Time Braid

7. Revelations

Hinata took the news of her alter-ego’s existence surprisingly well, all things considered. I know I’d be a little freaked out if I heard there was a crazy version of me walking around, but she just listened to my account in silence. When I was done she gave me a concerned look, and asked “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I think so. It’s pretty unsettling to have one of your friends suddenly try to kill you, but I’m a ninja. I’ll cope. What about you?”

She looked thoughtful. “I can almost see how that could happen. If I had to live the first week of the exam a hundred times, and lose to Neji at the end each time.” She shuddered. “That would be awful. Do you know what happened to her?”

“Actually,” I said slowly, “I was hoping you could help me find out. You see, before I let her go I copied the last few months of her memories.”

I concentrated, and pulled the delicate bubble of chakra from the depths of my mindscape. Hinata eyed it warily.

“Can’t you use it yourself?” She asked.

I shook my head. “No. Everyone’s mind organizes information a little differently, so trying to absorb someone else’s memories gets me something more like an acid trip than anything helpful. Besides, she’s still a version of you, and I wouldn’t feel right about prying into your head like that.”

She raised an eyebrow. “But you don’t mind if I do it?”

“Who better to know your innermost thoughts that your own younger self?” I replied. “Can you imagine how much better off we’d all be if we could get a glimpse of how our choices play out twenty years down the road? But I’ll understand if you don’t want to do it. It’s sure to be confusing and unpleasant, and since I’ve never done something like this I can’t say for sure that it would be safe for you. I don’t think you’ll lose yourself, but it could happen.”

Hinata contemplated the memory bubble thoughtfully.

“Sakura, does this mean that if you do find a way to end the loop she’s the one who will escape, and I’ll be gone?”

I’d been trying not to think about that. But I owed her the truth. “I think so. Obviously I can’t say for sure until I understand what’s happening, but it would make sense.”

“Then she and I will have to become one person again at some point anyway,” she said with quiet determination. “Alright, I’ll do it. But first, let’s make sure I have an unmistakable way to know which Hinata I am.”

She formed a seal, and did the Sexy Technique.

I blinked. “Damn, that’s a good idea sweetie. But that form’s only a few years older than your real one. Do you think you’ll notice if you’re really that confused?”

She looked pointedly at her chest, and raised an eyebrow. “Um, yes.”

I laughed. Hinata is pretty well developed even in her normal body, but in sexy form she could easily give Anko competition. “Ok, good point,” I said. “While we’re at it I’ll go ahead and do the same thing. That way if you do get a flashback or something I won’t look the way I did during that fight.”

I’d been transforming myself on the first day of the loop for years now, and I didn’t actually use Sexy Technique that often anymore. But the form I usually wore was deliberately designed to resemble my old self as much as possible. I was fantastically fit compared to the way I used to be, but so far I’d resisted the temptation to make myself taller or improve my figure too much. I’m not sure if the Hinata I fought even noticed the difference.

I pushed the transformation a little harder than usual just to be sure, which left me apparently eighteen and just on the edge of buxom. “There. No one would mistake this for bratty kid Sakura.”

“No,” Hinata agreed. She took a deep breath, and let it out. “Alright, I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

“Lie down,” I advised. “And close your eyes. It takes a few seconds for the memories to integrate, and it’s easy to get vertigo while that’s happening.”

She nodded and stretched out on her bed. I bent over her, and carefully lowered the bubble into her forehead. She stiffened, teeth clenched and eyes screwed shut. Then she whimpered.

I put my hand on her shoulder. “Hinata?”

Her Byakugan activated, and I had a terrible moment of déjà vu. But the next thing I knew she was wrapped around me and holding on for dear life while tears trickled down her cheeks.

“Are you alright, Hinata?” I hugged her back gently. She sobbed, and I found myself awkwardly patting her back. Geez, was this how Naruto used to feel when I’d cry on his shoulder?

After a few minutes she pulled away, and looked down at herself uncertainly. “I’m not alone,” she whispered.

“No, sweetie. You’re not alone. You’ve got me and Naruto both, and you always will unless you push us away.”

“Never!” She pulled me back into a hug and buried her face in my shoulder. Then she started. “Wait. We’re…partners?” She gave me a hopeful look, as if she couldn’t quite believe it.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “But I’m starting to worry about you. Do you know which Hinata you are?”

“Both, I think,” she replied. “I…she…gods, this is confusing. She. The lonely one is she, and the one with you is me. Right. I don’t think she was nearly as old as you are.”

I frowned. “Really? What do you remember?”

“Loneliness and pain. She must have fought Neji a hundred times, and lost every match. If she didn’t take the exam father would punish her for her weakness, and no one would train her that day. She thought the loop was a curse, to make her suffer for being such a failure. But Naruto would always cheer for her in the arena, so she learned to fight bravely and die well for him. Every week. For years.”

She choked, and I hugged her again. “Shh. There now, I’ve got you. It’s going to be alright.”

She shook her head. “The first time she won she killed Neji. She always cripples him now, usually in the forest so no one ever even gets to see him fight. She thinks she has to destroy Neji and win Naruto’s heart to end the loop. And she hates! You and Sasuke and Kakashi, the Hokage and the townspeople. Everyone who ever hurt Naruto. She daydreams about the things she’ll do to them all when she’s free, to punish them for that. Sometimes she practices. Gods, how can I be such an evil bitch?”

“Suffering does that to people,” I replied gently. “But it doesn’t have to define you. You have better things to live for than revenge.”

She sniffed, and looked up at me uncertainly. “I feel like I should hate you. You were always hurting Naruto.”

“I also got you together with him,” I answered gently. “I know I was a bitch when I was a kid, Hinata, and I’m sorry about that. But I grew up a long time ago. I’m not your enemy, remember?”

She nodded. “I know. I’m just a mess right now. But you’re right, you…” She stiffened, and her eyes went wide with wonder. “…you gave me Naruto. He kissed me. Loved me. Thought I was…worthy.” She reached out to touch my check with trembling fingers. “Thank you. For that, I can forgive anything.”

“Good. Because I promised I’d take care of you, and I keep my promises. I’m sorry, Hinata, I didn’t think this would be so hard on you. I thought it would be more like, I don’t know, watching a movie of what she went through. Not re-living it all yourself.”

“It’s alright, Sakura. You couldn’t know how much she broods. I think it wouldn’t have been so bad, otherwise.”

She put up a brave front, but the fact that she was still nestled in my arms spoke volumes about just how upset she was. Hinata was never very comfortable with touching, and stress usually made her withdraw instead of reaching out. For her to come to me for comfort like that was enough to make me worry.

“Well, I’m still sorry.” I glanced at the clock on her nightstand and winced. “Damn. Sweetie, we’re going to miss the written exam if we don’t get going soon. Are you going to be ok getting through the day? Or do you want to blow off this loop and go relax someplace until you’re feeling better?”

“Can we just go away someplace? I don’t want Naruto to see me like this. Or my family, for that matter. The last thing I need right now is another lecture on Hyuuga reserve.”

“Sure. Come on, I know a nice little hot spring resort outside of town where no one will find us before the loop ends.”

She nodded, and stumbled to her feet with none of her usual grace. I helped her dress, and got her out of there before the servants came snooping around. An hour later we were fifteen miles out of town, in one of the little cluster of hot spring resorts Jiraiya usually took us to when Naruto and me trained with him. The place was mostly deserted, it being a weekday morning, so Hinata and I had a spring all to ourselves.

She sighed as she slipped into the hot water. “Thank you, Sakura. I can’t remember the last time I visited a hot spring.”

“Then it’s been way too long. You know, maybe we should take a vacation sometime soon. I visited just about every tourist attraction in Fire Country back when I was training with Tsunade. I guess we can’t bring Naruto, but we could skip out after the forest next time around and spend a month sightseeing.”

