Disclaimer: the day I own Naruto is the day Sasuke gets beaten up by Gaara for being an ass, Itachi gets brought back to life and given extensive therapy, and Danzo gets strung up by his balls and subjected to all the tortures repressed, yaoi-deprived fangirls can think of. Not that I hate Danzo with a violent, burning passion or anything.
And by the way, cookies to whoever knows the source of my quotes ^.^
The grass is always greener on the other side, but there's no grass, at all, on the fence.
The walk over to the hospital was rather surreal for Kelly. On the one hand, she'd been half-anticipating/fearing this examination/interrogation since she'd woken up in Sakura's body. On the other hand, the streets were so familiar to Kelly a part of her was wondering why she'd even felt the need to bring up her past. It wasn't like she was going anywhere any time soon, and she sure as hell wasn't planning on betraying the village. Flanking Kelly on either side were Kakashi and the Third, thankfully walking in near-silence. It was more comfortable than small-talk would have been. Kelly was rather terrified of what the examination would entail.
Once at the hospital, the Hokage led Kelly to a dark underground room. There was one bare light bulb on the ceiling, and various devices throughout the room. One in the middle of the room came to about Kelly's neck, and was covered with seals written directly on the surface.
It looked like... a giant cylinder, with unreadable black seal markings traveling the circumference from top to bottom. Kelly had a feeling that she'd be becoming quite familiar with it soon. Indeed, after a few moments a tall man that Kelly vaguely recognized as Ino's father, Yamanaka Inoichi, entered the room and wordlessly helped Kelly into the contraption, and then began adjusting various wires and adding paper seals in areas Kelly assumed were considered 'weak'. Have I met him? Kelly asked herself, thinking back. Oh, that's right. Graduation. So I've actually seen him.
After a moment, Kakashi and Morino Ibiki entered the room, Ibiki locking the door after him. Kakashi smiled comfortingly in Kelly's direction, and she suddenly realized that she was absolutely terrified. Yamanaka Inoichi looked at Ibiki, who nodded, and placed his hand on Kelly's head.
Kelly woke up in what she knew was a hospital bed. One day, she thought, I'm going to figure out what the hell they use in hospitals that give them this smell, and outlaw it. Unable to feel any iv's, Kelly slowly opened her eyes. It was room 305, where she'd stayed for her last treatments. She'd only been in the hospital a month that time, and the doctors had allowed themselves a small note of optimism when they'd discharged her. Had it all been a dream? But... why would she be in this room? Slowly, Kelly sat up, scanning the room. Annoying machine, cupboard, tv, door, bathroom, Ino's dad, window...
Ino's dad? Yamanaka Inoichi? Kelly looked at him, blinking slowly, then looking down at her hands. It certainly felt real enough, if a little fuzzy. But Kelly was used to fuzzy, having been on various pain medications for years. "Hi," she said cautiously.
Inoichi smiled. "Nice to meet you, Kelly." In his hands was one of her Naruto books, off the shelf she'd insisted on having next to her bed.
"N-nice to meet you too," Kelly said, feeling half-guilty, half-mortified. "You... how much of that did you read?"
He shrugged. "All of it, but I won't be able to remember after I leave. Only so much information the human mind can take, you know."
Kelly nodded. "So... you... how much of my life do you know about? All of it?"
"Pretty much. You seem to - understand why I needed to do my job, so you didn't put up the mental barriers some do."
"Oh." So... why are we talking?
"I wanted a moment to talk to you before you wake up in the real world. As you can imagine, I don't think it's a wise idea to let anyone else know the specifics of what I've found here, and I wanted to reassure you that I will keep the information safe."
Kelly let out a sigh of relief she hadn't known she'd been holding in. It'd be dangerous not just to her, but to the dimension as a whole, if someone else found out she knew the 'future'.
"Also, Kelly... I wanted to let you know how you came to be here."
Kelly perked up at that. "How?"
"Well, let's start with Sakura. I was actually assigned to her case after she fell into the river. Sakura fell into the river and hit her head, making her unable to get out of it. It took several minutes for anyone to notice what had happened, and by that time she was basically brain-dead. Her parents kept her in the hospital on life-support, hoping against hope that out measurements were wrong and that she was just not waking up. At one point in time I was asked to see if there was some emotional blockage keeping her from waking up, and I realized very quickly that while a small piece of her soul remained, she wouldn't be waking up."
Inoichi placed the manga back on the shelf he'd pulled it from. "At the same time, in your dimension, you had collapsed. Your soul was fighting to return, harder than it usually might, because of your devotion to our dimension. It seems that as your body slowly died from lack of oxygen, your soul decided to try and achieve your goal 'to see the Narutoverse' another way. As it came here, it sensed the proximity of an available body, and placed itself in it. Directly after, you woke up."
Kelly's head was spinning, metaphorically speaking. "So... both Sakura and I are... technically dead?"
Inoichi considered this. "Yes and no. It seems to me that you died temporarily, yes. But I believe that to inhabit her body like you do, you would need her permission. I believe that the small bit of Sakura that was left merged with you. So, in a way, you are technically Sakura, even though your conciousness is that of Kelly."
"Oh. What does... what does that mean?"
"Well, I'm going to recommend that you still be legally considered Sakura. If you had simply pushed her out of her body, and your body was in a coma somewhere, and Sakura had had a chance of coming back to life, I would have recommended that we find a way to separate you two and put you back in your old world, but you signed a Do Not Resuscitate order in your old life, so that would be impossible. Attempting it would simply kill you, and what is left of Sakura."
Kelly blinked and looked at the room around her. She was back in the interrogation room, and it felt like very little time had passed at all. Well, it wasn't like there was a clock, after all. Inoichi spoke with the Hokage and Ibiki to the side for a little bit. Kelly couldn't hear them, but she could see them. Inoichi was explaining something, and the Hokage and Ibiki were asking short questions here and there. Then the Hokage nodded, a short, curt gesture, and Kakashi helped Kelly out of the contraption. She was shaking, more from nerves than the cold -though the room was chilly- when the Hokage patted her on the back.
"Alright, Sakura-chan," he said, face forming a smile that seemed a little grim to Kelly, "You go to your appointment, and then come to my office afterwards and we'll go over some paperwork, ok?"
Kelly nodded. Ibiki was watching her closely, as was everyone else. Well, that's kind of to be expected, Kelly grimaced to herself. They're probably gonna be doing that for a little while. Kakashi placed his hand on Kelly's back and walked her to the door.
"So, I'm still going to learn medical ninjutsu?" Kelly asked as they walked up the hallway.
"Looks that way," Kakashi said non-committal. "By the way... you know that your status is considered top-secret at this point, right?" Kakashi looked sideways at Kelly at that point.
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course, Kakashi-sensei. I may be new to this whole thing but I've still got common sense, you know."
Kakashi laughed a little bit. "Alright then, Sakura-chan." Kakashi opened a door and walked inside. "Meet your new teacher."
Waiting for them, smile on his face, stood a twenty-year-old man with light grey hair pulled back in a pony tail. He adjusted his glasses. "Nice to meet you, Sakura-san. I'm Kabuto."