Chapter 13
Sakura's top priority at the moment was to avoid detection. She shouldn't bother taking on huge goals if she was going to be caught before ever achieving something. So stealthiness, it was.
That included hiding that this four-year-old Sakura Haruno had been swapped with her, a grown adult. She was confident in her ability to act the part because of experience (years of pretending to be unbothered by sly remarks about her upbringings, acting like she was supposed to, a collected and reliable medic, as if she wasn't slowly breaking apart, every death to her name a weight crushing her shoulders—), and she still had a cover story, 'Keito', to back her up.
But most importantly, she needed to keep the people aware of her training to a minimum, which she had already semi-failed at. Well, only technically speaking.
She couldn't have prevented Shisui and Itachi from knowing in order to secure another way to expand her skillset. And although Yūta was a stranger to her, not to mention someone she couldn't predict reactions of since he never existed in her timeline, she had somehow managed to evade his suspicion. Of course, that was assuming she had successfully tricked him.
So, strictly speaking, she had yet to be caught and had only got really close to it.
Besides, Shisui didn't know the full extent of her abilities—not even a fraction of it, actually. Only knowing the things Sakura had accidentally shown him and whatever she would decide to showcase to him in two days' time, at their first training session, he wasn't a threat yet. The most he could do right now was accuse her of being a child prodigy, which she would prefer over being found out as a time-traveler slash dimension-hopper any day.
However, her own personal training—which she wasn't going to lessen now that she was going to receive training separately—along with her rapid improvement and understanding of chakra and the workings of the human body—all of which she couldn't excuse as prodigal talent. It had to be hidden from the world, concealed in a way nobody would even think to raise suspicions.
In a way, she had experienced it first-hand already.
Naruto had gotten away with being aware of and using the Kage-bunshin back then. People either didn't know how strange and suspicious that was or didn't care because it was Naruto. What could he do to endanger the village? Because, really, it wasn't Naruto they were afraid of, even though they claimed to despise him just as much as the Kyūbi. It was the threat that he posed, the thing that he could become, the monster lurking within, that they were terrified of.
To them, Naruto, the nine-tailed in human form, had been a ticking bomb that could decimate the village in a matter of minutes if the beast managed to escape. A truly terrifying outcome.
Then there had been Naruto, the troublemaker, the Dead Last, the failure. Not even being able to keep up a simple clone, he had been the laughingstock of his class. Could he even kill a fly?
The ever-present threat of the Kyūbi—the remnants of the attack of twelve years ago looming over the masses like a silent reminder that they couldn't let their guard down, ever. And Naruto Uzumaki, a gullible and naive boy with unreachable, unreasonable, impossible goals and one strong-willed mind. Someone who was destined to trip on his own self-confidence before he could ever pose a threat to someone.
The comparison of the two opposites made the change to Naruto's arsenal—this strange technique that didn't attack nor defend, instead, seeming kind of useless at first, inexperienced glance—seem insignificant.
What did the Dead Last learning how to clone himself properly—like all other Shinobi his age—matter when he was hosting a monstrous beast inside of him? Many noticed, saw it themselves, but the fewest cared. It was simply easier to go along with the flow, to follow the crowd.
There had been bigger things to worry about, both concerning the boy and outside conflicts that were completely unrelated. So, nobody had been suspicious but a select few. Keen people like Kakashi or the Hokage—the people that the situation was actually working in favor of. The very people that had been taught to doubt and question everything didn't bother doing that when it came to Naruto, specifically.
They remained uncaring—because they weren't ignorant; of course, a Shinobi never was, especially with how Naruto was spitting out Shadow Clones left and right. They were not even considering being suspicious of how he had gotten it in the first place and what the constant spamming and creating hundreds of them at once could mean for his capabilities, his potential.
When the nine-tailed beast was sealed inside of him, ready to pounce if it was set free, it was hardly important that Naruto the boy had acquired the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
And, really, it couldn't be that important, could it?
Concealment in plain sight. In a way, nobody would even think to raise suspicions.
Sakura could use that.
She took out the notebook she had bought with her meager pocket money the day before after training.
Starting a list, encrypted in a code that only the commanders of the Shinobi Alliance knew, of course, she wrote down:
Goals:
Underneath that,
• Prevent Kaguya, the war, save the world.
