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A Fork Stuck in the Road

Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.

It was a bad idea.

Kakashi had known from the get go it wasn't going to end well, but his gut—which rarely ever let him down—told him to let the chips fall where they may. Sakura was an anomaly in every sense of the word. She was neither here nor there, and Kakashi needed to study her further to make up his mind about her. He still wasn't fully convinced with his own hypothesis that she had arrived here from a different point in time.

They walked to the clearing facing Training Ground 3 in silence. He had watched her mood dip earlier, presumably upon facing another dead end with the scroll and pen. But the moment she heard Obito's name, that cloud of disappointment hanging over her head had cast a dark shadow on her face.

Sakura was odd and erratic. A little unhinged too, perhaps. But there was something about her that felt vaguely familiar. Kakashi had a sense of smell stronger than most shinobis. He wasn't far behind his ninken in that regard, and just like them, he believed smells always said a lot more than people realized.

Every smell told a story.

When he first discovered her injured body, she had reeked of blood, grime, and death. Whether it was an espionage mission gone awry, or an ambush attack that claimed the rest of her team—she had just come from a place that had been dealt a devastating blow. Now that she'd had an opportunity to wash, her base smell was more prominent. She looked like spring incarnate, but she carried the distinct scent of a long stoked fire—smokey, earthy, indomitable—like one that might burn bright on a cold, winter night. An oddly familiar scent for someone so entirely foreign.

So, a menace she may have been, but Kakashi felt curiously invested in watching what she would do next.

They reached the meeting point. There was a giant weeping willow standing delicately at the mouth of the clearing. Kakashi especially appreciated the shade it afforded passersby—not just from the sun but also the rest of the world—with its heavy branches drooping with leaves shivering in the breeze.

They were the first to arrive as he suspected. Their usual patterns holding—Rin would arrive next, any moment now, while Obito had probably just realized he had somewhere to be, and was scrambling through the streets to make his way over.

"Where is Obito?" Sakura asked gruffly, looking out into the clearing.

"Clearly not here yet."

Sakura turned to him and scowled. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit of a smartass?"

"I wouldn't be here with you if I wasn't a smartass."

"You're also in the habit of stating the obvious, aren't you?"

"Only because the obvious is often not very obvious to a lot of people."

Sakura stared at him, annoyed and unamused. "Do you know what a rhetorical question is, little Kakashi?" She asked, sneering.

"I'm not little," he said, with an edge of defensiveness. "How old are you anyway?"

"I'm sixteen," she said, jutting her chin out as if asking him to challenge her on that. "I can see that you are obnoxiously sharp in many ways, but logical thinking isn't everything. There is such a thing called emotional intelligence. Ever heard of it?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes at her. "Spare me."

Sakura took a moment to collect herself, and with what seemed like new resolve, she began, "You know, if I am going to set things right, I might as well start with you."

Kakashi instantly knew that that had been a jab at his older self, the one from wherever her point in time was. He raised a questioning brow, and said, "I've been curious about this too. How old am I where you are from?"

"I'm actually not sure." Sakura furrowed her brows, and shrugged. "Old enough to be a jounin instructor."

"I'm old enough to be a jounin instructor right now."

"Okay, how about this?" Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, and took a deep breath to dispel her irritation. "You were an adult when I was twelve. You were the assigned jounin instructor for my team when we graduated from the academy. A much, much older version of you—one who is not shorter than me."

"You have very ill manners in that case."

Sakura blanched. "I'm perfectly well-mannered, thank you very much."

"I don't know that I would favor you very much if this is how you speak to your sensei."

"You," Sakura pointed at him, fuming. "–are not my sensei."

Kakashi looked at her unperturbed. She continued when he didn't say anything.

"And you're not the poster child for good manners either, so—"

"I'm not a child—"

"Kakashi!" He heard Rin's voice, calling as she made her way over to the weeping willow through the dirt path. She walked up the last few steps, looking at Sakura curiously.

"Hey Rin."

"Hey," She said, looking at Kakashi, then turning to Sakura, she added, "Are you feeling better now?"

The frown on Sakura's face dissolved. "Yes. Do I know you?" She asked, not unkindly.

Kakashi, noticing the gap in their acquaintance, quickly turned to Sakura and provided. "This is Rin, the third member of Team Minato." Rin smiled, and shyly waved a hand at Sakura. Kakashi continued turning to his teammate, and pointing at Sakura, "Rin, this is Sakura. She came from the future."

