hi
Chapter 2
"My name is not Sakura."
Naruto paused to look back at Sakura, who was still holding the arm of Danzo. The eyes - Sasuke did not want to handle them, to systematically remove the remains of his loved ones from the arm, so Sakura took it upon herself to do so and store them properly within an available liquid. Each of them remained, blood-red and beautiful, stocked within jars and sealed tight before she handed the scroll to Sasuke.
"What?" Naruto asked, not understanding.
"I was a god, once," she said, almost wistfully, staring into the scroll as if she could disinter its depths just as she had created it. "Once upon a time, I was a scholar, a writer, an herbalist, a seer. I was a king that held the staff in one hand and the sword in the other, reigning victorious in an era of peace unstoppable by famine or war or pestilence. And now I am a shinobi, playing the role of a girl who had once followed the sannin as she had followed you two, blazing forward paths that she realized she could never hope to reach."
And there were stories yet, far untold, yet so close and easy to grasp because they were all at her fingertips. She looked down at her hands, so pale and unassuming, not yet riddled with scars and burn marks and the things a maker had, nothing yet to show how much she had struggled.
"Oh, but I've never been born in someone else's body before," she amended, "I also don't know if I'd like to start correcting everyone whenever they mention my name, so Sakura it is."
Naruto, at this point, shrugged and turned back around. "Okay, then, uhh, Sakura. Whatever you say."
Sasuke merely took the scroll and avoided eye contact as if he couldn't bear the sight. His eyes were activated as well, she noticed.
"Congratulations," she said. He flinched. They were silent.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei-" she started, turning to face the ninja in question, but Kakashi was now gone from his place beside the water. She looked around in confusion before pinpointing him, heading straight to the Hokage's office. "Shit."
Kakashi had just entered the room when the three students went barreling in after him, landing in a tangle of limbs and hair and clothing stuck in wood flooring. "Kakashi-sensei, don't leave us just to go on a rampage to find your long-lost teammate that you thought was dead," Naruto wailed. Kakashi looked like he'd been slapped in the face.
"It's Obito, his name is Obito, Naruto," Sakura said. "But yes, we are most definitely going with you."
"No," Kakashi stopped them immediately. "It's too dangerous, and from what you told me, Sakura, he's a volatile character at this point. I will go alone."
"Fuck you, Bakashi," Sakura replied evenly. From behind her she could see one of the shinobi clap a hand over his face, struggling not to burst out in laughter. Kakashi merely sighed and turned towards Sarutobi, who looked halfway between like he wanted to kick them all out and try not to look amused at the same time.
"I apologize for the inconvenience that this grievance has caused, dear Sasuke," the Hokage spoke, addressing the last Uchiha in the room. "I knew of Danzo's previous actions and had ordered him to cease immediately, but I never would've thought..."
Sasuke now seemed like he was too small for this room. He hunched over a bit, shadowing his eyes. "Yes, sir."
"I will now address the mission to retrieve Obito Uchiha," he continued, "and all four of you may stay."
Kakashi did not make a word of complaint, to their collective relief. The room cleared once the shinobi realized that this was not a time for protocol, and the walls were set up quickly. "Now, Sakura, now that your words have been proven to be a veritable source, please explain what you know of the situation."
"Uhhh," she responded.
She could practically envision the smack she heard as Naruto pressed his hand to his face. She flailed to justify herself, waving her arms dramatically. "Look, I came underprepared, the plot was very complicated, I only knew the very important stuff. I don't remember much of this world off the top of my head."
"Start with what you know, then."
"Well," she started, "Sasuke was going to betray the village because Orochimaru promised him power with his freaky voodoo curse lovebite." Sasuke already looked horrified at her words, while Naruto practically shrieked while laughing as he rolled on the floor. "There's a whole lot of bullshit about why he's still alive and how he infiltrates the village but basically he completed the Living Death Reanimation Jutsu (what sort of name is that, whatever) and teams up with Sunagakure to try and invade Konoha during the Chunin exams. Sarutobi, you would've died there fighting Orochimaru."
"Suffixes, Sakura," Kakashi reminded her, but Sarutobi simply grew still.
"A lot of shit I'm gonna skip, Tsunade comes back, Naruto learns the Rasengan, Sasuke your-"
"I learn what?" Naruto is bouncing eagerly again on the balls of his feet, but Sakura continues anyway.
"-brother has an unknown illness that will kill him if he doesn't get treatment soon, we're probably gonna have to search for him too-"
Sasuke seemed conflicted on that, based on what he'd thought about his brother for a large part of his life he should hate his brother, but since it was ordered upon Itachi by the elders he seemed like he wished to go searching as well. Sarutobi gave a grim nod.
"-Oh yeah, and actually that team Akatsuki is led by Madara Uchiha which was actually Tobi which was actually Obito which is why we have to go looking for him now because if everything works out for them we're all gonna fall under an Eternal Mangekyo with the Ten-Tailed Beast and the actual Madara's gonna get reanimated along with the First through the Fourth Hokage - including you, sir, since you're dead - so if we knock some goddamn sense into Obito using Kakashi and the power of friendship everything's gonna work out great." She smiled as if that would convince them enough.
