4

1

Sai began his monitoring of Kido.

He learned that the man often acted together with the medical ninja Magire and that he would sometimes make the rounds of safe houses and training facilities, but he didn’t know what Kido was actually doing at any of those places.

Detection tags had been placed around some of the facilities, preventing Sai from casually approaching any of them. It wasn’t impossible for him to infiltrate the bases, but then Kido would know he was investigating. And chasing the man too obviously was not a good plan; Kido would only work harder to hide the evidence. Still, if Sai simply watched him from afar, he wouldn’t make any headway at all. He needed some kind of entry point.

Three days after he began targeting Kido, Sai noticed a small sign attached to a telephone pole on the side of the road on his way back home; a message from Sai’s informer. The meaning of the sign was known only to Sai. The informer wanted to meet with him.

Given that he was currently focused on Kido, there was nothing he particularly wanted to know about the top-level people in the Bingo Book he had asked the informer to investigate. But he had to at least pay for the investigation the man had done.

The next day, Sai met with the informer. This time, it was on the roof of a building in town, rather than in the forest where they had met before.

“The three people you asked me about, Sai? I checked into them, but seems they’re all clean,” the informer said. “The rogue ninja Tenzen from Kiri has been getting up to no good near Kumogakure this whole past year. And Baraki from the Deceased has been absorbed into a different organization, where he apparently doesn’t have the same clout he used to. As for Genba the Soul Remover, he got sick and died about six months ago.”

“Right. Thanks,” Sai said, and paid the promised fee. “Anything else catch your attention?”

“Oh, you know, actually.” A meaningful smile spread across the informer’s face. “If you’re asking about big rumors, then I’ve got one. But it’s probably got nothing to do with what you’re looking into.”

“That’s fine. Just tell me.”

“And is there something in it for me?” The informer rubbed his index and middle fingers against his thumb and grinned.

“Depends on what you know,” Sai replied.

“To investigate the whereabouts of the three people you mentioned,” the informer said, “I went round to all sorts of places. And this little tidbit happened to grace my ears: a story about seeing Uchiha Sasuke.”

“Sasuke?” Sai furrowed his brow slightly. “It doesn’t matter if people see him. He’s on a journey right now to atone for his sins.”

“Mm, I know he’s traveling the world right now. But, you see, the story I heard was not that peaceful.”

“Meaning?”

“For instance, things like he attacked a black-market arms dealer in a cave somewhere, or that he was in contact with a criminal organization in the secret village of a certain nation.”

“Why would Sasuke attack an arms dealer?”

“I don’t really know, myself. But according to the person who told me this tale, Sasuke told this arms dealer he was plotting a terrorist attack on Konoha and demanded a lot of ninja tools for cheap. And, well, obviously, his interlocutor refused. I mean, a demand like that. So Sasuke launched an enormous fireball and killed him. Things like that. With the criminal organization too, negotiations broke off in pretty much the same way, with basically the same ending.”

“When was this?”

“I believe it was a week or two ago.”

Sai shook his head. It couldn’t be. “Sasuke would never do anything like that. It’s some kind of mistake.”

“I completely understand. I’m simply telling you what I happened to hear. Ooh, don’t give me such a threatening look.” The informer ran his hand over his shaved head. “Oh! That and apparently the majority of the next village budget is going to the Anbu.”

Perhaps thinking he had displeased Sai, the informer smiled ingratiatingly and continued. “So I suppose someone brought up the matter about the advisor being attacked you’re looking into now and made a big speech about the Anbu, hmm?”

“You’re a capable informer, you know? Even those details made it to your ears?”

“Heh heh, well, I get around.” The informer’s eyes turned up at the corners.

Sai wanted to leave the place already, but the informer had more to say.

“However, those Anbu, I don’t really understand that organization. I’m sure they do all those assassinations and secret missions implied by the name, but it seems they also do guard duty for important people, as well as investigating the way you are when something happens, right?”

“I’m not on the Anbu register anymore. But, well, it’s true the Anbu is tied up in mystery. I mean, I was in it and I don’t really understand it.”

“And there’s this too, right? Once the fighting’s over, they go to the battlefield and gather all sorts of documents and things?”

