Her Experience

by Tiny.Dncer

Sakura has been taking care of her sick civilian mother alone since she was 8. But now a full fledged ninja placed on team 7, she must learn how to stop holding herself back and let her team in, although, that proves challenging when her teammates are the wild and childish Naruto Uzumaki and her cold closed off long time crush, Sasuke Uchiha. (Better explanation inside.)

41. War Day 2 pt II

A/N: Hiiiiiii. I'm sorry this took so long. I don't know how many of you are American, but, um, it's a fucking shit show out here. Woof. Okay. So 2025 has sucked, that's partially why this took forever, and also...the war arc is really damn long. And there is sooo much talk-no-jutsu. And also it notably didn't include Sakura in much of it, so working her in has been a challenge. So I humbly present to you this chapter. There are parts of it I really love and others I'm kinda eehh about. Unfortunately I don't think that was avoidable given what the war arc is.

"italics..." = Sakura's thoughts (unless otherwise specified)

italics... = memory

---

The ten tails let out a ground shaking roar.

"So that's it! That Gedo statue was ten tails' actual body!" Kakashi said, his eyes cutting towards Sakura. This was objectively terrifying. He was scared, and he had the privilege of not having to monitor his emotions. He was worried Sakura might have a reaction, but…she looked oddly calm, focused and calculating.

"Huh?! What's ten tails?!" Naruto had never heard of that, and he was a jinchuriki.

"Great question…I was wondering the same thing." She hadn't seen any mention of the ten tails in the few books and scrolls on tailed beasts she'd been able to find.

"But what's going on?" Kakashi wondered, returning his focus to the monster in front of them. "Back when he declared war at the gokage summit, he claimed the purpose of this war was to collect the eight and nine tails biju chakra in order to reawaken the ten tails! And he doesn't possess the eight or nine tails yet…so is he bluffing?"

Sakura shook her head. "That thing's too alive for it to be a bluff."

"Oh!" The eight tails gasped before communicating with B, in a conversation Sakura had no way of hearing.

The cow-like head of the octopus turned to face Kakashi, B's voice, or at the very least, words coming out. "He got a bit o' eight-o's chakra from an arm back in the day! Now we're sweatin' cuz homies here to stay!"

"Eight tails octopus arm chakra, huh…" Kakashi murmured. "So just a piece of a biju is sufficient?"

"Listen up, all of you." Naruto was speaking, but just as the eight tails had used B's voice, Naruto was using Kurama's. It seemed the two had reached a state of symbiosis, where Kurama could now speak through Naruto, and when Sakura looked at him, his eyes were red and had slit pupils and the whisker marks on his cheeks looked more prominent—more fox-like. "If even just a portion of a biju is sufficient, then that statue's already got a piece of the eight tails' and my chakra inside it."

"The nine tails too…?!" Kakashi gasped.

"The jar and gourd that that guy summoned and fed to the statue just now were two of old man six paths' treasured tools. They both possess powerful sealing jutsu that can seal away anything and everything. And once you get put inside either of them, you can't get out no matter what you try. So inside that jar was kinkaku and ginkaku was sealed inside the gourd. I suspect they were reanimated using edotensei, utilized in the war, and then sealed away."

"Kinkaku and Ginkaku…ugh, shit! I know there was something taught about them in history class, but that was the one subject I didn't care about! I paid enough attention to ace the class and retained nothing dammit! Who would have known it would have actually come in handy?!"

"The sage of six paths, and the gold and sliver brothers…all legendary names. But what do they have to do with nine tails chakra?" Gai asked.

"There was a time when the brothers challenged me to a battle. I simply devoured them. However, they survived and fed on me from the inside and absorbed my chakra!" Kurama explained.

"Huh. It's like a reverse situation of the test I went through to sign the summoning contract with Lady Katsuyu."

"So Kinkaku and Ginkaku both possessed some nine tails chakra. Tobi took them both as an insurance policy for reviving the ten tails." Sakura reasoned.

"Darui's first company faced the gold and silver brother in combat earlier and the sealing tools were claimed by the enemy…that matches the intel headquarters has." Kakashi agreed.

"But given that they're just fragments of the eight tails' and my chakra, who knows what shape the revived ten tails will take." Kurama warned.

"It may not be fully stable with the incomplete or unbalanced power." Sakura agreed.

"Then we must act before ten tails fully comes back to life." Kakashi declared, grasping his arm to ready it for the chidori.

Tobi's eyes narrowed. How arrogant and focused. He hadn't changed at all. "Kakashi…you speak your mind too easily. You're a man for whom a life full of regrets is fitting."

"That…was his first time indicating that he knew Kakashi-sensei at all. Was it because of my testing earlier, or did something sensei just said set him off? I'm almost positive though…he has to be Obito…the story just fits too much. And what he just said, that was a deeply personal, bitter, grudge based sentiment."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the deeply scathing, personal remark. Like the masked man knew him…there were many from other nations who had cause to hate him. He'd been in every other hidden village's bingo book. But none of them could have had the sharingan, especially one with an ability so close to his own. He hated it, but Sakura's theory was beginning to hold a lot more merit.

"You…who are you really?" Gai growled.

"Is there any point in telling you, who can't remember people's faces?" Tobi sneered.

"Sakura…what you asked me about earlier during the mind transmission…"

"Yeah. This was the reason, sensei…" Sakura said gently, eyeing her sensei with concern. He didn't answer, his expression hidden as he stared at Tobi.

"Kakashi, like you said, if we're going to make a move, now's our chance." Kurama said. "Old man six paths used to say that ten tails' full revival would signify the end of this world. He's the aggregate of the chakra of all the biju, Shukaku through me. He was the beginning of chakra, and a creator. God of many nations. Ameno-Hitotsu-no-kami…Datara…Deidarabotchi…he has many names. He drank oceans, split open the earth, moistened up mountains, he is the progenitor who is said to have created this very land. A simple way to think of it is that his strength is the added total of all nine biju. I by myself couldn't take Simon and hope to win, honestly. But if he only has a piece of eight tails and me, who have the most chakra of the nine, then it may be worth a try."

"You guys all have the wrong idea…I don't need ten tails to be revived at full capacity." Tobi interjected. "My end goal is a super-genjutsu. The infinite Tsukuyomi! I'll put the entire human population of this planet under a single genjutsu. A single world that belongs to nobody. One perfect world without war or ill feelings. It is only within a single collective consciousness where the individual has been cast aside, that the truth can be found! The world no longer needs hope, or future, or famous heroes! Even if incomplete, once ten tails is revived, the infinite tsukuyomi jutsu can be achieved. Reality will come to an end, and all that will exist will be a since unending dream that shall last for all eternity!"

"So he and Madara are aligned in their plan…how? Was Madara just brought back, or had he been brought back sooner? No, wait…Itachi thought Tobi was Madara because there was a chance Madara hadn't died when everyone thought—because of a Mangekyo ability. Maybe the two were alive at the same time and met, for long enough for Madara to impart his plan to Tobi before dying. And then the edotensei brought him back…? Or…if Tobi is Obito like I suspect, sensei was convinced he was dead. Maybe Madara was actually the one to save him."

Sakura turned towards Naruto, to see that the fox like features had faded. He was back to being Naruto again. "I had Pa and Ma! And Pervy Sage too! Kids love looking up to their heroes! That's why I'm able to run forward without hesitation!" Though when he said it, it was Hinata standing firmly in front of him while he was down, that flashed through his mind. "I will become the greatest hokage of them all! That's my dream! Fool!" Naruto declared.

Sakura smiled. "Personally, I never really got the chance to dream until recently. And I'm looking forward to having my own, so you can keep your singular dream and shove it up your ass! Shannaro!"

"Even if you don't want your youth to end dreams must be ended at some point!" Gai declared, not the least bit interested in being stuck in a never ending dream.

"Yeah. Dreams must be fulfilled." Kakashi agreed, glancing at Sakura. He was so proud of her. Once upon a time, she would never have dared to speak so bluntly in front of others. Her wants would have been suppressed. She hadn't had the chance to dream or live for a future. And she'd fought hard for the chance to so much as fathom a future, to not just live getting through the day. There was no way he was going to let the world end before she had the chance to try living for a future. Even if she was right…even if the enemy they were currently facing was…but his mind couldn't seem to complete the thought. The likelihood was only growing, and yet he couldn't bring himself to fathom that Tobi and Obito might be one and the same.

"Dreams, Dreams, lots o' dreams abound! I dream of grown women's boobs, so round! When dreams are fulfilled, that's where truth is found!" B sang from inside eight tails.

"Plus, I don't know, Sakura-chan, you thinkin' what I'm thinkin?"

"Are you thinking that this single dream with no individuality sounds really—"

"—boring?!" They both said at the same time.

"And if there's one thing I know about both of us, it's that you and I hate being bored." Sakura concluded.

"Individuality makes you lose sight of the truth. My words, as a nobody are words guided by the truth of the world." Tobi hissed.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. And then he rushed forward, glowing with kurama's chakra, a rasengan swirling in his hand.

But before the rasengan could make contact with the Gedo statue, Tobi's fan intercepted it, seeming to absorb the mass of chakra, and throwing Naruto backwards.

Naruto flipped, regaining control of his fall, and jumping back towards the eight tails. Kurama's cloak faded from him.

"Looks like it's not gonna be that easy. I guess cracking that mask of yours will have to come first."

"There are certain things I will not allow. You will not touch this statue!"

Naruto made a shadow clone, his body glowing with Kurama's chakra again.

"Remember, there's a window—the instant he re-solidifies after going incorporeal, that's your chance." Sakura said.

"So go for a counter attack! Diversionary tactics are a must. Create openings through continuous close-quarter fighting! Avoid using big moves!" Gai coached.

"I know! That's why I made a clone!" Naruto shouted back, as he and his shadow clone raced forward.

Kakashi turned to the eight-tails. "Mister B, please raise me up really high!" Kakashi requested, while Gai withdrew two sets of nunchucks.

Sakura wished she could do something to aid in the battle directly, but it wasn't time yet.

"Roughly 6.75 hours. There is nothing I can do to help with this and I can't risk getting too close. I can't die before I unlock my seal."

Sakura watched Gai and Naruto weave around Tobi in fierce taijutsu and ninjutsu combat, while Kakashi attempted to use his Mangekyo on the Gedo statue—but was intercepted by Tobi and his fan.

Tobi vanished appearing right under Naruto who just managed to jump away, but not fast enough. He was about to make contact when Kakashi intercepted him, his chidori encasing a kunai, which he threw, forcing Tobi to go incorporeal to dodge it. Naruto, Gai, and Kakashi all landed in front of her, breathing hard.

"You all right?" Sakura asked.

"No injuries, but damn that was close." Naruto reported.

"If even that attack was no good…" Kakashi muttered grimly.

"What can we do?" Naruto demanded.

Sakura stared at Tobi, her eyes widening. "There's a crack in his mask!"

The three all snapped to attention, staring at Tobi, each one spotting the crack they'd managed to make.

"Looks like your attack connected right before it passed through him, Naruto!" Gai cheered. "Nice work Naruto! Let's keep right at it then!"

"Yeah! Now I feel like we might be able to get somewhere against him! Naruto cheered with equal enthusiasm.

But Sakura didn't share it, and by the looks of it, neither did Kakashi.

"No…to be honest, it does't look to me like Naruto's attack landed…" Kakashi muttered.

"Then it was something else?" Naruto asked.

"What do you mean?" Gai questioned as well.

"Sensei's right. Naruto, your attack does blunt force trauma, similar to a punch. I've punched enough stuff to know, that's not what a crack from a punch looks like. It'd be more radial, less deep and precise, but covering a wider surface area with the worst of the damage at the center of impact." Sakura explained. "That looks more like a slice, made by a sharp object."

"But there were no sharp objects at play! Naruto and Gai were both attacking with fists, blunt force weaponry or force-damage ninjutsu—wait no! I'm wrong. There was Kakashi-sensei's kunai! But he sent that away with his Kamui…but Tobi can use Kamui too. And if he's Obito like I think—even if he isn't, but got his sharingan from Obito—maybe the dimensions are connected! Gods I've been suspecting this guy was Obito or had Obito's other eye forever, why didn't I think of this before?!"

"Sensei!" Her head whipped abruptly to her sensei's back. He was stiff, his muscles tense—like his composure had been truly rattled for the first time ever.

"I wonder if he's finally allowing himself to consider it…"

"Tobi has stopped your Kamui twice now—once when we met Sasuke-kun, and once just now when you tried to use it on the Gedo statue! He also phases his body out of this dimension—but laws of matter dictate that he's not just vanishing and recreating parts of himself when he does that—the matter has to go somewhere! To another dimension! Which is the Kamui's whole thing, it sends things to another dimension! So what if your Kamui is connected to the same dimension as his phasing ability! If your dimensions are tied, you can hurt him while he's phasing by sending weapons or an attack to that dimension with your Kamui!" Sakura's words tumbled out quiet but fast, without the usual clarity and concision of her usual explanations.

"Uh…I don't get it, Sakura-chan…" Naruto said, scratching at the back of his head.

"Me neither." Gai muttered.

Kakashi said nothing. It hadn't been hard to figure out who Sakura suspected Tobi of being, what with her asking about his old teammates earlier. She'd hinted at the possibility before too. And this was just one more connection, one more piece of proof. It wasn't that he doubted Sakura. He'd long ago learned the folly in that. It was that for the first time, he vehemently didn't want to believe her. He couldn't allow for her suspicions to be true. But regardless of Tobi's true identity, there was no denying this…the dimensions were the same. His mind had been going in the same direction as hers before she said it.

"Well…let's test your theory. Naruto, Gai, Master Bee, lend me a hand."

Tobi watched the eight-tails lift Naruto, Gai, and Kakashi and hurl them at him, all the while, Sakura watched him unblinking. He had no idea what they were trying now, they should have learned from that last go around that frontal attacks were useless. Honestly the most unnerving one was Sakura with her unblinking, calculating green eyes. How frightening she would be if she were in possession of a Sharingan. After all, she seemed to be the one with a sense of who he was—and that was something he hated. He had half a mind just to blow past the three heading for him and kill her first, but…it was hard not to see Rin in her. Her friendly relationship with a jinchuriki, not unlike the kindness Rin had showed him as the failure Uchiha. She was a medic too…just like Rin. And if it was too obvious that she died by his hand, he'd lose the tenuous grip he still had on Sasuke. Her existence has laid waste to his best made plans. How annoying.

Gai attacked first, coming from above and destroying a column of stone along the way.

"Impressive destructive power." Tobi complimented, as Gai landed behind him.

"Well? No opportunity to suck me in, eh?" Gai demanded, swinging two of his nunchucks at him.

Tobi dropped his fan, catching the two weapons in either hand. "You underestimate the sharingan too much. I can read your movements. I'll keep these, thank you." He said absorbing them into himself.

"Now!" Gai shouted.

"Rasengan!" Naruto cried, bracing one hand on Gai's shoulder and jumping over him, thrusting his rasengan at Tobi.

"Do you not understand this it's futile?" Tobi said reaching through to grab Naruto.

But then, the rasengan vanished before it would have gone through his face. A second later, there was an explosion of pain around his shoulder, sending him flying and skidding over rocks. He managed to correct himself with his fan, managing to land his fall in a painful crouch.

"It's just like you said, Sakura-chan! You did it Kakashi-sensei!"

"I see…it wasn't that Naruto undid his rasengan…but that you used the Kamui to send the rasengan away, eh Kakashi?" Tobi said, looking at his old teammate, before his eyes cut over to where Sakura stood in front of the eight-tails. And she'd been the one to figure it out. He watched as she stepped a few paces closer, still a ways away, but able to join in the conversation.

"I used to think they were two different jutsu. One that lets you slip through things and one that sucks things in or takes them out. But that's not the case…It's all one single jutsu!" Kakashi stated.

"He only has one jutsu?" Gai hadn't followed Sakura's earlier rushed theory, and he sure as hell wasn't following what Kakashi was on about.

"Yeah."

"I don't really get it, except that one of our attacks finally hit, y'know!" Naruto smirked.

"Well, no one's better at jutsu analysis and breakdown than you. Can you explain real quick? It might change how we approach the battle." Gai asked, turning to Kakashi.

"Actually, Sakura figured it out before I did. Want to do the honors?" He called to her.

"Sure!" Sakura called back, approaching them carefully. She kept a good amount of distance to be able to evade quickly should any enemies make a move. But she was now close enough to be heard without shouting.

"Both sucking things in and slipping through objects are a form of teleportation ninjutsu."

"What do you mean? How do you know?"

"That cut on his mask—the only sharp object at play was Kakashi-sensei's kunai. And those injuries on his right shoulder could only come from a rasengan. There are two things these attacks have in common. The fist is that the damage from those attacks only hit in places on his body that were slipping through Naruto. The second is that both attacks were teleported by Kakashi-sensei's kamui jutsu. That means his teleportation ninjutsu, and the time-space of Kakashi-sensei's kamui are linked." Sakura explained, with the clarity she'd been missing before in her rush to get the words out.

"W-Wait a minute! What the?! How come his ocular jutsu and yours are linked?!" Gai shouted, staring at Kakashi.

"Are all teleportation ninjutsu linked between all users?!" The eight tails asked.

"No." Kakashi said quietly, his stomach churning. "That's not the case."

"It's just Tobi and Sensei that are linked." Sakura agreed, eyeing Kakashi with concern.

"Never mind that. Why did Kakashi-sensei's kunai hit but not my punch?" Naruto asked, looking to Sakura for answers.

"That's right fool!" The eight tails was saying it, but it was Bee's voice coming out. "Even with shared time-spaces, it should still be impossible to hit a guy that can slip through things, ya fool!"

"Yes, except he's not slipping through things." Kakashi said. His gut was churning at all the implications of this…it was a high possibility that he just couldn't bring himself to accept.

"What does he mean, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"He means that it wasn't that your attack slipped through him. He target teleported the part of himself that you would have hit. Think about TenTen's weapons. She stores them in scrolls. But you can't store a sword in a scroll. It wouldn't fit and would slice through the paper. Because of her spacial teleportation jutsu, though, the weapons go into essentially a pocket or pouch that we can't reach or have access too because it doesn't exist in this plane of reality. The only way to get to them is with her jutsu."

"Ok I get that. But he didn't use a scroll or hand signs, and he didn't summon any weapons." Naruto said, following the theory of her explanation though not how it related to their current enemy.

"He doesn't need those things because of his sharingan. He can use the same type of spacial jutsu as TenTen, only much stronger, much faster, without the medium of a jutsu formula, directly on himself and parts of his own body. So when your punch went through him—"

"It was because he teleported that part of his mask! So it went into his pocket pouch thing—" Naruto realized, the pieces finally connecting with Sakura's explanation.

"His extra-dimensional time-space that doesn't exist on this plane—yeah." Sakura corrected.

"And at almost the exact same moment, I teleported the kunai I threw with the Kamui, hurling it into extra-dimensional time-space. Just as his momentum carried him forward when he extended his arm toward you to grab you, my kunai finished entering time-space and scored his mask." Kakashi finished. As much as he hated what this implied about him and Tobi, and their sharingan, he was thankful for Sakura's presence for the explanation. She had a way of explaining things in a simpler manner so Naruto understood them faster. Way back in the Land of Waves, Sakura's advice had been what helped Naruto understand tree climbing quicker.

