Disclaimer:i do not own Naruto are any of its characters, just the plot. And the OC's.

Title: Bearing an Hourglass Author:fourthfireshadow Language:English Form:Multi-Chaptered Genre:Romance/Adventue Rating:T Warning:swearing and lemons(later chapters) Pairing:Sakura Haruno/Sasuke Uchiha, Kushina Uzumaki/Minato Namikaze

Summary:What would you do if you found out you are one of the only two people exclusively chosen to trade your existing time line for another one to fix past mistakes, so that the entire fate of the ninja word effectively lies on your shoulders in just a single minute? That's what Sakura and Sasuke have to figure out.

Note: I would like to point out the fact that that the three sentences in the first chapter on 'warmth' was actually form another author. I had taken those sentences because they perfectly summarized what the Sakura in my story was feeling as well but I had forgotten about it later, so I'd like to sincerely apologize for that now. Please go check out 'Drifting Blossoms' by Night of the fallen angel if you haven't by now for it's an awesome story!

Dedicated to everyone who reviewed, favorite/followed this story! I got 51 reviews for the previous chapter, which was a first and I was so happy! Hopefully, that kind of luck continues on.

I'm sorry to the people who'd already read this chapter and expected a new one with this update. I just wanted to correct the mistakes that were pointed out to me by some readers—that its actually the second shinobi war and not the third, and the clarification that Sasuke actually is off on his assumption about the coup de tat since that only happens after the third war—and if I didn't do this now then I'd probably never do it.

Bearing an Hourglass

by fourthfireshadow

Chapter8-The Timeline Consciousness

Sakura liked to plan.

She liked steps and stages and knowing the exact roadblocks that may or may not come her way. She liked the sequential routines that needed to be followed to reach a certain point. And she liked that certain satisfaction that always came whenever she did progress from point A to point B. She liked that her intelligence was well above average, and she always liked to be organized, one step ahead of everyone else.

Her plan when she was but a love-sick teenage girl at thirteen was this—become a ninja, make Sasuke notice her, be in Sasuke's team, make Sasuke notice her, beat Ino at her own game, make Sasuke notice her , win his heart, retire after getting chunin position and then marry the boy of her dreams.

That bubble popped once she was exposed to the new and equally terrifying harsh lights of what was the real world just a few days later in her first horribly-gone-wrong mission in Wave.

So then her plan evolved into this—stay a ninja, make Sasuke notice her, become a bit more useful, stop dragging Sasuke down, be a little more tolerant of Naruto, make Sasuke notice her, make Kakashi notice her for a change, retire at chunin if she was still alive and then marry the boy of her dreams.

That plan also went downhill fast once she realized the real, ultimate dangers lurking outside and got the ruthless waking up call she'd always needed when she'd been the one in charge of protecting her team mates for a change.

And then came Orochimaru. And her perception shifted.

Her plan then became—be a better ninja, protect Sasuke from pain, be more kinder to Naruto, become a bit more useful, patch up the ties she severed, worry about both Naruto and Sasuke and just be there for them since that was all she could do at the moment since they were leaving her behind in the figurative dust.

And then Sasuke left.

And so, again accordingly her plan also changed—be the best ninja she could attempt to be, strive to be the healer instead of the destroyer, be there for Naruto always since she now realized he's the brother she never had and knew she wanted, worry about Sasuke and his foolish decisions, train harder, become the social person she once was, become strong in her own right, demolish her useless fantasies and become the person she never thought she could be.

That plan was the one that stuck the longest, just because it was the one that made the most sense.

So she diligently followed it until she couldn't breathe and was gasping for breath and air, but she always smiled and her eyes were always light and she never remembered feeling so content with herself as she had then; never mind it was like submerging herself in a new light—not really living for someone else but instead for just her and her family and her support system and she felt illuminated even if the corners of her heart and mind were tinged with darkness.

So she stuck on, stomach rolling and mind free, with the plan that finally got her moving, propelling forward instead of her usual path of walking backwards two steps every one step ahead.

But then came the war.

Which didn't really disrupt her plans much. It was only when she had to travel back in time to another generation that it happened.

And just like that, her plan was fully sucked into oblivion.

