"So you've come from the future?" Sakumo asked, his voice flat, giving nothing away.

"I think so. Or maybe an alternate universe? Another dimension?" Sakura cast a quick glance at little Kakashi sitting on Jiraiya's lap. "But even if this is a different dimension or alternate universe, I've also gone back in time, that much I'm sure of. Unless it's all a genjutsu, but I"m doubting that more and more." Sakura bit her lip, hard, drawing blood. She looked around. Kakashi look-alike still ready to kill her. Dead Sannin still sitting on a log, toddler sensei sitting on his lap. Nothing had changed. "If it's a genjutsu, I really hope the caster is on my side."

Sakumo didn't react to Sakura's weak attempt at humor. "I'm sure we could arrange for some stronger stimuli to test out your genjutsu theory."

"I'm sure you could." Sakura replied lamely. "I think I've mostly ruled that one out on my own, though. Thanks."

"So that leaves time travel or dimensional travel?"

"It is possible. I know it sounds crazy, but with the right time-space jutsu..."

"It doesn't sound crazy."

"No?" Sakura asked, hope rising in her voice.

"No. It sounds desperate."

"Well, it isn't. I mean, I guess I am a little desperate. I mean, I want you to believe me, and I know it sounds crazy and I'm not sure how I can prove it and I know no one here knows me, not even my parents, and that's making me really nervous because who's going to believe some ninja who just dropped out of the sky and landed in the middle of Konoha, but..."

"Is that what happened? You fell from the sky?" Sakumo cut in, bringing Sakura's rambling explanation to a abrupt halt.

Sakura took a breath, trying to get her mouth under control. Nervous babbling was a habit she had mostly outgrown, but she still occasionally found herself talking way too much without really saying anything when put on the spot. She paused to consider the question. When she had said "dropped out of the sky" she was speaking figuratively. But what did happen?

"I don't know. I fell...but not from any great height. I think it was more like losing my balance. I..." She hesitated. Should she tell them that she had traveled to other dimensions before? Should she tell them how?

"You what?" Sakumo stared at her, waiting for a response. "I suggest you be completely honest and answer our questions completely. Withholding will only give you more rope to hang yourself as the interrogation wears on."

Sakura winced slightly at the grim analogy. Still, he was listening. Maybe not believing, maybe just gathering more metaphorical rope for a possibly real noose if this interrogation didn't go in her favor, but still, listening.

"Can I start from the beginning?"

"No."

Well, all right then. She knew he was just trying to keep her guessing, not letting her put together a cohesive story or recite a memorized cover, but knowing that didn't make it less annoying.

"You were saying?" he prompted.

"I was saying.." Sakura hesitated. "I was saying I've been transported similarly before, but not to the past. To a different dimension. Always the same one, I thought the jutsu was limited to that one dimension, but maybe not. Or maybe it's a new jutsu. There was a Sharingan user on my team. A Mangekyo Sharingan user, who could cast a jutsu called Kamui which transported the target, or even the user, to another dimension."

"But in the past it's always transported you to the same place?"

"Yes."

"How many times?"

"Um, well, me, just once. But... the caster of the jutsu said it always went to the same dimension."

"And he or she knew this for a fact? Had tested it extensively?"

If the battle with Obito and Madara hadn't tested the theory extensively, nothing would.

"Yes, it's been tested. It always goes to the same place."

"So why are you here?"

"I don't know. I just know that before I landed here, I felt that same sensation, that same pull, that I felt when Kamui was used to transport me between dimensions. It felt like the same jutsu, and was cast by the same Sharingan user. I don't know why it's different this time."

"Mm-hmm. And what year were you born?"

Sakura was surprised by the sudden turn in questioning, but answered reflexively, not needing to think.

"And how old are you?"

"I'm twenty."

"And Kakashi is..?"

"I'm not sure. Thirty-four? Thirty-five?"

"And your relationship to him?"

"Ew! What are you saying? He was my jounin-sensei!"

That got him to look up briefly from his notepad before shaking his head to himself as he went back to taking notes.

"The names of the people on your team for this mission?"

"I...I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to mess up the future any more than I already have. If I tell you, that information could be used to...predict...things." Sakura's words sputtered out on her as she tried to formulate a better explanation for her reticence.

"'Things?' Things like who has the Mangekyo Sharingan?"

"Yes, things like that," she admitted. "Or things like who survives until my time, who becomes powerful and successful, or maybe who just got lucky. I probably shouldn't have told you what I already did about Kakashi-sensei, I just didn't know how to get you to believe me. And I just don't know what to say." Sakura stopped, not liking the tone of despair that was creeping into her voice.

