Finally we get to the part that inspired this whole story. Through the writing process it changed a lot, but the main idea still stayed there. Anyway, I hope that this was worth the wait.

Three Akatsuki members were hot on her trail. Deidara up in the air and other two that covered the ground, possibly Kisame, judging from the massive chakra signature, which she remembered the best and maybe Hidan.

She leapt through the trees, trying to avoid being spotted by Deidara. Every now and then he'd drop a bomb or two down to where she was and she'd barely manage to avoid the explosion. This had been going on for five minutes at least. She knew if she stopped and fought she would have no chance at winning even with Hashirama at her side, who as he'd explained to her had a limiter put on him. She couldn't risk him getting damage and then poof. It was a pinch and her best chance was to run and try to hide, with Hashirama distracting the Akatsuki with various jutsu.

For half a year she'd been running from the Akatsuki, for half a year she's been away from her home, living like a missing nin. Pain hadn't taken to her "betrayal" that well. Once she managed to escape the Akatsuki hideout, after she broken Madara's key, Pain had noticed it immediately. After that it had been a clusterfuck of her trying to sneak her way out of Ame. Thankfully for her most of the Akatsuki members didn't give a crap about her, so they hadn't done much to stop her. She guessed that it was Pain's doing that the members a month later started coming after her whenever they crossed paths.

A huge explosion erupted behind her, creating wind of hot air. She spared a quick glance behind her to see dubious amount of wood move towards the explosion. Hashirama's doing obviously.

She dropped on the ground and waited for a moment until she saw the flashy red armour of the Shodai come into her view before she picked up her speed again, knowing that the ancient shinobi will catch up to her.

She manoeuvred between the trees, avoiding any sticking out roots. The scenery went by her in a blur, the wind from her run flowing through her messy locks and billowing out her cloak. She could tell that they were nearing the border of Iwa, the already small trees becoming a lot smaller and sparser.

As she predicted Hashirama caught up to her and matched his speed with hers. "Sakura-san, have you found a place to hide?"

Sakura grumbled, the notion of hiding again not sitting well in her stomach. "No, but we're closing in to the border. I'm sure once we cross there should be a cave or something."

He nodded and weaved his hands through a myriad of hand seals. Numerous roots shot up from the ground creating a huge wall and blocked a large wave of water she guessed had been Kisame's doing. "I have a proposition to make."

Both of them leaped to the side when an explosion blocked their path, sending chunks of earth and splinters flying everywhere. It was becoming increasingly difficult to lose the Akatsuki members in the trees. The unrelenting bastards, just her fucking luck of running into the three of them in that damn inn.

Sakura exhaled loudly through her nose and picked up her speed, Hashirama easily following her. "What is it?"

"You might not approve of this, but I think you should bring Madara in for this."

The pinkette stumbled, nearly falling face first on the ground. "What! Are you nuts? Of course I won't approve."

Another explosion rumbled behind them and Sakura could feel two signatures closing in on them. They were running out of time. If she wanted to avoid a fight she had to find somewhere to hide immediately. Sakura grit her teeth and pushed past her limit, feeling the burn in her calves. The mention of the Uchiha soured her mood way more than it already was.

The Shodai once again easily matched her speed, not even looking bothered by it. "Before you say anything else listen to what I have to say." He paused for a moment to make a seal and more trees sprouted from the ground, thickening the thinning forest. "You can't keep running for forever, Sakura-san and I can't protect you with the limiter in place."

"Just take it off then." She jumped over a large rock and from the corner of her eye saw Deidara up in the air, moulding a new explosive. Shit!

"I can't do it without it hurting you. I've said this multiple times, Sakura, but me releasing the limiter will harm you, you don't possess enough chakra to support me at full power."

Sakura grumbled, glaring his way, something she hadn't done towards him a lot, her respect towards the Shodai Hokage of the village preventing her from being outwardly rude to the older man. Sometimes she wanted to yell at him, a lot, but he tended to make good points and logic and respect made her keep quiet.

Hashirama continued, seemingly not noticing her seething. "But Madara can do it without hurting you. I've tried talking to him about it, but he won't answer me and it's been increasingly harder finding him in Limbo. I think he's angry at you."

The pinkette snorted. "Tell me something I don't know." Obviously the Uchiha was pissed with her, she gave him the biggest "fuck you" she could.

"I'm sure you have a lot to talk about and that there are things you want to ask him."

Sakura cursed at that, this time outwardly glaring at the Shodai. She and Itachi had been trying to piece together the puzzle, but there were so many pieces missing that the picture was unclear. Yes, she wanted to ask him questions if only to get information out of him and relay it to Konoha. "Still, that is not enough of a reason to bring that bitch back. I can quench my own curiosity if it halts whatever he was concocting up."

Hashirama's jutsu stopped and the trees completely thinned out, leaving them in a rocky terrain. "What I'm trying to say is that – and you must be aware of this as well – this won't stop Madara. I know my old friend fairly well and I can see when he's stuck in his ways. Madara has always been inventive in achieving his goals, especially when there is a setback. I'm proposing to you to bring him back under your control-"

An explosion of rock shards derailed their path and they both jumped to the right, taking the path towards a large fissure in the earth. Sakura cursed under her breath at the unrelenting Akatsuki members and quickly pivoted on her heel to stomp a chakra laden foot to the ground, creating a mini earthquake and large cracks that splintered. She picked back up the conversation, feeling her breath catch in her throat for a moment. "If you weren't aware then that didn't work out too well last time. I was made a fool out of by him and got dragged along like a fucking puppy. Not something I'd want to experience again."

The Shodai grinned. "Ah, but what if I told you that I can teach you how to sever his link to this world without the use of a key."

Sakura tripped on a rock that had been jutting out in a sharp angle, painfully stubbing her toes in the process. Before she could reach the ground with her face Hashirama caught her and immediately picked her up like a sack of potatoes to keep up their speed towards the fissure. She was too surprised by what Hashirama had said to protest the action.

The older shinobi continued. "I know that there isn't much I can say to change your mind about him, but I'm worried about Madara, Sakura. He's unable to find rest and move on, it's eating him. I'm upset with what he has done, yes, especially when I found out that he had lived on only to make more trouble. But for the past two decades he's been in Limbo I've been trying to get through to him." Hashirama exhaled loudly, creating a one handed seal that made the large boulder in front of them spit apart. "...but I'm afraid that I might be too close to the source of his distress for me to get through."

The pinkette listened to him speak while watching the white clay bird fly away from them. She breathed out in relief, sensing that one other member had ditched them as well. She guessed that Deidara retreated because of them entering Iwa and Hidan might have gotten bored, though from her time in the hideout she had found out that Kisame was one of the most loyal to Pain, so she found it as no surprise that he kept up the chase.

"Haruno-san?"

He put her back on the ground and Sakura immediately stumbled when pressure was put on her busted toes. She cursed and sent healing chakra towards her toes, picking back up their pace while healing her injury. "What is it?" She only briefly noted that he had called her by last name, which usually meant that he was being serious. She had a sinking suspicion that she won't like whatever he'll say.

"I'm asking you as a friend to bring Madara back and talk some sense into him. You've left an impression on him and I'm sure that he'll listen to you."

They jumped down into the fissure, that was a lot larger and deeper than it looked at first, softening the fall with chakra. Without any thought Sakura set the path towards the left, Hashirama following her. "You're giving me too much credit." He didn't know, she couldn't blame him. She never told him, out of embarrassment, all that had happened between her and Madara. Not once had the Uchiha listened to her, she wasn't sure about the impressions part, though. "If there's someone on this world who can talk to him it's you, Senju-san. I'm afraid that I'm simply just a hindrance to him."

