I present the next chapter!

Enjoy.

El'sen nearly collapsed once she saw who stepped through the door. She recognized her in an instant, how could she not? First steps, words, and smiles appeared in her mind unprompted, and it took her a moment to detach herself from the memories. Her hands shook and she barely stopped herself from reaching them out. The last thing she wanted to do was betray their relationship to the piece of trash next to her. It had been years since she had seen her, since the accident.

Her lovely child.

Her daughter.

"Major El'vay? You're awake? Are you here to save me? It's an honor to meet a war hero such as yourself." El'kek spoke from a salute, or what poor imitation he could do with his hands trapped.

El'sen watched her daughter's face remain blank, before twisting in disgust. Her eyes moved from the trash over to herself, and her mouth curled in a confident smirk. That face seemed familiar, but not on her daughter no. That face could only belong to–

"Inner! I am here to save you!"

Sakura.

El'sen let out a bittersweet sigh.

This was not they way she wanted to see both of her daughters, but some dreams must stay dreams in the end.

"Hello Sakura."

"Sakura? You mean the useless one is in the Major's body?" El'kek stood abruptly.

"Shut up before I make you. I'm trying to talk to Inner in peace." Sakura said.

"Like I'll let you taint the Major any longer. I'll kill you!" He shouted, charging at her.

Sakura pulled out her gun and El'sen moved.

Inserting herself between the two, El'sen pushed the barrel of the gun to the side and kicked El'kek in the stomach, dropping the El'os to the ground.

"You can't kill him Sakura, there is still a use for him yet." An El'os meat shield is always welcomed as far as she was concerned.

Sakura clicked her tongue.

"It's on stun mode, it's not like I was going to kill him…yet anyways."

"Sakura… just give me the gun." El'sen held out her hand.

"...Fine, but it's keyed in to me, you might not be able to use it."

"That won't be an issue." Their chips were set up to mirror each other after all.

Reluctantly Sakura handed over the gun. A smile nearly formed on her face. El'sen didn't have to be in Sakura's mind to know what she was thinking.

"Do you think I will just let you kick me traitor?" El'kek stood once more hugging his waist.

This time El'sen didn't move fast enough, and watched with some amusement as Sakura punched him square in the face. He dropped.

"Be quiet, your superiors are speaking." With a huff she faced El'sen once more, though from what she could see he wouldn't be speaking again any time soon.

"Anyways, let's get out of here Inner. We have a ship waiting."

"We?"

"Yeah, this really annoying voice brought me over to save you, because apparently no one else could."

"Of course, they needed the best." El'sen joked to mask the feeling of dread welling within her.

Was there really no one else?

El'sen didn't know the exact numbers of those in the resistance, but she knew there was more than what the Council knew about. Was there a leak on their operations? Or did the recent changes in the war affect things? It was hard to tell, but regardless things were bad enough that they pulled a child to their side to save her, which led El'sen to another question.

Just who had access to do that? Maybe there was someone on their side higher up than she thought. All of these questions led El'sen to one conclusion.

She needed to know the rest of the story before she made any more moves.

"Obviously, can we leave now?" Sakura asked.

"The room yes, but we need to go to the Archive. We can't leave without that information, but first…" El'sen turned to the El'os on the floor. He was still knocked out cold. El'kek was someone who had access to the system until recently, and that was something El'sen could use. They couldn't just leave him here.

"Pick him up and follow me."

"Why do I have to carry him? You already took my gun." She muttered.

"Sakura, focus."

"I am Inner! I swear even in person you nag me."

"Always, sha?" She looked back with a grin.

"Na'rro, but you owe me now."

"Yes, yes."

Out of the corner of her eye, El'sen could see Sakura following behind. A small smile present on her lips.

.