"And the same thing happened with my rasengan?"

"Yeah." Kakashi affirmed.

"I see." Naruto murmured. To him this seemed like good news. They had a way to attack him now on two fronts.

"But…how come you two's ocular powers are linked?" The eight tails asked.

"Kakashi, is he…?" Gai didn't want to think that this could be Kakashi's old teammate, his old classmate, Uchiha Obito that they were facing. That would destroy Kakashi.

Kakashi felt downright nauseated. A while back, Sakura had suggested that Tobi's sharingan may have come from the same source as Kakashi's—Obito. He hadn't believed it possible back then because of how crushed Obito's side had been. But now he found himself vigorously holding to that theory because it was better than the alternative. He'd abandoned a friend again, when he hadn't been truly dead.

"Where did you obtain that eye?!" Kakashi growled.

"…Where?" Tobi drawled. "Heh. During the last great war, if I dare say. The battle of Kannabi bridge, the same conflict after which you started being called the sharingan hero."

It was something of an ambiguous answer, because yes, Obito had awakened his sharingan during that battle, before dying and gifting him his eye. But it could also mean that he'd been lying in wait until Kakashi and Rin had left to claim Obito's other eye. Still…he couldn't fight the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and the growing wave of nausea.

"Are you…" his voice came out raspier than it should have been, and he died in his throat before he could complete the question.

"I told you not to flap your mouth so readily! You have sunk so low as to become nothing but talk, your words are worthless and meaningless!"

Sakura stepped forward, closing distance with the group and placing a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, feeling it trembling slightly under her touch.

"It's too late for regrets." Tobi continued. "Reality just keeps cruelly forging ahead. You've seen reality, so you ought to know, not one wish ever gets granted in this world. That is why I shall guide it toward the dream of infinite Tsukuyomi. I'm going to create a world where it won't be necessary for a hero to pathetically make excuses in front of a grave."

Kakashi felt like he'd been punched in the stomach by Tsunade. He felt like he couldn't breathe, his inhales short and ragged, his exhales far too quick.

"Hey are you alright?!" Gai asked alarmed.

"A panic attack? What works for me won't necessarily work for him, but—still it'll all come down to breathing and grounding…I need to make sure he's here."

"Kakashi-sensei, focus your chakra into your left pinky finger."

Kakashi turned to look at her, but it wasn't Sakura he was looking at. He saw Rin staring back at him. His heart raced, and he felt like he was simultaneously cold and burning. Sweat slid down his face, while his chest felt compressed.

"Why is he looking at me like that—it's like he doesn't even see me!"

The three of us were a lot like you, Naruto, and Sasuke.

"Is he…is he seeing Nohara Rin? It would make sense, if he's beginning to allow for Tobi to be Obito. In which case—it can't be from me. He needs someone who won't draw him into that time…"

"Gai-sensei! You need to tell him to focus his chakra into each finger, one at a time! If that doesn't work ask him about physical sensations—the ground beneath his feet, the feel of his vest against his chest—grounding things!"

"What?!" Gai asked. "Why not you?"

"It can't come from me right now!" Sakura said rushing forward to stand next to Naruto, blocking Tobi from Kakashi's immediate view.

"Bastard! You're still yapping about that?!" Naruto spat.

"We already told you—your dream world sounds boring as fuck! We'd rather hold on to our own dreams!" Sakura shouted.

"I'm not giving up my dream of becoming Hokage!"

"And soon I'll be able to really find my dream, but in the mean time, I'll keep my childhood promise—I'm gonna help a ton of people!"

"We've been entrusted with way too much from way too many to just accept your boring ass reality without a fight!" Naruto finished.

"Heh…entrusted, eh? But, Naruto what if you were to lose the things Jiraya and the fourth Hokage entrusted you with? I wonder what they would think?" Tobi drawled. "If you fail at the things you were entrusted with, I wonder what you will think of yourself, as well?"

Memories flooded Naruto of Jiraya and his dad.

I'm always thinking that I want to do something about this hatred, but I'm not sure how to go about it yet…well then, if I can't find the solution myself, shall I pass the quest onto you?

You have to find the answer yourself. Even I don't know it. You'll find the answer. I believe in you.

Then his eyes drifted to Sakura standing resolutely next to him.

I love you.

You're one of my top priorities always, and if someone's in pain, if you're in pain…I want to heal it.

We're bringing Sasuke back together this time. You and I both.

We are team 7 after all.

Naruto. We saved Konoha. Now we're trying to save the world. People trusted in us to do the impossible. This time though, they're not just trusting us. This time, everyone is standing with us!

"If you postpone dealing with problems and cover it up with the word "hope" all that awaits you is empty reality. Both the entrusted and those that did the entrusting…all in vain."

"Hope isn't just a word that covers problems up. True hope is what fills reality so it isn't empty." Sakura countered fiercely, thinking of every book she read, medicine she concocted, and odd job she ground through to heal her mother. If she hadn't hoped, and fought for that hope, they would have been homeless. She would have had to drop out of the Academy. Her mother would have died. She'd have been left alone with no family, friends, or teammates. That was what an empty reality would have looked like.

"Well said," the voice came from directly next to her, though it didn't belong to Naruto, but rather, Kurama. "So you're Sakura…good to see you with my own eyes. Thanks for keeping this kid alive so long." The fox smirked, staring at her with red irises and split pupils that had replaced Naruto's sky blue eyes.

"Nice to meet you Kurama-san. I think we both know you deserve a good amount of the credit for keeping Naruto alive, so really I should be thanking you." Sakura smiled.

"Heh." The fox smirked. No wonder Naruto liked this girl so much. To think there'd be a human aside from Naruto who'd extend any sort of kindness to him. But it just went to show all the more how wrong Tobi was. He brought his gaze to the man attempting to reawaken a god. "I can't speak for her, though she's already spoken for herself more than adequately. But you should know, he's not the sort that your words apply to." Kurama said, pointing at himself—at Naruto.

"Nine tails…!" Gai muttered.

Kakashi had gotten control over his breathing somewhat, thanks to Gai's instructions from Sakura, and had regained enough awareness of the present to hear the nine tails declaration. "The fourth entrusted him with me, and not only has Naruto befriended me, but he's completely mastered my power as well!"

Naruto surged with Kurama's energy glowing a whispy orange-gold, the energy so strong that several large chunks of rock flew into the air around them.

"The fourth sealed me inside Naruto…As a force to help take you down."

Inside himself, Naruto turned to face Kurama in surprise, before he broke out into a smile.

"Go Naruto!" Kurama encouraged.

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted, regaining control of his body. "Let's go Sakura-chan!"

Naruto charged forward, Sakura at his side.

"It's not a Byakugan—he doesn't have 360 degree vision—so if we catch him off guard or from behind, even if it's not in the other dimension, we might land a hit." Sakura said hurriedly, quiet so Tobi couldn't hear her.

"Plus that window, yeah?"

"Right."

"Got it!"

"I'll go first!" Sakura said, speeding up and pulling out a scroll and biting her finger. A sheathed sword popped into existence in front of her, as a she selected a song in her head. Without missing a beat, Sakura snatched the sword from the air and started to dance, her feet flying suredley across broken earth.

"This sword and sheath are capable of channeling my chakra, but I don't have the chakra to spare right now. That's fine though. I don't need to be the one who deals the damage right now, I just need to keep Tobi distracted."

Sakura deftly twirled the sheathed blade, her steps twisting and complex. She closed the distance, reaching Tobi and immediately twirling behind him, her sword held behind her, firmly against her shoulder blade.

He twisted his head around to track her movement, expecting a blow, but none came. Sakura's torso swept down and around, her sword sliding down her arm before catching the sword by the center of its sheath. And then she aerialed away from him, jabbing the sword sheath into the back of his knee as she did so. Or at least she would have, had he not pivoted to face her fully and took a swift step backwards.

"Good. Now his attention's fully on me and his back is to Naruto."

Tobi had no idea what she was doing. Was she even trying to fight him moving like that? She could have made eight different attempts to hit him with that sword, and she simply hadn't bothered. She hadn't even pulled it from its sheath. And yet, her movements were hard to predict, even with the sharingan. He tracked her rhythm easily enough but the moves themselves made no combat sense. The fact was though, while he wasn't certain exactly what her skill level of power was in combat, she was simply too clever to overlook. She had that ridiculous strength when she'd attempted to keep Sasuke away from him, and as a medical ninja, the last thing she should be doing was standing on the front lines and acting as the decoy, bait, or distraction—which was exactly what she was doing. That had to mean she had either power or skill to back her actions. He'd already made the mistake of underestimating her before. He wouldn't repeat that mistake.

Sakura stepped in closer to him, and unsheathed the blade as she dropped and spun with one leg out. Tobi quickly leapt up avoiding having his legs kicked out from under him, putting him right in Naruto's trajectory as he dropped down on Tobi with a rasengan.

"I don't think so." Tobi growled, summoning several giant shuriken at and passed Naruto.

Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke as one of the large shuriken cut him in half, the rest sailing toward the real Naruto, standing a distance back, still glowing with the whispy golden power of Kurama.

Several octopus tentacles caught the shuriken midair, though one sliced straight through one of the eight-tails tentacles, heading straight for the real Naruto, but it was stopped seconds before slicing him, caught in the jaws of Kurama.

"That would have worked if I were alone." Naruto stated. "But I got Kurama, and Sakura-chan, plus Octopops, Kakashi-sensei, and Bushy-Brows-sensei too! I ain't alone, so you're shit outta luck, Pal!"

To emphasize his point, Sakura surged forward, and spun up into the air in a jump, her blade spinning with her, forcing Tobi to use the fan handle to block from being slashed.

Gai looked toward Kakashi, who seemed to have functionally stabilized under Sakura's directives. "Kakashi, you got a winning record against me right now. This better not be enough to slow you down."

Kakashi watched his students battle…Tobi, amid tailed beasts and debris, refusing to be defeated, and felt himself steadily returning to the present. How far those two had come. Naruto, Sakura…he was so glad they'd been his students. And he wasn't about to let either of them fall here, because he'd been too paralyzed by memories to help.

"Let's go, Gai!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Gai cheered.

Kakashi took quick stock of his chakra, and quickly determined he only had about three shots left. Was this how Sakura felt, with her weights and whatever training she was currently undergoing from Tsunade?

Tobi pushed Sakura back—though whether it was him pushing or her leaping away was honestly hard to say. He thought he heard Kakashi recollect himself to rejoin the fight, but before he could comment on it, Sakura was twirling back towards him, her blade flashing.

Tobi quickly began jumping between boulders and falling chunks of rock to avoid Sakura completely, and get an upward angle on the Konoha shinobi. Their knowing the trick to his jutsu changed nothing as long as he paid attention to where Kakashi's kamui blasted the attack, he would be fine. He leapt into the air and used his mangekyo to suck in the matter around him.

"If he has to materialize when he sucks things in, hi's gotta do so when he spits things out too! This is our chance!" The eight-tails shouted.

"If you can counter-strike that is!" Tobi jeered, as he began expelling the reformatted matter.

Sakura watched the long black pointed stakes rain down on them, and danced her way through the onslaught using both the shadows and actual visual input to avoid them, until she joined Naruto, in his own evasion.

The eight-tails, his size working against him, wasn't as fortunate at dodging, and a several of the stakes implanted themselves in its massive body. The eight-tails gasped, turning to Naruto and Sakura.

"Naruto! These come with the curse marks that restrain Biju power! Don't let them touch you!"

"Can you keep him busy once more Sakura-chan? Kakashi-sensei's back on his feet and I got an idea!" Naruto said, his voice quick.

"Don't get hit!" Sakura advised, and then she was off, weaving her way through the fallout and following Tobi's path up the continuously rearranging landscape to leap at him, her body, sword, and sheath twirling through the air.

"Not this again." Tobi groaned, his attention forced back to Sakura. He could't dodge in his current position, and he couldn't risk letting her slip through him—he wouldn't put it past Kakashi to send her into the Kamui dimension to land a hit on him at the cost of her life. After all, he'd had no problem sacrificing the last medical kunoichi he'd been on a team with. If Rin's life had meant so little to him, the same could applied to this girl as well. And that would damage him.

He pulled out his fan and gave a powerful sweep, blowing Sakura away from him entirely, only to turn to his left to see Naruto bearing down on him with a rasengan mixed with biju energy coming straight for him. He couldn't let this slip through him either though he only had seconds to act. Rather than slip, he'd just call more of the stakes and use this opportunity to restrain Naruto's tailed-beast power once and for all.

The stake burst through the chunk of earth Naruto had pushed off of, smoke filling the air.

"So it was a shadow clone?" Tobi muttered, frustrated. but it wasn't all bad. Kakashi had fallen flat on the ground, his chest heaving with exertion.

"Sensei!" Sakura cried, running to his side. Tobi's fan had blown her back, but her acrobatic sense kicked in enough to control her fall and land safely. "This is bad. Your chakras almost completely tapped."

"You've…managed being in…this state…often…I can too…" Kakashi grunted.

"Do I have to remind you what you tell me every time I am in this state?" Sakura hissed, helping him to his knees. She couldn't share chakra with him yet—she barely even had enough to heal him a little. But she was so close. Her forehead felt like it was burning with the amassing chakra.

"Seems my attack was quicker than you, Kakashi. You missed teleporting the rasengan and wasted another Kamui.

"Not yet! Biju bomb!" Naruto shouted, Kurama sending a giant blast at Tobi.

But he had nothing to fear now. Kakashi was in no state to use another kamui. They were a bit too late with this attack. How futile. As the bomb made combat, he phased safely into his dimensional space…

…to see Naruto bearing down on him with a rasengan.

"Y-You're!"

"Uzumaki Naruto!" The clone…or was he the real one…shouted.

So that Kamui hadn't been for the rasengan, but the clone itself. The debris from the stakes contact made it look like the clone had vanished, but Kakashi's Kamui worked. They'd split his focus and outmaneuvered him.

"No more escaping!" The clone hissed, before shouting, "who the hell are you?!" And driving the rasengan straight into Tobi's face, shattering the mask, as he reappeared back in the real world.

Kakashi stiffened under Sakura's hand, staring at their now unmasked assailant, wide eyed and sweating. Gai looked stricken as well, while Naruto watched curiously.

"Damnit! Based on this reaction, his identity is fully confirmed—"

"Is that you…Obito?" Kakashi breathed.

"Sensei's panic attack earlier meant he was allowing for the possibility, but he hadn't fully come to terms with it. Even if he thought he had…it still hits different when proven true…I knew mom was dead the second I saw our apartment destroyed, but seeing her hand…when it becomes real, it doesn't matter how much you try to preempt or prep."

"It can't be…I thought he died." Gai murmured, the proof rendering him as disbelieving as Kakashi.

"There's no mistake…that's Uchiha Obito." Kakashi murmured.

"You can call me by that name is you want, but it means nothing to me." Obito stated coldly.

Memories flooded Kakashi, of when his eye first got injured, when Obito stood in front of him, sharingan active, determined to protect his comrade.

"But that day…you…"

Memories of being hit by a rock in his blind spot while running and nearly being crushed to death by a boulder. If not for Obito, who stepped in and threw him out of the way, getting crushed in his stead. Rin's crying face as he tried to lift the boulder to no avail. Obito telling him to give up, because he was a goner, and gifting him his sharingan. Obito's final words, to look after Rin for him.

"So…you survived?" Kakashi breathed.

"Who is he?! You know him?!" Naruto asked.

"Naruto…remember when Sensei said the names of his best friends were on that memorial stone? KIA?" Sakura asked, saving the stricken Kakashi and Gai from having to say anything.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"That…is one of sensei's best friends." Sakura answered.

"Our contemporary and an Uchiha who was a Konoha shinobi. Though we all thought he was killed in action during the last war." Gai filled in, finally finding his voice.

"If you were alive…why didn't you come home sooner?" Kakashi said, hyper fixated on his revived best friend.

"Because it's irrelevant whether I had survived or not. Although I suppose if you really want an answer…it's because you let Rin die." Obito's voice became gravely at her name.

The Uchiha are a clan that love fiercely and in excess, and that love can be corrupted.

Rin was very kind and smart. Far more sensible than either Obito or me. She would reign us in when our rivalry and sense of competition began to push us too far. She was also one of the first to be kind to and befriend Obito. And Obito…was in love with her.

Was she in love with him?

…No. I was the one she confessed to.

"Sasuke-kun was at his darkest when he thought I was dead…If Obito loved Rin, saw Kakashi-sesnei kill her, and it was real, not fake…yeah. He could be this way now…"

She felt Kakashi's weight sag against her as she held him up. His expression absolutely stricken—like he'd been stabbed from behind.

It wasn't just Kakashi either, Gai's jaw had fully dropped.

"Heh. Relax. And stop with that expression Kakashi." Obito said.

"You're not going to condemn me?" He asked shakily.

"What would I gain from criticizing this absurd reality? I have no interest in the affairs of a world that shall soon cease to exist."

"Ah. So he's entered a full delusion. He can't accept a world where she died—thought to be killed by their own teammate. So the world has to be wrong. Reality has to be wrong. Enter a dream world where he can reshape reality so she's alive. Maybe she even reciprocates his feelings. It's so…selfish. And gross. And…I kinda get it. If there was a world where mom never died. Never got sick. A world where Sasuke-kun never had to experience the massacre. Where he stayed with me…but it wouldn't be my Sasuke-kun or my mom. It wouldn't be me. So much of who I am developed because of what happened with mom. So much of why I fell in love with Sasuke-kun was because of how much more mature he was than the rest of the class. And because of how subtle and genuine his care was. If his dad who'd been plotting a coup had the chance to fully raise Sasuke-kun, would he have grown the same way? I can't separate who I am now, who Sasuke-kun is, who mom is, from the hardships we experienced. What good is a dream world if it fundamentally changes everyone I love? If it changed everything I love about myself?…but if you're desperate enough…maybe you don't think all that through, and just go for it."

"Kakashi-sensei! I don't know what happened between the two of you, but we can't afford to dwell on it right now! You can discuss it later! Right now, stopping what this guy is trying to do comes first!" Naruto shouted, making Sakura turn to her sensei.

Kakashi looked like he was sinking into himself again. Sakura gave him a light nudge, and he turned to look at her, but once again, it didn't seem like he was seeing her.

"Sensei, it's me. Sakura. Not her. I've never been her. You once told me that you needed me to understand what I was to you. That I was like a niece or a sister…that I was your family. And you promised my mom you'd look after me. So now understand what you are to me. I'm not Nohara Rin. Obito isn't in love with me, and I'm not in love with you. I'm Haruno Sakura. Obito is my enemy, and you're like…a brother, a young uncle…someone I trust, and turn to, and rely on. You're my family, and I love you. And for as long as we're fighting him, when you look at me, you need to see me. Not her. Because whatever guilt he's bringing up in you, you cannot look at me, see her, and have that guilt amplified." Sakura said quietly, so only Kakashi could hear her.

His chest filled with air, and he blinked. And then he was looking at her, and seeing Sakura.

Gai's fist tightened in determination at Naruto's words. "Kakashi! It's just as Naruto says! The fate of this world currently rests in our hands!"

"I have nothing to talk to you about. Die while still tied down to reality!" Obito growled activating some Kamui adjacent ability and fusing it with fire style to create a spiraling vortex of flame towards them.

Naruto slid in front of them, his nine-tail infused power shooting out from him like tails and blocking the fire.

