expressions hinted at a dark sort of hope sparking behind their guarded expressions; hope that she'd done as she had been told, that the events soon to take place could be the path towards her redemption and the end of the war instead of the opposite.

Before answering, she read the hints of regret in Obito's expression, as well. Years behind a mask had made him unaware of his own expressive features that he had never needed to control, and Sakura found that in this single suspended moment before her answer that she could read him more easily than before, having become practised in reading between the lines in stony Uchiha faces.

Regret, and a kindly sort, a hint that he might apologise for how he'd treated her before, if he could. The crinkling beside Obito's dark eye reminded Sakura of Kakashi's expressions, somehow easy to read even with most of his face covered – that one eye able to show every range of emotion by itself, intentionally or not. Somehow, too, she found a shade of guilt in the way Obito was looking at her now; like he'd been told to apologise instead of feeling regret only on his own, and suddenly Sakura could envision Ino shouting at him, demanding he make up for his treatment of Sakura before.

Ino, and Naruto, and perhaps even Kakashi too, scolding and persistent. Those she loved, standing up for her no matter what, no matter the downfall she'd had. She could feel it even in Sasuke's manner now, especially in the hope hinting between him and Obito: they believed in her just as her teammates did, beyond their differing opinions and judgements. They wanted to believe in her regardless of everything.

Forgiveness squeezed Sakura's throat in response. She looked between her two other favourite Uchihas with tears in her eyes, wishing she could tell them what they wanted to hear, but glad at the same time that she couldn't. They would hate her for defying her mission and them by extent; they would resent her for choosing this path until the day they understood why — but she loved them both for believing in her, for hoping for the best for her anyway.

"I'm ready," she repeated softly, her voice warbled with her emotions as she turned from them, towards the dark hallway she knew wound gradually up to the surface; towards the trial she knew was set to come. "Lead the way."

She stared into the tiny room with a cot and screened-off bathroom, her heart thudding dully beneath her travelling cloak. It wasn't a cell, but she knew it would be serving as one, for now.

Someone still stood behind her. She knew Obito had strode off to spread the news that he and Sasuke had successfully escorted her here. It hadn't taken too long; hours spent in silence tenser than any she'd experienced had led them here, to this vast building built in fresh-cut solid wood, immaculate and ornate and entirely unfamiliar. Even though they had come through a narrow hallway connecting underground directly to this tiny, private little room, Sakura could feel the size of this place, and she could sense the presences of many somewhere nearby, perhaps tens, perhaps hundreds.

She swallowed thickly, knowing this building must be where her trial would be taking place.

A throat clearing behind her had her remembering someone was there; and she turned, her eyes wide as she blinked up at Sasuke. His arms were folded, and he was looking away from her, raven hair covering his pale face as he stood alone in the hallway behind her.

"Sasuke," Sakura said quietly, a hand pressed over her heart. She could sense the weight of his thoughts, whatever they were. He was more than troubled; even though his expression was drawn and guarded as always, she could feel his stress. She knew he was worried about her, though he'd never admit it aloud.

"I'll be okay," she offered, her quickening heartbeats arguing with her words.

"No." Sasuke finally met her eyes, turning his head to hold her gaze with a cold, pinched expression thinly disguising the burning of his intense stare upon her. "This won't be any small judgement panel, Sakura; it's a big deal. The whole thing has been announced publicly to all of the nations. Everyone knows about the trial taking place here tomorrow — and I mean everyone."

"Where is here?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"Somewhere close to where we first fought Madara, where the severed Divine Tree is. Sakura—" Sasuke leaned forward, his lips pulling back over his teeth in a hiss. "Why?"

"Why?" she echoed, green eyes wide and searching, and Sasuke's fingers were digging in to the doorframe as he loomed over her, mismatched eyes burning. "Why didn't you kill him? Why didn't you at least try?"

Sakura's gaze flickered with pain; Sasuke went on in a growl. "This could have been redemption for you. We were going to be exonerating you, if you'd done it, if you had at least taken out his other eye. You'd told us this was your reason for fraternising with him; even I had begun to believe…" He drew a breath, staring her down intently. "None of us want to see you get condemned like you will now, Sakura. We fought to have that mission assigned so you had a chance to be saved from all of this. But you chose… for some reason you chose again — him, instead of us."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but Sasuke wasn't finished, releasing the dented frame to stand tall, his pale features tight and shadowed. "I know you well enough to sense that you're not marked; not tagged. Naruto and I agree on that, at least; that you are fully yourself. Madara hasn't forced you to do anything. So why, Sakura?" His voice softened just slightly, pained in the tone beneath. "Why, even as it ruins your life more each time, even with all of us telling you to give up — do you choose Madara again and again?"

