Sakura was a bright girl. She picked up walking and talking faster than any of her peers, which gave cause for her proud shinobi parents to declare her a prodigy. Most tellingly, the great bloodlust of the nine-tailed fox, the hateful malevolence inimical to all humans, barely disturbed her sleep.

In the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the natural place for geniuses to go is the Ninja Academy.

Once there, she flourished in the academic subjects, but found herself middle of the road at best when it came to the more physical facets of the career. As there wasn’t currently a war going on, she was subtly encouraged to form bonds with her peers, to train her body over her already-splendid mind, and to not rush towards the battlefield.

It worked exactly as intended. While a more rigorous regimen might have created a jounin out of the girl sooner, Kakashi agreed that it was better to give her a more ordinary career, more time to develop her skills before being thrust into the spotlight of being a Genius.

Besides, she balanced out Sasuke and Naruto nicely. She wasn’t terribly committed to the ninja lifestyle (which was another reason), and that sensibility backed by her iron will already let Sasuke relax a bit, even if she immediately tried to parlay that into something romantic. It was a child’s crush, wanting the thing that was written of so fancifully, the idea of love more than anything else.

It was why, when he submitted his students to the Chuunin Exams, he expected them to learn a valuable lesson that the Wave mission didn’t, because no one mission could teach all one needed to know. But he didn’t expect them to run into anything that they couldn’t handle, all three of his students were fine ninja.

He was wrong.

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“Tch. Of course.” Tanya muttered as she noticed her alarm trap triggered. She could feel their killing intent from here.

Despite the intended goal being to essentially renew herself, she hesitated to actually break her mind apart, so she made sure there was a process to re-absorb all of that knowledge and just enough memories to understand the context of them. The foundations of herself were stable enough that she doubted she’d ever become someone she could not abide, so while it was a large risk, she had thought it through.

Sadly, one of her more desperate contingencies had activated. The elder ninja, Orochimaru, had executed a telepathic attack with his killing intent (an interesting technique, to be sure) and it had affected Sakura badly enough that it counted as an intrusion, unlocking not only her secret memories but also bringing forth the Argent.

Doing something so unstable in the presence of someone so deadly… she should have died. That was partially the point, after all. Just a little ‘fuck you’ to whoever tried to kill her, with a chance of being mentally whole in her fifth life.

But Orochimaru, in addition to being a psychopath, was also a scientist. He was intrigued as to her ‘bloodline limit’ as he put it, and attempted to use his mental invasion seal on her as well.

That… had almost worked. She fought it off, but the damage… Sakura was dead. Only the barest scraps of her personality remained, unsalvageable. It was tragic, but she had some children to save. She had managed to save enough memories that she had a pretty clear idea of what was going on, fortunately. Even if she didn’t like having to be signed up for the military again.

Unfortunately, Naruto was struggling from what Sakura’s memories said was some kind of elaborate seal on his stomach, although how the snake managed to put so many symbols on the boy so fast instead of just gutting him… Well, if there was any reason for her to doubt that Orochimaru let them live on purpose, that killed it. Sasuke was still out, suffering from the infestation she had fought off. She needed to figure out how to astrally project with this chakra stuff…

As usual, thinking of the insensate boy sent unfamiliar flutters through her stomach, her pulse speeding up and her face warming. One of the few connections that had remained from the old Sakura was the childish crush on the boy, as Tanya had prioritized her strongest bonds with people second only after the raw memories.

Still, a crisis was at hand and her resources were limited. Address that later. She had taken all of the various trapmaking materials her teammates had on them and assembled what she could during the break. The enemies were cautious, having noticed the alarm and then started carefully disarming them from outside the danger area, paying very close attention to any manual triggers.

None of the techniques Sakura learned would be useful here. So… time to start improvising. She cycled through handsigns, molding her psychic energy with her body’s energy together and feeling out the kind of effect she wanted. Genjutsu usually used… yes, this feels right. Her experience with magic and psychic energy was very useful for this kind of thing, she noticed. She cleared the chakra out of her coils and started from the beginning. “Yin release: Promise of Victory.” As the hypnotic jutsu settled in, Tanya took one of her explosive tags and prepared to throw the attached kunai.