The Shodai smiled knowingly. "Ah, but you don't know how he talks about you when you're not around, do you?"

Sakura smiled back, dubiously. "No, but is that even relevant?"

"The few times he came back to Limbo before his extended absence I over heard him saying some pretty interesting things about you. I don't think he meant to say them out loud, but it's sometimes hard to think straight in Limbo without talking to yourself..."

The pinkette noticed a deeper crevice in the wall of the fissure to her left and motioned with her hand for them to move there. Kisame hadn't followed them down in the fissure, but she could feel his chakra signature up above, nearing their position. "Your point?" Sakura questioned, almost impatiently. Hashirama had a tendency to go on tangents and then forget what he was trying to say from the beginning. It oddly reminded her of Naruto and at first she had found it funny, but after a while it grew old.

They slowed down their speed, now walking beside each other, almost shoulder to shoulder with how tight the crevice was. "Well, I think he likes you."

Her eyes went wide and she whipped her head to look at him. "What?!" She could feel her face heat up way more than it already was from her run, the stupid elephant that had been gone for half a year stumbled back in with his acrobatic performance. She cleared her throat and turned to look at the ground before them, avoiding the positively gleeful grin from Hashirama. "I doubt that he actually said that. You're just pulling that out from your ass."

"Now, now, Sakura, I know what I'm saying. You're right that he didn't say that outright, Madara knows how to hide his feelings well, but without a doubt he feels that way, judging from the way he kept analysing your every move and planning ways to get back at you after you'd apparently kissed him," he said the last part with a good natured laugh.

Sakura squeaked and couldn't help but hide her burning cheeks between her hands. "Oh my god!" All this time Hashirama knew and he hadn't said a thing until now. It seemed like he was talking about the first incident when she had pecked the Uchiha in desperation, thankfully it didn't look like he knew about what had happened much later on, thank god. This was so embarrassing. She hadn't told anyone about what she'd done with Madara and how she'd gotten rid of him so easily.

When she'd returned back to Konoha it had been unavoidable that she would have to explain everything in person. Tsunade had received her message and had relayed the information to the dHokage. Sakura had to fill in the blanks she had left in that message. It had been a long and gruelling process, she couldn't help but feel like she had been judged by everyone in the room. Naruto especially had been unrelenting with his questions. If she didn't know him she would think that he was calling her out on her bullshit regarding her connection with Madara on purpose.

In the end, though, she'd gotten punished and they all had agreed that it would be for the best if Naruto left the village, thus started the Kyūbi jinchūriki's extended stay at Mount Myoboku. Obviously the blonde hadn't been happy about such a decision, though it had been for the best, since a week later Pain and Konan had attacked Konoha. The damage done hadn't been that bad at first and once Pain heard that Naruto wasn't in village they had backed off. Of course everything hadn't gone so smooth. Apparently Pain had a rule set for the Akatsuki, which was that no member could leave the organisation alive. That had explained to her why some of the members stayed despite their obvious dislike towards Pain.

Because of her, because Pain had seen her between the medics, healing some of the injured shinobi, he had stayed and chased after her, resulting in vast damages done to the village. She had survived only because Tsunade, Kakashi and a few others from rookie nine had been near her, helping her fight off the Six Paths of Pain. The fight had finished only when Tsunade had helped her sneak away from harms way, telling her to run after that. Sakura hadn't liked that and neither did Tsunade, but in order to keep her and the village safe she had to go. Sakura had gone to Shikkotsu Forest, at least until it was safe to come back.

Obviously she hadn't gone back to the village, knowing that she was a danger to it now, she had decided to live as a missing nin, searching for clues to the mystery she and Itachi had discovered. She felt angry at Madara for bringing her into that mess and guilty that because of her the village had suffered as much as it did.

Hashirama broke her out of her musings by breaking the extended silence that had fallen between them. "I'm fairly sure that you can get through to him, Sakura. Men tend to listen to the women they fancy, you know. I'm saying this as a man who had a very strict wife."

The pinkette groaned, hiding her face in her hands in pure mortification. She doesn't want to think about this, she doesn't want to talk about this, especially if it's about Madara. She's pretty sure that Hashirama is seeing things that aren't there. "Please, can we not talk about this. I'll do as you say, alright, but please, please let's change the subject?"

The Shodai chuckled, patting her back. "I understand."

She didn't think he did, but she let it go, not wanting to touch upon the topic again.

For the next few minutes Hashirama quickly explained to her how she can forcefully close the door of a spirit and what his plans in getting rid of the looming Kisame was. Sakura mostly couldn't believe how easy it actually was to close the door, she couldn't believe that it had never passed in her mind to simply wave her chakra infused hand in the door closing motion to close it forcefully. Holy shit, knowing this a lot earlier would have saved her so much trouble.

She bit down the frustration with herself and watched as Hashirama closed his eyes, concentrating for something. Sakura was puzzled with this motion. He said that he was going to impersonate her and derail Kisame while she had agreed to try and bring Madara back. How was that supposed to help him cast a henge?

Chakra buzzed around him and Sakura watched in awe as he changed before her, morphed into something else. When he opened his eyes again Sakura belatedly realized that he had morphed into her. She winced. Did she really look like that? Hair frizzled, all over the place and in need for a trim, huge dark bags under her eyes, standard shinobi clothes with a few suspicious stains that looked a lot like blood and a ragged black cloak. Well, at least she looked the part of a missing nin.

"How do I look?"

The pinkette blinked as he pivoted around to showcase his change. "Y-your voice didn't change?"

"Ah, I can fix that." He weaved a few handsigns. "How about now?"

Sakura nodded, not really understanding what had just happened. "Good…?" Did her voice really sound like that? How could people listen to her and not get annoyed? "How...did...?"

He shrugged, making her worn out body look way more carefree than it should. "My form is made of chakra, so all I did was change it. Anyway, we'll continue as planned. Stay here and let me handle the shark man."

She once again stiffly nodded back as he made his way up the fissure wall. Once he was out of sight Sakura made her way back out of the crevice, masking her chakra in the process. Will Kisame even fall for this ruse? She had no clue, she could hope though. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache come on.

Now it was her turn to do her part. It irritated her that she actually even remembered how Madara's key looked like. If she didn't have a photographic memory she could have just told Hashirama that she's forgotten the appearance of the key and she wouldn't have to go through this asinine plan. Ugh, Tsunade hadn't been kidding when she'd said that her grandfather had been one crazy fella.

Sakura walked in a brisk pace, trying to find a place to hide into that wasn't claustrophobically narrow. The afternoon sun was blazingly hot and was in no favour in helping her cool off. She took a few steps to the left where the fissure walls were casting a shade. In comparison to Kusa's lush forests and lands of grass the land felt barren here, not as bad as Suna, but still eerie enough for Sakura to feel a bit uncomfortable. The large rocks didn't look welcoming at all with their sharp ends and odd shapes.

She'd been exploring for five minutes when she suddenly felt the strain on her chakra loosen. She swallowed thickly, feeling the dry air parch her throat. Picking up her pace she chose a random direction to turn to when she came to a crossroad. Kisame had gotten rid of Hashirama. She didn't know what to expect now. Considering how easily he'd fallen for their ruse, she guessed, hoped, that Kisame wouldn't come after her. There must be a limit to how much time he's willing to waste on her.

She swiped the sweat from her forehead and removed her cloak, feeling that if she doesn't she'll drown in her own sweat. The cool wind was a welcome relief to her flushed skin.

