People were shouting and screaming, gunshots came one after the other. In mere minutes the relatively calm street had turned into a war zone. There were so many people on the narrow street that it was difficult to manoeuvre. No one knew what was happening, except for him. A bounty he had been chasing, unfortunately, had guns, lots of them and she wasn't afraid to use them in a public space and in return neither were the citizens themselves. It was pure chaos. He'd been wall jumping to keep sights on the bounty and not get dragged into the scuffle on the streets.

Rifle gunshot echoed through the street. A couple of wayward bullets nearly nipped him. It was enough for his bounty to pick up speed and use the crowds to blend in.

More people filled the streets in panic. The noise was nearly deafening.

He jumped down from the wall, turning a corner the bounty had disappeared behind. Someone ran in front of him and got shot, blood spraying in all directions. He collided with the body, nearly toppling over. Keeping an eye on his escaping and gloating bounty, he scrambled to collect himself.

The woman was standing at the end of a street, waving her hand patronizingly. She'd been keeping him on his toes for an hour, navigating the maze of the city like the back of her hand. It explained why no one had gone after this particular bounty despite it being located in the city. The woman was aggravating, taunting him and she enjoyed every minute of it.

It was a struggle to get through all of the people even when scaling the walls. It was impossible to predict when someone might lean out of a window with a rifle posed to shoot.

The woman was waving something in her hand, a huge grin on her face. The people around her avoided her like a disease. She wasn't running, waiting for him to catch up. Pulling something out of the object she threw it his way.

Madara cursed. He was too close.

The grenade exploded mid-air, shrapnel flying in every direction.

Using a random runner he shielded himself from most of the blast. Heat washed over, his arm and shoulder stung. He threw his human shield aside, hissing in pain.

The woman was long gone.

He ran a hand down his face, frustrated. His vision was blurry, white spots flashing across, vestiges of exhaustion hanging at the edge of his mind. There was no way he'll be able to keep up with the chase. He was low on chakra.

After a week without Sakura constantly healing him, the injection gun showed its faults. It was enough to keep him alive and make new vials, but not enough to use jutsu and barely enough to use chakra in general. He felt like a dried grape and his hair had been a permanent freak-show of black and white. It was ridiculous. Unfortunately, he had to admit that he had overestimated his capabilities. His chakra loss was way too fast for the injection gun to work and his regeneration wasn't strong enough to follow through. In a week or two he'll be utterly fucked.

Sakura had literally been his lifeline.

How pathetic.

A horde of people rushed down the street, trampling anyone who was in the way.

Madara kicked in a random door nearby and rushed inside. It seemed to be deserted, only a couple of abandoned appliances lying around.

The noise outside was piercing, it rattled through his skull. His headache was slowly turning into a migraine. These headaches were becoming more and more often, each one lasting longer than the previous one.

Blindly wandering through the place, he searched for a safe place to lay down. The shouting and screams from outside turned into a blaring horn in his head. He accidentally ran into a wall, the impact reverberating through his whole body. It disoriented him, he wasn't sure if he was vertical or horizontal anymore.

It was just him and the pain…

...and a voice?

It wasn't the first time he'd heard a voice or sometimes music during a migraine attack. This time the voice was a lot clearer.

Between the blinding light and pulsating pain, the voice was like a piercing screech, mumbling words, words that slowly started to make sense...

...The moon...

Xxx

One moment she had been feeling like she was on top of the world and the next chaos had broken loose, someone had hit her accidentally on the head and the real world came crashing back down.

Disoriented she blinked at the various blurry people running around, screaming, shouting, enacting violence on each other. Gunshots echoed ominously.

She was laying on the ground. Her throat was parched and her head was pounding. Sitting up was like climbing a mountain, her hands shook uncontrollably. As soon as she laid her head against the wall the urge to vomit overtook her. She cleaned her mouth with her sleeve, the shouts around her just a buzz in the background.

Sakura chuckled drily. Like a hobo, she was sitting in a trash infested alleyway.

For the past few days, she'd been high as a kite on pills. Out of nowhere, Madara had ditched and for two days or so it had been bliss, until she felt like she was going to go insane, withdrawal hitting her like a brick. He wasn't around to berate her and guilt-trip her about her addiction. Searching and taking drugs had never been easier. All of her collected funds were gone and she didn't even feel remorse about it.

