Pit pat. Pit pat. Pit pat.

The blood dripped from his fingers to the ground.

Pit pat. Pit pat. Pit pat.

His face rose to shine red and sticky in the moonlight, his blonde hair spattered liberally with the same blood that dripped from his fingers.

Pit pat. Pit Pat. Pit pat.

The moonlight caught the remaining gloss of blonde hair, the part that wasn't covered with blood.

A sigh of relief escaped his lips. A twist of the lips, not quite a smile twitched the corners of his mouth. Bodies lay scattered around him. He could hear them coming. The rest of his team. They were...slow. Too slow for him. He flashed away, a streak of yellow and red.

The Yellow Flash of Konoha.

Namikaze Minato touched down lightly on the rooftop of the Hokage tower. He breathed in the fresh air of his village, The Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Konoha was at war and at age 17 Namikaze Minato takes on a Genin Team. Minato walks to the edge of the platform and drops down from the roof, kicking off the side of the tower he leaps through the window of the Lord Third's office.

"Hokage Sama. I have returned before my team, the mission is complete. The advance special forces have been eliminated. I can feel the team, they have just passed through the gates, all are safe." Minato bows to the Lord Third.

The man before him is of medium height, tired eyes watch him as he bows having given his verbal report. All written reports have been dismissed due to the war efforts. All required active nin are keeping journals instead, as most are out on long term missions fighting for the Leaf...war efforts. Minato is one of the few elite Jounin that remain in the village. He and Akamichi Choza were chosen to train and guide a new Genin team of promising skill.

"Very good Minato, you never disappoint do you boy. I don't know why I even bothered assigning you a team for that mission. Well, your Genn are waiting for you. You might want to clean up before you meet them." The Lord Third waved the man away with his thanks.

'Clean up', Minato laughed internally. Yes, he needed to clean up, but how does one clean the blood from one's soul...impossible. He flashes to his apartment across the village beyond the market. It stands almost alone in a less traveled part of the village. He is the only occupant left. There were three others but they all perished in the war, the current war.

Minato pushed his way into his apartment and started pulling the bloody uniform off over his head. He turned the taps to his shower and steam filled the air. Stepping into the heat he closed his eyes and let the water run rushing down his back, he watched the water turn from innocent clear and pristine clean to dark bloodied, evil red and flakes of black and sinew.

He had made a mess of them, needlessly. He liked the gutting though, the feel of the warmth as it enveloped his fingers, his wrist, his arm. The power. The surge that accompanied the sound of death.

Death had many sounds. Some were harsh and loud, like the screaming. Some were pathetic and puny like the begging from their lips. Some...his favorite, were soft and light, loving, like the whisper of breath across his face as he leaned in for the kill. Sometimes, he slows time, to relish the feeling, the heat, the sexuality of it all. Death, is sex.

Minato shakes his head, water flies from his shaggy blonde locks. His erection is unbearably hard and uncomfortable. The sounds, it will be his undoing and he takes hold of his member in his hand, one stroke, two and he gasps, so quickly, he gasps and releases his seed over the tiled wall of his shower. It's always like that after the kill, too many times he has had to stop and take care of himself before rejoining with his team. The need, the pull is...overwhelming.

Every nin has their vice. He knows this is just the way things are. Every nin has their vice. His vice is just a bit more complicated than others.

Minato grabs his shampoo bottle off of the shower shelf and upends it over his head, scrubbing and washing, the soapy lather cascading down his tight body, muscled killing tool that he is, a shinobi, an elite.

To Konoha, he is Namikaze Minato, elite Jounin shinobi of the Leaf. A prodigy, a genius, The Yellow Flash of Konoha, loving, loyal, devoted to his village and their people.

To the world he is Namikaze Minato, lethal, deadly, ruthless killer, flee on sight, do not engage Yellow Menace of the Leaf.

To himself...he is two people, what people see and what they want to see, and something more sinister than even he can name. What do you call someone who kills thousands single handedly, a hero or a monster? What do you call someone who enjoys each kill, relishes in the feel of a heart in their hand, pulsating hot and throbbing in time with his own until...the squeeze, the cry, the scream...the euphoria. He is a god. He takes.

He is bored. There is no challenge to this killing. That's why he accepted the Genin team The Lord Third offered him. He was bored.

Turning the taps off he stepped into his waiting towel and dried off. Clean once more, blue eyes met him when he looked into the mirror, and he appeared what they all wanted him to be. A handsome smile, sky blue eyes, the hero of the Leaf. Namikaze Minato.

They were waiting for him on the bridge. Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin. Kakashi was only 7 years old and a prodigy, Obito and Rin were older at the age of 9 but they were all babies to him. 'Too young' he thought, they had no business being in this war. He would make sure they were trained, that they would at least have a chance and he would be there, if he could.

"Sensei." Coal eyes met blue as Kakashi addressed him.

Minato nodded at the boy and flashed him a signature smile. The girl Rin, giggled and blushed while the other boy, the uchiha scoffed and shook his head at the girl.

"Hey Sensei." Obito greeted him.

"Sorry I'm late." He wasn't sorry but he knew it was the cordial thing to say.

"Oh! We knew you were on a mission, Sensei. Please don't apologize to us." The girl Rin bowed low to him.

"Thank you for understanding, let's go to training ground 5 shall we?" Minato walked for his new team's benefit and they made their way over to the training field.

Once there Minato asked them to spar using only their taijutsu.

"All, three of us together?" The girl asked him.

"Yes. I want to see how you stand up to one another, how you utilize your skills against multiple opponents and get an overall feel for your skill levels." He told them.

Obito leapt at Kakashi who doged. Rin stood there still watching the males then jumped in with a kick to Kakashi's head, which he dodged pulling his punch he was going to throw at Obito at Rin. She fell to the ground with a cry and Obito roared in outrage throwing himself at Kakashi who grabbed, turned and flipped him mid air. Obito had managed to grab the tail end of Kakashi's shirt and pulled the white haired genius down with him. Rin had gotten up off her ass and jumped on both boys' fists flying...it was a free for all brawl at this point, not a spar.

Minato shook his head and sighed. This would never do.

"It was a free for all, they spent thirty minutes kicking, biting and wailing on one another." Minato held back his laughter as he described his first day as a Sensei.

"You think you had it bad? Mine wouldn't stop yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, I think I'll need to use a silencing jutsu on them until they can learn to stay quiet." Choza shook his head and picked up his cup of sake.

Minato lifted his cup and they clinked, "To the future." Both men drank and laughed holding onto one another.

Minato opened the door to his apartment. He had drank far too much. Drinking with Choza was dangerous, the man could drink like a fish without breaking a sweat. Minato was the only one who could drink with him and not pass out after the first two bottles.

The blonde fell clumsily into his arm chair and stared out his window. He liked Konoha, he liked his missions and now he liked his little Genin team. It wasn't going to be easy, he liked a good challenge, but it wasn't the kind of challenge he needed, or wanted. He thought of Kushina, she was out on a mission right now but she would be back in a few days. They had been out on a couple of dates and it was going well but she was too compliant, she liked him too much, like everyone else he knew.

Sure she had a temper on her, they didn't call her the 'Red Hot Habanero', for nothing but she was still a bit too vanilla for his tastes. Unfortunately for him, there wasn't anyone else. So he would settle.

Minato slouched further into his chair as he continued to look out his window. He needed a woman with both strength and intelligence. Sex apeal and a rough disposition. Yes Kushina had all that but, he needed something...darker something more dangerous. Some might argue that because she was the nine tails jinchuriki that was dangerous, but that wasn't the same as a woman who had the predisposition for blood lust like he did, who took pleasure in killing, like he did. He needed an equal, something Kushina was not.

He groaned, he needed to get to bed. He was training the three misfits tomorrow at 7am sharp and he didn't want to be late. Something told him if he was, said misfits would hunt him down and make him regret it.

Kakashi was the first to arrive in a puff of smoke.

"Good morning Sensei." The silver haired boy bowed correctly, rigidly.

"Morning Kakashi." Minato patted him on the head like a ninkin, and then laughed when kakashi narrowed his eyes at him.

"Good morning Sensei!" Obito yelled as he ran up to them followed closely by Rin who wheezed out a similar greeting.

"Well, now that we're all here, let's go to the Hokage tower for a mission and learn a thing or two about team work shall we?" Minato started walking in the direction of the Hokage tower listening to Kakashi and Obito argue the whole way there.

"C-Rank, we have a C-rank mission?" Obito complained and Kakashi looked like he agreed.

"Until you three learn to work together you will be getting C-Rank or less." Minato said calmly.

"Let's just get this over with." Kakashi grabbed the scroll from Obito and read it, tossing it to Rin when he was done.

"I can do this alone, I don't need a team to do this." Kakashi started walking off.

"Kakashi come back, you must complete this mission as a team, do you understand?" Minato called after the boy.

"Yeah yeah." Kakashi said, waving for the rest of the team to follow him.

"Hey wait up Bakashi!" Obito sprinted after the silver head as Rin turned apologetically to their Sensei.

"Sorry Sensei." She said politely and ran after obito and Kakashi.

Minato rubbed his hand over his face..."I don't have the energy for this."

4 months later…

"Interesting." The Third Hokage looked into his crystal ball, his palms around the base infused with his chakra.

He rapped his steady hand on the wood of his desk and a masked Anbu appeared before him.

"Yes Lord Hokage?" The Anbu said from his kneeling position before the man.

"Get me Namikaze please." Lord Third Said, his eyes turning back to the globe before him.

"Yes Sir!" The Anbu disappeared and almost immediately, Namikaze Minato appeared before him.

"You asked for me Hokage Sama?" Minato asked politely.

The Third Hokage continued to look down into his crystal ball. A flash of pink, destruction and blood flitted across the glass. The Hokage pulled his hands from the globe with a little more effort than usual.

"Yes, someone is coming. I do not know when but I think it will be soon. They will come in a whirlwind of pink and blood, but they are an ally. I have seen it, you will be the one to bring them to the Leaf." The Lord Third said calmly.

"Pink and blood." Minato repeated thoughtfully.

"When the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Soon. Dismissed" The Lord Third said casting a glance back down at his globe.

"Yes Sir." Minato was used to The Hokage giving him odd visions, sometimes they changed and sometimes they didn't.

A month later Minato and his team were sent to war.

"We need you to destroy the Kannabi bridge to cut off the vital pathway to Iwagakure's line of supply. Kakashi this will be the first test of your new promotion to Jounin, you will lead your team on this mission. Minato will travel with you as far as the break, then Minato, I will need you at the front lines." The Lord Third explained their mission to them.

"Good luck, come home safe." The Lord Third patted each member of Team Minato on the head and shook Minato's hand.

"Dismissed."

Minato flashed to the front lines, a clenching in his heart. They were so young, this would be their first war, were they ready for this? So many questions rolled through his mind. If he became Hokage, when he corrected himself, when he became Hokage, that would change. There would be an age limit for children entering war, much higher than the founders had decreed.

The walls of the cavern fell around them. Obito flipped and landed unbalanced and fell back, he could see Kakshi pulling Rin after him as they leapt over the lip of the crater that used to be the cave. She was safe, that's all that mattered he told himself, as a huge rock fell and tumbled, his ankle, it was caught in between two rocks, he couldn't avoid it.

"Shannnaroo!" Obito looked up and saw a flash of pink.

The boulder exploded to dust and a petite pink haired woman landed gracefully in front of him, her back to him. Obito saw that she wore a mask, an Anbu mask of a wolverine. She turned her head and looked down at him. Obito could make out green eyes, direct and piercing.

"Get up." She said.

"I can't my ankle, it's stuck." He tried to pull his leg from in between the two rocks but couldn't.

"Take a deep breath, this is going to hurt." She bent over and pulled the two massive rocks apart and his ankle came free.

Obito bit his lip but didn't scream.

Before the rocks could roll back into place she pulled his ankle from the rocks and lifted him in her arms jumping to the top of the crater.

"Halt!" Kakashi's voice could be heard closeby.

Obito felt the woman's body tense against his, he could feel her chakra cracking around them. He looked up at her face, she was looking down at him, she winked, and then there was nothing. Obito was dropped to the ground in a woosh, he heard Rin cry out in surprise and felt something fall beside him on the ground. A grunt. Kakashi.

"She is so fast. I've never seen anyone so fast besides Sensei!" Rin said amazed, edging her way over to Kakashi and Obito.

"Behind you!' Obito yelled.

The woman flickered and reappeared behind the Iwa nin cutting up and across, he fell in parts at her feet.

"Shit." Obito coughed then turned his head and threw up.

Rin clasped both of her hands over her mouth.

Kakashi leapt to his feet in front of Rin and pulled Obito to the side behind him ignoring his gasps of pain.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

"I am a Konoha kunoichi Hatake, relax brat." She laughed.

"How do you know me?" Kakashi demanded, he didn't like her, something about her was...off.

"I told you, I'm a Konoha kunoichi, now let me heal Obito's ankle before it gets any worse, then you can be on your way." She sat down on the ground rubbing her shoulder.

"You're a healer?" Rin asked in fascination ignoring the fact that she knew their names, she had always wanted to be a healer, but there hadn't been anyone to teach her beyond entry level.

"Among other things, kid." The kunoichi winked at the girl who giggled.

Obito rose to his feet and tried to limp over to the masked woman but was held back by Kakashi.

"Are you insane, you don't even know if she is telling the truth!" Kakashi growled at Obito who pulled his shirt from his team mates grasp.

"Shut up Bakashi, she could have killed all three of us three times over and you know it, I trust her." Obito moved closer to the woman and smiled.

Her hands glowed green and she placed them gently over his ankle. The lines of pinched pain in Obito's face receded into a look of complete shock.

"Oh my gosh." He rubbed his ankle and stood, stomping down on it hard.

Rin gasped and Kakashi narrowed his eyes further in greater suspicion.

"It's like new!" Obito turned to Rin and grinned, then turning back to the woman, "Thank you."

"It's what I do." She waved to them. "Time for me to go." and she disappeared.

Minato, worried for his team, left the front lines once he had decimated their forces with his Flying god formula tags. He located their chakra signatures moving at a steady pace back toward Konoha and sighed a breath of relief. They had completed their mission and were heading home. He met them on the outskirts of the forest before the gate.

"Sensei!" Obito yelled to him when he appeared before them.

His eyes passed over them quickly. Minato noticed the tear and rip in Obito's pant leg, there was blood coating the bottom of his ripped pants but he saw no injury.

"What has happened.?" He asked them quickly.

They all started talking at once, even Kakashi and he blinked.

"One at a time. Rin, you first." He pointed to the girl who blushed.

"There was a woman Sensei, a beautiful woman! She smashed the boulder that had trapped Obito's foot and pulled him to safety, she healed him. Right there!" Rin exclaimed.

"She said she was from Konoha." Kakashi took up the story.

"She wore the mask of a wolverine, an Anbu mask. She helped us." Kakashi said begrudgingly.

"She was an angel!" Obito blushed almost as deeply as Rin. "She saved us from an Iwa nin who was going to cut down Kakashi but, she...she cut him...in half. He dropped at her feet and she didn't even flinch." Obito swallowed hard and his eyes began to water.

"Don't be such a baby Obito, death is a part of war." Kakashi said condescendingly.

"I know that Bakashi!" Obito yelled angrily. "She was amazing! She was so fast! Almost as fast as you sensei!" Obito said loudly in his excitement.

"Faster Sensei, she was faster than you." Rin said, her eyes wide.

"I've never seen anyone that could heal like her, it was as if, as if Obito's ankle had never been crushed.

"Crushed?" Minato asked. "She healed it on the spot with no other lasting effects when his ankle had been crushed?"

"Yes." Rin said.

Minato looked to Kakashi who nodded in reluctant agreement.

Minato had never heard of such healing skills. Even the best healers couldn't fully repair a crushed ankle, it was beyond known medical prowess of the time. Their best healer Tsunade might have been able to come close but even she, at her current skill level, couldn't repair a crushed ankle flawlessly.

"Show me." Minato crouched down beside Obito who lifted his leg and pulled up the remaining bloodied tatters of his pants and kicked off his boot.

"See!" Obito waggled his foot back and forth in front of his Sensei who ran a finger over the ankle.

Minato could see where the skin was new, could see the shine of the slight scarring, in time, there wouldn't be any scarring, it was like nothing he had ever seen before. He could guess the extent of the damage from the newly formed skin but he had to admit, it was difficult, she had done a wonderful job healing the boy.

"Where did she go after, is she in Konoha, did she return before you?" He asked his team.

They looked at one another then Kakashi said, "She disappeared. She said she had to go then was gone, just like you Sensei." He said.

"You let her leave?" Minato asked Kakashi surprised the suspicious boy would have let a person like that treat Obito then leave without hauling her back to the village for questioning.

"I wouldn't have been able to stop her." Kakashi bit out, clearly pissed off, revealing that had been his original intention.

"Interesting." Minato stood there looking his team over.

Minato bent down to Obito's ankle again. There were faint traces of the woman's chakra on his skin. Minato closed his eyes and absorbed the last remnants of her chakra into his hands.

"Go home, report to Lord Third, I'm going to find this woman. She may have helped you, but we can't afford to have unknown shinobi lurking around the battlefield, no matter how helpful they might be." He took a step away from his team intending to flicker away to gauge her position better, tracing her signature.

"Sensei wait." Rin said quickly, drawing his attention back to the small group.

"She saved us, don't...um, try not to hurt her okay, please?" Rin almost pleaded.

'They are so young', Minato thought again.

"This is war Rin. I won't hurt her unless I have to." Minato said seriously.

Rin's bottom lip quivered.

"I at least need to thank her for saving my team right?" He said with false cheer.

Rin smiled weakly and nodded.

"Be careful Sensei, she is dangerous, her chakra is immense and she is concealing it. I could tell, there is more to her than we could see, and I'm not talking about what might be behind her mask sensei." Kakashi warned.

