This chapter has been beta-read by: shatteredjewels & Sakura's Unicorn    

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Team 7 bursts out of the trees and into a clearing. The space is utterly empty but for the metres-wide crater in the ground; it continues to emit clouds of dust into the air.

Kakashi motions for his team to stay back then takes several tentative steps forward, senses alert in case any threats make themselves known. Once he gets within several paces of the depression, however, he freezes in disbelief.

In the middle of the broken earth, the body of a child lies motionless.

It's a girl, he discovers, and one not much older than Sakura. She is spread-eagled on her back, blood soaking her face and black hair. Her right arm juts out at an impossible angle—dislocated shoulder, from the look of it—and her hand looks shattered. Bone fragments pierce through the skin there.

"Oh my gosh!" Sakura cries, hurrying forward. "Is she okay?"

"Be careful," Kakashi tells her, forcing her to stay back. "We don't know where she came from or how she got here. And we don't know the capabilities of anyone on this side of the phenomenon."

"But she's in such bad shape..."

Which is an understatement, considering the girl is so bruised and battered that her clothing is in tatters. Entire chunks of her dull red tunic have been torn away, likely from falling debris.

"She's wearing a hitai-ate," Naruto points out, peeking over the depression in the ground. His eyes widen. "She's from Konoha!"

Sakura pushes forward at that, sliding down into the crater to kneel by the girl. She presses her fingers to the side of her neck and her eyes widen. "She's alive!"

"We've got to help her!" Naruto insists, also scrambling down to help.

Sasuke hangs back, staring at the prone figure in calculation.

"Where did she come from?" he mutters.

Which is exactly what Kakashi would like to know.

He glances up, hoping for a clue, but sees nothing except clouds. Given the formation of the crater and the angle she's lying at, she had to have fallen from directly above. Which makes no sense, considering there's nothing she could have fallen from. The cliffs towering over the valley are a good three hundred or so metres away.

The girl groans.

"Look, Kakashi-sensei! She's waking up!" Sakura cries, and everyone's attention shifts to the stranger whose eyelids flutter. Her face spasms in pain, and her eyes squint open.

Kakashi and Sasuke move closer to her as well.

"Are you all right?" Naruto asks, despite the obvious answer.

"... Mama... Papa..." she murmurs dazedly, frowning at Kakashi and Naruto. "Uncle...?"

Sakura leans over her, concern etched into every part of her small frame. "Do you think she's delirious or something?"

"Probably a concussion. Check her pupils," Sasuke points out, now also crouching down beside her.

"That's not a surprise," Kakashi admits, remembering the sudden yell and how fast the explosion came afterward. "A fall from that height should have killed her."

The question is why it didn't.

"Hey!" Naruto shouts exuberantly, darting away and back in an instant. He cradles something in his hands. "Look what I found!"

It's a pair of bent, cracked glasses. They match the colour of the girl's clothing, so there's a good chance they belong to her.

"I can't believe those survived," Sasuke remarks.

"They must have come off in the fall," Kakashi suggests. If they'd stayed on, they would've been crushed into her face and eyes on impact.

Sakura mops the blood from the girl's brow as best she can then holds a hand out for the glasses. Once Naruto passes them over, she settles them carefully across the bridge of the girl's nose.

This appears to improve the stranger's focus because her eyes widen at the sight of the people standing over her. She gapes, opening her mouth to speak—there's blood there, too, and she probably loosened a few teeth on impact—but no sound comes out.

"Shh," Sakura stops her. "Don't try to talk. You're really hurt right now. It's best if you just save your energy."

But the girl slowly shakes her head, tears welling in onyx eyes.

"I'm...dead, aren't I?" she croaks, lips trembling with what could be as much fear as pain. "I have to...be. That's the...only reason...I can...you..."

She trails off when something like understanding crosses her features. She tries to inch away—only to shriek sharply in agony.

"No! Stop that! Don't move!" Sakura orders, panicked.

The girl doesn't listen, instead bringing up her left hand. With trembling fingers, she forms a sign.

"Kai!" she gasps. When nothing appears to happen, dread enters her voice, and she tries again. "K-Kai!"

"She thinks we're a genjutsu," Sasuke realises while Sakura tries to calm the girl before she exacerbates her wounds any more.

"Why?"

"She's confused. Head injury, it looks like," Kakashi answers. The girl whimpers and shuts her eyes, breathing in short, pained gasps.

"We have to get her back to the village," Sakura says. "The Hokage can—"

"No."

"What? Why?!"