She smiled. “You’re too good to me. But no, I’m too carefully watched for that. If I try to leave father will have a hunter team after me in a day.”

“It always comes back to him,” I grumbled. “I swear, at this rate we’re going to have to kill him and put you in charge of the clan.”

“Perhaps,” Hinata replied noncommittally. “Which reminds me, the last time you brought me out we had that wonderful conversation with the Kyuubi. Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Just incredibly embarrassed that I let that monster get to me so easily.”

“Is that why you spent so long training without me?” She asked. “You were a lot stronger in that fight with the other me than you were the last time we sparred.”

“Um.” I sunk into the water and looked away. Yes, I was embarrassed. Ashamed, really. I was sure that what the Kyuubi had done to me was some kind of technique, but I also couldn’t deny that part of me was eager to surrender to it. What did that say about me?

Hinata laid a hand on my shoulder. “Sakura, you’re only human. Even you shouldn’t be ashamed to fall prey to a demon god’s techniques. We’ll just have to be careful not to let it out again, alright?”

I nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m just tired of being surrounded by obstacles I can’t overcome. The loops, the invasion, Sasuke, the damned Kyuubi, and now the other you. It seems like every time I think I’m making progress on one problem another one appears.” I sighed. “I’ve spent so many years training, but I don’t know if it’s even gotten me anywhere.”

“Maybe you should find out,” Hinata suggested quietly.

I considered that. “Maybe you’re right. It’s been a long time since I actually tried to change anything.”

Hinata was a little loopy for the rest of the day, and I could tell it was a struggle for her to remember who she was sometimes. But she recovered quickly, and with a few days of R&R she was back to her usual self. Better, in some ways. The foreign memories seemed to fade with time, but she’d definitely picked up a lot of her counterpart’s jyuuken skill. She was actually good enough to beat me in a pure taijutsu match, although I still came out ahead if we allowed other techniques. With that level of ability I had to wonder if I should start including her in more of my plans.

But I couldn’t save her memories from a loop if I was dead, so I’d have to tackle the most dangerous parts alone.

“You’re right Sasuke, that isn’t Naruto. He never would have remembered such a long password.” I wondered idly if I sounded as bored with this scene as I felt. If I did, Sasuke didn’t seem to notice.

He-who-would-someday-go-psycho smirked. “Exactly. Show us your real face, imposter!”

Orochimaru grinned and dropped his Naruto disguise, revealing the face of that Grass nin he was impersonating. Then he hit us with his full killing intent, and Sasuke froze.

Finally, the moment I’d been waiting for.

The first time through I’d been a little shaken by the projection, but then I’d calculated how powerful our enemy would have to be to put so much force behind it and become quite legitimately terrified beyond words. This time around I just chuckled.

“I don’t think Grass Country has any genin with Kage-level power,” I commented. “Let’s see now, you aren’t the Hokage, probably not a foreign Kage, definitely not Jiraiya or Tsunade. Let me guess — Orochimaru?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Clever child. But you’re no genin either, are you? What’s your real name, girl?”

“Oh, Sakura’s my real name. It’s just everything else you think you know about me that’s wrong.” But he’d just replaced himself with an earth clone, so I did the same and body flickered into the trees.

The next few minutes were…interesting. His clones fought with summoned snakes and flashy elemental techniques, while mine stuck with skill and the occasional replacement to conserve chakra. Meanwhile I cloaked myself in genjutsu and tried to find the real enemy while he did the same. It took me a few minutes to realize he was going to win that fight too and replace myself with a shadow clone, while the real me went deep underground.

But after a few minutes of tag and a brief interruption by Naruto we’d both lost several clones, and the Sannin got bored. I spotted his real position when he set off some kind of wide-area jutsu that cancelled my earth techniques, forcing me to replace myself with my clone just to escape being entombed.

“You’re not bad, girl,” Orochimaru purred, “but you’ll never beat me like that. Show me what else you can do.”

Then he summoned a snake that must have been three hundred feet long, with a mouth big enough to swallow ten of me in one bite. I gave him my best badass bitch grin. “You really want to see what I can do? Check this out.”

I body flickered onto the snake’s nose and slammed a super-powered fist into it, which threw me high into the air while dispelling the summon. He leaped after me, but by then I was already replacing myself with a passing bird, a tree limb, and finally a rock on the ground below.

I formed three seals and slapped one hand to the ground, and a thin layer of earth swept up to cover me as it fused into stone. The joints were still flexible earth, but overall the protection was as good as Gaara’s sand armor while still being light enough not to slow me down. Which was important, since Orochimaru caught up with me a second later and I was suddenly very busy dodging.

I ducked his first blow and swept his legs, but he just tumbled back while throwing a spread of shuriken at me. Since I was armored I ignored them in favor of turning his landing spot to sticky quicksand, but he rolled to his feet as easily as if it were water. I threw myself at him at my full speed, but he blurred aside and planted a fist in my belly that shattered my armor and blew me back through the tree trunk behind me.

“Ouch.”

I staggered back to my feet and looked around, but there was no sign of my opponent. Even his presence had vanished.

Then I felt a pinprick in the back of my neck, and everything from there down went numb. “Boring,” he whispered in my ear. “Just another jounin taijutsu specialist disguised as a child. Your skill is nothing compared to your teammate’s eyes, little girl.”

I turned my awareness inward, and discovered there was a blade severing my spine between the second and third vertebrae. A poisoned blade, at that. Even then I might have survived, but Orochimaru wasn’t the sort to take chances.

The blade lengthened until the tip emerged from the front of my throat, and the snake Sannin beheaded me with a casual flick of the wrist. Apparently those stories about severed heads living for several seconds are true, because I had plenty of time to watch my headless body topple to the ground before the world went dark.

Note to self: Orochimaru is one serious badass.

“Gaara, you’re supposed to be a strong opponent. Fight me.”

I’d intercepted his team in the Forest of Death, but Temari and Kankuro weren’t about to get involved in one of Gaara’s fights. They retreated into the trees as their brother strolled into the clearing where I stood and grinned at me.

“You want to prove my existence? Alright, I’ll kill you next.”

Naruto probably would have talked to the little psycho, but I’m happy to leave that warrior therapist crap to him. I don’t really care why crazy people go around killing everyone they meet. This time my earth armor was already in place, so when he sent his sand sweeping in to crush me I replied with my first idea for a counter-technique.

“Earth Flow River!”

Unfortunately the sand was so heavily charged with demonic chakra that my technique just slid off of it, turning the ground around it to mud but doing nothing to slow the attack. I had to do a quick replacement to escape being crushed.

“Damn. Ok, let’s try a different approach,” I muttered. I filled the clearing with illusionary mist and formed three earth clones, then went invisible and faded into the trees while they spread out to encircle him. He didn’t seem to realize the mist was an illusion, but it didn’t affect the sand. When my clones attacked the sand blocked their strikes effortlessly, and its counterattacks forced them to dodge and dance around him instead of pounding their way through.

I’m a lot faster and stronger than my earth clones, but would even my full strength penetrate his defenses? No, this called for a real armor-piercing attack.

I formed a Rasengan in one hand, and flashed across the clearing at full speed to strike at his side. A shield of sand formed in front of me barely a foot before I would have made contact, and I slammed the ball of whirling chakra into it with a burst of super-strength.

It cut through his sand like it wasn’t even there, and proceeded on to penetrate his armor, skin and ribs before it finally destabilized and exploded. The blast gouged out a crater twenty feet across and sent me sailing back nearly to the tree line, but my earth armor held. I even managed to flip in the air and land on my feet.

