Summary: Haruno Sakura was used to Naruto's bizarre plans, but this one really topped it. In an attempt to change the future for the better, her best friend sends her back to the past to infiltrate their own home. The medic planned to do this as discretly as possible, but she should have known that even with a second identity, it wouldn't be that easy.

Beta: None

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

I'll skip the talking this time. So please Read, Enjoy & Review!

Make the Future Blossom

Chapter 2: Orange Mock

~ Deceit~

'For the love of-!' Gritting her teeth, the new time-traveller swore under her breath as pain overloaded her senses.

A groan was all that could escape her lips and even that made her throat burn painfully.

Sure, Sakura had expected to feel horrible upon waking up – it was demonic chakra after all - but the agony that she currently endured still beat her expectations.

The natural chakra was nearly all gone. The leftovers slithered over her body, trying to cool the worst burns.

She didn't rush herself, deciding that it was important to take this slow if she wanted to be able to move in the next few hours. Not to mention that she might black out from the pain if she did. So instead, she took a moment to enjoy the cold stone cooling her cheek and the fresh air that was sucked into her lungs.

It had worked.

Right?

She forced her eyes to open upon the sudden distress that accompanied the question and relaxed when she saw the familiar cave. Of course her senses had been right...

No Naruto.

Her heart clenched.

She was now completely alone in the past.

The reality of it all suddenly crashed down upon her and her control broke apart.

Her body protested painfully as she let out a sob, but it didn't stop her from letting her emotions go. It only took a few minutes for the eyes to dry – he said to make the future blossom, she told herself – and for her to pull her act together. She couldn't afford acting weak.

A determined frown appeared on her forehead and her eyes gleamed. She groaned as she heaved herself on all fours. The last drops of her tears dripped down her nose onto the ground. She stared at them for a moment before snapping out of her thoughts.

She wouldn't mourn the loss of her future until much later when it was safe.

It was hard to push the pain aside, but having experience in that department helped. After all, living a life as a ninja was hard and pain was nothing new for her.

With difficulty, she eventually managed to sit up. Breathing more heavily that she liked to admit, she automatically checked herself over and winched when she noted the burnt patches of skin across the sides of her stomach and chest. They seemed to have been focused on the chakra points of her body where there had been less blood-drawn seals to guide the demonic chakra. It must have built up on those places, rendering the natural chakra unable to protect her properly.

She was suddenly glad that Naruto had practically hovered her entire body with seals.

Gritting her teeth, she put her hand above the dark skin on her left hip and let a little bit of green chakra take off the edge. She didn't have a lot of chakra to heal it completely, but she had to avoid it getting infected. It would be very embarrassing to die from a simple infection like that.

After having taken care of two more places- one had been difficult to reach because it was one her back – she finally found the last one.

It wasn't on her face, like she had feared. The seal that Naruto had planted on her 'big' forehead seemed to have prevented that. Her throat however, was not as lucky.

"Sght" Sakura coughed and her hand flew to hear throat. She had not even managing to curse under her breath. 'This isn't good.'

A familiar iron taste appeared in her mouth and she spat out the blood that she had coughed up.

Clearing her voice, she tried to talk but there was no sound. Her voice was gone for the moment.

Remembering her own screams a little too well, she tried to gather a little bit of chakra to check her throat. She only got a glimpse of the demonic chakra gathering there to realise that she was in quite a predicament.

One, by now her chakra reserves was nearly empty. She probably didn't have enough to fight or even manipulate the amount of demonic chakra present. Two, this meant that she couldn't heal her throat, so no talking during her travels until she had fixed it somehow. She would need at least a few days rest.

She sighed in defeat and checked the rest of her appearance, her dizziness finally ebbing away. As she had expected, the cloak had been completely burned as well.

Well, she was glad that Naruto had looked ahead – he had his own experience with the fox's chakra – and made sure to give her a special tattoo for the trip. It was often used to store small weapons on people's arms. With much difficulty, the Fūinjutsu Master had been able to enlarge it to hold two small sealing scrolls.

The sealing space was small, but sealing two sealed scrolls in it solved that. Deciding that the small sacrifice of chakra would be worth it, she bit her thumb and smeared her blood over the seal on the inside of her arm as she added a little bit of chakra to it.

