Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 1 - Best Laid Plans
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 3378
Summary: AU. Sakura gives up on Kakashi as a teacher after Team 7 falls apart. Too bad fate, enemy ninja, and sheer bad luck have other plans.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 1 of ? Unbeta'd.
Notes: Because, yes, yes I needed to start posting another in-progress story.

"I hate him!" Sakura bursts out, waving her handful of weeds for extra emphasis. Clumps of dirt escape the weeds to smack her cheek and leave dirty trails down her already dirty clothes and arms. Her hands are lost causes entirely. "It's entirely his fault! Sasuke left and then Naruto left too and then I'm here all alone and I had to find my own teacher because he is just that useless."

"Don't be shy," Ino comments dryly, from where she's watering her father's more expensive, delicate plants, "tell me how you really feel."

Sakura tosses her weeds in the bucket Ino has thoughtfully provided for that and goes to work yanking out more of them. The spikey stems bite into her fingers and the roots cling to the soil and resist her as she works. It's an excellent form of stress relief.

Another handful gets pulled from the dirt with a rip that she can feel all up her arm. "I don't think," Sakura says, "that he ever spared a single thought for me. I didn't notice at first that he was obsessed with Sasuke because…" she falters and a look from Ino has her sighing and telling the truth, "because I was obsessed with Sasuke and so it seemed natural that he would be too. And no one can ignore Naruto, even though almost everyone tries. But me? He could ignore me," Sakura says bitterly. "Sasuke cared even less. Only Naruto paid any attention and that's just… augh!"

She kicks the bucket and then stomps after it angrily to go and pick up the mess it's strewed around. When Ino doesn't laugh, doesn't even crack a smile, Sakura mentally upgrades her friendship with her from 'tentative-post-rivalry-BFF' to just 'BFF'.

"Well," Ino says, "at least the joke's on them now, right? I mean, you're getting personally trained by Tsunade, the Hokage, and your sensei is left with the shame of being so bad at teaching that one of his students went evil and the other two found their own teachers." Ino wrinkles her nose. "Which, seriously, that's ridiculous levels of bad." Ino considers that. "Maybe even legendary levels of bad."

"Unless there's worse out there, whose teams died and so no one can complain about the teaching. Hard to do that when you're dead, I guess," Sakura says moodily. "But it still is utterly unfair that I got shafted. Am I that ignorable?"

"Not to me," Ino says firmly, a funny little smile on her lips. "Now come on, kill those weeds and then we'll go get ice cream and plan how you can ignore him. After all, turnabout is fair play and he's no longer your sensei."

"Do you think he'll even notice?" Sakura asks doubtfully.

"If he doesn't," Ino says bluntly, "then he never cared at all about Team Seven. You're all that's left of it."

Sakura flinches at that truth. "And if he does?"

"Then he gets to figure out how to fix it. He owes you, Sakura. Remember that."

"I will," Sakura says, scowling. "Believe me, I will."

The plan they wind up going with is simple. Almost too simple to even be considered a plan but Sakura decides that it's the best one and Ino, after some deliberation of their more elaborate (but impractical) options agrees reluctantly.

The entire plan can be summed up as: Sakura will live her life as if Kakashi-sensei does not exist.

Neither of them thinks this will be overly complicated. After all, Kakashi-sensei has zero reason to come and see her (this realization had had Sakura reaching for another bowl of ice cream) and she had even less reason to go and see him now that she had a proper teacher who knew how valuable a student she was. (That was Ino's contribution.)

Day one goes astonishingly well. So does day two and day three and all the way through day seven. Sakura finds that the longer she pretends Kakashi-sensei doesn't exist, the easier it is to pretend that she really doesn't notice the fact that he stops by once a day, while she's training and whenever he's not on a mission, to watch her and Tsunade-shishou.

He never says anything, so ignoring him is made easier. The fact that it makes her feel like she's holding bits of glass in her hands, Sakura tells herself, is something that will pass. She just has to get used to it. There is no Team Seven. The sooner her feelings cotton on to that, the better it'll be for everyone involved.

Right?

Another week and six days pass in a similar manner, with her training in the fine art of being a medic nin going extraordinary well.