But before they could regroup and counter attack, there was a loud boom and a spray of dust, and Madara—the real edotensei Madara—was standing not far from Obito.

"What the…" Gai murmured.

"Looks like your having fun over here, Obito." Madara said.

"That's…" Kakashi murmured.

"Madara!" Naruto cried.

"It's so like you to have defied the edotensei. More importantly…" Obito said.

"He's speaking so casually…like they've met or interacted before. So maybe Itachi was right…Madara had originally survived…somehow long enough to meet Obito before he died…maybe that's why Obito used his name. Maybe Madara was his mentor…" And then it caught up to her what his presence here meant.

"But why?! Why is that Madara over here?!" Naruto shouted.

"Madara…you mean, that's the real Madara?!" Kakashi asked, coming more and more back to himself by the second with the appearance of this new threat.

"This one's also a shadow clone. Where's the original, Obito?" Madara asked.

"Hey Naruto! That must mean…" The eight tails murmured.

"What's happened to everyone over there?!" Naruto shouted.

"Bro…" Bee trailed off.

"I asked you what happened?!" Naruto shouted. The real Naruto.

"Not sure…but I suspect none of them are doing too well." Madara answered, his focus now fixed on the real Naruto.

Sakura barely heard any of it. The sounds around her grew muted and far away.

"Shishou…Gaara-kun…are they…they can't be…Tsunade-sama can't…I lost mom once already, I can't lose another mom! Gaara-kun died once, and it took Lady Chiyo's life to bring him back…I can't lose him again…I can't let Lady Chiyo's sacrifice be in vain! But…" What could she do? She was too far too reach them, both of their key enemies—really all three if you counted the ten-tails—were right in front of them. She couldn't leave Naruto when they were so deep in this together, and she didn't have enough chakra…not yet. She estimated roughly 6 hours. But until then…

"What can I do…? Think Sakura. Slow down, breathe and think. You cannot afford to panic and have a reaction right now. It would auto trigger your seal release, but that much chakra would for sure kill me. Reactions will only help in conjunction with my seal when I've used up a significant amount of it, or just expanded the amount and rate of the seal—I can't do that until after I've released and used what I have. So no panicking yet, no reactions yet. What I have right now isn't enough to do much if the damage is as extensive as Madara's indicated. However, Shishou is techincally unable to fall in combat so long as she has access to her chakra. So he can't have succeeded in killing her unless he found a way to block her chakra, and she won't let the other Kage die…if there was even a milligram of life left in them, she'll keep them alive. I don't have the chakra to help…but I may have the chakra to check."

Sakura didn't pay attention to Madara's words, or how Obito returned his fan to him, nor how Naruto darted in for the attack. Instead she dropped to her knees, bit down on her finger and summoned the smallest piece of Katsuyu she could.

"Sakura-chan!" The tiny slug squeaked.

"Katsuyu-sama! Are you by any chance with Tsunade-sama right now?!" Sakura asked urgently.

"Yes, though the situation is…it doesn't look good, for any of the Kage."

"Is there a way I can help? Can I lend my chakra to the situation. Or my assessment. Anything?" She pressed, worried at the slugs assertion.

"You can co-opt Tsunade-chan's network healing again, and it's smaller so it will be easier, but, Sakura-chan, as it stands I don't know if you have access to enough chakra to really help."

"If Tsunade-sama's processing is slowed, that even with her chakra, she may not be able to successfully allocate it. Katsuyu-sama, is it possible for you to use her chakra while following my diagnostic and procedural instructions?"

"I've…never attempted such a thing, but there's no reason it couldn't work. I'll try it, but to do this, it may take all your focus. Is that safe for you currently Sakura-chan?"

As if to punctuate her point, a giant, absurdly strong gust of wind and dust pushed over her, blowing her back a few meters, though she managed to grab the tiny piece of Katsuyu before the slug segment could be blown back to the shikkotsu forrest.

"Shit! Naruto!" Sakura shouted, looking around for her friend who'd landed several meters to her left.

"I'm alright!" Naruto answered, though he was directly in the real Madara's cross hairs which was less than ideal. "You got anythin' Sakura-chan?"

"Against him?!" Sakura turned her gaze back towards Madara. "No…but, I might be able to help the Kage, if I can get a bit of cover."

"Do it!" Naruto agreed, pushing himself up. "The Kage need to survive if there's any chance of lasting peace after this war! Plus…Granny and Gaara…Do whatcha gotta Sakura-chan! I'll keep Madara occupied, and Kakashi-sensei and bush brows sensei should be able to hold off Tobi or Obito of whoever the hell he is! Believe it!"

"Right!"

"You ain't getting your way, dimwit! I'm the fourth Hokage's son, you know! I ain't fallin for your talk!" Naruto yelled, meeting Madara's attention with his own, and Sakura turned her focus back to Katsuyu.

"Alright Katsuyu-sama, link me to shishou's network healing and I'll begin."

The slug crawled into Sakura's open palm, a small jutsu formula began to fill her palm and then her minds eye, and then her head was filled with a catalog of the Kages' injuries. Severe didn't even begin to cut it. They were all milliseconds from total organ shut down. The only thing sustaining them was Tsunade's network healing, but it was just sustaining them, not actively healing, as Tsunade was literally cut in half and much of her chakra was going to sustaining her own life. It was enough to make Sakura nearly vomit.

"Fuck! This is bad." Sakura swiped some sweat from her cheek, and took a deep breath.

"The chakra she's allocated to the Kage isn't enough to heal them even remotely close to fully without killing her, and I don't have a way to rejoin her halves as it is, nor do I have the chakra to exacerbate her personal healing."

"It's bad Sakura-chan. Even with your instruction, I don't know there's enough chakra to really heal them." Katsuyu said sadly.

Sakura bit at her lip and shook her head. "It's bad, but we're gonna make this work. We'll just have to focus on one at a time and carefully divide the chakra flow into life support and treatment. We'll go organ by organ. All the Kage are equally bad…lets start with Gaara-kun and go from there."

"What you're suggesting is incredibly complex and will take all your focus." Katsuyu warned.

"That's fine. You'll have to be my eyes and warn me if I need to dodge, or if Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei, or Naruto go down."

"I understand. Let's begin."

The world around Sakura temporarily faded and there was just Gaara's heart, brain, lungs, liver, pancreas, intestines, spinal chord, thyroid, veins and arteries, musculature, and bones. Sakura divvied up the chakra Tsunade allocated to his healing, using as much as possible to begin healing his heart and circulatory system, and using as minimal as possible to maintain life support. It was slow going, the chakra available barely enough to heal at a quarter of her normal speed.

She was only half way done with healing his circulatory system when Katsuyu's cry jolted her.

"Sakura-chan! Kakashi-kun is—!"

Sakura looked up sharply, and took off, sliding in front of her kneeling sensei and catching Obito's wrist in one hand, arresting his giant shuriken, while the other still held Katsuyu in her palm. But Obito didn't look at her, in fact, he seemed set on concentrating on Kakashi just past her.

"I ain't garbage! Ain't planning on becoming garbage either!" Naruto snarled several meters to her right as he worked on protecting the eight-tails from Madara's skeletal ghost hand and spear while trying to free him from the wood beams encircling him.

There was only one lesson team 7 had taken into their cores that had anything to do with 'garbage'.

Naruto glanced over to Kakashi and Obito to see Sakura had the situation covered. "And we will stop you…" he said with a smirk.

"We'll never let our comrades die!" Sakura agreed, speaking in unison with Naruto.

Kakashi's eyes widened.

I will never let my comrades die!

Those were his words that he'd promised them in the land of waves. He hoped Naruto and Sakura could forgive him. He was the one who spoke those words and yet he was about to waver again.

"You better not leave me alone, Sensei." Sakura said forcefully.

"I refuse to lose him. Or Shishou. Or Gaara-kun. None of them! I won't let them die!"

"Of course not." Kakashi agreed, laboring to his feet. "Wouldn't dream of it." Kakashi's hand flew through hand signs and a sound like chirping birds filled her ears.

Sakura pivoted to the side and pulled Obito forward at the same time as Kakashi thrust his arm forward aiming for Obito's center.

"Lightening blade!"

At the same time, there was a large explosion of Naruto and Kurama's counter attack against Madara.

When the shock of bright energy cleared, and Sakura managed to blink the green spots from her eyes, Obito was standing meters away from them, having phased to escape major damage.

"Obito, your once strong will is still alive today in my students. What the currant me can do is protect the current bearers of your will, Naruto and Sakura."

"This whole time…Obito's done his best not to look at me…I really do remind him of Rin, huh…"

"You'll protect the current bearers of my will?" Obito asked incredulously, because current Naruto certainly didn't need protecting. And Sakura…hadn't been hit once, despite her practically non-existent levels of chakra. Kakashi, on the other hand, was huffing, and then collapsed to his knees. He expected to protect either of these children in his current state?

"Me…Too…" Gai croaked from his position wrapped in wood near the eight-tails.

The eight-tails eyes widened when he realized the wood had weakened, immediately breaking free of it, freeing Gai, and catching him as he fell.

"Careful Naruto! The enemy's wood paralysis is identical to the first hokage's! It has the ability to seal Biju power!"

"Just like captain Yamato, huh!" Naruto grunted. That was bad news.

Sakura knelt next to Kakashi.

"Sensei! Your—"

Kakashi pushed her hand away before she could make contact to so much as scan. "Thank you Sakura, but don't waste your charka on me. Stay back and focus on whatever it is you're doing with your summons. That's more important."

"I just said I wasn't letting you die damnit!" Sakura hissed.

"A sharingan relying lightning blade, you've really honed and mastered that left eye, even awakening the mangekyo. However can you return from the other plane one more time in your current condition?" Obito questioned, and then he charged them.

"I can't afford to take the hit in his place, but also…I don't think I can stop him. Options…what are my options?!"

Sakura rose to intercept him, but Obito's right arm extended out towards her like a wooden beam.

"Wood…like Yamato-taicho and the first Hokage…he learned his wood style from the shikkotsu forest. I wonder is it like the trees?"

Sakura sent a whisper of a chakra scan through the wood as it wrapped around her left arm, but didn't get the picture she had in the shikkotsu forest. This wood wasn't alive the same way.

"It's similar, but not quite sentient like those trees were…okay…uh…different tactic then…come on Sakura…"

"Return to the trash heap, Kakashi!" Obito cursed, his left arm nearly making contact with Kakashi's forehead.

Sakura's arms were tied, her left bound in wood and her right holding Katsuyu and the connection to the network healing on the Kage. She couldn't risk breaking that. But if there was one thing arguably stronger than her arms it was her legs. Obito's mistake for not going after those.

Sakura gave her weight over to the wooden beam wrapping her arm, and braced against it, giving her more momentum and leverage.

"The hell he will!" Sakura shouted. "Sensei's just like us! He's far removed from trash, ass hole!"

She hadn't put any chakra in the kick, but it was enough to send Obito flying back a few meters and break off the wood beam. He hadn't been prepared for it.

"Sakura-chan! Octo-pops and I gotta deal with the ten-tails! Can we leave Obito to you and sensei?"

"That'll probably take his full focus, which means no clone help. But I can't help the Kage at this rate."

"Sakura…" Kakashi huffed.

She knelt next to him, her eyes never leaving Obito.

"It may not be the worst thing if he sends me to the other dimension."

"If I can force him to phase, Kakashi-sensei will have unfettered access to attack in the other dimension."

"And your exit strategy?" She asked.

"I'll figure something out."

"You can't leave me alone. I can't lose you."

"You won't. We still have quite a few team dinners left. You'll be okay?"

"I'm the only one of the four of us who hasn't been hit once."

"Just don't start now." Kakashi said with forced lightness. "I may need your help."

Sakura pulled one of his arms across her shoulders, and braced her right arm lightly against his side, helping him to stand.

"You don't look too good." Sakura called to Obito.

"I'm not the one being held up by my student." Obito snarled.

"He still won't look at me." Sakura murmured.

"You're too much like her." Kakashi huffed. "At least, he can't help seeing it that way…but you and Rin have many differences."

"Glad you're not seeing her when you look at me anymore." Sakura muttered, slipping a food pill into his hand.

"Nope. You're not my best friend. You're my favorite student." He said, slipping it into his mouth.

"Heh. Yeah right. We're all one big pain in the ass."

Kakashi gave a tired chuckle. She wasn't wrong. "Ready?"

Kakashi pushed down against her as she propelled him around and forward in a graceful dance-like lift that quickly became something more of a mutually agreed upon throw, right at Obito, whose eyes widened in confusion as Kakashi was suddenly rushing up to meet him. His hand pressed into Kakashi's shoulder, and he was sucked into Obito's pocket dimension.

Obito's momentum continued to carry him forward toward Sakura, who stared him down unblinkingly.

"So, can you really bring yourself to attack me?" She asked, pulling out a kunai and drawing her right arm holding Katsuyu behind her back, to make sure the slug never got hit in the cross fire. She needed to maintain her connection to the network healing so when she got a few seconds, she could continue working on healing Gaara.

This was probably one of the few times she selected a slower paced song for herself—the style for this fight would be more about measured defense and careful counter strikes—more like Neji's version of the gentle fist than Hinata's.

As Obito drew within striking range, she ducked and pivoted just past him, stabbing him in the back with her kunai…if it actually hit. Her kunai ghosted through him as that part of his body phased.

"Alright Sensei…it's on you."

Obito froze and coughed up blood.

"It's working!"

Sakura pivoted back to Obito's front, and drove her elbow into his face—again Obito phased to avoid the hit, taking one right to his face by Kakashi in the other dimension.

"He knows we caught on to the jutsu flaw…is he intentionally phasing, or is it almost like a reflex at this point?"

Sakura rushed forward, this time only striking with her legs, using her arm with the kunai to counter balance while keeping her right arm with Katsuyu tucked protectively behind her back. All the while, she started her chakra meditation exercise synced with the song in her head, as she wasn't using any of her chakra to attack.

She managed a few more phased hits, allowing Kakashi a few more hits that actually made contact, before Obito showed signs of getting his bearings. Sakura quickly flipped away putting space between them before he could land his counter strike on her, but before he could do anything, Kakashi reappeared in-between them.

"Thanks for the food pill…though your recipe really wasn't made with taste in mind." He told her.

"That's the price you pay for a significantly reduced crash." Sakura shrugged.

"I'll gladly pay it." Kakashi said.

Before Obito could make another move, a giant Biju bomb fired off, behind her and to her left. The ground shook so violently that Kakashi fell back, and she had to drop her center of gravity and shift her weight to stay upright.

The bomb hit where the Gedo Statue had been encased in a huge explosion.

"The Gedo statue's chakra is gone." Naruto said staring at the explosion in astonishment. His voice was a little far away, but ever the loud one, it carried to where Sakura stood.

"Yes! We did it, fool, ya fool!" B cheered from inside the eight-tails.

"All right!" Naruto roared victoriously.

"It's…over?" Kakashi asked, staring at the clouds of dust and smoke.

"Yeah…this world is over." Obito stated ominously.

"Oh no…"

And then there was an ear piercing, shrieking roar, as a monstrosity with ten wavering tails took shape as the dust clouds dispersed.

---

Sasuke stood staring at Itachi's corpse. What was a clan? What was a village? What was a shinobi? Who was he? What was he?

He'd wanted answers, so how had he ended up with more questions?

Sasuke leapt back when chunks of rock began falling, seconds before a part of the ceiling crumbled.

"Found ya!" Suigetsu called, looking down at him from the hole in the ceiling, Jugo at his side. Without waiting for Sasuke to comment, Suigetsu dropped into the cave, examining Kabuto's snakey body. "So this is Kabuto, eh? Kinda gross. What is that coming out of his stomach?"

"Just leave him be." Sasuke said. Itachi's last act had been placing him in the Izanami to give him a chance at redemption. He didn't want anyone screwing with Itachi's actions.

Jugo had gone to examine Anko. "She's alive…"

Sasuke sat down heavily on some crumbled rock, trying to place his next move. The jutsu was over, so Sakura should be safe now, at least as far as the war went. She was still trapped in this shitty shinobi system, her chains held by a corrupt village. The same corrupt village Itachi had considered worthy enough to ruin and trade his life for…What was he supposed to do next? May as well deal with the problem in front of him first.

"What do you want with me, after all this time? Going out of your way to find me…" He asked tiredly.

"Right? Oh yeah, that's the thing…we found something incredible in one of the hideouts…now where…" Suigetsu began rummaging through his cloak, attempting to find something.

"You and Itachi stopped Kabul's edotensei jutsu, right?" Jugo asked, Anki's body slung over his shoulder.

Sasuke looked over at him, surprised by the question, before slowly nodding.

"So why is Madara still here?"

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock. Madara was still active?! That meant Itachi's final act hadn't ended the war. That meant Sakura was still in danger. Sasuke bolted upright. Did he go to the front and handle Madara himself? Could he? Was he strong enough to take on the co-founder of Konoha and founder of the Uchiha clan? Odds are as a medical ninja, they'd keep Sakura back and wouldn't have her engage with Madara directly. But was that placing too much trust in the very same corrupted shinobi system that pushed Itachi into killing his own family and made Sakura and her mother's life so difficult? No. She would be fine for a bit…even if Sakura did engage with the enemy, if she didn't want to be hit, she wouldn't be. Her dancing was hard even for the sharingan to keep up with. Besides, they had to have a sense of self preservation, and self-preservation in a ninja war meant keeping the medics alive.

"Can't you see that I'm talking to Sasuke?! Don't interrupt!" Suigetsu snapped. "Anyway…never mind that here! Take a look at this!" He held out a scroll sealed in black cloth—whatever this scroll contained was considered forbidden.

Sasuke took it, opened the material, and read through, his eyes catching especially on one section.

"All-knowing…" This was it. This was his next course of action. If Itachi left him with more questions, he'd just have to get more answers. From the sources of all of this. Besides, if anyone could take on Madara, it would be them. He probably wouldn't even need to force them. Knowing their precious corrupted cesspool of a village was in danger, they'd probably want to rush to deal with him all on their own. He could get answers and take Madara out of the equation with this move, which would help him figure out his next steps and end the war that was currently endangering Sakura. The more he thought about it, the more this seemed like the only way forward. Except for one detestable thing…

Still. It was worth it for answers and removing the threat of Madara. It would just have to be something he would have to keep an eye on, to be sure it never touched Sakura. Though, he doubted she'd ever forgive him for this. And he wouldn't blame her. Maybe that was for the best.

"Now…I need to get out of here to meet up with someone. I'm leaving." He announced.

"Huh? Who?" Suigetsu asked, unsure of where this was headed.

"Orochimaru." Even his name felt vile to say.

"Wha?"

"Huh?" Suigetsu and Jugo were equally incredulous.

"You killed Orochimaru! I wanted you to use this to—"

"Clan…village…" Sakura…answers and her. That's all that mattered. Revenge, if there was further need for it could come after answers. Sasuke eyed the curse mark on Anko's neck. This was how he knew the village was trash. There had been someone who shared his experience. Someone who knew exactly what training with Orochimaru meant, what bearing the curse mark meant. And never once had the village had her make direct contact with him. He wasn't sure how persuadable he would have been back then…odds were it wouldn't have helped. After all, if not even team 7 had gotten through to him, if not even Sakura could, Anko wouldn't have been able to do anything. But. The village should have tried. If they were thinking even a little, if they cared about their shinobi even a fraction, they should have had Anko try talking with him or training with him. Hell, she should have made the effort herself, if she knew. He shook his head. That wasn't important anymore. Now all that mattered was how that mark would be of use to him.

