Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“There isn’t anything you can do.”

But Sakura didn’t need Kakashi’s words to confirm it. She knew it - could feel it - as soon as she came to. She took desperate, gulping breaths as she patted her chest, still reeling from the phantom sensations of Sasuke’s hand running through it. A genjutsu, she thought. I got taken out by a genjutsu. It’s the bell exam all over again.

There was no time to mourn her still lacking ninja prowess nor be incensed to anger at all the injustices she’d faced leading up to this moment. She scanned for miles across the rugged terrain of the battlefield for any chakra signature besides hers and Kakashi’s. But the whole world had already stopped. She could feel Madara’s ominous, looming power building. The Juubi's screeches grew louder in the distance. Pollen from the Divine Tree floated through the air irritating her sinuses and watering her eyes. The final battle had happened. Naruto and Sasuke were dead.

Sakura, despite her better judgement, ran toward the direction of her boys’ dwindling chakra signatures. This can’t be true, she despaired. There’s no way Naruto could die. He’s supposed to fix everything!

There had to be some final trick up his sleeve. An ace that he seemed to have aplenty. Maybe all the Edo Tensei’d kages could pull something together one last time. Surely the second Hokage could perform the same technique Chiyo-sama had used to bring Gaara back. Or maybe there were more secrets to be unlocked with the Byakugou. Fuck! If only she’d been able to unlock it earlier. She could’ve figured out a technique on her own for a situation like this.

The ground thrummed with a song of their impending doom, splitting and cracking until the earth formed complicated designs in the ground. She had to call chakra to her feet just to keep balanced. The ground only grew more unstable the farther she ran.

She could hear Kakashi behind her shouting out warnings that fell on deaf ears. She had failed enough in this lifetime. She couldn’t afford to fail anymore. Sasuke and Naruto had endured enough pain for generations. She was supposed to be the one to lighten their burdens. A support that held them both up so they could stand in the sun. Her foot snagged on one of the quickly growing roots sprouting from the Divine Tree. She bit her tongue to keep from wailing when she realized she’d twisted her ankle. The taste of iron pooled in her mouth.

Sakura hadn’t realized she was still moving to wherever Naruto and Sasuke’s bodies lay until she felt Kakashi’s arms restrain her. She bucked and thrashed against him with the remainder of her strength. When that didn’t work she resorted to curses.

“There isn't anything you can do, Sakura!” he repeated, this time his shoulders drooped in embittered resignation. Years of weariness seemed to age him in the span of seconds. It really was all over.

Tears were all that were left at that point. And hadn’t she always had them in surplus? Another battle she was helpless to intervene? All that time promising to herself to never be the one staring at their backs again. Well, she was right in a sense. She never would again. She’d stand alone this time. But in a way, hadn’t she always been standing alone?

There was no time to think once the Divine Tree’s branches reached out and tore her and Kakashi apart. Their screams were short-lived and muffled as a silken web wove around their bodies trapping them in a cocoon of eternal slumber.

XXX

The Infinite Tsukiyomi hadn’t been half of what Madara or Obito said it would be. The paradise of blissful ignorance and peace that the ninja world could never achieve was actually a nightmare. At least it was for Sakura. She didn’t know how long she’d been dreaming for, but it was far too much for her taste.

The perfect world that Sakura dreamed of could never be a reality. Being on equal footing with everyone on Team 7 would only ever be a dream. Them letting her in on their deepest fears, worries, and pains just couldn’t happen. A casual spar with no holds barred? Who was she kidding? It felt like she was being taunted having to bear witness to this false reality. No matter how much she wanted this life to exist it simply couldn’t.

What made it worse was that somewhere deep down inside of her she believed that this reality could’ve existed. If she’d only taken her training more seriously earlier on.

But that was exactly why it was so easy for her to slip out of it. Sakura had always had an affinity for genjutsu. She thought to herself that if she’d honed those skills she could’ve been of more use during the war. But Sakura had been down this road before. She knew she shouldn’t think that way. Tsunade-sama’s medical expertise revolutionized the way war could be fought.

What does any of that matter when everyone’s dead anyway?

There was no time. As soon as she’d dispelled the jutsu, the cocoon she was held in opened up like a flower and dropped her like a bad habit. She softened her fall by distributing chakra to her feet, but her legs buckled like a newborn fawn upon impact. She shuddered as she swiped at the sticky goo from the cocoon that had seeped into her every crevice. She could only hope that she’d get away fast enough to have time for a quick wash in a stream.

Sakura didn’t have a plan. There wasn’t really one with the two most pivotal figures of the war gone. Her stomach twisted in knots imagining what remained of them now. Had vultures already made a meal of their flesh? Were they just bones? She didn’t want to think about it. She also didn’t want to be alone.

There was no telling where Kakashi had been pulled to. The cocoons weren’t distinctive at all. She’d have to guess if she wanted to see any familiar faces. And she needed to be fast. The Divine Tree’s influence had left the once barren terrain a grassy field teeming with abnormally large plant and animal life. A beetle was currently crawling over a cluster of cocoons trying to pry them open.

Sakura summoned her slug summon Lady Katsuyu. For what - she wasn’t exactly sure yet. A palm-sized version of Katsuyu appeared and though the slug barely had a face, the surprise was evident.

“Sakura-chan,” Katsuyu’s polite voice rang out. “How did you-”

“I’ll explain later,” Sakura dismissed. “Help me find my friends, please.”

Sakura ran over to the branch across from her own and wrapped herself around it. She attempted to scale the branch with zero luck - partly due to the cocoon goo she was still caked in and partly because her body had grown soft from its time stuck in the genjutsu. Katsuyu slithered up to Sakura’s shoulder with ease.

“Sakura, there’s nothing you can do,” the slug said in a voice rife with pity.

“Don’t say that!” Sakura snapped. “There’s always something. You should never give up even ‘til your last breath. I have to keep Naruto’s dream alive.”

“Naruto’s dead,” Katsuyu said gently.

“But I’m not. That has to count for something.”

Katsuyu kept quiet. She stuck to Sakura’s shoulder watching her use all her strength to climb up the branch again. When that didn’t work, she set her eyes on one of the lower hanging cocoons and tried prying it open. Large swaths of menacing chakra sent shockwaves over the lands. Even Katsuyu shuddered at the pure malice it emitted. But Sakura didn’t let that deter her in the slightest. She was making good progress unspooling the cocoon’s tightly bound threads. Just a little more and she was sure she’d find a familiar face.

Another wave of the imposing chakra swept over them. “We need to get out of here now, Sakura,” Katsuyu warned. “It’s not safe.”

“Nowhere’s safe anymore,” Sakura countered, grunting as she continued peeling back the cocoon’s layers. A shriek from the Juubi sounded off. Katsuyu’s voice turned grave. “Stop it now.”

“But I’m so close.”

“Are you trying to get yourself and whoever you pull out killed?”

“We’re all dead either way. Why not go out at least in true shinobi fashion?”

Sakura was talking nonsense. Katsuyu knew this. The girl had never been so erratic before. But this was war. And she was still grieving while attempting a plan for a future that could no longer be. It was tragic to watch. Katsuyu could not spare much emotion though. She was older than even Tsunade and had been made to bear witness to much more tragedy than this. So she knew as she watched Sakura’s optimistic face slip into a mask of disappointment as TenTen fell out of the goo of the cocoon that she’d have to be the one holding the reins in the situation.

TenTen groaned as Sakura released her from the genjutsu with a simple kai. She was so disoriented upon waking and recoiled at the touch of Sakura’s healing chakra. Katsuyu kept track of the gaining chakra while Sakura used her best bedside manner to get TenTen accustomed to her new surroundings.

Chakra surged in the small piece of Katsuyu’s body. Sakura, noticing it, turned to her curiously. Katsuyu, looking ahead to the movement of branches and tall grasses, kept her voice low, “Hold tight to TenTen. We’re going now.”

“Going wh-”

XXX

A cool wind lapped at the exposed parts of their flesh. A mist so dense you couldn’t tell whether it was night or day settled over the land. Sakura splayed her fingers out in front of herself barely able to discern her own silhouette. She could hear TenTen groaning somewhere behind her. Sakura walked, hands held out in front like a zombie, blindly following the sound. Instead of flesh, she was met with a strange mucus-like texture. When her eyes finally adjusted to the dim lighting, she saw a trail of slime left behind on what looked like a fifty foot tall dahlia flower.

Slowly, Sakura took in all her surroundings. A dense forest of comically large, zigzagging trees enclosed them in this peculiar place. Drops of dew slipped from the leaves of various flowers and plants into puddles of bubbling acid. Teeth marks and trails of slime coated trees and patches of green earth alike.

“This is Shikkotsu Forest,” Katsuyu’s voice still soft, but much louder than Sakura had ever heard it explained. Through the mist, Sakura took in the full scale of Katsuyu’s body. She was nearly the same size as the trees. “Only two shinobi have ever been granted access to this sacred space - both Senju. Now both you and TenTen join those ranks. Congratulations!”
Sakura looked around in awe. She’d only heard Tsunade talk about this fabled space in passing. Her mentor had undersold how majestic it truly was.

“And we’ll be safe here?” Sakura asked, still high on the buzz of achieving new heights.
Katsuyu nodded. “Mm. One would need to have made a contract with me to get here - or come here with someone who made one.”

A shudder of relief rolled down Sakura’s spine untwisting all her anxious knots. That was good to know. Madara had seemed so godlike on the battlefield. It was good hearing there were some limits to his power.

A horrified shriek from TenTen brought Sakura out of her daze. She ran back to the spot she had originally been dropped and saw a green slug the size of a toddler crawling all over TenTen who was doing everything in her power to pry the animal off.

“Don’t mind her too much,” Katsuyu managed in between giggles. “That’s my younger cousin Katsuyuki. She’s just fascinated by humans.”

“Can’t she be fascinated with something else?” TenTen’s voice rose to a panicked shriek. Katsuyuki eventually lost interest and slinked off of her leaving a thick trail of slime. Sakura let out a wild bark of laughter. Katsuyu watched with a soft smile. TenTen on the other hand was not amused. If Sakura paid close enough attention, she might’ve noticed the fiery hostility brewing inside TenTen. But hindsight was 20/20 and despite all her booksmarts she’d never been able to see the bigger picture.

XXX

Sakura filled her days training nonstop in the sage arts. There really was nothing she could do at this point and it pained her to know that, but she couldn’t allow herself to be idle nor give into despair. It was too late for that. She couldn’t return to that fresh, helpless genin who had always resigned herself to her self-imposed limitations. But she had to bite back the acrid taste in her mouth every time she remembered Naruto - village idiot Naruto - had mastered the same technique in less than a week.

“Everybody learns at their own pace,” Katsuyu reminded her gently as the months dragged on. But Sakura’s pace always seemed to be a day late and a dollar short. Did anything truly matter at the end of the world? She sure hoped it did. Maybe she’d be powerful enough to wake everyone from the Infinite Tsukiyomi and bring them back to Shikkotsu Forest. That world of no conflict Madara and Obito longed for more than anything - could it happen here? In a place with no borders? No jinchuuriki to fight over? She’d be as naive as Obito and Madar to believe so.

Sage training was much more complicated than anyone could dream of - especially for slug summoners. Slugs had lost the shells that they shared with their cousins the snails long ago and had to train their bodies to adapt. When Shikkotsu Forest got hot, it got really hot. Katsuyu, Katsuyuki, and her sister Katsumi had to constantly produce slime to prevent desiccation. Sakura’s training consisted of first rolling herself in the slime trails the slugs left around as a small crutch until she was able to create her own. They’d have her laid out in different sections of the forest where the sun burned brightest and forced her to channel her senjutsu chakra. No water nor food was allowed during these times. As she sat under the boiling sun, sweat dripping from every crevice, body shaking from the sheer willpower she used to conjure chakra she didn’t really understand, the slime she coated herself in would quickly dry leaving her to faint from heat exhaustion.

Every time Sakura woke from another failed training session, she’d curse her younger self for never taking initiative during Iruka’s more physical lessons. She had wanted to learn combat techniques, spar, throw shuriken, but it wasn’t a good look for a girl to appear strong - especially if that potentially ruined her chances of catching the eye of the one she admired. That belief wasn’t exactly challenged either when the academy held gender specific specialty classes like flower arrangement only the girls had to attend. She wished she could’ve been more headstrong like Ino and barged into those heavier combat classes with the boys.

But thoughts of Ino only led her to more thoughts of those she loved. Everyone was gone. How much time had she wasted waiting, hoping for herself to become something more?

TenTen passed through training sessions from time to time. Sakura usually wasn’t in a position to be able to speak when they crossed paths, but when she did TenTen rarely ever returned a greeting. Sakura let a few weeks pass before she ever wondered what TenTen did during the day. Sometimes Sakura would hear TenTen’s grunts as she performed various taijutsu sequences or notice a particularly banged up tree marked by the impressions of TenTen’s weapons, but never more than that.

It was on an unspectacular morning of gray skies and heavy mist when Sakura finally achieved the thin coating of green slime - the same color as her healing chakra - encased her entire body. Katsuyu leaned down to nuzzle her face with one of her eyestalks.

“Congratulations, Sakura-chan! With sage mode under your belt, you’ll be able to continuously heal yourself during battle without break much like my first apprentice Hashirama Senju. The added coating of slime also provides a five to ten minute window of invincibility on the battlefield - no one will be able to pierce you. Those who try will immediately succumb to the effects of poison,” Katsuyu explained.

Though it appeared Katsuyu had more to say, Sakura thanked her in a hurry for her teaching. Eager to spread the good news, Sakura bounded off to find TenTen.

XXX

Tenten was easy to find. Sakura just followed the sound of clanking metal. The weapons specialist must have spent her time getting really crafty. She had an entire training camp set up in a remote spot of the forest. Training dummies, targets, punching bags - TenTen had used the resources of the forest to make them all.

“Looks good,” Sakura complimented as she landed on a tree branch right above TenTen’s setup.

Sakura’s sudden entrance startled TenTen so much that the kunai she was aiming at one of her targets skewered so far left that it disappeared into the forest. She resigned herself to finding it later.

“Thanks,” TenTen muttered dryly. She was revving up to chuck another kunai when Sakura flash-stepped beside her startling her again.

“I did it!” Sakura glowed with pride as she tried to get TenTen’s attention. The senjutsu transformation would only last another five minutes before it receded. Sakura wasn’t sure of how many times she could call up the chakra a day.

TenTen only spared her a half-hearted glance. “Ok.”

Contending with her need for external validation was something Sakura was constantly working at. It was a problem she’d carried since her early academy days. She wasn’t good at much and what she excelled at hardly ever heralded any praise. She could usually choke down her need to be validated and just work harder, but the losses of the war had left all her vulnerabilities wide open. It wasn’t TenTen’s lack of enthusiasm for her progress in particular that bothered her, but they were all the other had. Wouldn’t it be best to cherish the small victories they could still have?

“Wanna spar?” Sakura offered weakly, voice teeming with an anxious apology. TenTen didn’t bother looking up from her weapons.

“Why are you asking?” TenTen asked in a gruff voice.

“Oh! It’s just that I figured that Shikkotsu Forest would leave much to be desired for a weapons specialist-”

“Why are you asking me this now?” TenTen clarified. The full force of her scorn was on display. It rivaled even Tsunade’s on her worst drunken nights.

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead when I’d released you,” Sakura admitted sheepishly. “And I’ve been so engrossed in my own training that I hadn’t considered you at all.”

“As is typical of Team 7,” TenTen snarked before throwing her weapons in a sack and stomping off.

Sakura stood shell shocked. The bite - the sheer amount of venom in TenTen’s tone could’ve taken down the Juubi on its own. But why the causticity when she was extending an olive branch?

Sakura flash-stepped in front of TenTen and fixed her with a fierce glare of her own. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what I said,” TenTen dismissed her again. She shoulder-checked Sakura as she continued walking to god knows where, but Sakura grabbed her by the shoulder using a bit of chakra to keep her in place.

“I know I haven’t been a great host, but I’m trying to fix that,” Sakura started.

“You’re gonna ‘fix it’ by forcing me into compliance?” TenTen spat out gesturing to Sakura’s iron grip. Sakura released her hold and winced at the redness that spread over TenTen’s skin as a result.

“So you don’t want to spar with me? Ok. Maybe we can do something else.”

“Like what?”

“Take a walk through the forest. Talk. Anything.”

“I don’t have anything to discuss with one of the spoiled brats of Team 7. All you guys’ talking ever did was lead us further and further into war.”

“We - me, Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, and Kakashi-sensei - are to blame for a war that had been brewing since our births?” Sakura said, mouth agape at the accusation.

TenTen’s eyes only hardened. “Yes. All you guys’ bullshit attempts to get Sasuke back led to this exact moment.”

“You can’t be serious, TenTen,” Sakura tried to reason.

“Oh, but I am,” TenTen snapped. “Your dreams of getting Team 7 back together after Sasuke’s defection were a shot in the dark. If any of you had the sense you were born with you would’ve accepted that you had to move on.”

“But he did come back,” Sakura argued. She could feel her hands balling into fists, chakra building up for a punch. She took a deep breath before letting her chakra rescind. They were still on the lamb. They couldn’t take too many chances. “He came back and he fought beside us.”

“And all the good that’s done!” TenTen yelled, hands flying everywhere. She hated the heat that was pooling in her stomach. She needed to get away and just be alone in her thoughts like usual. Why the hell had Sakura chosen today of all days to acknowledge her presence? “He ‘helped’ us fight Madara and still nobody knew whether or not he was on our side.”

“Obviously he was on our side if he was fighting Madara.”

“You and Naruto have always been so fucking delusional. When will you realize that no one who loves you, who cares for you, could just leave you behind the way he did. He’s been trying to kill all of you every time you’ve met!” TenTen shouted at the top of her lungs. She felt like she was talking to a wall. And when it came to any member of Team 7 on the topic of Sasuke, she knew that she surely was. “It’s ridiculous the amount of leeway you’ve all been given in pursuit of that… that criminal. Other than his good looks he’s got no redeeming qualities! He’s a guy only out for his own interests and unfortunately neither one of you were on that list.”

“You talk as if you know him!” Sakura interjected, voice coated with the warble of unreleased tears. TenTen couldn’t muster an ounce of sympathy for her.

“Neither do you,” TenTen shot back. “But I’ve got the sense to know when I’m not a guy’s priority. When I’m nothing to him.”

“I’m not nothing to him!”

“Anyone with eyes could see that you are! All your pining and affection couldn’t keep him in the village. It damn sure didn’t bring him back.”

“As if having feelings is a character flaw. I’m sorry I didn’t turn into a block of ice like you did after my teammates died.”

TenTen felt like her throat had been slit as she struggled to get out another word. The tension that hung in the air weighed so heavily on her that she thought she’d die. The rawness of her final moments beside Neji on the battlefield came rushing back. Her heart clenched remembering the serene look on his face as blood dribbled down his chin and his hitaite slipped to reveal the missing curse mark seal on his forehead.

“My teammate is dead because of you and Naruto…”

“No. He chose to protect Hinata-”

“He never had a choice. Not even up to his final moment. He said that so he wouldn’t cause Naruto or Hinata any pain,” TenTen revealed through sobs. Sakura extended her hand to comfort her, but TenTen slapped it away. “He spoke to me in the months leading up to the war. He still held out hope for Naruto to change the Hyuga clan but he was no fool. Now none of that can come true because he was killed to prove a point to Naruto.”

“The actions of that psychopath were not Naruto’s fault-”

“Yes they were! The whole war was to protect him so everyone else was collateral.”

“He died an honorable death as a shinobi. He said so himself-”

“Fuck you!” TenTen let out a strangled scream. “There is nothing honorable in dying before you’ve realized your dreams. That’s just what selfish people like you and his clan members say so you don’t have to feel guilty.”

Silence threatened to asphyxiate both of them. The day's cheerful sunny rays betrayed both girls’ somber moods. TenTen gathered up her scrolls and satchel again and walked away - this time without any interference from Sakura. Neji’s first birthday postmortem was to be celebrated alone.

XXX

It was weeks before the two spoke again. They crossed each others’ paths in one of the many dazzling natural hot springs the forest had to offer. TenTen had been making more trips to the hot springs to clear her mind. Possibly to strategize a plan to get back on the battlefield. But what was the point of returning to a war that they’d already lost?

Sakura popped up as TenTen was in deep thought. She was covered head to toe in slime as usual after training with Katsuyu and her friends. TenTen turned away as Sakura stripped down - both to give her privacy and to avoid any attempt at conversation. There wasn’t much she had to say to the spoiled slug apprentice. But that wasn’t the case for Sakura. TenTen should’ve expected a member of Team 7 to be unrelenting in their pursuit to understand someone who didn’t want to be figured out.

“You loved him, didn’t you?” Sakura’s voice came just as she breached the steamy waters.

TenTen’s body stiffened. From shock? Annoyance? A crazy combination of all kinds of feelings. She clung to the edge of the hot spring ready to hop out, to escape wherever this conversation might lead, but Sakura was at her side in seconds pinning her to the spot with her eyes full of sympathy. TenTen hated it. She leaned her head down on the patches of grass bordering the hot spring and closed her eyes.

“What did he say to make you love him?” Sakura inched closer, her breath caressing TenTen’s shoulder.

“Probably the same thing Sasuke said to you,” TenTen quipped, betraying her better judgement. TenTen heard the waters slosh around Sakura as she moved to rest her forehead against her shoulder. They remained in that position for who knows how long sending each other telepathic messages of understanding.

XXX

“I was always envious of Team Gai.”

“Really?”

“Mhm.”

“Team 7 always seemed like where the fun was at to me.”

“To its own detriment,” Sakura deadpanned.

In the months after their heart-to-heart, Sakura and TenTen had grown so much closer. Exchanging greetings every day, gaining mutual respect for one another’s craft, and sparring had done wonders for their relationship. Maybe Naruto and Sasuke did have this whole friendship thing figured out.

They were lying down, taking shelter under the dew-stained leaves of the forest’s trees. Their spar had gone on for hours before they’d finally exhausted themselves.

“I was jealous of the other rookie 9 teams, too, but especially Team Gai’s,” Sakura said, fanning herself in the process. She was still reeling from their spar. Dodging TenTen’s barrage of weapons was no joke!

“Why was that?” TenTen asked. She sat up, curious beyond imagination, as she stared down at Sakura’s form. She hated being at the mercy of that girl’s fists. Her explosive tags were the only salvation from getting her teeth knocked out and Sakura wasn’t even at full power!

“Because,” Sakura replied in between gasping breaths. “When Neji was going down the wrong path, all of you were strong enough to stand beside him and keep him home. We - well really it was just me who couldn’t do anything of the sort.”

