"Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation"

Charles Stanley

There was something strange about time.

The smoke cleared to reveal the village hospital. The hallways were eerily and uncharacteristically empty due to people being at the Gala. The three figures moved silently down the dark hallway, searching for an empty surgical room. Upon finding one, the blonde used his elbow to hit the latch on the door and shove it open for the pinkette, glancing around the hallway before closing it shut and locking it. They ignored the waiting caps, gowns, gloves, soaps, disinfectants and sinks of the preparation room and went straight into the surgical room. Lights were turned on as an unconscious male body was carried to the surgical table.

It told you what hour of the day it was. Time was a way to organize a life or schedule. You could have too much time, or not enough time.

Sakura did everything she could not to collapse onto the floor, the pain in her back becoming apparent to her once more; she did her best to ignore it. There was no way she was about to think about her own injuries. As she set his body on the table the blood dripped down her arm, staining the pristine floor an unnatural color. All she could focus on were his torn cloths, the wound in his chest, and the pain in her head at seeing him in such a state.

Time could fly by in the blink of an eye, years suddenly becoming milliseconds.

She fumbled for anything that could help her save him—an anesthetic, a scalpel, fluids or blood bags. If Sakura were in her right mind she would have known that such things were stored elsewhere, kept safely away until summoned ahead of time for situations such as this. But Sakura was not in her right mind; on the contrary, she felt as if she were breaking apart at the seams. As she began ripping the shirt off his body she vaguely registered a hand gripping her shoulder.

Time could stand still, making one aware of everything around them at each millisecond, too frazzled by anything and everything to do what was needed, even if what was needed was helping to save a life.

"Sakura, will he be okay?" Naruto asked, his voiced pleading for anything that would give him reassurance, a shred of hope that this would not be the day he witnessed the death of an important person.

Too many thoughts were racing through Sakura's mind; she could not formulate an immediate response. The blood was everywhere—on her hands, on his hands, dripping all over the table and floor, beginning to pain a death scene. Her hair clung to her face and neck from sweat, barely shifting as she flung around to face Naruto, eyes wide.

"Go get Tsunade—"

Naruto began to turn back to the hallway before—

"—wash you hands, first. Don't tell her everything."

. . . before his hand touched the handle of the door.

(1 hours, 18 minutes, 29 seconds earlier . . .)

It took every bit of Sakura's willpower to not blindly rush forward and save her teammate. She didn't know that much about the mind-transfer jutsu that was currently taking place. There was no way of knowing what would happen if she or Naruto jumped in and interrupted it midway through. She relayed her concerns to Naruto when he tried moving forward.

"Well we have to try something!" he argued, his eyes jumping from his best friend and the snake sannin.

"It would be wise to listen to her, Naruto," came a calm voice. Out of the shadows from a corner of the room Kabuto sauntered forward. He pushed his glasses back up to his eyes, a smirk on his lips. "If you jump in at the wrong moment you could end up killing Sasuke."

Sakura looked over at Kabuto as he made to stand between the pair of Leaf ninja and the circle of candles. She had no way of knowing if he was telling them the truth—could Sasuke really die if they stopped the jutsu now? On one hand he could just be preventing them from getting involved, which would allow Orochimaru to complete the transfer and take control of Sasuke's body.

But he could also be telling the truth: if Sasuke died, Orochimaru would not have the Sharingan that he wants.

'If Sasuke were to die, wouldn't Orochimaru die as well?' a dark part of her mind wondered. 'With Orochimaru dead, surely most of the problems for Konoha would cease.' Sakura cursed herself; the prospect of a dead Orochimaru was tempting, but she would not kill a friend to accomplish it. There had to be another way.

Kabuto looked at Sakura and smiled. "I really don't feel like fighting you," he said lightly, a sigh in his voice. "Wouldn't want to ruin that pretty dress of yours." His eyes slowly took in her appearance, a glint in his eye.

