It had been twelve weeks.

Twelve weeks since Sakura woke up on a beach in a different world. She had known this was not her world by the way everything felt…off. The way the other dimensions Kaguya transported her to felt. It was subtle, but the way that her body and chakra reacted to the strange air around her and the gritty sand below her made her realize she had to be careful. There was no one familiar to her here to help her this time.

Twelve weeks since she learned the languages she needed. One, called Japanese, was similar enough the common tongue of her world that she picked it up in a few days. The other, English, took a little longer.

Twelve weeks since she used her ninja skills to spy on all sorts of people in the small town she found herself nearby and then even more in a city not far away. She learned so much more than the languages themselves from the time spent in the shadows, unseen by her targets.

Twelve weeks since she got new clothes of current trends and knives to replace kunai and shuriken she lost in the lava dimension. She left pieces of her torn up uniform in strategic places near the exact spot she appeared in this world. She never doubted that Team 7 would come for her, but she needed to relocate to avoid suspicion.

She sat in a small cat café, a henge disguising her pink hair as bluenette and her green eyes as blue. She wore an item called leggings, which were almost like some of the clothes from home, and an oversized sweater. She sipped a drink called a 'latte,' which had become her favorite beverage of this world, while scrolling a 'website' on her 'laptop.' The name of her computer sounded like a misnomer. The computer sat on a table while her lap was occupied with a cat.

There was so much more to learn. She kept herself busy learning so her mind did not have time to drift often to her home.

Each night she summoned a single shadow clone to keep watch, but also to keep learning. She used a few genjutsus on individuals known as 'hackers' to create an identity for herself through the internet. Very little could be done in this new world without the intangible enigma.

She monitored news from the town she came from. She checked CCTV footage of places she had carefully marked for one of her teammates or sensei to find. There was always nothing.

She looked down at the calendar app on her toolbar and could not stop the painful squeeze of her heart. What if they never found her?

She knew they would never stop trying, but the terrifying reality was they had no idea where she was and no idea how to reach her. They had all learned about the existence of other worlds together while fighting Kaguya. Her friends and team could be scouring hundreds of worlds for years and not be any closer to finding her on this specific one.

She shook her head and resumed petting the sleeping cat. It began to purr in its sleep and brought her the slightest comfort.

She closed the web browser and sighed.

There had to be something useful she could do while she waited.

The world she found herself in did not have shinobi as she knew them. They did not use chakra – the word existed in their vocabulary, but it had a vastly different meaning – nor did they practice the healing arts as she knew them. She could become a mercenary for hire but would be immensely restricted in what abilities she could use on the job. She could try being a doctor, but it would require much more study of how they did things, and she would still have to limit herself.

Frustrated, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the booth she was sitting on. Her hand stilled on the feline and its purring decreased in volume.

Maybe she should travel the next city? Avoid getting too familiar to the people around her. Or maybe create another new identity and choose a different henge so she could return to the small town and be closer to where Team 7 would start looking for her?

And then what? Make an endless parade of new identities and die of old age?

She shook her head once more and leaned forward to reopen the web browser to start a new search.

Maybe there were new odd jobs posted on the site she had been using to earn some cash. She had repaid the debts she incurred when she stole items she needed the first few days, but the meager earnings she made only kept her afloat. If she wanted to do anything more significant, she needed to save up.

An hour later saw Sakura catching a bus to the outskirts of the city, the glamour of the interior fading as the humbler parts became visible. She was en route to a job clearing out an estate. Those jobs typically paid well, and she was able to take a few leftover items if she wished. For some reason, this job was offering almost twice the normal rate. She would have been concerned if it were not for the comments made by persons formally hired to do so ranting about a ghost.

Sakura knew very well that death was not necessarily the end, but no one in this world could possibly use the endo tensei. She had nothing to worry about. An old creepy house was nothing compared to things she had been through even as a mere genin.

She would soon come to a different conclusion.

She began the job like she would any other. She surveyed the area to be sure she was alone. If she wasn't, she would act like a normal civilian. Since she was truly alone this time, she stepped inside the door, dropped the henge, and freely used chakra to get the job done in almost no time.

The first odd thing was the cold spots. No big deal, it wasn't the first old building she had been in that had uneven heating and cooling. The odd cold spot by itself wasn't concerning.

She then saw the lights flicker. Something that itself was not out of the realm of normal in this world. But her ninja training did not teach believing coincidences. She hesitated only a moment, still so unsure in this foreign world.

She resumed her henge in the event these strange occurrences were the foreshadowing of someone coming.

She continued as if she noticed nothing, but her senses were on full alert.

She felt a shiver run down her spine as another strange cold spot suddenly flared to life in the same spot she was standing and emptying the contents of a cabinet into a box. She was nowhere near the registers that pumped the cold air out, and only a moment prior it had actually been quite warm.

The lights flickered once more, but violently, turning off completely for a few moments. Sakura turned slowly, chakra reaching out from her body, searching for the threat.

She narrowed her eyes at a deathly pale old woman standing behind her. Her chakra did not contact a solid body, but she did not detect a genjutsu either. "Who are you," she asked, sliding into a defensive position.

The woman said nothing, but her slight scowl transformed into a hate-filled snarl. She threw out an arm in Sakura's direction, and Sakura went flying.

Being thrown through a wall was not the worst thing that ever happened to her. By far. But this instance was maybe one of the strangest. Intangible things had never thrown her before.