Little bits of Gaara rained down all over the area. Eww.

I looked up at the cringing pair of Sand nin in the trees. “So much for Sand’s jinchuuriki. You two get your asses down here and answer some questions or you’re next.”

A pale-faced Temari started to move, then gasped and took a step back. I followed her eyes, and found that the sand was still moving. In fact, it was growing. Pouring out of the ground in an endless stream, a haze of red chakra gathering around it as it began to assume a familiar shape.

“Oh, shit.”

The Shukaku was free.

The next loop I spent my time training my speed and chakra capacity, and placed earth clones at strategic points around the village to observe the details of the invasion.

“Ok, Naruto can take down Gaara without killing him and freeing the Shukaku. I’m not going to be beating Orochimaru anytime soon, and I’d probably just be in the Hokage’s way if I was trapped inside that barrier. What else can I affect?”

The three-headed snake smashing a breach in the wall caught my eye, and I nodded. “Yeah, I can kill that thing before it strikes. Big, slow and powerful just makes it an easy target for me. That means they have to take the wall the hard way, which gives me time to sneak around behind them and pick people off. I’m sure they’ve got a backup plan, but if I take a loop to find out what it is I bet I can screw it up too.”

I like it. Their assault gets stalled at the city wall, so Jiraiya doesn’t have to wear himself out stopping it. That gives him a shot at intercepting an injured Orochimaru as he flees the village.

I nodded. “Yeah. We still lose the Hokage and a lot of people at the stadium, not to mention the civilians at the shelters. But that’s still a much better outcome that usual.”

We’re pretty good with genjutsu too. Think we could set up a counter for the big sleep field at the stadium?

“Maybe, but we’d have to be there instead of the wall. We could have Naruto stop the assault instead, but then Gaara runs loose. What we really need is…a third person.”

Our Hinata couldn’t beat Gaara, but I think the looping one could.

“I was afraid you were going to say that. But we haven’t had a loop with three of us together, and if it’s random it would be…hmm…a long, long wait.”

Gaara’s monster form swelled out of the trees, and I smiled grimly. “Well, enough talk. That’s our cue.”

Usually I fought at the arena if I wanted to blow off steam, or just snuck out of town and waited for the loop to end otherwise. But it had finally occurred to me that the confusion of the invasion was the perfect cover for just about any sort of illicit mayhem I might want to get up to. So I cloaked myself in my best invisibility genjutsu, and ghosted into the Hokage’s tower.

Sure enough, the only guards left in the place were a pair of rookie ANBU who didn’t even see me before I took them down. The door to the secure records room was a more imposing obstacle, being a mass of chakra-forged steel several inches thick covered by a forest of security seals. It would take days to get through it, and I only had a few hours.

So I walked a few feet down the hall, formed a Rasengan in my hand, and carefully pressed it into the concrete wall while concentrating keeping the whirling ball of chakra stable. It bit into the concrete with a sound like a buzz saw, spewing bits of jagged stone and steel out of the hole, and in less than a minute my hand was all the way through the wall. I dismissed the technique, peered through the six-inch hole, and formed an earth clone on the other side of the wall.

Then I replaced myself with it.

Humming merrily, I set about cataloging the contents of the vault. Who knows? Maybe the reason why Orochimaru was so set on destroying Konoha was in here.

I was a lot less merry when I restored Hinata at the start of the next loop. But I didn’t want to get distracted and miss the test, so it wasn’t until that afternoon that I got to pass on my news. We met at our usual spot atop the Hokage monument after dealing with the test and our teams, and I filled her in on my fights with Gaara and Orochimaru.

“Then you’re making progress,” she observed. “So why are you upset?”

“Because I just spent the last six hours of the invasion going through the Hokage’s secure records vault, and I’m not happy about what I learned. Did you know that Itachi was acting on orders when he massacred his clan?”

“What?” Hinata gasped. “But, why?”

“Oh, it wasn’t the Hokage who told him to do it. It was the leader of some secret ANBU group called Root. Apparently the Uchiha were plotting to seize power, and Danzo decided the whole clan needed to die a tragic death.”

“But, they made Itachi do it?” Hinata protested. “And then take the blame himself, instead of admitting why? That’s…like something father would do.”

“Yeah, heaven forbid that we admit one of our clans was plotting a coup. The village would lose far too much face over that. Better to destroy our best ninja’s life, and let his little brother turn into a vengeance-obsessed lunatic. The crazy thing is, I’m pretty sure Itachi is still sending in reports.”

“After all that?” Hinata shook her head. “He’s more loyal than I am, then. Was it all like that?”

“No. But there was a lot more of it than I ever suspected, and I was already afraid of what I would find. Damn it, this whole village is built on lies and treachery,” I fumed.

“It is a ninja village,” Hinata countered. “What did you expect?”

“Ugh! I know, I know! I guess I was naïve enough to think all the Hokage’s talk about the Will of Fire and protecting innocents actually meant something. But at this point I’m not even sure Orochimaru is in the wrong here. For all I know they screwed him over too, and he’s just trying to avenge his clan or rescue his kids or something. I think I’m going to have to say that right now breaking the loop is no longer my top priority. What we really need is information.”

Hinata considered that for a moment, and nodded decisively. “Yes. Information is a ninja’s deadliest weapon, and without it we have no idea what we’re doing. But where do we get it?”

“First we’ll see what you can find out about the invasion while we finish going through the Hokage’s files. God only knows what else is in there. Then we’ll have to think about who else has secrets we need to know, and how to infiltrate them.”

Hinata flattened Neji with pure jyuuken in that loop, leaving him unconscious but not seriously injured. The sudden change in her status was startling. Suddenly she was her father’s favored daughter, the presumptive heir and recipient of a considerable amount of special training. Hinata confided that she’d given her father some story about finding her courage in the Forest of Death, and given the obvious results he’d bought it hook, line and sinker.

I would have too, if I didn’t know the real cause of her sudden change. Hinata was still quiet and reserved, but the last traces of her old shyness had evaporated as she adjusted to the foreign memories I’d given her. Now there was a core of steel beneath her serene exterior, her kindness tempered by a strong dose of her counterpart’s ruthlessness. I worried about her sometimes, but it was good to finally see her show some confidence.

Not to mention how much stronger she’d become. By the time the month of training ended she’d mastered the Heavenly Spin and reconstructed that chakra spike technique the other Hinata had used on me. It was almost scary how lethal she could be in close combat.

For my part I spent the month doing physical training and building up my chakra capacity. One thing I’d concluded from that fight with Orochimaru was that I still didn’t have the raw power to fight people on his level, and it might take years of training to change that. So I figured I’d better get started.

We both went to the arena, more to see what Hinata’s Byakugan could find out about the infiltrators there than to fight. Naruto hadn’t made it through this time around, so I got a nice easy little fight with Kiba. Hinata had drawn Kankuro, who gave up without a fight as usual. Then Sasuke finally showed up for his match with Gaara, and Hinata gasped.

“What?” I asked quietly.

“One of the ANBU on guard duty is actually that genin who said he’d taken the test before. Kabuto, that was his name.”

“Interesting,” I replied thoughtfully. “Let’s see if we can find out where he goes.”

The sleep genjutsu went off a few minutes later, taking out most of the stadium crowd. Hinata threw it off almost as easily as I did, and we left a pair of ‘sleeping’ clones behind as I wrapped us in an invisibility illusion. We skirted the fight that was breaking out around Kakashi and Gai, and made our way up the rows of seats to the top of the stadium’s outer wall.

“Ok, we’ll leave a pair of shadow clones here to follow Kabuto and see where he goes,” I directed. “Meanwhile we go for the records vault. This seems to be playing out just like last time, so we should be able to spend a few hours doing research and then get you saved before the loop ends.”

