Chapter Text
It was not the craziest thing that had ever happened to Sakura Haruno; that would probably have to be the whole moon goddess thing. But time travel felt like a pretty close second.
She wasn't the only one to think so.
“Time travel,” Sasuke repeated, pacing furiously in front of her. “Time travel?”
Sakura took a deep breath and ignored him, instead focusing on Naruto’s crumpled form in the grass.
She placed her hand on Naruto’s chest and let her chakra flow into him, closing her eyes in an attempt to concentrate.
Using the Mystical Palm technique on Naruto was… different then using it on other people.
His immense chakra reserves from the Kyuubi meant she had to be more delicate with him because his body would jump at the chance to heal him and over-extend itself if she wasn't careful.
When she filtered her chakra into his body, she received the same response as usual. The minor cuts and bruises on his arms closed up with ease, but when she waited for him to wake up and start griping… nothing.
Sakura frowned, opening her eyes and moving her hand up to his forehead. Her chakra ran into a block very quickly; no feedback from that part of his body, no response from his seat of consciousness.
It wasn't that he was braindead. She could feel that something was there, just out of reach, but she could also feel her efforts being rebuffed by a foreign presence.
It must have been some kind of jutsu keeping him unconscious, blocking her attempts to reach him.
“What is it?” Sasuke asked. He had stopped pacing, sharp gaze focused on her. “Whats wrong with him?”
“I don't know,” Sakura said honestly. “He’s stable for now but there’s something blocking me. I can't wake him up.”
To anyone else, it would have seemed like Sasuke didn't react to that information, but Sakura knew him better than that.
She noticed his fingers twitch, the way he had to force his breathing to stay calm.
“A coma?” he asked, voice flat. She shook her head.
“No. The reaction to my chakra makes me think there’s some kind of jutsu on him.”
“Dobe,” Sasuke hissed. “I told him not to touch that scroll…”
The scroll in question sat in front of them, half unrolled, freed from its tamatebako box. It was inert, now, where it had been brimming with Tailed-Beast energy before.
They had expected to run into something when they set out to retrieve the scroll from the ruins of Uzushiokagure, but actual, genuine time travel certainly hadn't been in their expectations.
Naruto had been excited to explore the place his mother was from, and it had certainly been interesting, if a bit somber... right up until he picked up that scroll out of its box with his bare hands.
There had been a smell like ozone in the air, a sound like electricity crackling, and finally blackness. Then Sasuke was shaking her awake on the floor of the Forest of Death.
“You can yell at him when we figure out how to wake him up,” Sakura said firmly. “This isn't something I can fix on my own, Sasuke, not without time and resources. We need to find Konoha.”
“The legends around that scroll suggest that it sent us to a different time. How do you know that Konoha even exists here? What if we’re in the Warring Clans Period?”
Sakura gestured to the clearing around her.
“The trees are familiar,” she argued back. “We can't be far from Konoha, and if the forest is the same as it is in our world, then the village is probably similar too.
Besides, what's our other option? To just sit here and wait, with no provisions or resources?”
Sasuke’s mouth compressed into a thin line. She was right about this and he knew it, even if it’d take a second for him to admit that.
Sakura stood and wiped the dirt off her knees. She stretched her arms out, waiting for Sasuke to come over and swing Naruto up onto his back so they could get moving.
Sakura would have done it herself (she was definitely strong enough) but if Sasuke perceived Naruto to be injured, he’d be antsy if he wasn't the one who got to hold onto him.
Sure enough, Sasuke approached, mumbling his frustrations under his breath as he swung Naruto up into a fireman’s carry.
Sakura gathered up the now inert scroll and rolled it up, placing it into the holder on her back. Without another word, they got moving.
To an outsider, the forests of the Land of Fire were impossible to navigate without the guidance of paths. But every Konoha ninja was given exhaustive instruction on how to identify the lands around Konoha in case they’d need to find their way home or defend it from outside its borders.
Sasuke and Sakura traveled in a mostly comfortable silence as they made their way to Konoha, taking note of various natural landmarks and barely noticeable marks left in the bark of various trees by other shinobi to guide Leaf-nin home.
At one point, Sasuke slowed enough to walk beside Sakura with Naruto’s body still draped over his back.
“Do you feel that?” he asked quietly, and Sakura nodded without looking at him. She’d felt it for a while, actually. They were being watched. She wasn't a sensory type, but Sakura could still tell that someone in the trees was following them from a distance, observing. It was probably more than one someone.
“Stay the course,” Sakura suggested quietly. “Either they'll reveal themselves before we get to the village or they'll reveal themselves when we arrive.” Sasuke nodded and they continued walking.
Approximately eight minutes later and barely a few meters from Konoha, two ninja dropped down in front of them.
Sakura and Sasuke stopped in their tracks. Sasuke seemed annoyed at the disturbance, but Sakura set her shoulders back and tried for a calm expression.
