A discussion filled with speculations before the true gift.

Everyone was back in the same traditional Japanese room sipping some hot milk tea while enjoying the cool breeze that blew in through the courtyard, carrying with it a fresh scent of light rain.

But this time, Sakura was sitting with mum while hugging her tightly and resting her head on mum's shoulder.

The Sasuke body pillow was still there on the opposite side with the ever present glaring though.

"Tsunade-sensei, do you have any way to get him out of here?" sakura asked with a slightly hopeful voice.

"Huh? You can't switch yourselves?" Tsunade asked, confused.

"No, I can't take over, I don't even feel a connection to this body, but I can somehow still use chakra in here. While he says he doesn't know how to break his connection to the body, and I can somehow ki- kill him here."

"Sakura!" Mum raised her voice at what Sakura had just said.

"Mum it's alright, anyone would try to if there was someone else inside their body and they couldn't even communicate with anyone for nearly two years." I intervened.

"Fine, but just this once. I don't want the two of you fighting here."

"Hmmhmm, okay." Sakura replied in a miffed sort of voice that only I and probably Mum recognized was a little happy but contained as she seemed to not want to argue with anyone right now and just enjoy wanting to be with mum since she didn't know when it would end.

"Sakura, can you tell me how you became my student!?"

"Ah! Yes sensei. You took me in as your student after you became the Hokage and when-"

"HAAAA!! I became Hokage!? That dreadful position!? What about my gambling!? Why did I choose to become one!?"

"Naruto said that you made a bet with him and then when you lost the bet you became one. You never really talked about it since you always hated it being brought up."

"Ha… so I got suckered into being the Hokage? What happened to the fourth for me to have to become that stupid thing."

"Well during the chunin exams Orochimaru attacked the village by disguising himself as the Kazekage after killing him and then killed the Third Hokage by using the Summoning: Impure world reincarnation jutsu and summoned the First and the Second Hokage."

"Third, isn't he dead? What happened to the Fourth then? And why did Orochimaru attack the village?" Tsunade curiously asked.

"No, last time, during the night of the Kyuubi attack it was the Fourth along with his wife Kushina-sama who sacrificed their lives for the village and sealed the Kyuubi into their baby Naruto, while the Third lived."

"Then what happened differently this time, do you know?" Tsunade asked, to which Sakura instantly snitched on me.

'Ha! Take that you miserable bastard, that's what you get for exposing me!' Sakura shouted inside my head, apparently holding a grudge for showing her personal snu snu time with Sasuke to everyone.

"This bastard drew the events hinting at what was going to happen on the night of the Kyuubi incident and slipped the information to Kushina-sama without anyone realizing it!"

"Hey! In my defense, I wasn't going to let people just die without trying to prevent what was going to happen." I said raising my hands in surrender.

"How and when did you do that?" Mum asked.

"Ah… I drew on a small piece of paper with ink and then folded it and hid it inside the cloth you used to wrap me in while taking me to the market every few days. And I guessed, Kushina-san would eventually cross paths with us if we were lucky, and somehow we did, so I dropped the paper in the bag full of ramen noodles while you were all talking." Mum's eyes were tired as she looked at me.

"That was reckless Megumi, there were plenty of ways to track you down and then you'd have put everyone in danger."

"Yes, mum I tried to avoid getting my scent on it by placing it with the flowers you use to place around my crib but I also felt quite nervous as this was the first time I was doing anything like this, but I wanted to do it since I would probably regret having not done anything even more. I did think it wasn't worth it when I saw you and dad go flying during the attack though so I don't really know if I'd do it similarly again." Mum smiled and nodded. "As long as you know.", while dad's eyes were shining, almost as if he'd become a fan, I didn't know what was going on inside his head. Is this why Sakura is like this? She has delusions about Sasuke and her?

"Ah! So it was your drawing that Minato saw and told me about!" Tsunade exclaimed all of a sudden.

"Told you about?" Sakura asked, as everyone looked at Tsunade with a questioning face.

"Haha! I was just talking to him about a few things I just recently learned about from an informant, that was when he explained to me about the happenings of the night of the Kyuubi incident, sorry I can't tell you anymore, at least not without asking the Minato brat first."

"Mum you need to scold him more! Because now we can't use anything that I know about from the future! And the opponent is already someone so strong that even the Sage of Six paths couldn't defeat her and had to seal her into the moon." Sakura explained mum while she egged her on to shout at me.

"Who's "she"?" Tsunade asked cautiously.

