Sakura awoke moments later, caught between the extremes of fear and regret. What would have happened if she had stayed in the dream when Madara came upon her. How had that encounter been planned out in his mind? What did he intend for her, and what was it she hoped for?

She felt the heat, lower than before and flushed in embarrassment, knowing what it was that a part of her wanted, even if she still didn't trust Madara fully. He was the wildest card she had ever encountered in the dream worlds, and not the most beloved in comparison to others like Sasori, but there was no way anymore that she could pretend the pull wasn't there.

He had been good to her recently. He had been exceedingly good to her. He spoiled her like a queen and worshiped her like a god. It was more than she was used to and it had been an adventure to adapt to. She liked being worshiped. She liked it when he kissed her and whispered into her skin and made her feel like she was the thing that mattered most in the universe.

But God, she didn't trust him with what she knew. And as little as Sakura knew when it came to romance and relationships, she at least knew that trust was an important building block for any union. She wouldn't be able to build a house of love with Madara that had any foundation, but she wanted ignore than. She wanted to build her house on the sand and not care when it fell apart the way she knew it would.

It was still dark, and it was hard to get up out of bed, but turning on her music player helped motivate her away from the warm covers and onto the cold floor. Absently, she hummed along with the sultry drawl of Lana Del Ray singing about her dark paradise.

"Every time I close my eyes…" she sang. "It's like a dark paradise. No one compares to you. I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side."

It made her think about Sasori.

The ache in her heart throbbed painfully to life. The pain of loosing him in the Kingdom of Man and the betrayal she felt when he hated her in the Kingdom of Beasts. She had spent so little time with him in comparison to others like Itachi, who always seemed to be in every world regardless of the personality change. In terms of minutes and hours spent together, she might have spent more with Madara at this rate.

She had been in the Kingdom of Monsters for so long now. It was winter and the year was nearly up. This curse was her life now. It was hard to remember a time before she was split between it and her waking.

Sasori was a loss that transcended between her waking and sleeping lives. No matter how happy Madara made her or how she was treasured and adored by his Uchiha relatives, her heart never ached like it did when she thought about the redhead in the black leather jacket. It had felt too perfect with Sasori and she cursed herself for hesitating like a child with him. She had been so against the idea, but in hindsight there was nothing more she wanted than to go back and accept him right away.

Maybe it was because she couldn't, maybe it was because he was dead and out of reach that he seemed so attractive to her now.

Sakura turned the water off and let the steam soak her skin as the music sounded louder without the rush of water. It was clear now and she sang again. "And there's no remedy for memory. Your face is like a melody, It won't leave my head. Your soul is haunting me and telling me that everything is fine. But I wish I was dead, (dead like you)."

"Sakura, quit being melodramatic so early in the morning!" Karin cried, banging on the door. "I was sleeping."

"It's your own fault for passing out in my bed in the first place. I told you to go home with Suigetsu."

"I didn't wanna, and besides, he wouldn't have taken me home and you know it. I didn't want to have to make up another excuse for wanting 'me' time."

Sakura grabbed a town and opened the door that separated her room from the bathroom. Karin was sitting on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands as she she stretched the skin around her eyes like that would take care of the migraine she was already fighting back. The red head looked up with a frown, squinting without her glasses.

"You didn't get any 'me' time when you were with me. You never left me alone." As if to prove her point, Sakura nodded to the crumbled sheets of the bed where Karin had buried herself last night after Sakura had gone to bed. It was common enough, especially in the winter, but Karin was doing it more and more.

"You don't count. I never get tired of you, except when you're with Ino." Karin narrowed her eyes. "And even then, it's more so her I'm upset with. Sometimes you're stupid though."

"Oh, like when I made you my friend?" Sakura asked, joking.

"Yeah, that was the most stupid thing you ever did." Karin coughed into her shoulder and shook the stray bangs out of her face. Her hair was a mess again and she was due to get it trimmed again. "You're never more stupid than when you forgive the people who hurt you the most. You're the stupidest person I know, but I love you for it, so don't ever change."

