Enjoy!

Naruto and Sakura were training off of one another with brutal intensity. Sakura's strength was tremendous; the trees encircling their training field were feeling the impacts from dozens of yards away whenever the married couple's fists struck one another. It was a classical sparring match; testing defenses, playing around one another's weaknesses. Making each other stronger with every even trade. Naruto was clearly superior to his wife in pure strength and ability, but the repeated tactical exchanges made for good practice nonetheless. Another session came to a stop after one final cross of knuckles; the sound was like a clap of thunder blasting overhead. Silence fell as the sun hit high noon and began to directly beat down upon the sweating partners. "Time for a break...?" Sakura heaved through gulps of air; her arm was shaking against Naruto's while she struggled to hold herself up.

Naruto nodded, giving off an aura of the same kind of weariness. He could have continued for three days if he had to, but despite all his strength and stamina he was still in need of a sip of water from time to time for comfort's sake. "Yeah...good idea," he replied with a long exhale. The field they chose for their workouts was familiar to them both—it was the same location as the bell test they took as graduating Academy students. There was a stream not far from where they stood, and it made for a fantastic location for a short rest. Sakura was already on her way to its banks, and Naruto followed behind. He looked at his wife with reluctant eyes. She wore his ring; she had given herself to him in mind, body, and soul. So why did she still pine for Sasuke?

Pink hair was splashed with crystal clear waters, and Sakura gave a groan of satisfaction while she felt the cool liquid dribble down her neck and shoulders below. "Ahh, that's amazing!" she exclaimed, digging both hands back into the stream to make a cup out of them; she lifted a scoop of pure hydration up to her lips and guzzled greedily, letting it fall down her chin and past the collar of her shirt, effectively replacing her grimy sweat with a cleansing flow of cool refreshment.

Naruto took a seat beside her, raising a knee and resting his arm atop it while his other leg stretched out. He set his foot into the rushing water, letting the cold wash over his toes. It did feel nice, but he had a hard time enjoying it. "Y'know, Sakura, I've been in love with you since we were just kids. I acted all tough and cool because I thought it would impress you, even though it didn't get me anywhere..."

Sakura blinked; she had heard that confession before, but there was no reason not to play along again. "And I always just thought you were a doofus who didn't know any better..." Her hand wiped one last streak of water over her forehead, then she leaned back on her elbows beside the stream, laying alongside it and staring into the water. "But after a while, you really did start to impress me. I think you've impressed everyone by now."

Naruto gave a nod. "Yeah, you're right about that," he mumbled. "But is that not enough? Just impressing people, I mean."

"That's not all you've done, Naruto. Look at the lives you've saved—the world you saved. Not just me, or Kakashi-sensei, or Guy-sensei...you saved everybody. We owe you everything. Even Sasuke owes you a lot for snapping him out of his quest for vengeance..."

"Yeah...Sasuke," Naruto sighed, rolling onto his back and kicking his sandals off. They flew into a patch of long grass a few paces away, but he didn't care whether he lost them or not. He closed his eyes in thought. The conversation was about to get unpleasant, and he knew it. "You've been talking a lot about Sasuke since our wedding, y'know..."

Sakura blushed, thankful that Naruto's attention was on the sky and not her guilty face. "Well, yeah...I'm just glad he's okay, that's all." She was anxiously stroking the side of her neck; if her husband would have asked why, she would have told him that she had been bitten by some sort of marsh bug. "You really did a great thing for him by convincing him to come home."

"I'm not the one who convinced him to stay, though," Naruto hummed, scowling a little bit. He had been alright with Sakura and Sasuke's mutual confessions in his apartment, and the hug that followed; it was just a friendly reconciliation. A happy reunion. Closing one chapter, opening another. But then Sakura talked about Sasuke during the honeymoon, too. Sure, she was worried about him—curious about what her husband thought about it all. Even then, though, the way her voice lowered with reverence to the Uchiha's name was telling. "It was all you. I'm glad he's here, too, but...do you really have to keep looking at him the way you do?" Naruto felt like an ugly person right there. Old, dusty jealousy was coming back up. He was giving in to his childish impulses, but he felt that it had to be done. He wasn't quite ready to grow up if it meant allowing Sakura to yearn for somebody else unopposed.

"Naruto, what's this about...?" Sakura was halted; her question had to be forced out of her dry mouth. No matter how much water she had soaked her throat with, it all shriveled up again when she was confronted about Sasuke.

"Do you really love me as much as I think you do?" Naruto's voice was hesitant, too. It was a question he shouldn't have had to ask—after all, their honeymoon was genuinely magical, barring the few moments when Mrs. Uzumaki had the urge to talk about the last Uchiha. "I mean...are we married because you love me, or is it because you felt lonely when Sasuke wasn't around and I was just a decent replacement?"

Sakura looked and felt insulted. She couldn't just lie down and take that one. "Hold on a second, Naruto!" She was on her feet in a half a second and she was looming over her husband like a shadow of vengeance. "First off, I don't think it's really fair of you to ask me a question like that!" She clenched her jaw tightly, puffing her nostrils with anger waiting in the wings. "You know damn well how much I love you, you moron!" She clenched her fist and dropped her knuckles toward Naruto's head, seeking to bop him a good one for being such a jerk.