With a small cloud of smoke, she held onto the two scrolls that held the meagre belongings that she now possessed. They had been wrapped in a new cloak, similar to the one that had been burned. She winched as she felt more chakra disappear than she had expected, making her feel slightly disorientated. She decided against unsealing her usual outfit and put her scrolls in the inner pocket of the cloak instead, before slipping it on.

'Great, got my voice messed up and unable to use chakra for a few days if I want to get rid of that chakra anytime soon.' She grumbled. 'Great way to start this whole thing.'

With a sigh she flipped a strand of her hair out of her face, before she froze. She grabbed at the strand of hair to look at it more closely again and her eyes widened. The color had changed, making it darker and redder. Almost a plum-like color actually.

Her fist hit the floor to give vent to her frustration.

Damn, that cursed chakra. As if her voice wasn't enough.

She wasn't sure how she felt about it. At one side, she had just avoided some future problems concerning the Haruno's familiar hair-color. On the other side, she had just lost her signature that had made people recognise her as Haruno Sakura.

'That's the whole point Sakura.' She reminded herself, gritting her teeth.

'You aren't Haruno Sakura anymore.'

Judging by the lump that appeared in her throat at that thought, it would take a while for her to accept it though.

~ A few weeks later ~

This sucked.

Stupid demon fox.

While she had already been able to seal the accessible leftovers of the Kyuubi's chakra with a diamond seal hidden behind her right ear – no matter how small, you never knew when it would come in handy - it still messed up her healing.

Just a few more days and she would be able to fix whatever it had done to her vocal cords. Still, being the kunoichi that she was, she found the way that everyone underestimated her to be pretty appealing. Sure, getting some looks of pity was getting on her nerves every now and then but it would be a small price to pay for being underestimated.

How foolishly naïve people were. Not being able to talk didn't make her any less dangerous.

Not that the woman in front of her seemed to think her as such.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry."

Sakura smiled harmlessly at the elder woman – she was a trusting and helpful type, she could tell. It had taken the woman only five minutes of watching her roam around with a confused expression on her face to walk up to her and asked her if there was anything she could help her with. Though Sakura was sure that she was most likely just wondering what a young woman like her was doing in this nearly nameless 'pit' that could be considered a very small village.

It didn't take long for her to realise that the 'poor dear' couldn't talk. The scar of her burnt throat - which no one would ever believe to be a third-degree burn from a few weeks ago – was hard to miss once the purple-haired woman had moved away the small scarf that she had started to wear to protect the tender skin. Even though she didn't need it anymore, she hadn't bothered to stop wearing it.

The Kunoichi waved away the apology and words of sympathy and handed her two slips of paper.

The elder woman read it quickly and raised an eyebrow. "Sasaki Ume? Yes I have known her very well. She passed away." Her eyes became sad as she stared at the second paper that was actually an 'old' picture of Ume.

Sakura made sure to look sad at the comment as the woman studied her carefully.

"You are her cousin? I'm sorry to say that she never talked much about family. You do have a hair colour that reminds me of her though." The woman nodded as she turned around, missing the annoyed twitch that her last comment earned from the 'poor dear'.

'Her mother' had been called Ume for exactly that reason. Sakura's new colour was lighter and a bit redder compared to the woman's on the picture, but the similarity was still there. Even with her own hair colour it would have been convincing for her to be 'Ume's' daughter. Silver-haired men were not that uncommon in these lands. Having a cross of those hair colours as parents could explain it. It was one of the reasons why they had chosen this identity. It was almost like an irony that the change in hair colour made the match even better.

"I don't mind telling you about her, but I warn you, her story is a sad one."

"Would you like to have some tea while we are at it?" The woman asked, looking at her.

Sakura nodded and bowed in thanks before following the woman. As they entered a small house, she was ushered into the room and told to take a seat. It took only seconds for the kunoichi to survey the woman's home. When she came back, Sakura smiled at her. She sat straight, like the polite young woman she was expected to be – as if she hadn't just snooped about and spied on the woman while she had prepared the tea.

Sakura looked curiously at the picture that she had been given. Sasaki Ume looked a little older in this picture than the one that she carried with her.

