October 10th, XX - The Fourth Shinobi World War
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"DAMN YOU KAGUYA!!!!!!! I'M DAMNING YOU AND THE ENTIRE ŌTSUTSUKI CLAN!!!!!!!!"
She dropped on her knees with her hands covering her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks beside her two teammates. Her dead two teammates. To be precise, the ash remains of her dead two teammates. Naruto and Sasuke charged at Kaguya with nothing but their last spurt of energy, chakra, and rage. Ignoring Sakura's pleads of regrouping and healing. Kakashi was still lying on the ground in shock of Obito's sacrificing himself and using Kamui* to ultimately save Kakashi's life.
Kaguya sliced through Naruto's and Sasuke's outstretched arms, cutting them from their respective bodies. Kaguya kicked Naruto aside and sent her All-Killing Ash Bone** after him. At the same time, Black Zetsu appears from Kaguya's sleeve and use the same All-Killing Ash Bone to hit Sasuke on his chest. Sakura's eyes widens as she sees more and more of Sasuke deteriorate and turns to ash. Naruto's screams are inaudible to her ears, but by instinct she whipped her head to see Naruto getting hit by the same technique. Those few seconds felt like years as Sakura's tears started to stream down her cheeks. Kakashi finally snapped his head up to see the last parts of Naruto and Sasuke disintegrate. And suddenly the world goes dark...
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"Wake up..."
.
.
.
"Wake up my dear children"
Sakura and Kakashi's eyes snapped open at the repeating voice. Though calming and peaceful, they both can't help but be wary of it. Considering all they can see is each other and that they are in a pitch black area, they reached for their weapons and notices that their weapon pouches are not strapped on their legs. Looking at each other, they note that they don't have a single bruise at all, while they were sure that their bodies received a lot of heavy blows in the war.
"Be at ease, children..."
The voice spoke again and both shinobis cast their eyes towards the sound. Not long after, a floating figure of an aged man, with two little horns on his head, spiky hair, pale skin, and is that the rinnegan?
"My name is Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, and I called you here upon the deaths of my sons", the figure spoke.
Stunned, Kakashi and Sakura looked at each other and Kakashi opened his mouth "...your sons?"
Smiling as he set his black staff on his thighs, he answers "Yes, my sons' incarnation, Indra and Ashura, you know them as Sasuke and Naruto."
Recognition fell on the two shinobi's faces as Sakura's eyes glistens once more, she stood firm and held back her tears as she says "What do you want, Hagoromo-san? Sasuke and Naruto are both dead. What more could you possibly want?"
Hagoromo's face showed sympathy and grief, but his eyes never left Kakashi and Sakura who are now standing next to each other in alarm. Kakashi's eyes fell on Sakura's face, noting the reddening of her cheeks caused by the unshed tears she refused to let flow.
"My dear children, I know the burden you carry is unbearable, I humbly ask for forgiveness for the life that the two of you has lived through. And I ask for you two, the last and undoubtedly the most powerful shinobi to have persevere, to be my last act of redemption..."
As he finished, he taps the ground with his staff, behind him, all nine tailed beasts appeared.
"I'm here to ask the two of you to complete a mission, your last mission, if you will."
Sakura finally relents to her tears as they started to flow, "I just want to pass on and maybe join both of my teammates in the pure lands. All the rest of my family and comrades are gone, I do not have anything else to tie me to this world."
Kakashi stood silent in understanding. The past few years has been rough on all of them, especially to Sakura, abandoned by her first teammate on the quest of power and revenge, left behind by her second teammate to pursue a different power and a promise to her to bring back their estranged teammate, and forgotten by Kakashi himself who drowns himself in suicide missions. Although Sakura never showed her resentment and pain to him, he knows that Sakura's heart has been broken tons of times in the near past, especially by him who taught her about scums abandoning their teammates.
"Dear child, I know of your pain. You have persevere through all the obstacles and still stands strong until the end. I am here to grant you both a chance to change everything."
