After defeating Gaara in the preliminaries, the Hokage instantly has Anbu escort her to the T & I to be interrogated. She isn't even allowed to linger and watch Sasuke's and Naruto's fights (which is such a shame. She was really looking forward to it).
Once she is in the T & I, Yamanaka Inoichi - Ino's father - is already there waiting for her.
"Hello, Sakura-chan," Inoichi greets her the moment she sits down in front of him inside the interrogation room.
"I assume you know why you are here," Inoichi tells her as she meets his eyes.
"Yes," She nods her head.
"Then, we will skip the pleasantries and go straight ahead to what I was tasked here to do."
"Of course," Sakura replies.
"Have you heard about mindwalking Sakura-chan?" Inoichi asks her.
"Yes, I have heard of it before," She says to him.
"So you know what I am about to do."
"Yes."
"Then, brace yourself. This is going to be unpleasant for you. I advise you not to fight the jutsu or it will hurt. Do you understand Sakura-chan?"
"Yes."
"Well then…let us start," Inoichi says as he locks his eyes into her.
Afterward, he presses his fingers together in front of him in a triangle and then slams his consciousness into her mind without warning.
Sakura reels back in shock just as she experiences a radiating pain in her head. She clenches her jaw while she continues to stare into Inoichi's blank eyes.
"Don't resist it, Sakura-chan. Let me have access to your memories," She hears Inoichi say in her mind.
Sakura forces herself to relax. A moment later, she senses Inoichi goes through her mental barriers. Thankfully, there is no longer Inner Sakura to bar the man's intrusion or the man would have ended up mentally scarred if Sakura hadn't absorbed her other persona the moment she woke up in that timeline.
She can only sit there and sense as Inoichi goes swiftly through the memories of her early childhood to her Genin days. After a moment, Ino's father slows down on the memories during the Chuunin Exam that happened in her other life.
She senses as Inoichi watches the event unfold in her mind as Orochimaru attacks her team in the Forest of Death before Inoichi skips to the day during the Preliminaries. Then, the man keeps on skipping from memory to memory until he arrives during the Sand and Sound Invasion.
Sakura knows that Inoichi is watching all the details of what happened before and can only hope that her memories are authentic enough to make Inoichi trust them.
It takes a while until Inoichi has seen the end of the Invasion and Sakura is grateful that the man doesn't go beyond that memory or else Sakura will have to reveal everything to him and the Hokage, which she is not ready yet.
"I can tell that your memories are real since I can feel different kinds of emotion connected to your memories, Sakura-chan." Inoichi tells her after he withdraws from her mind. "Your memories aren't tampered with, which means that you are telling the truth. After you pass Ibiki's interrogation, I will report everything I have seen to the Hokage."
"Thanks, Inoichi-san," Sakura says to him.
Inoichi simply nods his head in acknowledgement before he tells her, "Ibiki will be here shortly to interrogate you further. He will be using a jutsu to determine if you are telling the truth. I advice that you be honest with him Sakura-chan or else he will have to resort to torturing the information out of you."
"I understand, Inoichi-san," is Sakura's response.
"Just stay strong. I am sure that this will be all over soon," Inoichi says to her gently.
"I will. Thank you once again, Inoichi-san," Sakura replies.
Afterward, she watches as Inoichi leaves, where it doesn't take long before the door to the interrogation room opens and admits the familiar face of Morino Ibiki.
Sakura watches as the scarred man sits down on the chair that Yamanka Inoichi just vacated.
"Do you know who I am?" The man asks her.
"Yes," She replies.
"Then, you know why I am here,"
Sakura nods her head.
"Good. I don't need to explain myself to you then," Ibiki says, "Once I start, I will subject you to a jutsu while I ask my questions and you will have to answer honestly. If you lie, I will know. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Ibiki-san."
Thereafter, she watches as Ibiki performs hand seals and Sakurs suddenly feels coldness sweeps through her which she suspects is the jutsu that Ibiki cast on her.
"Now that's done. Can you please verify your name and Ninja ID number?"