“We’re clear!” The lead ninja said, when that was emphatically not the case.

The girl seemed to be a bit more attuned to genjutsu, though. The method Tanya had used was different, but in a way it was even more blatant to those who could resist it. “No, you idi-”

It was too late. The boy ninjas blew right past her triggers, and while one managed to recover by showing his jutsu hand, metaphorically and literally, using a wind technique to blow away the projectiles, the other one got clipped by the swinging log, breaking his arm. He was able to recover, throwing himself onto another tree… which was exactly where Tanya threw her explosive the instant he had committed to the movement.

One down.

She was exhausted, she was grieving, and she was worried for her teammates. She had little illusion that she would be able to defeat both of her enemies.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to.

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Once the cavalry’s battle with the remaining two sound ninja was finished, Sasuke had woken up. The psychic aura of Orochimaru lingered and surged with his consciousness, but it calmed down as Sasuke realized the danger had passed.

“Are you alright?” Rock Lee asked, concerned for her safety. What a nice boy. She felt nothing for him, though. Whatever Sakura felt for him, it was gone. Tanya spent a moment going through the memories… Ah. She met the boy recently, he flirted with her.

“I’m a little light-headed.” She lied, “But that’s just adrenaline.” She added, “I’ll be fine.”

“Hn.” Sasuke grunted, looking through the cave at the six other leaf ninja.

Tanya shifted her expression to the utmost of seriousness. “There was a foreign jounin that tried to kill us.” She said seriously. “He infected Sasuke with his soul, and hit Naruto with a nasty seal.”

“...Soul? Really?” Ino said skeptically. From Sakura’s memories, this girl used to be her best friend… but Tanya felt nothing but a pang of jealousy. Was that it?

“Well, he hit me with it too, but I awoke a… bloodline limit? I think? Which protected me.” Tanya clarified. It was not the best explanation, but it worked for now by admitting she might be wrong. “It’s a part of himself that’s supposed to burrow into your mind.” She took a moment to let that sink in. “He said it was a gift, a recruitment incentive to desert Konoha and join him.”

Naruto started to wake up, which was quite the nice coincidence, that the two boys woke up close to each other. Sasuke spoke next: “What kind of bloodline limit?” He asked intensely, his determined glare one of the most adorable things Tanya had ever seen.

“I can elaborate later, but tactically speaking, I have an abundance of Yin chakra and an enhanced intuition when it comes to using it productively.” Tanya said carefully. “So expect me to pull out some unusual improvisations. A full explanation will be provided when the test is over and I can include Kakashi in the explanation.”

“Ah, what hit me?” Naruto asked.

“A jounin, apparently.” Shikamaru snarked. Tanya also felt nothing for this boy, but her memories were pretty sparse on him anyway.

“Orochimaru hit you in the stomach with an elaborate seal.” Tanya informed him, which caused the rest of them to freeze.

“Damn snake bastard!” Naruto shouted, clutching his stomach. He also looked around nervously. Hm?

“Pardon me,” Neji said. He was one of Rock Lee’s teammates. “-but did you say Orochimaru? The traitor?”

Tanya paused, trawling through the carefully husbanded academic knowledge Sakura accumulated. Orochimaru… Ah. Current military dictator’s personal student, fled justice after ‘atrocities’. The history text was sparse, but it didn’t seem terribly concerning at the time. Still, she needed to deflect. “...I think I need to lie down.” She said, faking dizziness. “I can barely think.”

Shikamaru snorted at the assertion. He must have seen through her faking. Troublesome. “If that’s barely thinking, I think I’d like to play shogi with you.”

“I’m quite good.” Tanya warned him, which only provoked a grin. She had played a lot of games in her time. But… has she ever as Sakura? She wasn’t sure. “Now, I believe there is the matter of the scroll?”

“It’s ours.” Neji asserted.

Ino huffed. “Oh no it isn’t! It’s ours!”

