It was a peculiar kind of weightlessness, one that left her feeling confused as to whether or not she was floating or simply no longer existed as a physical being.

Sakura quickly decided that she didn't like it.

Her attempt to flex her fingers, a nervous habit she had developed over the years of being a kunochi, left her frustrated at the lack of response. Her darting glances from side to side merely showed her the large field of nothingness that surrounded her.

Dead. That's what she was, and this particular form of death wasn't something she had in mind when she sacrificed herself. She had envisioned nonexistence, that much was true, but an all encompassing one, one that took her mind along with her body.

"Sakura."

She started, as much as she could without any skin to jump out of, and immediately set about her pointless search for the voice that had spoken. It was male, older and vaguely familiar.

"Calm yourself, girl," the voice sounded amused as it prickled at the back of her memory. She had heard this voice recently, but the tone was all wrong and her head was rather foggy at the moment. "Take a deep breath and concentrate."

She tried to ask what she was supposed to breathe with, having no lungs, when she was surprised to feel her chest swell with the intake of air. That could only happen if she in fact was anchored to a body. And alive.

"Where am I?" Her voice was breathy, a tad bit more meek than she would have liked.

"Not sure," the man answered, that same amused tone playing in the air between them.

She concentrated - as he had told her to do, though he neglected to specify on what, exactly – on his voice. It was rough, though not in the way that suggested disuse, deep and almost seemed to reverberate around her. She could feel it in her lungs as though she were breathing in the words he spoke, and slowly that sensation began to travel elsewhere.

"You sacrificed yourself for Sasuke," she felt it as her shoulders were formed and the man's voice continued to sculpt the rib cage around her heart. She knew who this man was. "As did I."

"Obito-san," she murmured into the darkness, only it was no longer dark. She saw him a few yards before her, his whole right side bandaged, sitting on a fallen tree before a small campfire.

He looked up and smiled at her, a smile she imagined had once been rather handsome. She could see the dim light that had once been in his remaining eye, a flicker that still burned bright in the bright blue eyes of her boisterous best friend's. Except that this optimism existed in the dark black depths of an Uchiha, something she never dreamed of witnessing.

"It seems our shared sacrifices have brought us here." Obito cocked his head, a playful gesture for Sakura to join him on the log. It was odd, watching an Uchiha so flippantly speak to her. Her long-ago interactions with Sasuke and brief run-ins with Itachi had not prepared her for such a normal occurrence.

She sat stiffly at his side, watching the fire crackle and spark. "Where is here?"

Obito brought his hand to his chin, rubbing it in a fashion she remembered her sensei often doing when he made up his stories. "Hell, I suppose," he twisted his face in mock seriousness. "Must have been an awful sin, saving that boy, if two good people such as ourselves were sent here."

Sakura snorted despite herself, unable to reconcile the man before her with the one she had known him as. The masked-man who had called himself Tobi and Madara and attempted to destroy the shinobi world. She couldn't quite hide her flinch when Obito shifted, turning a bit to face her.

"When we were younger," Obito began, obviously ignoring the baffled look that had taken place upon his audience's face. "Kakashi and I didn't quite get along. He was perfect – a prodigy – and I hated him. But Rin," he paused, shaking his head slowly before continuing, "Rin loved Kakashi."

Sakura attempted to school her face into some sort of reasonable expression, something that would be befitting of this...whatever it was. She wasn't quite successful, but Obito continued despite that.

"When I was...when I died, I trusted Kakashi to protect her, and when she died I blamed him. But that was wrong. I should have been there, I should have come home the moment I woke up."

He stared at her then, as though willing her to understand, but for all the times Sakura had been praised for her intelligence she just couldn't see where he was going with this.

"I'm sorry," she spoke quietly, still unsure of how to go about speaking with this man. "I'm not sure I follow."

If she had been worried that her inability to comprehend would upset him, she was mistaken. Obito threw his head back and laughed. A deep, throaty laugh that reminded her once more of Naruto. A young, carefree and happy boy.

"I know that what Sasuke has done must hurt," Obito spoke to the fire this time, the smile still plastered across his face. "But he came back. It took a while, but he did."

Sakura felt as though her existence were being threatened again, Obito's words clawing at her throat as if they had scorched the air she was breathing. She felt the tears burning her eyes and the once weightless feeling she had decidedly disliked reversed, leaving her with the impression that she was being crushed by the ten-tails itself.

"Ah," Obito looked at her, smile widening. "Looks as though we are done here. Good luck, Sakura. Tell Kakashi I'm off to say sorry to Rin."

With no time to even try and decipher his words, Sakura found herself gasping for air.

"Sakura!"

She heard three different voices call out to her, but at the moment all she could be bothered with was flexing her right hand and feeling the leather pull against her knuckles before raising her bare left palm against her intact chest.

And then she was crushed against the dirty shirt of Sasuke Uchiha, his hands gripping her shoulders so painfully that she cried out.

"Idiot," he whispered harshly as Naruto uttered an indignant response from somewhere behind them. "Stupid girl, why would you do that?"

Sakura wasn't sure she could answer yet, her mouth still tinged with the taste of her own blood. She pressed her entrapped hands against his chest and was able to exert the tiniest amount of pressure, but it was enough for him to loosen his old. She lay cradled in his arms, head resting against his shoulder in a way that she suspected he had purposely done so that she couldn't see his face.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto looked at her seriously after squeezing her in a half hug – the best he could do given Sasuke's possessive stance. "What happened? Where'd the hole go?"

Her left hand played with the ruined fabric just above her heart, still damp with blood. A flash of fire and a one-eyed smile. Her eyes snapped to Kakashi.

"Rin," she spoke, her voice rough. She watched as both her sensei's eyes sprang open wide, dark and matching. "Obito said he wished he would have come back sooner, but he was going to go and apologize to her now."

Kakashi turned his face away.

"Izanami," Sasuke spoke directly above her head. "Somehow, he must have been able to perform Izanami using his remaining Sharingan. The action was so that you would survive, and since you accepted your fate to live, the loop was instantly negated."

Unable to understand what Sasuke was saying at the moment, and still reeling from being brought back to life in his arms, Sakura just smiled, leaning her weight into the boy. She could tell that Kaguya was gone and that the war was over. She could also see that Kakashi was dangerously close to either crying or going on some sort of spree.

Questions could wait. For now, her team came first.

So, this is a while later. But I thought I might add to Surviving, and I finally did. I really like it. I mean, the first half I am super proud of, but perhaps interaction between a group is not my strongest point. I'll have to work on it.

But for now, I hope you all enjoy. And hey, after Obito helping out Kakashi in the manga, I can only assume that Izanami isn't too far out of the range of Narutoverse possibility. MAGIC.