“He came back though,” TenTen offered weakly. “He was fighting alongside us in the end.”

“Not because of anything I did,” Sakura sighed. She was smiling up at the tree-lined sky, but it didn’t meet her eyes.

“You saved me,” TenTen added.

“Yeah, but not Neji or all the others who died.”

No rebuttal could soften the blow of that statement. Even if they’d won the war, over half of the active troops had been killed and the civilians who the Juubi had unleashed its hell on hadn’t been accounted for yet and probably never would.

“I have regrets, too, you know,” TenTen added suddenly. Sakura snapped her neck to attention, drinking in her every word. “I was a coward in love and my ninja way. I always took so long waiting for the right moment, setting up imaginary rules for when I was allowed to do something. I thought I still had all the time in the world to watch Neji change his destiny, then I’d confess, or that maybe there’d be a right time to ask Tsunade-sama to mentor me.”

“You wanted to be mentored by Tsunade-shishou?” Sakura asked, breathless from surprise. TenTen nodded, biting her lip. She didn’t dare glance down and let Sakura see the pathetic expression she was sure she was sporting. “You could’ve asked. Ino joined me for a while and Tsunade-shishou didn’t turn her away-”

“I know that now,” TenTen sighed. “Only the bold are rewarded. That’s why in the end, despite everything, guys like Lee, Naruto, and Gai-sensei get what they want.”

XXX

Years passed in Shikkotsu Forest and the girls - now young women - became thick as thieves. With no one to perform for, they relaxed into their most natural selves. They allowed themselves to have the fun a ninja life could never offer. Days were spent giggling like school girls while they slid in large patches of wherever the slugs left slime in their wake, got high until they revealed the most inner parts of themselves from inhaling the fumes of Katsuyu’s acid, or crying in memory of the lives they’d never be able to return to.

It was late one night when TenTen and Sakura decided to treat themselves to a roast of beetles and some leafy greens they’d salvaged. It wasn’t so bad. All meat could taste like chicken if you cooked it well enough.

As the smoke from the fire licked their faces, they gossiped without restraint under the starry night sky.

“Do you think if you could go back in time and stop all of this from happening that we’d still be friends?” TenTen giggled.

“Yeah,” Sakura said as she chopped up an assortment of leafy greens and other veggies. She could feel TenTen’s disbelieving stare burning holes in her back. She laughed to herself. “Maybe not right away but eventually.”

“I like that answer.” Sakura could hear the smile in TenTen’s tone. “Speaking of the past,” TenTen dragged out the syllables as she took inventory of her weapons . “If I knew what I knew now there’s so much embarrassing shit I would prevent from happening.”

“Like what?”

“Small stuff like training flubs. I could be so one-track minded sometimes when I first became a kunoichi that I think I hindered my own progress.”

“Are you referring to an incident in particular?’

“Yeah,” TenTen sighed. “I could’ve gotten Gai-sensei’s tortoise summon Ningame but I was so fixated on being exactly like Tsunade-sama that I rejected him without thinking.”

“Maybe you still can,” Sakura encouraged. “I think all the summons know each other in some way, shape, or form. How about we ask Katsuyu tomorrow?”

TenTen shrugged. She got this far off look in her eyes as she continued polishing her weapons. They both had come to know each other more intimately here in all this time, but Sakura couldn’t shake the feeling that they might still be holding back from one another. Sakura let the pot come to a boil, then took a seat next to TenTen.

“Fixing my past would be like trying to restore a destroyed painting from scratch,” Sakura offered. “There are so many instances I could’ve done without.”

“There are memories more embarrassing than anything involving getting our asses handed to us in the war?” TenTen said, taking the bait.

Sakura nodded. Red stained her cheeks as the memories flashed behind her eyelids. She stuffed her head in her hands. “Much more.”

TenTen perked up, intrigued. Sakura tried to ignore the girl’s nudging but it was pointless. Once she got TenTen interested it was hard to redirect her attention elsewhere. “Tell me,” TenTen whined.

Sakura peered through the spaces of her fingers. “If I tell you this you can never bring it up again.”

“How bad is this memory?”

Sakura took a deep breath, ignoring TenTen’s much too eager look. “I just want to add for context that this was after Sasuke’s desertion. I was really depressed.”

“Just spit out already!”

“...There was a six-month period where I had a crush on Rock Lee.”

Certain behaviors were only accepted amongst close friends. Some farted in front of each other, some traded nasty insults that later became terms of endearment like she and Ino, but TenTen’s behavior was her guffawing laughter accompanied by no false pretense of care. No matter how serious the situation was, TenTen would always laugh. So while Sakura was peeved to no end watching the welling tears and ab crunching laughter possess her friend’s body, she was in no way shocked at her reaction. She hid her own smile with a groan.

“It’s not that funny.”

“It’s fucking hilarious actually,” TenTen snorted. Sakura couldn’t help but to join in on the giggle fest then. “I’m curious how this crush even came about,” TenTen added once she’d calmed down enough.

Sakura shrugged. “I don’t know. It just happened. He’s - he was really nice to me when I needed him to be.”

“He was a moron.”

“In an endearing way!” Sakura defended.

TenTen started up another fit of laughter much to Sakura’s chagrin. She did her best to hold back as she watched Sakura grow progressively more ill-humored. “Okay, okay. I’m done. What else would you have changed?”

Millions of thoughts flashed through Sakura’s mind. Asking her what she wouldn’t have changed would’ve been an easier question. So many pivotal events - her rivalry with Ino, her tunnel visioned focus on Sasuke that kept her from meeting others, deciding to go through with the Chunin Exams, not taking her ninja training seriously until after Sasuke’s desertion, confessing to Naruto… God, she had so many regrets. But there was no use in telling TenTen that. She already knew about most of it. Hell, anybody who had ever heard of Team 7 probably knew most of the details. No, there was no use in dwelling on any of those events - they had to happen. Sakura found her answer when she looked up at TenTen’s face.

“I would’ve met you earlier,” she breathed barely above a whisper. Shock, then confusion, creased TenTen’s forehead. She regarded Sakura with suspicion.

“What would you want to go do that for?”

Boiled water overflowed and sizzled on the ground. Sakura turned to the pot of stew and stirred until it fizzled out. A small smile crept over her features. She didn’t look up from the roux as she spoke.

“I think if I had had the right person in my ear back then, my life would’ve ended up much more different. The longer we stay here, the more I understand that no matter how hard I tried, I was never more than a blip in Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi’s lives.”

“Don’t say that,” TenTen fussed.

“I dedicated all my time, energy and love to them when all they ever needed was each other. I wouldn’t want to waste my life like that again if given a second chance.”

“Naruto would curse you silly if he heard you talking like that.”

“But he can’t. Not anymore. No one can.”

Sakura used the brief silence that overwhelmed them to serve the weird beetle vegetable stew. She poured the contents of the pot into large, moldable leaves that the slugs loved to snack on. Turns out they doubled as great bowl alternatives! Sakura and TenTen slurped their meals in peaceful silence.

“Do you ever wonder if maybe we could’ve changed things?” Sakura asked in between slurps.
TenTen set her bowl to the side before answering. She shifted her elbows onto her knees and held her chin up with her palms. “I don’t know. But maybe it’s because we’re not like the others with our futures bound by the strings of fate that we’d be free to do as we please in another life,” TenTen said. “We could change ourselves for the better and it’d have no bearing on how the story’s meant to unfold.”

“You’re the best person I know, TenTen. You’d have nothing to better about yourself.”

TenTen’s fingers dug into the dirt beneath her and gripped hard, pulling roots and other smaller plant life up. She let her face slip, a vulnerable glow coming over her. “I used to admire the way you wore your heart on your sleeve. I thought I’d die if Neji ever caught onto my feelings. But if I had the chance now, I’d allow myself to pine and yearn without abandon.”

“You’d regret wasting your time loving someone beyond reach just like I did.”

“After all the time I’ve wasted, I don’t think I could regret loving anyone.”

Just as Sakura looked ready to argue, a menacing chakra presence rolled over them in asphyxiating waves. The slug summons, scattered all about the forest, screamed from a hundred different directions. Sakura and TenTen held tight to one another, waiting out the threat.
It had to be Madara. His chakra presence was more lethal than any enemy shinobi could dream of. Only his killing intent could make a sane person want to rip their own eyeballs to spare themselves the pain of seeing the man who would take them down. But how had he managed to pull this off? Katsuyu had said that only two before her had been granted access to Shikkotsu Forest. How could he have gotten in?

A frisson of fear danced its way up Sakura’s spine. The clump of Hashirama’s cells Madara had stolen so long ago. The ones that had preserved Madara’s life up until this very moment. Had that been what granted him access? But how? How could a technicality like that get him in here? Maybe Madara really was a god…

The ground beneath Sakura and TenTen pulsed with a less menacing, but still eerie chakra. They tossed their meals to the ground in favor of fleeing to the treetops. As they soared through the bramble and bush, they stole glances below. From the grounds sprouted tens of thousands of white zetsu flashing their jagged, white teeth at them. Neither woman wanted to think about how many of them were probably friends or loved ones.

Thorny branches, uneven dirt paths, and twisting roots threatened to slow the kunoichis down every step of the way. It was a miracle they were even able to keep ahead of the zetsu. But miracles were far and few between. And they always came to an end.

The white zetsu were gaining on them. They scaled trees by the hundreds and worked together to claw at the women’s legs. TenTen tried her best to ward them off by throwing out smoke bombs, kunais, explosive tags - everything in her arsenal really - but nothing worked for long. They just kept multiplying.

Sakura cursed under her breath. The white zetsu had blanketed the forest floor so thoroughly that slamming a chakra infused fist to the ground would only result in her being apprehended in mere seconds. So both women just sent more chakra to their feet to speed up their pace.
“Sakura! TenTen!” Katsuyuki’s tiny voice called out.

They looked down to an open patch of forest below. Little Katsuyuki was sandwiched between the impaled figures of Katsuyu and Katsumi, tears flowing from her shaking eye stalks as she succumbed to shallow wounds of her own. Sakura and TenTen flash-stepped to the ground no longer giving a damn about the teeming white zetsu. Sakura tried her best to heal the tortured Katsuyuki while TenTen calmed her down. Neither woman was having much luck.

Matters were only made worse when Madara stepped out of the shadows, Susano activated, and tomoe-filled eyes glaring down at them. “Did you not like your dreams?” he taunted.
TenTen slung ninja stars at him that were easily deflected. She held tighter to Katsuyuki, not caring about the tears, blood, nor the slime soiling her clothes, when she heard Madara release a throaty chuckle. “I’ll admit your evading me for all these years is impressive, but this ends tonight.”

Madara formed hand signs at a rapidfire rate. There was no way for anyone to identify the jutsu he was weaving. Sakura stopped healing Katsuyuki as she took her last breath. She only hoped that she made the transition as painless as possible.

There’s nothing you can do.

There was no hope in bringing them back. This world was over. Nothing was safe nor was there anyone to tether either woman to the land anymore. When she looked at TenTen, she could tell that she knew, too. They huddled together. Sakura, now more skilled, quickly activated sage mode and covered TenTen in her healing slime. It probably wouldn’t do much against whatever Madara had cooked up, but she was a former member of Team 7 and she wasn’t going down without a fight.

Sakura activated her Byakugo seal and grinned when she saw a flash of confusion run across Madara’s face as the black lines along her skin glowed in the dark. Slowly, their bodies vibrated faster and faster as their cells split apart a thousand different ways.

“None of your little tricks will work anymore. Just give in,” Madara’s voice boomed.

Sakura set her jaw in a hard line, wincing as she called all her chakra at once. TenTen, feeling her shaking from the pain, held her tighter. “I may not be able to defeat you,” Sakura growled through grit teeth. “But I can outsmart you just one more time.”

“What are you doing?” TenTen screamed as the lines of Sakura’s Byakugou seal covered her body. Behind them, Katsuyu, Katsuyuki, and Katsumi’s bodies split into smaller versions of themselves, springing to life again before burrowing into the soil.

“I’m not completely sure. It’s something Katsuyu started teaching me a few months ago.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Madara interjected. “You’re fated to die by hand.”

Much like Katsuyu, Sakura and TenTen’s body began to split into much smaller versions of themselves. It was a strange sensation for both women to feel themselves multiplying while growing smaller and smaller. Cell regeneration and immortality… is this what Tsunade-shishou had tried explaining to Sakura all those years ago?

Confused and not to be outdone, Madara continued making the signs for his jutsu and brought it down upon. Swarms of white zetsu came next to pull the burrowing slugs from the ground but reeled back screaming from the acidic slime burning their hands.

The smaller versions of Sakura and TenTen continued to split until they were the size of cells. Madara’s jutsu rained down on the spot where they had last been. No screams came from Sakura nor TenTen’s bodies. Sakura’s chakra stirred underneath the coating of slime protecting each new split. Her chakra pulsed until it became a blinding white light engulfing the forest until it left nothing more.

Chapter Text

A mock test on the training grounds had already left Sakura shaken beyond words and Kakashi-sensei hadn’t even been fighting at full power. Perhaps her mother was right, stubborn as she was to admit, she’d only experienced a mere fraction of what ninja life would be like and was ready to call it quits. Of course she wouldn’t actually go through with it though. This was all part of a greater scheme to establish an identity outside of Ino’s overbearing personality. But at times like these, she longed for the comfort of fleeing into her former best friend’s shadow.

Despite being placed on a team with her long time crush, nothing had been working out in her favor. Her attempt at playing coy to get Sasuke to walk her home had ended in rejection. He hadn’t even given her a direct answer, just walked off instead of answering her question. Of course Naruto had offered his services instead, but she quickly and sternly declined.

Sakura had written notebooks full of strategies to seduce Sasuke - all compiled from her favorite magazines! - and none had worked so far. Maybe she should try to schedule a team dinner at her house and then work from there for a date. But she couldn’t risk having her parents present while her crush was so near. She had a severe case of foot in mouth syndrome whenever she was around him. She didn’t want to do or say something wrong in front of him again. It was all so dreadful to think about.

As she followed the familiar path back home, she couldn’t help but to worry if she and Sasuke would ever grow close. If she was failing this miserably while sharing a team with him, why, Ino might have a better chance still at getting him in her clutches. The pig could be annoying but still she managed to rank as the most promising kunoichi in their graduating class. And it seemed that Sasuke only ever yielded to power. How could she compete with that?

Sakura had no more time to dwell on the subject when she all of a sudden felt such an intense pain in her head that her knees buckled. Her eyes closed to wince and she was bombarded with images of herself, Team 7, the rest of the Rookie 9, her sensei, and even another team close in age she couldn’t identify for the life of her. The pain intensified and she soon doubled over in the middle of the dirt road. Pedestrians and shopkeepers alike sent her quizzical looks assessing her from afar.

More images flashed before Sakura’s eyes. She could see herself and the others growing older, fighting battles, going on missions, working their way up the ranks in a blurred haze. Naruto and Sasuke at odds were most prevalent. What caught her attention most were how the fights and bickering progressed into more violent, dangerous spars.

Dizziness plundered Sakura’s motor skills. Her hands shook without pause and she didn’t have the strength to stop her body from sinking further to the ground. Her mother would be none too pleased to see how she’d sullied her new dress.

But her situation showed improvement. She couldn’t hear the frenzied chatter of the villagers crowding her trying to get a read on her state of mind. She felt her small bank of chakra go haywire while her heart rate quickened. There was no sound as the memories of a bloodied ninja war flooded her mind. The sole reprieve was the gentle face of a brunette with twin buns who seemed to be her constant companion in a time when they were both older.

XXX

The evening sun’s rays waned on the closed off training field Team Gai practiced on. TenTen whipped out her weapons scrolls as she prepared to fight Neji. He didn’t bare a single blemish from his previous fight with Rock Lee - which said a lot! Rock Lee was a freak of nature who could leave you bloodied and bruised if you didn’t defend yourself properly. But Neji was a genius. So, despite Rock Lee’s best efforts, he would never overcome the wall built before him by the Hyuga clansman. Neither would she for that matter, but he was a teammate and not an enemy so it mattered little.

Still, TenTen gathered some of her strongest weapons - a crossbow, a tonfa, smoke bombs, possibly her iron ball if things went haywire. While she was sure Neji had worked out most of his frustration about his latest clan woes in his spar against Lee, it was better to be safe than sorry. TenTen flipped backwards a good ten feet in preparation for battle. However, mid-aerial, she was plagued by a sudden feeling of fatigue. She landed at an awkward angle on the ground, her foot twisting in what she hoped wouldn’t lead to a sprain later. She was bombarded with gruesome images as she tried to find her balance. Rock Lee’s mangled body, his face twisted in pain, swarmed by mysterious lumps of sand. She saw Neji, a little older, sputtering up blood as he took his last breaths on a battlefield. Gai-sensei’s body broke down as he worked past his limits activating the infamous Eight Gates.

There were no words to describe the anguish that washed over her. Tears welled in her eyes against her will. Her breath ran ragged, chest tightening the more she tried to speak. More images flooded her mind as she collapsed to the ground flailing wildly like a turtle stuck on its back.

TenTen could hear the muffled voices of her team fretting over her. But her chest grew tighter still. She started to convulse with fear as more visuals of thousands of dead shinobi rattled her brain.

Gai-sensei was grabbing her face now and shaking her to keep her awake. But there was soon relief for TenTen when she closed her eyes and saw a friendly pink-haired girl keeping her company in a forest full of impossibly large slugs.

XXX

It was noon the next day when Sakura woke up. The steady beating of the heart monitor she was hooked up to clued her in on her stay at the hospital before she’d even opened her eyes. Her on-duty nurse came in about ten minutes later and scolded her for being so reckless. The nurse also made a point to ask her who her sensei was. “No genin should be working so hard on their first assignment that they experience chakra exhaustion,” the woman grumbled. Sakura worried that Kakashi-sensei would get an earful the next time he set foot in the hospital.

There was also the matter of Sakura’s parents. They were hysterical - more noticeably her mother who went on a jeremiad full of her longstanding doubts about Sakura’s career as a kunoichi which Sakura did her best to ignore. Though she was in much better health than she had been twelve hours before, she still felt heavy with grogginess. Her mother had calmed down enough before staff had to escort her out of the room and she sat down to sign the release forms at the end of Sakura’s bed. The nurse came back a half-hour later to collect the forms but not before administering the worst tasting medicine Sakura had ever consumed.

XXX

TenTen’s recovery had been less than ideal. It was already humiliating to have fainted without cause, but now she was in a hospital bed surrounded by Team Gai. There was a certain vulnerability in a ninja being bed bound, especially as a kunoichi, that TenTen was much too proud to ever want to experience. She wanted to curl into a ball and die.

Her anguish disturbed Lee in no way. He’d been very worried about her and told her in a great, booming voice how he’d done five hundred laps around the village in order to speed up her recovery. She knew he wasn’t lying because one, Lee was much too honest for his own good, and two, the green spandex suit gifted to him by Gai-sensei that was supposed to be the next best thing since sliced bread reeked of a growing teenage boy’s sweat. She was careful not to breathe too hard as he flung himself around in that animated manner he did whenever he spoke.

“What exactly happened?” Gai-sensei said, serious for once. “The nurse says it’s chakra exhaustion, but you hadn’t used even half of it at yesterday’s practice.

“I don’t know.” TenTen held her head as she spoke. She’d only tried sitting up a few inches higher and her head went swimming. “One moment I was fine, then I felt overwhelmed like I was sick all of a sudden-”

“I think the nurse said it was ‘chakra exhaustion’ to avoid telling us it was actually ‘women’s troubles,’” Neji interjected, his arms crossed and face stern. Gai-sensei and Lee went white as ghosts, uncomfortable in a way that TenTen had never known they could be. “My mother uses code words like that all the time to describe hers.”

TenTen’s cheeks turned pink from embarrassment and anger. “I’m not on my period,” TenTen made sure to drag out every syllable. “What happened yesterday doesn’t even match my normal symptoms-”

“Haha! Let’s avoid explaining this so thoroughly. You have the rest of the week off from practice to recover from whatever it is that ails you,” Gai-sensei said, speaking at a mile a minute. His posture was so stiff and awkward. Lee mirrored him exactly. He went to painstaking lengths to make it look like he wasn’t running out of the room as he scooped Neji, Lee and himself out the door like a bat out of hell.

TenTen laid back in her cot and sighed. Sometimes, she really did wonder what it would be like on an all girl ninja team.

XXX

The checkout process took a bit longer than it should’ve, but Sakura’s parents were able to pull through. Sitting in the lobby now with an audience of visitors - an obnoxious, loud Naruto who couldn’t convey his concern in a softer tone of voice for the life of him, an uninterested Kakashi who kept his eye in his perverted book (whether it was due to him actually reading or avoiding the eye of the nurse who’d chewed him out Sakura couldn’t tell) and a smug Ino who had ‘just so happened’ to drop by and gloated about how this chakra exhaustion spell proved she was the better kunoichi - but Sakura couldn’t help but be bummed at Sasuke’s absence.

Sakura for sure thought that this incident would at least evoke some sympathy from the boy now that they were teammates, but he hadn’t come at all. She stepped away from Ino mid-monologue in a trance-like state thinking of what she could do next to seduce her charming prince. Not paying attention, she collided with another patient as she drifted like a cloud of gloom through the lobby.

“Sorry!” two voices rang out in perfect harmony.

Sakura looked up to see none other than the double bun-haired girl - albeit much younger - from her dreams. For a moment, Sakura swore she saw a glimmer of recognition in the older girl’s eyes. Recognition changed to worry as the brunette backed away. Sakura took a few steps back of her own to even the score.

“Sakura!” “TenTen!”

The girls stared wordlessly at one another again. Each sizing the other up. They exchanged awkward bows before rejoining their respective groups.

XXX

Over the course of the next few weeks, restless nights took hostage of both girls. The snippets of memories they’d received initially became more detailed. They could hear no sounds other than the grunts of their comrades or the clinking of metal against metal, but those images that had rendered them immobile on that fateful day drew hazier realities each passing day. So much so that training sessions had become harder for TenTen. It was hard to spar when you were met with the mauled faces of fellow shinobi. Had she developed PTSD for a war she’d never even fought in?

“It’s a temporary loss of mojo. Happens to even the finest shinobi like me!” Gai-sensei explained, chest puffed out in pride and Lee not too far behind him with stars in his eyes. “You just need to find something to respark it.”

