Chapter Two

She already knew that acting like Naruto is likely to be an exhausting task; unfortunately, she had no idea just how difficult it is to act like a complete idiot – hating Sasuke was an easy part of it.

"Shut up, Dattebayo!" she growled and was surprised with how deep Naruto's voice sounded to him; she remembered joking how feminine it was to people around him. "I wasn't looking at you, baka."

"It's funny that you are the one calling me 'baka', baka," coldly retorted Uchiha and if someone asked Sakura at that moment what she wanted the most, she would explicitly describe the sound of Sasuke's head hitting a cement wall.

And here I was, wondering why Naruto hated Sasuke so much. Duh.

However, when she opened her mouth to snap at him, she saw herself, standing in a crowd of fangirls. The eyes of this time's Sakura were filled with rage and annoyance; 17-years-old Sakura could practically see 'This baka is talking to Sasuke-kun! ' on past Sakura's face. Boy was she infatuated with Sasuke!

"I can waste my time talking to you or can go practice my ninjutsu," present Sakura snickered, throwing her hands behind her head like her best friend did on multiple occasions. "Sayonara, douchebag!"

As she slowly retreated, she could hear Uchiha's fangirls screaming rude words in her – or, rather, Naruto's – address. She was 100 percent sure that when they meet again, Sasuke will undoubtedly show his hostility and try to push her so that she was the one who initiated their fight. Funnily enough, she was about 4 years older than him and had much more patience than Naruto, so whatever it was he was going to throw at her, she was ready.

Feeling tired and a bit hungry, she automatically headed to her own house but soon stopped with a start, gazing lonely at the route she usually took while heading home. There was little to no chance of meeting her parents... here, whatever 'here' was. Okay, she might as well call it 'past'.

It was often in the past few years that she felt lonely, although it usually faded in comparison with her constant worry for her friends. However, now, on the street full of people, she suddenly felt lonelier than ever.

Snap out of it, she told herself and resisted slapping her cheeks because that would cause even more attention to her persona. No way in hell am I going back to my moping and clingy self.

As she entered Naruto's – now hers – apartment, kunoichi threw the key on the cupboard. She then proceeded to the fridge, fished out some rice and soy sauce and made herself a dinner. The kitchen – and the rest of apartment – felt depressingly quiet and the clock's ticking was as loud as a thunderstorm during a silent night. She couldn't imagine how could Naruto live like this for the majority of his life.

Quickly finishing her rice and washing the dishes, she proceeded to bed as there wasn't anything else to do. Talking to Hokage can wait. It took her some time to fall asleep, for she kept turning and throwing off her blanket to feel comfortable. Finally, her mind started to daze and she drifted off.

While at war her sleep was never calm and steady but here and now she didn't feel anything; there weren't screams of anguish or people calling out her name – on the contrary, her mind was at peace.

Nevertheless, it didn't last. Her undisturbed dream was soon attacked with faint imaged; fire and blood started to take over her. Haruno felt distressed, yet, for some unknown reason, she couldn't wake up like she usually did while having nightmares.

A moment later she appeared in a damp and somber corridor. There were no source of light that she could see but, for some reason, she could see things clearly.

She couldn't remember being in such place. Some time ago she came across a book about dreams that stated that one can't dream about something, unless one saw it before. Sakura knew as much because she remembered all these screaming people in her dreams, be it an unsuccessful operation or death on the battlefield. These were the worst kind of dreams.

She looked both ways but couldn't see any exit so she decided to go in a random direction. The walls she was passing by had a golden shade and were chipped in some places, looking rather old. Just like when she travelled to this time, she wasn't sure how much time has passed until she neared tall gates that reminded her of latices. The bars were thick and stood about a meter from each other that would allow Sakura to pass without a struggle. She couldn't see anything beyond them, however – it was miraculously dark.

A loud bawl caught her off-guard and caused to run a few meters away from the gates. Soon, two big slanting red eyes lit up and looked at her as if she was just a bug. Seconds later, the monster revealed itself, his skin lighting up and, with a start, Haruno realised that she forgot a small, yet crucial detail: her best friend contained the Nine-Tails. And, if she remembered Naruto's words correctly, they 'didn't get along too well'. Well, that was a nice way to put it.

"I don't recall inviting you here, human girl," the creature growled, and Sakura felt goosebumps. There weren't many things – not anymore – that got her goosebumps but she was certain that there weren't many people whose first encounter with this beast went smooth and steady.

Thinking about his words, she looked down at herself and realised that here, in her dream or whatever it was, she looked the exact way she died on the battlefield. Her cloak was soaked in her own blood that has already dried, yet its coppery smell was just as strong as it would be with a fresh wound. It seemed like demon didn't miss the smell either, for his pupils dilated and he moved closer to the bars.

"I am Haruno Sakura," kunoichi said, her voice far more confident than she actually felt. "I am Naruto's-"

"I know exactly who you are, kunoichi," the demon replied leisurely, sweeping his tales from side to side as if he was bored. "Yet I don't know why are you here and why does your life energy feels so different from the rest of ninjas in this world."

"I don't know how I got here," she honestly replied, eyeing him warily. "The last thing I remember is I'm dying and – here I am, four years into the past." She found it somewhat ironic that the first living creature that found out about this was a beast that brought colossal damage to her village ages ago.