Sakura meant to say something else, something light and funny, but she looked over Karin's head and saw the Obelisk on her nightstand, part white and part black. Two who sides and par of the third side were colored in mother of pearl, the rest was left in shimmering black.

"Karin, do you think I'm selfish?"

"Only when it comes to food."

"No, I mean…for real. Do you think I'm selfish?"

Karin looked up, frowning. She saw the look on Sakura's face to match her tone and Karin's own frown deepened. "Never. I've known enough people to know what selfish looks like, but it was never you. This world is a messed up place, but you were always a lighthouse in it that showed others there was a way to be good in it. Maybe you're not perfect, but you are to me." Karin stepped away from the bed, ignoring the cold of the floor and pulled Sakura into a hug. "You made me want to be a better person. You made me ashamed of the things I did wrong. You showed me what I could be and you never let me down, even when I was a bitch to you."

Sakura felt sick in her stomach. "Karin…"

The girl pulled away and grinned brightly. "If you feel bad just do what you think is right. You always know the way. Then come back and tell me about it and we can have a drink about it and not invite the boyfriend or Ino. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Sakura chuckled, closing her eyes. "The right thing."

When she woke up she was in the bed and she wasn't alone. Madara was asleep beside her and he was warm like the bed covers. The room might have been cold or just chilly, but she was a curled up thing on the mattress across from him. Madara's chest was bare as she stretched his arms out to encircle her, on draped over her waist and the other positioned around her head. Trapped beside him she felt small and humbled. He was stronger, larger, and all the more impressive than she could be. But she was weak because he wanted her to be.

She remembered what had happened last night, what she saw, and felt her resolve harden. She was leaving. She made up her mind to do what she didn't have the strength to do last time. It was the right thing to do, to move on and try her best to advance the curse in hope of freeing all the souls who put their hope in her. Sai, who trusted her, and the deer people who lived between the seems of the dream, they were all counting on her. Every soul of every actor was one she was working to save, even Madara's. As much as she wanted to think him the villain, there was more to him than just that. He was abused too. It didn't excuse what he did, just explain it.

She shifted in an effort to turn away from him and slip out of bed, but at the lightest of changes Madara's eyes were wide open and he was curling his arms to bring her closer. He buried his face in the corner of her neck and she felt him shiver before kissing her skin reverently.

"Sakura," she heard him say. "You left me."

"The dream ended. You know how it works," she heard herself say in a tone sharper than she intended. Madara nearly flinched.

"I've made you mad. I've angered you."

"Do you know why?" He looked up at her, tuning over slightly to see her expression. She felt his eyes searching her face for something and refused to show anything. She refused to look like she was giving anything away.

"I did a foolish thing. I wanted to provoke you. You…" he sucked in a breath. "You were drifting away from me again and I was afraid. I thought you might want to leave me."

"So what did you do?" Sakura asked, biting out her words. She felt her anger mount. She had more than just the girl on his lap to be upset about, but oddly enough, the fixated on this.

"Did didn't mean anything other than to make you look at me, to make you want me enough to sing to me." Madara sucked in a breath and something changed in him. He started to sit up, pushing his body up to loom over her. She felt the heat of him as he pressed against her. "To make you say you belong to me," he growled.

Sakura tried but failed to push him away when he fell on top of her, darkness and hunger, kissing her collar and biting the places where her bones pressed though. It made her squirm and he knew it. He knew too many things about her, too many of her secrets.

"Madara," she bit out his name and tugged at his hair, trying to move his mouth away from her jaw. He groaned and it was in arousal, not from pain. She tried not to care as she peeled him from her and pushed away. "You are not forgiven."

His red eyes flashed. "Why not? Was what I did any worse than what you've done with my nephews?"