Minato nodded, this could be interesting. Minato waited for his team to start their walk back to the gates of Konoha, then closed his eyes and reached his senses out, his eyes snapped open. 'Got you'. He flashed away, stepping down lightly in a field and righted his location, then flashed again to the cave where he could still feel Obito, Kakashi and Rin's chakra. It was faint, but a small amount of the chakra that had been around Obito's ankle was there as well.

He turned around in a wide circle moving slowly. 'Was she still here?', he wondered.

Looking down he saw the body of the Iwa nin the kids had told him about. He was cut in half...diagonally. 'Interesting', he thought. She could have just stabbed him through the heart, or head but no, she took the extra effort to cut him in half...diagonally...it spoke of design. She had done it intentionally. She had 'wanted' to cut him in half like that. 'Was it preference, or habit', he wondered.

Sakura walked along the edge of the ridge, one foot falling gently in front of the other as she looked around. 'Where the fuck is he? 'Was her information wrong? She jumped down from the small ridge, kicked off of the side of the mountain and twisted through the air as she fell to the ground below, a small crater cushioning her fall.

"Impressive kunoichi." A deep voice complimented her from behind.

Sakura turned around slowly, she hadn't even felt him, but of course he was Madara Uchiha.

"Uchiha Sama." Sakura bowed low, unclasping her mask from her face, straightening and looked him in the eye.

He was old, age lined his face, and yet, one could still tell he had been a devastatingly handsome man in his not so distant years.

"You know me." It wasn't a question.

"Who wouldn't know you, Uchiha Sama?" Sakura smirked at him, lowering her lashes coquettishly at him.

"Don't play coy with me woman. I know you have been traipsing all over the ridge looking for me. Well here I am, what do you want with this old man?" He asked her, cutting to the point.

"How do you know I was looking for you?" She asked him seriously.

"Come now kunoichi." He was annoyed but she could also tell he was intrigued.

"You have both avoided all enemy shinobi, quite skillfully I might add, only stopping once in your search to heal those brats." He paused.

"Why did you bother to heal them anyway?" He asked her sitting down on a rock to look at her more carefully.

"It isn't important." She replied curtly, her eyes following his every move.

Madara was amused. She didn't underestimate him, even with his old appearance and subdued chakra signature. She hadn't taken her eyes off of him once since their meeting, she was smart, 'But why was she here', he wondered. 'Ah, a fluctuation in her chakra', he smiled.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the old man before her. He was not what he appeared to be. He may look like an old man but he was...a henge, he was wearing a henge, why hadn't she seen it before.

"Clever girl." Madara smiled at her seeing her eyes widen, she knew.

"Why?" She asked him, "What does it matter, you don't travel into villages and in this war I doubt anyone would recognize you or have a chance to get a good look at you before they attacked and you killed them." She placed her hand on her hip.

"You recognized me." He pointed out casually.

"As you know, I was looking for you. There is a difference." She rolled her eyes at him and he laughed. It was a low masculine laugh, and she quite liked it.

"Yes I know, and why would a kunoichi of the Leaf, from the future, be here now, in this time looking for little old me?" He asked her playfully.

"Release your henge." She said.

"Release yours." He countered and she smiled.

She had made herself look older, near on twenty years older, thinking it would help deter any unwanted conflicts while she searched for her target. At the age of 18, with pink locks, she tended to attract a lot of unwanted attention, in both her time and this one.

Sakura flared her chakra and released her henge.

'There', Minato turned to the east and flashed into the forest by the ridge not far from where his team had met the masked woman, he had been traveling in the wrong direction. With his chakra masked to nothing he crouched in the trees and watched two figures talk as though in leisure but for the undercurrent of tension he could feel in the air around them.

A woman, with shocking pink hair stood before what appeared to be an old man of extensive age who was sitting on a rock.

"Much better, an improvement I assure you kunoichi." Madara smiled a satisfied smile. She had made no move to protest his claim, he knew she couldn't, just as she knew, he knew he was right.

"Will you not reciprocate? Lord Uchiha?" She said with near mocking politeness.

Madara graciously inclined his head to her and released his henge.

Sakura showed no outward signs but she was pleased her previous assumption had been accurate, he was a very attractive man, much more attractive than Sasuke, possibly even more attractive than Itachi but it was close. Looks weren't the only thing Sakura looked for in a man.

Madara smirked at her, he knew the effect he had on women and even if she didn't show it, he knew she found him attractive.

"I've seen better." She shot out of the corner of her mouth returning his smirk.

"Now that we are both ourselves, tell me kunoichi, what is your name and why have you been looking for me?" Madara linked his ankles out in front fo him, his arms back behind him resting his weight on them and looked at her expectantly.

"Are you sure you want to discuss that, in front of our company?" Sakura quirked her brow at Madara who grinned.

"I wondered, it seems you are just as skilled as I thought you were. Impressive dear." He stood and dusted off his pants and shirt looking past her into the trees where Minato made himself ready for their attack.

Before Madara could move she had disappeared, Minato felt her materialize behind him and dodged at the last moment flipping over and to the side, his fingers digging into the dirt.

"Shit, that was close." He grinned at her pulling formula tags from his pouch as he slid across the forest floor on his knee.

"Not close enough it seems." She smirked as he threw tags at her, she jumped and weaved, he grinned and started flashing all over the woods beside her...she countered every attack, every kunai, every attempt.

Sakura felt Madara's presence fading and she sighed, how annoying.

Minato stopped just a few meters from her and watched her, she was good.

Sakura huffed a little annoyed that their meeting had been interrupted. She would need to find him again. Saving Obito had given her a little time though, he would need to find another host so to speak. Her eyes moved over Minato, he was much better looking than his son she decided, and they were about the same age now she guessed looking at his face.

'The golden boy of Konoha, the Yellow Flash...thanks for interrupting, you couldn't have hid your chakra better?" She was annoyed and it had come out a bit more harsh than she had intended.

Minato ignored her insult to ask a question of his own. "Are you the Anbu that saved my team?"

"Of course I am, you followed my chakra here no doubt." She rolled her eyes at him.

"You're a Konoha kunoichi they said, but I've never met you, who are you?" He asked her.

"No one that concerns you." Sakura fixed her mask back on her face and looked over his shoulder.

Minato had felt them approaching but had hoped for more time to ask her a few more questions at least.

They exploded out of the trees in twos and threes landing almost in a row in front of Sakura and Minato. Sakura moved to stand beside Minato. He nodded to her. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." He said to her with a gentle infliction at the end.

"I'm not your enemy Namikaze, but we aren't friends." Sakura winked at him then jumped into the air and slammed her fist down into the earth in front of the row of Iwa nin and the ground exploded.

"Wow." Minato said and threw his formula tags knocking the Iwa nin to the ground one by one.

"Is there no one in Iwa that poses a challenge?" Sakura said annoyed at how easily they fell.

She kicked one of the nin on the ground and he groaned, "Bitch."

"I'm sorry what did you say?" She pulled her sword from her back and leaned over politely for him to answer her.

"I said, you're a fucking bi." He was cut short by a sword in his chest.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that." Sakura pulled her blade from his heart and flung his blood to the trees.

Minato couldn't help it, he laughed. Grinning at her he pulled two kunai from his pouch and spun them in his fingers, "Shall we?" he winked at her.

"Let's." She laughed and they killed them all.

Minato watched as she pulled her kunai from the last Iwa nin, twisting it cruelly with a smirk.

"Too easy, not even worth my time." She muttered with a sigh.

He knew exactly what she meant. His eyes flashed over her figure with interest as she turned to him, her hand on her hip.

"I'm not interested, you're not my type." She said casually slipping her last blade back into her pouch and looking off into the distance.

"What type do you think I am?" Minato asked playfully.

"You're a pretty boy, talented of course, but still a bit too sweet for my tastes." She turned from him and disappeared without another word.

Minato spun on his heel and looked around, he tried to pinpoint her chakra but couldn't…'She had wanted him to find her?'. He could locate chakra signatures anywhere on the continent, no matter how far, and usually no matter how faint. It seemed she was the exception and it made him want to pursue her even more than he already did.

His eyes passed over the bloodied corpses, they had made a mess of them. She was vicious, and deadly, and fast...and perfect. Minato felt the normal pull of desire after the kill, only this time it was much more fierce, much stronger and he groaned. He had to find her, he had to know her name.

Sakura ran across the top of the cliffs as she sought Madara's chakra signature, there were still things she had needed to say to him, to ask him, to tell him.

"Damn Naruto's dad." She hissed as she jumped over Madara's head at the Valley of the End and landed on top of Hashirama's looking around. It was faint but she swore she could feel it. He was close by, but where.

He had known she was from the future, how could he know such things, and where the hell was he, she stomped on top of Hashirama's head and glowered.

Madara could feel her moving around on top of the statues, he had felt her coming and had taken refuge inside the cave hidden behind the waterfall. He needed more information before he spoke with her again. It was clear she wanted or needed something from him but he didn't like going into battle unprepared.

He could feel the ominous chakra that surrounded her and wondered how it was possible. Uzumaki Kushina, was the nine tails jinchuriki, it was impossible for that pink haired woman to possess any of its chakra. It was faint, if he hadn't already been familiar with it, he might not even have noticed it. Was it sealed he wondered, or did she not know that she possessed it herself?

Madara's thoughts were interrupted by another now familiar chakra signature, Namikaze. It seemed he wasn't the only one interested in the pink haired kunoichi. Madara flickered away, he would find her later, when he was ready.

Sakura could feel him closing in on her and she sighed. She had better things to do than talk to Naruto's dad. Sakura made the hand signs and just as she was about to disappear a flash of yellow knocked her to the ground.

"What the fuck is your problem!" She sprang to her feet short sword in hand swinging up and stepping to the left to avoid his block, cutting under his arm in a crouch and sliding to the right on her knees, rolling behind him and jumping away to land gracefully on her feet, her other sword draw so that she had one in each hand, her knees slightly bent ready to either attack or defend again.

"You left without telling me your name." Minato grinned at her, she was so fast, she had dodged every attempted strike. He could feel his pulse jumping in his veins at his excitement.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the blonde. He was so much like Naruto and then again, so very different. The grin was the same and yet...it wasn't. She cocked her head at him while she compared the man before her to her best friend that was no longer alive.

She saw the twitch before he moved, she ducked, he turned mid air, she dropped to the ground and rolled, he threw two kunai and flashed to her side. She had been expecting it, she cut up across his chest, he stumbled back hand pressed to his wound and smiled sweetly at her, too sweetly and she took a step back.

'Got you', one of his hands slid around her waist from behind while the other disarmed her, pulling her down to the ground rolling, he pinned her underneath him, while she thrashed and kicked. Behind them his shadow clone popped out of existence.

"Damn it." Sakura gasped, her mask was pressing into her face blocking the side of her nose that hadn't been crushed in their fall to the ground, she couldn't breath.

She tried to rub her face on the ground to pull her mask off but she couldn't.

"Take my mask off." She barked at him.

"I can't breathe." She explained when he didn't move.

Minato narrowed his eyes at her expecting it to be some sort of ploy or trick. Placing his weight on his forearm and his forearm over her upper chest by her throat he whipped his other hand from her wrists to pull her mask from her face.

"Thanks asshole." She said ungrateful, and he smiled even wider at her.

"Get off of me." She glared at him.

"No." He continued to look down at her.

Sakura pushed up with her hips to off set him but he locked his ankles around her and spread his legs apart effectively pinning her legs down with his.

Sakura growled and began to breathe heavily under his weight and the strain of being pinned to the ground.

Minato swallowed hard and wished she would stop moving, he could feel where her chest was rubbing up against his, could feel her heat through his clothes and the smell of her sweat on her hair from the light breeze passing over them. He could feel where his groin pressed into her own and his hips twitched at their position.

A low growl escaped her lips, she had noticed.

"Tell me your name." He demanded, moving one hand to gather her wrists together and force them above her head, ignoring her warning.

"It doesn't matter who I am and it's none of your business anyway." Sakura tried to infuse her hands with chakra to break his hold but she couldn't. She frowned.

"Chakra cuffs." Minato grinned at her again.

"How did you, when the hell did you do that and where did you get them from, I didn't see you pull any out." She snarled, she was pissed.

Minato lifted one of his hands and pulled his long sleeved jounin sleeve up with his teeth and held his wrist in front of her face, "Storage seal." He smiled.

"That's...actually really ingenious." She hated to admit it, but it was.

"Um hum, so tell me your name now." He leaned half of his weight on the palm on his hand as he rested his elbow on the ground beside her, his other hand still holding her wrists above her head. He waited patiently, his blue eyes staring into her green ones.

"I can wait." He smiled when she made no move to speak.

"I'm rather comfortable actually, are you?" Minato looked down at her, his eyes moving slowly along the curve of her cheek, down her neck and over her chest.

"Sakura." She spat her name out of her mouth at him.

His eyes snapped back up to hers.

"Sakura." He said her name as if tasting it on his lips and broke out into a brilliant smile.

"I'm." but Minato didn't get to tell her who he was because she started squirming underneath him again.

"I know who you are Namikaze, now get the fuck off of me. I told you I'm a Konoha nin!" She started bucking wildly and he tightened his hold on her wrists and legs, pressing her down firmly into the ground with his hips, his head falling forward to her neck trying to restrain her with brute force.

Sakura stilled when she felt his lips against her neck. "What are you doing?" She asked him.

Minato didn't answer her, but she could feel his hot breath against her skin.

"I'm taking you back to Konoha with me. There is a war, as you know, I don't know you, it is my duty to take you back for questioning." He got off of her abruptly and pulled her roughly to her feet.

"The cuffs stay on." He smirked at her. "I know you'll try to run away again."

"I don't want to go back to Konoha." She started to back away from him but he pulled her back by the wrists.

"The Third Hokage told me I would meet you and that I would be the one to bring you to the village, so that's what I'm going to do, the Hokage is never wrong about his visions." Minato slipped two kunai she hadn't realized he was holding back into his pouch.

"The Lord Third said that you would meet me?" She asked curiously to make sure she had heard him correctly.

He nodded looking at her, watching her reaction. 'A flurry of pink and blood', he remembered the Third Hokage's words. Sakura was definitely a flurry of pink and blood.

"Okay." She said and smiled.

"Okay?" He was suspicious of her sudden compliance.

"If he is expecting me, maybe he knows and can help me somehow." She said cryptically.

Minato couldn't find any deceite or hesitation in her words. He nodded pleased she wasn't going to fight him all the way back to the village. He moved and placed his hand on her back, bent and picked her up behind the knees swinging her up into his arms bridal style.

"What the hell are you doing?" She glared at him again, her green eyes sparking with anger.

"Carrying you, I'm not walking all the way back, and I don't trust you to come with me if I take off your chakra cuffs, no matter what you say." He began running fast through the trees, flickering every so often with her in his arms and soon they were just outside of the gates of Konoha. He set her down.

"I thought you might like to walk through the gates on your own." He smiled pleasantly at her.

Sakura didn't respond, she stomped out of the woods onto the path that led to the gates with Minato following close behind at a leisurely pace.

Minato waved to the guards who had stepped out to meet Sakura. "She's with me." Minato said, smiling at them, "We're going to see the Hokage, can you let him know?" Minato looked at the guards pointedly.

"Of course Namikaze San." One guard said, giving Sakura a curious look, her Anbu mask hanging from her belt at her side where Minato had tied it.

"Thanks." Minato waved at them as he led Sakura down the main road that would take them to the Hokage Tower.

"I know where to go you know, I told you I'm from Konoha." She hissed as he continued to grip her by her cuffed wrists as they walked down the street to many wide eyed stares of both civilian and shinobi alike.

"I wouldn't have had to do this if you hadn't fought me so hard." He told her with a devious twinkle in his eye.

He was humiliating her on purpose, she gnashed her teeth and ignored his smirk.

They walked the rest of the way to the tower in silence. Sakura stomped ahead of him into the building and walked to the right , up the winding stairs and then left into the Hokage's office. Minato watched in amusement, she really was a Konoha nin, she knew exactly where to go.

"Hokage Sama." Minato bowed to the Hokage.

"This is Sakura, the woman you told me I would bring to the village in a flurry of pink and blood."

Saratobi looked at Sakura with great interest. "Why is she in chakra cuffs Minato?"

"We had a slight disagreement Sir, I wasn't sure if she would come willingly." He explained.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "Idiot." She mumbled.

"What did you say Sakura San?" The Third Hokage smiled at her.

"I called him an idiot Hokage Sama. He ought to have told me from the begining you had a vision of me being here, I wouldn't have fought him so much if he had." She turned and glared at Minato.

"Now get these fucking cuffs off me so I can punch you through the fucking head!" Sakura shook her fists at Minato who was smiling at her again.

The Lord Third stifled his laugh with a cough and gestured to Minato to release her.

"Are you sure, she's a feisty one." Minato grinned at Sakura who growled at him again making him laugh even more.

Minato unclasped the cuffs from her wrists and sealed them back into his seal under his sleeve and stepped back with a mocking bow to Sakura.

"Thank you Minato, you are dismissed." The Third Hokage nodded to Minato surprising the man.

Minato opened his mouth to protest but stopped and bowed. With one last look at Sakura he left the office.

"So, Sakura, what is your last name if I might ask?" Hiruzen asked her politely.

"Haruno, Lord Third." Her voice didn't waver but her eyes followed him, he looked just the same, the same as she remembered him. Perhaps a few less wrinkles but it was still him and it made her smile.

"Ah are you by chance related to Mebuki Haruno and her husband Kizashi? Lord Third asked her.

"They are my parents Sir." She told him truthfully.

"The ball never lies, but it is hazy, sometimes I don't know what I'm seeing when I look at it. That's the trick though isn't it, it's the same with most things. What you see and perceive, is not always, what is." He smiled at her.

"As wise now as you were then Sir." Sakura smiled at him.

"It's nice to know I still have my head when I get older, at least it won't fail me." He smiled back at her.

"No Sir, your head will not fail you, only your heart." She said sadly recalling the Chunin exams and the attack on the Leaf by one of his former students.