"From the future?" Rin's eyes widened like saucers, brows almost rising to her hairline.

"Well, we're not entirely sure yet," Kakashi said, shrugging. "But that's the running theory right now."

Rin continued to look between Kakashi and Sakura like she had been left out of a joke they were in on. "Ohhhkay," She said, smiling nervously. "It's good to see you again Sakura."

"It's very nice to meet you, Rin." Sakura said, smiling in return.

Kakashi caught a flicker of doubt on Sakura's face. It was gone before it really set in, imperceptible like a good many things about her.

"Are you guys preparing for a mission?" Sakura asked, mostly to Rin.

"Not really," Rin said, unhooking the straps of her backpack off her shoulders. "They haven't started dispatching genin teams out yet."

Sakura furrowed her brows at that, thoughtfully chewing her bottom lip.

"Is that–, is that what I think it is?" Rin asked, index finger slowly rising to point at Sakura's forehead.

Sakura's fingers flew to her forehead, as she nodded. "This is my Byakugou seal."

"Whoa." Rin took a step forward, eyes glazing over in awe. "I thought only Tsunade-sama had one. Does this mean you can summon Katsuyu-sama too?"

Sakura nodded, smiling softly at the younger girl.

Rin continued in a dazed state, "Do you think you could teach me how to do it too?"

Sakura took a step forward, and bent slightly to level her gaze with Rin. "How old are you, Rin?"

"Thirteen!"

"What a coincidence!" Sakura exclaimed. "I was about thirteen when I started working towards my seal too."

"Really?!"

"Yes," Sakura nodded, looking absolutely delighted.

"I've only seen Katsuyu-sama from a distance. What is she like up close?"

Sakura thought about this for a moment. "She's very gentle and very soft. An invaluable asset in the battlefield, because of her healing abilities."

"Wow." Rin jumped in excitement, hands clapped together in front of her chest. "That is so cool. You are so cool, Sakura-san!"

Sakura looked at her fondly, eyes and lips wearing a knowing smile. She ruffled the top of Rin's head, and asked, "How is your chakra control?"

"Rin has the most stable chakra control in our team," Kakashi interjected, stealing the attention of the two girls who had more or less forgotten he existed.

"That is excellent." Sakura replied, then turning back to Rin, added, "Just keep focusing on honing your chakra control. That is the key to–"

"AAAaaahhhh–"

A strangled yell sounded from the distance, followed up by the rustling of jostled leaves and then, something dropping from the tree with a thump.

"Obito," Kakashi said, shaking his head in immediate disapproval.

"I'm alright!" Obito shouted to let them know, even though no one had asked.

He stood up, plucking a few dried leaves off of his hair, and started running towards them, straightening his visor.

Kakashi felt a cold chill materialize to his side. Normally, he would have shrugged off any agitation he felt at Obito's appearance because it was on par for the course. But this chill had the hair on his arms standing in attention. He turned to his side to look at Sakura, and too late realized what it was that he had sensed.

Her killing intent.

Before Obito had even closed half the distance between them, before Rin could process what was happening, before Kakashi had willed his limbs to move in order to intercept the strange girl with the strange head of pink hair—she had launched herself across the clearing and landed her blow.

One moment Obito had been quickly approaching them, the next he had been slammed against the very tree he had dropped out of.

"Obito!" Rin yelled, running in his direction.

Sakura moved again before Rin could make it to Obito, but this time, Kakashi was prepared. He zipped past the blur of pink to his groaning teammate, who was struggling to sit up straight.

The ground shook like thunder, as the tree Obito had been flung against was blown apart with a single fist.

Kakashi had managed to pluck a prone Obito away from the line of Sakura's attack in the nick of time.

As the dust settled, he surveyed the damage she had caused with one blow–just one blow–and he heard his own voice whisper in awe, "What monstrous strength..."

"STOP HURTING HIM PLEASE!"

Rin's piercing shriek made Sakura take pause. She froze and looked on as Rin ran to the side where Kakashi had landed with Obito.

Kakashi scanned Sakura's face for any clues, but for the abundance of caution he wanted to take, he could tell that she was done. The killing intent she had been buzzing with only a few moments earlier was gone.