Naruto caught her heavily-falling fist at the wrist with his bandaged fingers, stopping her flat and causing her to hurt her own shoulder—she pushed too hard, even after she knew she couldn't overcome his speed and strength. When he opened his lids, Naruto's eyes were yellowed, his pupils slanted into ovals—he had entered Sage Mode while he was daydreaming a moment before. "I mean it, Sakura! I think you love me, but...Sai always told me you were hard to read. I just laughed him off, because why would you ever hide something from me, y'know? But last night, you were acting really weird around Sasuke...and it's got me thinking that maybe I'm missing something...I feel like you're not really my wife, and that's because you're still gaga over Sasuke, right!?" He shouted up at her, showing the little fangs at each corner of his mouth. He wasn't angry enough to pull out Kurama's power—not against his beloved wife, especially—but he was certainly feeling a very strong rush of emotion.

Sakura huffed and pulled her hand out of Naruto's grip, shaking it to dispel the ache in her wrist. She stepped back from him, letting the sun bake his face in the absence of her shade. "It's not what you think, Naruto..." she addressed somberly. She couldn't outright deny what she had been thinking. She knew better than to try. Still, she had her own concerns to air. "But I'm not done yelling at you, either—what was that all about last night with Hinata? You never call me 'sweet cherry blossom,' Naruto..." She scowled. "So what the hell was that? Did you come up with that one while you were looking at her...?"

Naruto's eyes went a little wider, and his mouth lost its edge. He had been caught in the act. His whole expression seemed to go limp before turning sheepish and ashamed. "A-actually, Ino told me to call you that if I ever wanted to get out of trouble...she said it was like a super-romantic nickname; a secret weapon..." He had to laugh for a short breath at the absurdity. "Lousy advice, right?" He closed his eyes and put his hand in his hair to rub the back of his skull, trying to smile although he felt like he was under a lot of scrutiny.

Sakura cracked a smile too, because she immediately knew he was telling the truth. Ino did have a habit of giving sub-par love advice, even though it was sometimes good enough to work. Fearing that she might lose her momentum if she laughed, though, Sakura shook her head and regained her fierce, accusing look and tone. "Don't change the subject—what was going on last night with you and Hinata?" Sakura was trying her hardest to divert some of the blame off of herself. If she could implicate him for doing the same thing he thought she was doing, then maybe it would be easier to turn it into water under the bridge after a quick scuffle. She knew how her husband's mind worked—she had been his lover for a year and a half, and his friend for a decade longer than that. This wasn't their first argument, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be their last.

"Gah, Sakura, don't try to turn this on me...Hinata was just pissed off about how I married you instead of her, or something..." He grumbled and sat upright, looking away from Sakura and gazing across the stream into the nearby wilderness. "I told her she wasn't my type...I think I really hurt her feelings, but I was kinda sick of pretending that I didn't know she was trying to get my attention. She wasn't moving on like I thought she would."

"Hold on...you knew she was jealous all this time?" Sakura was incredulous; she hadn't expected to hear that bit. "I thought you were just oblivious all that time...You know, even if you're not just lying to appease me, then you're still in trouble. Shame on you for waiting so long to set the record straight with her!"

"Anyway, you're the one changing the subject!" Naruto pointed his finger at Sakura as he turned at the waist to look at her from his pouty seated position. "Tell me what you said to Sasuke! I already know you didn't go to the bathroom when you said you did! I'm kind of offended how you thought that would have fooled me, to be honest..."

Sakura flexed her forehead and tried to sound dignified, though she knew she fell behind in the running as soon as Naruto had such a quick, convincing answer to all her probing questions. "I...might have told Sasuke that I'm still in love with him, last night..." She tapped her pointer fingers together, resting her other fingers against one another and holding her hands in a big ball near her chest. "But it's not what it seems...it all kind of hit me afterward. I didn't mean what I said to him, it was just a stupid impulse talking for me. Still, whether I meant it or not, I'm sorry, Naruto...it's been a struggle having him here...and when I saw the way he looked at Hinata, I...well, I got really jealous, and it drove me up a wall. I had to throw myself at him to see what would happen..."

Naruto's ears perked a little. Maybe it was obvious, but he hadn't really noticed the vibe between Sasuke and Hinata. Sure, he thought it was strange that they kept being in the same place as one another, but it was probably a coincidence...probably. "Wait, so you're serious about being jealous of Hinata? I thought you were just trying to get me to change the subject."

"I sort of was trying to change the subject, but...I mean, if you want a real answer, Hinata's a whole different class of girl, Naruto. She's a hell of a lot prettier than me, she's got those gorgeous, powerful eyes, and...well, she's got a sweet personality that makes a lot of people really want to be around her." Sakura felt small as envy filled her words. She thought of Hinata as the prime model for the perfect girl—all her features were exactly right. Even her forehead was nicely proportioned, and that's where the jealousy first started years ago. "She's always made me feel big and clumsy by comparison, I guess."

Naruto snickered. "Well, you've probably broken a lot more things than she has..." He pretty quickly changed his tone and raised his arms defensively, hiding his face behind them. "But it doesn't matter! I already told her she's not my type, and it's the truth! Sure, you're not always dainty and sweet, but you're strong and straightforward! I've always liked that kind of thing a lot better...y'know, because we think so much alike. Besides, I think you're prettier than her anyway!" He stayed braced for another few seconds before deciding that Sakura wasn't about to hit him for his facetious quip. He checked between his arms carefully and saw that she was waiting patiently for him to continue. "So...when you threw yourself at Sasuke, what happened? Didn't you say that it's not what it seems? What was it that 'hit you' afterward?"