“Right,” she agreed.

Fifteen minutes later I was carving the wall of the vault open, just like last time. Hinata raised an eyebrow at my method of entry, and chuckled. “That’s just like you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as I did the replace-my-clone trick again.

“Overwhelming brute force applied with pinpoint precision,” she replied. “It’s practically a signature. Anyone else would either finesse the door or blow the whole wall down.”

I laughed. “I guess you’ve got me there. Ok, where should we start?”

The files were endless, and this session wasn’t any better than the last. Orochimaru spent years trying to get permission to pursue his immortality research on prisoners, convicts and even animals before he gave up and turned to friendly civilians. Danzo tried to force Tsunade to go through some secret brainwashing process to cure her hematophobia, and put his agents to work pressuring her to leave the village when she refused. Jiraiya and Sarutobi argued bitterly over Naruto’s handling, which seemed to be the main thing that led the toad sage to leave the village.

The more I read, the deeper the rabbit hole went. I’d been taught at the academy that Konoha acted only to defend itself in the last two great ninja wars, but the web of plots and counter-plots in the secret files was so thick I couldn’t begin to say who was really at fault. We’ve assassinated more than one foreign Kage, kidnapped jinchuuriki and children with rare bloodlines, stolen secret techniques and wiped out the clans that invented them so we could pretend they were always ours. It went on and on.

But with all that, we still showed more restraint than the other villages. We didn’t massacre whole towns as a form of psychological warfare, and we at least had enough shame to hide our sins. Mist and Stone were proud of the horrors they inflicted on their own people, let alone the things they did to ours when they got the chance.

“My clone just dispelled herself,” Hinata said suddenly. “The fighting is almost over, and Kabuto just met up with Orochimaru a few miles outside the wall.”

I set aside the ANBU mission records I’d been reading with a sigh. “Well, that tells us who’s agent he is. Ok, I’d better copy your memories now before we get interrupted.”

Hinata bit her lip. “Yes. Um, can you put me to sleep first?”

“Sure, but why…oh. Yeah. I guess it would be pretty unsettling to be awake afterwards, knowing that anything you do after I finish is going to be lost in the reset.”

She nodded, and laid down on the floor with her head propped on an especially large scroll. It was a good thing, too, because it was only a few minutes after I’d finished that Jiraiya found us.

That set the patter for the next few loops. With Hinata’s eyes and the clues we’d picked up from watching the invasion repeatedly it was easy enough to identify the foreign agents in Konoha and trace their activities in the weeks leading up to the invasion. Kabuto and his secret meetings with the disguised Orochimaru came first, but that was only the beginning. We identified the rest of the Sound agents who’d set up the genjutsu at the stadium, and where they entered the city. We found the team that sabotaged the shelters, and mapped out the deployment of the Sand and Sound forces that attacked form outside the walls. We also got caught a couple of times, once by Orochimaru and once by Gaara’s jounin sensei. But it was good stealth training, and dying was only an inconvenience.

Meanwhile we trained, sometimes together and sometimes apart, and at the end of each loop spent a few more hours digging through those secret records. ANBU mission reports and dossiers. Secret treaties and forbidden techniques. Military records and contingency plans stretching back to the founding of Konoha, and intelligence reports on every significant organization in the elemental countries.

There was a lot to read, but I was finally beginning to understand why the village turned out the way it did. The compromises the early Hokages had to make to attract strong clans and civilian industry to the village, the constant infighting and rivalries over who would wear the hat, the eternal tension with the Fire Lord. It was the constant battle for supremacy among all these factions that caused most of our troubles. Every faction plotted to tear down their rivals, and the cost was paid in betrayed heroes and broken lives.

Then I found the last straw.

At first I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Then I could, and I found myself staring numbly at the passage from Sarutobi’s personal journal as the pieces fell into place. It explained so much. And I could see exactly who would have wanted things this way, and why.

“Sakura?” Hinata asked. “Are you alright? What did you find?”

“It’s…about Naruto,” I said. “The Hokage knew who his parents were. It says here he was going to keep it a secret until he made jounin, supposedly to protect him from his parents’ enemies.”

Hinata thought about that one for a moment, and sat down next to me. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“No. His mother was Uzumaki Kushina, a kunoichi from a minor village called Whirlpool that was destroyed in the last great war. It sounds like she died in the Kyuubi attack. But his father was the Fourth Hokage.”

Hinata froze, and I could swear the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. After a moment she asked, “Who knew?”

“They were secretly engaged, but never actually married. Sarutobi, Jiraiya and Tsunade for sure. Wait…Jiraiya was his godfather. That’s what all those arguments he had with the Third were really about. Damn. Judging from those arguments the council had over letting him attend the academy I think Danzo and the advisers knew too, and probably some of the clan heads. And Minato told his genin team about Kushina, so they had to suspect. That would be…my god. The last survivor of his genin team is Kakashi.”

Hinata bowed her head. “The Fourth Hokage was the greatest hero this village has. How could they do that to his son?”

“Danzo would want a beaten-down puppet, and the advisors would go along. Sarutobi talks big, but he’d bow to pressure once the civilians started getting hysterical about the Kyuubi. Tsunade was already gone. Jiraiya tried to take care of him, but he wasn’t quite willing to start a civil war over it.”

“I am,” Hinata said fiercely. “I’m going make them pay. Not just in the loop, either. I’m going to find out who knew, who was responsible, and when we escape I’m going to give every last one of them the death they deserve.”

She looked up defiantly, with tears in her eyes. “Don’t try to stop me.”

“Stop you? Why the hell would I do that?” I growled. “I’ll be right there with you, Hinata.”

Neither of us had much stomach for more research after that, so I put her to sleep and copied her memories an hour earlier than usual. Then I left, to wander the war-torn streets of the city and contemplate the corruption that hid beneath its surface. After awhile I made my way to the top of the Hokage monument and sat looking out over the ruins, wishing I wasn’t alone. I remembered the time I’d sat here with the real Naruto, and wondered if I’d ever actually see him again. It had been so long…

The loop ended, and I found myself back in bed. But something was different. My alarm wasn’t going off, and there was a presence in my room. It was expertly suppressed, leaving only a feeling of blankness where the intruder stood, but even that was enough to wake me.

Looks like we’ve got another shared loop already, my other self commented sleepily. Wonder who it is?

Whoever it was approached my bed in complete silence, and I wished I had Hinata’s eyes. I wasn’t ready to deal with Sasuke again, but against someone this good any motion at all would give away the fact that I wasn’t asleep.

Then the intruder bent over me and began a jutsu, and his masking slipped. His chakra was male, a gigantic maelstrom of pure blue power shot through with faint traces of the Kyuubi’s alien red.

“Naruto!” I threw my arms around him, and pulled him down into an enthusiastic kiss.

8. Reunions

His jutsu went off as our lips touched, and as I felt my body transform I thought for a moment that he’d used something like Sexy Victim Technique on me. But it wasn’t just my body that was affected. An ocean of chakra washed deep into my soul, touching me more intimately than any lover ever had, warping and strengthening and changing things…

I head a door slam shut somewhere deep in the depths of my mind, but I could hardly remember what that meant. Everything was so fuzzy, suddenly. It was the start of a new loop with Naruto, a rare event that felt as familiar as breathing. His was kissing me, and I didn’t know if this was a long-sought reunion or just another day with my…

…my what?

My lover? Yes. My partner and teacher, the man who protects me when I’m weak and cheers me on when I’m strong. But wait, I’d never had that with anyone, let alone Naruto. Or had I? My head spun, and I tried to distance myself from the delightful things his tongue was doing to my mouth and assess myself. Only I couldn’t quite remember how.