"My heart?" He repeated her words.

"I apologize Sir, I shouldn't have said anything." Sakura bowed her head.

"I have seen parts of why you are here. I know better than to ask you about the future, I will only ask that while you are here to keep a low profile if you can, do not cause any trouble and to take a mission every now and then for the public eye. I will tell the ranks you were away on a long term mission and have recently returned. Your Anbu status will remain active, I admit we could use your help. Do not wear your mask inside the village walls, but you may wear it outside to conceal your identity."

"You must have seen a great deal to trust me so freely, Hokage Sama." Sakura noted his tense shoulders and pinched mouth.

"I saw more than I needed to and wished that I hadn't." Hiruzen admitted.

"It isn't your job to change the future Hokage Sama. It's mine." She grinned at him and smiled.

"I will have an Anbu escort you to your lodgings. You will be provided with a small allowance while you are here. I did not see a time frame or the seasons change in my visions, do you know, how long it will, how long you will need to find him?" Hiruzen asked carefully.

"Ah, so you know that much. I have already found him, but Namikaze got in the way." Sakura's eyes turned hard.

"I see." Hiruzen did see now why there was such animosity between the two.

"Take all the time you need of course, and let me know if you need anything. I will give you time to settle in before giving you your first mission." He waved her in dismissal handing her a small purse.

An Anbu in a bird mask stepped up beside her as she exited the office to lead her to her lodgings.

Minato had just gotten out of the shower when he saw the pink haired woman walking with a masked Anbu into his building and up the stairs. He listened as she thanked the Anbu, heard the door to the apartment below him open then shut. Apparently he wasn't the only person living in his building anymore and wondered if the Lord Third had done it on purpose.

Sakura stood in the middle of the studio apartment and sighed. There was a bathroom to the right with a shower. She could see a modern style bath just inside the door and smiled. The kitchen was open to the rest of the room on one wall and a platform bed was against the wall by the sliding glass door window.

It wasn't anything special but she didn't need anything fancy. Hopefully she wouldn't be here long. She pulled the time travel contract from her pouch and opened it. It was an open ended contract without a time frame, just as she had requested. She grit her teeth in anger, too many had paid for this scroll with their lives, she wouldn't let them down, this was her second chance, all of their second chances.

She rubbed her hands over her face and grimaced. Looking down, she saw the dried blood under her nails and sighed. Walking to the bathroom she made the hand signs of protection for her temporary home, she would set her traps later, right now she just wanted to get clean. A tight grunt escaped her lips. Clean...she hadn't felt clean since the war.

The tile was cool against her skin as she leaned back on the wall and let the hot water fall over her chest. She hadn't thought to bring her soap with her, there had only been one bar left anyhow. Ducking her head under the spray she rubbed her hair as clean as she could, massaging the blood and dirt from her long pink strands. She had let her hair grow after the war, there was no reason to keep it short, she had been the only one left.

Turning off the taps she stepped out onto the tiled floor of the bathroom and used a clean shirt to dry off with. She would need to go to the market to pick up a few things, a towel being one of them, soap being another. Wrapping her hair up in her shirt she made her way into the studio and pulled clean clothes from her bag. Her old jounin shirt and pants, underwear she had salvaged from one of the villages that had still been standing after the war and a bra.

Sakura pursed her lips, and added new jounin clothes to her mental list. She had been happy to take the Hokage's generosity but she didn't need it. She had more than enough money.

Once she had struck a contract to travel back, she had gone to every house, in nearly every village in the Land of Fire and sealed away all the money she could find into a bank storage scroll. No, she didn't need money, but she did need new jounin clothes and a few other things that she hadn't been able to scavenge before leaving.

Dumping her bag out unceremoniously on the floor of the studio she sperated her storage scrolls into organized piles. Food and water, kitchenware and camping goods, clothes and personal effects, weapons, poisons and antidotes, medical and her bank scroll. She unrolled and pushed chakra into her kitchenware and camping scroll, pulling things out and putting them into her cupboards, then her clothes and personal effects. Her hand hovered over the picture of Team 7 momentarily. No one would recognize the Genin but her old Sensei, Hatake Kakashi was very recognizable. Still, she didn't plan on having company over so she pulled it out and set it on the night stand by her bed casting a slight genjutsu over Kakashi's face.

Sakura took her time feeling her way around the floor boards along the perimeter of her new home until she found what she had been looking for. Tapping down with her foot she pressed a bit of chakra into her fingers to pull up the already loosened board and set her other storage scrolls into it, sealing the board back in place and casting a protection jutsu over top.

Combing her fingers through her hair she checked her appearance in the bathroom mirror, her hair was almost dry, she would leave it down. She tied the purse the Hokage had given her to her belt and locked her apartment door behind her.

Sakura stretched and closed her eyes, enjoying the open layout of the apartment building and shielding her eyes against the sun in the sky, she smiled.

"Hi there!" A woman's voice interrupted Sakura's peaceful moment and she opened her eyes.

"Hi." Sakura smiled at Kushina Uzumaki who had just walked up the steps of the building.

"Are you here to see Minato?" Kushina asked then hit herself in the forehead, "Where are my manners, I'm Kushina, Kushina Uzumaki." The red head stuck her hand out at Sakura who looked at it with a sort of concerned internal look.

She was having flashbacks to Naruto, he was just like his mother apparently, the same friendly outward attitude, the same wide grin, and the same inflictions when they talked. Sakura's smile widened.

"I'm Sakura, nice to meet you Kushina, no I'm not here to see Minato. I just got home from a long term mission and the Lord Third gave me this apartment." Sakura motioned to the door behind her.

"Oh! That's great! Minato will be pleased, he was the only one living here before you got here, it's been awhile since someone else lived in the building with him. I kept telling him to move but he said he liked it here. I don't why, there's no one here, it's removed from the rest of the village hidden away down a rarely traveled street and…."

'Yup, just like Naruto.', Sakura continued to smile at the woman.

"Kushina, you're back from your mission?" A familiar male voice interrupted the red head.

"Yeah, I just got back and I saw Sakura here and we got to talking ya know." Kushina beamed at Minato who smiled kindly back at the woman.

His eyes traveled to Sakura and sharpened a bit, then relaxed into their natural state of controlled calm. Kushina hadn't seemed to notice because she was still talking, but Sakura had and she narrowed her eyes at the blonde.

"...so you'll have to come over some time and have dinner with us okay?" Kushina ended smiling brightly at Sakura.

"Uh, maybe after I get settled in. I need to go to the market and get a few things, food, clothes and such." Sakura smiled without her teeth, she rather liked Kushina.

"Clothes?" Kushina asked her curiously.

"Yes." Sakura almost fidgeted in her feet, she wanted to leave, she didn't like the calm stare Minato was giving her, it made her feel uncomfortable and she didn't want to cause a scene with her usual snarky remarks.

"I'll go with you!" Kushina said loudly then covered her mouth. "I mean, if you like, I need to get an outfit for the Spring festival, we can pick one out together!" Kushina slid her arm into Sakura's and started pulling her down the steps.

"Wait, but weren't you, I mean, I wouldn't want to interrupt your plans with Minato, obviously you two were going on a date or something right?" Sakura tried to pull her arm back from Kushina but found the woman had a death grip on her, a very Naruto like death grip.

"Nonsense, he won't mind, do you Minato?" Kushina spun Sakura around so that both of them were facing the blonde who was smiling at them.

"Not at all, you ladies have fun, I have a few errands to run myself. I'll meet you back here later." He leaned in pulling Kushina forward just a little by the waist and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek, his hand brushing Sakura's by accident.

"Minato!" Kushina blushed and pulled away looking at Sakura nervously, her face red.

"I just wanted a kiss, Sakura doesn't mind, I haven't seen you for a few weeks." He smiled at the red head while he watched Sakura out of the corner of his eye.

Sakura rolled her eyes, 'What a line, this guy', she scoffed at him in her head.

"We'll see you later, I want to show Sakura all the good shops." Kushina grinned at Minato who waved them off.

Minato stood on the steps and watched the two women as they walked down the steps and onto the street that would take them to the market, on the other side of Konoha. He was just about to turn and walk back up the steps when he heard Kushina start talking again.

"So are you married, or seeing anyone?" Kushina asked, nudging the pink haired woman.

"No." Sakura blushed.

"No one?" Kushina said loudly, loud enough for Minato to hear even as they continued to walk away from him.

Minato didn't hear Sakura's response, he didn't have to, she had already told Kushina that she wasn't married, or seeing anyone. Minato smiled, there wouldn't be any competition. He continued to watch as they turned a corner, Sakura's long pastel pink hair blowing back with a change of the wind and he couldn't help but imagine what it would feel like gripped tight in his fists as he pulled her head back while he bit her neck.

"I've been away for a few years." Sakura explained to one of Kushina's many questions that she had asked her since they had left the apartment building.

Sakura secretly cursed the Lord Third, she hadn't known Minato was in the same building, she hadn't felt his chakra. He didn't seem very surprised to see her and she wondered if he had sealed the whole building or just his own apartment. She would have to check when she got back, after she put up traps.

She ought to be grateful though she supposed she could have had worse neighbors, at least Minato was harmless. Sakura knew from her original time what an amazing man the Lord Fourth had been, Naruto was a testament to that. The man was practically a saint.

Sakura bit her lip, there were a few flaws in that statement however, no one had ever mentioned him having a devious sense of humor, but she had been difficult. She shrugged, it was probably her, after all, it had been a long time since she had been around so many people.

'Speaking of so many people', Sakura's steps faltered as Kushina pulled her out into the busy Konoha market.

'Had it always been this busy?' she asked herself as she looked around.

"You okay?" Kushina asked her with a worried look on her face.

"Yeah, sorry just, it's been a long time since I've been home and I guess I'm not used to how busy it is here again, yet." Sakura stumbled over her words.

So many had died during Pein's attack on the village, and then after during the war...it had displaced so many people, shinobi and civilians alike, and then...when the Rabbit goddess had...Sakura swallowed hard.

"Sakura?" Kushina called her name gently.

"I'm sorry. I just got a bit, I was remembering how it used to be years ago, it's a little different, the market." Sakura laughed easily, her Anbu training kicking in.

Sakura's laughter seemed to relax Kushina enough for her to change the subject back to shopping and Sakura was relieved. 'Pull it together', she snarled at herself. She hadn't fallen apart in the other villages she had visited looking for Madara before coming back to Konoha.

'That's because it wasn't home idiot', a little voice said in her head. True, she conceded to herself then laughed, she was going insane she just knew it.

Kushina laughed with her which startled Sakura.

"...and then it started to rain on us so we had to run to this broken down shack and stay there through the night, that was when he kissed me for the first time." Kushina told her in a fake whisper while she smiled blissfully.

"That's sweet." Sakura said the appropriate words and the redhead blushed.

"He is sweet, he is the kindest most thoughtful man I have ever met. I think I might be falling in love with him." Kushina squeezed Sakura's arm and pulled her into a ladies shop.

She didn't want to admit it but she was having a good time. It brought both tears of sorrow and joy to her eyes at the same time. Kushina was a mix between Naruto and Ino.

They tried clothes on for hours picking things out for Sakura that they both loved and Sakura bought much more than she had originally planned on. Kushina bought two outfits for the Spring Festival because she couldn't decide which one she liked more and a summer dress.

"Let me buy you dinner, as a thank you for your help Kushina." Sakura offered as they passed the restaurant and food stand district of the market.

"Do you like ramen?" Kushina asked Sakura and Sakura couldn't prevent the laughter from bubbling over her lips.

"Yeah, let's go to Ichiraku ramen." Sakura led the way to Naruto's favorite ramen stand in Konoha.

Halfway through their meal they were interrupted by two large shadows falling over them from behind. Sakura had twitched in her seat but stilled when she recognized the chakra signatures of her old friend's dad's, Inoichi Yamanaka and Shikaku Nara.

"Kushina, you're back early, I bet Minato was happy to see you. We half expected you two to be here eating together." Inoichi, as charming as ever, smiled at Kushina who turned in her seat to greet him.

"I'll be spending time with him later, I took Sakura out to help her find something for the Spring Festival and to show her what had changed since she'd been gone." Kushina waved her hand at Sakura who smiled automatically.

The ramen turned to rocks in her stomach as she turned to greet the future fathers of some of her closest friends.

"This is Sakura. Sakura, this is Inoichi Yamanaka and Shikaku Nara." Kushina gestured to the men.

"Nice to meet you." Sakura almost choked on her spit. 'They look so young', she thought, but then again, they were only what, a year older than she was now.

The two men nodded to her and took seats beside her and Kushina who were sitting at a table instead of the bar like Sakura was used to.

"You don't mind if we join you ladies do you?" Inoichi winked at Sakura who blushed embarrassingly red. Ino's dad had winked at her, she felt sick.

"Aww, you're blushing!" Kushina was just as subtle as her son would be.

"Am not." Sakura hissed under her breath but Shikaku had heard her and chuckled.

"Inoichi has that effect on women, don't worry, you're not alone." Shikaku teased her.

"It's not that, he just...reminded me of someone I used to know is all." Sakura almost choked again.

"So where are you from Sakura, I haven't seen you around here before?" Shikaku asked as he reached across her to pull a menu from the stack at the other end of the table, his arm brushing hers in passing.

"I'm from Konoha, I have been on a long term mission for the last three years, I just got back today." She said while she drank her tea, taking a small break from her ramen to be social.

"Long term huh, recon for the war eh?" Shikaku asked her.

"Something like that." She mumbled burying her face into her tea cup to avoid any more awkward questions.

"Well, welcome back, I bet it's nice to be back home safe and sound." Inoichi smiled kindly at her.

"It is." Sakura smiled a sincere smile at his widening grin, it really was nice to be back home, even if it wasn't in her time, in her age with her old friends.

The rest of their meal was pleasant, they exchanged small talk and Sakura was caught up on all the gossip she had 'missed' while she had been out of the village. Kushina and Sakura rose when the meal was over, Sakura paid for her and Kushina, and expressed a desire to stop by the grocer on the way back to her apartment.

"I'll go with you, if you don't mind the company?" Shikaku offered.

"Great! I'll see you later Sakura, I'm going to see what Minato is up to, hope to see you later!" and before Sakura could blink she was alone with Shikaku and Inoichi.

"Uh bye?" Sakura laughed.

"I'm sure she just missed Minato, don't worry Sakura, it's not you." Inoichi teased her.

Sakura smiled, he was so different as a peer than as Ino's father, the change was almost unbelievable compared to the calm, stern if not good humoured man she had known since her childhood.

"I understand, it's hard being away from the people you care about." Sakura smiled thinking of all the people she had lost.

Her smile brightened as she realized that many of them were here and alive at this time.

"Well, you two have fun, I'll see you later." Inoichi waved to them as he walked away, "Nice meeting you Sakura!" He called over his shoulder.

Sakura waved and turned to Shikaku, "You don't have to go with me, I'm sure you have other things you would prefer to be doing than following me around watching me pick out fruit."

Shikaku shrugged and stuffed his hand in his pockets, "I'm good, I don't have anything else to do."

"You could go to the roof of the library and watch the clouds." Sakura said flippantly thinking of Shikamaru.

Shikaku smiled, "I could, but I already did that today."

"Well if you have nothing else to do I suppose you could come with me." Sakura hummed and they started walking down the road toward the grocer stands together.

"Three years is a long time to be gone from the village." Shikaku commented as Sakura picked up and put back down an apple picking another one up to inspect it.

"It is." She said not going into the detail she knew he was fishing for. She had been around enough Naras' in her lifetime.

"The Hokage must trust you a great deal." He continued to comment.

"He does, but I'm sure he would be glad to tell you himself if you don't believe me." She smiled at him but the edge in her voice told him she knew what he was up to and she had had enough of it.

Shikaku laughed good naturedly, "Alright alright, I'm just curious because you're new and clearly skilled. I'm just surprised I haven't heard of you or seen you before. Pink hair and all, I would have remembered you." He smiled a slow smile at her and she dropped two apples into her basket avoiding his eye because he couldn't possibly be flirting with her.

Shikaku followed her all the way home and leaned against her doorwall as she unlocked her front door.

"Well, thanks for going to the market with me and walking me home." Sakura said politely, not sure what to do next. She had been getting mixed signals from the man and didn't wish to embarrass herself if he hadn't been flirting with her.

"Sure thing, so you're going to the Spring Festival then right?" Shikaku asked her.

"I don't know, Kushina and I went shopping for it but I don't know if I'm going to be up for it. I'm still getting used to being around people again." She smiled a little backing up into her apartment and setting all of her bags on the little table by the door for that purpose.

"So it was a solo recon mission? I'm surprised, you must be really good, or Anbu." He hesitated, he wanted to ask her more but he could see she was already starting to shut him out.

"Well, I'll see you around Sakura, it was nice to meet you." He cut their conversation short so he didn't scare her away.

"Yea, it was nice to meet you too." She smiled and shut the door as his back turned to walk down the steps.

Sakura closed the door and made the hand seals. Leaning back against the door she took a deep breath and let it out of her nose noisily. "So far so good right?" She encouraged herself.

Minato could feel the Nara's chakra receding as he left Sakura's apartment and he unclenched his fist that he hadn't realized he had been clenching.

"...and then we went to Ichiraku ramen! Sakura said she loved the place, that it had always been her favorite." Kushina had been talking almost nonstop since he had opened his door and let her in.

"Wait what?" He asked, catching the tail end of her sentence.

"I said we had ramen for lunch." Kushina paused in her speech to look at him.

"You said it had always been her favorite?" Minato asked, taking her hand in his to distract her from his questioning.

Kushina blushed, "Yeah, she said she had always loved their ramen and that Tenuchi was a sweetheart."

"She knew Tenuchi by name?" Minato asked.

"Of course! Everyone knows Tenuchi." Kushina smiled at him and patted his cheek affectionately.