Now, Sakura was deliberating if it was even worth taking the time to make up a life-plan. It was obvious fate hated all of them, even though she didn't really know what was so wrong with the last one. It was a good plan, wasn't it? All noble and self-fulfilling?

And even if she did want to make a plan, she only had one step in one mind. It was like a prologue to the plan though, just a guiding sentence. But it was blaring brightly in her mind all the same.

And so her new plans started like this—change the future to make it a better place.

...that's all she had at the moment.

Which really made less than zero sense, because she had been in this alternate timeline for more than three years and she hadn't made a single plan on how to go about changing the horrific future, which was sort of the reason she'd been sent back here in the first place?

Had she really been wasting away her time so long doing nothing?

No, Sakura reminded herself, she had already made a major change in the timeline by switching the host of the kyuubi from Kushina to herself. Of course, that was more a stroke of chance than her deliberately doing anything to get that result. That change had just happened simply because of her presence. However, that just proved that her presence is actually changing things, weather she wanted that to happen or not.

But the future events following that trail was all practically blank to Sakura. What use was a person sent to the past to change things if they didn't even know what step they had to take to actually get this moving forward?

She wasn't propelling any further like this; that much she knew.

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.

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"—and you won't believe what Sakumo-sensei did next! He just sat back, as if he was on stupid vacation or something, and just watched us suffer trying to find that stupid fat cat for that stupid fat lady! I mean, he was actually full-blown laughing at us! Well, maybe not full-blown—he thinks he's too cool to laugh or something, the loser—his hand was covering his mouth, but, you know, his shoulders were shaking and all and unless he had a sudden coughing fit, then he was laughing! He's such a sadist, ttebane!" Kushina ranted heatedly, flailing her arms around along with the flimsy plastic bags containing the things bought from the marketplace. She looked at her sister with wide eyes, emphasizing her apparent misfortune and expecting sympathy.

Instead, Sakura snorted. "I'm actually surprised you know what a sadist is. And easy with the flinging! If any food in there gets spoiled, it's coming out of your dinner."

The redhead's arms immediately stopped with the movement, as well as the widening eyes with disappointment. "Yeah, well, grumpy usually calls sensei that, so I figured…" she bit her lips at the end.

The pinkette sighed, "…you still don't know what it means, do you?"

"I'm using it correctly in a sentence, aren't I? That's all that matters." She retorted flippantly, pouting a bit.

Sakura rolled her eyes at her, making an amused noise at the back of her throat and not bothering to tell her the meaning. A Kushina who actually knows the meaning behind certain words may prove to be dangerous in the future. "Anyway, at least your sensei isn't a world class pervert. Be happy."

"Nah, Sakura-chan. Our sensei's crazy. He should really be tested for mental problems. And it's only towards us he's so mean! And I swear, he so easily irritable!" Kushina started to vent again, the plastic bags flung around again, before making an annoyed noise, "I really pity the kid he's gonna have in a few months. Poor guy doesn't even stand a chance at a happy childhood. It's sad really."

"His wife's pregnant?" Sakura interrupted quickly, her eyes darting to Kushina's too fast to be considered as a normal reaction, but thankfully, the redhead doesn't notice.

"Yeah. Midori-san's so happy she's glowing. She visits the training grounds often. Its fun whenever she's there, since then she always orders him around for something or the other." Kushina suddenly grins widely, her mischievous side showing. "Maybe that's where he got the craziness from."

Sakura was quiet throughout, her only reaction being the tightening grip on the bags in her hands. But a small smile formed on her face as the redhead next to her continued to tell the humorous stories. Stories of Kakashi's parents. It was surreal and exciting and everything else all at once. She hadn't met the legendary White Fang yet, but from the stories she regularly heard, Sakura could easily pick out the similarities and differences between him and his future spawn.

She hadn't known the grey-haired man she'd known in her time would be arriving so soon. It was joyous news, but with every good information, there will also be the bad. And the bad in this case was that the real problems of this particular era would soon begin. Maybe not right the next day, but in a few years, everything will be in full motion, and she doesn't have the slightest clue at the moment on how to change it.

