Chapter 2: Dimensions Clashing

"YOU!" screamed Menma glaring at Tobi and extending his arm up to protect Sakura.

"I'm so glad that you remember our time together, Menma," said sarcastically Tobi while looking at the ninjas from the top of the tree.

"Menma, who is he?" said Sakura getting up without taking her eyes off the mysterious ninja.

"It seems that some things remain the same even in different worlds," answered Tobi seeing that, just like with Naruto, the pink-haired girl was really close to the jinchuriki.

"Where I come from, they know me as Madara Uchiha, Sakura Haruno."

"How do you the know my name?!" Sakura said completely astonished just like Menma.

"In my world, I had the inconvenience of facing someone with your face, let's call her the other you. She, together with the other ninjas of Konaha, had been a complete nuisance in Akatsuki's plans"

"Akatsuki? But they are a group of mercenary shinobi, not missing-nin. They don't have any hidden intentions or secret agenda. They only care if you pay for its services" At that moment Sakura noticed the robes that this new guy was using.

"You are part of Akatsuki! But we don't have any record of someone like you as part of their group"

"It seems that the Sakura of this world is not as smart as the other one" mentioned Tobi pissing off Sakura and Menma.

"The Akatsuki that you met is a pathetic version if you compared it with mine. They don't have big plans or ideals, only greedy intentions. They don't want to change this horrible world. But as some events didn't happen here, they had completely different lives. For starters, judging by Sasuke's personality, the Uchiha clan still lives in Konoha." Tobi words confused Sakura and Menma but they didn't let it fool them and they were ready to fight.

"Whatever plan you may have, we won't let you harm the village" bravely said Sakura. She turned her head to Menma confirming that he was thinking the same plan as she. With a simple nod, they attacked their enemy.

Both ninjas jumped and attacked Madara from opposite sides. Sakura went for his right side while Menma for the left one. But that didn't surprise Madara at all. He sighed and disappeared through a spiral avoiding Sakura's fist and Menma's low kick. The tree where Tobi was standing fell down as Sakura's brutal strength connected with it. Nonetheless, Madara appeared in front of them.

"Different worlds, same attacks. I hate to admit this, but you are not as weak as I expected. Nonetheless, you are no match for my power. You should know it really well, right Menma? Did you forget how powerful you were when we worked together?"

"NO! That power didn't worth the damage and chaos that it causes to everyone around it. You give it to me only to use me as your puppet" replied Menma.

Being driven by his anger, Menma lunged forward to go for Madara using his signature jutsu this time: Shadow clones. A wave of 15 Menma's clones launched a series of punches and kicks against the man with the black robe with red clouds.

"No matter how hard you try, your punches will never touch me," said Tobi while he dodged and eliminated all the Menma's replicas.

Tobi's plan was to keep moving from one side to another. He used sporadically his Sharingan to make his body intangible in case the clones were close enough to touch him. His goal was to stress out Menma enough so he had to use the Kyuubi's chakra. What Tobi didn't see coming was Sakura attacking him from behind.

The Yondaime's daughter has been waiting all this time while Menma distracted him with his clone. She was paying attention to his partner's moves. When she noticed that Madara wasn't seeing her, she launched one of her reinforced chakra punches.

"SHANAROOOOO!"

That blow had enough strength to be lethal…if it has connected it. Menma and Sakura were astonished as Sakura's fist passed through his enemy's body like he was a ghost.

"Impossible, dattebayo."

"As I told you, you will not touch me. But I can hurt you and I will make you suffer a lot," said Tobi making him tangible again. He connected multiple punches to Sakura and to top it off a kick straight to the pink-haired girl's face. The combo ended up sending her straight to a tree.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" screamed Menma seeing how this dude easily bet one of the best kunoichis in Konoha.

The pink-haired girl tried to get up but his right arm and leg were pretty hurt after crashing into the tree. This was making her unable to stand up and help Menma.

Speaking about the blond. After seeing how Madara hurt his Sakura-chan, Menma lost control of himself. He couldn't allow him to continue hurting his loved ones. So, with the last clone that he had, he launched himself with one of his more powerful jutsus:

"RASENGAN!"

Tobi saw with a huge grin on his face how he had woken up Menma's wrath and the fox chakra in the process. He was satisfied looking at how red flecks appeared in his blue eyes and the red chakra was surging and covering the body of the ninja. As his eyes were fully red and his pupils narrowed, the Rasengan became stronger than before.

"Show me what you can do, demon. Are you capable of protecting your friend or, deep down, you don't want to do?"