"Yeah, well...I confessed that I still loved him, and all that...but the way he looked at me made me feel like a monster. He accused me of stringing you along, of being underhanded...and he was right, that's exactly what I was doing when I let myself give in to my stupid, stupid impulse..." Sakura felt a tear on the corner of her eye, and she wiped it away carefully before it took over the rest of her expression. "That look said it all: he doesn't want to be with me anymore, Naruto...I think he realized the same thing I did."

"What's that?" Naruto asked. He still felt a long cord of jealousy winding itself along his spine, but it was slowly loosening its hold as Sakura further explained herself. She was right—he did know exactly how much she loved him, and he felt like a fool for even thinking for a second that it might have all been a ruse. "What'd you realize?"

"What he and I felt for one another...I don't think it was really love, exactly...not that sort of love, I mean." Sakura brushed her hand down her cheek, then hugged herself below the chest. "I mean, I love Sasuke...but it's not the same as how I love you, Naruto. I thought it was, I really did, but...the more I think about it, the more I realize that it was all just a fantasy I had in my head. Sasuke was always my ultimate goal, right? Me and Ino would always fight about which one of us would get to marry him, but...Maybe he's really not my type, like how Hinata's not yours. I...I kept trying to imagine him being in your place during our honeymoon, and...well...it was a little bit enlightening."

Naruto blushed heavily. "Y-you were imagining Sasuke in my place while we...?"

Sakura blushed too, waving a quick hand to dispel the notion and giving off a sharp eek of embarrassment. "N-no, I don't mean that! I'm talking about when you and I talked together, walked together, had our little arguments about where to eat...all the little things. I realized that everything I had imagined about Sasuke was just filler; a bunch of fantasies. He barely ever spoke to me when he was around, so I liked pretending what he'd say if he had spoken to me. In the end, I think that my imagined Sasuke was a lot more romantic and charming than the one I saw last night..."

"And...you think he's feeling the same way about you? I dunno, Sakura...as much as I hate to buy into that Uchiha curse of hatred, love-eventually-equals-rage crap, at least some of it has to be true. Do you think he'd get over any kind of love as fast as you're saying you did?" Naruto slanted his brows, standing up from his lazy place beside the stream to face Sakura with serious implications. "I mean...telling him you still love him might end up having some pretty bad consequences, especially if you didn't mean it..."

Sakura gulped. "Uh, well...that isn't even the worst part..."

Naruto put his hand to his forehead and sighed. "...What'd you say to him, Sakura?"

"I...at the time, I thought we both wanted to be together, and I talked about how it wasn't good for either of us to be around one another since it couldn't happen; I'd never be unfaithful to you, Naruto...so it seemed like a good idea to suggest a 'solution'. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, that is..." Sakura took a breath, then winced prematurely, eeking out her biggest offense with fifty pounds of tension and regret. "I told him he should leave Konoha."

Naruto fell silent, and his eyebrow twitched. He couldn't pretend to be as surprised as he knew he should have been—he knew all about how his wife had a way of saying the exact wrong thing with all the right intentions. She had, once, even confessed love to him falsely when she thought his devotion to bringing Sasuke back was entirely her fault, and she wanted to talk him out of it. She was misguided, but genuinely trying to do the right thing, so it was difficult to be angry. Bothered, but not angry. "Well gee, how'd he react to that, Sakura?"

"Not good, but maybe not as bad as you'd think...He said that he couldn't leave anymore, and I think I know why. So, to answer your question about whether or not I think he's realized that our love was nothing but vapor...I'm pretty sure that I've already been replaced in his mind." She didn't like saying it aloud, but she was only telling the truth. "Sasuke's not in love with me anymore, if he ever really was..."

Gears turned, clues clicked, and a conclusion was drawn. "So you mean..." Naruto began, looking a bit tentative. Sometimes he got the answer wrong, so he allowed Sakura to finish for him while pretending he understood.

"Yeah..." Sakura answered with a little bit of dread. "I don't think that photo was a coincidence after all...I think he's falling for Hinata, and fast."

"And she's falling for him the same way, right...?" Naruto pondered. Hinata did seem unusually assertive the night before, and she had mentioned training with Sasuke with a sort of glow on her face that Naruto hadn't seen from her in a long time. There was definitely a change. "Isn't that a good thing for both of them, though?"

Sakura gave a shrug of one shoulder, leaning her head to one side precariously. "I dunno. I want to believe that Sasuke has changed for good, but what happens if this doesn't work out? Do you think he'll be okay?"

"I think we should hope for the best, and that's all we should do." Naruto wagged his pointer finger. "Let's not get involved, otherwise it's gonna look like we're trying to get involved."

"Right...and Sasuke would probably see right through the 'help' and get annoyed, then he might take it out on her, and...Okay. Let's just both pretend we haven't noticed anything. Deal." Sakura nodded. "At least for now..."

Naruto gave a nod, though he wasn't a fan of the ending ambiguity. "It's settled. Oh, and before I forget...you should really talk with Sasuke and apologize. For everything you said, but mostly about the 'leave Konoha' part. If you take it back right away, it might not have enough time to sink in and make him mopey..."

Sakura was about to agree, but a little eavesdropper made his presence known with brash confidence: "Make who mopey!?" A chipper, young-but-growing voice called from the trees. Naruto had sensed the approach from far off with his Sage energy, but hadn't been in the state of mind to let Sakura know. The figure emerged from the high green spires along with a few leaves he had knocked loose. He was wearing a mint green shirt and brown pants with a blue scarf blowing off his neck. His forehead was decorated with a Leaf headband. He landed at the end of his leap with precision and held up a carrying case with two cups of ramen, still steaming hot.