The pinkette didn't even realize Kushina was looking at her oddly, wrapped up in her thought as she was. It wasn't long before the redhead started fidgeting at the silence. Usually, she would've snapped her sister out of her thoughts long back, but the expression on the Sakura's face was throwing her off of doing that.

However, when Sakura did look up, what did pique her interest was the sunlight reflected off of pale blue something. It was only a split second later she recognized it as hair, which was a little surprising to her seeing as having pale blue as hair was as odd as having pale pink as hair; and she hadn't ever met anyone sharing the same trait before.

Nevertheless, what ultimately made her focus on the male—while it may have been a bit confusing to anyone looking from far of his gender due to his long colorful hair, he was clearly a male—was because he looked like he was having a serious discussion with another man, both jounin from the looks of the uniform flak jackets they wore. In these days, where the air of the Second Shinobi War was looming and almost omnipresent, most jounins and higher were talking about it more often than not, but usually not in open public places like this. And Sakura was desperate to gain more knowledge of the current happenings, even if she had to resort to snooping to get it.

Obviously, she had considered the probability of them not actually talking about the war and maybe talking about something far less significant, like gambling or something else, but that didn't really matter. This wasn't a covert mission or anything; if she got anything out of it, all the better and if she didn't, well, no harm really done.

"Er, Kushina—" Sakura started, and at the way Kushina's eyes snapped to hers, she realized maybe she'd been silent for longer than she knew, "—I actually need to do something important and I forgot about it. So, why don't you go home and I'll catch up."

"…What do you need to do?" Kushina asked, suspicion clear in her tone.

"Nothing much! Just had to buy more explosive tags and I forgot, so…" she trailed off, but the suspicion only lessened a bit, "…you can go eat some ramen, if you want." Sakura said reluctantly in the end.

At that, the redhead brightened even if the doubt hadn't fully faded, "Really? Great! See ya later, Kura-chan! Come fast!"

"Don't spend all of our money or you're dead!" Sakura yelled at her back and sighed.

"As if!" was the distant but still loud reply from the running Uzumaki, flashing a mocking peace sign at her sister as she did.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the display and pursed her lips in annoyance. Kushina never seemed to take her threats seriously. Forgetting that for a minute, she walked normally to where the two jounin were, her footsteps more quiet than they were a minute ago.

"—eems there was some scuffle near the border too. It was easily taken care of though."

"I heard about it too actually—"

Thanking her luck, she ducked behind the small ledge conveniently near the two. Her grip on the plastic bags in her hand tightened, hoping the crinkling of the material wouldn't alert them of her presence; she also suppressed her chakra just enough to be that of a civilians, so as to blend in. With that, she tuned in to their conversation.

"—it seems the Iwa-nin's are getting uselessly restless to start the bloody war."

"Yes, I've heard about that. The war is looming dangerously over the horizon now."

"It just seems like those bastards are itching for a fight. Haven't they had enough blood on their hands already?" the man's voice increasing in volume as he got worked up on the topic.

The blue haired man laid a gentle but firm hand on the spewing man's shoulder. "You really should be a bit more subtle about your opinions. One wrong word and it'll all unravel."

The man stared hard before he visibly deflated, his eyes scoping the scene around him uninterestedly, "I guess you're right. Especially now that the Sandaime gave out the mission to infiltrate Cloud. Everyone knows it's a suicide mission. Kami save those poor souls."

There was a silence after that, filled with specks of dread and anxiousness. It was only when the silence continued on for too long did Sakura realize both the men had disappeared. Cursing her obliviousness, she came out of her hiding spot before sensing the presence behind her and whirling around as fast as she could with the grocery bags in her hand, hoping to surprise the person.

Her eyes widened as she registered the blue haired man's presence in front of her. He had an amused smile on his face as he peered down at her. A frown slowly but surely formed on her face as she realized the vast height difference.

"You really shouldn't be spying on people, little girl." The man said slowly.

"I wasn't spying." Sakura denied, narrowing her eyes a little.

"Hmm," the man hummed, "You really shouldn't lie either."