But how could she get her mojo back when her confidence had been shaken so? If she kept seeing her fallen comrades that meant she had failed to become the legendary kunoichi she was always saying she wanted to be and failed to protect them. Worse were the battles she saw of herself being defeated so easily. She could still feel the phantom pains of a blonde, pig-tailed girl’s fan she’d landed on after being humiliated in battle. TenTen had even gone to the trouble of consulting her tarot cards on the matter. None of the cards she pulled told of a savory version of the upcoming year. TenTen vowed to perform a futomani seance when she had the chance in hopes of a more accurate (i.e. more satisfying) read on her luck as of late.

On the other side of things, Sakura had been in a constant state of fear and depression. She kept seeing Sasuke treat her feelings like a bug to be squashed, his swirling tomoe bearing down angrily on her. She’d even seen herself give a false confession to a peeved Naruto and watched Kakashi strain himself in battle over and over again.

But the worst part was watching all the memories at a distance. Whether she was behind her boys or somewhere off to the side, there was this metaphorical wall she could never climb over in time to stand by their sides. She wondered if she’d ever be able to join them or fight alongside them. Could it be that it was she, not Naruto, who would end up holding everyone back? Should she take all that she had seen as an omen?

Unbeknownst to her, Kakashi had been taking notice of her dissociations during missions and kept an eye on her.

XXX

The two met again one late evening after another unsuccessful bout of training. Kakashi-sensei had agreed to Naruto’s request to treat Team 7 to a meal at Ichiraku’s - an offer that would’ve set off alarm bells to the older Sakura. Naruto clung to Kakashi-sensei’s arm singing a song about different flavors of ramen that he riffed on the spot. Just as Kakashi-sensei drew back the curtains to the small ramen booth, Sakura was met with the familiar back of the head of the twin-bunned girl from the hospital.

“If it isn’t my longtime rival Kakashi,” the man with the large eyebrows said with a smirk. “I see you’ve also had the idea to treat your cute genin to a hearty meal. Join us and let them all mingle as spirited youth are wont to do!”

The reluctance was obvious (to everyone but Gai) in Kakashi-sensei’s demeanor, but Naruto had already taken a seat and ordered his first bowl. Sasuke sized up the Hyuga boy before dropping in the seat right next to him in some weird show of dominance and Gai pulled Kakashi in between him, Rock Lee, and Naruto before he could protest. That left the only seat available beside TenTen.

Sakura eased into the seat quietly. She and Sakura swapped awkward hellos but remained silent for the entire meal, both unsure how to approach the other. When the night ended, they waved politely to each other but exchanged no further words.

XXX

Despite her best efforts, TenTen had yet to get her mojo back. That alone was frustrating but having to deal with Gai-sensei’s many harebrained “ideas” to cure her of her funk was worse. His latest idea was acquiring the ingredients for a drink he dubbed “The Punch of Youth.” Hearing that had gotten Rock Lee interested and now it was a whole thing. Now Team Gai was on an impromptu shopping spree in search of ingredients for a drink she was sure would taste like shit.

While on the lookout for a quick escape from her team ‘mission,’ she spotted a familiar head of pink hair exiting a dango shop. They met eyes in an instant. An awkwardness grew between them that could fill a canyon. On any other day TenTen would’ve just went along with her team’s shenanigans and treated herself to an evening of quiet later, but her legs moved before her brain did and all of a sudden she’d crossed the street and was standing in front of Sakura.

“Hi!” she said way too eager than she should’ve judging by the uncomfortable smile Sakura struggled to keep up.

“Hi,” Sakura responded much more subdued.

The conversation then took a severe nose dive. Neither girl had really thought through how they’d address the other. A lifetime of memories together didn’t automatically mean they’d be friends. What had even drawn them together in the first place? They’d never even noticed each other at the academy both being in different year cohorts. Academy classes tended to be very self-contained. One pretty much had the same classmates from the year they entered school.

But it was obvious in both girls’ jittery, bashful behavior that there was something that needed to be addressed. If a noisy dinner with their teammates couldn’t bring them together then what could?

“TenTen!” the voices of Gai-sensei and Rock Lee rang out through the crowded street market.

Sakura caught the tenseness that paralyzed TenTen to the spot. She smirked, then took TenTen’s hand in her own. She knew a thing or two about evading obnoxious teammates. TenTen followed along, catching her footing somewhere along the way as they took cover amongst the crowd.

XXX

On the rooftop of a building far on the opposite end of the village, Sakura and TenTen shared a popsicle as they watched the setting sun. They’d still been mostly quiet with each other since meeting but TenTen had felt comfortable getting Sakura up to speed on why she’d run away. In turn, Sakura spoke about the similarities between her own teammates and they shared a few laughs. But the silence that took place between them was so heavy it could dent the earth’s core. As TenTen bit the remnants of her icy treat, she resigned herself to being the one who’d start the hard conversation, but to her surprise, Sakura beat her to the punch.

“I know this’ll probably sound insane, but I’ve been seeing you in my dreams for weeks now,” Sakura blurted out. She was careful to keep her gaze forward, not wanting to see TenTen’s face as she spoke until she was done. “A much older you, but you nonetheless. I don’t know why though.”

The weight now lifted off her shoulders, TenTen laid back with her hands behind her head gazing up at the sky. The last rays of sunlight were receding. All she could think about at that moment was how long had it been since she’d relished in a hobby as tedious as sky-gazing.
“I’ve been seeing you, too,” TenTen admitted. “That’s why I stopped you in the marketplace originally. My team being annoying was just a very convenient excuse.”

Sakura faced her then to smile. She found a comfortable position on her side and faced TenTen. “For a while I thought it might be some sort of genjutsu, but it’s been going on too long and I’d have been able to tell. I think all those dreams were real. I feel like I’ve lived them.”

TenTen turned on her side to face Sakura. She looked pensive while she chewed on her remaining popsicle stick like a toothpick. “I think they’re premonitions.”

Sakura’s eyes shot to the size of saucers. She moved to sit up a bit higher. “You think somebody’s sending us these dreams as some sort of warning?”

TenTen just shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think we just have to figure out what to do or what not to do to prevent certain events from happening.”

“Do you think we saw each other in our dreams because we need to help each other?” Sakura asked.

They sat for the next half hour in silence watching the sun go down. Once the darkness was in full effect, Sakura invited TenTen to stay the night at her house. Sakura’s mother was surprised to see a girl other than Ino come over and TenTen’s mother was just as surprised to get a call from her daughter requesting a last minute sleepover with a friend. While Sakura and TenTen’s mothers familiarized themselves over the phone, Sakura and TenTen set to work taping sticky notes to a board that compared and contrasted all the events they’d seen in their own dreams. It was 3 AM before they’d tuckered themselves out drawing up future plans.

Chapter Text

Sakura and TenTen fell into a natural rhythm. Breaking the ice with a sleepover turned out to be the perfect start to a budding friendship. TenTen could easily see why they might’ve gravitated toward each other in this so-called ‘past.’ Both highly intelligent and level-headed with a nincompoop and a smart ass for teammates, it was like they lived parallel lives! But that was where their similarities ended.

Tasked with discovering the true meaning of their shared memories, TenTen and Sakura thought it would be best to start training together. It was the perfect way for them to get acquainted with each other not just as friends, but also to understand how the other thought, fought, and reacted. TenTen thought she’d found a fellow competent kunoichi with whom she could share her greatest dream of becoming a legendary ninja like Tsunade Senju with but instead discovered a girl who lacked in every ninja department.

Their original plan to be sparring partners bore no fruit when Sakura showed up to the training grounds so ill-prepared that TenTen ended up scolding her like she would Lee. She didn’t have enough kunai or shuriken on her person - a must for any shinobi worth their salt - and the weapons she did have were dull or rusting. Sakura looked ashamed enough while TenTen fussed at her so the older girl laid off and instead offered to help her stock up on suitable weapons when time permitted. But that wasn’t the end of TenTen’s frustrations. When they sparred, TenTen was shocked at how lousy Sakura’s punches, footwork, and reaction times were. Was this really the strong woman she’d seen in her dreams?

After a swift defeat TenTen decided it’d be best if she and Sakura trained as senpai and kouhai. The last two weeks had been spent working on Sakura’s flexibility. As to not single her out, TenTen would join Sakura as they placed blocks of cement in front of their legs to work on splits and straddles. Sakura’s stamina was also pitiful so they’d been working on it by doing front kicks around the span of the village (mostly on the edges out of view of the public because Sakura was fearful of being seen as anything but pristine). Some days they just worked on proper fighting stances. Despite the back-breaking training, TenTen was beginning to understand Gai-sensei more. It was pretty fun having an underling to teach. No wonder the man was so jovial all the time.

While Sakura and TenTen both improved as kunoichi they were no further in deciphering their dreams which still came to them nightly in fragments. But it was nice to have someone to discuss them with. TenTen loved Team Gai but damn was it nice to have someone normal to talk to for once. She hadn’t known how much she needed an outlet like Sakura until then and the great relief she’d been feeling since they’d become familiar was great for their budding friendship.

After every intense training session, Sakura had to be helped home. Naturally that led to TenTen being invited to dinner frequently. So much so that TenTen now had a drawer in Sakura’s room for fresh clothes to wear after bathing at her house. She’d become a favorite guest in no time. Sakura’s mother often made mention of another girl named Ino not coming around anymore, but she was thankful for Sakura’s new friend. TenTen took the praise in stride. Whoever this Ino girl was had been replaced as far as she was concerned.

XXX

Laughter, the latest pop music, and the crisp sound of crunching chips were all that could be heard in Sakura’s room. Despite her soreness, Sakura still had the energy to join TenTen in jumping on the bed. She stopped to flex her muscles for a moment.

“I know I’ve hardly started my training with you, TenTen, but I really do feel stronger already. I’ve been lasting longer in spars with my teammates,” Sakura chirped. “I do need to work on amassing more chakra somehow though. Then I’d last even longer.”

TenTen did a final jump and landed on her butt. She fell back on Sakura’s bed and caught her breath. “You have to start expelling more chakra first to build up your reserves.”

“How so?” Sakura said, moving in to lie beside TenTen.

“It’s like needing more food to grow as you age. Your chakra reserves will grow and expand if you use them more,” TenTen explained. “That can be done during training. You could add weights to your arms and legs like Rock Lee does and use your chakra to constantly carry their weight.”

“I thought you said that worked for Lee specifically because he’s a freak of nature,” Sakura added.

“Well, yeah, but he’s also a freakishly good ninja despite his shortcomings. It might still work for you,” TenTen shrugged.

There was a long stretch of silence before Sakura spoke again in a low, unsure voice. “I want to meet him.”

“Who?” TenTen asked, cocking a brow.

“Rock Lee.”

TenTen barely managed to keep a neutral expression. She opted for blinking in rapid succession instead. “You don’t want to meet Lee. He’s a lot and you can barely manage your temper around Naruto.”

“I doubt anyone can be worse than Naruto,” Sakura shrugged.

XXX

To Sakura’s bewilderment, Rock Lee was much worse than Naruto. From his form-fitting one piece spandex suit to his horrid bowl cut and thick eyebrows, he was more of a visual affront than Naruto could ever be. Adding onto their similarities, even Naruto’s lame attempts at courting her were preferred to Rock Lee’s suffocating proclamations of love. Who the hell promised to sacrifice their life to vie for someone’s affection within the first five minutes of meeting?

Once that matter was settled, TenTen, by some miracle, arranged for them to have a proper spar. Sakura learned quick that TenTen’s description of her teammate was no exaggeration. He was so quick Sakura had no time to register that he’d moved. He damn near teleported in front of, in back of and beside her. Half a second of astonishment cost Sakura greatly. Rock Lee had been able to take her down in just three moves (she feared that he might’ve even taken pity on her still with such a display). She laid sprawled out in the grassy fields still processing the crushing defeat. In her confusion, TenTen helped her to her feet.

“Lee! I told you to go easy on her. My kouhai’s fresh out of the academy. She can’t handle all of you,” TenTen scolded as she hooked her arm around Sakura’s back.

“Sorry, TenTen!” Lee shouted at full volume. “I did my best to restrain myself but the spirit of youth is a horse unbridled.” Lee flashed what he believed was his prize winning smile but Sakura just shuddered. She looked to TenTen and saw the older girl roll her eyes so hard that she looked like they’d sunken into her skull.

“Think you can stand on your own?” TenTen asked her.

Sakura withdrew her body from TenTen’s support and stood on wobbling legs. Soreness was already kicking in. She’d need to soak her whole body in an ice bath tonight. “I think I’ll manage.”

Just as Sakura was gaining her balance, Lee popped up behind her, index finger tapping his chin in deep thought. He let out a pensive hum before he spoke.

“What?” TenTen huffed as she helped Sakura find her footing.

“I’m intrigued,” Rock Lee said as he looked between the two. “Becoming a dedicated senpai is no small matter. How did the two of you meet/”

Sakura was at a loss for words. She looked to TenTen for guidance but found that the older girl was in no better position.”We met through a… a mutual friend? Yeah! A mutual friend,” TenTen managed.

“A mutual friend? But I’ve never seen you hang out with anyone besides our team,” Rock Lee said, tapping his chin, still confused.

“I have a life outside of your guys, y’know.”

“Oh? Who’s the friend?”

Stuck again, TenTen remained quiet as she scowled at Rock Lee’s earnest face. Sakura grabbed TenTen’s hand and stood in between her and Rock Lee. “Uh… we crossed paths because… our mothers… our mothers share a mutual friend!” Sakura lied. Not convincing at all to someone with half a brain, but as she took in Rock Lee’s understanding countenance, she knew she didn’t have to worry about explaining too much to him. That and the fact that he’d believe anything the ‘girl he loved’ would say. She seized the moment to touch his shoulder then. The way he lit up at her touch let her know that she had him hook, line and sinker. “And you don’t need to apologize for the spar. I’m really grateful for it actually. I was wondering if you’d like to train with me from time to time?”

Hearts formed in Rock Lee’s pupils. Sakura did her best to hide her horror. TenTen turned her head to chuckle (which Sakura did not appreciate at all!). Flames of passion burned around Rock Lee as he took Sakura’s hands in his own. “Respect and camaraderie can turn into love when two shinobi gain strength side by side,” Lee all but yelled in her face. His eyes trailed up to the sky as he spoke again. “This is the springtime of youth Gai-sensei is always raving about. I think I finally understand!”

“Lee! You’re scaring her!” TenTen chided.

In the end, TenTen ended up dragging Lee away to god knows where while Sakura spent the next five or ten minutes trying to work past the leftover shudders he gave her.

XXX

If I could go back in time, I’d talk to more people, get to know them before my life spiraled out of control. There’s so many people that I wanted to know more about.

Sakura’s walk home was lonely - she and TenTen had been attached at the hip for over a month and she was used to their routine - but it also provided her with further clarity. A few more memories of her ‘other’ life drifted to the forefront of her mind as she ambled along those familiar dirt roads. Somehow she’d felt this alien, deep-seated longing in her chest as the older faces of the Rookie 9 and Team Gai flashed through her mind. She didn’t have all the answers and though Rock Lee’s ‘eccentricity’ may be an inconvenience to her, she couldn’t help but think she might be meant to take a chance on a guy like him. If TenTen’s theory was right and they were both in the process of correcting things, perhaps delighting in Rock Lee’s company more often was part of it. It was nice to be showered in genuine affection not at all fueled by rivalry. Though Rock Lee and Naruto both annoyed her, Lee’s willingness to spar with her like an equal was very appreciated even if she was nowhere near his match.

Lost in her thoughts she bumped into someone in the sprawling evening crowds that swarmed the markets near her house.

“Get your head out of the clouds!” the pedestrian yelled.

Sakura mumbled a half-hearted apology before walking forward again with her head held high. She needed to be more alert. TenTen had fussed at her about that too. It was imperative for ninjas, but especially kunoichi, to be alert at all times. Anything could happen and no one should burden their team with silly mistakes. After all, the silly mistakes of a kunoichi could lead to much more fatal, traumatizing events.

As Sakura followed the path home, she caught a glimpse of a head of dark, spiked hair. She was going to call out to him until the crowd thinned just enough so she could see he was looking down at his feet. An older man who she guessed was his father was looking down at him, arms crossed, and from the way the veins in his neck pulsed, spoke very harshly at Sasuke.

To the chagrin of the ebbs and flows of human traffic who moved without hitch until she decided to stop in the middle of the walkway, Sakura wanted to watch how this scene would play out. Though she couldn’t make out what was said (her lip reading skills weren’t so good in the dark) she could see Sasuke’s fists shaking.

With no prompting at all on her end, Sakura heard the strange sounds of lightning crackling. She looked to the sky and saw nothing above indicating a turn in weather. When she looked back down to Sasuke’s fists, she could see a flash of them moving toward her, coated in an electric chakra, running through her back.

The shock of the visual knocked the wind out of her. She clutched her chest, reeling from a phantom pain that felt too real to be a figment of her imagination. Before she knew it, she was standing stock still, shaking in the middle of a now thinned out marketplace. She stared wide-eyed at the two Uchihas. The remaining passersby stared at her in dismay or curiosity.

At some point Sasuke’s dad had left him standing alone stewing in his anger. Sakura couldn’t be sure. She was still paralyzed with fear at what she hoped was a false memory. But when Sasuke lifted his head, free from some of the anger his father had left with him, his eyes met with Sakura’s in an instant. His features twisted in scorn. Sakura sunk to the ground, an overwhelming dizziness taking over her as she got another flash of older Sasuke, same hateful glare as now, but red eyes spinning his hateful tomoe into what would become the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Chapter Text

By some stretch of a miracle, TenTen was back on her A-game. Sure those memories still plagued her everyday, but she’d gotten used to them enough that she could spar with her teammates again. Maybe the ‘spirit of youth’ had replenished her since she’d started training Sakura. She’d never admit that to Gai-sensei though.

Resuming sparring with Neji went as expected. Her barrage of weapons was nothing to his keen battle senses and he evaded every one with ease. But she’d expect nothing less from the tragic genius of a prestigious clan.

In the next life, I don’t want to wait on the sidelines hoping that my path sets itself out clearly in front of me. I want to be the one to carve it out myself, said the disembodied voice of an older TenTen.

On a typical day, TenTen would concede defeat to Neji. But today was different. The memory that had just dredged itself up gave her a new boost of energy. And possibly a tinge of clarity.

She thought back on Neji’s constant lamenting of destiny and paths being set in stone. But whatever those images were that she had been visited by every night had to be of a reality that already existed - she’d consulted her tarot deck about it! That meant she lived in another and things could be different.

But TenTen was no naive dreamer. She knew that Neji was right to some extent that destin is laid out for you. But if you never put any effort in to getting there could you still achieve that predetermined destiny?

With that in mind, TenTen decided on a different tactic for this spar. She moved in to close the distance between them. She knew it was crazy. Neji hailed from a taijutsu based clan known for attacking chakra systems to an irreparable state, but being a ninja was about putting it all on the line.

TenTen produced a pair of nunchucks and approached him swinging them around in wide arcs. Neji’s usual nauseating calm demeanor slipped just a bit to show his shock. TenTen smiled at that. It was only a brief flash but it gave her the courage to keep going. Fighting Neji head on was a death wish because he never downplayed his skill in any fight, but she couldn’t help but revel in the confusion on his face as he struggled to adapt to her erratic movements.

Though it was over in the blink of an eye and that signature smugness returned to his countenance as he quickly overpowered her, TenTen was thankful for the cheap shot she’d managed to get on his shin, a nasty, purple bruise that symbolized her small triumph.

XXX

“Sasuke was a beast today during training drills - as expected of the number one rookie! Naruto was a pain - as expected. I don’t get why he’s so adamant about trying to best Sasuke all the time, even on the most menial things. Sasuke just has that ‘it’ factor about him, y’know. He can’t help that he’s naturally better than everyone around him,” Sakura rambled to a very uninterested TenTen.

Sakura had come over to TenTen’s house after hearing about how banged up she was after her spar. TenTen’s attempts to explain that she was fine fell on deaf ears as Sakura proceeded to dote on her, wrapping bandages where only a bandaid would have sufficed.

Their original conversation had been TenTen detailing she and Neji’s spar but somehow along the way had devolved into a semi-rant about what spars between Naruto and Sasuke were like. That rant became an extensive one-sided conversation about Sasuke. TenTen couldn’t fight the yawns that racked her body.

Now tuning Sakura out, TenTen reflected on her time with Team Gai. They kept her pretty occupied 24/7 so she never really had time to interact with anyone outside of her immediate circle - especially not other girls. She thought that it might be detrimental to her social skills not just because Gai-sensei and Lee had the combined IQ of a porcupine or that Neji’s aloofness didn’t make for much amusing conversation, but because in her current situation she was clueless as to what to do. She didn’t know what she wanted to talk about but it definitely wasn’t this.

“... I really like when he lets his hair grow. It shapes his face in this sweet way and-”

“Hey, Sakura,” TenTen blurted out. “Can we just… talk about something else?”

Sakura tilted her head like a confused puppy before asking “What else is there to talk about?”
TenTen shouldn’t have been surprised by the response - all she knew about the girl at this point was that every move she made was in some service or benefit to her beloved Sasuke - but her jaw still dropped.

“You could talk about yourself,” TenTen suggested. She’d learned in their time together that Sakura often had to be pushed with kiddie gloves in the right direction. Some days felt more like an uphill battle than others to get the girl to be serious. “What about your training progress so far?”

But a melancholy look flashed over Sakura’s face. She stopped bandaging TenTen’s minor injuries to stare down at her twiddling thumbs. “That’d be pointless. I don’t have any skills of note to discuss… especially not any that would impress you.”

Well, she’s not wrong, TenTen thought. Their training sessions had been much more beneficial to Sakura than they could ever be for TenTen, but that didn’t mean they were pointless! TenTen understood herself more as a fighter when she instructed Sakura.

“Have you been experiencing any more of those dreams?” TenTen tried. “You seemed like you grew to be really strong in some of the ones I got.”

“I see this really pretty blonde lady with a big chest a lot,” Sakura said. “I think she taught me how to heal and stuff.”

TenTen took a long, hard gulp, choking down the bitterness. She knew who Sakura was talking about. How could she not? The woman was her reason for becoming a kunoichi. It stung to learn that a girl who couldn’t even name the great sannin Senju Tsunade ended up being her apprentice. Did anything from that future go her way?

“You mean Tsunade,” TenTen corrected her. “I saw you and her a few times in my own dreams. You guys gave aid to me, my team, and the rest of the rookies numerous times.”

“Yeah,” Sakura said with no enthusiasm. “But those are just crazy dreams.”

“No!” TenTen said more forcefully than she wanted. “Those dreams are telling us that if something happened once then it can happen again.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never even seen this Tsunade person around before.”

