Confronted

The medic-nin seemed busier than anyone else. The rebuilt hospital wasn't their only place of operation: they had multiple tents set up at different points in the village for minor care, in order to save space in the hospital for only the most serious cases. They also had a warehouse currently being stocked with supplies and organized by genin helpers. At that moment, the work there was being overseen by a single medic.

"Put them all in the same place," Sakura said to a genin team that was pushing a huge wheeled cart full of wooden crates. "Tsunade-sama needs this inventory report today. Just there, and go get the next one. I'll unload these." They gratefully scampered off.

"Sakura," Sai called.

Sakura turned as they approached and her face brightened. "Oh hey, Sai! Did you come to help?"

"Nope, just came to say hello," Sai said cheerfully. Sakura grumbled and started unloading crates off the cart.

She was taller and more sinewy than Naruto remembered. She had kept the cropped hair from the Exam, tied with a red hitai-ate. The pink hair and striking green eyes were the same as ever, but for the first time, Naruto really felt as though time had passed. She wore tall boots with a dark navy skirt and a sleeveless red vest with a light-colored tee underneath it.

She was even taller than him than before. And there was something else there, too. An aura of confidence that he hadn't even realized until now that she had been lacking before.

"So, what are you doing?" Sai said.

Sakura put down another crate and straightened up, dusting off her hands. "Tsunade-sama wants an inventory of all our medicinal herbs, in order to determine if we need to go collect some more. What are you doing? It's not nice for people on their days off to come taunt those that have to work, you know."

"I am working. I've been assigned to guard this person," Sai motioned toward Naruto.

Sakura shifted her attention to him for the first time and Naruto blushed a bit as she appraised him. She looked puzzled. After all, he was still disguised. She glanced at Pakkun near his feet and then back at Naruto.

"Who is this?"

"It's Naruto!" Sai said cheerfully.

"Ack—! Sai!" Naruto tugged on his arm. "I thought Kakashi-sensei said we were supposed to be top secret right now!"

"It's alright," Sai said. "Because Kakashi-sensei enlisted me for this task, this is a Team Kakashi mission now. That is why he put me on this task, and why he suggested we go out. If he doesn't say it explicitly, he can't get in trouble for it later."

"In theory," Pakkun added.

"Naruto?" Sakura frowned, hand on her hip. "I thought you were being sent out to the Land of Lightning. Or was that just a decoy or something?"

"Ah... he was sent out," Sai said. "But this one suddenly showed up, and we might have two Narutos running around now."

Sakura unexpectedly narrowed her eyes at Naruto with a hard, sharp expression he never knew she could make. It wasn't the usual glare like when he did something stupid. It was the cold, professional look of a shinobi analyzing a potential threat.

"I was about to take a little bit of a break," she said lightly, a tone that didn't match her expression. "Let's go catch up some."

She turned on her heel and walked toward the back of the warehouse. The boys followed, Naruto apprehensive and Sai as blandly chipper as ever. They arrived in a small breakroom and Sakura closed the door behind them. Naruto and Sai sat down in mismatched chairs around a folding table, and Sakura poured herself a cup of coffee from the coffee pot on the counter.

"Alright, what is this about?" she said, settling down at the table with them.

Sai explained everything to her, including about Kakashi and the ANBU's scouting mission. It didn't take long and she didn't interrupt, but by the end of it Sakura lowered her head, bangs covering her face. Naruto wondered if she was about to explode.

"I suppose what we do about it in the end depends on what they find," Sai finished. "And whether or not the older version of Naruto is still around, or if they traded places somehow, or whatever else."

Sakura looked up, but she didn't seem angry like Naruto thought. Instead she looked concerned, and she turned to Naruto, who had been mostly quiet throughout the conversation.

"Are you all right?" she asked gently. "I know all this must have come as a shock to you. I mean, with the village being destroyed and everything. It isn't exactly the future we had in mind for ourselves."

"It's..." Naruto tried to think of what to say. "It's not as bad as I would have thought, I guess. I didn't realize what a relief it would be just to have everyone survive. Oh!" he sat up very straight in his chair suddenly. "I have something really important to ask you!"

"Oh?"

