Chapter XI. Villains Never Lie

? ? ? Earlier.

Quietly, Kakashi moved along the edges of the building, straining his ears as he neared his targets. As soon as he caught wind of voices, he froze, wary of being seen or heard. When it seemed certain that nobody had noticed his presence, he moved closer until he could fully make out their words:

"...Names aren't really important," Asuma said. He was staring at one of his students—Shikamaru, if Kakashi recalled correctly. To his right stood a dark-haired girl about Shikamaru's age. "Since I'm not from this world, my name wouldn't mean anything. If anything, calling me by anything other than..."

"..Asuma-sensei," Shikamaru said warily.

"..Asuma, yes. It'd be dangerous to use anything else, if anyone were to overhear us."

"Right. So... Asuma-sensei..." Shikamaru said, "Let me get this straight. You're telling me that you three are from another world—"

"More of an alternate dimension, really—"

"And that Ino has the ability to re-write and even recreate the universe."

"Right," Asuma said.

"And that the three of you were dragged here by a group of—" Shikamaru struggled to recall the word.

"..Sliders," Asuma supplied helpfully, although his tone was anything but.

"—people who can travel between alternate dimensions."

"Yes."

Shikamaru stared at him. "But why?"

Next to Asuma, Hinata blinked. She moved her mouth, mechanically, and spoke in a dull tone. "My mission—is to observe—"

Asuma cleared his throat, interrupting her. "We have no idea what their motivations are. What we do know is that they're dangerous, and at large." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow as Asuma continued, "That's why it's very important that we locate them as soon as possible. They are, in effect, the only people with the power to safely return us to our own universe. You figured us out more quickly than I anticipated, which doesn't bode well for us blending in. If you'd be so kind as to help us out here, I think it would be in everyone's best interest. And I do mean everyone's. For example, it's unlikely that we'll be able to locate those responsible without help. It'd be useful to know who is acting like themselves and who isn't."

"I see..." Shikamaru said slowly. He seemed like he was weighing his options, with the most prominent being, what were the odds of him outrunning a jonin?

"I know you don't believe me," Asuma said, "But you will. You've already seen some of what Ino is capable of. It's all true - Ino has the power to change the universe. You must know I'm not lying about that. And how do you think someone like Ino would react if you tried to turn us all in, or run, or confront her? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be the one standing in the way of an unstable person who is capable of destroying the world if she gets too frustrated."

"What exactly do you want from me, then? Information?"

"Do I really have to repeat myself?" Asuma sounded irritated.

"Well, to start with, Asuma-sensei doesn't sound anything like you," Shikamaru said.

"Oh, really?" Asuma said, wrinkling his nose. "How so?"

"I don't know," Shikamaru shrugged. "For starters, Asuma doesn't sneer as much. He's a patient, laid-back sort of guy. He's agreeable, he doesn't talk nearly as much as you do, and on top of that, you're way too—" He frowned. "Actually, you know, I haven't seen you smoke a single cigarette, either."

"Ah..." Asuma's face was blank. After a moment, he relaxed his body and his face broke into a smile. "Thank you for the advice. What a relief—and here I thought you were going to be difficult."

"Look, I'm only doing this because Ino—"

"I know, I know—"

"—and I don't want to be the one responsible if the world goes to hell—"

"As long as we keep Ino happy, everything should be fine. For the most part. In any case, it's best that we don't interfere with anything Ino does for now. Trust me - any damage done to this world will be completely reversed once we return. I promise."

"If you really want my help, I'm going to need more proof of who you say you are, and of what you claim Ino can do."

"You've already seen—Ugh, fine," Asuma sighed. "Hinata?"

At the sound of her name, Hinata seemed to wake back up. "Ye—es?"

"Show him." To Shikamaru, he said, "Don't mind her. She's still adjusting to this location."

Frowning, Kakashi retreated back into the shadows and disappeared from sight.

Presently.

"Obviously, the Hokage would have cleared out and thrown away any incriminating evidence, but it would have been too suspicious for them to have destroyed everything."

Sasuke and Sakura were at the Uchiha residence. The floor was littered with a large assortment of papers, ranging from old medical records to half-empty day-planners that Sasuke had collected from the empty houses in the Uchiha district. Sakura also spotted a copy of the Shinobi handbook and what looked like several old academy textbooks.

With the second exam finished and the finals a little over three weeks away, Sasuke evidentally had a bit too much free time on his hands. The preliminaries had been skipped this time, for whatever reason. Sakura wasn't sure if it was because less applicants had made it to the third exam, or if it was because Ino had forgotten about them.

No, that's ridiculous. Ino was changing things, but not creating them. I mean, even if Ino had some sort of influence over what was happening, the world they were in was too accurate for someone like Ino to be solely responsible, right?