"I never stole their agency from them, I never forced them into a corner or manipulated their feelings intentionally," Sakura hissed, hating how her powers were gone. She hated how weak she was in this kingdom. "I was never that sort of monster to them."

"And you think I was?"

Sakura summoned water wither her hand and fashioned it into a collar around her neck, meant to keep his lips away. She didn't care how it chilled her. "Why can I not pull from the dream? Why can I not fight without exhausting? Why am I so weak in this world where in other I was powerful enough to overcome? You made it this way to keep me here, to diminish me to nothing more than something you could protect because that's what you wanted." She felt her eyes flash with the anger in her bones. She wore her anger proudly.

"And so what if I did?" Madara growled low. "What if I made this world to my liking? Have you wondered where your dream killer went off to? Did you ever wonder what happened to her friend Kabuto? Hasn't it been a while without a villain showing up in your world? Maybe that's because of me, because I made it safe for you. They wanted to do terrible things to you, but I devoured them and burned their ashes for you, to make this world safer for you, so that you could stay here forever without fear."

"You can't keep me here forever," Sakura nearly felt like breaking. She wanted to hang onto her anger longer. Madara didn't even try to lie or deny it. He was the cause of her helplessness because that was what he could do to keep her by his side. And a part of her would always want the peace he promised. A part of her would always be selfish, but Sai believed in her, and she couldn't let his memory down any more.

Madara saw the moment her resolution set in. His own eyes went wide. "No." He reached for her with trembling hands. "No, you can't."

"I need to move on," Sakura said. "I need to end this curse. I can do it. I'm nearly there."

"No!" He tugged her to him. "You're making a mistake. You can't go back after this, you'll never have the sort of peace I'm offering you. No one will be what I am to you."

He trembled all around her and she reached for his face, remembering how leaves trembled like this in the storms. Madara, for all his might, was still just another dead soul she needed to save. He didn't know it the way she knew it, but this was for his own good. He might hate her for it, he might even suffer for it, but she needed to move on to save him. She wanted to save him.

You're never more stupid than when you forgive the people who hurt you the most. You're the stupidest person I know.

"Madara."

He reacted to his name but his eyes were still wild with the fear she sewed in him. He was afraid of it all ending, of her leaving, of being left behind where he wouldn't be able to follow her. He had told her before, he wouldn't be there in the next gate or kingdom. This was his last chance to be an actor in the curse before she died or reached the end.

She took his face and kissed him deeply. He wrapped around her and rolled her into the sheets. The collar of ice was melted and she could feel him tracing her neck with his hand as he fought her for the right position, moving into her, against her, alongside her.

She nearly drowned in him, loosing her sense of self. She wanted this. She wanted it badly enough she felt like crying. There were tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, caught by her lashes. She was on the cusp of something great and she knew she was too heavy in sin to crawl out of it if she gave in and drowned in Madara this one time. She knew what she was playing with.

"Sakura."

She nearly screamed when she felt his teeth.

"Who has ever loved you like I love you?" His hands were roving, and she felt her nightgown being pushed up along her thighs. "Who has touched you like I've touched you?" His fingers ghosted over the space between her leg up to her navel. Her breath was short as she watched him move. He lowered his face and his tongue dipped into the indent over her stomach, teasing the sensitive spot. He licked it, sucked and then kissed the curve of her navel before his tongue danced south.

"Madara." She meant to say stop, she meant to tell him no. If she said it out loud he would listen. She would cry and scream and he would run from her because Madara wouldn't do that to her. He wouldn't go where he wasn't wanted. That was a line he knew he couldn't come back from if he crossed. He was trying his best to seduce her before she found the strength to push him away.

"Do you want me to tell you what I want to do to you, Sakura? Do you want me to tell you what I plan to do if you don't stop me?" He was low and leaning like a predator in the tall glass and she had to stare down her body to see him.

"You're not going to do anything to me," Sakura finally breathed, hating how breathless she was, how red her cheeks felt, hot hot her brain burned.

