Edit: 27/3/2018

Chapter Five

"Even the strongest of opponents always has a weakness." - Itachi Uchiha

Sakura avoided the Hidden Leaf Village during her three years of training.

Instead she went to the Hidden Mist Village first, avoiding Kaguya at all costs. She searched around the place, trying to find survivors. She only found corpses. Aside from that she gathered many scrolls and found the Seven swords. It was odd to see them just there without anyone, but she didn't dwell and merely moved on. Took a boat to the fallen Uzushiogakure.

It was there that she found survivors. Just like her.

The only ones she knew were Omoi and Shizune. It wasn't exactly a happy reunion, more like a grim one. Hope was scarce after all.

She explained her situation to them. Shizune had been useful enough to pull up together a self-made scroll with a rough timeline of the past for her, though most of her knowledge were second hand information she gathered from Tsunade. Though she had stayed behind to help the other survivors. A medic-nin to the end.

Omoi had taken it upon himself to escort her to the Hidden Cloud Village. To educate her in their abilities, he had told her as a means of explanation. Later, when they had gotten closer and more comfortable with each other he had confided in her. Told her how he watched his friends die one by one before being trapped in the stupid illusion. He never did tell her how he broke out of the illusion. She didn't ask.

He only told her that he wanted to help. To fix things.

"If the Sage said you might be able to bring peace, I'm willing to put my bets on you. Not to mention I'm kind of obligated to trust you, being your comrade and all that."

"Is that the only reason?" She had asked him.

He gave her a humorless smile. "It's funny how the world had to end before I finally grew up and stopped being a lazy kid." Then he gave her a curious look. "When did you grow up?"

"When the boy who loved me with all his being almost died because I forced him to make a stupid promise to me."

"We're both fucked up people, aren't we?"

Sakura shrugged. "Right now the world's more fucked up than us."

"True." He admitted.

"So what now?" Sakura asked taking a glance at the destroyed village she was in.

"Haven't figured it out yet. I mean, I could go back and help Shizune and the others, but I can't leave you all alone."

"Ah."

"So what do you want me to do?" Omoi arched an eyebrow at her.

Sakura thought for a moment. "I...want you to stay with me."

"Then I will." He firmly said.

Sakura let out a humorless chuckle. "Forcing people to do things for me, I guess I still haven't grown up."

Omoi gave her a genuine smile. The first she's seen of him. "I-"

"We'll set up camp later." Kinkaku's voice sounded.

Sakura didn't open her eyes even though she knew the person carrying her on his back knew she was awake. She relaxed herself, or at least forced herself to seem that way.

'The devil twins are 2 o clock away from my position, and the boy who looks like Sasuke is 12 o clock. Which means...'

She tensed again.

Madara Uchiha was carrying her.

:::::

Kakuzu fastened his backpack filled with supplies, money and scrolls.

"You're just abandoning Sakura-nyah?!" Neko-sensei asked him in disbelief.

"She left me first." Kakuzu justified himself.

"No, she didn't!"

"How can you be so sure?" Kakuzu asked.

"Because I'm still here, nyah. She asked me to protect you, someone who abandons someone wouldn't go out of their way to protect that person, would they? So trust her, nyah!"

"She abandoned you too."

Neko-sensei glared at him, "Why do you keep insisting she abandoned us?"

"Because she clearly did." Kakuzu lamely said.

Neko-sensei sighed. "Ya really have some trust issues, don't ya?"

Kakuzu scowled at him.

"What was the point of her saving you from the streets if she was just gonna leave ya, nyah?"

"Determination, goals, dreams, friends, family, love...these things can also be a drive, you know? I don't want you to keep walking down that path you're walking on, the only destination left would be your lonely and pitiful death, then no one would mourn for you"

Kakuzu ignored the stupid words that played through his head on a daily basis as he took a step forward.

"You're just going to abandon Sakura after every thing she did for you, nyah?" Neko asked with a sad expression.

"Who said anything about abandoning Sakura?"

"..eh?"

Kakuzu allowed a small smile on his features. "I hope your nose is better than a dog's."

"Of course, nyah! Let's go look for Sakura!"

::::

Sakura felt herself falling down.

"You're awake, right? So you can walk." Was the only thing Madara said.

She frowned while rubbing her aching butt. "A warning would have been nice..." She muttered.

"Ah, miss Haruno!" Ginkaku's voice cheerfully exclaimed.