Minato smiled a serene smile. Yes, everyone knew Tenuchi, who had been going to the ramen stand for the last two years...since he had opened it.

Sakura had been gone for the last three years...on a long term mission. Something didn't add up. How could she know the name of the ramen proprietor, how could it be her favorite ramen stand, if she had been gone on her extended mission before it had even opened?

He tapped his finger against his knee as Kuashina rattled on and on. The Hokage and Sakura were hiding something from him and he wanted to know what it was.

Loathe as she was to admit it, it had been great seeing other people again. She chuckled to herself as she tucked the last wire trap into the panel of her sliding glass door and sat back on her heels. She would be able to open her sliding glass door just enough for her small figure to slip through and not one millimeter more, anything more would set the trap off.

Minato watched her from his sealed balcony. He knew she couldn't see him but he could see her. With Kushina around he had been forced to take drastic measures in hiding his presence. He had been annoyed at the efforts, but was pleased he had been forced to take them now that Sakura was here. He had been watching her for the last hour and she hadn't been alerted to his presence in the slightest.

She knew he lived in the building of course but her reaction to him earlier hadn't given away any suspicion. He knew however, from their previous interactions, she must be questioning his lack of chakra signature but she hadn't said anything in front of Kushina. This pleased him, it meant she could, would and did keep secrets from people, but he would expect nothing less from an Anbu, he would use that to his advantage.

Minato continued to watch as she looked out of her sliding glass door. She had cast a protection jutsu over her apartment, he had felt the fluctuation in his own jutsu that he had cast over the building and had gone to his window to investigate.

She had changed for the night into a soft pair of pants and a tank top. His eyes roamed over her pale skin, as smooth looking and as creamy colored as fresh milk. Unconsciously his tongue darted out to wet his lips. He had seen her put a wire trap up by her window and smiled. It wouldn't stop him but she was clever, it would stop most.

Kushina had left shortly after Sakura had returned home with the Nara in tow. Kushina had yet to spend the night with him and he wasn't in a hurry to get her into bed, he had started to lose interest in the woman before he had met Sakura and now, he had no interest in her at all.

He wondered if Sakura was interested in the Nara. Kushina said they had just met at the ramen stand, but Minato knew the Nara wouldn't put forth the effort to walk a woman home he had just met if he wasn't interested in her.

Shikaku being interested in Sakura didn't bother him, but the thought of her being interested in Shikaku, bothered him more than he cared to admit.

Sakura was one of a kind. Kushina was the only woman who had come even close to what he wanted, what he needed and she fell woefully short compared to the bloody mess that was Sakura. His pulse began to race just thinking of all the things he wanted to do to the woman as he watched her close her eyes and lean her head back onto her shoulders behind the window below him.

Evening had set in and the moon had risen. Sakura opened her eyes and looked at it, cocking her head to the left so she could see it fully in all it's rounded glory. Suddenly her walls were too close, too confined and choking. Grabbing a tee shirt to throw over her tank top she slid her sliding glass door open just enough for her to slip through and jumped up onto the roof.

After spending nearly a year alone after the end of the war, being here in Konoha around so many moving and breathing people was making her claustrophobic. She had never intended on coming back to Konoha. She knew Madara wouldn't be here and so the thought simply hadn't crossed her mind.

That was a lie, she had thought of it many times and had shied away from the thought. She didn't know if she would be able to face them, the ones she knew, remembered from her time that were gone, but she found a small comfort in seeing Kushina and Minato, Inoichi and Shikaku, if only to remind her, they had been alive and if she succeeded, they all might remain that way.

Her treacherous mind wandered further and she lost herself in thoughts of Obito, Rin and Kakashi. She had saved them from a terrible fate. A fate worse than death. She hoped by saving Obito, she had saved Kakashi, because now Madara would have to find another, Rin wouldn't be killed by Kakashi, it would be okay she told herself. She had already begun to change things for the good.

That hadn't been her original intent when she had made the time travel contract though. She had only wanted to prevent the war. The war that would destroy the world, mankind and leave her alone with only the dead to comfort her. 'How morbid I've become', she laughed at herself. Being back here in this Konoha had shown her how much she had changed, she wasn't the Sakura this time line would create, she was...darker and infinitely more cynical. War does that to you, war with a malicious goddess who hates mankind that is.

She closed her eyes and brought back that edge. She had felt herself melting today little by little, but she needed that cold, that cynicism to do what needed to be done. She was a killer now, a cold hearted, indifferent killer. She opened her eyes.

"Stop lying to yourself, it won't change anything Sakura." She scolded herself.

"What are you lying to yourself about?" A voice asked her.

Sakura turned her head around and leapt to her feet. She hadn't even felt him behind her. She narrowed her eyes at him, she hadn't felt him in the building earlier either.

"I cast a seal over the whole building. I enjoy my privacy." Minato walked up beside her and looked at the moon.

"As do I." She said pointedly, still pissed he had snuck up on her and heard her talk to herself.

"I'm sorry to have startled you, I'll leave. I didn't mean to intrude. I only wanted to explain my presence to you and why it was undetectable." Minato smirked in his head but bowed slightly to her and turned to leave.

"No, wait. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude." Sakura felt bad, he was only being nice and she had bitten his head off.

She really didn't feel like company, she didn't want to talk to him, but he was Naruto's dad and she had given him a hard time earlier. 'You're reverting', a voice in her head warned her but she ignored it to smile at the blonde next to her.

"I was just thinking. Nothing exciting but you're welcome to join me, if you like." She said politely and sat back down on the roof.

Minato smiled serenely at her and sat down beside her, throwing his legs over the side of the roof and leaning back on his arms that he had braced against the roof top floor.

"Kushina said she had a wonderful time with you today, I think she really likes you." Minato started the painful process of small talk and Sakura cringed inside.

"I like her, she is a very sweet person and she makes me laugh. She reminds me of an old friend I used to have, before I came back to Konoha." Sakura shut her mouth abruptly, she had said too much.

"Before you came back, yes, you have been gone for three years Kushina was telling me." Minato kept his eyes fixed on the moon but his pulse throbbed in his neck and he watched her out of the corner of his eyes, listened to her breathing, watched for a twitch, a reaction of any kind.

"Yes." Sakura said, wondering where this conversation was going. It was obvious he wanted to know something. She hated this kind of conversation, even though she did it herself. She was a hypocrite.

"Kushina was pleased to find someone who liked ramen as much as she does. I'm glad too, now you can go with her and I don't have to. I'm not as fond of ramen as you two ladies." He continued on his casual vein of speech.

"I'm not as fond of it as she is, but I do enjoy it." Sakura smiled as she thought of Naruto.

Minato saw her smile and wondered who it was for.

"Oh? She told me Ichiraku ramen was your favorite from before you left on your long term mission." Minato said playfully while setting the bait.

"It is." Sakura said.

"I wonder though", Minato smiled internally, "How you could have such appreciation for a ramen shop that opened a year after you had already left on your mission and I know you just returned today becuase I brought you here, in cuffs." He turned his head to judge her reaction head on a gleam in his eye.

Sakura laughed internally but turned to Minato and smiled. 'You think you've won don't you', her eyes said but her voice was calm, sweet and deceptive.

"On the anniversary of my first year, my friend sent me a care package with a sealed bowl of Ichiraku ramen in it, for my birthday. It nearly black listed me." Sakura laughed further establishing her lie with emotion.

'Who do you think I am', she hissed in her head. 'I am Sakura Haruno the apprentice to the fifth Hokage, member of Team Kakashi Hatake The Copy Nin of Konoha, Anbu and sole survivor of the 4th and last Shinobi war with the Rabbit goddess. You don't scare me Lord Fourth.'

Minato looked at the woman next to him, her face was calm and smiling, her body relaxed and unassuming...she gave no indication of deceit...except for her pulse.

His eyes traveled down the delicate slope of her neck to her shoulders that were barely covered with her oversized shirt and found it again, her pulse...was erratic and practically jumping through her skin.

A slow predatory smile that he simply couldn't hold back made its way to his lips. He leaned forward into her personal space and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I know you're lying Sa ku ra." His breath was hot over her cheek.

He pulled back and their eyes met, she saw something move, briefly in the depths of blue like the calm before the storm, but as quickly as it had appeared it was gone. She shivered. He grinned.

"Am I?" She said with much more bravado than she was feeling at that moment. It had been a long time since she had spoken with anyone as clever and as observant as Minato, she needed to be careful.

"I'm watching you." He rose from his seat beside her and she looked up at him.

Her eyes glowed dangerously in the moonlight, a dark dank devilish forest green and he almost bent down and pulled her up by her mouth...but he didn't, he couldn't, not yet, it was too soon. He willed down his desires and simply smiled at her.

"Good night Sa ku ra Chan." He left her on the roof with that thought smirking to himself.

Sakura watched Minato walk away from her, her anger spiking around her. 'Was he threatening her?', she hissed internally, no, she was reading too far into it, he was just...being playful, like Naruto but...not like Naruto. Minato was intense, much more intense than Naruto had ever been. He must have taken after Kushina more, that would explain the difference she tried to reason it out in her head and took a deep breath.

"Sakura Chan!"

Sakura looked up at the sound of someone calling her name and saw Uchiha Obito waving at her as he ran to her from across the street, Rin and Kakashi following him at a slower more leisurely pace.

"Obito kun, you can't call a woman you just met 'Chan'!" Rin scolded him.

"Please forgive him Sakura Sama." Rin bowed low to Sakura who blinked at them, her piece of toast in her hand forgotten.

"Good morning Sakura Sensei." Kakashi greeted her formerly.

"Sensei?" Sakura looked at Kakashi with suspicion.

"I'm not calling you Sama but you deserve my respect for helping us." He said, refusing to use the word 'save'.

"So, you really are Konoha nin." Kakashi looked her over from head to foot as she raised her eyebrow to him.

"Uh, how did you know it was me?" Sakura asked them, she had been wearing her Anbu mask last time.

"The pink hair." Kakashi pointed to her head.

"I would never forget you, Sakura Chan!" Obito gazed at her with smitten eyes that made her rather uncomfortable.

"Can I help you with something?" Sakura asked them more or less politely.

"I just wanted to thank you again for healing my ankle and saving us like you did, it was amazing!" Obito said fondly.

"Yes, you're an amazing healer, might I ask who taught you?" Rin asked her.

"I had a Shisou, before I came back to Konoha, she's gone now." Sakura said truthfully.

"Aww, I'm so sorry, did she die in the war?" Rin asked her sympathetically.

"Yes." Sakura said quietly.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "We didn't mean to interrupt, let's go." He pulled Rin's arm and started to walk away.

Obito ignored him and sat down opposite Sakura at her table where she had been eating her breakfast in the market.

"I want to stay here and talk to Sakura Chan." Obito glared at Kakashi who shrugged and nodded apologetically to Sakura, 'I tried', clearly written all over his face.

Sakura watched the expression fade from the white haired Jounin's face, with both of his eyes showing, he was so much more expressive than he had ever been with his headband covering one eye, the Sharingan eye of her time.

"Obito, we have to meet Minato Sensei." Rin tried to pull him up from his seat but failed miserably.

"Go on ahead, I just want to ask her a few things is all." Obito was shrugging her off when a shadow fell over them.

"Good morning." Shikaku Nara sat down beside Sakura and smiled at Team Minato, who nodded a good morning to him.

"Good morning Shikaku San." Sakura smiled into her tea cup.

The waitress came then and set down a cup of tea for Rin, Obito, Kakashi and Shikaku. Kakashi rolled his eyes and sat down beside Rin when she pulled him onto the bench next to her and Obito who grinned like mad that they were all staying.

"Uh." Sakura began but was interrupted by another shadow falling over the table.

"What do you three think you're doing?" Minato gave his team a stern eye.

"Eating breakfast with Sakura Chan." Obito said quickly, picking up a menu and flipping it open.

"Sakura Chan?" Minato looked from Obito to Sakura who rolled her eyes.

"Good morning Shikaku." Minato greeted the Nara politely.

"Minato." Shikaku gave him a lazy smile and picked up his cup of tea.

Rin handed Kakashi a menu who took it with a sigh and opened it. Sakura stifled a laugh at the white haired boy and took another bite of her toast. Minato sat down next to Sakura on her other side and picked up a menu as well.

"What are you doing?" She tensed at his close proximity.

"Having breakfast, my team is here, I might as well." He opened the menu and ignored anything else she might have said.

With so many people so close Sakura began to fidget. She closed her eyes, willing herself to calm down.

"Are you alright?" Shikaku's calm and pleasant voice flowed over her ear.

"I'm fine." She opened her eyes and smiled reassuringly at him.

"Just, it's a bit close in here is all." She took a sip of her tea.

"Would you like to go for a walk with me?" Shikaku rose from his seat and laid down enough money to cover the kids tea, Sakura's meal and his own tea.

Sakura flashed him a stunning smile, "Please."

"If you'll excuse us." Shikaku nodded to the table and led Sakura from the stand with his hand on the small of her back.

"Hey!" Sakura could hear Obito protesting loudly behind them and felt the weight of Minato's eyes on her back as she walked away with Shikaku.

Shikaku led her out of the market down the park path leading to the training grounds. They didn't speak until they reached a bench set beside the lake.

"Thank you Shikaku." Sakura smiled at him.

"You looked a bit cramped. I take it your mission was very...solitary." He suggested gently.

"Very." She confirmed his suspicions.

"Is that why you are considering staying home for the Spring festival?" He asked her.

"Yes, I remember how crowded the festival can be, even though it's been a long time since I have been to one." She said wistfully.

"There is plenty to enjoy from the festival without stepping foot in the market. The fireworks from the cliffs are beautiful. I usually enjoy them alone but...you are more than welcome to join me this year, if you like?" He offered.

Sakura thought about his offer. It would be nice to feel like she was part of something again without the press and heat of a crowd.

"I would like that, thank you Shikaku."

Shikaku nodded and they sat in silence looking out over the water.

"I looked at the active shinobi rooster and you aren't on it. No Sakura is. Do you have a last name?" Shikaku asked her, his eyes still on the water.

"It's classified." She said apologetically, technically...it was.

"Ah, but you're not listed on the Anbu rooster either...Sakura." Shikaku looked at her then and smiled.

Sakura hesitated, being Anbu had always been classified. Clearly Shikaku had high clearance for his age, she couldn't remember what clearance he had when she was a kid, she had never paid attention to those kinds of things then. He was young, was he just putting his analytical Nara mind to work or did he actually know something.

"I suppose you'll just have to ask the Hokage who I am then." She told him standing up and stretching like a cat.

Shikaku smiled, "I suppose I will."

"Do the Nara still raise deer?" Sakura knew they did but she was supposed to have been gone for three years, she needed to play the part.

"We do." He replied.

"Excellent, I was wondering if I might buy some of their cast off antlers. I am going to collect herbs for my soldier pills today and will need the antlers fairly soon, do you have any collected?" She smiled at his surprised expression.

"You know how to make soldier pills?" He asked her, it wasn't common for the average shinobi to know how to make such things. Usually it was only the medics and there were only three medics of medium calibre now that Tsunade had left the village.

"Yes." She wondered why he would ask that, most medics knew how to make soldier pills, then she remembered that Shikaku didn't know she was a medic nin.

"I'm also a medic." She said helpful, then laughed as his eyebrows hit his temple in surprise.

"Interesting." He hummed.

"We do have some antlers put aside, it's Spring so the males are challenging one another for the mating season, many of them tend to break off damaged from the fight. I can get them for you, how many did you need?" He asked.

Sakura tapped his finger against her lip thinking. Shikaku's eyes watched the movement and he shifted from one foot to the other.

"Two I think, two decent sized ones or three little ones if possible. I can pay you for them, how much would you like? I'm afraid it's been a while since I have made my soldier pills so I am not familiar with the market price of specialty items like your Nara antlers." She apologized.

It was Shikaku's turn to pause and think about what he wanted to say, a small rose tint crept into his cheeks and he looked out over the lake.

"If you let me take you out to dinner, they're yours." He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked back at her a little shy.

"You want to take me out on a date?" Sakura asked him, surprised.

"No. Yes. I mean, if you want to go." He blushed.

She just stared at him in her surprise and he shifted on his feet nervously.

"Nevermind, I'm sorry." he said a little defeatedly and turned to walk away.

Sakura stepped forward to stop him, 'No wait, I was just surprised. Yes. I'll go out on a date with you."

"Yeah?" He smiled and turned back toward her.

Sakura nodded and blushed herself, "Yeah, um tonight or…"

"Tonight. I'll bring the antlers and pick you up at 7?" Shikaku asked her.

Sakura nodded, "7 is great, thanks."

They stood there smiling at one another, neither of them noticed the piercing blue eyes of Minato as he walked to the training grounds with his Team in tow.

"The war is over, what are you doing here?" Sakura looks over her shoulder at the small group of nin and sees the scratches on their headbands.

"Oh, Missing Nin, I see. Couldn't cut it in the war, ran away did you? Or perhaps your war crimes were too great and you were ousted from your village?" Sakura put her hands on her hips and stood tall looking at the group of six nin before her.

"Well well, look what we have here, what a pretty little kunoichi." The man who appears to be the leader of the rag tag group steps out in front of the others and looks Sakura up and down boldly.

"The war might be over but our blood lust isn't." The man looked back at his companions and smiled.

The group broke out into rowdy loud laughs and several sneered openly at Sakura.

'I have the worst luck', she sighed to herself preparing for the kill.

She had come to the outskirts of Konoha forest to gather the herbs she needed for her soldier pills. She had three out of the seven ingredients in her stores from the future but other three needed to be collected. Shikaku provided the fourth, the deer antlers.

It had been such a nice day out when she had walked through the gates of Konoha for her day trip into the forest. After Minato had taken out the front lines, the same day she had saved his team, the war had been declared over. No one could go up against the Yellow Flash of Konoha.

Yet here these idiots were, in a group, thinking she was an easy target. Fools.

