Confusion

Sai remembered feeling lightheaded with his thoughts so muddled he couldn't think.

He could remember being on a mission to investigate the increasing case of defecting shinobi from every Village.

He could remember being in charge of a team of twenty ANBU.

He could remember instructing his team to scatter. To gather information.

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That's the last of his recollection.

He couldn't remember what happened after that. Or how long it has been since he ordered his team to separate. Or even what happened to them.

Thinking about it now, he can guess what happened to them. And what happened to himself.

"Hello?" The slightly familiar (though younger) voice of Zen rang through his thoughts. "Anyone there?"

Sai looked over to the bed again and saw the ever so familiar calculating look on his friend's young face.

"Oh, good! You're still there" Was young Zen's witty words. "Do you plan to stand there all day or do you plan to get the hell out of my room?"

Sai clenched his teeth. Something doesn't feel right here.

"Do you know who I am?" Sai asked as he slowly approached the bed. He saw the familiar knowing look in Zen's eyes. It had always troubled him that the only female member of the team seemed to know so much, and seeing that same look on the younger kid's eyes makes him both uncomfortable and hopeful.

"You sound Konohan" The kid said with a shrug. "And you're so pale, have you spent the rest of your life underground?"

Sai stopped on his steps.

Her wording sounds like she doesn't know him personally, but the knowing look in her eyes tells him a different thing. They were the exact same look in his teammate's eyes when he first met Team 7.

It's odd seeing it on her younger face.

"My name is Sai" He decided to humor her, hand outstretched as a sign of polite greeting just like how Zen had thought him years ago. ["Do it with civilians ONLY. Shinobi like us who knows about bloodline abilities would be instantly suspicious. They'd probably attack you rather than take your hand."] "And you?"

She looked at his outstretched hand in thought before grabbing it, shaking it minutely before letting go again. "You can call me Zen"

Sai stilled.

"Zen?" Sai repeated, hopeful. "Is that your name?"

"No," she replied. "but that's what you're going to call me"

Sai wanted to say something, but Zen looked back at him with age-old eyes that did not fit her younger face. Eyes that seemed to have lived and regretted surviving through life. [They were the same tired eyes that his friend always had]

"I know what you're thinking..." She said, "but I'm not her."

And Sai could only nod because he doesn't understand what's happening anymore.

~

Rae stood rooted on her feet, mind racing through multiple theories of wHaT tHe AcTuAl FVCK?!

The Sakura in front of her had gone back to writing on her desk as if nothing had happened.

Forcing herself, to calm down, Rae took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. She began to actually examine the room and her memories. There were only a few instances that she had been to Sakura's bedroom but she could still remember a few things.

As Rae start to filter her own thoughts, she began to frown as she noticed the differences.

Where was the big-ass bear Rae got Sakura on her 15th birthday?

["You're seriously not just going to give me a blank scroll, are you?" Sakura asked with a huff, but everyone could see the hidden excitement in her emerald green eyes as she accepted the gift from her best friend. Ino grinned beside her, thinking about that time when they had been walking through the market.

Zen grinned widely as she shrugged.

Ever so slowly, Sakura unraveled the scroll... and promptly whined. "IT REALLY IS BLANK!"

Zen and Ino laughed.

Sakura's parents watched in amusement as the three girls interacted.

"Come on, 'Kura" Zen finally calmed down. "I specialize at sealing. Swipe your blood on it."

"But it's blank!" Sakura pointed out and even showed everyone in the room the seemingly blank scroll.

"Trust me" Zen smiled encouragingly.

And without further hesitation, Sakura bit her thumb and swiped her blood on the paper. Instantly, patterns and symbols appeared from where the blood had been. It was brief, but Ino and Sakura could easily recognize a regular sealing pattern when they see one. And with a poof, a human-size baby pink stuffed bear appeared sitting on the disintegrating scroll.

There was a sharp shrill and then they watched as their friend tackled the giant stuffed toy in pure childish joy.]

Rae refused to believe that Sakura had gotten rid of it. She could still remember Sakura cuddling it whenever they visited her room. And thinking about that scenario hurt.

Rae ignored the glaring absence of a mere toy and began looking through the rest of the room. It still has the same pink wallpaper, same medical books, same small decorations here and there from Ino...

Rae stopped. Her dark eyes landed on the table where Sakura is hunched over a book, busily writing notes as she go over the words on paper. But that wasn't what got her attention...

There were three familiar frames on top of Sakura's cluttered desk... They were when Sakura finally got her Chuunin vest, the scene at the hospital when both Sai and Naruto had been badly injured, and... Team 7's genin picture.

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Only that none of them had Rae in it.

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At the back of her mind, Rae could feel the stare of sinister eyes but even as she looked around, there was no one there but her and Sakura.

She could feel the heavy beats of her heart as she once again starts to panic. She doesn't understand...

Just what the hell is happening here?