Time Braid

30. Victory

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto.

Hinata frowned up at the throne floating high above us. “Yes, I can get us there. But is there nothing that can be done for you, Sakura?”

I shook my head. “This is more important, Hinata. I have a few hours to find a way to cheat death, as long as I don’t use any chakra. But if I don’t take this opportunity now everything we’ve gone through will have been in vain.”

“Very well,” Hinata agreed reluctantly. “As much as I have abused your trust recently, it is only fair that I should give you my own. But we shouldn’t split up.”

She focused her own flagging chakra, and to my surprise worked an earth technique. The ground around us shifted with a rumble, and slowly rose to form a column of stone that carried us up to the level of the throne.

I pulled myself to my feet with a groan, and staggered across the seared rock to the ornate device. Not knowing what else to do, I sat.

A display made of nothing but light appeared in front of me, much like the ones I’d seen Astoria use in her office. It showed a login screen, asking for a user name and password that had probably been forgotten centuries ago. But there had to be some way to use this thing or the Bright Kami would never have gone to so much trouble to get me here. I scrutinized what looked like a row of buttons at the bottom of the screen. Ok, Cancel, Change Password, Help… ah, that sounded useful.

I touched the ‘Help’ button with my finger, and another panel appeared with a musical chime. Blinking symbols on the new panel read ‘Please hold, a help desk technician will be with you shortly.’

“You know, Sasuke spent more than a decade trying to find someone who could sit on that throne,” Hinata said speculatively. “He gave up because he thought there wasn’t anyone left with the right bloodline.”

“He was right,” I said. “You have to have been born on our world, and have pure gold chakra. I didn’t qualify until a couple of minutes ago.”

There was another musical chime, and the message was replaced by Astoria’s smiling face.

“Office of the Sysop, Orion Arm Division, how may I help you?” She said pleasantly.

“Astoria?” I said dumbly. “Ok, now I know this whole thing was a setup. Um, my name is Sakura, and we’ve met before, but you don’t remember me because I’m stuck in a time loop. You should have, what did you call it, a memory save?”

“I do?” She said quizzically. She looked away, her fingers flying over a keyboard. “Oh, I see. Yes, just a moment while I do a context load… oh my. I see. But you’re calling from your world’s master system console now? That must be quite a story.”

I chuckled weakly. “Yeah, but I’m not sure if I’ll live long enough to tell it at this point. Look, I need to figure out how to use this thing to get the Blessing of Hope reinstated on my world and get someone who knows what they’re doing in here to take over. Can you tell me how to do that?”

“Hmm. It looks like you qualify for a system account now, and since you’re the only one on your world… sure, no problem. I do this all day. I’m setting up your account now. User name ‘Sakura’, password ‘Sakura’, and I’m locking the account to your console temporarily so it can’t be hacked while we’re working. Just be sure to change the password to something secure before I hang up. Ok, it should be ready now. Give it a try.”

“Um, how do I type anything?” I asked.

“Oh! Touch the input field, and you should get an entry tablet,” she explained.

I touched the little box labeled ‘User Name’ with my finger, and what looked like a glowing keyboard of light appeared in the air. I shrugged, and obediently typed my name twice. When I hit enter the panel blinked once and faded, to be replaced by a new panel covered with tiny pictures.

Before I could ask what they meant a message appeared over the icons. It read ‘No other valid users detected in this system partition. Emergency administrative privileges granted. Treasury draft privileges granted. Planetary supervisor position is vacant. Claim planetary command? Y/N’.

I reached for the button labeled “Yes”, but hesitated. The last time I’d talked to Astoria she’d been awfully anxious to recruit me, and I still didn’t know what their game was. Considering how hung up on free will the Bright Kami were, consenting to anything I didn’t understand was probably a bad idea.

I touched “No”, and the message vanished.

Astoria frowned slightly. “Are you sure you don’t want to take on the planetary supervisor post, at least temporarily? The fringe benefits are kind of important.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Let me guess. An Yggdrasil feed?”

She nodded hesitantly.

I sighed. How typical of them, to set me up to die and then tempt me with salvation on their terms.

“Astoria, why exactly did I have to go through all this? Why couldn’t you guys just turn the blessing back on yourselves?”

