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To whom it may concern, I own none of the following franchises or their characters. I am only playing in the sand box, so to speak.

'Japanese'

"English"

'It's romaji, the squiggles,' Sarada explained as she pointed to one of the letters. 'See? "A", "B", "C"...'

Naruto-sensei looked impressed by her knowledge. 'Did you learn this in the Academy?'

The genin shrugged modestly. 'It was an extra course in historic cryptography. Written from the time before chakra, and favoured by the Land of Lightning.'

'So you can read it?' the blond Hokage questioned.

'No,' Sarada denied, frown marring her forehead. 'It doesn't make any sense. See this,' she gestured at one of the larger words, '"A-T-L-A-N-T-A." It's like they've thrown a whole lot of letters together.'

'Maybe a different language?' Naruto-sensei suggested. 'A dead one, that apparently didn't die out like it did in our world.'

'That's possible,' Sarada agreed after a moment. 'We don't know where romaji came from after all.'

'Either way, assumptions get us nowhere,' Naruto-sensei smiled as he rolled the map. 'At the moment, I'm assigning you a D rank.'

The D rank, as Sarada found out, was getting lunch. Sarada knew the basics of hunting from the Academy, but the Seventh had several tricks he'd learned from his time on the road. 'Very good,' Naruto-sensei approved as she returned from her hunt with a squirrel slung over her shoulder. 'Now what do you do?'

'Skin it,' Sarada dutifully answered as she settled down next to the Hokage. 'And then start a fire to grill it.'

Naruto nodded before getting to his feet. 'That's right.'

'Sensei?' Sarada questioned carefully as his eyes scanned the bush she'd just returned from. 'Do you sense something?'

'I'll be back,' he said instead of answering, flashing a sunny smile as he melted into the shadows. She was alone.

Ignoring the uneasy twinge that filled her at the thought, the Uchiha concentrated on skinning their meal. Unfortunately it didn't do much to distract her and she found her thoughts drifting to Chocho and her father who they'd left in the midst of the battle. Would they be okay? Chocho, as much as she loved the Akimichi, was nowhere near capable of keeping up with an S rank battle (Not that Sarada herself was - she hadn't even seen them move) and her father was injured-

A young, feminine scream pierced her thoughts and Sarada immediately jumped to her feet. After locating its source, she sped off to help the owner.

She skidded to a stop at what she saw in front of her.

A girl her age, obviously civilian, was fleeing from a man that was staggering after her. The man's skin was sickly yellow and diseased, his eyes vacant as a corpse as he stumbled in the direction of the child.

'Hey!' Sarada called once she snapped out of her shock at the sight. 'Leave her alone!'

The man's head turned to her, and he let out a low, animalistic snarl. It sent chills up her spine, but she put on a fierce face and put her kunai in front of her. 'I'm warning you!'

The man didn't listen as he lunged at her, hands reaching out to grasp at her with bony hands. Immediately Sarada put out her foot on his shoulder to kick him away, only to stare in horror as her sandal punched all the way through the flesh and made the limb fall to the ground. 'Wha-!?'

So shocked by the give, she didn't notice it - because this was obviously no man - was coming in for a bite until it was right in her face. She raised her arms to protect herself, eyes closing briefly as the teeth were not even an inch from her arm.

Something wet dripped on her, and she peered through her lashes to see the creature had sunk its teeth into a familiar bandaged arm.

'Don't close your eyes in combat,' Naruto-sensei scolded as he drove a kunai between the creature's eyes. He grabbed the head and detached it from his limb. 'Where's the girl?'

A shrill scream answered them, and they both turned to see a creature had snuck up on her. This one was feminine, and missing half of it's jaw. It had just nipped the girl before she'd shoved it off her. A moment later Naruto-sensei had thrown his kunai through its head.

"I'm bit!" the girl cried, much to their confusion. "I'm bit!"

'Different language,' Naruto-sensei muttered even as he purposefully walked forward towards the girl.

She shrunk slightly in fear, sobbing as she clutched her wounded neck, which was still bleeding profusely.

'Hey,' Naruto-sensei said softly as he crouched down next to her, gesturing to her neck. 'Can I see?'

She looked confused at his words, but the meaning was clear, so she slowly removed her hands.

The wound was ugly, already festering with infection as it oozed her life source.

'She's going to bleed out,' the blond muttered. 'Sarada!'

Sarada snapped her eyes away from the neck. 'Y-yes?'

'Your mother gave you some training in medical ninjutsu right?'

'Yes, but,' she faltered. 'Only cuts and scrapes. I-I don't think I can-'

'That's fine,' Naruto-sensei said firmly. 'Just stop the bleeding. I'll deal with the infection.'