"She came here about twenty years ago. Your Aunt was a great woman, always willing to help everyone. She was a great healer as well. If anyone even coughed, she would appear at their side and fuss over them until she was sure they were completely healthy. It didn't even matter that she was pregnant. She would help anyone. A bit of a hypocrite she was too… She wouldn't accept any help until it was really necessary."

Sakura couldn't help but smile sadly as the woman shared more stories with her. She made sure to pay attention, wanting to know the woman that sounded like a great co-medic.

The woman – Choko-san - she had been told somewhere in between when she realised she hadn't introduced herself yet, sighed sadly.

"She had a miscarriage. She was heart-broken. She had looked so much forwards to having a daughter. She was always singing to her, you know. I wish I could have helped her somehow, but – "

Sakura swallowed slightly. Somehow these stories made it so personal. Hearing someone who loved the Ume tell her about her was so much more than just reading the information on paper. She sounded like a great mother… much like her own – she had to push those thoughts away for another time. She would try to make this woman proud of the legacy that she would be.

"She wasn't seen much. She kept to herself on the outskirts of the village." - Good, Sakura thought. "She was still always ready to help though. We had hoped that she would get out of this depression she had sunk into. Eventually, something went wrong… Her daughter would have been sixteen the next day… Her house caught fire that night." The woman's voice broke. "We never know what had started it, but …she was found dead next morning… It seemed like she had started the fire herse–" She swallowed and remained silent.

"Some more tea?" Choko eventually asked as Sakura thoughtfully went over what she just had been told.

'Time to act'. She decided before she nodded.

The woman stood and left the room to prepare some more. She was not aware of the fact that Sakura was right behind her, fishing a paper tag from her pocket.

'No time for feeling guilty.' She reminded herself.

She coughed softly, causing the woman to turn around. Before Choko could even realise what was going on, one of Naruto's seals was gently slapped across her forehead. The woman's eyes went blank and dropped ever so slightly.

Sighing in relief, she went thought a few hand seals, preparing Ino's jutsu that had made this seal such a success when it concerned larger alterations. While it didn't work on ninja, for the few months that it had existed, it had become very useful for cover-ups when it concerned civilians.

If only Ino had been around to see it work…

Shaking away those thoughts, she put her glowing hand on the seal and closed her eyes. She focused and with practiced ease, she started altering little bits of information as she spoke up.

"You will forget that this is the first time that we have meet and what our conversation was about. You know that Sasaki Ume did not have a miscarriage. Instead she had a healthy girl, whom she adored and taught a lot of her skills – healing especially. The two of them where shy, both living at the outskirts of the village.-" The kunoichi started her story, making sure to match everything as closely as possible. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be enough if someone – anyone – came snooping. She continued to speak about Ume and Hana's relationship, Hana's own personality and their reputation.

"Just the day before Hana turned sixteen there was an accidental fire." She continued, having to match the woman's date of death but decided that to relief the woman of some self-inflicted blame.

She would have to mark the cottage that they lived in to give signs of an old fire and repair later on.

"Sasaki Ume didn't survive it and died from the smoke in her lungs. Sasaki Hana was heartbroken and rarely got out of the house afterwards. During the fire, a burning wooden beam fell on her resulting a burnt scar on her throat. She didn't speak anymore after the incident. You are unsure whether this has to do with injury or trauma. She goes to the forest often, taking long hikes and disappearing for few days at a time to gather herbs like she and her mother had done. Sometimes she disappears without anyone noticing until she comes back. You assume that everyone in the village knows about her already, so you won't bring up this subject."

After she was finished a few more details – those were important - she opened her eyes. She knew that the brain would automatically fill in some of the gaps left, but those were dangerous when it came to large groups. After all, all victims of the jutsu would fill those in to a different extent. Luckily the village wasn't too big. Glad that the jutsu and seal had worked, she slowly slid the paper off her forehead. Her hand enveloped with green chakra and she placed it on the same place, trying to calm everything. It was very tiring for the civilians. About ten minutes later, the woman snapped out of it.

"Oh Hana? I'm sorry, I must have lost myself in thought again. Now you really should visit more often dear. Sometimes we barely know that you are living here." Choko told her, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I feel somewhat tired, must have been the tea. Maybe it is better if you come back tomorrow."