"For all we know, this girl is from this side of the breach."

"But she might not be!"

"But if she is and we bring her back through with us? There's a risk of disrupting her world and ours. What happens if the phenomenon stops and she gets stuck there?"

"What happens if it stops and we get stuck here," Sasuke counters, thinking along the same lines.

He and Naruto eye the girl again, this time with wariness.

Sakura's eyes blaze. "So, you're telling me that we're not even going to try to help her?!"

"I didn't say that," Kakashi is quick to assure her.

In situations where Sakura refuses to do something, Naruto and Sasuke are even less likely to obey. Kakashi might be their leader, but he's also learned that the three of them have a tendency do the exact opposite of his orders. And somehow, against all odds, they always manage to be right about it

He kneels by both girls. "We have to do what we came here to do...at least until we learn more about what's going on."

"And if we heal her, she can tell us," Sasuke points out.

"Exactly. So, on that note—Sasuke, Naruto, keep an eye on the surrounding area," Kakashi orders. "This girl didn't get to be here on her own, I don't think. See if there's anything around that might explain what happened."

"Got it."

"Right!"

Kakashi takes a moment to assess the girl before moving her. Although she barely seemed to retain enough motor skills before to pull away from them and move her hand, it's best to be careful.

He scoops her up, pulling her to his chest. As he does so, he notices that her back is an even worse mess than her front. It's full of bruises and scratches, which he can see because the entire back of her dress has been torn off. There's nothing but black bandages there, raw, threadbare, and stuck to her skin with blood and sweat. Kakashi frowns at one chunk of fabric, slashed right across the top of what might have been a red circle. It could possibly be the Leaf symbol most jōnin wear on their flak jackets, but there's not enough of it left for him to be sure.

In any case, that particular cut is too clean, a straight swipe from a blade. The rest of the tears in her clothing are more ragged, like they were made from a blast shockwave. It's as if she was too close to an exploding tag when it detonated.

A matter the ponder later.

Right now, they need to get out of the open so he can assess the girl's injuries. There's a small area back in the copse of trees, shaded by brush and overhang. He heads there, sending a clone of himself to keep watch as he does. Meanwhile, Sakura helps him lower the girl to the ground.

"I need you to hold her still."

"Why?" she asks.

"I'm going to set her arm. And it will hurt."

The girl whines again, trying to drag herself away from them.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Sakura asks quietly. "You might make it worse."

"Give me some credit," Kakashi replies easily, injecting confidence into his tone. "A comrade of mine showed me the basics once. It's not going to heal her completely, but I can at least put the bones back where they're supposed to be."

"How?" Sakura asks. "That hand looks like it was crushed by a rock."

"If I'm not mistaken, it was her hand that did the crushing," he replies, studying the mess of bones.

Sakura blinks. It only takes her a moment to work out what he means. "Wait...like what Lady Tsunade can do?"

"Maybe." He digs into his pouch and brings out two round pills. "Here. Painkillers. She's going to want these. I'm afraid I don't have the same qualifications as a medic-nin, so I'm using a cruder method."

Sakura takes the tablets and induces the girl to swallow them. The girl fights, spitting them out, eyes wide but glazed with pain and fear.

"No! Not...me!" she tries to protest. "Find them! Heal...them, not me!"

"Who?"

" – aru-sensei...tsuki...poisoned, and I couldn't... And Boru...to...he's...!" Panic makes her thrashing more violent. It's all Sakura can do to hold on to her. "Please, the Ghost-Man... He'll kill—"

Her words cut off, turning into an agonised keen. All of her movements have jostled her injured arm, and Kakashi decides they will deal with that first—sedatives or not.

"Okay, shoulder first and then the rest," Kakashi decides. "Sakura, keep her calm and get a good grip."

They manoeuvre their patient until Sakura is supporting her closely and firmly. To her surprise, the girl seems to melt into her, clutching at her with her uninjured hand.

"Mama..." she whispers plaintively. "You're here."

Delirium's already set in, Kakashi notices grimly. Can her injuries be infected already? Or has she finally hit her pain threshold?

"Um..." Sakura hesitates, her eyes darting to her teacher who nods for her to go along with it. It's important that she be as relaxed as possible for this. "Of course I'm here...sweetheart..."

She must say something right because the girl visibly relaxes.

"Papa's going to save them, right?" she beseeches, a naked trust in her gaze that makes Sakura's heart twinge. "He knows...he knows they're...?"

Sakura swallows and agrees with the lie. "Of course. Your...Papa...always saves the day, right?"