Suddenly panicked, I pushed him away hard. In my old loop-start form all my strength could barely budge him, but it was enough to break the kiss. He pulled away to give me a concerned look.

“Sakura?” He asked. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” I said uncertainly. “Something’s not right. I’m confused, and I can’t think straight, and I’m not sure I even know who I am. What the hell did you do to me?”

He frowned. “The same thing I always do, sweetie. You’re not really the looping Sakura, but I can kind of transform you into her. I know your memory is pretty fuzzy across loops, but usually enough comes through that you know what’s going on.”

I stared at him.

“Naruto, how can you possibly…” I began, but then the answer came to me. “Wait. A normal henge is just an illusion, but the more chakra you put into it the more real it gets. If you overpower it enough it’s pretty much real, which is how you invented Sexy Technique. So you made a version that’s so stupidly overpowered it actually transforms the target’s mind?”

“You do remember!” He looked relieved. “Good. I bet the rest of it will come back to you soon.”

I frowned in confusion. Was I really was a transformed version of my non-looping self? It felt like the truth, but at the same time it didn’t make any sense. Although I suppose it wasn’t any harder to believe than…

…than…

…it was at the tip of my tongue. Something I’d done myself that was easily an S-rank technique. But I couldn’t remember what it was. I clutched at my head and growled in frustration.

“Argh! I’ve got so many loose associations floating around in my head I can barely function, and I can’t remember how to fix it! I need….there was something I can do…that’s it! Give me a minute.”

I tried to drop into my mindscape, something that I was sure should be as easy as breathing. But most of me couldn’t seem to remember the way, and I found myself stuck halfway down. I flailed helplessly in darkness, and a fragment of memory reminded me that I’d done my best to shape the entrance so that no one else would fit. I’d wanted to keep out mind-walkers like Ino’s clan, but now it seemed that I’d locked myself out.

A strong hand grabbed my ankle and pulled. The parts of me that didn’t fit ripped free one by one as I was dragged through the narrow keyhole in my own defenses, and I stifled a sudden scream of agony. A moment later I heard my own voice cry out in surprise and fear, but by then I was through. My rescuer and I tumbled into sunlit grass in a tangle of slender limbs and pink hair, as the confusion that had filled me evaporated like mist. Granted, the blinding headache that replaced it wasn’t much fun, but at least it was something I knew how to deal with.

“Thank you!” I applied a quick pain block, and hugged my other self gratefully. “That was a nightmare.”

“No problem,” she replied cheerfully. “I’m just glad these barriers we’ve been working on actually did something. But what are we going to do about her?”

Suddenly I realized I was lying in a heap with not one, but two copies of myself. I sat up hurriedly and stared. The extra Sakura was fuzzy around the edges, flickering like a badly cast illusion. But as I watched her wavering form slowly stabilized, resolving into a girl who looked like a softer, more innocent version of my sexy form.

“No,” I breathed. “He didn’t. He couldn’t have.”

“If you say so,” my other self commented. “But she looks pretty real to me.”

I realized with a start that the newcomer had a key in her hand. I looked up, and confirmed that the door I’d come in through had somehow managed to close and lock itself while I wasn’t looking. Lovely. Well, as long as she was in here I could probably take it away from her if I had to.

She groaned, and I bent over her to see if I could help. She cradled her head in her hands and whimpered. “Oh, god, that hurt. What happened?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” I said. “Although I think I’m starting to get the picture. Who do you think you are?”

She looked up in startlement. “I’m Sakura, of course. Who are you?” She looked me over for a moment, and then glanced around at the forest. “This place…seems familiar,” she said hesitantly. “I think I’ve dreamed about it.”

“I’m the Sakura who’s actually in the time loop,” I said, “and this is my mindscape. I’m guessing you’re the version Naruto’s been conjuring up with that reality-warping technique of his.”

She eyed me uncertainly and frowned. “Maybe. I don’t remember looping on my own after the time we met Naruto, at any rate. Are you saying you do?”

I nodded. “Yes. For another decade and change, and now we’ve crossed over with Naruto again.”

“So I’m just some kind of chakra construct? That sucks.” She looked around again, and finally noticed that we weren’t alone. “Wait, then who’s she?”

My other self chuckled. “I’m the little voice in the back of your head that you used to pretend wasn’t there. You know, at this rate we’re going to start needing nicknames to keep track of each other.”

I chuckled, and the newcomer frowned. “Great, I guess the loops did drive me crazy in the end.”

“No, this is normal for us,” I explained. “It’s a recessive bloodline. We could probably do something about it if we wanted to, now that I understand what’s happening. But having an invisible twin in the back of your head is pretty handy when you’re under mental attack, and it’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

“Yeah, but three is a bit much,” my other self pointed out. “Is she going to disappear when that technique runs out, or is this permanent? Because I was really looking forward to some hot reunion sex with Naruto, but if our head is going to get even more crowded I’m going to have to give him a good chewing-out first.”

“Tell me about it,” the newcomer complained plaintively. “It’s bad enough forgetting most of what happens every loop, without getting a split personality on top of that. Can’t we just merge or something?”

I smiled in relief. I’d been a little worried that she’d try to take over, but apparently even a screwed-up copy of me has the right instincts about these things. As long as I keep choosing to help myself instead of fighting over control I should be able to handle anything.

“Actually, I’d like to give that a try,” I suggested. “You started out as a copy of me, so our memory formats should at least be compatible. If we’re too different personality-wise we might not be able to hold a merger, but if we both want it to work I think there’s a good chance it will.”

“I think not wanting to die when this technique ends is pretty good motivation for making a merger work, even if you are probably going to be dominant. How do we do this?”

I was confident this would be an easy solution to my latest weird problem, but I should have known better. Instead of the neatly catalogued order of my own mind, her memories were a swirling chaos of distorted impressions. There were days spent training with Naruto, and quite a few nights in his bed, but the details bled together until I had no idea if they’d shared a month or a decade. They’d tried to stop the invasion, over and over in a swirling fever dream of blood and violence where one of us always died in the end. Usually me of course, because these days the only opponent around who could stop Naruto was Orochimaru himself. We’d researched techniques, but those memories were so hazy I wasn’t at all sure what they’d been. We’d vacationed in places I’d seen in my loops with Tsunade, usually alone but sometimes not.

I noticed with a start that Naruto was always there, in every fragment of memory, and then I finally realized why their confusion had such a familiar feel. They weren’t my memories at all, not even those of a copy. They were his.

I might have given up then, except that I’d already caught sight of something that confirmed the suspicion I’d had when I first laid eyes on the copy. Deep in the heart of the maelstrom was a fragment of awareness that still throbbed with the pain of being ripped away from my own soul, and was still bound to me by slender threads of blue and gold. Chakra and….something else, I wasn’t sure what.

No wonder I had such a headache.

I touched the construct, and found a clumsy echo of my own probe reaching back. Sure enough, it was another me. She was a full-fledged aspect as far as I could tell, as real as the one I’d known for so long, but somehow in the process of her creation the connection we should have shared had nearly been severed.

My probe returned impressions of a younger, less jaded Sakura, one who’d never lost the innocent optimism of youth. I was far stronger than she was, but it was obvious at a glance that she was much happier. The threads that tied us together grew stronger as we touched, until I could hear her thoughts almost as clearly as my own. She looked as deeply into me as I had into her, and gasped in concern.

You’ve seen so many things that I haven’t, she said. You really are the real Sakura, aren’t you? But then what…oh, I see. I’m a new aspect, made out of you somehow.

“Yes,” I replied. “I’m guessing that Naruto’s technique imprinted your mind on mine, but your personality wasn’t strong enough to suppress mine. Then our other aspect pulled us in here by force, and the stress separated us. Hmm. I think we could make you stable, if we want to go that route. But the way we’re bleeding into each other I don’t think it would be hard to merge again either.”

