Things as they are
Chapter 21
Minato pushed his desk to the side of the room, contemplating if he should place copious amounts of ink paper down. It was a messy ordeal to place an ink seal directly onto the carpet. His assistant would have a heart attack.
"Here. I'll help." Jiraiya's voice invaded Minato's thoughts. The blond hid his distaste for his former sensei behind a grateful grin as Jiraiya summoned a large scroll into the room. "I heard about the seal through the grape vine and I must admit, I was curious."
"Well I've only gotten the basics down. It is rather complex." Minato said, keeping his gaze on the scroll as he began to unroll it. Itachi hadn't needed this level of prep, but Minato was being careful.
"Really? Now I'm definitely more curious about it. After all, little Sasuke-kun managed it."
Minato found himself actively telling himself not to clench his fists. If Jiraiya could see his eyes, they'd be a flat steel grey. He needed to get himself under control. These past few weeks had been taxing.
"There's something to be said for Uchiha genetics. More interesting to me is that this world and their world are connected at all. Why not a random world every time? So all we know Itachi and Naruto aren't even in the same world Sasuke came from." Minato shrugged, moving around the sealing paper.
He'd read reports of Sasuke having an unnaturally clean bathroom immediately after the boy began acting suspiciously. Those reports had come in before the boy had been noted to be cleaning his apartment so it was the bathroom that had been otherwise in Sasuke's little world. This world's Sasuke had cleaned the bathroom, while the older Sasuke had been the one to clean out the rest of the apartment.
Having glanced over the seal earlier he knew that there was an element of unconsciousness, both targets would have to be unconscious or sleeping for the transfer to happen. So the successfulness of the jutsu seemed to imply a shared time space of sorts, but what it also meant that the younger Sasuke would have performed the jutsu, seen no results, gotten disappointed, and then further had had enough time to clean up the mess before going to bed and triggering the jutsu.
If he'd attempted a seal of the magnitude Minato was about to, then he wouldn't have had access to the sealing paper needed. He'd have used an easy to clean surface. The bathroom would have been the best room in the apartment.
Jiraiya moved to the desk, picking up the scroll and unfurling it with a practiced ease. "This is very interesting. Honestly, Sasuke finding this alone speaks towards his latent ability as a potential Seal Master. Perhaps I should take him on a training trip when this is all sorted."
The protest rising within Minato was instant, violent, but still only something he expressed in his mind. Minato forcefully bit his tongue, needing to be quiet, contained. The feelings of not wanting Jiraiya near his Sasuke were strong, too strong. He really needed a break. "I hardly think it speaks towards a Seal Master, and more towards the heading caught his attention." The heading the scroll had been labelled under was "Accepting Things As They Are". Perhaps young Sasuke had wanted to fill an emotional void, not bargaining on being shoved in his mind while some moodier angrier version of himself got to run around the village.
"But you know, Minato, something I don't really understand, is how far you're willing to go for Naruto now, when you didn't seem too concerned when he went to join Orochimaru." Jiraiya was searching his posture for answers as Minato hadn't really shown the Sanin his face since he'd entered the room.
If he could see Minato's expression now, the man would know . . . yes, he would most definitely know the depth of the Hokage's raging hatred for him.
"Minato?" Jiraiya stepped forward, noticing the odd tension in the man's body.
"Lord Hokage?" Kakashi entered the room without knocking, hand on the door knob, looking as though he'd run the whole way there. "They said I was needed urgently."
Kakashi could see his face, could tell that Jiraiya was the reason for it.
His interruption was a welcomed one. It gave Minato the time to force his features into submission before turning around to face his once beloved sensei. "Naruto joining a missing-nin and Naruto hopping dimensions are two completely different scales of insubordination. If word gets out, we could have serious problems with this jutsu that's going to be placed in the forbidden scroll as soon as this matter is sorted."
He turned away from Jiraiya to face Kakashi. "You have a new mission, Hatake, a very important mission." He smiled sweetly at the man who looked as though he was contemplating the consequences of dashing out of the door vs just staying for the mission.
"Really sorry about this Kakashi, but well, the jutsu calls for it." Minato had enough wits about him to indeed look truly apologetic. "I'm sure Itachi-kun has it all figured out, so have fun."