"Yeah," the girl agrees.

With a shove, Kakashi sets the girl's shoulder back into its socket. Her eyes roll back and she goes limp, head settling into the crook of Sakura's neck.

"She fainted!"

"Yes, she did," Kakashi says, placing his hand on the girl's head and concentrating. "And it's probably better she doesn't wake up for a while. It's not going to be fun for her while I fix the hand."

He has nothing close to Rin's medical talents, but she showed him enough that he can check for internal bleeding. Luckily (and against all odds, really), there doesn't seem to be any sort of swelling or internal injury in her head that he can sense. The girl suffered a considerable blow, but nothing she won't recover from once she wakes up.

Kakashi closes his right eye, relying only on the Sharingan; given the delicate bones in the hand and fingers, it would be best to see the most detail possible. There might also be some fracturing of her radius and ulna, if the bruising there is anything to go by, but all the breaks appear to be clean.

Luckier and luckier, he thinks, taking up a kunai. He needs to open the skin to reset the bones.

"There's nothing around here," Sasuke says from Kakashi's left as he and Naruto return. "We checked within the immediate area, but there's not even signs of a struggle."

"We might need to search a little higher up," Kakashi replies, thinking of the cliffs nearby. It's the likeliest explanation for how she got here, but even if she did come from that height, she must've been thrown with considerable force.

Something which, once again, begs the question of her survival.

"What are you doing?" Naruto demands, craning over Kakashi's shoulder to stare as the jōnin makes an incision in the skin on the back of the girl's hand. "Oh, gross! Oh, man, I'm going to hurl—!"

"Go over there, idiot!" Sakura barks, shoving him away with one hand.

"Stop it, both of you! I need to concentrate!" Kakashi snaps. "Naruto, go find me something we can use as a splint. A thick chunk of bark will be fine, big enough to support her forearm."

"Yeah, okay..."

Face tinged green, Naruto darts away. Even Sasuke hangs back a bit, looking discomfited. Sakura is the only one to lean close, peering over the unconscious girl's head to watch Kakashi's movements like a hawk.

He busies himself with gently moving skin and muscle out of the way, so that he has the best angle to fix the bone. As he works, he occasionally sends bursts of chakra to the site of the incision, fighting back any infection or impurities. Sepsis is not something he, or this girl, are going to want to deal with.

"Are you sure you didn't see anyone else?" Sakura asks Sasuke while Kakashi continues to work. "She said she was with someone. Or a few people. They were hurt. Poisoned even. And she mentioned her sensei..."

"She might be on another genin squad then," Sasuke suggests.

"I wish she had said whose," Kakashi mumbles. Tsunade didn't mention another team out here and neither did the Hyūga squad.

"We're lucky she told us what she did," Sakura points out. "She didn't have a lot of energy left for details."

Sasuke's eye twitches in an almost-wince of sympathy as he watches Kakashi put the bones back in. "This girl must have an amazing tolerance for pain."

Not just pain. Healing, too, Kakashi muses, frowning at something his chakra probing has discovered. The girl's body appears to be helping him excise bacteria. The regenerative properties aren't in the same league as someone like Naruto or Tsunade, but at the same time, they are there.

He's never heard of a genin with the ability to facilitate self-healing like this, not unless they possess a kekkei genkai or trained with medical ninjutsu. And on that note, he would really like to know who her teacher is.

Of course, we're not going to find out any of that until she wakes up, he knows. Which, if she has a head injury, might never happen...

ナルト

When Sarada wakes up the second time, the pain in her right side is still substantial, but not quite as bewildering as before. It's enough to keep her from checking for genjutsu again, at any rate. Although the sight of her much-younger parents and the two Kage gathered around her is not quite the shock it was before, she still can't quite comprehend it.

Her mother is coltish and pale, her eyes too large for her face and her forehead more pronounced than Sarada is used to.

Good to know it's something I can grow into.

Her eyes continue to rove over the pink-haired girl. The rather ample brow is also completely devoid of the rhombus-shaped Byakugō. Beside her, Sarada's father's face is twisted into a sulking scowl she's never seen him wear. She has a very clear view of it, too, because not only does his hair not obscure it, he has two normal eyes. They're as black as hers and show no sign of the amethyst Rinnegan.

Uncle Kakashi looks the same, at least, adjusting his mask over his left eye.

Oh, right, he has the Sharingan right now. That's kind of weird.

And Lord Seventh—Naruto¸ she reminds herself—is still clad head to toe in orange, but for some reason, he looks more goofy than dignified. It's probably the absence of the Hokage cloak.