Sai’s face pulled into a doubtful frown. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t they have a database of battle records and things? Every now and then, I hear things from people in my line of work, you know. Almost as soon as the Great Ninja War was over, people were seen wearing the masks of Konoha’s Anbu around the Final Valley. Apparently, they were taking earth and bits of rock from the area home with them.”

Sai cocked his head to one side.

It was true that the missions handled by the Anbu covered a lot more ground than simply assassinations, but he had never heard anything about bringing dirt home from a battleground.

“You said this was right after the Great Ninja War?”

“Mm-hmm. And what was the name of that bridge? The bridge where Sasuke and Master Danzo—who didn’t quite manage to become the sixth Hokage—fought that person? I’m not talking about the time where the Anbu were investigating around that bridge, either. Which is why I was wondering if the Anbu people also do work like that.”

Sai crossed his arms and kept his silence. Something the informer had mentioned in the flow of his chatter caught Sai’s attention in a strange way.

“Er, Sai?”

“I’ll be in touch,” Sai said, pushing more money into the informer’s hand before leaving.

2

“The situation doesn’t look good,” was the first thing Kakashi said.

Sakura had been summoned to the Hokage’s office along with Ino, with the message that he wanted to talk about Sasuke.

“Not good, Master?” Sakura walked over to his desk.

“Suna’s not the only place Sasuke’s been seen,” Kakashi said. “More than once.”

Sasuke had apparently been in contact with a number of black-market arms dealers and criminal organizations, and in every case he had announced his intention to carry out a terrorist attack on Konoha. When he demanded the help of these various criminals and was refused, he killed them; the same story Gaara had told them.

“Where did you hear this?” Sakura asked.

“Sai. He heard it from an informer.”

“Sai? Why would Sai be talking to an informer?” Ino raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, well, I asked him to look into something for me. This came up when he was reporting on his progress with that.”

“By ‘look into something,’ you don’t happen to mean what you said before about strange things going on in the village? Is Sai investigating that?” Ino shot off.

“Mmm, well, yes,” Kakashi acknowledged with a wry smile.

“Is he alone? You’re not having him do anything dangerous, right?”

“He’s fine. I told him not to push too hard, and Sai knows how to keep his distance when it comes to things like this. He’s not Naruto,” Kakashi said. He perhaps noticed something in Ino’s constant worrying about Sai’s safety, but he said nothing.

“So Sasuke, then,” Sakura began. “If this keeps up, what will happen to him?”

“If this keeps up, well.” Kakashi cleared his throat before continuing. “He’ll be put on the international wanted list, and people from all over the world will be sent after him.”

Sakura took a sharp breath.

“But, well, it wouldn’t come to that in one go or anything. I expect there’d be a meeting of the five Kage first. Sasuke’s a hero, after all; he saved the world with Naruto. No one’s going to put a man like that on the wanted list without some discussion.”

“So then he’ll be okay?” Ino said, brightly. “I mean, right now, the five Kage are friends. They fought in the Great Ninja War together, so they’ll totally know right away that the Sasuke people are seeing is a fake.”

Can we really be so optimistic as that? The unease in Sakura’s heart only grew at Kakashi’s next words.

“Even if the village chief feels that way, there’s bound to be people in the village who don’t. And the chief is in the position of speaking for the people of the village. If a village starts shouting that Sasuke needs to be eliminated, the five Kage aren’t necessarily going to be on the same page. Some villages might even say we should form groups to go after him.”

“That’s…” Ino’s face clouded over.

“If there is a meeting of the five Kage, please take me with you,” Sakura said, forcefully. “Even if it is a mistake, I can’t let Sasuke be designated a wanted criminal.”

“I know. If a meeting is convened, I’ll bring you. Although, well, if I’m going to be honest, the best thing would be if Sasuke were there to proclaim his own innocence. Where is he and what is he doing?” Kakashi grumbled.

“Have we left messages for him at the contact points?” Ino said.

“Of course. Basically saying a fake Sasuke has shown up, and he needs to get in touch with us now. But no reply yet.”

Ino let out a sigh.

“If Sasuke doesn’t show up,” Sakura said, “then the only thing we can do is prove that the Sasuke people are seeing around now is a fake.”