In the end, the decision was made for him. Minato gave him a small smile before he promptly activated the jutsu via a fist flying towards Kakashi's face.
.0.0.0.
Naruto stood by the Konoha gate, tapping his foot impatiently as Sakura smiled apologetically at Izumo and Kotetsu. "He's late." Naruto added with a grumble.
"All things considered, Kakashi is always late." Sakura offered, not really worried just yet. Still, for a mission this important, surely Kakashi would have known.
"Let's go get him." Naruto decided with a huff, suddenly launching off towards the residential district.
"Fetch him? I don't even know where he lives." Sakura admitted, but following Naruto. She knew this Naruto wasn't her Naruto. How could she not. He was intriguing, so similar to Sasuke and yet, so different. She could tell. It was in the way he'd shown impatience at all. Sasuke would never have. Or the way he'd let the older Naruto's chakra go to his head, which showed his still developing maturity. Similar to when Sasuke first got bitten by Orochimaru.
Another thing to note was Naruto's disdain for all things Kakashi like. Did that mean the other Kakashi was very different from her own?
Sai had been surprisingly quiet, watching Naruto suspiciously. He seemed to deem this Naruto untrustworthy despite his coming from a different version of Konoha . . . or perhaps because of it.
"That's okay. I'm sure I'll find it. This world isn't too different from mine." Naruto was considerate enough to shoot over his shoulder as he dashed towards the nearest building in order to climb up the wall towards the roof.
Naruto was surprisingly knowledgeable about the layout of the village. More so than Sakura may have even been. It took him no more than 8 minutes to locate Kakashi's apartment and to then let himself in through the window.
"Naruto. You can't just break into Sensei's house!" Sakura hesitated at the window, but Sai didn't, following Naruto just as boldly as the blond had been in entering the place.
She tried to crane her neck to see into the little apartment, curious beyond words as to how her sensei lived. Had Sasuke been here? She thought perhaps he had. Sasuke was probably the only student of Kakashi's he'd trust to bring to his place. Naruto might have taken it too far by pranking sensei or visiting waaaaaay to much. Sakura, well Sakura was always his least needy student so she'd been his least thought about student.
Naruto's sudden reappearance made her shoot backwards in surprise with a slight eep.
"You're a medical ninja right? Get in here and come see. Something's wrong." Naruto was gone just as quickly, retreating back to wherever it was that he'd come from.
At Naruto's insistence of an emergency Sakura didn't stay at the perimeter any more, moving through the window and towards the bedroom where she sensed the other three.
Peeking her head around the doorframe, Sakura was greeted with the sight of an immaculate room and two worried Shinobi. The third was still lying in bed, almost unnaturally straight.
"He won't respond." Sai offered when Naruto didn't seem forthcoming with an explanation. She didn't miss the fact that Sai was standing between Naruto and Kakashi.
She approached her sensei purposefully, switching to medic-nin mode. There was a problem and she needed to find it. This was highly unusual for Kakashi-sensei. She placed a glowing hand on his chest, trying to see if there were any internal wounds, as there weren't any visible areas of blood. Moving from his chest to his stomach and then all over his torso. Nothing.
She placed a hand on his head and still nothing.
She was honestly puzzled. There wasn't a medical explanation as to why Kakashi shouldn't be moving. She glanced at Naruto, wondering if perhaps, just maybe. . .
"Hey, sensei, we have a mission, we need to go." Sakura tried. "We're already late."
Like magic, at the word late, Kakashi's eyes sprang open.
"Namikaze Naruto, you're in for a world of pain!" the silver haired jonin jumped out of the bed aiming for the blond who immediately backed away.
Kakashi was faster though, grabbing hold of Naruto's jacket and pulling him back. "Do you have any idea-!"
Just as suddenly as the man had begun moving, was as soon as he stopped. He was as still as a statue, both eyes visible but seemingly glazed over.
"Holy crap. Don't tell me that old man sent this guy over here." Naruto breathed as he stared at the vacant expression of his sensei.
"Seriously? This Kakashi is your Kakashi?" Sakura studied the man, but at present she noted no difference except for the fact that he wasn't moving.