Sakura could practically feel her blood starting to boil. She may not be able to fight Orochimaru, but she had confidence enough to battle Kabuto. After all, they were both combat medics. He was the perfect opponent for her; the majority of techniques he used were probably based off of what Sakura knew, as well. So what it would all come down to was who the superior medic was.

She got into a crouch, eyes locked on the man before her. The muscles in her legs tensed, preparing to charge forward with as much power as she could muster with heels on. She brought her arms up, weapons gripped in her hands. She was ready—

"I got this," Naruto growled, throwing off the jacket of his tux. Sakura's head whipped around, glaring at him in shock.

"What are you getting at?" That would mean she would take on Orochimaru! "Kabuto is—"

"Yeah, I know," he mumbled. His blue eyes were trained on the smirking man before them. Kabuto gave a light chuckle, throwing out comments about their "lousy teamwork". The kunai in Naruto's hand spun idly around his fingers, feigning calm. "I'm not as smart as you when it comes to jutsu, you have a better chance at stopping it than I do. I would screw it up. I'll take down Orochimaru's lapdog," he declared, sliding a foot back. "You go save Sasuke!"

Naruto burst forward, throwing two kunai at Kabuto. The medic deflected them easily and dodged the swipes and kicks Naruto was charging at him with. Within seconds Naruto had created a group of shadow clones and forced Kabuto out of the room, the fight being taken into the hallway.

"Stop the jutsu; great plan," she mumbled to herself. "Except I don't know how." Sakura moved forward, looking for some indication of what was going on inside the ring of candles. The lines on the floor seemed to glow a dark purple, the candles burning brighter than before. Her eyes traced the pattern on the floor, trying to decipher it. They resembled ancient patterns, definitely older than the village, but not the oldest Sakura had studied. There was a line drawn from each candle that met in a smaller circle around each body in the jutsu. When they met into the individual circles the lines were interwoven together. The two individual circles were linked with a chain-like pattern that ran through the center of the ring. Sakura knelt down and placed her free hand over one of the glowing lines. She summoned chakra into her fingers and watched as her green chakra mixed with the purple and ran through the intricate pattern. Eventually her chakra went to the circle that surrounded Sasuke's body before fading completely, as if dissipating entirely into nothing. She noticed Sasuke's eyelids flutter momentarily before drooping once more. Glancing to the other side, the snake master was still as the dead. None of her chakra had gone to Orochimaru as far as she knew.

A sigh escaping her lips, Sakura ran her fingers through her hair. It seemed as if chakra was flowing consistently through the lines, being maintained by the energy emitting from the candles. Just the small amount of chakra that had been added in seemed to have an effect on what happened to the unconscious ones. Thankfully, her chakra had been infused with a line that led only to Sasuke. If she had woken Orochimaru, hell would have broken out. Sakura eyed the circle, carefully double-checking that the line she had touched did not directly connect to Orochimaru. If she could infuse enough of her own chakra perhaps it would be enough to break Sasuke's mind from the jutsu and get him to mentally overcome whatever the Sannin's chakra was doing. Sweat dripped down her temple as her mind ran through all the scenarios that could occur. She desperately hoped her thinking was accurate; if she was wrong in anyway, everything would go wrong and it would be her fault.

Before Sakura could do anything else an explosion form the hallway caused her to stumble, falling to her knees. The force was strong enough to knock over some of the candles, breaking the glow of the lines, the two bodies within falling to the floor. Sakura didn't give herself any spare moment to ponder what was going on in the hallway. She rushed through the fallen candles and fading lines, holding her dress away from her feet. "Sasuke!"

As she moved to go see if he was alright her ears caught a shuffling sound from her right. Glancing over, Sakura saw Orochimaru begin to rise, legs shaking. His hands came up and he stared at them briefly before bring his eyes up. Sweat beaded his brow as he rose completely. The yellow eyes looked out through the greasy curtain of hair, finding Sakura within a second.