The outside was slowly bleeding into her view – people running and tripping over her legs. Her body was numb though, she barely felt a thing.

Her perception of time was skewed and she had no idea for how long the chaos lasted or for how long she had been laying in that alley. Only when the biting cold of the night reached her, she could move her limbs properly. With shaky legs she stood up, bleary blinking at the trash around her, some of it being bodies. Her tongue was like sandpaper in her mouth, sticking to the roof of her mouth.

She tried looking for her backpack but ultimately came up empty. Sometime while tripping balls she must have lost it or it might have gotten stolen. That stung a bit. Nevertheless, all she needed was herself and enough chakra to slay some robots, scavenge and exchange the parts for some sweet, sweet release.

If only she could see straight for a moment.

Sakura took a step and the world tilted. She braced against the brick wall, scraping her hands. When did she lose her gloves?

The metallic tang of blood reached her nose and she threw up again, dry heaving mostly.

She wandered on to the street when a familiar sense overtook her. Through her muddled thoughts she wasn't able to discern what it was she was feeling, but it was familiar enough that it was almost comforting. The drugs were wearing off and she was overcome with the urge to vomit again. She felt like crap and the urge to jump out of her skin was unbearable.

Somewhere along the way she managed to snatch a bottle of water off of a poor unaware sod. It tasted like heaven.

It was dark outside, the moonlight the only light source and people had mostly calmed down from the previous debacle that had happened. Sakura wasn't even sure if it was the same day.

She wandered around, following the familiar feeling. Until it led her to a building with no door.

Sketchy…

She stepped in the building. It was dark inside, she even walked into a chair, hitting her knee and it stunk of something putrid and rotting. Her senses were buzzing and she couldn't figure out why. Wandering further inside, she slowly realized what she was feeling. And then she tripped over something and landed painfully on the floor. Groaning she righted herself. Did she trip over a fucking skunk?

"Sakura?"

The voice was like a cut through her reality. She scrambled up, finally seeing that it wasn't a skunk before her, but a person. "Holy shit, Madara? The hell are you doing on the floor?"

He groaned, barely moving from his face down position. "Don't yell."

She shook herself to clear her head. It still was too dark to make out details and her vision was a bit blurry, but it indeed was him, laying on the floor like a murder case ready to be solved. "You look like something chewed you up and shat you out."

He didn't reply for a while, peeking at her through his bangs. "Speaking from experience?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, wiping her bangs away from her face. "Okay, point taken." She lately hadn't been in front of a mirror, but she sure as hell felt like shit.

Her head was spinning, making her nauseous again, so she laid down and her axis tilted for a moment, the whole room spinning. She closed her eyes, willing for the spinning to go away. They laid in the quiet for a few minutes, random muffled shouts from outside the only sound. "I'm sorry." She let the words hang before continuing, "I lashed out, you didn't deserve that. I was just angry, so, so angry."

Madara stayed quiet, unmoving.

She continued with a dry chuckle. "Gods, this is a mess. We're both such idiots." That earned her a grunt from him. "I'm an absolute mess and you look like you're about to croak." Her own words registered to her. She sat up, ignoring how the quick motion made her stomach lurch. "Oh shit! Please tell me that you're still alive."

"Just shut up already," came his muffled voice.

She sighed in relief and placed her hands on him. Her chakra control was a bit wavering and unfocused, but she was confident in her abilities. Surprisingly enough the damage wasn't all that bad, the hole was just large. What was more concerning was the migraine. Did he overuse his sharingan again? She jolted when he moved, the white washing out of his hair.

"I know how to get back."

"W-what?" She swallowed thickly. Was she hearing him right?

"You weren't supposed to be here, it was supposed to be my fate." He ran a hand down his face, exhaustion apparent.

She blinked. "Are you high?"

He spared a glance her way. "You're the one that's been high for days."

Sakura looked at the ground and her scraped hands. "I know. Just...how do you know this?"

"The moon told me."

She grabbed his arm and turned him towards her. "Okay, what the hell did you take?"

He deadpanned. "Kaguya, Sakura, I think it was Kaguya."

She returned his look. "You should've just led with that. Geez and I thought I was delirious."

He ignored her and cradled his head in his hands instead, eyes scrunched shut.

