Senju Tsunade wasn’t, by far, the most compassionate Hokage, although she did do her best in every situation to make sure that she was fair and just. She liked to think things over before condemning someone and make sure she had all her facts straight before making a decision. Once she’d made her mind up, however, she would stick to that decision with her life. When she condemned someone, she allowed herself a chance to reassess situations occasionally to make sure she hadn’t judged wrong. She wasn’t all-powerful and all-knowing; she could make mistakes like any other human being. However, Tsunade liked to think she didn’t make mistakes such as sending oneself to the past. Because that was exactly what her foolish, idiot of an apprentice had done. The Godaime Hokage sat at her desk, rubbing her temples with probably more force than necessary, furtively glancing at the bottle of sake Shizune hadn’t had the heart to take away upon hearing Naruto’s strange and decidedly daunting tale. He had managed to drive back Tobi after Sakura disappeared, although Tsunade thought that it could easily be attributed to the fact that Naruto had thought the masked man had killed his best friend. Honestly, though, Tsunade was a little surprised that Naruto hadn’t been able to kill him right then and there. It was clear, though, that Tobi had made a tactical retreat and was quite possibly gravely injured—hence the four ANBU squads that had been sent out to attempt to capture and/or kill the man who had given Konoha this headache of massive proportions. Naruto, for his part, was standing in front of her, stunned into silence at the fact that Sakura was not, in fact, dead and was probably gallivanting in the past on some grand kind of antiquated vacation. In all honesty, Tsunade had only put it that way so that the blond wouldn’t blow a gasket, but she knew that the past wasn’t exactly better than the present in many ways—she was actually very concerned about her apprentice’s well-being. “Shizune,” Tsunade barked suddenly. “Get all the research we have on that jutsu. Also, find every scroll we have on space-time jutsu, the history of the five shinobi nations, and look for any scrolls pertaining to time-travel.” As she spoke, Tsunade was scribbling out an order on a particularly official-looking piece of paper. Stamping it harshly with her insignia, she handed it to the dark-haired woman. “You are allowed access to all levels of security—Danzou can kiss my ass if he thinks he’s going to get away with hiding anything from me.” “Of course, Hokage-sama,” Shizune said, taking the paper and immediately bowing before leaving the room in a hurry. “Tsunade-baa-chan-” “You are going to say nothing to anybody. Tell anyone who asks that she’s on an extended vacation,” Tsunade told Naruto sharply. She wasn’t expecting the almost subdued response. “When is she coming back?” Naruto asked, almost helplessly. Then, with a little more of his usual fervor, “I want to do anything I can to help.” “The most you can do is cover for her while she’s gone. We don’t need any more scrutiny on this than we’re already going to get. So get out of here and make yourself useful. Vacation. She’s on a vacation.” Naruto nodded vehemently, but there was no fist-pump of determination or wide grin of assurance. He was uncharacteristically serious about the situation and Tsunade knew she shouldn’t have been, because the boy was both best friends and in love with Sakura, but she was surprised by his grimness. “Go,” she said, waving him away tiredly. There was no doubt Shizune would be incredibly thorough in her search and that meant lots of reading and research before they could find any way to bring Sakura back. If there was a way to bring Sakura back. Two hours later, when Shizune returned with the first heaping load of scrolls, Tsunade had already summoned both Shikamura and Shikaku to help her start discerning ways to bring her apprentice back to the present. They all sat down, hunched over the most immediate scrolls in their proximity, and began to search for a way to fix this ridiculous problem. Tsunade wondered grumpily if she should invest in reading glasses—she certainly wasn’t getting any younger. Then again, maybe this whole time time-travel fiasco might be useful research in finding a way to preserve her youth further. But no. Sakura likely needed her help right now, and Tsunade wasn't going to fail her. She began to scour the scroll in front of her. He passed the shinobi who had been following Sakura rather quickly. They were obviously determined to please their clan head, but Madara had personal investment in his wife-to-be’s recapture and that spurred him to move as fast as he possibly could—which, given that he was the most powerful shinobi in the Uchiha clan, was faster than anyone else. Her chakra was thoroughly