As if waking up in a new world as dangerous as this one wasn't scary enough... having to deal with the fallout was far worse...

"Sakura, stop spacing out!" Sasuke was scowling at her. "This is important."

"Right," Sakura said dully. "I'm listening." But I really wish I wasn't.

"As I was saying..." Sasuke continued, poring over the documents on the floor. None of it looked particularly important to her. Yes, those were definitely grocery lists Sasuke had stripped off of some old refrigerators... and was that someone's photo album?

"This goes even deeper than I thought. I mean, just think about it."

Sakura was thinking about it alright, and frankly, it was starting to worry her. Apparently, Sasuke did not take failure well. He must really have wanted to test himself against Gaara. Having to watch Naruto face off in the finals later is just too much for him to handle.

"Don't you think it's strange that out of the two founding clans, only the Senju have been Hokages? Not a single Uchiha? You know, it's all here. Madara was worried that the Senju wanted completely control over the village. The First claimed that wasn't the case, but if that were really true, why wouldn't they have appointed an Uchiha as the second Hokage?"

Sakura wished she had something insightful to add, but this really wasn't her area of expertise.

"Yeah, that's right. Instead of an Uchiha Hokage we ended up with another Senju."

Personally, Sakura found that whole backstory was unbelievably boring. She didn't remember a whole lot outside of thinking, "Wait, is Sasuke good or bad? When is he going to reunite with Naruto? Who is Sakura going to end up with?" But instead what she got was more village-founding flashbacks… So, all things considered, her memories of that part of the manga were a little hazy.

"And it doesn't end there. Look at the Third. Not only did they pass over my clan again, but the Second went and selected his own student. And the fourth was practically the same story. It's blatant favoritism. Not only is it favoritism, but every single Hokage so far has been related to the Senju in some way. It's... " Sasuke struggled to find the right words, "It's like a political dynasty. Even when the Senjus aren't in control of the office of Hokage directly, they are indirectly in control by placing their students in a position of power."

"Well," Sakura said, after realizing Sasuke was waiting for her to respond, "It only makes sense that the Hokage would want to choose a protégé that he trusted. I don't think there's anything strange about that…"

"Yeah, except that the only reason Hashirama was appointed Hokage over Madara was because they called for democratic election," Sasuke said. "What a joke. So what, Hashirama gets appointed by popular vote, but the rest of the Hokages are chosen by the previous Hokage? How does that make any sense?"

Ugh, I don't know, Sasuke! Just leave me alone! Who cares?

"I care!" He said, waving a piece of paper in her face, as if to emphasize his point (although Sakura was sure that particular piece of paper was blank). "If Hashirama was so interested in the popular vote, then why not open it up to popular vote again? Or here's a better one: Why didn't Hashirama appoint an Uchiha as the next Hokage, since he was the one who claimed he wanted Madara to have the role to begin with?"

"I don't know!"

"I'll tell you why, Sakura. Hashirama did it because never intended for Madara to be Hokage. It was all for show. Tobirama and Hashirama had it all worked out beforehand," Sasuke said. "The election was rigged."

Sakura covered her face with her hands and groaned. "No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was."

"Just because an Uchiha hasn't been Hokage yet doesn't mean that there's some conspiracy to keep the Uchiha out of positions of power—"

"That's exactly what it means!"

"—and do you have any proof? I mean, real proof?"

"I don't need proof. It's obvious," Sasuke said, clearly agitated by the direction the discussion had taken. "Every Hokage in power has either been a Senju or a Senju puppet."

This conversation was going no where good. "Weren't you talking about Ino earlier? I don't see what this has to do with the Chunin Exams at all…"

"Isn't it obvious? Ino is the daughter of Tsunade Senju, and the first of Hashirama's descendants to have access to Mokuton. Just you watch, Sakura. She's going to pass the Chunin Exams, she's going to make chunin and when she's older, they're going to make her the next Hokage. All because she's a Senju. Face it: it isn't about who's the most powerful ninja in the village. It's about who's already in power... and it's going to stay that way, too, because the only clan that's ever had the power to rival the Senju was the Uchiha, and they're—"

"Excuse me," Kakashi said, poking his head through the doorway to the living area. "Just checking in on everyone." When they both simply stared up at him with blank faces, Kakashi sighed. "You both missed training this morning."

Oh, that was still a thing?

"Look, I realize you two won't be participating in the final exams, but that doesn't mean life won't go on as usual. Cheer up. There's always next year?"

"Team training, huh?" Sasuke said. "And what team are you talking about?"

"Ah..." Kakashi looked back and forth between his two students, unsure if that was a rhetorical question or if Sasuke actually expected an answer. "Team Seven..?"