“True. But can you? The chakra Gaara sensed was Sasuke’s. If there’s a meeting of the five Kage, Gaara will be forced to mention that. And when that happens, me telling them we don’t know how that little trick works is not going to be particularly convincing to the other village chiefs.”

Sakura bit her lip. “Then we’ll just have to prove it,” she said, but her voice was not as strong as her words.

3

The situation was shifting in the direction Kido desired.

The fake Sasuke was, just as Kido had instructed, contacting people who were part of the underworld and killing the people he spoke with, after revealing his intent to commit terrorist acts.

The Kazekage had taken measures to keep any word of the terrorists being killed in Sunagakure from leaking out of his village, but people were gossiping about the many other incidents, and the talk was spreading to all the different regions.

People inevitably talked. The rumors would eventually reach the upper echelons of villages across the land, and then they would come together to discuss just what was to be done about Uchiha Sasuke.

They wouldn’t immediately conclude that Sasuke was to be eliminated. Kido knew that too. The village chiefs would never declare someone who had performed such brave deeds in the Great Ninja War a criminal without argument.

But by the time the situation reached that point, the real Uchiha Sasuke should have taken action. The real Sasuke would cut his trip short and return to Konoha for a time.

That was Kido’s aim. He had openly set this fake into motion to create a situation that would force the real Sasuke to show himself. Upon his return to his village, Sasuke would be captured by Kido’s private army, which had been enhanced with the Tailed Beast drug. And once they captured him—

Kido was in a certain place in the village, a safe house. Alone in the office.

A faint smile rose up onto his lips. “Hurry and show yourself, Uchiha Sasuke,” he murmured. “You are worth your weight in gold. Gold…”

4

Prove that the Sasuke people had seen was a fake.

That’s what she’d said to the Hokage, but even after Sakura set her mind to the problem after returning home, she couldn’t think of a way to actually do it. And instead of focusing on how she could prove he was a fake, her thoughts kept turning to why Sasuke didn’t come back.

Hurry up and come home, Sasuke.

Tell me that the real you would never do anything like that…

A sliver of anxiety wormed its way into her heart. And that sliver kept her from being able to collect her thoughts, so she simply prayed fervently that she would get to see Sasuke again soon.

This is a waste of time.

Thinking that moving her body might clear her mind as well, Sakura left the house and set out walking without any particular destination. But before she knew it, she was on the academy’s doorstep. Perhaps some unconscious desire to get far away from the hustle and bustle of the business district had brought her here.

In the early afternoon, she could hear the voices of the children at school. She decided to watch them for a bit through the fence.

As she walked around to the schoolyard, she saw children around the age of ten practicing their karate kata in pairs. Then she looked over at the teacher giving the lesson.

Oh! It’s Naruto!

“Come on, you guys! Don’t just go through the motions. Seriously, you have to actually think about the next attack and get yourself ready!”

She’d heard that Naruto had started teaching at the academy from time to time as a special lecturer after the Great War. And watching him now, he seemed to be doing an excellent job of it.

“Hey! When you’re done sparring, make sure you weave the sign of reconciliation! Whether you’re strong or weak or whatever, that’s a ninja rule.”

Students who did not follow the kata etiquette got a rap on the head from Naruto.

You were like that too, way back when, Sakura told him in her head and smiled softly.

Once he had given instruction to all the students, Naruto had them line up and bowed with them.

Raising his head, he noticed Sakura. “Hey!” he called out. “Sakura!”

She waved her hand in a small gesture.

“You guys just wait a sec,” Naruto told the children before trotting over to her. “What’s up? You got the day off?”

“Mmm, well, I guess it’s something like that,” Sakura answered. “But look at you. You’re quite the teacher, hmm?”

“Right?” Naruto grinned and rubbed the bottom of his nose with a finger. He then clapped his hands together. “Oh, hey! You’re here now, why don’t you give it a go too? Teach them their kata.”

“What? No, I’m good.”

“Come on, just for a minute. Show them the incredible techniques of a lady ninja with superhuman strength!”

“Now look, you can just stop with the ‘superhuman’ thing—”

“Hey! Guys! A super amazing guest teacher’s come by for you today!” Naruto turned toward the children and shouted, without sparing a second for Sakura’s protests. “Check it out! Superhuman lady ninja teacher, Haruno Sakura!”