"You're really surprised someone as resourceful and slimy as Orochimaru might not actually be killed so easily?" Sasuke drawled. That snake would have had contingency on contingency planned. "And even if I find him vile and repugnant, I do need him to do something for me. I need to see the all-knowing!" His answers and Sakura's safety would both come from there.

"I don't understand. How can you talk to Orochimaru? Who is this all-knowing person?" Suigetsu pressed.

"You don't need to know." Sasuke dismissed. It wasn't their problem. They were free now. They shouldn't get bogged down in his shit.

"I don't get it! But anyway, you can't! Orochimaru must never be revived! You plan to ask Orochimaru for help to control the power of that scroll, right? You can learn to do it on your own. I know you can. That's why I found you. It's why I'm giving it to you!" Suigetsu insisted.

"There are still things that only Orochimaru can do." Sasuke dismissed.

"Listen. You were Orochimaru's prized disciple, correct? So why can't you—"

"Suigetsu, you underestimate Orochimaru." Gods, Sasuke really hated that creepy sadist's name. Even acknowledging him felt like betraying Sakura, though he'd done that the second he'd chosen Orochimaru over her when he left Konoha. But just as back then, Orochimaru was his only option.

"Idiot! I don't underestimate him at alll! You do!" Suigetsu argued. "The only reason you defeated Orochimaru was because both his arms were rendered useless by the reaper death seal! You have always underestimated him! You know even if he is revived, he probably still won't be able to use his arms! But he'll still be dangerous. He'll still want to take control of you. He'll want to be a part of this war! He's always wanted to destroy Konoha, don't you remember?! And that means team Taka will get messed up in this war too! Is that what you want?!"

Sasuke took Anko from Hugo, propping her against the large man so she was sitting up as he examined the curse mark on her neck. It was interesting, listening to Suigetsu talk. He seemed to deeply value team Taka far more than Sasuke expected. Not unlike how much team 7 meant to Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke would acknowledge that at least for a while, he cared about team Taka, at the very least feeling responsibility and gratitude towards them for having roped them into his shit. But it didn't compete with his old feelings towards team 7. Of course, those feelings were tainted now. Naruto was too deeply entrenched in the shinobi system. He believed in it too much, supported it too much, failed to open his eyes to how fucked up it was, and how fucked up it would remain, in all the ways it ruined the shinobi and civilians it built itself on. So Naruto had become the embodiment and representative for everything he hated. Kakashi, just another failed relic of the corrupted system. Sakura was the only one of team 7 where his feelings were just the same if not stronger than the day he walked away from her.

And that was why he was doing this. He needed a better understanding of what Itachi saw in this system that he deemed it so worth protecting at all costs. He needed to understand what the thought process was behind creating a village that made the lives of their civilian inhabitants so difficult, when it was their civilian inhabitants it claimed to care so much about protecting. So Suigetsu's words went unheeded, as his hands began forming seals.

"We've only now surpassed our mentors. This is our time! Nobody wants to see Orochimaru ever again! Plus, hasn't he caused us enough trouble?"

"Suigestu…shut up." Sasuke ordered, tired of Suigetsu saying what he already knew and felt. "Dig out a piece of Kabuto's body and give it to me."

"Huh? You don't listen to me, so why should I listen to you?" Suigetsu challenged.

"I'll do it." Jugo answered easily heading towards Kabuto without further prompting.

"So that's how it is?" Suigetsu sighed in frustration. "You really sure about this, Jugo? Orochimaru's return?"

"I don't mind. Sasuke's will is Kimimaro's will. I will abide by it." Jugo's arm began to transform, becoming elongated, scaly and claw-like as he reached forward and tore a scaly piece of skin from Kabuto's dragon-like body.

"Eww! What is going on with all this?!" Suigetsu asked, staring in horror at Jugo's transformed arm.

"This is called sage transformation in my village. My transformation is also originally of this type. But in all of my clones, it's called curse mark transformation." Jugo explained, using his transformed arm to push Kabuto's scale against Anko's curse mark.

Sasuke remembered Kakashi sealing his curse mark. He assumed Anko underwent the same sealing process. So the next step was unsealing her curse. Sasuke thrust his hand against the scale, over Anko's curse mark, unsealing it.

The skin around the mark bubbled and cracked as the scale fused to it and then stretched and expanded out, a full snake growing from the mark. Just like in the forest of death, the snake's jaw unhinged, and Orochimaru began crawling out. Just as disgusting and horrifying as it had been back in the forest of death, only now, Sasuke was tragically used to it.

"Who would have imagined it'd be you guys who facilitated my return?" Orochimaru asked, catching himself on the cave floor and rising.

"Orochimaru, there's something I want you to do for me." Sasuke stated without preamble.

"No need for details. I've been watching from inside Anko this whole time. I secured senjutsu chakra in those curse marks. They're like pieces of my consciousness."

"Then you know about the war too?"

"Of course. And I have something to tell you Suigetsu. I have absolutely no interest in this war."

"Huh?!" Suigetsu had never been more shocked by something in his life.

"It is someone else's war. The only thing I'm interested in right now is your young body, my dear Sasuke." Orochimaru leered.

Sasuke remained impassive while his stomach turned in disgust. How he made it three years under this creeps tutelage was a marvel and a testament to his own strength of will when he had a goal. As such, despite Suigetsu's concerns, he was certain if this creep made even the smallest comment of interest in Sakura, he'd murder him on the spot.

"Then again, it's not like I currently have the strength to steal it, so…" Orochimaru shrugged.

Sasuke didn't feel like engaging in this conversation. It wasn't why he'd brought Orochimaru back. Instead, he simply held out the scroll.

"What is your intent in meeting with them?" Orochimaru asked.

"There's too much I don't know. I want to hear about everything from them. And then have them deal with Madara…that's their mess anyway."

"Everything? There's no need to know it all, you're still a child."

"You're wrong." Itachi had acknowledged as much. He'd treated Sasuke like a child when his own actions had aged Sasuke far too quickly. "I'm not a child anymore. I haven't been since I was eight. I want to know what started it all, what I'm supposed to be, what I'm supposed to do."

"Are you questioning your vengeance?"

"No. Not my quest for vengeance itself. After reuniting with Itachi, my hatred toward Konoha has grown even stronger. But…I want to understand how even in death, Itachi could still consider himself a Konoha shinobi…and care about and try to protect the village that dishonored his name. Who was Itachi? What is a clan? What is a village? So…I need to know everything. I need to finally have some answers, so I can see with my own eyes and decide with my own mind what I must do." No more manipulations. He needed to make his own choices, that he came to on his own. And he needed accurate, trustworthy information to do so. Answers from the source.

"The current you isn't half bad." Orochimaru walked over to Kabuto, placing a hand on his unmoving shoulder. Kabuto's dragon-like features receded into Orochimaru's point of contact, leaving Kabuto his human looking self, as Orochimaru reabsorbed his chakra from Kabuto's system.

"All right, I'll help you out. Come along." Orochimaru said, stepping towards the opening Jugo and Suigetsu had made in the cave ceiling.

"Where are we going?" Sasuke asked. He may need Orochimaru, but he wasn't about to following the snake man blindly. He wasn't twelve anymore.

Orochimaru chuckled. "A place you know quite well. Shall we be on our way?"

"To where?" Sasuke pressed.

"Konoha."

---

"D-Don't tell me…" Naruto gasped.

"That's…" Kakashi trailed off in disbelief.

"Yeah…that's him, that's the ten tails." Kurama said.

Obito leapt away, joining Madara atop the ten tails in a blink, while Naruto, B/eight-tails, and Kurama joined her and Kakashi.

"I thought the statues evil chakra disappeared." Naruto stated.

"He doesn't have those kinds of emotions or feelings. He can't be sensed." Kurama explained. "He's natural energy itself. Yeah, the same as that which circulates around this world, that you feel in the soil, the water, and the air. It would be a different story if you tried it while engaged in sage mode though…"

"Gotcha!" Naruto said, plopping down to still himself. "So if you say he's all nature energy then I can check him out!"

"Don't Naruto…doing that…all you'll see is just how immeasurable it is."

But the nine-tails was too late to stop Naruto and what he saw…was just as it described. Concentrations of unquantifiable amassment of energy, so strong it overwhelmed all of his senses, hitting him like an almost tangible assault.

"Heh…you ain't kidding…" Naruto grunted.

A singular one of the ten-tail's tails swiped across the earth, sending a giant tidal wave of raw energy and earthen shards towards them.

"Hey…here comes a big one. You really think we can do this?" The eight-tails asked grimly.

"Don't think you can hide out in an octopus pot because you're scared!" The nine-tails jeered. "But first…hand over Gai! I can apply the healing factor I've shared with Naruto to him. Kakashi, and Naruto too!" Kurama ordered as Gai was thrown his way. "Sakura, you're not injured, but you're low on chakra…your chakra system's…complicated though."

"If you can read and share forty percent of your chakra with me, it'll be more than enough."

"If you say so." Kurama said, snapping up Gai, Kakashi, and Naruto in his jaws and placing a finger-like claw on Sakura's shoulder.

She immediately felt a flood of neutral chakra fill her, which she quickly remolded into her own chakra and funneled into her daily use reserve.

"Perfect. This'll hold me over for 4.5 hours. And if Kurama can expedite Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei's natural healing, I can focus on helping the Kage's network healing! I'm not losing anyone I love in this war, shannaro!"

"Listen! First we keep our distance and see what move he makes! Based on that, we'll counter the attack and then hit him with a big blow as up close as we can get, like I told you earlier!" Kurama ordered.

"Nine-tails, you're acting like a captain." Kakashi said.

"So? You got a problem with that?!" Kurama snarled defensively.

"Nope…in fact I'd say it's the opposite. I'm happy and relieved." Kakashi smiled.

"Save that line for after we've won!" Kurama snapped.

"Kurama…There's some distance healing I need to do to help the Kage, which will take a lot of my focus. Can you or eight-tails defend or cover me?"

"I gotcha!" The eight tails said, and the next second she was scooped up and fully surrounded by one of his tenticles.

"Work fast, cause you're smart and I want your eyes on the ten-tails." Kurama ordered.

"I'll do my best!" Sakura called.

"Alright! Here we go!" Kurama called.

Sakura felt the eight-tails lurch forward, but let her focus drift back to Katsuyu and the Kage.

"Sorry Katsuyu-sama, let's get back to work…can I feed my chakra in to help?"

"You have more accessible now, but it still wouldn't be enough to make much of a difference…it may be better to save your chakra for this situation and continue to use Tsunade-sama's." Katsuyu advised.

"There's so little to work with though…what if I use only as much as I've been using of hers for life support, and then reallocate everything she's given for active healing. It won't make much of a difference, but it'll speed the process up a little."

"You can do that…" Katsuyu allowed, "though with how dire things are here, I really wouldn't recommend wasting your chakra."

"Noted, but I don't consider this a waste, and it wouldn't even be 5% of my daily use reservoir, so I think I'll take the chance."

"Understood. Still focusing on Gaara-sama?" Katsuyu clarified.

"For now." Sakura agreed, and then she closed her eyes, focusing three percent of her chakra into Katsuyu and slipping back into the network healing and Gaara's battered body.

Around her, she felt the physical sensations of movement, compression, intense heat and impact…but her focus remained on the network healing. She'd just barely managed to heal Gaara's circulatory system earlier before her focus had been pulled away. Now she worked to repair his respiratory system. Stitching cells back together, reconnecting tissues, and using her chakra to respirate and stimulate his lungs.

But before she could start working on his digestive system, dusty air blew through her cocoon as the eight-tails tentacle loosened, and then abruptly released her. It was only thanks to her ridiculous reaction time that she was able to land lightly.

Naruto and B sat without their tailed beasts, Gai and Kakashi on the ground huffing from exhaustion.

"The tailed beasts temporarily ran out of chakra." Obito observed.

Naruto glanced behind him at the situation. "Sakura-chan, were you—"

"Not enough, but I made some good progress. I'll refocus here for now though." She answered, placing Katsuyu on her shoulder, hidden under her hair, and joining Naruto.

Naruto made the sign for his shadow clone jutsu, gathering his chakra.

"Your favorite shadow clone jutsu? It may be a forbidden high level ninjutsu but just upping the number of losers won't—" Madara was cut off by both Naruto and Sakura together.

"—I'm not a loser!"

"—He's not a loser!"

"Don't Naruto! It's meaningless to create shadow clones that'll split up your chakra even more. They might be useful as diversions, but not for decisive hits, and if you go down, we lose this war!" Kakashi warned.

"You were always just a motley crew anyway." Madara dismissed.

"Motley crew, huh?" Naruto growled.

"You are useless." Madara stated. Just a fact, no room for doubt.

"Just like before…against him, we are. His power's insane…but I'm done being useless."

Sakura shook her head. "Useless is the one thing we aren't." Sakura stated.

"He's saying that it's pointless to merely increase the number of heads if they're all empty. All three of us are just powerless shinobi. You'll…actually everyone shall eventually end up just like me." Obito said.

"We will never end up like you! How many times do I have to tell you?!" Naruto shouted. "My dream is to become Hokage!"

"And I finally have the chance to dream!" Sakura agreed fiercely.

"No matter. Everything will go as planned. There is no jutsu mightier than the infinite Tsukuyomi. I'll make you Hokage inside this jutsu. So, just disappear along with the rest of this world!"

The ten tails fired a huge blast of energy, and there was no way to dodge fast enough…except, they didn't need to.

"He missed…deliberately?" Kakashi murmured amid the dust, where he was supporting Gai.

"Kakashi! Gai! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Two ninja—one of which was Hyuga Ko, dropped down beside the two.

"Are you okay Naruto-kun?! Sakura-chan?!" Hinata called, her voice stronger than either had ever heard her sound.

"I can't believe he broke off my byakugan-aided spot on mind transfer in just two seconds!" Ino grumbled, as the two landed just behind Naruto and Sakura.

"You still succeeded in shifting that gigantic things aim. Good work!" Ko complimented.

"Hinata!" Naruto gasped, his face tinting a little pink.

"Pig! Hinata-chan!" Sakura smiled, happy to see they were alright.

"Are you two alright?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah!" Naruto smiled confidently.

"Just cuz Hinata's here doesn't mean you need to act tough Naruto!" Kiba teased as he, Shino, and other ninja joined the scene. Kiba hadn't missed the way the blonde's face had tinted pink in response to his teammate. It was about damn time the idiot got his head out of his ass and returned her feelings.

The Aburame and Kirigakure ninja who arrived immediately teamed up to obscure the growing allied forces with beetles and mist.

"We're here, Naruto!" Choji said as more and more ninja joined them.

"Good we can't be easily detected now." Shikamaru observed the beetles and mist approvingly. "Should you really be standing on the front lines like this?" He asked, staring pointedly at Sakura.

"…Soon. Although there really wasn't much choice until now. I've got some bad news for you. The five Kage aren't doing well." She answered, getting straight to the point.

"How critical?"

"Very. I'm doing what I can but it's slow going."

"How are you…you haven't…?" Shikamaru glanced at her forehead but saw no seal, and she wasn't having a reaction either, so he had no idea how she was accomplishing anything.

"Not yet…soon though. I'm almost there. But as of right now, I've got around 30%."

"But then…how—" Before Shikamaru could clarify, Sakura's attention was arrested by her other teammate.

Sai appeared next to Kakashi, helping support him as he helped support Gai. Lee dropped down on his other side.

"Sorry we're late, Captain Kakashi." Sai said earnestly, while Lee fretted over Gai's condition.

Sakura looked Sai up and down, scanning for injury, but found none. He seemed alright, to her great relief.

All around them the allied forces arrived in swathes.

"First company has arrived!"

"Second company has also arrived!"

"Third company has arrived!"

"Fourth company has arrived." Shikamaru reported in officially.

"Fifth company, ditto!"

"Sensory unit has arrived!"

"Medical unit's here too!" Shizune called. "Sakura-chan! Report!"

"Gai-sensei needs the most healing, Kakashi-sensei's minimally injured but gravely low on chakra. B, Naruto, and I are alright. The five Kage are down, though Tsunade-sama's keeping them alive. I'm doing what I can to speed up their healing."

"Did you hijack Tsunade-sama's network healing again?"

"…sort of? But I haven't been able to give enough focus and chakra to do very much." Sakura called back, holding her position next to Naruto as medics rushed to Kakashi and Gai's side.

Naruto looked around and smirked at the assembled mass of shinobi, before looking Obito dead in the eyes. "Now we're not a motley crew anymore! This here is the allied shinobi forces jutsu! The shinobi world's greatest most invincible super-duper ninjutsu! Y'Know!" Naruto called triumphantly. "A jutsu that trumps the infinite tsukuyomi…remember that!"

"The allied shinobi forces jutsu? That's a bit of a stretch, no?" Madara rasped.

"We're gonna stop you two with this Jutsu!" Naruto answered, ignoring him.

"Wrong. Why won't you realize that it's meaningless for you to stop us here? This jutsu of yours will crumble to dust after the war. Then someone on your side will eventually attempt what we're doing anyway. There is no victory, no matter how much you struggle. Get it into your head already. There's no such thing as hope anywhere in this world!" Obito declared.

"I'm getttin' real tired of the way this asshat talks! Shannaro!"

"That's our call, prick, not yours! It's an individual choice! We're the only one's who get to decide if we're resilient enough to dredge up hope, even when it seems non-existent, and there are those in this force, who probably won't, but if they don't it's because its their call, not yours, and if they turn around and find some, that's also their choice! So don't act like you're the ultimate authority!" Sakura shouted, glaring Obito dead in the eyes.

"That's right! And I'm gonna say there is hope! So you can shove this dream world bullshit up your ass!" Naruto shouted, Sakura next to him, and the whole allied forces behind them, smiling. None of them were giving up hope either. If these two won, the world would be over, so why not fight? What was there to lose?

"It's meaningless to argue over whether there is or isn't something during a war. How about we get to settling this thing?" Madara said coldly.

"When there's a difference of opinion, isn't the usual way, majority rules? Well?!" Naruto demanded.

"Nice thought. So—" Obito started, but was cut off by Sakura, glaring defiantly.

"Let me guess, you'll call it after you wipe us all out?" She challenged. Obito pointedly looked away.

"He's doing that again…I guess Rin used to call him on his bullshit. So I just gotta keep challenging him. It'll throw him off his rhythm…although, I really should drop back for now, now that everyone else is here. I shouldn't stand on the front line until my seal's unlocked, and it'll give me time to focus on Gaara-kun and the kage."

"Heh! This jerk would say somethin' like that. But this world ain't ending!" Naruto shouted.

And just like that the allied forces surged forward around them.

Before Sakura could choose to surge forward with the crowd or fall back, she heard Shikamaru's dad in her head. "Thanks to intel from Kakashi and Sakura, we know the masked guy is Uchiha Obito, but there's not even time to be shocked. This fight we need to take and maintain the upper hand, and not give them any opportunity to counter! From the intel we got, the enemy boasts impressive eyes. So first we'll impede their movement by destroying their vision! Kumogakure folk!"

