While Naruto was trying to convince Haku that she wasn't just a tool, and her life had value, with Sakura, another conflict was beginning to brew... Sakura was down on one knee, her left palm pressed against the bridge Tazuna was building, her right hand gripping her head, before she brought her left hand back to her head as the pain redoubled, causing her to collapse, rolling onto her side, hunched over, as tears began to flow.
"Sakura, what's wrong?" Tazuna asked, kneeling by the girl who had been protecting him during the battle. Sakura turned her head to him, still gripping her head, tears running down her face as she gave a pained expression.
"I-I don't know!" Sakura cried out, before collapsing.
----------
Sakura came to in her mindscape, she looked around, confused.
"Where am I?" She questioned.
"You're in our mindscape." A voice that sounded a little like Sakura's, overlayed with another. She looked towards where she heard the voice, and saw Inner Sakura, however, she was shifting back and forth between her normal black and white version of Sakura appearance and that of a woman with brown hair in a braided ponytail who was wearing a pink dress, a short red jacket that went about halfway down her waist and was opened, metal cuffs, and brown boots that were different than any foot ware Sakura was used to seeing, as the woman's didn't leave her toes exposed. Sakura also happed to notice that Inner Sakura was spending more time in the form of the woman, rather than her own form.
"What's going on!?" Sakura cried out in frustration.
"Sakura, calm down I'll explain everything." Inner Sakura replied.
"What? Since when do you refer to me as Sakura instead of something like "other me?"" Sakura asked.
"That has to do with what's going on." Inner Sakura said, the Sakura voice barely hearable in the overlayed voices, as she mostly stayed in the other form, with her Inner Sakura appearance only appearing in brief flickers. "Now, as to what's going on. We're not just Sakura Haruno."
"Huh?" Sakura responded in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"We were once someone else, a woman named Aerith Gainsborough." Inner Sakura/Aerith explained. "We teamed up with some friends of ours to stop a threat to our planet, named Sephiroth." Intentionally leaving out the fact that she/they were murdered, as Sakura's mind was strained enough as was, but it still had an effect, as Sakura felt a shiver down her spine at the name. "However, he didn't give up, and came back again through a complex set of events. The man we loved fought him again, and won. Sephiroth though, showing his strong will and determination, didn't give up. His next plan was more covert. He managed to turn back time, in order to change things. What he did caused our timeline to be destroyed. Fortunately, I was spiritually in tune with nature, and the planet in general, so I felt it happen. I used my own powers to manage to send a copy of my mind to the past to occupy the body of myself from that time period, and then tried sending myself and my friends to another reality to save ourselves from deletion. I'm not sure I got all of them, but I know that Naruto and Sasuke are reincarnations of two of them."
"So why are you becoming our past self, and why does it feel like my head's being split open?" Sakura asked. Inner Sakura/Aerith sighed.
"Cloud's-" Seeing Sakura's confusion, she added "The one who reincarnated as Naruto, awakening had an effect on us with how close we were standing, due to his mako energy." Seeing Sakura open her mouth to ask a question, Inner Sakura/Aerith said "Explaining that right this moment isn't important, because the longer we take to get to the point, the worse the pain will be." Sakura closed her mouth. "Unfortunately, your habit of bottling up your true feelings to the point where I became my own separate mind is coming back to bite us. It's extremely unhealthy for our mental stability. So long as our mind is divided in two, our awakening will continue to have this effect. We must reunite, and become Aerith again."
"Hold on!" Sakura cut off angrily. "I want to stay who I am, why should I change!?"
"One," Inner Sakura began. "This will continue, there is no stopping it, and the more we fight it, the worse off we'll be. Two, we will essentially gain Aerith's abilities as an Ancient as a bloodline, we'll just have to unlock them similar to other bloodline techniques." Seeing Sakura looking a little more interested, but still hesitant, Inner Sakura went for the metaphorical throat. "Three, let's be honest, Sasuke doesn't have any romantic feelings for us, Zack, A.K.A. Sasuke's original self, on the other hand, had feelings for me, so if we become our original self, we'd have no problem winning his affection." She held back a wince and a pang of guilt as she saw her other half's face light up in excitement and eagerness, while feeling more than a little guilty about misleading Sakura, since, despite it being true, Zack's reincarnation wasn't the one they'd pursue romantically. 'It has to be done. Our mind can't handle this, and if she found out we will pursue Naruto romantically, she'd never agree...'