“We couldn’t do that, Sakura,” she insisted. “That would be against the rules.”

“Exactly,” I said tiredly. “Those who break the rules are trash, right? But those who let rules make them abandon their comrades are worse than trash. I’m not going to let you trick me into tying myself into a system of rules that would prevent me from standing by my family, Astoria. Now can we please concentrate of saving the world?”

My demon aspect struggled back to her feet as I spoke, and hobbled over to lean on my shoulder.

“Yeah, I figured you soft-hearted types would be all over that one,” she said wryly. “Come on, don’t disappoint me.”

Astoria stared at her. “You’re still alive? Um, wait, shouldn’t you be trying to stop us?”

“You’ve got to learn to see under the underneath, girl,” she replied. “Obviously Hild-sama’s moved on to a different plan, or I’d have a Nidhogg connection right now. So, the next step?”

Astoria frowned, but resumed her typing. “Well, alright. Worldwide blessings are managed by the Office of Intervention, so they aren’t under your direct control. I’m sending you the reactivation request form now. It’s already filled out, so all you need to do is sign your name and submit it.”

Another panel opened, this one covered in dense paragraphs of celestial script. Great. Apparently even Heaven had paperwork.

Not being an idiot, I took a minute to read it over to make sure there wasn’t a vow of pacifism or something buried in the fine print. But it seemed like it really was just an interdepartmental request form, so I signed it and pressed the ‘Send ‘ button at the bottom.

Two heartbeats later a golden glow unfolded across the sky above us.

“You’d think someone was just sitting around waiting for us to send the request,” I said dryly.

Astoria smiled shyly. “Of course they were. I’m still getting caught up on the details, but I think someone important has been planning this for a long time. Just so you know, interdepartmental requests are always tied to the system clock instead of your local timeline. So even if you use that wish to backtrack again the Office of Intervention will still have your paperwork on file, and they can reactive the blessing immediately.”

“That’s a relief. What about my system account?”

“Oh, that’s tied into system security,” she explained. “Time travel won’t affect it at all. Once you’re in the system, you stay in forever.”

“Sounds handy. So, about getting a replacement?”

“Ummm, that might take some time,” she replied, her eyes darting between me and something off-screen. “I think the big shots were expecting you to take the job. You know, the rules really aren’t as bad as you’re thinking…”

I snorted. “Astoria, I’m a ninja. A nice one, I guess, but I’m not like you and I don’t want to be. If I took the job I’d do it my way, and you guys would be looking for a way to get rid of me in a matter of weeks. It’s better not to go there in the first place.”

“But, Sakura,” she said hesitantly. “You have to know that you’re dying. Can’t you trust us, just this once?”

A groan from Naruto interrupted me before I could formulate a response. Naturally, by the time he got his eyes open there were four anxious kunoichi gathered around him.

“What happened?” He mumbled.

“We won.”

Naruto listened gravely as I brought him up to speed on what had happened while he was unconscious. Our Hinata emerged from his mindscape via a shadow clone during my explanation, and eyed her counterpart warily as I spoke.

“… so we’ve more or less won, but it wasn’t exactly an unqualified victory,” I finished.

“Yeah, I’m not too happy you had to sacrifice part of your soul to the Shinigami,” he said with a frown. “But if I understand this time travel stuff we can get her out of that with a reset, right? You’ll still be missing that piece of yourself when you go back, but the sacrifice won’t have happened so the Shinigami won’t have her either.”

“I think so,” I confirmed. “The Shinigami is part of our world, so I’m pretty sure it has to live in normal time just like the rest of us. That’s what it looked like when I saw it, at any rate. So yes, the next time we reset the part of me it took should either go back with me, or just vanish from the time stream. But I’m only going to last a few hours like I am now, and that’s if I don’t do anything that would use up chakra.”

“Oh, that’s easy to fix,” he said confidently, and turned to the younger version of me. “You’re the same Sakura, except still mortal and kind of crazy from Sasuke’s brainwashing, right?”

She nodded. “Pretty much. But I’m totally devoted to you and Hinata, master, and if you give me some time I can turn myself into whatever you want.”