Her pen stilled as she reread the words and actually took them in.
A few days ago, when she had first woken up here, she had, immediately and without hesitation, decided to take this path to uncertainty and save everyone. But, honestly speaking, Sakura hadn't truly thought this out yet.
Writing it down like this made her wonder.
Isn't that too grand of a goal? Preventing Kaguya, a goddess? It was just like she had once said herself, years ago. Back when they had been able to afford to idly chatter and waste away time.
It's inevitable.
Theorizing with Kakashi and the others had been nice, but what did all of that, all of her new-found determination matter, if it was all going to happen anyway? Could she, a lowly and short-lived human, really save the world? Wasn't this goal too far above her?
And then a thought crossed her mind.
No, not just a thought. It was the thought. The one she had locked away, had been pushing down every time it threatened to bubble up and ruin everything. And suddenly, her hands were moving, all on their own.
• Go back home
Sakura sucked in a sharp breath, hissing as if she had touched fire.
Her mind was numb; everything she had been carefully stocking away for later, when she was strong again, suddenly meaningless. Only one thought, one idea, kept moving in circles around her mindscape.
"Go... back?" she muttered, and suddenly, it became a possibility. Perhaps she could.
They — someone — had managed to send her back here, or rather, into this alternate universe. What prevented her from trying to reverse the process? Turn around, go back the same way she had come, and return to—
Return to where?
It was a world where half the people she loved were dead. A world where everyone had lost hope, only striving to survive another hour, perhaps even to the next day. A world where people wouldn't recognize her deeds or understand her thoughts, lashing out at her because surely the medic wouldn't mind. It was a world where so many died every day that she couldn't find the strength to retaliate against condemning looks. After all, they had been living in a world where everyone was bound to die anyway.
A world she had—
"I willingly left it, didn't I?"
Sakura had died. Thrown herself in front of Naruto, the only one to still truly believe in a happy end where everyone could live normally again. She had been dying, and she hadn't tried to prevent it.
She stared at the words written on the pristine white paper, something that was hardly left in the world she had once lived in. What was there to go back to?
She picked up her pen again, applying an unnecessary amount of pressure while drawing a thick, black line.
• G̶o̶ b̶a̶c̶k̶ h̶o̶m̶e̶
This is stupid.
Foolish her to think she could ever go back, not to mention want to go back.
She circled the first point, her main goal, and started writing again.
1. Avoid detection
Sakura would need to hide her progress once it started showing up. There was the method from earlier, but that could wait, needed to be considered more thoroughly.
There were things she could be sure about, though. Things that needed to happen now.
• conceal chakra at all times
And the matter of the Byakugō. She would need to start with storing up her chakra soon if she wanted to have it available as soon as possible. (She didn't dare to admit that she felt naked, empty without it. It was simply a seal, after all. Less of a body part than her own, dyed-brown hair. But to her, it wasn't just that. Hadn't been just that. The Byakugō had saved her, spared her from a fate she hadn't yet—couldn't have—accepted. So, how was she supposed to live without it now? What if she had to fight? What if she died? Again? Did she still want it? Could she still accept it like that time?)
But before she could even start creating the Byakugō, Sakura needed to figure out how to hide it.
• Bangs
She crossed it out. Bad idea. Too unreliable.
• Headband around forehead
That would work, but only once she actually got her headband. And a bandana or hairband would be too easy to get loose, too risky.
• Genjut
That wouldn't work either. Too much chakra consumption. Not possible with her reserves. She crossed it out before she even finished the thought. Next. What else?
• Prevent symbol from showing up
Too complicated and not worth the risk of failing and losing years of work.
• makeup
Not suited for training. Sweat would cause it to dissolve.
• waterproof makeup?
No.
Sakura paused.
The only other thing she could come up with was rather bizarre.
• change placement of seal
Sakura already had experience dealing with it; she had already gone through the process once. The actual seal was a bit tricky to move, and the forehead was chosen precisely because it was easiest to direct chakra there. What that meant for her? Moving the Byakugō wasn't impossible, just impossibly hard.
But she was Sakura Haruno, the best medic to live. Hell, she had time-traveled. Why wouldn't it be possible for her?
Huh.
Maybe this could work, she thought.