They didn't need more than that, Kumo ninja were already half way through their seals. Lightening and storm style ninjutsu flashed around the battlefront, blinding the enemy. And while the attacks were primarily aimed at Madara and Obito, the main blinding effect was centered on the ten-tails.

"Using Kirigakure's mist and the Aburame's jamming beetles from earlier, plus the large volume of airborne dust stirred up by the attacks just now will further obscure ourselves and keep the enemy blinded. Sunagakure folk, now! We'll not just destroy their vision but thwart them from sensing us at all!" Shikaku's voice ordered. "And since their sheer bulk prevents them from hiding we'll be able to take full advantage."

"With all their senses obscured, it'll make it hard to counter, but with it's ability to fire tailed beast bombs, it can still mow us down. Hell, with its size alone, just moving forward will mow us down." Sakura said, thinking allowed, though it seemed Shikaku was five steps ahead of her.

"Iwagakure folk, proceed now!"

Earthen style walls rose up, surrounding the ten-tails, and under Shikaku's orders, others followed it up with lava style, filling the pit with quicklime. Then the Kirigakure ninja leapt up, using water style so further fill the pit.

"Konohagakure folk, lets finish this!"

A roar of fire spread across the pit solidifying the surface and immobilizing the ten-tails.

"Without immobilizing ten-tails, we wouldn't have the chance to go after Obito and Madara. To them, ten-tails is a tool to aid in activating their jutsu. If we take down those two casters, then the infinite Tsukuyomi can't launch! However, it's best to assume that the ten tails power cannot be suppressed for long. Only physical attacks work on Madara. So shinobi with taijutsu skills go after him! Obito can slip through all moves and jutsu, but according to intel, that only lasts five minutes, so work with the medical unit and continuously attack him past five minutes!" Shikaku instructed.

"Where to go…" Sakura wondered, "my primary combat ability is taijutsu, but as a medic who can almost legally stand on the front lines, and has a destabilizing effect on Obito, that's probably where I'd be more useful…but if I hang back, I'll be able to focus on the kage."

"Let's go Sakura-chan!" Naruto said.

And just like that, Sakura was moving. "Shizune-senpai will probably kill me later, but oh well. We're in war. There's a good chance we all die anyway."

But as Sakura joined Naruto and the other troops pushing forward, she couldn't help notice something was wrong. Madara and Obito's expressions…

"HQ, if you can hear me, they're too calm—you better have a plan B!" Sakura shouted, making Darui, who was to her left, look over his shoulder.

"What are you—"

Rocks and debris went flying as the ten-tails broke free, sending the press of shinobi flying away, many taking damage just from the force of the ten-tails movement and chakra, and many more taking damage from impact.

"Shit!" Sakura curled in on herself, regaining control of her body and positioning herself to land on her feet while minimizing the impact.

Most lacked Sakura's reflexes, and took the landing hard.

Sakura didn't waste time, running to the nearest downed shinobi to start healing, though she kept her eyes on the ten tails.

The ten-tails rose up, larger than it had ever been, it's body long and fox-like, not unlike Kurama, its tails whipping out ending in claw like appendages with enough dexterity to be fingers. A giant shell-like bulb grew on its back.

"Medical corps, hurry!" A shinobi shouted, desperately calling for aid to a fallen comrade. Sakura's eyes skimmed over the damage, trying to pick out how many of the fallen were medics who'd rushed forward as she had.

Shizune was shouting orders to the medics who'd had the sense to do their jobs and stay back…not that this could be considered a "safe distance."

To further that thought, the ten-tails released one tailed beast bomb, sailing far over their heads and exploding what had to be thousands of kilometers away, the strength of the impact so strong that the vicious tremors shook the ground beneath them. For the tremors to be this strong at that distance…the blast must have been horrifyingly strong.

Sakura stayed low, keeping steady despite the shaking earth as she made her way to the next badly injured shinobi she could find.

More blasts followed, some flying so far as to destroy a distant city.

"That's bad…if those tailed beast bombs can fly that far, than all the civilians and citizens that were evacuated…they aren't safe!" Sakura shook her head. "There's nothing I can do for them right now. Focus on here. But…if it can aim that far it's gonna go for…HQ! Shit so that thing isn't totally mindless!"

"Pig! Shikamaru!" Sakura shouted, frantically searching for her friend.

"Over here!" Ino called, her voice pained. She must have been one of the medics to push forward.

"What?" Shiikamaru grunted, rising slowly from where he'd landed hard, not far from her.

"If it can reach that far, whether acting on it's own or being ordered, the smart move is to go for—"

"Intelligence head quarters." Shikamaru finished darkly, as Ino's eyes widened.

"Dad!" She gasped.

"Ino, patch me through."

Ino nodded connecting his mind, but it seemed Shikamaru didn't get to say much more than a warning, before another blast was fired, heading in the direction of HQ.

Ino's eyes glittered with tears, and Shikamaru's eyes squeezed shut and teeth clenched.

"Listen up, everyone…" Shikaku's voice rung in her mind, sharing his final act, his plan to defeat the ten tails. And then her mind went silent.

Shikamaru's face crumbled, and Ino's aquamarine eyes let out a steady stream of tears.

"Shikamaru…" Choji murmured.

"We're in the middle of a war. Don't waste any words on me or Ino." Shikamaru stated, his voice rough. "We just need to plough through and do as dad said."

"You know what this means for you two…will you be alright?"

"I can do it forehead." Ino sniffed, rubbing the tears from her eyes.

"I have to accept that, because there's nothing I could even do to help her…but him…"

Sakura turned to Shikamaru, her eyes resolute. "Lean on me. Your dad had years of experience on you, so let me help you carry this."

"No. You have enough to do. Soon you're going to be a crucial front line figure as well as carrying the medical unit. And you're currently splitting your focus between here and the five kage. Even if you have the bandwidth to balance it all, I'm not gambling on it."

"Fair."

"Then lean on Temari. She can force you to a stalemate, at the very least, she'll be a good sounding board. Don't shoulder it on your own." Sakura said firmly, before turning to her next patient.

"So…what exactly just happened?!" Naruto called uncertainly, glancing to where Sakura was kneeling next to a fallen comrade.

"You're the key to our plan." Neji said, dropping down next to Naruto, his byakugan activated.

"No, No! I mean I wanna know what's up with Shikaku and Inoichi?!" Naruto clarified.

"Oh, right…he never was the best at picking up context clues…"

"Naru—" Before Sakura could finish, the ten tails attacked, the move not unlike when Sakura used fans to channel and release her chakra into the ground—though by Sakura's rough estimate, at least a 500 times stronger—and it was heading straight for Naruto.

Neji and Hiashi jumped in front of the oncoming wave, using their rotation move to fully repel it.

"Don't just stand there spacing out, Naruto! This is a battlefield, and we're in a war! People die! But if we are defeated and lose this war every person will end up dying!" Hiashi admonished.

"I-I…know that!" Naruto growled. He may have been a little slow on the uptake, but he wasn't stupid. Hiashi's words made it clear. Shikaku and Inoichi were dead.

"Shikamaur's and Ino's father would likely say that as shinobi, they're glad to have died ahead of their children, just as my father did." Neji stated, his tone serious. "Naruto, your power is critical to the plan. So until we execute it…"

"We must protect you!" Hinata said, stepping up next to her cousin and father, in front of Naruto.

"Hinata!" Naruto gasped, staring at her long shiny hair as it swung from the speed of her movement.

The ten tails screeched, its tails with their hand-like-end surging forward to attack, as wooden stakes rocketed from their finger tips.

Screams and shouts came from the allied forces.

"Too many!"

"Try to evade them!"

Sakura had the distinct memory of Sasori's iron sand web as the wooden spikes came raining down. They were fast. Scarily so, but Sakura had evasion drilled into her in the most painful ways. She'd even had to avoid Tsunade while the sanin was enhancing her speed with her strength of 100. Avoiding the raining stakes was similar, and thus, doable. But it meant abandoning her patient to do so—a direct violation of rule number one. But with the amount of chakra she had currently, she simply wouldn't be able to move fast enough while supporting the weight of another shinobi, which would put her in violation of rule three.

(3.) No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon.

Don't die before then. More than ever, follow the rules. You are not allowed to die before then, am I clear?

Don't die while I'm gone…please.

It felt like when she'd stopped treatment on Lady Chiyo to save Gaara…no, it felt worse. Because she wasn't pulling away from one comrade to save another, she was pulling away from a comrade to save herself. That felt infinitely worse—so much more wrong.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" and then she stopped treatment and leapt away, weaving her way through the wood rain. Kakashi, who hadn't been far and was healed enough to move on his own, followed her path, knowing her skill at evasion and mimicking her to keep himself alive.

The evasion forced her farther and farther from Naruto, until, with all the noise and dust from the enemy attack, hearing and seeing him became an extreme feat of focus she couldn't afford. She'd let a comrade die, and the number of injured was growing by the second.

Neji was using his rotation to fend off the attack, but even with that he was struggling—there were just so many of the wood spikes and the velocity they were coming at was overwhelmingly fast. But it bought Naruto the time he needed.

"Thanks Neji! I can activate sage mode now! I can't keep relying on you geniuses! It's my turn now!"

Neji huffed a laugh as Naruto hurled a resenshuriken, cutting many of the falling spikes out of the air.

"Here's a few more!" He shouted, hurling three in quick succession, but that was all he had the chakra for, and he fell to his knees with a grunt.

One of the tailed-hands slammed into the ground and swatted towards them, causing massive devastation to the ground as it drew near.

"Eight trigrams air wall palm!" Hiashi cried, pushing the tailed hand back and away.

But it countered, sending another mass of wood spikes from its fingers, straight towards Naruto, who was huffing on the ground from chakra exhaustion.

He looked up as the spikes rained down, wondering if this was where it ended for him. How pathetic would that be? Skewered to death by sharpened tree branches…what a stupid way to go out.

And then Hinata was in front of him.

"Protective eight trigrams sixty-four palms!" Hinata said, her arms whirling around her as she engaged her self-made defensive technique—the one Sakura, Kiba, and Shino had helped her create, and she'd trained and expanded its reach greatly since then. This was why she made it. To protect those she loved. Naruto, her cousin, her father, her friends, none of them was going to die on her watch, and with her byakugan, her watch extended far.

Neji glanced over in pride, as Hinata's net of chakra expanded a kilometer around her on all sides. Hiashi stared in shock. He knew his eldest daughter had grown stronger and made great strides…but he hadn't known she was capable of a technique like this—one that she created herself, as while it highly utilized the Hyuga style, it wasn't a technique that was taught or in any scrolls.

It was the prefect technique, buying earth-nature users enough time to trap the ten-tails between two mountainous chunks of rock, giving the allied forces an opening and chance to get in closer.

"Naruto," Neji said, drawing the blonde's attention, "if Hinata-sama makes a fraction of a mistake with her chakra placement, if she's even a centimeter off in her movements, she will die. Hinata-sama is willing to die for you. She's proven that before during the Pain attack as well. So remember, you have more than one life in your hands. And it's not just Hinata-sama. My life too is in your hands. All of our friends, the five kage, the entire allied force…we're all entrusting our lives to you and Sakura."

Naruto swallowed hard, thinking of Shikaku and Inoichi. Shikamaru and Ino had lost their dads because of him. Because of this war. There were bodies on the ground around him, some injured, many dead. Granny, Gaara, the old geezer…the kage weren't doing well. Hinata was centimeters from death in front of him. He talked big before…but peoples' lives were on the line, and many were losing them. He didn't want to lose her. He didn't want to lose any of his friends. He didn't want his friends to lose anyone they loved. Reality was hitting him hard. People were dying everywhere around him. For him. In his name. He didn't want that.

"Why? Why would she go so far for me? Why would you? Why would any of you?"

The barrage of attacks finally ceased, the surroundings growing quieter, and everywhere he looked, there were bodies.

"Those proud words of you and Sakura earlier, 'we'll never let our comrades die'…now, look around you and try to say them again!" Obito challenged.

So many ninja impaled on the ground. Kunoichi and shinobi from every village, some faces a little familiar, many total strangers…all far too dead.

"I said say those words again! As the bodies of your comrades cool at your feet, take in their deaths. This will keep happening, and your flippant words and ideology shall become lies. This is the end result of ideals and hopes. This is reality. Naruto, what is there here for you in this reality?! Both your father and mother are gone…your master Jiraya too, and if you keep standing against us, you'll continue to lose your comrades one by one. This shall beomce a world where no one who acknowledges you will exist. The only thing that awaits you is your worst nightmare. Solitude!" Obito declared.

Naruto couldn't lift his head. His eyes burned, and breathing was becoming difficult.

"So why keep living in reality, eh? Now come join us, Naruto!"

His chest started to hurt, and he couldn't seem to inhale properly. He felt like he did back in that village in the land of iron, after Gaara told him about Sasuke attacking the gokage summit. The ground felt like it was falling out from under him.

And then, a soft hand lightly slapped his cheek, before cradling it. He looked up in shock at Hinata, who was kneeling in front of him, her pearly eyes watering.

"Neji-niisan just told you, you hold more lives than one in your hands. I will never let my comrades die. Neither those words, nor the conviction behind them are lies! Not for you, and not for Sakura-chan. And it's not just you two, Naruto…we all hold those words and feelings within our hearts. They're what bind our lives together and make us comrades. If we all give up and discard those words and feelings, Shikaku-san and Inoichi-san, all these people…their acts would have been for nothing. That is when your comrades truly die. For you are no longer comrades then. That's how I feel. So stand up with me, Naruto-kun. Because never going back on one's word…is my shinobi way too!" Hinata said firmly. She didn't stutter once. Her soft voice didn't hold an ounce of uncertainty, her words carrying.

Kurama was yelling at him, agreeing with everything she said, and pointing out that his mother and father had given their lives for him as well. That he was already linked to two lives since the day he was born, already carrying the weight of two precious sacrifices.

"Why?" He whispered horsely. "Why would you go so far for me?" His parents sacrifice was one thing. They loved him. They were his family. But Hinata, Neji, the allied forces, none of them owed him anything. The only two he could arguably allow for were Sakura and Kakashi, as original members of team 7. But why was the rest of the world so willing to die for him?

"I can't speak for anyone else. As for me…it's because you called me a genius." Neji was smiling, a contented look on his face, even in the midst of deadly combat.

"And for me," Hinata said, her voice resolute and her light touch becoming more firm against his face, "it's because I love you. Now get up."

Sakura was facing her own crisis of ethics as she knelt next to the closest injured person the second the attacks had stopped. It was a medic. They were in critical condition, their arm flung around another shinobi, lying dead on the ground. They'd been trying to save him, and had fallen in their attempt. But they hadn't abandoned their comrade and patient as she had.

"And in the process, they lost their patient and created a new one…" her mind argued, though her feelings failed to catch up.

What was wrong with survival? Nothing. Especially not in adverse circumstances, when she had been forbidden from dying by her mentor/kage, her sensei, her precious teammate, her mother, and the love of her life. So why did it feel so wrong to survive, when others weren't? Why did abandoning a patient she knew she could have saved hurt so much, when it was that or dying?

"We declared it…we will never let our comrades die…but I actively did."

Rubbing salt in the wound, in the quieter aftermath of the attacks, she could clearly hear Obito pointing out the same sentiment to Naruto. His words picked her apart, piece by piece, like she actually was being impaled by wooden stakes.

"If ever there was a time when I can't afford to fail, it's now…so why am I letting him get to me so much right now?" But she knew why. It was the corpse of a medic lying right there in front of her. A medic who broke all the rules and two lives were lost for it, and somehow that seemed more acceptable then leaving a patient to protect herself. "Shishou would kill me for that thought…And she's right. So come on, Sakura, catch up. Get your head and your heart in the same place, cause we don't have time for this!"

We will never let our comrades die!

"Damnit!"

She felt her eyes beginning to burn with tears.

We will never let our comrades die!

"God damnit!"

She felt a hand on her back, and turned to look up at Kiba.

"You better not be blaming yourself for this!"

"I'm trying not to…I'm trying really hard not to."

"You, more than anyone ever, have never let a comrade die. I would know Sakura, I smelled Sasuke on you before we even had a hint of his whereabouts on that retrieval mission. You consider others a comrade so easily that you could still extend it to him at his darkest. You put your life on the line to not let comrades die when Pain attacked and then worked yourself into near insanity to not let them die in the aftermath. Every single person you meet sees it. Hell, you're not even from a formal clan with a helpful kekkei genkai or jutsu, but Shikaku knew it enough to name you as the safety net for this whole army, because he knew your skills and abilities, and how far you'd go to never let your comrades die." Kiba said fiercely. Akamaru gave a bark of agreement.

"You're not wrong. I know you're not wrong. But it would be a lot more believable if I wasn't surrounded by corpses."

Akamaru gave her a slight nudge.

"I'd bet you money not a single one of them even thought for one second that you failed them. They probably thought it was far better them than you. And again, I would know, cause if I go down here, that's gonna be my thought too. I wouldn't consider it you letting me die. Because if you die, that truly is the only way you could be letting us die. You never did talk about the future much, but if we make it out of this war, there'll be a lot of injured in the aftermath that will need your help. And if we manage to keep this alliance thing going, and have lasting peace, the thing that'll be killing people will be disease and stuff. You're gonna be the one the world turns to to fight that. So even with the current deaths, and the future deaths in this war, you have never and will never let your comrades die. We all believe it, and we all stand behind you."

"The future, huh? That's how far their faith in me extends…he's right though. If we make it through this, they'll need good medics. They'll need me. And if there's lasting peace, life expectancy will go up and the wars will change from shinobi on shinobi to shinobi on biology…a lot of clans intermarry and have genetic complications. It takes high level medical ninjutsu to treat diseases. They'll need good medics. They'll need me. Cause I don't let my comrades die. No matter what."

Sakura blinked the burning tears out of her eyes and took a steadying breath, giving the corpse of the medic one last look. And then she stood up.

"Thanks Kiba."

"Hey, Sakura. I'm an asshole sometimes and don't always think things through. But to me, you're a good friend. So I'll stand by you no matter what."

Sakura gave him a brilliant smile and then scanned the battlefield to find Naruto, and had to blink a few times.

"Is that…Naruto and Hinata-chan…holding hands?!"

Kiba followed her gaze and whistled. "Bout fuckin' time! Looks like our teams are gonna start seein' a lot more of each other."

"Guess that means you and I are gonna have to start racing again."

"You're so on." Kiba laughed, glad that Sakura seemed to have fully pulled herself from her self-flagellation.

Up ahead, Sakura watched as Naruto turned his golden orangey color, indicating that he had fused with the nine-tails, and an orange tail shaped cloak appeared around Hinata.

"He figured it out." Sakura smiled proudly. Once upon a recent time, the concept of matching and sharing chakra would have fully eluded Naruto.

Five clones later, zips of golden orange darted across the force give high fives, and in their wake more and more orange tailed cloaks appeared around the allied force members.

One of the clones skidded to a stop in front of Sakura, giving her a resolute smile.

"You alright Sakura-chan? What he said kinda got to me. If it wasn't for Hinata, I might have given in…"

"It got to me too, but Kiba and Akamaru talked me out of it." Sakura said, clapping Kiba on the shoulder. "We've got everything right now. People fight harder when there's something to protect. And if they take everything from us. We've got nothing to lose. Either way we're fighting."

"Damn straight!" The clone agreed. "You ready? It's a lot of weight on you."