"Then I'll tell you what I want to do, I'll tell you what I could do if only you'd let me." Madara lowered his face and teased her, staring up at her from the spot between her legs. "I'd eat you out until you exploded. I'd make you a supernova for me again and again, and then when you think you couldn't anymore, I'd make you come undone once more. Who has ever done such a thing to you before, my virgin?"

"Don't."

He raised his head and moved towards her, but didn't touch. It was like the game kids played when the teased others, hovering their fingers right in front of another's face taunting about how they weren't touching. Madara wouldn't do what she told him not to, but he would get as close as he could. "I'd make you my wife, as is proper. You don't think it would be worth it because we're in a dream? What do I care if you have a lover in the other world or a husband there? That's different. When you're here, you could be mine. I'd buy a house for us and we'd make our life there. It would be perfect."

"It wouldn't be real," Sakura bit out.

"Then why do you care so much about resisting me?!" he shouted. "I love you. That's real enough. I know what I am and I know what you are and what this world is but I still love you. I'm not like the others, Sakura. No one will love you like I love you, not even the scorpion boy."

Sakura felt real pain in her chest at his words. She had loved sasori, had cried to Ino about what she felt, but Madara made a point she didn't want to face. As real as her feelings might have been for a soul trapped in a curse to play a role for her, how did she know what he felt for her was real? It likely wasn't. She was the dreamer, he was the actor. There was nothing more to it than that.

"Don't say that to me."

"I love you Sakura."

"Then let me go, or help me find my way out!"

Madara snarled, pulling away. "You'll die. I'd rather face damnation than lead you to yours. What do you think it means when I say that I love you? I don't know how else to say it. I want you safe and healthy and yes, if I can have it, I want you writing underneath me, screaming my name, but I want you alive. I won't let you meet your doom, Sakura."

"You don't know it would be my doom."

Madara's eyes were dark and distant for only a moment before he looked back to her. "If would be a doom to me, either way. Even on the off chance you manage to do what's never been done before in a couple thousand years by a couple thousand different people, I'd never see you again and I've waited all my lives for you. I-" his voice went strangled. "I've never felt like this for anything else. I've lived all my lives of you, Sakura."

She couldn't help it how she felt guilty for him. She knew how to rationalize it all, how she couldn't be guilted into anything because that wasn't a genuine response, but she knew his pain was real. This was his last chance at being awake and having a role in the dream. He had waited so long to be here.

"You can't-"

"No!" Madara cut her off, eyes blazing red. "You don't get to tell me how I feel. I-I've seen you, all of you since you came to this world, to this curse. It's not just this kingdom, but all of it. I've watched you, seen how you interact with others, how you build them up and encourage them and stay strong and never give up. You've suffered so much and I dreamed about being the one you find comfort in. I've loved you for a long time Sakura. You make this dead thing inside of me warm again and," his hand drifted down and rested atop the space between his legs. Sakura noticed he was wearing only a thin pair of cotton grey pants. If something else was underneath, it was thin. "You made me feel like this. It hurts, but it's the truth."

This had gone on for long enough. Sakura turned away, fearing she knew what he would do. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and made to leave but Madara grabbed for her as she tugged hard. He followed her over the edge and they landed in a loud mess atop the floor, knocking over the nightstand and shattering the lamp across the floor.

Sakura braced to stand and hissed, feeling glass shards no bigger than teardrops in her palm pulling out red from beneath her skin. He reached for her again, and she suspected he had meant only to help her up, but she screamed and cried out when his hand touched her wrist and found more glass shards there. He pulled away almost instantly.

The door to the hallway opened suddenly and they both looked back to see Itachi there of all people. He looked down at them and Sakura could only imagine what he saw. Madara was nearly naked on top of her, while she was under him, teary eyed, red faced with a wet nightgown and bleeding hands, curled up like she wanted to hide.