"Team Seven. Right," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That's funny, since I'm pretty sure you can't be on two genin teams. And since Naruto is on Team Ino, he can't be a member of Team Seven. And if we don't have a third member, then we aren't really a genin team, are we?" Sasuke crossed his arms and glared. "So I have no idea what team training you're talking about."

There was a moment of silence as Kakashi stared back at them. He opened his mouth, about to speak, but then seemed to think better of it and smiled instead.

"Right. Well, it's all a bit too complicated to explain. While it's true that Naruto has been temporarily assigned to another team, the three of us will continue on until the end of the exams."

"So Naruto really is with Ino's team now?" Sakura said, frowning. An unpleasant thought was beginning to form in the back of her mind. Because if Naruto is with Ino, then...

"Shouldn't Naruto be training with Ebisu?" Sakura blurted out.

Kakashi blinked at her. "..No?" He was looking at her strangely.

"I-I just mean..." Sakura bit her lip. Of course he wouldn't be training with Ebisu... Kakashi didn't need to take Sasuke out for private, one-on-one chidori lessons either if he wasn't participating in the exams. And even if Kakashi did decide to teach Sasuke chidori, there's no reason Naruto wouldn't be training with Ino instead. It was too much to hope that Ino would remember or even care about continuity. If Naruto didn't train with Ebisu, he wouldn't end up training with Jiraiya. And no Jiraiya was bad news.

"I think training with Ebisu would be good for him," Sakura said slowly. "I-I mean, um... Naruto could really use some one-on-one training... The exams are really dangerous..."

"Who cares?" Sasuke snorted. "He's on Team Ino, remember? I'm sure they'll all be fine. They'll probably all pass with flying colors."

"Mm, well, Sasuke does have a point," Kakashi said, "Naruto is out of my hands now. I wouldn't worry about him."

Really, really bad news.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said. "Can I talk to you?"

"Of course!" Kakashi smiled. He proceeded to stand there, looking down at her expectantly.

"Um," Sakura glanced at Sasuke, who had gone back to rummaging through one of the stacks of papers he had scattered across the floor of the living room. "I meant alone..."

"Ah," Kakashi said. "Come on, then." He motioned for her to follow. Relieved, she trailed behind him out through the door, leaving Sasuke to... whatever it was he was doing.

As soon as they stepped out back and Sakura had checked to make sure the door was soundly shut, she turned towards Kakashi.

Now that she was staring at him, though, she couldn't seem to find the words.

"Naruto needs to train with Ebisu-sensei," Sakura finally spoke. "It's very important."

"I see," Kakashi said. "And why is that?"

"I..." This was a lot harder than she thought it would be. Kakashi was staring at her, as patiently and obliviously as ever. Would he even believe her? Sakura could feel her stomach muscles tense, her throat closing up as she imagined the worst possible scenario coming true. What was she supposed to say to that? How was she supposed to explain? This was ridiculous. Everything was just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And Ino...

"What's going on with Ino?" Sakura said, her voice quiet. "Why did they let her pass the exam?"

"Ino?" Kakashi's brow furrowed, as if this question was out of the blue—as if it's something he hadn't yet stopped to think about. "Oh, right. I'm not too sure. I'm not on the exam board and the rules are a bit fuzzy—"

"They can't be that fuzzy," Sakura interrupted. "I know for a fact that this isn't how things work. And I know that—" She stopped, frustrated. "If Sasuke can figure it out, then you can too. You have to know something."

Kakashi blinked at her slowly, once, twice. And remained silent.

Why was he playing dumb? He was playing dumb, wasn't he?

Oh no, Sakura thought. What if Kakashi's mind has been messed up? After all, Ino was in no way related to Orochimaru, and yet, he really had said those things back in the forest. What if Kakashi had been changed by her, too? What was going on?

I really can't take this anymore.

"Ino isn't Ino!" Sakura finally blurted out. "You know that, don't you? She looks like Ino, but she's someone else. She's-she's an impostor! She's from another world! And she's changing things!"

"Sakura—"

"And I'm not Sakura, either! I'm—well, I don't know who I am exactly, but I'm not from here and I'm definitely not a ninja, and—"

"Sakura, I already know."

Sakura stopped talking immediately. Her mind was blank. He what? What had he said?

She opened her mouth to speak—to say anything, really—but Kakashi interrupted her:

"Not here. It isn't safe," Kakashi said. "We should go somewhere more private to talk. It would be unfortunate if Sasuke overheard us."

That's how Sakura found herself sitting in Kakashi's flat, with a hot cup of tea in her hands. For some reason, she still felt cold...

It was understandable, though. This was a lot to take in.

"You... heard Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru talking?" Sakura said.

"Yes," Kakashi confirmed with a nod. "After that first joint meeting we had, I got suspicious. Ino had already been acting strangely, but it was obvious to me that Asuma was not himself."