A grin split across her face when she came across an indent in the wall. It was deep enough to shield her from view if anyone was to come across the fissure. Putting her cloak on the ground where there weren't any sharp rocks or sand she sat down on it. The wind wasn't as strong here and she could already feel herself start sweating again. Removing her gloves she cleaned her clammy hands on her cloak.

Now, how is she supposed to do this? Does she simply call chakra to her hands and mould it? Or she needs to do the jutsu again? Damn, she should have asked Hashirama. Deciding to run with the first option first she called chakra to her hands, seeing the familiar green glow of it she started moulding it, similarly to how she solidifies her chakra scalpels.

Sweat started to trickle into her eye and she tried to blink it away, it was dividing her concentration. She could already see the key being formed, she was so close. Halfway through she nearly stopped everything from how annoying the heat had gotten. It wouldn't matter anyway if she didn't complete it, she didn't want the Uchiha back, she could just tell Hashirama that she did all she could and nothing came of it.

Before she knew it the black and red key was in her hand. She swiped her free hand across her forehead and let out a shuddering breath.

She had done it, she had remade Madara's key, effectively creating a new contract.

Suddenly the notion of seeing him again made her stomach twist in knots. She wasn't sure what to expect if she brought him back. Anger? Surprise? Indifference? The possibilities seemed endless, yet at the back of her mind she knew that he'll be angry and an angry Uchiha wasn't something she wanted to deal with.

She cursed Hashirama and his damn compassion towards Madara. Why couldn't he just let it go?

Instead of dwelling on it longer and cause herself unneeded anxiety she swung the key in the familiar half triangle motion and waited with a baited breath.

Nothing happened for a minute and Sakura let a relieved smile slip across her lips. He didn't want to come. She was saved from facing him for now. She fell back on the ground and swiped her face clean with her sleeve, letting the key drop from her hand.

"Well aren't you the perfect picture of grace."

Her eyes snapped open and she shot back up from the ground. There he was, back in his red armour like nothing had happened, arms crossed and an impassive scowl on his face. Like always he just had to make that surprise entrance.

"I would ask how you're doing, but I frankly don't care." The sarcasm was clear in his voice just as it was clear that he was still angry with her.

Sakura glared, turning to look at her sweaty hands. She didn't care if he made passive aggressive comments towards her or what he thought of her right now, her mission was to simply talk to him and that's it. Except she had no idea what to say to him, Hashirama had just dumped this on her without giving any starting points. In all honesty she would rather not talk to him at all, she's had enough experience around him to know that it'll leave her frustrated.

"Has the cat got your tongue?"

She raised her head again only to see that Madara had dropped some of his standoffishness, curiously staring her down. She licked her dry lips and swiped her sweaty palms on the knees of her pants. "Well, for starters you're here only because of your dear friend Hashirama, who, by the way, should have specified what the fuck he wanted from me." Her voice sounded scratchy even to her own ears.

"Hashirama?" Now the curiosity was in his voice.

Sakura swallowed trying to wet her dry throat. Why did she even listen to the ancient shinobi? This was a really bad idea. "It was his idea for me to bring you back, saying that you'd be better to protect me or some shit like that and that I should try and talk to you." The pinkette bit her lip and veered her gaze back to her hands. Now when she said it out loud it sounded stupid and she felt embarrassed just for saying it.

She heard ruffling coming from him and she peered up just enough to see him sit cross-legged across from her, while still keeping a considerable distance. "Now what would have given him the idea that after your backstab I'd would want to help you? You could be getting eaten by wolves at this moment and I wouldn't move a finger to help you in any way," he bit out, glaring at her.

"Oh, I don't doubt that. I didn't really want to see your stupid mug anyway," she grumbled the last part, cursing Hashirama in her mind for talking her into doing this. This must be the most hostile and awkward conversation she's ever had.

"Likewise."

Both of them fell silent after that and Sakura couldn't help but fidget in her spot from his heated glare, eventually mimicking his pose. It was surprising that he hadn't tried to physically harm her already considering how angry he was. If it was her in his place she wouldn't have even bothered to speak, just let her firsts do the talking. Sometimes his self control amazed her. Then again he might be trying to catch her when she least expects it and do some fucked up mind jutsu on her. Sounded a lot more like something he'd do.

Eventually he broke the silence. "You're not very far sighted, are you? Always acting on emotion and impulse..." Sakura felt her eye twitch, a stingy comment on the tip of her tongue, but he continued in the same condescending tone as before, "I bet you didn't even think things through before you followed Hashirama's orders like a little lost kid."

The corner of her mouth twitched, yet she kept it shut, knowing that he was right about that, saying anything would just be admitting that he was right about her, which he was, but he didn't need to know that. She has enough self caused self-hate to last a life time without him adding to it. She knew she wasn't perfect.

"What do you want from me, Sakura? Why did you call me back?" he drawled, sounding bored and tired.

The pinkette swiped her greasy locks away from her face, suppressing the urge to growl. She had learned to hate that question. The circumstances were different now, but it still brought back memories that she wanted to forget. Still, she steeled her nerves and exhaled loudly. Well, if he, oh so graciously asked, she might as well dump all of her questions on him. "What were you doing with the Akatsuki? What was so important that you had to lock yourself away for hours?"

He chuckled and the sound surprised her, making her flinch. "That is of no concern to you."

Sakura frowned, but let it go for now, it wasn't the most pressing thing weighing her mind anyway. She had a feeling that he wasn't answering that just to spite her anyway. She decided to stop beating around the bush and just ask the question that had caused this whole situation from the very beginning. "Alright, then who hurt you so bad that taking over the world was the only solution to everything?" She had a small inkling of what the reason might be, since she did read all of those papers he had written and left around in her apartment, but most of them were really jumbled and made little sense.

Madara didn't like the question, it was obvious from how his usual frown deepened and he narrowed his eyes in displeasure. "That is not the case at all. You've been fed lies."

She laughed bitterly. "Well, you never told me shit, so how can I know. I make my own conclusions from what I know and if you don't like it, you can blame yourself for that." Oh, she definitely pressed some of the wrong buttons with that, he looked like he was ready to kill her on the spot just with his glare alone, which she didn't doubt he could once he would activate his sharingan. Still, Sakura smiled through it, wallowing in his irritation and how quickly she managed to get under his skin. Maybe Hashirama had been right about her having an affect on him. "What? Cat got your tongue?" She couldn't help but poke the hornet's nest more and throw his words back at him.

"I'm not obliged to tell you anything or explain my actions." He closed his eyes and visibly took a long breath, possibly trying to calm himself down.

Alright, he didn't want to talk about it, it must really be a touchy subject then, something she'll visit later. For now she'll continue winging it and keep him talking, he's bound to spill something eventually.

Sakura shrugged carelessly. "I was just askin', but anyway there are other things I want to know." She grinned wickedly, knowing that he's not going to like her next question at all. His guarded expression told that he's not liking this already. Truthfully she wasn't comfortable starting a discussion about this herself, but she had to know if she wanted to put her mind at rest. "What exactly where you trying to achieve before I broke your key? At that point you were gaining nothing by doing that, yet you still indulged me." She leaned forward, placing her hands on her knees, keeping her smile on her face, while trying to battle the blush that was heating up her face and neck.

His posture visibly stiffened and he retracted his gaze from her to stare somewhere out in the distance. It didn't look like he was planning to respond, so Sakura leaned back and uncrossed her legs, splaying them out before her. He was contemplating things, yet he still didn't have an answer for her.

