Naruto felt as though he were sinking through tar. There was nothing but impenetrable darkness around him, as far as he could see. His limbs felt heavy, so very heavy, yet he had not the slightest motivation to pull himself free from his sorry predicament.
Apathy… he no longer cared what happened to him. He no longer wanted to think, but his thoughts bubbled up all the same from his sea of consciousness. Agonisingly slow, yes, but his ego still existed. He was still capable of having individual thoughts, one after the other… very… slowly…
"Someone," he thought. "Anyone…"
The darkness vanished, and all of a sudden, he was wading in a pool of ankle-deep, scalding blood.
"…please punish me."
Pain.
So much pain.
"Sakura…"
"It's no use calling for her."
The crimson blood began bubbling and frothing, rippling and sending waves crashing against Naruto, burning his skin until it was pink and raw. Metal bars came crashing out of the scalding blood at his feet, forming the bars of a cage held shut by naught but a single, fragile paper seal. There was nothing but darkness on the other side of the bars… how Naruto longed to return to the sweet release of that unfeeling, unthinking abyss…
Why had he wanted to suffer, again? He no longer remembered.
A single, bloodshot eye appeared from the darkness on the other side of the bars.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten, Naruto? Then, allow me to refresh your memories…"
Images flashed before Naruto's eyes.
Sakura's shocked expression as she collided with his Shadow Clone's Big Ball Rasengan. How she had been torn limb from limb by the rotational forces. Believing her to be invincible, knowing she had the power to regenerate from any injury, no matter how severe, he had continued battling Pain at Sasuke's side.
But Sakura never got better.
Naruto sensed her life force dwindling to nothing through his Sage senses, and by the time he realised she wasn't coming back, he was locked in a struggle with Tendō Pain, unable to run to her side. If only, he kept thinking, he had gone to check on her as soon as she'd been hit, then maybe he could have saved her…
And then his mind had snapped.
"I killed Sakura-chan," Naruto croaked, falling to his knees. "With my own two hands, I killed the only girl who ever believed in me… the only girl who ever loved me for who I was…"
The villagers had been right about him all along. He was nothing but a monster, a vile engine of destruction, not fit to call himself a human being…
"I don't know how I can fix this," Naruto mumbled numbly. "What should I do? I don't know what to do…"
He wanted to go back in the cage. If he could get to the other side, he would eventually cease to think…
"That's right, good, good…" the Demon Fox's voice echoed in his ears. "Give me your soul, your everything, and I will give you sweet nihility… the pain will finally go away…"
Naruto unsteadily rose to his feet and staggered over to the seal. He reached out to tear it off, but just as he was about to give the paper tag a tug, a hand grabbed his wrist.
"I must admit I wasn't expecting to see myself on the outside," the Fourth Hokage's chakra imprint began, smiling. "Funny how things work out…"
Shrrrip.
Naruto tore off the seal in a single motion, and Minato paled.
The Nine‑Tailed Fox was still irrevocably bound to Naruto's body, a living part of his chakra pathway system, but there was no longer anything preventing the monster from temporarily leaving his host's body to rampage whenever he felt like it.
"What have you done—"
The Fourth Hokage's figure flickered and vanished as steam hissed through the bars of the gate, causing Naruto's clothes to flap around him…
"Hehehe, good riddance…" the Demon Fox chuckled, peering at Naruto's small form through the bars. "Now you've done it, you fool… eh?"
The Nine-Tailed Fox's pupils shrank.
"No!" he roared. "Get out, you damnable Uchiha! This is MY domain! You have no business…"
The giant eye behind the bars blinked. And when it opened again, the pupil was no longer a slit, but a beautiful five‑petalled cherry blossom…
"Whoa, this feels really weird," Sakura's voice echoed in Naruto's ears. "Where am I? Is this what it's like to be inside Naruto? No wonder this damned fox is always mad, his cage is so small."
Upon hearing Sakura's voice, Naruto snapped out of his trance.
"Wait, this is some kind of trick," he said suspiciously. "What are you playing at, Nine‑Tails?"
"Are you thick or something?" Sakura's voice came in reply. "The Nine‑Tails' already managed to trick you. You've already opened his cage. Why would he need to trick you any more than he already has?"
Naruto's face turned beet red in embarrassment.