Sakura wasn't sure what she envisioned when they arrived at the Archive, but she never thought it would be so underwhelming. Inner walked straight in, while Sakura observed. A pedestal stood in the middle of the room in front of a circular table. Thin openings ran up and down the main support, and the top covering held a few buttons. Scanners surrounded them along the walls of the small white room, encasing them in a blue glow.

Stepping fully into the room Sakura let the dead weight on her back fall to the ground, angling her body is such a way that he would drop on his head. He was lucky that was all she decided to do. After the voice told her that he was one responsible for controlling their chips, she had to exercise great restrain to not end his life right then and there. It seemed that all of the practice she got hanging around Naruto and Sasuke really paid off.

At least she had Inner back, she felt herself relaxing for the first time since she left. A piece of her that was missing was now returned, even if Inner wasn't back inside her head.

"Sakura, come and watch this. You should see this too."

Walking over Sakura observed as Inner pressed a few buttons on the pedestal. Immediately the lights turned off except for one pointed over the table. A movie began to play in that light.

She watched.

Sakura collapsed to the ground when it was over, pulling her legs into her chest, unsure of what she was feeling. She just watched the life of another Team Seven, another Haruno Sakura, and she wasn't sure if she liked what she saw.

She was happy that version of her was a strong medical ninja, the skill set was something she was interested in, and Sakura herself wouldn't be opposed to breaking mountains with her fists, but was that all there was to her? The clan she was so proud of meant nothing in that world, and everything she cared about was missing from what she just witnessed. She saw some similarities, that Sakura loved just as deeply as she did, albeit differently, but even though they looked the same she knew that girl wasn't her.

And then there was Naruto and Sasuke. They were strong, too strong. Strong to the point where she didn't recognize them. Her teammates had potential, not as much as herself, but they had it. She didn't think they would turn into that. Freaking chosen ones, reincarnations of gods, the ones who could seal a god. After watching the story focus on them, she couldn't help but ask why? Why did they pick her to change things?

"Inner, why me? Why was I chosen to have the corrupted chip?"

"Because your mind could handle it." Inner said, sitting down next to her and placing her hand on Sakura's head.

"Your mind was the only one that could handle another consciousness. We're not sure fully why, but since you already had an Inner in the story, it made it easy for us to infiltrate and try to change things. It could have only been you."

Sakura snorted.

"Damn right."

She was a Haruno, even if the story didn't know what that meant, she did.

'Hurry and get to the ship, you are running out of time.'

'… You really talk at the worse times.'

"The voice says its time to go."

Inner nodded.

"Alright, grab the trash and lets go."

Sakura rolled her eyes and stood, punching Inner in the arm as she went to the body.

"Really? What was that for?" Inner asked while rubbing her arm.

Sakura looked back with a sly smile.

"I told you I would find a way to punch you someday."

.

"Sensei, I finished!"

Kakashi lowered his book an inch and peered at the papers Naruto held out in his hands. What he saw nearly made him chuckle in glee. The characters on the sheets, excluding the first hundred or so, barely matched the one he wrote as an example. It was to the point he couldn't even categorize it as a written language, and that made the rest of his plan even more perfect.

Kakashi schooled his expression and spoke.

"Hmm, so you did, but the characters you wrote don't match my example now does it? I want five hundred perfect characters, and if you mess up you have to start all five hundred again. "

He waited a moment for the explosion.

"What? I did what you asked Sensei! Trying to make them perfect will take forever!"

Exactly the point.

He closed his book fast, and raised his eyebrows in mock remembrance.

"Oh! And you don't get to sleep until its done. Have fun!" With those parting words he left, making sure to leave an extra large amount of leaves.

He didn't go far, only a few trees away, which gave him the perfect view of Naruto angrily throwing the papers to the ground, only to pause a moment before picking them back up, sulking.

Muttered words of 'bastard Sensei' and 'evil Sensei' were thrown out, but like the kindhearted individual he was, Kakashi ignored them. He sighed, his students had no idea how good he treated them.

