Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She landed hard, stumbling precariously until she fell, bruised, battered, beaten. Breathing in deep the scent of clear, unspoiled air, Sakura let her chakra, or what remained of it, flow through her. After healing what she could of her more serious injuries, she groaned and rolled over, eyes opening to the sight of light filtering through a forest canopy. Birds twittered anxiously, likely due to the rather loud and explosive nature of her arrival.

But where exactly was she?

Sitting up, she tried to sense any chakra signatures nearby, hoping, hoping, that she could sense Naruto, Kakashi, or even Sasuke. But there was nothing. Maybe if she was a skilled sensor, like Naruto was now with his cooperation with Kurama… Shaking her head, she stood on shaky legs, and randomly picked a direction in which to start walking.

For three hours (she timed it with the watch she found in her pocket, though she'd no idea how it even got there) she walked, going at a civilian pace rather than a shinobi one, simply so that she could preserve her chakra. Each step ached with the superfluous injuries she hadn't healed yet, and she could swear there was a rock in her shoe, though nothing was there when she'd checked. Her clothes were torn and bloodied, no longer recognisable as the uniform of the Leaf, and there was still the burn on her arm from that acid dimension.

Soon, the light started to fade, and Sakura risked using a bit of chakra to reach the top of the trees, to see that the sun was indeed starting to set. With this higher view, she recognised finally where she was, the forest of Shirakami-Sanchi, which bordered Leaf and Takigakure's country. From her vantage point, she could see Mountain Country, where the Mountain's Graveyard lay, the place that their jutsu had actually been aiming for. Well, at least she had a direction to go in, now.

Once the sun fell, Sakura picked up the pace. Even though when she glanced uneasily at the moon, and it was a brilliant silver-white (and not the sharingan red she was used to) she still felt the need to stay alert. She needed sleep, but didn't think she'd be able to while the moon was full like that. Closer to morning, and the moon had gone, then she burrowed into a small cave she found and slept.

With her chakra reserves partially boosted by five hours of sleep, Sakura sprinted the rest of the way to Mountain Country the shinobi way. There weren't many people who lived in this land, mostly because of the prominent bones of giant animals and the eerie feeling that was always present here. (she wondered, now, if that was due to the Zetsus and the Juubi husk) As she traveled, a sudden explosion sounded, and she saw it up in the distance. Increasing her pace, she could only hope she reached them before it was too late!

It took too long to reach the spot where the explosion had occurred, almost the entire rest of the day. By then, the sights, sounds, and chakra of fighting had faded, and she was in tears at the thought that she was too late, chanting, "nonononono!" under her breath the whole way. When she reached the place, she found a huge crater, and right in the middle of it, she saw both Sasuke and Naruto.

Using shunshin to get there faster, Sakura reached their sides. "Naruto! Sasuke!" she cried, but Sasuke didn't even open his eyes.

"H-he's gone, S-Sakura-chan," came Naruto's choked whisper.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried, chakra immediately at her hands and she tried to heal him, her breath catching in a sob when she realised the damage. "Naruto, don't die, please!"

"S-sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered to her. "I-I'm glad I got to see you, thought th-the jutsu hadn't worked properly when you a-and Kaka-sensei weren't here with us. B-but the bastard and I… We killed Madara, sealed away Black Zetsu and the Juubi statue. Th-the White Zetsu are gone too, I couldn't sense any more. But listen… Obito wasn't here. Th-that means, that he could die, Sakura-chan. On that mission with little Kaka-sensei and my dad. Please… Please find Kaka-sensei if you can, and make sure he doesn't lose his best friend again. It sucks, y'know? Losing someone like that."

Sakura knew. She knew. She could still remember the moment Madara chopped Ino in half like she was nothing. Tears streamed down her face as Naruto slipped away, despite her efforts to save him.

"S-sorry, Sakura-chan," he whispered, then he was gone.

Sakura's scream of agony echoed across the devastated forests.

OoOoO

What felt like hours later, a hand landed on her shoulder. Sakura started so badly, not having noticed as she'd started to slip into and exhausted sleep. Tense and on edge, she was ready to cut down whoever it was, but then the sight of Kakashi-sensei calmed her, and she stood, only to throw herself at him, sobbing once more. When she once more ran out of tears, she fell asleep against him.

When she woke, Sakura was lying down, a sleeping bag beneath her. There was a fire, the lingering smell of cooked fish, and when she looked around, she saw Kakashi sitting on a stump, looking out over the devastated crater. She sat up, alerting him to her presence, and he turned to face her.

"You're late, sensei," she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes.

"Well, I got held up when I landed in the middle of a battle," he told her, and Sakura could see injuries besides the ones that he'd had before their sojourn to the past. "I tried to get here sooner, but I'm afraid that the Iwa-nin weren't too keen on letting me go without a fight. But never mind that, I cooked some food up. You should eat it."

Sakura looked over to where he indicated, and she saw a pot sitting on a rock. Upon investigation, there was some sort of simple fish soup in it, and after first checking it with chakra (force of habit) she devoured the food like there was no tomorrow. Which had nearly come true, before they'd come back. It was a generous portion, and even though she wasn't filled by it, Sakura was glad to finally have something on her stomach.

