Hi guys, long time no see. Sorry I am so late in posting this.. It is already written but needs some editing. I apologise in advance for any spelling of grammatical errors, the edits for this chapter weren't saved and I had to redo them. Not sure how good a job I did. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited or alerted, I appreciate every single one.

I hope you enjoy. The next chapter will be out in a day or two.

PARTY TIME

I strut in front of the mirror as Sakura finished putting on her makeup and admired the beauty of my borrowed kimono. The inner robe was the bright scarlet of fresh blood embroidered with gold thread from neck to hem while the outer robe was black embroidered with silver flowers that cascaded over the chest and down one side. The obi, the sort of stomach wrap, was a bar of solid gold with green and silver embroideries all around. The tail or trail of the wrap was long enough to just brush the tops of the wooden sandals. My hair was pulled up into a bun at the back of my head and anchored with two beautiful clips at either side. My make up was a simple light palette with bright red lipstick to match the red of the robe. It did an admirable job of covering up the scars and I felt prettier than I had since I'd gotten here.

I did a little wiggle and extended my sleeve in what I thought was a graceful motion. The heavy fabric combined with high wooden sandals and I tipped backwards. Crap! I thought as I fell but before I could hit the ground I was caught and tipped back unto my feet.

"Try not to do that all night. I'm not being paid to keep you safe from yourself." said Crow at his most laconic before he disappeared again.

Sakura came up behind me and I moved so she could check over her own outfit.

"You could have the scars removed, you know?" she said adjusting the band on her waist "It's not as easy as if it had been healed properly the first time but it can be done."

She turned and surveyed me with satisfaction "You look great by the way."

"Aw shucks..." I said "You look great too. I love your hair." I said and she smiled shooing my comment away with her hand

"Thanks."

I wasn't kidding either. Sakura looked gorgeous. The inner robe of her kimono was a deep rich jade that made her eyes look almost unnaturally green. The outer robe was a deep velvety looking pink that made her hair seem more vividly pink but soft and natural. Her two robes had embroidery in silver and gold that looked like fog or mist curling around jagged mountain peaks. The obi was like mine, solid gold but it had threads of jade and red in it. I looked back in the mirror at myself and couldn't help a pang of jealousy. I looked so normal compared to her. Pushing the feeling away I resolved to enjoy the night.

"Wow," came a soft exhalation "you two look amazing." said Sam

Sakura blushed, smirked and replied "You don't look so bad yourself."

She was right too. Sam looked...yummy. He wore an outer robe of dark gray over an inner robe that was a rich blue. The outer robe had black and silver embroidery from neck to hem and around the loose sleeve. The inner shirt had silver and gray embroidery from the neck to the waist of matching gray pants. He wore his usual sandals and looked both sexy and at ease in his clothes. I frowned in thought. It wasn't like Sam to spend much money on clothes, so I doubted that he's bought them. As if noticing my scrutiny,

"Kakashi-san loaned them to me. He said that women keep giving him clothes that he was never going to wear. He also said that if I wore them, they might take the hint and leave him alone." He said ruefully

"Uh, I see." I said as he laughed at my expression "It looks great, it really suits you."

"It's just something he had. I didn't care what I was wearing but he said I would look like a homeless person following you two around in what I usually wear. So, are you guys ready to go?"

"Yes." said Sakura grabbing her purse and shuffling gracefully to the door.

I took two clumsy steps before realising that I needed to shorten my stride. Sam, realising my difficulty, offered his arm in a most gentlemanly fashion, smirking at me the whole time. Sakura locked the door and took the arm Sam offered her with a little laugh. We headed out for a night of fun and games.

Even with all my strength and stamina training, I was tired by the time we decided to get dinner. It was 11pm and the village was lit up with coloured lights, lanterns and torches. Villagers and travelling entertainers manned stalls all along Konoha's main street and market area providing games, snacks and trinkets. I spent my money freely at first before I realised that I would have to save some to buy dinner. I admired at a beautiful set of katana that a metal smith was selling before hurrying to catch up with Sam and Sakura again. It was only then that I realised that I had been doing that a lot for the evening. As I drew nearer I realised that they were in the midst of a heated argument. I stopped just behind them and listened.

"There is no way that would happen." Sakura insisted

"Viral warfare is a very real possibility. It's only because you're so dependent on chakra that other military technology hasn't developed."

"That's the thing, we do have viral agents; they're just dependant on chakra for transmission and survival."

"They're targeted to ninja though, where I come from, everyone can be infected. Why destroy an entire city when you can kill everyone but leave the material wealth untouched?"