Perfect.

'Naruto, you and your father are freaking sealing geniuses…' She thought, remembering him talking about loads on notes and theories he had spit through to be able to design this seal.

Now she only had a few more people to go.

As she left the house, Sakura tried to shake off the nasty feeling that she got from playing with someone's mind like that, even though she hadn't actually hurt anyone. If anything, she had given her better memories than the one that she had of Ume.

Hopefully, if she would ever meet her in her afterlife, Ume would forgive her.

~ About a month later ~

It was an odd sensation to infiltrate one's own home, like this.

Lying low on the roof, camouflaged by the dark grey colour of her cloak and the thin black cloth wrapped securely around her head, Sakura patiently waited for the right moment to move.

She had already manipulated the thin line of chakra near the hidden entrance on the roof of the Hokage's Tower. Now she only needed to keep it steady while waiting for the right moment to act. She didn't know what she would have done if she hadn't had the help of the future Rokudaime to give her directions on where and when to move. Not to mention that she was glad that it had all been recorded in the future Hokage's achieves, so she knew what to expect.

Otherwise it might have been a lot more nerve-wrecking to break into the records of the civilians in order to replace the Sasaki Ume's recorded DNA with one that they had fabricated to match her own as being her mother.

"This is so troublesome." She remembered Naruto complain when they had gone over all the details, echoing their late lazy friend in the process. At the time she had reprimanded him, seeing as the details were important, but having to go through all of it, she couldn't help but silently agree afterwards.

Considering that she hadn't even registered herself as a Konoha citizen by now, she couldn't help but sigh at the work that was still in front of her.

Her eyes caught movement on the left and she watched as the sneaky ANBU circled the tower once again. She had to wait for the right moment to slip right through them. She watched them carefully, searching for any moment of inattention or distraction.

Now.

Like she had practiced so many times before, she let the chakra in the seal pull her, enhancing every muscle in her legs to match to speed.

With a silent 'woosh' she flashed on the roof. Within another few seconds she had slipped through the hidden entrance, making sure to stick to the ceiling as she entered the building.

It took about half an hour to swap the files and five minutes later, she was outside once again.

'Stage two complete.' She told herself, feeling a bit of the weight on her shoulders fall off.

She took a deep breath of fresh air.

'Now time for Sasaki Hana to enter Konoha.'

Just as she was about to slip away, Sakura detected a familiar chakra. Had she not been on alert for the chakra signature many years in the future, she would have most likely missed it. However, she had been afraid for Uchiha Itachi for a long time, so as soon as she felt it, her old instincts screamed at her that he was near.

It reminded her of a certain – very important – incident that was coming closer.

Yes, she would have to 'move to' Konoha soon.

~ A few days later ~

"Welcome to Konoha Sasaki-san." The brown-haired man smiled at her in a practiced manner as he stamped the paper.

It didn't proclaim her an active ninja, but gave her the status of one mainly because of her medical experience. As she had expected, her muteness helped her seem unsuccessful as mission-material for the low fighting-skills they thought she possessed, so she had been accepted as a medic in society instead. It made the whole mess of acting mute worth it. Now she would be able to keep an eye on everyone.

"Thank you Minami-san." Mouthed 'Sasaki Hana', smiling a bit more convincingly at the man.

Unknown to the man, it was a smile of relief and achievement.

She had infiltrated for mission quite a few times before, but the moment of being accepted into Konoha was more relieving than any other missions before.

She was glad that the ninja in front of her could read lips like most of them could. It would have been a real pain if she had to write down everything. Just before she had left her 'home village', she had decided to remain mute. While she could quite easily heal her vocal cords if she really wanted too, it was easier to keep up her mute image if she actually couldn't talk, plus it prevented her from being 'useful' kunoichi material. Being mute was considered to be inconvenient after all.

Provided by the 'documents' from her own village – she had paid a visit to the man in charge of documenting such things – she had made sure to write down that it was unknown whether her muteness was induced by her psychological trauma or through actual injury.

Even if any medic ninja would check it, she could easily prevent them from healing it. She had the skills. Knowing how to fix something, made it much easier to break something down as well. Tsunade was one of the best and she had learned the best she could. It would be somewhat fun to see them try actually.

