Because of the overwhelming support for last chapter which pushed me over 100 reviews (already? O_O), I finished this chapter off and decided to post it. Hopefully it won't disappoint. I also figured that you'd prefer me to update than use my time to reply to each of you amazing people (THANK YOU, btw). :P And, as always, if you want to leave concrit, please give me examples from my story, otherwise I won't learn.

And yes, the chapter title fits the content – and not just literally. :P

Also, hopefully I did reasonably well in giving Sakura her limelight without detracting from the others – though Naruto was a bit difficult, but I couldn't help that considering how some things had changed… *shifty eyes*

Enjoy!

—CHAPTER SIX—
Splashing Fish

Shizune stared out the bedroom window, dark eyes set on the dark clouds overhead. She sighed as she buried her chin into her cupped hand, lowering her sight to the wet streets below, where people were walking with umbrellas. The mood in the room was tense, and had been the exact same way in Tsunade's presence for weeks.

She had seen the woman's luck in work before, and how bad things could get whenever she won something grand, but maybe that luck had run out.

It had been weeks since Tsunade won that huge load at the casino several towns ago, and since then nothing had happened. Nothing; except for the unusual downpour, but Shizune doubted that that was the 'bad' luck they were to be expecting. Weather could do strange things, and most of Tsunade's karma happened within the same day of the winnings.

But it hadn't.

And since then the blonde had been very tense; even Tonton noticed it. She was alert, and as more days went by, she got a little more jumpy about the slightest things. While doubt had set into Shizune's mind that maybe this time it just skipped, it seemed to have made the Sannin a whole lot more worried.

Glancing over her shoulder at the busty female seated in the centre of the room, bundled up in blankets and staring morosely at the ground, Shizune wondered when she'd snap out of it. She hoped it would be soon, because the longer those three suitcases of money sat in the corner of the room, and stayed ever present in Tsunade's mind, the worse things would get.

She never liked rainy days.

Shit, Sakura realised, her eyes widening and her focus momentarily warped, her hand gripping her kunai shaking. She released a slow breath into the crushing rain and side-glanced at Kakashi peering into the forest, waiting. I screwed it up. Last time, I'm certain, he had let himself get 'killed' so that he could figure out who the nin were targeting. Those shuriken... they were for him – he was letting them come – and I deflected them.

Dammit.

"Sakura!" someone shouted, and she snapped back to reality to engage with several projectile metal, blocking skilfully.

The sounds of chains ribbing against metal caught her attention, and she ducked a stray kunai and glanced in Kakashi's direction to see a whip, of sorts, lashing out at him. Naruto stepped back, blocking her view and parrying with a black-cloaked and masked nin. Mud loosened under his step and he fell back, unconsciously grabbing onto the nearest thing to him – which was her hood – and swiping at his foe which burst into water afterwards.

She yelped as she landed face first into the mud and heard a startling chuckle before she felt blood splatter across her face and Naruto's orange clad body. He gasped as it hit his skin, disappearing under the rain.

Kakashi was torn to ribbons with the whip, his body strewn about on the muddy road.

"Are you guys really ninja!" someone shouted at them from the cover of the trees, as his whip retracted back into safety.

Sasuke had his eyes on in it, though aware that the ninja was long gone from that spot by now. He stepped in a circle, keeping the client in his sight as he held tightly onto his kunai. He glowered at the sight of his two teammates in the mud, and Sakura, at the same time, awkwardly stood up.

"Your strongest man is down!"

Naruto was horrified, blue eyes staring at the bloody mud not far from him, but Sakura didn't say anything to him as she threw off her caramel coloured cloak. She was irritated now, but as she went for her assortment of shuriken and kunai, she stopped, eyes wide.

My instincts are far above that of a genin, she told herself. Kakashi is alive, and he's watching. Be careful…

Tazuna stood shaking in the rain, his mouth open and his back to Kakashi's 'body', unable to take the sight. Sakura sensed some more weaponry coming his way, and she waited until they were closer before she skidded in front of him and deflected them. An odd one caught her attention from a different angle, and she growled as she pushed Tazuna to the side slightly using his neck, the kunai skimming across her knuckles and letting blood stream from the fresh wound.