As Sakura trudges home from the hospital, tired and with aching hands (running chakra through them for hours is something Tsunade-shishou says will get more comfortable with practice) she finds herself in a hopeful mood. She'd read, in some silly book of superstitions borrowed from Ino, that it took three weeks, twenty-one days, for a new habit to really stick. If she was lucky, then she'd get through the next day and it would no longer feel quite as hard.

Of course, when had she ever been that lucky?

Tsunade stares at her ANBU guards and resists the urge, barely, to toss them all out so she can get drunk as quickly as possible. Three things stop her from doing just that. One, Shizune will find a way to make her life miserable if she does. Two, while Sakura has made an admirable effort for putting the nasty business with her team behind her, it's painfully obvious to Tsunade that her student wishes things had gone better and probably doesn't really want anything horrific to happen to her former teammates.

She considers that a moment. Probably, Tsunade decides, is definitely the most important word in that point.

Third, and most important, is that she knows exactly the state that Konoha is in right now and they cannot afford to have one of their most efficient Jounin out of action especially not when he's been taking ANBU missions, at her request.

"You're sure," Tsunade says, like she wishes they really weren't, "that he's lost all memory?"

ANBU Cat shifts uncomfortably. "We're uncertain if it is memory loss, Hokage-sama. But Morino-san and Hiromasa-san are with him at the moment but currently estimate that his memories only extend to a point five years ago. Anything after, he has no recollection of."

"I want to see him," she says, standing and picking up official hat of office. Tsunade doesn't feel she's worthy of the hat but there's some places that protocol, even by her, must be observed. "One of you come with me."

The two agents exchange glances. "I'll attend you," ANBU Ferret says, his voice low and rumbly. "ANBU Cat will ascertain your office remains secure."

Tsunade doesn't bother to dignify that with words, just a nod, and both she and ANBU Ferret (horrible name, really) disappear in a swirl of leaves. They reappear in a darkened tunnel, lit only by a few tiny jutsu-traps creatively wrought to light up whenever a chakra presence comes within a few feet of them.

They're deep under the Hokage Monument. She doesn't stop to get her bearings, doesn't need to, just strides down the hall that lights up as she walks. The combination of Morino—head of torture and interrogation—and Hiromasa—ANBU's commander—is a potent one and limits where they would be.

ANBU Ferret keeps pace, walking just a few steps behind her. Her escort, not someone she needs, and Tsunade has learnt enough in the last few months to know that she's got to keep him around until she's with Hiromasa and Morino, no matter how it grates on her.

"What happened to the rest of his team?" she asks as they make their way up a flight of stairs. The jutsu lights race alongside them.

"Two dead," ANBU Ferret says promptly, without hesitation. "One alive. Unwounded."

Tsunade nods. They both know the odds of coming away unscathed from a battle that killed two teammates and left a third… changed. She says nothing. If there is a traitor in their midst it will be found out during the debriefing. That's what they pay Yamanaka-san, Head of Intelligence, a good bit of money to find out.

That the surviving agent brought back their injured companion instead of just deserting, however, makes her wonder if it wasn't just obscene luck. Tsunade hopes so. Two agents down is bad enough.

"Inform Morino-san that I'll want the debrief reports of the entire mission," she says. "As soon as he and his team can get them."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

She comes to a stop in front of a plain door that looks like every other one in the compound. It thrums against her senses with security jutsu, feeling like a caged storm against her chakra. Tsunade places one hand flat against the door, pushing a smidgen of her chakra through her palm.

The wards crackle audibly and then part. "Remain here," Tsunade says. "I'll be out soon enough."

ANBU Ferret nods and positions himself with his back to the wall, right beside the door. As he fades into the stonework-quite literally, with a jutsu to hide his presence-she enters the room that unlocked for her.

In theory, there was no door that was to be barred and locked from her access. Theory, Tsunade has found, has little bearing in the real world. With a shake of her head, she lets the door fall shut behind her. The door jutsu snap to life as it latches.

The room she finds herself in is dark.

No jutsu here to light her way.

It would be inconvenient but she doesn't need them. Tsunade unfurls her chakra enough to wrap her around herself like a cloak, so that the other security jutsu here know not to trigger at her presence, and walks forward.