Menma was driven by his anger at that moment. He went to connect his Rasengan without knowing how Madara's intangibility jutsu worked. When the masked man was on his reach, Menma stretched his arm with the Rasengan. For a second, he was glad to feel the fabric of the cloth. However, that satisfaction feeling was crushed immediately as his attack passed through his enemy's body and the Rasengan disappeared from his hand.

"NOW, ZETSU" screamed Tobi to his partner, who came out from the ground creating several thick roots to stop Menma dead in his track and capture him. Menma tried to release more of the fox chakra to have the power to escape, but it wasn't working.

"Madara-san, quick. I can't hold him too much"

"Don't worry, Zetsu. My Sharingan can take care of him" said Tobi getting closer and looking straight into Menma's eyes knocking him down.

"NO, MENMA! Don't think that you defeated me!" said Sakura getting up after using some healing jutsu on her leg. She released her chakra and started doing a series of hand positions to do one of her jutsus.

As soon as she ended, a storm of cherry blossom petals surrounded everyone, and Sakura vanished inside it. Sakura's silhouette appeared and disappeared in a blink of an eye inside the petal blizzard. While the cherry blossom hid her presence from Tobi and Zetsu, Sakura was focusing her chakra in her right hand to use the signature jutsu of his father.

Tobi didn't want to take any chances now that he had secured his target. He had never seen this mysterious jutsu in his world. Even he ignored if the Sakura of his world could do such advanced genjutsu. His Sharingan couldn't bypass this kind of genjutsu, and he couldn't find this Sakura. Also, Tobi felt how a large amount of chakra was about to be released near him. Probably, it was another exclusive jutsu of this world.

Tobi's eye was wide open when he saw Sakura coming for them with a pink chakra sphere in the palm of her hand. Tobi instinctively reacted, and he used his Kamui to escape. Before Sakura's jutsu could touch Tobi, both missing-nin and Menma disappeared in front of the pink-haired girl leaving her powerless and with her spirit broken.

She had failed to protect her best friend.

Childhood memories of both of them together flashed before her eyes, and the last memory was Menma crying and suffering in the darkness of his room.

"Menma…Menma-kun" said Sakura aloud as she couldn't control her tears anymore "Forgive me, I couldn't save you".

Sakura was upset. She was on her knees and hit the ground with her fist. She was crying like a little girl as she had let down the boy that has always been by her side no matter what.


In Naruto's world, Sakura Haruno was walking through town looking at how the children were playing with their parents in the park. Watching those scenes reminded Sakura of the importance of defeating Madara and preventing by any means the Infinite Tsukuyomi. His plan was not a real happiness, when she was in the Tsukuyomi world that was just an illusion to trap her there.

In that second, Sakura stopped dead as she remembered something very important. Maybe Naruto was right when Naruto mentioned if that world could be real. She had to talk with him now, but judging by how he looked, he needed some time alone to think.

At the top of a building, Naruto laid on the roof looking at the sky. He should meet with Kakashi to have lunch and return to the hotel. He would like to remain there more; this peace and silence were helping him to clear his thoughts.

"Sakura-chan was right. It was just a genjutsu to catch me and steal the Kyuubi. However, it was so real. Some things made sense, and even if he prepared beforehand all the details, it was hard to believe that he created all the details of that world. Our friends' personalities and my parents" Naruto thought aloud while a certain pink-haired girl was still in his mind.

"Sakura-chan"

This journey to the other dimension has made them strangely closer. He couldn't bear the idea of losing her. So, when the masked man kidnaped her, he had to recover her no matter what. Her safety was his first priority, and when he had Sakura in his arms and saw her smile, he felt a warm feeling in his heart.

Nonetheless, the only problem was the memory of that night under the snow when Sakura told him that she loved him. If he didn't have the senjutsu and the training in sage mode, he wouldn't note that she lied to him. But he still has some doubts. At first, she wasn't lying to him. Only when she mentioned Sasuke, Naruto was sure Sakura wasn't completely honest. He didn't understand fully well what happened that day.

In the end, he couldn't find a proper answer to his curiosity and, before it was too late, he went to meet Kakashi-sensei. Even if it wasn't from Ichiraku, ramen was exactly what he needed.


Kakashi didn't know what is happening with his team today.

Naruto arrived earlier than Sakura at the restaurant, and he ordered a ramen bowl. When they told him that they didn't have today on the menu, Naruto was so angry that he started to complain a lot. Kakashi had to step up when Naruto's reaction went over the top. Naruto apologized to the manager and ordered something else from the menu after Kakashi threw some sense into his knucklehead student. Instead of sitting with his sensei, Naruto went to a table in the corner, far away from the rest of the clients. Something was wrong with him.