"Well, how should I know?" he spluttered. "He's been tormenting me ever since I realised he was inside me! Maybe that's just how he gets his kicks, ya know?"
Splashing sounds rang out from beyond the bars.
"Hang on, talking this way is annoying," came Sakura's voice. "Let me just see if I can… aha!"
Naruto sprang back in alarm as the gates creaked open, but to his astonishment, it was not the colossal Nine‑Tailed Fox that stepped forth, but Sakura-chan… only this Sakura had a pair of pink, astonishingly fluffy ears peeking through her hair at the crown of her head, and nine floofy tails undulating hypnotically behind her. She stood taller than he remembered, and her frame was more graceful, but this was unmistakeably his Sakura-chan.
"I turned myself into the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto!" Sakura said, flashing her pointy fangs at him as she smiled. "What do you think about that?"
"B-but how?" Naruto stammered, looking around wildly. "Where's Nine-Tails? Why aren't you dead?"
Sakura sighed. Naruto was a bit slow on the uptake, wasn't he?
"Obviously, I survived, and as for the Nine-Tails, he's standing right in front of you," Sakura said, pointing at herself. "I just used my Mangekyō Sharingan to take control of him. You do know you're rampaging in the outside world, yeah?"
Naruto lowered his head in shame.
"But what am I supposed to do now?" he cried, fists clenched in frustration at his sides. "You can't stay inside my head for ever! The seal's gone! I tore it off with my own hands, ya know!"
"Everything will be fine, we've got a bit of time before I go blind, I think," Sakura said. "Time flows slower in the Spiritual Plane."
Sakura sat down in the lotus position and closed her eyes, entering Breast Meditation. If this truly was the Spiritual Plane, then surely, just as Minato had briefly managed to manifest himself through the seal's chakra, she too could call forth the chakra imprint of Tsunade sealed within her breast.
"Lady Tsunade!?" Naruto hiccoughed in surprise. "You're alive too?"
Sakura opened her eyes and pushed herself to her feet. There she was, standing right next to her, looking as lively and curvy as she used to…
"Lady Tsunade," Sakura said, her voice trembling. "I've missed you…"
Wordlessly, Tsunade's chakra imprint wrapped her arms around Naruto and Sakura and hugged them to her chest.
"I know what's been weighing on your mind, Sakura," she said softly. "Don't blame yourself. I know my other self died happy, knowing she'd done everything she could to protect you and Shizune. There's no use torturing yourself over what might have been. There is no world in which she would have not sacrificed her life to protect the village's future… and speaking of which…"
Tsunade drew back from their embrace and bent to retrieve the fallen sealing tag.
"Now, back behind bars you go, Sakura," she said. "There's no point closing the gate with you on this side."
Sakura obediently stepped back, and the gates closed behind her. She grabbed the bars, staring forlornly at her teacher through the gaps. When the seal went into effect, Tsunade's breast chakra would remain trapped on the other side, and outside of Sakura's life-giving bosom, her late teacher's chakra would dissipate before long…
"Now, to overlay the Four Symbols Seal again…" Tsunade muttered to herself, as she pasted the seal back on. "Seal!"
Sakura blinked back tears as Tsunade smiled at her one last time.
"The world belongs to the living," she said softly. "Forget about reviving me, Sakura... The dead should be left well alone, that is the way things should be…"
"Goodbye, Lady Tsunade," Sakura whispered, watching as her teacher's chakra faded into nothingness. "You were the best teacher, and the greatest Hokage, I could have ever wished for…"
Naruto sniffled, wiping away his tears with his sleeve. He was going to miss Granny Tsunade too.
"It's about time we returned to the Physical Plane," Sakura said. "But before we do…"
Sakura motioned for Naruto to come closer, until only the bars' width separated them.
"Don't tell Sasuke," Sakura whispered, tugging Naruto closer by the collar.
Naruto's mind went blank as their lips met, her warm tongue tracing his own and exploring part beyond… and all of a sudden, he jolted out of his trance and returned the kiss, their mouths joining in passionate urgency…
…and then, he felt a deep sense of loss as she withdrew and stepped back.
"D-don't read too much into it, I only did that to make sure that stupid fox wouldn't take over your body again, s-stupid!" Sakura stammered, blushing fiercely. "Now go and teach the Pain master a lesson about what peace truly means, Naruto, I'll be waiting for you back in the village…!"
…with the real thing.