Itachi looked to Madara with wide eyes. "You said you wouldn't hurt her!" His tone was more than just betrayed, it was angry. "What have you done?"

"I haven't!"

Madara snapped and Sakura turned away, shifting to try and get her legs under her in an effort to sit up. Whatever he saw it made Itachi angry. She heard him say something else, but she was occupied with pouring water into her wounds to clean them and help them heal.

She heard the thud behind her and saw Itachi standing closer, his red eyes spinning as Madara lay unconscious beside her. She looked up at Itachi, eyes wide. "You helped me."

"Go, before he wakes up. Go where he can't hurt you again."

Itachi misunderstood, he was imagining something different, but Sakura dine't have time to set the record straight. She got up and ran. She prayed Itachi wouldn't change his mind, that he wouldn't try to stop her, but didn't dare look back. She knew that looking back over your shoulder is just as bad as slowing down, so she sets her gaze on the hallway leading to her exit and doesn't look back.

Her feet were bare on the hardwood, but she ignored the way they slapped painfully at the surface and pushed herself. She felt pain, she felt weary, she felt fear better and harsher than in any of the other worlds, but she also felt desperation. She knew now, the way she knew the cold on her face and the sting in her feet, what she had to do. Everything was thrown into sharp relief and she was frantic to see it through before her resolve wavered.

She stole a care, thanking her good luck that the second one she checked had been left unlocked and easy to hot wire. She turned it around and drove it up over the curb before angling it back down onto the road. She knew where she needed to go.

Odd as it was, she heard something from the radio and turned it all the way up. It was her voice coming through the vintage speakers. It was a set she sang a long time ago when first at Obito's restaurant. She frowned, thinking of Obito and Toby and what would happen to them. She hadn't seen them in so long. Did they even think about her, or were they no longer a part of the narrative? What had Madara done to them?

"It's just skin and bones… Nothing inside sleeping alone. Fingers tied themselves in knots around the heart. It beats in time. I see the spiiiiiiiiiine of the world. Sparkle and shine light the inside… I see the spine of the world, I know it's mine, twisted and tied."

She smelled the sea and knew she wasn't far. She would make it, she was close. She could do it. This was it, this was her last night in the Kingdom of Monsters. She'd have her last month of peace before entering the last gate, and after that came the last kingdom. She had come so far. If she could make it to this point, and if Sai believed she could make it all the way, there was no way she was turning back. Madara or not, she knew what she had to do.

The pier came into view and she saw the ferris wheel. She remembered what was said when she had last been in a car alone with Shisui. "Black, the size of your torso, shaped like an Egyptian Obelisk? It was a part of the Farris Wheel, hiding in plain sight." The memory was so loud in her mind, there was no way she would ever forget it now.

She parked at an awkward angle, not caring to turn the engine off or shut the door. She left the car running and open as she ran, the sound of her voice still blaring from the radio. "You always go, walking on coals. Walk away slow feel the fire light your way to me. My siren song for you, I see the spine of the world. Sparkle and shine like the inside."

She could see the ferris wheel turning like a giant eye in the sky, big enough that there was no way she wouldn't be able to find it. Once she got there she could figure out how to reach the Obelisk. If Madara woke up he would send people for her, she wouldn't have much time. Even though Itachi had done something to knock him out, Sakura knew Madara was strong than anyone in this world and wouldn't be out for long. It was still a shock that Itachi did anything at all for her. She thought he hated her.

Sakura skid to a hault, ignoring the faceless bodies all around her to stare up, searching the spinning structure for her Obelisk. In the center she saw it, gleaming proudly. Inside she saw something else, a staircase leading up to the center of the wheel. There were stairs that would take her within reaching distance of the Obelisk, she would be out of the dream in minutes at this rate.