"Konohamaru!" Naruto and Sakura both greeted at the same time, abandoning their conversation in favor of regarding their new spectator. Naruto asked him the obvious question: "What're you doin' all the way out here?"

The teenaged, potential-laden member of the Sarutobi Clan shrugged with an air of trying to act cool. Maybe trying a little too hard. "I heard you were gonna start training today, so I thought maybe I could give you two a couple of pointers. Plus I figured you might be hungry, boss." He held up the cardboard carrying case by the flimsy handle. "Iruka-sensei told me you'd be here, so I brought lunch."

Naruto snatched the ramen cups and took one for himself, then passed the other to Sakura, who accepted it with a thankful nod toward Konohamaru. Naruto put on a false sneer. "More like you brought a bribe," he grumbled skeptically, but he wasn't about to turn the gift down. "Fine! You can train with us today, but try not to get in the way. We play rough!"

Konohamaru grinned wide, then posed as tough as he could with both fists raised. "Give me all ya got! You're looking at the future champion of the Beginner Tier, here! Nobody's going to take me lightly after this tournament is finished!"

"Stick with me long enough and that dream might just come true, kid," Naruto smirked with an air of too much confidence. Sakura sat down beside the stream and started to sip some of the excess juice off the top of her cup. She let the two numbskulls trade 'cool' remarks for a while; the longer her break was, the better she would feel about picking things up again, so she wasn't eager to rush them. Despite the heat, the day was a pretty fantastic one. She was hoping that Sasuke would accept her apology—her compulsion to be the center of her attention had a tendency to get her in trouble, and the previous night was no different. She only hoped that the whole thing could be put to rest soon.

Hinata felt like she had been warped into an entirely separate place, though the scenery had only changed on the surface. She felt the weight of her own body pressing on her feet, which in turn pressed into the ground beneath. It was sturdy but slanted footing, the same ragged, uneven layers as the Uchiha District's ruins. In fact, she could see further beyond the ruins and into the village itself—it was all still there in the distance, completely intact, but layered with blackness just like the area immediately surrounding her. She turned her attention toward the sky, and it was colored with a shade of deep red, like a bloody ocean turned upside down and waiting to pour down upon the charred remains of the world. It had all happened in an instant; Sasuke's eye had pointed at her, and she had been sucked into the barren, alternate reality that was inspiring dread within her quickly-beating heart. She brought her hand to her own cheek, and she felt the tips of her fingers touch the smooth skin of her face. She pinched herself, and it hurt. It felt completely real, but how could it have been? Hinata looked straight ahead to see Sasuke, the only entity with proper coloration in the whole landscape. He stood out boldly, like a flower in the desert, but he was far more fearsome—in fact, he seemed more like a brightly colored viper, poised to strike. "Where are we...?" Hinata asked, hearing her own voice echoing in the total silence as if it were detached from her body.

"In a sense, we're in a world created by my eye," Sasuke responded with an even tone. Of course he wasn't shocked by the bizarre shift in scenry—he was in complete control of that nightmare world. He took comfort in the emptiness, in the blackness; the bloody sky was like a blanket to him, tucking him in and keeping him safe. "How do you feel, Hinata?"

Hinata pinched herself again, and every instinct inside of her was screaming at her and telling her to panic. She was a prisoner beneath Sasuke's will; she looked above to see that the swarm of flies that hung above her training ground remained present, but completely immobile. Similarly, she used her Byakugan to stare out into the village, taking inventory—the people still existed, but they appeared as statues covered in solid tar, frozen mid-step. Children were suspended motionlessly in the air, legs tucked to their chests while hopping into puddles. The place she was in seemed exactly like her home, but the stillness and lack of color was unnerving. "I feel...displaced," Hinata answered. Again she heard hollowness in her voice. The air pressure was a little bit heavy, but the temperature was surprisingly tolerable. She would have expected either extreme heat or extreme cold, but it was somwhoe a soothing, balmy summer day in 'Hell.'

"That's to be expected. Your body might feel perfectly real, but this place, and these moments...they don't truthfully exist." Sasuke replied, standing away from her. Just as he was the only other body with coloration, he was also the only one with the ability to move through time. "Our real bodies are standing where we left them, while our fantasies live on in their place." he explained while he took a step. "Now, listen: This world is to be used specifically for education and technical practice."

Hinata looked at the back of her hand—she didn't feel as if she were under a genjutsu, despite her surreal surroundings. Was that the true power of Sasuke's eye? "How did this happen?" Hinata breathed slowly, gathering her composure as well as she could. She felt like a cornered animal; a total prisoner. "What did you do to me?"

Sasuke could sense Hinata's unease. His dominion over that dimension was almost absolute, but the one thing in existence which had been allowed to keep its own agency was Hinata herself. He took a step toward her and gave her a reassuring smile. "It's actually simple, if you can grasp the intensity of the technique. I've used my chakra to implant a scenario within your mind, and copied that scenario into my own thoughts as well. With the strength of my eye, I have sped up the thought processes of our conjoined minds to an almost-infinite speed. We perceive time as if it were standing still; we can have conversations, practice physical movements, and spar with one another. We can even use ninjutsu in fine detail—this world is like the true world, but with one exception: there is no exhaustion—no running out of chakra, stamina, or breath. That comes later."