TenTen scoffed at Sakura’s rude addressing of her idol, then grabbed the girl by the arm and headed for the door. “We have the power to make anything we want a reality.”

XXX

TenTen had done most of the work filling out forms for Sakura to start some light training as a medic at the hospital. Sakura was more grateful than words could express as she watched her senpai’s eyes furrow while reading every line of those admission papers. TenTen had been so monumental in pushing her to become someone great in the short time they’d become acquainted and she just wanted to reciprocate. She pushed her seat closer to TenTen’s, the feet of the chair making an awful scraping sound that got everyone in the lobby’s attention.

“I don’t think I ever asked you, but what do you dream about, TenTen?” Sakura inquired. “What’s your ninja path?”

TenTen flipped another page of the packet she was filling out over the clipboard fixed in her lap. She didn’t look up as she spoke. “Senju Tsunade, the kunoichi of the legendary sannin trio, is my idol. I want to be as strong and legendary as her one day. Although, I’m not sure if I can be. She was a powerful medic - unprecedented in her time and ours. I tried to achieve the same but was dismissed when the nurses told me I had no talent for it.”

That explained why she was ripping through those forms like nothing, Sakura thought.

But Sakura caught the slight pout that came to TenTen’s mouth as she tried to recount the memory as neutrally as possible. TenTen’s disappointment wasn’t so blatant that it risked making Sakura uncomfortable, but it bubbled there on the surface threatening to claw its way out of TenTen’s reserved manner, Sakura leaned into TenTen’s side until the girl was forced to look at her.

“What?”

“Was Tsunade just a medic?”

“No,” TenTen began to explain. “She was much more than that. She-”
But TenTen couldn’t finish before Sakura snatched her up out of her seat, handed the finished paperwork to the front desk worker, then ran out the hospital’s revolving doors.

XXX

The hum of the rickety air conditioner was all that could be heard throughout the library. Sakura and TenTen had been sitting down for over an hour pouring over the limited texts describing Senju Tsunade. In unison somehow, they both looked up from their thin books to speak in hushed voices.

“Did you find anything interesting?” Sakura whispered.

“Nothing I haven’t already read before,” TenTen groaned. She slammed her book face down on the round table they occupied. Sakura winced at the sound, then again at the shushes that came from the shrewd librarian. TenTen sat with her head on the table, arms encircling her, a cloud of gloom hanging over her head.

“Most of Tsunade’s abilities have to do with her Senju heritage and having perfect chakra control - two things I lack,” TenTen’s voice came out muffled. “Following in her footsteps would be a shot in the dark.”

Having never dealt with a depressed TenTen, Sakura panicked. Her eyes darted across the pages of her book, skeeving out any detail that could cheer her senpai up. Luck on her side, Sakura’s finger glid across a paragraph that could be just the thing TenTen needed to hear.

“It says here Tsunade also had a summon. I’m sure you don’t need to be a Senju nor a medic to have one of those,” Sakura said with a triumphant smile.

But TenTen’s mood didn’t change for the better. Instead of mopey, she now seemed cagey and… embarrassed?

“I can’t get a summon,” TenTen admitted with great reluctance.

“Why not?”

“Because…”

“Because?” Sakura dragged out the syllables.

TenTen kept her eyes cast downward as she spoke. “Gai-sensei offered me his summon once but I was too narrow minded to appreciate it. I ended up offending him. I probably won’t ever have the chance to get a summon again.”

Sakura reached across the table to grab TenTen’s hand. There was a sincere look in her eyes as she spoke. “You should try again. I’ve read about animal summons before and they tend to be quite sadistic. A little groveling might reverse your past mistakes.”

When TenTen met Sakura’s eye, there was a peculiar serenity that washed over her. She couldn’t understand what had brought it about but felt so reassured when Sakura gently squeezed her hand. Maybe they really would change the future.

XXX

Team Gai’s sparring practice went off again without a hitch. Neji and Rock Lee were ten minutes into a pummeling session when TenTen worked up the nerve to pull Gai-sensei to the side.

“I want to try again, sensei,” TenTen said as she bent into a bow. “I want to ask Ningame if he’ll consider being my summon.”

TenTen missed the older man’s screwy face. He was shocked at the request. Out of all the things his underling could’ve asked for, that was the farthest off his mind. He wondered what had brought this all about.

“I’m willing to do most anything for one of my students, TenTen, but I warn you not to be upset if this doesn’t go as you planned. Ningame is not one to forgive being slighted so easily,” Gai explained.

“Please,” TenTen begged, clasping her hands together in front of her face.

Gai performed the hand signs necessary for the summoning and in an instant Ningame stood before them in a cloud of smoke. Immediately after the smoke cleared, Ningame’s features twisted into a scowl at the sight of TenTen.

“Gai! I told you about wasting my time,” he all but snarled. “I’m not about to spend my free time babysitting your rude brat.”

TenTen dropped to her knees and let her forehead touch the ground in a deep bow. Again, Gai looked shocked, but Ningame regarded her with a scornful eye.

“I’m sorry for being so rude to you initially. I’ve had time to reflect and I really want you to teach me whatever you can.”

Ningame watched her in silence. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Was this a prank? Had she been put up to this by Gai? It had happened months ago. Why was she feeling so apologetic all of a sudden?

But Ningame knew Gai too well. He was too dense to be dishonest. He also had a terrible poker face. He glanced up at the man and saw that not even he understood what was going on. Not surprising to say the least. On rare occasions did he ever know what was going on. But as the seconds dragged by and TenTen showed no sign of lifting her head from the dirt, a sinister smile brightened up Ningame’s features.

“Hm. So it seems you’re serious this time. Don’t think I’ll take it easy on you.”

TenTen sprang to her feet and saluted the turtle. “I wouldn’t expect you to,” she beamed.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks breezed by. Sakura was swamped with work at the hospital every day. It had gotten so bad that her parents (mostly her mother) complained about how busy she was becoming. She’d missed out on several of their special family bonding nights already.

But Sakura was satisfied with her training. It was rare that she excelled at anything outside of academics, so finding out that so much of her work as a medic meshed with her ardor for academics was a gift from the gods above. She was flying through all the preliminary training. The senior medics were impressed with her. She’d resuscitated fish of varying sizes. She’d even healed birds’ wings and helped prep tools for surgeries. She loved learning and then memorizing all the most frequently used ingredients in ointments, balms, elixirs, etc. Her booksmarts shined the most there. But aside from that, most of her time was spent doing menial tasks like filtering through patient files with blotted out, redacted information behind the lobby desk.

Her newly acquired, limited medical skills hadn’t been put to much use outside of bandaging up Naruto after he flubbed up a mission or got scuffed up in a spar. It wasn’t glamorous work, but a teeny tiny spark of hope lit up in her when Sasuke allowed her close contact to bandage him after a very trying mission doing construction work. Perhaps there was hope for her love story yet!

But those ever-drifting, randomly occurring memories kept her humble. The ‘her’ of the future had faced many trials and tribulations that she wanted to avoid. It was easy for Sakura to get lost in the excitement of training alongside Naruto and Sasuke as equals. She felt like she was finding equal footing with her teammates but that also dredged up more unpleasant memories/dreams. 

The longer we stay here, the more I understand that no matter how hard I tried, I was never more than a blip in Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi’s lives.

Visions of herself in a barren wasteland unable to help herself nor defend a nearly dead Naruto and Sasuke haunted her. She’d seen pieces of a life missing out on socializing with friends because of her commitment to the hospital. Worse were the gruesome battles between Naruto and Sasuke that she could only be a bystander to. It was a common occurrence no matter how old she was in her dreams. Was that all she would amount to? The girl who stood on the sidelines while her teammates did all the real work?

Sakura tried to ignore these feelings of inadequacy. She could hear TenTen’s stern voice reminding her to give herself grace as they trained together. But Sakura had the uneasy feeling that her life would be spent in a perpetual loop of playing catch-up in the futile goal to stand beside Naruto and Sasuke. She wished more than ever she could talk to TenTen now. Her clammy hands and throbbing chest could be remedied with a single encouraging look from TenTen. Too bad Team Gai was on a mission for another week. Girl talk was needed more than ever.

Sakura yawned as she headed home from her hospital shift. Another day of sitting on her ass filing papers wore her out more than she thought it could. In fact, she was so tired she didn’t even notice Team 10 exiting the local barbecue restaurant.

“You look like shit, Forehead,” Ino called out instead of a greeting.

Sakura turned around and saw Ino looking smug as a bored Shikamaru, a still chewing Choji, and an aloof Asuma-sensei flanked her. Ino was just as Sakura remembered - perfect and already blooming much faster into the ideal womanly figure. God how just the sight of her could make Sakura fly into a jealous rage.

“I look like this because I’ve actually been putting in training time, not stuffing my face like a pig,” Sakura quipped. She pressed her finger to her nose and snorted for emphasis. Ino turned irritable just as she’d expected. 

In the midst of their standoff, Shikamaru managed to peel off, muttering about ‘fickle females’ as he disappeared into the late night crowds. He dreaded whatever this confrontation might devolve into.

“What in the world could you be training for?” Ino asked in disbelief. “You never were much of a fighter.”

“For your information, I’ve been working at the hospital training as a medic,” Sakura gloated with her chest puffed out and nose up high.

“A medic?” Asuma whistled. “That’s a serious commitment. Good luck to you! Who knows? You might just be the next Senju Tsunade.”

Sakura swelled with pride at the compliment. No one had ever commended her for her skills as a ninja - not that she had any at this point. It was so nice to hear. It was also a treat watching Ino rile up with jealousy.

“You don’t fool me, Forehead!” Ino shouted as she stabbed her finger in Sakura’s flat chest. “This medic stuff is nothing more than a ruse for you to get closer to and feel up Sasuke.”

Sakura smacked Ino’s hand off, then walked so close to her that their noses almost touched. “Don’t project your own dirty thoughts onto me. I’m a professional.”

Sakura sashayed away, nose high in the air. She giggled as she listened to the sounds of a fuming Ino being restrained by Team 10.

XXX

That night, Sakura could dream of nothing but death. Bodies piled high as she and other medics operated on them to no success. Her hands covered in blood shook as she worked. The bloodied faces of all those she knew flashed behind her closed eyelids. She couldn’t discern whether it was her older self’s thoughts or her own, but she wondered if her training to be a medic would ever be enough.

XXX

TenTen was grateful for the reprieve she’d gotten from her training with Ningame. Sakura had been right about animal summons being sadists. Groveling wasn’t enough for that grumpy fucker. She’d been enduring a humiliation ritual! Ningame showed up all times of day requesting her to do fuck all. 

‘TenTen! Go fetch me the leaf of a banyan tree. I can only be fanned by banyan leaves.’

‘TenTen! I need my shell cleaned. I can only use an ivory brush of the finest bristles and an ointment only made by a craftsman in this remote village.’

‘TenTen! I’m thinking of a new shell color but I only use the dye powders of this one nearly extinct plant to do so. Go fetch it for me!’

He was so demanding! What was worse was that when she asked about getting to the training part of her training, he’d dismiss her and say he was still sussing her out. She’d started grinding her teeth in her sleep since this whole affair had started.

Team Gai had just completed an artifact delivery mission. It was a nice break for TenTen. All her time as of late had been spent ripping and running for Ningame, so she was (to her own great shock) glad to be bombarded by Rock and Gai-sensei’s speeches about youthful vigor. 

As they settled in for the night at a fancy hotel booked by the daimyo that had requested the mission, TenTen realized the bone-deep fatigue that plagued her. She was so exhausted she could’ve fallen asleep standing. But she couldn’t. Not while sharing a room with Rock Lee who was so full of energy despite the busy day they’d had.

“Lee!” TenTen called out as she drew her covers over her head. How the hell did he have the energy to do katas right now? “You’re making too much noise.”

“Sorry, TenTen!” he said as he plopped down into a seated position on the futon beside her. “The youthful beating of my heart hammers nonstop in anticipation of seeing Sakura again.”

“Who is that?” Gai-sensei asked, emerging from the bathroom. Sometimes Tenten really couldn’t understand how he’d made it to jounin rank. The man had the memory of a goldfish.

“She’s the love of my life!” Rock Lee said in complete earnest.

TenTen rolled her eyes. “She's the kunoichi from your ‘rival’ Kakashi-sensei’s team. She’s my new friend and we’re both training her as our kouhai.”

TenTen bristled at the smug chuckle coming from Neji’s direction. He’d been sitting in the corner staring out the sliding doors and into the forest at the back of the hotel. “What could either of you possibly have to offer to anyone else?” Neji scoffed.

“Training is more about building meaningful relationships with others than brawns, but of course you wouldn’t understand that,” TenTen blurted out before she could stop herself.

It was weird. She’d never really been one to rock the boat - especially not when it came to Neji - but the words just fell from her lips. Was this another consequence of those memories she and Sakura had been receiving? Had she been holding that in all this time?

“Let’s all calm down,” Gai-sensei suggested as he looked between his two usually collected genin. “How about this? I’ll arrange something between our team and Kakashi’s so we can all get to know each other better.”

Rock Lee was all for it. He whooped and cheered and excused himself to go do some exercises outside so as to not disturb the others. Neji and TenTen remained quiet. For the first time, they went to sleep very cross with one another.

Chapter Text

TenTen was back in town! Sakura was so elated. It was all she could think about during Team 7’s spars. She was so distracted in fact that she hadn’t even realized she’d almost pinned Sasuke to the ground using Rock Lee’s flashy techniques.

Sakura balanced on her hands to do a floor sweep. Just as her legs were about to trip Sasuke, he flashstepped away and came crashing down above her. Sakura recovered in time to move away from the ninja stars he’d thrown her way. Things seemed to be heating up.

But Sasuke was their year’s number one rookie. It only took a little maneuvering on his part to pin her down. Kakashi called the match soon after. It wasn’t lost on Sakura how heavy Sasuke’s breaths were after their spar. She’d really made him work for his victory.

However, not even a ‘close’ (by Sakura’s standards) match with Sasuke could keep her from being excited about seeing TenTen. She’d gotten accustomed to their time together even though TenTen was far from the stereotypical girly-girl Sakura usually gallivanted with.

Sakura and Sasuke’s match marked the end of today’s training. As soon as she got off the ground, she packed her belongings in a hurry and willed chakra to her feet to bolt off to TenTen’s house. Before she took more than five steps, she felt a large hand grab her by the shoulder.

“Slow down, Sakura,” Kakashi laughed. “I want to invite all my little genin to dinner at Ichiraku’s. My treat.”

Naruto whooped in excitement as expected. Sakura kept her eyes on the road ahead. “I can’t make it. I’ve got plans.”

“Nee, nee, Sakura-chan! That’s the fifth time you’ve turned down a team invitation in a month,” Naruto whined. 

Sakura just shrugged it off. “Sorry. I gotta go. Don’t wanna be late.” And she sped off before they could see her rooftop jumping in a hurry.

Naruto was bummed about Sakura’s frequent absences, but the promise of free ramen was too good to keep him down. Kakashi looked like he already regretted making the offer as the boy listed the various flavors of ramen he’d try tonight. It was Sasuke who watched Sakura’s retreating figure with a burning curiosity and tightened fists. His eyes turned icy. Since when had Sakura decided to become a full-fledged ninja?

XXX

“I’m just so sick of ‘Mr. Destiny.’ Everything’s always so black and white with him. I mean I agree with him to a certain extent that some events are predetermined, but that’s mostly for clans. They’re super strict about stupid shit like that which is why he’s really mad, but who the fuck does he think he is to tell me I don’t have anything to offer my kouhai? It’s not like people are lining up to take advice from him! …Well…maybe…he is a really good ninja - the number one rookie from our graduating class! - but he’s so frustrating that no one would even waste their time asking him for pointers.”

When TenTen’s mother had let Sakura up to TenTen’s room, Sakura hadn’t expected this avalanche of word vomit. TenTen was the most poised, level-headed girl she knew. It could be annoying sometimes when she wanted to talk about frivolous things. But who would’ve guessed that a simple question about how her mission went would turn into a night primed for juicy gossip. Sakura didn’t know TenTen had this kind of rage in her. It was nice. Human. Now she really started feeling like a friend that she could confide in and not just an older girl that gave her sage advice. Sakura had been waiting for this metaphorical bandaid to be ripped off from their relationship.

TenTen paced the room waiting for a response from Sakura. The long stretch of silence between her and her kouhai was agonizing. She wondered if in recounting this story she sounded like some irrational bitch.

“Do you like Neji?” Sakura asked in a gentle voice. It was as if she was approaching a feral dog knowing it’d snap at any sudden movement.

TenTen blushed a deep red. She could barely get a word in without stuttering. “N-No! How could you even ask me that? The guy’s a complete asshole.”

“Sure, but this is the most you’ve ever spoken at once during our hangouts,” Sakura parried.

“So? He just really frustrates me,” TenTen shot back.

“Lee-san frustrates you too and you’ve never had this much to say about it.”

“Because they’re two different people.”

“All right,” Sakura relented. She put her hands up in mock surrender. “We’ll bookmark this conversation for another time.”

TenTen flopped on the bed beside Sakura, completely exhausted. She laughed as her senpai slipped off her fuzzy, squeaky panda slippers she loved so dearly to settle in for the night. Sakura smiled to herself. She had learned so much about her senpai tonight.

XXX

Sleep didn’t visit TenTen that night. Tonight of all nights she was burdened with the memories of a past life full of stolen glances, chaste touches, and unspoken words between her and Neji.

To tell the truth, she’d been fighting these… feelings she held for Neji since they were announced as a team. She had always admired his strength, his intelligence, and his humility as classmates. She used to be so curious about prestigious clans and what that must be like for children like Neji. Now she knew.

She both envied and admired him throughout their academy years. He probably didn’t even remember how he’d helped her learn the bunshin technique in time for the graduation exam. That perfect veneer had shattered once they made a team together. All his bitterness, his anger, and abrasiveness came undone before her.

And yet, it only strengthened her love and understanding of him. It was easy to see how he’d become the way he had about destiny after hearing about his clan’s archaic practices. Deep down she hoped that there was some way a change could be made, but if her visions were any indication of the future, then it wasn’t possible. If she’d been sent these memories because she could actually do something she wished they’d tell her what exactly.

TenTen lost her train of thought when she felt Sakura roll over in her sleep to cuddle her. TenTen leaned into her touch and finally drifted to sleep.

XXX

A heavy veil of shame hung over the Uchiha manor. Sasuke lie awake in bed listening to his parents’ hushed conversation. Things had been tense since Itachi and Shishui had absconded from the village five years ago. It was a sore spot for the Uchiha clan. Two of their five star clansmen just up and disappearing? It was an unprecedented scandal. Shameful rumors were abound not just in the Uchiha district but the entire village. Yet another reason for the clan to further isolate themselves.

Sasuke did his best not to think about it too much. Itachi had always been a flake, so it came as no shock to him that he’d just shirk his responsibilities as future clan leader to disappear. On the day Itachi left, he promised again to train with Sasuke another time. By the next day, he was gone.

Everything had worked out in the end though. Now, Fugaku was forced to give Sasuke his undivided attention. It was evident in his father’s every look that Sasuke wasn’t half the ninja Itachi was, but Fugaku would have to accept it.

Sasuke despised the fact that even in Itachi’s absence he was still chasing his back. He wished they were never related at times.

Chapter Text

TenTen had picked Sakura up from her shift at the hospital. They were sitting outside a shop, on its steps, eating dango as Sakura droned on about how dull work was. While TenTen half-listened, she realized for the first time that Neji’s rudeness and general gloomy disposition really did bother her. In the week and a half since their last mission, they hadn’t been able to reconcile at all. Didn’t make it any better that TenTen had been evading all Gai-sensei’s attempts at team building exercises to hang out with Sakura.

In turn, spending more time with Sakura was a peculiar experience. Sakura was a really affectionate person. She was always wanting to hold hands, lock arms, or do each other’s hair. The only physical touch that TenTen was used to was sparring or watching Gai-sensei and Lee embrace each other. This friendship had been a huge adjustment.

They finished their dango and decided to head to the library to dig up some more dirt on the female sannin, but their plans were foiled when both Team Gai and Team Kakashi appeared before them in a whirl of smoke. They were lightly scolded by their teams for constantly abandoning them, then forced to go to a restaurant together.

XXX

The bar and grill restaurant they’d settled in was packed tighter than sardines that evening. TenTen wondered if today was some kind of holiday. She flipped a slice of meat on the grill in the middle of their table without much enthusiasm.

At least Sakura seemed to be having fun. She’d cooked about three pieces of meat to perfection and held out her chopsticks to Sasuke in hopes that he’d let her feed him. Of course things didn’t go as planned and Sasuke smacked her hand away causing the meat to splatter across the table.

“Teme!” Naruto growled. “Stop being mean to Sakura-chan.”

“Stop being such a loudmouth, dobe,” Sasuke sneered.

Kakashi had to hold Naruto back from jumping across the table. Sasuke continued to eat as if he wasn’t there. TenTen looked to Sakura and saw the girl was on the verge of tears. She scooted closer to her and rubbed her back.

“Just ignore him, Sakura. Uptight clan brats aren’t brought up with manners,” TenTen soothed.
Neji shot a glare TenTen’s way in an instant. TenTen pretended not to notice. Naruto, ever clueless, couldn’t spot the obvious tension between the two.

“Yeah! That’s what I try to tell Sakura all the time,” Naruto added.

Sakura held back an eye roll before she turned to TenTen and spoke in a hushed voice. “Don’t be mean. You’re going to cause unnecessary trouble.”

“You didn’t hear what that white-eyed bastard said to me,” TenTen hissed back.

“We’re not part of clans. There’s no way we could ever know how stressful things can be for both of them.”

“He’s never going to like you the way you want him to, y’know. Just give up now and focus on what matters.”

The instant she saw Sakura’s face fall, TenTen knew she messed up. Sasuke was a touchy subject for Sakura and TenTen did her best to avoid it but these past two weeks had been trying for her.

“I have to be home now. My mother’s expecting me,” Sakura said, not actually asking for permission to be excused. Naruto and Rock Lee shot up at the opportunity to walk her home. 
TenTen, too ashamed to call out after her, just watched her leave.

XXX

Sakura curled up in the bathtub that night and bawled until her skin pruned.

I was never more than a blip in Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi’s lives.

She couldn’t get the voice of her older self repeating the same defeatist line out of her head. It was obvious that in the future she never stopped loving Sasuke and yet no favorable results had been yielded from her devotion. This… ‘love’ had ruptured so many relationships, blinded her from the bigger picture and led to her ultimate demise.

