Kakashi leaned against the railing, watching the digital reader cycle through pairs of names.

Part one of the chunin exam was over, and his team had survived seemingly none the worse for wear (they might have been acting a bit weird, but it was hard to tell yet if it was something that required his intervention - they were, after all, somewhat weird by default).

In fact, several people had made it through this year, including all three Konoha rookie teams, Team Gai, and a single Sand team. It was a little too convenient for so many Konoha nin to pass a Konoha-based exam, so the Hokage had decided to hold preliminary fights and reduce numbers before the main event. The first team that had made it to the tower (the Sand team) was declared exempt so that there would be even numbers.

Sasuke had been first off the mark, along with Gai's kunoichi, Tenten. It was a decisive victory for Sasuke, who had slouched off back to the viewing area the second they had finished making the sign of reconciliation (much to Tenten's disappointment, if Kakashi was any judge of expressions).

Naruto had gone to give him a congratulatory pat on the back, but hesitated just before his hand touched Sasuke's shoulder. Kakashi filed that away for later.

Then it was Hyuuga Neji vs Nara Shikamaru (Shikamaru played it smart, but had ultimately given up once the outcome was clear), then Hyuuga Hinata and Rock Lee (both fought well, and when Gai's student clinched the final victory Kakashi noticed his own team cheering particularly hard) and now…

The names had finally stopped cycling, landing on an intriguing combination.

"Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura," Hayate announced.

Sakura gave Ino a smile, but it was returned a beat too late.

"This is gonna be tough," Asuma murmured somewhere to Kakashi's right while the girls dutifully squared off in the centre.

Kakashi didn't respond. Perhaps in another life the girls were closely matched, but Sakura was in another league entirely now.

The girls shifted into fighting stances and Kakashi tensed, ready to leap into action the second his student did anything odd or dangerous. He didn't really expect anything to go wrong, but he knew there were others present who would also be watching the fight closely, and they wouldn't be half as gentle if they reached her first.

He needn't have worried; Asuma was right. It was clear from the first pass that Sakura was going easy on Ino, moving too slowly and missing openings that a complete novice could have seen. She didn't even draw her sword.

Ino quickly called her out on it, aiming for lethal targets that forced Sakura to take her seriously.

Sakura tried her best to correct, but it was clear she was struggling to match her opponent's level; there was just too much difference in their speed, strength and accuracy. She went to punch Ino in the solar plexus, and Kakashi could tell she had pulled the punch as much as possible despite the fact that it still sent the girl tumbling backwards in a cloud of dust. Sakura backed off, bobbing on her feet like a boxer waiting for their opponent's counterattack. In truth, she could have pushed her advantage and finished the fight then and there, but she held back.

The dust settled, but Ino remained on the ground. Onlookers hissed in disappointment that the fight had come to such an anticlimactic conclusion, and Hayate cleared his throat to announce the outcome.

Sakura sighed, a rueful smile playing on her lips. Then she doubled over like a mannequin whose top strings had been cut.

"Got you," she said, her voice suddenly loud and triumphant. She raised her head. "Sakura."

Those in the crowd who weren't aware of Mind Swap jutsu muttered to one another in confusion as 'Sakura' turned to Hayate and raised her hand.

Chouji, who was standing on Asuma's far side and eating chips like his life depended on it, grinned. "She did it."

Kakashi sighed. He wasn't naive enough to assume that Sakura had actually fallen for Ino's plan to kick up dust as a distraction for her bloodline limit. But had she thrown the match out of love for her friend, or defiance of the village? In the end her intentions didn't matter, only what the village elders chose to make of it.

"I, Haruno Sakura," she announced, but then her pale brows creased and her eyes went unfocused. "Who are you?" She paused, as if listening to something. "Who?"

"What's going on?" Naruto murmured, head cocked.

"Ino has taken over her mind," Chouji explained, but he was no longer grinning. "But something's…"

"Wrong," Asuma finished, confirming Kakashi's suspicions.

"How did you get in here?" Ino-as-Sakura murmured, still talking to an imaginary person. Then: "Sakura…Haruno Sakura…She's my friend…" A shake of her head. "I don't know who that is."