Sakura grimaced up at the twins who gave her menacing looks despite their cheerful tone. Both Madara and the other boy did a fine job at hiding their confusion as to what's going on.

"Say you're sorry." Kinkaku stated.

Sakura raised a defiant eyebrow at the boy. "For what?"

At that moment she realized that her hands were tied together. With wire. 'Are these two insane?' She wondered to herself ignoring the pain of the wire digging through her wrists.

Both twins smirked at her and she realized that they used wire on purpose so that she'd have to constantly focus on healing her wrists. No way to build up sufficient chakra to escape. They didn't know about her special seal though.

"You're smart, I'll give you that," she admitted while standing up.

"A ninja without hands is meaningless." Ginkaku grinned at her.

"...ninja?" Sakura faintly heard the boy who looked like Sasuke ask.

"Smart one, aren't you?" Sakura sarcastically said, she wouldn't give the two sadistic twins the satisfaction of winning.

"Perhaps you enjoy the pain?" Kinkaku questioned.

"No."

'Bastard implied I'm a masochist '

"Don't try anything or we'll have to punish you, and we don't want to punish you miss Haruno." Ginkaku sweetly said.

Sakura resisted the urge to kick him in the groin. Instead she pretended to be submissive and lower her head. Her pink hair obscured her face. 'Neko.' She tried to connect herself to her summon.

'Neko.'

No answer.

She frowned.

'NEKO.'

'Sakura, nyah!' The relieved voice of Neko sounded in her head.

Sakura smiled, 'I don't have much time. I've been captured. Can't escape, chakra exhaustion. Destination is the border of the Land of Fire.'

With that she fainted again, leaving the four around her to wonder about the satisfied smirk.

Sakura did something she didn't expect she'd ever be able to do ever again.

She giggled. "And then what happened?"

Omoi sighed, "Of course we couldn't sell all the tickets, who'd want to hear Bee-san rap anyways? So we paid the price and got a private concert from Bee-san. Even the memory makes my ears hurt."

Sakura giggled again. "I would've bought the ticket..."

Omoi didn't acknowledge her words. She didn't blame him. "What about you? Tell me a funny story."

"Well," Sakura thought about what she could tell Omoi. "There was this one time when Naruto, Sasuke and I tried to find out what's under Kakashi-sensei's mask..."

:::::

Izuna discreetly glanced back to look at the still scowling girl.

As if noticing his gaze she looked at him too. He was the one who broke their staring contest. He was used to taking on escort missions on behalf of his clan, but he wasn't used to escorting a pair of sadistic kidnappers.

He couldn't imagine how annoying the wire wrapped around the girl's wrists were to her. Aside from the scowl, she didn't really show much emotion. Then again most of his clansmen didn't show much emotion either.

To sum it up, this was one of the oddest escort missions he's ever been on.

"Duck!" Both Madara and the girl yelled in alarm.

Izuna's body reacted instinctively to his brother's order.

A flurry of kunai flew over him and the others.

His body tensed in alarm, and his eyes searched around the area trying to locate the enemies. He had no doubt that if he and his brother had their Sharingan, that this task would be easy.

"Uchiha-san and Izuna-san was it?"

Izuna allowed his eyes to glance at the girl who had stood up and walked over to the twins who were still crouched down.

"May I lend you my assistance?" She asked standing in front of the twins.

Izuna shared a glance with his brother.

"How?" Madara asked.

"By offering my sensory skills."

Izuna watched on quietly as his older brother and the girl stared at each other. Izuna wasn't surprised when the girl turned to look the other way.

(He didn't see the pure loathing and fear in her eyes.)

"Very well." Madara said.

With a nod, the suddenly timid girl closed her eyes.

"As you may have gathered by now this was a trap, triggered by Izuna-san."

Izuna's eyes slightly widened. When did he trigger the trap? Then he cursed himself realizing that it was probably when he let his thoughts wander.

"The enemy is really further up ahead, but are making their way towards us at the moment. A group of merely four ninjas. I'd say they're not newbies, but they're not veterans either. Hmm...none of the four seem to posses sensory skills. Perhaps we can finish them up quickly with a surprise attack?"

We?

Izuna wondered how the girl was confident enough to include herself in her plan to think that she could do something without her hands. Not that Izuna was saying she was weak or anything, it's just...any ninja, regardless of their gender, are at a huge disadvantage without their hands.

"Izuna and I will handle that. Your work was sufficient." Madara said.

The girl didn't say anything, but Izuna could tell she was displeased.