"The name is Haruno Sakura and my ID number is 425463," She states without hesitation.
"Haruno, can you tell me more about the kekkei genkai that you have acquired recently?" Ibiki says as he steeples his hands in front of him.
"Apart from me, there is only one known person in my Clan who has the kekkei genkai. His name was Haruno Kyouya. He was my ancestor," Sakura informs Ibiki.
"How does your kekkei genkai work?"
"All I know is that those with my family's kekkei genkai can absorb the abilities of the person who killed us before going back in time to relive our lives again and again each time we die. In my case, I absorb the powers of the God – " She pauses before she quickly corrects herself. " – of the woman who killed me. Afterward, I found myself waking up in the past. To this timeline."
"I was told that your kekkei genkai is a new doujutsu. Can you show it to me?" Ibiki says to her.
"Of course," Sakura replies as she swiftly gathers chakra into her eyes and forehead where she can sense the newly developed chakra channels there.
It takes less than a minute when she notices Ibiki's expression changed as he looks at her new eyes and the eye on her forehead.
"Interesting," Ibiki mutters.
Sakura allows the man to inspect her closely and waits for him to finish scrutinizing her.
"You can shut them off now," the man orders after a moment.
Sakura does as ordered and forces her chakra to retreat from the chakra channels in her eyes and forehead. She notes that it is becoming easier and easier to activate and deactivate her doujutsu. If she is given the time to do so, she intends to practice and experiment with her new abilities. At the moment, she has to subject herself to the interrogation and hopefully get out of there soon.
"You say that you get to relive your life again and again each time you die. How many times have you died so far?" Ibiki inquires curiously.
"I only just experienced my first death and I came back to this timeline after absorbing the abilities of my killer," Sakura answers.
"So if you get killed again, does it mean that you are going to absorb the abilities of your new killer and go back in time again?"
"I am not quite sure. I only know that I retain the abilities of my first killer. In Haruno Kyouya's journal, he doesn't mention anything about absorbing the abilities of the next killer who kills him. Perhaps I only keep the abilities of my first killer as I continue to live again and again each time I die…I will just have to see when I die again," is Sakura's uncertain reply.
"What other abilities have you gained from your killer?"
Sakura hesitates for a moment before she replies.
"It is still uncertain how many abilities I have acquired from my first killer. All I know is that I have gotten her doujutsu and her ability to manipulate her bones. That's all I know at the moment," is Sakura's honest admission.
"Ability to manipulate bones? Do you mean the Shikotsumyako of the Kaguya Clan from Kiri? You have that as well?"
"Yes."
"Your killer…from what clan does she hail from?"
"She comes from the Otsutsuki Clan."
"I never heard of that Clan before," is Ibiki's remark.
"Not in recent times, no." Sakura shakes her head and adds, "The Clan is an ancient Clan but it went extinct many years ago."
"I see…"
There is a momentary pause as the scarred man regards her.
"You say that you come from a different time…can you tell me more about the future?" Ibiki orders.
"Well, the future is pretty bleak," Sakura says honestly. "I have already told the Hokage of the joint invasion of Sound and Sand on Konoha during the Final Chuunin Exam, where the Hokage gets killed by Orochimaru. I have also shown Inoichi-san how it happened through my memories of the future. What more do you want to know?"
"I want to know what you have seen during the Invasion. How did the invaders attack? Where did they attack? How did they subdue most of the Konoha ninjas?"
"Alright…I will tell you everything you want to know. It started when the enemy cast a wide-range genjutsu on the entire stadium, where most civilians and Konoha ninjas were taken unaware and fell into the genjutsu. Afterward, the Hokage was divided from the rest of the Konoha forces with a barrier that Orochimaru's Sound Five casts."
Sakura continues to regale the entire details of what she has observed during the Konoha Crush. She told Ibiki about the huge snake that was used to penetrate through the Konoha walls and Gaara's rampage as Shukaku. She also told him about Naruto's role in subduing the Ichibi and Orochimaru's Resurrection jutsu, which she had learned from the reports she read during her research into the Hokage archive under Tsunade's order.