“First, we should assess: Who has which scrolls?” Tanya pointed out. “Our first scroll is Heaven.” Orochimaru had attempted to burn it, but that was very shortly after he unleashed his killing intent, which meant saving that was the first thing Tanya did, when all she had to go on was ‘enemy is trying to do something’. “The one that was on the body is Earth.”

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“Tch. Troublesome.” Shikamaru muttered, “We have Earth too.” Lucky!

“We have both.” The girl in Rock Lee’s team, who had never introduced herself, said.

“Then if you could, as fellow Leaf ninja, assist us in getting to the tower despite our injuries, I would owe you a debt.” Tanya said diplomatically.

“...Sakura, are you sure you’re okay?” Ino asked. Hm, she must be acting far out of character. It was a little disheartening to know that her other self was a boor, but it is what it is. She should have been given the chance to bloom.

Tanya smiled fakely, deliberately conveying brittleness. “I am not. I will never be the Sakura you knew again. But that explanation can wait.” Best not to lead her on.

At Ino’s devastated expression, Tanya immediately regretted it. She thought they weren’t that close and/or disliked each other!

“Of course we will help you!” Rock Lee proclaimed. “If I cannot escort you safely, I will run around the Forest of Death twenty times along the fence in penance! I only ask that you go out on a date with me!”

Tanya was caught a bit off guard at the forwardness, but remembered that she was not the ancient brain in a robot, but instead a young girl again. Tanya’s eyes drifted back to Sasuke, who kept his face passive. Her empathy wasn’t quite working at full capacity, but what remnants of the skill persisted in this world indicated that he was feeling a mite possessive.

…Well, inciting jealousy was a time honored method of goading recalcitrant romantic partners, and she was currently leaning towards keeping that most precious childish wish of Sakura’s… “Okay. I’ll give you a chance. Impress me.” Tanya said calmly. “Start with carrying Naruto, whatever that seal is, it’s really messing up his chakra.” Naruto winced at that, presumably embarrassed at the frank admission of weakness from her.

Ino gaped. “Are you drunk?” She asked, genuinely.

Tanya polled the memories again. “...I thought you’d be ecstatic that I’m exploring other options.” She said, tilting her head.

“Yes, but… Look at him!” Ino said, gesturing wildly.

“Ouch.” Choji, who had been snacking this whole time, said. “He’s right there, Ino.”

“Nothing you say can quench my flames of youth!” Rock Lee shouted jubilantly. “I have a date with the beautiful Sakura!” He lifted Naruto in a fireman’s carry, to the boy’s strenuous objections, and leapt to a tree. “Let us be off!”

Tanya turned to Sasuke. “How are you?”

“Hn. I can still fight.” Sasuke said, which set off another cascade of feelings that Tanya enjoyed for a moment before following Rock Lee. Fortunately, chakra reinforcement and psychic reinforcement were basically the same thing. The former was even easier, in fact.

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Once their old schoolteacher (who Tanya had not managed to save any kind of information about, not even in memories related to subjects the man had taught) had finished explaining to them their pass, they had two more days to wait until they could leave the forest. Even explaining Orochimaru’s actions only got a ‘the Hokage knows about Orochimaru already and has sent a task force’ which was probably because of that large snake the man summoned, if she had to guess, and a ‘international treaties mean that you’re stuck with the medical care you can provide yourselves only unless you’re pulling out of the exam’. Iruka heavily hinted that they should pull out.

Tanya wanted to, but Sasuke and Naruto both refused. So, it was up to her.

“What are you doing?” Sasuke asked, lying shirtless on the ground.

Tanya hummed as she strained her senses to attempt to divine what was going on. “You’re the one who rejected competent help.” Tanya said, “So I’ll need to try this my way.” She had been studying the differences between chakra and psychic energy for a few hours, and she thinks she can manage... “Yin release: Astral projection.”

Just as planned, her mind projected outside of her body, which now slumped down. Hm. She wonders… dry. Okay, it doesn’t work like that here. That’s good. Now, for the hard part…

“Sakura?” Sasuke asked, her name on his lips sending a shiver down her spine that she felt even without a spine. Having a crush was so inconvenient… But nice. How long would it linger, she wondered? “Did you just do this so you could sleep on my back?”

