Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "Really? That's the first thing you say?"

"Heh," Naruto scratched his head. "Well, it is! Why did that happen, anyway? Was it a cool jutsu?"

"Uh, Inoichi-san said I'm a natural at Mystical Palm Technique, so I looked it up." I rubbed my forehead. "But this isn't how it works at all. Healing with chakra is dangerous… you're supposed to put a certain amount of chakra in, and it helps convince the body's tissues to heal. If you use even slightly too little or too much, then-" I waved my hands vaguely. "Real bad things."

"Maybe it wasn't Mystical Palm Technique."

"Yeah! It was Mystical Kunai Technique! You're a badass, Sakura!"

Sasuke and I both elected to ignore this.

"Maybe it happened because it was a tree?" I hedged. "Or because it was recent damage? But it's not like I was actively trying to do anything. There's no way something like this can work without intent; that's the whole point of the technique!"

Sasuke smirked. "Well, in the meantime, if we get hurt, try not to stab us to help out."

"I'll resist the urge." I rolled my eyes. This was going to be another issue I'd have to ask Kakashi-sensei for help with. I reflexively checked my watch. It was already eight o'clock. "Sensei is usually late, right?"

My knowledge of Kakashi was scarce, but revealing: 1) He was willing and able to do a lot of murder for his team. 2) He constantly ignored people in favour of reading, and 3) He was always, without fail, late.

Naruto frowned. "Well, we only met him twice, but he didn't get here for hours! So you're right, he'll probably be late again. That jerk!"

I shrugged. "Sasuke and I already went ahead and started training. It couldn't hurt to do more on our own, right?" Plus, Sasuke would probably appreciate training with someone who knew what the hell they were doing. I could stay out of their way and keep working with kunai on my own, now that I had a feel for it.

"Sounds awesome! What do you guys want to do?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke crossed his arms thoughtfully. "We already started with kunai. What else have you forgotten, Sakura?"

Oh. I honestly hadn't expected him to want to keep helping me; I'd gotten the impression I was annoying him more than anything. "Um… jutsu? I know all the seals, but my books at home were scarce on the method."

"At least you remember the seals! Those were hard to learn!" Naruto said.

I frowned. "It's weird. I don't know why I remember them; it's like my hands are moving on their own. Almost like I'm using Sign Language."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "You know a sign language? That could be good for infiltration missions where we can't talk without losing cover. What does it look like?"

"Well," I automatically raised my hands to sign as I spoke. I hesitated. "It's..." I blinked.

"Test," I said in English as an experiment. It worked.

[Test,] I tried to sign, and it came to me, but sluggishly; like recalling a word on the tip of my tongue.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, frowning, almost glaring at my hands. "I've been signing for as long as I've been talking; my sister is deaf. I don't know why it's so hard to make my hands..." It wasn't fair. Sign was a language like any other, so why were my hands hesitating?

Naruto shuffled from foot to foot. "Sakura-chan? Are you okay? You don't need to show us right now if you're having trouble remembering. It's okay!"

"But I shouldn't forget!" My voice came out high-pitched. "It's all I can remember!"

What if I'm starting to forget my life? What if I forget everything from both worlds?If I'm left with nothing?

Sasuke looked away and shoved his hands in his pockets. "It's not important right now. We'll train in jutsu. Don't lose your focus." His voice was quiet and held none of the usual firmness I had grown used to hearing from him. He looked almost as awkward as Naruto; each of them different embodiments of pre-teen boys faced with an upset girl.

"Yeah, okay..." I let my shoulders sag. "So, jutsu." I let myself be engrossed in the new task. Sasuke was right; I needed to keep my head in the game. "How many did we learn in school? How are you supposed to move your chakra around for them? Why are the hand-seals important?"

Jutsu- spells- were in equal measure easier and harder to grasp than I'd expected. It quickly became clear why reading books hadn't helped me at all.

Surprisingly, Naruto's explanation helped me more than Sasuke's attempts. It was a subject he'd always struggled with; it was easier for him to see where I was coming from.

"The hand-seals help you remember the shape the chakra is supposed to be in. But you're also supposed to keep what you're doing in mind, and you're supposed to remember where to push the chakra, and you can't let it get all mixed up!" he grumbled. He'd known from experience.

"So for this replacement technique, it was..."

"Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake," Sasuke said, demonstrating as he spoke.

Naruto chipped in to gripe: "And you're supposed to do 'em fast in the middle of fighting! It's a lot!"

"Where do I built up the chakra?"

"Your stomach and your hands. You build half the energy in your hands, and focus the energy of the stomach toward the object you want to replace with." Sasuke demonstrated the seals lightning-quick and disappeared to be replaced with a tree branch. I craned my neck around and found him standing behind me. "Each seal represents the shape chakra makes as it's created in different parts the body. By mirroring the shapes in a certain order," he shrugged. "You complete the jutsu."

I sighed. "I still can't understand why that works, but… Together, Naruto?"

"You bet! First one to do it wins!" He held up his hands in the Tiger Seal. "On three! One, two, three!"

I flipped through the seals as quickly as I could, trying to focus on building up the chakra in my hands and stomach, but as I reached the end I realised I'd forgotten to pick a target. I stopped myself, worried about what would happen if I completed it incorrectly. With my luck: get cut in half.

Naruto completed his; "REPLACEMENT!"

He did not move.

"Oh, whoops! I forgot to pick a thing to replace with, heh." He scratched the back of his head.