"Her name is Kaguya, she's the mother of the Sage of Six paths. When we fought her she kept imposing one dimension after another with different unique attributes to each, one was filled with lava and looked like the inside of a volcano, another was filled with ice and another had gravity that was many times greater than normal, she also had these black rods that decayed anything they were thrust into which she kept shooting out of her palms."

"And then there was this giant tree that somehow used the moon as a Sharingan and put everyone into an inescapable genjutsu and started to extract their chakra or something, I don't even know how it works."

"Before she even came out there was Madara, who became the jinchuriki of the ten tails and even without that he was so strong after having had the cells of the First Hokage grafted into his body that he was knocking out battle hardened shinobi purely using Taijutsu, then when all the Kage got together and confronted him at once he obliterated them by using wood clones shielded by a susanoo each, it was only after all the other Hokage were brought back using Impure world reincarnation along with Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi sensei joining the fight did the fight stabilize a bit and even then no one was able to really do any damage to him, except Guy-sensei after he opened the gates of death."

"And then there's that stupid black plant thing, black Zetsu that can infiltrate any place, anywhere without being detected and can pass through solid objects so no secret is safe outside in the real world. The entire battle was super powerful people just throwing out one powerful jutsu after another to absolutely change the entire map of the five great villages and it was all one giant mess and now the future is even messier since this guy here decided it would be a nice idea to change something so fundamental that it'll have a rippling impact into the future."

While everyone was lost in thought for a moment, Tsunade was the only one who turned to me since she realized there was more to it than what Sakura was talking about and I seemed the type of person to her who'd not do anything so drastic without taking into account its impact on the future.

So I said in a slightly firm but still a soft voice.

"I'm only voicing my speculations here so take everything with a grain of salt since I'm just laying out my thoughts without even having total knowledge of the situation and make sure to interrupt if you think there's something wrong somewhere which I'm sure you will, what I want to say is, isn't all of it just awfully convenient. Why is everyone deciding that the Sage of Six paths is the good guy? Just because he said so? Why is Kaguya the bad woman? Just because he said so?"

Everyone got even more confused at my answer, since it was-

"Son, isn't it obvious that someone trying to put the whole world in a genjutsu and extract their chakra would be a bad person?" Dad asked.

"Yes, but Kaguya never said why she was doing what she was doing the entire battle with Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Obito and Kakashi did she? Does anyone here really believe that someone that couldn't be killed by the Sage of six paths and his brother after fighting for would have trouble with a few shinobi who were ninja for roughly six years, including the time they were genin? She had the byakugan and a special type of sharingan to boot, she should have no blind spots, she should've seen through all the jutsus the enemies were casting, she had rods that could disintegrate someone completely if they impaled them yet she was loosing against a bunch of toddlers when compared to someone like her? Isn't it all very suspicious? Especially when she never spoke about anything during the entire fight and just kept to herself most of the time and letting everyone else around her speak?" I asked voicing out all the speculations I had.

"What are you getting at?" Tsunade asked.

"I don't know this whole thing just seems too suspicious to me, I don't know who's the good guy or the bad guy here all I know is that everyone just seems hypocritical, apart from Kaguya everyone seems to be doing the exact opposite of what they actually seem to want to do."

"Madara wanted to achieve world peace but ended up waging a war against all the nations to do so, the Sage of Six paths wanted the world to be at peace but somehow allowed his children to keep fighting more and more to the point that they had to reincarnate again and again over multiple generations to fight each other again and again and then he just watched as the world formed nations and then fought in between each other again and again? What kind of person is he? Does he care about the 'peace' or does he not? Why does he have to wait a thousand years to attain this 'peace' and how does the world become peaceful simply by sealing kaguya once again? Does sealing Kaguya cause people to stop being bad? If so then doesn't that just mean that someone has taken away my ability to experience the other emotions in my life? I mean imagine if I kept feeling good while I kept Sakura trapped inside my head would I even take the steps to let you meet her in that case? What exactly was his plan and idea? If he was alive and really wanted world peace then why not show them what he wanted to do by leading with an example? Since clearly he's alive and well enough to observe the shinobi world and keep handing out powers to who ever he wants to."

"And then there's the most suspicious of them all. The Sage Toad. He claims to be able to view into the future, but he has no means to prevent it? He's lived for a thousand years and he's got no way to mitigate or change the future while I just did with a single drawing? Predicting a thousand years into the future, does anyone realize how stupidly and absurdly hard that is to do? Entire civilizations can rise and collapse into themselves during that period of time, and he still knows for sure how things are going to be that far out? Enough to have predicted the rise of a 'hero' after a thousand years? What? It seems to me more and more like he's the one that's moving things the way he really wants it to be, it seems to me like he's the one really controlling people's destinies and not just watching them." I said with scrunched up eye brows while I went in to conspiracy theory mode.