masked, but with his sharingan, he had the advantage of being able to see even the slightest flicker if she were to lose control for even a moment. After passing the shinobi, he found himself at a crossroads. There were two chakra signatures going in two different directions, both of which were Sakura’s. However, he could tell even from this distance that neither of them were actually her—they were clones if the chakra levels had anything to say about her. While her reserves had never been exceptionally large, they had never been this small. Therefore, she was somewhere trying to mask herself. With the clones going north and east, albeit in winding directions, he waited for his shinobi to catch up to him. With his superior speed, skill, and tracking skills, he didn’t mind giving her a little more of a head start. She wouldn’t get away from him as long as he lived. He needed her. Once his shinobi arrived, he directed half of them to follow the clones and the rest to head towards the Senju village, just in case Sakura somehow knew how to get back there. He wouldn’t launch an attack without knowing precisely where Sakura was because he was not fully prepared to destroy the Senju village just yet. When he eradicated them like he would the Hyuuga, he wanted to it to be devastating and wholly destructive. As soon as his shinobi departed, he felt again for Sakura’s chakra signature. He did not find hers—however, he did find Hashirama’s. If Hashirama had any idea of her whereabouts, it would be worth pursuing. Madara immediately headed west. Sakura grit her teeth in annoyance. The buzz of pain she felt from Hashirama’s Sworn Loyalty seal wasn’t debilitating or even particularly punishing, at least compared to the way that Madara used it, but it was enough to keep her from being able to focus her chakra enough to remove the seal from her hand. She wasn’t quite sure why Hashirama was doing this to her, especially since he had promised he would never use the seal against her, so she could only trust he knew what he was doing and had very, very good reason for it. And it had been better be a god damn good one. She was tired of being enslaved, even if it was to something as good and kind as the first Hokage. Just as she was contemplating what, exactly, Hashirama’s reason for this pain could be, she felt an approaching presence. Frowning, Sakura shifted in her tiny hiding space and peeked out into the outside world. There, standing across the river from her hiding place, was Hashirama. She perked up, relieved at finding help, however unconventional it was, and began to extricate herself from the cave. The moment she appeared, Hashirama waved at her and began to make his way towards her. The pain in her seal vanished at his command, but just as she stood upright for the first time in what felt like hours, she saw the worse sight imaginable to someone in her position. Before she could call out or reveal herself fully, there was a black and red blur from behind Hashirama and the brown-haired man whirled around to catch the sickle-end of the gunbai with his kunai. He was almost visibly jarred by the force of the attack but had successfully defended against it. Sakura watched with horror as Madara continued to assault Hashirama with more ferocity and viciousness than she had ever seen from the already malicious and cold man. Horrified, she watched as trees grew as magnificent proportion from the ground before they were disintegrated into ash and wondered if this was what the battle at the Valley of the End had been like. It didn’t appear that Madara had noticed her yet, as she had still not unmasked her chakra, but she knew it was only a matter of time before he saw her. Quickly, she made her way back to the cliff face and crouched down near her cave, not going inside but also using the shadows to hide her better. She wasn’t sure that it would be all that effective against the sharingan, but it was worth a shot. Any cover was better than no cover. Sakura waited with baited breath for one of them to get the upper hand. “This is it!” Tsunade cried out suddenly. “This is the answer to Sakura’s little vacation.” Shizune glanced up from where she was studying an S-ranked jutsu scroll and looked at her mentor curiously. It had nearly been sixteen hours straight that they had been studying and Tsunade had summoned Nara Shikamaru for help about twelve hours ago. When the genius wasn’t dozing, he had actually had some very good input. As such, he was the first to approach Tsunade’s desk and glance over her shoulder at the scroll. He frowned as he scrutinized it. “What?” Tsunade snapped. “You don’t think it will work?” “No, no,” Shikamaru said, still analyzing the scroll thoughtfully. “If you modify the Return to Past jutsu to make it reverse itself, so to speak, and combine it with the Yondaime’s