She spotted Kakashi's headband and picked it up, carefully tying it around her sensei's head and shifting it to cover his Sharingan. She had no idea if it was draining his chakra while he stood frozen but she wasn't about to find out when he collapsed for entirely different reasons.
"Did the old man screw up the jutsu?" Naruto wondered out loud as he pulled his jacket free from Kakashi's grasp, tugging the material in small bits until it relented. He waved a hand in front of Kakashi's eye, and still nothing.
"Don't do that." Sakura snapped, smacking the blonde's hand. "Sai, maybe you should go get Lady Tsunade?"
Naruto paused thoughtfully for a moment before shrugging, "We could just take him to the hospital. Itachi is there and he'd be able to do his Sharingan thing and see what's up."
"Well maybe doing both is best. Sai you go to Lady Tsunade and we'll get Kakashi-sensei to the hospital." Sakura smiled at the Root ninja but he didn't seem pleased. "I'll make sure we make it there without interruptions." What she meant was that she would watch over Naruto. It really seemed to be bugging Sai but that might be his innate ROOT training.
Sai nodded and disappeared out of the room, already dashing across the roof tops.
"I know we said we'd get him to the hospital, but I'm not entirely sure how." Sakura admitted, suddenly realising how awkward it was going to be to carry the frozen ninja out the window and then all the way to the hospital. Should they go find Gai-sensei?
Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully before closing his eyes and focusing. "The ability is there, but, slow. Maybe if I. . ." he muttered to himself.
A whoosh of chakra whizzed through the room, Sakura's hair whipping wildly around her face.
Glittering, gleaming chakra chains emerged from Naruto's back wrapping around Kakashi carefully before gently lifting the silver haired Shinobi into the air. "Let's go. These chains aren't going to last too long so I'd like to run out of time at the Hospital."
Sakura was left with nothing but awe as she followed Naruto out of Kakashi-sensei's apartment and headed towards the hospital.
.0.0.0.
Lady Tsunade was already at the hospital when Sakura and Naruto arrived, catching the jonin as Naruto's chains dissolved. "Exhausting but for now, it's effective. It's strange that he never did this method himself." Naruto muttered to himself as Tsunade pulled Kakashi onto a bed and wheeled him towards Itachi's room where Sai was waiting.
"I trust my student's assessment in deeming the problem as not one we can fix. As this seems to be one of your problems, I doubt there's much I can do, Uchiha." Tsunade stated as she wheeled the bed next to Itachi's. "You'd better fix him. He's one of my best Shinobi."
Itachi was already in a seated position, Sai having told him ahead of time what the issue might be.
He had been receiving non-stop treatment from the moment he'd arrived, Tsunade going all out to ensure that those treating him were well aware of the asset he was the Konoha, rather than the traitor so many of them believed him to be. Still, would a Yamanaka not have been a better choice here? Or perhaps Jiraiya of the Sannin?
Itachi activated his Sharingan, not really seeing much if he was to be honest. If this world's Itachi survived he'd have practically no vision left. A few blurry blobs and some of the brighter colours came through. With his Sharingan active then he was at least able to see the chakra of those around him. It wasn't helpful when it came to civilians and everyday objects though.
He shuffled off the edge of his bed and approached Kakashi's. "Hold his eye open, the one with the Sharingan." Itachi asked, looking towards Shizune. Taking a deep breath Itachi steeled himself before diving into Kakashi's mind, in the same way he'd forced himself into Sasuke's.
He didn't have to dive deep. That meant the man was too distracted with other things to be worried about outside influences. Problematic for a man such as Hatake.
The world that greeted him was dark, yet not so much that he couldn't see anything. Perhaps void would have been a better descriptor. Seated before him were the two versions of the jonin, staring at each other, not a word being exchanged between them. In the void of Kakashi's mindscape there was a strange sensation of having nothing to stand on, yet something had to have been there for the men to be seated on the same level that Itachi was standing. That observation aside, Itachi immediately understood what the problem was.
They were fighting over who would take control of the body.
The jutsu itself gave the body to whomever had the stronger will. From Sasuke's memories one would assume the lazier Kakashi to be the weaker one? Appearances were certainly deceiving.