"Look, I'm just trying to get some herbs I need, I don't really want to kill you. Call it a freebie okay, get lost." She turned back around and crouched down to resume the process of gathering her herbs.

Bursts of laughter and knee slapping could be heard from behind and she rolled her eyes, 'they never learn'. Sakura stood up and cracked her knuckles out in front of her and stretched her arms above her head. Twisting slightly to the right then the left she shakes one leg and then the other.

"I warned you." She reminded them and charged forward with chakra infused feet, her fist, elbow and arm going through the first man, then the second, falling to her knees to avoid several kunai, she turned on her knees, her kneecap digging into the dirt and rock.

Looking up she blocked an attempted swipe of a blade with chakra pushed to her forearms. She pushed the man back and up while rising to her feet once again.

"Holy Shit!" One man yells and runs away leaving his comrades to their fate.

"Scum." Sakura hisses at the cowards back as she pivots right then up, slamming a palm to the chin of another and pulling his own sword from his belt to cut his partner in half...diagonally.

The three remaining missing nin stand before her amazed. She straightens her body to her full stature and shakes her bloodied locks from her face. Her hair had started to come down in their fight and she growled, annoyed.

"Who the hell are you?" One of the men yells as he charged at her, throwing kunai and senbon as he leapt over a boulder kicking off with chakra infused legs.

"It doesn't matter who I am, because I'm going to kill every last one of you, then I'm going to hunt down your friend, because even missing nin should have honor." She spits blood to the ground from where she had bitten her own lip in disgust.

A smirk, a step backward and the missing nin falls dead at her feet. Sakura turns, that wasn't her kill, who…

A flash of yellow, the other two bodies drop to the forest floor.

"Minato." Sakura straightens up from her defensive stance and narrows her eyes.

"Were you...following me?" She accuses him.

"Of course not, but I felt your chakra spike and came to see if you were okay." He looked around at the mangled corpses.

"I see that you are." He grinned at her.

Sakura nods her thanks to him even though she clearly hadn't needed his help.

"So, why were you out here?" She asked him curiously, her hands turning over the missing nin and searching their pockets.

She tucked three vials of poison into her pouch that she had found on the leader of the group and two more different ones from another of the bodies. She didn't recognize them, she wanted to analyze them when she got back to her apartment.

"There were rumors of bandits terrorizing the outskirts of the forests, but apparently the reports were a little off." He kicked one of the scratched out headbands that lay beside one of the corpses.

Sakura bent over and pulled two of the kunai from the ground that had been aimed for her, she noticed they are both coated with a light layer of poison, probably one of the poisons in the bottles she took from them. There is blood on the second kunai. She frowns, she hadn't felt a cut.

Looking down at her chest, her legs and arms, she sees a small rip in her shirt. "Shit." She grunts.

"What is it?" Minato walks over to her and looks down at the kunai.

"A small scratch, no big deal." She pushes healing chakra into her hand and heals the scratch.

"Amazing." Minato hums as he watches the cut heal right before his eyes.

Sakura smiles, "This is nothing, I've seen much worse…" She stumbles and falls to her knees.

"Sakura?" Minato kneels down beside her.

"Poison." Sakura growls, her legs are going numb.

"It was just a scratch, what the hell." She doubles over pushing chakra to her hands and running them over the area she had just healed.

She can feel it, the poison just under her skin moving...her eyes widen, moving to her heart through her chakra channels. Quickly without hesitation she pulls a kunai from her pouch and closes her eyes tracking the poison with her one hand still infused with healing chakra and aims with the other.

Her eyes snap open and she stabs herself in the chest right through her breast plate, a small scream escapes her lips.

"What the hell are you doing!" Minato tries to stop her by grabbing her arm but she shoves him off.

"Stop! If I don't do this I might die!" She closes her eyes and uses her chakra to pull the tainted blood from her body and her chakra channels.

Minato watches the dense look of concentration on her face.

Sakura grunts, the tainted blood splashes to the ground and is quickly absorbed into the forest floor. She falls back, her one hand passing over her self inflicted wound healing it over just enough to close the wound.

"Ahhh, damn it." Sakura hissed as she tried to stand up, she stumbled but Minato caught her before she could fall.

"I got you." He held her back up against his chest, his hands on her shoulders steadying her.

"I'm fine" she tried to push off of him, away from him. She didn't want to look weak in front of Naruto's dad.

He let go of her, she stumbled and fell...he stooped and caught her before she hit the ground. Picking her up in his arms he looked around.

"I'll find us somewhere for you to rest." He ran for the nearest cave at the Valley of the End behind the waterfall.

Sakura tried to keep her eyes open as he ran but her energy and her chakra had left her. She knew she had gotten most of the poisoned blood out of her body but there must have been some that she hadn't gotten.

"My pouch, the red vial in the black silk bag, get it for me please." She asked Minato once they had reached the cave and he had laid her down on the floor pulling his flak jacket off and putting it beneath her head.

Minato found the vial she had requested and handed it to her. She reached up to take it but her fingers wouldn't close around it.

"Please Minato, please …" Her voice trailed off.

He uncorked the vial and poured it into her mouth, she swallowed and opened her eyes to half slits, "Thank you." her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

Minato sat beside her looking down at her bloodied, sweaty face. Her lips were slightly parted, puffy from where she had bitten her bottom lip in pain, he had never seen anything more beautiful.

He got up quickly and sealed the cave with both protection and silencing jutsus. Looking down at the vial he still held in his hand he turned it over and saw a small gold scorpion laid into the glass and wondered if she had made the antidote herself and if so, why a scorpion, for it had to be an antidote, why else would she ask him to give it to her…

He stood over her sleeping form and watched the rise and fall of her chest, a single tear slipped from the corner of her eye. It made her look vulnerable in that moment, irresistibly vulnerable and he realized they were alone, in a sealed cave, a decent distance from the village.

Minato considered his options standing over the sleeping woman. Crouching down beside her he decided he would start by making her more comfortable, innocent enough he tried to convince himself.

He unzipped her flak jacket and pulled one arm out then the other folded it and set it aside. He brushed the bloodied strands of hair from her face and pulled the hair tie from what remained of her ponytail spreading the silken strands around her head and shoulders. Her boots were next and her pouches. His fingers hovered over her pants ties but he moved on to her belt slipping her medic pack from her waist and setting it neatly by her other things.

Sakura let out a small breathy moan of pain and his hands stilled over her chest where he loosened the ties of her foraging bag and slipped it from her shoulders.

Sitting back on his heels he swallowed hard, this was a risk. He had to control himself. His head snapped back to her as she started to breath heavily.

"Sakura?" He cupped her face in his hands. "Sakura?"

She didn't move but her breathing relaxed.

He leaned up against the wall of the cave and looked around, he had been here many times before but never with anyone. It was a bit chilly in the rock with the water rushing by the entrance moving the air.

It's okay, he was just keeping her warm he told himself as he pulled her closer to him, her back up against his chest, his arms around her waist hugging her to his body as they sat propped up against the wall together. Her head falling back to rest against his shoulder, the side of her neck exposed as she turned her head to the side.

"Sakura?" He called to her again.

"Mm." A small noise, then silence.

He looked down, he could see her pulse beating strong in the side of her neck. He swallowed again, wondering how she would taste. He could just duck his head down and lick her a few times to see…he leaned his head back and groaned, he couldn't. Yes he could. He shouldn't.

Her soft plea came back to his cursed mind, 'Please Minato,please…' she had begged him to get the antidote from her pack for her.

He loved it when they begged. He imagined her saying it with her eyes open, looking up at him, spread out naked on his bed begging him to…

"Stop." He told himself out loud. "Control yourself."

He took a deep breath, that was a bad idea, her body moved against his, the smell of her skin rose around his nose from the friction of their bodies being so close together. He could feel himself getting hard.

"Sakura." He spoke her name softly.

No response.

"Sakura." He called her name a bit louder, nothing.

Very slowly he bent his head and ran his lips over her exposed neck. Her skin was so soft. He shivered and pulled her body up closer to his mouth. "Just a little." He told himself, "Just a little then I'll stop."

One hand slid from around her waist, his fingers twitched as they slid up the front of her shirt and cupped one of her breasts. Minato flicked his tongue out against the sensitive skin of her neck and she moaned. His hands and mouth stopped moving. He sucked in a quick breath and rolled her nipple between two fingers and kissed the back of her ear on one side, his cock impossibly hard.

He could feel her temperature rising under his hands as he continued to suck on her neck careful not to leave any marks. His hands slid down over her abdomen to the ties of her pants, he stopped.

'Can't', he reminded himself and let his hands fall away from her, slowly moving them to rest on his own knees. He took another deep breath and tilted his head back and away from her neck to rest against the cool rock of the cave wall. He had to stop now or he might not be able too.

Slowly, he moved her to the ground and placed his flak jacket under her head once more and her jacket over her chest and shoulders to keep her warm.

Moving quietly to the back of the cave he stood facing the wall and unclasped his pants pulling his hardened cock and fisting it hard and fast. He bit his lip recalling the noises she had made, the sound of her begging voice and he came with a sudden ferocity that startled even him. He tucked himself back in his pants, and did up his belt looking over at the woman laying on the ground.

He couldn't wait for the day he could touch her, kiss her and fuck her while she looked up at him with those big green eyes of hers, her body pushing and pulling against his while he held her down, owned her, dominated her.

Minato sat down beside Sakura and gently ran his fingers over her lips, his cock twitched in his pants, he was getting hard again already. He resisted the urge to slip his finger in her mouth and touch himself again.

Getting up, he moved to the otherside of the cave and waited for her to wake up, keeping a careful eye on her in case she needed him or took a turn for the worse. He didn't trust himself to be so close to her anymore.

Sakura woke up to the sound of water, rushing water and the smell of it in her nose. She blinked her eyes open, where...she jumped to her feet and staggered, leaned against a wall of a cave? She opened her eyes and saw Minato sitting across the cave from her watching her closely.

"Minato?" She asked, her voice cracking, her throat hurt.

"Are you feeling better now?' He asked, walking over to her a worried expression on his face.

"The missing nin, then." She was trying to piece the events together in her mind, she had had some really strange dreams.

"One of them poisoned you and I gave you the antidote from your pouch." He handed her the vial with the scorpion inlay in the glass.

"Ah, I remember now." She put her hand to her head and tried to summon enough chakra to relieve the pressure but couldn't.

"Damn it." She slid down the sharp pokey side of the cave and sat on the floor hard.

"Rest, you slept for a couple of hours but I think you should maybe sleep a few more." Minato crouched down beside her.

"Did you make that antidote?" He asked her.

"Yes."

"So you knew what kind of poison it was?" He asked her curiously.

"I had an idea, I knew it was a hallucinogen because I started hearing and seeing the oddest things and it had a chakra drain on it, that's why I couldn't pull the rest of it from my body after I cut the main part, that contained his chakra in it from getting to my heart." She told him.

"The poison had his chakra in it?" Minato had never heard of such a thing and wondered how she was familiar with it.

"Yes, his chakra will move the main body of the poison to a predesignated spot or organ in their victim. They must have been Suna missing nin. I didn't see all of their headbands clearly, they were scratched almost all out but, that is a Suna poisoning trick." She explained.

"How do you know….how do you know that? Have you, have you been poisoned by a Suna nin before?" He asked her, surprised.

Most shinobi that were poisoned by Sand nin, didn't survive. They were known for their poison prowess. Lady Chiyo of the Sand was famous for both her Puppetry and her poisons. Rumor had it her grandson was just as talented as she was and had earned the name Sasori of the Red Sand for himself in the last war and he was only 13 years old.

"I need to get back to the bodies, I want to bring them with us. I need to check them, now that I think they are Sand nin, I want to check them for any poisons I may have missed." She pulled a small pouch from her pocket and took out two small round balls and chewed them one at a time and swallowed hard.

"Ugh, disgusting." She made a face that made Minato laugh.

"What are those, are those soldier pills, they were huge." He commented.

"My own design for myself to regain chakra quickly." I'll be ready to go in ten minutes.

She closed her eyes. She could already feel the tension in her head dissapaiting and her chakra returning to her channels.

"Suna missing nin?" The Lord Third said with mildly concealed surprise.

Sakura's fingers twitched against her thigh where they were resting. "One got away." She added.

She had had every intention of following the coward and was still pissed off that she hadn't been able to do so.

"You had an antidote for the poison already made...on your person?" Sarutobi asked her.

"Yes." She watched his lips twitch and she narrowed her eyes.

It was pointless to go into detail, it hadn't been an antidote to that specific poison, but she knew Minato was listening intently and she didn't want to reveal too much of her past or her...predicament.

"Hum."

"Spill it old man." She said exasperated, they had already been there for over two hours giving their report and she wanted to get home and into the shower.

"Ah, well I saw something about that before your war and I must say my dear you continue to impress me." The Lord Third broke out into a mischievous grin.

"Her war?" Minato asked and Sakura wanted to slap the Lord Third.

"Our war." Sakura said pointedly and continued on, "We brought back the bodies of the remaining dead, I would like to participate, if not control their autopsy. You've seen my background." She raised a pink eye brow at him and flickered her eye to his crystal ball.

"Yes of course, I will grant you access to the hospital and anything you need tonight." The Hokage smiled. His nod indicating 'yes', he had seen her being trained by Tsunade and had seen her fight Sasori who had yet to defect from Suna. They would need to talk Sakura knew, but with Minato here, it was not the time.

"Not tonight, if you don't mind, perhaps tomorrow night?" She asked.

"As you wish. I would have thought you would want your answers right away given you...personality." The old man was teasing her...Sakura rolled her eyes.

She didn't remember him being so...playful but she had been twelve and infatuated with Sasuke when he had been killed by Orochimaru soooo….

"I have an, uh...a date." She blushed and Minato narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well you two have fun. The scrolls will be waiting for you in examination room three when you're ready." The Lord Third smiled at her and Minato.

"Huh? My date isn't with Minato!" Sakura said horrified at the thought of dating Naruto's father, the Fourth Hokage, The Legend. She wasn't weak anymore but he was too far out of her league.

Minato gave her an odd look that she didn't understand. She smiled at him, a faint crease in her brow.

"Oh? Sorry dear, I just thought...well, nevermind. Uh enjoy your date then with…"

"It doesn't matter." Sakura puffed her cheeks out and set the storage scrolls containing the missing nin on the Hokage's desk.

"Very well, I will have a mission for you in the next day or two before the Spring Festival, I'll send the mission scroll via Anbu for you Sakura. Dismissed." The Hokage picked up the three scrolls she had set on his desk as her and Minato walked out of his office.

"So, a date?" Minato smiled at Sakura as they walked down the winding stairs of the Hokage's Tower to the street.

"Yeah." She said absentmindedly as she checked her bag to make sure she still had all of her herbs with her.

"Anyone I know?" He asked with forced casualness.

"Probably." She winked at him and leapt onto a nearby roof. "Gotta go Minato, see you later! Thanks for your help!"

"Yeah." He waved at her and frowned as he watched her run back to their apartment building at full speed. "See you later."

Sakura flew through the hand signs releasing her seals on her apartment as she burst through her door and immediately started stripping off her bloodied clothes and turned the taps on in her shower. She only had thirty minutes before Shikaku would be there to pick her up for their date.

Shampooing, conditioning and soaping her body as quickly as possible she stood under the spray of the shower letting gravity rinse her hair while she used a nail brush to clean the blood and tissue from her hands. Shaking her head like a dog she turned off the taps and stepped out of the shower drying off with a towel as she walked to her standing closet and pulled out a black tee shirt and dark grey mini skirt that Kushina had helped her pick out.

She ran to the bathroom to blow dry her hair, tying it back with a thick charcoal ribbon that matched her skirt letting it hang down her back and over her shoulders. A light tint to her lips to make them shine and some clear mascara and she was ready.

She had just slid a few kunai into her knee high toeless boots when there was a knock on her door.

Sakura felt her mouth go dry and suddenly she wasn't sure about this date of hers. Walking to the door she opened it to find Kushina beaming at her.

"Uh Kushina! Hi, I thought you were uh...someone else." Sakura ended lamely.

"I hear you have a date!" The red head squealed, MInato walking up behind her.

"Uh yeah." Sakura blushed.

"Well you look great!" Kushina reached forward and straightened her ribbon around her head and patted at her skirt grinning.

"Thanks." Sakura said a bit nervously, playing with the end of her ribbon.

"You okay? Nothing to be nervous about." Kushina smiled kindly.

"I've never had a date before." Sakura blurted out.

"What?" Minato said without meaning to.

Sakura blushed a deep red in embarrassment.

"Never?" Kushina's mouth dropped open as she stared at her new friend.

"Never, uh, I never had time to date before." Sakura twisted her fingers together, she was a little nervous and now embarrassed.

"Ohhhh! You're so cute! Isn't she just so cute Minato?" Kushina was gushing and her voice was high pitched and it hurt Sakura's ears and apparently Minato's as well because he flinched.

"Yeah, she's cute." Minato's eyes slipped down her body then back up again.

His thoughts betrayed him, eyes falling on the end of the long ribbon as it poked out over her shoulder beneath her hair by her neck, it was long and thick...durable looking. He imagined pulling it from her hair and using it to tie her hands behind her back as he forced her to her knees. Minato cleared his throat...focus.

Sakura opened her mouth to say something but paused and looked over their heads.

Kushina turned to look behind them but Minato's gaze remained on Sakura, he already knew who her date was, he had felt his chakra signature moving steadily closer as they had stood there talking.

"Shikaku, good evening." Kushina smiled at the Nara.

"Hello Kushina, Minato, Sakura, you look beautiful." Shikaku only had eyes for Sakura and didn't hear Kushina's purr of sentimentality or see Minato's less than guarded eyes boring into him as he turned to greet him.

"Shikaku." Sakura greeted the Nara, turned and sealed her door, stepping around Minato to take Shikaku's offered hand.

"Uh, see you guys later." Sakura mumbled to Kushina.

"Have fun on your first date!" Kushina almost squealed much to Sakura's horror.

