For the rest of their journey Sakura had had to fight the urge to turn around, run back to Konoha and to Kakashi and stop him. He could have waited for her to return, she thought, but he didn't and in a way she felt betrayed because of that.
Of course, part of her knew that this way he was trying to protect her; to spare her the task of killing him – should it come to that. And though she knew she was supposed to feel grateful, part of her hated him for it.

When they finally arrived at the camp set up by the Cloud, where the number of shinobi present suggested, that the other villages' medics had long since arrived, Sakura couldn't tell whether it was the persistent exhaustion she had ignored throughout their journey, or her fear for Kakashi, or the tension buzzing in the air that made her feel dizzy.

She only took in half of what the shinobi greeting them told her about the autopsy's progress, smiled and nodded her understanding, though, and patiently waited for him to show her where to get something to eat and then to the tent designated for her and her escort.
She knew that she should get down to examine Madara's body right away, but she couldn't. She forced herself to eat, then curled up in her bed and waited for sleep that wouldn't come. (Just as it hadn't the night before, ad the night before that.)

The next day Sakura didn't feel any better, yet she patiently listened to the Sand's medic, Ryokan, telling her in a hushed voice the rumours about the Cloud having stripped Madara's body of any useful information before any of the others arrived.
"And, did they?", Sakura replied. She had no idea where she should get the energy from to worry about the possible conflict arising from these accusations as well.
"I don't know", Ryokan replied.
"The body bears little to no traces of Madara's abilities. However", he added after thinking about it for a little while "there's so much wrong with this corpse that I'm really not sure if the Cloud is to blame for it."
Sakura nodded and put on the white apron waiting for her. She tied her hair back and, taking a deep breath (it's always a good idea to take a deep breath, before confining yourself to the same room as a corpse), stepped inside the tent that held Madara's body.

Oddly enough, there was little to no smell at all. There was no rotten flesh or bare bones, but stretched skin over dry bones and empty eye-sockets staring at the tent's ceiling.
"How -", Sakura let out, but soon remembered Ryokan's words.
"You didn't even start to dissect him", she then said. She received an encouraging nod in reply, and after a moment of hesitation (was she really allowed to make the first cut? Shouldn't the other village's medics be here as well, when she did), Sakura's curiosity triumphed. Her mouth and nose covered with a mask (which painfully reminded her of Kakashi, although she knew that this notion was ridiculous), she carefully moulded some chakra at the tip of her fingers, made it grow thinner than a sheet of paper, with edges sharper than the sharpest kunai. Then, after receiving one more encouraging nod from Ryokan, she placed it just above the top of the mummified body's sternum, took another deep breath, and dragged it down, right through the bone and all the way down.
Sakura stared. She wondered if she should feel sick (which she didn't).
The inside of Madara's body was as dried up as its outside, all organs had shrunk and collapsed in them self. Somehow, Sakura suspected that even with a Byakugan it would be impossible to find the remaining, physical traces of what once were the deceased's chakra-gates.
Sakura was still standing and staring, when – so slowly that she hardly noticed it at first – the bits of cut-through skin and bone began to move, reached for their other halves and merged back together.
"What the -"
Ryokan shrugged. This had happened every time till now.
"It doesn't even seem to matter, if someone's still inside there. Yoruki-san, of the mist, had her hand trapped in there for hours, until we managed to free her.
"The body", he added as he saw the confusion visible on Sakura's face "had tried to annex her.