Chapter 6: Rescue Mission
It was almost sunset in both universes. A dark shadow was spreading over the ninja world, and many had been injured to serve as evidence of the power of this menace.
In one of the Konaha villages, a kunoichi still wandered with her head down, thinking about everything that had happened. Her day has turned into a living nightmare. Many people considered her to be the model of how a kunoichi should be, yet today she had failed miserably and lost someone very valuable. Now, she didn't mind facing off a crazy Hinata if that meant to get a second chance to recover one of the most important people in her life.
At that moment, Sakura Haruno realized she hadn't eaten today. Checking her bag, she realized she had forgotten her wallet at home. If she went to the commercial district, she was sure a store owner would give her something to eat as always. But she didn't want to take advantage of her name to receive anything, especially when everyone was recovering from the latest attack on the village. Sakura hurried back home and took out her keys to enter her cold and desolate apartment. She didn't bother saying "I'm home" anymore, as no one would respond. She approached her small refrigerator and, upon opening it, remembered that she hadn't gone shopping in several weeks.
"Damn, even instant ramen sounds tempting now." said aloud Sakura.
"I'm always ready for a good ramen if you want. Especially as it seems that you still forget to fill the fridge again or am I wrong, Sakura-chan?"
The pink-haired girl turned around to see Kushina Uzumaki standing at the kitchen door, holding a keychain in her hands. The redhead looked at her with some amusement, but still maintaining a maternal affection in her gaze. Since her parents had passed away, the closest thing Sakura had to a family was Menma, Menma's parents, Lady Tsunade, and Kakashi-sensei. Perhaps she could consider Sasuke in that list when he wasn't abandoning them to conquer the first pretty girl he saw.
"Yes, today was a long day," said the pink-haired girl apologetically, as Kushina approached.
"Don't lose hope, Sakura-chan. We'll bring him back."
"There was any progress with the jutsu?" asked Sakura with excitement, although by the look on Uzumaki's face, it seemed like there was no good news.
"Unfortunately, no. Kakashi managed to create the portal, but he quickly ran out of chakra. Moreover, his control is not perfect," replied Kushina, but she continued to speak upon seeing Sakura's sadness. "You know how your sensei is. He's probably resting and thinking of ways to improve for tomorrow."
"Okay," said Sakura, feeling how her stomach reminded her that she was hungry, and Kushina noticed it.
"I'll start working on dinner in a few minutes. You can join us and I think you need it. We would appreciate it if you join us tonight, Sakura-chan dattebane."
Sakura nodded and accompanied her best friend's mother to her house. On her own, she might not be able to solve the problem, but with a little help, she could fix it.
In the Naruto's dimension, Team Kakashi was close to home without having any accidents or arguments along the way. However, Kakashi noticed that there was still a strange distance between Sakura and Naruto, and they seemed worried.
"Perhaps the mission reminded them of what happened in the Land of Iron. Since that lunch in the restaurant, they have hardly spoken to each other and are very thoughtful. But Naruto and Sakura look at each other when the other is distracted. She looks confused, while Naruto smiles slightly but he still has many doubts when he sees Sakura's face" Kakashi thought but then he saw many ninjas running as fast as possible towards the village. He stopped dead in his track when he noticed that a large part of the group was part of the medical corps of the village. He
Kakashi stopped in concern as he saw many Konoha ninjas running towards the village, especially when he noticed that most of them were from the medical corps. When he diverted his gaze to his students, he noticed that they were also puzzled, and immediately the three of them went to ask.
"What happened here?" asked Kakashi.
"Kakashi, it's a relief that you returned safely after this new threat appeared," said the ANBU member who most likely worked with Kakashi in the past due to his voice.
"New threat, dattebayo?" Naruto exclaimed in surprise upon hearing the ANBU's words.
"How many are injured? I'm part of the medical corps of the village," Sakura said to the ANBU, who immediately pointed to two ANBU who were on her right.
"They are most serious cases. It's unbelievable that a single person was able to take down 10 ANBU hunters and then an extraction team of nine ninjas".
"WHAAT?" said a surprised Naruto, while Kakashi and Sakura reacted the same way upon hearing those words.
"It can't be," Sakura said, noticing someone carrying Shikamaru and Ino helping Tenten.
"Naruto, our friends are there. They were the extraction team."
"Why Lady Tsunade sent a group of chunnin and a jounin to rescue ANBU?" asked Kakashi
"We believed that, due to their experience, they would be able to stop the new Akatsuki member. Besides, apparently..."
"What apparently, dattebayo!?" Naruto said, very angry, trying to find out who caused so much damage.
"The original mission of the ANBU was to track and capture a high-risk ninja, but they were intercepted by whoever caused all this damage. Their friends responded to the call. Until the one they were looking for appeared and attacked them along with the stranger."
"Who the hell were they looking for!?" Naruto shouted.
"Uchiha, Sasuke. He and the stranger were responsible for all this chaos."
Naruto didn't want to respond, fortunately Sakura was tending to Shikamaru and Tenten when the ANBU mentioned the name of their former teammate. Sasuke was capable of many things, but this level of destruction was nothing like him. He sensed that this new Akatsuki was the main culprit and someone to be very careful with.
"He will pay for what he did, no matter where he is," Naruto thought...
Back in the other dimension, Sakura was setting the table for dinner. She still felt a little down until she smelled a familiar aroma. As she approached the kitchen, she saw Kushina with the final touches for her favorite dish. Just then, Minato Namikaze entered the house.