Four blank stares met hers.
"I," Sarutobi said, "have no words."
"I thought she was joking the first time she told us this spiel, but hearing it in more detail it just sounds even stranger," Kakashi deadpanned, wiping his face with the palms of his hands.
"Okay, first step is..." Sakura paused. "Actually if we just go for all of Akatsuki then we'll be able to solve everything. Wow, all our problems are congregated in one place, what a coincidence and definitely not something that was scripted by the gods to show their utter lack of understanding in plot."
"I," Kakashi said.
"Alright here's the plan!" She cheered, standing taller as if that would make up for her lacking height compared to most of the people in the room. "I rush in, I stomp everybody to pieces, then you guys clean up the wreckage. Sound cool? Sounds cool."
Sasuke snorted. "You're weaker than all of us here, Sakura."
Sakura stopped at that. "I am Haruno Sakura," she said, strangely calm, "but I am also far beyond you, beings wrapped in mortal flesh. For it is not humanity that stretches across space in an endless span stopped by its own containment, but time. I am the creator of worlds, the beginning of universes, and also the ending of everything. The sand in the hourglass stops for nobody, not even itself."
And then she grinned. "So, I call team leader up in this joint."
Naruto edged backwards.
Sarutobi held up a hand, a half-smile forming on his face. "I'm sorry, Sakura. You can be the team leader in both spirit and sportsmanship, but on paper I shall write down Kakashi as the squad leader."
Sakura squared her shoulders and puffed herself up proudly. "Yeah, that's fair."
Sasuke still looked unnerved as she passed by him to draw out the exact locations of Akatsuki's base on the map, but he remained silent as she obliviously showed them all exactly how powerful she could be, just by a few simple words. He found that he didn't want to know.
The Akatsuki held various bases, each strategically well placed due to their almost-completely inaccessible grounds protected by barrier ninjutsu and their surroundings. There was an old underground tunnel network of caves that they'd used as their main base, before it was bombed, and then several ones before that closer to Rain, and then a scattering of bases around many different parts of the countries. Sakura pointed down at each one, a dot placed on every base before circling the current one. "I think its uh...this one. At this point in time. Maybe."
Kakashi groaned at the ceiling while Sasuke massaged his temples with the quiet, simmering rage he had when he was trying not to strangle someone. Sakura pretended not to notice.
"It's...much closer than I anticipated," Sarutobi mused, peering at Amegakure's location.
"Madara's hideout was here," she said, pointing further north from the Hidden Rain Village, "when he was in hiding, you'll probably find his old man corpse in there unless Orochimaru stole it, which is not yet. Nagato, or Pain, is the village head, which means that they're either up in the village still or in the cave network. I think they're in the caves right now, so south."
"Alright," Kakashi said, and stood up in a quite relaxed manner, cracking a few joints in the meantime. "We'll head out in the morning, then."
Sakura observed him for a while. After a long moment of scrutinizing, she said, "you don't believe me."
"Huh?"
"Kakashi, that was the most obvious hinting of 'I'm gonna leave without you guys haha see you tomorrow not' I've ever seen in my life." Sakura cracked her neck. "Alright, then, here."
She absently outstretched one hand toward the direction of the window, and in the direct vision of all of them twenty different Zetsu heads were ripped unceremoniously out of the ground, hovered in front of the pane, and simultaneously crushed to plant pulp and smeared on the glass.
They stared at her hand.
She flicked her fingers and the mess was gone. "What?" She said, unconcerned. "They were creeping me out."
Twenty minutes later, she was still trying to explain while an emotionally-exhausted Kakashi was keeled over next to the door, Naruto was banging his head slowly against the wall, and Sasuke was half a centimeter away from grabbing hold of her neck and acting on his murderous intent.
"-Listen, think of it as a hypothetical chance," she said, motioning outside to the horror show of plant bodies being dug out as they were all promptly set on fire without her even looking. "You don't see it, it's the uncertainty principle, there is a fuzziness to how particles behave and it is impossible to pinpoint the exact probability of where something will be at all times. Point A does not immediately go to Point B, there will always be a third factor and quantum theory is not exact every single time you begin measuring it."
"How the heck does this apply to-"
"-The uncertainty principle says that we cannot measure position and momentum of a particle with one hundred percent precision. If we know one accurately, then the other will be less accurate. Your observation of either position or momentum will be inaccurate especially because you cannot see at such an infinitesimal scale. You cannot observe the electron rotating around the nucleus because it is not observable with the human eye, which means that the theory of relativity promises distortions of space-time and that we will always be able to guess, but never know succinctly."
"Sakura," Kakashi sighed, "the theoretical chance of you specifically guessing where each of Zetsu's clones were is rather strange to know, and honestly the floating thing was a bit over the top, but I believe you."