In this case, neither appeared weaker nor stronger than the other. If that was the case then one of the Kakashi's would have to decide to step back. Itachi briefly considered which version of Kakashi would be a better version to work with. The one he knew had its advantages but the Kakashi of this world had the home advantage.
"Hatake." Itachi stated carefully.
Both turned to look at him. One seemed mildly curious while the other immediately looked annoyed. "Yondaime-sama is not happy."
"I don't imagine he is, but I'm not leaving until I've completed what I came to do." Itachi shrugged, "I'm only here now because one of you needs to take control, or share it, I don't care. This world's Itachi let me lead quite happily. Either way, make something happen. This jutsu does have a time limit you know."
"Not one to beat around the bush are we?" Kakashi smiled at him, and Itachi found himself wishing that his own Hatake could be so relaxed in life.
"Not really. This little delay is causing problems for the mission." Itachi kept his gaze cool, his tone level.
"What mission are we talking about here?"
"You saw in those memories where Sasuke was when he was pulled to our world, it's been months. What do you think happened to his body?" Itachi said.
"He's most likely not going to have one to come back to." Kakashi muttered. "And from what I've been told, the jutsu is unravelling, and fast."
"Yes. We only have a few days at most."
"Alright, let's try shared consciousness. It shouldn't be too hard." Hatake stretched and Itachi moved backwards, looking towards the more relaxed of the Kakashi's "Remember what we discussed yesterday because between the two of you, you're going to need the Sharingan." He started retreating from Hatake's mind confident that the men would sort it out. He was considered a genius for good reason.
As Itachi came out of the mindscape Kakashi's eyes opened, a bright Sharingan spinning at the world before he hissed and the second lid closed. "That's going to take some getting used to."
"Sensei?" Sakura walked further into the room, worry creasing her brow.
"Try again." Kakashi replied pulling himself into a seated position while grabbing the headband on the side table and carefully tying it in place. A small frown and three careful adjustments to the headband placement later left no doubt as to which Kakashi was in charge.
"Oh come off it Hatake. She's as much your student as she is my teammate." Naruto grumbled, walking into the room with his arms folded behind his head. Kakashi couldn't help the lingering gaze, noting that it was definitely the younger Naruto in charge of the 16 year old body, but there were traces of the older Naruto's habits and personality traits in the way the boy moved. Muscle memory or overall influence?
"We have a mission to get to, I trust you're both ready to move out?" Kakashi chose to ignore the comment and decided to focus on the objective. Getting Itachi and Naruto to return to their true world. In order to do that, he had to ensure that Uchiha Sasuke's body was retrieved. Itachi wouldn't leave unless they did and Naruto probably had no idea how to even go back. Kakashi sure didn't. Leaving the jutsu to run its course seemed agonising when he considered that Sasuke had been in is world for months.
He could still see Sensei's sheepish grin as he shrugged "I'm sure Itachi-kun has it all figured out, so have fun." before he promptly activated the jutsu via a fist flying towards his face.
"Well sensei, we're ready to move out, but you're not." Sakura pointed out with a soft smile.
Kakashi looked down at himself, noting the shuriken patterned pyjamas, and suppressed the sigh. "Alright, I'll meet you by the village gates in 30 minutes. Take that time to make sure you're properly provisioned. Naruto, I want you to talk to Itachi about the mission parameters as well. Just in case."
Sakura exited the room as Kakashi disappeared out the window and Naruto obediently moved towards Itachi.
Sai had waited outside, somehow having the tact to just stay out of it until he was needed.
"I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed." Sakura admitted, putting a hand to her forehead. Sai remained silent, having not read a book on what to do if your friends had been taking over by a doppelganger. "Everything is just so rushed. But," Sakura paused to direct a hesitantly hopeful smile towards the silent ROOT shinobi. "We might be able to get Sasuke back out of all of this."
"I am interested to see how this scenario ends. Sasuke's situation is one I find most interesting." Sai agreed. Silently, he didn't want to admit that he was starting to feel a little anxious, an emotion he'd almost forgotten about. What happened to him when Sasuke came back?
.0.0.0.