"Hey, hey." She removed his hands, inspecting his face. "Are you alright? Is the migraine still there?" Surprisingly enough he didn't push her away like she had expected. He didn't answer, so she just tried healing him again. Her thoughts were still frazzled and chakra unfocused, so she tried to do the bare minimum in fear of damaging anything lest she tries to go in deeper. The relief was visible on his face. She took a deep breath, laying her hands in her lap. "Listen, when we go back I could fix you, fix that chakra leak you have."

"Why don't you do it now?"

"It's not that simple I don't have the tools and I can't fix damage like that alone, I need assistance."

"Not interested."

She paused for a long while, looking for the correct words. "You realize that if I leave you will die here?" Even with the assistance of his little project she doubted he'd last, their week apart was evidence enough.

"I'm not an idiot, Sakura, I know what will happen."

"You really want to die again?" Her voice was quiet.

He suddenly snapped at her. "Do I have a fucking choice? I die either way."

She recoiled. "Why would you say that?"

He groaned, cradling his head again. "Do you really think they are going to let me live? After everything I've done? And even if I do get to live, they'll just imprison me and believe me I've had enough time sitting in four walls. I'd rather just die."

She frowned, reaching out to him, but at the last minute rethinking. "We could work som-"

He cut her off harshly. "No! Listen to me! Konoha won't want to help me. Don't be naive, the amount of damage I've done is too grave. The Hokage would be an idiot to let me walk free. You can't help me anymore." He turned away from her, running his hands through his hair in irritation.

Sakura bit her lip. It had never crossed her mind that that might be the case. All this time she had been so tunnelled in on her own needs that she hadn't even considered what would happen to Madara. It explained why he never wanted to go back. How could she be so selfish? Even if they didn't get along at first, they still had managed to work together and keep each other safe and she was pained to admit this, but she cared, she cared for him way too much. "For what it's worth, I kind of enjoyed our time together."

Madara sighed, smiling slightly. "I know, you're foolish like that."

She shook her head, grinning sadly. "You're not a horrible person, Madara. You-you're-" she couldn't find the words.

"I know, I'm worse."

She laughed and threw her arms around him in a hug. "Please, just...just let me have this." He was tense at first, but no soon after returned her hug for the first time and her heart melted.

"That soft heart is going to get you killed one day," he whispered in her hair.

She gently pulled on his hair, pouting. "Shut up and enjoy this." She tightened her hold around his middle, feeling the rumble of his short laugh. It felt nice and she almost didn't want to let go. This might just be the very last time she'd get to hug him. Pulling away, she cleared her throat. "So...about this way back you were talking about?"

His eyes wandered around the room for a while, settling on the window in the end. "From my understanding, it's very simple, almost stupidly so."

With her hands, she motioned for him to continue.

"All you have to do is look at the moon and think of home, Kaguya will do the rest."

"That's it?"

"Basically, yes."

"Are you sure you're not high?" She leaned closer to him, smiling.

With a dry look, he pushed her away. "Just try it. There's no harm in it."

Good naturedly she shook her head. It was asinine, all these years and all she had to do was just look at the moon and hope that Kaguya was gracious enough to send her back? There's no way it could be that simple. She didn't want to push it and make Madara use rinnegan techniques and kill him on the spot or spend more time wandering around the wasteland for a hope of something that could wrap time, yet this felt too good to be true. "Are you sure this will send me back home, like my time, Konoha and all?"

"I don't know, Sakura."

"How did you even get in contact with Kaguya?"

He sighed, tired. "She's been trying to talk to me ever since we split up, I think that's why my head was on the verge of exploding."

"Why now? It's been three years..."

"I don't know." She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. "And before you say it, again, no I'm not high."

She clamped her mouth shut sheepishly and fiddled with her fingers, chewing on her lip. "Well...you gotta understand from where I'm coming from… this literally sounds like something I was conjuring up in my brain a few hours ago." She gasped. "Wait, I might be in psychosis."

He flicked her on her forehead and she yelped. "Stop stalling and just do it already."

Sakura rubbed her forehead, mock glaring at him. She indeed was stalling, partly because she didn't believe him and because she didn't want to leave him. It wasn't right. She just couldn't leave him here to die. There must be a way. "How about I teach you some healing techniques-"

He curtly cut her off. "Sakura."