The pinkette giggled under her breath. Could it be? Was that a mistake on his part? All this time she had been agonizing over what he'd been trying to do when he'd kissed her back, while now it looked like it had been nothing, he'd kissed her back without any significant reason, effectively falling for her ruse. "So Mr. Perfect isn't so perfect at all, hahaha. I call that well deserved karma." It was about time he messed up. She avoided thinking about the implications of that for now, her frazzled nerves wouldn't be able to handle it.

Madara turned back to face her just to throw a heated glare her way.

It only made Sakura's smile widen. This definitely was a part of him she hadn't seen, a part that humanized him more than anything else. She'd noticed how hard he'd tried to throw away any semblance of humanity, trying to perfect everything, yet something baser had won and ultimately let her get the upper hand. "You're still human like any of us and apparently horny to boot," she gloated, trying to push him past his limits. From the very beginning she'd been trying to break the visage of this intimidating person he put up, though that had went out the window when he'd started to pull her into his shenanigans. Now might be her chance to revisit that plan.

"I don't think you have any rights to accuse me of such things when you were the one to start it all in the beginning." She had obviously ruffled his feathers the wrong way for he started to place the blame on her in a very child like manner. Still, in a way he was right.

Her smile fell and she searched her brain for what to say to that. "Err...well yes, but it was all planned."

"That's a lie and you know it."

He got her there. It all had started from an impulsive action from her. Sakura licked her lips, feeling the dryness return to her mouth. "W-well...you aren't so innocent yourself, I might have started it, but you escalated it, which wasn't really needed."

He drew his lips in a flat line and once again drew his gaze away from her, finding more interest in the sharp rocks on the other fissure wall, staying silent.

Sakura downturned her head, biting her lip. Damn that elephant and her mouth for having no reins. Way to make it awkward, Sakura. Still, she didn't know if she should feel relieved or what that he wasn't as unaffected as he made himself to be. Now when she'd put it out on the table it appeared that both of them had been at fault for everything that had happened between them. With dejection, at the back of her mind, Sakura concluded that Hashirama indeed had been right about everything.

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it no soon after and brought her legs back to herself, hugging them, while hiding her burning face. Could the ground just swallow her up already? The awkward silence is going to eat her up.

"If you have nothing else to say just send me back already." He sounded gravelly and muffled. Sakura removed her hands from her face only to see that Madara had leaned forward, holding his head in his hand, effectively hiding his face from view. A soft breeze ruffled his hair, making more strands than usual fall forward and shield him.

Her eyes widened. She had never seen him like this. Somehow that made her feel a bit less embarrassed. She cleared her throat and uncurled from herself, choosing to fist her hands in her cloak instead. "Nu-huh, we're not done yet." He didn't react to her words, so she chose to just continue with her questions. It was a really great way to keep her mind off the new implications she'd discovered. "Who is Tobi? And before you say that it's none of my business, I know that this Tobi was impersonating you, making deals and alliances under your name."

That earned her a peek from him through his gloved fingers. He didn't say anything for a while, removing his hand from his face instead. "There was a setback to my original plan."

Sakura raised her eyebrow. "Which is?" It wasn't the answer she had expected, but it revealed that that imposter was working with Madara. In a way it made sense.

"Do you really think that I'll just give my secrets away to you like this?" A small smile crossed his lips and it looked like he was back to his normal self.

The pinkette grumbled. "Why not?" He simply deadpanned at her. "I mean, I can tell you my biggest secret if that makes you more comfortable in sharing." She mock grinned.

"Your girlish secrets are of no use to me. Try harder." He returned her grin and she frowned in return.

"Then what the hell do you want from me?"

"Exactly, I don't want anything from you."

Sakura wanted to exclaim in frustration by this point. Did he have to be difficult? She'd been lenient when he didn't want to answer before, but three times in a row was too much. "Then just tell me, oh your Holy Greatness." She couldn't help the sarcasm that slipped out.

His grin fell. "The sarcasm isn't appreciated-"

But she cut him off, at the end of her patience. "Oh, I'm sorry for upsetting the Great Holiness, please accept my apologies."

If Madara had been any other person he would have rolled his eyes and it amused Sakura how hard he was trying not to. She knew she could be annoying if she wanted to and right now she wasn't afraid to use that skill to full power if it meant it gained her some answers.

"He died."

Sakura closed her mouth, the next snappy comment dying in her throat at his sudden answer. "Who?" She scrunched her brows. She had been thinking too hard about her next insult to really understand about who he was talking about and Madara didn't say anything else to clarify either.

He died. Her eyes widened when understanding came to her. Tobi! That's what he meant by a setback to his original plan – his impersonator died. A harsh realization dawned on her and it felt like a ball of lead had settled in her stomach. If it hadn't been for her all of Madara's plans would have gone unrealized, abruptly put to a stop when Tobi died. But then she came into the picture and brought the man himself back, putting everything else back into motion. She had messed up much more gravely than she at first thought. A knot formed in her throat and she tried to swallow it.

The Uchiha raised his eyebrow, not understanding her sudden panic. "If you're done I'd like to go back. There are things I need to attend to."

She stiffly turned her head to him. Now she knew what Hashirama meant by it being hard to find Madara in Limbo and once again the other shinobi had been right – being away from the real world hadn't stopped the Uchiha from continuing with his plans, which he got to continue only because of her.

Sakura shook her head, trying to rid herself of the guilt that plagued her. It wasn't very successful, but she was burning daylight and she wanted to ask him one last thing before she needed to continue her way towards Kawa, a random trading village in Iwa she picked out to travel to.

She swallowed again and wiped her sweaty hands on her cloak. "One last question. Why did you want me to summon Hashirama? You obviously aren't very fond of him with how much you've been avoiding him, so why, why did you want me to create a contract with him as well?"

He smirked mischievously. "Because I thought that that would kill you."

She spluttered and blinked. "What is that supposed to mean!?"

He exhaled languidly like he was preparing to spell out something obvious that an oblivious kid. "Normally a single shinobi isn't able to create two contracts with two spirits, especially with someone like me and Hashirama. One tiny mistake and you would have died. You trying to summon Hashirama while I was around could have potentially killed you as well. I was hoping you'd be desperate enough to do it, though kudos to you for holding out."

"You shifty motherfucker!" She remembered how he'd told her that she has enough chakra control and reserves to handle it, while in reality he was hoping that she'd be dumb enough to try it and kill herself and worst part was that she was dumb enough, she just got lucky. And apparently Hashirama wasn't aware of this little detail because he hadn't said a thing about it to her, then again Madara seemed to be much more well versed in this kinjutsu than Hashirama was. "So you were lying to me?!"

He waved his hand as if finding her comment ridiculous. "Not really, you do have great chakra control, I just didn't expect for it to be so perfect under such a pressure. You surprised me there, Sakura." He sounded honest, but by this point she was too angry to hear his praise.

She glowered and crossed her arms. Her fingers itched to hit something. "You are the most insufferable man I have ever met, you know that?"

That earned her a laugh from him and a good natured smile, something she hadn't expected to ever see from him again. "I have never been a fan of simple things."

"Understatement of the century," she grumbled. The fact that he had wanted to kill her honestly hadn't surprised her that much at all. She didn't understand how at that point in time her dying would have benefited him, but she had learned not to underestimate his planning abilities. She didn't doubt that there was still a lot of things Madara hadn't told her, the problem was that she didn't have an idea what those things might be and she knew that if she doesn't specify what she's asking for he won't give her a straight answer.

"Anything else weighing on your mind?" A hint of humour entered his voice and Sakura got the feeling that he was playing with her, gloating like the cheesy villains from some of the action films she's seen. It would explain why he's been so responsive to her questions – he's sure that he'll win, so he doesn't care if she knows about his plan or not.