Aggravated, instinct flowing through her, Sakura growled as she retracted back and glared into the trees nearby. She sprung into the air like lightning, about to attack when she realised and forced herself to stop short, falling for the ground and witnessing a shuriken whirling towards her. She twisted her body in the air and felt it graze passed her neck before landing in a heap, pain staggering up her leg.

She gasped as she skidded in the mud, ignoring the hissing of Sasuke as he fought against an enemy that had made itself known and seemed real. She spied Naruto still in shock, and Tazuna backing away and slipping in the mud. Her heart thumped, and she cursed her indecisiveness.

Clenching a fist, instinct controlled her again and she punched the muddy ground, fear collapsing down on her at the exact same time and causing a fall of mud and dirt to shower the field instead – the ground remained intact. Reflex forced her to bend back and she evaded a swipe at her chest, quickly grabbing onto the long-sleeved hand and kicking the nin in the gut, twisting and flinging him over her shoulder. As soon as he hit the ground and grunted, she gripped his hands like a vice and bent them at an angle until a gasp of pain left his throat.

She shuddered and widened her eyes, stepping back in horror, but she couldn't leave him armed, and quickly kicked the kunai from his hands, sending it across the pathway. His beady eyes stared at her through his black tresses, above his metal breathing apparatus, and a chill of fear hugged her spine when she recognised his look as confusion.

"Stupid girl," he grunted, throwing mud in her eyes.

She gasped, recoiling backwards but sensing an impending threat. She stepped to the side, feeling the rain splash at her cheeks as he made to harm her, and again, on instinct, she kneed him, before grabbing his head and smashing his face against her fist—before she stopped halfway and threw him to the ground. In the rain she stood, completely soaked as she breathed heavily, her body jerking with all her emotions.

Instinct and adrenaline made itself known, but her brain kept cutting that off every single time she made for the kill, made herself obvious. She just couldn't decide. Her body reacted, but her fear and mind took control at the most crucial moments.

"Make up your mind, girl!" the nin yelled at her through the mud in his mouth, forming his hand into a sign but stopped instantly by the familiar whip wrapping around his wrist and slamming it to the ground. He growled and gasped as the dirt flooded into the puncture wounds the shuriken whip left. "What are you—?" he started, until dread filled him.

Sakura turned, curious, and stared at Sasuke who had taken out his opponent – lying unconscious on the ground - and had used the whip against him. He snorted, tugging the whip back and ripping the Rain nin's hand to near shreds – he cried in agony. Sakura turned her head away, closing her eyes, and Naruto clapped his hands over his ears.

Tazuna stood, frozen.

No one said a thing in the hard rain, the only human sound being the Rain nin gasping in pain and staring in horror at his bloody hand. Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of them, scaring the daylights out of Naruto who had thought he was killed and fought the urge to hug the jounin. But the silver-head didn't seem in the mood.

His dark eyes stared at Naruto, who flinched and back away, then to Sasuke who met his gaze hard, before resting on Sakura. She refused to look at him, and instead clenched her fist and wiped the mud from around her eyes, shivering in the cold.

"Let's get some answers," the jounin said, bending down to pick up the unconscious Rain nin.

Luckily the rain had started to die down after the battle, and the group had found some shelter under a thick tree where they managed to scrounge up a fire. Naruto was huffing at it to keep it going, still covered from head to toe in mud, and Tazuna was next to him, resting against the trunk of the tree, his skin pale and his wrinkly hands shaking from the aftermath. Sasuke was running his fingers over his lips in contemplation, his other hand scruffing up his wet hair.

Nearby, Sakura was wringing her long hair so that it was a little bit lighter, wincing as she flexed her hand and felt the fresh cut sting. When she tied up her hair into a ponytail, she flinched again and looked at the cut.

Kakashi returned from the forest, inspecting the wet pieces of wood he found and waving them in the air to rid them of excess water before lumping them onto the tiny fire. It provided some warmth and light, a godsend considering the dark clouds made it seem like night.

"Alright," the jounin whispered, sighing as he squatted by the fire. None of them needed to ask anything to know that he had disposed of the Rain nin after withdrawing any necessary information. He stared at their client hard. "Why are those nin after you?" he asked, point-blank.

Naruto gaped and Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Tazuna faulted, eyes wide. "What—"

"I could have taken out those chuunin with ease, but my gut was telling me that they were there for a reason, there for someone," Kakashi explained darkly. "This has jumped to a B-rank mission, and by all means, we can stop right now and return to Konoha, because you lied."