"Four years, you say." Kurama's voice became fascinated and his eyes squinted, nose deeply inhaling her aroma. "Hmm, interesting."

Shifting from one foot to the other, Sakura was feeling uncertain as to what her next actions going to be. Nine-Tails wasn't saying anything, instead looking at her with blank expression. She forced her mind to concentrate and wake up but Kurama, it seemed, was able to control her mind in more ways that one.

Just as she was going to ask him what he wanted, he chortled and, in a blink of an eye, everything was filled with water. She wasn't prepared for it, so she instinctively did a few deep breaths that caused a lot of water to enter her lungs. She was a ninja, dammit, yet she was almost helpless in water so the situation urged her to think quickly.

She couldn't see neither the bottom nor the top but she didn't let herself panic. She didn't have much time left with so much water in her lungs and she tried to concentrate chakra mask that would prevent her from drinking any more water, but nothing happened. With a sheer of horror, she realised she can't feel her chakra at all. Desperate, she did what her instincts told her from the very beginning: she started swimming. Because she couldn't tell where was top and where – bottom, she did her best guess by swimming at the direction that felt warmer. She remembered a long forgotten memory of her 8-years-old self, swimming in the sea besides her parents, and enjoying every second of it. That time her body felt light like feathers; now, however, her limbs felt like dumbbells.

This is the second time I'm dying over the last 24 hours, she thought off-handedly as she felt her muscles betraying her and her mind being repressed – she couldn't tell if it was simply her imagination or her brain was indeed squeezed in someone's fist. Nonetheless, she fought and decided that it was better passing out because of lack of water and dying than dying because she decided to give up.

"You are quite a fighter, aren't you?" a deep rumble echoed through the water that was abruptly gone, causing Sakura to fall on the ground from at least a few dozen meters, though she was able to land on her feet at the last second. Then, exhausted, she slipped down on her knees and took a few deliberate breath, coughing water.

"Why can't I use my chakra here?" she demanded in a hoarse voice, standing up on her wobbly legs.

"Because you've never been in this place – you aren't able yet to control your chakra when you drift off and dream."

"So this is a dream?" It wasn't hard to believe, if she were honest: everything felt extremely surreal and, it seemed, all of her senses heightened.

"I wouldn't call it that but right now it's your mind against my enormous amount of chakra, not your body and charkra – though I doubt it would make a difference in resisting me," the monster chuckled, motioning at her soaked and debacle appearance.

"Naruto resisted you," she argued.

"Naruto's spirit is naturally much stronger than yours, Haruno. He was able to resist me while no one else could; indeed a significant boy, that kid. I indulged him into his greatest wishes and promised unlimited power, yet he resisted because it would mean losing himself and possibly hurting his friends."

She looked around, hoping to see a door or, well, any possible exit because she didn't like where this conversation was going.

"And where is he?" she asked, already prepared for another mad outcome, like quake or tornado. She didn't want to think about it before, for she was too anxious of the possible answer. It was possible that because of her invading his mind, this time's Naruto simply disappeared – or, even worse, died.

"As you could've already assumed, because of you invading his mind and body, Uzumaki had to be stored." Nine-Tails explained. "Nature didn't allow him to just disappear because of his destiny and fate that waits him. He's too valuable to this world."

"When you say 'stored', what do you mean?" Sakura stressed; still feeling uneasy and cautious but she had to know.

"Replacing his mind with yours would mean his death but, as I said earlier, he's too valuable, so his brain was able to store him. You are using your brain – there is no denying that – but, if you dug deep enough, you will be able to access his brain, too."

Haruno felt dizzy with the possibility that was given to her; Nine-Tails literally told her that she can read Naruto's mind, if she tried hard enough! And, more importantly, he was alive - somewhere down there, almost forgotten, but alive.

"I can see hope in your eyes, it's sickening," the demon snorted. "I said that because, in theory, it is possible, but you aren't able to even control your chakra while dreaming – it's impossible for you to do something as significant as dug into someone's else's mind that resides here."

"Naruto is here?" Again, she started looking around and ran a few meters away but there was nothing but chipped walls and wet floor.

"Be patient, girl," the demon answered. Everything around Sakura started swirling and disappearing until she abruptly sat up on Naruto's – and now hers – bed.

Be patient, words echoed in her head and she silently cursed. Like hell was she going to be patient when the matter concerned her closest friend.

As she looked at the clock, it was half past five in the morning – the time flew fast when you were dreaming-slash-hallucinating. Yawning, she threw off the blanket and got ready for the day.

It was about time to leave for the Academy when she heard a knock to the door. She couldn't remember Naruto having any friends during this time, so that was itself quite weird.

"Coming!" she shouted, putting on Naruto's googles and zipping up the jumpsuit. She then proceeded to open the door and frozen in place, eyes wide. "Eh... hello?"


A/N: To avoid any confusion, I'll be calling 17 y.o. Sakura 'present Sakura' and 13 y.o. is going to be 'past Sakura'. Team 7 now consists of two Sakuras and Sasuke, oh boy xD

Aaand I lied – I can't see much humour happening in the future, so I'm changing it to adventures.

On a side note, thank you for the support and I would love to hear more feedback soon!