"I see," said the Sage of Six Paths wearily. "Is that your response?"
Even though he had separated his two sons to hear them out without having them influence each other's thoughts, they had surprisingly arrived at the same conclusion. For the first time in a millennium, Ashura's and Indra's wills were one.
"Not a chance, Six Paths Super Gramps," said Naruto defiantly. "You can keep your super-special-awesome-chocolatey-coated powers, we don't need 'em, ya know! We'll just keep doing our own thing, just like we've always done!"
"No," Sasuke replied. "Sakura is one of us."
Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo sighed.
To think that his sons were finally agreeing on something, that being that Sakura was one fine woman… but although their wills were one now, they were bound to drift apart sooner rather than later. After all, Ashura and Indra could not both lay claim to her, and eventually, they would come to blows over the right to possess her…
"Even so, I believe you'll need my powers in the very near future," he said. "And so, I bequeath the Sage of Six Paths' chakra onto you… it will be up to you whether to use it or not."
Without warning, the Sage of Six Paths reached out to them. Instinctively, Naruto and Sasuke drew back, but almost as if magnets were embedded in their right and left hands respectively, their palms were inexorably drawn to the old man's, and they ended up high-fiving the old geezer.
"Pushy, much?" Naruto grumbled as he tore back his arm, shaking his aching hand. "Ouch, it burns…"
Sasuke stared at his left palm, upon which a black, crescent moon had been tattooed. Similarly, Naruto had a white sun seared into the palm of his right hand, he could see it clearly…
"This familiar stinging sensation," Sasuke murmured, covering his left eye with a hand. "I see… my eyes have evolved again…"
With this invincible power, there was no way he could possibly lose Sakura to that dimwit…
…
Meanwhile, Sakura was still in the hospital that Naruto and Sasuke had just left behind, busy getting caught up on the recent events she had missed during her week-long coma.
Taking advantage of her disappearance from the world stage, the Sand's and Mist's armies had swarmed across the land, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. The Hidden Sand had made a beeline for the Hidden Leaf Village, advancing far into the Land of Fire, while the Mist was still dragging its feet, raiding coastal cities where there was plenty to steal from the rich capitalists.
Although the Hidden Leaf had mysteriously and abruptly lost contact with the east just a few hours ago, Kirigakure's forces had not yet pushed very far inland, last they'd heard, so their presence in the country supposedly did not yet pose an existential threat to the village.
However, despite Kirigakure's absence, the situation had still reached an unprecedented low for the Hidden Leaf. Recent reports placed the rest of their enemies a mere thirty kilometres from the village, while the territory under the Hidden Leaf's control continued to shrink by the day.
"…and that's the long and short of it," Kakashi-sensei concluded. "Lord Third, Jiraiya-sama and I have been doing our best to maintain order in your absence, but there's a large portion of the village's political elite who are making things difficult for us."
Not everyone in the village believed in the ideals of the Will of Fire. For some, their own lives, goods and livelihoods ranked higher than the lives of the children, the village's future. The Third Hokage had already caved to the pressure of those bastards' demands and sent the younger genin out to fight, all while they used the time they had bought with those children's lives to prepare to leave. Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, they planned to escape the village through the secret underground passage beneath Hokage Rock once they had stripped it of enough of its wealth…
"I personally obtained this information by secretly following Mitokado Homura to a certain house on the outskirts, where he was meeting with some of the village's higher-ups," Kakashi said. "You were right to have him placed under observation, Milady. According to what I overheard after infiltrating his inner circle, he's been in communication with Danzō... that man is back. So far, I've held off on apprehending Homura to avoid spooking Danzō, but..."
Sakura's eyes grew colder than ice.
"Death is too good for those cowards, but we can't afford to waste valuable manpower," she hissed. "Kakashi, I assume you have their names? Take my seal to the ANBU Commander and have him form a death squad from those rats, then tell him to send them straight to the front."
A shiver ran down Kakashi's spine. Honestly, he would have done the same in her position, but this cold disregard for life… this wasn't the gentle Sakura he knew. Had her coma knocked something loose inside her head?
"Oh, wait, before you go," Sakura added in a small voice, rubbing her tummy absentmindedly as Kakashi bowed, ready to leave for his mission. "Did the iryō-nin who operated on me… say anything, about, you know…?"
"I, er…"
Kakashi's mind went blank.
He had already caught Sakura up on Orochimaru's attempt to parasitise her body, as well as the two White Zetsu who had posed as old acquaintances to make an attempt on her life under the pretence of curing her coma, but he hadn't yet breathed a word about the very reason he had come here in the first place... to prevent the travesty of her eggs being stolen.
Seeing how devastated Kakashi was, even with half his face hidden behind his mask, Sakura lowered her gaze and sighed.
"I see," she said forlornly. "I guess it was too much to expect a fragile little egg to survive me being sliced in half… I suppose it's for the best, considering everything."
Kakashi's eyes widened in alarm. Sakura believed she had miscarried!?
"No," he stammered. "It... they..."
Kakashi's voice trailed off. Was telling Sakura the truth really what was best for her right now? Best for the village? If she thought the matter was closed, then she wouldn't dwell on it for too long… after all, she was the one to have wanted an abortion in the first place.
However, if he told her that not one, but three of her embryos had survived and found surrogate mothers, two of whom were unknown but undoubtedly affiliated with her political enemies... how could Sakura possibly be expected to concentrate on fighting her battles when her mind would constantly be wondering what had become of her children? He could tell her about Manyū Kyōko, but he didn't know the identities of the two other recipients of her eggs... no, telling her would only confuse her and cause her undue stress.
"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said tremulously, looking up at him with her large, emerald eyes. "I know how much this baby meant to you, for Naruto's sake… if I'd been stronger, maybe…"
It was at that precise moment that Kakashi's fragile heart broke into countless pieces. Even if he would regret it for the rest of his life, even if she would blame him and curse his name for not telling her sooner, he could not let her illusions shatter for her own sake, even if it meant letting the trail go cold.
Not yet.
"Father…"
"…Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi blinked, banishing from his mind's eye the haunting vision of his father swinging by the neck from the ceiling.
"I've wasted enough of your precious time already, Milady," he said dully. "With your permission, I'd like to spearhead the formation of the Death Squad myself."
"Are you okay, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said worriedly.
Sakura didn't like that haggard look on his face, not one bit. It was the sort of expression he used to wear three years ago, around the time he became Team 7's captain and their teacher. Well, mostly Sasuke's teacher.
"I'm fine, Milady," Kakashi said. "There are still some things I need to make right… No matter what, I won't let myself die before I can make amends."
After hesitating for the briefest of seconds, Sakura nodded.