Good, she said firmly. You need me more than you realize. You’ve become more powerful than I ever thought I could, but you’ve lost so much along the way.

“Are you really that sure the younger Sakura knows better than the older one?” I chided as I continued my scan, noting a number of things that didn’t seem quite right. “I was you once, and if you’d seen the things I have you would have ended up the same. Well, minus this ‘perfect girlfriend’ stuff the goofball’s done to you. You do realize he’s managed to turn you into a complete nympho, don’t you?”

The woman who voluntarily studied seduction techniques under Anko thinks this is something to complain about? She shot back. Besides, you’ve completely misunderstood, and you’d know that if you weren’t halfway down the road to becoming another crazy paranoid jounin. You’re right that I’m not just a younger copy of you, but if you think Naruto was trying to turn us into a sex toy when he made me you’ve forgotten everything you used to know about him.

Did I say she was soft? Boy, was that a mistake. Her love for Naruto shone so bright it was hard to look at, and she’d stare down the Kyuubi to defend him.

Wait.

Yes, she could probably actually do that. She had that same indomitable courage that made my warrior side immune to killing intent, but there was no hidden longing to be conquered by a hot guy in the back of her mind. I probed deeper, a little shocked at what I was finding. I’d never had more than a faint echo of that fierce desire to be the best at what I do, or such a burning determination to protect those I care about. And the way she cared — absolute faith, unfailing loyalty, complete trust, not just for Naruto but for anyone she found worthy of it.

When was the last time I’d felt anything like that?

You see? She said insistently. He focuses on everything he admires about us when he does that technique, so those are the things that get magnified. All the things you’ve been slowly loosing, in a world where everyone just goes through the same motions over and over no matter what you do. But I’ve got nothing like your skill, and I never will if I keep getting lobotomized every loop. We need each other. Together we can fix this mess you’ve gotten into with Naruto and Hinata, and find a way out of the loop, and maybe even figure out a way to fix the village that doesn’t involve becoming a mass murderer.

How could I pass up an offer like that?

“You idiot!”

My fist connected solidly with his jaw, but without super-strength it barely phased him. Naruto jumped back from the hospital bed and sputtered. “Sakura? Are you ok? What happened? What are you so mad about?”

“Oh, gee, maybe having my brain rewritten by my so-called partner? God, did it never occur to you that maybe you should check to see if it’s the real me before you try that? If I weren’t an S-rank medic-nin with a weird bloodline I could have spent months wondering who I was!”

His eyes went wide. “What? You mean, you’re the real Sakura?”

“Hello! Yes, I’m the real me!” I did a quick check to make sure the hospital staff didn’t have any monitors on me, and transformed into my usual working body. “Damn it, what am I doing in a hospital bed? Couldn’t you have sent clones to take the test for us or something? It took me hours to sort out all the crap you dumped in my head, and now we’re going to be stuck with a short loop!”

“I…um…I was worried about you,” he stammered. “I couldn’t find anything wrong, but you wouldn’t wake up. Crap. I’m sorry, Sakura. You know there’s no way I’d ever do that to you on purpose. I guess I just thought it would be obvious if it was ever the real you, and…well…I missed you.”

I paused at that, and buried my face in my hands with a sigh. “How am I supposed to stay mad at you when you say things like that? I suppose I should be glad you were looking for a way to spend your loops with me, instead of Hinata.”

He studied the floor intently. “It, ah, doesn’t work on anyone but you. I still can’t figure out why.”

“Because they don’t have my bloodline, probably,” I speculated. “It’s a pretty useful mental flexibility thing, but I suppose it would actually make more vulnerable to mental transformations that a normal person. At least, if would if I liked the result.”

“Oh. That makes sense. Anyway,” he went on, “you kind of grew on me. I mean, Hinata’s great, and I wish we could have worked out, but there are only so many ways you can spend your first few weeks with someone. With your copy things were a little weird, but she could actually remember the important stuff, and…well, you’re the girl I fell for first, you know.”

“I know,” I smiled softly. “I know everything she did, now. Oh, and the reason she was so fuzzy at the start of a loop is because you were shoving your own memories into her head instead of copying hers. That doesn’t work very well. I could show you how to do it right if we had more time, but I guess that will have to wait until the next time we see each other. Unless you’ve found a way to keep a loop going longer than normal?”

“No,” he replied glumly. “Man, and I was really wishing I could spend some time with you again, too.”

“Really? You know, now that I think of it I was wishing I could see you again when my last loop ended.” I frowned. “It can’t be that easy, can it?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said hopefully. “I know it’s what I’ll be thinking about.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Part of me wanted to stay mad at him for awhile, while the part that came from that younger me just wanted to forgive him and move on to the makeup sex. But we apparently weren’t going to have much time together, and there was a lot we needed to discuss. Speaking of which…

“Naruto,” I said seriously. “Watch out for the real Sasuke. He’s gone crazier than Hinata, and that’s saying something.”

He gave me a sharp look. “I wish that were true, Sakura, but I don’t think he is. He’s just that big a bastard. Did he…do something to you?”

I definitely didn’t want to go there at this point. “He tried. I’m not an easy target. You?”

Naruto grinned evilly. “I broke out of his stupid genjutsu trap and kicked his ass.”

“You…broke free of the Tsukuyomi?” I stared. “How? Can you show me?”

“Um, I don’t think so. See, I’ve been working a lot with transformations, and I figured out I can do all kinds of crazy stuff if I put enough chakra into it. I just ripped a hole in his illusion with brute force, and stepped out. So unless you can make a thousand shadow clones at once my way isn’t going to work for you.”

“That figures,” I said lightly. “Ah, well, as long as we’re looping I can always detonate my chakra or something. I just need a better solution by the time we finally get out.”

I glanced at the clock, and noted that the exam was due to be ending in a few minutes. Team eight would split up for the day a few minutes later, and then Hinata would be alone for most of the afternoon.

Oh, I was tempted not to go. Naruto and his copy of me had been together for years, and it would be all too easy to step into her shoes and have him all to myself for the rest of the day. But I had promises to keep.

So instead I body flickered out of the bed, leaving my hospital gown behind in the process, and clothed myself in illusion before Naruto could turn around. Mind you, tight shorts and a halter top left plenty of bare skin for him to enjoy even after I was dressed, but I didn’t want to make it too obvious I was a sure thing. A girl does like to be chased a little.

“Well, I’m not about to waste the rest of the day lying around this place,” I announced with a smile. “Come on, I’ve got someone I need to introduce you to.”

“Um, Sakura, I’m pretty sure I know everyone in Konoha by now,” Naruto objected.

“Trust me, you big goof. You’ll be glad you did.”

“Hinata, you can have a romantic date with Naruto tonight if you’ll do one thing for me first.”

I’d found her on the roof of a building near Naruto’s apartment, just as I’d expected. She whirled at the sound of my voice, and then blushed as what I’d said registered.

“Y-yes!” She managed after a moment. “W-what do I have t-to d-do?”

“Don’t resist,” I replied with a mischievous grin, and kissed her.

It took a few seconds to do the memory transfer, but she was far too shocked to struggle. I wrapped my arms around her to keep her from falling, and tried not to take too much advantage. Although with Naruto watching it was hard to resist putting on a show.

Finally it was done, and I released her lips. Hinata blinked up at me in confusion.

“Sakura? You’ve never done it like that before. Is this some kind of test?”

“Nope. It’s a crossover loop,” I replied.

“What exactly did you just do, Sakura?” Naruto asked from behind us. Hinata squeaked.