Sakura wondered if she’d be willing to carry this same love for him in another life. Would she just be repeating the same mistake? Is that what she was supposed to fix in this life? She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

XXX

TenTen walked home alone. What remained of the two teams’ dinner grew too awkward to bear. She hadn’t the appetite to eat anyway, so she left.

On the walk back to her place, she perused a few stores. Sakura had a mean sweet tooth. Perhaps if she brought her a treat as a peace offering they could make up. Unfortunately for TenTen, her bad luck persisted. She saw Neji leaning against the store window of one of the shops she passed, cool as a cucumber, arms crossed and one leg propped against the store front. Immature as it might have been, TenTen abandoned any idea of shopping for Sakura and made a show of ignoring Neji. He flashstepped in front of her in an instant. His byakugan activated, he approached her.

“Are you trying to start a fight with me?” TenTen spat while reaching for her weapons holster. He’d picked the wrong day to get testy with her. She was itching to claw his pretty eyes out.

“You’re being childish,” he scolded as if he was speaking to a petulant child.

“I am?” TenTen challenged. She slipped three ninja stars through the spaces between her fingers, ready to go at any moment.

“Letting our team dynamic deteriorate because you can’t handle the truth is childish.”

“And you being a prick has no effect on our team dynamic?” TenTen shot back.

Neji’s feathers were ruffled by the insult. She could tell from the way his mouth pressed into a hard line.

TenTen realized that she’d never really spoken out against him. Especially not to this degree.
Am I changing already? she thought.

“You’re not pleasant to be around all the time, Neji. You’re a brilliant ninja and I admire you for it, but sometimes it’s really hard to put up with you.”

Neji didn’t respond, but he did deactivate his byakugan. TenTen put away her ninja stars.

Good. He’s listening.

“All the stuff you’ve got going on with your clan - I can’t say that I fully understand it, but I empathize with you. When you’re at your worst I keep that in mind. But I don’t think you give me nor Lee’s feelings half as much consideration.”

“I do. Which is why I try to be realistic with the both of you. We are all born with limitations in life-”

“People continue living despite those limits! Look at Gai-sensei and now Lee-”

“Lee is a fool,” Neji spat through grit teeth.

TenTen let out a long sigh. There was a lull in conversation covered up by the several conversations happening all at once in the streets. TenTen felt like this was all just hopeless.

“You’re probably one of if not thee best fighter in the Hyuga clan despite your limits.”

“There are still things I cannot do. Why can’t you see it’s the same for you and Lee?”

TenTen shook her head. She let out a shallow, sarcastic laugh as she looked at him again with new eyes. “You’re such a whiner.”

Neji was just as shocked as TenTen was. She hadn’t meant to let that slip out. She thought it plenty but never voiced it. Oh well! It was too late to take it back now. Might as well lay everything on the table.

“Lee’s got more limits than you but at least he goes out there and tries to change things. He doesn’t bide his time whining about how tragic his life is nor put others down in the process. If you’re so angry about the injustice of your clan then do something about it instead of bitching at everyone else!”

TenTen was shaking and short of breath by the end of her rant, but satisfied. A huge weight had rolled off of her shoulders. That was not the best way to handle the situation (and she’d probably worsened matters) but there was a certain freedom in no longer allowing herself to be a passive doll who the brooding boy was free to project on.

He said nothing as he performed the hand signs for the teleportation jutsu. This was a long time coming. This needed to happen. She just hoped she didn’t damage anything irreparably.

XXX

The genin teachers had an impromptu meeting of their own at a pub near the edge of the village. In reality, Asuma and Kurenai were already there sharing drinks and Gai had been following Kakashi around for another challenge that brought them to the pub. The pub owner had been the one to convince Gai not to have a drinking contest. He’d just had to deal with a destructive, drunken idiot the night before. He didn’t need a repeat so soon. They settled on civil talks over drinks instead.

“Mah, it’s still so hard to get Shikamaru motivated. It’s a pity because if he ever decides to put in the effort he’d be a competent leader,” Asuma complained. “I think he’s the only one who can wrangle an opinionated Ino and a cowardly Choji.”

“Shino would be a great leader. He’s so levelheaded. He’s too impersonal though,” Kurenai added. “Hinata’s too shy and Kiba has the tendency to act too brashly.”

Kurenai tipped her glass in Kakashi and Gai’s direction. “How are things for you guys?”

“Good aside from Neji sometimes,” Gai said, surprisingly untalkative.

Kakashi caught the way Kurenai stiffened at his name. Gai, sensing the mood shift, clapped a hand on Kakashi’ shoulder.

“Kakashi and I’s teams have grown surprisingly close. TenTen and Sakura have been thick as thieves as of late.”

“I got an earful about it from Ino,” Asuma chuckled. “She’s seen the two of them walk past her flower shop and around the village before. She believes Sakura’s trying to find a replacement for her.”

“Girls are a handful,” Kakashi sighed into his glass of sake. “They’re too dramatic for their own good.”

“Rivalry, no matter the gender, brings out the ridiculousness in everyone,” Kurenai gestured between him and Gai. “It’s especially hard to navigate when it gets in the way of a friendship you feel you can’t rebuild.”

“Don’t think too much into it. It’s just a rivalry over a boy who won’t date either of them,” Asuma dismissed. Kurenai’s eye twitched in annoyance.

“Whatever it may be, I’m grateful for TenTen’s influence on Sakura. She’s not that remarkable on paper and it didn’t seem like she wanted to be until recently,” Kakashi said before gulping down the remainder of his drink.

“You’re the teacher, Kakashi. You should be the one motivating your student,” Gai fussed.

Kakashi shrugged. “At Sakura’s current level and prior negligence to training, she’d be lucky if she made chunin rank. I’m almost positive that if Sasuke agreed to date her right now she’d probably give up on the ninja life altogether.”

Gai gave him a weird look before realizing any reasoning with his long time rival was pointless and just shook his head. Kurenai and Asuma couldn’t hide how baffled they were by their comrade’s blatant disregard for one of his underlings.

Chapter Text

Only the bold are rewarded. That’s why in the end, despite everything, guys like Naruto, Lee, and Gai-sensei got what they wanted.

The older voice of a sage-like TenTen came to Sakura as she witnessed the third Hokage give bratty Naruto the high ranking mission he’d been begging him for. Rudeness her mother would’ve scolded her for only made the Third smile. She wondered if it would ever be possible for her to be that forthright in her own desires.

The mission turned out to be even higher ranked than originally thought when chunin level ninja jumped out to attack the bridge builder Tazuna early on. Sakura was scared out of her mind. She had no real battle experience and whenever things got too physically intense during academy training she bowed out. Except she couldn’t do that now. Her duty was to protect the client at all costs.

She thanked TenTen for helping her pick out new weapons when she was able to put her smoke bombs to use. She used the cover to get Tazuna out of harm's way and give a little time before any serious attack had to be made on her part. She made a mental note to reconcile with TenTen if they made it out of this mission alive.

Once the smoke cleared, despite her best efforts, Sakura and Tazuna were surrounded by the nin. Sakura shifted into a fighting stance taught to her by Lee-san as she awaited the brothers’ move. She reached in her weapons pouch for one of the shuriken TenTen polished for her for extra security.

The brothers advanced toward her in a flash. Even though Sasuke and Kakashi ended up stealing the show, she was proud to have tripped one of the enemy nin with a sweeping floor kick.

XXX

Danger only increased once they ran into a man named Zabuza. Though Kakashi had protected them, the encounter had left him bedridden. It was the first time the mysterious allure of Kakashi had been demystified for her. If a man as cool, nonchalant, and powerful could be unnerved in battle then what were her chances as a kunoichi?

After Kakashi rested a little he decided to do a tree-walking exercise. It didn’t take long for Sakura to catch on. She walked the entire length of the skyscraper trees three times before getting bored and watching Sasuke and Naruto’s progress.

Naruto came over to ask for advice at one point. She didn’t mind but she was holding onto hope that her dreamboat Sasuke would do the same. An hour passed before she gave up.

It occurred to her all of a sudden that Kakashi-sensei probably planned for this singular activity to be an all-day affair. Sakura thought about TenTen and Rock Lee who were always training, always seeking to learn more, to be better ninjas. It stung her pride a little to see how flabbergasted Kakashi was when she asked if there was another exercise for her to learn.

XXX

Sakura applied the same principles of tree-walking to water-walking. Though it took her longer to grasp than tree-walking, she still got the hang of it in no time. Water was a constantly moving surface but the trick was not to panic and keep the same amount of chakra distributed through the soles of your feet no matter what. All her efforts had left her drenched but she was grateful to return to Tazuna’s home weary from a long day’s training. Sasuke and Naruto hadn’t come back yet. They were still only halfway up their trees.

XXX

At dinner, Naruto and Sasuke returned. There was a jovial atmosphere at the dining room table even from the usually moody Sasuke.

“Nee, Sakura-chan, where’d you disappear to earlier?” Naruto asked in between bites. She had a clear view of the half-chewed potato bits in his mouth.

“I was doing the next exercise,” Sakura admitted in a much humbler tone than she felt.

“Ah! Sakura-chan might beat me again. I need to catch up,” Naruto whined. “And leave the dead weight behind before I get dragged down.”

Rising to the bait, Sasuke glared daggers at Naruto. A battle of the meanest glare ensued. For once, Sakura bore no desire to admonish Naruto for his slight against her beloved. She was too busy basking in the glow of her rare achievement.

XXX

Kakashi-sensei’s next exercise for Sakura was to stick weapons to the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. Sakura wasn’t sure if it was practical in the ninja world and was more sure that her sensei was running out of ideas for training exercises, but she stuck to it anyhow.

“How are you doing that?”

Sakura whipped her head around to find none other than Sasuke himself watching her with keen interest. She extended her hand toward him, kunai dangling from it steadfast.

“It’s the same technique as tree-walking,” Sakura explained.

Sasuke slipped a kunai from his own pouch and tried to replicate Sakura’s trick. Sakura bit back a smile when she watched him flounder around after not being able to hold it more than a few seconds. Who would’ve thunk there’d be a day when Sakura did something better than Sasuke?
Unfortunately, she couldn’t relish in the moment for long. Sasuke pouted as he snatched his kunai off the ground, then angrily formed the hand signs to teleport away. Sakura found his embarrassment cute.

XXX

After many trials and tribulations, Ningame decided to really train TenTen. Problems had already arisen. He’d taken her to a sacred place he called the ‘Enchanted Burrows.’ It was a series of underground dwellings, dark and dank and crawling with creepy bugs of obscene sizes. If that wasn’t bad enough, he and the other tortoise summons were demanding she wear a ridiculous shell while she trained. It was his first shell, offered to him by his own master, so she should be grateful, he said. It was smelly, uncomfortable and hard to move in but Ningame insisted it was a necessary part of training.

Ningame had scooped some information from Gai-sensei about her as a ninja. He believed that her position on the team as a long range fighter was a waste of her taijutsu skills. What was the point of learning hand to hand combat if she never closed in on the action?

“I’m not missing out on anything,” TenTen argued. “I’m the girl known since her academy days for hitting her marks ten out of ten.”

“And what’ll you do the day you miss?” Ningame challenged.

TenTen went quiet then. It wasn’t a question she ever asked herself. Every attack she made was perfect. There had yet to be a mission where her weapons failed her.

“You’re a talented weapons specialist,” Ningame started up again. “But there’s no reason for you to seek my aid if you’re content being a one-trick pony. A tortoise’s shell is its ultimate defense.”
Without warning, Ningame threw weapons from his shell at TenTen. TenTen’s shell was too heavy for her to evade the attack in time so she drew her arms over her head and hoped for the best. The shell repelled most of the weapons that flew her way.

“See!” Ningame gloated.

TenTen opened her eyes. When she saw she was unharmed, she looked to Ningame with contempt. “It’s not practical for me to run around in a tortoise shell all day.”

“You’re just ungrateful and unimaginative,” Ningame grumbled as he sent another barrage of weapons in her direction.

XXX

TenTen ended practice more sore than she appreciated, but she was happy in the end that she’d righted one of the wrongs of her past life. Maybe destiny really wasn’t set and one could rewrite it any time. If only she could get Neji to understand that.

She shook the thought away and instead poured over Ningame’s words. He’d called her unimaginative. That tortoise shell he’d given her was more of an eyesore than the green spandex Rock Lee and Gai-sensei wanted them all to wear but at least the outfit served a practical purpose. Ningame wanted her to discover a way to adapt his shell to a defense system of her own if she wasn’t going to use his.

Too fatigued and too drenched in sweat to think of the possibilities now, she headed home in silence for a warm bath.

XXX

Days of brutal training passed in the burrows before TenTen reached her limit lugging around that shell.

“You carry weapons around all the time,” Ningame argued in defense of his methods.

“I use scrolls activated by my chakra to do the heavy lifting,” TenTen shot back. “It’s still a hassle but much more convenient.”

“Let me let you in on a secret,” Ningame chuckled. “Although tortoises can carry around their own shells just fine, we summons reinforce our defenses by pumping chakra through it at all times.”

“I can’t afford to slow my team down nor waste all my chakra wearing ill-fitting defense armor!”

“Tortoises are also known for their ability to adapt to any environment. If I’m going to be your summon, you need to be more like me!”

TenTen could do nothing but groan.

Chapter Text

Neji was known for many things. His genius, his hardwork, his strictness, his bluntness, but never for being whiny. He let his annoyance from the slight fuel his intense training in the Hyuga courtyard.

He’d graduated as the number one rookie in his year in spite of the Hyuga clan not because of it. He could’ve been a louse and it still wouldn’t have changed his fate. He resented the fact that the destiny of hatred had been bestowed upon him and let it be known to the clan. He could be angry and insensitive at times, but whiny?

For the first time he thought deeply about his and TenTen’s relationship. They’d been by each other’s sides since their academy days when she’d shined far brighter than the others in kunai throwing drills. They’d continued training alongside each other with no hiccups until recently. He could understand that people might not like everything he said because the truth hurt but he’d never expected an outburst like that from her.

How long had she been harboring these feelings of resentment? Who was she to tell him that he chose to do nothing about his fate? She didn’t know - could never know - the pain of a life you didn’t want mapped out for you. Perhaps Rock Lee’s idiocy was starting to rub off on her. They had been hanging out together more without him. Hadn’t she been the one to tell him she could only take that buffoon’s declarations of youth in tiny doses? Since when had they become so chummy?

Things were changing too fast and Neji didn’t like it. What had caused this change in TenTen over the past few months? The question caused him so much emotional distress that he didn’t realize he’d attracted an audience until minutes later. Without turning he could feel the weight of his Uncle Hiashi’s heavy gaze on his back.

“Do the elders wish for you to watch over my training?” Neji called out. Purposeful in not addressing the man directly.

“Your mother asked me to fetch you for dinner,” Hiashi replied in an even tone.

“Since when did the head family start running errands for the branch family?” Neji spat.

The air between them was thick and humid with repressed anger. A silent battle of unsaid words ensued.

Neji turned and saw his uncle’s fists shaking at his sides. He wondered if the man was fighting the urge to subdue him by activating his curse mark. He wouldn’t put it past his uncle. Neji wasn’t so serious and disciplined by happenstance - none of the branch members were. Their true selves were pared down until a shell of a person remained. Rigid clan politics could do that to a person. Any attempt to go against the status quo led to death. Most branch members became so emotionally repressed that it made them perfect candidates for the ANBU Black Ops. Neji was good because he had to be not because he wanted to.

Hiashi looked like he was struggling against something inside himself. He took a deep breath before he spoke. “Will you be signing up for the Chunin Exams this year?”

“I plan to,” Neji said.

“Good. The clan will be expecting your swift promotion,” Hiashi said, his delivery awkward.

Neji just nodded then returned to training. Hiashi lingered behind a few moments more biting his lip before leaving.

XXX

The recent Wave mission left Sasuke with mixed feelings. The dobe was getting stronger. He was still leagues ahead of him so it wasn’t any cause for worry. Sakura had managed to hold her own while they were there and she’d even been less clingy toward him lately. Whoever she’d been absconding with to train over the past few months was working miracles. He took note of how much more prepared she was on missions too. Her once meager, poorly kept kunai collection could rival his. How she breezed through Kakashi’s training exercises when he had trouble picking them up was a mystery. She even applied the same techniques to their final battle against Haku and Zabuza to get Tazuna to a safe spot under the bridge’s foundation. How she did it he didn’t know, but he guessed he had to be thankful she wasn’t a nuisance he had to save for once.

But Sasuke was learning that he didn’t like change. Especially change that didn’t solely benefit him. All his training with his father felt pointless when he had been knocked out with a simple flick of the wrist by Haku - a boy the same age as him who was so much stronger he could take on Kakashi alone. The same age as the dead last Naruto who’d swooped in to save the day.

Sasuke woke up toward the end of the battle pissed at his own weakness. His only saving grace was that his sharingan had awakened. He bit down thoughts of Itachi having awakened his already by eight years old.

What was interesting was the way Sakura froze as she tried to administer medical aid to him when his tomoe spun to life. She was stuck to the spot. She didn’t have energy to fuss at him for trying to get back in on the action that was already over. He also remembered how she’d kept a friendly distance from him on the way back to the village and even on their following missions. There was a significant dip in dating propositions from her. Other attempts to be close to him had dwindled. He didn’t care to understand her motives. He was tired of fighting off lovesick girls with no drive other than possessing him as arm candy. He needed to train more and make sure the gap between him and the other rookies’ skill level remained wide.

XXX

Fugaku was not happy with what had been reported back to him about the Wave mission. He was never happy about anything concerning Sasuke. He didn’t say much at the dinner table that night as he dug into the pork katsudon Mikoto had prepared.

“I guess these are your limits,” was the offhanded remark Fugaku offered. In his world, the situation had been laid to rest.

“I can’t believe you’ve activated your sharingan already,” Mikoto worried. “I wanted you to stay a little boy as long as possible.”

“Don’t fuss, dear. It’s not even fully formed,” Fugaku dismissed.

Sasuke bit back the retort eager to jump off his tongue. His father recognized power. If he had enough he wouldn’t be so pissed at himself. For his mother’s sake he’d keep his cool.

“Now that my sharingan has developed, can I join you and the others at the police station for more advanced training, father?”

“Now’s not a good time. The station’s ramping up security in anticipation for the Chunin Exams.”

“I’ll help you, Sasuke-kun,” Mikoto tried to soften the blow.

Sasuke continued like he hadn’t heard her. “I’d like to train as much as possible in time for the exams, father.”

“You’ve been a genin for less than six months, baby. No need to rush."

“I’m ready,” Sasuke said in a gruff voice. His eyes shifted back to his father. “I’ll be prepared if father puts aside the time to train me.”

“Your mother’s right. You won’t be ready for more advanced training until your eyes have fully developed,” Fugaku brushed him off for the final time.

Sasuke kept his thoughts to himself for the rest of dinner.

XXX

In a plot reserved for the Uchiha clan, Sasuke trained alone. He had a new technique under his belt, Mythical Phoenix Fire Jutsu, no thanks to his father.

The man was just as elusive as Itachi. Sasuke both resented and exalted his father (much like he did Itachi). He was the perfect image of the ‘family man’ to the clan and outsiders despite the situation with Itachi, a great shinobi to boot, but he was a pisspoor excuse of a father. What’s worse was the man had a mean streak about him that his brother never had.

Sasuke would never be able to get through to his father until he became great all on his own. He just wished the man would at least point him in the right direction. It was pathetic how he had to grovel for a speck of his father’s attention. It was downright shameful!

No one got anything in this world without earning it - not even parental love. How did Itachi have all his father’s love and he wasn’t even around to bask in it? Sasuke once again had to settle for his older brother’s leftovers.

Had Fugaku’s willingness to teach his sons fled with Itachi? How was Itachi still managing to get in the way of his happiness? Sasuke would just have to become a brilliant ninja on his own in spite of his father’s indifference toward him.

Chapter Text

“I should’ve expected Gai-sensei’s summon to be just as bizarre as he is. I think he got the ‘make your subordinates wear horrid things they don’t like’ from him - but that’s beside the point. I think I’m on the verge of a breakthrough but I’m still having trouble developing a jutsu that would act as my own shell without a shell and…”

Sakura sat quietly on the floor of TenTen’s bedroom. She seemed troubled as she held tight to one of TenTen’s panda plushies, inflating the size of its head. TenTen stopped her rambling, worried about the younger girl’s sudden sullenness.

“What’s wrong?”

Sakura hadn’t even registered her speaking. TenTen had to shake her a little just to bring her back down to earth.

“Everything’s fine. Don’t mind me!” Sakura said.

“There must be something wrong,” TenTen insisted. “You didn’t find a way to segway my training into a story about Sasuke.”

TenTen didn’t miss the way Sakura froze. She did her best to hold back a sigh. Sakura found a sudden interest in her fuzzy socks.

“You wouldn’t like what I wanted to talk about,” Sakura admitted.

“Is it about Sasuke?” TenTen asked.

Not looking up from her feet, Sakura nodded. TenTen plopped down beside her, face neutral as she egged her on to explain.

“I’ve been holding back from you about certain memories,” Sakura confessed. “Specifically about Sasuke after seeing his lifeless body on the bridge in Wave country. I had some dreams prior to that mission that I thought were foreshadowing his death - thankfully he’s still alive. But since he’s awakened his sharingan, I’ve started seeing this… future Sasuke with those same eyes full of bloodlust and rage glaring at me. Coming at me with the intent to kill. I’ve been trying to ignore it because as difficult as Sasuke can be at times he’s never been that angry nor violent toward me. I know this, but I’ve been keeping my distance from him until the flashbacks die down.”

There was a long stretch of silence after Sakura spoke. She felt weird saying all that out loud but if she couldn’t share this with TenTen then who else could she? But TenTen’s silence was of the judgemental variety. Sakura could feel it without needing to crane her neck toward her.

“What?” Sakura broke the silence at last.

“Maybe avoiding Sasuke is a good idea,” TenTen said, throat tingling with built up venom.

“I can’t avoid him forever, TenTen. We’re teammates!”

“Does he see it that way?” TenTen snapped. She rose from the floor to tower over Sakura. “Anytime you describe Sasuke’s behavior it sounds like he’s barely tolerating you and Naruto.”

“He’s a little antisocial but he’s been opening up since Team 7 was formed,” Sakura said, more defensive than necessary.

“How?” TenTen gave a condescending smirk.

“He actually does rely on Naruto when it counts during missions. He even let me tag along with him around the village a few times.”

“The last time you asked him out he teleported away.”

“He’s just shy.”

There was another long pause. TenTen tried to hold back the snark ready to leap off her tongue, but Sakura could see the contempt in her face.

“You obviously have more to say so just say it,” Sakura fumed.