In a rare moment of quiet, Minato found himself seated in Sasuke's room. The boy himself was still sleeping, but that didn't really matter. He'd sent Kakashi to assist Itachi, contemplated Obito, but Sasuke's memories left too many questions to really know if sending Obito would work. He knew why Itachi had gone. It was obvious. Hence, Kakashi had been sent over to help. He was so closely linked to the problem. Still . . . were those two enough? Could he send more?
He had some speculations about the jutsu but, it was an experimental jutsu. The only reason he'd sent Kakashi back was because Sasuke was proof it worked. At least in some way. It was highly possible that the original purpose of the jutsu wasn't what had happened. Who knew? The notes hadn't been very thorough to begin with.
While it might have been a quiet moment he still needed to do some work. He had had a small table brought in, with a small lamp and was making his way through a pile of reports too important for his assistants to handle. He pulled the next one towards himself and glanced over it briefly. A mission to Iwa, Shisui. It wasn't right but he signed it and moved on to the next. Shisui was extremely dependable. There were perhaps a few Shinobi with whom he could do that exact thing, not read the report, trust that the mission went according to script and merely sign off on the report.
A shifting from Sasuke's bed drew his attention away from Obitio's doodle ridden report.
The boy was staring at him, a hard stare that told him it was the older Sasuke still in charge.
"I'm told that you don't receive much information from those in the hospital." Minato began, deciding on a more forward approach. His tone was soft, gentle. Perhaps a remnant of his younger self.
"I," Sasuke paused to pull himself into a seated position, "I want to know how, and what's going on."
"How?" Minato snapped the report shut and pushed it aside. He knew from the boy's memories that he wasn't a patient child. How he'd managed thus far was rather commendable. "We found a jutsu in your, well I mean Sasuke's, apartment. Naruto found it actually. Seems you should give him a little more credit."
"Jutsu?"
The boy seemed to be reverting back to his former mannerisms. A separation of personalities, or perhaps no longer pretending?
"I can't really say with much certainty. What I can tell you is that it came from the library's theoretical jutsu section, the Uzumaki seals to be precise." Minato didn't mind the explanation. It was nice really, to be talking to someone so unaffected by his presence. "So it was a jutsu closer to completion than the inventor thought, or one purposefully abandoned given the application. It seems to be one that affects a user mentally by either sending one's self to another world, or bringing a version of oneself to this world from another world. What we'd hope at this point, would be for that world to be linked to this one. Honestly, if it's not then your brother must be having one heck of a time."
"My brother?" Sasuke asked with a confused tilt of his head.
"Itachi, it would appear, used the same jutsu but in order to go back to your world. From what I can gather about his reasons for doing so actually relates directly to you." Minato scratched the back of his neck as he glanced towards the side, "I mean I'm sure you've noticed how hard it's been for you to stay awake. We're not sedating you. What seems to be happening is that one day, soon, you'll probably go back to your world. Yamanaka Inoichi has deduced that the emotional instability you suffered from Naruto leaving and then seeing Orochimaru again must have upset the jutsu link. That or the jutsu has a time limit and you've just about reached it."
"And my brother has figured out what going back to my world means for me. Assuming time has moved since my arrival here and I won't simply return to the place and time I left from." Sasuke said.
"Oh, there's no assuming. The jutsu itself, while complex, has no hints of time in its makeup. Only space. So you'd return to your world with the same amount of time having passed that you spent here. If your body is still alive after such time, then you know that it's very likely in Orochimaru's possession." Minato clarified with a grim smile.
Sasuke didn't immediately reply. Minato didn't press him. He wondered if he should try another report, but before he could really make up his mind Sasuke spoke up.
"Why do I control this body and not the other Sasuke?"
A good question. Was it because he wasn't from this world? Or because he was older?
"It's hard to say. As this is an experimental jutsu one could make many assumptions. Your will is stronger than his, you're older, you have more chakra, you're not from this world, the jutsu dictates it?" Minato stood to stretch out his muscles which had begun to feel cramped. "If Itachi, Naruto, and Kakashi came back any time soon I could ask them what their experience was and I'd be able to make a better guess."
"Naruto?" Sasuke's attention was completely fixated on the blond Hokage, gaze sharper than it had been in weeks as he snapped his Sharingan towards Minato.