There really is no other explanation for what's going on.

Somehow, impossibly, she appears to have travelled in time.

Did hitting the ground that hard do something? Sarada remembers her brief conversation with Konohamaru. My Sharingan was activated, and the whole area is covered with that weird chakra signature. Did I somehow punch through dimensions?

Even as she entertains the ridiculous idea, she is ninety-five percent sure that's not what happened. But it doesn't change the fact that she's experiencing the trappings of a world that isn't completely her own.

Okay...what do I do now?

Aside from the huge problem that she's injured, her rescuers are all watching her with wary curiosity. Sarada recognises each expression perfectly and knows that means questions are headed her way.

Questions I don't have time for because—

"My team!" she gasps, snapping into a sitting position. "Oh!"

Not a good move on her part, her body reminds her.

"Careful!" her mother tells her, slipping an arm around her back to steady her. Sarada shudders, the raw skin on her back stinging when it meets her—meets Sakura's hand. "Take it slow."

Sarada grits her teeth and glances down at her right side, noticing that her arm has been set and splinted.

A thick chunk of tree bark supports the entire forearm, her swollen hand and fingers curving naturally around the edge. The whole thing has been bound roughly with bandages, but it's done well: not tight enough to cut off circulation, if the stabbing pain is any indication. They have a sling on her as well although—Sarada blinks in surprise—it's been improvised. It's made of the familiar dark rose fabric of her mother's tunic dress. Sarada peers at the other girl and realises the outfit has been sacrificed from the waist down.

Abruptly, her view of her mother is obscured by Kakashi who crouches in front of her face.

"Can you tell me who you are?"

Sarada has never heard a more loaded question, and her first instinct is to react with a note of hysteria.

Oh, yeah, hi. I'm Sarada. Sarada Uchiha. I'm a genin out on a mission that was supposed to be a cat-rescue, but instead, ended up with me travelling in time. See that pink-haired girl over there and the guy who kind of looks like he smells something gross? They're my parents. Neat, huh?

She swallows, ignoring her parched mouth. "Sarada."

"Sarada. Okay. I'm Kakashi. Nice to meet you," he says, his eye crinkling up like he's smiling beneath the mask. The expression doesn't match his careful tone, though, and she recognises his way of trying to put her at ease. "Do you know what day it is?"

That's not exactly the most pressing issue at the moment, is it? I'm a bit more concerned with the fact I think I've travelled in time. Which shouldn't be possible. I mean, forget the weirdness of it, but scientifically speaking—Oh. Right. You want an actual answer.

"W-Wednesday?"

This is apparently a satisfactory answer.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

Of all the stupid... Oh! Oh, he's checking for brain damage, not time travel. Right! I can do this!

"Three."

"Where are we right now?"

"F-forest. Near Konoha."

"And who's Hokage?"

Sarada opens her mouth to answer and freezes. Because right now, the utter impossibility of her situation fades from her mind and is replaced with the exact ramification of what voicing it might cause.

There's no concrete evidence that she herself has travelled back in time or whether her loved ones have moved forward; either way, she can't mention Lord Seventh. That will confuse them, or worse, make them think she's a spy or insane.

Mama told her a few stories about growing up under the rule of both Lord Third and Lady Fifth, so it could be either of them right now. Sarada has a fifty-fifty shot at this, and hopes that if she gets it wrong, Lord Sixth—Kakashi—will think she just hit her head really hard.

"Lady Tsunade?"

"Hm." Kakashi studies her for a further moment and nods. "Well, you're a little slow, but there doesn't seem to be a concussion. Which is amazing, considering your other injuries."

Oh, good, I was right, she thinks relaxing a bit. Then she frowns. Hey, I am not slow! This is me working under pressure, and I'm doing a pretty good job, thanks very much. Especially considering I was just—

At which point, reality hits her again.

"I have to rescue my teammates," she announces, trying to push herself to her feet. "I need to—"

"You need to stay still," Mama—no! Sakura!—implores her, holding her down. "You're injured and running around will make it worse."

The pink-haired girl's strength is nothing like it will be one day, but Sarada is weak enough right now that it does the job.

"But you don't understand! They might be dying, and I have to find out—"

"You aren't strong enough to do anything right now," Sasuke cuts her off, tone flat, "except answer our questions."

"Sasuke's right," Kakashi agrees. "You need to tell us what happened to you and your team. We're in a better position than you are to do anything about it."

"I don't have time to—!"