“It’s in your best interest to give up on Sasuke now if you want to be a kunoichi worth a damn!”

“There’s plenty of time for work and romance. I don’t have to choose between them.”

“Why would he want a girl who couldn’t even carry a proper set of ninja tools before a few months ago?” TenTen shouted, getting completely out of character. Sakura shrunk back in fear. “He’s a distraction. You shouldn’t get your hopes up on ‘happily ever after’ with a clan brat who would never even be allowed to marry you anyway.”

“Aren’t you just projecting your own situation with Neji on me?” Sakura said on the verge of tears. Her voice cracked from the hurt.

“I don’t fucking like him!” TenTen wanted to rip her hair out. “He’s an asshole who thinks his shit doesn’t stink.”

“My mother told me that you can’t hate anything without loving it first,” Sakura sniffled.

TenTen threw her arms up. She shook her head in disbelief. What a crock of shit. “That’s just a measure for you to cope with your unrequited feelings.”

“We both have that in common,” Sakura sniped.

“You’re delusional as hell. You need to join the rest of us here in reality.”

“You’re a coward,” Sakura said in full blown tears. “Denying your feelings for fear of rejection is cowardly. Maybe you wouldn’t be such an uptight bitch if you were honest with yourself.”

There was nothing left to say. They both were so quiet for the next few moments that only the sounds of their heavy breathing persisted in the wake of their argument. TenTen held her bedroom door open.

“Leave.”

Neither girl could look each other in the face as Sakura packed her bag to go.

XXX

Against their will, Sakura and TenTen were forced to meet again. Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei had gone behind their backs to arrange a training session between their teams. It was to settle the men’s rivalry deadlock tie, so it was all very convenient.

Kakashi was the one to clock how prickly Sakura and TenTen seemed. “Girls are so fickle,” he laughed.

Before the rules of the session could be announced, the boys immediately flew off to face one another. The girls stayed behind in a deadlocked stare. Their teachers kept a close eye on them, wary but amused.

Sakura was the first to make a move. She kicked up a patch of dirt and watched TenTen have a coughing fit as the dust cloud rose. “Aren’t you going to run?” she asked, her tone provoking.

TenTen shrugged once the dust blew down. “For what? It’s you I’m facing,” she replied, fanning the flames.

Sakura rose to the bait and charged at her. TenTen backflipped out of her path in time, but Sakura had flown through the signs for clones and was coming at her again from every angle. A taijutsu battle ensued. TenTen dispelled Sakura’s clones with an upper cut and a donkey kick. A floor sweep would’ve gotten the real Sakura, but she’d been biding her training time with Rock Lee, so she flashed behind TenTen in a second, aiming a straight kick on her back.

“This is the most intense I’ve ever seen Sakura,” Kakashi muttered to himself.

But TenTen wasn’t to be bested by Rock Lee’s appropriated moves. Just as Sakura’s foot was about to land on her back, she turned at the last moment, grabbed Sakura by the ankle and swung her around before throwing her up against a tree. Sakura poofed into a piece of tree bark just as she was about to make impact. TenTen, now on alert, swiped a kunai out of her pouch and surveyed the area.

“I’m surprised you didn’t run off flying after Sasuke,” she taunted. “I’m sure a guy like him could do with his personal cheerleader nearby.”

“You’re just worried your golden boy might be beaten,” Sakura’s voice carried with a gust of wind, scattering it in all directions.

“Whatever. I know how this fight will end,” TenTen said as she sent a flurry of kunai in several directions. She heard a hiss of pain then saw blood on the leaves of a tree in her peripheral vision.

Gotcha , TenTen gloated.

TenTen scaled the tree and saw Sakura nursing her wounded arm. She smirked as she stepped toward her, kunai drawn. Her face dropped when she saw Sakura pull a thin string and a heap of talismans set up several explosions that left a thick cloud of smoke. TenTen’s eyes watered, her throat singed with fire, and she barely managed to secure a safe landing when the branch she balanced on gave in.

“You’ll have to take me more seriously if you want to win,” Sakura said, her voice scattering again.

“I don’t need to worry about being beaten by the pitiful stray I took in,” TenTen said in between coughs.

In the midst of the smoke, Sakura appeared in front of TenTen and rocked her jaw. TenTen flew back a few feet. As she sat up massaging her jaw, Sakura went missing again. She flashstepped a few feet out of the smoke’s range and drew out her weapons scrolls.

I can’t believe a half-rate kunoichi like Sakura is actually giving me a hard enough time to need to pull these out , TenTen bemoaned as she flew through the hand signs to unleash hundreds of weapons.

The smoke disappeared at once. Sakura came running toward TenTen at full speed. TenTen activated her scrolls to rain down kunai and other weapons, but Sakura formed the hand signs for a jutsu then disappeared.

TenTen was about to churn out another storm of weapons but decided against it. She forced herself to calm down in order to approach the fight more clearly. She closed her eyes to focus. Sakura was still in the area. The rustling of grass behind her alerted her to Sakura’s next move. She turned to see nothing.

Probably the transparency jutsu.

TenTen jumped out of dodge when she felt the wind shift. Sakura reappeared behind her, ready to land a blow on her back. TenTen managed to whip around in time to grab Sakura’s fist and then the other when she tried to hit her again. They held each other, both struggling to win the upper hand, grunting and growling. They were both exhausted - Sakura more visibly so - but neither wanted to relent. In the distance, they heard the screams of each other’s teammates.

“Isn’t that your cue to run to their sides, little miss nurse?” TenTen taunted.

“You’re just jealous because you haven’t got the knack for healing nor love,” Sakura rebuffed.

TenTen, in an immature lapse of judgement, let go of Sakura and kicked her shins. Sakura, hurt and tired but still apt to fight, swept TenTen’s legs from under her feet. They rolled around on the ground pulling hair, biting, slapping and scratching each other. Their senseis had long since grown tired of their fight and were keeping watch over the boys instead. TenTen gained the upper hand and pinned Sakura to the ground.

“Y’know you’re a really brilliant girl. It’s such a waste you let your feelings for a boy hold you back,” TenTen berated in between pants.

Sakura used all her strength to headbutt her. TenTen rolled off her, nursing a knot on her forehead to match Sakura’s.

“Would you rather me be frigid like you?” Sakura spat as she rubbed her throbbing forehead.

TenTen leaned over to slap Sakura. “I don’t get how someone so smart can be so stupid! We’re here now speaking to each other because we’ve been blessed with the knowledge of our past lives on how to make this life a better one and you’re still making the same mistakes!”

“And you aren’t? Why do you think the only way to get strong is to act like the boy you pretend to hate?” Sakura countered as she rubbed her cheek.

“Obviously what he does yields results.”

“And an early death, too!”

A quiet settled over them then. TenTen found the burnt patches of grass beneath her interesting all of a sudden.

“All you do is claim that I’m repeating the same mistakes but you are too, TenTen,” Sakura said in a low voice. “If judging by those memories I saw, you don’t have much more time with Neji. Why waste it denying your feelings?”

“My dream is to be legendary like the sannin Tsunade. I’ve never heard of her having a partner or being married. Why should I care about that kind of stuff?”

“You’ll never be exactly like Tsunade because you’ve got no skill for healing. At some point you’ll have to pivot.”

“I guess you’re right,” TenTen caved. “I’m sorry for making fun of your boy-craziness, but it’s usually the reason for our disagreements.”

“And I’m sorry about my boy-craziness, but I no longer want to stifle my feelings to keep a friend.”

They met each other’s eyes again. There was a hesitance on both their parts to forgive. Neither one wanted to make the first move. Their confessions were already more than either had wanted to admit. But weren’t they all the other had at the end of the world? Weren’t they the only ones now that they could confide in about what they knew the future possibly held? Sure they wouldn’t agree all the time, but they needed to be able to rely on each other when the going got rough.

They shook hands before drawing up a schedule for the next time they’d discuss their dreams.

XXX

Sakura got rid of any trace of her and TenTen’s fight before they reconvened with the boys. To her shock, there were few injuries for her to heal. Sakura only had to patch up minor bruises, cuts, and burns before heading off to her hospital apprenticeship with TenTen as her escort.

TenTen made no effort to say goodbye to Neji. As she and Sakura split from the training grounds, she took a long time to think about what she’d do with all her feelings. Pulling a few cards from her tarot deck that evening might be just what she needed to set her on the right path.

Chapter Text

For the sake of their friendship, talk of boys - good or bad - had lessened in the days since Team 7 and Team Gai’s spar. Instead, TenTen and Sakura had occupied their time trying to figure out how to make sense of the fragmented memories they’d been seeing. It was an easier subject to broach than boys.

Besides, Neji and TenTen still had yet to reconcile. They’d just been ignoring the issue like mature adults. Sakura also couldn’t be around Sasuke for long without hearing the sound of lightning crackling.

In her downtime at the hospital (and she had plenty of it!), Sakura scoured the advanced medical books in the offices of the medical examiners she assisted. The texts about the functions of the human brain intrigued her the most. Thousands of pages of research were dedicated to it. She hit the jackpot finding the extensive sections detailing the effects of genjutsu as a form of information harvesting but also the possibilities of it being used to reverse degenerative brain damage. Despite Sakura’s limited practice, Iruka-sensei had complimented her genjutsu prowess on several occasions during her academy years and she was a whiz at picking up anything she read, so she decided today would be her chance to try her hand at something completely new.

“I’ve got an idea,” Sakura said with a mouthful of watermelon as she and TenTen sat on her balcony spitting seeds out over the crowd below them. “I think we could use genjutsu to sort out the memories we’ve been seeing.”

“It’s hopeless,” TenTen sighed before spitting out a torrent of seeds like rapid gunfire until a shop window broke. They crouched down on the balcony floor giggling as the shop owner yelled out expletives at innocent bystanders. “I’ve got no knack for genjutsu. Besides, isn’t there a clan in the village that specializes in mind techniques that could help us out?”

“No,” Sakura said more forcefully than planned. She turned when she saw TenTen’s brow rise. Sakura couldn’t go to the Yamanakas for help. She vowed to herself long ago that she’d never admit any weakness to Ino ever again. How was she going to explain that to TenTen?

“If we get the wrong people involved in this they might have to report what they see. There’s no telling what could be done to us by the higher ups once they get a whiff of us knowing the future,” Sakura saved herself.

TenTen shrugged, not caring to press the issue. Sakura was grateful for the older girl’s nonchalance. She pulled a notepad from her dress pocket and flipped to a page full of scribbled words. “I’ve been reading a lot of books at work. I found this Mind Scrambling Jutsu that scatters memories, so there’d have to be a way to reverse engineer the jutsu.”

“I just told you I’m no good at genjutsu! I definitely can’t ‘reverse engineer’ a genjutsu technique,” TenTen fussed.

“No need to worry!” Sakura reassured her. “The Mind Scrambling Jutsu disrupts the parts of the brain responsible for memory like the hippocampus, the neocortex, and the amygdala by scrambling the flow of chakra. I deduced that if we focus our chakra to those parts of the brain then we could make our memories more solid and map out a timeline of our past lives’ events.”

“Wow… that’s actually a really good idea,” TenTen whistled.

“Thank you!” Sakura gave a dramatic curtsy.

“I guess there is more than just useless factoids about Sasuke up there,” TenTen flicked Sakura’s forehead.

Both girls ran inside Sakura’s room giggling, Sakura chasing TenTen for payback.

XXX

After more fun (and snacks) were had, Sakura and TenTen set to task. Directing chakra to your brain proved much more difficult than the tree climbing or water walking exercise. It took them a while to get the hang of it but they found their footing by allowing their memories to pour in one by one. Sorting them into an accurate timeline was difficult before they discovered that the flow of the images reacted to emotional intensity. If they got worked up, more images of gruesome scenes would pop up. Calming down enough to get a clear timeline of events was a feat in itself.

As the timeline unfolded, TenTen saw a girl who went on to achieve many things in life, however, she always played second fiddle to the guys on her team. Masculinity was very suffocating no matter how much she liked Team Gai. Seeing herself always acquiescing to Neji’s demands, selling herself short where she should’ve pushed for more and suffering embarrassing defeats because of it was nothing short of humbling. She never thought of herself as a person with a lot of regrets but having her life played back to her was a wake up call.

Sakura was overwhelmed by the lifetime of pain and heartache she’d endured. She could feel everything her past self felt in those moments. It was a highlight reel of her deepest regrets. She was surprised she hadn’t keeled over from the stress. Hours later, after they’d finished viewing all the memories, they held each other close and wept.

XXX

The drawing board they’d created months ago was bursting with notes. They were finally able to pin down a definitive timeline of their past lives. They both agreed that the Chunin Exams were the turning point. In order to redirect their current timeline to a more favorable future, they’d have to change what happened there. Orochimaru would probably still come but Sasuke would avoid being bitten if he didn’t participate.

“It won’t just be Sasuke who won’t participate. Three-man teams have to compete together. All of Team 7 will have to sit out this event,” TenTen explained.

Sakura knew already that convincing Sasuke not to compete would be a losing battle but adding Naruto to the mix would only make it worse. Those two were always seeking out others to measure their skills against. No way they’d give up an opportunity like the Chunin Exams. Once those two saw a chance to battle, there was nobody in the world who had the power to change their minds. Sakura was a nervous wreck.

“But our timeline is already different enough from the original. Sasuke has his family so there’s no chance of him running away,” Sakura said more to convince herself than TenTen.

“There may not have been an Uchiha massacre but everybody’s still the same person at their core. If he only values power, he’ll seek it out no matter the consequences.”

“He’ll hate me if I’m the reason he and Naruto can’t compete.”

“That’s not much different from now,” TenTen thought she said in her mind. When she saw Sakura’s face fall and sobs kick up moments later she knew she’d be doing damage control for the rest of the evening.

“It’s for his safety, Sakura. If he’s not exactly where Orochimaru wants him then things can’t go as planned,” TenTen clarified as she handed Sakura some tissues. She’d have to call her mother soon and let her know that she’d be staying over at Sakura’s for another spontaneous sleepover. It was going to be a long night.

XXX

Ino had been hearing the news of Sakura’s new ‘bestie’ for weeks. She would never admit it out loud, but she took the news harder than their initial friendship breakup over Sasuke. At least she knew why that had happened. Picking up an older, cooler friend came to Ino like a shot out of left field. 

Ino had heard through the grapevine that they were practically joined at the hip. They ate together, trained together, bought supplies together. Ino started to wonder if Sakura was seeing her as less of a threat now that she was on a team with Sasuke. Was she trying to show her up by hanging out with a strong upperclassman? Ino didn’t know but she was going to do something about it!

She plucked Hinata up one day as the Hyuga was training on her own. The Hyuga heiress was either too polite or too shy to say no fast enough to any of Ino’s requests so Hinata had been dragged along to whatever harebrained scheme the Yamanaka cooked up.

Hinata wasn’t very effective in getting Sakura’s attention because she didn’t have a very imposing presence. However, Ino had been using their time spent together to instill more confidence in the bashful girl. She’d taken her out shopping on a few occasions to update her frumpy wardrobe. Hinata protested all crop tops and miniskirts Ino pushed her way but she caved on a pair of shorts that reached a few inches above her knees. Hinata worried when she’d be able to wear it because her father would never approve. Hinata had revealed bits and pieces of her home life to Ino and Ino thought a pair of cargos were the least of her family’s worries.

While Ino could complain ‘til kingdom come that her father didn’t understand her or worked her too hard, she never felt for a moment that he deemed her unworthy of his love. Ino didn’t know how Hinata put up with it. She probably would’ve put hair removal cream in her father’s shampoo just to humble him if he were so awful to her.

Hinata had explained to Ino on a few occasions that the only way she’ll ever be able to prove her worth to her father, her little sister, and the rest of the clan would be by training hard. She could weather the storm for now by keeping that in mind. Ino didn’t remark how eerily similar Hinata’s plan sounded to Naruto’s wish to be Hokage nor how obvious her crush on him was. Ino did take the time to pop in on Hinata’s training from time to time to drop off snacks or gossip.

XXX

“Why have you been hanging out with me so much lately?” Hinata mumbled into her glass of lemonade. 

Across the table from her, Ino stirred her straw around her own cup, bored. “No offense but there aren’t many other options. Plus, it’s hard to find another girl to talk to who doesn’t like Sasuke.”

Ino gave Hinata a fierce once over. Hinata, feeling the territorial hostility seeping in, put her hands up in mock surrender. “I-I don’t like Sasuke-kun at all, Ino. I assure you,” came Hinata’s soft voice.

“Why don’t you?” Ino asked, even more suspicious.

“He’s just not my type,” Hinata brushed off. “Is that why you and Sakura stopped being friends? Because you both liked Sasuke?”

“Does it matter?” Ino started getting huffy.

“Doesn’t it? You’d have more ‘options’ if you-”

Ino stood and slammed her palms down on the restaurant table. Everyone’s attention shifted to their table. Hinata squirmed in her seat. “If you don’t want to hang out with me anymore then just say it!”

“D-Don’t cause a scene, Ino,” Hinata whispered, trying to divert the unwanted attention of the other restaurant patrons. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Ino lowered back into her seat. A scowl crept over her features. “Don’t bring up Sakura again.”

Hinata gulped in fear. They spent the rest of their lunch sitting in awkward, angry silence.

Chapter Text

In the days since Sakura sorted out her memories, she'd been on a mission to prove her past self wrong. She did have a spot on the team.

However, the more missions Team 7 completed together, the more her older self was proven right. Whether they were picking trash out of rivers, walking dogs, or escorting old ladies to neighboring villages, there remained this impenetrable, invisible wall between her and the rest of her team. She felt like she was the background noise to their lives.

It was even worse if a battle came up. Sasuke and Naruto had no faith in her at all. They were quick to guard her. Maybe she would've found it more endearing if she wasn't privy to her previous life, but she felt this heavy sense of loneliness that she couldn't shake.

Sakura was stronger than she'd ever been at this point in her former life. Somehow she was still powerless in the end. Would this be a cycle she was forced to repeat? TenTen's fortune telling told of reincarnation. Would every version of Sakura's life be doomed to heartbreak? She didn't know what to do. She also didn't want to dump all her problems onto TenTen who she was sure was doing her best to sort through her own shit.

XXX

Sakura clocked into her hospital shift. A group of academy students had been admitted earlier for a training exercise gone awry but the hospital was its usual calm aside from it. Sakura was sorting through medical files when a nurse dropped in and handed her papers to be delivered to the Third. She was annoyed about having another day wasting away at the front desk instead of getting in more training but she was thankful for the break from the monotony.

Sakura took the long route to the Hokage's office. She let the light from each window she passed warm her and allowed her stiff legs to stretch with every step. She made it to the Hokage's office in no time and knocked on the door.

"Enter," the gravel-toned voice of the Third came.

Two jounin exited as Sakura walked in. The Third threw her a wide grin. "It's good to see you, Sakura. How has it been since graduation?"

"Fine, I guess," Sakura shrugged as she laid the stack of papers on his desk. She looked behind him and saw the sunny day's view peeking through the window's curtains. She thought about how she and TenTen could've shared a popsicle if they were free.

"I heard you've been taking shifts at the hospital," the Third took a drag from his pipe. "Are you looking to be a medic nin ?"

Sakura nodded. "Mhm. TenTen's the one that got me into it. She helped me sign all the forms and everything."

The Third let out a hearty laugh. "Ah, that TenTen ! I've heard you two have been thick as thieves."

"Yeah. She's cool. She helps me train and stuff."

"Then I guess you also want to be legendary like Tsunade ," the Third chuckled.

If only you knew , Sakura thought to herself. She gave him another nod to placate him.

"Being a medic suits you though," the Third mumbled to himself. "Iruka used to go on about how book smart you were. Having a medic on hand'll be needed for a team as reckless as yours."

The Third laughed again but Sakura couldn't bring herself to join him. Those feelings of inferiority she'd managed to lob off earlier by putting her all into work came rushing back. The Third noticed the shift in atmosphere and leaned over his desk to get closer to her.

"Have I said something wrong?"

"No. You haven't. I've just been..." Sakura couldn't lift her eyes from her feet. She shook with apprehension.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he offered.

Sakura dragged over a chair to the Hokage's desk. She bit her lip before she spoke. "Are you... are you always sure about the teams you pick?"

The Third looked confused. "Could you elaborate?"

"Have there ever been teams that worked in theory but were a disaster in reality?" Sakura continued.

"Is there a problem with your team?" he squinted his eyes in suspicion. "Is Naruto still causing trouble? I swear that boy-"

"No," Sakura sighed. "I think I might be the problem. I think I'm ill-placed."

The Third sat up, his full attention on the sulking girl. He removed his pipe from his mouth. "How do you figure that?"

"Well... Naruto and Sasuke are so strong. They bicker constantly but they're a match made in heaven on the battlefield. I don't understand where I fit into this puzzle at all."

The Third sent her a soft look of understanding. He reached across his desk to pat her shoulder. "You are a good fit for Team 7. Without your levelheadedness and book smarts I'm sure you all wouldn't have made it so long as a unit. Personalities like that are needed as a mediator."

"That's what an instructor's for," Sakura whined.

"Kakashi's got his hands full with those two," the Third joked.

Sakura hung her head. A thousand emotions ran through her mind.

"Yeah..." Sakura said. Bitterness clung to her tone.

The Third wanted to say something to lift her spirits, but a knock came at the door and a chunin entered not a second later alerting him of a squad of jounin being rushed into the emergency room.

Sakura excused herself. She ran down the halls to the hospital in hopes of a chance to get more real time training. The chunin carted the Third off to a meeting room with the council to discuss the details of the mission. He made a mental note to check on Team 7.

XXX

Team Gai was gathered at their training grounds. TenTen and Rock Lee were facing off. TenTen's day had gotten off to a bad start and she was more pissed than usual. Those memories of her past life - she couldn't accept them. Did she really spend the next few years of her life subdued and loyal to a Neji that never properly apologized for the cruelty he'd subjected his team to? Had her world really been so small that she never dared to branch outside of Team Gai? Had her efforts in the imminent war amounted to anything? She couldn't answer any of those questions. What she did know was that she'd never reached her full potential.

Using bukinjutsu , TenTen swung her chain wind staff with no mercy at Rock Lee. His signature evasiveness annoyed her more than ever. She swung her chain with the intent to land every blow but he was somehow always just out of reach. They were both giving it their all.

Rock Lee revved up for a swift kick to her abdomen. TenTen saw the perfect opportunity to hit him at close range. His leg extended toward her and she aimed for his shin. As TenTen went in for the kill, she and Rock Lee's fight met an abrupt end. Neji held Rock Lee's foot in one hand and both TenTen's arms in the other. Rock Lee hobbled around on his free leg. " Neji-san ... why'd you stop our fight?"