Nodding, she knelt next to the girl and let her hand bathe itself in the warm green chakra. Knitting the skin together, she noticed that the new skin was black instead of the normal pink.

Naruto-sensei placed his hand over the wound once she was finished, hand having a golden glow. Sarada winced as the girl screamed loudly in pain, but Naruto-sensei didn't react beside his eyes narrowing slightly and holding the civilian still. Finally she went silent, and it was only from the slight raising of her chest and the faint sound of breathing that told Sarada that the girl was still alive. Her wound was no longer black, but a faint purple colour. Naruto-sensei pulled back, looking tired as he ran his bloody hand through his hair. Sarada hovered uncertainly as she looked between the two. 'Is she...?'

'She'll be fine now,' Naruto-sensei informed her as he turned to face the genin. He did not look happy. 'What were you thinking, running headfirst into that situation!?'

Sarada blinked slightly in confusion. 'She needed help-'

'And you couldn't help from a distance? Or call for me?' Naruto-sensei interrupted. Sarada dropped her eyes as her Hokage shot her a disappointed look. 'What if that thing had bit you?'

'You had gone off-' Sarada protested weakly before it clicked. 'You knew they were out there.'

'Something had followed you back after you went hunting, and I went to dispose of it,' Naruto-sensei explained, as he moved his hand to unwrap the blood soaked bandages of his right arm. 'I don't know what these things are, but they're dangerous. Some kind of virus has poisoned the chakra in their bodies, making them move even after the person is long dead. If that thing had bit you...'

Sarada felt her blood freeze. Chakra viruses were rare in the shinobi world, but deadly all the same. Without a medic, they could result in a crippled chakra system or in worst case scenarios - death. Then she gasped, 'B-but your arm-'

Naruto-sensei surprisingly chuckled and she looked down at the now unwrapped limb. The sight of festering wound made her want to be sick. Black veins spread from the bite through his bloodstream and tried to keep her attention, but she followed his gaze to the strange elbow. It wasn't quite right, looking more like a hinge than bone. It clicked. 'It's a prosthetic.'

'Correct,' Naruto-sensei confirmed as he removed it with a grimace. 'And I think it's best we remove the contaminated piece of equipment until we know more about this virus. I really should think before I move.'

'I...what about her?' Sarada asked, nodding at the civilian girl who was unconscious still. 'She was bitten.'

'I gave her some of Kurama's chakra to try and burn the infection from her body,' Naruto-sensei explained. 'It will make her unable to mould chakra, but considering she's civilian, I doubt it matters.'

'But you've given chakra before,' Sarada pointed out. 'In the Fourth War. That didn't hurt anybody.'

'I gave it to shinobi,' Naruto-sensei expanded as he picked up the girl and put her on his back. 'Not civilians. Having your chakra network opened forcefully using demonic chakra would hurt like hell, if it didn't kill her from shock.'

So it had been a gamble. And they still didn't even know if it would stop the weird virus. Sarada wondered whether or not the Demon Fox would be able to get rid of the infection like it did with poisons from the blond Hokage's body. Only time would tell.

'You're going to give me an oral report on how you should have handled that situation,' Naruto-sensei said as they headed back to the farmhouse. 'And we'll be going over your tactics. You can't afford to close your eyes and freeze in combat.'

'Yessir,' Sarada mumbled as she fell in line behind him.

XXX

The girl was in and out of consciousness for six days in varying states of lucidity. A fever ran through her veins, and Naruto-sensei constantly had a clone monitoring her state. The bite wound had turned a sickly yellow colour, but otherwise she seemed to be spared from the strange virus. Naruto-sensei's prosthetic limb had been sealed in a scroll to give to her mother for study once they returned home.

The blond Hokage used the time to teach Sarada several small jutsu for getting clean water, setting up snares and scavenging the flora for edibles. He drilled her in her taijutsu until all she could do was drag her black and blue self back to the farmhouse to collapse in a pile of limbs.

They also went information gathering. Staying upwind from the infected creatures, they observed their habits and Naruto-sensei had her dispose of them.

'It's nicer this way,' Naruto-sensei mused as he rubbed some gathered herbs into the venison. 'You get the desensitisation of killing a human being, without actually doing it. You get used to gore and don't have to deal with the guilt.'

Sarada didn't want to know what it was like to kill an actual human being without desensitisation if what she was going through was nice. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't seem to get the blood out from beneath her fingernails, and she'd picked them raw before she'd realised. Naruto-sensei had said nothing, only handing her a roll of bandages and mussing her hair with a sad smile. And that had been tame compared to the nightmares that had followed her that night.