"First date? Oh, with me." Shikaku smiled at Sakura.

"Ever." Sakura mumbled.

"Huh?"

"You're my first date ever." Sakura said, cheeks red.

"Oh, well, no pressure or anything then." Shikaku laughed a good humoured masculine laugh that put Sakura at ease.

"I bet they hit it off don't you Minato? Sakura seems really intelectual and Shikaku is a genius, I bet they get married!" Kushina was almost bouncing on her toes next to Minato.

"He's too laid back for her, she needs someone more, intense to stimulate her. Someone stronger than the Nara." Minato said as he watched the Nara walk away holding Sakura's hand.

"Intense?" Kushina asked.

"She was attacked today in the woods near the border while she was foraging for herbs. Her fighting style, its...intense and efficient. She is more than what she seems. He won't be enough to keep her attention for long." Minato spoke to Kushina but also to remind himself it was true.

Kushina watched Minato's face. He was so focused, it made her uneasy.

"Well, are you hungry, do you want to get something to eat?" She tried to distract him.

Minato looked down at Kushina, her eyes were wide and searching.

"Sure." He took her hand and walked with her down the same street Sakura and the Nara had disappeared down, it was the only street to the market from their apartment building.

"Where would you like to eat?" Shikaku asked as they entered the market district taking their time to walk along the outskirts where the foot traffic was less.

Sakura was pleased he was making such an effort to appease her claustrophobic tendencies, it was very thoughtful of him. She wasn't used to men going out of their way to make her happy and she thought she rather liked it.

"I like most things. I don't like ramen nearly as much as Kushina though, so if we don't go to Ichiraku's I won't be disappointed." She joked easily with him.

"I don't think anyone likes ramen as much as Kushina." Shikaku laughed while enjoying her company.

"How about nikuman and ikayaki?" Shikaku suggested.

"Sounds great." Sakura said enthusiastically.

She had never been much of a cook and her food had been more essential than recreational the past year. All the food smells of the market were just as overwhelming to her as they had been her first few days back in civilization and her mouth watered. She didn't think she could get enough after being deprived of simple food stand food for so long.

Shikaku carried their food to the park and Sakura picked a picnic table by the lake where he had asked her out that morning. The wound in her chest was healed over but it still pained her a bit. While her soldier pills were very useful she wouldn't risk taking more than two of them a day and she had already depleted most of the chakra she had regained to heal it enough for her date.

The small pained look on her face as she sat down wasn't lost on Shikaku who asked her if she was alright. She explained what had happened in the woods before their date.

"Minato was patrolling the border?" Shikaku asked her when she had finished telling him about the missing nin and the role Minato had played in her mini annoyance.

"He said that there had been reports from the scouts that bandits were terrorizing the borders." She nodded and opened their boxes of food, passing him a paper plate and chopsticks.

"Hum." Shikaku made a noise of both thanks and to let her know he had been listening.

"I wonder where he heard that, I haven't heard of any such reports." Shikaku murmured as if to himself but smiled when he saw Sakura's eyes light up at the steamed pork buns.

"This looks so good." Sakura smiled at him.

"I'm glad, thanks for having dinner with me, Sakura. So, tell me about these poisons you found on the missing nin today." He broke his chopsticks apart and took a bit of the squid as she explained that she hadn't had a chance to analyze the poisons yet but she would first thing tomorrow after or during her autopsy of the missing nin her and Minato had brought back with them.

Shikaku listened as she told him about different kinds of poisons and antidotes, how she knew the antidote she had on her would help, how she had traced the poison in her chakra channels. He was very impressed and even more so when she told him the Hokage had granted her access to the hospital.

"Most long term shinobi returning to the village have to be re-evaluated for return integration to ensure they haven't been compromised out in the field, after being gone so long. The Lord Third trusts you quite a bit it seems." Shikaku scratched his chin.

"I'm impressed, Sakura. Poisons and antidotes, a medic nin and you took out most of the missing nin before Minato had gotten there. Dangerous troublesome Kunoichi." He winked at her.

Sakura laughed out loud, she was having a delightful time. It was nice to eat and have a conversation with someone, to relax. She had almost forgotten what that was like, to have a village, a home. Sakura bit her lip,she wasn't here to have fun.

Shikaku could feel her mood change and wondered what she had been through to make her this way. 'A solitary long term mission', it was clear she was something more than an Anbu, he hadn't found a record of her anywhere, it was like she didn't exist. No one knew about her, none of the academy teachers he had spoken to had ever heard of her before, no one.

He wanted to know more about her, she fascinated him.

Sakura felt Shikaku's warm hand over hers and looked up to meet his smiling eyes. He was a nice guy, low key, calm...effortless. She hadn't even thought of the possibility of dating when she came back, but maybe he was just what she needed right now.

"Sorry, I kinda got lost in my head there for a minute." She gave him an apologetic smile.

"I understand, I get lost in my head all the time. Inoichi says it's because there is so much unused space in there." They both laughed, which is of course, what he had intended.

"Would you like to go for a walk?" He asked once they were done eating.

"That would be nice." They threw their trash away in a nearby can and he took her hand and they walked around the lake pausing now and then to comment on a night cloud and what they thought it looked like.

It was simple, and Sakura felt the strain of the last few months fade from her bones.

"Thank you Shikaku, for a wonderful evening. I had a really good time. You're easy to talk to." Sakura let go of his hand to unlock her door.

"I like talking to you." Shikaku grinned a sort of nervous half grin at her.

"So, I'd like to see you again, maybe before the festival?" He asked her.

"The Hokage said he would be sending me a mission scroll before the festival so I might not be able to, the festival is only a few days away but I would still like to watch the fireworks with you on the cliffs." A lock of hair was lifted up by the breeze and fell over her face.

Before she could push it back Shikaku's hand came up and the back of his fingers skimmed her cheek, pushing the hair back, he leaned forward and kissed her lightly while tucking the hair behind her ear. His fingers followed her hair over her shoulder and down her back where he let his hand rest at her waist pulling her closer to him, slowly giving her time to stop him or step away from his embrace.

Her eyes closed as butterflies erupted in her stomach, her body felt tingly as her blood surged through her veins. She had never been kissed before. Giving Naruto mouth to mouth to save his life didn't count she thought wildly as Shikaku drew her closer to him by the waist.

As quickly as it had started, it stopped and Sakura opened her eyes to see Shikaku looking at her, a soft smile, a slight up turn to his lips.

"If I don't see you before your mission, good luck, come home safe. I look forward to watching the fireworks with you at the festival." His hand dropped from her waist and he stuck both of his hands in his pockets and grinned at her.

"Thanks Shikaku, for tonight. I had a really nice time with you." She blushed.

"So did I, Goodnight Sakura." He turned to walk down the steps and home.

"Night." She said softly and closed her door behind her.

Once inside she leaned her back against her door and bit her lip. 'My first kiss', she touched her lips and giggled like the teenager she was and skipped to her sliding glass door.

She leaned against the rail of her balcony and looked up at the moon. "Okay." She conceded to the Rabbit, "Maybe it's not so bad being here after all." She closed her eyes and smiled, her face turned up to the night's sky while stars danced behind her eyelids as she replayed her first kiss in her head.

Minato's fists clenched at his sides as he watched the dreamy look on Sakura's face. A dark possessive desire flooded his senses. 'That look on her face, that smile', he thought darkly. I want that, I want it to be for me, because of me.'

Sakura sighed and giggled again, stepping through her sliding glass door, clicking it shut and checking her traps behind her.

Minato stood on his balcony and watched but she didn't return, he saw her shadow moving around the floor of her studio. Her interest in the Nara both surprised and angered him. Didn't she know she could do better...Minato looked at the moon, he would show her, he would show her she didn't have to settle, that she deserved so much more, that she deserved someone like him.

She found what she hadn't realized she had been looking for in the third body of the missing nin, the missing Sand nin, she knew now after analyzing their chakra. A seal. Walking to the other two nin on the examination tables she made the small incision and opened their chests up wider on the right hand side, they too had seals over their hearts. Seals that had been set in place and activated with a very familiar chakra.

"Sasori." The name was a curse on her lips.

She felt her chakra spark and crack in her chest. She stumbled and fell back against the examination table behind her, breathing rapidly.

"What the hell was that?" Her hand went to her chest, it hurt.

Slowly she calmed herself and pushed chakra to her fingers to sooth the pain in her chest...but none came to her fingers. Sakura frowned at her hand. Why wasn't her chakra working?

Pushing herself off of the table behind her she walked to the counter where she had a glass of water and took a few sips willing her heart to settle into a more normal rhythmic beating. She closed her eyes and breathed in through her mouth and out through her nose. When she felt she was calmed again and ready, she pushed her chakra to her hands, they glowed green. Placing her right hand over her chest she eased the pain that had been there and looked back down at her hands.

The glow was normal, the pulse the same but, it was different somehow and she wasn't sure how or why. It just felt off, like it wasn't all of her own chakra.

Her head started to hurt, she needed some fresh air.

Sitting on the roof of the hospital watching the clean sheets drying in the wind she started to feel a lot better. Spring was here and the air was light and refreshing. The sun shone on her upturned face relaxing her muscles that she had cramped by bending over the examination tables for hours on end. It was nearly noon she had been at it for the last five hours without a break.

Sakura kept her eyes closed as her thoughts raced back to the seals he had found on all three of the missing Sand nin and she couldn't help but wonder, if they had been missing by choice or if they had been controlled by Sasori's puppet jutsu.

Not a lot was known now, or would be known about the elusive Puppetmaster. After she had defeated him with the help of Lady Chiyo the Sand had taken almost everything they could find connected to him and had locked it away in Suna, which was understandable. She had limited access to their findings as the Hokage's apprentice and Naruto's best friend but even that hadn't been enough to saite her curiosity.

His core in particular was a medical marvel, she had always wished she could have gotten to take a closer look at it but Kankuro had guarded it like a dog with a bone, and she couldn't blame him. The one time she had gotten a chance to look at it though...had been enlightening. Kankuro didn't have the medical background she had, he had no idea what he had in his possession. He knew how important it was, but the man had no idea how very dangerous it was.

If she could have stolen it and gotten away with it...she would have.

The seal had been placed in their chests, it was similar but not the same as the ones she had seen on his puppets. She knew that Sasori was still in Suna as an active shinobi and wondered when he had placed his seal into these men, if they even knew they had the seals in them or if anyone else knew. She thought back to her battle with the man. She had never been more terrified or more proud when she had defeated him.

She had been a two year Anbu veteran at that point in her life, but the man had still brought out a desperate fear in her that no one else had or could since, not even during the fourth shinobi war, and that was terrifying in itself.

"One of them got away." She almost choked on her own spit as she said the words out loud.

'He'll know.' Her heart began to beat hard in her chest.

"That's not what I'm here for." She said to herself, loudly, forcefully.

The possibility of running into Sasori again, now when she was stronger and more experienced, both terrified her and thrilled her at the same time.

'He's only thirteen now. He hasn't left the Sand yet. Had he made Hiroko yet?', the thoughts flooded her head one after the other.

"No, I'm not here for that!" She scolded herself.

"Do you always talk to yourself?" Minato's annoyingly calm voice broke her from her thoughts.

She stood up quickly to face him, her hands clenched at her sides. Slowly she released them, she wasn't mad at him, she was mad at herself for even entertaining such selfish thoughts. Seeing the seals again, feeling his chakra so close at hand again after all this time, was wearing on her.

"No." She looked at him then looked away.

'She looks absolutely feral', his eyes flashed from her eyes to her face to the tense way she held her arms at her sides, to her hands that flexed almost subconsciously as she looked at him.

"The Hokage wants to see us." He told her, his eyes watching her eyes. They looked through him and he realized she wasn't seeing him but someone else and wondered who it was. Her breathing was short but controlled, her face pained and strained, and her eyes...her eyes were a fierce penetrating green. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

Then, like a switch, she shook her head and she was back. Her eyes focused on him and she gave him a small slightly embarrassed smile. "I'm coming."

Minato nodded and jumped to the next roof, she followed.

"Lord Third." Minato and Sakura bowed low, then looked up to see the Third Hokage looking them over with a hard look in his eye.

"I'm changing the mission I was going to send you on Sakura. Minato will be going with you. Sakura will be the team captain Minato, I know this is a change for you but she has information that will be useful and the foresight to ensure that the mission is successful." Sarutobi said seriously.

Minato turned his head to look at Sakura curiously, then back to the Lord Third. "I understand."

"Sakura, our 'Mutual friend', was spotted by the border between Wind and Fire at the south western most point. We do not know what his intentions are or what he was doing there but the report came in moments ago and I think it well worth looking into. The report claims it was a 'look a like', but you and I know it probably wasn't." The Lord Third rubbed his face with his hand.

"I have consulted my third eye jutsu and am increasingly disturbed by what I see...Sakura, does it end, is what I saw...our end?" The tears didn't fall but she saw the moisture in his eyes and had to look away from his kind and familiar face.

"Yes Hokage Sama, but fortunately, you did not live to see it come to pass, no one did...only me." Sakura said her eyes trained on the window in his office to the left of Minato.

She knew he was there, she didn't care.

The Lord Third nodded his head, he had never looked so old she thought as she brought her eyes back to his.

"That's why I'm here though, isn't it." She tried to smile at him.

"You're no longer alone, here there are those who can help you, help us, help everyone Sakura. I respected your choice to handle this before, because I didn't know the extent of the...outcome. Now, I feel you should…"

Sakura cut the Lord Third off, "Forgive me Hokage Sama, but it is not your choice, it is mine and I do not want nor do I need anyone's help to complete this mission." She said forcefully.

"This may sound ungrateful and insubordinate but you forget, I am not merely a kunoichi from the Leaf, I AM the Leaf in the future, I am all that's left of what was. This mission is mine, and mine alone. The ones that are here now, are not the ones that were there in my time. My time is dead and gone, this is my last reprieve, my last chance. I will not trust it to anyone else." She said firmly remembering who she was and where she had come from.

It had been too easy to forget these last few days. 'Playing Konoha', she called it in her head. She needed to focus. There was too much at stake.

"Sakura." The Hokage said gently, he wasn't upset at her outburst or her disrespect, he had seen the horror, heard the screams, seen the blood flow like water, the mass graves, the destruction. A single tear fell over his aging face. "Let us help you."

Four words, and she broke. She made the hand signs and her body flickered from the office, a single tear dropped to the floor where she had stood moments ago. Minato watched it fall to the ground and then looked back up to the Hokage.

"Tell me and I will help her." The blonde said, voice strong, conviction unwavering.

Sakura collapsed on the floor of her studio apartment, the Hoakge didn't understand. He saw what had happened through a pane of glass, he hadn't been there, he didn't smell the rot of the bodies, he hadn't felt the squelching of the mud mixed with the blood of her friends as she knelt down to pick them up off the ground to add their corpse to the pile of the many to be burned that day to prevent the spread of disease!

Her chakra flickered in and out of her hands at the memory of the wounded, the broken and the dead. She rolled over onto her back and lay there staring up at her ceiling. She wasn't sure how long she had laid there before she heard him knock but made no move to answer the door. Her eyes closed at the thought of having to talk to him or anyone else for that matter about, everything.

His chakra flared purposefully as he flashed into her apartment letting her know it was him. His formula was on the floor in the middle of her studio. He hadn't told her because it hadn't been necessary for her to know, she would know now though. He looked down at her as he stood over her laid out form.

"How the hell, nevermind, you used your jutsu. I didn't know you had a formula in here." She said looking up at him.

"It was from before, a past occupant, the formula never fades, no matter what, through time or space." He sat down on the floor beside her.

"He told you." She said, her voice much more calm than she had expected it to be.

"Yes." Minato said, he could barely believe it himself but now that he knew, it made sense.

Everything that had stumped him before, everything she had told him or that he had found out about her, now it made sense and if possible, he was even more infatuated with her than he had been before he had found out she was from the future.

"I'm sorry for giving you a hard time when we met." He said.

"For putting me in chakra cuffs and parading me through the village you mean?" She turned her head to look at him, her eyes narrowed to little green slits.

"Yes and for that." He looked down at her where she lay on the floor beside him, without his usual smile.

"So that's why you never had a date? The war?" He asked her curiously.

"That's what you ask me? You find out I'm from the future and you ask me why I'd never had a date before Shikaku?" She laughed at him.

"You're just like your knuckleheaded son." She continued to laugh.

"My...son?" Minato asked, looking at her, eyes wide.

"Yeah, your son, my best friend." She bit her lip.

"He was more like a brother to me." She confessed.

Minato couldn't speak for a moment, "Who….who did I marry?" He was almost afraid to ask.

Sakura looked up at him, "Kushina of course."

"Kushina!" Minato gasped.

"That can't be right." He insisted, but the more he thought about it, it made more sense.

Sakura was his son's best friend, if Sakura wasn't here, he probably would have settled for Kushina, but...she was here now and he didn't want to settle.

"Of course it is, you love her, it was like a fairytale!" Sakura insisted.

"How you saved her from those Kumo nin who tried to capture her because she was the nine tails jinchuriki." Sakura kept insisting.

"You know about, well, of course you know." He trailed off in thought.

"Your son, he's the nine tails in my time." Sakura told him.

"He is?" Minato was a little shocked.

"You had to, to save the village." She said sitting up and finger combing her hair back from her face.

"I sealed the nine tails into him?" He said incredulously.

"Who else would have done it?" She gave him an odd look.

'Who else indeed', he thought to himself, but then if she was his son's best friend did that mean...

"You, what about you, who were you in your time?" Minato asked her.

Sakura smiled. She pushed herself up from the ground and unsealed the floor board she had hidden her things in when she had gotten there. She pulled out her storage scrolls and unsealed her few remaining personal effects. She walked back over to where he waited for her and handed him a book.

"A bingo book?" He opened it.

She sat beside him and turned a few more pages for him to her entry, "That's me." She said unnecessarily because he had already seen her picture.

"Your hair, it's so short." Was the first thing he said.