He didn't have to say anything else after that before Tazuna confessed; everything – what he had to do, who was after him, why, why he was so desperate to get back, and all through it his voice shook.

"These are genin," Kakashi then said. "They are not ready for this sort of mission, and you risked their lives by lying, saying it would be a C-rank."

Tazuna sighed, shoulder slumping. "It was hard enough getting money for a C-rank. There was no way I could've paid for a B."

The jounin sighed near dramatically, shaking his hair and flinging water everywhere. After a moment, he stopped and stared into the fire. "I see." A few minutes later, he continued. "Then we'll continue on."

Sakura didn't know why, but her stomach dropped at those words. Half of her wished that they could just return home because she knew what was going to happen. But then the other half remembered Zabuza and Haku, and their deaths and appearance in the World War four years ago. What would happen if she didn't let them die? Would they die another way? Would it just make things worse? Maybe she could convince them, somehow, to join them in the war in the future – if the war even happened, because it might be prolonged if she could get Sasuke to stay, stop Gaara from dying in the first place and—

She gasped, bending over as those thoughts squeezed her brain. There was just too much. She wasn't even sure if she should change Zabuza's and Haku's death. It was huge. And she might only see the effects of it years into the future, and that was far too late.

An experimentation? Should she… prod things a bit… to see how things went?

Should she make her own ripple in a pond?

"Sakura," Kakashi suddenly said, and she snapped to attention, green eyes wide as she stared at him questionably.

"Yes?"

"…I'd like to have a word with you," he told her, patting a hand on her shoulder and turning her from the fire. "In private."

Shit.

He stood there like a statue, his dark eyes staring hard at her and his arms crossed. His silver hair hung menacingly over his eye, casting a darker shadow beneath it. Sakura felt pressure build up in her as he worked his magic in unnerving her – and damn it, he was doing it well. He always could. Especially if she felt like shit, because she always had been the type of person who'd talked her problems out – depending.

Her chest was tight, her throat clenched, her eyes burning as her skin tingled. A harsh exhale almost forced the tears out; hot, salty tears begging to fall. And…

Then they fell. Her legs gave out and she collapsed to the damp ground as she cried her heart out, her pink hair falling from around her shoulder and her fringe clinging to her wet face. She sobbed loud and hard, her intakes of air coarse and staggered.

It felt so good to cry after everything.

"I'm sorry," she forced out through the tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry—I can't; I seriously can't." She shook her head and pressed a hand against her forehead, unconsciously raising the other one to bury her face into it.

"Can't?" Kakashi whispered.

"I didn't ask for it, Kakashi," she sobbed.

Duly he noted the lack of 'sensei'.

"I didn't ask for this to happen. I didn't ask for me to end up here, in this body, in this time."

Kakashi's body went cold and he widened his eyes, his skin going pale.

"But I'm here. I don't know how, I don't know why—and god dammit!" she shouted, punching the earth. "I hate it! I want out but I—I—I—" She burst into tears again and keeled over so that her forehead touched the soft, rain-scented earth. "I'm stuck! I don't know what to do! I feel so heavy! So trapped! So… alone…"

The jounin slowly lowered himself to a squat in front of his students body and planted a hand softly on her head. She hiccupped at the touch but didn't react, her tears instead softening to loud but infrequent sobs.

"Time travel," he whispered.

"Don't say you believe me," Sakura snapped into the ground, her body suddenly tense. "Ino knows too, but I know that… She knows that it makes sense for why I've been acting like this, but she finds it hard to swallow. So don't say you believe me. No one will believe me. They'll humour me, agreeing that the pieces fit, but you won't ever believe me!"

He hung his head. He didn't know if she spoke the truth, but she was adamant in believing that, even though she wanted nothing more than someone to help her lift the burden.

Kakashi didn't say a word as he sorted through the tangled tresses of her pink hair, his mind muddling through the complicated mess that he just heard. She wasn't Sakura Haruno that everyone knew her to be. She was more mature, grown-up, stronger.

It was no wonder she could adjust herself properly, or knew how to hold herself or spread chakra throughout her body. It was no wonder she showed an interest in being a medic, or why she went into hysterics the moment he cast an illusion on her. She thought she was in a Gen-jutsu before then, and that moment clinched it.