"Yesterday—well, yesterday for me anyway—we were at the inauguration and Kiba was being a jerk and you had to hold me back from pummeling him, do you remember that?"

"I think so... why?"

"Why?" Naruto slammed his hands on the table impatiently. "He was talking trash about me even though I beat him in the preliminaries! I forgot and didn't ask when I saw him earlier, but... please tell me I beat him to Chuunin!"

Sakura blinked at him a couple of times and then burst out into full-blown laughter. Pakkun chuckled and Sai fake-smiled out of habit.

"Sakura-chaaan!" Naruto ground out indignantly. "Why does everyone keep laughing when I ask that?"

"Oh... I'm sorry, Naruto," Sakura wiped away a tear of laughter. "Don't get mad at me, but... technically, you are still a genin."

"You are the only one of our age group registered as an active Konoha nin that is still a genin," Sai offered helpfully.

"What?" Naruto said, stunned.

"You didn't have to say it like that," Sakura smacked Sai on the back of the head.

"I'm not the one who was laughing at him."

Naruto watched their bickering, fingertips lightly touching the table and halfway out of his chair. Had he completely misunderstood something? He racked his memory. Everyone said he faced the Akatsuki member that had destroyed the village, right? But Kakashi had also said that he didn't actually beat him; that he'd sacrificed himself after being convinced to give up. That didn't really mean that Naruto was necessarily powerful at all! After all this time, he was still the dead-last, the only one in their group still a puny genin?

"Maa, Naruto," Sakura said as Naruto hit his forehead on the table. "You don't have to take it so hard. I said technically you're still a genin. Everybody knows you're better than that. It's just the circumstances. You haven't had a chance to take the exam since the first time."

"Oh, really?" he said tonelessly, face pressed into the table.

"Yeah," she answered earnestly. "Take the current situation, for example. Could you imagine us holding a Chuunin Exams in the state we're in right now? And you've been out of the village a lot, training or out on a mission at all the wrong times. It's just a coincidence, I promise."

"Then... how strong am I?"

"Mm..." Sakura glanced to the side and rubbed her arm. "I don't think it would be a good idea to tell you a lot about your future self. What if it changes something? Besides, you should already know that you are strong."

"Uh huh," he crossed his arms, dissatisfied.

"Since you guys are just waiting around, come help me unload some boxes," Sakura said, standing and rinsing her coffee mug out in the sink. "We're shorthanded anyway."

Giving a defeated sigh at the change of subject, Naruto followed her out with Sai and Pakkun. They only barely made it out of the breakroom before Sakura stopped dead.

"KONOHAMARU!" she roared. "What do you think you're doing?"

The others looked around Sakura curiously. Moegi and Udon were unloading crates, and two Konohamarus were pouring the contents from one barrel into another barrel. They were all wearing hitai-ate. They were all genin. And all of them were currently frozen in place, staring at Sakura.

"Th-this barrel was almost completely empty!" Konohamaru said defiantly, but with an undercurrent of nervousness. "I figured it would help save space if—"

"Idiot!" Sakura raged, punching one of the Konohamarus. The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke and the barrel fell to the ground. "You can't mix random medicinal herbs! Now this stock is unusable!"

"Waaahhh, Sakura-neechan!" Konohamaru cried, reeling backward as he dodged another punch. "I'm sorry!"

"Konohamaru-kun..." Moegi sighed, doing a facepalm.

"Oi! Squirt! Konohamaru!" Naruto called, running into the scene eagerly.

Konohamaru stopped in his retreat long enough to glare at him. "Who are you calling squirt? You're smaller than I am, kore!"

With dismay, Naruto realized that he was right. Shorter than Konohamaru. This was what it had come to. No, he was almost certain that he would be the taller of the two if not for the henge, at least by a few centimeters. If he could just dispel it...

"Nevermind that," Naruto said out loud, trying to shake off his irritation. He had completely overlooked the fact that Konohamaru would probably be a ninja by now. There was something much more pressing at hand. "Let me see your Oiroke no Jutsu!"

"Eh?" Konohamaru stopped to look at him in confusion.