Neji fixed his cold eyes in TenTen's direction. "What the hell is your problem?" he spat.

TenTen could do nothing but guffaw at her teammate. He of all people should be the last one asking her that.

"It looked like she was aiming to break a bone," Neji explained to Rock Lee while keeping a scrutinizing eye on TenTen . "Not exactly a friendly spar."

"As if you would know what friendly looks like," TenTen grumbled as she jerked herself free from his grip.

Neji released Rock Lee's leg faster than the boy could register. He floundered a bit, arms windmilling and still hopping on one leg, before catching his balance. He looked between his two glaring teammates.

"Let's fight," Neji told TenTen with a smirk.

"But me and TenTen weren't done with our match," Lee whined.

Neji ignored him. He kept his glare on TenTen watching as her squinched eyebrows wrinkled her forehead. TenTen slid into a fighting stance.

"Come at me like you would Hinata," TenTen taunted.

Neji smirked at the bait. His smugness angered her further. She started swinging her chains in preparation as he slid into a fighting stance of his own. "You should call this off now," Neji warned. "You'll come to regret your decision."

That tone of finality, as if he knew everything, set TenTen off. He didn't know shit about her. No one did. Not even the past version of herself that had sent her all those visions of a damning future. She wouldn't let anyone define her destiny so early on. Especially not Neji .

TenTen started wailing on him. She gave him little time to think between blows. Seeing how serious she was, Neji activated his byakugan and started the trigram palm technique. He deflected TenTen's hits but she could see his hands turn red from the effort. It brought a smile to her face seeing how she'd affected the Hyuga until he sped up his attacks. She was forced to try to match his speed - an almost impossible feat! She kept up for a while, then he landed an open hit to her abdomen that sent her flying back several yards. She mustered her strength to roll on her side and coughed until blood tinged her teeth.

In that time, Neji had walked over, standing above her with his arms crossed and gloating. "This is the only way this could've ended," Neji taunted.

TenTen clutched her stomach where she received the blow. She couldn't allow 'Mr. Destiny' to win. Not after what she and Sakura had seen. She gathered the strength to release one of her weapon's scrolls and unleashed a barrage on Neji . It was nothing for him to evade them. He barely moved and even sighed as the final round of weapons rained down.

TenTen used the moment to rush him. She tackled him to the ground with the little strength she had remaining. Neji looked up at her, eyes hateful. "Get off me or I'll really hurt you," he warned.

TenTen grabbed him by his shirt collar. She pulled him close to her face. She wound up her fist, ready to lay into him, when at the last minute she dropped her hand and screamed in his face. She let him go so quickly that his head bounced after falling back.

TenTen could hear Rock Lee and Gai-sensei calling after her as she packed her bag to leave but she couldn't stand to be around them a minute longer. Despite her aching abs, she ran to the hospital clutching her side all the way.

XXX

Much to Kakashi's annoyance, Gai had called for an emergency meeting about their respective teams. In simpler terms, Gai had busted into his apartment late in the evening and refused to leave. It was such an inconvenience but Kakashi rarely ever saw Gai so serious. He'd have to catch reruns of the premiere episode of the TV adaptation of Icha Icha Paradise tonight.

"Their teamwork has been degrading because of this mysterious friction between Neji and TenTen ," Gai explained as he paced around Kakashi's living room. His apartment was bare aside from a few pieces of furniture. It was as if he'd just moved in instead of being a resident for five years.

"They've never been so out of sync as they have been for the past few months," Gai continued. "I'd expect this behavior from Neji and Rock Lee but not TenTen . What do you think Kakashi?"

Kakashi turned off his stove as his teapot began to whistle. He pulled a couple cups out of the cupboard and filled them. "The closer Sakura and TenTen grow the more their team dynamics suffer. Sakura's been more withdrawn on our latest missions," he stated as he served Gai his tea.

Gai swallowed the drink in one gulp. Kakashi was impressed by how not even the tea's heat could snap him out of his funk.

"I wonder if there's something going on between those two..." Gai thought out loud.

"Girls are hard to understand sometimes," Kakashi shrugged.

"I hope this tiff will blow over in time for the Chunin Exams. I won't recommend them if they can't get their acts together," Gai huffed.

"The Chunin Exams are coming up already?" Kakashi's eye widened.

A mischievous glint came to his eye. This could be the perfect opportunity to snap both teams out of their funk. Facing death together was a very good exercise in understanding the bigger picture and rearranging one's priorities. He had a lot of expertise in the field. He'd recommend Team 7 as soon as the Hokage announced the exams. He didn't really have a choice in the matter. Once Naruto or Sasuke got a whiff of a chance to test their strength against others their age, they'd nag him until they could participate. Sakura might be hesitant but she'd fall in line.

All of a sudden there was a knock at the door. Kakashi put his cup of tea down on the counter to answer it. He saw an ANBU agent holding a summoning scroll from the Hokage . Bad news.

Chapter Text

The week leading up to the Chunin Exams was marked by an intense nervousness for Sakura. Kakashi-sensei - despite all the evidence pointing to why they shouldn't be - recommended Team 7 and left them all with the impression that it was their individual choice to enter like in the past. Of course Sakura knew the truth. She was probably the only one among the three that knew because although she adored Sasuke she knew he wouldn't bother to read the qualifications for a promotional exam.

Everything was happening according to her memories so far. The confrontation with the Sand siblings, Iruka-sensei's sending out decoys to test their mental fortitude. But Sakura had foregone Iruka-sensei's test. She shrugged off ' Sasuke's ' invitation for a walk in favor of heading to the hospital where she'd throw her all into her work.

In truth, she couldn't think about the Chunin Exams without nightmares of the past bubbling up. She was much stronger than she had been at this point in her other life but she was still no match for a sannin . She couldn't bear to be around Sasuke for long either. Along with visions of him trying to kill her, she heard his screams as Orochimaru sunk his fanged teeth into his skin for the curse mark. She didn't like thinking about the exams nor the disappointment she expected when Naruto and Sasuke realized they wouldn't be able to compete in this round.

XXX

Sakura had also committed to spending more time training with TenTen and Rock Lee. Rock Lee was sure pumped about it. He'd been pushing himself to his limits every day with ridiculous goals. He'd been attempting to rope Sakura and TenTen into his crazy training escapades. It was a hard no from TenTen but Sakura found that the more time she spent around him, the more her heart softened to him. She indulged him on a few challenges but she hadn't the stamina to do any more.

Though Sakura avoided conversations about the exams, she found Rock Lee's enthusiasm charming. He had so much he wanted to prove and just like Naruto it was hard not to get swept up in his dreams.

She, Rock Lee, and TenTen were packing up to go after another day of intense training. The exams started tomorrow and all three had been tiptoeing around their uneasiness.

"Will we be seeing you tomorrow, Sakura- san ?" Lee asked as he slipped his backpack onto his shoulders.

Sakura looked down at her weapons. She gave them an unnecessary inspection to avoid meeting his eye. She shook her head, not confident enough to speak.

"Why not?" he said, now crouching beside her on the training grounds' ground. Shivers didn't run down her spine like they used to when he was near.

"I don't know... I'm not ready yet," Sakura shrugged.

Rock Lee, having been around Sakura enough at this point to sense when her bouts of insecurity snuck up on her, moved in closer to help her collect her weapons. He looked into her eyes as he handed her her last kunai and placed a hand on his chest. "I, Rock Lee, solemnly swear to you, Haruno Sakura, that the next time we meet I'll be a stronger man."

A blush crept up to her cheeks at his sincerity. She was quick to wave him off. "You don't have to promise me anything."

"It's the most youthful thing a man can do for the woman he's vowed to protect," he said before raising his thumb in the nice guy pose.

At one point, Sakura might've been repulsed or downright offended that someone like Lee dared to have feelings for her, but she was grateful for his attempt at encouragement. So affected was she that she felt her heart skip a beat at his smile.

TenTen came in at just the right moment to lunk him over the head. "Stop bothering Sakura! You need to go home to rest for tomorrow."

Rock Lee recovered from the blow in an instant. He bent forward until his hands touched the ground and kicked his legs in the air. "I'll be fine, TenTen . I'm going to walk all the way home in a handstand for good luck."

He waved them both goodbye with his feet before disappearing into a thick cluster of trees. TenTen could only shake her head in exasperation. "What am I going to do with him?"

Sakura hid her blush behind an unsteady laugh. "You should take your own advice and get some rest."

"I doubt I'll be able to sleep," TenTen threw her arms behind her head. "Do you want to crash at mine tonight?"

"I can't. My parents have been nagging me about not spending enough time together lately."

TenTen snorted in understanding. She'd always been independent herself but even her parents were concerned with how much more reduced her time had been at home. Even when she was home nowadays she was entertaining Sakura.

"Are you going to be okay tomorrow?" TenTen asked. The mood changed in an instant. Neither had been saying much about the exams for the other's sake. Within good reason too. Whatever happened tomorrow and in the coming days could change their lives irreversibly.

"I'll be fine," Sakura mumbled.

But would she be? She didn't believe it much herself. TenTen , ever the skeptic, was in the same boat. But both girls' nerves were frayed and there was no need to set the other off. They walked home together in silence under the clear night sky until they had to separate.

XXX

The fallout from this would be a day to remember. Kakashi watched, perched from a distance in a tree, the academy entrance. He saw it dawn on Naruto and Sasuke in real time that Sakura wasn't coming.

Upon arriving to register for the exams, they learned of the three-man team rule required for admission. The two stood off to the side waiting for her, bodies twitching in anticipation as they sized up possible opponents slipping through the doors. Both grew antsy as the hours waned and team after team entered. It hit noon before either of them knew it. The building's doors closed and the exams officially started. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke were very happy about what that meant but Sasuke quivered with rage. Naruto's attempts to quell his teammate's anger only worsened it. Nobody had ever seen Sasuke this mad before.

"Chill out, teme ! I doubt she knew about the three-man team rule. She would've come for sure if she did," Naruto reasoned. But it was just his shallow crush talking.

Both Kakashi and Sasuke knew that it wasn't true. The most book smart genin would be as well-read on exam rules as she was on everything else. He would have to be a fool to believe otherwise.

Sasuke shoved Naruto to the ground, then took off roof-hopping. Naruto, scandalized by the sudden hostility, chased after him yelling profanities. Kakashi sighed as he watched their retreating forms. He pocketed his treasured copy of Icha Icha Parradise and hopped down from his tree.

He thought the exams would be a band aid for their poor teamwork, but he severely underestimated the depths of Sakura's insecurity. His summoning by the Hokage turned out to be no coincidence. The Third ordered Kakashi to debrief him on his team's status which he found odd because he was already required to turn in monthly reports that the old man was supposed to have read. Where had this sudden need to know every single detail of the most mundane facts about each of his genin come from?

The Third got cagey when Kakashi pressed him on the sudden need for the interrogation, but he implored Kakashi in vague terms to pay attention to ALL his students. Now he knew that the old man had really meant Sakura.

Kakashi was shocked she'd taken a rain check. Even if she wasn't confident enough in her own skills he believed she would've at least shown up for Sasuke's sake. Maybe Gai was right to be worried about Sakura and TenTen's relationship. Had the older girl been influencing his underling in more ways than one?

XXX

Sasuke burst through the revolving doors of the hospital with Naruto at his heels. He paid him no mind, too angry to give him any energy at the moment. He asked the front desk clerk if Sakura was on shift today. She told him that she was and that she should be on lunch break. Sasuke scurried out of sight before she could make any annoying implications about him being her boyfriend.

Sasuke stormed over to the outside dining area mad as a hornet ignoring all the stares from the staff he collected. Sakura was sitting at a table alone, her body language casual and slouching as she nibbled on her bento with a lack of enthusiasm. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for Sasuke . How dare she be so lackadaisical about what could've been the day that changed the course of his ninja career? He walked over to her tingling with rage.

Sakura noticed both her teammates too late and all she could do was freeze. Her heart drummed so loud her ears were ringing. She was sure she looked like she wanted to shit herself. This was not going to be a good day.

"Why aren't you guys at the exams?" her voice shook.

"See, teme ?" Naruto cut in. "Sakura didn't know."

There he was to save her again. He always did try to see the good in people despite his upbringing. Sakura admired him for it, but it was his fatal flaw. If he wasn't so naive he could see she wasn't the person he thought she was.

"You're a fucking liar," Sasuke said in a low voice, his eyes staring straight into Sakura's. She hung her head low to avoid their scrutiny. "Are you trying to sabotage me?"

"How did it become all about you?" Naruto half-joked.

Sasuke ignored him and continued to dig into Sakura. "You're weak and you make everyone else suffer for it. Even the dobe has the sense to be useful sometimes."

"Are you trying to start a fight?" Naruto growled into Sasuke's ear. Sasuke pushed him away with ease. They started to get physical and the staff present ran inside to call for security.

Sakura didn't look up as she spoke. Tears were already threatening to fall and she wouldn't dare show her face right now. "Why would you want to enter a survival exam with a teammate you have so little faith in?"

"I don't have a choice. If it'd been up to me I would've never saddled myself with two deadweights," Sasuke grunted as he and Naruto fought against each other's holds.

"You're going too far, bastard," Naruto warned through clenched teeth. "We're still a team so be careful what you say."

But Sasuke was tired of everyone holding him back. Kakashi with his laissez-faire attitude toward teaching, Sakura's smothering crush that never resulted in anything useful, Naruto's persistent need to one up him that was slowly proving that he may catch up to him skill wise, his father who undermined him at every point - he was sick of them all. He just wanted to move up the ladder as fast as he could.

Sasuke threw Naruto off of himself. They both were panting hard, more exhausted than they'd let on, clothes askew and hair fussed. Sasuke tugged at his stretched out shirt annoyed. He glared daggers as he looked at both Sakura and Naruto. "When I make chunin , I won't have to see either of you again."

Sakura didn't respond. She couldn't. She still wasn't looking him in the eye for fear of seeing what pure hatred looked like. She hid her hurt behind the hair she let fall in her face, then packed up her lunch. She retreated inside the hospital without a single word.

The hospital security nin had finally made their appearance alongside frightened but nosy medical staff who seemed disappointed to find the action had already reached its crescendo. But the show wasn't completely over. It never was between Naruto and Sasuke .

Naruto, furious, grabbed Sasuke by the collar and shook him. "You've gone too far now, Sasuke ! Say what you want about me, but don't hurt Sakura's feelings."

Sasuke pushed Naruto off with ease. He stared down his nose at him as he spoke. "Stay away from me, loser."

The security nin were still approaching them cautiously. Sasuke rolled his eyes before roof-hopping away leaving behind an irate Naruto.

XXX

The Third was sure that his conversation with Kakashi went in one ear and right out the other. He'd always been emotionally dense, which is why Sarutobi had a backup plan.

His former student Tsunade had been elusive since she exited the village all those years ago. He understood she needed time to grieve after the back to back deaths of her younger brother and boyfriend, but he never expected this break to span decades. One of the village's most skilled talents had just up and gone without notice. It was a devastating blow to the next generation of ninja no matter how much the council argued otherwise.

Though Sarutobi never had the time to fetch her on his own, she wasn't all that hard to find. Her string of gambling debts left a traceable trail. She'd most recently incurred a hefty debt with a friend of a daimyo in the southern most tip of Fire Country. There was no jutsu she could use to evade this one.

Being the friend of a daimyo had many perks. One being that at any time - and for the right price! - one could hire an army of high ranked, dangerous nin used to protecting high profile figures for any variety of reasons. The nin tracked Tsunade and her deceased boyfriend's niece called Shizune down to a bar. They were able to subdue both women because of one nin's relationship with the bartender who concocted a drink mixed with sleep-inducing drugs.

Tsunade and Shizune were hauled off to a remote village confined in an empty castle's dungeon until she paid back her debt. The whole ordeal was so controversial that it had traveled through Fire Country like wildfire and reached Sarutobi's ears.

To make matters worse, Tsunade was no meek, well-behaved prisoner. She gave everyone hell. There were so many stories circling of her escapes, recaptures, damaging the land and building which only further indebted her. So Sarutobi wrote her a letter.

He offered to pay the exorbitant debt if she promised to return to Konoha and mentor two bright pupils who aspired to be just like her. He knew Tsunade was in a rut because she accepted his offer without hesitation. Sure, she wouldn't be happy when she arrived in a week or two, but it was possible she'd see the joy on Sakura and TenTen's faces and change her mind.

Chapter Text

TenTen felt in control of her destiny for the first time in a while. It took a little convincing but she and Neji were civil enough for Gai-sensei to recommend them for the exams. She also suspected that he would've received backlash from the Hyuga clan if he hadn't. But TenTen was determined to choose her fate.

Though she still had little interaction with Naruto at this point, she was beginning to understand how pivotal he and Team 7 were to the exam results. Without Sakura present to reveal the genjutsu cloaking the sign above the entrance exam's door, a good chunk of competitors had already been weaned out. TenTen made sure Neji and Rock Lee drew little attention to themselves as they snuck off to the stairwell to the correct floor amidst the commotion.

The room for the first exam was still pretty packed like it had been in her memories but nowhere near as full. TenTen did notice the slimy man called Kabuto hanging around this time but he made no move to talk to anyone. He just kept rotating his head like an owl looking for - she was guessing - Sasuke and company.

The first exam went as it had before with her using her chakra-enhanced invisible wires to prop up a mirror on the ceiling so she could cheat. The impact of Naruto's absence was felt even more when Ibiki gave the tenth question and over half the contestants forfeited. TenTen could empathize with them. The stakes were too high to take a chance on for many - especially those whose confidence was already shaky. But she did lament how nice it would've been to have fought some of them this time around.

XXX

Part two of the exams took place in the Forest of Death as planned. Though TenTen survived this competition in her past life she worried that she and Sakura's tweaking of the timeline would result in unpredictable changes. She saw Orochimaru disguised as the creepy Grass ninja Sakura warned her about, craning his neck every which way in search of Team 7, and got scared. Without his target present, who would he use as a substitute?

There was also the problem of the Sand siblings and the looming match against Rock Lee. Perhaps the preliminary exams could be avoided with the lower contestant pool but what would happen instead? Could she stomach being witness to an earlier, worse fate for one of her teammates? She and Sakura prepared for what they knew would happen. There was no accounting for the new variables that might pop up.

TenTen was riddled with anxiety. She shook as Anko gave out instructions. A weakness overpowered her legs and her chest tightened from shortened breaths. Everything felt real all of a sudden. What could a girl like her - someone who's not at all important in the grand scheme of the story - do?

As she weathered this internal crisis, she didn't hear Anko give them break time nor Neji trying to speak to her about their strategy going in. He had to shake her to get her attention. When she came to she told him one thing: "I need to tell you something."

XXX

Maybe her lapse of judgement had made her rush into things. TenTen was a big ball of torrid emotions as she stood off to the wayside with Neji . She slowed her breath to a calm pace but then her throat went dry. Neji poured her a small cup of his own water supply and watched her drink as they sat under the shade of a tree.

TenTen thought about all the complicated feelings that arose at the thought of Neji . With the change of events he could be gone as soon as they stepped foot in the forest. Or she could. Or even Rock Lee. She couldn't shake the image of her older self full of regret and heartbreak. She knew she no longer had the luxury of wasting time. There was only one thing to do.

"I like you, Neji ," she said in such a casual manner that it sounded like she was commenting on the weather. She handed Neji's cup back, careful not to let any touches linger too long. She didn't want to come off sappy.

Neji seemed confused. He looked ready to deliver a scathing remark but TenTen raised her hand in time to stop him. "I'm not saying this because I want your response," she explained. "It's a mix of my nerves talking and a little bit of selfishness. We might die here so I want you to know I like you. I really like you. That's all."

And in an instant, TenTen felt lighter. A weight she didn't know she was holding lifted off her shoulders. For the first time, she thought Sakura's 'lovey-dovey' crap might not be poppycock. It was better to live in her emotional truth.

" TenTen ! Neji ! It's time," Rock Lee called out.

TenTen joined him to pick up their scroll. She never glanced back to see the emotions swirling all over Neji's face.

XXX

They were attacked within the first half-hour by enemy nin but thankfully got the scroll they needed. They spent the rest of the day traveling on foot with suppressed chakra to get as close to the central tower as possible.

Night fell much faster than TenTen would've liked. Neji naturally took leadership position. He suggested turning in for the night and setting up camp. They were all exhausted - even the inexhaustible force that was Lee! It was hard to be on high alert for hours on end. But TenTen couldn't lower her guard. She was too nervous about all the danger lurking. In the absence of Team 7, would Team Gai become Orochimaru's target? She had no idea who would strike when or where.

So she summoned Ningame . He looked none too pleased to be disturbed from his rest but this was an emergency.

"What do you want, brat?" he grumbled while rubbing his sleep-encrusted eyes.

"Can you help us seek shelter for the night?" TenTen whispered.

"Wouldn't this count as cheating?"

"The exams stated we could use anything in our arsenal in the Forest of Death."

"Hmm," Ningame harrumphed. "This favor will come at a high cost."

"What?" TenTen sighed.

Ningame smirked before he replied. "I want you to polish my entire shell collection."

TenTen agreed through grit teeth. Bargaining with Ningame rarely ever went her way so she wasn't shocked at his ridiculous demands. But as he dug a burrow underneath the forest floor, she felt her worries dissipate. As they set up camp, Rock Lee complimented her on her quick thinking. He was convinced they already had the exam in the bag.

Neji somehow managed to set up a fire in the cool, moist underground floor and volunteered to take first shift. TenTen's nerves had been on pins and needles all day so she didn't contest but she was shocked at how easily she fell asleep.

The last image she saw as she closed her eyes was Neji . She thought about how grateful she was that he was the guy she liked despite his numerous flaws. He didn't deride her for her crush - not that she'd given him a chance to - nor was she worried that it'd be a point of contention later down the line. He was so mature... sometimes. He probably would never bring it up because feelings were so low on his priority list.

XXX

Ino's morning started off better than it ended. She was elated to see Sakura hadn't the guts to show up for her team (another point towards Ino for being the better kunoichi!). However, that was soon spoiled when she wasn't able to get to the third floor on time because of an elementary genjutsu trick.

She couldn't believe she didn't recognize it once it was pointed out too late for her team to advance. What was worse was the fact that Shikamaru had realized it all along and said nothing because it was too 'troublesome.' She yanked his ponytail so hard the proctors had to rip her off of him.

More embarrassing was them having to be personally escorted out of the building for their unbecoming behavior. Asuma -sensei had recommended them and they couldn't even hack it to the first test. She couldn't stand Shikamaru's lazy ass nor the cowardly Choji who decided then was the right time to admit his relief at not having to go through with the exams. Could she have ended up with a more useless team?

