…See what I mean? Can you imagine how long the last chapter would have been if I hadn't split them? Still, I am sorry it took so long to get this one out. Unfortunately, college had to take priority over fanfiction for a while. But here it is!

Just to avoid any confusion… Hideo is Luke's boss, and there's another POV switch to third person at the very end.

Chapter Seventeen

I remained there, frozen in my seat on the bench, long after Koda had gone. A chilling numbness had spread out from my heart. I wanted to cry. What had I done?

Relax, I told myself, taking in a shaky breath. It's not like she's dying… And-And… this is such a small change in light of the whole storyline.

But the knot in my stomach refused to loosen. I shot to my feet. I would go visit her. Yes, that would answer some questions. And if she was well enough for visitors… Well, I refused to consider the other option.

I tried to think logically on my walk to the hospital. How would Sakura missing her bout with Ino affect the rest of the exams? Assuming Kabuto had also bowed out, that now left them with an uneven number of participants. Would the last one be given a free pass into the next round? Would they even be fighting the same people? What if it would all be messed up now that Ino's canon opponent was missing?

Thinking logically was getting me nowhere. Go figure. There were dozens of possible ways this change could affect the future, and there was no way to be certain that the story would follow the canon universe anymore.

I shut off my inner fountain of possibilities when I caught sight of the hospital looming before me. Things were so bright and positive here in the middle of the village. It was a stark contrast to my own personal gloom.

The woman behind the desk smiled at me when I walked in. I attempted to smile back.

"Uh, hello…"

"Good morning!" she chirped back, even though it was already afternoon. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah… I think so. I wanted to visit someone, but I'm not sure of the room number."

She nodded encouragingly and pulled out a drawer of files. (I still found it bizarre to live in a world where all the information wasn't stored in a computer.) "If you give me a name, I can look it up for you."

"Sakura Haruno."

She set to work and I was soon on my way up to the third floor. It was quiet up here, and I took that as a good sign. I didn't see any nurses rushing around in a frantic attempt to save the dying, so she couldn't be too bad off, right?

I stood outside the door to her room for a good minute before, working up the courage to actually go in. It had occurred to me that I had practically nothing to say to her. We'd never officially met, and the one time I'd seen her in person, we hadn't spoken. But, if only for my own peace of mind, I needed to see her now—to know she was alright.

The door slid open slowly. The lights in the room were all off, but the sun was shining through the window. Sakura was laying down, but she lifted her head when she heard me shut the door.

I hovered awkwardly a few feet from her bed, unsure where to start. There was a dark bruise trailing all the way from one eyebrow to her cheek, but I didn't spot any obvious damage otherwise. The nurses had done a good job of cleaning her up. Right now, she just looked tired.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times before settling on, "Hi…"

She blinked, confused. "Um, hi. Do I… know you?"

"Not really," I admitted sheepishly. "We were never officially introduced."

"Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I remember you. You're Naruto's friend, right?"

"Yes. My name's Carly." I'll admit it—I still got a little thrill from being able to say I was Naruto's friend.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Sakura."

"I know. I mean, um, Naruto's talked about you guys. When I heard his team mates had been hurt, I wanted to check on you for him."

"Have you seen Sasuke?"

It was almost enough to make me smile. I should've known that would be the first thing on her mind. "No. They're not letting him have any visitors yet… but I bet he'll be fine."

"Yeah… I'm sure you're right…" But I could see the way her eyes had clouded.

I finally closed the distance between us, taking the seat by her bed. "What about you?"

I wasn't sure whether I had meant it in the emotional or the physical sense, but she took it as the latter. She forced a lighthearted-sounding laugh, as I had seen her do so many times on-screen.

"Oh, me? I'm fine…" The sad look hadn't left her eyes and she looked down, muttering to herself, "Pathetic, but fine…"

"You're not pathetic." The words were out before I even had time to consider them. She blushed when she realized I'd heard her, but I didn't take back my words or apologize. I meant it. Sakura had never been my favorite character, but I didn't hate her. And I didn't think she was useless.

"Thank you, but… you don't know what it's like out there. I guess… I didn't either. I thought I did, but since the exams started… I'm not making much sense, am I?"

