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“This better be a genjutsu, asshole!” Sakura growls, holding the shinobi with some obscure village hitai-ate up by his shirt collar. There is a crater beneath from the hard landing she executed and it stretches meters wide.
Around her, she spies the ever-familiar Hi no Kuni pines. The birds chirping in the distance are telltale signs of her location. The whispers from the talkative flora never lie.
The gaping but tense expressions of the two warring clans on opposite sides of her leave her concerned, but she’s hoping someone finally created a genjutsu she can’t break out of.
Because if this is the past, no one is gonna want to stick around for the tantrum she’ll need to throw before she can get her wits about her.
The bastard in her single-hand grip chokes from the strength of her hand but manages to give her a cruel smile, “Leaf bitch!” he spits out.
The familiar tick above her brow gets larger.
“Insulting the shinobi holding your life in her hand is not the best way to beg for mercy,” She hisses.
This time he spits a bloody loogie at her and it lands on her cheek.
The clearing is deathly silent. The trees don’t so much as sway. Sakura isn’t even certain the warring clans are breathing, waiting for her inevitable rage, most likely.
While “kunoichi” were rare in the Warring State Era, they were just as feared simply because their tempers took no shit.
The loogie slides down her cheek and drips onto her shoulder. Sakura simply blinks before closing her fist around his throat tightly.
CRACK.
The sound of his neck and spinal cord cracking under her grip is loud in the clearing. So much, it seems to echo. She can see several of the Senju and Uchiha warriors flinch, but she pays them no mind as she drops the body and pulls out a body storage scroll.
Sakura crouches and with deft hands and a small poof, the body is sealed away.
“Um-”
Sakura, still ignoring the two groups surrounding her, bites her thumb and flashes through the Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram signs at a speed that would make Kakashi-sensei proud.
“Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
POOF.
“Sakura-hime, how can I help you-” It’s very telling that the ancient slug has already grasped what happened. Sakura is rapidly dancing across the edge of sanity at this point.
GASP!
Sakura ignores the masculine gasp coming from the Senju side.
“Katsuyu-sama,” She greets, her face pinched, “Can you take this scroll back to sensei and Ino-pig, please? Have her dive into the mind and find out what this bastard did to send me here.”
The slug sighs, “Of course, Sakura-hime. Though considering… where you are, it will take time. Months, maybe even years, before you hear back from them. If at all. I am unaffected simply because my forest exists outside the stream of space and time.”
Sakura shrugs, “It’ll be fine. I’ll consider it a vacation.”
The slug sighs but nods her head and poofs away with the body scroll. Sakura exhales harshly and stands to her full height, stretching her arms above her head as she does. She can feel the stares on her arms, thighs, and legs. Her attire, is after all, extremely promiscuous for this time. But she can’t find a fuck to give.
Peridot eyes look to the left and spies the Uchiha crowd. They have tensed waiting for her to make a move. She spies a man who looks exactly like Sasuke, Uchiha Izuna alive and well it seems, next to an extremely wary Uchiha Madara.
To her right, she immediately recognizes her Shodaime and Niidaime immediately. Hashirama’s sunkissed skin and long hair are well known but not as telling as the albino feature of Tobirama.
With her hands on her hips, she makes a decision.
“Can the leaders of both sides step forward, please? I have some questions.”
Sakura is not surprised that it takes five minutes for both sides to come to some agreement with their groups before sending out the clan heirs and their brothers.
Both parties are at a standstill but keep their eyes open.
She valiantly ignores the glaring match happening between Izuna and Tobirama to focus on the scowl on Madara’s face and Hashirama’s bright grin.
The rosette blinks slowly at them. She is not fooled for a second into thinking this conversation will be easy. Hashirama is infinitely more dangerous of the two, if only because he leads with kindness whereas the rest lead with a healthy to borderline insane amount of paranoia.
“Kunoichi-san-”
“I’m a shinobi. Please keep your sexist terminology to yourself.” Sakura interrupts with a sneer.
Izuna snorts and Tobirama turns his glare onto her person. Hashirama blushes and Madara raises a brow. But honestly, she still can't find a fuck to care.
She’s in the past. Will probably be stuck here for a minute. Maybe even permanently depending on how soon Katsuyu can get a hold of her village.
“Now, I’ve obviously been summoned here, as you can all see, unwillingly.” She pauses, waiting for them to nod, albeit hesitantly. “So, because of my unfortunate circumstances, I’m finding myself inclined to help move things along.”
She slips the red hitai-ate from atop her head, holding it in both hands. Her thumb traces the leaf symbol on the metal plate tenderly before looking up at the two men who changed the shinobi world.