She pouted. "But, Madara, I can't just leave you like this. At least let me-"

"No. There's no point. I'll manage with what I have."

"Why do you have to be so difficult?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

Sakura groaned. "Fine, I'll do it, but just so you know I still think you're the one tripping balls here."

He shrugged and the lack of a verbal response disappointed her. She was trying to lighten the mood, stall some more, but she might have exhausted her chances already.

She hung her head and sighed. There wasn't going to be a good outcome to this, was there? She peeked at the moon that was shining through the window. Trusting Kaguya to send her back was making her queasy. She peeked back at Madara, who had gotten lost in thought, staring at the dirty floor. This was so cruel...so, so wrong. Could it all just be over like that? Years of torture in this dystopia, years of not knowing over only because a certain goddess decided that she had suffered enough?

Still, she got up from the floor with a grunt and trailed towards the window. Might as well get it over with, she doubted it was going to work anyway. As Madara instructed she looked at the moon and thought of her home, her friends, her little flat, everything she had been missing for these past three years.

Nothing seemed to happen and she broke her stare, shaking her head.

"I told you it won't work." She turned around to gloat at Madara, but he wasn't there anymore. She blinked a couple of times, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms. He still wasn't there.

Sakura raised her head and the skies were clear above her, canopies of trees filling her vision. She was in a forest, tall, thick trees all around her. It was dark, the moonlight shining through the canopies in streams of light. Night birds sang in the distance. She took a deep breath, the smell of the forest invading her nostrils.

How?

She pivoted on her heel, walked all around the small clearing, even ran her hands down the bark of some trees, it stung her hands. It all felt so real, so nostalgic. She peered back at the moon and frowned. Throwing both her middle fingers towards it, she trekked into the woods, tears streaming down her face.

Xxx

It had taken her days to reach Konoha. Part of her hadn't been sure if she actually was back home and she had been wandering around because of that. Another reason had been because she had been experiencing some serious withdrawals and couldn't move properly for some days.

She had broken down crying when the familiar walls of the village had reached her eyes. She really was back home and things had changed since she last had been there. It had felt different, the villagers had looked different. Only when she had met up with her very surprised and teary-eyed friends did she find out that the war had been over for three years, Kaguya was sealed back in the moon, Sasuke had left the village and her shisou had resigned from the position of Hokage, leaving Kakashi-sensei as her successor and that everyone had presumed her dead, a fatality of the war.

Her detox had been absolute hell, getting berated by Tsunade for even taking drugs had come to a close second. Tsunade hadn't been able to identify what the drug had she had been taking, only that it might have been an advanced version of a soldier pill.

It had been weird being back. Some days she had woken up in cold sweat, thinking that she was back in the wasteland. It had taken her months just to feel like she even belonged back in the village. She had missed everyone dearly, but talking to them, opening up about what had happened to her was like pulling teeth. It had just made her remember how she had essentially left Madara to die, die alone in a wasteland far from home. She should've been more incessant that he comes along, consequences be damned. At least then maybe she wouldn't have been plagued by guilt that she was a horrible person, horrible for leaving someone to die. It had been eating her up from the inside – the not knowing if he made it without her or his condition had finally gotten to him.

Some days she gazed at the moon, hatred swirling in her heart. She'll never be able to forgive Kaguya for the torture she put her through all for seemingly nothing, putting her there with Madara, getting her attached and then making her leave him. It was the definition of the word cruel.

She truly despised the moon.

Thank you guys for all of your feedback, I appreciate it a lot. I'm sorry if this ending seems unsatisfactory, it kind of was for me, but if I'm following my original plan this was the only way one of them wouldn't get killed on the spot or drag the plot out needlessly and frankly I did not want that. Another part of me didn't want to waste more time on this, I want to move on to other projects and speaking about other projects...

I'm picking back up Forward Thinking sometime soon and it's going to have 12 chapters in total. I've edited the chapters already posted and the 3rd one has some important changes, nothing too major, just some clues and other plot stuff, so if you're interested you can read that.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this crazy story and a huge thanks to everyone who bothered to leave responses to me, they always make my day and sometimes even get me out of a rut. Love you darlings.

p.s. the franchise I was referencing all this time was Terminator, the AI (Skynet) the robots (various models of the terminators).