"So what do we do now?" she asked after checking Kakashi over with medical chakra. "Naruto… He said that Obito wasn't there with Madara and Zetsu. We… we should figure out the exact date, so we can… we can…"

"Calm down," Kakashi said. "Deep breaths. I already know, because of my encounter with the Iwa-nin, we've still got a few years or so before Kannabi Bridge. Plenty of time to plan. Besides, there's something else I want to do first."

Sakura cocked her head. "What is it?" she asked.

"Tenzou," he told her, and Sakura recognised the name that Kakashi had always called Yamato-taichou. "He's not in Danzou's hands yet, I want to get him away from Orochimaru's base before that shady old councillor can get to him. That particular base is not far from the Valley of the End, so it shouldn't take too long to get there."

Sakura nodded. "First thing in the morning?" she asked, since it was night right now, and Kakashi inclined his head.

When the sun rose, Sakura and Kakashi packed up their makeshift camp. Kakashi had sealed Naruto and Sasuke's bodies into storage seals (apparently Kakashi had a lot of supplies on him still, while Sakura didn't even have a kunai, until he handed her one) so that they could be buried properly somewhere else. That had threatened to send Sakura into another sob-fest, but she was determined to leave her tears behind her. Not that she wasn't grieving, of course she was.

As they travelled, Kakashi revealed to her that he was still able to summon his pack. His pack, not the one from this time. Sakura had then tried to summon Katsuyu, successfully, and the little piece of the slug summon had been overjoyed to see her, and then Kakashi, alive and well, and had mourned with them for Naruto and Sasuke. Katsuyu had then insisted on transferring all the chakra this summoned portion had over to her, insisting that she didn't want her to remain helpless, since her seal was all but depleted.

Sakura had transferred the chakra from Katsuyu straight into her seal, filling it almost halfway.

It was late afternoon when they made it to the place where the lab was. Kakashi summoned Pakkun to sniff the place out, and they found that Orochimaru wasn't there. So they went inside, Kakashi and his ninken leading the way with their noses. What they found made Sakura want to retch, but she held it in and determinedly got to work.

There were about sixty lab jars, all with children in varying states of growth. Forty looked deliberately sabotaged, likely due to them being 'failures' in Orochimaru's eye. Eighteen simply looked abandoned, the occupants simply dying slowly in their tubes. One was broken, with the child that had possibly resided within gone. For a moment, Sakura and Kakashi despaired that maybe they were too late, but then Pakkun spoke up.

"Over here!" he called. "He's over here!"

Sakura dashed over, with Kakashi following at a more sedate pace. Sakura gasped at the sight of a young Yamato (or Tenzou, as Kakashi had been insisting all day that they were going to call him) floating in his tube, large brown eyes staring at them with a mixture of fright and hope. Sakura quickly studied the readings that were still registering, noting that Tenzou's health seemed fine, but the sensors in the machine were monitoring a slow decline in his life energy. One by one, Sakura shut all the switches on the tube down, until the water drained, and she opened the glass to get to him.

Immediately she was sending her chakra into him, assessing any and all damage, fixing several issues she found. Meanwhile, Kakashi was collecting the corpses of the children for burial later, since Sakura had insisted upon it on the way to the base.

"How is he?" Kakashi asked, coming over once he'd finished his task.

"He'll be fine," Sakura told him. "He's malnourished and underweight, but that can easily be fixed."

"Is there anything else we need from here?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, did you find any clothes that might fit him?" Sakura enquired, and when he shook his head, she sighed and wrapped Tenzou up in a blanket. "Let's get out of here then."

Sakura felt a great sense of pleasure from demolishing that base, collapsing it and razing the remains to the ground. As she stood there watching it burn, Tenzou on her hip, and Kakashi standing close by her side, Sakura couldn't help but wonder what they were all going to do now.

Chapter Text

Hi y’all! So, terrible news… I’m abandoning this author profile. :(

But… I’m going to post on a fresh, new one! :) In fact, I’ve already started. It’s just that I’ve got so many fics on here, unfinished and whatnot, and I quite often feel overwhelmed by how much I haven’t completed, and it makes me procrastinate like heck. So, in the interest of my sanity, I’m dumping it all.

Well, almost all.

Every fic I'm updating with this author note is up for a free-for-all adoption. The only thing I ask is that you keep each chapter the same (or merge them if you want the shorter chapter fics to be longer) with no rewrites, and make sure to credit that you’re adopting it from me. If you have any questions, feel free to comment a question, I’ll still be keeping an eye on this profile.

There are some fics that I won’t be adopting out, no matter that they’re not complete. Ones like Katana and Earthly Attachment, which are my babies. And there are a few that I still plan on continuing under the new pen name, like Petrichor and Ghosts. None of my Sailor Moon fics will be up for adoption, either. This will mostly just be Naruto and Code Geass. And possibly Narnia, I’m still undecided on that.

Anyway, I hope you won’t be too put out. Sorry about this, but I really believe this is the only way I can continue writing, and still keep my sanity. :D

EDIT: The new profile is thatsnotmyname32. Just fanfiction for now, I'll get to AO3 soon.