Sakura could hear the genuine want to know in Sasuke's voice, could see the hunger to understand in his harsh, frustrated stare, and she was calm as she reached upwards. Tears welled up in her eyes as she cupped his cheek with tangible affection. "Because of reasons parallel to why Naruto and I never gave up on you. Because he's just like you and me, Sasuke… and because I believe in what Naruto has been saying, all this time."

"Madara and I are nothing alike," Sasuke replied tersely, and Sakura's smile was sad as she let him go, taking a step back. Sasuke's expression faltered like he was disarmed by her fervent words upheld by the look in her eyes, and she murmured her gratitude for his and Obito's safe escort to her cell before she slowly slid the door shut between them, stepping into the dark of her room alone.

Sakura stared into the face of her clone, stepping back, the light fizzling away from her hands.

Her clone pressed a hand over her remaining eye, breathing hard. "Okay," she managed between breaths, "hurry up and try it. If," she took in a heavy inhale through clenched teeth, "if it's like before, the gash in the Rinnegan will stay healed for about three minutes. Three… before its wound opens back up and your chance is gone."

"If there's a chance at all," Sakura nodded. She and her clone both took deep breaths as she spoke to herself aloud. "I hope this works."

"I don't expect it to," the clone replied. She was wincing as she leaned back against the tiny restroom sink. Glancing at her bloodied hand, she dropped a single dull green eye into the drain — it disappeared in a tiny plume of steam. She gripped the wood wall with a gasp, hunching forward, her hands pressed over her face. "It takes so much chakra in just existing! How can he stand having a working one all the time?"

Sakura was running her hands through her hair with visible stress, and the clone removed a hand from her single green eye, staring at Sakura while keeping her other eye covered. "Don't waste time worrying. They won't know the real eye is here with us; the fake one in the tank is indistinguishable from this one." She took in a seething, unsteady breath. "Hurry up now. I could disappear at any moment."

"I'll be quick," Sakura promised. The clone nodded, closing her eyes. "I'll focus on maintaining my form." Inclining her head, she slumped back against the sink, her pink hair falling in straight locks shaded blue by the dull light of the tiny little bathroom. Her hands fell down to her sides, holding on tightly to the sink for support; her face fell into shadow, a single tear of blood dripping down her left cheek.

Sakura approached with a quavering breath, nervous but utterly determined as she brought her hands around her clone's face. Tucking her hair back behind her ears, she tilted the clone's face up.

Both of her eyes were closed, her features extraordinarily pale. Sakura ignored her startled observations of this copy of her own face; she was bleached white as rice from so much time without sun, her tiredness so clear in the rings beneath her eyes, and she looked so much older, like she had gained a decade rather than a year. In this light, her hair looked almost white, and her appearance almost fit the strange eye she now hosted ever so temporarily.

The clone's left eye slowly opened, and its metallic rings glowed with light of their own in the shadowy little room. Its impossibly dark pupil stabbed into Sakura, unwavering, and the permeating sense of its powerful presence had her taking a step back with a sharp little breath.

It was not her clone that regarded her now.

Sakura's heart slammed against her chest, scrambling up into her throat. She didn't look away from the glinting Rinnegan eye, healed and burning brightly where it stared her down from her clone's pale face. Exhaling slowly, Sakura shifted forward again, catching her clone's face before she slumped again in her single-minded concentration in staying present.

She was right. She couldn't waste time. The Rinnegan wasn't properly healed; the stitches wouldn't hold. It could only be healed within a non-clone host, connected to a properly living chakra network, and just as her experiments from months previously had told her, it would only stay healed like this for fleeting moments she couldn't afford to spend in awed silence at its powerful presence. That very aura it gave told her enough — that her phantom-limb theory was, at least to some extent, viable.

"Madara," she said softly, addressing the eye.

Her clone's brows twitched, her normal eye closed in a pinched expression, like she was adrift in a dream amidst sleep. Sakura kept her sitting up with a hand on her shoulder, staring into her glowing metallic left eye.

It continued to watch her, unblinking and steady, and Sakura's pulse continued to thunder as she sensed again that it was not her clone's mind peering at her from the intelligent glint of the awakened Rinnegan. It was the one she was addressing now, and her words fell from her lips in a hushed stream, her hand rising to cup her clone's cheek as she spoke to the eye. "Can you hear me? Or… read my lips? If you're really there — is there a way you can show me?"

