"Come on, Garuda!" Sasuke shouted, urging his mount on. "Faster!"
Garuda gave a piercing shriek in reply, increasing the frequency of its wingbeats.
Blanketed in eternal snow, the countryside below blurred into a tapestry of pure white as they streaked through the skies. Sasuke raised an arm to shield his face, squinting his eyes; the snowflakes drifting lazily from the sky stung his skin like needles at such speeds, but he had no choice but to endure. He had to drive both himself and his summoned beast to the limit, if he was to get his revenge…
"Danzō…" he hissed. "You won't escape me this time…!"
When he'd hypnotised Utatane Koharu and forced her to ritually dance herself to death and summon the reaper, Sasuke had caught a glimpse of her thoughts. Despite the Fifth Hokage's decree naming Danzō a missing‑nin, she and her fellow council member, Mitokado Homura, had continued to keep in touch with him.
As it happens, Koharu had just been on her way back to the village from a secret meeting with Danzō when Orochimaru captured her and her guards. She'd hoped to persuade Danzō to turn himself in— but, failing to change his mind, she'd passed on word of Tsunade's latest movements, which seemed to have caught his interest.
'The Gokage Summit?' said Hashirama happily, when Sasuke casually mentioned it. 'Why, it's the very culmination of my dreams of peace!'
At that, Tobirama had given a loud snort.
'It's a place where the Kage gripe at each other and revive old grudges; it's the accepted forum for the expression of international hatred,' Orochimaru had chuckled. 'I can tell you where it's usually held, if you're interested… but we won't be accompanying you.'
"Aww…" Hashirama had said, disappointed.
Garuda gave a sharp cry, pulling Sasuke out of his reverie. It had spotted something below with its piercing yellow eyes. Leaning over the bird's side, he peered down; scores of armoured men were racing through the snow below, converging on—
Sasuke's heart leapt into his throat.
Sakura!
Garuda cried again, tilting its head to the side, and Sasuke followed its gaze.
"Danzō…!" Sasuke hissed.
The pineapple haircut and the white bandages were distinctive enough, even from this distance. Danzō was fleeing on a shifting carpet of sand in the horizon. He was already so far ahead that, even with Sasuke's sharpened sight, he looked no bigger than a green pea. Save Sakura, or give chase to Danzō and get his revenge, he'd have to choose one or the other— Garuda was fast, but not that fast.
But if he went down to rescue Sakura, he'd surely lose Danzō's trail again…
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! That useless woman!" Sasuke roared. "Garuda, down!"
Garuda barrel-rolled and transitioned into a steep dive. The wind whistled in Sasuke's ears, the snowflakes around them seemingly reversing direction and ascending into the heavens as the ground rushed up towards them. Shizune was screaming something in Sakura's ear, but she didn't seem to be registering her words as she stared vacantly into the distance, bloody tears streaming down from her scarlet eyes…
"NOW!" Sasuke shouted.
Garuda flung out its vast wings at the last moment, halting in mid‑air and sending out a gust of gale force winds that drove a tidal wave of snow crashing over the charging samurai. The bird then landed beside Sakura and Shizune, and breathing in deeply as he flashed through a string of hand signs, Sasuke exhaled a torrent of fire from atop his mount, pivoting on the spot to raise an impassable ring of flame around them to keep the samurai at bay.
"Sasuke…?" said Shizune, a hint of suspicion in her voice. "How…"
"Come with me if you want a lift!" Sasuke cried, extending his hand. "Hurry!"
Between Sasuke and being chopped into tiny Shizune cubes by an army of furious samurai, she knew which option she'd rather choose. Grabbing Sasuke's hand, Shizune hauled herself and a stunned Sakura onto the hawk's back, and it beat its powerful wings, lifting them into the sky.
"Lady Tsunade, Lady Tsunade…" Sakura muttered to herself dully. "It's my fault, it's all my fault…"
If only she could start over, she thought to herself… with the foreknowledge that Danzō would attack the Gokage Summit and provoke the other Kage into killing Lady Tsunade, she would be able to navigate the situation towards the best possible outcome… if only she'd died, she found herself thinking, then she'd have regressed again…
"None of this… is your fault, Sakura," Shizune choked, her voice breaking. Now that they were safe, her tears were coming at last, hot drops of saltiness spattering her lap. "You couldn't have known Danzō would… ohh… my poor Lady Tsunade…"
Sakura summoned her chakra and formed a kunai out of pink crystal in her palm. If she stabbed herself with this, would she be able to see Lady Tsunade again…? But then she'd only be creating a brand‑new split timeline where everyone was sad— she'd just prevented the tragedy of her first timeline; to create another world of misery now…
"What happened down there?" asked Sasuke, glancing over his shoulder as he urged Garuda in the direction he'd last seen Danzō fleeing. "You mentioned Danzō… Sakura?"
Sakura tossed the pink kunai overboard and hugged Sasuke, pressing her chest racked with choked sobs against his back. It now seemed so warm and wide and safe, just like Lady Tsunade's bosom… Her sorrow slowly faded as the reality of the situation set in, but the pain… the pain only moved places. Her heart felt like a blackened coal, kindled by the flames of hatred…
"How do you do it, Sasuke?" Sakura croaked. "It feels like I'm burning up inside."
Sasuke said nothing.
"It's almost maddening," Sakura whispered in his ear. "I can't stop thinking about killing those cowards who murdered Lady Tsunade. I can't stop thinking about breaking their bones, smashing their faces in, turning them into women and raping them as they beg me to stop, cutting up their corpses and dissolving them in Lady Katsuyu's acid and burning them..."
In that moment, Sakura truly understood Sasuke, and he understood her... apart from that weird bit in the middle. What was that all about?
"…remember that feeling well," Sasuke said softly. "Hollow your heart of everything else. Fill the emptiness with what you're feeling now, until it becomes your strength. Keep the hatred smouldering inside you, until either you burn to ashes or your enemies do."
Sasuke felt his heart and chakra resonate with Sakura's as one. He felt an unspeakable guilt for feeling this way, but deep down, he was glad that he was no longer alone. Warmth bloomed within his body as he felt Sakura's stiff nipples digging into his back, even through their clothes, and ironically, he forgot all about his own revenge for a second. All he wanted was to comfort her… but he didn't know how else to do it.
"No! Sakura, have you learned nothing from Lady Tsunade's teachings?" Shizune cried. "That's the last thing she would want for you!"
"You should understand how I feel better than anyone, Shizune‑san! You were Lady Tsunade's disciple far longer than I was!" Sakura shouted hysterically. "What d'you expect me to do— stand by and watch while they burn the village to the ground when they come for us all!?"
"That's not what I'm saying! If anyone threatens the Hidden Leaf, you obviously kill them!" Shizune said through gritted teeth. "I'm telling you not to throw your life away chasing vengeance, because once you reach the end of that path and look back, you'll realise your life's as empty as you feel right now!"
A frosty silence fell over the three.
"Where are you taking us, anyway?" Shizune asked Sasuke.
"Konoha," Sasuke said succinctly. "I'm… we're going home."