If she wasn't supposed to be here, she knows this room would turn her nightmares real. She's studied the schematics of the trap jutsu and has admired them. She has no wish to be caught in them. There are all sorts of strengths and she's aware of her own weaknesses.

Her nightmares have nearly always been stronger than her faith. That's been changing lately but Tsunade sees no reason to risk it pointlessly.

The room is not very large and in seconds she's at a second door. The wards on this one are stronger but subtler. Harder to tell they're present, she knows, if you've been hit by one of the traps here. Her chakra gains her entrance to the second room and she finds herself in a long hallway.

It's utterly silent.

There's light, now, in tiny lines that trail from the ceiling to the floor in regular intervals. They illuminate hardly anything. Tsunade barely spares the doors on either side of her a glance and walks three down and then chooses the left door.

Her hand flares with chakra a third time and the door cracks open.

Hiromasa is at the door in a flash, his Byakugan active. "Hokage-sama," he says, after a moment, "we've been expecting you."

"You assumed I might show up," she says, aware of the word-trap, "but did not ask for my presence."

The Hyuuga, disgraced and turned to the darkness, shrugs.

"Security must be observed," he says and because he's right, she lets him get away with that. "Come in." He backs away from the door, leaving her room enough to enter without feeling trapped.

Trapped, uncomfortable ninja are dangerous ninja.

"How is he?"

"If it's a jutsu meant to disorient, it's done exceedingly well," Hiromasa says, sitting on the edge of the utilitarian stainless steel table despite there being chairs around it. Tsunade doesn't blame him. The table is probably more comfortable than the metal chairs. The only light comes from a single bulb that dangles above the table. There's another door on the other side of the room.

Beyond it, she knows, is Morino and their potentially compromised agent. "You don't think it was meant to disorient?"

Hiromasa grimaces. "It certainly did so," he says, "but I don't think that was the point of the jutsu. I would hazard a guess that it was meant to de-age as a primary objective. The accompanying disorientation that came with was merely a secondary characteristic."

"Can you reverse it?"

"Basic measures to do so have already been done. They failed." He rests his elbows on his knees, his Byakugan still active, his head turned slightly so that his blind spot doesn't cover the room behind them. "We can try the more experimental measures but it might be safer for all involved if we give it time. This sort of jutsu tends to have a set time it lasts before expiry."

Tsunade nods. That matches with what she knows of de-aging jutsu. Her own research said much the same when she'd looked for a way to keep her appearance youthful. "We'll see if it can expire before trying anything else," she says. "Is he a danger to the village?"

"No more than any other ninja found, as far as they know, out of their timeline."

It's her turn to grimace and she does so. Tsunade doesn't even want to imagine what her reaction would be to being suddenly years out of step with her memories. "I'll have to speak with him," she says, "and gauge his threat level for myself. Being around people who he knows might trigger something."

"He knows most people already," Morino says from the far side of the room. He leans in the doorway, looking disgruntled. "Didn't believe me when I said who I was. Still thinks I'm barely Chuunin."

Tsunade's lips twitch with repressed amusement. "Does he believe you now?"

"He's trying," Morino says, "but that's the problem. He already knows me and Hiromasa and he'll know you, Hokage-sama. Nothing about us has changed except we're older and more advanced in our specialties. I don't think that's going to be enough to trigger any current memories."

"Not unless we triggered a particularly traumatic memory," Hiromasa agrees reluctantly.

She no longer finds herself smiling even slightly. "Is he awake?"

Both Morino and Hiromasa nod.

"I'll talk to him," she says, "and then we'll decide what to do about him."

Hatake Kakashi was confused, unhappy, and very, very uncomfortable. The last thing he remembered was being on a solo mission out in Ame and then the world had gone blurry around him and he'd found himself staring as a Konoha ninja was cut down in front of him. On the ground had been the body of another Konoha nin, her neck clearly broken.

The uncomfortable part, he blames on the metal chair. It's designed to cause a level of discomfort and he's been sitting in one for hours.