"Well, my claims are just that claims and suspicions, for there might be something even beyond the toads that limits them to just watch the world as it is set in motion, in which case there is no real meaning to change anything really, after all in that case, regardless of my interference, whatever has to happen will happen. But until then I will do my best to help in the situation in front of me anyway I can, since doing anything else would be disingenuous and something I'd probably regret if I was wrong."

*Clap**Clap* I quickly clapped my hands as I noticed the atmosphere had gotten a littel tense and heavy.

"Anyway, leaving all this depressing talk aside, please wait in the room for a moment, I've got something to prepare and then we can all do what I've really brought everyone here to do right now."

**THIRD PERSON POV**

"That was something else?" Tsunade was the first to speak after Megumi left the room. She remembered what Minato had told her but kept quiet about it since she didn't have the permission to talk about it.

"It was and just imagining the Sage of Six paths being bad makes me feel weird? I mean we've heard of his greatness since we were kids! And when our parents and even their parents were kids!"

"Yes, but what Megumi brings up are somehwat valid points even if they don't have the substance to back them, yet. As we clearly don't know any of their motives from a third trustable source. Since if any of them are not who they say they are then...."

An unsettling silence fell into the room as everyone thought of different scenarios inside their heads for a while.

"Sorry I wasn't there for you when you were going through-" Mebuki started but was interrupted by Sakura.

"No mom, it's that bastar-"

"Sakura!"

"But mom it's true it's his fault! If he wasn't here then!"

"Sakura! I might not know a lot of things that happened in the future but I'm sure I wouldn't have taught you to blame problems out of your control onto someone else, especially someone who treats you well when he has all the power in the world to not do so, so behave yourself."

*sigh* "It's alright mum, I was just…. Checking."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, every time I tell him that the situation I'm in is his fault he just freezes for a second. I thought he just imagined you all so that I'd calm down."

"Megumin would never do that!"

"I know, I know. It's just he never tells me about his past so I don't want to trust him fully. I will once he tells me though."

"It's alright Mebuki, I'm sure I didn't teach someone who'd treat others poorly." Tsunade interrupted by placing her hand on Mebuki's shoulder and calmed her down.

"Have you ever actually asked him about it?" Kiazshi asked.

"I…."

"Haha, then that's probably why. He's like your mom. He'd never burden others with what he's feeling, especially if it's depressing, he'd rather figure things out on his own for as long as he can. Some people can be stupid like that." Kizashi ranted which earned him a soft punch on the shoulder from Mebuki for indirectly calling her stupid.

"Haha. So either just ask him or decide that you don't want to. If he doesn't look worried about it, then it means that he's probably over it already and doesn't really care much about it anymore."

"By the way, what's taking him so long? He said he'd be gone for a few seconds." Tsunade asked.

"I dunno. He didn't even tell me." Sakura explained.

A few minutes later a head popped into the room at the door and said, "Sakura, come here while you keep your eyes closed! The rest of you stay here for a second."

They looked at each other when Mebuki suddenly smiled and then encouraged Sakura to go on and pushed her eyes close.

Sakura walked until she reached the door when Megumi covered her eyes and pulled her away behind the room when silence descended the room again for a few seconds and then Megumi's voice sounded again.

"You guys! Come on over to this side!"

As they walked out of the door they came into a very dark hallway that seemed to be lit by torches and when they turned around and looked back they found the doors they'd just walked in from had vanished.

In front of them was Sakura wearing the dress Megumi had worn during the day with a few additions and changes to suit her better. Instead of the regular cotton, this dress was made of silk so it layered along her body and accentuated her figure. The long sleeves cupped her hands and followed with each movement of hers. A black shawl-like silk cloth ribbon was wrapped around her arms and around her waist, printed on it were floral designs along with leaves interspersed in between that made her look like she was one with nature. She still had the rose in her hair pressed under her black hair band, but the hair band had pink Sakura petals intertwined into it instead of swirls further enhancing the effect. Her feet were wrapped by black laces that extended from short heels that pushed her height up just a little so that her head reached the base of Megumi's forehead.

*GASP*

Mebuki, Tsunade and Kizashi all found Sakura especially beautiful, especially the pink shiny soft silk that had been used to make her dress instead of the usual cloth.

"Shhhhh!" Megumi reprimanded the group to keep silent which they immediately took heed off.

"What's happening! When will you remove your hands Megumi!?"