"Yes, it would appear that he went with Itachi. To help Itachi or simple curiosity I'm not sure." Minato frowned. "At any rate, I don't believe his intentions are malicious."
Minato could guess that the main reason was curiosity more than help. He probably hadn't even realised what had happened to Sasuke's body. It was more probable that after seeing Sasuke's world, he'd wanted to go there himself. Honestly, the thought was intriguing to Minato as well.
"You should go."
Minato returned his attention to Sasuke, that intensity still burning in his gaze.
The boy blinked and his Sharingan disappeared but he was no less invested in his statement. "I have no personal attachment to you. The Sasuke of this world does. Me, personally though, you're just some Hokage who died when I was a baby. I had no idea that you were Naruto's father. HE has no idea that you're his father." Sasuke continued, "So you should go to that world too."
"Sasuke . . ." Minato closed his eyes, "I don't know if I can."
His admittance was met with silence and Minato wondered if the boy had fallen asleep again.
He opened his eyes to see Sasuke staring at the floor in contemplation.
"Show me the jutsu."
"I doubt you're a seal master."
"No, I'm not, but Orochimaru had a lot of notes on seals. He had based a lot of his work off the curse seal. So maybe I can see something you can't." Sasuke seemed to be growing impatient.
Could he tell them something? Before Minato could make up his mind, Sasuke had fallen asleep again. Inoichi would have probably guessed that the emotional outburst had caused another disruption in the link.
Minato pulled the boy back into a more comfortable position, tucking the blanket around him before moving back to his reports.
The jutsu may have been in the theoretical section due to a failure, as the person who'd created the jutsu simply didn't exist in the other world. If a person couldn't go there in some form, then the jutsu couldn't activate, right?
Another thing to note, why was there a time difference between worlds if there was no time element in the jutsu itself?
Was one world physically younger than the other? Was one behind in time purposefully? Did it matter?
"Well Sasuke, I'd let you take a look at the jutsu if you could manage to stay awake long enough to hold a conversation." Minato smiled sadly as he spoke to the unresponsive boy.
Turning his attention back to the reports, he could only hope things were going better with his son.
.0.0.0.
Naruto was already set for his mission, and since he'd had to stay behind to catch up with Itachi he was closer to his destination than if he'd gone home first. So he had just enough time to complete Itachi's other request before going with Kakashi and Sakura.
And that Sai guy. He was a little weird but if Sakura was happy to be with him then that worked out.
"Where are we going?"
The question came from inside, from the older Naruto. He had a limited view of the world, his access to information coming in bits and pieces. It wasn't surprising that he didn't know much of what was going on.
"Somewhere you've probably never set foot in."
.0.0.0.
"Let's get this mission going. The quicker we get this done the better." Kakashi shifted the pack on his back before turning towards the trees. "We'll stop for a final mission briefing at sunset."
Sai took the rear while Naruto followed behind Kakashi. Sakura nodded to Sai before moving in front of him. She knew Sai was just trying to be cautious. How convenient, wasn't it? To have this other Naruto just fall into their laps. What if it was a ploy? An enemy with a highly creative tale. That's how Sai was trained to think and who could blame him?
Personally, Sakura was inclined to lean towards optimistically cautious. Perhaps there was another world, inexplicably linked to their own. Perhaps in that world Sasuke was happy, but the trade off was one very moody Naruto.
His enthusiasm for suddenly finding himself with far too much chakra had worn off. As such Sakura found him hard to be around. Especially when Naruto's usually bright blue-eyed smiles were now flat grey tsks of annoyance. Like Sasuke's, if she was honest with herself.
The difference was the pure venom in that gaze. Sasuke lacked it. He had been annoyed, sure. Always aloof. Yet, somehow, there was a warmth to Sasuke. Naruto might have identified that warmth as the bond they shared. The one Naruto never shut up about.
She would not have realised it had it not been for this Naruto's existence. He did not care about her. He hardly had the patience to listen to Kakashi, even though the man was currently the one he grew up with.
"He's like a small child."
Sakura glanced at Sai, noticing that she had fallen behind. Closer to Sai and far away enough to not be heard by Naruto if they did not speak too loudly.