"Hey, you heard Kakashi-sensei," Naruto interrupts. "You're not going anywhere anytime soon. So, spill the beans, and we'll do something about it. It'll be faster if you tell us what we want to know. Believe it!"

"Start at the beginning," Sakura encourages.

Sarada gapes at the familiar faces around her, all of whom show no signs of budging on the issue. She knows each of those expressions intimately and understands that arguing is going to waste precious time. She stretches her mind, trying to find the most logical explanation that hints of truth. Sarada knows from experience that Kakashi easily sees through lies, so coming up with anything other than the truth which isn't the whole truth will be difficult.

"The Hokage sent me and my team out here," she begins, completely honest.

Kakashi and his team exchange looks, and Sarada feels a pit form in her stomach. She's already said something wrong.

"Granny only talked about one team, though," Naruto mentions, screwing up his face in confusion.

"And none of the Hyūga mentioned anyone else investigating the bubble," Sakura adds hesitantly.

"Um, our mission had nothing to do with any bubble," Sarada says carefully. "We were sent out here to investigate a bunch of ghost sightings."

"Ghosts?" Sasuke repeats, something like an incredulous sneer in his voice. Sarada frowns because her father never sounds like that.

"Yeah. People were reporting these...apparitions they couldn't explain. So, the Hokage sent us out to see what it was. We thought it was just teenagers playing pranks, or another cat...but..." She trails off, closing her eyes as she relives the events of her day. "It's all so confusing—it came out of nowhere, and there was no reason for it."

"What?" Naruto questions.

"We were just exploring. There was a shed, but it wasn't actually a shed, and...he came out of nowhere. This...pale, creepy... I've been calling him a ghost. He just showed up and attacked. He got my sensei right away."

"Your sensei must not be that good," Sasuke scoffs.

Sarada glares at her father—

No! It's Sasuke, he's not my father yet!

She's used to him treating others dismissively, perhaps even with exasperation, but he's never so callous. And never with her.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" she cries. "The guy who attacked was using this... He could teleport! We thought it was a variation of the Fourth Hokage's Hiraishin."

Kakashi's eyes widen at this, while Sakura gasps and says, "I've read about that."

"What the heck does that mean?" Naruto demands.

He doesn't seem as impressed or interested at the mention of his father's technique being used by a potential enemy, which is weird. Boruto was at least a little upset about it.

"He was able to move faster than the blink of an eye," Sakura explains.

"Oh."

"Exactly. And despite how fast he was, my sensei pushed my teammate out of the path of a kunai that was aimed at his head," Sarada says. She doesn't bother disguising the challenge in her tone directed at Sasuke. "He took a poisoned kunai to the back so that he didn't lose one of his students."

Sasuke has the decency not to say anything to that. At least this younger version of him still understands the importance of protecting one's comrades.

"Who is your sensei?" Kakashi asks.

Sarada's heart constricts because she can't talk about Konohamaru any more than she can talk about Naruto. This is it. They will realise something's up.

"S-Sarutobi-sensei," she says, hedging her bets and hoping that being vague makes them less likely to question her. Konohamaru's father only just retired from taking on genin squads, but she's not sure when he started. "He's a descendent of the Third Hokage, so he's an elite ninja."

There. That was the truth. Please don't ask me anything else!

The gods appear to be on her side because Kakashi mutters something that sounds like 'Arata' and looks thoughtful. The name means nothing to her, but she nods anyway.

"What happened after that?" Naruto asks.

"I-I don't know. I—we couldn't check. There was no time. And this...Ghost-Man. He was strange. He kept talking, saying he didn't want to kill us. But he'd strike out in ways which would've been fatal if we didn't dodge. It felt kind of like he was arguing with someone invisible—or himself," she adds as almost an afterthought. "Anyway, that was before he got a good look at my other teammate. And then he just snapped, and it got ten times worse."

"Why did the sight of your teammate upset him?"

"I...honestly have no idea. After that, it was like we were fighting a bunch of him at once, but they weren't clones. It was just him because he's so fast."

"What you say is impossible," Kakashi tells her. "No one has ever matched the speed of Lord Fourth. And since his death, no one has come close to mastering his technique, either."

"Well, this guy could do it," Sarada insists grimly. "He didn't even need anything to mark his place. Which is what happened to me. He teleported me into mid-air and dropped me. Then disappeared before he could fall with me."

"Speaking of that—how did you survive? Aside from luck?"

"I channelled all of my remaining chakra into my fist," Sarada explains, barely resisting the urge to hold it up in demonstration. The appendage twinges even at the thought. "I figured if I hit the ground with it just before the rest of my body did, the force would cause an air pocket to break up the ground."