She didn't like that smug look of his, it irritated her and made her feel like he's looking down on her, which he totally was, that jackass. She searched her mind for a quick insult to kick him down a peg, but she was drawing a blank.

He suddenly got up and the motion drew her gaze back to him. "I've been nice for long enough." Sakura froze when he advanced towards her, but he walked past her. "You got your silly questions answered and I'm done wasting my time with you." She turned her head to see him pick up the key she'd dropped from her hand. Her eyes widened when without any second thoughts he crushed it in his hand, the broken pieces disappearing into air.

"Wait!" She shot up from her spot and reached out to him. They made brief eye contact and then he was gone, dissipating into air. Sakura stood there mouth open and arm extended into the spot where just a few seconds ago he had been standing. "Fucking bitch!" she exclaimed in anger and kicked the dirt below her feet. So much for the plan of her keeping him tied to her. Apparently he had no need to stay in the real world any more. This had just turned for the worst.

Grumbling the pinkette pivoted on her heel and picked up her cloak, waving it around a bit to shake off the sand before she placed it back around her shoulders. It had darkened considerably and the sun wasn't as unbearable any more. She made her way out of the fissure and set her path towards Kawa.

It all happened so fast. It hadn't even passed her mind that Madara would try break his own key. Still, she got the message and creating another key will prove to be fruitless. On the bright side she at least managed to get him to talk. He wasn't willing to answer why he was doing all of this, the question that really had interested her, though she had gained other useful information. At least she didn't have to worry about a Madara impersonator running amuck.

Embarrassingly enough Hashirama had been right and it looked like the Uchiha did hold some affections towards her, though apparently that didn't amount to anything – he had his own priorities. It was such a mess. She didn't think she even wanted to know why he likes her, it already was such a contradiction to everything he does.

Sakura shook her head, trying to clear her mind from those thoughts. It seemed like she'll have to return to Konoha in the near future. Something huge was brewing and she wanted to be near her friends for when it exploded. She didn't doubt that Uchiha Madara will be responsible for it all.

Xxx

Just as she had predicted a month later all hell broke loose. All over the five shinobi nations there were news of the tailed beasts that had previously been captured by the Akatsuki destroying villages causing the relationships between the lands became more strained. Everyone threw the blame at each other, though Konoha got the most of it, even their allegiance with Suna became shaky. There were news going around about the fall of Akatsuki and worst of all – the return of Uchiha Madara.

Sakura didn't know how he did it, but he was back and apparently was causing causalities among the shinobi ranks of Kuma and Iwa. Obviously he had thrown any kind of caution to the wind, announcing his presence to the world. What was he planning to do by doing this? She had zero clue and it pained her to admit it, once again she was rendered useless, inadvertently staying as one of the causes of this chaos.

In the end Itachi had been right – a war was coming on.

And when on the subject of the elder surviving Uchiha she had a grim suspicion that his illness might have caught up to him. Sasuke had come back to the village, unchanged and still bitter. He didn't say anything, but she had a suspicion that he might have had an encounter with his brother. What exactly happened she, once again, had no clue and asking Sasuke about it would be met with no results.

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Her thoughts were interrupted by Naruto, eyeing her worriedly.

Sakura blinked and schooled her expression into something less glum and faked a smile for him. "I'm fine, I'm just a little bit worried about our success." And rightfully so. Dealing with a tailed beast was no joke.

There had been news of the Yonbi entering the Land of Fire and before it reaches Konoha or any other major villages in the country the Hokage had assembled a team of shinobi to either seal the beast or veer it off course from Konoha in the worst case scenario. So far no one had been able to seal a beast and all attempts had been met with numerous casualties and that statistic was what worried Sakura.

The team the Hokage had put together consisted of Naruto as per his own request, Sasuke as the one with the biggest capability of trying to control the beast (past occurrences had proven that the sharingan has the ability to control the chakra monster), Yamato with his power to suppress tailed beasts and her as the medic in case something goes wrong and carrier of the sealing urn in case they manage to calm it down to seal it. They were considerably a small team, but Kakashi had enough trust in them to know that they'll get out of it alive if anything goes wrong.

"You have nothing to be worried about, Sakura-chan. I'll tell the Yonbi to stop attacking and everything will be fine, Kurama suggested it, so it should work."

Her smile wavered a bit. Leave it to Naruto to be overly optimistic. She didn't share his sentiments, but trusted him enough to at least try, after all he'd managed to make peace with his own beast, something no one believed to be possible.

Sasuke scoffed at their exchange, his thoughts about Naruto's plan obvious.

"I know the plan sounds horrible, but at least let him try. He's achieved crazier things." Yamato gave her a reassuring smile.

Sakura couldn't argue there. Naruto had the uncanny ability to persuade everyone. She didn't know what was his secret, but she wanted that ability, would have saved her a fuckton of time when she'd had to deal with Madara.

They were closing in on the beast, the roars of it telling as much. A sudden spike of very familiar chakra made her pause in her step on a tree branch, but Yamato was quick to notice her falling back and upon him turning his head to look at her she resumed her pace, catching up with him. She avoided looking at his odd look or explaining what had been her reason for stopping.

She had a really, really bad feeling about this.

The Yonbi reared it's head through the trees and all of them scattered to take their positions. She and Sasuke took the rear while Naruto and Yamato took the front. Yamato dropped to the ground and went through a flurry of handseals. Roots sprung up from the ground and blocked the gorilla beast's path while some other roots weaved around it's legs, eliciting a loud roar from it.

Sakura watched the scene from afar on a tree branch, Sasuke not too far from her.

The Yonbi broke through the roots, but as soon as it did new ones were in place. Naruto took that as his cue to near the beast, landing on a branch that was near eye level to it.

She paid no mind to what Naruto was saying the same chakra from before catching her attention again. She turned her head away from the scene to somewhere left to them, eyes narrowed as she tried to pinpoint the exact location of the chakra spike. Others seemed not to notice it, the massive chakra signature from the Yonbi overpowering everything.

Sasuke was mumbling insults towards Naruto and Sakura moved further away from him to concentrate.

"Sakura?" Her concentration was broken when Sasuke called to her, eyeing her with slight confusion.

She sighed rubbing her eyebrows that had started to hurt from her extended frowning. "I just have a really bad feeling about this."

"This isn't the best plan out there, I agree. They should've let me try to control it with the sharingan, so you and Yamato can seal it." He looked back to where Naruto was trying to talk to the beast, so far failing in every aspect and Yamato who was supplying the root bindings that the Yonbi kept tearing apart.

"That and I have a feeling like we're being watched." Sakura inclined her head back to the direction she last felt the chakra spike come from.

Sasuke activated his sharingan and followed her line of sight. "Whatever it is we'll deal with it as soon as it crosses our path."

Absently Sakura nodded and followed the Uchiha back to where they could safely jump into action with the Yonbi if the time were to come. She couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched, so she kept her senses expanded for any indication of movement.

The Yonbi had calmed down and surprisingly enough was listening to Nartuo. He must be telling some story for he had a huge grin on his face and was avidly emoting. Even the roots were gone, though the wooden walls with spikes Yamato had created while she hadn't been looking were still there.

She, Sasuke and Yamato stood in wonder, watching the blonde have a conversation with the beast. The biggest surprise was when it responded, its voice loud and clear.

For Sasuke the novelty wore off quickly and he was back to his usual self, scowling at the blonde and his success while Sakura caught herself searching for the familiar chakra again. She proved successful when the chakra spiked again. Her eyes narrowed. Now she had no doubts about who it is.