"You," sneered the man, straightening up. "You ruined it!" There came another crash from the hallway, but the older man kept his rage-filled gaze on Sakura. Sasuke's body was only a few feet from her. She jumped the final small distance and stood over it, blocking her teammate from Orochimaru's sight. Slowly, the sannin's arms raised, palms forward and fingers bent. "I will have that boy's body!"

Snakes shot out of Orochimaru's sleeves, slithering toward where Sakura and Sasuke were. As they got close they suddenly flew up into the air, mouths agape and poisonous teeth bared. Sakura brought her arms up and sliced at the necks with the kunai in her hands. With each snake that jumped at her the weapon sliced through it, the long body falling to the floor with a thud, dark snake blood accumulating on the stone floor. In her task to prevent being bitten she failed to notice Orochimaru charging at her, hand signs flying through his fingers. It wasn't until he was mere feet from her that she took notice. His arms started to glow a deep purple, pulling back and forming a ball of energy—

The man was halted in his movements by a sudden spike in dark chakra coming from the hallway. It drew Sakura's attention, as well. The glowing chakra from his arms disappeared as he turned and started at the massive hole in the wall, a glowing figure crouched in all the rubble. The snake sannin grinned maliciously at the bubbling chakra that cloaked the figure. The head rose to look at the occupants of the room and Sakura felt her heart stop, her mind going numb once more. Then fear settled into her gut as she saw the red eyes look over to where she stood. The demonic eyes then shifted to Orochimaru, narrowing with what looked like an animalistic rage. The bubbling chakra started to gather and shift to form two three tails from the figure's backside.

"What have you done to Sasuke?"

The fear within Sakura grew as Orochimaru laughed, causing the beast before her to scream. 'No, not a beast,' she told herself forcefully. 'That's still Naruto…it has to be…'

The Jinjuriki rushed forward with amazing speed pulling back raised fists and a screaming battle cry. Orochimaru ran toward him, chakra forming around his arms once more as he made to strike Naruto. The Juubi container disappeared before him suddenly, reappearing behind Orochimaru and kicked him fiercely in the side, sending the old man crashing into one of the walls before charging at him once more.

Sakura took what little time she had and dragged Sasuke to the furthest corner of the room; his unconscious body was limp in her arms. The woman leaned him in a sitting position against the wall and knelt down to be level with him. She started checking him over for any injuries, sighing when she found none. Kabuto must have healed anything that Sakura had inflicted from when they fought by the bridge. There also came another wave of relief at noticing that the curse mark had receded since she had last seen him back in the Leaf Village. There were some tears in his suit, dirt and mud caking his shoes and the bottoms of his dress pants. Sakura brought her hand up and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Sasuke, can you hear me?" she shouted over another resounding explosion. The blast sent dirt and stone flying everywhere, causing the structure around them to tremble. Sakura tried looking over her should for Naruto but found it impossible to see through the smoke and dust. "Sasuke, come on!" she shouted, turning back to the Uchiha. "You need to wake up! We have to get out of here!" Another trembling from the floor caused her panic to spike once more. Dropping the weapons to the floor, Sakura placed her fingers over his temples and inserted chakra through them, trying to use her chakra to kick-start his senses and heal whatever damage could have been done from the mind transfer jutsu.

The chakra masses behind her suddenly changed. Sakura whipped her head around and cursed out loud. Naruto had grown another tail, the chakra around him burning and peeling at his skin; he was starting to resemble a large fox. He glowed eerily through the dust that hung in the air, tails swinging lazily about him. Sakura's gaze shifted ever so slightly and she almost yelled out in surprise. Before Naruto, rising above him with a new chakra all its own, was a massive snake. The large yellow eyes told her that yes, this was Orochimaru, but he had taken on some sick new form. The scales, when Sakura was able to see more clearly, were actually the heads of thousands of smaller snakes. Inside the wide gaping mouth were rows upon rows of sharp teeth. The head of the snake came down to strike, causing yet another crashing sound in the room.