Hiraishin no Jutsu, it should be possible to bring Sakura back. The only problem is, you would have to be able to target her—and given that we have no idea where she is or what time she’s in, that could prove to be impossible.” Tsunade scowled a bit, but Shizune looked at Shikamaru thoughtfully. “That said, if someone were to learn both the original and modified Return to Past jutsu and combine the original with the Hiraishin, would it be possible for them to travel back in time, find Sakura, and bring her back?” Shikamaru nodded thoughtfully. “It’s possible. But the Yondaime was considered a master for a reason. The Hiraishin no Jutsu isn’t exactly an easy thing to learn.” “The point is not to actually master the Hiraishin,” Tsunade interjected. “In fact, all we need is to combine the techniques in such a way that we can get to Sakura and bring her back. That said, only minimal mastery is needed—we’re not trying to make another Yondaime.” “For maximum benefit and minimum effort, we only need to create the void that the Hiraishin allows and then use the Return to Past jutsu once it’s created. But in that case…” Shikamaru trailed off. Both Tsunade and Shizune looked at him expectantly. “Hiraishin no Jutsu focuses on having a set point to teleport to, though,” Shikamaru said, “such as the Yondaime’s seals. In order to get back to a specific point, we’d need to have a seal there. We have the Return to Past jutsu that will allow us to break the time-space continuum and coupling that with the Hiraishin, it should be possible to actually be transported back, but…” The silence afforded for Shikamaru to think was so thorough that it seemed the two females in the room were holding their breath. “Nope. Not going to work. Man, this is a drag.” Tsunade let out a growl. “So? This is just a dead end?” Shikamaru shook his head. “I’ve done the calculations and it’s too risky to send someone back in time. Too many things might change. The chances of Sakura meeting someone—anyone—and not having already changed the timeline drastically is a 0.00001% chance. Basically, near impossible. Nothing has been changed so far, so I’m assuming that only when Sakura is displaced by another jutsu will the changes she made in the past take effect. That’s only a theory. So it might be better to just leave her there.” Shizune gasped. “You can’t mean that!” “Shikamaru has a point,” Tsunade said, her brow furrowing. “But that’s not how we’re going to do it. If there’s a change in the timeline, it’s already happened, right? Eventually this time and that time are going to intersect, so by not bringing Sakura back…” “…it’s just means she doesn’t come back,” Shizune finished. She turned to Shikamaru, who was thinking deeply with his eyes closed tightly. “So even if she’s made changes, by not bringing her back we’re just abandoning her, not preventing the change itself!” Shikamaru sighed. “This is troublesome, but you’re right. Besides, chances are that when the changes take effect, nobody but Sakura will know the difference in timelines. So even if everything is completely screwed, we won’t even know it—only Sakura will.” “Alright then, Nara,” Tsunade said. “We’re not leaving her there, so tell me what needs to happen.” Shikamaru sighed and slumped back down into his seat. “Give me a minute.” As the battle raged, Sakura could only watch the sheer force of power between these two shinobi with captivated eyes. The strength both of them possessed was just incredible. Neither seemed to quite have the upper hand, although Hashirama was getting in more meaningful blows than Madara. It only made sense; the first Hokage won at the Valley of the End in her past. And then, somehow, Madara turned the tides with an impressive katon jutsu that blew away Hashirama’s defenses and managed to get in a critical blow with his gunbai. The sickle was coming down full-force, aimed right for Hashirama’s heart, and Sakura screamed. “NO!” At the sound of her voice, Madara flinched and gave Hashirama just enough time to move and have the weapon lodge in his thigh instead. He was severely wounded—although probably not for long with his healing jutsu—but at least he wasn’t dead. Unfortunately, she had revealed herself, even though it had been a necessary evil. Madara had jerked his weapon out of Hashirama’s thigh and leapt back a respectable distance, but his eyes were trained on her. Hashirama was already regenerating quickly and he moved in Sakura’s direction. However, Sakura knew that this game had to end. She couldn’t let these two clans wipe each other out—then her future would never exist. While she might never see her friends and family again, might never see her precious people another time in her life, she wasn’t going to deny them the right to exist in their world. So she kept away from Hashirama and moved between them. Madara