And Sakura gives Madara credit where credit is due. It was Kaguya and Zetsu that made Indra insane and passed that along to his descendants. She can’t blame them for a scheme thousands of years in the making. It would be hypocritical of her.
Holding out her hitai-ate, she watches both men stare at it befuddled. There is about a three-foot gap between both groups of brothers leaving her dead center of them.
All four stare at it for a moment and look up at her. Hashirama’s eyes sparkle and Madara looks… well, shocked.
“What is that symbol on your hitai-ate, shinobi-san?” Izuna asks, and she gives him points for heeding her warning.
Sakura lets a small smile grace her lips as she meets his eyes, cackling inwardly at the slight blush atop his ears before looking back at Madara and Hashirama. She raises her brow again and smirks knowingly.
The two soul brothers stare at each other, almost in a new light. One with skepticism and the other with blatant optimism.
“Our dream comes true?” Madara asks, his voice is quiet.
“There is peace?” Hashirama asks, a slight wobble in his tone. His eyes look watery.
Sakura simply nods, “Yes to both. There are hiccups, but that’s life.”
I should probably find Kurama to go take care of that hiccup actually… I wonder if Danzō is alive right now?
Tobirama and Izuna both stare at their brothers with narrowed eyes, in slight disgust and confusion, respectively.
Which she honestly isn’t surprised about.
“You do it together,” Sakura emphasizes with a challenging glate. She can feel both of their clans stirring restlessly. “Let’s hope you can do it with less sacrifices this time.”
The trees are also whispering to her about the tension in both groups.
Indra and Asura’s reincarnates look at her wide-eyed, but she simply blinks and holds up the hitai-ate once again, prompting them.
Hashirama beams as he reaches for the right side of her hitai-ate and Madara sighs exasperatedly as he reaches for the left side.
The gasps from their clans is loud enough to echo through the clearing.
“Peace it is.” Madara acquiesces.
“Peace.” Hashirama echoes.
Tobirama looks between the three of them with his bright red eyes and Sakura can see the calculations whirring through his mind before his shoulders droop.
He looks at her then the hitai-ate, before repeating Izuna’s question, “What is that symbol?”
Sakura grins, making an obvious show of looking around the clearing and the trees.
“A leaf.”
His eyes widen as Hashirama beams. Izuna looks curious.
It is Madara who shocks her though.
“Konohagakure no Sato… Village hidden by tree leaves.”
Hashirama turns to look at his once again best friend with wide eyes before a goofy smile graces his boyishly handsome features.
Sakura raises a brow and smirks at him, “Mhm.”
She notes the blush dusting his visible ear with muted fascination.
Sakura lets go of the metal and steps back, “I’ll leave you guys to it. I’m going to go take care of those hiccups.”
Everyone in the clearing snaps their heads to her retreating figure but she pays them no mind.
“Where is he?” She asks no one in particular with her eyes closed.
All four men furrow their brows at her but she is listening to the whispers and murmurs that probably no one but Hashirama can also hear.
Sending out her own doton sensory net through her feet, she has a clear image and direction to head to.
Sakura opens her eyes and completely erases her scent and chakra.
Tobirama visibly flinches at her before glaring harder.
“Wai-” He takes a step forward, hand outstretched. But Sakura gives them a two-finger wave and shunshins away.
She finds Kurama sleeping several kilometers from where the Uchiha and Senju were about to be fighting.
“Hi, Kurama. Would you like to help me hunt the remnants of your batshit crazy grandmother?”
The large scarlet orange fox bijū simply opens one eye from where he is resting his head atop his forearms to stare at her unamused.
“You smell like you’re in the wrong time,” is what the chakra fox responds back.
Sakura simply rolls her eyes, “I am aware. I figure I might as well clean up a bit while I’m here though.”
He opens both eyes to stare at her, “Why?”
“Do you want to be sealed into Uzumaki after Uzumaki for no good reason other than a plant man creature created by your grandmother wants the world to end?”
The two keep their staring contest, Sakura looking remarkably unimpressed and Kurama clearly weighing the option of captivity to going back to sleep right now.
“Kaguya you say?” He asks with a large yawn. Sakura scrunches her nose at his fox breath and the visible heat it releases.
“Yeah.”
“I suppose I can help you. Father would certainly appreciate it…”
Sakura rolls her eyes again but grins as Kurama stands up and shakes out his fur. The wind he creates whips the trees around wildly and it's only chakra that keeps her rooted to the ground.
“Can you like.. shrink? I’d rather not alarm the citizens.”
Kurama glares at her but scoffs and shrinks to the size of a large wolf.
“Better?”
She nods and smiles viciously, “Ready to go hunting?”
Kurama matches her grin.