Her eyes narrowed more at the stranger. Now she looked closer, she could see he had very distinct features. Blue waist length hair, green slant eyes, straight nose—he was one of the more handsome shinobi. But for some reason, his whole appearance was not recognizable to her. For someone with such unforgettable features, it'd be pretty hard to forget him. So that just meant he was dead in her original timeline. Or moved someplace else.

"I didn't know girls these days just stared at older men like this. Are they getting gutsier?" the man teased, his eyes twinkling at the girl's blatant staring.

"…You're sort of a pedophile, aren't you?" Sakura asked, annoyed.

The man's eyes widened before he smiled amusedly. "Definitely a gutsy little girl. But that doesn't really matter when you're eavesdropping on a conversation not meant to be heard."

"I wasn't eavesdropping. It's not really my fault that I was at this place at this particular time, " the pinkette defended herself, "besides, you knew I was standing here and still you decided to continue this conversation."

"How do you know I knew you were there from the beginning?" he asked.

"Your feet had slightly turned towards my position the moment I came. That meant you were aware of me from the beginning."

"That also means your intent was clearly to eavesdrop, seeing as how you paid so much attention." The blue-haired man concluded, a knowing look on his face.

Sakura winced internally; she really did have to learn when to stop.

The man smiled gently at the girls perturbed expression. "Don't worry, I'm not reporting you or anything like that. It was just a mistake, right?" at this, he gave a pointed look, "so no harm done. For now at least. What's your name?"

"Uzumaki Sakura." She replied, relief flowing freely in her blood. She didn't even want to think of the consequences she would have had to face if this jounin really had reported about her snooping.

"Pleased to finally know your name, Sakura. Fits you. My name is Kato Dan." He introduced himself with what she believed to be his trademark gentle smile. Somehow, that name triggered something in her mind, but she couldn't exactly figure out why. Had she heard about this man before in her previous life sometime? But then, why couldn't she remember?

There was something glinting between the collars of his standard jounin flak jacket, she noticed, the sun's rays hitting it made t glimmer and it was eye catching. However it was only when she seriously looked at the object, her curiosity faded away and confusion flooded her mind like a tidal wave.

It was a pendant that caught the sun's rays so beautifully. A long rectangular aquamarine blue pendant attached to a twined leather cord with two small silver metal balls on either side of it rested around his neck.

She knew this necklace. She had seen this necklace mostly every day for the better part of her life. And she knew this necklace had a dark story behind. This was the First Hokage's necklace, the necklace that made Tsuande the jaded woman Sakura had come to know. The necklace the Fifth Hokage of her time had given to Naruto in hopes of a new dream.

And here it was, lying all unassuming around this man's neck. Tsunade had only given this necklace to three people in her life. One was her little brother, one was Naruto and one was—

"You're staring again, you realize." He said, looking a bit worriedly at the girls unfocused eyes.

Her eyes snapped up from the necklace to his face. She could finally place this man in the story that was her life. But now she also knew that this man never did have a happy ending.

"…I was just looking at your necklace. It's really pretty." She said, her voice coming out a little distorted at the sudden turn of events.

Her eyes immediately zoned in on the light pink dusting that appeared on the man's cheekbones. She somehow found it hard to swallow.

"Why are you blushing…?" she asked.

His green eyes widened at that, "Oh! er, I didn't realize I was." His smile turned bashful as he looked at a point above her head, but that didn't matter, she could still see the emotion swirling in his eyes. "A very special person gave it to me. It's really precious to me."

"…you look like you're in love." Sakura pointed out quietly.

Dan let out a low chuckle at that, a bit breathlessly. "I do, do I? Must be obvious to everyone then if even you, who just met me, could figure it out."

The pinkette smiled at that a bit wryly, albeit the smile didn't contain the happiness she should've felt at finally meeting the person who had irrevocably affected her mentor's life, in both good ways and bad.

"Yeah. You really do look like a love struck fool, Dan-san."

At that, the blue-haired jounin looked at her with a small scowl, "Wait a minute; weren't we talking about your eavesdropping? How did this come up?" he questioned with narrow eyes.

"It's not my fault you're easily distracted by thoughts of your girlfriend." She replied, lifting the groceries in her arm; it was getting quite uncomfortable holding them up for so long.

