Sakura felt herself being carried as she began to regain consciousness.

"Hmm? Awake now, are you? Hokage-sama says we have to let you go, brat, but I think we'll give you a little lesson about not breaking into jounin's homes regardless."

That was ominous, coming from Anko. And then there was the sound of a window opening, and she felt herself flying through air, rain hitting her back, opening her eyes just in time to see the muddy ground coming up to meet her. Sakura rolled to her feet, taking the fall as best she could, but was still rather covered in the mud.

Which was probably an improvement of sorts, since Anko seemed to have not left her anything else to wear.

"Don't miss your therapy, brat, or I'll hunt you down myself!" the woman cried from a third story window before turning away and heading inside.

Sakura sighed, putting up a henge to avoid complete humiliation, then heading back towards the village. Why the hell had she popped back up in Anko's room, anyway? She'd have been better off anywhere else.

Sakura took off running as the rain continued to fall, heading for home. She could hold a henge for a long time even with her current chakra reserves, but there was no need to take chances.

Arriving at home, she was forced to pick the lock on the door. Not a challenge, of course, but still obnoxious even using chakra to do it. She needed a bath, and then she needed to figure out what the hell was going on.


Sakura felt rather better as she stepped out of the bathroom, fresh clothes on and almost feeling alive again.

Her mother was waiting outside of the bathroom. She looked rather angry.

"Six days, Sakura. You don't come home for SIX DAYS? And then I get notice from the Hokage's office that you've been arrested!"

Sakura blinked at that, not having expected to be confronted... And not having realized it had been so long. She should have been far more sore if she'd be unconcious for that long, not to mention not having woken up until she was being literally thrown out a window. She opened her mouth to reply, not certain what she was going to say, before being cut off.

"If you want to stay here, you're going to show your father and me the proper respect, not come and go all hours of the night or vanish without a word! You might be an adult to the village, but in this house, you're still a child." And, that said, her mother shoved an envelope at her. It had been opened, though Sakura saw it was addressed to her. And her mother's anger had started to fade, replaced with.. something else. Almost pity.

"Someone with a condition like that shouldn't be a ninja, Sakura. Sweety, you need to stay home.. We can still put you in a civilian school, and get treatment for you."

Sakura blinked and took the envelope, reading the letter inside.

It was from Ino's father, and was relatively simple:

Sakura,

I'm not certain whether you'll remember the conversations that we had; for your convenience, I've written this to you as a reminder.

You seem to have split mindscapes, with multiple dominant personalities. This is occasionally a side effect of being caught in a severe genjutsu, or other trauma, though I'm uncertain what could have caused it in your case. Having talked with Ino, you've apparently shown some of the symptoms for some time. While I am do not generally treat patients any longer, I've agreed to make an exception for you.

While this is a painful disorder, it's something that can be treated, and I would encourage you to not give up on being a ninja because of it. Some patients even eventually use it as a jutsu, switching between two personalities and skill sets depending on the circumstances.

We have standing appointments when you are not out of the village on missions, and you will find a reminder below. The first one is today at four. I suggest you save this letter somewhere you will read it later. Notes to yourself may help, as well.

Yamanaka Inoichi

Ignoring her mother, who had moved down the hall a bit, now looking nervously at Sakura as though she might explode, Sakura headed to her room, still staring at the letter.

"Damn."

She must be sharing her body with her twelve-year-old self. It made a kind of sense, even; she hadn't really thought too much about what would happen to that idiot girl she'd been, once.

She looked at the clock; it wasn't long until her appointment. Sakura left her room, saying simply to her mother "Don't worry. I'll be back soon."

Sakura made her way to the flower shop, feeling rather better than on her earlier walk. This was a problem, but it could be have its pluses - any odd behavior on her part would probably be written off, after all.

She noticed Ino wasn't working as Sakura went into the shop, sitting on a stool near the counter as Ino's father smiled at her. "Oh, Sakura. Good, I was hoping you wouldn't be late. You don't mind if we meet here, I hope? It's a relaxing place..."

Sakura shook her head, nervous about how to lie. She obviously needed to, and it would probably be best to let him lead.

Inoichi sighed, looking at her. "You're awfully quiet. I'm guessing you don't remember our talk from a couple of days ago?"

Sakura shook her head again, looking down, trying to act the part of the twelve year old.

"Well, at least you're more polite than you were. Then I'll ask you something, just so I can know what happened. You claimed earlier to have been trying to learn genjutsu. Do you remember doing that?"

Sakura sat up, looking up at him, trying not to show her surprise. To her regret, she'd never tried going beyond the basics of anything at the academy; she'd been the very best with what they'd had, little good that did. "I.. I don't." she decided, finally, still not knowing much of advanced genjutsu.