was watching her closely with narrowed eyes and Hashirama was radiating careful confusion from where he stood. “Sakura-” Hashirama started. “No,” she said, loud enough for the both of them to hear her. “I want this to stop.” Surprise flitted across both of the great shinobi’s eyes for but a split second before both became guarded and shuttered their expressions. Sakura was thinking quickly. From her experience and knowledge of the past, the Senju were far more understanding and likely to forgive and forget than the Uchiha—that was actually a major theme in her time. The Senju did not have the Curse of Hatred. Therefore, she was going to have to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of her future, even if she would never see it. “I’ll go with him,” she told Hashirama, and she could feel Madara’s gaze boring into her back. However, she wasn’t without her conditions. She turned to Madara. “I’ll go with you,” she repeated, “and do…whatever you want…but there can no longer be this-this fighting. I don’t want there to be conflict over me anymore. You guys used to be friends, right?” There was silence, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. I know you were. “Get over this whole thing. Go back to dreaming…to dreaming of a better life, a better world. One person isn’t worth your friendship, and especially not me. I’ll go with him, on the condition that you two maintain good relations.” Madara snorted, but seemed to accept this. “You will be my wife,” he warned her staunchly. It was almost considerate, in a sick sort of way, that he was making sure she was prepared for what would happen if she went through with her bargain. “You will be mine to do whatever I please with.” Sakura flinched at his words and Hashirama burst out angrily, “You can’t treat a woman like that, Madara! If you care for Sakura-san, treat her like a treasure to be cherished, not a dog or a possession!” Madara was apparently easily riled when it came to her. “What would you know about-” “God damnit! Stop it you two!” Sakura shrieked. When grudging, perhaps slightly-shocked silence prevailed, she went on, “I’m sure as Madara’s…wife, he will treat me…” as well as it’s possible to treat a non-Uchiha “just fine. He won’t…he won’t make me have the seal again.” She looked at Madara hard and he nodded ever so slightly. Sighing and hoping she could trust him, she continued. “I just want peace. I care for both the Senju and the Uchiha and I just want peace for everyone, not this violence over something so petty.” She turned to Madara and glared at him with all the anger she could muster, which was quite a bit. “But you will not attack the Senju so long as I’m your…wife.” The word was and probably always would be bitter on her tongue. “What about Tobirama?” Hashirama asked, almost begging now. “He lov-cares for you deeply. He will not agree to this so easily.” Tears sprang to Sakura’s eyes. Damn Hashirama for dragging the last person she wanted to be thinking about into this conversation. She knew that he was only trying to help both her and Tobirama because their love…their love was real, only beginning, only a budding blossom at this point. But she knew she wasn’t going to stay in the past anyway, couldn’t leave all her friends in the future, and her love for Tobirama was star-crossed and she would never truly be able to be with him. “And I lo-care for him as well,” Sakura replied, steadfastly staring at the ground so no one could see the threatening tears—especially not Madara, who was listening closely and probably hating every time there was a slip-up of words. “But this is the way it has to be. He will…he will find someone.” I hope. Sakura didn’t remember whether or not the Nidaime was married in her future. She hoped he was…but at the same time, she hoped he wasn’t. It was selfish, but it was true. “But Sakura-” “Very well,” Madara cut off. “I agree to these terms.” Hashirama was silent and Sakura gave him a pleading look. After a long, pregnant pause, he nodded. “I agree as well.” Sakura slumped. “Good. Then…good-bye, Hashirama. Tell Tobirama that I’m sorry and to trust me. This is for the best.” Hashirama looked thoroughly wounded by this, even though he was now fully healed. “Sakura, are you certain-” “Hashirama,” Madara growled warningly. “I’m certain,” she said. Her voice came out much more confident than she felt. To cement her decision, she began to walk towards Madara. As she neared, she nervously watched Madara appraise her body. However, within moments, his eyes widened and uncharacteristically, he walked towards her and scooped her up. Both she and Hashirama stiffened at the contact, but Madara was either unrepentant or ignored it. “You can trust me,” Sakura snapped quietly, trying to hide the very real ire in her voice. “I’m not going to run.” “You are in no position to