Summary:

They like to believe that their eyes are diamonds; hard, precious, birthed through generations of pressure. They're wrong. Their eyes are glass; brittle, fragile, created from common sand through seconds of intense heat. Glass breaks, glass cuts, glass shows reflections that they don't want to acknowledge. Reflections of others... and reflections of themselves. [AU] [Hinted SasuHina] [Non-Chronological Linked Drabbles]

General Disclaimer For The Entire Story:

I don't own Naruto. If I did, I'd have drawn out a very helpfully annotated map of where everything is in Konoha. If there are little-used canon!characters, there should be little-mentioned canon!places, so fanfiction authors can use those like they elaborate on the L-UCC. The cover picture isn't mine, either.


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(in a mostly peaceful world, Team 7 still manages to look for trouble)

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[Age 16]

[RTN!AU]

"No."

"C'mon, it'll be so coooool!"

"No."

"I mean, Sakura's not saying anything against it!"

"You are both imbecilic fools and I am not responsible for whatever you two decide. In fact, I'm only here right now, because the other option is to join Kakashi-sensei in 'fanning the flames of his youth'. Which is just... not an option."

"See!? See that, that right there? Totally not something against it."

"No."

"Is that all you can say now?"

"Hell no. Fuck off."

After a beat, he added, "Moron."

Sasuke scowled (awesomely) at (stupidhead) Menma and sniffed (awesomely), turning away (awesomely) to scan (awesomely) over the (not-as-awesome-as-him-but-pretty-darn-close) scroll.

"But it'll definitely work! I mean, ordinarily I'd say that summoning an alternate version of a human from another dimension would be idiotic beyond reason and would never work, but this jutsu summons an alternate to replace the original, who is shoved off to pocket dimension and kept unconscious, thus preventing any huge consequences from the original messing with the alternate's world. And we, as the summoners, would be the ones preventing the alternate from messing with the original's world. Besides, it's an alternate. Specifically, an alternate from a flipped world. Meaning, we'd see the complete opposite of the original, or at least see their one of their primary traits reversed. Isn't there anyone who you want to see acting completely different? Who you'd like to get rid of for, say, a day?" he wheedled hopefully.

Menma narrowed his eyes at Sasuke, but looked closer at the jutsu, with was really just one big fuuinjutsu seal.

It did, indeed, state everything that Sasuke had just said, including, 'after 24 hours are up, the alternate will be summoned back to their world with no time passed, and they will forget any memories of the summoner's world; the original will be retrieved back to the summoner's world, and will not remember any time passing'.

His teammate was usually a flirty moron, but he was their jutsu (ninjutsu/genjutsu/iryojutsu/bukkijutsu) [infiltration/seduction] expert (Menma was the chakra-powerhouse manipulator [with the power of the Glare], Sakura was the taijutsu/strategics master [also a natural leader, if only Menma would stop challenging her for the position]), and was pretty smart when he wanted to be.

If he said the jutsu would work, it would probably work, and Menma had spent enough time around his seal-obsessed parents to pick out some basic time-space components in the intricate design etched onto the scroll with what seemed like a dried blood-ink mixture.

All you needed was a sample of the original's blood, a sample of their chakra, and their explicitly given consent.

And it would be nice to get rid of his resident stalker for a while...

"Can we swap out Hinata?" he abruptly asked.

Sasuke beamed at the implied-yes, with honest-to-goodness flowers and sparkles shining from behind him like a halo, reminding Menma of why, again, he tried to avoid making Sasuke remotely happy.

Sakura groaned despondently and began muttering darkly under her breath about ominous outcomes as she reluctantly trailed after them, which went ignored by her teammates, who were used to her paranoid conspiracy-theorist ways.

They exited the conveniently-placed mountain-caves on Uchiha-owned land, which they had been excavating in vague hopes of finding something not-boring to entertain themselves with, and headed for Konohagakure's busy streets.

Searching for Hinata was unneeded, because sooner or later the Menma-obsessed Hyuuga would find them.

(Sakura now began muttering darkly under her breath about her future injuries.)

As luck would have it, the sparingly-dressed kunoichi pounced upon them within a minute of them stepping foot onto the dirt-paved roads.

"Menma!" she cooed, her arms a vice-grip pinning down his arms.

Then Hinata noticed Sasuke, and glared at him with the seallessly activated Byakugan, growling, "Fuck off, manslut."

When she noticed Sakura, she also hissed, "Hands off, fucking man-stealing bitch."

Sakura raised her hands in surrender and slowly backed away.

Sasuke, on the other hand, stepped forward with his most charming grin, cloaking his nervousness at approaching the most terrifying kunoichi in Konoha (except for Shizune, who everybody knew was the real ruler).

Menma sighed, and twisted around his head to play his part.

"Oy, Hinata, I need your help with a jutsu," he droned boredly.

Delighted, the probably-bipolar definite-yandere smiled.

"Anything for you, Menma," she promised.

"Great, great. See that scroll the moron's holding open? Drip some blood onto the seal, channel some chakra into it. Oh, and turn off your Byakugan; it might interfere with it."

Hinata was dangerously obsessed, not brainless.

Jutsus needing blood weren't usually very good news, especially for the one whose blood was used.

She frowned, staring hard at her love.

"What kind of a jutsu is this?" she slowly said, suspicious.

