Here is the next chapter, as promised. Enjoy.
Yamanaka Ino sat slumped in her booth, staring daggers at her teammates. Like all the previous days before, they ignored her presence and sat in their signature positions. Shikamaru was sleeping face down on the table, and Choji munched on a bag of chips despite them being at a restaurant for dinner. Ino thought she was reliving her childhood all over again, with the only difference being the boys were bigger and slightly less gross. She turned to her Sensei, who sat next to her leafing through a menu.
She didn't know why he bothered, he always got the same thing, but Asuma-sensei was boring, so it did make sense in a way.
"Asuma-sensei, you promised that we would actually be training today. Why did you end up playing that old man game with Shikamaru the whole time after our missions!"
"It's shogi... tch, troublesome woman."
Ino heard the muffled interjection from her Nara teammate and rolled her eyes.
She knew the name, knew what shogi was. Actually knew how to play it too, not that she would ever tell him that, ever, but Shikamaru thought he knew everything, and Ino had a problem with that. She liked to one up him in her own way, even if it was by getting under his skin and seeming ignorant, since that was something she learned over the years that he hated.
She was very good at it.
"I'm sorry Ino-chan, I must of forgotten. We will do it tomorrow, I promise."
Yeah right, he would just say that the next day too.
Ino huffed and threw her hair to the side, she was starting to get why Sakura was cranky all the time, these incidents were really annoying. But with the way Sakura was progressing with her medical ninjutsu Ino felt like she was being left behind.
So Ino needed to train, needed her teammates to want to train.
At this rate Team Seven would leave the rest of her old classmates in the dust, and Ino was not the type of person that would let that go.
She wouldn't accept it, couldn't accept it.
If only her unmotivated teammates would actually try.
Ino slowly exhaled, at least she still looked better. She would never allow her hair to have the split-ends Sakura's had. That was one thing she could hold over her, since the state of Sakura's hair pre and post cut left a lot to be desired.
She would just have to teach her again how to care for her locks, it would be like old times...
Wait.
There were no old times.
Because it wasn't real.
How many times throughout the day did she have to remind herself?
Haruno Sakura was never her best friend, her rival in love, the sister she never had but found anyways.
No, the truth was much harsher.
To Haruno Sakura, Ino was a stranger.
She wasn't even someone who called Ino by her first name.
All the memories she had...
They meant nothing.
Ino wasn't even sure if she was in love with Sasuke-kun anymore, or if those feelings were just implanted too.
How much of herself was even real?
Ino didn't know.
"Chip?"
Ino looked at the bag that entered her view and sulkily took one. It wasn't really a flavor she liked, but she appreciated the distraction.
"Thanks Choji."
He smiled and continued to munch.
"No problem."
She gave a smile in return and noticed that Shikamaru had lifted his head high enough to observe their interaction. He glanced at Choji, the boys sharing a look, before laying his head back down.
The two returned to their previous activities like nothing ever happened.
Their seamless interaction watered the vine of jealousy growing in her heart. Of course those two were best friends, their little duo was not something she could even dream of fitting into. Ino grew up with both of them and yet they never seemed to click with her like they did with each other. The only reason they spent any time with her was because of their clans.
She was the extra.
She never noticed growing up, but that was because she thought she had a best friend she spent time with.
That she had Sakura.
But she didn't.
And that was something she needed to come to terms with, should have already come to terms with.
Yet she couldn't just forget...
And a small part of her didn't want too either.
The whole thing was a like a dream.
'A beautiful dream is the worst nightmare of reality.'
The words she once puzzled over in Father's study now clearly understood. Words that became a truth of her daily life.
A painful one.
Ino's inner thoughts were disrupted when the waitress came and went, Team Ten now in possession of strips of meat and various vegetables to grill on the stove built into the table.
Ino ate a few pieces of meat before adding more to the grill, and the warmth of the meal improved her mood.
Even if the past was uncertain at least she could change the future.
Sakura wasn't her friend before, but she could be her friend now, and since Sakura trusted her with the incidents, the battle was already half way won.
If anyone could tear down the walls of Haruno Sakura, the real Haruno Sakura, it would be her.
She would just have to get more aggressive, since it didn't seem like Sakura would be the one to reach out.
"Yamanaka."
Ino flinched at the abrupt mentioning of her name, and stared at the pink haired girl standing next to her table. For a moment there she thought her mind was playing tricks, but if anything the smirk that rested on her face proved that she was the real deal.
Ino coughed a few times before responding.
"Haruno."
"I have...news that I need to share with you. Meet me at my house once you are done with your meal. It's important."
Ino tilted her head, and loosely twirled her hair. She took in the way Sakura was standing, the straightness of her back and the look in her eyes.
Sakura was serious.
What did she find out?
"Hmm, I don't know Haruno, I am pretty busy right now, but if it's that important I will be right over."
Sakura gave her a look before nodding and left.
When she turned back to the rest of her team all eyes were on her.
"When did you and Sakura make up?" Choji asked.
"We were never fighting in the first place, it was all a misunderstanding."
"Tch, a misunderstanding? You two fought over Uchiha like feral cats."