"Obito!" Rin called, her eyes carefully hovering over his form to assess his injury. Kakashi looked down where he had his teammate's head cradled in his lap, and was relieved to see that Obito was conscious.

"What the… What just happene–ahhhhh," Obito grabbed his leg and howled in pain before he could finish.

"Don't move!" Rin admonished, hands glowing green and eyes brimming with tears. The cloth of Obito's trousers was torn over his right calf, revealing a stretch of mottled blue skin. She put her chakra-charged hands over his injured leg, looking on with concentration.

"There are multiple fractures on the tibia. I can help with the pain, but not much else. The fractures are too fine. We need to get him to the hospital."

"Thanks, Rin. It doesn't hurt so much anymore," Obito managed to say, though his eyebrows were still scrunched in distress.

A shadow loomed over Obito's contorted face. Rin whipped around to face Sakura, throwing her arms wide open to use her own body as a barricade. Shaking, she stammered, "Y–you can't, you can't do this."

Kakashi moved like the lightning he was learning to harness. His base response to attack her had been curved by the look of trepidation on her face, so he decided playing defense would be wisest for now.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He growled, jumping in front of Rin wielding his tanto.

Sakura looked at him, with eyes that relayed defeat. "I don't know. I honestly don't know, Kakashi."

She moved, her arm raised to push aside the wrist holding his tanto and footsteps dragging, through the soft grass.

Rin watched Sakura, shaking with dread. "I won't let you hurt him!" She yelled at the girl she had just been fawning over not five minutes ago. She moved to stand up and jump into a fighting stance, still shielding Obito's body with her own.

"I won't hurt him," Sakura said, weakly. Rin must have sensed the change in her energy, because she slowly relaxed, letting her fists unclench just as she let her arms drop to her sides.

Kakashi moved closer, still on guard. This girl was regretting her actions at best, or actually completely unhinged at worst. He didn't want to take any chances.

Sakura inched closer to Obito, who looked at her with dread dancing in his eyes. "Hey–hey lady, I don't know what your deal is, but it wasn't me. I didn't do anything. I swear it wasn't me!"

If she heard Obito, she didn't let on. Soundlessly, she moved to crouch by Obito's battered leg, and raised a glowing green hand over the bruised and swelling skin.

"Let's use our words to talk, okay? Put that hand down. Please?" Obito begged, coming up on his elbows and trying to drag himself away with no success.

Rin dropped on her knees by their side, examining Sakura's work with extreme confusion. "How are you doing that?"

"How is she doing what? Oh my god, is she cutting my leg off?! I can't feel anything!" Obito moaned, trying to sit up higher to get a look at his leg. "Oh, it's green. Green is good, right Rin?"

"Yes," Rin said, not looking away from Sakura's handiwork. "She is healing the fractures, the cracks are just… seamlessly closing up."

Kakashi knew enough about medical ninjutsu to recognize why Rin was dumbstruck. Mending broken bones was a fairly serious procedure—one which required careful observation and planning. When Kakashi broke his wrist last year, he'd had to spend a whole day at the hospital for treatment. First, they took x-rays to study the fracture. Then, a kind, middle-aged medic had painstakingly spent the better part of an hour bent over his wrist, trying to weave the fracture back together. Kakashi had gone into the ER a little after noon and been discharged at dusk.

Sakura was done in three minutes.

She dusted her hands, as she put her weight on her knee to stand up. Rin was staring at the smooth, unblemished skin of Obito's flesh. Obito was looking at his own leg skeptically like she had cast a genjutsu on him, instead of actually healing him.

Kakashi looked at his teammates, both in different states of disbelief. He looked at the jagged stump of the trunk where the tree that Sakura had decimated once stood. He noticed for the first time then, the cracks that had formed in the ground—starting from the base of the trunk, the earth split open in zigzagging streaks shooting outward.

It took a lot for Kakashi to be impressed. In fact, the most recent thing he remembered that had really taken him aback was seeing Minato's Hiraishin in action for the first time, which had been years ago.

Sakura turned around, and started walking away from Rin and Obito. With arms hanging heavily on her sides and sagging shoulders, she meandered toward the dirt path. Kakashi silently followed in her stead.

They said you never forget the path home.

Sakura wondered if that held true even if there was no home where she remembered.