"I have no idea what she's talking about," they could hear Naruto speaking dreamily to the potted plant next to the desk Sarutobi had fallen comatose over. It seemed her speeches could even topple mountains.
"...Quantum theory?" Sasuke appeared a bit unsure. Sakura blinked.
"Did we not learn this in genin classes?" She asked Kakashi, who appeared to just now remember that it was fake Sakura who had attended those classes, not her.
"I can promise you that we have never heard of half the things you've been saying this entire time," he replied, to her horror.
"...Well, anyway," she said, waving the subject aside entirely, "just know that basically knowing the location is easy, it was the time that I had to pinpoint, and time will never be a problem as long as I'm around living in it."
"Because you're a god?" Sasuke monotoned, a bit sardonic in tone.
"No, I am but a concept," she replied, a bit too wide of a smile on her face. "Alright, here we go, Kakashi let's get this over with I have had way too long of a day and I'm about to follow Grandpa's footsteps over there." The old man was snoring, to Naruto's enjoyment. She promptly watched them, shrugged, and knocked herself out by collapsing on the floor and refusing to get up.
Sasuke and Kakashi stared down at the dead-looking body.
"Two thousand yen if you bring her back to her apartment," Kakashi told the only sane student he had left.
In her dreams the universe flows backward, planets shrinking, asteroids and smaller bodies of hot magma imploding into dust particles, extinguished by stars burning too hot to sustain themselves, until it collected into a single point that called itself the beginning. And in that life started a river, made by her hands and collecting into something new once again. Because the old one had fallen through her fingertips.
The river runs.
Not literally, of course: the river does not pick itself up, every pebble trembling as it climbs up against hard rock and moss growing on the underside of driftwood, fish falling from the water like multicolored pieces of glass transparent underneath sunlight. However, it shifts, changes course, and suddenly the current moves in a different direction, veers off path and above and beyond its small crevice it had resided in. Sakura remembers the Ygdrassil tree, the lifeblood that flowed from it, the goddess that ate its fruit and created this world and stared into her with three spinning eyes-
-and the moon churned blood-red, darkening like the Sharingan, revealing who they had taken their kekkei genkai from and stealing her breath at the same time-
Kaguya screamed.
"-Fuck!"
She jolted awake, startling herself with her panic-induced state. "Ah," she said, remembering, falling back from her paranoia. "I was born there."
"Hrghhh it's too early in the morning for this..." The voice next to her moaned, and her head turned to see Naruto collapsed over a struggling Sasuke attempting to pry the other boy off. She dragged Naruto off of him before glancing around the room, realizing that she'd fallen asleep in a place that was definitely not her house.
"Where?" It was a one-word question. Sasuke glared weakly at her.
"Naruto wouldn't stop complaining about me having to carry you back, and then he decided that he'd have to keep watch over you the entire night so you didn't get possessed by an evil demon again, then we all came to my house." Sasuke fell back onto the bed, losing all the fight that was left in him. Sakura shrugged, hair a tangled mess and refusing to fix it.
Naruto was still grumbling, brushing her hand aside when she poked him repeatedly in the cheek in order to get him awake. "Mission's in an hour," she called carefully, watching for any sign of response.
"...Who are you, really?"
"Hm?" She looked over at him. Sasuke was studying her now, closer this time, head supported by one hand, and his brow was furrowed in a way that would've been cute if not for how tired he seemed as well, not only from how early it was in the morning but something else. Weary. He'd dealt with a lot yesterday.
"Why are you so... what are..." He put a hand to his head, closing his eyes and pausing to collect his thoughts. "Why?"
He may have been asking about the three of them, why she had stayed when she had all the reason not to, why she had decided to help them with their individual issues, why she had all the answers without really interfering, but she didn't really have an answer to any of them. So she told the truth.
"I am the blood of the universe," she said once again, but this time she sounded far more serious, far less joking. "I cause the course of events, I am its horizon, simply by existing. I don't know if you're very good at riddles, Sasuke, but I've answered this one already, but I am not making riddles right now and I have never been good at being an actor. I am Time, both the concept and the reality. Wither before me and you shall know my wrath."
"I feel discomfort around you," Sasuke said, "but at the same time I feel a sharp sense of relief. I still don't understand."
"'Time heals all wounds,"' Sakura told him, "and yet I do not agree. The wounds remain. They always do. The pain lessens because you make it so, numbing yourself until you wish to feel nothing. However, the remainder of what had been will always be there. That is fact."
He stared at her now, still not fully understanding but a step closer to what she was. The sheets rustled, and Naruto jolted upwards and flipped himself off the bed with a scream before smacking face first onto the floor. Both Sakura and Sasuke peered down at him.
"Okay," Sasuke droned, throwing her off the bed along with the blankets, "it's your turn to take care of the baby."
"...Naruto's our baby?"
"Get out."
this is a weird ass rendition of a character of mine placed in sakura's body but i'll leave it to you to read the other stories that go along with it
there aren;t a lot of them yet to be honest
go nuts