"I see. What I believe happened, from looking at your mind and from talking with you now, is that you started experimenting with genjutsu. In the hands of an unwatched novice - especially a girl like yourself, bright enough to figure out things on your own without knowing the possible dangers - genjutsu can do very dangerous things. Cases like this have happened before."

Inoichi leaned forward. "Usually what ends up happening is that either the personalities merge back together quickly, or there's a complete break. Unfortunately, you seem to have already reached that point. Still, there may be things I can teach you to try to control yourself, to bring out your other personality when you need to... Sakura, I won't tell you it will be easy, especially since it will put you behind in your training to need to learn things twice. But you are good enough to do it, and it can be a powerful weapon as a spy. People with techniques like mine can see that there is damage, but it makes it impossible to read or control the contents of your mind."

Sakura tilted her head, then nodded, trying to even offer one of her smiles. She'd done more damage than she'd thought possible to herself in coming back...

After that, Inoichi had asked her to talk about what she was experiencing, and she described the great blocks of time she was missing. He'd had some interesting advice, there. "It seems to be unpredictable when you'll change, but you can do your best to deal with it. Eventually, you can hope to directly communicate with your other self, but that day is far in the future. For now, you should use notes and letters, kept in a place you'll know to look when you recover from a blackout."

That seemed a good suggestion, and she managed to get a pen and paper from him to start. It was the end of their time that Sakura thought to ask.

"Is Ino here? I wanted to see her."

Inoichi shook his head. "Oh, no. She's actually out of the village on an escort mission to Wave; Iruka was bothering me about how rude she'd been to the Hokage to get it. Your team is getting back together tomorrow, isn't it? So you'll be able to at least start some D ranked missions."

Sakura would have taken pride in not showing a reaction to that if her heart hadn't just about stopped; she simply nodded and headed out of the shop, not trusting herself to speak.

Once she was out, she slipped into a public restroom, trying to suppress the panic attack she could feel coming. Asuma wasn't Kakashi, and great as they might have been eventually, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were no match for Haku at this point. She had to interfere, had to, but she also had to make it to missions for the next few days, and be seen, and not end up in any more trouble.

Saving Ino and the others was the higher priority. Sakura COULD throw herself on the mercy of the Hokage, if she had to, though she suspected with the diagnosis over her head she'd just be in for a stay in a very secure padded cell.

No, there was really only one way this could work. Jamming almost all of her current reserves into one jutsu, Sakura formed a single, solitary kage bunshin, which smirked at her as she slumped in exhaustion. It knew what she wanted, of course, and it carefully judged its own condition. "Three days, at most."

Sakura nodded. "Don't blow it, and don't get dispelled, and I'll do my best to be back before then." she said, knowing that it was an incredibly difficult task with what chakra she'd been able to give without putting herself in the hospital. The faster she could get there and somehow deal with the problem, the better. Traveling at maximum speed, that was plenty of time.. If she could catch up before the first confrontation.

Of course, she had no guarantees she'd make it all the way there without losing control to her younger self. Sakura mentally started making preparations. First, she needed a soldier pill... and then, a note.


This time, when Sakura suddenly found herself transported from a jail cell to woods that were, so far as she could tell, in the middle of fucking nowhere, she wasn't quite so surprised. The wimpy looking blond guy had explained things well enough for her to get some kind of grasp on events; she was sharing control of herself with some other version of herself, probably the girl who was supposed to have a crush on Itachi's weakling little brother and be a weakling herself.

Still, she decided, it couldn't have been that long.. Oh?

There was writing on the back of her hand, reading 'check your pouch'. Doing so, there was a letter.

"Other Me,

I'm sorry. I just want to get that out of the way now, but it's my fault you've lost part of your mind, and your good reputation.

But we don't really have time for the full story now - I need to get on the road quickly. I am a master mednin, and a jounin, and I've traveled back in time with Naruto's help (and you should treat him nicer!) to try and save the village. Right now, however, Ino and her team are in deadly danger - they're on a mission our team originally had, which is an S rank in disguise. Their escortee is being targeted by a very dangerous duo, high level ninja both, and I'm afraid they'll be killed if I don't interfere.

If you regain control, head for Wave, but do NOT step in until I get control back, and DO NOT LET ANYONE FROM KONOHA SEE YOU. I've left a shadow clone to try and cover for us at home, and if that gets blown we might be in a lot of trouble.

Also, please consider training more seriously. You'll regret it if you don't.

Haruno Sakura

PS: There's a map inside your scroll container."

