“That’s why I’m confused,” I admitted. “I’m not sure if my memories are biased, or if you’re actually different than the Sasuke I remember. I’d wondered before if Naruto and me were actually from different alternate worlds, but I’ve never been able to pinpoint any differences between our versions of Konoha.”
“We should compare notes when we have some privacy,” he suggested, his voice still tight. Was he… angry that I’d been hurt? My god, he was.
Sasuke, being protective of me? I had no idea how to respond to that. Fortunately Naruto rejoined us at that point, and I was spared the need to formulate a reply.
We spent some days on the project, but we never found any definite discrepancies. As far as I could tell Sasuke and I remembered the same events from our time together as Team Seven. Naruto’s memory was much spottier than mine, but he freely admitted he didn’t trust himself to have the details right in any event.
“My memory was incredibly bad back then,” he announced when I brought it up. “I’ll help if I can, but I doubt I’ll be any use. Heck, I barely remember our first Tora hunt, let alone the boring stuff.”
Unfortunately we didn’t get a full month to work at it. When Suna noticed their Kage was missing they apparently decided Konoha had assassinated him, and declared war on us. When Sound came in on their side a few days later the fighting got serious, and the final round of the exam was cancelled.
Naruto, Hinata and I met atop the Hokage monument that afternoon to watch Sound’s forces assault the walls of Konoha while half our ninja were at the Suna border.
“I’m guessing the loop will end tonight,” I said. “When something unexpected derails the exam that always triggers a reset, but if I’m alive it tries to wait until I’m asleep.”
Naruto nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen the same thing. The three of us could stop that army easy, but there’s no point if they’ve already cancelled the exam.”
“I’m sorry,” Hinata said contritely. “I didn’t think I’d actually beat him.”
“Don’t worry about it, Hinata,” Naruto reassured her. “We can get back together any time we want now, and it was actually pretty funny.”
“Yes, it’s fine Hinata. We’ll have plenty of time together,” I reassured her. “If this lead on contacting Astoria pans out I should have an answer to share in just a few loops.”
“Good,” Naruto replied. “I’d love to know what’s really going on with this thing. I’ll summon you again in, say, four loops? That’s just a few days for me if I do short ones, so I think I can stand the suspense. If it doesn’t work at first I’ll try again every loop until it does.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed. “You getting all of this, Sasuke?”
There was a sigh from below us, and a shame-faced Sasuke wall-walked up the face of the monument to join us.
“I should have known I couldn’t sneak up on you,” he admitted.
“Me?” I scoffed. “I’m just a chakra sensor. I didn’t spot you until you started up the monument. Hinata, on the other hand…” I trailed off questioningly.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on him all day,” she admitted. “Even in passive mode my Byakugan extends well beyond the city wall.”
Sasuke eyed her nervously. “Right. I guess Naruto’s the only one I might fool in this group.”
Naruto chuckled, and pointed out the pigeons flocking nervously about the area. “Some of those are my clones,” he said. “I always have some watching everyone I care about. What’s up, Sasuke?”
“Take me with you,” he demanded. “You obviously have a way to do it, since you have a copy of the Hyuuga heir with you. You’re going to need my Sharingan to deal with this crazy version of me.”
“I am not going to do what I do for Hinata with you,” I declared. “Even if I still could, that’s much too personal.”
“Hang on,” Naruto said thoughtfully. “You can still do that memory copy thing, right? That might not be a bad idea.”
“Oh, great. Are we starting a collection now?” I grumbled. “What do you think, Hinata?”
“I don’t trust him,” she replied. “But he could be useful. Besides, I remember what it was like to know I was going to go away at the end of the loop if you didn’t copy me. Knowing you won’t be copied would be much worse.”
“Yeah, come on Sakura,” Naruto said. “It isn’t going to hurt you or anything, is it?”
I sighed. “Alright, Naruto, if you insist. But I’m not going to make a habit of restoring him.”
The secure wing of the Hyuuga complex was, without question, the most difficult target I’d ever tried to infiltrate. Located near the center of a sprawling labyrinth of elegant residences inhabited by reclusive ninja with illusion-proof x-ray vision, merely approaching it was a difficult feat. The wards on walls, floor and ceiling prevented most forms of phasing, and those inside the building would raise an alarm the instant they detected non-Hyuuga chakra. The only door was guarded at all times by two Hyuuga chuunin, and locked with a seal that required immense levels of Byakugan mastery to open.
We got it on the first try.
Quietly abducting the clan head’s elder daughter after the written exam was easy, as was dropping her older self into her head. After that I waited for long minutes as the two versions of Hinata discussed the situation. I’d chosen not to follow her in, thinking Hinata was more likely to trust herself than me, so I had no idea what they were saying.
Finally the Hyuuga girl sat up on my bed, and smiled at me. “We’re ready, Sakura.”
“Good. So, she’s alright with helping us?” I asked.
“Of course she was, silly. It’s a chance to help Naruto,” she answered.
I rolled my eyes. “You do know you’re obsessed, right? Wait, what do you mean, ‘was’?”
“Oh, we merged,” she said casually. “You were right, it’s easy to do. I feel saner already.”
I shook my head with a sigh. That wasn’t the plan, but I suppose how she relates to herself is her own business. “Alright, Hinata. Just don’t make a habit of doing that to yourself, ok? I don’t think it’s actually wrong, but I’m not sure how Naruto would take it.”
“Oh. Alright, I won’t. Thank you for warning me.”
She looked so serious I had to stop and hug her. “It’s ok, sweetie, that’s part of my job. Now, let’s see if we can do this.”
I laid my hand on her chest, and stopped her heart. She closed her eyes, and a few seconds later I felt her appear in the garden area of my mindscape. Then I aspected myself, and poured one of me into her body as I restarted her heart.
Her eyes fluttered, and she groaned. “Ow. Am I hallucinating, or… no, it’s these eyes. I’m here, but this body isn’t happy about it and I have no idea what I’m seeing.”
“Just hold on,” I said. “Here I come.”
I stopped my own heart, and released my hold on my body. I spun across space to join my other aspect in the body she wore, and merged with her again. Then I fell back into my mindscape, and invited Hinata to take control of our body again.
“It worked!” She said excitedly. “I’ve got a little bit of chakra shock, but it isn’t bad. I’ll be fine in a few minutes. How are you doing?”
I took stock of myself. “I’m fine, as long as I don’t try to see through your eyes. Did you know your visual cortex isn’t wired anything like a normal person’s?”
“Now you know how I felt in your jungle,” she teased. “Here, I think I can use one of our vision-sharing techniques to give you a useable viewport.”
A viewing portal formed before me, showing a weirdly translucent image of the outside world. The view swung dizzily through space, zooming in and out and spinning around crazily.