Zetsu goes down kicking and screaming but he ends up in a body storage scroll she altered on the fly using the most haphazard fuinjutsu ever. Yes, she’s a medical prodigy, and nowhere near close to a fuinjutsu specialist. But, it will hold until she can hire one though. Thankfully, storage seals are her specialty.
(After all, one doesn't have the pinnacle of medical fuinjutsu and juinjutsu engraved on her skull without an insane amount of foundational knowledge.)
She grows a house deep in the woods atop the cliff overlooking what is slowly growing to be Konoha. Kurama moves in and sleeps on her porch more often than not.
Sakura needs money though. For clothes and groceries and other shit.
So, she takes a page out of Tsunade’s book.
Uchiha Madara finds her two months after she’s sealed Zetsu, in a gambling house surrounded by men with biceps larger than two of her heads. She has a bag of ryō filled to the rim with her winnings because even without chakra, Sakura is still the strongest woman in the world (past and present) and these men don’t even come close to an inch of her muscle strength.
She has just slammed down the hand of one particularly cocky son of a bitch (something about him being a soldier from the Daimyō’s palace. Like she gives a shit), when the crowd parts and quiets for the Uchiha Patriarch.
Sakura, never drunk because her metabolism is better than that, sips straight from the sake bottle as she eyes him, over the rim.
“Uchiha-san,” She greets.
He takes a seat with the grace afforded by a clan heir and steals the bottle from her to pour himself a cup. She doesn’t squawk but she does glare.
“Shinobi-san,” He returns.
“Sakura. Haruno Sakura.”
His eyes widen and she recognizes the recognition in his gaze. Her clan is merchant: renowned but just as old. Not as old as the shinobi clans, but enough to have worth when it mattered. Civilian in nature they may be, but where there were Haruno, what followed was money. She happened to be the heiress to the Konoha branch simply because she was an only child, but all the countries have a branch that reports back to the main family in Hana no Kuni.
“And you became a shinobi despite your prosperous family?” He asks with a raised brow and a hint of incredulity.
Sakura snorts unattractively, “I’m not interested in the merchant life and playing the docile housewife.”
Inner purrs when she recognizes the look Madara is leveling her with. His eyes are a physical thing, sharingan blaring, as they sweep her figure from top to bottom. She knows she looks good. Her mother and Tsunade were terrifying women who made sure she knew how to act feminine when she wanted or needed to.
And she wants and needs to as she lives in the Warring States Era. Her kimono, while not the luxurious kind you see in the Daimyō’s court, was still bright and fancy. It also hangs on her body seductively, what with her open cleavage, visible collarbones, neck, and shoulders. She still wears her leather shorts beneath her kimono but others wouldn’t know that.
She looks like a high-end courtesan who is effortlessly pretty no matter her state.
Which is what she aims for in the gambling halls.
The prettier she looks, the easier it is for people to assume they can take advantage of her. Because civilians are simple-minded.
Madara is not a civilian. Not in any way, shape, or form.
So, when she stretches her legs and crosses one over the other slowly, she bites the inside of her cheek as she spots the lust in his eyes.
Hmmm… he isn’t going to go crazy anymore now that Zetsu is gone and his brother is alive…
Sakura weighs her options, blinking slowly as the waitress brings two more bottles.
“The village is being built as we speak,” He says eyeing her just as blatantly as she eyes him, through hooded lids.
“Hmm,” She hums, “Good. I’m glad you all have made peace.”
They keep eye contact as he continues, “Thank you.” And that more than anything shocks Sakura. She didn’t know Uchihas good give gratitude without the world ending or someone being hurt immediately after. “But when will you be coming home?”
Sakura tilts her head slightly, and her hair brushes her clavicle teasingly, as she considers him.
“Home?” Emerald eyes flash with something close to broken, “My home isn’t here. Won’t be here for a few more decades in fact.”
Madara furrows his brow, “But it could be home now.” He stresses. “You can help us progress. Help us skip steps.”
Sakura scrunches her nose, “I already helped by getting rid of the biggest headache you or anyone else could ever imagine. I like to consider this my vacation or wandering era. My other teammates got one. It’s only fair I get one as well. I hadn’t intended for it to be here, but tomato tomahto.” She ends her statement with a shrug.
Madara glares at her and she sits back and meets his gaze unflinchingly. Without Zetsu, the rinnegan, or the Sage/jūbi chakra, he’s not as intimidating.
“Let’s settle this with a bet then,” He decides succinctly.
Sakura’s brows raise high before she gives him a fox-like grin, “Are you sure you wanna make a bet with me?”
“Let’s dance,” He smirks at her.
Haruno Sakura doesn’t need chakra or a bullshit dōjutsu to win at gambling. She learned to gamble from Tsunade and Shizune. She has an eidetic memory and the closest IQ to Shikamaru. Sasuke once told her her analytic calculation ability was on par with the sharingan.