Sakura stares at Hagoromo, then at the tailed beasts behind him, and finally sets her eyes on Kakashi, "Kakashi, I will follow what you deem best for us."
Her clipped words and shining eyes filled with tears broke Kakashi's heart. But at a deeper stage, Kakashi knew that Sakura has complete faith in him and although filled with tears, her eyes still showed the hope he saw since she was just a pre-teen, left behind by both of her teammates.
After deliberating, Kakashi nods at Sakura and broke eye contact with her, wiping the last of her tears staining her cheeks with his gloved hand. He looks to Hagoromo and said, "Hagoromo-san, please tell me what you would us do."
Smiling softly at the two, he turns to the nine tailed beasts he called his children, "Aside from myself, my dearest children here will provide you with their chakra and the means to communicate with them." He turns to face the two shinobi again, "The two of you will be sent back in time towards the middle of the third shinobi world war, you can continue as you will then, be at ease, both of my children's incarnation will be born no matter what, as well as your younger self, Sakura, because it seems that the three of you are bound by strings of fate."
Kakashi's eyes widens and Sakura puts her hands in front of her mouth in disbelief, but Hagoromo is not finished, "My children will be back with their respective jinchuurikis, but they would still be able to communicate with the both of you mentally. Let me now introduce you to them, as you know, the nine-tailed fox is named Kurama, the eight-tailed octopus is named Gyuuki, and the one-tailed tanuki is named Shukaku. Then it's Matatabi the two-tailed cat, Isobu the three-tailed turtle, Son Goku the four-tailed monkey, Kokuo the five-tailed horse, Saiken the six-tailed slug, and Chomei the seven-tailed beetle."
"It's... Nice to meet you? Officially?" Sakura says and Kakashi nods at them.
"We hope to be helpful with your journey Sakura-san and Kakashi-san. My kind has told me a lot of you, Sakura the slug princess, worry not, I'm all for it!", the high pitched sound of the six-ta- Saiken said. Sakura nods her head in shock and smiled back at Saiken.
"You will keep the powers you have now, yes, Kakashi, both of Obito's sharingan is yours at the moment, and they will be yours for keeping. The same with Sakura's Byakugou Seal." Hagoromo continued.
Kakashi stammered, "B-but I don't- my chakra coils are not built to withstand the sharingan!"
Hagoromo chuckles, "I can fix that for you, so that you will be able to turn them on and off just like any other Uchiha. Don't worry, people will know of your possession of the sharingan without bearing the family name. And you have the most powerful medic-nin by your side, don't you?"
"A-ah, thank you, Hagoromo-san. Yes I do indeed." He scratches the back of his neck.
"I will send you now, children, be wary of the overabundance of chakra in the next few days. I wish you luck and may you both be blessed with happiness and love along the way."
Before Kakashi and Sakura could even thank the sage, the ground beneath them disappears and they screamed through oblivion. Hagoromo looks at Kurama with a smile as he stares back.
"Jiji, your childish tendency has not leave you yet in this old age."
"My, my, Kurama dear, there's nothing wrong with starting things with a light heart."
Kurama scoffs as the other tailed beasts showed various faces of agony, bitter, and fondness.
"Take care of the two, please, children. They will do you all good."
"Yes, father."
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* Kamui - is a space–time ninjutsu that can be used with Uchiha Obito's (and Kakashi's) Mangekyou Sharingan***. Kamui allows the user to transfer objects to and from another dimension.
** All-Killing Ash Bone - A certain-kill technique, the user hardens their own bones and protrudes them out of the skin, and then fires these weaponized structures from their back or from their palms at the intended target. When these bones pierce a living organism, the bone and target starts to deteriorate at a molecular level, disintegrating the victim and reducing their bodies to nothing more than a pile of ash.
*** Mangekyou Sharingan - is an advanced form of the Sharingan that has only been activated by a handful of Uchiha.