No wonder she knew that moral of the test was teamwork, why she acted awkward around everybody, why she showed hesitation and fear at the approval of their mission, at how she knew there were nin about to attack them—and why she was jerking between instincts and 'logic' during the fight.

She knew because…

… well…

…because she had lived it.

Every ninja had a burden to bear, but Sakura… Sakura was bearing every single persons' on her own two shoulders—alone.

And that… student or no… was something he couldn't allow.

"I understand," he whispered. "Belief is… hard… but I understand. And that's all you need, right, Sakura Haruno?"

A snort-like sniffle cut the atmosphere as she slowly started to raise her head to reveal her red and puffy face. A wet smile wriggled onto her lips, like she was deciding whether or not to use the muscles, but in the end she managed it.

"Thank you, Kakashi."

"Kakashi-sensei," he accentuated.

A slobbery giggle left her lips and he cringed as she sniffled loudly. "Not in my time," she told him.

"Hmm," he hummed. "Not sure I want to know."

Her face darkened, and for a moment he was shocked to see that sort of look on such a young face – a face who didn't suit it at all.

"I can't… I don't… know…" Her sentence broke, but he understood, cupping the side of her head and giving her what he hoped was an encouraging smile.

"Don't worry. I'm here."

"… Thank you."

Weakly, she tried to get up, ending up grabbing on to Kakashi's offered hand so that she could use those muscles properly. She sniffled again, those hot tears still simmering, but she felt better. Telling Ino was nothing compared to telling Kakashi, because now she felt like she could actually make a difference with his guidance.

"How old are you, by the way?" he asked, curious.

"I'm twenty."

"So you have been on this mission before?"

"Yes."

So you know what's going to happen."

"Maybe."

"…Encouraging. What could happen?"

"It was sunny last time. And you didn't have me screwing up your plan."

He chuckled. "I was going to say you couldn't have known, but by all means, you did."

Sakura bowed her head, lips turned down. Kakashi's face tightened.

"But it turned out for the best, right? Well… no one got seriously injured."

The atmosphere around her seemed to darken, making the jounin even more tense where he sat against the tree.

"Sometimes it's those injuries that help us sift through shit," she whispered.

She remembered how, last time, Naruto had been poisoned by one of those nin, and through that – plus the overwhelming fear of the attack and jealousy towards Sasuke – he became stronger, resolute. One of those things didn't happen, another did, but the third… she didn't know. She only knew of it last time because she recalled the look on his face.

"That sort of language is unbefitting of you," Kakashi scolded.

Sakura ignored his comment and exhaled through her nose, wringing her long hair another time for extra measure.

Now that Kakashi knew, the hard part was figuring out what to say, what to ask, and how to act. She couldn't reveal everything to him… or could she? Should she?

Her presence in the past alone would have caused a shockwave of events, that—

Her eyes widened and she stiffened.

"The rain…" she whispered, looking up at her old teacher like she had seen the light. "The rain…" she said louder.

He frowned at her.

"The weather is because of me," she whispered. "I'm like the leaf that hit the pond and caused the ripples. My being here is the largest ripple, with the weather being the next, followed by other small changes after that – and throughout. The change of weather was like an after effect of me coming here."

Her heart pounded as she realised the implications.

"I thought that I was doing well in hiding myself," she told him, mind frantic. "But it didn't matter how I acted, because as soon as I realised that I was back in the past, the damage had already been done—Kakashi, what do I do?" she screamed at him, eyes hysterical as she leaned towards him.

"You don't know that," he said.

"But it makes sense!" she stressed.

"You don't know that for sure," he repeated, a hand up in some sort of protection. "It's a theory – a very good theory, but a theory nonetheless."

"But how will we know if it's not?" Sakura croaked, feeling those hot tears return.

"We won't, and perhaps it's territory better left untouched. Look what happened to you the moment you came to that conclusion," Kakashi reasoned.

Sakura exhaled in a rush as she soaked in his words, and slowly she sat back down opposite him, her hands clenching her cloak tightly without realising.

This was serious.

It meant that no matter what she could have done, this timeline would have still been different from the one she left, even if she had been prepared well beforehand. That alone was a scary thought.

He sighed.

"Does anyone get seriously hurt?" he asked, deciding that it was best they continued with their little 'game'.

Sakura tensed and stared at him, and he was filled with cold dread.