Hinata listened and she believed; she couldn't otherwise explain the strange, otherworldly sensation that was gripping her. She had her own thoughts, still—but could Sasuke read those thoughts? She tried to clear her mind, but she also tried not to look like she was trying to clear her mind. "So, if this isn't my real body, how will training here do me any good? I won't get physically stronger in the outside world by working out in here, will I?"

"We'll still need to train in reality, as well, in order to build your body and chakra. This place is a playground, of sorts. We can act without consequences, try out new techniques, and fix your common mistakes and bad habits based on knowledge and repetition. Time was our greatest obstacle in preparing for the upcoming tournament—but with proper use of this supplemental 'classroom,' I think we will end up having days left to spare."

"How did you come up with this idea, Sasuke...?" Hinata asked, growing a little bit more comfortable with the unnatural environment as each timeless moment passed. "It all seems so...lonely. An infinite world with a red sky and black, featureless earth..."

Sasuke hesitated to answer, but he felt wrong for trying to hide the details, especially given that Hinata was so disconcerted about the whole thing. "The idea comes from a technique that my brother utilized in life. He called it 'Tsukuyomi,' and it was an ultimate genjutsu—inescapable, absolute. With that technique, he could create entire worlds of his own...Within a place just like this, he could deliver seventy-two hours of pain and torture while only an instant passed in reality..." Sasuke shuddered mildly; even though he had forgiven his brother, the horrible memories of his time within the false world created by Itachi had given him nightmares. His parents' bodies falling to the floor with the life taken from them; the streets of his home covered with the blood of his friends and family. He swallowed his sour memories and focused on the present—Hinata was a beacon of light and purity within the replica of a world that had once been built out of nothing but pain. In a sense, her presence there was therapeutic for him. A single candle in the darkness. "Now, for the sake of disclosure I should say that this place is not actually Tsukuyomi—only Itachi was capable of that exact technique. However, I've experienced the effects a number of times, and I've used those experiences to recreate it as closely as possible, and so we've come to stand here. It's not perfect, but it will do."

Hinata listened to it all with apprehension—she hadn't known about Itachi's power in detail, only that he was fearsome for many reasons. Hearing it as a specific number made her palms sweat. "Seventy-two hours of torture...is that how long you're going to keep me here...?"

Sasuke shook his head. "No...as I said before, this will take a toll on you, Hinata. We'll limit this session to three hours," he told her while displaying his hand with three fingers upheld. "When that time passes, I'll dispel the genjutsu and gauge how your body and mind have held up. If you can handle more, we'll progressively build up to longer stays."

Hinata gulped. The idea of stretching time in such a way was impossible for her to wrap her mind around, but she supposed that such an existential dilemma was to be expected when confronted with the power of a god. "O-okay..." she said, gulping down her own saliva; the taste was exactly as she had come to know. It was unbelievable, to her, that such a minor detail could be so perfectly copied as part of an elaborate genjutsu. "What do we do now?"

Sasuke gave a smirk. "First, we're going to test your ability to create a change in your chakra nature. Since it's my strongest nature, and you've mentioned that you've been able to do it before, I'd like you to produce lightning chakra from one of your hands. It doesn't have to last very long or look very flashy—just show me what you can do, and we'll work from there."

"Alright," Hinata replied. She pushed her misgivings about the desolate dream world to the back of her mind and focused on doing as she was told. She took a breath, made a few clumsy hand seals, then exerted her chakra through her arms. What emerged from her fingers was a plain blue aura—neutral chakra. It was a powerful flow, but not what was requested of her. She looked at her failure in dismay. "I may have done it in the past, but I'm not very good at elemental techniques," she revealed after disappointed second of silence.

"I expected as much—your clan doesn't value the versatility of elemental ninjutsu, and that neglect is a part of what's going to help you defeat your sister." Sasuke moved closer to Hinata, standing just beside her and laying his hand on her wrist. It was an instructive touch, and he gently helped her to reset her hands into a particular sign, bending and flexing her fingers for her with deliberate movements of his own digits. He tugged a pinky, bent a pointer finger, urged her fingertips to touch firmly together. "Like this...make this seal first, then the next..." He intimately delivered the procedure, paying precise attention to every crease in her hands. "Practice the sequence here until your execution has become perfect, and you've created the correct chakra. Then, we can leave this world and test the effectiveness of this lesson within reality."

"Test the effectiveness...? Have you not done this before to know if it works, Sasuke?" Hinata asked the question because she honestly wanted to know, but what was really on her mind was the way Sasuke's fingers had played with hers. She had gone along with every subtle touch, every minor suggestion of muscle and skin; she almost sighed with pleasure as the warmth of his hand—his false, genjutsu-created hand—played along her sensitive flesh. He was so firm and precise that she had goosebumps running along her arm when she thought of his capabilities. She didn't want him to release her from his potent grip, but he did. Even just the sides of her fingers and the back of her hand felt sensitively electrified by his touch, and it had nothing to do with chakra.

"I've worked to create this off-shoot of Tsukuyomi for over two years, but...you're the first person I've ever brought into the world with me." Sasuke brought his hand down from Hinata's two perfectly-intermingled sets of fingers, and he gave a nod to her to signify that the current seal was properly formed. "That's why I feel the need to take it slow at first; I'd rather not overload your mind with too much information at a time until I know you can handle it."

Hinata nodded, then she closed her eyes and took a mental 'picture' of how her hands felt. She committed the positions to memory, then unlaced her hands and pulled them down to her sides. "Two years...why spend so much time replicating a technique that's meant to be used for torture...?" She made the seal again, taking it slow. She had plenty of time, right? No sense in rushing the practice. Getting it right at a slow pace was much nicer than moving too quickly and getting it wrong three times in the same period.