She pulled out from her pack the scroll that contained the sealing urn and shoved it into Sasuke's hands. Scandalised the Uchiha turned to her, but before he could open his mouth to protest Sakura cut in. "It looks like Naruto has it under control. There's something else I need to take care of. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes come after me." She took off only briefly hearing Sasuke call her name.

She's had a month to rethink her words and her choices and after a brief talk with the Shodai before she had to break the contract with him as per his request after she'd told him what Madara had said to her, she had promised that she'll try to do what she can to talk to Madara and solve this mess with the least amount of fighting. Honestly, she thought that Hashirama was a crazy idealist and was asking for the impossible from her as fighting was unavoidable at this point, but she had promised to try her best and her guilt wouldn't allow for less.

Wind whipped her face from the speed she was going in, though thankfully the chakra signature in front of her wasn't moving as fast. No doubt he was expecting her to catch up to him. She grit her teeth when she saw him waiting for her in a small clearing. She descended from the tree branches to the ground on the opposite side of the clearing from him.

She narrowed her eyes, clenching her fists. Madara looked different and it wasn't just the outfit change to something more from her time. He wasn't as pale and she couldn't put her finger on it, but he looked less translucent from when she last remembered him if that even made sense. Only conclusion: he wasn't a spirit anymore.

"I didn't think you'd follow me all the way," he commented offhandedly while roaming his eyes over her tense form.

She took a step forward glowering furiously. "Fight me!" The will to talk went right out the window. She's been doing nothing but talking and it has bared no results. It was time to change tactics and maybe she was just a tiniest bit angry and wanted to punch stuff. She knew she was no match to him, but she'll be damned if she didn't at least try.

Madara deadpanned. "Leave, Sakura."

She bristled. "Why? You took out any other shinobi team that you came across. Why aren't you going to fight me?"

"There's no point in fighting a pathetic, weak kunoichi."

He turned to leave and Sakura felt the edge of her mouth twitch. She pulled out a kunai from her pouch and aimed it at the back of his head, enhancing the throw with chakra. He easily avoided the kunai and it lodged itself hilt deep into a tree. He turned his head to glare at her. She licked her lips and pulled out another kunai. "Fight. Me," she repeated by emphasising each word just in case the message wasn't clear enough and lunged forward.

The Uchiha didn't even flinch when she sent a punch to the ground, causing ruptures and uprooting a tree. The terrain became uneven and she jumped onto the highest moving mass of earth to pounce on Madara, kunai extended.

He easily avoided her attack and snarling she pivoted on her heel and almost blindly swung her chakra enhanced fist. Each time she swung he stepped back with an amused look on his face. She aimed a high kick for his head to switch things up. He caught her ankle and threw her back by it, staggering her stance.

Him knowing all of her moves from back when they used to spar was doing no favours to her. Righting herself she lunged at him again with a chakra punch, while with her other hand she pulled out a kunai with and explosive tag attached from her pouch.

Just as she predicted he avoided her deadly punch and she used that chance to throw the explosive tag kunai, detonating it mid throw. The heat from the blast nearly singed the tips of her hair. Their close proximity to each other made the use of explosives dangerous for both of them, but Sakura didn't care.

A small smirk made it's way to her face while she absently healed the few burns she'd sustained, when the smoke of the explosive dissipated in the wind and it revealed that Madara had activated his mangekyou sharingan to protect himself with the ribcage of his Susanoo from the blast that had been considerably closer to him than her.

"This is a dangerous game you're playing. Do you think you're ready for it?"

No she did not, but she didn't care. She wasn't fighting to win, she was fighting for herself, she was fighting to let out all of her frustrations and grievances towards him. She didn't care that he was holding back on her, that he was underestimating her. She'd already achieved way more than she ever did during their spars by making him activate his mangekyou with her risky move.

She ignored his teasing smile and went for it again using the uneven ground as jumping platforms.

He was confident enough in his abilities to veer her off that he released his defence, the blue ribcage dissipating.

She called chakra to her hands and solidified it in sharp scalpels. This time Madara didn't avoid her slashing punches, instead each time she was about to connect he deflected them by pushing on her wrists. Sakura jumped back, pulled out three poison laden senbon from her pouch and threw them at Uchiha. He finally moved from his position to avoid her projectiles to land on one of her upturned pieces of earth.

She wasn't too far from the tree she uprooted, so using her enhanced strength she picked it up by the trunk and swung it like a bat, sending leaves and branches splaying around.

Madara avoided her large field sweep by jumping up on a tree branch.

She wasn't planning to give him room to breathe and threw the large tree his way. Maybe the tree won't hit him, but the crown of the tree was huge enough that at most he'll get scraped by branches. Her hope was naught for he evaded the tree by landing back on the ground. Sakura glowered, but then grinned as the huge tree had no balance and was falling back to the ground.

All this time he'd been simply avoiding or deflecting her attacks, obviously finding her attempts at fighting not worth fighting back. This time he didn't avoid the tree trunk and instead manifested his susanoo again and with it's single arm swatted the tree away.

As soon as the tree was out of the way Sakura lunged at him fist propped back for one of her deadly punches. Her fist connected with the ribcage of his susanoo, creating cracks on it.

He swatted her away just like he did of the tree and she went flying into a tree. She gasped her breath being kicked out of her. She barely had time to regroup her wits before a hand was pressing down to her throat, pinning her to the tree she'd slammed into.

"Leave." His eyes were hard, voice low and he clearly was done playing with her.

She glared at him and placed her hands on his. She sent a chakra scalpel through his hand, but it garnered her no results. He didn't react to the injury. Sakura swallowed. Was he really human? He definitely was warmer than before.

His irritation with her grew and he pressed harder on her throat, nearly blocking her windpipe.

"Why can't you just fight me?" she gasped out, knowing that if he did fight her she most likely wouldn't come out of it alive. The power difference between them was gross and she almost out of spite wanted to wish it gone just so she could fight him fairly.

"I'm tired of scuffling around with shinobi who can't even pose a challenge and you're no different from them."

She raised her hand to punch him, but he quickly pinned it to the tree near her head. "Then just kill me." She knew that she was playing with danger here, but her frustration with how weak she was had reached peak levels. She wasn't even able to touch him with her hits and that was all she wanted from this – a one solid hit on the Uchiha who has been the core reason for her turmoil. She bit down the need to cry. If only she could break free her hands and form the right hand seals to incapacitate him with her medical jutsu.

She blinked away her tears when she saw his stormy and conflicted expression. He was hesitating and made no move to follow up on her request. It was her saving grace from falling fully into despair – watching him struggle with understanding his own emotions. She had made piece with her own emotions a while ago, realizing that it had been nothing but lustful attraction that didn't amount to anything, even if she did kind of enjoy their antagonizing relationship. She didn't know his reasons for liking her, but she wasn't worrying about that 'cause it looked like he didn't know them himself.

He squeezed her hand harder and in turn she dug her fingers into the injury she'd created, getting blood all over her hand. This time he flinched from the pain and Sakura smirked in return.

"What is it you want, Madara?" she echoed the question he'd asked her the first time he'd caught her struggling with her emotions. She fully enjoyed the turnaround and how it looked like it had served to annoy him further. Sweet, sweet retribution.

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm not going to fall for your emotional manipulation."

She returned the gesture and dug her fingers deeper into his wound, earning her a grimace from him. He just indirectly admitted that he'd been manipulating her emotionally, using her feelings for his own gain. Motherfuckin bitch! "Oh, I see how it is. When it's me who has to bare all of myself to you then it's fine, but when you have to do it then I'm suddenly in the wrong. Fine. I have no problems admitting that I liked you and kept you around because of that, that I kissed you first because I subconsciously wanted to do it."