Naruto didn't notice Sakura stalking toward him until it was too late. With a vicious cry of 'shaannaro!', she reared back and planted her fist into his jaw. Naruto flew, skidded a few times across the warehouse floor, and finally rolled to a stop against a stack of crates all the way on the opposite end.

Sai had been right to question Naruto's experience. Sakura definitely hit harder than before.

"10.0, Sakura-neechan," Konohamaru chirped.

"Owww, what the hell?" Naruto groaned, sitting up and rubbing his jaw.

"Sorry to interrupt, everyone," Sai said, stepping in between Sakura and Konohamaru before more bodies went flying. "Sakura, Pakkun just vanished. Kakashi-sensei must have summoned him back."

"That's the signal that they found something, right? Do you think we should go back to the boarding house to wait for him?" Sakura said.

"We will go," Sai said. "You should finish up first. I don't think Tsunade-sama would like you skipping out."

"Ugh. You're right. But send me a message if Kakashi-sensei shows up. I'll be over as soon as possible."

Naruto had dragged himself back to their group, still rubbing his face and muttering under his breath. Sakura sighed and reached out toward him. Naruto winced, but she just placed her hand on the side of his jaw. A moment later her hand glowed with green energy and the pain and swelling faded away.

"You're blushing, Stupidface," Sai observed with interest.

"S-shut up! I am not!"

Sakura just rolled her eyes as the two walked away, Naruto shooting venomous words at Sai with no effect whatsoever.

"What was that all about... kore?"

"Get back to work!"

"Eep! Yes, Sakura-neechan."

Hours later, they were still waiting.

Naruto thumbed the edges of Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. He'd taken it to try passing the time, but ended up fidgeting restlessly instead of reading. There was something slightly awkward in this atmosphere that made it difficult to focus on anything.

Sai was sitting at the small wooden table across from him, sketching peacefully. He had changed into a more battle-ready gray outfit, complete with hitai-ate and implements for his jutsu, just in case they got called out. Sakura was sitting in the sill of the open window gazing out at the darkening sky, an occasional breeze lifting the ends of her hair.

As weird as Sai was, at least he was an unknown to him from the start, and he seemed way more forthright when answering Naruto's questions, even if he still didn't give away very much. Sakura was just... odd. She deflected even his most (relatively) sneaky attempts at getting information out of her, and he couldn't even get a read on how she felt about him being around. Whatever she thought, she was doing a good job of keeping it to herself. Naruto's attempts at conversation had puttered out a while ago. Things were quiet, peaceful, and grating.

"He should be back by now, right?" Naruto blurted out. "It has definitely been enough time to get from there to here."

Sakura turned her gaze from the street to Naruto. "Maybe, but if they found something, it's possible they had to investigate it a little more. Besides, you know Kakashi-sensei likes to take his sweet time when people are waiting for him."

"Yeah," Naruto grumbled. He perked up suddenly. "Hey, hey, Sakura-chan, did we ever get to see under his mask? Does he have big teeth, or what?"

"Sorry. At this point I think it'll never happen," Sakura waved a hand. "He'll probably take it to his grave."

"Figures," Naruto leaned his elbow on the table and cradled his chin thoughtfully. "Is it really true that he died during the attack on the village?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"He told me. And the guy who did it had a super-crazy-revival jutsu and brought everyone who died back to life."

"If he told you, why are you asking me?"

Naruto scowled at her. "I thought you could tell me more about it. Like... how it happened. Why I wasn't there to stop it."

Sakura bit her lip. "I'm sorry, but if there's any way we can reverse this and you go back to your own time, if you know too much—"

"But it would be good if I used that to keep people from getting killed, right?" Naruto pressed.

"It's not your responsibility. We've already relied on you too much."

Sai stopped sketching and watched their exchange with unreadable black eyes.

"What do you mean?" Naruto said, slightly hurt. "Don't you trust me?"

"It's not like that. It's dangerous to meddle with time. Haven't you ever watched late-night made-for-TV films?"

"No. I'm a growing boy who needs plenty of rest. I go to bed at a reasonable hour," Naruto said virtuously.

"And you don't watch anything that could have ghosts in it," Sai added.

"W-why would I care if something has ghosts in it?"