She watched as Ibiki listened to her story. The man's expression hasn't changed throughout her story and she silently wonders what the man is thinking.
Once she has told Ibiki everything she experienced and the reports she read from before, Ibiki remains silent and thoughtful.
Sakura waits for the man to say something and is instantly relieved when Ibiki suddenly says, "I don't sense any lies from your words, Haruno. So consider yourself off the hook. You pass the interrogation. Congratulations. You will probably be released after Inochi and I have given our reports to the Hokage. In the meantime, you stay here until we send someone to fetch you out of here. Do I make myself clear, Haruno?"
"Yes, Ibiki-san," is Sakura's answer.
"Good," Ibiki says, "I am sure the Hokage will order for your release soon, Haruno. So you just wait here."
"Alright," she nods her head.
After nodding his head towards her, Sakura watches as Ibiki leaves the interrogation room and Sakura slowly directs her gaze at the two-way mirror in front of her, where she stares at her reflection.
Sakura waits for a good half an hour before she is finally released from the T & I. However, she soon finds herself back in the Hokage Tower again with the Hokage peering at her with a contemplative look on his face.
"So all you said were indeed true," the old man remarks while puffing up smoke from his pipe.
Sakura just nods her head.
"Well then… we have to take measures in ending the possibility of a Sound and Sand Invasion," the Hokage says. "What do you suggest we do to accomplish that?"
Sakura stands there in thought before she finally responds.
"I think first you need to find the body of the real Kazekage, Hokage-sama," she begins. "The Sand Village are only doing this because they are following the instruction from the man they think to be their Kazekage. If they find out that it is Orocohimaru, who has been pulling the strings all along, I am certain that the Sand Village will withdraw from the plan in invading Konoha," Sakura explains.
"And do you know where we might find the body of the real Kazekage?" the Hokage asks her.
"Yes, being a Hokage's apprentice has its perks. I was able to read some reports that Tsunade-sama asked of me regarding the Invasion," Sakura says as she remembered it.
"Then, where is the body buried?"
"I can write the coordinates down for you, Hokage-sama."
"Alright. Here's a pen and paper," the Hokage says while handing them to her.
Sakura takes them from the Hokage and writes the coordinates down on the paper and once she's done she hands the paper back to the Hokage, who merely glances at it before focusing his attention on her once more.
"Hokage-sama, may I ask you a question?" Sakura says to the old man.
"Yes, go ahead Sakura."
"Who else did you tell about me?" She asks.
"Only quite a few know about you and your abilities, Sakura. Apart from me, there is Yamanaka Inoichi, Morino Ibiki, your sensei and Shimura Danzo,"
"You told Danzo about me and my new abilities?" Sakura says in dismay.
"Yes, why do you ask?" the Hokage replies with a deepening frown.
"Danzo can't be trusted with this information, Hokage-sama. In fact, he can't be trusted at all. He's still controlling Root until now and he has stolen the Uchihas' eyes and implanted them into his arm."
"And you know all this from the future?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama. I was privy to this information because it was Uchiha Sasuke who ultimately defeated Danzo, who revealed the eyes he had stolen from massacred Uchihas. That's all I can tell you for now but I hope you trust my words, Hokage-sama."
There is a short pause as the Hokage regarded her with narrowed eyes.
"I will personally investigate this matter, Sakura. You don't have to worry about anything," the Hokage assures her afterward.
"Thank you Hokage-sama."
"Before I let you go, do you have any questions for me?"
"I no longer have any questions for you, Hokage-sama."
"Then, you are dismissed."
"Thank you Hokage-sama," Sakura says as she bows down and swiftly leaves the room.
She can only hope that the Hokage does something to Danzo before the man does something else to her.
She is certain at this time that she won't be able to survive a fight against Shimura Danzo if Danzo tries something against her.
AN: Thanks so much Prettygalkamille, Suzululu4moe, Emzy2k11, Heyo and Snow Tiger! And please don't hesitate to tell me what you think! For my writing updates, you can check me out on tumblr (bloomsburry-dhazel)