"You're asking me why I would develop a new genjutsu, Hinata?" Sasuke took on a curious tone. He had thought that the answer would be self-evident, but perhaps he wasn't as controlled as he thought. Perhaps she had seen through some of his reasoning and knew that the whole story lay somewhere deeper.

She took her hands down, then started over, making the seal and speaking over her own thoughts. "I mean...you've already got so many amazing techniques, and this one seems so...painful. Not physically, either. I look around, and I see sorrow..." She viewed the world; she couldn't get over how bleak it all looked. "Does it have to be so dark? So empty?"

Sasuke nodded reluctantly. He wanted to explain that it was a memento to his brother, a tribute to the memory of a man who lived his entire life in shadow. He told the truth, but not the entirety of it, as always: "It's modeled exactly after Itachi's technique. Every detail, from the sky to the ground, and to the thickness and weight of the air. Changing any of the aspects might create problems with the technique, and I'd rather keep it stable..."

Hinata frowned. "Wouldn't you rather forget about this world, though? You told me that you've experienced it...more than once. Seventy-two hours of pain in a place like this...?" She winced as she tried to imagine it. She could hardly even fathom three hours of practicing within such a void; how could a person even survive extensive torture of that kind? She felt oppressed by the environment even without feeling any pain at all.

Sasuke realized that he wasn't going to get away with total silence, and on a more surprising level he found that he didn't want silence. He distracted himself in part by studying the way the young woman's fingers weaved together; her clumsy seals were already becoming more refined, but when she made a mistake, he quickly brought his hand to hers in order to correct the course as seamlessly as he could. "This world is a necessary reminder of where I came from...as well as a connection to my family. I sometimes come here by myself when I need to take a break from the world out there...especially when I need to think something through, and don't want to be bothered by annoying interruptions."

Hinata stopped practicing for a moment and her hands hung in the air. The idea depressed her, somewhat, and all her thoughts turned to an image of Sasuke sitting alone in the darkness with his back turned away from her. "All by yourself...?" She bit her lower lip. "So you like being alone...? You're not very much like Naruto at all, are you Sasuke...?"

Sasuke furrowed his brow. "That's right...we're practically opposites. Naruto surrounds himself with imbeciles and children, while I prefer to keep things quiet. Effective." He realized the absurdity of what he said but he didn't take it back—even as he touted his preference for solitude, his private domain had essentially been invaded with his express permission. Hinata Hyuuga had breached his most secretive hiding place, yet he was the one who opened the door. "We each have our own ideas and methods for getting things done, and we disagree on just about everything along the way, but Naruto and I do have one thing in common."

Hinata tilted her head. She couldn't see any similarities, really. "What is it?"

Sasuke smirked. It sounded cheesy in his head, and even worse from his smooth, dull-toned words. However odd it felt to say, though, he knew it was the truth. "We share an unbreakable bond with one another...and not just through the ancient spirits that dwell within us. This bond runs deep; deeper than anything I can even imagine. If it weren't so undeniably real, I would never believe that such a thing could exist."

Hinata smiled; hearing him talk that way made her happy. The imposing, suffocating world around her could no longer keep her from feeling good, not as long as Sasuke was there at her side with a lightness in his tone and a tiny smile on his face. "You didn't have to come back to Konoha for the wedding, but you did it because of that bond?" She held her breath in the hopes that she hadn't ruined the conversation by bringing up a sore moment, and to her surprise she realized that her lungs didn't start to burn. Certain properties of the realistic world were just different enough to remind her that none of it was really happening.

Sasuke nodded. "Partially because of the bond, and partially to convince myself that it was really happening." He focused himself on Hinata to remind him that all was not lost. "I had envisioned a future for myself a thousand times, each with a different outcome...would I become Hokage? Might I join the black ops? Would I travel the world for the rest of my life without a true home?" He shrugged off all the abandoned possibilities. "But everything I pictured, no matter how far from Konoha my imagined destiny might have taken me...my dreams always included Sakura being there as well. Naruto is like my brother, but Sakura was my anchor. She's the real reason I stayed here long enough to..." He trailed off, turning his head aside to clear his thoughts. Even within his own domain, Hinata compelled him to say strange things. "Anyway, focus on your seals."

"Y-yes, Sasuke..." Hinata murmured. She did as she was told, and minutes passed. Sasuke had abandoned the personal subjects and focused on practical advice. Keep your back straight, breathe more evenly, use less (or more) chakra. As Hinata struggled to keep up with the bombardment of advice, hours passed. Before she knew it, the time limit for testing the waters had arrived.

"I'm pulling us out," Sasuke declared. Overhead, the insects that had been frozen in time began to gradually flap their tiny wings again—slowly at first, but within three seconds, time had resumed to its normal pace and they were swarming about with mindless fervor. The colors of the world came back into focus as the darkness exploded like a silently popping balloon. The scents of flowers and the distant din of noisy villagers filled the senses once more to replace the vacuum.

Hinata felt it all rushing back to her. The sensation of being yanked from one place to another sent a tremor through her system and she fell down to one knee, clutching her head. She expected to feel some kind of pain—a headache, maybe some lightness in her thoughts. However, after the initial disorientation caused by the rush of returning sensations, she felt nothing but normal. After three hours of real time in her head, she looked straight up to see that the sun hadn't moved at all. It was still exactly noon—even more impressive was that she remembered every detail of her time in that world with more freshness than she could recall a typical three hour stretch within reality. "W-wow," Hinata whispered as she stood up from her knee. "That's incredible..." she said as she caught her breath.