“What I want is for you to merge with her,” he said with a wave in my direction. “She can fix your brain and make you part of the loop, and you can replace what she sacrificed and make her mortal again. Astoria, she isn’t going to suddenly get locked out if that happens, is she?”

Astoria sighed petulantly. “I suppose we’re just going to have to let you do things your way, aren’t we? No, she’s already claimed her birthright. At this point the only way she can lose it again is if she falls to darkness. Besides, now that she’s felt immortality I imagine she’ll be able to form a pure kami aspect at will.”

“Sweet! Thank you, sir!” My copy turned to me with a gleam in her eye. “Open up, big sis. Here I come!”

She stepped into my mindscape while I was still frozen in shock, trying to figure out if Naruto’s crazy idea would work or not. She poured herself into me, and for a few moments I was very confused indeed. We didn’t have enough chakra between us to fully remove the conditioning she brought with her, but after Naruto’s command she was eager to let me do whatever I wanted to with her in the name of making us come out sane. With that kind of cooperation, turning her brainwashed mindset into a sleeping aspect was relatively easy.

Sweet warmth flooded my limbs as her soul integrated with mine, filling all the aching gaps the Shinigami’s touch had left behind. A soft shudder rippled through our mindscapes, and the hidden spring that fed my pool o chakra began to flow again.

I was alive.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, and resolved never to summon the Shinigami again. When my awareness returned to the outside world Naruto was talking to the two Hinatas.

“I don’t deserve to be happy,” the elder Hinata was protesting weakly. “Not after what I’ve done. Whatever fate you had planned for Sasuke, you should do the same with me. Let this bright young girl become the real Hinata, and wipe away all my long lifetimes of failure.”

“It’s true that you’ve made some big mistakes,” Naruto said judiciously. “Sakura wouldn’t have been caught if not for you, and you owe her big time for that. But the bastard still had you mostly brainwashed, and the Kyuubi tricked you. The fact that you want to make up for it counts for a lot with me. Hinata, what do you think?”

My Hinata frowned at her counterpart. “Right now I just want to punish her until she begs for mercy,” she said angrily.

“Please do,” the elder Hinata replied. “I deserve it. I shall submit to whatever you deem appropriate.”

Naruto frowned, but my Hinata spoke before he could.

“No,” she sighed. “I know exactly how much you must hate yourself right now, and I’m going to have to be satisfied with that. I’m just a ghost, and the only way I can truly live again is if we do what Sakura just did.”

“I see. Then take my life, little sister, and use it to give your Naruto everything that I could not.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Naruto interrupted. “Do you really think I would have killed one version of Sakura to save another? Besides, I don’t want you to die, Hinata. I really was looking forward to meeting you.”

My Hinata nodded, and took her older self’s hand. “Exactly. Merging means we both live, big sister. But we have to be able to accept each other, and reconcile all our differences, or else we’ll just go nuts. Sakura makes it look easy because she has that freaky bloodline—”

“Hey!” I protested. “There’s nothing freaky about my bloodline. I’m just not exactly human, that’s all. It worked, by the way.”

“I knew you’d be fine,” Hinata said with a smile. “You always are.”

“Well, I’m glad,” Naruto sighed in relief. “I was a little worried that it was taking so long. What do you think about this thing with Hinata?”

I frowned. “I’m not sure if they can pull it off, actually. Aside from my bloodline, the fact that I know my true name really helps. Neither of them is a child, so without that advantage it could be dangerous.”

“But I do know my name,” the elder Hinata began.

“Yes, don’t you remember?” My own Hinata broke in. “You said it, when you gave my soul to Naruto. My name is Hinata.”

“…yes,” the elder Hinata agreed, a bit startled. She paused, and shook her head ruefully. “I spend decades meditating to find my name, and Sakura casually gives it to you. Typical.”

“There’s a reason she’s my treasure,” my Hinata said smugly. “Are we going to do this?”

The elder Hinata turned to Naruto. “Is this what you want?”

“It’s the best solution I’ve heard,” he said seriously. “I think she can help you a lot, and between that and Sakura’s help we should be able to undo everything that bastard did to you. But that’s not something I’d force on you. If you don’t want to, we’ll find another way to work things out.”