Ino looked at Shikamaru, and once again saw why Sakura was cranky.
Because the Haruno Sakura she knew would never fight over a boy, let alone Uchiha Sasuke. That girl had more pride and self love in her pinky toe than all the other girls, excluding Ino herself, combined.
Maybe with the Sakura in her implanted memories she could see that, but not with the real one in front of her.
Though she knew her teammates forgot things, but having an implanted memory was new.
Why did Shikamaru have an implanted memory?
The better question, why did she have one too?
.
Sakura sat cross legged on her bed and had a notebook opened in front of her.
'Ok Inner, tell me again how you are part of a different dimension or whatever.'
'Fine, one last time, then I will speak no more on this concept. I want you to imagine a stack of books all piled on top of each other. Each book represents a different plane of existence, or dimension. Each page in that book represents a universe. In one dimension there can be multiple universes, and within our experience they can be similar to each other or very different. My people can travel between different dimensions, as well as universes.'
Sakura wrote a couple of notes in her book.
'Ok, so in order to get the fruit they travel to a different dimension, and look for worlds in the different universes that match the story the Terran's made.'
'That is correct, some are closer to the story than others, and if enough similarities are there then my enemies will influence that world.'
'What is the name of your people anyway?'
'We are the El'os. Humanoid, but not quite like you.'
'What, do you have more arms or something?'
'Hah! Not quite, perhaps one day you will see for yourself.'
'Or you could just tell me.'
'But where's the fun in that?'
'Inner.'
'I've spent enough time with you that some of your personality has rubbed off on me.'
'Just remember that I am still the one with the body in this relationship.'
'Yes,yes.'
The banter with Inner made things seem normal, but a new distance had developed between them. It was small, but like a splinter Sakura knew it was there, she could feel it. She wasn't sure how to process that, and Inner being able to hear her thoughts made her not want too either.
'Sakura...'
"Sakura! Ino-chan is here!"
Sakura shut the notebook with glee at the distraction and rose at her mother's call, heading to the top of the stairs. Seems Yamanaka finished her dinner quickly.
"Just send her up Mom!"
Sakura waited at the top of the stairs, and led Yamanaka to her room to catch her up on the incidents at Wave.
"Haruno are you serious? So you mean to tell me some creepy being from a different dimension put that in my body?" Yamanaka pointed at the chip held in Sakura's hand.
"Yes."
"Gross! So gross, Haruno take it out, take it out right now!" She spun around grabbing her hair and pulled it to the side.
Sakura took one of her kunai cut into the back of her neck, pulled out the chip and healed it, giving the chip to Yamanaka.
Sakura watched as she glared at it and dropped it on the bed in disgust.
"Are you sure you're ok keeping yours in?"
Sakura nodded her head.
"We will loose our edge otherwise, we need Inner. Though we need someone to look into things here, so I will need you."
Yamanaka rubbed her chin.
"So your team is going to get Tsunade-sama, I can look into the Chunin Exams, my Father will be helping run it so I will see what kind of information I can find, but Haruno... what about my team? My Father? Should we take their chips out?"
Sakura pursed her lips.
Should she take out Yamanaka's teams?
Having more people on their side would be nice, but the risk of things going wrong were too high. Nara and Choji weren't in on this, and Sakura wasn't close enough with them for her to trust her. If she went to take out their chips and they fought her, it could have made things a lot worse then they actually were. Yamanaka's father was out of the question, if from what Yamanaka said herself he was in too deep, a high ranking Jonin, not familiar enough with her to even entertain the idea.
Too risky.
"Your Dad is compromised, even if we took his out I don't think there would be much of a difference. As for your teammates... they don't trust me enough. If you told them would they listen to you?"
Yamanaka was silent for a moment.
"I... I don't know."
"So we'll wait. Try to get closer to your teammates, figure out a way for them to see that things are off and have them remember."
"Alright, we will meet back up after you get back."
Yamanaka walked to the door and turned back, her blue eyes frozen over into a hard stare.
"Sakura, don't die."
"I won't, Yamanaka...Ino."
.
Sakura ran lap, after lap, after lap around her team training ground, smiling the whole way. The only thing she felt was the burn of her muscles throughout the exercise and a small twitch in the side.
It was amazing.
Was this what it felt like to be normal again?
'Like I said Sakura, don't get used to it.'
'I won't Inner.'
Sakura reached up and felt for the chip she wore on a necklace under her clothes, the thing that made being around Uchiha such a pain, a saving grace now. With the chip she has been able to train her heart out for the past couple of days since they got home, and spend more time with the real Naruto without having to be careful.
Sakura would take advantage of every second free from the Burning to get stronger.
She was in the middle of another set of pushups when Uchiha arrived. She gave a short greeting but continued on.
"Morning Uchiha."
"Morning Sakura."
When she finished she stood and looked at her teammate, blinking in surprise.
Uchiha looked...lighter, happier even.
It was somewhat hard to tell because he rarely smiles, but there seemed to be a small bounce in his step. What really caught her attention though was what he had sitting on his shoulder.
It was a crow.
Did he get a summons?
Uchiha noticed her stare and gave the crow a little rub under it's beak. It nuzzled into his head.