"It's a lot of weight on you too. But I'm helping you hold it."

"You're not carrying it alone either. We're doin' this together Sakura-chan! Believe it!" Naruto gave her a firm high-five, their fingers wrapping around each other to hold the contact for a second, as the nine-tails chakra surrounded her.

"It's like its own reservoir, there for me to pull on and morph to my own chakra when I want to use it…but promising a higher potency on abilities. Between this and what Kurama shared with me directly, I'll have no issue making it the remained 3.75 hours."

Sakura and Naruto locked eyes, giving each other one last nod, and then Naruto was off to share more chakra, Kiba was dashing to help on the very front lines, and Sakura got to work.

"Katsuyu-sama, would I be able to summon a larger portion of you to Tsunade-sama directly?"

"Unfortunately not, and while you can share as much chakra with me as you want to work as a relay, the smaller the segment you share with, the slower it's transferred to the other segments."

"Like a bottle neck."

"That's right. That's partially why the network healing can only be utilized at its full potential if the user is able to summon a large portion of me as the primary relay point."

"That makes sense…"

"Options…what are my options?"

"…If I summon a larger portion of you here, would you be able to relay more?"

"Yes. But Sakura-chan, even with the nine-tails chakra, it talks a lot to summon me. If you aim too big, you run the risk of using everything additional you've been given."

"How much faster would you be able to relay my chakra if you were the size of my forearm?"

"Much faster than currently."

Sakura didn't hesitate, biting down on her thumb, drawing the blood across her palm and slamming it into the ground. "Summoning jutsu!"

The larger section of Katsuyu—obscenely small compared to her full body, but obscenely large for a normal slug—appeared, immediately wrapping herself around Sakura's forearm. Sakura brought the tiny piece of Katsuyu to merge with Katsuyu's larger piece and got to work channeling chakra into her.

"Katsuyu-sama, we'll be picking up where we left off with Gaara-kun's digestive system. After that we'll move on to his skeletal system, muscular system, and end with his nervous system. Then we'll move on to tsuchikage, raikage, mizukage, and we'll worry about Tsunade-sama last. We'll keep them under while working on each one, and then wake them up altogether to allow for a little extra recovery time."

Come hell or high water, she was bringing the five kage back.

Sasuke, Jugo, Suigetsu, and Orochimaru walked through the empty streets of Konoha, as Sasuke fought the onslaught of memories. But the village looked vastly different then he remembered. Without warning to his companions, he leapt up to the nearest water tower, taking in the changes to his home.

It looked…bigger. Tsuande's head had been officially added to the Hokage mount. He wondered if she was a better Hokage than the ones that created this mess of a village. There were more wood based buildings than he remembered, many of them seemed actively under construction. His eyes scanned for his and Sakura's apartment, but he couldn't find it…the building must have been torn down. Had they let her stay until then, as he had hoped when he left? Where did she live now?

"This place…sure has changed a lot too…"

That's just cause that Bastard had a head start! I'll pick up more pieces than him! Believe it!

Celebration team bonding dinner at Ichirakus!

We should take our wins when we get them.

Sasuske-kun…

Maybe it'll bring you…something good.

Sasuke reached into his cloak, his hand wrapping gently around the wrinkled paper crane.

I was being reckless. I'm sorry Sasuke-kun, I was just so angry I couldn't hold it in anymore.

Welcome home, Sasuke-kun! I figured you'd be hungry so I made dinner…

Those memories were kind ones, and yet, they soured with the knowledge that they all played out in the same place that had condemned his brother to the most isolated path.

Do either of you know how the Konoha healthcare system works?

That's not how illness is for civilians…

This is a shinobi village. It's harder for civilians to make a lot of money.

That should have been his clue. He should have realized how corrupt this place was right then and there.

I don't know what use the gods have for a thousand paper cranes, but apparently they grant you a wish if you fold that many as an offering to them.

I need to arrange her funeral…land plots can be pretty expensive…

These were the bitter memories. The ones that bore the truth of this place. The truth he should have recognized sooner. How much pain would he have been able to spare Sakura and her mother if he had realized it? And yet, even though Naruto had been there and seen it, even though he knew the truth about Itachi too, he still stood by this hell-hole of a place…

His hand tightened a little around the crane, though he remained careful not to crush it. Answers. He needed answers. Truth and answers. And then he would choose his next move.

Reaffirming his resolution, he spared one last look to the Hokage mount, and leapt down.

"Let's go."

---

Shockingly, Orochimaru lead him to the absolute ruins of the Uchiha Nakano shrine.

"There's not even a trace left." Sasuke murmured, looking around the mess.

"The exterior doesn't matter. What's important is what's beneath."

Sasuke used his sharingan to move the slab covered with a sealing jutsu, the one that ensured only Uchiha could enter, and inside they went.

"Well then, I'll get started." Orochimaru said, once Sasuke lit two braziers on either side of a tablet. He withdrew the Shinagami's Noh mask he'd collected from the Uzumaki clan's mask hall on the outskirts of Konoha. "It's best if you stand back."

Orochimaru donned the death mask, summoning the reaper god and stabbing it's abdomen, just as they'd discussed on the way. Jugo shaded some of his curse mark sage power with Sasuke, expelling the zetsu that Tobi had apparently had stick to him to keep watch over him. So much manipulation…

Those zetsu acted as the sacrifice to the god, and with that Orochimaru cast the edotensei, bringing back the four previous hokage. The ones with all the answers.

"That's the first Hokage? The real Senju Hashirama who's been touted as the god of shinobi?" Suigetsu breathed.

"It's that shinobi Orochimaru again!" Tobirama, the second Hokage spoke.

"What's going on?" Hashirama asked.

"I suspect he undid the reaper death seal that was been keeping us sealed away. And then performed the edotensei." Hiruzen speculated, eyeing Orochimaru suspiciously.

"No way…you solved how to undo that sealing jutsu? How, Orochimaru-san?" Minato aksed.

"You underestimate me Minato. It was originally a sealing jutsu of the Uzumaki clan. I simply researched the ruins and scattered documents of the now extinct clan, ever since I lost my jutsu." The snake answered. So he'd been doing this research while Sasuke had been training with him, and he hadn't said anything. Slimy bastard.

"Lord first, it appears we've been recalled into the world of the living…" Minato said, turning to Hashirama who was looking at him in confusion.

"Who the hell are you?"

"The fourth Hokage, sir." Minato said, turning to reveal the the kanji on the back of his coat.

"No! Fourth, eh?!" Hashirama asked in excited disbelief, seeming far more…childlike than would be expected from the god of shinobi. "Nice, nice! So the village has remained stable for a long time then!"

"Eh, not actually sure if it has or not…I died and was sealed away much earlier than the third Hokage."

"Huh?! Is that so?! In a different incident than when I was sealed away with Sarutobi?!"

"Yes, sir…a completely separate incident." Minato laughed sheepishly, scratching at the back of his head, in a way that strongly reminded Sasuke of Naruto.

"So then, who's the fifth hokage?!" The first asked.

"Your granddaughter, Tsunade-hime." Orochimaru informed him.

Hashirama literally sunk, a heavy air surrounding him. "Tsuna, eh…is the village okay?" He asked despondently.

"I-Is there something to be worried about?" Minato asked, unsure what to make of Hashirama's rapidly deteriorated mood.

But fast enough to give everyone whiplash, Hashirama burst out laughing, his despondent mood gone. "Well, she was my first grandchild so I spoiled her rotten! In the end, she even picked up my gambling habit!"

Sasuke was beginning to consider the possibility that their flawed and corrupt system hadn't been a result of intention, but rather incompetence. The first hokage reminded him of Naruto, with his brashness, childlike excitement, and rapid mood swings. Even if Naruto were to throw away their current flawed system, if he was like the first Hokage, whatever he put in place would become equally as corrupted as the current system from his sheer idiocy and inability to anticipate the places where darkness could creep in.

"The edotensei jutsu again, eh? I can't believe the jutsu I devised would be used so casually." Tobirama grumbled.

"It's really not that complex a jutsu, however, you really shouldn't have conceived of it. Second Hokage, many of your policies and the jutsu you developed ended up causing problems later down the line. Even currently…" Orochimaru informed him.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. So much of it was the second's policies. He supposed he should have figured as much. If the founding of Konoha, which started the whole hidden village system began with Hashirama, it would be in the expansion of the village after stabilization where policy corruption could start seeping in.

"Are you planning to attack Konoha again?" Tobirama asked threateningly.

"I took away your jutsu in exchange for my own life, yet you still…?!" Hiruzen grunted. "And this time you even revived me, your former teacher, to pit against Konoha?!"

Hashirama sighed heavily. "Always conflict, no matter what the era, eh? For sure, it cannot be called that great a jutsu. Tobirama that's why I told you that time to—" Hashirama accused pointing a finger at his brother.

"Hush, Nii-san. I am trying to speak to this stripling."

"But I—"

"Shut up!"

Tobirama's mood darkened into that heavy gloomy feel again.

Bur Sasuke had enough by then. Listening to the two brother's argue was bringing up too many memories, both of him and Itachi, and him and Naruto. And that was why he was here. Answers and to deal with Madara. The longer he let them go on wasting time, the greater the threat the war posed to Sakura.

"Enough. You're not here to attack Konoha. Yet. My name is Uchiha Sasuke, and Orochimaru brought you back because I need to ask you hokage somethings."

Hiruzen gasped. "Is that really you, Sasuke?!" What was he doing with Orochimaru?! Kakashi was supposed to have stopped that from happening. He was supposed to keep Naruto and Sasuke in check, and guide them!

"An Uchiha, eh…of course you'd stick with a scoundrel." Tobirama said coldly.

"Tobirama, I told you to stop saying such things!"

"You're too soft, Nii-san."

Sasuke didn't have time for this, and he wasn't enjoying the reminder of what he'd lost with his brother. "Never mind me. Third hokage, why'd you make Itachi-niisan do what he did?" Sasuke asked bluntly.

"I see…so you've learned of what happened."

"I…killed Itachi-niisan to avenge the Uchiha clan. Afterwards, I learned the truth from Tobi and Danzo…" and had been lied to by Tobi about Konoha killing Sakura… "and leaned towards swearing vengeance against Konoha. However…I want to hear it straight from your mouth. Everything regarding Itachi."

"So it came to that, eh…" Hiruzen sighed, looking at Sasuke's hard, cold face. He'd been such a troubled boy, since he was eight. But there'd been a time when Sasuke's face had been bright and warm. Curious by nature and righteously protective. How he'd ruined this child with his horrible leadership… "not only did I have him kill his brethren, I also had him bear the false charge of traitor and keep tabs on the Akatsuki all by himself. From the time he was a small child, Itachi paid attention to the teachings and signs of our predecessors that no one else gave heed to. He was a sensitive child who understood our village's past and our shinobi. And perhaps due to that, Itachi was never bound by the trappings of clan. He was able to think ahead, about the future of shinobi and the village, and constantly had misgivings regarding those futures. At all of seven years of age, he thought quite like a hokage. We left everything to Itachi, in his hands alone and he executed his missions perfectly. He slaughtered all of his brethren, stopped a revolt, prevented a coming war all by himself, he even infiltrated the Akatsuki as a spy to protect the village. On the condition that I protect you within the village."

Sasuke looked away, feeling the same heartbreaking weight he felt when Itachi ended the edotensei and left him for good.

"So…it's all true." He murmured despondently.

"This is all just part of the Uchiha's cursed fate. Though I can't believe they're on the brink of extinction…so the even plotted a coup d'etat, eh." Tobirama said, drawing Sasuke's attention. What cursed fate?

"I'd envisioned that it might come to something like that. The rebellious elements bearing Madara's will had been smoldering."

Sasuke felt his rage shifting towards the second Hokage. It wouldn't shock him if he had been the shinobi elitist that made life so hard for civilians and non-clan aligned shinobi as well.

"But you're the one who drove the Uchiha to it, second hokage. It could be said that the seeds got sown with the Uchiha Police Force you created." Orochimaru pointed out.

"What?"

"Those who crack down on crime tend to be easily disliked. Plus, the more authority such a group has, the more conceited it can get. By building the police station next to the prison under the pretext of facilitating the monitoring of criminals you conspicuously shoved the Uchiha clan to the margins of the village. That helped foster the Madara adherents."

So it was his fault Sasuke's clan had been forced to the outskirts. As he'd learned from Sakura, the outskirts weren't geographically desirable. Those on the outskirts were likely to take the brunt of attacks first. The Uchiha had been set up to be the shield for the rest of Konoha, the scape goat to blame. The group to be disliked. They were the only clan on the outskirts. The rest of outskirt property was unaffiliated—for the clanless civilians. Those properties were cheaper and more rundown. At least the district had been well cared for, their clan holding a good amount of wealth. But status-wise, that's where the Uchiha had been placed…

"Tobirama! Did I not emphasize to you over and over again not to slight the Uchiha?!" Hashirama admonished.

"But I gave them positions that they were eminently qualified for! And I believed that even if another Madara were to emerge, he could be dealt with right away! As you well know, Nii-san, the Uchiha are a clan possessed by evil!"

Sasuke hated him.

"And the clanless civilians? What about them?"

Hashirama and Tobirama exchanged a glance, before looking in confusion to Hiruzen, who looked equally confused. Minato kept his eyes down at the floor.

"What about them?" Tobirama asked.

"Why was the majority of unaffiliated land left to the outskirts?" Sasuke pressed.

"No clan wanted to be on the outskirts…" Hashirama stated as if it was obvious, and shooting another glare at his brother for having forced the Uchiha to such a land position.

"So you leave the least desirable locations available for the weakest and most vulnerable to take the hit first in case of an attack?" Sasuke growled. They hadn't even spared the civilians a thought, if their confusion was anything to go by!

"When did this matter peak your interest, Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked.

It only made him angrier. Wasn't the third the one who oversaw the making of teams? He'd thought so little of Sakura, he couldn't even seem to connect the dots between his line of questioning and her?!

"So no one saw any issue with using the civilian population as human shields for the clans?" Sasuke asked dangerously.

"Konoha has a civilian population?" The first asked, turning to the rest of the Kage.

"Sasuke, you have to understand. Times were different back then. You grew up in a time of relative peace. When Konoha first was founded, there were no civilians, and by the time the second Hokage was running things, we were at war." Hiruzen tried to explain.

"Those that weren't contributing to the village's safety had to make sacrifices to remain. Less choice land and higher taxes and expenses, since they weren't doing anything to help our safety."

Of course it had started with the second hokage. "And that was just acceptable to you?" Sasuke asked sharply, glaring at Hiruzen and Minato.

"No…" Minato murmured, "but I'd be lying if I said it was a priority."

If the roots of the system were this poisoned, unable to see the harm of their own actions, with only one of them considering it a problem but not priority, it was solidifying Sasuke's resolve that the system had to go. They viewed those who lived under their care as nothing more than tools, and if one failed to fight and die to protect their system, they were deemed useless. People were nothing more than tools to them. They weren't much better than Orochimaru.

"And yet it's the Uchiha clan that's possessed by evil." Sasuke said darkly, glaring at the second hokage. How could he even say that? What leg did he have to stand on? But, why did he say it like there was something to it. Like it was a known fact… "Second Hokage…a question for you. What is it about the Uchiha clan? What do you know?"

"There used to be a thought that in contrast to the Senju clan, who based their strength in love as opposed to jutsu, the basis of the Uchiha clan's strength was the power of their jutsu. However the truth is actually different. There is no clan that feels deeper love than the Uchiha. And that is why the Uchiha have suppressed it and sealed it away."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, but something was starting to occur to him…In the way he loved his family and Sakura.

"Once an Uchiha knows love, it's as if all his or her previously checked emotions are released. They awaken a profound love and power that exceeds even the Senju's."

Sasuke had known the love of his family and brother deeply. And while they were alive, he loved them whole heartedly, but overall, from what he could remember, that had been the most even his emotions had ever been. When he lost them, his emotions had become ever shifting flames of rage, hate, depression, and desolation. And against all odds, when Sakura had danced her way into his heart, the flames grew more stable, more warm, more soothing. And when he thought he lost her, after finding out the truth about Itachi…those ever shifting flames had become an uncontrollable wild fire. What the second hokage said tracked with his experience, yet at the same time…there was something just a little wrong.

"But why's that a problem? It should help things go smoothly with the Senju too, this super strong power of love thing, right?" Suigetsu asked.

"Except that it is quite problematic. This great power hides within it the possibility of going out of control. When an Uchiha who has known love then loses that deep love, it is replaced by an even stronger hate that changes them. I have seen it happen quite a few times. And that's when a certain special condition emerges."

"Special condition?"

"When an Uchiha individual writhes in agony over the loss of a great love or disappointment in themself, a unique chakra gets released inside his or her brain and reacts with the optic nerves, and changes appear in that person's eyes. This is the phenomenon called the sharingan. The eyes that reflect the heart. The sharingan taps into the power of that person's heart, rapidly increasing his or her strength along with the power of their hate. There were many sensitive individuals among the Uchiha and nearly all who were exposed to strong emotions were taken by darkness and fell to evil. The deeper the darkness gets, the greater the ocular powers also become, until the person can no longer be stopped. Just like Madara." Tobirama explained.

Again it made sense, and tracked with is own experience. He couldn't help thinking about Sakura's curse. Strong emotions were the trigger…their experiences were so similar. But she was better than him. She'd taught herself methods of control, while he threw himself into the darkness head first. But he still loved Sakura. Even laden with the muddy darkness he knew he was drowning in, he still loved her. So what did that mean for him? Were his eyes weaker? He didn't feel like he was. And he didn't really care. What good was power if Sakura was dead?

"Madara cared intensely about his little brother, likely even more so than your brother." Hashirama explained.

"I thought I had arranged and guided things such that the Uchiha's power could be harnessed to serve the village. Although if they self-destructed for the sake of the village, then so be it. Either way, in the end, they were of use to the village of Konoha." Tobirama said.

Tools. Nothing more than tools to die for their system. Disgusting. Even when Sasuke had been convinced that Itachi was evil, he still considered him his brother, and a person. It frustrated him beyond measure when Sakura had been keeping her emotions and thoughts in and tried carrying everything by herself, because she was a person. Not a feelingless punching bag for everyone else, existing to carry and hold any and everything people dumped on her. It was one of the things he had respected about Naruto. He'd refused to be a tool, and to define his way forward for himself…and now, even knowing the truth, he still stood by the system, ready to defend it with his life. He'd become a tool. Sasuke hated that more than anything. It was why he had to kill Naruto. He was too indoctrinated into the shinobi system and mindset. It was why he was growing more and more certain of his next steps. Stop this war, and then kill all the leadership responsible for perpetuating this system. Kill Naruto, who would die to protect it. And free all the shinobi from this toxic chain enslaving them. He'd free Sakura.

"Tobirama, will you quit saying such things?! Your audience is an innocent Uchiha child!" Hashirama shouted.

"What is all important is the village. The village is the keystone. I know you know that too, Nii-san." Tobirama answered petulantly.

"It doesn't bother me. I am neither innocent nor a child." Sasuke said darkly, his mangekyo activating. He still needed to know one last thing: if this system had been the intent, by design, or if this was an inadvertent result of carelessness, lack of empathy, and inattentiveness.

"First hokage, I need to know. What does it mean to be a village? And what does it mean to be a shinobi?"