Not caring if she was being rude as she pushed past people or knocked them over, Sakura sprinted the rest of the way, cursing how tight her sides felt with cramps. She was tired of running, but she wouldn't be tired for much longer like this. Soon, it would be over. Soon she would be free from this part of the nightmare. Soon she would be free.

She grabbed the first ring and started to climb but froze when she heard his voice.

"Miss, you need to stop!" The boy who called out to her was wearing a police uniform. A blond boy trailed behind him.

"No," Sakura breathed, frozen in place.

"Miss," he called out again. "You need to get down from there and come in with us. We have questions for you regarded a stolen Deuce you were seen driving." He waved to her. "Come down."

"You're not supposed to be here," she breathed, doubting they heard her.

Sasori shook his messy red hair, looking like this was just another silly argument pricks picked with cops. He didn't take her seriously and didn't know what his face was doing to her. "Miss, please, I am sure we can talk this out."

"You're not supposed to be here," Sakura called out, louder than before. "You were dead."

Sasori looked shocked and then offended. "Excuse me?" He glanced back at Deidara, his partner, and then shook his head again. "Listen doll face, you need to get down from there. You're confused and scared. You don't look well. Let me help you."

Sakura stepped up the ladder one ring and then sobbed. He was really here, after all this time, in front of her. She had been so strong until now. Running to the ladder she had thought nothing could shake her resolve, but she was wrong. Like a blast from the past, he was here again and it was killing her. His eyes were wide and pleading. He called out to her and it was like the Kingdom of Man all over again. He was king and light and teasing and he would be sweet to her all over again, she just knew it.

Her eyes fell to his uniform and she felt something snap her back into focus. He was on the Uchiha police force. Madara knew what Sasori meant to her, but kept him from her on purpose. He had to. He knew what was in her heart and knew that if she saw Sasori, there was no chance she would settle for an Uchiha.

Her face was wet and Sakura felt herself shaking. "You're not supposed to be here like this," she whispered, pulling her body closer to the ladder. "And not now, not now when I was so close to being done."

She wanted to scream. It wasn't fair, nothing was fair. It couldn't be this unfair after all this time in the Kingdom of Monsters. She was used to living on the low end of the totem pole. She expected it to be terrible and she braced for misery and torment. But here she was, on the cusps of leaving, ready and resolves to put aside her selfish desire for comfort to do what was right, to get to the end of the curse for all the others, and he shows up. After how many months, after how many nights inside the dream, and it's only now he decides to appear before her?

"No!" she screamed, surprising herself. She opened her eyes wide, ignoring the tears. "No, I'm not going back to him. This isn't real. You're not real." She forced herself to be brave. "The only thing that's real is this mission."

Sasori called out to her again but she went back to climbing, on hand over the other, bare feet gripping and slipping on the smears of blood from when she ran too recklessly.

"Don't shoot, damn it!" Sasori called out when she heard a crack in the air. "You'll scare her more."

Sasori was mounting the stars at the base, ready to climb up after her, but she had such a head start and everything her feet touched was bloody. He would have to be careful to keep from slipping. She would make it. She could see the place where the Obelisk grew in between the two caps that decorated the sides of the wheel. It was large and long, spanning like a horizontal beam between the two sides. She would be able to touch it easily enough and trigger the end of the level.

Her hands touched the platform and she pushed herself up, climbing the rest of the way with a strangled breath, exhausted from the climb. She rolled onto the deck and pulled her legs out from under her, still queasy and tired. All she had to do was take a few more steps. Five more, four more, three more….

"Sakura!" she turned and saw a black bird, larger than any buzzards dive and land on the edge of the platform, feathers rustling into pinstripes as Madara turned, eyes wide and glassy. "Sakura don't, you'll die!"

Two more steps.

"No, stop it, don't you see? You can still be happy here! You don't have to have it with me, you don't-" he sounded like he wanted to choke on the words as his lips twisted at the words. "I brought him back, you can be happy with him. He'll love you, it can be exactly what you wanted."