I shrugged. I knew what she meant, of course, but to the average stranger she would seem a little incoherent.

"I guess I just feel so… weak." She began to tear up, to my horror, at the last word. "Maybe I never really thought about it before, but Sasuke and even Naruto are both so far ahead of me. It's starting to feel like I won't ever be able to catch up."

"But that doesn't mean you're pathetic," I rushed to assure her, anything to stop the coming tears. Comfort was not one of my talents. "Maybe they're just freakishly strong."

That got a tearful laugh out of her, at least. "Thank you… When we were in the forest… I felt so out of my league. Like the only time I was of any use was when I was taking care of them after they'd protected me."

"Have you ever considered that?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. My instincts and all my knowledge of what happened when you messed with the future were screaming at me to shut up, but I felt like I at least owed her this much. I'd done her an indirect harm, so maybe I could counteract that with an indirect gift.

"Considered what?"

"Becoming a doctor—or a healer, whatever."

The way she was blinking at me made it clear the thought had never crossed her mind. "No… I haven't."

"I don't mean to belittle your goals of getting stronger and catching up… but maybe you'd be good at it. Naruto told me about your last mission and the chakra training. He said you got it a lot faster than either of them."

Her smile was much more optimistic now. Still a little subdued, but we were out of the danger zone, and I was pleased to find that I felt close to no guilt. How could I possibly be hurting Sakura by speeding up her career a little?

"Maybe you should look into it."

She didn't get a chance to respond before her door opened again. My heart did a little jump when Kakashi walked into the room. He nodded a hello to his student, but his uncovered eye stayed on me for a second longer than I thought was necessary. There was that look again—like he was watching for something. I wish I knew what it meant.

"Kakashi sensei!" Sakura exclaimed. "Is something—"

"Everything's fine," he interrupted, seeing the look in her eyes. "Naruto's match just ended. He's moving on to the next round."

"And Sasuke?"

"Resting. He's not allowed any visitors right now, but he'll recover."

She gave a relieved sigh and her teacher turned to look at me again. I took that as my cue to leave, hurriedly getting to my feet. "I should probably let you two catch up. I was just… leaving… anyway…"

I let my voice peter out and trail off as I rushed out of the room. Now I could feel both pairs of eyes on me, and it was turning me into a nervous wreck. There was a reason I'd never tried out any hobbies in the theater. I hated being watched.

It was this feeling that pushed me out of the hospital instead of staying and maybe finding and visiting Tenten. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what that look meant.

Of course… this wasn't my only reason for wanting out. If Naruto's match was already over, that meant Lee's would be starting soon… If he wasn't already fighting. I didn't want to be here when they brought him in.

…

I was surprised to find the apartment empty when I returned. I knew Luke didn't have work today. His boss had closed the shop so that he could spend the day taking inventory and putting orders together. He expected business to go crazy when this stage ended and all the participants began preparing for the finals. After today, Luke probably wouldn't get a day off until the end of the Chunin Exams when the entire marketplace would practically shut down.

So I couldn't imagine where he would be now. He had been out a lot more lately, but I'd assumed he'd just been working more. As far as I knew, Luke just hung out here when he didn't have to work.

I spotted something on our table and went over to investigate. Curiously, I picked up a small notebook. It looked like the kind reporters used when they conducted interviews. It looked as if my brother had tossed it on the table on his way out, maybe deciding he didn't need it at the last minute?

I started flipping through it—yeah, I know… Nosy by nature, remember?—and realized that this must have been what he was writing in that day I thought he'd been making lists. They weren't lists, though… I didn't recognize most of them, but I knew the format of an address. And then I came across one I did know. That was Choji's house! I delivered there all the time.

What was Luke doing with Choji's address? And who lived at all these other places?

Somewhat suspiciously, I put the notebook back down and scanned the room. It was a small apartment; there weren't very many places to hide anything. It wasn't long before I found them. Wedged in a thin space between the oven and the wall, Luke had stashed… drawings?

Bewildered, I pulled out the papers. Some of them were clearly incomplete. Others were full of detail and colored in. I found the one of Sakura he'd done for me. There were also pictures of Tenten, his boss, Teuchi and Ayame, some civilians I'd never seen before, Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru… When had he done all these? And more importantly, why was he hiding them from me?