Tanya dove into Sasuke’s head.

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There was a red moon with an odd symbol illuminating a residential area. It was far more… based in reality compared to other minds she’s seen, the architecture was all sensible and there weren’t any voids or hazards.

This is probably a memory.

Tanya checked themselves. As expected, she had taken her old astral appearance, her own with just enough age to be distinguished without being withered. When she was about forty-five, in other words. Still… she should modify her appearance.

With a single hand seal, her astral body now looked like her current physical body aged up to a similar level. Well, if her projections vis a vis her measurements were unduly influenced by her old svelte body, that was just how it went. She did make sure to lengthen her hair, though. It now fell down to the small of her back.

Still, Tanya started walking. There wasn’t anything in the actual geography that directed her anywhere in particular, but by obeying her intuition, she went straight towards where the mind would naturally drift.

In this case, a massacre.

Hm, did she know about this already? From Sakura’s memories… ah! Sasuke was the last survivor of his large family, who were all killed in a single night. A massive tragedy.

The one murdering all of the black-haired black/red-eyed people was a black-haired young teenager with sharp cheekbones and red eyes, the same symbol reflected in the moon. As typical for a memory, the murderer didn’t acknowledge her presence, and she walked along, paying attention to the smaller details.

Oddly, there weren’t many to see. Typically, a mental image like this would have distortions that reflect thoughts of the place instead of a relatively clean recollection. Instead, all that was here was the memory, with melting shadows showing the frayed edges of it.

Hm… what would explain this? It could just be a different mental construction in this world… wait. Construction. Was this… a psychic construct?

Tanya looked at the one metaphorical piece of this place: the Moon. “Hmmmm…” Tanya reached up and clenched her fist around the moon, focusing her will to execute her task. After a great exertion of effort, using a trick of perspective that only ever works in mental worlds, the moon crumbled in her grip.

The red tinge of the memory faded, and instead the place was awash in moonlight and darkness. The boy-murderer’s eyes did not change, but he wept as he executed his grim task, and there was a second murderer, a man wearing a mask and wielding a kusarigama attached to a war fan. The masked man slipped through solid objects effortlessly, avoiding counterattacks from the resistance that was now visible.

“Interesting…” Tanya murmured as she followed the boy-murderer, the focus of the memory, to a house.

Before this killing, there was a dramatic confrontation, which… yes, a younger Sasuke walked in on right as the murderer killed… his parents? Yes, his parents.

“If you want to kill me,” The boy-murderer, Sasuke’s big brother Itachi, said, “-despise me, hate me, live a loathesome life. You will become a rival for me to measure my vessel against… you have that hidden potential.” With madness in his eyes, he continued: “This is why I’m allowing you to live, for my sake. One day, when you have the same eyes I do, come and stand before me!”

His eyes flashed red… and so did the entire mental world as Sasuke screamed. The moon had returned to its previous state, and Itachi’s tears were gone, replaced with an expression of insane satisfaction.

Hmmmm… interesting. Whatever method Itachi used to create this hypnotic technique, it is quite potent. It’s also horrific, and Tanya wants to rip the boy’s spine out through his throat, but it also seemed like… Itachi was deliberately casting himself as the villain. Why conceal the other actor? It was a mystery.

But as interesting as this was, and she really should address it eventually… This is not why she’s here. She started moving in earnest, trying to find a deeper portion of the mind beyond the constructed trauma carousel that blanketed it.

“...It occurs to me that it’s been over a century since I’ve actually done a solo mind delve in a hostile mind.” Tanya muttered to herself. It didn’t really come up in everyday life. When was the last time? Oh, it has been less than a century. It was to help soothe Mary’s great granddaughter after that unfortunate business. “How does it go again?” Eventually, she found a shrine that had an ominous stairway leading down. Perfect. Like riding a bike.

Oddly, the basement of the shrine looked like an actual basement. Weird. There was a half-obscured tablet that… seemed to outline secret magic eye lore. Interesting. So when Itachi mentioned his weirder-than-normal eyes, he meant this ‘Magenkyo Sharingan’, which is attained by killing your closest friend.