“And now you say it a second time!” Just as Sakura shot off this retort, the children joined their voices as one.

“Thank you very much, superhuman teacher!”

“See? This is because you shoot your mouth off!” Sakura said with a snort, but Naruto paid her no mind.

“Hurry up!” he called, returning to the children.

Honestly, this guy…

But now that he had set her up, all Sakura could do was go and teach for a bit. Shaking her head, she stepped into the schoolyard.

When she actually got in there with the children and instructed them on their kata, she noticed that her spirits were unexpectedly lighter.

It was a technical sort of instruction, but the children were all at different levels, so she had to change her method for each child she spoke with. Some digested what she said so quickly it was surprising, while others still couldn’t do it after being told several times. All of it was the individuality of the children.

As she demonstrated the kata, she thought of how to phrase her instructions to meet the needs of each student. Using both her body and her brain like this, she could feel the stagnation blocking her heart these past few days melting away. She was entirely absorbed in teaching until the bell rang.

At the end of the lesson, Naruto made the students line up. “You guys did good. So to finish up, today’s guest teacher, Miss Haruno Sakura, has something very special to say. Listen up.”

“Huh?!” Having been abruptly tossed the baton like this, Sakura was baffled. “H-hold on a minute. What are you talking about?”

“Anything’s fine. Just a few words from a graduate to the kids coming up.”

“Miss Sakura, please be brief,” one of the students said, and those around her laughed. Even in this day and age, there was always someone looking for laughs.

Dammit, Naruto!

Glaring at him out of the corner of her eye, Sakura desperately racked her brains for what to say.

“Er, what should I say? I wasn’t expecting this, so I really will keep it short.”

With the children staring directly at her, Sakura continued, “It was so much fun doing this lesson with you all today. The kata are the foundation of ninja fighting, so don’t neglect them. Practice them a lot, okay?”

To bring things to a close, she said, “And maybe some of you already know about this, but as a medical ninja, I created something called the children’s therapy center. It’s a place where kids who have been through some tough times and are maybe hurting can come and work on getting past that hurt with us. Minds are tricky things, you know. It’s only natural that we can’t know what other people are thinking and feeling, but sometimes we don’t even understand what’s going on in our own minds. We can train with a partner to make our bodies stronger, but how do we make our minds stronger? I want you all to become ninja with strong bodies, of course, but also strong minds. So to make that happen, please fail a lot, please do a lot of embarrassing things, and, well, love a lot of people. If you do, I’m sure…”

∞

“Hup!”

“Thanks.” Sakura took the can of juice Naruto offered.

After the lesson was over, they had gone to a park near the academy. Sitting side by side on a bench, they drank their juice.

“Hey, thanks for helping out with the lesson, Sakura.”

“Sure. It was fun for me too. A nice change of pace.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“But I honestly was surprised, you know. You really have the makings of a great teacher, Naruto.”

“Heh heh. I guess it’s just I was always falling behind, so I totally get how the kids who can’t do it feel, y’know?”

“Right.”

“But I mean, you! You were so great. I just come and teach at the academy sometimes, but you’re actually really working with kids in a real way, right?”

“Not at all. Not me.” Sakura shook her head. Being complimented directly like this was hard somehow. Finishing off the last of her juice, she sighed. “I’m a disaster. I told the kids back there to be ninja with strong minds too, but I’m basically the worst at that right now.”

“Something happen?” Naruto said, and tossed his empty juice can into a garbage can several meters away.

Sakura watched the perfect shot and suddenly felt like telling him everything. “So, Sasuke, okay?”

“Sasuke?”

“People have been seeing Sasuke all over lately. But—”

She hesitated for a second about whether or not it was all right for her to talk with him about it. But in the end, she did. He was going to hear about it sooner or later anyway, and she’d rather he heard it from her.

Naruto listened to the whole story without interrupting. And then he said, “Huh, that so? So that’s what’s happening.” His tone was light, without a hint of seriousness, and Sakura felt somehow letdown.

“‘That so?’ You’re not surprised?”

“Why would I be? I mean, that Sasuke’s a fake, right?”

“He is, but…” Sakura was slightly dissatisfied with his lack of a reaction. She thought he would be surprised or angry or get excited or show a little more emotion of some kind.

