Messing with the Middle

All wars end

It was dark. At least she didn't feel anything anymore. No pain, no anger, no love. Nothing. She was empty, a mere shell of her former self. It was simply dark. She couldn't see herself, in front of her, around her, nothing.

She was standing in nothingness.

A figure appeared from the corner of her eye. One fairly familiar. She looked just like herself only more rugged and enraged. Her eyes Dark, she couldn't really say they were emerald green anymore. They were simply Dark green. As if all the light in them had died, no... Been crushed.

She of all people knew what that felt like.

"What are you doing here?" Inner grumbled. She was angry and rightfully so. Every plan of hers had gone sideways. Hinata was still alive, Haku was still alive, Asuma, Neji, Itachi even Jiraiya although he's still in intensive care, they were all alive.

"You tell me. Are we dead?" Sakura asked. It was odd talking to herself. Despite everything Inner had done Sakura didn't know if she had it in her to hate herself. Inner was a part of her after all.

Inner sighed. She knew when she was defeated. There was no point in fighting anymore. She had lost. All three members of 'Team 7' are alive and are strong enough to stop Madara. The war will end and that will be that. She slumped to the ground. She'd lost.

"No. Not yet. We're in your mind... Our mind. Odd you don't recognise it, you spent 3 years trapped here," Inner explained.

Sakura sat down opposite her. "Hard to remember anything when you're being crushed out of existence, but maybe that's just me," she snarked rolling her eyes.

"Mmm, well, think of it as purgatory then. We don't have long. There was a hole in our stomach, and while we managed to heal it, the many many broken bones, cuts, bruises and chakra exhaustion will finish us off soon." Inner replied.

The two sat in silence as they both pondered on their inevitable end.

"Why..." Sakura whispered.

"Hm?"

"Why? What did everything accomplish? Why didn't you quit sooner? I had just gotten Hinata to forgive us! Why did you ruin it? Why!? Nothing you've done has made sense!" Sakura asked. She started off small but the more she spoke the angrier and louder she got.

Inner let her rant. Her frustrations were valid. She had stolen her body for 3 years and forced her to watch as she did hanus things.

"I lost my daughter," Inner started. Sakura showed her confusion. "I'm not a second voice Sakura. I am you and older you, your future. I'm from a future where you marry Sasuke, where you trained under Tsunade, where you have a daughter." She started. Sakura's eyes widened. All this time and that never quite registered to her. "So is Sasuke. So when he came back the future started to change. I held my daughter as she disappeared, I watched our friends cry over their children. I watched the future morph before my eyes, Found my husband with another woman, I wanted to change it all back,"

"So that's why you did all of this? But... But that doesn't make any sense!" Sakura yelled and gripped her hair the more she thought. "Sasuke doesn't want us! He doesn't like us! He never has! Going after his friends! His brother! Hinata!? Even if you succeeded you would never get your daughter back!?... Did Sasuke even love us? I feel if he did he wouldn't be trying to change so much,"

Inner sat silently. The truth was that she didn't know. She didn't know if her Sasuke liked her. Sasuke never sent letters home, never really visited, barely spoke to her and Sarada. He always hid his emotions though so she could never really tell what he was thinking.