“Thank you, Naruto-sama. I am unworthy of your kindness. But if you are willing to allow this…”

She turned to her younger self, and put her hands on her shoulders. “Little sister, in the last ten minutes I’ve seen more happiness in your life that mine has held in years. Yes. Please. Join with me, and show me how you find such joy in life. Fill my heart with your love, and take my strength for your own, and we shall live on together as one. Perhaps one day I shall even find a way to apologize properly for all the trouble I’ve caused.”

My Hinata smiled. “It’s ok. I know exactly how to make it up to them. Here I come.”

Her body was just a shadow clone, so it vanished when she abandoned it to dive into her older self’s mindscape. A moment later the remaining Hinata swayed, and would have fallen if Naruto hadn’t caught her.

I pulled myself to my feet, and stumbled a few steps to lean against him myself.

“I’m feeling pretty funky,” I told him. “I’ve lost a lot of strength, but at least I’m completely alive again instead of being stuck as some kind of ghost kami. Thank you, my love. I don’t think I would have thought of that.”

“Outside the box is my specialty,” he replied with a relieved smile. “You ok in there, Hinata?”

She looked up at him, and her eyes went wide. “I love you,” she said dreamily. Then her gaze turned to me. “I love you, too. I didn’t know I could belong to two people at once.”

Naruto chuckled. “We love you too, you sweet little woobie assassin.”

Hinata sighed happily, and melted into our shared embrace.

“See Sakura, I told you everything would work out. I’m going to marry you girls, and you’re both going to have your fairytale ending no matter what.”

“Now, any ideas on what to do with Sasuke? Either of you?”

I thought about it. We needed to reset at least once more, or our lives in Konoha were going to be a complete mess. But how could we do that without freeing Sasuke to cause more trouble? Was there some loophole in the wish? I dredged up a little chakra to feed into my heaven seal, artificially sharpening my wits as I contemplated the wording. Naruto had said, ‘I just wish we could go back and fix everything…’

Wait a minute.

“I’m an idiot,” I groaned. “Why didn’t I ever see that? Argh! By the time I heard the wording I was so stuck on this time loop idea that it went right past me!”

“What did?” Naruto asked in confusion.

“You didn’t wish for something to be done to you, Naruto. You wished for the power to do it yourself. I’m right, aren’t I Astoria?”

“Oh, I can’t say anything about that with mortals present,” she protested virtuously. “Not without express permission from the senior local-world kami—”

“I give you permission! Now answer the question, wench.”

She laughed. “Yes, you’ve got it right. There’s no such thing as a time loop, heroes. The wish gave Naruto the power to travel back in time to a designated save point at will, and he can share that ability with those closest to him. But mortals usually have trouble controlling such gifts, so it looks like the wishgiver system set it up to run automatically for you unless you change it. It picked the save point and companions you were thinking of at the time, and set your power to activate automatically if anything happened that would definitely require another reset to fix. But all of that is subject to change. That’s how Hinata was brought in, actually. The system selected Naruto’s closest peers initially, but when he fell in love with her she was added automatically.”

“Wait, does that mean there are looping copies of everyone else I’ve ever gotten close to out there?” Naruto asked, suddenly concerned.

“No, no, the wish’s power budget will only stretch to four people,” Astoria reassured him. “And it won’t kick anyone out unless you’re very explicit about wanting them gone, since there’s no way to take that back once you’ve reset. So it’s just the four of you unless you kick someone out to make room.”

“I’m kicking Sasuke out,” Naruto said firmly. “That nutcase is not one of my precious people, and he’s not included in my wish.”

“That did it,” Astoria chirped happily. “Now the next time you reset he won’t go with you, so this version of Sasuke will just vanish from the time stream. Perhaps he’ll do better with his life the next time around.”

“Oh, he’s not getting off that easy,” my demon aspect said. “My chakra is still pure black, so I count as a full demon, and I’ve got just enough power left to take him where he belongs. Who wants to do the honors?”

I hesitated, that damned gold chakra making me reluctant to kill a helpless foe. Besides, was he really to blame? He’d spent decades with the seal and his Sharingan and the Curse of Despair all competing to drive him into darkness. Could anyone have resisted that? But then again, was I really going to make excuses for a man who’d done the things he’d done? Does it matter what your reasons are, when you’ve done things that most demons wouldn’t have the stomach for?