"Sasuke," she said turning back to her teammate. "You need to wake—" Her words were halted at seeing his eyes wide open and staring at her, glowing red with the activated Sharingan. She continued to stare into those eyes, even as the black marks slithered over his skin once more with a swirling chakra mass building around him, causing the air to shift. Her mind was taken back to the Forest of Death when he awoke the first time with chakra this dark, the Curse Seal of Heaven adorning his skin. The memory mixed with reality and Sakura was overcome with a sudden terror, freezing her in place.

Sasuke's hand came up and rested against her shoulder, causing Sakura to flinch at the feeling of his hands against her bare skin. His eyes narrowed slightly, still gazing at her. "Sakura," he said slowly, almost carefully. "It's okay. I have control now."

At those words Sakura felt like she could have cried in relief. Instead she settled for simply nodding while trying to put on a smile. It looked more like a grimace. Sasuke stood slowly, pulling Sakura up with him as he stared out at the battle ensuing before them.

"Sakura, what's going on?" he asked quickly, eyes surveying the battle scene.

"Naruto was fighting Kabuto," she recalled in a daze, trying to put pieces together. "Then the Nine-Tail's chakra was released—I was in here, I don't know how it got to this point . . . but then Naruto came in and started attacking Orochimaru. Then you woke up," she finished lamely, still not entirely sure how it all got so bad. It seemed like everything had escalated so quickly.

Sasuke gave her a quick nod before rushing headlong into to fight, disappearing in the cloud of dust before Sakura could say anything more. But by that point she had made up her mind and run in after Sasuke, knowing that it was probably a stupid idea. But she had to do something—she would not allow her teammates to battle the Sannin while she sat back patiently waiting for them to finish the job.

Within seconds the dust had blinded her; she could barely see more than a foot before her, but she continued running forward. Slowly a shadow appeared before her and then she could make out the snakeheads that were formed together to resemble scales. Sakura gathered chakra into her fists, regretting not grabbing her kunai first before having rushed in. With as much strength as she could muster she slammed her chakra-fused fist into the large snake body.

She wasn't expecting her forearm to sink in and be held in place by several smaller snakes wrapped so tightly she could feel her muscles straining. She took the chakra that had been building in her fist and released it with a swelling force, blasting the serpents away from her. Orochimaru hissed, turning slightly to glare over at her. The yellow eyes narrowed and the head came down to strike. Sakura bent her knees and quickly calculated her timing. When the giant snakehead was level with her waist she jumped up just in time to avoid the direct attack. Before Orochimaru could rear his head off of the floor Sakura spun in midair and aimed her landing just right, sending the stiletto of her shoe right through the serpent's right eye. Almost immediately the head reared back, sending Sakura flying through the layers of smoke and dust. Due to the lack of sight Sakura had a difficult time seeing how close the floor was before she slammed down into it, skidding a few feet before rolling back and putting her weight on the balls of her feet to balance out again. A searing pain raced up her back; she knew immediately she had landed on it wrong.

But she had gotten out of the way just in time. The second Sakura had landed a crackling sound filled the air as a beam of lightening shot through the snake's body, pinning it to the ground. A violent hissing erupted from the serpent, blood spilling onto the floor. After a few moments the lightening disappeared, leaving Orochimaru's snake body twitching on the floor in pain. Sakura stood with hesitation, anticipating what she knew was coming. As she watched the long body slowly stop it's twitching, the vague thought entered her mind of what form his spirit would take. While she was curious to know that answer, the last thing she wanted was for Orochimaru to haunt her for interrupting the jutsu and starting the fight that ended him.

"Naruto! Stop!" was the last thing Sakura heard before everything took a sharp turn for the worst.