That was enough for Kakashi to intervene; rules of sparring be damned. He vaulted the rail and dropped down to Sakura's side, reaching out to…do what? Ino was still in her head, still talking to some strange intruding presence. How was he supposed to help?

Asuma sprang down a second later, but he also didn't seem to know what to do. Ino didn't acknowledge either of their presences, but her eyes (Sakura's eyes, really) were growing wider. Kakashi had never seen an expression of true fear on this older Sakura's face, and it made something twist urgently in his gut.

"I'm leaving," Ino told the air, and then once again Sakura's body collapsed forward for a moment. When she raised her head, Kakashi could tell that the real Sakura was back in control.

She noticed Ino lying on the ground, who after a few moments began to stir. "Sakura?" She asked uncertainly, and Sakura grinned.

"Congratulations, Ino!" She held out her right hand, index and middle finger extended to make the seal of reconciliation.

Ino simply stared at her.

Hayate coughed politely. "Technically, the match has not concluded yet."

Sakura's smile turned to a frown. "Really?" Only then did she notice that Kakashi and Asuma were standing on either side of her. "What, wait happened?" She looked back at Ino. "You were gonna make me forfeit, right?"

Ino nodded slowly.

"Okay, then I forfeit." She raised her hand and waved it at Hayate. "I'm out."

Hayate glanced at Kakashi, unsure how to call such a strange match. Kakashi nodded.

"Sakura's out. I interfered."

"The winner is Yamanaka Ino," Hayate declared, and the crowd broke into stilted applause.

Sakura, still unaware of what had happened while she was under, once again extended her hand.

"Well done, Ino. You deserve it."

This time Ino took it, gingerly completing the mock-seal and ending their fight. Then she leaned in, speaking so quietly that Kakashi would have missed it if he hadn't been standing right next to them.

"Who the hell is Nohara Rin?"

ⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵⴵ

After that, everything happened very quickly.

Asuma quietly informed his father and summoned the experts while Kakashi ushered the girls to a quiet room far away from prying eyes. Ino was confused and angry, while Sakura was just confused.

When Yamanaka Inoichi arrived, Ino practically ran from the room to give him her report. She had barely said a word since the end of the fight, especially not about what had transpired, and Kakashi was relieved. There were no good explanations for what had happened, and he wanted to stay in the blissful ignorance stage just a little longer.

"What if we miss Naruto's fight?" Sakura asked glumly.

He sighed. "We probably will."

"That's not fair. Can't this," she gestured to their little waiting room of hell, "be put off for a few more minutes?"

"They should be ready for us soon."

"Maybe you should go and watch, at least? You're his teacher."

"I'm your teacher, too." He would have loved nothing more than to walk away, but the only thing worse than knowing would be not knowing. "You'll need me here."

"Am I in trouble?" she whispered, but he was spared from answering by the door finally opening.

"Sakura?" Inoichi smiled, letting himself in along with Asuma and the only man that could possibly make the situation worse.

Danzo swept into the room, taking a seat in the corner and gesturing for his masked agents to guard the door. "It would look off for the Hokage to leave halfway through the bouts," he explained, "so I volunteered to take care of this matter on his behalf." He smiled at Sakura. "Miss Haruno. It seems you have been keeping more secrets than we realised."

"I genuinely don't know what's going on," Sakura said. "I don't even recognise the name that Ino said."

"It's okay, Sakura." Inoichi raised his hand in a placating gesture. "We believe you. We just need to run a few more tests."

"You want to read my mind again," she guessed. "Fine. It'll prove I'm telling you the truth."

"Actually, this time I'm going to be probing a step deeper than your surface thoughts." He gave her an apologetic smile. "I'll tap into your subconscious, a bit like hypnotism. It doesn't hurt," he assured her, but she just shrugged.

"Do what you have to do."

He stood behind her, placing his hands gently against her temples. "Just relax," he instructed, and she closed her eyes. "That's it. Let me through."

Despite the assurance that it didn't hurt, Sakura's hands were balled into fists on the top of the table, going white at the knuckles. Kakashi reached out to place his hands atop hers before she dislocated her fingers.

Her eyes fluttered open, and he thought he must have broken her focus. But then she smiled hesitantly, with eyes like a sleepwalker's.

"Kakashi?" those glazed eyes welled up with emotion. "Oh my god, it's really you."