This would certainly be interesting.
“They could be lost,” Rin Nohara suggested, swinging her legs over the edge of a tree bough.
Kakashi Hatake, who hadn't taken his eyes off the three travelers since the three of them had settled on this perch to observe them, didn't reply immediately.
“They could be missing-nin,” Obito Uchiha suggested, sounding far too excited for what that possibility would actually entail.
“But they don't have slashed headbands,” Rin argued. “They don't have headbands at all. Not visible ones, anyway.”
“None of them resemble portraits in the bingo book and they seem a little young to be missing-nin,” Kakashi remarked, which Obito had to admit was true.
Most missing-nin were jonin, usually because lower ranked ninja didn't have the skill to survive on their own. Though it wasn't unheard of for people of Obito’s age to have reached that rank (Kakashi was a good example), it wasn't common. And these people didn't seem to be much older than Obito and his squad.
“Maybe they’re returning from a classified mission,” Kakashi suggested slowly.
“But we would have been warned about that, right?” Rin replied. “It's weird, isn't it? They move through the forest like Leaf ninja, but they don't have headbands, and none of us recognize them.”
“We could intercept them without attacking,” Obito argued. “If they turn out to be just normal ninja, we can escort them back to Konoha no problem. But if they don't-”
“We’ll handle it,” Rin finished, “and in that case we’ll have kept them from getting close enough to infiltrate the village.”
That, of course, was the real fear; not that these were missing-nin, but that they were emissaries from some other village looking to do damage. The war was over, now, but it hadn't been over for that long, and the peace was still tenuous.
Both Rin and Obito deferred to Kakashi. As the highest ranking of the three of them, he got final say.
“Intercept them,” he said at last. “Just the two of you. I'll hang back and watch in case things go wrong. Don't escalate to combat unless it is absolutely necessary to do so. We don't know who these people are or what they're capable of.”
Obito and Rin shared a look.
Obito’s look said, thank the Sage that something interesting is finally happening on patrol.
Rin’s look said, calm down and don't do anything too stupid.
“Move out,” Kakashi ordered. With that, the two of them got into position and dropped down into the mystery ninjas path.
To Obito, it felt a little bit like looking into a warped mirror of people he knew.
The standing male figure read as a fellow Uchiha to Obito. But that was impossible: even if Obito didn't know every single member of his clan personally, if he’d seen this man around before, Obito would recognize him.
Except… Obito did recognize him in some sense of the word. Something about the stranger seemed so familiar, even if he couldn't put his finger on exactly what.
But Obito knew logically that having a pale complexion, dark eyes and dark hair weren't features unique to their clan, especially in the Land of Fire. This man could be from anywhere.
The man on the Uchiha-lookalike’s back was even odder: he looked strikingly like the Hokage and Obito’s sensei, Minato Namikaze. And while Uchiha features weren't all that unique, Minato’s features were generally considered more rare.
Finally, Obito considered the woman, who he didn't recognize at all, and suddenly became a bit more wary then he’d been before.
It had been seven years since the war ended and Konoha had built itself a fragile peace under Minato’s instruction; that didn't mean the scars weren't obvious to anyone who knew how to look.
It was because of the war that Obito could tell the difference between someone who’d seen combat on missions, someone who was basically a civilian, and someone who had been at war.
It was about the way people carried themselves, the way they moved and considered and behaved.
Obito, Kakashi and Rin, being younger then and only genin, hadn't been on the front lines for most of the war.
Obito’s cousin Itachi was even younger than them, but due to his status as the heir to the Uchiha Clan, he had been at the front lines with his father.
These people, especially the Uchiha-Lookalike, reminded Obito of Itachi in that respect. These were people who had watched their friends die around them too young, people haunted by that loss, made haggard by it-- but not so haggard that they couldn't fight.
The young woman was trying to hide it, to seem non-threatening, but one thing about her and her companion was clear to Obito: these people were absolutely lethal, and they knew it.
“Hey there,” the woman said, smiling congenially. “My name is Sakura Haruno. You wouldn't happen to be able to direct us to Konoha, would you?”
“Depends on your business there,” Rin answered.
“We don't have time for this,” the Uchiha-Lookalike said, seemingly annoyed, but the woman -Sakura- simply ignored him.
“My friend here is injured,” she said, gesturing to the blond man. “We think he was put under some kind of specialized jutsu. I can't break it on my own, and we need help.”
“What village are you from?” Rin asked. The woman and man exchanged looks. That was never good. Any hesitation on that kind of question almost always pointed towards missing-nin status. Even if they weren't in the Bingo Book, that didn't mean they weren't dangerous.
“We’re from Sunagakure,” the woman answered.
“Right,” Rin said, clearly not buying it, but Obito frowned.
“Wait a minute,” he said, “your name is Sakura Haruno, but what about you? What’s your name?” he asked the Uchiha-Lookalike, who merely stared at him blankly.