'I'll take first watch,' Sarada murmured as she accepted the plate of meat from the Seventh.

Naruto-sensei observed her for a moment before nodding. 'Wake me up at midnight.'

Sarada sat, staring at her bandaged hands from her perch on the rooftop. Crickets chirped, and the silence was eerie after living in the busy city of Leaf. 'I miss you Mum,' she said suddenly, startling even herself. 'It's been a week and I miss you. I miss your terrible cooking, I miss your taijutsu practice. Hell, I even miss your monstrous punches.' Tears dripped down her face. 'I promise you I'll clean my teeth and eat my greens.' She wiped her eyes hastily. 'And I promise that I won't cry anymore! It's a promise of a lifetime, shannaro!'

A gentle wind brushed through her raven locks as she stared up at the moon - identical to the one of home - and she smiled. 'I'll be home soon.'

XXX

It was during her watch that the civilian girl woke. She was surprisingly aware for the first time, and Sarada watched her from shadows as she walked around the room with confusion. 'Sensei?' she whispered under her breath.

'Here.' The answer came from right next to her, and she almost yelped in surprise at the sudden appearance. Amused blue orbs eyed her as she scowled at their owner.

"Mum?" the girl called out, hand clasped to her neck. "Mama!?"

'Talk to her,' Naruto-sensei instructed after they watched her get more and more panicked. 'Civilians always have loose tongues with brats.'

Internally sighing, Sarada nodded and she stepped out of the shadows. 'Over here.'

The girl let out a shrill scream of surprise, and Sarada winced as she covered her ears. She'd forgotten civilians were deaf.

The girl winced as well, giving a small moan as she clasped her hands in her ears. "Ow..."

'Hi,' Sarada greeted with a small wave when her ears stopped ringing. 'I'm Sarada.'

The girl frowned, shaking her head. "I can't understand you. Can you speak English?"

'She doesn't speak Elemental,' Naruto-sensei's voice drifted into her ear, barely heard. 'We need to get some nutrition into her. I'm going out to cook up the leftovers.' The girl frowned again, glancing around the room before shaking her head.

Sarada gave the barest hint of a nod before she gestured at herself. 'Sarada,' she emphasised purposefully before gesturing at the civilian.

The girl's eyes lit up with recognition before she gestured at herself. "Sophia." She pointed at the Uchiha. "Sahrahdah?"

'Sarada,' the kunoichi rectified. 'So-fe-a?'

"Sophia," the civilian corrected before putting her hand out. "It's nice to meet you, Sarada."

After a brief moment of cataloguing the protruding limb, Sarada accepted the handshake. 'A pleasure, Sophia.'

"Have you seen my Mum?" Sophia asked, before her face became crestfallen. "Never mind, you don't know what I'm saying..."

Wary of an upset civilian (she'd heard horror stories from Chocho) Sarada immediately distracted her. 'Do you want some food?' she questioned, miming eating. 'Food?'

Sophia brightened slightly before she nodded. "Yes please!"

Sarada led her outside, where Naruto-sensei sat, humming a song as he grilled some of the leftovers.

Sophia paused in the doorway at seeing him, fear flickering across her face briefly.

Naruto-sensei looked over to her and smiled, which she returned after a moment of indecision and a glance at his missing limb.

Sophia pointed at herself, saying her name before pointing at the Hokage.

'Naruto,' he introduced. 'Na-ru-to.' He handed Sophia a plate. 'Here you go Sophia.'

"Thanks."

They ate, Naruto-sensei using the time to outline today's revised plan. 'She probably will go to sleep again soon, with how tired her body is,' he said around a mouthful of venison. 'Her body's been put through the ringer. I'm going to give you a C rank.'

Sarada very carefully did not grimace as she foresaw what he was about to say.

'You're to guard Sophia here and keep her safe. And as a bonus, if you learn the language I'll teach you something cool.'

Sarada nodded after a moment of wondering what kind of thing the Seventh classified as cool. 'Yessir.'

Xxx

Naruto-sensei was correct when he said Sophia would crash. She was asleep before Sarada was meant to swap watch with the blond.

The next couple of days weren't much better, but both the ninja noticed the large appetite the civilian had. She was eating like an injured shinobi instead of a twelve year old girl.

'It's probably because I opened her chakra network,' Naruto-sensei informed Sarada as he piled another fish on the civilian's plate. 'It's forced her body into overdrive. It'll finish soon.'

That wasn't actually a bad thing. The sped up metabolism would quickly flush out whatever was left of the virus. The only annoying part was Sarada spent a little longer hunting.

