Wrong
The sight of her lying in a pool of her own blood was wrong.
“No!”
Two pairs of yellow eyes turned to look at her, one narrowing in confusion, the other in anger. “Kill her!” the angry one hissed.
Immediately white zetsu sprang at her, but Sakura easily took them down. In her grief and rage, she flung herself at the two black zetsu, hands forming a complex series of seals that imbued chakra into her hands, which she then funnelled into a katana. With one flash of the blade, the two were sliced in half, only to be drawn into the blade, which was actually a quietly famous sealing blade.
“No!”
It was the black zetsu’s turn to cry out in denial, and they both did, even as they were sealed away. Once it was done, the blade fell limp from Sakura’s hands, and she rushed over to the woman who lay upon the ground, bleeding out. Her life force was slowly ebbing away, and the pinkette realised that there was no way she could save her life, her chakra was too low, and her reserve was gone from all the fighting, thanks to the two black zetsus.
“No,” she denied a second time, this one as a whisper that could barely be heard. “Naruto… How can Naruto be born now? Wrong… Everything’s gone wrong!”
Sakura sobbed, clinging to Kushina’s hand. “I am sorry, Haruno Sakura,” a voice spoke, and she looked up to see the almost ghostly form of the Sage of Six Paths before her.
“You sent me back here,” she spoke as she wept. “You sent me here to stop zetsu from altering the past his way, and I have. But… Naruto…”
The Sage sighed, and she could detect a hint of sadness in his expression. “I truly am sorry,” he said. “I did not foresee this as a possibility. I knew that my son Ashura would reincarnate, but I was certain it would always be as Naruto.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Sakura begged. “There… there’s still a slight pulse, and…”
“Uzumaki Kushina’s spirit no longer resides within her,” the Sage said. “And any moment now, the last impulses of chakra in her system will disappear, and her body will expire. Then, Kurama will be released into the world’s natural chakra, to reform in a number of years.”
Sakura’s tears were renewed, and she wept once more for her sunshine friend and team mate who would now never exist. “Is there… really no way?” she asked in a grief stricken whisper.
“There is no way to bring her spirit back from the pure lands,” the Sage told her. “The only way to ensure Uzumaki Naruto’s conception now, would be if another soul was bonded to Kushina’s instead.”
Sakura looked up at him, tears halting their flow. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Haruno Sakura, your time here is limited, you know that,” the Sage said, and Sakura nodded in acknowledgement. “You cannot be in existence when you would be born in this time, I have already told you that. It was intended that I would send you back to where you came from, to restore balance with your spirit in the future. But instead, there is something else I can do. It will not prevent your existence in this time line, and will ensure Uzumaki Naruto’s own existence. Are you willing to do this?”
Sakura nodded immediately. “Whatever it is, I’ll do it,” she said decisively.
“I can bind your soul to Kushina,” the Sage said. “Essentially, you would become her. Her memories would become yours, her life would become your life. Your body would expire, would transition back into the chakra of the world, much as Kurama’s would, or any of my other children, were they to be released via death from their hosts. Kushina’s soul might be gone, but you would live on in her stead.”
Sakura was gaping at him, at the connotations of such a thing. But then she closed her mouth and thought quickly but seriously on it. Finally, she nodded and said, “What do I have to do?”
“Pour every last bit of your healing chakra into Kushina,” the Sage instructed. “It would not do to transfer your soul, only to have you die anyway from these injuries. Once you have exhausted your chakra, I will take it from there.”
Sakura nodded, then flared the remainder of her chakra, getting to work at healing the worst of Kushina’s injuries. Naruto, she kept thinking. For Naruto. She would do anything for him, for her team… Sasuke, Kakashi, Yamato, and Sai too. Her shishou, her friends… She poured everything she had into healing, knowing that even with what she had left, it would only be a patch until either a medic came along, or Kurama regained the strength to heal his host.
…Which would be her soon enough.
It didn’t take long, and soon, Sakura’s chakra was sluggish, stuttering in and out of life. Her vision swam, she felt herself fading out of existence, and the last thing she saw was the Sage above her, hand seals formed, then there was nothing.