Hinata glanced at me, realized why I was dithering, and stepped up to drive a crackling spike of chakra through the asshole’s brain in one fluid motion.

“Perfect,” my demon aspect said. She reached into Sasuke’s bloody corpse, and dragged his soul out by the throat.

“Ready for your final reward, little man?” She taunted him. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in? Screwing this thing up is not going to make the big shots happy with you, and you’ve made sure you deserve anything they want to do to you. I think you’re in for a lot of close, personal attention.”

The terror in his eyes as he scrabbled uselessly at her hand made me positively tingly inside. Then I felt guilt at enjoying another’s misfortune, followed by irritation at myself. That stupid gold chakra was still messing with my head pretty badly, but at least I had a little bit of blue now to balance it.

“You can’t!” Sasuke protested. “They’ll punish you too.”

My demon aspect laughed. “Are you blind, Sasuke? I belong to my light side, not the other way around. If they try to grab me she can pull me out, Heaven will back her, and we end up being forced to join the Bright Kami instead of staying independent. My existence is the only silver lining they’ve got in this shit-storm, and they’re not going to throw that away. You, on the other hand, will make the perfect scapegoat for all those middle managers who don’t want to be blamed for missing their chance to claim the world.”

She laughed. “You wronged a kami, little man, and for what you’ve done to me I claim your soul. I’m going to sell you off to the highest bidder, and make sure you get exactly what you deserve.”

“Wait,” I said.

She frowned.

Hinata gave me an astonished look. “Sakura? Surely you’re not suggesting we spare him?”

I sighed. “No, but… I don’t want to do it like this. Besides, if you take him to Hell now he’ll still be erased when we reset. Lock him up in your mindscape, demon girl. We’ll deal with him after we go back, when he won’t conveniently get to avoid his fate.”

“Oh. Good point,” my demon self agreed. “Alright, then. I’ll need some rest before I can come out again, so I’ll see you all later.”

She vanished with her prisoner.

“Oh dear,” Astoria fretted. “Isn’t that a bit harsh, Sakura?”

I shook my head. “I’m not going to hand him over to the demons, Astoria. After we reset he can go to be judged just like any other mortal.”

“Good plan,” Naruto agreed. “He can get whatever the gods think he deserves, with no magic get out of jail free card.”

Hinata smiled beatifically. “He’s going to fry forever, isn’t he? That’s perfect, Sakura. I wonder if they’d let me watch?”

Naruto chuckled, and mussed her hair. “Don’t be a psycho, Hinata-chan. I want you to end up with us when it’s our turn to go, not in whatever hell they use for cute sadists.”

“Don’t be silly, Naruto,” she responded. “With Sakura to patch us up we could live for centuries, and I’m sure she’ll have a better angle by then. Will you care for my soul in death if I worship you in life, Sakura-sama?”

I rolled my eyes.

Astoria frowned, apparently taking her seriously. “That’s been against the rules for centuries—” she began.

“One more reason for me not to join you,” I pointed out. “But we can worry about that kind of thing later. Much, much later, after I’ve slept for about a decade. Maybe even after I know what the heck I’m doing with this kami magic.”

“Sure, Sakura-sama,” Naruto joked. “Whatever you say, oh mighty goddess of kunoichi.”

I slugged his shoulder. He laughed, and drew me in for a kiss that lasted an eternity.

“I think we’re done here,” he said when we finally came up for air. “So we’d better get going before Deidara comes back and blows us all up or something. I’m sure not in any shape for another fight, and neither are you two. Sakura, any other loose ends?”

I shook my head. “No, I think we’re done.”

“Don’t forget to reset your password,” Astoria reminded me.

“I did that while you weren’t looking,” I replied. “No offense, but I’m pretty sure you’d know what it was if you’d seen me type it. So, I think this loop is done.”

Naruto nodded. “Yeah. That six-month time skip screwed up too many things back home, and there’s no way we can fix them now. All three of us need to go back to the beginning of the chuunin exam, together, on the same world, so we can fix things.”

For the final time, Naruto’s wish-born power seized our souls and threw us into the past.