"Wait one sec."

As soon as everyone moved around and became comfortable inside the dark tunnel, Megumi lifted his hands from Sakura's eyes as she opened them in anticipation only to be disappointed by the large door that was in front of her.

"Go on, give it a push." Megumi insisted.

Sakura pushed the door a little as it opened slowly by itself with creaking sounds that echoed inside the tunnel making it sound like the awakening of a beast from deep slumber.

The light from outside was a little bright and took some time to get used to but as soon as everyone did, they were surprised beyond words at what they saw.

The tunnel they were in was at the base of a mountain opening up onto a sandy beach that bordered a clear and pristine lake with pink water lily flowers blooming all around the edges as they dithered towards the center, leading toward the magnificent white gothic castle decorated by vines bound around it's spires and buttresses at the center of the lake that floated on a giant lily pad it's flower being a tall and thick, ancient looking Sakura tree that sprouted taller than the entire castle emerging as the central spire.

Mountains that bordered the edges were filled with various smaller Sakura trees and seemingly the sounds of various other vegetation swaying in the gentle breeze, accompanying the orchestra of animal and bird life sounds producing calming rhythmic tones through the edges.

Megumi took Sakura's hand as he led her toward a rather large lily pad near the edge of the beach, which Sakura followed as if in a trance.

The rest followed along as well.

As Sakura stumbled onto the leaf, trying to maintain her balance, she noticed he absolutely gorgeous silk dress that accentuated her figure and the several other accessories like slave bracelet and rings that decorated the back of her hand and fingers, with the sweet smelling rose on the sides of her hair, with the hair band that tidied up her hair that was rough from sleeping earlier.

Sakura then looked at Megumi who seemed to be busy admiring his work by looking everywhere around himself.

Sakura pushed past her ridiculously over-heating brain that was struggling between wanting to admire the pieces of jewelry on herself and the scenery and leaned up over Megumi's ear and whispered, "Thank you." in the softest voice she could so that no one else on the ride could hear her.

Megumi looked over, smiled and then bent down to Sakura's ear and whispered back, "It's just getting started."

The lily pad moved when everyone was on it and floated over to the top most balcony on the druidic gothic castle at a gentle pace.

Sakura petals floated down from the canopy of the Sakura tree onto the balcony as the lily pad vanished when everyone descended onto the balcony.

A rather large box was placed in between the balcony that everyone was curious about, but it was covered by a baby pink silk cloth which only intrigued them more.

"Go ahead." Megumi nudged Sakura to pull away the cloth, which she did, as it vanished into the air becoming Sakura petals floating away into the wind, revealing a table with the beautiful cake that was just cut in the real world, a white cake, with creamy borders, added to which was a cute chibi Sakura in between sitting on her butt, wearing the dress that Megumi had wore outside, with a single candle with the number two on it at the edge."

Everyone immediately knew what was going on and surrounded the table as Megumi passed a knife to her while everyone sang the birthday song, even Kizashi much to everyone's trouble, for Sakura who looked at everyone with a bashful smile and slowly cut the cake with a pink glass knife.

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

Everyone came forward, happy to taste the cake that Sakura cut for them after which she ate her own share by taking some of it on a plate.

When Sakura turned around to once again admire the view as it was getting dark, fireflies emerged underneath and inside the canopy of the Sakura tree giving the impression of a pink galaxy with a million stars hanging in the sky, while fire flies also emerged from within the lily flowers around the lake and the forest, giving the feeling that these stars had descended all around them.

*Gasp*

Everyone gasped as they witnessed the beautiful scene and then ended up just talking to each other, Mebuki with Tsunade about something that had them laughing and giggling like little girls, while Megumi with Kizashi who seemd to be asking Megumi about someone in a very serious questioning way with Megumi enjoying telling something very much, while Sakura just hung around the railing of the balcony looking at everyone enjoying the small party with smiles on their faces which brought a smile on her face too.

She then happened to accidentally look at Megumi which sent her thoughts spiraling setting into motion as she found herself for the first time in a long time wanting to be friends with someone else, just like she was with Ino before she got here. She felt she could truly trust Megumi and he was just what he portrayed himself to be, a softie.

Sakura then shifted her gaze back into the lake, only knowing herself what she was thinking about since her expressions constantly kept changing between a silly smile, a serious gaze and a frustrated frown while muttering the word 'Stupid' and 'Sasuke' repeatedly.

-------------------------

A/N: This is a kinda long chapter, I could've split but didn't feel it so here you guys go. Have fun. Oh and this is what the castle looks like.

Thank you for reading! 

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