If anything, his blush just brightened at that. But he didn't deny it, like she'd expected. Instead, his eyes just softened as a small smile appeared again. "…many have said the same actually."

Her mouth went dry.

"Well, now that we've officially crossed that invisible line for a conversation between strangers, and more than that, a conversation with a child, I better get going. Now, what did you learn from this?" he asked, reverting back to the non-blushing, stern but gentle jounin.

"I don't know, maybe how you're so easily distracted? Now, can I go? These bags aren't really light." Sakura answered instead, a smile pulling at her lips.

"Aish, this kid…" the man grumbles, but then smiles at her, his trademark gentle one. "As long as you learnt something then. Ja." He bids, before disappearing in a flash of smoke right before her eyes.

Slowly, her own smile fades form her lips as she stares blankly past the fading smoky haze, the world beyond it appearing as a mystical distortion of colors. Somehow, one more factor was added to the equation and it felt like the future was murky again.

One way or another, the smoke never dissipates soon enough for her to see the end clearly.

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.

.

It was only when he saw a large shadow over the current book he was reading did Minato look up, annoyance clearly expressed through his eyes. They did widen immediately though, when he saw how inappropriately close the other person's face was to his; so close that the person's exhales were making the fine strands of his hair fly up a bit and his eyes were going cross-eyed.

Immediately, he reclined, almost falling off the chair in his haste and snapped the book shut, running his hand through his wild hair in an attempt to tame it and coughing lightly into a fist to cover up his flustered state. He frowned minutely as he caught onto his nervous gesture and instantly dropped his hand. The blond's eyebrows furrowed as he took in Kushina's abrupt grinning appearance. What was she even doing standing so close? Didn't the girl have any sense of personal space?

"Why in the world were you standing so close? Don't you know that that's really creepy?" he said, a confused expression overtaking his annoyed one. After all, what reason did Kushina have to come to the library? This place was almost always Kushina-free.

Her grin just grew wider at that, one eye almost closing shut. "How do you know if that was my intention, blondie?"

At that, Minato simply rolled his eyes. It was always better to just leave explanations with the redheaded genin. "So, what are you here for anyway? You never come to the library."

Kushina shrugged and then sighed. "…I had nothing better to do? So I came to find you. Hey, that rhymed!" she said with wide eyes, efficiently distracted by her rhyming skills.

"Nice to know how high I am in your list of priorities..." The blond muttered, raising an unimpressed eyebrow at the silently snickering redhead before turning back to his tome of a book. "And keep your voice down, will you? People actually like silence here." He said as an afterthought, but really, he just wanted to retort something to the girl—no one really likes being the last in any list.

She made a face at that.

"Whoa. Were you actually reading this here? Is this what you do in your free time?" Kushina asked, peering at the book as if it was some exploding paper bomb ready to kill her. Minato looked at her oddly when she started to poke and prod at the book as if seeing such a thing for the first time. Maybe it was; who ever knew with her.

"…It's really big." She concluded solemnly.

Minato let out a breath of laughter at that as his eyes fell on the book, with something akin to fondness glinting in his eyes. "Yeah, I guess it is. I never really notice it though, to be honest. When I read it, time just flies by."

"The Tales and Myths of the First Generation Konoha~" Kushina read the title out slowly, enunciating each syllable. By the end, she was the one looking at him oddly; her lips pulled down to a grimace, "A history book? That's your favorite book?"

"It's really interesting to know how the greats of Konoha really achieved all the things they did and made all this possible. It's like my own personal story book. And I love getting to know more about the past. You know, you should read it too. You'll get to know a lot more about your home." Minato explained.

"This isn't my home though, not really…So what's the point?" Kushina replied, her expression becoming more and more closed off, twirling strands of her hair.

The blond looked stricken for a moment and felt a bit guilty at what he had said, but then he sighed. He looked like he was searching for the right words to say.

"…you know, I'm not saying you should ever forget where you came from, but whether you like it or not, this actually is your home now. There's no use living in denial right now. And I don't know if I overstepped my boundaries or something; it's just something I feel. And it's your choice whether to accept it or not."