"So, it wouldn't be a soft landing, but you wouldn't be a pancake, either," Sakura realises.

"Exactly."

"That's sort of what Granny Tsunade can do," Naruto points out, then grins at Sarada. "That's kind of awesome!"

Sarada can't help the flood of warmth to her cheeks. He might barely be older than her right now, but compliments from Lord Seventh always make her feel giddy.

"I...uh...I didn't know Lady Tsunade had taken on an apprentice," Sakura mentions softly, an awkward tremble in her voice. "Other than Lady Shizune, of course."

Sarada frowns a little, unsure what her mother is upset about, but no one else seems to notice. Naruto looks a bit amazed, and even though Sasuke is scowling, she recognises the appraising way his eyes flick over her.

Like he's assessing an opponent, she realises with equal parts thrill and apprehension.

Kakashi looks thoughtful. "You must have excellent chakra control."

"Obviously it didn't do any good."

"As you're not dead, I'd say you're wrong there."

"I meant for my team! Two of them are injured, and even if Boruto got away, I bet my sensei is still up there!"

This time she points—albeit with her uninjured hand—to the top of the cliff.

"Your team is probably dead after this long," Sasuke points out.

Sakura protests, "Sasuke!"

Sarada hasn't had such a strong urge to punch her father since the day she first met him investigating the Shin Uchiha clones. She's never known him to be excessively tactful, but with her, he's always tried to soften his words.

"They're not!" she insists, glaring at him and only barely managing to keep her Sharingan in check. If anyone sees her activate the kekkei genkai, her vague story falls apart. Especially considering in this time, the Uchiha don't exist outside of her father and—

Wait.

That's not true at this moment, is it? If she's really travelled in time, then Itachi Uchiha is still alive out there.

Sarada's anger is temporarily muted in favour of speculation.

Her father has told her stories—vague ones, but in them, he speaks of his brother like he's a hero. Sarada always wished she could meet him and maybe—

This isn't time for a family reunion! I have to save Konohamaru-sensei or all of them, if Boruto didn't manage to get himself and Mitsuki away!

"...afraid we can't be sure," Kakashi is saying, his visible eye grim. "This exceeds the parameters of a typical genin mission, if his talents are as you described. It's not too far-fetched to assume, considering he tried to kill you, that he killed the others as well."

"No!" Sarada insists. "The only reason he did that—I think—is because I was a threat to him!"

Sasuke snorts in disbelief.

Punching him soon. Very definitely punching him soon. And he's probably not as strong as he usually is, so I'd get him, too!

Inwardly seething, Sarada has to force herself to ignore him.

"I...have abilities," she hedges, and when Kakashi looks like he wants to hear more, she adds, "When I'm not crippled, I mean. And I was distracting him from getting to the others, so...so he got rid of me."

"This...ghost might've gotten rid of the others, too, though," Sakura speaks up quietly. "Maybe not, you know, dropping them to their deaths, but there's other ways to make a body disappear. A skilled shinobi—"

"Then we have to look!" Sarada shouts, temper flaring. Again, she forces herself to be calm and the Sharingan to remain hidden. In a more controlled manner, she continues. "Crazy as that Ghost-Man was, once my sensei and teammate were down, he didn't show any interest in finishing them off. In fact, he said something about questioning them. They're alive. They must be! And if you're not going to help me, leave me alone, so I can go find them myself!"

"No need for that. I'll help you," Naruto promises.

"Naruto!" Sakura protests.

"What? We need to help her find her team. It's the right thing to do."

"And even if they are dead, it's our responsibility to find their bodies and make sure no one learns any secrets from Konoha," Sasuke adds, bored.

Kakashi sighs.

"It's in our best interest to check this out," he concludes. "And time is of the essence, not only for your friends, but for our mission as well."

He nods to himself.

"Right. Sasuke, Naruto, and I will head up there and look around. Meanwhile, you and Sakura stay here." When he spots the mutinous look in her eyes, he adds, "Just to scope things out. We'll need you to show us anything up there that can help us find your teammates, but for now, you have to rest. You're very weak right now, and we're not risking bringing you up there until we're sure it's safe."

Sarada grudgingly nods.

Kakashi appears surprised by her acquiescence, but he oughtn't be. Sarada trusts his advice implicitly, and he might not be the Sixth Hokage right now, but he is still a jōnin and probably knows best.

For now.

Better than her emotionally constipated, idiot father at any rate.

つづく

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