"I see what you mean." Sakura agreed with a slight frown. "I'm not sure what happened in his world, but surely we can assume it's on the same level as the Uchiha Massacre."
"Do you think so? To me, he's acting like that child we saw in that town the other day. The one whose mother didn't want to give him the toy." Sai was referring to a mission they had completed several days ago. The boy's mother had looked exhausted as she'd just about torn her hair out over the wailing child at her feet. She didn't even seem to care that he was causing a scene. Sakura had felt even more sorry for the woman when the child's father had merely given in and bought the child the toy his mother said he couldn't have.
"I don't know. That was less directed. I mean Naruto is older, and he is a Shinobi so perhaps it's fair to say he's more motivated. It's not as childish as wanting something you can't have. We haven't known this version of Naruto for very long. We might be looking too deeply into this."
"More directed yet still childish. Anyone can want something they can't have." Sai reminded before falling back a few branches in order to more properly cover their backs. Sakura knew the conversation hadn't really done much other than remind her to stay alert. She'd been far too engrossed in her own thoughts.
She shrugged them off and focused on the mission. After all this would be the mission that brought Sasuke back to the village. No time to be sticking her nose in where it didn't belong. The mission would go a lot easier if she merely treated Naruto like a stand-in, a stranger to the team. That way, the mission got done, and the boy would go back to where he came from.
.0.0.0.
OMAKE
Kakashi raised a hand and the team thudded lighting to a stop on the branches around him. "We'll stop for the night in the clearing one-meter west. It will give us time to recoup and go over the battle plans."
As each member hurried about the tasks for night Kakashi took note that Sai was always careful to keep them in his sights.
"He's ROOT." A voice informed him. Almost like a whispered thought.
ROOT huh. What was a ROOT operative, a strangely emotional one, doing on their team?
"Eh, long story. Long story short, Danzou. Sai's a good shinobi, and strangely attached to Naruto. You shouldn't expect problems from him."
Kakashi moved to complete his own task of starting the fire. He was the only fire style user on the team. A firewood pile was growing in the centre of the clearing, and Kakashi focused his thoughts on building the wood into a sustainable structure. A small fire breath later and a cheerily crackling fire was going, hungrily consuming the wood being fed to it.
Kakashi was happy to oblige the ravenous flames, needing the fire to cook the food for the evening.
Sai had volunteered food collection, scouting the area for edible greens and such. Sakura had volunteered hunting some meat. Kakashi wasn't complaining. Sure beat ration bars.
Now to just keep an eye on the fire while he set up his sleeping area.
Searching his pockets and his pack he came to understand that this world's Kakashi wasn't too far from himself. Everything was where he'd normally pack it. In his haste to start the mission he'd grabbed when he could find and dashed out the door, hoping that the Kakashi in this world was decent enough to have a useful mission bag packed.
"Kakashi." A deadpan tone told him that Chibi Naruto was still in charge. He looked up, not welcoming the interruption.
"I want to take point on the mission." Naruto began, clearly eager to start their mission discussions.
Kakashi was all for those discussions after they'd had food. He went back to searching his pockets, fingers brushing the familiar texture of a book. Ah, maybe he'd have something to keep him busy, other than having to make small talk with Naruto. Pulling the book out gleefully he failed to fully take in the book's title. It wasn't bright orange so that was a plus already.
He flipped it open, intent on ignoring Naruto's ramblings, and began reading the words before promptly going red and tossing the book straight in the fire. "Honest–"
Kakashi didn't get to finish his spluttered sentence before he was yanked into the dark void of his mindscape.
Naruto watched as his sensei acknowledged him long enough to decide if he was worth ignoring before doing just that and pulling out a book. "I thought you hated Jiraiya's books?"
No response told him the man wasn't listening. So it was with great amusement that the man flipped the book open, and began reading the words, only to go bright red seconds later and fling the book out of his hands as though it had burnt him.
"NOOOOOOOO!" the pained screech ripped through the air as Kakashi just as suddenly leapt after the book and snatched it right out of the flames.
"My poor book." The tears were visible as the man hastily pat the book down, smothering the flames that had managed to catch. "This is a signed first edition. How could he?!" he tsked in outrage before, still ignoring Naruto, slunk off into the woods calling out for Sakura.
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