"You're scared of them, obviously. You would rather camp outside than willingly go into a potentially haunted house."

Naruto 'hmpf'ed obstinately. "You piss me off, you know that?"

"And all was right with the world," Sakura said with fake brightness.

"What about him?" Naruto jerked his thumb at Sai. "I'm not supposed to know him yet. Aren't you afraid that could change things?"

"Maybe, but... back then, he was in Root."

"Right," Naruto said flatly, putting his chin back on his hand. "Because that explains everything."

A smart rapping came on the door and everyone jumped slightly. None of them had heard or felt a presence out in the hallway.

"Finally," Naruto jumped up.

"Wait, Naruto," Sakura slid down from the windowsill. "Let one of us—" but he was already opening the door.

The first thing he saw when he opened the door was a plain black cloak. His eyes trailed up and fixed on a pale face with fine cracks running through it like an ancient porcelain doll, framed with black center-parted bangs. Set in this face were terrifying eyes, black sclera and red irises with three tomoe marks in each of them.

"No way," Naruto said, stunned.

A kunai slipped into Uchiha Itachi's hand and Sai pushed Naruto hard in the chest to force him back. Sai used the other hand to block Itachi's strike with the tantō strapped on his back. Naruto stumbled backward and ran clumsily into the corner of his bookshelf, but he barely registered the pain. Sai and Itachi locked eyes for a brief moment, before Sai suddenly stilled and crumpled to the ground. The proportions of red and black in Itachi's eyes melded and shifted back from the strange form they had taken. He stepped over Sai's prone form into the room.

"S-Sai!" Naruto choked out. He pushed off from the bookshelf and formed a sign. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

His chakra was fully restored, but still felt slippery to control. He managed to summon two stable clones. The first one rushed Itachi as a distraction. Naruto held out his hand to the other to begin molding chakra on his palm.

The first clone was swiftly dispatched with a spinning kick. When Naruto couldn't feel the Rasengan forming, he glanced at the other one, only to see it staring at him with a sadistic grin on its face.

"Wh—"

The clone lunged at Naruto and grabbed him from behind, looping its arms under his and locking its hands together behind his neck.

"The joke's on you, Boss," it said.

Itachi was steadily approaching, and a kunai slipped into his hand again. Naruto tried to wiggle out of his own clone's grasp, but it was no use. He could only watch as Itachi reared back and plunged the knife into his heart, blood springing free from his body and splattering on that impassive face. He screamed.

"Wake up, Naruto!"

He gasped and blinked. Sakura's hand gripped his shoulder firmly.

"He had you in his genjutsu," she said grimly. "Try not to look at his eyes or hands. Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," he said shakily. Itachi was still standing at the front of the room with Sai lying on the floor behind him. Naruto decided to give it another shot. He crossed one hand over the other.

"Wait," Sakura hissed, pulling his shoulder insistently. "I had to disrupt your chakra to snap you out of the genjutsu, and it broke your henge! If he didn't know it was you before, he definitely does now! You have to get out of here!"

Naruto summoned two more clones, which were, sure enough, the spiky blonde variety he was used to. The first stood in front of them protectively with its arms spread. The second finally managed to get started on a Rasengan in his palm.

"Naruto! Stop!"

"We can't just leave Sai," he said. "If I hit Itachi with this to keep him busy, do you think you could reach Sai? If we have to run away, we should at least do it together."

"I wasn't saying we—"

Naruto started his charge. His two clones dispersed and he lunged at Itachi, who was walking forward slowly. The silent Uchiha didn't dodge when Naruto gave a battle cry and plunged the Rasengan into his chest. The whirling spiral of chakra met unresisting flesh and Naruto's hand went through his body before the energy dispersed into the air. Itachi's body jerked, and ash-like flakes flew from the wound, but there was no blood, and he didn't cry out or change his blank expression. Confused and slightly horrified at the sight of his hand piercing through someone—something he'd only seen Kakashi accomplish—Naruto was caught off guard, and Itachi gladly took that opening. He grabbed Naruto by the throat with a bone-crushingly strong grip and lifted him off the ground.

Naruto choked and kicked out with his legs, but it was no good. He remembered all too well when Itachi had used a tactic like this on Sasuke. It hadn't ended well. He had to escape.