“Like I said, I actually know how to do this right. I’ve shared about a year’s worth of loops with Hinata here, and she actually remembers it all. Hinata sweetie, say hi to the real Naruto.”

“Whoa. Sakura, that’s amazing,” Naruto said. “Can you show me how to do that? And…um…hi, Hinata,” he trailed off awkwardly.

Hinata stared at him with huge eyes, and I could feel her trembling slightly. “Go on,” I whispered, and gave her a little push.

“Naruto-sama!” She threw herself into his arms so fast I almost thought she’d teleported, and kissed him for all she was worth.

Since the loop was already blown at that point we retired to one of the smaller hot spring resorts south of town for a little private time. We went over the situation with Hinata on the way, which led to my trying to explain what Naruto’s technique had actually done to me. Naruto was apologetic all over again, but I don’t think he really understood my talk about aspects and mindscapes. Hinata seemed disturbingly thoughtful, and I realized I’d never actually explained my little mental quirks to her. Was she just worried that I was nuts, or had she heard of something like this before?

I resolved to look into that in a loop or two.

An hour later we were safely hidden away in a suite with a private hot spring, under assumed identities with no resemblance to our actual selves. Naruto left a trio of clones behind, of course, just to make sure no one had a reason to come looking for us. Hinata ensconced herself in Naruto’s lap about five seconds after the door closed, and despite my good intentions I had to stifle a snide comment. I wasn’t exactly happy about her being there instead of me, but if anyone needed cuddle time with the real Naruto it was her.

Naruto noted my reaction, and gave us both an uncertain look. “Um…problem, Sakura?” He asked hesitantly.

“I think she just needs her own Naruto to snuggle,” Hinata pronounced. “You’d better do something about that before she gets grouchy.”

“No, I just…well…” I floundered.

“You’re right, Hinata, I’m being rude.” Naruto set her on her feet and vanished in a puff of smoke, from which he emerged a moment later as twins. One of them swept Hinata off her feet and back into his lap, while the other approached me with open arms. “I’m sorry this loop’s been so screwed up, Sakura,” he said seriously. “Let me make it up to you?”

“You two make it awfully hard to be grumpy and possessive,” I chuckled. “Alright, Romeo, I’ll forgive you for accidentally scrambling my brain. Just don’t do it again.”

“Never,” he reassured me, as strong arms and even stronger chakra embraced me. I sighed, and let myself relax against him.

“I wish I could just spend the day like this,” I said after a few minutes, “but we don’t have much time. Have you made any progress on finding a way to end the loops?”

“Not really,” Naruto admitted reluctantly. “I still can’t beat Orochimaru, and even if I could I’m not sure that would be enough.”

“Maybe not,” I admitted. “The Kyuubi said he could show you how to break out, but we’d have to wait a few centuries for the whole thing to ‘run down’ enough first. Which implies it might end on its own eventually, but that could take even longer. I still think the fact that the loop resets whenever we fail out of the exam is a big clue about what’s going on, but that doesn’t mean all we have to do to end it is pass.”

“You talked to the Kyuubi? How the heck did you do that?” Naruto asked in surprise.

I pushed my Naruto down on the couch so I could have a lap of my own, and made myself comfortable with a smile. “I told you I was good at mental techniques,” I told him. “I used a Yamanaka jutsu to visit the prison, and traded a little information. Which reminds me, he’s aware of the loops and he seems to be making progress on getting free. When you die in my loops now he doesn’t die with you. He only has five tails left after he escapes, but that’s still more than enough power to destroy Konoha.”

Naruto’s arms tightened around me. “He didn’t..hurt you, did he?”

I sighed. “Only my pride.”

Hinata whispered something to her Naruto. He looked shocked, then concerned, then sympathetic. I turned away.

“Um, anyway,” I tried to change the subject. “I’m still not sure what caused the loops, but I’m pretty sure the whole thing is centered on you.”

That distracted them nicely. “Huh? Me?” Naruto asked. “What do you mean?”

“At first I thought it was Team Seven, but I’ve never met a looping Kakashi. Have you?” He shook his head, and I went on. “Right. Then I met the looping Hinata, but she seems a lot younger than we are even accounting for the fact that she spent a long time doing short loops. I think whatever happened pulled you in first, and then spread to the people you care about the most.”

He frowned. “But I barely knew Hinata before the loops…oh.”

“Exactly. She’s younger because she wasn’t pulled in until later, after you got to know her. The only problem with the theory is we haven’t met a looping Iruka yet, but we could easily have just not noticed. Usually the only time we see him is when we open our scrolls in the forest, so if we’re all trying to act normal it would be easy to miss each other.”

“Hmm. You might be on to something, Sakura.” He scratched his chin in thought. “So, if someone else gets pulled in that I’ve only gotten close to in the loops, that would mean you’re right? And if it happens to someone you or Hinata know, it means it isn’t just me?”

“I think so,” I replied. “That would be Ino, Anko, Tsunade or Shizune for me. Or maybe just Ino if it has to be romantic feelings.”

“Hana, Tenten or Temari for me,” he began, then stopped and blinked in surprise. “Wait, romantic? You and Ino?”

I blushed a little. “Yes, Naruto, I like girls too. I, um, I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

His eyes flickered between me and Hinata. Oh, boy.

Yeah, we know what you’re thinking about, my other self chuckled. I wish.

“Um, no, no, not at all,” Naruto stammered awkwardly. “I just, um, I always thought that was the technique…”

Hinata giggled. “Oh Naruto-sama, you never change. You never realized Ino was her first crush? Why do you think she was so jealous when Ino started chasing Sasuke?”

“Hey, it wasn’t like that!” I objected. “I’d been looping for years before I figured it out, and even then it was only because…well… it’s kind of embarrassing, actually. Let’s just say that Sexy Technique can lead people to do a lot of crazy things, but sometimes you wake up the next day and decide you don’t regret it after all.”

Hinata and I shared a laugh at that, but Naruto’s chuckle seemed a little forced. “So, ah, what’s with the ‘Naruto-sama’ business, Hinata?” He asked after a moment. “Not that I mind a pretty girl calling me that, but you’re the one who’s practically a princess.”

“Blame my crazy counterpart,” she answered ruefully. “She’s completely fixated on you, and to be honest a lot of it stuck. I’ve been able to sort out most of the parts that I know you wouldn’t like, but the ones I’m not sure about are a lot harder to deal with.”

Naruto frowned. “I remember she was pretty messed up,” he said slowly. “I wish we’d had more time together, but I’d already blown off the exam before I realized she was looping. Man, we need some kid of signal to tell each other when we’re sharing a loop. But what does that have to do with…wait. Sakura, did you…?”

“We had a crossover not too long ago,” I explained. “She tried to kill me. I think she was trying to protect you from me, as if you needed it. Anyway, after I knocked her out I wanted to know what happened to her, so I copied the last few months of her memories. But I usually can’t make any sense of someone else’s memories, so our Hinata volunteered to take a look at them.”

Hinata nodded. “Yes. It was considerably harder on me than we expected. But I think we can save her with what I’ve learned, Naruto-sama. I just need to have enough happy memories when we merge.”

“Merge? Wait, let’s not go getting crazy here, Hinata. I don’t want to take any chance of loosing you too,” Naruto protested.

Hinata smiled, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh, I wasn’t planning to try it until our resident medical genius is sure it will work. But don’t you see? When you end the loop she’s the one who’ll be left. She and I have to become one person again at some point, or I’ll end up being nothing but an exotic chakra construct Sakura carries around in her head. So please don’t tell me I can’t try.”

“Oh. Damn. Yeah, I get it now. You’re right, Hinata, but just remember there’s no rush. I don’t want you to mess yourself up even worse because you were in a hurry.”