Heavy stuff, I thought. The idea of infection brought my thoughts to Itachi. I'd been giving the whole situation some thought and had come to some disturbing conclusions. Infection had to have been purposeful. According to the Hokage's research, the species of parasite that grew to become Samehada had a difficult time breeding, enough so, that if humans hadn't found them useful and cultivated them, they would have already gone extinct. What made it more difficult was that each larva needed several human lives worth of chakra to grow to the size Kisame's sword had achieved. The likelihood that so many of the larvae had been created and transplanted to Itachi accidentally was small. What this meant was that someone, most likely Kisame himself, had infected Itachi with the creatures with the goal being to weaken or even kill him.

Someone bumped into me, apologised and scurried off. I glanced around, Sam and Sakura were nowhere to be found. I sighed and continued down the street in search of them. I was lost in a crowd of merrymakers for what seemed like ages till my stomach grumbled and my feet ached. Eventually, I found a quiet bench under a tree and sat down rubbing my aching soles.

"Crow?" I called as softly as I could but he didn't answer. "Do you know where they went?"

"Oh my god, there you are!" came Sam's very relieved and exasperated voice. He looked flushed and happy if slightly put out. "You need to keep up, I spent the last 20mins looking for you."

"You left me on the street and walked off, forcing me to look for you." I said pushing relief aside in favour of annoyance

"We didn't leave you. We were walking and talking and we stopped for... uh, when we stopped, we realised that you weren't there." He said still smiling but looking a little nervous too

I immediately understood. "You only realised that I was missing when you stopped to eat, right?"

Even in the rather dim light, I could see him blush. "I'm soo sorry Erica, I get distracted when I'm arguing. You know that."

I don't know what made me say it. Maybe it was a sudden realisation that I was the third wheel on a date for two.

"And it had nothing to do with how pretty Sakura looks tonight, right?" It was usually Sam in this position. He looked shocked and bewildered.

"No, of course not, I got caught up in discussing warfare and politics with her, that's all."

I like Sakura but I remembered all too well how strongly she felt about a certain traitorous Uchiha and I didn't want to see Sam get hurt.

"Are you sure, you don't want me to head home and leave you love birds alone? I'm pretty tired so I wouldn't mind."

"Don't be silly Erica, I haven't seen you much these past weeks and it's not a date, so stop suggesting that it is. Sakura and I are just friends." He replied, still blushing

I let out an exaggerated breath of relief, "Thank God. She'll never get over Sasuke and I wouldn't want you to be disappointed." I said getting up "Where are we eating?"

In the act of saying something, he paused. "What do you mean? What does Sasuke have to do with anything?" he asked, honestly puzzled

Well fuck, didn't he know about Sakura and Sasuke? "Sakura is in love with Sasuke." I said

He frowned "That can't be right. She wouldn't like someone like him. He's a traitor, a killer." He said

I should leave it here, my better sense said. I'd grown to like Sakura a lot and I was beginning to understand that Sam's feelings were deeper than maybe even he imagined and I could be wrong.

"Of course Sam. She loved him when they were genin together. I'm sure that she doesn't feel that way now." I said "Maybe we should get going, I feeling pretty tir..."

"She's never said anything about it."

I made a scoffing sound "Well, she wouldn't, I'm sure she's not proud of it." I said equably

He shook his head and seemed to clear whatever he was thinking away. "You're right." He glanced at me and his eyes brightened. He tilted his head as though trying to decide something. "Now is as good a time as any I suppose. Erica, I have something for you. I was saving it for dinner but the restaurant is pretty loud so I'll just tell you now. I've almost figured out a way to get us home."

"What?" I said

"It's not a sure thing but it's the best chance we have."

"How?"

He sat down and pulled me down gently next to him. After gathering his thoughts, he switched to his I've-practiced-explaining-this voice.

"Science doesn't really work here, at least not the science that we know. It took me a long time to figure out that chakra was some kind of sub atomic force that seems uncommonly malleable in this universe. The force exists in different varieties corresponding to different resonant frequencies. Humans are made of common elements which manage to exert some kind of control over these subatomic forces both inside of themselves and in the outside world...Yes Erica?" he asked, miffed at being interrupted

"Can I get the cliff note version, please?"

"This is the cliff note version."

"... ok."

Sigh. "To make a short story event shorter, I realised that there was no way that I could build an atom compressor here that would work like the one back home. I could build the exact same machine and it wouldn't work here like it's supposed to. The make-up of this world is just too different. The forces are much looser, for a lack of a better word, than in our world. Do you understand?"

"Yes, how does this help us get home, then?"

"It occurred to me that to open a portal here I would have to use the science that works here. That is to say, that I would have to find some way to use powerful chakra forces to open a hole into our world. Since then I've been reading, well trying to read up on the theoretical nature of chakra and... I've finally found something that works."

"Kakashi's mangekyo sharingan?" I guessed

He opened his mouth and closed it again. "Wait, how do you know that?"

"It was in the anime. His sharingan creates a kind of wormhole that can rip people's limbs off."