"Huh." Sakura said to herself, folding the note back up. On the one hand, she really didn't know what to think about this, and she had no idea who the hell Ino was supposed to be. However, Wave did have that fresh seafood she liked so much.. And a good fight was always fun.

Sakura snorted a bit. Her, a mednin? What a waste of her talents. Still, being owed a favor - and thought innocent - by her other self would be useful.

Maybe she could even come up with some interesting goals. Sakura was a general, but she didn't have an army, and she didn't want to be the one ultimately in charge of running the village. No, she needed a Hokage who wanted her skills, who wanted the world in his hands, to enjoy that part of her place in the world, and she'd still had no luck finding out where the hell Itachi was. She was a diplomat, but not at thirteen, at least not without the intimidating reputation she'd had - though actually being listed as crazy would probably help that, instead of just her previously renowned bloodlust.

At least her final role was always the most fun, and even here she suspected that being a killer and tormentor was a job she could find plenty of work in. There wouldn't be ninja at all, otherwise.

Sakura shrugged to herself, taking off quickly for Wave, looking over the map to make certain of just where she was supposed to be going.

Evidently, she'd made it most of the way there; it was only an hour or so before she reached the point where she'd need to take a boat across. There weren't any currently there, however, which made matters considerably more annoying.

Rather than wait for one, she started to walk across the water, moving quickly still but with more caution than she'd shown going through the woods. That paid off, when she saw a light cut through the fog at her and was able to quickly lay flat against the water. Sakura had no idea how well her equipment was waterproofed, but she didn't want to test it.

"Must have been a fish" she heard a boy's voice say. Listening closely, she heard a boat going through the water.

Sakura followed after it carefully, trying to get close enough to confirm that she'd caught up to the blond girl's team. They were almost to the shore by the time that happened, however, and Sakura was concealing herself with the chakra-cheapest jutsu she had for it. The note was right - they needed so much more than this. It would be enough for one or two enemies, if she was good about it, but for the sort of extended mass fights she'd done in the past? Forget it. At least she'd found a supply of soldier pills in the pouch. Even with the price she'd pay for using those, it would be better than running out midfight.

Sakura got confirmation that it was the team she was supposed to be following, spotting the blond girl. She didn't really know the jounin in charge of the team; he seemed like a solid enough ninja, however, and she was careful to recheck her jutsu and avoid emitting any hostile intent.

He hadn't noticed her, but he apparently was able to spot something else before she did, shouting for his students to get down as an obscenely big sword came crashing in.

Sakura loved a good fight, but she wasn't planning on stepping in on this one until she let the jounin wear him - no, them, it was supposed to be a duo - down. An S level mission in this body was a risk she didn't really want to take, and fighting fair had never been her style.

Besides, she could chuck a few genjutsu in and have some fun that way. The jounin would know someone was interfering, but that didn't matter so long as she wasn't seen.


Asuma had suspected something was going to go horribly wrong with this mission from the beginning. Only the old man's begging had kept them from turning back after the ninja assault.

But to be faced with an S rank criminal he suspected was a touch beyond his own talents? That was unfortunate. Especially since he was on the defensive, charged with protecting the client and his team.

"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist, isn't it?" he asked, puffing his cigarette.

"Mm? Oh, you're the Hokage's whelp, aren't you?" the man replied, leaning on his sword.

Asuma snorted in irritation. "Come on, I have a 25 million Ryo bounty on my head, and I'm older than you... And better. You should leave."

That didn't get a vocal answer, just a strike from behind, towards Chouji. Asuma moved quickly, intercepting with his chakra blade. Just a water clone, of course; he hated clone users.

"Heart, lungs, throat, legs, bra.. aaAGH!" An intimidating set of whispers, up until a bloodcurdling cry of pain from the man. "KAI! You don't think a little illusion like that will do me in, do you?"

What? Asuma paused. None of his team knew genjutsu, not really.

The pause was a mistake, however. Zabuza was charging in again, aggressively, and going for Ino this time. Asuma made another attack, this one parried by the absurd sword. Which at least gave away that it was really him; a clone sword would have been demolished by the blade.

Asuma tried to hold him there, seeing the shadow slip up towards his opponent, but Zabuza broke it off, jumping away out onto the water. "Huh. One of your runts is a shadow user, then? Guess I should kill that one first. Or last, and see just what he thinks he can do."

Asuma charged, then, not wanting the real one to slip sight and get water clones out.


Sakura watched the battle carefully. The jounin and the criminal seemed rather evenly matched, and the jounin was using a related technique to her diamond edging - it looked like he was using a lot more chakra for an extended blade, rather than just providing a very sharp edge as she did, but it probably didn't have the flexibility of her abilities... And it was almost certainly an elemental wind technique.