do so,” Madara replied just as quietly. Sakura was confused and tense but valiantly tried to relax, knowing that Madara would undoubtedly subject her to his ‘affections’ as soon as they were back at the Uchiha compound…and she would have to reciprocate. Her stomach rolled nervously, but anything was better than destroying the future she would soon be getting back to. “You’re an absolute genius, Shikamaru.” “Yes, Shikamaru. Good job.” Said person sighed. “It’s pure luck that you hadn’t run those tests yet. Why was Sakura having her blood tested, anyway?” “Just annual check-up,” Shizune replied. “But you think this should work?” “If she hasn’t had anything altering her blood since she returned to the past—say, getting a disease or mixing it up with someone else’s—we should be able to retrieve her by mixing her blood with the scroll that activates the seals. Hokage-sama, since you are the most proficient medical ninja here, it’s best that you do the jutsu.” “Very well.” Tsunade took the scroll that they had written the jutsu on and spread some of Sakura’s blood over it, performing the seals and activating it. It glowed dark purple for a few moments, but then nothing happened. “Then she altered her blood. Something changed,” Shikamaru said. “It’s not going to work.” “But you said this is the only way!” Shizune said softly. “If this doesn’t work, nothing else will…” “If her blood is altered, there’s no real way to get past it, is there? What can she really do? Use the Return to Past jutsu on her blood?” Shikamaru sounded disbelieving. “If only we could tell her to...” Shizune whispered. “I’m going to try it one more time,” the Hokage said stubbornly. “Just in case I messed it up the last time.” Shikamaru gave her an odd look and Tsunade glared at him defiantly. “It’s not going to work, Hokage-sama.” “Well, then there’s no harm in doing it again, right?” “One moment,” Sakura said suddenly, and Madara looked down at her suspiciously. She showed him the seal, swallowing nervously. Kami, she was terrified of him. “I-I still have his seal. I have to remove it.” Madara nodded curtly, although displeasure showed on his face. Quickly making the seals to remove it, she targeted her body to return to the point since before she ever received the seal from Madara. After a few moments, the seal faded from Senju, to the original Uchiha seal, and then her hand was clear. “Here goes nothing.” Tsunade smeared the blood again and forced as much chakra into the jutsu as she could spare. Sakura wilted, relieved that she was now her own person. Madara glanced over his shoulder at Hashirama, who was still watching them in despair, and nodded at him once. Hashirama nodded back and then he took off with her still in his arms. Suddenly, Sakura was feeling very light-headed and woozy. “I don’t feel right,” she said to him. She felt sick to her stomach and clutched as a sudden bout of nausea attacked. She felt like her abdomen was being pulled inward, like someone was still to suck her up through a straw. She gagged and Madara halted abruptly. “What’s wrong?” he asked sharply, more concern in his eyes for her than she had ever seen him display. She gagged. “I feel like I’m going to-” Poof. And then suddenly, Haruno Sakura was landing, hard, on her rump in the center of the Hokage’s office. “Wait—what?” Sakura shrieked upon seeing the surprised faces of Shizune, Tsunade, and Shikamaru. “What?” she screeched. “It actually worked? I actually kept those two bozos from killing each other?” “Sakura,” Tsunade said, sounding forcibly patient, “What are you talking about?” Stunned, Sakura couldn’t believe that she was back home with the chance to see her friends again—and it seemed that nothing had changed, either! “I stopped Madara and Hashirama from killing each other. And…and they actually formed Konoha in the end, too.” There was silence. “Sakura,” Shizune said tentatively. “What exactly happened?” Still disbelieving she was actually back in her own time, Sakura muttered, “I’m dreaming, so who cares?” and began to tell her story in full detail, not leaving anything out. It didn't stop her from starting to cry only barely into her story, her fears and anguish and absolute horror over what had happened to her finally surfacing in a real, visceral way. Not too much later, Sakura found warm arms surround her and she rested her head on her shishou's chest, words gone into incoherence. Tsunade lifted her head for a moment, and the room was quickly emptied of people. "He-he raped me, shishou," Sakura sobbed. "He--twice." "You're safe now," Tsunade told her. "He's dead, and he can't hurt you any longer. You're safe, and someday, it's going to be okay again." Sakura sniffed. Someday... Someday, things would be okay again. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next week or next month, but... someday.