"Ano, Minami-san. Where do I have to go when I want to open my own small clinic?" She mouthed, making sure to articulate as much as possible.

"A healing clinic?" The man asked, glancing at the file that stated that she had her skills had already been tested and deemed to be chuunin-level medic-wise and genin-level fighting-wise.

Sakura had always been told that she had small chakra reserves. Not much higher than a Chuunin. Until a few years ago, Sakura would have been bothered by it. However, in comparison she was as efficient with her chakra than even her Shishou probably had been.

So being underestimated for a higher-genin level to lower-chuunin level Kunoichi overall, did not really bother her at all.

She didn't want any attention on her right now.

Being stared with some suspicion when she was healing someone to test her skills… now that did bother her.

Luckily, skills like these were always considered useful to a ninja village, seeing as there were never quite enough medic-ninja. So it wasn't quite surprising that she was congratulated and accepted for a special integration program as soon as they had checked her background – this made all the work to cover up worth it. She knew though, that she would have to go through several phrases of tests and assessments before she would be able to handle cases completely freely.

They wouldn't allow her to work in hospitals for a long time – too close to injured ninja, should she prove to be a spy – and had been keeping an eye on her the first few months, but Sakura didn't mind. It was nice to have a change of occupation so to speak. It was also good to know that people didn't trust just any medic, but it had been slightly painful to see Konoha ninja suspicious of her. She would just have to prove her worth.

At least, she would be able to start a little shop with her knowledge of plants and herbs.

"Yes. Though I was told that I will need some supervision until for the first few months, so I was hoping to produce my own herbs and medicine instead." She smiled a bit more passionately this time, which was noticed by the man in front of her.

Of course Sakura already knew that the administration would be in the tower as well. As a matter of fact, it should be just down the hall. No need to return later when she could get everything sorted out now.

The Chuunin in front of her hummed thoughtfully, whom allowed himself to open up a bit more after having seen the excited gleam in her eyes when she spoke of her plans.

"You have knowledge of herbs as well? I see." A worthy medic she might turn out to be. "Well if you just go to room 224 on the right, you can –"

Sakura smiled at him and nodded.

She already had a place in mind. It was in a less well-off corner of Konoha, but that made it only a better location. The fact that it was the neighbourhood where Naruto had his apartment might have just been a coincidence.

Yeah right.

~ Three weeks later ~

Sleeping was difficult for Sakura. Her mind constantly went back to her memories, to the future and to the blond friend that she missed so much that her heart ached painfully. Now that she finally finished setting up her second – or what would actually be her first – identity, she started thinking about those things a lot more.

She felt like she couldn't stop thinking about it at all.

Just like she was thinking right at this moment, while she was putting all her stock in place. She had unsealed a few things from her sealing scroll, while others, she had collected and prepared on her way to Konoha and while she had stayed in the village. With a sigh, she returned to her task, rattling off different names of herbs in an attempt to keep her mind occupied. About half an hour later she was about to run out of things to recall, but luckily she was already finished.

'Finally' Sasaki Hana thought as she put away the last of her herbs on the shelves.

Looking around, she was proud to say that she was finally ready to open her clinic. It had taken a lot of oaths and tests to be allowed to, but she was finally allowed to open her clinic.

And boy, Tsunade-shishou had made sure that her skills were worth a lot.

Until then, it was a pain to fill out paperwork in order to be allowed to do a higher healing jutsu under supervision of another ninja to make sure she didn't mess up – hell, she could outperform any medic-ninja in the hospital.

Well, she guessed that meant waiting for time to pass. In a few years, she would hopefully be able to enter the hospital if she wanted too. Or maybe she would prefer her own clinic by then. It wasn't that important. As long as she had a job – it had taken quite a lot of money to buy the clinic - and a good cover, she was satisfied.

Doing one last sweep of the shop, she decided to open the clinic tomorrow. While she could open right now, she needed some time to focus on something else- something far more important.

The Uchiha massacre.

Sasuke.

~ End Chapter ~

(coughandItachicough!)

Hope that you enjoyed the chapter and I would love to hear from you.

Till next time!