"You're the fifth Hokage's apprentice, and were an Anbu captain at the age of fourteen?" He saw her differently now. She wasn't just beautiful, she was stunning.

"Friend and former teammate of the nine tails jinchuriki Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha who was declared a missing nin of Konoha at age twelve." He read.

"You killed Sasori of the Red Sand at age 15?!" He looked at her again.

"Yes. He is thirteen now but then, when we fought he was...much older and far more experienced than he is now, it was terrifying, it still is." She shrugged.

"You're amazing. It says you're the best healer in the known world, you already surpassed your mentor Tsunade Senju the fifth Hokage!"

She shouldn't have given him the book, she knew that now but it was too late.

"It sounds more impressive when you read it out loud than it is." She shrugged again dismissing his look of awe and admiration.

"What do you mean? You're incredible." He said.

"I'm not." she said.

"You don't understand." She told him.

"Lady Chiyo helped me defeat Sasori, I couldn't have done it without her. My team, Kakashi Sensei, he was always there to bail me out and Naruto, he never gave up. I was the weakest one on our team for a long time." She said.

"Kakashi, Kakashi was your sensei?" Minato asked her.

Sakura smiled, "Yeah, only he had one of Obito's sharingan."

Minato opened his mouth to ask her about that but there was a knock on her door.

Sakura rose and opened the door to reveal Shikaku.

"Hi Shikaku, would you like to come in?" She moved aside with a smile for him to enter her small studio.

"Hi Sakura." He smiled at her and stepped inside noticing Minato sitting on the floor with a book in his hands.

"I'm sorry Sakura, I didn't know you had company." Shikaku apologized, nodding to Minato who had set the book down and walked over to them.

"It's no problem Shikaku. I'm glad you came by. Minato and I were just getting ready for our mission." She smiled at him, he was a nice distraction.

"Ah, when do you leave? Do you have time for lunch maybe?" He smiled a lazy sexy smile at her that made her smile back at him.

Sakura turned to Minato, she had left the office before reading their mission scroll.

"I'm sorry Shikaku but we need to leave as soon as we're packed, perhaps when we get back, it should only be two days, three at the most." Minato said, striving for calm.

"I hope it is two instead of three so you can be back in time for the festival." Shikaku smiled at Sakura and then Minato.

"Kushina would be disappointed if you didn't make it back in time." Shikaku added, looking at Minato.

Minato nodded, "I'll be in my apartment getting ready Sakura, come up when you're done." Minato nodded to Shikaku one more time and left her apartment for his own.

"Is everything alright? I can feel the tension in the room." Shikaku smiled at Sakura taking her hand in his and lacing their fingers together now that Minato was gone.

"The mission is predicted to be a stressful one, if not a short one." Sakura sighed but smiled again when she looked down at their hands.

"I'm glad you stopped by to see me before I left. I was going to leave you a note." She told him as she let go of his hand to pack her mission bag.

Shikaku followed her to her wardrobe and sat down on her bed while she packed her things.

"I'm surprised Minato is going with you while he has a Genin team of his own." He said conversationally.

"I was going to be going solo but the Hokage added him last minute. I will admit, I'm not very pleased about it." Sakura threw some clothes into her bag and a spare weapons pouch with her poisons and their antidotes in it, her storage scrolls she had brought with her from the future and her picture of Team 7.

Her hand hovered momentarily over her second poisons and antidotes pack. Perhaps it had been her recent skirmish with the missing Sand nin, but she added that pack as well and closed her bag throwing it across her body and tying the end to her belt so it didn't bump around while they traveled.

"Minato is a good man, he will be an asset on your mission." Shikaku assured her.

"I know he is, I trust him." She turned around her apartment checking to make sure she had everything

Shikaku watched her check her things to make sure she had everything. He had noticed the slight tightening of Minato's mouth when he saw who had been at Sakura's door. Did she know, he wondered, that the Yellow Flash of Konoha was interested in her?. Probably not he guessed. He had been her first date. A thought occurred to him.

"Sakura?" He asked her.

"Hum?" Sakura turned around to look at Shikaku.

"If I was your first date, then I was also your first kiss wasn't I?" He smiled at her.

"Yes." She blushed and looked away from him.

"Good, don't forget about me while you're on your mission with Minato." He wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her into a deep kiss.

"Mmph?" Sakura made a small noise, then relaxed and let him take control, kissing him back.

A pointed cough had them breaking apart and turning to see Minato in Sakura's door, an odd expression on his face.

"Are you ready Sakura?" He asked, looking at Shikaku.

"Oh! Uh yes, sorry Minato." Sakura blushed and looked back at Shikaku with a grin.

"I'll see you when I get back?" She smiled at him.

"Definitely. I want to kiss you like that again, maybe at the festival." Shikaku smiled at her and pulled her to him by her belt and kissed her again, making Minato wait until he was done.

"I couldn't wait until you got back." Shikaku rested his forehead against hers and smiled.

Sakura bit her bottom lip and giggled. Her face flushed red, "I'll hurry back."

Minato tapped his foot impatiently and all but pushed Sakura out of her door when she was within arms reach and down the stairs turning back to Shikaku who had been waiting for that moment.

"You're with Kushina, why the face Minato?" Shikaku asked, his hands in his pockets.

"What's the rush Shikaku, it was only one date?" Minato countered.

"No rush, I just appreciate what I have." Shikaku walked by the blonde and down the stairs to where Sakura was waiting, giving both men a questioning look.

"She isn't yours yet." Minato said quietly.

"More mine than yours." Shikaku said back, just as quietly.

"Ready?" Sakura asked Minato who had stopped at the foot of the steps and narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, sorry." Minato cleared his face and smiled at her brightly.

"I'll tell Kushina you can't wait to see her when you get back Minato." The Nara raised a hand behind his head as he walked away.

"And I'll take good care of Sakura while we're gone on our mission together for you." Minato called out a fake grin on his face.

'What the hell is going on', Sakura thought to herself as she followed Minato to the front gates.

Piercing red eyes bore into the side of the wall searching for something he knew wasn't there. He had done this too many times, it made him feel desperate, weak, and he refused to feel that way...yet…

His arms rigid and fixed at his sides, a twitch in his right leg...this wasn't his time, but it was so similar to his that sometimes he felt like...he was home again. Home, this wasn't his home but a means for redemption, to change to….His heart betrayed him, his family was gone, his past and his future.

"No." Madara said out loud his eyes fading back to their original black. "My future here isn't written." Slowly, he turned and walked away from the little shrine on the side of the mountain and crossed the border between Fire and Wind. He had a goal, a personal mission and no one was going to stop him from completing it, not even his own deep desires that he had ruthlessly pushed down and trapped in the farthest corner of his heart.

Minato watched her out of the corner of his eye as they walked through the forest together. She had changed in the last few days. There was a lightness to her step that hadn't been there when they had first met. A softness to her eyes that he despised. 'The Nara', his inner voice, chided him.

"How much do you know?" She asked him after they had been walking in silence for some time. Now was as good a time as any, there were things he would need to know and things she would never tell him, but first, she needed to know what the Lord Third had told him.

"The Lord Third told me what he knew, of the Konoha and the world you came from." He said looking ahead to the trail in front of them.

'A vague answer', she smirked to herself as they walked side by side in relative calm.

"The fourth great war, the allied nations, the reanimations but I would rather hear it from you. He can only see so much through that ball of his." Minato smiled at her, hoping to set her at ease, he knew this couldn't be easy for her.

Sakura nodded. Of course she knew she would have to talk about it with him, she didn't even know where to start. It wasn't something she wanted to voice, the horrors of the war, her failures, her weaknesses. It wasn't any of his business and knowing too much of the future, could be dangerous.

'He is the Fourth Hokage', she reminded herself, he wasn't just anyone. Everyone had always said how intelligent, kind and insightful the Lord Fourth had been and she knew he was selfless, to have sacrificed himself for the village. Still, he was still a man, and she had to admit there was more to him than she could see, more than what history said there was.

"I will tell you what is required for our mission." She said carefully.

So she began. She told him about Madara's plan to collect the biju and to make himself the ten tails host, how he had been the leader of the group called the Akatsuki and how he had used Obito Uchiha to do his bidding when he could not.

Minato listened without interrupting so she continued.

She explained to him as much as she knew about his plan, his objective and then told him the differences between this time's Madara and her time's Madara.

"He looks younger than he did in my time and not by a little, but decades. I saved Obito and deprived him of a very valuable tool, but he didn't seem to mind, he showed no upset at my interference at all in fact." That had puzzled her but she attributed it to the fact he simply didn't know what she knew of the future and didn't know what she had truly robbed him of.

She paused, "I think, he had things to ask me. I know I had things to ask him but we got interrupted." She looked at him pointedly.

"So you came back to find Madara and stop him from...collecting the biju and starting the fourth great war?" Minato asked.

"Yes and no. There is no way I could defeat Madara Uchiha, he is just so, he's too powerful." She admitted and wasn't at all ashamed to do so.

"I wanted to ask him why, I want to know why he would want to do such a thing and to tell him what happened as a result of his desires, no matter what his reasons were...in the end, I felt like...like her regretted it when he saw all the devastation he had caused, but by then it was too late." Her jaw was clenched tight and her hands were fisted at her sides as she walked.

"How did you come back Sakura, how are you here now?" Minato asked her, he needed to know as much as she was willing to tell him, so he could help her.

"I.", she paused not sure if she should tell him, not sure if he would understand.

"It's okay." He saw her struggle in her eyes.

"Tell me when you're ready. I am just a bit curious though." He smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

Sakura watched him, that was a Naruto gesture, she smiled. He was so much like her best friend and yet, so different at the same time. It made her miss Naruto terribly.

"What is it?" Minato smiled at her.

"Oh, sorry, you just remind me of your son." She looked away from him a little embarrassed.

"You miss him don't you." He couldn't imagine what she must be feeling and for a moment he felt guilty. The Nara made her happy, surely she deserved some happiness after what she had been through.

'She could be happy with me though', the voice in the back of his head persisted.

"I miss all of them, very much but yes, I miss Naruto and Sasuke, and Kakashi sensei even more...Ino." Her voice dropped off.

"That's why I came back, that's why I made the contract that I did." She said it so quietly, that he knew she was talking to herself but he had heard and he wondered what kind of contract one made to travel back in time and with whom...who had that kind of power to grant someone passage through time, and at what cost…

"It's almost like I'm a ghost. A walking, talking ghost seeing everyone I know to be dead, but even though they are the ones who died in my time, here, it's me who is out of place. I should be dead. I shouldn't even be here." She spoke and he wasn't sure if she was talking to him again or if she was still speaking to herself so he remained quiet and let her talk.

"I couldn't stand it, the silence. I would hear the birds, the water, the wind in my ears, the sound of my own voice but...that's it. That's all here ever was and then I came and…" She stopped talking.

After several deep breaths she looked at him, stopping on the trail. "I couldn't stand being alone anymore. I don't know what I can do, if there is anything to accomplish, but I have to try don't I?"

She was asking him, he understood, she needed to hear that what she was doing was right, had meaning, that it wasn't for nothing.

"Of course you had to try...and I will help you Sakura. I'll help you I promise." He reached out to her. For a moment it looked as though she would step back and away from him, but something passed in her eyes and she leaned forward and let him take her in his arms and hug her.

He looked so much like Naruto and she needed a friend, she knew Minato wasn't the whiskered boy she had grown up with, fought with, bled with but he was as close to Naruto as she could get and she desperately needed her friend at that moment, so she leaned into his touch and let him hug her.

"I know you're not him. I know you're not Naruto but for right now, for just a little, let me pretend?" She felt so guilty using Minato like this as the tears fell down her cheeks.

He held her while she cried silently into his shoulder, his arms wrapped tight around her as her shoulders vibrated with the pain and loss. He felt like a thief taking this affection that was meant for his son, a son he didn't have he reminded himself, with a woman he didn't love.

Before he could turn his head into her neck, she moved away from him.

"Forgive me." She wiped her eyes.

"I'm stronger than this. I'm not weak." She told him, averting her eyes from his direct stare.

"Love isn't a weakness." He said stepping close to her again, he hadn't been ready to let her go.

"It is strength. It gives us the strength to do what we never thought we could do." He tilted her head up with a finger to her chin and smiled at her glistening tear glazed eyes.

"You're so strong and brave and beautiful Sakura." Minato watched awareness pass over her face.

"The Lord Third was right though you know, you're not alone. Let me help you. Whatever it is you're doing, you don't have to do it alone." He dropped his hand but his eyes remained locked onto hers and she nodded once and the spell was broken.

They both looked away from one another resuming their travel in silence. It would take them over a week to make it to the border of Wind and Fire if they walked the whole way there so after a quick break they set off at a much faster pace.

They had both felt it, a connection had been made between them. She was embarrassed. He wanted more.

Minato watched Sakura's form flicker in and out of sight as they flashed over the Land of Fire.

"It seems I still have a lot to learn about you, or do all Leaf shinobi in the future know my Flying Thunder God Technique?" He grinned at her as they made camp that night under a dense overgrowth of trees.

"I saw your reanimation perform almost impossible feats with the Lord Second in the war and mastered if after, everyone was gone." She tried to smile at him.

As they traveled Sakura had started to slowly revert back to her former self. Out of the walls of Konoha she had only her own thoughts to occupy her mind and she found that she had missed that part of herself. Minato remained silent for the most part, which she was grateful for, it gave her time to think and sort out her emotions.

It had taken her near onto six full months to accept the position she had been cast after the war. When she finally realized after walking, running and searching desperately for anyone still alive that there wasn't anyone left but her, she had hardened her heart and stilled her emotions to the pit of her stomach where they had remained, until she had set foot back into a living breathing Konoha.

'Focus', she reminded herself as she set the fire for the night, a slow burning covered fire for heat against the fading Spring chill. Soon, no fire would be needed. They had agreed during the day to hide their presence as much as possible and from here on out they would eat cold rations. Madara Uchiha wasn't to be underestimated.

They left before dawn and set foot over the border to Wind an hour later just as the sun was rising over the dunes.

He felt them before he saw them moving at an impressive speed, he was ready for them. Raising from the body of the One tailed jinchuuriki, he turned to face them as they ran at him from over the rise.

"Kunoichi." Madara inclined his head to Sakura as he finished sealing Shukaku, the one tailed bijuu into its scroll of keeping.

"Lord Uchiha." Sakura's eye passed over the dead body at his feet.

"If you came to stop me from taking the one tail, I'm afraid you're too late." He smirked at her setting his feet into a seemingly relaxed and calm stance.

"So, you're collecting the tailed beasts…" Sakura confirmed one of her questions she had planned on asking him.

"Since you deprived me of my vessel, you left me with little choice." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Obito." She said and he nodded.

"You...know don't you?" She looked him over judging his reaction.

Madara laughed a loud deep laugh that both pleased and startled her at the same time. It wasn't the same wild and unhinged maniacal laughter she had heard him boast during her last war. It gave her hope, maybe he could be reasoned with.

"I know more than you kunoichi." His eyes turned to Minato.

"I see you've brought a friend, are you sure that's wise?" He asked her as though they were old friends and it confused her. He wasn't acting at all like she had expected him to act, but this was a different time, a different place.

"He knows, about my situation as far as he needs to." She replied not entirely sure what he was referring to.

"Does he." Madara looked between the two.

"And what is your situation dear, tell me, why do you continue to seek me out, are you trying to stop me?" He crossed his arms over his chest and grinned at her as if to say, 'Try and stop me girl'.

"I came to ask you, what is your objective…" She hesitated with a quick glance at Minato. "Do you still plan to cast your Infinite Tsukuyomi?"

Madara considered her question but didn't reply. His eyes bore into hers, a slight twitch to his lips.

"So, you're from one of those then, interesting." He cocked his head to the side.

"Which one, do you know?" He asked her.

Sakura didn't understand his question.

"One of those? Which what?" She asked cautiously.

"You don't know?" He smirked at her.

"My dear, did you really think you were on your original timeline?" His face broke into a wide grin.

"You really think I am the Madara of your time? Look around you girl, everything's the same but so very different. Is this your first time, your first dimension?" He was being smug and she didn't like it.

Before Sakura could say anything Minato spoke.

"Dimension, you're from a different dimension, you can travel through space and time." Minato wasn't asking, he was clarifying.

"Impossible." Sakura snapped, but only because she didn't want to believe it.

"Not impossible dear, probable." He watched her face change from angry to frightened to sick only to fall into despair.

"What are you looking for, why are YOU here?" He asked her.

"I." She couldn't breath, her chest was closing up on her.

"I see you need time to process this information. I have questions for you too. I've been watching you dear, you're different. You're not like your other selves. I will find you again soon, after you have had time for your new reality to sink in." Madara smirked at her bowing in mock respect and disappeared in a flash of smoke and light.

The strong smell of ozone filled the air and she collapsed to her knees.

"Impossible." She muttered.

"No." She whispered.

Her brain was desperately trying to catch up with her ears.

"No." She said again.

"He's lying." She said, not sure if she was trying to convince herself or Minato.

All of her strength left her and she dropped to her knees staring up at the sky, 'What if...it's true?'.

Minato stood beside her staring, he had heard everything but he still...it was a lot to take in. He stooped and gathered the small woman in his arms and ran back over the dunes flashing when he could to their camp the previous night and laid her under the trees to rest.

'Impossible', she kept repeating the word in her head.

Traveling back in time was one thing but traveling through dimensions was...she almost couldn't even wrap her mind around it when her mind betrayed her, 'It is no different than time travel'.

It was though, wasn't it. 'A different direction', her mind argued. Direction, time, space…

"Where am I?" She asked herself.

"Our campsite from last night." Minato said.

Sakura rolled over to look at him. "That's not what I meant."

"It was the only answer I Knew to be true." He smiled a sort of lopsided hopeless smile at her.

"If what that Madara says is true then...what's the point, why am I here...it doesn't matter what I do here, it won't affect the people I love." She tried to be logical.