"I'm home, Kushina," Minato said when he noticed the daughter of the Fourth Hokage near the kitchen. "Sakura, it's great to see you. I suppose you'll have dinner with us."
"Yes, Minato-san. It's a great honor to be with you tonight," Sakura said, bowing her head as a sign of respect, although she realized she may have "overdone it a bit" when she saw the uncomfortable gesture of the blond who responded right away.
"Haha, same to you Sakura. It's always a pleasure to see you."
"Now that we're done with diplomatic duties, could you come to the table before the food gets cold, dattebane" Kushina responded somewhat angrily, to which both ninjas laughed a bit.
Once the three of them were seated at the table, they began to eat. Sakura was surprised to see a plate full of umeboshi alongside the rice and meat. Almost no one knew that this was her favorite dish, although not at the level of Menma or Kushina with ramen. Slowly and trying to hide her enthusiasm, she took three and heard Kushina's voice when she was about to serve herself a fourth portion.
"Don't worry, there's an extra plate of umeboshi in the kitchen for you to take home. I know it's your favorite dish, so I prepared more."
"How did you know that, Kushina-san?" said the pink-haired girl, surprised.
"Who do you think told me? Menma mentioned it a couple of times. He noticed when you always ordered it on all the missions and your reaction on your face when you tasted it" said Kushina, who grieved upon seeing Menma's empty seat in front of her. Fortunately, Minato was very perceptive, so he took his wife's hand to comfort her.
"I can't believe Menma noticed that. He really pays attention to those little details" Sakura thought, hiding a small smile that vanished just by looking at the red-haired face.
"Minato-san. Can I ask you something?" asked Sakura, trying to change the subject a little.
"Sure, tell me Sakura."
"Is there any way I can help you bring Menma home?" asked Sakura, who didn't take her eyes off the plate.
"Thank you. But we're in Kakashi's hands and his jutsu. The problem is that he runs out of chakra when creating the portal, and we don't have a solution yet" Minato replied with a downcast tone.
"I may have an idea. There are some old scrolls used in the war by the medical corps to store chakra and use it later to help the injured. Kakashi-sensei can use them to recover his chakra and with a food pill, he should have the energy required to maintain the portal open" Sakura replied.
After a silence, Minato replied:
"Sakura, that's brilliant. I didn't know those medical scrolls existed. I don't think there will be any problems with Lady Tsunade for using them. We have an opportunity now, Kushina-chan. Thank you, Sakura-san."
Kushina was smiling after regaining hope of saving her son. Then she remembered something interesting that Sakura mentioned when they were in the office.
-Sakura, there's something I wanted to know since the meeting at the Hokage Tower. When were you in that other world?" Minato was distracted helping Kakashi all day that he had forgotten about it.
Sakura was scared and afraid of what may be Kushina's reaction, thinking that she was accusing her of lying or hiding something. However, upon seeing her, she dismissed that thought. The last Uzumaki seemed more curious than upset with the pink-haired girl, so she took a deep breath and spoke:
"I still have doubts that I was there. But when I went out with Menma in the morning, we talked about the masked man and the travelers you mentioned." At that moment, Minato and Kushina exchanged glances, knowing they could no longer hide it.
"Menma said they were identical to the two of us, our doubles. When I was on a mission before the attack on the village, something strange happened. A bright light made me fall from the top of a hill and when I woke up, I was with Ino. But she looked completely different. I don't remember many details because I probably hit my head during the fall and had temporary amnesia. I only remember seeing all my friends and seeing..."
"Who, Sakura?" Kushina asked.
"My parents, both were alive and I was able to could hug them. My father even had his necklace on, and he was surprised to see mine" Sakura said, smiling as she remembered that beautiful moment.
Minato and Kushina didn't know what to say, apparently Sakura's story matched what they had suspected from the beginning. The girl who was in Konoha that night was not the same one that they had known for years. The world those "travelers" came from and the one of the kidnappers of their son seemed to come from the same dimension.
"Sakura, I know we had trouble telling you how the travelers looked alike. The reason was... dattebane..." Kushina said nervously, trying to figure out how to tell her the truth. Fortunately, she was married to a genius who already knew what to say in that situation.
"It was because we didn't understand what happened during those days, and we wanted to protect Menma. Menma wasn't the villain; he was just a puppet for that guy. However, we were worried that the village would blame him for all of this and punish for it. Even if they realized he wasn't in control of his actions, the villagers would only see the monster that destroyed part of Konoha. It was impossible to explain how there were two of you and how the villain manipulated him."
"As Minato says, as soon as Menma returned to normal, we saw how those travelers shone and disappeared. We never understood until now how they came and why they were so identical to you. There was only one difference between both of you and them."
"The personality?"
"Exactly. From your story and his behavior, it's easy to deduct that your lives were completely different."
"That could be. I don't know how different my life would be if my parents were still here." A silence fell over the dining room, so Sakura decided to abruptly change the subject. "I think the technique that took me there was the same one they used on them. I only remember the end of my day there, and I saw how the Ino from that dimension looked at me strangely as I said goodbye. It felt like my body was slowly fading away to appear at the entrance of the village."
"That's an excellent finding for our plan. Although Sakura-san, it's better that we eat before it gets cold," Minato said, approaching to whisper in her ear. "You don't want to see her upset after all the effort she put preparing this. She's scarier than a ninja army..."
"MINATO, I HEARD YOU!" The yellow lightning only turned to see the red hair moving as if they were nine tails of the Kyuubi.