Izuna almost smiled. Almost. The girl didn't seem to realize that Madara had actually thanked her in his own way.

"Very well, I will leave the rest up to you then Uchiha-san."

::::::

Sakura felt like someone was screwing with her as she eyed Madara Uchiha.

She was never the type to hate someone, but Madara Uchiha? Well, she loathed him. She was disgusted by the mere sight of him. She knew that this wasn't the Madara she knew. She knew that if she played her cards right he wouldn't end up being the same either.

But...

She wasn't like Naruto.

She couldn't just forgive this man.

He was the one who ruined the lives of her teammates after all. She often wondered how much happier Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi's lives would be if Madara Uchiha hadn't existed.

(She ignored the part of her that pointed out that Zetsu would have just find another Madara. It was easier for her to ignore.)

"Miss Haruno~!" Ginkaku's cheery voice snapped Sakura out of her thoughts.

The medic looked up where the twins and Madara were walking ahead of her and Izuna.

"What?" She asked in an indifferent tone.

Ginkaku pouted, "You still need to be disciplined."

Sakura scoffed. "I think it's the other way around brat."

He grinned at her, "We'll see about that." He said before turning to chat with his brother.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "I hate rich people..." she decided. "They're all arrogant."

The sound of a quiet snort earned her attention.

Izuna looked slightly amused.

Sakura arched an eyebrow at him.

"You are a strange person." Izuna stated.

"So I've been told. My name's Sakura Haruno by the way." She belatedly introduced herself.

"Izuna Uchiha."

"Pleasure."

With that Sakura looked ahead and ended the conversation.

Her vision suddenly got a bit misty.

Izuna Uchiha...

He looked like so much like Sasuke that it actually hurt her.

::::;

Madara was a stoic individual, never one to be surprised by anything really.

He would never admit it, but he was mildly surprised by Izuna as his younger brother tried to converse with the sensor girl. The girl of course kept her answers a bit short.

"Haruno-san? Have I offended you in anyway?"

Madara was not eavesdropping. He was just looking out for Izuna, okay?

"No, you haven't."

"Then why won't you talk to me?"

Madara wondered why Izuna was this affected by the girl. Usually his brother was as stoic as him.

"Why are you so interested in me?"

"You're...different."

Out of the corner of his eye Madara saw the girl give his brother a flat look.

"..I apologize if that sounded weird."

The girl snorted, the sound sounding both amused and sad. "Just call me Sakura. No honorifics, I can't believe I'm saying this, but they're troublesome."

"Very well Sakura."

"As for you earlier question, you just look like a boy I knew."

"What's his name?"

"Rather nosy, aren't we?"

"I apologize for stepping over my boundary."

"I never imagined to come across an Uchiha that apologizes a lot."

"I apologize?"

Madara almost snorted. Trust Izuna's overly polite mannerism to be the source of amusement for both him and the girl.

"Though I'm still curious about this person."

"Oh? You think you have some competition there?" The girl teased.

"Hardly, if I really was competing for your affection I would have won already."

"You sound confident there."

"I'm an Uchiha."

"I don't care about that."

Madara's eyes slightly widened. All his life he's been told how important his clan's name was, and now a random girl just announced that she didn't care? He couldn't wrap his head around this strange girl. He was sure his little brother couldn't.

"...why?"

"When it comes to love, and even friendship, one's name doesn't matter. The name Uchiha doesn't define you as a person Izuna-san. You're you, and even if you weren't an Uchiha, you'd still be you, wouldn't you?"

"Hn."

Madara decided that the girl, Sakura, was indeed a strange one.

Almost as strange as the boy he had met earlier.

Chapter End.

Author's note: I finally revised this story! *high fives myself* Sorry for the long wait and I hope none of you have given up on this story yet! I would recommend that you guys re-read this story, because while I haven't changed nothing too important, I did expand on some scenes and fixed the overall tone.

Questions:

1. Who do you think/want Sakura will end up with? Why?

2. Who else should Sakura encounter from the Warring Era?

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Next chapter teaser:

Sakura winced and cradled her wrists to herself.

Despite the relief she was feeling, she still shot Kakuzu an annoyed look.

"Took you long enough to rescue me."

"It's your own fault for blindly trusting others."

Sakura almost pouted. Kakuzu didn't even seem concerned about her.

"...thanks for coming."

For a moment Kakuzu didn't say anything.

But, of course he had to ruin the moment.

"I expect a raise."