But in the shadowy limits of the memory, she heard the shuffling of scales, the movement of a snake. It was subtle, but there. “Orochimaru!” She shouted, “Leave this place, or I will remove you.”

The symbol on Sasuke’s neck, the seal that Orochimaru bit onto him, appeared on the floor, and a mental projection of the man rose out of it. “Well, how curious.” He said, lucid in a way that archetypes or constructs weren’t. A true sliver of himself, then. “I’m afraid if you are trying to pique my interest by approaching my age, you’re wasting your time.” he said drily. “I’ve never subscribed to that sex and romance nonsense.”

“Same.” Tanya said, nodding along. “But I wanted to see if I could experience it. It was working. You ruined that.”

“...Oh. You’re not Sakura at all.” Orochimaru said, surprised. “You’re someone else. How fascinating. Why pretend to be such a useless little girl?”

“Because I got bored after my first century and a half and wanted to try again.” Tanya said, tapping her foot. Well, the more important consideration was that her mental faculties were on a steady decline, but her stated reason was also correct.

Orochimaru gaped. “...You’ve cracked the secret of immortality?” He asked in wonder. “Tell me! What jutsu do you use?” His composure had cracked. He really wanted it.

Tanya shook her head ruefully. “I’m afraid I can’t help you.” She said, feeling somewhat sympathetic to the monster after seeing the desperation in his eyes. “You are merely a fragment, after all.”

The projection startled. “Oh, yes. Of course. I am not a shadow clone, even if you told me I’d need to rejoin myself. But I’ll eventually do that.”

Humming, Tanya thought about her odds of tricking him. “If you allow me to extract you, and instead sequester you in an object seal to return to your original self, I will tell you everything I know of my immortality.”

Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed. “Ah. You don’t know why you’re immortal.” He said, spitting to the side. He saw through her deception easily.

Tanya shook her head. “No, I know why, it’s just not voluntary on my part. I wouldn’t know how to apply it to you.”

“Hm. Decisions, decisions…” He took a moment to assess the deal. “...No, the Sharingan is too valuable. I will decline your offer.”

“Then die.” Tanya said, golden cracks forming on her astral self.

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Tanya returned to her new body with a bit of a headache, but that was normal. The seal on Sasuke’s neck spurted like a punctured artery, the liquid quickly evaporating while the remnants of the seal flaked and sublimated away. “That should do it.” She said smugly, swatting Sasuke’s back. After a beat, Tanya turned him over. “Oh, he passed out.” He looked so broody even while asleep. It was cute.

“Well, what do we have here?” A literal snake wrapped around Tanya’s neck, startling her at the sudden arrival. Ah, she got distracted! Orochimaru’s back! The snake lifted her tiny preteen body and turned it to face…

…Wait, no. That was just the proctor, Anko. Out of her sleeve was the snake that was lifting her up. It wasn’t even a constrictor snake, so it was vaguely impressive that it could even support her weight. Tanya calmed down after the snake flicked its tongue on a major vein, just lightly enough to make clear where the venom would be injected if she was anything but compliant. “I was instructed that while medical supplies were provided, medical nin were only to be accessed if we were to forfeit.” She explained calmly. “As I was outvoted, I had to administer such aid on my own.” She waved her hand in Sasuke’s direction. “So, I did.”

Anko’s eyes narrowed. “...Are you telling me that you managed to cure the Cursed Seal of Heaven?” She asked,

Tanya stared at the proctor unflinchingly. “It was barely attached. I imagine if I had given it time to burrow into him it would have been difficult to fix with such a simple procedure.” At least, that made sense to her. She wasn’t really involved with the Psychonauts except peripherally when that epidemic of malicious psychics inserting pieces of themselves into other people’s minds was happening, and she knew time was a factor then. She was unclear on the specifics.

Whatever knowledge the proctor had, and given the snakes may be the old ninja’s student or daughter, on the nature of Sasuke’s affliction, Tanya’s explanation seemed to make sense to her so she let the snake let go of Tanya’s neck. “You get to live.” Anko announced, “For now.” She added.