"Sakura…?" he asked. She stayed silent. "Maybe you should just tell me everything."

After a moment's hesitation – and with Kakashi's addition that even though he understood, proof of what could happen would be good – Sakura let slip that they were about encounter a very strong ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist, who was known to be a demon and bloodthirsty.

As soon as he heard that, well… it was obvious who she was talking about, and Academy students hadn't exactly been told about him before either, since he was way beyond their level and they weren't required or forced to be put into a situation which would involve someone as strong as him. So the fact that she knew of him alone – who he was, what his skills were, and so on – was enough to give Kakashi the chills and the horrible understanding that if she was right – and she was from the future – they were about to fight someone hard.

Someone who was in their element with all the moisture in the air from the rain.

Zabuza.

She debated whether to tell him of Haku or not, but maybe this own 'ripple in the pond' of hers was enough of an experimentation – so far. She'd see how things went; see how much things would change now that Kakashi knew and was prepared; how much that small extra knowledge would change things.

As soon as they returned to camp, Sasuke was quick to note both of their unsettled expressions, but Naruto was first to exclaim that they took forever, and enquired – without tact – what they had spoken about. Of course, neither of the two said anything, but Kakashi did ruffle the blond's hair playfully and slopped another ladle of mushroom soup into Naruto's bowl, which did the trick of keeping him quiet as he slurped it up.

Sasuke, though, was eying the rosette quietly, stabbing the fire with a stick and hissing in pain when a lick of fire stung his hand (Sakura, having seen this in her peripheral vision, tried not to snort). Tazuna looked like he was trying to sleep against the tree, but the little mud still sticking to his skin was unsettling him.

They stayed there for a few hours until the rain had stopped completely and the sun was beginning to peek through the dark clouds. Sakura felt so glad to have the rays shine on her face and warm it, that for a moment she felt like she was back home – home home. At that point, still damp and covered in dry mud, the group trekked on, their stomachs full with Kakashi on the lookout.

It was when the clouds had killed the sun again, and they began walking by a river which was covered in a thick mist, did Sakura feel her skin crawl, and notice how familiar her surroundings were. Kakashi instantly caught her trepidation.

"Eight choices," a voice suddenly boomed.

Naruto yelped and Sasuke had flinched, unconsciously backing up near the frightened Tazuna to protect him. Sakura felt the air in her lungs disappear in an instant as she stepped up near the client as well, releasing a kunai.

Her fear was there not only because she was going to meet this man again – this enemy – but because the situation was turning out slightly different. He attacked the first time with a warning throw of his massive blade, but now… it's like he's going straight into it.

"Liver. Lungs. Spine. Clavicle Vein," he continued, his gruff voice flooding the area, the mist starting to trickle over the riverbank and onto damp land.

"You three protect the client," Kakashi whispered. And Naruto, though shaking, was quick to stand in formation.

"Neck vein. Brain. Kidneys. Heart."

A sharp sound cut the following silence, and what happened next was so fast that Sakura's untrained eyes barely caught it. A loud thunk ended the forewarning attack, and the three genin plus Tazuna spied a massive blade embedded in the trunk of a thick tree up high.

He spun it at Kakashi, but Kakashi was able to deflect it by grabbing the handle slightly and misguiding it elsewhere. It didn't have to be much. Just a nudge, Sakura internally recalled, swallowing. Things aren't going to be the same, are they?

"Which one should I go after?" he purred.

Chakra exerted, so forcefully that all ninja tensed under it. Sasuke fought against the gag reflex in his throat, the immense power chilling every nerve in his body. Sakura wished that she could just tell them what to do, to help them survive, but—

Crack!

Bark showered down on them and Kakashi widened his eyes as a shadow hung over, gazing up in time to see the top of the tree where Zabuza's weapon had been buried, begin to collapse down over them.

"Move!" he shouted, swiping his hand at the air and feeling a ripple of it brush by him to be met quickly with a bandaged face, one eye leering psychotically back at him.

A foot was buried into his gut and he gasped, coughing saliva before he was shot across the ground and into a nearby tree, cracking the trunk. The three genin and Tazuna ran from the shadow of the falling tree, and it landed with a loud crash behind them, the ground shuddering as the mist started to swarm around everything. But there was no time for a breather.