She looked at the stretch of open land in front of her. This was part of the village where her neighborhood resided. Bustling shops, street vendors lined up on the side, shouting their special of the day, endless signs and sounds of life in every corner—replaced by nothing. The sight of tall green, grass coming up to her knees and open blue skies had never been so depressing before.

"What are you doing here?" She heard Kakashi say. He had followed her all the way from the training fields, but decided to stay a few steps behind. Sakura wasn't sure why, but she appreciated the space.

"This is where my house is," She said, turning to face Kakashi. "Where my house was, or will be, I suppose." Behind him, in the distance, Sakura could see three faces carved up in the Hokage mountain. There was no Godaime. Even the Yondaime–whose face had always been a fixture of the Hokage mountain in her lifetime–was nowhere to be found.

"You can get a new one," Kakashi offered, interrupting her thoughts. "A house is just a place where you sleep."

Her eyes found Kakashi again, standing in front of her, with his silver hair swaying in the wind. Sakura thought about his big, empty house, and knew there could be no good reason for why a twelve-year-old was living there on his own. Yet, the simple idea that a house was just a place to inhabit, like there could be no sentimentality or precious memories tied to it, was strangely comforting. For a moment, she really wanted to believe that finding her way back home would be as straightforward as finding a new house to live in.

"Is that right?" She asked, deftly masking the bitterness in her voice.

The truth was that Sakura wanted to believe in something.

Anything.

Because right now, it felt like she was floating weightlessly in an impossible dream. Defying the laws of gravity and the rationale of all logic, she was being swept upstream by the currents.

There was a bone deep resignation settling within her, and she didn't know what to do with it.

"You can stay with me," Kakashi said, scratching the back of his neck.

Sakura had been so sure that killing Obito was the answer. There would be no war if there was no Obito. That first knuckle to his face had felt so right, like she was delivering rightful retribution.

That was feeling was quick to dissipate when the bright young girl whose acquaintance she had just made screamed bloody murder. It triggered memories of her own horror and helplessness in the Forest of Death when she had been left on her own to defend her teammates. It was only then that Sakura carefully looked at the boy she had meant to kill and seen him for what he was—literally just a child.

A little boy, who looked no more harmful than Naruto had been at twelve. Rin's desperate effort to protect her teammate with everything she had in herself mirrored her own worst fears. Even Kakashi had looked at her with alarm and suspicion in his eyes.

What had she been thinking?

She could not murder an innocent child in cold blood; not after the sobering reminder that the pain she would be inflicting was one she had suffered herself.

"I almost killed your friend. Why are you being nice to me?"

"Idiot's not really my friend," Kakashi corrected her, frowning. "But you also healed him."

"I never took you for a glass half full kinda person."

"I'm not."

"Then why?"

"Because I believe you."

Sakura startled at that.

What did it mean when someone believed in you when you couldn't be sure what you believed in?

She could tell Kakashi meant it though, and that sparked a glint of hope and something like assurance in her chest in spite of the overwhelming impossibility of her circumstance.

"I do," He said again, with a seriousness she wasn't accustomed to seeing in her older sensei. "I believe you."

There was a strong gust of wind that threw her hair in complete disarray. She spotted something peculiar in her periphery, right before she closed her eyes shut to keep the tips of her hair from poking her eyeballs.

"Who do you believe, Kakashi?"

A flash of yellow she would have missed if she'd shut her eyes a moment sooner.

"Sensei! You're back!" Kakashi exclaimed, his eyes lighting up in a way Sakura hadn't seen before.

"And who is this?" Namikaze Minato asked, nodding at her with a smile.

Sakura was gobsmacked. She took a moment to gather her wits and nervously scuttled closer to Kakashi, looking at him expectantly.

"Oh, this is Sakura. She came from the future–OW!"

She elbowed him discreetly in a desperate bid to make sure he didn't make her sound like a lunatic in front of the Yondaime.

The Yondaime.

"Ha," She started, putting on a fake smile. "I'm–I'm just a relative who is visiting from out of the village! R–right, Kakashi?"

"Yes, she is a um-, cousin," Kakashi echoed, scowling. "A very, very, distant cousin."

tbc

/

quote at the top is from the green day song time of your life.

i'm going to try to get into a weekly updating schedule, life permitting.

thank you so much to everyone who commented in the last chapter! it means a lot to me when you take time to leave a thought or two. and so, as always, feedback would be most appreciated!