Sakura never loses at games for this exact reason.
Madara doesn’t know that.
That’s why he leaves the gambling hall with not a ryō to his name and she laughs herself silly the entire night and morning after.
“You initiated a bet with her?” Tobirama asks.
“Hn.”
“If you won, she’d come back to the village. If she won, she’d take your wallet.”
“Hn.”
“And you lost.”
“...”
Hashirama and Izuna fall to their knees laughing themselves silly and Tobirama tries valiantly to stifle the grin threatening to emerge but finds himself failing.
Madara's brow twitches as he barks out, “Stop laughing!”
“Mada- haha! You were so confident when you left! How did you fail?” Hashirama manages to get out, still chuckling.
He will sooner die before he tells them she quite obviously seduced him and was extremely smarter than he gave her credit.
“I will find her and try again in a week,” He huffs with his arms crossed.
Uzumaki Mito, who is the only good person in the room Madara decides, asks him a sound question, “Why didn’t you just spar for the bet?”
All four men turn to look at her with varying levels of shock and wary.
It is Hashirama who speaks up though, “Mito, you didn’t see her. She’s a tiny thing. Delicate looking. She called herself a shinobi, but with that physique, she couldn’t be anything other than a kunoichi.”
Madara was inclined to agree. Her wiles had certainly worked on him.
Mito looks highly unimpressed, “Chakra enhancement is a very real thing you realize. She could quite easily be a shinobi.”
None of the men look convinced, but Tobirama speaks up, “Her reserves were fairly large considering what we know of her heritage. She might be good in genjutsu or ninjutsu even. She had a fair amount of chakra.”
The group stews in thought, but Madara is already planning his next interaction.
After three more meetings over the course of four months (leaving him far poorer than he’s ever been in his life), Madara decides to bite the arrowhead and challenge her to a spar.
“Fucking finally,” She exclaims. He gapes at her foul use of language, severely inappropriate for a woman (in his time). He found her at an inn some towns away from Konoha. By now, the Ino-Shika-Cho group, the Inuzuka clan, Aburame, and Hyūga have joined the village alongside the Fūma, Sarutobi, Shimura, and Yūhi.
Last he heard, he received word that the Hatake, Kohaku, Kurama, and Mitokado clans were interested.
Once again, she has changed her outfit. She is wearing black leather pants that fit her like a glove, a scarlet kimono top that ends above her navel with long billowing sleeves and heels. Once again he is awed by her fashion choices. Never before has he seen women dress in such a manner. And so confidently at that.
“Bandits and bounty hunters aren’t much of a challenge. Is there a clearing nearby where we can hash it out at? I need an actual challenge.”
“You’ve been hunted?” He asks, truly curious.
She stares at him like he’s an idiot.
Fair enough.
Madara leads her to a clearing and the two do the seal of confrontation before stepping away from each other.
He wears his typical armor and has his gunbai on his back. His gloves are brand new and need the workout to break them in. With his sharingan, he can see her every move, breathe, twitch, and eyelash flutter, in perfect clarity.
There is a tension in the air. Like, when he challenges Hashirama. Something deep in him wants to shout as he charges her, even though for all her outside appearance, she looks no stronger than the average woman.
Though nothing about her looks is average.
A hawk caws and the two dash toward the center.
Madara watches her uproot a fucking Hi no Kuni pine tree that has to be centuries old with her two hands and has no time to even process what he’s seeing before his vision goes black.
Did this woman hit me with a tree…?
Madara wakes up with a gasp. He attempts to bolt right up but feels a warm hand stop him in his tracks and keep his head resting on whatever soft pillow it is currently atop.
“I didn’t think I’d get you with that. Most people see the tree coming and you know- dodge.”
He chuckles despite himself because even he can hear the amusement in her tone.
“Marry me.”
“I’m glad you’re awa- WHAT?!”
“Did you steal my eyes?”
“Excuse me?!”
“I can’t see anything.” He’d get up and attack her for it, but his body feels heavy. Whatever damage she did to him certainly will have a lasting effect.
“Yeah, 'cause your eyes are blindfolded. You overused them and I had to heal the damage. You’re not taking that blindfold off for a few more hours to give your eyes some time to adjust.”
“...”
“What?”
“... You healed me?”
“Yes…?”
“How?”
“With medical chakra?! How else?”
“... Are you a Senju?” The only person he knows who can do that is Hashirama, and he certainly can’t do it well enough to treat other people.
“What?!”
“You can heal the damage done to the sharingan?”
“Madara.. Just shut up and go to sleep. Your eyes will be fine when you wake back up.”
And Madara goes to sleep.
Two days later, he is surprised to find that she built her temporary home above the village atop the mountain cliff that overlooks their growing village.