That was a thought to put steel in my spine. “You’re right. Every great ninja invents their own best techniques. It’s time for me to start doing the same.”
“But how am I going to do research? I’m bound to make mistakes in the beginning, but if I make a big one on myself it’s all over. Not to mention it’s a lot easier to use delicate techniques on someone else. But even in the loop, using other people as experimental subjects is going too far. A half-crazy girl with no friends acting like a psychotic monster while she makes plans to hack her own brain is not a recipe for a happy ending.”
That was a tough one. The slightest mistake with a memory-editing jutsu could lobotomize the target, and even a success could have all sorts of side effects. I might be able to bring myself to experiment like that on an enemy, but I don’t have any enemies I could actually capture. A volunteer might be bearable, but no one would volunteer to get their brain turned to mush.
My brooding was interrupted by a familiar voice. “Hey, Sakura. I didn’t know you came up here too.”
“Naruto?” I squelched the usual urge to jump him, not wanting to drive him off. Then another idea occurred to me. I’d tried to tell plenty of other people at one time or another, but never him.
“I’m glad you’re here, Naruto.” I said quietly. “Can I talk to you for awhile? I’m in trouble, really big trouble, and I can’t figure out what to do about it.”
He sat down beside me, and took my hand. “Sakura, you know I’d do anything for you. How can I help?”
“I don’t know if you can, but I’m running out of ideas. Look, this is a really crazy story, but please believe me. I’m not joking, and I’m not trying to trick you or set you up for something. This is serious.”
I took a deep breath and tried to gather my thoughts. Best to start at the beginning.
“I’m stuck in a — well, I guess you’d call it a loop in time, that runs from the start of the chuunin exam until the end. I wake up on June 1st, take the written test, do the Forest of Death, spend a month training, then go on to the arena match. Once that ends I wake up back on June 1st and do it all again, over and over again. Everything happens exactly the same way every time, unless I do something different.”
By this point everyone else I’d ever talked to about the loops had decided I was insane. Naruto looked me in the eyes, and said “I believe you, Sakura.”
I had to stop to blink back the tears.
“Thank you. No one else ever has. Well, I’ve got some ideas on how to break the loop, but that isn’t my problem. You see, when the loop resets my body goes back to the way it was before, but I remember everything that happened. So I can learn things, even new techniques, but I can also be…brainwashed.” I choked on the last word. “It doesn’t matter who did it or how, so don’t ask. The important thing is that no one can fix it. I’ve tried everyone I can think of. The medics at the hospital, the Hokage, Jiraiya, Tsunade. No one has a technique that can reverse it. I think the only people who would are the kind of guys that would brainwash me themselves if they got the chance.”
“There’s got to be something we can do, Sakura.”
“Well, I might be able to research my own cure. I’ve been studying under Tsunade for years, and I think I can see how to do it. But I’d have to test it on someone, and that kind of jutsu will scramble your brain if it isn’t absolutely perfect.”
“That’s ok, Sakura. You can test it on me.”
“What? Naruto, I can’t do that! You’re my friend, my teammate! What if I screw it up?”
“But I’ll be fine when this loop thing resets, right? Besides, you know how tough I am. Heck, no one would notice if you did fry my brain a few times.”
I stared at him for a long moment, speechless. “You’re serious? My god, you are. Naruto, I…thank you.” I sniffed, fighting back tears again. “How is it that no matter what I do or how screwed up my situation gets, you’re always there to rescue me?”
He chuckled. “I told you Sakura, I’d do anything for you.”
“Will you let me thank you properly?” I replied. “You never have before. But if I don’t do something nice for you after this I don’t deserve to live. So, can I show you what I’m like when I use your sexy technique?”
His eyes got very big at that point. “Are you serious?”
I transformed.
This time, he didn’t stop me.
It took a dozen loops to perfect my new memory manipulation technique. As predicted poor Naruto ended up a vegetable more than once, but in the end I had a way to package up weeks of memories into a little bubble of chakra contained within my spirit. Bundling up all my memories of those terrible days in Sasuke’s little private hell didn’t completely erase the conditioned responses, but it helped a lot.
Meanwhile, I spent more than a year months doing medical scans on Naruto on a daily basis while I worked on my technique. I should have expected that the result would be more surprises.
“Naruto, how are you even alive?” I stared at the blonde goofball in shock, not quite believing the results of my baseline scan.
He just scratched his head and looked confused. “Um, why wouldn’t I be? Is there something wrong with me?”
“Only chronic malnutrition, brain damage, scars from dozens of broken bones and some kind of weird scarring all through your chakra circulatory system. I suppose that last thing is from using the Kyuubi’s chakra, but when did the rest of it happen?” I noticed his wide-eyed look. “Yeah, I know about the Kyuubi. Don’t worry about it, I’m not an idiot like most of the people in this town. But what about the rest of it? There’s nothing in your medical records about any of it.”
He shrugged. “The nurses don’t like me any more than the rest of the town. Anyway, you know how fast I heal. The only time I go to the hospital is when Kakashi makes me.”
I suppressed a sudden urge to go level the hospital. “And the malnutrition? What, have you been living on ramen all your life?”
“Hey, ramen is great!” He shouted. The he looked away. “Besides, I can’t afford much else.”
Genin pay isn’t huge, but it’s more than enough to live on. You could probably support a family if you were frugal, and I certainly didn’t see Naruto spend much. But a quick quiz on prices solved that mystery. Those damn civilian shopkeepers were charging him two or three times the normal price for everything, when they deigned to sell to him at all.
“Damn it, what the hell is wrong with this town? Is the Hokage trying to turn us all into psychotic monsters, or is every adult in Konoha just a drooling incompetent? I swear, when I get out of this loop we’re going to need a bigger graveyard.” Naruto was edging away from me with a nervous look. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.
“Sorry, Naruto. It’s not your fault. But this stops, right now. I don’t care if this is a loop, I’m moving in with you tomorrow. I’ll do the shopping, and cook real food for you, and you won’t have to deal with those assholes anymore. As screwed up as it is Konoha is still a ninja town, and any civilian who thinks they’re going to get away with harassing an active-duty genin is in for a rude awakening.”
“But, wait, you don’t have to do that!” Naruto objected. “What about your research? And your parents? And, um, I’ve only got one bed.”
“We became legal adults when we were accepted for active duty, so my parents will just have to cope. As for the rest…Naruto, I don’t think you understand what you mean to me. I’ve been trying not to be too familiar, because I know it makes you uncomfortable. But honestly, you’re my hero. My rock. No matter how bad things get, you’ve always been there for me. I’d like nothing better than to be able to do something to pay you back for once. If it slows down my research a little that’s ok. I’ve got plenty of time.”