Sasuke had a smirk on his face. "You're holding up surprisingly well," he praised from several paces away. Although he had positioned himself near her within the genjutsu, his real self hadn't moved so close. "Take a few minutes—catch your breath, gather your thoughts. And then show me the seals I taught you."

Hinata took one deep breath, then held it—her lungs began to burn, so she knew for certain that she had been fully returned into her body. "Okay," she readied herself. "First...this," she said, creating the initial seal she had been shown. The rat. Next was tiger, ox, boar, and so on and so forth. She elegantly repeated the sequence, to her own astonishment. "I...I think it worked," she said with a little giggle. She was impressed by Sasuke's power; she marveled at the effectiveness of his technique. If that kind of training tool wasn't enough to help her defeat Hanabi by the time of their almost-inevitable match, then nothing would have been.

"Excellent," Sasuke answered from afar. "This is our edge, Hinata—Naruto has his shadow clones to accelerate his learning, but we have genjutsu. From here on out, we'll alternate—we'll focus entirely on strength and stamina training for two hours at a time out here, then we'll dive back into timelessness for as long as you can handle. We'll repeat that cycle until you can't anymore."

Hinata gave a determined nod. She had already had a good feeling about training with Sasuke before, but his new trick had given her the kind of confidence that was impossible to deter. "Yes, master," Hinata answered with reverence, hurrying to fetch a large concrete block to begin her own strength exercise.

Sasuke chuckled as she started on her own, dropping to rest on his knees with his back along an angled concrete slab. "Master, eh?" he closed his eyes and laid his head against the surface behind him. "Let's not get carried away..."

A blush formed on Hinata's face; the word had slipped by during her moment of total admiration for him. They were the same age as one another, give or take a few months perhaps, yet he seemed so much older and so much wiser than she saw herself as being. When she was around him, he just felt like a master, whether he wanted to be considered hers or not. She set herself up with weight upon her feet, then she rolled onto her back and straightened out. Her chakra pulled the concrete inward, bolting the mass to her feet while she got into an upright position and braced her hands against the ground. She began to do repetitions of lifting the block with every muscle in her body.

Sasuke watched with his own sort of admiration—he didn't view Hinata as being a 'master' of any kind, but he did see the potential inside her. The very first time he saw her at the Academy, when they were both children and never spoke to one another, he had expected her to become great. She was shy and meek, but her eyes told the entire story—she was going to become unstoppable one day. Sasuke had known it all along—he simply hadn't known that he was going to be the one to make it happen. The thought gave him a swell of pride as he watched her body contort and lift, flexing and folding with precise control.

Sasuke told himself that he would have to someday thank Sakura. If she hadn't convinced him to stay within the village, Sasuke would never have realized that Hinata Hyuuga was destined to become his student—a source of pride that he would always admire. As he watched Hinata work herself tirelessly, he feared what was to come—he could feel the danger rising within him, and there was no more hope for it to ever go away. He recognized the sensation with a petrifying epiphany and felt a round ball of worry rolling around in his stomach, making sure to paint all the walls of his gut with a sinking feeling.

Oblivious to Sasuke's turmoil, Hinata gently lowered the concrete back onto the ground after she had worn herself out, then spread her arms out to make room for her lungs to suck in some more air. "Sasuke," she panted dryly, "thanks again for doing all this for me," she finished after a deep gasp of air. "I promise that I won't disappoint you."

Sasuke hummed with affirmation. "I know you won't," he murmured. "No matter what happens at the tournament, you won't disappoint me. Just be sure that you don't disappoint yourself."

"Right!" Hinata answered with a bright smile. She stared into the sun—it had moved a bit since she started. "Oh, Sasuke...I was wondering something..."

Sasuke perked a brow toward her. "Wondering?"

"Yeah...you know the festival that's being planned around the tournament?" Hinata looked away. The pool of dark hair behind her head served as a pillow while she hid herself from Sasuke's gaze. She hunched her lower half, too, trying to be a small target. "It's going to be running for a full week ahead of time..."

Sasuke blinked. "Actually, I had no idea..." He tilted his head curiously. "When did you hear about there being festival?"

Hinata smiled to herself, bringing a hand to her cheek to cover her blushing. "One of the pages in the envelope you delivered to my family," she began. "It mentioned a festival being tied into the event. You didn't read the information?"

Sasuke huffed, seeming disinterested. "Not exactly. I'm only participating in the tournament as a favor to Kakashi; the surrounding events aren't really part of my plan."

Hinata frowned, then hummed to herself. "O-oh, never mind then."

Her tone caught Sasuke's attention; she seemed disappointed. He couldn't stand for that. "What were you going to say?"

She felt her neck and shoulders warming up, since her face was already completely red. Her hair was brushed over her cheek as a sort of shield while she laid on her side and avoided eye contact. She felt pathetic for being so nervous over such a simple thing, but she couldn't help but be who she was. "N-nothing," she said at first. She hoped that her answer might be final, but conversely hoped that Sasuke wasn't going to let her off that easily. "It was a silly idea anyway."

"Just say it, Hinata," Sasuke urged with assertive curiosity. "You don't have to hide things from me."