One more step. She could reach out and almost touch it now, but she hesitated. Sasori was still climbing, he would be up on the platform with them in seconds, but she was hesitating.

"This dream will kill you, Sakura. Don't take that step. If the next gate doesn't or even if the next Kingdom doesn't, the waking word will end you before you get the chance to advance. It's the last world, do you think they would leave it so unguarded? You don't' know what will happen to your body in the waking world if you choose to advance."

"Stop it, what are you talking about?" Sakura took the last step, but kept her hands lowered. "What do you know about the waking world?"

"It's the last part of the puzzle, they won't let you solve it, they'll try to kill you anyway they can, and they'll hurt you in both words to win. You'll have trouble waking. You'll sleep for days that feel like years inside the dream. You'll grow sick. You might not wake at all and waste away in a bed somewhere. It's not like the other dreams, Sakura, you'll die, I've seen it so many times before."

She was so scared. She knew Madara wasn't lying, he was too frantic to form lies with that voice. He looked like he wanted to cry and like he was in pain when he looked at her. Maybe he was. She knew he was smarter than her when it came to the curse, she knew he was honest in his worry about her, but she couldn't let that stop her.

"I'll be fine." Sakura began to raise her hand. Sasori was coming over the edge and pulling himself up onto the platform. "I have friends who will support me through the rest of it. I'm not afraid of anything but letting down the people who put their faith in me. I know this is the right thing to do."

Sasori was reaching for her and Madara looked more broken than he though a man ever could when she reached up over her head and touched the cool surface of the Obelisk.

The world shattered and the last thing she heard was her own voice, singing one last time.

"I see the spine of the world, I know its mine twisted and tied. I see the come with me. We'll fly right over right over. Watch it break If we get closer much closer. I see the spine of the world. Sparkle and shine light the inside, I see the spine of the world. You know it's mine twisted and tied…"

Sakura woke up and the world was dark. She shuffled over where she left her slippers and pulled them on before heading downstairs for milk and chocolate chip cookies, not caring if the chocolate would keep her up for the rest of the night. Dawn was in a handful of hours. Soon she would have to be up anyway.

She took her treats to the living room and turned on the television. The woman on the screen was talking about how the lines for a spot outside Times Square was already packed. Sakura dozed off for a second, drifting across the surface of sleep before opening her eyes to see sunlight. It was much later and she checked the clock in a panic.

It was the last day of the year and she had to finish work early if she was to join the girls for midnight celebrations. She stood and then stopped, looking back at the television. There was a man there now, talking about another tropical storm, but the tagline at the bottom of the screen was talking about new year resolutions.

Sakura shut her eyes and sighed deep. "This is it."

In her mind she made a resolution. She would finish it in a year. She would travel through the first gate and the kingdom that came next and finish what she started. She had sacrificed too much to show hesitation now.

"Wait for me guys. I'll set you free."

AN:/ And there you have it folks, that's the end of it. For now. I'm getting ready to start planning and drafting the first gate story for you guys which will be out in the spring of next year. If I stay on track I'll get to the next one-Kingdom of Gods and be in the kingdom part of the story by summer. I will finish it all in one year, tops. I'm almost there. That's my resolution.

I'm a little sad to see this end. It did not turn out the way I had planned it. I feel like I could have done more with it, but I'm glad it has come full circle and Sakura was able to pull herself forward. The next story will be darker in old and new ways. (More body horror, for one, and it will be psychologically exhausting in a way she hasn't faced yet.)

I hadn't planned on Sasori showing up, but it was all a part of Madara's design, and he kept Sasori hidden in case of an emergency like Sakura nearly leaving happens. He wanted to be with her, but even more than that, he wanted her to be safe in his world-even if it wasn't with him at the end of the day. He's still a bastard, but he's been through a lot and he did a lot of things out of fear and a twisted form of love for her. Poor baby.

Now on to Gladiator Sakura stories!

Hoped you liked it, see you next time!