"What is a village…and what is a shinobi, eh?" Hashirama mused.

"Itachi-niisan…my brother, despite having been used by Konoha, defended the village with his life. He died a proud Konoha shinobi." He thought of mentioning Sakura, but referencing her directly would tip Orochimaru off, if he wasn't already aware. At the very least, he had to be suspicious, and Sasuke would do nothing to give him any form of confirmation. "So what exactly is this village that one strives to protect even if it means killing one's family. Even if it means their own death. And what are shinobi who've created such a circumstance and consider them acceptable? I'll listen to your words and find out the truth. Then I'll make my decision." Sasuke deactivated his mangekyo, "whether to declare vengeance against Konoha, or—"

"Vengeance against Konoha?! Damn brat possessed by Uchiha evil!" The second said, his aura becoming down right menacing as he began radiating bloodlust, his chakra spiking. "In that case, I'll…"

It was unlike anything Sasuke ever felt. So this was the power of the second Hokage, a senju.

"Lord second!" Hiruzen protested. Given what Sasuke had been through, his question was fair. It was a miracle the boy hadn't already declared his vengeance against Konoha.

"Tobirama…" The first's voice held a previously unheard level of threat. His chakra spike even more alarming than his brother's. Just who were the Senjus?! "Lower your finger."

A beat passed. Then another. And then Tobirama's finger, which had barely twitched up, lowered back onto his crossed arms, and the deadly chakra spikes settled. "Oh all right. Don't rile up your chakra so, Nii-san."

The first hokage burst out in another boisterous laugh. "Sorry about that!"

"W-Wow that's incredible…" Minato muttered in a small voice.

"Well then, Sasuke, you had a good older brother! A shinobi even greater than I!" The first Hokage said, winking. "I don't mind telling you about the village, but it's going to take some time." Hashirama said easily.

"Tell me everything I want to know, but do it fast. We really don't have much time." Sasuke said flatly.

"No time?" Hiruzen asked.

"We're in the middle of a war. Uchiha Madara has been revived and apparently intends to erase all the shinobi of this world." Orochimaru informed them.

All the Hokage jolted. Hashimara sighed. "Always a conflict, no matter what the era."

"I do sense powerful chakra in the direction of two o'clock." Tobirama said, glaring in that direction.

Minato looked stricken…because it was Naruto's and the nine tail's chakra he was sensing. Naruto had managed to do it! They were fighting together.

"It doesn't seem to be a lie. I do indeed sense Madara's chakra! What's his purpose in this war?" Tobirama growled.

"His desire is to erase the entire shinobi world." Orochimaru answered flatly.

"Then we ought to head to the battlefield!" Hiruzen said.

A part of Sasuke was inclined to agree, but he still needed to know…

"As all of you are under the control of my edotensei jutsu, your movements can be restricted." Orochimaru warned. "If you insist, you may head to the battle field after you finish talking."

"Talk later! Do you really understand the gravity of Madara having been revived?!" Hiruzen argued.

"I am sticking with this child. If Sasuke isn't satisfied with your explanations, I may use all of your to destroy Konoha now. The timing couldn't be better." Orochimaru stated firmly.

"How dare you!" Hiruzen growled.

"Orochimaru, is it? You seem to be misunderstanding something…" Tobirama started menacingly, but Sasuke cut him off impatiently.

"Enough. I don't have time for this. Believe it or not, I also have a vested interest in stopping this war, so I'm not opposed to going now, if you're able to provide satisfactory answers along the way. If not, than start talking and talk fast. I'd like to get to the war front as much as you do." Sasuke ordered.

"Well said." Hashirama smiled. "I have a vested interest in undoing the ill feelings that are binding you. I don't know which way you'll swing after listening to me, but I do know that if I ignore you now, you will definitely become the next Madara, in which case, even if the war ends with our side winning, it would be pointless. But, as you said, we're short on time, so forgive me for talking fast."

And Hashirama told him everything. How it had been every clan for themselves, none more warring then the Uchiha and Senju. How he and Madara first met by the river where they were skipping stones. Both hated how they kept losing brothers and cousins and family members. Both hated the unending war. Both wanted it to end, and recognized each other as kindred spirits. They never gave their last names…that was a rule. Though they both suspected…and didn't care. They trained together, skipped stones, and discussed a future. A village where children didn't have to die. A village where clans coexisted and there was peace. And then their families discovered that they were hanging out, each clan attempting to use the two friend's meeting to ambush each other. The boys attempted to warn each other. And their fathers beat them to it, involving their younger brothers in the fight. And that was something the two older brothers couldn't allow, and fought each other in their brothers place, Madara ending their friendship and awakening his sharingan. They met repeatedly in battle from then on always ending in a stalemate no matter how strong the two grew, as they both became the leaders of their clans. Hashirama attempted to use the position to broker peace, but when Izuna, Madara's little brother, died by Tobirama's hand, Madara refused to allow for peace. Still more and more Uchiha favored the idea of peace and began defecting to the Senju, until very few stood by Madara. In their final battle, when Hashirama defeated him, Madara put forward a deal, kill him and end it now, or kill Tobirama as justice for Izuna. Hashirama chose to kill himself. Moved by the gesture, Madara surrendered and ended the war. The Senju, Uchiha, and affiliated clans came together and founded Konoha. But their views on peace and how to maintain and ensure it differed, and caused fractures between Madara and the village. Madara favored violent control, while Hashirama wanted diplomacy. When Hashirama was named leader of the village, Madara became paranoid about what it meant for the future of the Uchiha, fearing it to be the first step in Senju supremacy. At a certain point, he decided Konoha was a failed experiment and tried to share with his clan and Hashirama, but no one listened or agreed. So he chose to abandon the village, attacking several times, once with the nine-tails, and battled Hashirama until exhaustion, creating the Valley of End, where Hashirama eventually killed Madara.

"The village Madara and I envisioned in the beginning is something that joined one clan to another. An invaluable cornerstone that created order out of chaos and then maintained it. It protected the children, averted pointless conflict and made peace a reality. However, it also gave rise to darkness, such as that borne by your older brother Itachi, and failed to see far enough in the future to account for civilian treatment." Hashirama closed his eyes, considering the matter. "Perhaps what Madara said was correct after all. Maybe he had foreseen this very state of affairs. I am the shinobi who created these circumstances. Furthermore, I am also the one who considered them acceptable. And I believe that shinobi are those who endure for a purpose, but depending on what that purpose is, a shinobi can change just as both Madara and I did." He finished, meeting Sasuke's eyes. Now…what would his answer be?

"Shinobi are those who endure in order to achieve their goals…" Sasuke repeated. Itachi had endured so much for his goal to protect his village. Sakura had endured so much for her goal to save her mother, and then to protect her team. That definition made sense to him. It matched the two people he loved the most perfectly.

"This for me was village building. But it seems Madara found something else. This plan of Madara's that Orochimaru mentioned earlier, to erase all the shinobi in this world…I don't know what that means in literal terms, but—"

"An infinite tsukuyomi where village, shinobi, nation, and citizen are all irrelevant. He intends to put everyone under genjutsu and manipulate them as he sees fit. To nullify everything that nii-san, Madara's little brother, and all of you have striven to protect." Sasuke said, his resolve steeling. The system had to change, and he'd have to make that happen. But placing everyone in a genjutsu that removed their entire sense of choice, that manipulated them and rendered them nothing more than tools, made that answer no better than the current system. It was time to end all of this manipulative dehumanizing nonsense. Shinobi endured for the sake of their goals…fine. He could accept that answer, but those goals had to belong to the individuals. Not a village coopting and warping it. And not a singular man implanting a goal that was never true to everyone else. "Hashirama. It turns out nii-san inherited your will without you ever having directly exchanged words with him. He endured longer and harder than you, and died stating he was proud to be a Konoha shinobi. It's it ironic that the shinobi who understood you most was a member of the Uchiha clan?"

Hashirama frowned. He wished it hadn't come to this…this disbelief. The village was founded so it was no longer the Senju vs. Uchiha. And yet…it was still here.

"Your brother wasn't the only one. One of my subordinates was Uchiha Kagami, a man a lot like your brother." Tobirama informed Sasuke.

"Second Hokage, I thought you hated the Uchiha…" Sasuke said.

"That's not entirely true. I simply treated any who posed a danger to the village, no matter what clan they belonged to, with extreme caution. The Uchiha just happened to be a clan particularly disposed to be considered such. However, it is also because they could feel such deep love that there were quite a few Uchiha over the years like your brother and Uchiha Kagami. They could transcend the framework of clan and devote themselves to the village."

To Sasuke that reminded him too much of the disbelief people carried on experiencing Sakura's intelligence and skill. How many believed she would amount to nothing because she was civilian born. Even recalling their academy class, she was the only one of those who graduated without a clan, and not even the third hokage seemed to care. There were a few good Uchiha. There were a few good civilian shinobi. The exceptions, not the rule.

"Nii-san thought of the village as something that could eliminate the frameworks of clans. Well, not that it ever goes that easily of course. Nissan's naiveté and Uchiha Madara's dangerousness. It was my role as the second hokage to mediate between the two, protect the village and fortify it." Tobirama explained.

He'd done a piss poor job, in Sasuke's opinion.

"Uchiha Kagami's descendent was Uchiha Shishui, your cousin, and Itachi's best friend." Hiruzen said. "There were many, including myself who inherited Lord first's will of fire. However, perhaps I was the most naïve shinobi of them all. I couldn't maintain Lord seconds village building well, which is how I ended up burdening Danzo with the Village's darkness."

He'd also done a piss poor job. They'd been so focused on maintaining the first hokage's will that they hadn't considered or focused on setting further goals that bettered the system. Maintaining someone else's will instead of furthering their own.

"I killed Danzo in vengeance. To the very end he professed that he would protect the village no matter what dirty means were required." That was the problem. Sasuke believed in extremes, in doing what needed to be done. However, there was no use protecting and keeping a village in stasis, rather than letting it become better.

"It seems like I erred time after time as Hokage. Even the things that led to the current circumstances are in part my responsibility." The third sighed.

The fourth protested, arguing that he was to blame as well, for having died too soon and being unable to intervene and stop the Uchiha himself. Though Sasuke noted, he didn't mention how he would have done so that didn't involve killing his entire family. Words. Empty words with no alternatives. No changes. No plans of action. As things were, with this will of fire, Konoha would remain a corrupt cesspool. The will itself needed to change for the shinobi world to move forward.

"Now Sasuke, what next?" Orochimaru asked. "Shall you crush the village, or…?"

No. That wasn't what needed to happen right now. First he had to stop Madara and his plan to force his own will on everyone else. Then he would deal with the village—tearing down this system, and replacing it with a better one, a fair one.

"We head to the battlefield. I won't let Itachi's work amount to nothing!" Sasuke answered.

"It's decided then!" The first hokage announced, turning to his brother. "Tobirama, make preparations to fly us outside!"

"I'd love to but I'm still restricted from using the flying raisin."

Which meant they were going on foot…there was no time to lose.

The four kage, Sasuke, Orochimaru, Jugo, and Suigetsu stepped outside, and Suigetsu decided that was his chance to make a break for it. He wanted nothing to do with this war, and since Orochimaru and Jugo made it clear they'd stick with Sasuke, this was his only chance to get away.

Only he didn't get far. He only made it a few paces when he took a foot to the face.

"So it was you Sasuke-kun, eh! I sensed your chakra so I backtracked here, hardly believin' myself, but voila!" Karin screeched, shaking Suigetsu violently and ignoring his protests of innocence.

"Oh how splendid, so many of my superior lab rats for the past assembled in one place." Orochimaru stated.

This was why he hated Orochimaru too. People were tools to him. Experiment subjects. He may not manipulate on a mental level…he did it on a biological one. It was disgusting.

"Karin…" Sasuke greeted. He nearly killed her, in his darkest moment. When he was "possessed by evil." Too deep in the mud that he couldn't even recognize the girl he loved until he had almost killed her. He'd done the thing he faulted the village, the shinobi system, Tobi and Madara, and Orochimaru for. He'd treated Karin like a tool. So…maybe Tobirama had a point…

"Bastard, I ain't ever forgivin'—"

"I'm sorry, Karin."

Karin's loud anger halted immediately. Her brow furrowed. "Did you talk to Sakura recently?" She had been the one to break through his insanity before. She didn't sense Sakura anywhere around, but…he seemed more stable than before. Almost like when he first formed team Hebi.

"Sakura?" The third asked. "Haruno Sakura?"

Sasuke didn't even want to give him a response. Interesting that Karin had asked…did she remember Sakura from their one interaction?

"…No." He answered, acutely aware of the other kage's eyes on him…and Orochimaru's.

"Little Sakura-chan, hm?" Orochimaru asked, a sickening smirk on his face. Sasuke really hated him.

"Didn't think I sensed her." Karin mused, walking over. "So wait…you're…" Karin suddenly blushed. If he was stable again, and he apologized…did she have a shot? She suddenly became aware of the fact that she was in hospital pajamas. When had she washed her hair last? She quickly tucked some hair behind her ear.

"Still got that weak spot for Sasuke, eh, Karin?" Orochimaru asked.

"Oh! Um! Orochimaru-sama! You see, uh, Sasuke-kun here, he stabbed me…"

Sasuke looked down. That was his darkest moment. He'd lost sight of everything, fully allowing others to manipulate him instead of holding fast to his own mind and will…and he was scared. Because there was a very real chance that if Sakura died in this war, he'd sink right into that darkness, where people were no more than tools, and life meant nothing. Everything he hated.

"Me too, dear. But right now, I'm cooperating with Sasuke…ah this is perfect. You can join us too."

"G-guess I have no choice." She said, looking Sasuke up and down hungrily, her cheeks matching her red hair.

"Wait, who's Sakura?" Hashirama asked with interest. The way the younger Uchiha had spoken earlier he'd thought the boy had already succumbed to hatred, but if there was still someone he actively loved…there still may be hope for him. Maybe that was why he'd been willing to listen to them at all. It was a move that had felt far more reasonable than an Uchiha lost to their hatred would be willing to make. Though it was a shame for this Karin girl. If Sasuke's heart was already set, she had no chance. "And who's this?"

"Judging from her chakra, someone of the Uzumaki clan." Tobirama observed, less interested in the topic of Sakura.

"Haruno Sakura…A member of the thought-to-be- extinct cursed Haruno clan, and your granddaughter's apprentice." Orochimaru informed Hashirama, watching with interest as Sasuke leveled a dangerous glare at him. All through his training, the boy had done an excellent job at hiding any lingering connections or feelings he may feel towards his teammates, especially Sakura. Responding to her name with a level of apathy that didn't even extend to Naruto. But it seemed Sasuke had done a spectacular job of lying to him…

"There's a cursed Haruno in the village?!" Tobirama demanded, only to find himself on the receiving end of Sasuke's murderous glare.

"You really must not care about Madara, since you're so willing to stand around chatting." Sasuke hissed.

"He's right! Fellow Kage, let's go!" Hashirama cut in, very much not wanting to do anything that pushed Sasuke further into darkness. If he was holding onto this Sakura girl, that was enough. The fact that she was a cursed Haruno was troubling…she shouldn't even be on the battlefield…but, if she was keeping Sasuke from total darkness, that was good and he wouldn't question it. Besides, if she'd been Tsuna's apprentice…he really wanted to meet this girl, if anything to make sure she turned out alright.

All four Kage leapt onto their faces of the hokage mount, looking over the village they gave everything for one last time, and then they took off.

Sasuke, team taka, and Orochimaru behind them.

---

Things were not going well. Naruto's chakra cloaks acted as a shield, and if it weren't for that, between Obito and Madara's fire jutsu and the ten-tails attacks, everyone would have been burnt to a crisp. The attacks were so wide reaching, that dodging them was nearly impossible. Sakura stayed back. She knew her current mission: the kage. After that, this field. But kage first. So only moving to explicitly dodge when possible, Sakura kept her focus on her first mission.

Gaara was satisfactory healed, as was the Tsuchikagge, though she didn't intend to wake them just yet. She was now mostly through healing the raikage. With the help of the nine-tails chakra boost, she was already done repairing his circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and skeletal systems.

"Shit!" Sakura danced away from a swath of Madara's flame, grabbing three other ninja out of the way as she went.

"We can withstand the flame's because of the cloaks! Don't worry!" One of shinobi told her. "Just focus on the kage, Sakura-san!"

"That puts more pressure on Naruto, and makes it harder for him to keep it up! At least try to dodge when you can!" Sakura snapped, healing a large cut one of the shinobi had, before retreating again to focus, though she made sure she was always close enough to Naruto to run in if he needed her.

He certainly looked tired. He was breathing hard. Sakura saw the air ripple above him.

"Naruto—"

"Above you!" Kakashi had seen it too, immediately recognizing the Kamui.

The warning had been necessary—he wouldn't have dodged in time otherwise.

"Thanks Sakura-chan, sensei!" Naruto panted.

"Naruto, you're fighting only defensively now, protecting everyone. Is there any meaning to all this?" Obito taunted. "You're just getting weaker."

"I bet you can't understand, since you wanna be alone, but it really makes me super happy to have everybody by my side!" Naruto shouted. "Just seeing them all gives me strength!" He said, charging Obito, along with several ninja in the area.

But Obito sharingan'd away before Naruto's swipe could land.

"He ran off?" Kiba growled, annoyed. And this guy ragged on Naruto for fighting defensively? He was using a hit and run strategy!

"If the pain of your comrades' deaths is part of your bond, then there's no need to protect them, no?" Obito asked, reappearing above them.

"Ugh! You're such a nit-picky bastard! I totally super hate that about you! Don't put words in my mouth, fool! I can endure any amount of pain if it involves my comrades! I don't wanna give them up! Even though it may be selfish of me…it's even more painful for me not to have any comrades in here! Period!" He shouted, slapping a hand over his heart.

"Well that shut you up, shannaro!" Sakura laughed, not realizing she spoke out loud until Naruto flashed her a beaming smile.

Just then, the ten-tails let out an earth quaking roar. It's narrow arms began to bulge, starting to force it's way through the nine-tails chakra enhanced mountain jutsu that had been immobilizing it.

"Ugh, what?!" Naruto cried.

"It's because you cut the link between ten-tails and me. It can't be controlled anymore. Though I suppose it's about time to become its jinchuriki." Obito observed calmly.

The ten-tails roared again, fully breaking free, and Madara activated his susano.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. This was his last chance! This times he'd take out the nine-tails in one shot.

"Kamui!"

"Looks like you were waiting for your chance, but so was I, Kakashi!" Obito shouted, jumping in the way of Kakashi's line of sight.

Space began to bend around them.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura called in unison.

"Naruto, Sakura, you take care of things out here!" And then he and Obito were swirled into non-existence.

All around them, tornados swirled, sucking up the insane amount of loose rock and stone. Lightening rained down on them.

"Focus your chakra to your feet and hold fast!" Sakura bellowed over the noise, crouching to keep her center of gravity low, and gluing herself to the earth with her chakra. There was nothing else for her to do than brace herself and focus on the kage, so she kept to the parameters of her primary mission focus.

Those who managed to hear her, immediately followed suit, but it was hard to be heard over the roar of both the ten tails and the winds.

For what could only have been three minutes at most but felt like an eternity, the allied forces held on for dear life, as the most cataclysmic weather they could possibly experience raged around them.