Even though she was practically being ordered to speak up, she still felt like she might offend him by doing so. Bravely, she opened up: "I got to thinking that we'll be training all week before the tournament, since we have so much we need to do...but I'd hate to miss the whole festival." She rolled onto her back, hoping that her redness would be presumed as the aftermath of her intense workout and not her supreme embarrassment. "I was hoping that we could take a day off from training so I could go see some of the celebration...would that be okay?"

Sasuke hummed in thought, then shrugged. What could it hurt? "I don't see why not...any time you miss can be compensated by using genjutsu."

Feeling giddy inside, Hinata sucked her lips in and smiled, creating little dimples along her cheeks by trying to keep her face tight and poised. "Thank you, Sasuke! Oh, a-and...would you like to come with me when I go? If you're going to be busy, that's okay, but...I'd really like it if you came."

He wasn't so quick to answer that time. He wasn't the festival type, exactly. "...I don't know. That's still several weeks from now, based on what Kakashi said last night—I'd rather not make a commitment that far in advance."

Her smile didn't totally vanish, but some of the air leaked out. "That's fine, Sasuke. Maybe I can convince my father to let Hanabi come with me, instead."

"Actually," Sasuke started out with a bit of hanging guilt. Even just the slightest wave of disappointment in Hinata's voice was enough to change his mind. "It doesn't matter what comes up—I'm sure I can make time for one day."

Instant brightness. "Really!?" Hinata chirped, bringing her hands beneath her chin and kissing her knuckles nervously. "Thank you so much, Sasuke!" she called out giddily, trying to stand from her laid down position but finding her muscles to be too weak; she stumbled back to her knees halfway through her attempt. She settled for rolling onto her stomach and looking at Sasuke where he sat, observing him like she was a caterpillar and he was a leaf.

"You're getting yourself dirty," Sasuke reminded her as she rolled along the dusty, prickly stones. "And watch for splinters." He felt the sensation growing. The wonderful, awful sensation. He wasn't going to be able to hold back for much longer, regardless of how hard he tried. Hinata carefully stood up from her excited wriggling and dusted herself off, looking at Sasuke intensely and putting on a totally different face.

"Alright," she stabbed the air with her determination. "That's enough rest. I'm ready to go back into that place..." She prepared herself by looking directly into Sasuke's gleaming indigo eye. He went along with her request, and he activated its power once again. The world was doused in darkness so that the repetitive practice could continue.

By the end of the day, Hinata had spent over forty hours training herself within the alternate world, and another ten in the real world. The physical and mental tiredness had ultimately caught up with her. She clutched her forehead when Sasuke dispelled the genjutsu for the final time, then she dropped weakly to her rear with her hands clutching sharp stones on either side of the rubble beneath her. She heaved her chest massively to gather more and more air to replenish what had been totally depleted. After each training session within Sasuke's genjutsu throughout the day, she had used a huge chunk of her chakra in numerous attempts to create lightning along her fingertips in the real dimension—even just a spark would do. Thus far, the effort was seemingly useless, but every time she tried, she felt like she was getting a little bit closer to success.

Sasuke ended the training with a smirk and a nod of his head. "You're performing wonderfully, Hinata. Do you feel okay?"

Hinata panted hard and felt the typical river of sweat creeping down all the curves and creases along her skin. Aside from total exhaustion and stickiness, she felt fantastic: "I'm tired," she said to Sasuke, "but I'm okay..."

Sasuke looked at her critically. "You don't look very good...you should let me take you home tonight." He offered his hand, as he had offered every night, but once again the girl refused to take it.

"No, Sasuke...not to my home. I don't want my father to have any reason to hate you more than he already does...or Ko, either," she explained fairly regularly. "If they see you with me, they might think you're hurting me...or corrupting me." She was on her feet, then turned to leave a bit hastily, hoping that the answer would be accepted. "Thank you, though." Her smile was full of regret as she looked over her shoulder.

"Very well," Sasuke answered respectfully. "Have a safe walk home, Hinata."

Hinata gave a nod, then walked off with a half-limp, and one eye pinched shut to keep the sting of sweat out. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said tiredly, smiling through the soreness and exhaustion with genuine appreciation. It was a long walk, but a triumphant one. Regardless of the progress of her training, she had gotten Sasuke to agree to attend the festival with her. Hopefully, before that day came, she would be able to convince her father and Ko that Sasuke wasn't the monster he was thought to be.

Several days began and ended after that with very little worth mentioning—Hinata's training continued well, and her ability to produce elemental chakra was coming to fruition after plenty of direct assistance from her mentor, Sasuke. The days were full of motion and intense training, and the nights were defined by agonizingly tired muscles, pounding headaches, and empty chakra reserves. A week passed, then nearly two weeks of the same process. Training had become the order of the day for many of the village's shinobi—nearly every one of them had ambitions to make a name for themself in one of the three competition tiers. Sakura had yet to work up the courage to face Sasuke again, and Kiba had been forced off the 'hunt' by Kakashi's insistence. Of course, such things can only be left to simmer for so long before the liquid dries up and the scorching heat forces something to happen. All the while, the populace was abuzz with growing anticipation—the focus of their gossip had shifted from Naruto's recent marriage, over to his expected rematch with the ruthless villain, Sasuke Uchiha.

And beneath the surface, deceptive schemes were moving forward with calculated patience.

Hope you liked it! As detailed in the last segment there, we're doing a very small time skip before the next chapter starts—take my word for it, nothing major happened in the mean time that I didn't tell you about. Let me know what you thought, then keep an eye out for the next chapter fairly soon. Thanks for reading!