Sakura's clone twitched bodily. She caught herself, her nails digging in hard enough to the wall and sink that there were dents scraping beneath, leaving scores in the wood. She seemed unconscious, braced against the sink; and before Sakura could say anything else there was suddenly a hand drifting along her jaw, the only part of the clone that wasn't shaking.

Fingers traced up soft skin, glancing across her cheekbone, palm flattening along the side of her face; the Rinnegan burned almost dangerously through the shadows, and Sakura leaned into the hand of the clone, understanding well that it was not her that had made this gesture.

She shook away a wave of relief, sliding a hand over the one on her face and shifting closer; she gripped her clone's face, staring into Madara's eye with her fervent, urgent words. "Madara — don't come to my trial, no matter what they've said in their announcement of it. It's inevitably going to be a trap. They just want to lure you here with my condemnation." She held the intelligent, searching stare of the Rinnegan eye, hoping Madara was able to read her lips as she spoke. "Please. No matter what they say or do with me for failing my mission, please don't give them the satisfaction of baiting you. I don't want to see you or anyone else at the Union getting hurt over this."

The fingers splayed along her face dug in, thumb pressing high along Sakura's jaw, and she pressed a quick kiss into it, her cheeks shining with her tears. "Even if they sentence me to death, Madara… don't come for me."

Fingers paused along her cheek, and Sakura gripped the clone's face more tightly, her gaze fierce as she held the intensely bright stare of Madara's eye. "Do you hear me? It could mean the end of everything. Everyone's here and waiting for you; it'll be a terrible battle if you show up." She swallowed thickly. "I fully believe that they'll understand all that I have to say when I go out there and tell them the truth. I'm going to change the course of this war peacefully: I'm determined to."

Her heart ached, and Sakura tilted her forehead against the clone's, drowning in the Rinnegan's metallic gaze through which she could feel Madara's attention honed in upon her. "Don't worry about me. Whatever happens… I'm going to figure it out, and I'll find you again once it's all over; okay?"

Sakura's clone took in a sharp breath, her form flickering. Sakura had to catch herself on the wall and snatch up the Rinnegan as it fell, the clone dissipating in a cloud of steam. When she looked down at the eye in her palm, the gash had slowly reopened along its surface, the glint of a powerful presence gone from its gaze.

She was sitting in a meditative pose upon the small cot when the doors to her room quietly slid open.

Lifting her head slowly, Sakura regarded those who had come to escort her to her trial calmly, all her former anxiety and tenseness gone in favour of the peace she had settled into during her meditation.

Kakashi and Sasuke shifted aside, and Sakura rose to her feet as Naruto followed in after them; she let out a surprised huff as she was instantly squeezed tight in a hug. "Naruto," she managed as his arms tightened around her, "it's okay…"

Naruto sniffed as he let Sakura go, pulling back. "I fought this whole trial thing from the start. It's not right," he was saying as she offered him a small smile, patting his shoulder. Sasuke and Kakashi looked on with solemn, shadowed eyes, saying nothing when she glanced between them but for how they gave her their full attention without a hostile edge.

"But they at least agreed to let us be the ones to bring you in. Not by some dumb guards like you're a prisoner. You're no prisoner," Naruto went on, gesturing angrily. "I'm sure they'll listen. They have to listen to what we have to say. I won't let you get condemned like everyone's saying."

"It's not up to you, or to us." Kakashi was shaking his head. "Come on, we need to go. They're waiting for us."

"I hope you're ready for this," Sasuke said as Sakura fell into line beside him and Naruto, Kakashi following the group from the rear. Together they walked into the narrow hall past Sakura's room towards a distant set of doors.

Regardless of the calm she had commanded into her heart, it began to pound, harder and harder with each step forward. They could hear the distant roar of many voices talking now; the sounds of a vast room, the shut doors they were approaching at the heart of the noise like it was in the center of an arena.

Sakura slowed, her heartbeat softening somewhat as Naruto squeezed her hand, giving her a kindly look that she passed over to Sasuke. Taking both their hands, their watchful eyes remaining on her, they walked forward together, Kakashi's gaze upon the three mixed with deep stress and deeper affection.

Madara stopped mid-speech.

It was as if he had been paused in time, and as all eyes glued to him intensified with curiosity, he turned from the army lined up in front of him, one gloved hand lifted in a halting gesture as the other covered his left eye. Inclining his head, he stepped away, wild white hair drifting around his face in the snowfall coming down in gentle billows of breeze that rippled his dark robes and armour.