"You knew this the whole time and you never said anything?" he said irately

"How was I supposed to know you were looking for something like that? You never told me what you were working on!" I yelled and we both calmed down "Sorry. Next time you can ask me stuff like that, heaven knows I've repeated everything I know a bazillion times. Is that what you wanted to tell me? Cus if it is, that's still a huge achievement, after all, you've only been here for a few months." I said

"Actually, I've been here for about 4mths but anyway no, that's not everything. The wormhole that his sharingan creates is powerful but it's very unstable and he's pretty sure that it warps back into this world. He's done some experimenting and..."

"heh heh heh, I just bet he has..." I said in my most perverted tone. What? I was tired and hungry and it was making me feel loopy and little annoyed

Shooting me a look of combined disgust and amusement he continued "Yeah, anyway, stuff that goes into the worm hole generally come out somewhere nearby but not instantly. Plus there's no good way to boost the power of the jutsu and I think it would tear us apart if we got too near it, so I had to find something similar in effect but more stable or at least more controllable."

"Uh huh..." I prompted

"Naruto's rasengan."

"Uh huh, the same rasengan that can gouge holes in trees?"

"Well yeah but it functions the same as the atom compressor. Chakra can be gathered and compressed into a point of infinite density causing a rip in fabric of reality. The problem, of course is that it's dangerous to Naruto. It could permanently damage his cells if he uses it too much. There's also no way to know where we will end up. I think that if we open a worm hole at the place we came through that it should open into our world but there are no guarantees. And well... it's possible that it won't work the way I estimate and it could kill us." He said "We've sent things through and they haven't come out but that's no guarantee that it works. We're going to try some new things but again, we can't test it too much." He saw my expression and his words stopped.

"What's the matter?" he asked "I know it seems like a long-shot but with enough work, I can make it work." He tried to say more but I shook my head and he stopped again.

"Sam, I love you and you are my best friend but that's insane."

"It's not perfect but it shows that there's hope for us to go home. I thought that was what you wanted?" he said

I glanced up at the star strewn sky and then back to his trouble face. "Sam, I think that we are never going to get home. I think that the chances of us ending up here are so infinitesimal that it is impossible to replicate it." I looked him in the eye. "I've made some peace with it and I hope that you can too." I got up to walk away

"Erica, wait." He said and grabbed my arm pulling me off balance. I tipped and fell heavily against his chest. He caught me with a hand encircling each arm. He was strong enough that my weight falling against him hadn't been enough to budge him. I could feel his rapid breathing and I was sure he could hear how fast my heart was beating.

"Sam," I said breathily, both startled by the almost fall and by his sudden presence "I can stand up now."

He ignored me, "Erica, I swear to you that I will get you home, even if it takes me a lifetime."

"Sam...please." I said, not sure what I wanted to say even as I said it "I can't take...I don't want to be disappointed. I know that you'll try your best but...just give it up, Sam, just give up." I said feeling my eyes water up

"You can't mean that. There isn't anything for me back home, but what about your family; your mom and dad. What about Rajiv and Sanjay? Is it that you don't think I can do it? Is it that you don't think I'm not smart enough? Not dedicated enough?" I wasn't the only one who looked teary eyed now. Before I could react, he pulled me into an almost suffocating embrace "Erica..." he breathed into my ear "I would change the nature of this world if I could make you happy again." He said "I think...I think I love you."

I started crying. This was the one conversation I had hoped never to have with Sam. I'd always thought, naively I knew, that Sam would outgrow me; that he would find someone to love and forget that he had ever wanted to be more than friends.

"Sam..." I tried to speak but kept hiccupping "I believe...I know that you can do anything. You're the smartest, strongest, bravest person I've ever met. You've gone through so much...If it had been me, I wouldn't have become half the person you are. You're amazing but..." I couldn't say it, coward that I was I stood there and let the tears flow and hoped that he would take pity on me and leave it at that.

He sounded so tired when he spoke "But what, Erica? I'm amazing..."bitterness "I'm amazing but what?"

Dammit. "But, I don't love you the way you love me. You're my friend, my very best friend but that's it, nothing more. I'm so sorry."

I felt him nod and he pulled away, setting me steadily on my feet. He turned and stared off past the tree into the darkness for what seemed like ages.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly but calmly "Are you sure, you don't want me to try to get you home?"

"I want to go home," so bad he had no idea "but, I don't want you to waste you life trying to do it. Let go and try to be happy. What happened wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault and giving up your life won't make it any better. I want you to be happy." I said clenching my hands to resist touching him

He turned and for a moment met my eyes before looking behind me. "Okay. I...I have to go. Can you get home by yourself?" he asked, voice inflectionless

I swallowed and tried to sound as neutral as he did. "Yeah, I can." I said

He nodded and did something I'd never seen him do. He ran away from me.

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