"I signed the crow contract like my brother, I found it years ago but never touched it out of principle."
Sakura hummed.
"What are you training them on?"
"Scouting and message delivery for now, anything that would help find my brother."
"Just remember that your brother still views us as an enemy. It won't be easy to save him."
"I know, I need to get stronger."
Sakura dropped down into a sit up position.
"We Uchiha, we need to get stronger. Unless, all of a sudden you know medical ninjutsu and can take the chip out by yourself, and subdue an elite jonin level shinobi as a genin."
Sakura watched his face spasm before he kicked the ground.
"Fine, we need to get stronger."
Sakura patted the ground next to her.
"Then drop down and give me fifty Uchiha."
.
"Alright team, that's enough for the day. I almost have everything settled for our mission, so we should be heading out within the next couple of days. "
Sakura heard her Sensei speak, but was too busy catching her breath as she collapsed onto her knees. Kakashi-sensei was smiling at his students, and Sakura couldn't help but compare their ragged appearance to his pristine one.
Was the gap between genin and jonin really that big? Was she seeing Kakashi-sensei's true ability for the first time?
She couldn't help but notice it was after she took his chip out.
Even Naruto and Uchiha changed a bit. Naruto was still a bright person, but he, mostly, calmed down. Had a more serious air to him when it mattered which made missions easier. Uchiha actually spoke, complete and coherent sentences, with only a few 'hns' thrown in for most of the afternoon training. The two still bickered though, so unfortunately that part of themselves didn't seem to change. Overall both boys seemed to be in a better mood, more settled, but their changes weren't the most shocking to Sakura.
No, that would be left to Kakashi-sensei, for being almost on time today.
Twenty minutes late, that was it, and he worked them into the ground.
Literally.
Sakura felt like she didn't have any toes with the amount of wet dirt packed between them, and when she asked Sensei if she could rinse off, he just gave a smile, nodded his head, then said no. She had to hold back a punch on that one, but Sakura was used to dealing with things she disliked so she survived, somehow.
She breathed out.
"Yes Sensei."
"Meet back here tomorrow morning, around ten. I have something I need to do before then." With those words he poofed away.
Naruto turned towards her and opened his mouth, but after he trailed over the state of her clothes he closed it. He gave her a wave instead and ran off.
"Ramen here I come!"
He must of wanted to invite her, but knew she would want to clean up.
She chose her friend well.
Sakura gathered her things to leave when Uchiha placed a hand on her arm.
"Sakura, I want to show you something, it's important."
Sakura looked down at her clothes and sighed.
"How important is it, can I shower first?"
"Yeah, it can wait. Meet me at my compound in an hour."
With that, the two departed.
The hour passed quickly and Sakura found herself standing outside the compound doors. She arrived a little early, but now that she was clean and in one of her comfy dresses, she had no issues with waiting.
Sakura traced the Uchiha symbol on the concrete wall.
What was so important that he needed to show her, and here of all places?
Sakura heard a screech of metal and turned towards the sound, and saw Uchiha standing there. He too showered, and was wearing a black shirt and short set. He waved her in and Sakura followed.
She had never been in the Uchiha compound before, and took her time looking around. Most of the gardens on the buildings were overgrown, but there were signs that someone was starting to weed them.
"Sorry about the mess, I'm starting to clean but it's going slow."
"Don't worry about it, we are pretty busy as a team, if you need any help just ask."
"Hn."
They walked for a bit, and when Sakura started to see gravestones she became curious.
Did he find something important? Another chip maybe?
Sakura looked to see what names were on the stones but most of them were blank. Probably bought to be used, but due to the massacre it never happened.
Uchiha stopped in front of one a few down from her and coughed, his ears tinted red.
"Sorry it's a little crooked, I carved it myself."
Sakura followed his gaze and froze.
On the gravestone in front of her was a name, a name she never thought she would see again.
Haruno Ren.
Sakura grabbed his shoulder.
"You did this?"
Uchiha looked away but nodded.
"No one is allowed in here except me, so it won't be touched."
Whatever misgivings she had with Uchiha before were completely thrown out the window, she never thought he would do something like this.
Sakura could only stare blankly at him before pulling him into somewhat of an awkward hug. Her hand slightly shook as she gripped the back of his shirt, struggling to contain her emotions.
"Thank you."
"Hn... I have one other thing to show you."
Sakura pulled back stiffly, letting her arms hang by her side.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, and in that paper was a photo, a photo of two teens.
One had black hair, the other had pink.
Sakura carefully grabbed the photo, like it was the most priceless treasure, and hugged it to her chest.
"I was cleaning my cousin's house and found it, he died a long time ago too. Must of been why it didn't get erased."
She raised her head and looked him in the eyes, pouring all of her sincerity into her gaze.
"Thank you, Sasuke."
His breath hitched.
"Thank you for giving me my brother back, I will make sure you get yours too. You have my word."
That was a promise Sakura did not intend to break.
Just wanted to say a thank you to everyone who has liked, followed, or reviewed this story, I appreciate it.
Next chapter will be out 8/27/2023.
Thanks for reading!