I straightened up and dropped the papers to the floor, hunching over to steady myself against the wall. A searing pain in my head almost brought me to my knees. I'd never gotten a migraine before, and I couldn't help wondering if they felt something like this. As quickly as it had come on, the pain eased and I took my hand away from the wall shakily.

What with the storm of insanity that had become my life lately, I wasn't sure I wanted to even try to understand what had just happened. I began gathering all the papers I'd dropped. I had just retrieved the last one when Luke arrived home.

He shut the door behind him and then seemed to freeze when he realized what was in my hands. Which was all right, because I was busy staring at what was in his.

"Why do you have those?" we asked in unison. When he remained silent, I continued, "Why were you hiding these?"

"Why were you searching the house?" he countered.

"It's our house," I replied. "Why didn't you tell me about all these?"

"Carly, you're just…"

"Just what?" I challenged.

"Just… such a sister sometimes!"

"Gee, I wonder why that might be?" We were getting into rocky territory. Luke and I rarely fought, but both of our tempers were rising.

"Maybe I wanted one thing that I didn't have to share! Did that ever occur to you?"

Okay, I know what you're thinking… What a stereotypical twin argument, right? But Luke and I had never had this argument. And I'd never thought it would be started over something as trivial as a collection of drawings. I didn't really want to have this argument at all. I wasn't sure what was wrong with me. I brought a hand up to my head. I still didn't feel quite right, and I was taking it out on Luke.

"Do you… know all these people?" I asked in a much less aggressive tone.

He shrugged, seeing that I was trying to diffuse the tension. "Kind of. Some of them come into the shop a lot. Choji recognized you when he saw me… if that makes sense. He said you were the delivery girl, and I asked if he'd let me draw him. His team mates showed up while I was working, so I drew them too." He'd crossed the room to gently take the drawings out of my hands and lay them out across the table so we could both look at them. "Shikamaru's the best model I've ever had."

I couldn't help laughing softly. While Ino looked posed, Luke had sketched Shikamaru while he lay asleep in Choji's backyard.

"What's that one?" I asked, pointing to the one Luke still held under his arm.

"Oh…" He still seemed a little reluctant, but he handed it over. It was another picture of Choji, except this one was different. Choji was sitting up in bed this time. A hospital bed, I realized. Luke must have done this one today.

"You went to go visit him in the hospital?" I asked, surprised. I couldn't have missed him by that long.

"Yeah. The pictures of him and his team mates were done, like, a month ago. I've actually seen him a lot since then. We're friends, I guess."

"You're friends?"

Luke seemed oblivious to my incredulous tone. "Sure. Choji's nice. And his mom makes great barbecue…"

"Luke!" I exclaimed. "You didn't think to tell me any of this?!"

He raised an eyebrow and began collecting his work. "Any time you want to start sharing your secrets, I'm all ears."

Damn. There was no one who knew how to shut me up like my brother did. And I did feel guilty about how much I'd been keeping from him lately. Especially considering how much of it revolved around our father.

"Oh, you lied to me, by the way."

"About what?" I asked. I honestly had no clue what he could be talking about. I didn't really lie to Luke… I mostly just didn't tell him anything.

"About the exams. You told me Choji fought that Sound guy—"

"Dosu," I supplied.

"Yeah, him. Choji said Dosu got a by into the next round today. He had to fight Ino."

"Yeah… That's kind of my fault, actually." I quickly explained the situation with Lee and visiting Sakura in the hospital. (I may have left out the part with Kakashi.) "So Ino's moving into the finals?"

"No. It's kind of… complicated."

"What do you mean?"

"Choji didn't want to fight his own team mate… He let her take over his mind or whatever and give up, but Ino didn't feel like she deserved the win… So she forfeited."

"Huh…" I suddenly had more respect for Ino than I ever had in the past. "But wait a minute. If it was finished that easily, why is Choji in the hospital?"

Luke snorted. "Indigestion. Apparently, he inhaled, like, an entire factory's worth of chips before his match."