Some minutes later, Sakura entered the restaurant. The first thing that she noticed was Naruto eating alone. She ordered something and told Kakashi that she wanted to have lunch with Naruto alone if there were no problems. Kakashi was surprised to hear it, so he just nodded. The behavior of Naruto and Sakura picked up his curiosity, and he focused on his students. They ate quietly for some minutes until she mentioned something that made Naruto blush and almost choke on water. They continued their conversation without any outbursts of Naruto or Sakura. Naruto acted too mature, and Sakura was too shy for Kakashi's taste. Those two were keeping a big secret.


As if they were two magnets, Naruto's eyes focused immediately on Sakura as soon as she crossed the door. Especially when she took the seat in front of him. Sakura waited for her plate without saying a word while Naruto was drinking some water. After a few minutes, she spoke with the most natural tone:

"I know that you do not want to talk more about this. But I need some help. It is about the other world. Do you get everything that you wanted there?"

Naruto almost choked on his drink, and his face turned red like a tomato as he thought of him and Sakura being a couple. After Sakura hit softly in his back to help him breathe, Naruto remembered Jiraiya. He was still dead there; Sasuke was acting strange with his friends. Excluding his parents being alive, the rest was not his ideal. Even Sakura's happiness disappeared after a couple of days. If the purpose of the illusion was to keep him there, Madara absolutely failed. Even if Sakura wasn't with him, he didn't want to see his favorite girl sad like on their last day in that world ever again.

"Now that you said it, no."

"It was the same for me. I thought about it after you mentioned if that world could be real. Maybe you could be right".

"Didn't Madara confess that all of that was a genjutsu?"

"Do you really trust him? It won't be the first time that he lies to us. Even the most powerful genjutsu created by the Sharingan can't recreate a world with its own flaws and imperfections."

"What?"

"We thought that world was almost perfect as it granted us what we wanted at that moment. However, we weren't truly happy. Madara's plan is to create a genjutsu world where all your dreams are fulfilled, and you don't want to leave. But don't you think that changing our friend's personalities, destroying the village and hurting Lady Tsunade and Kakashi in the process, or killing our loved ones like Jiraiya or...my parents make sense. Akatsuki helping us to stop Menma doesn't seem like a smart choice"

"You are right, Sakura-chan. He wouldn't give us a hand to prevent him from taking my Kyuubi. If this is true, then that world is real dattebayo."

They remained quiet after that until their plates arrived. They were eating as usual, but something was bothering Sakura. It was a thought that she had since the day when they returned from the other dimension. Also, Sakura would not have a better opportunity, so she asked him.

"Naruto, there is something else I wanted to ask you." The blond ninja was confused as he noticed that Sakura was acting a bit shy with him.

"Sure, Sakura-chan. Tell me. Are you ok? Is it something bad?"

"No, there is something that I can't get rid of my mind. Something that happened between both of us" said Sakura sounding a little ashamed with a small blush on her face. After looking at her face, Naruto thought it was about the confession on a snowy night. Sakura continued.

"Before we returned to our world…Naruto, you were really happy. Maybe they were not your real parents, but they truly loved you. I saw you when you were celebrating Kushina's birthday through the window of the apartment. I haven't seen you that happy or smile like that happy in a long time. Why do you choose to come back? If someone deserves more than anyone to be happy, it is you, Naruto Uzumaki. I wouldn't mind sacrificing my happiness for yours. You have been with me all this time; sacrificing yourself just to save me and fulfill my old selfish request. Meanwhile, I just have given you back just little useless things. They cannot even compared to what you have done for me .

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto was speechless after hearing that from the pink-haired girl. He paused for a second before making eye contact with Sakura.

"Those little things are more important than you think, Sakura-chan. They are really valuable to me. I couldn't be truly happy in a world created at the cost of the welfare of others. First, I couldn't sacrifice the hope of Minato and Kushina of finding their true missing son. And most importantly, I couldn't live there if that means you were unhappy. Your smile is really a treasure for me, dattebayo."

Sakura couldn't answer back. She was trying just to swallow what he had just told him. Naruto excused himself before going out to his room and rest. The pink-haired stayed there a few minutes just thinking one thing.

"Naruto…Am I really that important to you that you will do that? Sai, I didn't completely lie about my feelings in Iron Country. I still have doubts. I care about Sasuke, but there is this new strange feeling about Naruto that I can't fully understand. It has been growing over the last months. I'm not sure if I would be able to return your feelings for me with these doubts about you and Sasuke-kun."


Thanks to all the new followers of this story. I'm glad that you are enjoying it and I wish you like this one as well. I appreciated the feedback about the writing, for example the sennin/sage mode as I used the Japanese one in the Spanish version (already changed in Chapter 1). I will focus on translating the chapters in the upcoming weeks to catch up the other version. Best and see you soon.