With a pointed glance, filled with something she couldn't really make out at that moment, the boy left the library, his blond unruly hair getting more and more smaller in the distance until it finally disappeared through the library doors.

He didn't get to see how the girl looked a bit torn, and a bit reluctant.

He also didn't know that when she finally did leave the building, it was with a familiar thick tome of a book and a new shiny laminated library card in her hands.

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.

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"So, how is training going, Sasuke? Getting along with your new teammates?" Renjirou Uchiha asked, his deep, almost gravelly voice dispelling the silence at the table. His dark eyes peered over at his oldest child in curiosity.

Sasuke looked up from his plate, a tomato onigiri held up by chopsticks frozen about midway from his mouth as his face changed into something sour. "Training's…going." He mumbled, before stuffing his mouth with the onigiri.

The man at the head of the table chuckled. "That's not exactly what I asked. I asked how its going, not if it is. Though judging by your face, I take it it's not pleasant?"

"But isn't Kushina-san there with you in your team?" his mother questioned after that distractedly, busy with serving dinner to Sayuri and sopping her from making a mess.

"Exactly…" he muttered with an annoyed purse of the lips.

"But Kushina-chan's great! She's so much fun, isn't she?~ You'll never, ever, ever be bored!" Sayuri chirped in, a big grin on her face as she looked at her brother with her simple logic and her famed eye-smile, her cheeks smeared with sauce already even with all the fussing from Mameha near her.

The eldest simply stared blankly at his imouto, though inside, he really wanted to bash the redhead to the ground for brainwashing his little imouto. Fun? If only fun was sitting through her endless bouts of idiocy.

But no. No, the word that would be more appropriate for that is torture. And numbness.

Instead, he simply stayed silent. They should probably understand what that meant.

"But what about your other teammate?"

"…He talks lesser than me, actually. He's tolerable." Sasuke said, "His quietness balances out Kushina's incessant love of talking. So maybe the teams were balanced on that basis…though he does seem useless otherwise."

Renjirou instead chuckled. Even though his son was grumbling about his teammates and cursing them to Kami knows where, they were spoken half-heartedly. They had no real intent or malice behind them. And that just meant that they were growing on the once anti-social boy.

"You should bring them over for lunch here, someday. Introduce the team properly to your family. And it would be a great honor if the White Fang of Konoha himself actually accepted an invitation to have lunch here in our abode, you know." He said after a few bites, breaking the silence once again.

Sasuke scoffed. "You're placing that old sadistic geezer on a high pedestal…"

Mameha looked at her son with a disapproving frown on her face. "That is not the way you speak of one of the most respected shinobi in Konoha, Sasuke, and certainly not your sensei."

He averted his eyes at that, looking properly scolded until he muttered, "Wait until you've met him, then…" under his breath.

"Okaa-san! Onii-chan talked back!" Sayuri sang loudly, grinning gleefully at Sasuke's slightly wide-eyed look. The look instantly turned into a glare directed at the youngest though. Traitorous brat. Looking at his mother with a slightly sheepish look, he couldn't help but think he was never this much of a tattle-tale with his own brother. He was only clingy, never evil. Did the switch in gender make her more mischievous?

"…and what of your other two friends? The Namikaze boy and Uzumaki's sister? Are they doing well with their team?" Renjirou picked up from before the topic diverted.

"They're doing okay…I suppose." At his father's questioning look, he elaborated a bit, "…I haven't talked to them in a while."

The table was quieter after that, with just the occasional clatter and clang of metal utensils against the plates. But as the table grew quieter, Sasuke's mind grew more and more restless. It was true that he hadn't really talked to both Sakura and Minato, but he hadn't really given much thought to it. However, now that he did, it was more than a little strange that he hadn't seen either one of them much in the past few weeks. Were they really that busy with training and missions?

"How was the meeting this week, Renjirou-kun? Better than the last time?" his mother spoke up from the other end of the low rise table, eyes glinting with curiosity, however her face morphed into one of concern at his expression.

The head of the family sighed, and it was as if the man's features had considerably aged from just that one exhale; as if just the thought of that meeting brought forth something he really didn't want to think about.