From a distance Sakura could see a glowing red light that grew brighter at an exponential rate until it was on top of the snake, claws ripping and tearing at Orochimaru's true form. There came a hissing that was mixed with what resembled screaming coming from the giant serpent's mouth. Dark blood was splattered onto the wall beside it, bits and pieces of the body thrown carelessly, landing in random spots of the room. With most of the candles having now been distinguished, Sakura could only see the silhouettes and their shadows on the wall, bathed in a red glow that matched the crimson of the blood now staining the wall. She held a hand to her mouth, holding back any sounds that were bursting to come out. 'No . . . no, this can't be Naruto!' The image of a smiling blonde filled her mind and she couldn't begin to place that face with the sight before her.

The figure slowly rose from its crouched position, standing over the body that was no longer unrecognizable. Its head reared back and let out a vicious roar that reverberated throughout the room.

Slowly Sakura stood and stared at the bubbling chakra and the figure within. Her mind was still too numb to register what was happening then. She didn't fully understand that the beast before her had slowly turned, white eyes gazing upon her. There was no connection to the image of a charging Jinjuriki rushing at her and that it was reality. Sakura could only stand and watch as the powerful being ran toward her, tails whipping in the air. Her mind did not react quickly enough to a dark body suddenly blocking her from the fox-demon container. Sakura didn't see the swirling tomoes of the blazing Sharingan staring into the blindingly white eyes, forcing the menacing chakra back into the seal.

The only thing Sakura knew was that she had gone from watching Orochimaru being brutally murdered to seeing a human hand sticking out of a human back, blood dripping from the fingers.

At that moment everything suddenly intensified. The dust felt too thick, the air too cold, the dress was too tight to breath, the bruises on her arm hurt too much.

There was too much blood.

The hand pulled back from the wound, leaving a gaping hole on the left side of the chest. Sasuke's body swayed slightly before tilting forward and sagging toward the ground before Naruto caught him under the arms. The blonde slowly lowered the body to the ground, holding him close. Tears were rushing down Naruto's face, falling onto Sasuke's chest.

Within an instant her mind was no longer numb, but was racing with every bit of medical knowledge she knew as her eyes began to assess the wound. Sakura fell to the floor next to the pair and placed her hands over the wound, green chakra glowing brightly with the Mystic Palm Technique. Whatever chakra she could muster was pouring into the wound to make the cells speed up their natural healing process. "Naruto, we have to get back to the village," she said without taking her eyes off of Sasuke. The hole in his chest was gushing blood. With the little light that remained in the room she could see burned organs, protruding bones, destroyed muscle and tissue and God, how was it possible for there to be this much blood?

"I did this . . . "

Sakura didn't dare look away from her task. "Naruto, no—"

"I killed Sasuke . . ."

Sakura grimaced, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, but she wouldn't cry. Not when her teammates needed her now. Naruto's words pained her, but she would not give in to his turmoil. If she succumbed and shared in his pain, even for a second, Sakura knew that she would not be able to think straight and fix everything that was wrong.

She needed to be strong. They needed her to be strong.

"He isn't dead," she said clearly, her voice barely wavering. "But we have to get back to the Leaf Village! He's lost too much blood, and there is only so much I can do here—he needs surgery." Sakura paused, waiting for some kind of response from Naruto. Even in the darkness Sakura could see how much color was lost from Sasuke's face. She could bare feel him breathing. "Naruto, I need you to transport us back to the village! Or Sasuke will die!" she shouted, voice rasp. "Naruto, please, I need you to do this."

Sakura wasn't sure what it was to trigger the reaction from Naruto. All she could be grateful for was that his then seemed to be on the same track as her own. Naruto stood carefully and Sakura quickly followed, taking Sasuke's body and cradling him between her and Naruto as best as she could while still having one of her hands over the wound. She could hear him forming hand seals and suddenly she felt the air around them shift. It was only seconds until they were standing in the middle of one of the hallways in the Hospital.

Ah, yes. The battle.

R&R