"An experimental one. Also, Menma said he'd definitely go out with a girl who was willing to test an experimental jutsu," Sasuke inputted.

"Done," she quickly agreed, closing her Byakugan, leaning forward to bite her thumb and spit the blood onto the paper, where it was promptly soaked up.

Half of the seal lit up.

Pressing a hand to the paper, she then channeled a spurt of chakra into the rest of the seal.

Because her Byakugan was off, Hinata never noticed Sasuke making one-handed seals behind his back.

She did glimpse the last one being made as the entire seal glowed blue, but Sasuke's hand-seal speed was the best out of their generation, and it was too late for her to anything except attempt to fling herself away from Menma, who was gripping her arms in a reverse-twist maneuver.

"Uch-" she snarled with hatred, before poofing into the typical summoning smoke.

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Sasuke watched with interest as another form materialized.

(Even Sakura tentatively crept forward a bit, still ready to leap away in case this Hinata was as possessive as theirs.)

Alt!Hinata, much more conservatively dressed in loose beige robes blinked once at Menma, who was now gripping her shoulders.

Her Byakugan activated (also sealless).

Then her leg blurred, sweeping around, and both Sasuke and Sakura were already wincing before Menma grunted in pain from the perfect rib-kick, reflexively loosening his hold, which released Alt!Hinata.

Lunging forward, she nearly knocked him out, but Sasuke managed to evade her fist, with Sakura helpfully blocking the follow-up kick and side-punch.

"Whoah whoah whoah, let's all just calm down and talk, alright peoplitos?" he chuckled with a tinge of fear, hurrying to Menma's side to heal the damage, taking advantage of Alt!Hinata being busy with her and Sakura's taijutsu battle.

He barely pushed them both to the side in time to avoid the spray of water needles suddenly drilling into the dirt behind him.

"Is that a no?" he called.

Sakura rolled textbook-style to a stop next to him, probably tenketsu-sealed.

Alt!Hinata gazed at them coolly, legs set and arms ready in a Jyuuken pose.

"Talk," she snapped.

"Um, um, okay, so... talking now, talking now," Sasuke babbled, wishing his healing was going faster.

He wasn't the best diplomat, only when it came to wooing women, and clearly Alt!Hinata was as immune as Hinata had been.

"Why are you freaking out on us?" he settled on.

"Why should I tell you?" she returned, her Byakugan'd eyes somehow more menacing.

Menma grit his teeth and lowly said, "We... promise we aren't trying to hurt you. Also, he's a moron, so feel free to ignore what he says."

That didn't soften her stony face, but she did speak more.

"... I was just summoned from my personal training, when I had made sure that there was no one around me in a two-mile range. Everyone else were civilians and ninja of the Leaf. I am understandably caught off-guard and thus suspicious when I end up surrounded by three very poor imitations of people I know. It wouldn't be the first time someone's tried to steal a bloodline. However, this is not a Genjutsu; I would know if it was. And your chakra systems are eerily similar to the people you're imitating, which is illogical when otherwise your imitations are worse than an Academy student's. In other words, you three are the worst infiltrators I've seen, yet oddly the best, as you somehow managed to summon me to this also-badly-imitated copy of Konoha."

"How are we bad imitations? How is this Konoha different from yours?" Sakura decided to pipe up, uncurling her deadened fingers with considerable difficulty.

Alt!Hinata doesn't even need to think before rattling off a string of differences.

"Uzumaki's hair, hairstyle, eyes, attitude, expressions, clothes, strength, and chakra are wrong. Also, missing a hitai-ate and his prisoner. Haruno's hairstyle, clothes, attitude, expressions, clothes, strength, and chakra are wrong. Uchiha's hairstyle, attitude, expressions, specialization, clothes, strength, allegiance, and chakra are wrong. Also, missing a hitai-ate and his bloodline. Konoha's streets, shops, places, attitude, and ninja are wrong. I can spot smiling Hyuuga and other Clans acting strangely. Also, there are Uchiha other than Uchiha."

"Well, we aren't imitations, although I really don't know what you mean by 'Uchiha other than Uchiha'. We summoned you from an alternate universe to see what our Hinata's alternate was like. Seriously. It should wear off in 24 hours," Sasuke claimed, pouring all his earnestness into convincing the very hostile (and quite pretty) Alt!Hinata.

(Hinata was pretty, too, just in a fearsome, touch-me-and-die-unless-you're-Menma sort of way.

Like, she was 'hot', and Alt!Hinata was beautiful.

[The charmer in him recognized the difference well.]

Equally scary, though.)

"Do you two agree that he is telling the truth?" she demanded, looking sharply at numb-all-over Sakura and almost-fully-healed Menma.

They nodded.

Alt!Hinata moved out of her fighting stance and towards Sakura.

"Relax," she told Sasuke when he started to shield her.

"You aren't lying, which means I'm really in another world. In that case, you aren't hostiles, you are alternate forms of my acquaintances. I'm merely unblocking her tenketsu."

Her hands flew over Sakura's tensed figure, straightening back up when she finished, with a, "You should be fine now."

They stared at each other for a moment of silence, a wary trio sizing up the warier fourth.


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To be continued. Eventually.

Probably.

... Should I?

Review in with your take on it.

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-Review.-