"Oh, right. Should've guessed."

We were quiet. I could tell Luke hadn't forgotten our little spat and all that I still wasn't telling him, but he would let it go. For now.

At last, he said, "I'm gonna go down to the shop and see if Hideo needs any help before he closes down for the night. Tomorrow's gonna suck… I don't know if we even have room to store all the stuff he's ordering."

That was it. Luke didn't wait around and try to make any small talk with me. We knew each other too well for that. I watched him leave again, thinking he was much too young for his words.

Normally, I did my best not to think too much about home. There was no point. Even if there was a way to go back, what was there to return to? (I quickly blocked out any thoughts of my mother.) But now I couldn't help it. We were twelve! Not even officially teenagers yet. No twelve-year-old I knew had ever been as attached to a job (if they even had one!) as my brother was. With a pang, I realized that his job at the weapons shop was really all Luke had here. Excluding me, of course. And now Choji…

It was such a bizarre thought. I knew I was being a little hypocritical, but it still hurt that he hadn't told me. Had Luke really thought I'd begrudge him the only friendship he'd made in this world?

And Choji was nice. Maybe a little strange, but what did that say about Lee? Or either of us, for that matter?

I yawned and realized that the sun had set while I was locked away in my thoughts. Emotionally, it had been a long day. And I wasn't expecting much different out of tomorrow.

…

I was too tired to do any more experimenting with lucid dreaming that night, so I was surprised when I found myself in another memory. This wasn't the scene I usually dreamed. In fact, this was years after my dad had died.

"Everyone handles stress differently, Ms. Sparks. Some people deal with grief by reaching out and helping others. Like your son. Others… need to find recovery inside themselves."

I winced. I didn't see anything yet—I was surrounded by blinding whiteness—but that was the voice of one of my old therapists. My mother had been trying to figure out why Luke seemed to be getting better and I was just withdrawing more and more.

"And this odd obsession with cartoons?"

"Distractions. Some people learn to express themselves through music or art. Some people find comfort in living through other people. Or characters, in this case. Carly is young. Sooner or later, she'll come to realize that she needs to face her problems in this world, but for now, I don't think it's anything to worry about too seriously."

I slammed my hands over my ears, trying to block it out. I'd hated it when they'd psychoanalyzed me to my face. I didn't want to hear this.

I'd forgotten about this day. The therapist had asked to speak with my mother after yet another unproductive session with me. All those years ago… I'd sat outside and eavesdropped on this conversation. Those little noise machines really don't muffle all that much.

"Wake up!" I yelled at myself, trying to take control of this dream. The pain in my head had returned, but it slowly eased as the dream surrendered. I woke up briefly before drifting off again, into nothingness this time.

…

"Any progress?"

"Not as much as we'd hoped," Inoichi Yamanaka answered, releasing his hold on Carly's mind temporarily. He looked to the Hokage, who had asked the question. "Someone has put up mental walls—I don't think she'd be able to do something of this caliber herself. The guard you have tailing her has broken down a few but not all."

"And the boy?" This question was posed to Choza Akimichi, who had also been called there that night.

"He's been spending a lot of time with Choji, and consequently his friends, lately. We've met a few times. He seems polite, but a little reserved."

"And you trust him around your son?" It was not a judgment. The Hokage sounded genuinely curious.

"Yes. I can't speak for his sister; my wife's usually the one who's around when she arrives with the deliveries. But the boy doesn't appear dangerous. Just different."

"Different's a good word for it," Inoichi agreed, mulling over the memory he'd pulled. "At the very least, there are holes in their story. Even if they're not dangerous, they're hiding something."

"Hmmm…" The Hokage deliberated on this. Finally, he decided, "I don't want them locked up and interrogated just yet. We've got a month before things will pick up around here again with the exams… Keep watching. That's all. You're dismissed."

Review Please!

I don't own Naruto. Just my OCs.

I almost added in a little conversation with Choza and Inoichi about their children and the turnout Ino and Choji had in the exams… In the end, I decided against it. Out of curiosity, do you think I made things a little too convenient? This story is very OC-driven… I'm doing my best to keep the Naruto story as close to canon as possible, for my own sake.