"I see..." Sakura wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't even for a moment suspected that Asuma was from their world. On the other hand, he hadn't reacted at all to Ino's odd behavior. But then again, neither had anyone else, outside from Sasuke.

"As you and Sasuke already know, what happened during the second exam was not normal. Far from it, in fact." Kakashi pursed his lips, frowning into his tea. His mask was down, and the material had gathered a few inches below his chin. "If Asuma is telling the truth—and I know this might be hard to believe—then Ino is a person who has the power to create and destroy the world at will."

"Create... and destroy the world?"

Is that why Ino could use Mokuton? And why Orochimaru had confirmed her story?

That was crazy, though. That sort of thing just didn't exist.

Oh, who am I kidding? Sakura thought. I'm in a world ripped straight out of a manga. What do I know about anything? "But... how? Does Asuma know who Ino is? Does he know me? Why don't I have any of my memories? Why-"

"I don't know," Kakashi interrupted. "But Asuma said something that I found concerning. In fact, I wouldn't trust him at all if I were you."

"Why? What did he say?"

"Well," Kakashi said slowly, "He said that although Ino had immeasurable powers, she was not currently aware of them. If she knew the extent of her true abilities, she could turn the whole world upside down. It would be chaos."

It already was...

"I don't understand, though," Sakura started, "Why—"

"Ah, why. You see—" Kakashi cleared his throat, "—this is only a theory, but I believe, from the conversation I overheard, that Asuma and Hinata are the ones responsible for bringing her here. You see, Ino believes that she is in an entirely new world. Before, Ino's powers were limited by her beliefs. Even if she wanted to live an exciting life, she was still a grounded person," Kakashi said. "However, the problem is, the entity that brought her here has put her in an entirely new situation. Ino's whims are no longer limited by what she thinks is realistic... and she seems to have a very active imagination..." He trailed off. "In any case, the people who brought her here did so to test the full extent of her powers in a way that would limit the amount of damage done to her own universe."

Sakura was horribly confused.

"What are you trying to say—that somebody wanted to see how much havoc Ino could wreak if she had godlike powers? That's crazy." Sakura shook her head. "How do you know all of that? That must have been one long conversation you overheard..."

"Ah, you're right, of course," Kakashi said. "I only added in some of my own thoughts..."

"But why Naruto?" Sakura asked. "I mean, of all the manga, I never would have thought—Hey!" Sakura looked up abruptly. "Are all manga alternate worlds? That's-"

"Manga?" Kakashi frowned. "What manga?"

"Naruto is a manga in my world. I might not remember anything about myself, but there's no way I could forget that."

Kakashi seemed startled by this information.

"I see... This... This is a fictional world? Not some elaborate fantasy pulled from her—I see, I see... That's makes sense... Say," He looked back up at Sakura."Is Ino familiar with Naruto?"

Sakura nodded.

"And does Ino know that you're not—you?"

Sakura nodded again.

"That's... unfortunate..." Kakashi muttered to himself. "Listen, this is important, Sakura. Asuma said something about how there was interference—about how there are other people who hacked into the scenario-"

"Scenario?"

"Ah," Kakashi coughed lightly, "I mean universe... people like you. I think Asuma's goal is to keep Ino here for as long as possible, if not indefinitely, to see what happens when she is able to fully utilize her abilities. But the others—the people Asuma is looking for, I mean—only want to escape back to their own world. With Ino."

"I see..."

"So, Sakura... if what he said was true... I think you might be one of those people." Kakashi said.

"I don't—are you sure? I can't remember any of that. I can't remember anything..."

Kakashi shrugged. "I can't really say. However, and I don't know about you, but I don't want my world changed irreversibly by the whims of a god. Not if I have to live with the consequences."

"Me neither," Sakura said. "She's already ruined everything. Sasuke was supposed to get a cursed-mark, and don't even get me started on Mokuton..."

"Sakura," Kakashi said seriously. "How much do you know about what happens here?"

"Me?" Sakura blinked. "Well... I don't remember some of the little details, but aside from that... everything."

"Right." Kakashi said, "Everything." He seemed to be thinking quickly. "Sakura, as terribly traumatic as knowing the .. future might be for me, being unrelated to this and all, it would still be helpful if you told me, you know, everything."

Tell him everything? Sakura looked up at him, really looked at him, then—he was gazing at her intensely. She was so caught up in her own shock that she didn't stop to think about him. "You're taking this awfully well."

"I've had time to adjust," Kakashi said simply. "It's hard to be shocked after a while, don't you think?"

"Right..."

"And I'm a laid-back guy. I've been through a lot."

"I guess..."

"Don't worry about me. Really. I can tell you don't want to be on your own with this. I can help you, but only if you tell me what you know. Don't leave anything out."

A/N: Thank you, Enbi, for the help! :)