"Tree."

Other than that, she spent most of her time information gathering. "Tori?"

"No, no, tree," Sophia emphasised, looking amused. "It's easy."

"No" was a word Sarada had been well acquainted with, as she found learning English far more difficult than she thought. "Toree."

"Closer. Tree."

It didn't help that Naruto-sensei wasn't even attempting. "Tree."

Sophia clapped her hands. "Yes! And it's 'tree', right?"

Sarada scowled slightly as she nodded her head, annoyed Sophia was having such an easy time learning Elemental. 'Yes.'

After two week mark in this new world, Naruto-sensei finally decided that Sophia was well enough to move. 'We'll have to go slow,' the blond noted as he spread the map on the kitchen counter. 'Not as much as I thought we would, it seems Kurama's chakra gave her a boost.'

Sarada had noticed Sophia's enhanced senses as well. The girl's hearing and sense of sight were impeccable, and after she'd healed, she was almost bouncing off walls.

Sophia had also noted her enhanced senses, and had tried to ask them about it, but with the language barrier it only ended in frustration for both sides. The topic was eventually dropped until they could converse without resorting to charades.

Sophia, who had followed them even though she couldn't understand half of what they were talking about, peered at the map. "Are you going somewhere?" she asked gesturing at the map and making a walking gesture with her hands.

Naruto-sensei nodded, gesturing around them and pointing at the map with a puzzled expression on face. 'Where are we?'

"Where is here?" Sophia translated, frowning slightly as she looked at the map. "I think somewhere around here." She gestured at the a green block between several red lines before touching one of the redlines. "This is where my mum last was. Uh, 'female dad'."

'Mother,' Sarada supplied the word the civilian was looking for. The word for father had been brought up when Sophia had tried to ask Naruto-sensei's relationship to her, and Sarada had ended up saying he was uncle for simplicity's sake. Naruto-sensei had laughed a little and said he didn't mind her calling him that in privacy, though Sarada didn't see herself doing that anytime soon.

"Right, 'mother'." Sophia gestured to the line again before giving a so-and-so sign and then tapping her wrist like a watch. "Here maybe, it's been a long time."

Sarada examined the strange name, before pointing to it. "Sophia, what?"

"W McIntosh Rd," Sophia read aloud. "There's a lot of cars and supplies up there. And w-walkers."

Sarada watched as the the auburn haired girl paled and raised a hand to her neck before shaking her head and pointing at one of the larger names. "That's Columbus. Where we were going." She made the walking sign again and tracing the redlines from W McIntosh Rd to Columbus.

"Corunbasu," Sarada mangled, making Naruto-sensei grin and Sophia hide a smile behind a hand.

XXX

"I should be dead, you know," Sophia murmured as she packed the farmer's daughter's clothes into a pack. "The walker bites, they kill you."

Sarada just nodded her head, accurately guessing from the lack of charades Sophia just wanted a sounding board, not a conversation.

"You guys did something," Sophia continued as she zipped up the bag and put it on her shoulder. "I feel like you guys are like aliens or something, with your special powers."

'Give that here,' Sarada said, motioning to the bag before making a give me sign.

Sophia blinked before shaking her head stubbornly. 'Me.'

'Mine,' Sarada corrected and gave her an unimpressed look. 'It's too heavy for you to carry for long. You're only civilian.'

Sophia wrinkled her nose at the word 'civilian', as it was one she heard a lot when they were talking about her. She knew it had something to do with their powers and her being unable to do them. It probably meant 'earthling' or something. 'No. Mine.'

'What's the hold up?' Naruto-sensei asked as he popped around the corner. Sophia jumped a little, but didn't scream like she had during the early days when they forget to tread loudly. She still tensed at Naruto-sensei's proximity to her though. Both the ninja had put it down to traumatic experiences with men and decided to ignore it until it went away.

'Sophia wants to carry her bag,' Sarada explained and Naruto-sensei glanced at the stubborn face before giving a small grin.

'Twenty minutes.'

Sarada thought about it for a moment. 'I give her ten.'

For Naruto's recklessness when first dealing with the walker and losing his limb, Naruto has admitted already that he's out of shape and didn't think before he acted. Not to mention that Sasuke did the same thing in Naruto Gaiden.

And timeline has been established! Of course, I'm not a very big fan of sticking close to the script, so don't expect the whole 'Naruto finds Sophia and returns her back to the group and joins them' thing that seems to be so common. I only had Sophia because I needed a connection to the group, to set the timline, a translator and someone around Sarada's own age. Considering she fit the bill pretty well, she'll be tagging along with the two nin.