A few hours past and night had fallen as Kakashi sat with his eyes closed, listening to the soothing sounds of his cursing student. He didn't even flinch when he felt the familiar presence beside him. He raised his fingers in a salute, keeping his eye closed.

"Yo! Shizune."

"Are you really going to make him stay up all night? What exactly are you making him do?" Displeasure evident in her voice.

Why must all doctors ruin his fun time?

He hummed, forcing his eye open to look at her. "Have you heard of sleep tags before?"

"Can't say that I have."

"It's expected. Sleep tags were a staple for all Uzushiogakure mothers. I only heard of them myself when Kushina-san was making them when she was pregnant."

That was one of his better memories, if he was honest.

"But why does Naruto need to stay awake overnight? It's not healthy to go without sleep."

This time Kakashi did let a chuckle out.

"Kushina-san said that the best sleep tags were made by sleep-deprived parents. Their desire for sleep moved their chakra in such a way that it amplified the effects. I never understood it myself, but she was convinced it was the truth. I originally thought she was making it for when Naruto was born, but it was actually because of Minato-sensei. He was so excited for the baby he couldn't sleep and kept waking her up."

Her swears as she made tag after tag were still vivid in his mind.

He continued.

"Naruto is determined to help Sakura-chan deal with the Burning. The sleep tag should at least allow you to have a break from holding a genjutsu over her after we leave tomorrow. We don't have time for him to learn any other way." And if he was completely truthful, Naruto needed all the writing practice he could get. Kakashi had great plans for him in the future.

Shizune sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing Kakashi."

"You having nothing to worry about."

Any plan involving the suffe–teaching of his students was already perfect. Now, all he had to do was wait for Naruto to finish with his tags, and for Pakkun and the rest of the boys to come back after their patrol to see if they could find out what Naruto saw.

His genin were off limits, and Kakashi would make sure everyone understood that.

.

"I think that's everything. Here Shizune nee-san. I have twenty sleep tags here, all charged by yours truly. You just need to add chakra to activate them. On second thought… have ten more. Or maybe twenty. Remember they last for ten hours each, and you can't use them too close together. And remember –"

Kakashi tuned out the rest of what Naruto was saying, the boy had been going on for ten minutes already and though it was entertaining at first, even Kakashi himself had limits.

"Maa, I think Shizune knows how to take care of her patient. Why don't you go talk over the plan with Tsunade-sama and Sasuke one more time? We are heading straight to the Chunin Exams, and you three must be prepared."

"But–"

"Go."

Naruto pouted, and stomped over to his other two 'teammates'. Kakashi watched for a moment before addressing Shizune.

"I think everything is in order. Are you sure you don't want me to leave one of my summons here?" The boys did find a trace of someone lurking about, and Kakashi was concerned.

Shizune stared at him flatly.

"Kakashi, I was a medic during a war. I'm used to being targeted. Besides, the defenses I have planned would harm your summons. Antidotes don't work on ninken the same way they do on people." She softened her tone before continuing. "If anything does go wrong I will follow the emergency plan. Don't worry."

Kakashi glanced towards the hut where his student laid.

"Keep her safe."

"With my life."

He looked one last time before turning back to his squabbling genin.

It was time to head back to Konoha.

A lot happens in this chapter. Sakura learns about the story in full and is reunited with Inner, and Naruto... just poor Naruto. Chunin Exams are coming up, I hope people are excited for that.

We are nearing the end of the story, its not ending in a couple of chapters or anything, but we are definitely in the last fourth of it. Updates might be a little slower than normal, because I want to carefully think over how I want to write the ending. Plot points must converge and everything needs to line up. Despite its faults, I am proud of this story and I want to make sure I have an ending I am satisfied with. I tend to write a lot in my head before typing it out, and that process might need to go a bit longer to accommodate these changes.

If you see any typos please let me know, my brain isn't fully with it today.

As always, updates will be posted on a Sunday at some point in the future.

Thanks for reading!