Sasuke flinched largely as Naruto screamed behind him and was catapulted into the prone tree, his back crushing the finer twigs as he was buried into it. Sakura gasped, grabbing Tazuna's hand and pulling him to the earth as a large swing of Zabuza's sword grazed overhead, Sasuke barely managing to block it as it ended at him, meeting his two shuriken and causing a spasm of pain to shoot through his wrists at the abrupt stop.

He hooked the curved edges of the shuriken over the edge of the massive blade and jabbed hard at Zabuza's planted leg with a foot as a distraction for Sakura to bury a kunai into his stomach. Zabuza gasped, before bursting into water and soaking all three of them.

Adrenaline buzzed in their veins as Sasuke squatted down, keeping low and at height with Tazuna and Sakura.

"Can you see Naruto?" he asked quickly.

Sakura shook her head. The blond was buried deep in the canopy of the fallen top of the tree.

"No." She caught sight of something. "But his headband is there." And she gestured to where it was lying on the ground, one strap of it covered in mud, a small distance from the tree.

A memory sparked.

It was here, after he lost his headband, that Naruto had been overtaken with a surge of confidence and had managed to pull off a feat of teamwork with Sasuke once he retrieved the item. Except then… he had the cut on in his hand, and… the pain… brought back an oath she once heard him say to her that he promised himself with.

If he didn't have the scar, he didn't make that oath, nor have the reminder for it. He wouldn't have the pain—he wouldn't have that confidence!

Fear spiralled down to her toes.

"Boo."

Adrenaline.

"Sakura!"

"Yo! Sa-ku-ra!"

The rosette perked, stopping in her concentration to spy the lazy, brown-haired Nara strolling towards her around the edge of the lake. A smile was on his face as he let himself collapse right next to her, but not before visibly wrinkling his nose in distaste when he saw what was in the numerous buckets around her.

Sakura chuckled cheekily before tying the fly to the hook of her rod, pushing back the brim of her hat as she concentrated. Shikamaru watched with a deformed face, before shrugging and realising that hey—Chouji got pretty ugly when he was eating, too.

He groaned and stretched out, eyes towards the blue sky and white clouds.

"Why are you here, Shikamaru Nara?" Sakura asked out of nowhere.

He grinned and pointed at the sky, then at the ground, then gluing his hands together and putting them under his head – in other words, what he usually did when he had time off.

"Why are you here, Sakura Haruno?" he then asked.

She mocked him and made fishing motions, before pointing obviously at the box of hooks and tubs of bait and empty buckets around her.

"Urgh. Why go fishing?" he prodded, eyeing the wriggling worms that she wasn't using yet.

"Why go cloud watching?" she countered.

"Because cloud watching is timeless."

"Exactly."

"Hm."

Sakura giggled randomly as she pulled the final knot around the fly and then flung the line into the pond in front of them, green eyes vibrant with excitement as she watched the fishies cloud around it.

"You do realise fishing is slow?" Shikamaru asked.

She snorted and looked at him. "You're one to talk."

He coughed awkwardly. "Yeah, but… I hate seeing you get so excited and then an hour later, coming to me complaining about how boring it was."

Sakura nudged him with her elbow. "Nah. I've been fishing before. On one mission with Naruto years ago, he taught me how to tie a fly to a hook, because he had to do that a lot to catch fish when he left with Jiraiya for three years. Since then, and since… Naruto died… Kakashi and I have been going fishing whenever we can."

There was silence as the two friends revelled in what they loved doing.

"Oh!" Sakura perked as her rod was tugged all of a sudden. Shikamaru shot up from his reclining and watched with interest as the rosette wrestled with the fish pulling hard in return.

"Sakura, you have monstrous strength, why don't you pull back hard enough to send it flying over the forest line behind us?" the Nara asked.

Sakura chortled, almost losing grip of her rod as her concentration was warped. "Shush, Shikamaru!"

He chuckled to himself as she grunted and pulled back hard, this time managing to get the strength and balance to start wheeling the fish out of the water. It flipped about like crazy in the air, and for a moment, both Sakura and Shikamaru felt kind of bad, before she reeled it in and put it in the water-filled bucket next to her, pulling out a writing pad nearby and scratching something on it. Without another word, she picked up the fish, poked its mouth with her nose and tossed it back into the lake.

Shikamaru gaped. "What was…?"