"So how do we do this?" Sakura asked.
"Hold hands with me, and concentrate on combining with me." Inner Sakura replied, at this point, having the mental image of Aerith, and the Sakura voice no longer able to be heard. They faced each other, grasped each other's hands, closed their eyes, and focused on reuniting. With a flash of light, they were nowhere to be found
----------
When Sakura came back into consciousness, it was with herself complete with the mind of Aerith. She braced her hands against the ground and pushed up, getting her bearings as Tazuna looked over her.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah..." Sakura said, massaging a temple. "It might take me a little bit, but after a rest when we're done, I think I'll be okay. What's happened while I was out?"
"Not much," Tazuna replied. "The kid Naruto and Sasuke were fighting took a blow for Zabuza from your sensei, and is heavily wounded. It would have been an instant death, but Naruto managed to interfere. It's weird though, Naruto's eyes looked like they were glowing when I saw them."
----------
"Are you kidding me?" Naruto said with a scowl that would have made Kakashi wonder if Naruto and Sasuke traded places if his Sharingan wasn't in use. Zabuza had seemingly showed no concern for Haku. "Doesn't Haku mean anything to you!? With how long you've been together!?"
"Kid, shinobi are just tools for our employers, and the sooner you accept that, the bet-" Zabuza began, only to receive a surprisingly strong right hook to the face from Naruto, despite the difference in height, which knocked Zabuza several feet back and on his butt. He looked up, only to see Naruto's now glowing eyes staring down at him in a combination of pity, contempt, and disgust, before his eyes slightly softened upon looking into Zabuza's.
"If you're gonna spew garbage, just keep your mouth shut." Naruto said. "Don't try to preach something if you can't even convince yourself."
"Wha-?" Zabuza began, before being cut off by a familiar voice.
"The eyes are said to be the windows into the soul." Sasuke said, walking up, seemingly healed, with his black eyes like glowing like Naruto's blue ones, which was an odd sight. Kakashi also noted that his air hand changed, no longer seeming to give off the avenger vibe he'd had since the Uchiha Massacre. "Your words can say one thing, but if you left your guard down, your eyes will tell the truth every time, and yours are saying a very different tale than your words." Sasuke crossed his arms behind his neck similar to how Naruto would have before, while giving what could only be described as a sh*t eating grin, as Naruto tended to Haku, trying to stop or slow down the bleeding.
"Of all the time not to have a Restore Materia" Naruto grumbled under his breath as Sakura and Tazuna came up.
"Is-Is it over?" Tazuna asked, seeing that not only was Haku down for the count, but Zabuza's wounds seemed to put him out of commission as well.
"Quick!" Naruto said. "Does anyone have anything they can use to help Haku!?" Sakura walked over to Naruto and Haku, got on her knees, and clasped her hands. A gentle breeze seemed to surround her, before it pulsed outward, and Haku's wounds sealed up. "Healing Wind..." Naruto mumbled in shock, looking over to Sakura. "Then that means..." Sakura then passed out, the chakra used for the first level technique of her new bloodline and the strain of the awakening being too much as she collapsed into Naruto's arms.
"Cloud..." Sakura murmured.
"Well, well, well." A new voice said, as Gato walked up with his own personal army of pretend samurai thugs. "Looks like the "Demon of the Mist's" reputation was exaggerated. Good thing I never planned to pay you anyway. Now that you're all worn out, I'll finish you all off, although, if your little helper survives, I'll take her with me and let my men have some fun with her first." Naruto and Zabuza looked murderous at that point, but Naruto was a little confused.
"Wait, but isn't Haku a-" Naruto began.
"No, Haku's a girl," Zabuza cut him off. "She just binds her breasts and calls herself a boy in order to protect herself from slime-balls who want to have their way with her. The fact that Gato knows concerns me about how he managed to find out."
"I think I'll also take that pink haired girl too, I'm sure that exotic hair color can fetch me quite a large payment." Sasuke had his signature scowl back, and the look on Naruto's face would make Orochimaru crap his pants in fear. Both felt the effects of the awakening trying to make them rest, but the pushed it to the side.
"You just signed your death warrant." Naruto said coldly, reaching for Zabuza's sword, and lifting it effortlessly, to the shock of everyone conscious but Sasuke.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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