His hold on her became weaker, but his gaze never wavered, red sharingan eyes bore into her green ones. She waited for him to speak, but he never did. The sound of wind ruffling the leaves was all that she was met with.

Sakura clicked her tongue and averted her gaze to where she was digging her fingers into his flesh, the blood had soaked his sleeve and was still running from the wound, even running down her arm. "For someone who claims to be honest you have an awful time being honest to yourself." She raised her head back to meet his considerably less heated glare. She smirked, feeling her confidence come back. "If anyone is pathetic here then it's you, Madara. I don't need god levels of strength to admit that I have done wrong, that I have been a horrible person in the past and that I had feelings for a douche like you. Being stupid powerful doesn't fix anything and it certainly won't fix the world like you have imagined."

He leaned closer to her and for a moment her heart did a flip. What is he going to do now? He didn't look angry, but she was still afraid to see how he would react to her words. "When no one is willing to do anything to change things, I have no choice but to do it. Nothing you've showed me so far has proven to me that the world has changed from how it was during my time."

She almost chuckled and shook her head at how he was avoiding the main issue here. Still, she went along with it if only to try and get to the bottom of his strong wish for world piece. "You haven't seen everything, the world has changed from the Warring era. It's not perfect yet, but hey change takes time and a lot of work, but I can assure you that we are changing."

He reclined back, lip curled up in what she guessed was distaste. "People are too greedy and self-serving to change. I've seen three wars pass and after each one nothing had been solved. We still kill each other, we still lose our loved ones to war and petty conflicts. Everything is made out of pain, suffering and emptiness."

Sakura relieved the pressure from his wound. "You know, you sound like a hypocrite when you say that."

Unlike her the Uchiha didn't release her and instead removed his hand from her throat to pin her other hand to the tree. She didn't protest the action either, too curious to see what his next move will be. She's been pretty upfront with him even going as far to insult him, but he hadn't retaliated to her yet, which she found to be odd. There was no way he was going to just take all of her shit talking laying down, she's had enough experience around him to know that she's gonna get burned for being lippy.

When he neared her again, being almost face level to her, her heart did another flip. He snarled. "This started with a war and it's going to end with one."

She inclined her head to the side, smiling bitterly. "You're awfully negative for someone wishing for something so pure. What happened to cause that?"

He returned her smile. "You really want to know that badly?"

The pinkette averted her gaze for a moment. "Well, there must be a reason why you're acting like a nutso and believing that world piece is achievable with violence and enslavement to some stupid tree."

His expression turned to something more sardonic. "I lost everything I had to a frivolous conflict – my family, the trust of my clan and a friend. Worst part yet is that I can't even remember why we were fighting in the first place. No one should suffer through something like that, no one should lose their family to war. That's why I decided to put a stop to it by any means necessary."

She let out a short laugh and shook her head. "You should've told me sooner."

"Why? So you can pity me? I don't need your fucking pity."

She raised her head again to meet his heated gaze dead on, frowning. "No, you dingus. If you told me sooner maybe then I would have understood you better."

"I doubt that."

She sighed. Madara was a lost cause. He's been in this mindset for years. Hashirama put too much hope into him. She understood that pain of losing loved ones wasn't easy to overcome and that constantly being one against the world was a tough situation to be in. Still, she had to condemn him for seeking for something positive, to try and rid others of the pain he had to suffer. Too bad that his past had corrupted him and made him see that the only way to achieve that is through war and putting everyone in a dreamworld. "Nothing I say will change your mind, will it?"

He released her arms and took a step back from her. "Just because our opinions differ I won't quit what I had started, even if by some chance you are right."

Sakura rubbed her wrist that had gone numb from the pressure he'd been putting on it. "I am right and you're going to fail because the world has changed, I can assure you that and when you fail I want you to remember that I told you so."

Suddenly he was near her again, her chin between his fingers, a lazy smirk on his face. "I'll be waiting, for if the time comes for you to say that to me in person."

The pinkette shuddered and wanted to move back, but her back was already against the tree. He wanted for her to prove him wrong, but not without a fight. Did she actually kind of got through to him? He definitely seemed different from when she first met him, a lot less grumpy and with less hatred in his eyes. What he was saying to her now differed greatly to what he had written down in his memory papers.

She opened her mouth, but he silenced her and pressed his lips to hers, catching her by surprise. His hand that had previously been holding her chin moved to the side of her face, angling her a bit to the side. She thought she'd gotten rid of the elephant when she'd come to peace with what she'd felt, but apparently she'd been wrong because it was back. Her heart thrummed in her ears and she sighed letting him access to her mouth. Something felt different about this time and it wasn't the difference of him now being human. He was a lot gentler than all of the previous times and not as domineering. Why was he doing this?

She was about to snake her hand into his hair when he pulled back, a cocky smirk on his face. She cursed those damn Uchiha genes and how attractive she found that smile to be.

"It's because you're smart despite your impulsive decisions and because you're not afraid to speak your mind."

She scrunched her eyebrows and was about to ask him what he meant with that, but he quenched whatever she wanted to say with another kiss that she found hard to resist. Though this time he ended it a lot faster and Sakura had to fight back a whimper at that.

"And because you're a better person than me," he whispered and stepped back from her, letting her go.

Dumbstruck she watched him for a moment, opening her mouth, but no words came out. She touched her lips with her fingers, still feeling the tingles. When she looked back up he was gone. She was alone in the clearing.

What did just happen? He complimented her and not in that offhand way he sometimes did. Uchiha Madara just genuinely complimented her while kissing her. What did it even mean?

"Sakura-chan, there you are." Her awestruck musings got cut off by the boisterous voice of Naruto. He landed in front of her. She saw how his eyes strayed to her bloodied hand and in turn widened. "Are you hurt? Who hurt you, Sakura-chan?" He assumed an attack stance and rabidly scanned their surroundings.

Sasuke and Yamato joined them, dropping near Naruto. "Relax, it's not her blood." Sasuke glared at the hyper blonde.

"How do you know?" The junchuriki turned to the Uchiha with a scandalised expression.

He didn't say anything to that, instead motioned with his head to her.

Suddenly all eyes were on her and she lurched, breaking out of her stupor. She laughed sheepishly and waved the bloodied hand around. "Haha, it's alright, Naruto, Sasuke is right, it's not my blood."

Naruto was back on her. "Then whose blood is it? Where you fighting someone?"

Sakura nervously smiled. She appreciated his worry about her, but he was being a bit too obnoxious about it and nosy. "It's nothing to worry about, I took care of it." She hid the stained hand behind her back for now. "Anyway, how did it go with the Yonbi?"

This time Yamato stepped up, giving her a disapproving stare. "You left in the middle of an important mission, Sakura and I want an explanation."

She swallowed and bit her lip, avoiding looking at any of her teammates. "I told Sasuke that I felt a presence near us, so I went to inspect it in case it might be an enemy shinobi planning to ambush us."

"And?" The blonde butted in, urging her to go on.

"I, uh, took care of it." She showed her bloodied hand again as proof, smiling weakly.

It didn't look like Yamato believed her, but he sighed and uncrossed his arms. "Next time, inform your team leader if you're going to leave. I would prefer for you not to leave at all, but telling you guys what to do never seems to work out too well. You're lucky that we managed to handle it with no serious incident."

Sakura perked up. "So you captured it?"

Yamato shook his head somberly. "No, it walked away. One moment Naruto was talking to it and the next it just turned around and walked away."

"Yeah, it was weird. It was like he suddenly got possessed or something," Naruto added, frowning.