“If it’s a fake, then no need to worry. Don’t get too hung up on it, Sakura.”

“But we still don’t know who would make a fake like this or why, you know?”

“I’m telling you, it’s fine,” Naruto said, and smiled at her.

Sakura sighed. “Somehow, talking to you, I end up feeling like I was so silly for worrying like crazy about it. And Sasuke, he hasn’t answered any of the messages we’ve sent—”

“There, that!” Naruto suddenly shouted.

“What? Why are you shouting?”

“Sasuke’s not answering, so I’m not worried either.”

“I totally do not understand.”

“Okay, look.” He scratched his head as if trying to figure out how to put it before continuing. “The fact that he hasn’t come back to the village even though there’s some fake of him hanging around means he doesn’t think it’s a big deal either.”

“Sasuke doesn’t?” Sakura murmured. He doesn’t think it’s a big deal…

“If he was here, he’d say, ‘Don’t call me to the village over something so trivial. You guys take care of it,’” Naruto said, imitating Sasuke.

Sakura burst out laughing. And then, as if the fog had cleared away, she realized Naruto was right. What was she moping around for? She switched tracks from her negative thoughts and sat up straighter.

“Right. That’s it, isn’t it?”

The fact that Sasuke hadn’t come back to the village was because Sasuke himself didn’t see the current matter as particularly serious. It was a very Naruto-like, simple, clear-cut opinion, but his words were exactly what Sakura needed at that moment.

A smile naturally spread across her lips.

“It’s the best when you smile, Sakura, y’know?” Naruto said, and grinned wide enough to show his teeth.

Sakura took a deep breath. It was a sign of how her mood had changed that even the air tasted good.

“Thanks, Naruto,” she said, standing up. “I feel better after talking to you.”

“Heh heh heh,” Naruto laughed. “But, y’know, Sakura, that Sasuke’s such a headache. I mean, always giving you trouble like this.”

Naruto playing at the big brother was so ridiculous that Sakura burst out laughing again.

5

The day after she talked with Naruto, Sasuke reached out to Tsunade and said she wanted her advice.

Just past noon, the two women squeezed into a table at a restaurant and faced each other.

Tsunade already knew Sasuke had been seen in a variety of places. It might have been a while since she stepped down as village chief, but Kakashi sent subordinates from time to time to keep her informed of important matters.

“The Sasuke people are seeing simply can’t really be him. But Gaara said he had the same chakra. And I can’t think of anything plausible to explain that,” Sakura said.

“Hmm.” Tsunade crossed her arms. “A method of mimicking not just face and body, but also chakra…”

“Apparently, there’s a shinobi in the Anbu who uses a jutsu like that, but he’s off on a mission right now. He doesn’t seem to have anything to do with any of this. Do you have any ideas, Master?”

Chakra couldn’t be copied with transformation jutsu, and the user of a shape-shifting jutsu couldn’t make a copy of any kind unless they had access to Sasuke.

“It’s a tough one,” Tsunade said, after a few moments of silence. “I can’t think of anything off the top of my head other than what you just suggested. It’s not as though White Zetsu survived, after all.”

“I don’t think he did.”

Silence descended on the table.

Finally, after wetting her lips with sake, Tsunade offered, “Still, the most likely option is shape-shifting jutsu.”

“But in that case, there would be a connection between the user and Sasuke.”

“Mmm. His own chakra would have to be split and given to the copy. But if the user somehow managed to absorb Sasuke’s chakra without him noticing it and gave it to the copy, that could create a situation in which the fake ran rampant without Sasuke’s being aware of it.”

“Without Sasuke noticing?”

“Right. But that wouldn’t happen.” Tsunade rejected the idea immediately. “It’s hard to think of a situation where someone as skilled as Sasuke would have his chakra absorbed without him knowing it.”

“That’s true.” Sasuke nodded slightly. But she felt like it was worth pushing and digging deeper into this idea of Tsunade’s.

The fact that the fake had Sasuke’s face and body was no serious problem. The transformation jutsu itself was not particularly high level. The real issue was that the chakra was the same. And just as Tsunade noted, chakra could be absorbed from an opponent and passed on to someone else. Transferring, substituting, moving—these things were all possible with chakra.