Madara watched from inside his Sasuno, as the storm settled and dust cleared. "That should've cleaned most of them out…"

Several of the allied forces were on the ground groaning. But none seemed to have died. Even more shocking, was the amount that weren't down at all.

Sakura looked over the scene taking stock of who had fallen. There were a lot of grunts and groans of pain, but for the most part, everyone was okay, thanks to Naruto's chakra cloak. She heard Shizune shouting the medics into organization to start checking on everyone. The apocalyptic chain of "natural" weather phenomena had actually given her a solid three minutes of focus without interruption, and in that time she managed to finish healing the raikage's musculature and nervous systems, so he was satisfactorily healed, and had allowed her to move onto the mizukage.

Sakura's eyes found Naruto, and she immediately swore. His chakra cloak had faded. He dropped to on knee, holding his arm, his fused nine-tails form completely faded. Similarly, the nine-tails chakra cloak around her began to diminish.

"Naruto's at his limit. It won't be long until the cloaks completely fade from all of us."

"Katsuyu-sama, we don't have a lot of time. I'm channeling all the nine-tails chakra that remains into you for the Mizukage, can you hold and keep the release rate consistent?"

"Not at this size. That would be too much to hold."

"Shit. Okay." Sakura bit her lip, starting to make her way through the devastation towards Naruto, deciding it was time to refocus on this front. That didn't stop her from focusing 10% of her usable chakra to the Mizukage. The real question was if she could hold and actively heal both at once. "Forty-five minutes more and I won't need the nine-tails chakra anyway."

"That all you got?" Naruto challenged, holding his bleeding arm and breathing heavily.

The ten-tails let out another horrific roar.

"Nice try, but it seems you've reached your limit. You've given me something to look forward to…but I think it's time you made your exit." Madara said.

But before he could do anything, a wall of allied forces shinobi were in front of Naruto. That Hyuga girl from earlier the one directly in front of him.

"Everybody! Let's join together and fight as one!" She called.

Naruto felt two hands on his back and glanced behind him. "Sakura-chan, what about—"

"I'm mostly done. Just the mizukage and shishou left…and shishou's…a challenge. Don't worry about it though. I got this! It's your turn to heal up." Sakura answered firmly.

"I know you do, Sakura-chan! Thanks!" He was so grateful for her. And Hinata. For all his comrades. But he knew for a fact he wouldn't have made it this far without Sakura.

What really frustrated him was that behind them, that pink-haired girl was directly behind Naruto, her hands glowing with green chakra. This girl was not simply proficient, she'd brought the fence-sitter Tsuchikage back from what was surely death's door faster than any medical specialist he'd ever seen, except for maybe the Hashirama's disappointing granddaughter. Even then though, he wasn't certain. And if she could keep healing Naruto and replenishing his chakra, it would take that much longer for him to enact his plan. She'd continuously stayed back once the allied forces came, not that that was an uncommon tactic with medics, but he barely saw her heal any fallen comrades, from what he'd been able to track of her. Was it to save all her chakra for Naruto? How was it, with his superior sensing skills, that what he could identify of her chakra was incredibly minimal and weak, and yet…she was the only medic other than Hashirama's granddaughter to stand on the front line. And when she had earlier, she never took a hit.

The ten-tails had started transforming again, its mouth opening—almost flower-like, charging the largest tailed beast bomb yet.

"The fun's about to start, but it looks like I'll need to more soon." Madara observed. His frustration surrounding Naruto and and Sakura's resistance would soon be moot. Nothing would survive that blast.

"It's still growing bigger in size…" Shikamaru observed glumly.

"I-is that meant for Naruto?!" Choji asked nervously.

"Honestly…how are we supposed to deal with that without Naruto's chakra…?" A member of the allied forces murmured.

"It'll kill all of us!" His friend agreed

Sakura stared at the tailed beast bomb growing larger and larger. She would have thought she would feel fear, terror, or panic…but all she felt was a burning defiance, and piercing clarity.

"If this is how it ends, so fucking be it, but I sure as shit don't intend to make it easy for them! Shannaro!"

"Why are you wavering now?" Sakura demanded, her voice clear and carrying over the battlefield. "We came this far. Losing isn't an option, though we all knew there was a chance of it. Yet we still came this far and lost so many already. Take my word for it, cause this is a situation I'm intimately familiar with. I've never been someone with a lot of resources, or power, or strength. And yet there were so many problems that arose…so I did everything I could. And sometimes it wasn't enough, the problems were just too big for my capabilities…"

Damnit Sakura! You're twelve, not thirty! You shouldn't have 'the means' for this!

She's doomed anyway, destined to die screaming.

You're a complete no-talent, you know that, don't you?

Your tricks are useless against me, little girl.

"And every single time, I still did whatever was in my limited power to do. When you're faced with a situation where the only option is death for you and your precious people, you say fuck this and you fight. You find or make another option. You put all your effort and power into that option and you keep doing that until the situation resolves one way or another. Naruto's already been doing it. He considers us all his comrades from the bottom of his heart, and as such, he's put his all into this, and done everything he possibly can! Same goes for me. Fuck this, I'm doing everything I possibly can, whatever's within my power to do! I'm healing the kage. I will heal Naruto fully. And I will not let my comrades die here. That's what's within my power! So figure out what's within yours!" Sakura ordered. "If we end up going down here, if we're gonna die anyway, we might as well go down fighting to the absolute best of our abilities!"

"Thirty more minutes. Thirty more minutes and no one's dying in this war again. Thirty more minutes, and I'll punch that smug asshole straight in the face! Shannaro!"

Shikamaru smirked…how far she come, and yet, how incredibly consistently like her. But she'd never been that confident before. It had been hard fought for and well earned. Even if it was hopeless, going down fighting, doing everything they could…

"Everything we could…" Shikamaru repeated, his eyes widening. Boy, did he owe Sakura one. His shogi partner had just given him an idea. "Ino! There's someone I want you to get me in touch with!"

"You have a plan, eh?" She answered, coming over immediately. She was brimming with pride, both in her best friend and how far she'd come, and in her teammate/brother, who could come up with tactics when all else seemed hopeless.

"You rock, Shikamaru!" Choji encouraged.

Shikamaru set the first part of his plan in motion, before making the request he worried about.

"Ino…next link me in to all of the shinobi that are here on this battlefield." He knew the danger that put her in. It was risky, expanding the mind link too far if the user wasn't ready. This could very well kill Ino…his request might kill his sister. "Can you do it?"

"Doesn't matter! I'm gonna do it!" Ino shouted, burning with determination. She knew this had been coming since her dad died. And ready or not, she'd do it. Just like her best friend said, she'd do whatever she could. Ino took a deep breath, remembering the three months of drilling medical ninjutsu in the second floor of the fish market.

Breathe, Pig. You're holding your breath…

Ino inhaled, imagining drawing in air from every corner of the battlefield, a small bit of every single persons breath. With it came the sensing of each and every active, breathing mind.

Breathe, Pig. You're holding your breath…

She exhaled, pushing her breath to every corner of the battlefield, a small bit of her breath sent to each person, and with it, her mind connecting to theirs. And she relayed the hand signs Shikamaru wanted to convey, along with his plan.

"Not you Sakura." Shikamaru's voice echoed in her mind. "You focus on your mission. Heal Naruto. Heal the kage. Leave this to us."

"Good, cause I'm no good at elemental ninjutsu anyway." Sakura answered, her lips twitching in a slight smile.

The biju bomb fired, but she left it to her comrades and focused on the juggling between Naruto's healing and the Mizukage's. It helped to identify similar damage points and healing procedures, as she could generally keep her chakra flow consistent between the two, with micro-adjustments for individual body chemistry. It got harder when there was no longer aligned damage.

The sound of shattering earth filled the air as the biju bomb hit earthen mud wall after earthen mud wall cast by almost every member of the allied forces. But when the bomb reached the eight-tails, only minimally slowed and seemingly still fully capable of destroying them all…

It vanished.

A strange kunai with some sort of seal on the handle planted itself into the earth in front of her and Naruto.

And less than a second later, a man in a coat embroidered with flames and kanji was in front of them.

"Am I late?"

"Nope…" Naruto grinned. "Right on time, Pa!"

Sakura blinked. "Who…?"

The man straightened, to reveal a head of blond hair that was so familiar to her. He turned to look over his shoulder at them and she was struck with that sense of familiarity again, for two different reasons.

He looked a lot like Naruto. And he also looked like one of the stone faces in the hokage mount…the fourth hokage.

"Pa? Pa?! The fourth Hokage is Naruto's dad?!"

I don't know who your parents were Naruto, but they must have been at least chunin level shinobi.

"At least Chunin level?! His dad was a full-ass kage?! Gods they even look alike, how'd I never put that together?! Seriously?! C'mon Sakura! I saw that stone face every fuckin' day! How'd I miss that?!"

"My name is Namikaze Minato. Brace for an impending explosion." The fourth said, glancing back at his son and the pretty medic ninja.

Sure enough, there was a massive explosion from behind them. Sakura was actually glad for the warning, otherwise the sudden surprise of it may have inadvertently spiked a reaction, which would have been really annoying to deal with at the moment while balancing two active patients—one remotely—and four other support patients. That being said, she had no idea where or how that explosion had come from, and she couldn't keep herself from voicing as much.

"Whoa! What?!"

"I sent ten-tail's attack off into the sea." Minato said casually, as if that wasn't one of the most impossible things she'd ever heard.

Even though the sea was a long way off, the biju bomb was so big that there was still a massive blow back. It even managed to push some of the less prepared ally forces of their feet, and forced many to close their eyes. Not Sakura though. It had been drilled into her. Her eyes remained opened and locked on the fourth hokage.

"You're an edotensei…" She observed, her eyes calculating.

"But a late comer, and the other edotensei except for Madara were all released…so not the original jutsu caster…than who? Who's will is he acting under?"

"Don't worry, I'm an ally. Thank you for healing Naruto. Are you his girlfriend?"

Naruto considered that question. Obviously the answer was no…but Sakura was so much like his mom, he thought his dad might find it funny to see. "Yup! I suppose you could say that…" after all, literally speaking, Sakura was a girl who was a friend. Though really she was so much more than that.

Sure enough, as he expected, that answer set her off. "What the hell are you saying! Shut your trap—don't waste your energy spewing nonsense!" Sakura yelled, her body contorting as only her dancer flexibility could allow to knee Naruto in the head.

"Ow! You're supposed to be healing me, but I've just suffered more damage!" Naruto whined.

"I'll heal that too!" Sakura snapped.

Naruto chuckled, turning back to his dad. "See pops, she's a lot like mom! But I was kidding, Sakura-chan's not my girlfriend, she's family!" He said brightly.

Minato smiled warmly. Naruto was right, the personality resemblance to Kushina was uncanny, and he knew what that meant. While her temper might be frightening, she had to be incredibly warm and kind. Naruto considered her family, and that meant more to him as a father who'd forced his son to grow up alone than he could say. He was so grateful to this girl. Then he processed the name Naruto had called her.

"Sakura?" The same Sakura Sasuke had such a strong reaction to? If she was a mutual connection both Sasuke and Naruto felt so strongly about, then odds were Naruto and Sasuke knew each other well too. Maybe they were all teammates?

"Yes…?" Sakura asked, watching Minato in confusion. He said her name like he recognized it.

But Minato simply point to his hair, smiling. "Your name suits you."

"Oh, thanks."

"Why do I feel like that's not what he wanted to say…wait, why was Naruto so nonchalant about his dad showing up?"

"Naruto, did you know he was coming?"

"Yeah, I sensed his chakra when I was in nine-tails mode. The others should be arriving soon too."

"Others…the other Hokage?" Sakura guessed.

Before Naruto could even answer her question, the three others landed next to the fourth.

"Minato, you're fast as ever!" Hiruzen said.

"Fourth, you're even better at teleporting then me!" The second Hokage complimented.

"All right, let's do this!" The first Hokage cheered.

Naruto laughed. "Right as always, Sakura-Chan!"

At that, Hashirama's head whipped towards them. "Sakura? Haruno Sakura?" Who had allowed the cursed Haruno onto the front lines of the battlefield?! And…why wasn't she having a reaction? She certainly was pretty though—but knowing the Uchiha, Sasuke's feelings for her went far deeper than just appearance. So what was it? Strength? Kindness? Skill? What pulled Uchiha Sasuke to this girl, so much so that he was able to love her despite the pain and hatred he'd already been pushed into?

"Yes?" Sakura asked, alarmed. "How do you know my name, Lord First?"

Then Hashirama's eyes fell on the slug wrapped around her arm. "Katsuyu-sama!"

"Hello, Hashirama-kun! It's been quite a while!"

"It has indeed…M'Lady, did Tsuna summon you? Where is she?"

"She did, though on a separate front. She and the other kage were gravely injured, and she still is, though Sakura-Chan has done an excellent job on the rest."

So Haruno Sakura was the one who summoned Katsuyu here? But how…how had she even been able to make a pact with the slugs, let alone Katsuyu herself? From what he could sense her chakra levels were below average, and if that wasn't enough her curse should have rendered it impossible to pass the slug's test. Had she not inherited it? Just who was his granddaughter's apprentice?

"Forgive me, Lord first, but whose will are you all acting under? Who summoned you?" Sakura asked. They could have only learned her name from the summoner…but she was certain everyone she knew was already on the battlefield…except Sasuke. But what cause would he have had to summon the four Hokage? And did he even have the ability?

"Orochimaru is the one who summoned us, though we're enacting our own will. We need to stop this war stat." The Third informed her. Sakura. So she'd trained under Tsunade to become a medic? She always seemed to have a penchant for medicinal knowledge and herbalism, and her chakra control had been the best in the chunin exams. She'd risen well above her station and exceeded expectations of her, that was for sure.

"Orochimaru? How?! He was dead! Of course that damn snake found someway to bring himself back! That was his whole obsession, the sick fuck! Is he gonna go after Sasuke-kun again?! I'LL KILL HIM PERSONALLY IF HE SO MUCH AS THINKS IT, SHANNARO!"

"There are other reinforcements too, they're just lagging behind." Naruto told her.

"Who else would Orochimaru have brought back? We've already faced a lot of the previous kage from other villages…"

Before Sakura could ask about it, Madras's voice boomed over them. "It's about damn time! Hashiramaaaaaa!"

"He sounds…kinda excited…"

"You come later!" Hashirama snapped his finger pointed before he turned his attention away to the monster in front of them. "Stopping ten tails first!"

"Heh," Madara smirked. "You haven't changed a bit. We're never on the same page."

"I mean, he's charging right toward us." Hashirama pointed out.

Sakura had been doing an excellent job of not paying attention to the ten tails but since Hashirama pointed it out, she couldn't help her focus drawing towards it.

"Oh fuck that! What the hell is wrong with that thing?! It's damn terrifying!" Sakura took a deep breath, allowing herself to shift focus back to her healing task at hand and the feel of her own chakra flowing through her. The meditative focus helping keep her emotions in check.

"You've done well, Naruto. Take a little break. Your friend will be here soon. He's an ally too." Minato smiled, his gaze warm on his son.

"He's…an ally…?" Naruto murmured slowly. He'd sensed Sasuke's chakra, but because of the way their last interaction went, the last thing he expected was for Sasuke to join them as an ally…

"He? Orochimaru?" Sakura asked, confused by Minato's words. Orochimaru had revived the hokage, so assuming him to be a temporary ally was…reasonable. But…she hardly would have applied the word "friend" to him.

"Fellow hokage, let's go!" Hashirama ordered.

Minato became engulfed in the same kind of golden chakra as Naruto when he fused with Kurama.

"What?! How's that possible?! Lord Forth can't be carrying a tailed beast too, they're all either in the ten-tails, or with B and Naruto."

"Second, Third, come stand in front of me." Minato said.

"You already placed your markers?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes."

"You're quick at striking too!" Tobirama complimented.

And then they were gone.

"What—what just happened?! Teleportation ninjutsu?" Sakura gasped. She'd never seen one like that before. So fast with not even a puff of smoke left behind…

"Do it! Ninpo: four crimson ray formation! Plus, I'll add on…" The first shouted, before entering sage mode.

"It certainly has been a while…" Katsuyu murmured fondly.

Sakura glanced down at her. "Katsuyu-sama?"

"The one and only slug sage…Tsunade-chan never had the patience to finish the training." The slug chuckled.

"Sage art! Gracious deity gates! Ten seals!"

Sacred temple gates dropped down, pinning each of the tails to the ground, as a red barrier of energy shot up, caging the ten tails fully.

The Ten tails roared in protest, but it seemed truly stuck.

"Now it won't be able to move about so easily!" An allied shinobi marveled.

But before Sakura could process the barrier, a black grey and purple blur dropped down, landing in front of her and Naruto.

She didn't need the Uchiha symbol on his back. She'd recognize Sasuke anywhere.

---

Author's note: Okay, so there are a lot of changes from canon, starting with Sakura actually being involved in the combat against Obito. I really wanted to hammer in that she and Naruto are doing this together. Equal support, equal weight. She's not the hitter or damage dealer, but she's actively analyzing, and utilizing her dance and evasive skill to essentially be a distraction/force Obito to phase. She's also doing what she did with Gaara, where being kind to him threw him off. She recognizes that Obito (and Kakashi at points) sees Rin when he looks at her, and that it throws him off, so she keeps forcing him to look at her. Second big change, she summons Katsuyu to again hijack a network healing. For the amount of damage the manga implied Madara did, it kinda seems like bullshit that Tsunade and Katsuyu bring them all up so quickly the second her chakra's refilled. So in this case, which will bleed into the next chapter, but Sakura's done the brunt of the healing, and Tsunade can do the final bit to pop them back up. Smaller detail changes are that she's treated as an equally important and inspirational force to the army. She's actually given the assignment to bring the kage back as justification for her not being as active of a healer during that first phase of full army combat. And there are other medics while she's literally the only one who can hijack and network heal so that makes total sense to me. She does have a moment of like ethical dilemma, which she did face earlier with less struggle, but the difference here is that there were other medics who made the choice to stay with their patients and ended up dying for it. Before she was the only healer in that unit, so the compare and contrast hurts more and triggers stronger survivors guilt. Big big change. Neji doesn't die. He never fucking needed too, they did that to push Naruto and Hinata together, but if they built it up more, that wouldn't have been necessary. Hinata literally has an (anime only) jutsu that was designed for perfect defense. There's no reason either she or Neji had to human shield that shit the way they do in canon. Other major change that isn't actually a change, but let's talk about Sasuke. In my opinion, the canon material does a terrible job tracking Sasuke's logic. And I do think there is a logical through line for his choices, but the manga makes it feel far less rational than his actual logic train is. I feel like I've made his actions and choices both logical and believable. He's still wrong, as the approach is fundamentally flawed. But there's logical sense. In that conversation, I do have him mentioning the civilians, because he loves Sakura and recognizes that as a crucial flaw in the system. I was pretty hard on the kage, particularly the second and third...I don't know, man, they kinda suck. Again, smaller change, but I've made the Kage aware of Sakura. Again, this is just to make her equally relevant as Sasuke and Naruto. But yeah, why wouldn't Hashirama be interested in his granddaughter's apprentice who can use a summons famously only he and his granddaughter have been able to use? Also minor changes to Karin. She's still highly interested and flirty with Sasuke, but it's toned down a lot.

Thank you so much for your patience, and for sticking with my work and reading this far! :)