Ino looked around and noticed Hinata and her team weren't amongst the stragglers. She hoped that they'd fare better.

Chapter Text

The next five days were the most terrifying in Hinata's short life. Though she'd entered the exams knowing the plentitude of risks, she quickly discovered she was in over her head. She was tempted to bail out during the written exams' tenth question but thought of all she had to prove. Her father expected nothing of her, so being doomed to geninhood forever would have no great impact on how little he thought of her.

The thought alone could've made her give up then and there, but then what would all her extra training have been for? She may be prone to bouts of despair but she would throw no pity party for herself. She thought of Naruto's resilience in spite of everything he endured and decided to weather whatever the results of Ibiki's final question might be. Thankfully it was nothing but a test of their courage, but it was part two of the exams that threatened to do her in.

XXX

All things considered, Hinata was blessed to be placed on the team she got. For all of Kiba's thickheaded brazenness and Shino's alienating coldness, they worked really well together. Of the newer genin, they were the most efficient unit. It mattered little inside the Forest of Death, but it brought her great comfort as they traversed the unwelcoming forest's terrain with constant pursuers on their backs.

They were the youngest of the bunch taking the exams and other teams saw them as an easy lick. Many teams were gunning to pick off those deemed as weak as soon as possible. Shino's bugs warded off most enemies (seeing bugs crawling across skin in battalions made even the toughest fighter shudder) but they were tiring fast. There was little respite in between chases. By the time they made camp for the night, there was no way they could cook nor warm by fire. They huddled close together in the hollow of a fallen tree and tried not to think of all the critters crawling around or the enemies on the prowl.

XXX

They woke up the next morning to the sound of trees falling. Hinata activated her byakugan to see through the log they nestled in and saw a Grass Country ninja on a large snake summons's head fighting for dominance as they tore through the forest. The snake was looking to kill anyone in sight, so Team 8 gathered up everything they could in five seconds, then went on the move.

Later, Team 8 was ambushed by a trio from Sound. They were hellish opponents. They pestered them about Sasuke's whereabouts, disparaged them for being ignorant academy brats, and told them they too should've foregone the exams because it would only get uglier from here. Kiba's bravado chose then to kick in. He and Akamaru revved up for their signature Gatsuuga technique, but soundwaves from Zaku's palms sent them reeling more than the average duo with their heightened senses. The two remained nauseous, dizzy, and had severe tinnitus for the next couple days. Shino again saved the team with his bugs. In their hurry to escape, the Sound trio dropped their scroll, scoring Team 8 a leg up in the competition.

Hinata and Shino set up camp early to give Kiba and Akamaru proper rest and rehabilitation. On the way to an ideal location, they fell into an enemy trap - a large nest hidden under layers of leaves and genjutsu. Hinata sprained her ankle in her attempt to avoid it, twisting at a weird angle to hop out of its range and falling. Shino was tasked with holding their scrolls. When another trio of enemy nin confronted them and Shino refused to hand them over, the enemy nin instead stole Team 8's supplies. Shino hacked their way out of the nets using his remaining ninja tools.

The third day was spent foraging what they could for the remainder of the exams (which was hard to do with two seriously injured teammates) while also dodging more precarious traps. Their Heaven scroll was lost on the fourth day because Hinata wasn't fast enough to outrun the Ame nin attacking her from underground. It became a life or death moment. Shino and Kiba didn't disparage her at all. In fact, they seemed enthusiastic about having one more day to find another scroll. But Hinata couldn't get her father's voice out of her head telling her she wasn't talented enough to bear the Hyuga clan name and that she was selfishly holding her teammates back trying to prove otherwise. That led her to thoughts of Neji and how she knew that everyone in the clan wished she and Neji's roles were reversed. She was glad not to have run into him at this point because she didn't want to think of what he'd do to her outside of the careful watch of the clan.

XXX

They made it to the tower by the skin of their teeth on the fifth day. An amicable Konoha nin named Kabuto who they briefly met during the first exam showed up with an extra Heaven scroll. He had helped them for nothing in return. Team 8 were all suspicious, but questions were left unasked once they reached the tower in one piece.

XXX

Sasuke had been pissed beyond belief since the stunt Sakura pulled. Not even his mother's attempts at making his favorite meals nor buying him new supplies could help.

The situation hadn't been made better when on the day of the exams his father came home, heard he hadn't entered and simply said "Smart choice" before digging into dinner. Sasuke hadn't been home much nor anywhere near his team during this week. He trained nonstop at the open training grounds on the family plot for up to twelve hours every day. He only stopped short of chakra exhaustion. Sakura and Naruto might be content with their standing but Sasuke was not. He was more determined than ever to become the strongest. Being forced to forego a fight against Gaara of the Sand after going through the trouble of meeting him made him feel like a wuss. If he couldn't show everyone he wasn't just Itachi's kid brother now, but a force of his own, then he never would. 

He was walking home late one night drenched in sweat from his latest session, recoiling at the scent of himself, when he heard a strange laughing sound. "Kukuku." A hissing sound followed that he could not trace. Sasuke threw kunai in all directions. Bushes rattled while the hissing persisted. Sasuke held a kunai to his chin and assumed a defensive stance.

"So this is Itachi's little brother..."

Sasuke activated his sharingan in an instant. "Come out and fight," he challenged.

The strange laugh came again. Sasuke tsked in annoyance. He drew his kunai closer.

"You'll fight me with those eyes?" Orochimaru's voice reverberated all around him. A maniacal cackle followed. The training field slowly morphed into an empty black void. Any remainder of the real world swallowed by its darkness.

Shit. A genjutsu, Sasuke cursed to himself.

Sasuke bolted forward, working off memory, toward the direction of where the rattling bush had been, ready to strike but found nothing. In an instant, he felt a killing intent so powerful his body seized up. A shadow towered over him from behind. He could feel Orochimaru's breath, hot and slimy, on the back of his neck.

"Boldness means nothing without the power to back it up."

Sasuke couldn't will his body to move properly. He shook in fear. He had no idea what to do about the threatening stranger. His body betrayed him. How could he be so scared of someone he couldn't see? Why couldn't he see who it was? His sharingan... was it not strong enough to counter the technique?

He watched Orochimaru's shadow shoot out snakes and wrap around his body. The snakes drew in close and hissed in Sasuke's face. They coiled around him so tight until he feared he couldn't breathe.

"Your eyes, pathetic as they are, tell your entire history. You, the less talented, younger Uchiha brother fills your days training to escape your brother's shadow. But no matter what you do, how far you run, his shadow will continue to eclipse you. It's a tale as old as time. A destiny written in the stars for millennia to come."

"Who are you?" Sasuke grunted as he struggled to get out the snakes' hold.

"Someone who can help you."

For a moment, Sasuke considered the offer. As it stood now, there was no one who wished to help him achieve the power he truly wanted. This man, strange as he was, was willing to step up to the plate for him. Ulterior motives aside, this was the most promising offer he'd received in the entire time he'd been a ninja. 

Orochimaru snaked his head around until he and Sasuke were cheek to cheek. "Staying here in Konoha with only jesters and fools to guide you will hold you back. I can give you power. Endless amounts of it."

Sasuke felt the serpent-like man's killing intent retreat. He was released from the snakes' hold in anticipation of his answer. Sasuke let out a few hacking coughs at the new access to oxygen.

"What's the exchange rate for your kindness?" Sasuke asked, trying to keep up his cool facade as he stood doubled-over, still catching his breath.

"Sharp. That's what I like about Uchihas," the man hissed, drawing out the sound of every s. "I want your eyes."

Sasuke went stiff. He didn't think he'd have to bargain so much off bat. What powers could this stranger give him if he couldn't keep his eyes? Hadn't he insulted them earlier, too?

Sasuke stalled, keeping quiet as he brainstormed an escape. But a snake whipped past his face and bit his neck. He let out a bloodcurdling scream into the void that quickly dissolved into the quiet night sky. The last thing he could remember seeing before collapsing was the devious smiling face of a snake-like man telling him "Come to me when you're ready."

Chapter Text

TenTen's anxiety reached such a fever pitch that she freaked out Neji, Rock Lee, and Ningame. She started panicking the next morning after Neji said they'd move back above ground and head to the tower. TenTen protested vehemently. They'd have no idea who they could run into out there, so she'd prefer to stay below ground. Neji thought she was being ridiculous. Gai-sensei recommended them for the exam because he knew they could meet the challenge. What was a competent kunoichi like her doing being so shaken up?

Dead faces flashed through her mind. She brought Neji and Rock Lee close to her, squeezing them in for a group hug, thoroughly perplexing them both. She didn't do affection nor sentimentality. This change in her unsettled them. She really didn't want to go above ground. Neji looked ready to argue again but Rock Lee motioned for him to stop. Rock Lee leaned down to TenTen's level and asked what they should do instead. TenTen smiled, thankful for his understanding, then flew through the signs to summon Ningame again.

Ningame was an issue of its own. When TenTen asked if he could dig a tunnel to the tower, he accused her of taking advantage of the elderly. As if the Herculean tasks he'd sent her on wouldn't qualify as child abuse!

TenTen promised to buff his nails on top of polishing his shells. Neji activated his byakugan to lead the way while Ningame dug. It took a day and a half, but it was worth the relief.

XXX

Team Gai was congratulated by Iruka upon reaching the tower. They spent the remainder of the exam period in hotel-style rooms built in the tower. TenTen kept track of all the teams who'd made it: the Sand siblings, the Sound team and Team Kurenai. Less than the previous timeline which was great because that meant the preliminary exams weren't needed. Still, TenTen's stomach sank at the announcement of the final battles coming next month.

Rock Lee and Gaara would be facing each other again. She did her best to hide her frayed nerves. Rock Lee gave her the silent nice guy pose to calm her. She found him annoying beyond comprehension but she could not imagine a life without his light in it. His eternal optimism could be contagious if you weren't careful.

The rest of the battles were called soon after. TenTen was fighting Temari again. She was glad the timeline repeated this event. A much needed rematch was due. She must've lost before because she was still addled by previous face offs in the forest. She refused to accept such a swift, humiliating defeat this time.

Neji was paired with poor Hinata. Shino and Kankuro were facing members of the Sound team instead along with Kiba. There was a pit in TenTen's stomach about not knowing how everything would pan out, but she put on a brave face as she left with her team.

XXX

At home in the bath, TenTen was thankful to have alone time to wash off all the stress and dirt. She couldn't wait for tomorrow. After the Third announced the matches, he pulled her aside to tell her he had a surprise for her and Sakura. He told her to be in his office first thing in the morning. She had no clue what it could be about, but the Third seemed really enthusiastic about it.

Outside the bathroom door, TenTen could hear the balcony door to her bedroom slide open. She sat up alert. Was someone breaking in? She reached for the towel hanging on the hook above her scale.

"Who's there?"

There was no response. Just the sound of padding feet getting closer and closer to the bathroom door. TenTen scrambled around looking for the nearest weapon. She settled on a toilet scrubber. She held it like a kunai as the bathroom door creaked to a slow open.

Sakura entered the bathroom looking depressed. Her long hair which she was so meticulous about caring for was chopped off into an awkward pixie cut. Her eyes were red and dark circles had formed underneath them. The clothes she wore were a haplessly thrown about clash of patterns and colors. TenTen dropped the toilet scrubber in shock.

"Sakura..."

Without a word, Sakura slipped out of her clothes. TenTen turned her head to give her privacy. She heard the water slosh about as Sakura joined her in the tub. TenTen turned her head to see Sakura crying softly. She reached over to grab Sakura's hand, but Sakura pulled away.

"Don't," she sniffled.

TenTen and Sakura sat in the bathtub, skin pruning and water growing cold, in silence.

XXX

It'd been a horrible week for Sakura. She'd called out on all of her hospital shifts after the confrontation. She spent most of her time crying in her room to her mother's worry. Kakashi-sensei had been coming by to discuss something with her but her parents sent him away.

Sakura was devastated by the vitriol Sasuke spewed at her. She thought he just found her persistence annoying. She didn't know he abhorred her. Those feelings he espoused then... was that why he'd been revved up to kill her in her past life? Did she only now understand the depth of his indifference toward her? But she was changing for the better now. How could this happen?

She was dealt a further blow when Ino came by her house (her mother had sent her away, too) and told her that Sasuke was in the hospital from a snake bite. Sakura immediately knew Orochimaru had gotten to him again. She could hear Kakashi's voice telling her there's nothing she could do. It was too much. She started spiraling.

Mid-cry she realized she couldn't go on feeling sorry for herself. She had to change. She grabbed a pair of scissors and hacked off her hair in a rage. She vowed to not grow it back until she became a full-fledged ninja. She couldn't keep relying on the kindness of others like she had in the past.

Sakura and TenTen (who'd been very good at not addressing the elephant in the room) entered the Hokage's office the next morning together. The Third, a couple ANBU agents, Iruka-sensei, and a busty blonde woman accompanied by a pig and a short-haired brunette waited for them inside. Sakura thought the blonde looked vaguely familiar but wasn't in the state of mind to identify her.

On the other hand, TenTen dropped to a deep bow in an instant. She forced Sakura's head down to join her.

"Oww!" Sakura whined.

"Shh!" came TenTen's stern voice. "Don't be rude in front of Tsunade-sama."

The Third hid a smile behind his collar. "Tsunade, meet TenTen and Sakura, your biggest fans! They've been dying to meet you. Do you have any wisdom to impart on these two very promising kunoichi?"

Tsunade stumbled forward, sake on her breath and scrutiny in her eyes. She looked down as she spoke. "Give up now and save yourself the headache later."

The silence that followed clung to the air like a bad stench. There was something so hateful about it that no one could understand. TenTen lifted her head for a better look at her idol, crushed. The short-haired brunette woman stepped in front of Tsunade in an attempt to corral her.

"Tsunade-san! That's hardly appropriate to tell children," she fussed.

"No need to sugarcoat, Shizune. I'm giving them the most sound advice in the world," Tsunade slurred, stumbling over her heeled feet as she gesticulated.

"You're drunk," Shizune sneered.

"Should that mean something to me?" Tsunade's voice lowered, prickly from the insult.

The two women glared at each other until Tsunade's excessive alcohol intake caught up to her. Her face went green and she had to run out of the office before she got sick everywhere. Shizune and the cute, little pig they'd brought along followed after her. The sound of her retching on the other side of the door made the remainder of the room's skin crawl.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that," the Third apologized as he laid a hand on both Sakura and TenTen's shoulders. "She only just arrived in town and she's tired."

"You're in luck," Iruka-sensei piped up. He winked at TenTen. "Tsunade-sama will be TenTen's trainer for the next month. Sakura, she'll be working alongside you in the hospital in her downtime."

"No the hell I won't!" Tsunade shouted from outside the door. More retching was heard soon after.

"Ignore her," the Third reassured them.

TenTen gave a composed thank you despite her urge to jump off the walls. Sakura could only think about how she'd never seen anybody less amped to teach than Kakashi-sensei.

Chapter Text

Once Tsunade learned that TenTen had no aptitude for medical ninjutsu she laughed off the idea of ever making her her apprentice. TenTen had been fighting her hard on this. She'd do her best with whatever Tsunade threw at her but the woman didn't have time to think about it in between bottles of sake.

On top of caring for Tsunade, Shizune had taken on TenTen's training. Most of Shizune's teaching involved learning about poisons TenTen had never heard of before and how to embed them in her weapons. TenTen was supposed to be working on building immunity to the posion Shizune laced on her senbon. Shizune bought her a wrist mounted senbon launcher. She'd been teaching TenTen how to use it but this morning Tsunade was drunk and belligerent again so Shizune had to go chase after her. TenTen was annoyed but she had to push through.

Training with Ningame was still unproductive. TenTen still had no clue how to make her own defense system. She was starting to feel down about the exams. Would she be beaten so easily by Temari again?

XXX

TenTen was walking to the hospital to see if Sakura was faring any better with Tsunade when she ran into Neji. He wanted to train with her to practice a new technique for the exams.

"Aren't you worried that if we train together I'll know your technique's weakness?" TenTen joked.

"You've never been able to use my 'weakness' to your advantage and you won't now," Neji boasted.

"Only you would be arrogant enough to insult the person you're asking for help."

"Is that a no?"

TenTen thought about brushing him off but she needed to train with all the inconsistency of Shizune's assistance. She shrugged and joined him as they walked to a nearby training grounds.

XXX

Sakura returned to the hospital a few days after the confrontation with Tsunade. Shizune had been a great help to the staff while Tsunade had only been hovering around like a storm cloud silently observing and judging. Shizune complimented Sakura on her medical prowess and joked that she might be better than her one day. Tsunade kept silent.

Sakura had been trying to avoid it as long as she could but today was the day where she was forced to check up on Sasuke during rounds. She hadn't dared to look down the hall where his room was and made herself scarce when someone spoke about him, but it was unavoidable today.

The village had been on high alert since he'd been attacked. Other high ranking ninja had been coming in with mysterious injuries, too. Healthcare workers were too swamped with providing emergency aid to do routine rounds so Sakura was in charge of checking patient charts.

She stood outside the door of Sasuke's room paralyzed with fear. She was choking up, sweating without reason, her heart hammered against her chest. She wondered how he would look when she opened the door. Murderous and untrusting? Fragile and defeated? Sakura hadn't kept herself up to date on his health at all.

She raised her hand to knock but the door cracked open before she could. A pretty woman she didn't recognize but assumed she had to be Sasuke's mother because the resemblance was uncanny, answered.

"Leave any flowers or gifts at the reception desk. I told the nurse we're not accepting visitors."

Sakura's head spun at the chilliness of the woman's words. There was no warmth in her eyes. Her body language was rigid and unwelcoming as she blocked the narrow view inside the room with her body.

I see where he gets it from.

Sasuke's mother went to close the door but Sakura wedged her foot in the small crack just in time. "I'm a nurse."

"You're a nurse?"

"Technically an intern. I'm doing rounds on my boss' behalf."

Sakura flashed her clipboard and staff ID at Mikoto. Mikoto didn't look any less suspicious of her than before but she allowed her entry.

Sakura felt her heart stop when she walked in. Sasuke looked so small, so weak lying in the hospital bed hooked up to so many machines. How could this be the great boy whom she'd idolized? She was pulled out of her shock after Mikoto cleared her throat.

With Mikoto hovering over her shoulder, Sakura went through her checklist documenting his blood pressure, heart rate, lung capacity and other short tests in complete silence. As she went to check his eyes, his tomoe swirled unconsciously. Unpleasant memories dredged up from deep inside her. Her medical tools clanked to the floor. Sasuke's curse mark activated shortly after. In his drug induced coma, he writhed in pain.

It was too much for Sakura to handle. She ran out with no explanation. Mikoto rushed to the door ready to chase after and give her a good verbal lashing but she settled on glaring at her retreating form instead. She peeled away from the door to soothe Sasuke as he whimpered in his sleep.

XXX

TenTen was getting tossed around like a rag doll due to Neji's new technique - Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation. It was an impenetrable defensive tactic that left almost no room for error unless you knew his blind spots. Even then that was only if he gave you enough time in between attacks to assess him... which was never.

He finished his latest rotation and all TenTen's weapons had been blown back or stuck in trees, grass or other places. By the strength of his outward chakra projection, he'd made his own protective layer. Like a shell! TenTen tried not to show her contempt. Everything really did come to Mr. Destiny so easily. She'd been trying to produce a similar technique for weeks with no luck. She walked off to collect her scattered weapons. How the hell was she going to turn her weapons into a defensive shell?

Then it hit her?

Neji had joined her in gathering her supplies. He looked disturbed when he caught her grinning at him like a Cheshire cat.

"What?" he said as he handed her the weapons he collected.

"Thank you, Neji. Really?"

He looked down even more confused. TenTen didn't give him the satisfaction of an answer though. She flew through the hand signs for the teleportation technique and disappeared.

XXX

Back in the burrows, TenTen was proud to show Ningame her newest justsu - Weapons Fortress Technique! She tossed two scrolls into the air, drew thousands of weapons from them, connected them in lines using invisible wires reinforced with her chakra and pulled them close to her body until they formed a shell-like structure around her.

Ningame congratulated her in his own way. "Maybe you are worthy of being my disciple. I'm eager to teach you more."

Despite his ornery nature, TenTen was happy as a clam. She hit the peace sign pose and giggled until she collapsed.

XXX

Sakura was packing for the end of her shift. She got chewed out by the on shift nurse Ayane for messing up rounds. She'd even written her up!

As Sakura slipped her bag onto her shoulders, she saw Ino walk up to the reception desk with flowers in hand.

"Sasuke isn't allowed any visitors. Don't bother," Sakura warned.

"I'm actually here to see Hinata and Kiba," Ino corrected, brow twitching in irritation.

"What happened to them?"

"They got a little roughed up during the exams but they'll be all right."

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been out of the loop on everything. She'd been avoiding any mention of the exams that she wasn't even aware of who had competed or who was moving along to the next level. She needed to sit down for a chat with TenTen ASAP.

"Of course you're up to date on all things Sasuke," Ino remarked.

Sakura didn't respond. She really didn't want to think about anything Uchiha related after how she'd embarrassed earlier. She fidgeted with her bag's straps as she moved toward the hospital's exit. "Tell Hinata and Kiba I said hi," Sakura spoke in a low voice.

"Why can't you do it yourself like a real friend?"

There was something accusatory in her voice. Something bubbling up that the both of them had been ignoring for too long.

"I don't have time for whatever this is," Sakura scoffed.

"This is about you being a fake ass friend."

"I don't believe we were ever actually friends."

They both went quiet. It was a deep cut to them both no matter how much the other acted like they didn't care. Their former friendship and now estrangement had shaped them both into the people they'd become. How either one of them thought they could let it go so easily was a mystery.

"Is this still about Sasuke?" Ino asked in a voice much more sheepish than anyone had ever heard from her.

"I don't know anymore," Sakura shrugged. "Good night."

XXX

In the Hokage's office, the Third was trying to have a conversation with a drunken, bitter Tsunade.

"Orochimaru's popped up again. I called in Jiraiya to help Naruto."

"You're going soft in your old age," Tsunade hiccupped. "In your prime you would've handled this all on your own."

"I learned over time to lean on others for help when I needed to." he said as he adjusted her in her chair.

"You know I can't help you," Tsunade slurred.

"I think you could if you tried."

"It's all too late."

"It's not."

"The Uchihas won't let me treat their son due to a centuries old grudge. It is too late," Tsunade went on. "Too many things have been allowed to fester for too long. It's going to blow up in our faces sooner or later."