"Anyway, we can say that the mission was a success and that the Yonbi has left the Land of Fire for now." The brunette rubbed the back of his head with a sigh. "I kinda wish that it was forever, but that would be wishful thinking." He dropped his hand and gave her one last look. "Let's head back, team."

Naruto and Yamato jumped back up in the trees and Sakura was about to follow, but something made her pause. Sasuke was looking at her, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. All through their conversation he'd been the quietest. He didn't say anything and she couldn't help but think that he knew more than he let on.

Sakura smiled awkwardly, hiding her hand behind her. "C'mon, let's head back, Sasuke-kun."

"Hn." He dropped his arms and jumped up into the trees, following Naruto and Yamato.

Sakura sighed, relaxing and putting her hand to her chest. That had been way too close. She looked at the drying blood on her hand and bit her lip. Madara's parting words still confused her, cryptic in their message and delivery. In the end she wasn't fully able to convince him to drop his Eye of the Moon plan, though she had a feeling that she had managed to convince him of something else.

The pinkette shook her head, forgetting everything about their parting message for now and jumped up in the trees to follow her teammates. Only when she'd managed to catch up to them she realized why the Yonbi had retreated so abruptly.

Madara was advancing his plan.

Xxx

For the past month the promise of a war came true, but it hadn't been the kind of war everyone had been expecting. Instead of the nations going against each other like it had had happened in the past, they had been pushed to unite for an army of White Zetsus had emerged, attacking indiscriminately. Another big benefactor to the union had been the fear inducing name of the army's leader – Uchiha Madara.

The tailed beasts had disappeared, there even were news of the death of the Shichibi and Hachibi jinchuuriki. The odds had been stacked against Naruto and they tried keeping him safe, but the stubborn blonde didn't listen and had fought with them on the front lines.

Sakura didn't like wars and she especially hated participating in them, but her skills as one of the best medics in the world had been required on the battlefield. That's how she spent most of her time – on the front lines, healing injured shinobi and fighting off White Zetsu's that had dared to come close. It hadn't been a desirable life.

They days dragged on until on the third day a huge beast had appeared, the Juubi, forcing them to defend against its uncontrolled attacks. At that day Madara made his appearance, announcing his plans to everyone.

Majority of the Shinobi Forces divisions had been present, but it wasn't enough to stop the chakra monster. Even the five Kage had gotten involved and Sakura could only watch in awe as Madara fended against all of them at once.

Even as his plan had been unfolding right before her eyes, she still didn't know a lot of details concerning it. She had no idea how he'd been able to form the Juubi without the Kyuubi and she didn't know how Madara had been able to become human again and gain rinnegan, but she had an awful suspicion that it had to do something with Pain and the fall of Akatsuki.

While she had been fighting off the Juubi using Katsuyu-sama alongside her peers Sasuke and Naruto with his clones had vanished from the battlefield. In that moment Madara had fought off the Kage and sealed the Juubi into himself. Everything was happening so quickly that she barely had time to mull it over. One moment she had been fighting against a huge chakra monster and the next it was gone, replaced by a changed, white coloured Madara.

They had made brief eye contact at that moment and as a smile fell over his lips she had realized that this was it, he was one step away from making the dream world come true. She had steeled herself prepared to take him on her allies alongside her, promising herself that she'd do everything in her power to prove him wrong, but Naruto and Sasuke had come back, seemingly out of thin air, their chakra signatures different.

The following battle had been hard fought, something Sakura couldn't even participate in from how fast paced it was. Sasuke had gained a rinnegan to match Madara's and Naruto had had the power of the Sage of Six Paths. Madara was able to match up against both of them, seemingly winning and Sakura knew that if something wasn't done to help out Naruto and Sasuke Madara will win. Except she hadn't known what to do. White Zetsus were increasing in amount and an enormous tree had started to sprout from the ground.

It was then when a Naruto clone had explained to everyone around that he will try to extract the tailed beasts from Madara, so they should concentrate on getting rid of the White Zetsus that hadn't been decreasing in amount. Sakura had activated her baykugou seal at that moment, prepared to jump into the fray, summoning a larger part of Katsuyu-sama.

Madara had been a jinchuuriki at that moment and by extracting the Juubi he would die. It sounded so simple when Naruto had said it, in reality it hadn't been so easy to achieve, especially when no one other than Naruto and Sasuke were able to damage Madara at that moment. The biggest surprise had been when Might Guy of all people had stepped up and actually had managed to deal damage to Madara by opening the Eight Gate.

After Guy's use of Night Guy, which had left Madara wounded it was their turn to pull out the Juubi's chakra from Madara, while Naruto worked on releasing the beasts. Sakura couldn't believe when they had been successful and the tailed beasts had been freed.

Immediately after that she had had made her way to them, avoiding the beasts that had formed back and other shinobi, only stopping when she was next to Sasuke and Naruto. There was one last thing she had to do, something she had promised to do.

Sasuke had charged chidori in his hand, ready to put an end to the already dying Madara.

"Sasuke wait!" she had called, putting a hand in front of him to stop him from advancing.

He had been annoyed and had given her the same suspicions stare as before, but had followed her request nonetheless.

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing?" She had ignored Naruto's question and had crouched down to where Madara was laying on the ground.

His breaths had been shallow, eyes closed. By appearance he hadn't looked damaged apart from a few scrapes and the tiredness on his face. She had never seen him look so weak, so beaten and worn. "You were right." His voice had been quiet, barely audible, but she'd been close enough to hear it.

Sakura had smiled somberly, chuckling. "I told you so." She had ignored the odd stares she had received from her teammates. No doubt there will be a lot of questions she'll have to answer.

He had opened his eyes halfway and when he'd given her a weak smile Sakura couldn't help but return it. At that moment she had almost wished that things wouldn't have had ended like this, that she should have been able to talk him out of this sooner. But she supposed that changing the ways of a stubborn Uchiha had never been in her power.

In the end she had won, she had won the little battle they had been having between them. It hadn't come without its sacrifices and grievances, but she could at least say that she had redeemed herself and learned her lesson, changing as a person in the process. In a way Madara had changed as well.

And now I can officially say that I have finally finished a multi-chaptered story for once. I'm sorry if the ending is kind of meh, I honestly don't like retelling the canon, so it was super hard for me to write. Also keep in mind that I'm only a single person, so I can't remember everything (even when I'm balls deep into the Naruto wiki I'm sure I missed some stuff) or think of every possible scenario and then cover it. I know that there are some questions that were left unanswered, so if you're curious just ask me.

This story in general was never about the plot, but the characters, like if you noticed then I pretty much only retold some of the plot stuff while keeping the interactions. It's something I personally have more fun writing, plus I didn't want to drag this story out, considering that I had no plan for this. idk how well I did with the characters, though. I'd say that Madara did have some development and in general I made him a bit more reasonable than he was in the canon, but Sakura feels like someone who didn't change all that much through out the story.

In the end I settled for a Sakura wins scenario as most of you guys wished, though I left it kind of bittersweet. Some of you wanted for Madara and Sakura to end up together, but you must understand that considering the circumstances that wouldn't have been possible. But hey there's always the possibility of Sakura bringing him back as a spirit again as long as she remembers how his key looked like.

I also want to give a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, especially to WickedWitchInTheNorth for reassuring me that this story is still loved and that there are people out there who want to see it finished. That gave me a big boost of confidence and start planning out this chapter.

I'm going to start working on a MadaSaku one shot for MultiSakuMonth, where MadaSaku coincidentally fell into my birthday, so hopefully that's what you'll see next from me.