"It was…the same as always, I believe. But as always, I could only sit and watch…" he said in a weary tone, his puckered eyebrows showing his frustration. But then he sent a look—a look that was somehow edged with something— to Mameha and the table fell silent again, no other words being spoken, no words of comfort coming from her, hut the air had gotten slightly thicker and it never really dissipated until the end of dinner, the carefree mood of before long forgotten.

Sasuke simply observed before turning his gaze to the plate in front of him. He knew that look, he was familiar with it. The look brought forward every memory that was attached with it into the fore-front of his mind.

He remembered how much that single look had frustrated him before, worried him, and irritated him that he was being kept out of the loop once again.

It was that look from his past lifetime that was exchanged throughout the Uchiha clan in the time towards the massacre in increasing frequency to keep something quiet. Something quite dark that was buzzing around the whole clan, with only the most important people knowing about the whole situation.

Of course, as Sasuke came to later know, it was the Uchiha coup de tat.

So now that he saw the same look again—a look that made this kind man look as if he aged ten years in just a single breath, then it was his chance to take some initiative. Even if he was off on this and I wasn't about the rebellion, he still wanted to know what it was about. It was time to stop sitting idly around and thinking it was all going to continue on this way, think that he had been sent this far back just because he deserved a chance at a normal childhood; no, that'd be naïve of him.

If this wasn't the first sign of both the parallel universes merging, he didn't know what was.

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She flexed her slightly chubby but calloused fingers as she acutely felt the changes in the flow of her chakra. The kyuubi was affecting her more intensely than she initially thought. Not that she hadn't already been aware of it, seeing as her fuuinjutsu had taken an intense hit in terms of improving. In that aspect, she was in a stagnant state. But still, how could a simple water walking exercise be so trying? It shouldn't be, at least, not this much. But here she was, using her full concentration to just try to stay on the surface.

The inconsistencies in her chakra control were severely affecting her. The points where the two different forms of chakra merge—pinprick points that covered the entire chakra system, from what she remembered from Naruto diagnosis's, which was how two such molecularly diverse chakras co-existed in the same vessel—were like glitches in her inner chakra structure. Even if she did manage to have enough control to stay on the surface, once a ripple or something of the like comes along, it took her longer to adjust her control, by which time she'd already be jumping to avoid being dunked in feet-first.

The whole thing was annoying. Sakura never thought she'd have to sacrifice the one thing she had been entirely proud of, the one thing that was completely hers, the one thing that only she was solely known for; it wasn't any passed down technique, and it wasn't a kekkei genkai of any sort. It was the sole benefit she had. The talent in which she surpassed both the Uchiha Prodigy and the Yondaime's Son.

But now, that control she legitimately had a reason to be proud of was gone and while she would've looked at the bright side of the supposed trade—an abundance of chakra at her disposal—she couldn't even access it properly. Plus, what was the use of chakra when one didn't wield the control needed?

Her eyes narrowed in thought. The fact that the second malevolent chakra coursing inside of her was made only recently, it raised the difficulty of the concept of control one notch harder. The path to have at least an average form of control was to simply whether out the first few months until her body becomes used to it. However the way to gain her signature perfect chakra control was for the two chakras to merge together completely.

The only way to fully merge both the chakras into a singular coil instead of having two separate ones with converging points was only if she could fully take control over the demon sealed inside of her. But that wasn't an option for her right now, nor would it be one for the next few years at the least.

The only other option she had was also not a quick route one, nor would it be fully merged, but she'd still be able to manage. And that was to follow in Naruto's footsteps. Months and months of continuous chakra-control training that results in an almost complete conditioning which then would make her fully accustomed to using chakra her with control.

Yes, that could work. Which would mean training long into the night since she didn't really have years and years for that, but still.

Her eyes snapped up from the murky water to the two boys on the other side of the lake as shouts and yells hit her. Her lips pursed in annoyance and irritation at the sight of them running freely on the water. She wasn't really surprised that they already got the mechanics of this control exercise; one was a Hyuuga who were famed for their chakra manipulation and control and the other was Minato. It was a given they'd get it.

Sakura unconsciously pouted slightly; it really was harder to have two obvious geniuses on a team than just one obvious one and one oblivious one. At least the oblivious one boosted her ego somewhat. At times.