“Sasuke Uchiha,” he said, and there was a kunai in Obito’s hand as soon as the words were out of his mouth. The Lookalike’s eyes flicked down to it.
“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” the imposter said, sounding almost bored.
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” Obito demanded.
“Why do you say that?” the woman asked carefully.
“You're not Sasuke Uchiha because Sasuke Uchiha is my six year old cousin. How do you even know that name?” Obito snapped, trying to force the worry from his tone.
The Uchiha Clan were cloistered and secretive; the idea that some stranger would know the name of one of their youngest and thus most vulnerable members made Obito’s hackles raise on principle.
Sensing that the situation had begun to escalate, Rin stepped forward and put a hand on Obito’s arm, urging him to put away the kunai. He didn't, but he did begrudgingly lower his hand.
“You're clearly not from Suna,” Rin said. “If you tell us who you actually are, maybe we could help you.” Sakura sighed.
“Trust me, you wouldn't believe us if we told you,” she replied simply. Obito huffed, his mouth moving faster than his brain.
“You could at least try lying better,” Obito suggested. His gaze slid back to the Lookalike. “Didn't anyone ever teach you that it's poor form to steal someone’s family name?”
The only warning Obito got was Sakura’s sharp inhale as a reaction to his comment. The Lookalike didn't react outwardly aside from his visible eye transforming and Obito--
His training didn't kick in fast enough for him to look away. Why would it? Obito was an Uchiha, he’d never thought that he’d need to protect himself from the influence of a Sharingan.
The rest of the world melted away, all of the colors fading and running together and dripping like paint.
Obito was frozen in place, staring at the Lookalike as the sky behind the man turned red, and suddenly Obito couldn't breathe. He gasped, clutched at his throat, and fell to his knees.
It was the kind of thing Rin would have freaked out about but she wasn't there; no one was. There was nothing but Obito struggling to breathe and this Uchiha staring down at him and Obito couldn't think through the pain of his constricting throat.
Time slowed and stretched meaninglessly. Obito couldn't look away from the bloody, abyssal colors filling his vision with a strange but familiar pattern: he couldn't look away from the stranger’s horrible, horrible eye.
The Mangekyo Sharingan, Obito thought deliriously.
Holy shit, he was staring into the Mangekyo Goddamn Sharingan.
“I don't think you understand the position you're in,” the Lookalike said frostily, the man on his back seeming to have vanished.
Suddenly he was closer, too close: a tall, looming shadow over Obito’s form.
“I told you my name. Who exactly are you supposed to be? A random cousin distant from the main family, two decades old and you haven't even made jonin yet? Is throwing your clan’s name around some kind of joke to you?
My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have avenged my ancestors, I have singlehandedly killed one of the legendary Sannin, I have faced gods and survived.
I am more of an Uchiha than you will ever be, and I do not take kindly to accusations of stealing my own name.” The stranger paused. He blinked.
Something shifted, ever so slightly, reality starting to peel all over again. The stranger sighed, averted his gaze, and Obito--
--Obito broke through the genjutsu and plunged back into his own body with a gasp.
He fell forward into the dirt, desperately choking air into his lungs. He felt Rin kneeling to his left, her hand on his shoulders while she called his name.
Not wanting to worry her, Obito showed her the one-handed field sign for “I'm fine.” She calmed a bit, but her hand stayed on his shoulder as he caught his breath.
“I really wouldn't do that if I were you,” the Uchiha said grimly, though the raw, emotional rage was gone from his voice.
Obito looked up to find that Kakashi was standing behind the pink-haired woman with a kunai to her throat. Despite the vulnerable position, she seemed more irritated than anything else.
“Alright, hold on, let's all calm down for a moment,” Sakura declared firmly, glaring at the Lookalike- at the Uchiha. Obito had no idea how, but this man must have been an Uchiha.
“Obito?” Kakashi asked, refusing to take his eyes from the Uchiha.
“Fine,” Obito choked out. “Was jus’ a genjutsu. I'm fine.” The Uchiha rolled his now normal eye.
“If I wanted to kill any of you, you’d already be dead.”
“Sasuke, you're not helping,” the pink haired woman hissed, and then took a deep breath.
“I'm sorry for him, he’s touchy about his clan and worried about his husband. We’re not here to hurt any of you, and we don't hold any ill will towards Konoha either. We’re really just here because we need help.”
Obito blinked at the dirt.
“Husband?” he croaked.
“The man Sasuke is carrying,” Sakura said. Sasuke didn't correct her, just adjusted the limp body on his back. Kakashi, still standing behind the woman, stared at the limp man.
“Do you recognize him?” Sakura prompted. Kakashi wavered.
“This is impossible,” he said, and Sakura hummed.
“Maybe,” she said slowly, “but you have good instincts, Kakashi. Listen to them. Let's start over, alright? My name is Sakura Haruno, that is Sasuke Uchiha, and our friend Naruto Uzumaki needs help.”