Sakura barely registered the snowy landscape flying past her as she dully stared ahead, her eyes as lifeless as those of a dead fish. She was trapped inside a wooden box plastered with chakra sealing tags, carried like a palanquin by four men, yet in that moment she could not have cared less that she was bound for Hōzuki Castle, the ninja jail from which death was the only known escape.
A few months ago, when Shion, the Holy Miko of the Land of Demons, had briefly explained her powers of precognition, Sakura had not completely believed her. It was only when the priestess's prophecy of Sakura being pierced through the heart came to pass that she finally realised Shion had been telling the truth all along… but now she understood that this aspect of Shion's powers was very different from what she had claimed.
The true nature of Shion's Dōjutsu was not foresight, it was regression triggered by death.
The time of Sakura's death was still some way off, and since Shion's Dōjutsu was merely a degraded version of Urashiki's Rinnegan time travel power, the precious few memories that had travelled back with her soul through the river of time were faded and half-forgotten… and most vivid of all were the memories of her own death.
"Naruto…" Sakura murmured.
Sakura closed her eyes and tried to picture her future self's last moments. Staked to the ground by Six Paths chakra rods, black receivers. Try as she might to mould chakra or release the Yin Seal, the receivers siphoned away her chakra as fast as she could draw it. In the end, the Deva Path had murdered her before Naruto's eyes, and darkness had enveloped her.
"My soul regressed…" Sakura murmured. "So in that future timeline, even if Naruto somehow manages to convince Nagato to revive everyone… I'll be the only one the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique won't be able to bring back, because there would already be nothing to bring back…"
That was too tragic.
Naruto's only reward for following his conscience would be despair.
Tears started dripping down Sakura's face onto her breasts. She could not shake the image of Naruto's shocked eyes as he watched the life drain out of her. She would keep regressing eternally upon death, so with each death at Pain's hands, she would create a Naruto and a Sasuke who'd have lost their Sakura forever.
"I have to go back to the village," Sakura muttered to herself. "I don't remember how I escaped Hōzuki Castle in the first round, but I have to do it again…"
Sakura strained with all her might, but she had been bound in a position that made it impossible for her to exert any force without rupturing a ligament. And even if she could somehow escape her manacles, she was still stuck inside a box of wood harder than steel that sealed her chakra. She'd have to wait until they freed her to make her move.
"It's okay, everything's going to be all right," Sakura muttered to herself. "I've made it through worse."
As long as Sakura could hold on to that goal, she wouldn't go mad, no matter how long she was jailed, because as long as she had hope, her future was limitless. She couldn't accept a world in which Naruto's story ended in tragedy, so she would just have to work harder until she could make that far-off good ending a reality.
"Hahaha!" Sakura laughed out loud, startling the four men carrying her cage. "All right, I'm filled with determination! Bring it on, Hōzuki Castle! I'm not afraid of you!"
The porters shook their heads. If only their prisoner knew the depths of despair that awaited her within the castle's walls…
…
Sakura's ardour had considerably diminished by the time her porters carried her through Hōzuki Castle's gates. The shinobi continent was immense, and the prison complex lay in the middle of a lake in the Land of Grass so vast it almost behaved like the sea, with storms and tall waves and great whirlpools that had threatened to engulf her frail embarkation and wash her cage overboard along the way.
The castle itself was just like many castle towns she had seen, like the one in Tanzaku Quarters and the Manyū clan's Tanimagakure. It was surrounded by steep walls and dotted with tall watchtowers, and the guards' patrols were tight, from what little she had seen of their movements. She had no doubt her chakra would be somehow sealed, so to escape as a regular girl… seemed like a daunting task.
Sakura's eyes darted around as she memorised the layout of the courtyard entrance. Guards in every corner, others posted along the ramparts armed with matchlock rifles… and standing before her and the two fellow prisoners captured alongside her, a line of nondescript jailors, flanked by one tall, gaunt man and another portly man wearing sunglasses.
"Attention! Stand ready for the arrival of Hōzuki Castle's master, you worms!" called the fat man, stepping aside. "Lord Mui will now address you!"
The tall man stepped forward.
"I am called Mui, and I am this prison's overseer," he said quietly. "Being sent here means that you have completely lost the trust of your village. No matter how important you used to be, know that you have been discarded. You are no longer of any value, but as long as you follow the rules, you will be allowed some semblance of normalcy within these walls…"
Sakura cast a sideways glance at her fellow inmates. One was a tan-skinned uncle with wild hair and a tracksuit, and the other a teenager who seemed about her age, with bright, alert eyes and an unnerving smile plastered across his face.
"I will now apply a cursed seal upon each of you, which will prevent you from infusing chakra. Do not try to test its limits overmuch, or you will spontaneously combust," Mui went on. "You may hear during your stay that my jutsu is vulnerable to water, and I will tell you right now that much is true. When submerged, my jutsu loses its efficacy… but know this: the only body of water large enough to cover you entirely is the lake that lies beyond these walls. I would not suggest jumping into those waters while your chakra remains sealed. You will be dragged to the lake floor and drown before you have any chance to produce chakra, I can promise you that."