"Having problems, Sakura?" Minato called, stopping his gliding for a moment, splashing droplets of water at the disgruntled Hyuuga in front of him, who had also stopped. The blonds blue eyes were peering at her curiously with a hint of concern while the pale eyed boy was simply looking at her smugly.

Sakura grit her teeth in annoyance; for some unknown reason, Hitoshi had waged some sort of competition between himself and her from the day Jiraiya had started their team training. Although, the pink haired girl snorted lightly, there wasn't much training to begin with except for training in 'subtlety and stealth', if it could even be called that, the pervert. The only thing that came out of it was the reviving of Minato's admiration for the Sannin—taking the stealth training seriously—and Hitoshi's sudden rivalry with her. Which was really idiotic considering he had a perfectly good and capable rival in the form of Minato.

Also, this rivalry really was one-sided.

Her blue-green eyes narrowed at the blatant display of chakra control by the Hyuuga, running and jumping on the water surface, always visible in her periphery. She could feel her fists clenching.

Alright, maybe not entirely one-sided, she decided impulsively as she directed more chakra to the soles of her feet, her toes wiggling at the coolness of the drops of water on her shoes contrasting with the warmth of the chakra flooding in. Fine-tune it. Not too much chakra, though not too little either. Maybe if she manipulated her chakra so thinly that it can pass through the glitches with minimum interference, which would mean constantly streaming chakra.

With that, she took a few steps forward hesitantly, frowning a bit at the water faintly pooling in her shoes as her feet sunk about a quarter of an inch under the surface and the feeble squelchy noises from her toes rubbing against the rubber.

Focusing more on her control and visualizing her chakra as a thin film of water itself, moving and flowing, she took her next step. Her eyes lit up a bit as this time her foot was right on the surface instead of a little under, she took one more.

And then another and another until she could walk properly without a bit of the shoe dipping. A small smile appeared on her weary face as she walked on water properly. Undeniably, it still wasn't the same as before; she had to concentrate a lot to get her footing right and not just go under unlike her previous state where she could walk and glide and multitask on water with ease. No, that was going to take a lot of practice, she knew. But comparably, she was doing a lot better than Naruto was at this age.

However, what she did notice was that she wasn't really that drained. Since her chakra reserves were drastic in this lifetime even without the Kyuubi's help especially compared to her previous ones, she wasn't worn out so easily. She still had much of her chakra left, actually.

"Yah, I think Sakura finally got it." Minato said in surprise with a smile on his face, his eyes shrinking as his cheeks rose.

I'd gotten it a lifetime before you, Sakura wanted to say in her sudden ire, but she it went as soon as it came; she knew that wouldn't make much sense to him. She also knew he didn't mean it in any ill way; she didn't even know if Minato could say anything in ill-will—but the pinkette still felt that age old sting; that feeling of being the only thing holding everyone back.

"Hmph, finally. I was thinking maybe you wouldn't ever get—!" Hitoshi spluttered midway as water splashed onto him, losing his footing on the water for a second before correcting himself. A light pink hue rose on his face, from irritation and embarrassment both, as he glared at a smirking pink haired girl.

One of the advantages she had with her chakra was that she had plenty to expel without running out. And by just expelling additional chakra from her feet, she could make the water surface ripple and bubble. Simple and effective.

"Sakura."

At that voice, she turned swiftly, careful of the chakra in her feet lest she fall after all this work. However, her small smirk fell completely at Sasuke's face.

"Hey, Sasuke…?" Minato said, hesitantly.

"What the hell is he even doing here? It's closed practice…" the Hyuuga muttered under his breath, voicing out the question even she wanted to ask. Annoyance was coloring his tone, maybe from his unannounced presence or from her previous stunt. He was a prideful person after all, he wouldn't want to let this go simply.

The Uchiha's dark eyes were still fixed on her, unnerving Sakura more than a little bit. Her blue-green eyes looked at his in question.

"We need to talk."

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Author's note—uh, so, hey? Anybody miss me? Er, yeah. By the way, I'm finally a college kid! Not really an excuse but kind of maybe yeah.