"I love not using chakra when I fish," she explained. "And I love the act of fishing, not the act of eating it."

"You're weird."

"Oh, look! A bunny cloud!"

"Sakura!"

"Sakura!"

She jerked awake, hands gripping the nearest thing to her which happened to be Sasuke's arm. His hand gripped her own as a strong reminder that he was there, and she was safe and alive. Her green eyes darted around frantically, her heart racing as she took in the vaguely familiar surroundings of a wooden home, the sound of water sloshing gently against concrete just outside, and seagulls squawking loudly.

"Sakura!" Naruto suddenly cried, flinging open the door and reeling her into a tight hug.

Sasuke growled and pushed him off. "You idiot. She's still disorientated!"

Sakura was in disbelief. She stared wide eyed at the Uchiha next to her, and everything came flooding back like a wave.

"What happened?" she whispered.

"You're a fool, that's what happened!" he barked at her before pointing a finger accusingly at Naruto on the other side of her bed, who was grinning excitedly. "If you hadn't risked your life to save his replaceable headband, then you wouldn't have gotten knocked out and almost killed!"

"Hey, Sasuke, cool it!" Naruto calmed. "We're ninja! We might be killed every day!"

"It's the principle, stupid!"

"Don't talk to me about principles, bastard!"

"Woah woah, hey…" a new voice slashed through their argument, and Sakura was relieved to see Kakashi oddly well in front of her. His eyes were tired though, at least the one she could see, and his shoulders sagged as he stepped through the door and closed it before sitting at the end of her futon.

Naruto jabbed a finger in Sasuke's direction, shouting, "He started it!"

Sasuke glared. "You're too noisy," he muttered, scowling at the blond's finger and pushing it away.

"You were the one yelling at Sakura first!"

"It's called 'concerned', idiot!"

Kakashi sighed comically and Sakura managed to crack a smile as the two boys continued to fight.

"I didn't realise you could feel any concern for anyone!"

"She's a teammate!"

"Oh." Naruto nodded, unconvinced. "Sure. As you say."

Sasuke growled and clenched his fist, whacking the blond over the head and earning a yelp from him. He didn't give his louder teammate a chance to fight back before he reached entirely over Sakura and pulled Naruto into a tight headlock, muttering threats that were practically muted under Naruto's exclamations of revenge.

"Boys, there is a time and a place for everything…" Kakashi warned.

The two of them froze before they heard a shout of 'lunch!' in the next room and promptly sped out the door, yelling at each other about how they're going to out-eat the other. Sakura sighed in relief as the door slowly swung shut, but Kakashi closed it properly.

"I know this isn't the best place to talk about it," he murmured. "But him showing up was enough proof. However… I have a feeling some things didn't turn out exactly the same."

Sakura nodded wordlessly.

He groaned and raised a hand to his head. "I was afraid of that, and I'm torn between asking or not." He waited before he asked, "Was there another boy there?"

She nodded.

"He's in league with Zabuza, isn't he?"

Sakura's eyes bulged. "How did you—"

"You warning me of Zabuza's attack made me much more aware of who else might be around. I felt another presence in the background, who only intervened when Zabuza was almost taken down. It just added to my suspicions, but I didn't say anything. Better to leave him in the dark and use it to our advantage later on."

She exhaled as she relaxed back into bed, realising how hungry she suddenly was. And about what she had dreamed.

"I remember what happened before I found myself here," she whispered. "No. I said that wrong. I remember what I was doing, who I was with, and it was something that I had done a lot of times beforehand, so nothing was out of the ordinary. I still… have no idea how I am here – or why."

"Nothing was out of the ordinary?" Kakashi asked to confirm.

"Nothing. I was just… fishing and cloud watching with Shikamaru," she muttered, eyes hot again. That blissful feeling from the dream was something she missed already.

"Sakura… I'm not going to ask about every single detail of what happens, because you just warning me of Zabuza altered some things, but…" Kakashi said, breathing out evenly. "This is serious. If you can spare any hints – nothing big, nothing you think would change something hugely – then tell me."

"I don't know how things would change, Kakashi…-sensei…" she murmured, and then closed her eyes. "But I will try. Just the barest of things."

"I also think… that this is way beyond me," he told her, and he watched as she opened her eyes and stared at him. "It's above even him, but when we return to Konoha, I will be informing the Hokage of this."