She'd landed a few minor genjutsus on the criminal, but none of her big guns, though the bugs under skin one was a personal favorite. She hadn't actually expected to get him to scream.

She grinned to herself. Getting him to scream had cheered her up, actually. She was torn, really - she could have a good time with a fight with the criminal, and whoever his buddy was, and she hadn't gotten to really stretch herself since being stuck in this body. Not for a while before that, either, thinking about it.

On the other hand, it would be a lot simpler to fulfill her duty to herself and keep Ino safe by just killing the old man they were supposed to be protecting. She wouldn't really have a problem sneaking in and doing the deed, and it would solve the whole issue, unless the criminal wanted to fight to the death for the sake of fighting.

Which wasn't very typical of most ninja, but there were ones who were that way.

Well, it wouldn't be very good of her to fail a mission for Konoha, even if it wasn't hers, she decided. She'd need to build up a reputation there, after all, and she'd be damned if she wouldn't do everything she could to make the place strong. There had to be someone in Konoha worth helping rule the world.

As she mused to herself, the two jounin had been going at it, and the criminal had managed his surprise blow - a rather impressive water dragon. Sakura's own elemental techniques were practically nonexistant; she'd just never had the need for or the hang of them.

Sakura tilted her head. The bearded man looked rather thoroughly unconscious, but not dead, if she were any judge. Which she was, of course.

The criminal started stalking towards the alarmed genin. Stepping in was basically now or never...

Well, what the hell.

Sakura formed a series of seals, singing softly to herself.. And smiling in satisfaction as the genin and their client fell over, asleep from the lullaby genjutsu.

Zabuza was unaffected, as she knew he would likely be, but she wouldn't let that kill her stride. At least he seemed confused, until she dropped down from the tree she had been watching from.

"Another little rodent? And without even a forehead protector... What's it to you, anyway?" He flashed his killing intent towards her, gripping that ridiculous sword.

Sakura grinned at the much larger man, almost savoring the killing intent. "I don't care thaaat much if you do your mission... But I could use a good fight, you know?"

Zabuza laughed. "You're a cute kid, not like those other brats. But you're not ready for someone like me, so I guess you'll have to have a cute funeral, instead..."

"I'm sure it'll be wonderful. You'll say a few words, I hope." Sakura shrugged, trying to look casual in her movements, reaching up to tug at her pink locks of hair. "They'll probably blame this. Say it made me bad at sneaking."

Zabuza struck forward with his sword, suddenly, a fierce lunge at the young girl.

Sakura was cut in half, exploding into a flight of flower petals. Zabuza made a soft noise of satisfaction at the seeming clone.. At least, until the flower petals started to seemingly twist in the wind, surrounding him, cutting shallowly at him. Nothing even in danger of being fatal, but painful, over and over.. Zabuza swept his sword about, jumping away from the petals, but not before they managed to cut him in a dozen noncritical places.

The petals swarmed back together, revealing Sakura once more. She was laughing - giggling, actually, a hand with a bloodied kunai clutched in it held near her mouth. "Even with this body.. You're no match for me." She pronounced, happily. "You and your partner should run; flee and kill your employer, or I'll break your mind until you spend an eternity wishing for the mere torment of hell to escape what I've done to you."

That seemed to throw Zabuza off, at least. She'd known about the 'partner' only from the letter, but it seemed that much information on this was correct; she didn't really believe she could pull off that sort of intimidation with no reputation in this body.

"My employer? What's he to you?"

Sakura laughed again. "Oh, he hired me to kill everyone after you wore each other down. He's probably hiring someone to kill me right now, actually, but I was smart enough to demand part up front, so it works out if you kill him... And it's easier for everyone. I'd rather hear more of your screams, of course, but it can't be all work."

Zabuza growled at that, but said "I will look into if what you've said is true. If it's not, then he will die; today or a week from now makes no real difference." He was gone in a flicker; he was able to actually move faster than Sakura could now, it seemed.

Sakura hmmed. That should be enough to give the Konoha team warning. There was even a pretty good chance that the employer was really trying to have the rogue ninja killed after the mission; one of Zabuza's quality wouldn't come cheap, after all, and it was the sort of thing that happened.

"I'll call this good enough! Wasn't much of a fight, but I couldn't go for a long fight with him, and something short is never sweet enough..." She started to just walk off, before freezing in place.

"...Hmph. Troublesome." She heard from behind her. The genin she'd thought all successfully put to sleep... Had one been faking?

"Forehead-girl?" came another strained cry from behind her.