In a graceful, synchronous movement his trio of generals stepped into the place he had been in, taking charge of the curious hundreds armoured and looking on where they stood across the stretching landscape before the headquarters. They shuffled restlessly as they waited, not daring to stare after Madara as their three commanders looked over them with steely, watchful eyes. All heads bowed with respect as Madara's army understood that even without explicit reason, they must wait.

Sasaki glanced back after a pause once she was sure that she herself was not being watched. Hayashi and Isamu glanced over their surroundings, observant and silent; her throat tightened at the sight of them fully suited up like the rest, armed and prepared for a fight to the death. Trying to continually hide her severe doubts and fears, she slid her shadowed eyes over to where Madara had crossed over to the semi-privacy of a weeping willow tree, standing tall with his head inclined.

Sasaki let her gaze linger, curious why he had stopped mid-announcement to his army. Black Zetsu was malingering in Madara's jagged shadow, his yellow eyes stabbing through his back; Madara was silent, and Sasaki could see the twitch across his brows in a focused expression, like he was listening intently to someone speaking.

But there was no one who dared to talk right now; not above a breathless whisper, the hundreds sweeping across the vast Union army restless in their extended pause. Their armour scraped, their thick robes rustling; hair in every shade and texture drifted in the winter wind, snowflakes catching on winter-bitten skin and sheathed weapons. The leafless tangles of the nearby forests shivered beneath layers of ice; the looming face of the Union headquarters behind them groaned quietly in the persistent pushes of cold early-evening wind. The gray skies were thick with woolen clouds that hid the heavy sunset.

Sasaki couldn't quite catch Madara's low murmur; silver-white hair obscured his face as he turned, and she jolted her eyes back to her feet just in time, knowing better than to get caught staring as she'd silently demanded her squadrons not to do either. She itched to look back as she heard enough to understand that Madara was exchanging words with Black Zetsu hushed through a drift of snow between where she and they stood, his gloved hand no longer pressed over his left eye.

"Sasaki," and she jerked her attention to Hayashi at her side, shuffling in his armour and peering at her beneath drifting autumn-brown hair. "Now would be a great time to awaken those Sharingan of yours." He gestured subtly with a gloved hand at the army stretched out before them, their heads still bowed but still fidgeting with the itching urge to battle.

Sasaki huffed softly, nudging him and Isamu in the sides from where she stood between them. She hid a smile beneath her thick black hair. "I don't need Uchiha hacks to beat you both in battle."

"Uh-huh, showoff," Isamu whispered back, Hayashi muting a chuckle beneath his glove, and Sasaki glanced backwards again in time to see Madara frowning at the skies. She was just able to catch Black Zetsu's raspy response to whatever had been said. "...trust them with both the healed Rinnegan… and her life?"

Madara shut his eyes briefly, and all of his years were visible in his expression for a moment before his mismatched glare opened again to the world. His burning, unnatural gaze caught upon Sasaki for a moment, narrowing slightly.

Heart stopping in her chest, she jerked her gaze forward again, ears hot beneath her hair with intense shame at having been caught staring. She and her trio might have returned to Madara's good graces with his recent reconciliation with Sakura, the direct result of getting her clone to him (and Sasaki secretly convincing her to cement their relationship rather than break it), but Madara was dangerous and unforgiving of everyone else no matter their deeds.

Sasaki was no exception, and she hung her head, hoping he wouldn't call her out for her slight. Now was no time to be riling his irritation nor to be giving him any interest in suspecting her; now was the dawn of war anew, no matter what she'd said and done to try and stop it. She needed to remain a trusted, unquestionable ally to him, to the Union and to Sakura no matter what: she couldn't afford for her identity or loyalties to be looked into by any one of them. Not now… not when she'd gotten this far, standing at the precipice of what could be the end of everything.

Madara's gaze had already shed from her, uninterested, distracted with hidden thoughts sizzling behind his eyes that scorched out across the hundreds prepared for war standing before him. Sasaki, Hayashi and Isamu darted out of the way as he strode forward to take his place once more at the head of his army, his dark Six-Paths robes and black-plated armour speckled from the snow-flecked wind. His wild white mane shifted over the Uchiha symbol high upon his back, glinting slightly in the beams of silver moonlight just starting to peer down from thinning clouds.

Loyal and silent, his trio lifted their heads with imperious stares commanding across their unified squadrons as Madara looked out over his army. His powerful voice rumbled out over them with all the thunder of an approaching storm. "We wait no longer to achieve our dream. Come: it is time to finish this."