Sakumo regarded her in silence for a moment before saying "So why don't you start at the beginning of your story and tell me what happened?"

So she did, leaving out little details like the Fourth Shinobi War and the truce that had been hammered out between the five Great Nations, and how the absence of Akatsuki had left a vacuum that had been filled by rival gangs of missing-nin while the Hidden Villages were busy rebuilding their forces and feeling their way through their new-found peace. She didn't mention that she had been on a joint mission with Suna, who she was pretty sure at this time was a declared enemy of Konoha, to clean out one of the gangs that had been operating both sides of the Fire/Wind border. She just said that her team had defeated the gang they were sent to deal with, but that the enemy had been stronger than anticipated and the fighting had been fierce. On the way back to Konoha they had been set upon by one of the rival gangs looking to stake a claim in the territory. The timing and size of the force lead her to believe that they had played into a trap, that the rival gang must have set the first one up to battle Konoha, and then planned to attack the battle-weary victors when the fight was over, removing one threat and weakening another all in one move. She told how her team had been scattered by the initial ambush, and she had just found some of her teammates, one of whom was dead, the other most likely injured, when she was surrounded by several of the enemy. Fighting ensued, funny feeling in belly, and BAM, here she was.

"Bam?"

"Well, maybe not "BAM", not that sudden. More like a drunk carousel ride that you can't get off of. Or being trapped at the center of a whirlpool."

Sakumo asked a few questions about what he had been told, some of which Sakura wouldn't answer in the name of protecting the future. That didn't stop him from asking the same things again later, sometimes rephrasing the question, sometimes not. He questioned her story extensively, jumping around in the narrative, occasionally taking a note. Then he had her describe in detail what happened once she "landed" here, as he put it, asking for details about what she saw, what she heard, what she did. They went over this a few times before one of the dogs brought over a note and nudged it into Sakumo's hand. After glancing at it, Sakumo made a quick gesture at the treetops and two ANBU dropped down next to him, taking up guard while he walked away to confer with Jiraiya, who had handed little Kakashi back to Tsunade.

Sakura tried not to show her surprise when the two ANBU appeared. She had been so focused on her storytelling that she hadn't noticed their arrival. Now that she was looking for it, she could feel two more very faint chakra signatures hiding in the bushes. She smiled at the two standing before her. She doubted they were smiling back at her behind their masks. Not sure where to look, she opted to scan the treetops, trying not to look like she was looking for anything in particular, or look like she was trying not to look like she was looking for anything in particular. Just a casual glance. Not watching the two men who may be deciding her fate as they spoke, not sizing up her ANBU guards, and certainly not looking at a midget jounin sitting in a future Hokage's lap. She thought back over her interrogation, thinking it had gone well. Her answers were pretty consistent, though some things she had embellished on during the second and third round of questions, some things she had decided she had already said too much. But a certain amount of revision is expected in even the most honest retelling of events, so she thought she had done alright. She couldn't read a thing from Sakumo, though. He asked all his questions in the same quiet voice, and focused on a lot of odd details, like whether or not her team had eaten lunch before being ambushed, and what rations everyone brought. He was trying to trip her up on the small details. So far she didn't think he'd succeeded, but she doubted her interrogation was over.

She risked a glance at Sakumo and Jiraiya, who were still deep in conversation. Sakumo looked tense, standing straight with arms crossed against his chest, as he listened to Jiraiya, who was standing with a much more open posture as he talked. Or maybe he looked tense because she was used to looking at Kakashi, who rarely stood so straight. No, he definitely looked tense. He also looked like he was losing an argument. This was confirmed when he turned and walked back to her, not speaking as he tugged on the ropes binding her, then took a pair of chakra cuffs from one of the ANBU guards, placing them firmly on her wrists.

Sakura rolled her shoulders, causing a slight shift of stance among her ANBU guards.

"Just stretching." she said softly, with a placating smile. Her arms ached from being bound against the tree. Her muscles, having gone from the rigors of an all-out battle to sudden immobilization, were all starting to ache. Without the adrenalin of an immediate threat she was starting to feel each and every bump, bruise, and scrape. She felt a hand on her back push her gently forward, and started walking, letting the guards lead her past Jaraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi and toward a parting in the brush that looked to be a small footpath. Not sure where to look, she kept her eyes on the ground before her. Out of the corner of her eye she say Kakashi squirming in Tsunade's grasp, but she didn't look up, not wanting to raise tension among her captors any further than necessary.

After a few minutes of walking, Sakumo called a halt and one of the ANBU grabbed her arms. Startled, Sakura stiffened in the grip, saying "Hey! What's-" but before she could finish the question she felt herself being teleported.

"- going on?" The question was finished in the receiving room of Konoha's T&I building.