Naruto was only suspended for a moment, however. A flash of pink entered his vision, and he saw Sakura cleave through Itachi's arm below the elbow using the blade above her tool pouch. Itachi stepped back and Naruto fell to the floor, coughing. The arm dissolved into ash-like pieces and started re-forming itself on the stump Sakura had left him with.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto coughed, his voice coming out raspy.

"I'm not sure," Sakura said tersely, putting away the blade and standing in front of Naruto with her fists raised in a stance. "We once fought someone we thought was Itachi, but it turned out to be one of Pein's techniques. But... this doesn't look like that technique. It couldn't be, anyway," her fists tightened. "I have an idea of what this is. I really hope I'm wrong, though."

"What do you think we should do?"

Itachi's arm finished regenerating and he lifted his re-formed hand into a half-ram seal. A wave of heavy, overwhelming pressure fell over them like a sudden increase in the pull of gravity on their bodies. The lights in the room started to dim to almost nothing. Darkness encroached on their senses.

"He's trying to trap us both at the same time," Sakura said through gritted teeth. Her hands and arms were drooping and her back was bending, as if her limbs suddenly weighed a ton. "Need to... break out of it..." she tried to lift her hands to form a seal, but it was proving difficult.

"Damn it," Naruto muttered. He was still on the floor. He tried reaching for a kunai, but quickly remembered that everything he owned was in the past. His hand flopped to the floor uselessly once he realized, energy spent from the simple movement.

It's just an illusion, he tried to tell himself. Your body isn't really this heavy. It's suggestion. Snap out of it!

The mere effort of standing was making Sakura breathe heavily, and her knees were bowing in as if they were mere moments away from folding. She gave a long inhale, squared her shoulders a little bit, and then wrenched her arm back as far as it would go with an enraged roar.

When she hit the floor with her fist, it disintegratedinto wood pulp and thousands of tiny splinters. Naruto closed his eyes and felt the entire world collapse out from under him. Large cracks ripped through the floor, wood groaning and snapping like broken bones. The whole mass churned and took him with it as it fell down to the level below, pelting him with debris in a heart-stopping drop that felt much longer than it must have really been.

He landed on his back hard enough to evict the air from his lungs and he reflexively curled and put his hands over his head as debris continued to fall around him. Through the chaos he heard shrieks and shouts. These continued after the noise of the collapse subsided. New voices emerged and settled into a loud running hum of confusion and distress.

Naruto heard a muffled cough much closer by and he squinted through his arms. Sakura was hanging over him, coughing into the crook of her elbow. Her other hand was next to his head and he realized that she'd shielded him with her body. She didn't appear to be badly wounded, but her arms and face had scratches on them, and the end of a beam was propped up on her back, looking like it had fallen on her.

"S-sakura-chan?" he said through what felt like a mouthful of sawdust.

"Are you okay?" she asked, turning to look down at him.

"Am I okay?" he yelped. "You just made a floor of a building fall on top of yourself."

"It's alright, no broken bones or concussion," she frowned suddenly and put a glowing green hand around his head, as if checking him for concussion. "More importantly, we broke out of that genjutsu. Otherwise, we'd probably be dead."

Naruto sat up quickly and she didn't try to stop him. Apparently he wasn't concussed, though he felt a little bit like he was. "Itachi? And Sai?"

"Oi! What happened?"

"What's going on?"

"An explosion?"

"Someone alert Hokage-sama!"

Sakura stood up, wrestling a little with the beam before managing to slide it safely to the side.

"I don't see Itachi. He may have run away. With all these people around... not even he can take on the whole village," she said. "We need to find Sai, though. He was unconscious."

Naruto peeked warily over the edge of the little hole of debris they were in.

They had landed in the lounge/eating area on the first floor. Most of it was piled with debris. Everyone that had been in the building was gathering around the damage. Part of the first floor's wall had been knocked out, and a crowd from the street was also rapidly forming. Several cooks were huddled at the doorway to the kitchen. It was adjacent to the dining room, and there was no clear path for them to get out.

Itachi was nowhere to be seen. He'd disappeared just as suddenly as he showed up.