"It's okay, I'm here now," the blond-haired boy said gently, as Jiraiya, Minato and the others gave chase to the feeling Akatsuki. "Are you hurt, Sakura? I don't know how I could ever forgive myself if I were to let you come to harm under my watch, ya know?"
Sakura's pupils dilated in shock. This boy was almost identical to Naruto in appearance, save for the two ends of his fringe, which fell down past his chin on either side of his face. He reached out to Sakura, but she winced, instinctively cringing away from his hand.
"It's me, Sakura-chan…" the boy said, looking rather hurt. "Menma. You know me."
Without warning, he embraced her tightly.
"…eep!"
Sakura's eyes glazed over.
Too much time had already passed within the Limited Tsukuyomi. Unlike Naruto, she had been fused with her alter ego inside the illusion, and so the erosion of her mind crept along far more quickly than his. It was a wonder she had not already succumbed, not already dissolved into the dreamscape by now…
"Men…ma?" Sakura echoed uncertainly.
How could she have possibly forgotten?
This was her boyfriend, Menma. They had known each other for ages, ever since they first met at the ninja academy at six years old. When they graduated, she had been placed in Team 7 under the ever-energetic Kakashi-sensei, alongside the two strongest boys in her class, Menma and Sasuke, so that their strength might compensate for her utter uselessness…
When the handsome playboy dandy Sasuke had broken her heart and turned missing-nin in pursuit of vengeance, Menma had been there to console her, just as she had been there to support him in his own quest to bring back his lost friend…
…and yet.
Sakura's pupils contracted as Menma squeezed her butt.
"Mou~ Menma, ecchi~," Sakura pouted, pushing him away lightly. "You can't just grab a girl by the bits that stick out at you the most~"
His scent was all wrong.
Her memories and her mind might betray her, but her senses would never let her down. Menma certainly looked like ☐☐☐☐☐☐, yet he did not smell like him. In fact, she could still catch his scent upon her clothes even now. She had taken care to engrave ☐☐☐☐☐☐-kun's scent into herself while her special jutsu rewired her neural pathways, even as the Limited Tsukuyomi rewrote her mind!
That person, whoever he was… was undoubtedly her true companion!
"Come on, let's get you checked out at the hospital," said Menma, taking Sakura's hand. "I'm sure the higher-ups will want to question you, but I won't let them bother you. I'm the Hokage's son, after all."
Sakura no longer registered the System's presence, even as it beeped incessantly in her head and flashed alert messages before her mind's eye. In this illusory world of perceptions, a System that only one girl could see, that had no physical image to reflect in this mirror of moon's light, simply did not exist in the eyes of the Limited Tsukuyomi.
"'Kay!"
After a brief moment of hesitation, Sakura took Menma's hand. She was not entirely sure what was going on any more, but as she glanced down at her bulging cleavage, she had the distinct feeling that something was wrong. Overcome by the unnerving sensation of being watched as she walked alongside Menma, she glanced over her shoulder, but there was nothing there.
That masked, ghostly figure in black and red robes had merely been a figment of her imagination.
…
"I said let me go, damn it!" Naruto howled, pounding against the inner walls of Sasori's Hiruko puppet body. "Let me out, or I'll kick your sorry butts!"
After many trials and tribulations, the Akatsuki Mercenary Company had finally managed to give Minato and Jiraiya the slip, and they were en route back to their hideout in Amegakure.
"The resemblance is uncanny," Deidara commented as he walked alongside Sasori. "I could have sworn that guy we caught and the Fourth Hokage's son were twins."
"He's certainly noisier," Sasori grumbled in his gruff Hiruko voice. "Can't we just kill him?"
A mysterious ghostly person wearing Akatsuki robes, claiming to be a friend from another world, had approached their leader and requested that he mobilise the Akatsuki to save the person Konoha was pursuing, and out of curiosity, he had accepted… so here they were.
"Let me speak with your boss!" Naruto's voice echoed from within Sasori's body.
If the Akatsuki were still alive in this world, then there was no reason for Pain not to be as well. Luckily for Naruto, the Pain Master could be reasoned with; he had managed to convince him once, so he had no doubt he would be able to convince him a second time!
Of course, Naruto would have to show a bit of his true strength first… fair negotiations could only be conducted if both parties stood on an equal footing, and fortunately, his captors had neglected to seal his chakra; they had merely restrained his limbs to prevent him from weaving hand signs… which, as it happened, was a great help if one was trying to remain perfectly still.
"I feel strange," Sasori said after a few minutes.
The Hiruko puppet began creaking ominously, its hard outer shell bending and warping as Naruto tore his wrists free from their restraints with the immense strength his sagehood had endowed him with and pressed against the puppet's inner walls, until…
Crack!
Like a stripper out of a giant, novelty birthday cake, Naruto burst free from the Hiruko puppet's back, forcing the Sasori puppet to wiggle free from the larger puppet's mouthpiece. The other members of the Akatsuki drew their weapons as they spread out, surrounding him.
"I wanna talk to your boss!" Naruto said insistently. "Show yourself, Nagato!"
One of the men dressed in Akatsuki robes, a tall fellow with long red hair and a fringe that covered his eyes like that of a protagonist from a hentai game, stepped forwards.
"I dunno where you got the idea, but I'm not the Akatsuki's leader," he said timidly, stepping aside to reveal a piercing-free Tendō Pain. "It's Yahiko."