Tanya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. If this much weirdness was enough to call for an execution, Kakashi wouldn’t have survived to his current age. “Does your presence mean that the exam is over?” She asked politely.

“No, but as the proctor I can medically disqualify people.” Anko said bluntly. “...Looks like the Uchiha brat’s fine enough to continue.” She looked around. “Where’s the orange brat?”

Tanya shrugged. “Last I checked he was networking with the foreign ninja downstairs. But that was before the procedure, and…” She stretched her back a bit. “-I’d guess that was about four hours ago.” It was about noon to one when she started right after lunch, and she was feeling a little hungry again.

“It’s five in the evening.” Anko supplied.

“Yes, four hours.” Tanya confirmed, “I’ll summon him.” She walked to the stairwell and took a deep breath before shouting: “NARUTO! GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!”

“Coming, Sakura!” Naruto shouted back. After about twenty seconds, the ninja in question was right in front of her. “Are you okay now?” He asked, oddly pleased with his rude summoning, “I was beginning to think you’d never yell at me again!” He laughed at his own joke.

Tanya sighed. “I’ll explain everything once we can get Kakashi to listen too. It’s a long story, and I don’t want to continually repeat it.” She gestured to Naruto, turning towards Anko. “Here he is.” She said.

Anko grabbed Naruto’s shirt and pulled him into the room where Sasuke was peacefully sleeping. “Okay brat, show me the seal.” She said bluntly. Naruto flinched, nervously glancing at Sakura. “I need to see what that bastard did to you.” She elaborated, “She told me there was a seal on your stomach, so as the proctor I’m going to check it out. If you don’t, I’m going to disqualify your ass and then the Hokage’ll look at it instead.”

Naruto took a deep breath and visibly put on his mask of bravado. “Ah, it’s fine! Nothing to worry about!” He took off his jacket and shirt, now matching Sasuke. He looked at his blank stomach in confusion. “Uh…”

Anko sighed. “Channel chakra.” She ordered, taking out a piece of paper from her pocket. Naruto formed a ram seal and did so, causing the ink to appear on his stomach. “Okay, so…” She looked between the paper and the seal. Glancing at it, Tanya noticed that it was a copy of the seal, except for… “These five marks aren’t supposed to be there.” Anko muttered to herself, taking out a brush and inking the copy with them. “Okay, you’re done.” Anko declared. Naruto stopped channeling chakra. “I’ll take this to the Hokage.”

Well, glad to see that things are operating with at least somewhat reasonable speed.

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The ruling from on-high on Naruto’s seal was ‘it can wait’, which was not what Tanya wanted to hear but she supposed in an international competition there was a need to be seen as impartial with the contestants.

The third exam was a publicized tournament, and due to scheduling issues there could only be so many contestants, the seventeen passes too much. A brief set of one versus one matches were used to thin the herd, with one person getting a “random” pass to make nine contestants. That person was Naruto, which meant that he could immediately get his seal problem treated. Given that he was selected first, this was blatantly rigged in his favor.

The results weren’t particularly important. Sasuke fought Kiba, who was a boy who fought by training his dog how to use ninjutsu to turn into a copy of him, letting them tag-team Sasuke. Unfortunately for him, Sasuke was too skilled and composed to let such a disadvantage defeat him, crushing both the dog and the boy with ease.

Tanya found themselves sighing simultaneously with Ino at the victory, heart fluttering. “So cool…” She murmured, riding out the novelty of having a crush instead of suppressing it like she kind of wanted to.

Her own battle was against probably the strongest enemy: Gaara. He gave off the same desperate vibe that she saw frequently when dealing with others who had empowered survival drives. So she decided to immediately forfeit, as Kakashi had arrived and advised her to do so.

Now that that was over with, it was time to finally face the music. The day after those preliminaries, after faking normal interactions with Sakura’s parents, she gathered everyone who was invested in Sakura’s announcement in one place and, once everyone’s attention had been gathered, took a deep breath.

“Hello. I have some bad news for you all: Sakura is dead. I’m sorry.” She said, bowing in apology.

Predictably, it took some time to get everyone to calm down from that.