“Yes, sir,” Hinata acquiesced. “I won’t try it until you say I can. Until then I’ll prepare as best I can, and look for a way to research the problem. Is that alright?”

“Um, sure,” Naruto said with a frown. “But, um…how did this end up being my decision? I mean, you sound like you’re talking to the Hokage or something?”

Hinata sighed.

“How can I make you understand?” She asked seriously. “There just aren’t words. Naruto, you are my life. I admired you even before the loops, but in them…I died every week, Naruto. For years. I was worthless, and weak, and no one would train me, and every week I’d limp into that arena after barely surviving the forest and cousin Neji would beat me to death in front of everyone. But you were always there, cheering me on, telling me I could be strong, that I could be worth something if I just kept trying.”

“Naruto-sama, I’m yours if you’ll have me. I’ll do any thing for you, be anything for you. To be worthy of you. I’ve tried to purge myself of the darkness the other me embraced, because I know you probably don’t want an obsessive psycho girl following you around. But if you told me to I’d hunt down every villager who ever wronged you and torture them to death with a smile on my face. I’d kidnap every kunoichi who ever rejected you, and leave them bound and broken and lust-sealed in your bed. I’d…I’m sorry, I’m ranting, aren’t I? Just…don’t ever hesitate to tell me what you want from me, Naruto-sama. It would be such a relief, to actually know instead of having to guess.”

I stared at Hinata, frozen in shock. I knew she wasn’t completely normal anymore, but I’d had no idea it was that bad. How could I not notice that someone I considered a friend was in so much pain?

Naruto took Hinata’s face in his hands, and looked into her eyes for a long moment. “Hinata,” he said, “You don’t have to do anything to ‘become worthy of me’, because you already are. You are one of the most precious people in the world to me, and what I want most of all if for you to be able to be happy. I want you to remember how to smile. I want you to remember being that sweet girl who cared so much about everyone that she even noticed a lonely orphan no one else ever paid any attention to. I…loved that girl, once I finally got to know her. Hinata, you’re not weak or worthless at all, and you never have been. Didn’t you ever realize that when Neji kills you in the arena, it’s because you’ve grown so strong that nothing short of death can make you stop fighting? Hell, even that didn’t make you give up, now did it?”

“No.” She sniffed, a look of wonder on her face. “You…want me…to be like I was, but stronger? To laugh and smile and love, to forgive and forget, to try to help everyone with everything even when they don’t deserve it?”

Naruto nodded. “Yeah. But don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself, or to do what you know is right even if other people try to stop you. Can you do that?”

“I can do anything for you. Oh, thank you, Naruto! The other me is so convinced that she’s worthless, I was terrified that you’d reject me. But now…you know, I think the memory of this moment might be all it takes to save her.”

“That’s Naruto for you, sweetie,” I said. “Although I wish I’d been able to help you more. I never realized you were still struggling so much.”

“You did enough, Sakura,” she reassured me. “Without you I wouldn’t even be here. But she doesn’t trust you, even if I do, and her ghost is too strong to just ignore. Naruto is the only one she’ll listen to, so I just had to wait and hope I’d get to talk to the real thing eventually.”

“I’m here for you, Hinata,” Naruto said as he wrapped her in his arms again. “I wish I could have been there sooner. But hey, if you need it I can spam ‘therapy no jutsu’ all day long.”

We all chuckled at that, and the serious mood evaporated. I swear, the way Naruto used to befriend enemies just by talking to them you’d think he really did have some kind of secret ninjutsu technique. I think Orochimaru is the only foe we’ve ever met that it doesn’t work on.

“If I know Hinata, she’s going to be needing some serious ‘nookie no jutsu’ too if this cuddling goes on much longer,” I teased. “So you’d better keep some chakra in reserve.”

Hinata rolled her eyes. “Like you have any room to talk, pervert-sensei. I distinctly remember passing out first last time, and you were still at it when I woke up.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you’re such a lightweight,” I retorted. “Or does this mean you’re ready to move on to the next stage of your training?” I turned on an allure technique, and leered at her playfully. She gave a little ‘eep’ of mock fright, and burrowed deeper into her Naruto’s arms. Of course, most of the motion was just to cover up the hand seals she was forming.

“Oh, no! Naruto-sama, you won’t let the wicked lady…get me…will you?” She asked breathlessly, gazing up at him with big eyes and a slight quiver in her lower lip. Hinata isn’t nearly as good with genjutsu as I am, but she was a natural with that Supreme Cuteness illusion.

“Urrr….” her victim responded intelligently.

“But Naruto,” I purred in my best ‘sultry slut’ voice, “It’s for her own good. She needs to be properly trained, doesn’t she?”

A little wiggle of my butt confirmed that my Naruto was also having the expected reaction. His answering growl sent a shiver of anticipation through me.

The other Naruto suddenly overcame his befuddlement, and looked between us in surprise. “Are you just having fun with me, or are you two…?”

We both giggled, and dropped our techniques.

“Had you going there, didn’t we?” I grinned. “But no, we save the wild nights for you. Not that I wouldn’t love to get my hands on little miss lethal curves over there, but she doesn’t like girls that way.”

“You could make me like it,” Hinata offered shyly. “I know you have techniques for that. What do you think, Naruto-sama? Would you like to watch your slinky seductress work her wicked wiles on poor, innocent me? She’s so skilled, I know I’d be putty in her hands no matter how I tried to resist…”

Naruto swallowed. “Good god, I’ve died and gone to heaven. Forget getting out of the loop, I just want to know how we can all stay together.”

My internal alarm woke me a few minutes before the end of the loop, just as I’d planned. I was snuggled up to Naruto’s back with one arm thrown over his side, my hand resting on Hinata’s bare hip. For just a moment I felt a twinge of jealousy that he was holding her instead of me, but it didn’t last. I was the one who’d told him to dismiss his clone before we drifted off to sleep, after all.

I sat up silently, and sat for a moment gazing down at my…family? Not yet. But maybe someday. Naruto had won my heart years ago, and there certainly wasn’t any competition in the loops that might steal it away. And Hinata? I’d been quietly lusting after her for years now, and I’d liked the younger version well enough. Since gaining her older self’s memories she’d been darker, more ruthless, and I suppose civilians would find her disturbing. But I’m not a civilian. She was still fighting her way free of a personal hell as dark as anything I’d ever faced, but she was winning. I couldn’t help but respect that, and she’d grown into a kunoichi I was proud to have at my side.

Could I love her?

Maybe. Time would tell, and to all appearances we were going to have a long, long time together before these loops ended. I gently brushed a lock of hair away from her face, and copied her memories.

It occurred to me to wonder, not for the first time, what was really going to happen to her when the loop reset. If Naruto and me were about to be pulled backwards in time, then when we changed her past this version of Hinata would be gone, never having existed at all. But then why didn’t Naruto and me meet every loop? Were we, perhaps, from different alternate worlds, each looping in a different copy of the same timeline aside from the occasional cosmic collision? Or were we jumping from one alternate world to another in some infinite sea of parallel universes? In that case this Hinata would wake up tomorrow with both of us gone, and we’d never meet again.

I shook my head, and suppressed a sigh. There was no way to know, and I could drive myself crazy again wondering. So instead I laid my hand on Naruto’s head, and called up the gift I’d made for him so many years ago. A month of thanks for his part in saving me from my own personal hell. Yes, it meant that he’d know what Sasuke did to me, but he’d also know I was long since over it. I could live with that.

When the memory transfer was finished I bent to kiss him goodbye, and felt a faint tug someplace deep in my mindscape. I froze in surprise, turning my senses inward to identify the odd sensation…

…and awoke in my old bed, in my old body, on the morning of the first day of the Chuunin exam.