"… Idiot," Sasuke muttered.

"Me neither," I admitted. "Wanna try again?"

"You bet!"

Thus did Kakashi-sensei find us, two hours later, in respective states of panting, beaming, and smirking. Once Naruto and I got the hang of it, we started trying to replace with each other before the other could. This was very fun until Sasuke joined in. It almost felt like he was toying with us; it took him less than half the time to complete the jutsu.

It was a relief when Sensei arrived. I was sure he'd give us more exhausting training on top of what we were doing on our own, but it would have to be better than the nausea I was starting to get.

"Sensei! You're late!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger. His smile didn't quite fade away even through the shout, he had just gotten Sasuke twice.

"Maa, I was on my way when I found a helpless puppy. I had to nurse it back to health and find its home," Sensei drawled.

I clasped my hands. "Really? That's good of you, Sensei." I knew he was always late, but I never imagined it would be for reasons like that. I felt ashamed at my earlier poking fun at him. Who would have thought he'd be such a kind, gentle-

"He's lying," Sasuke deadpanned.

Kakashi-sensei grinned.

Oh.

… Goddammit, Kakashi.

"Heh, obviously! We knew that!" Naruto shouted, wiping hastily at an eye.

"Maa, enough of that. We have important matters to discuss." Kakashi-sensei waved us over to a patch of grass and pointed us around until we were sitting in a semi-circle.

He crouched down in front of us, his one visible eye slackened, brow raised. "By now, you boys are aware of Sakura's amnesia."

Both Naruto and Sasuke wore expressions that I chose to understand as 'Yes, thank you Sensei. You are very wise and warned us appropriately.'

"There is an ongoing inquiry, so I'm not allowed to say much more... Suffice to say, we suspect enemy interference." His eye crinkled into a smile that held zero warmth. "And as it is a conflict of interest, I am not being updated with any results of the investigation."

If a statement like that in such an icy tone gave me the warm-fuzzies, I must be getting into the shinobi-mindset.

"In the meantime." He clapped his hands together. "Currently, Sakura has almost none of her memories. She only remembers a false identity." He looked at me.

There was a silence that I belatedly realised was an invitation to talk. "Uh, yeah. Sorry." I half-bowed.

Sensei waved it off. "For the sake of your team, I think a new round of introductions is in order. The boys will be familiar with this: likes, dislikes, and goals for the future."

Naruto bounced up onto his knees. "Oh, I remember this! Yeah!" He waved at me, even though we'd already met and just spent hours training together. "Nice to meet you again! I am Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen! I dislike the long waiting time for ramen to be ready! My dream is to be the Hokage! You can believe it!" He beamed.

I couldn't help but grin back. I returned his wave. "Hi, Naruto."

I noticed everyone staring at me again and realised I'd set myself up to go next. "Oh! Um. My name is… Sakura Haruno? And… should I be telling you what I like, or what I've heard I like?"

"Just be yourself. You can keep us updated," Kakashi drawled.

My cheeks flushed. Right. There wouldn't be much point in reintroductions otherwise. "Um, my likes are… reading and learning new things. Um, I dislike trying new things and failing." I carefully avoided eye-contact with Sasuke. "My goal for the future..."

I stopped. It wasn't something I had been thinking of, so I was surprised to find out I did have a goal.

"My goal is to find out what happened to me and why."

"Good. And after that?" Kakashi prompted.

I blinked. The boys looked just as startled. It seemed they hadn't been asked this, either.

"Oh, I didn't..." I frowned and looked down toward my knees. Now that I thought about it, all the frantic reading I'd been doing, my practising jutsu until I was almost ready to fall over, my overall drive to learn to be a great shinobi: none of this had anything to do with my spoken goal. It was coming from somewhere else.

"I do have another goal. I don't know how to put it into words yet, but I know it's something I want above everything else. Maybe even more than the first goal." I looked around at them. "When I find the words, I'll let you know."

Kakashi smiled. "Very good. It's important to keep your horizons open. If you settle on one thing, you will get tunnel vision. You risk losing opportunities to improve yourself."

Sasuke clenched his fists. It didn't go unnoticed.

"Sasuke! Your turn," Kakashi ordered.

His mouth parted slightly before closing, his brows furrowed. After a moment, he began: "I'm Sasuke Uchiha. I don't like many things and I dislike most things. As for my goal, there is a man I want to kill." His voice started strong but dropped as he went on. He nearly whispered the last words: "I'm... an avenger."

I stared at him. We were all staring. But there was no way I could let that go. There was only one thing on the planet that could possibly be said to a declaration like that: "Shut up, you're twelve."

His head shot up to glare at me. "You're twelve, too."

"I am not. What part of remembering a different life can't you understand?" This guy was seriously starting to exasperate me.

"Yeah, Sasuke!" Naruto leapt to my defence. "You need to back off! Stop acting like you know everything!"

"Exactly," I huffed. "I'm fourteen!"

Extra Special Trivia Part 4: I was going to put off writing this until I finished recovering from a medical procedure I had today, but I've been itching to flesh out these scenes since Chapter 2... I found myself on the keyboard an hour after I came home. I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I wish it came out stronger, but I think it's normal to never be 100% satisfied with what you make. Thank you, everyone, for your continued support.

Extra Special Trivia Part 5: I couldn't help but hear "You're a badass, Sakura" in Hagrid's voice as I wrote it.