"We need to figure out if what he says is the truth, before we go any further." Minato reasoned.

"I think he is telling the truth. Remember how I told you that there were differences about him from my timeline. They weren't a result from my actions, he simply IS different...because he isn't the Madara from my time." She realized the truth of her own words as she spoke.

"He isn't the Madara of my time, I saved Obito. He was teasing me, when he said I deprived him...he had never planned on using Obito, but he knew..." She rose to her feet and slowly began pacing around their small enclosure.

"Madara, this Madara knew that I would be here, how did, or if he didn't...but he wasn't surprised to see me…" She continued to pace as she worked her previous encounter with Madara out in her head.

"He wasn't sure about me, he said I was different from my other selves." She stopped moving.

"How many, how many dimensions has this Madara been to and how many times have I met him?" She said to herself.

"We need to ask him." Minato had been watching her walk back and forth in front of him while she talked.

"He said he would find me, he…" She had so many questions, her thoughts were spinning around so quickly in her mind that she was getting dizzy, or maybe it was her heart beating so quickly in her chest that her blood pressure was making her feel faint.

There was a pain in her chest and her breath came short.

"Sakura?" Minato saw the pained look on her face and rose to stand beside her.

"I'm fine, it's just a lot to take in. The idea of different dimensions with worlds similar or different to our own isn't something I've ever considered before." She admitted.

"It's an unusual concept." Minato said thoughtfully, but it had been something he had considered when the Lord Third had told him of Sakura's origins. His Flying god technique bent space and time for him to move so quickly, the concept wasn't new to him.

Sakura looked up at Minato, there was something in his voice, "What, what is it?" She asked him.

"It's possible that everything Madara told us is correct as much as it is possible it isn't." He said carefully.

"But?" Sakura could see he had more to say.

"But if we assume what he says is true, from what he told us, he has been to many different dimensions ...and has run into your other selves, that knew they were in other dimensions...and...he has run into similar dimensions with similar scenarios to your own." Minato concluded.

"Remember he said, 'So, you're from one of those', as though he had encountered your dimension where he had cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi before. As though he had encountered you there before, but he asked you why you were here in this dimension...so your reasons for dimension hopping have varied between your other selves." Minato said as his eyes narrowed in thought and he rubbed the backs of his hands in a repetitive motion.

"He said you were different, that he had been watching you. He'll be back...for you." Minato looked up at her again and caught her eye.

"He'll be back, Sakura. You'll get your answers, just be patient. Let's use this time to come up with the questions you want to ask him, let's go back to the village." He nodded his head once then twice testing his decision.

Sakura stared hard at the trunk of the tree closest to her. She had been listening, had been thinking and what Minato said made sense. She knew Madara would be back, from the moment their first meeting had been interrupted by Minato, she knew they both had things to ask one another, but the reason had changed now, at least for her it had.

"I want to know why he is here, what is it that makes him push forward, why does he keep going from dimension to dimension, what is he looking for." She could guess but she didn't want to assume, not with something so important.

She wasn't like Kakashi who's hunches were always right. She wasn't Naruto who could fly into any situation and come out almost unscathed and save most of the day. She would do this her way. She would wait for Madara to come to her, that way he would be more willing to talk to her, she hoped...if it was his idea.

"This really isn't any different than any other mission if you break it down, Sakura." Minato said.

Sakura's jaw fell open, "Yes it is, dimensional travel is unlike any mission I have ever been on before."

"What I mean is, if you look at it objectively, it isn't. You want information that only he has, he wants information from you, it is a trade, a high stakes trade of sorts, just like a mission. If you think of it in those terms, it might keep all of this from seeming overwhelming." Minato smiled an easy smile at her.

Sakura nodded slowly, "I see what you mean."

"There's something else though, something I don't think you've thought of yet." He smiled at her.

"What?"

"Your dimension, where all your friends and loved ones died, where you were the only one left...isn't the only dimension. What if you could find the dimension where...Madara lost and the United Shinobi Forces won?" Minato grinned at the look on her face.

"Find one where we won." She said quietly.

"Well, Madara has obviously found a way to travel multiple times through multiple dimensions, why not you. You could keep jumping dimensions until you find the one where you won your war." He grinned.

"If I did that, say I did find one where we had won the war instead of losing everything, which seems almost impossible, there would be another Sakura there, another one of my selves. What then?" She asked him.

"I don't know." He admitted rubbing the back of his head.

'Kill her and take her place', a small voice said in the back of her head.

'Could I really do that?', she tapped her finger nail against her teeth while she thought about it. Would it even be murder, if it was yourself you were killing? The probability of finding her perfect dimension seemed almost as impossible as the situation she was in.

"That's what Madara is looking for, he is looking for his perfect dimension." Sakura turned to Minato, who nodded.

"I think so." Minato smiled at her and she smiled back. Progress.

"But, what if it doesn't exist or, I spend the rest of my life looking for it but never find it." She frowned.

"It seems a bit too early to jump to conclusions like I said before but, you might leave one dimension for one worse than the one your were just in. What if there are only a certain number of times one can cross over, then you're left in a dimension that might be severely worse than the last, first or third one you traveled to." Minato said what she had already been thinking.

"This one was so similar to your own, you didn't even notice." He pointed out to her.

"You could be happy here." He added. "If you stayed."

"I don't know. I have a lot to think about." She sat down on the ground, her legs tucked up under her chin, her arms hugging them up to her chest.

"I'll make a fire, since we aren't trying to sneak up on him anymore and I doubt we could now that I've met the man. There was a river a mile back. I'll go get us some fresh fish." He left her alone to her thoughts.

Minato ran along the river bank lost in his own thoughts as he scanned the water for their dinner. A flicker of silver, a flick of his wrist, and two trout skipped out of the water and landed on the opposite bank impaled by his kunai.

He felt his presence and rose with the fish in one hand and a kunai in the other.

"Uchiha San, lovely evening isn't it?" Minato turned around to meet the red glowing eyes of Madara Uchiha.

"Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage and the hero of the Third shinobi war, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, father of the Nine tailed jinchuuriki Naruto Uzumaki." Madara's voice was smooth, cultured...dangerous.

"At least that's how she sees you." A grin broke out on Madara's face.

"I have seen other sides of you, darker selves in other dimensions. I wonder, which Namikaze are you here?" Madara crossed his arms over his chest.

"You've met Sakura before." Minato said, a statement he knew was a fact by now.

"I have, many times, in many different dimensions." Madara watched the blonde.

"Each one unique, remarkable...beautiful. Even the few weak ones were...dangerous in their own way. Each one innocent in a different way. An admirable quality. Don't you think?" Madara hummed.

"I wouldn't know having only met one." Minato replied not at all impressed with the man's interest in Sakura.

"You said this one, here with me, is different though, what did you mean by that?" Minato asked.

"A conversation for another time perhaps. I didn't come here to talk about my Sakura." Madara grinned at the blonde when he stiffened at his claim.

"She isn't yours." Minato said, his eyes narrowed.

"Is she yours? Here?" Madara asked seriously.

"Here? So there have been other dimensions that you know where...she was mine?" Minato answered Madara's question in his excitement.

"A thorn Namikaze, that's what you are and always have been. A thorn in my side. This time, I am trying a different approach with you." Madara uncrossed his arms and pulled out a scroll.

"This is a traveling contract. There is no beginning and no end. I will give it to you, you can go now and find your perfect world, but you must leave now." Madara held the scroll out in front of him.

Minato and Madara stood facing one another each impassive in his own way, each calculating their next move.

Minato thought, 'To grab it and run is impossible', and Madara was thinking, 'If he takes it, I'll have one of the two missing pieces that have been missing from my life back at my side'.

"A tempting offer, if it truly is what you say it is but I decline." Minato grinned at the twitch in the other man's eye.

Madara sighed, "I didn't think you would be swayed so easily. Like I said you have been near a constant torn in my side, I didn't expect that to change now. Especially now." He added cryptically.

"How many, how many dimensions have you been to, what are you looking for?" Minato asked.

"Too many to count." Madara sighed.

"What are you looking for?" Minato truly wanted to know so he asked him again.

"What everyone is looking for...happiness." He disappeared in a white cloud of smoke and Minato was once again alone by the river's bank, fish in his hand.

"Happiness?" Minato repeated.

Sakura was grateful that Minato was taking his time by the river. She had waited until he had left the cover of the trees to let her few tears fall. Just a few and then she was done. There wasn't time to cry, she told herself. Slowly she began the familiar process of working through the events since she had come to this time one by one. She painstakingly labeled and placed each event into a category using logic and the knowledge she now had about dimensional travel.

By the time Minato had returned with their fish, she had a rudimentary plan together. Admittedly it wasn't much different than the one they had before he left but with a few minor changes. She wanted to know what Madara's plans were, why he was there.

'If he's different, if he is looking for something and he doesn't find it here, he will move on. I can stay here, and be with my loved ones, just a generation back. I can stay and make sure all the bad things that happened in my dimension don't happen here.' She thought of Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi.

She could help them all, like she had helped Obito, Rin and Kakashi. The Uchiha massacre, Naruto's lonely childhood, Lord Third's death...even Gaara. She could make sure they have the bright future she had wanted for her people.

Her hands twisted together in her lap. Shikaku wasn't supposed to be dating her, he was supposed to marry Yoshino. She bit her lip. She really liked him, but if she got in the way of Shikaku and Yoshino marrying, Shikamaru wouldn't be born and it would be her fault. She couldn't let that happen, could she?

With her mind made up she stoked the fire and set the kettle to boil for tea. She would return to the village with Minato. She would continue to take missions with Anbu and seek out those she knew to be a treat to Konoha's future happiness and kill them one by one.

Sakura needed to speak to the Lord Third. It had been a long time since she had had to think of such things but as she planned and added names to her list she recalled the main reason for the massacre was that the Uchiha clan had been planning a coup. They were massacred by Itachi to prevent a civil war, to preserve Konoha's peace. What if...she stopped the coup from happening. What if she stemmed the flow of hostility, cut off the flow of hatred before it could develop into anything substantial...

Minato cleaned their fish and watched her out of the corner of his eyes. He saw her jaw tighten, her eyes grow hard, then soft and wondered what she was thinking. He had sharpened two sticks to roast their fish with and staked them into the ground close to the fire to cook. He continued to watch Sakura's face. It fascinated him to see the raw emotions flow over her face changing as quickly as ripples over water in a lake.

He watched as her shoulders straightened and she stretched a small smile on her face. She had come to a conclusion of sorts he realized. She has a plan and he wondered what it was.

He had learned with her, he couldn't just ask her, she had to tell him on her own. If he pushed her, she would clam up or push back, neither of which would tell him what he wanted to know.

She looked up at him then and smiled. He smiled back wondering what had made her smile like that, pleased she was smiling again.

"I will wait, like you suggested for Madara to come to me." She spoke without prompting.

"I think it's a risk though, to try to find a new dimension with the outcome I so selfishly desire." She hesitated.

"I can help this one. I can make sure the events that tore my world up don't happen to yours. In that way, I will still be protecting those I love, just...in a different dimension. At first, I wanted to find what you had suggested, a dimension where the Allied forces win the war but, then I thought, what of this one, what will happen to them if I leave, knowing what I know." She ran her hand through her hair pulling it out of it's low ponytail and letting it fall around her face.

"If I leave...I leave knowing I could have done something to prevent...well to just prevent certain things from happening." She said.

"You're going to stay here?" Minato asked hopefully.

"I know it isn't my world but it is so similar, I didn't even know there was a difference before Madara told us there was, so, yes. I will stay and make sure what happened to my world doesn't happen to yours." She smiled at him again.

Minato nodded, She was such a combination of both innocence and danger, just like Madara had said. Minato knew how rare that was, he himself hadn't been satisfied with Kushina, he had planned on settling before she had come along. Was she to Madara, what she was to him? Was she one of the things he had been looking for?

Minato bit the inside of his lip until he tasted blood. Reaching out automatically he turned their fish on their sticks and stared into the flames.

"Sakura." He said her name slowly, wondering if he should be saying her name at all.

"What is it?" She turned to him, the firelight making her pink tresses glow with a luminance that was ethereal in nature and in that moment she looked like a fairy goddess, surrounded by woods and the silent night save for the crackle and sporadic pops from the moisture that had been trapped in the wood that burned beside them.

"I know this isn't your original home but I think you could be happy here. I don't know what troubles you speak of, what you hope to prevent but...if I can, I'll help you." His eyes held hers over the fire.

Sakura looked at Naruto's dad, then reprimanded herself, not Naruto's dad. She wasn't in her time, her world and for the first time since she had met Minato she saw him not as Naruto's father but as a man. She looked away.

"Thank you Minato." She looked back into their shared fire, not liking at all where her thoughts were going.

Even if he wasn't or wouldn't be Naruto's dad in this timeline, he was still Namikaze Minato and she was still Sakura Haruno, she smiled to herself. It was Sasuke all over again.

"I wonder now, how my being here will change the future. I am not the same person I was in my time. When I would be born here in this time, will I, this me, disappear or will I simply not be born and that line of my time never exist here?" She asked the open question. He could answer if he liked or pretend he hadn't heard her.

"I think it depends on the soul." He said.

"Where your soul is, and what you consider an entity. Are all your 'selves' a separate entity with a separate soul, or is it one soul and several entities?" He asked.

"I will ask Madara when I see him. I too want to know that. He might not know either though." She watched the flames dance before her.

"I just want the people I care about to be happy, if I can't help mine, yours are the next best thing." She laughed.

"Maybe I can even help Sasori." She laughed again at the thought.

"Sasori? The Suna nin?" Minato asked her, surprised.

"He was the loneliest man I have even met and Lady Chiyo, she missed him so much, if they knew how the other felt, maybe he wouldn't have turned out the way he did, maybe he would still be...real." She hugged her knees to her chest and turned her head to smile at him again.

"You would help an enemy?" He asked her needing to understand why she thought the things she did, why she was who she was. He hated to admit it but he understood Madara's fascination with the girl, he was fascinated himself, had been since they had met.

"Sasori isn't really my enemy here, now, we've never met here. Of course, I can't just walk into Suna and tell him I'm from another dimension and want to help him can I." She laughed at the thought.

"What about you? You think of everyone but yourself. You deserve to be happy too, perhaps more than everyone else what you've been through, what you plan on doing to protect Konoha. What do you want, Sakura?" He asked moving closer to her, his hand on hers, over her knee.

"I want…" Her thoughts flashed to a picture of Sasuke, standing tall beside Naruto in the last battle.

"What I want doesn't exist anymore, he's...not even born yet and when he is...I'll be too old for him." She laughed, a slight tinge of resentment underlining the silvery sound.

"Oh." Minato said quietly.

"Of course you had someone you loved then, there. I'm sorry Sakura." He looked at her with his blue eyes and she turned her head and laid in on his shoulder.

"You remind me of Naruto so much. I won't use you though, I won't use you and pretend you're him to...make myself feel better. I'm sorry about before, Minato." She said sadly.

"Use me." He choked on his own words then laughed.

"I mean. I'm here for you. I might not be the best friend you left behind but I can be someone here, in this time for you to rely on." He slid his arm around her shoulder and drew her close to his side, fit his chin over the top of her head.

"He was more than a friend...after Sasuke, he...we were, well, it's complicated but we were a little more than friends." She said quietly, a light blush on her cheeks.

Sakura sighed into his touch, it was so familiar to her and yet, it wasn't, it was nice though, whatever it was and she closed her eyes. For the first time since she had come back she felt safe and she wasn't quite ready to let that feeling go yet.

Minato closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He could feel the warmth from their fire, the warmth of her body so close to his. He could smell her hair as it lifted and moved across his arm and cheek. 'More than a friend', He moved closer to her, she didn't pull away. She was starting to trust him. Minato smiled.

He could feel her body relaxing further against his, her eyes were closed and her breathing had started to change.

"You're so beautiful Sakura." He whispered into her hair, closing his eyes.

"Thank you Minato." She said quietly.

Minato's fingers twitched against her hand. He wanted to touch her more.

Sakura looked up at his face, her eyes open. Minato looked down at her, she wanted something, she was waiting for him to...he hesitated for a fraction of a thought, bent his head and kissed her slowly at first. When she didn't resist him, when she didn't pull away he pulled her onto his lap and tilted her head up and to the side.

"I'm sorry." She whispered and began to pull away from him.

"This isn't fair to you. I'm a terrible person." She refused to meet his eyes again.

Minato didn't try to pull her back, he didn't move. When he spoke it was calm, soothing and comforting.

"I won't pretend to know what kind of a relationship you had with my son in your dimension and I am not trying to be tactless, but Sakura, you aren't in your dimension anymore and my son is not here, but I am." He laughed a little.

"This is definitely an odd situation." He rubbed the back of his head and grinned, like she had told him his son did and made her think of him.

It had worked, she smiled at him, a sadness in her eyes, but her eyes were soft when she looked at him. He reached out to her and waited. She looked at his hand, then the ground and sighed.

"Let me be here for you, please." He said, waiting patiently.

Sakura looked up, his eyes were just like Naruto's. So kind and so gentle. She nodded once and placed her hand in his. He smiled and pulled her back to his side, tucking her under his arm and kissing the top of her head. She fell asleep in his embrace. He stayed awake until morning, refusing to sleep and miss even a moment.

They left after sunrise and didn't speak again until their feet landed on Konoha soil.

"Sakura. I know last night probably meant more to me than it did to you but I want you to know, you're not alone anymore." Minato reminded her.

She nodded. "Thanks Minato. I'll go report to the Hokage, you get some rest." She leapt to the roof tops and ran to the tower.

Minato stood on the street alone and watched her go, turning to walk back to his apartment once she was out of sight.

Kushina watched Minato from the park bench she had been sitting on, waiting for him to return from his mission. He hadn't even noticed she was there. He hadn't noticed anything but Sakura. She closed her book in her lap, stood and walked back to her own apartment. They would need to talk but, now was not the time. She needed to think.