She leaned forward as if to hug him, but Inoichi gently guided her back in place. "Calm down," he ordered quietly, and she immediately went still. "Tell us your name."

"Nohara Rin."

Asuma gasped from his position in the opposite corner to Danzo, and Kakashi gritted his teeth to avoid making a similar outburst.

"Rin?" Inoichi confirmed. "Rin, can you tell us where you are?"

Sakura gazed around the dingy room. "I'm…not sure." Her eyebrows creased slightly. "I've never seen this place before."

"That's alright. Do you recognise any of the people in the room?"

She looked at Kakashi immediately. "That's Kakashi."

"Okay. Anyone else?"

She looked at Danzo, then Asuma, and finally twisted her neck slightly to look at Inoichi himself. "I'm sorry, no."

The real Rin had gone to the academy with Asuma, so he at least would have been recognisable to her. But Sakura's face was utterly guileless.

"What age are you, Rin?"

"Sixteen," she said, and Kakashi glanced at Asuma before he could react openly. They exchanged a silent look instead.

The same age she was when she died.

"Can you describe your appearance, Rin?"

Sakura looked down at herself, frowning. "I look like this."

"Pink hair?" Inoichi supplied.

"No?" She grabbed a handful of her pale pink hair. "It's brown."

"Alright." Inoichi let it go. "What's the last thing you remember, Rin?"

Sakura hummed, something Rin used to do when she was thinking. "There was a blonde girl. She asked who I was. I asked who she was. Then she got mad and left."

"And before that?"

Sakura's face brightened immediately. "Before that, I was with Obito."

Kakashi could feel, rather than see, Danzo lean in closer. He himself had forgotten how to breathe. This couldn't be real, could it?

Sakura looked at the door hopefully. "Is he here?"

"Sakura." Kakashi no longer cared if he threw off Inoichi's interrogation, or revealed something that Danzo could use against him later. His hands tightened over hers and shook them slightly. "What…happened to you?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "Who's Sakura?"

"Rin." Inoichi smoothly reasserted control over the interrogation. "Who is Obito?"

"He's our teammate." She smiled. "Kakashi's and mine. And…" The smile turned awkward, and she blushed. "He's also my boyfriend."

"No." Kakashi hadn't meant to speak again, but the implications were just too horrible. "No, that can't be." He's dead. And you're not Rin.

She looked down at their hands before gently removing hers. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Kakashi." She smiled apologetically. "We didn't mean to keep it from you, but you weren't around, and, well." her blush deepened. "The truth is, I've always loved him."

"What did he do to you?" He didn't want to know, but he had to ask or he'd always suspect the worst.

"Kakashi," Asuma called softly from somewhere behind him. "Go easy on her."

"He didn't do anything, Bakakashi!" Sakura's voice rose sharply, then dropped to a shy murmur. "If you must know, we've only kissed." She fidgeted in her seat, looking every bit like a teenager talking about her first boyfriend. Except she was a grown woman, and her eyes still had that slightly glazed look to them.

Kakashi turned away from her in disgust. The relief that her answer brought was greatly undercut by the fact that she had just called him a nickname only one person had ever used.

"It's the real Obito."

Sakura frowned. "Of course he is? Who else would he be?"

"I wasn't talking to you," he snapped, and she recoiled.

"Kakashi?" Her hands inched back across the table toward him, wide eyes pleading. "I really am sorry for keeping it a secret. We both are. Let's not fight, okay?"

"You are not Rin," he ground out, unable to pretend any longer. "Your name is Haruno Sakura, and you were abducted last month and forced to…pretend, that you were someone else. Nohara Rin is dead."

She was crying now, and it should have made him feel terrible to be the cause. He knew it wasn't fair to get angry at Sakura, or even her strange ghost of an alter ego, when the person he was truly mad at was Obito. But Obito had been dead up until a minute ago, and it was still too hard to imagine the boy out there somewhere, hurting people, turning all of Kakashi's grief and love into lies. And in any case, he thought bitterly, the real Sakura probably wouldn't remember any of this.

"Let's leave it there," Inoichi suggested, and Kakashi agreed before Danzo could order them otherwise.

Sakua inhaled deeply, and her eyes became clear. She smiled blithely.

"How'd I go? Did I pass the test?"