So there had been a transfer of Sasuke’s chakra without Sasuke’s knowing about it.

What sort of trick would be involved in something like that? Sakura had the feeling her fingertips had finally touched upon something after groping around in the dark.

“Without he himself realizing it,” she murmured, and then looked down at the ground, concentrating hard. As she gently tucked behind her ears the hair hanging down on both sides of her face, she had a sudden flash of insight. “Hair…”

“What’s the matter?” Tsunade looked dubious.

“Master Tsunade,” Sakura said. “Hypothetically speaking, would it be possible to extract a person’s chakra from something like their hair or skin?”

“Hair?” Tsunade said. “Well, I suppose it’s not impossible. Although it would be an extremely small amount. Basically, as long as the material contained some component of the person, in theory, it’s possible. In that sense, you wouldn’t be limited to hair; blood or sweat would work too. But there are a lot of conditions at play here—how was it stored, how much time since the material was taken from the person. Sakura, so you think…?”

“It’s just a thought that crossed my mind. I don’t have any real confidence in the idea. But when I started thinking about Sasuke’s chakra being used without him knowing it, that’s what popped into my head.”

“Get ahold of Sasuke’s hair or skin and then, from there, his chakra,” Tsunade mused, staring out into space. “That’s not a bad line of thought. Technically, it would be fairly difficult, but I feel like it’s closer to the truth than anything else we’ve talked about.”

“But assuming that someone is making Sasuke’s chakra like that, how are they passing it on to the copy?”

“We’ll have to think about that too. Did they do some kind of cosmetic surgery, or maybe give it to the fake in a capsule form, like a drug?”

There were too many threads to pull at here. But at least she had a starting point for her wandering thoughts now.

“Master, thank you so much. I’m going to think about this a bit more by myself,” Sasuke thanked Tsunade.

“Good luck, Sakura.” Tsunade nodded. “I’d see you through to the end of this discussion, but I am actually retired. I’ll leave the rest to you lot.”

“Please do that, Master.” Sakura nodded firmly.

Because Sasuke would have told us to deal with it ourselves too…

∞

Tsunade said she would stay and drink a bit longer, so Sakura left her and headed out of the restaurant.

She figured she would try to find some books or documents that might serve as a reference at Konoha Hospital and started to walk in that direction, when someone called her name from behind.

“Sakura!”

Turning around, she saw Sai walking toward her. “Sai.”

“On your way back from lunch?”

“Mm-hmm, with Master Tsunade. I was just thinking I’d go and look up some things at the hospital.”

“Oh yeah?” He fell in step alongside her, saying he had business at the Hokage’s Office.

“I heard, you know,” Sakura said, remembering what the Hokage had told her. “You’re looking into that thing where the daimyo was attacked, right?”

“Master Kakashi told you?” Sai asked.

“Yeah. I was in his office with Ino yesterday, and he told us.”

“He did? Well, I guess it’s only natural he’d tell you guys,” Sai said, almost muttering.

She started to ask if his investigation was getting anywhere and stopped herself. She felt like she shouldn’t really intrude on him too much. Sai probably gave encouragement or advice to himself when he needed it.

“By the way, did you hear about Sasuke?” Sai asked, dropping his voice.

Sasuke nodded yes. “But actually, Ino and I found out before you. When we were on that trip to Suna, Gaara told us about it.” Sakura told him about the trip.

“So even his chakra was the same as Sasuke’s?” Sai was surprised.

“Uh-huh. Gaara said it was in the Sasuke he saw.”

“The informant who told me about Sasuke didn’t mention the chakra part.” The look on Sai’s face was grim.

“But I thought of something when I was talking with Master Tsunade before. Chakra can be transferred. So maybe Sasuke’s chakra is being used for evil purposes right now without him knowing about it.”

“Without him knowing…”

Sakura went on to tell Sai about the theory she had come up with while talking with Tsunade earlier.

“Hair or skin, huh?” Sai murmured, and abruptly stopped moving.

“What’s wrong?” Sakura looked back at him.

Face still grim, Sai brought a hand to his chin.

Just as Sakura was about to prompt him, Sai said, “Sakura, you mind coming to the Hokage’s office with me?”