Confused and unhappy are harder for him to decide exactly why. It is, he thinks, because none of this new, mad world makes sense. He'd gone from a sunny sky, to storming rain, and had been slow to respond when the enemy-had to be the enemy-attacked him. He knew he owed his life to the third Konoha nin, who'd managed to get the both of them out of the way with a complex transportation jutsu.

That had been confusing enough. But then the ninja, his savior, had muttered something about not wanting to talk to Tsunade-sama about this failure and he'd asked why, confused. Tsunade-sama hadn't been in the village for years. Had she recently returned? Why couldn't he remember this mission while the other one, the one he'd just been on, was clear as crystal in his memories.

"Look," the Konoha nin, who he didn't remember being part of ANBU, had said, "we're going to retrieve the bodies of our comrades and see if we can't complete the mission objectives. Then we're heading back home and we'll sort it out then."

That had made perfect sense to him even though he'd had to ask what the objectives for the mission were. They were clearly on the same side-the other nin wasn't lying, he could smell that-and maybe working the mission would make him feel better.

It had worked. For the duration of the mission.

Kakashi shivers as he remembers what the village had looked like as they'd returned. There had been signs of heavy battle. Again. Things that he could swear had just been repaired were old and weathered and other things were gone entirely, as if they'd never existed. He wishes they'd left him with a kunai. Not so he could attack anyone-they were his own, even if he was confused about this upside down world where Morino was more than a Chuunin working the mission hall and Hyuuga Hiromasa was no longer a rising star of his clan and instead, ruled over ANBU-but so he was armed. It would make him feel better the way few other things could.

Instead, he just feels unsettled and lost.

He knows the people, at least some of them, but he doesn't know who they are now. What had happened? His head pounds as he tries, strives, against his memories and finds nothing but what he already knows.

Kakashi comforts himself that, in a pinch, he can use the chair as a weapon. It won't get him very far, not when he's deep in the ANBU compound, but it's better than nothing. The door opens again and Morino steps back into the room, his manner more respectful than it had been when he'd just been with Hiromasa.

He understands why the moment that Tsunade-sama enters the room, her brown eyes sharp, her hair tidy, and wearing the robes and hat of the Hokage. What happened to the Sandaime? Kakashi wonders. And how did they get Tsunade-sama back to the village after she swore never to enter it again?

"Hatake Kakashi," she says, "I hear you're a bit confused."

That's so like her that he finds he's relaxing against his conscious will. "Tsunade-sama," he says, still bewildered. "What's going on?"

She sighs. "That's what we're going to find out."

Kakashi has never found those words quite so ominous before as Tsunade-sama, the Hokage in this different world, settles down to begin figuring out what's wrong with him.

"He's a mess," Tsunade says flatly, hours later, in the outer room once again. Kakashi is asleep, due to a jutsu designed to force sleep on a person, his head drooping over the uncomfortable chair he's still sitting in, in the other room.

"Are his memories inaccurate?" Hiromasa asks. "I did not spot any inaccuracies."

"No," she says, "which is part of the problem. He's thoroughly convinced that it's not a matter of what's wrong with him-it's what's wrong with us."

"A genjutsu?"

"Likely what he's thinking," she allows. "That would provide an explanation that makes reasonable sense to his side of the story. But I'm inclined to believe that the de-aging theory is more likely. Of course, from his end, that's the implausible option."

Hiromasa and Morino look at one another, gauging the situation. "What are we going to do with him?" Morino asks. "We can't keep him in confinement. Someone will notice. Ninja are the worst gossips."

Tsunade wishes she could argue that and can't. She's no better. "Get Yamanaka Inoichi to review the case and we'll get him to do a full mind-search in five days if Hatake isn't showing any signs of being himself in the proper timeline again."

"And in the meantime?"

"I'm going to have to find a way to apologize," Tsunade says darkly, "but there's only one person in town right now who knows Kakashi and who Kakashi wouldn't know even by reputation. I'll assign it to her as a mission, so at least she's getting paid for it, but…"

Sakura wasn't going to be happy about this. Not even remotely.

For that matter, Tsunade wasn't very happy about it herself. "Keep him here for the day, just in case Yamanaka wants to ask him something. Tomorrow, send him to me."