OoOoO
He was desperate to find her.
While fighting those strange creatures, he’d lost track of Kushina. The last he’d seen of her, she’d chased after that kunoichi who’d been working with the Hokage for the last several months on some top secret mission, a mission he had the feeling had culminated in tonight’s battle. Minato couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Kushina knew what had been going on, but then dismissed that thought.
Taking a deep breath, he concentrated his senses. He couldn’t find the pink haired kunoichi, but he found Kushina. Her chakra… it was incredibly weak! Minato shunshined in her direction, unable to use hiraishin, as there were no markers where he could sense that Kushina was. When he arrived, his heart stopped at the sight before him.
“No no no no no!” he denied, rushing to her side. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt her pulse. “Kushina! Kushina, can you hear me? Please…”
She stirred lightly and her eyes fluttered open briefly. “Naruto?” she whispered questioningly, her voice wavering slightly.
Minato chuckled lightly. “Trust you to think of ramen at a time like this,” he said, relieved, trying to help her up.
Kushina looked up at him in confusion, wincing sharply at a pain that alerted him to the fact that she was still really, really hurt. She looked like she didn’t understand what he was saying, and Minato resisted biting his lip in worry. A moment later, the confusion cleared and she looked around, then down at her hands. Kushina pulled a strand of her her hair out into view, her eyes wide at the sight of it.
“It worked,” she whispered, then winced further, grasping at her side.
It was then Minato saw the blood.
“We have to get you to the hospital,” he said, gathering her into his arms. He held her tightly to him. “I thought I lost you for a moment there,” he whispered into her hair. “Please don’t do that again.”
Kushina nodded against his chest, but before he could get moving to the hospital, she cried suddenly, “Wait! The katana!”
She was wriggling in his grip, trying to get out of his grasp, no matter that it was causing her pain. “Stop!” he begged. “You’re going to hurt yourself further. What katana are you talking about?”
Kushina pointed down towards one that was on the ground. It looked vaguely familiar to him, but he didn’t know why. Minato opened his mouth to ask why she wanted it, but then the Hokage and two ANBU appeared.
“Minato, Kushina,” the Sandaime greeted them. “Have you seen Sakura?”
Sakura…? Right, the kunoichi. Minato shook his head, but Kushina said, “She’s gone. The katana… it’s there. It’s… it’s done, Hokage-sama, she asked me to tell you that.”
“Where did she go?” one of the ANBU asked.
Kushina shrugged. “Her body vanished into nothingness,” she said.
The Hokage looked troubled at this. He seemed about to ask Kushina more questions, but Minato spoke up then. “Hokage-sama, could this wait?” he asked. “Kushina needs a medic.”
“Of course, of course,” the Sandaime said. “Get her seen to. I will speak to you later on this, Kushina.”
Minato nodded and utilised his hiraishin to get them to the hospital.
OoOoO
Namikaze Kushina, nee Uzumaki, stood in front of an empty grave, one that had been set aside for ‘Sakura’. It had been a few years now since she’d woken in the vivacious red head’s body, but Sakura had adjusted. She was ‘Kushina’ now. After a few weeks, she’d caved and told the Hokage what had happened. He was shocked, but also touched by her willingness to make the sacrifice to ensure her best friend would exist.
They’d both agreed to never tell Minato, and maybe that was unfair, but…
Awkwardly leaning down, she placed a bouquet of flowers on the grave, the meaning behind the flowers deliberate. Consistency, sacrifice, love, friendship, and honour. She rubbed her belly where Naruto was already growing, and she smiled at the thought that her sunshine would be here soon, only two and a half months away.
Sakura closed her eyes, Kushina’s eyes, and offered up a silent promise to the woman whose life had been cut prematurely short, that she would look after her family. That Minato would be loved, Naruto would be loved, and that there would be no need for anything so drastic in the future as time travel to make sure that the world kept turning.
With a smile on her face, she turned and headed out of the cemetery to meet with Mikoto, who’d only recently come out of the hospital, and would have Itachi and newborn Sasuke with her.
