Title: Merit Synthesis
Fandoms: Final Fantasy VII/Naruto
Author: AngelicSentinel
Rating: Teen
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Zack Fair, Cid Highwind/Shera
Characters: Team Seven, Cloud Strife, Zack Fair, Aerith Gainsborough as Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura respectively.
Additional Information: Friendship-centric, Reincarnation, Canon-typical Violence, Crossdressing, Heterosexual Relationships, Minor Groping, Same-Sex Flirting, Asexuality, Rule of Funny, Rule of Awesome, Lots of Platonic Hugging, Gender Dysphoria (at least one person reincarnated as the opposite sex and all that comes with that, deal with it) and probably more stuff you'll find objectionable that I can't be arsed to list right now. Consider yourself warned.
Summary: Waking up in the middle of a death battle with needles flying at him hadn't been one of Cloud's better days. Seeing a limp black-haired body cradled in his arms with said needles sticking out of his neck made it even worse. But that's just the beginning

Please note: I don't mind constructive criticism in polite language, but please refrain from anything negative, especially about content or relationships. Thank you.

It wasn't raining, but it might as well have been.

Cloud awoke to the clash of metal and his skin, burning, burning, burning worse than the mako, worse than the geostigma, stronger than anything he'd ever felt. He had wounds all over him and scars where they had healed over with something inside of them. He tried to roll to his feet, but it was a no-go. Something warm was in his arms. He opened bright blue eyes and looked down, his head listing. His vision was still blurry, but he saw black hair fanned out in spikes, blood dribbling from the corner of an open mouth. Cloud shook his head violently as dual-voices overlaid themselves in his memory.

"I…hated you."

"We're friends, right?"

His hair was shorter than he remembered ever seeing it, but it was his face. "Zack?" he asked. No response. He shook his shoulders. Some kind of needles or spikes were sticking out his neck, and he wasn't breathing. "Zack!" he said again, panic in his voice. He laid him down gently.

Not again. This was one of his worst nightmares come true. The situation was a little different, but—

Cloud scrabbled at his clothes looking for a Restore materia. His clothing was bright orange instead of the purple or his leathers. What the hell? His Fusion Swords were missing too. Battle still sounded in the distance: shouting and explosions and planet knew what. How did I get here? Where is here?

"Yes. He is dead," Cloud heard a light voice say. It was hard to tell whether it was male or female, and Cloud glared up with hatred in his eyes.

"You killed him," Cloud snarled, voice low. They were wearing a white mask with red swirls, their hair done up in traditional Wutaian style. The clothes they wore were dark in color and nondescript, but they were also styled Wutaian. He had the same needles fanned out in his hands, just ready for another barrage. Senbon, Cloud believed they called them. It didn't matter.

Around the androgynous figure, a set of what looked like mirrors hung in the air from every angle. It was bitterly cold. Mist came from them as if it they were made of ice, and they dripped water. Some of them were cracked.

"Where did that vile chakra go?" the masked person asked.

Even though he had no idea what they were talking about, Cloud said, "I'm not about to tell you." He had to have some kind of weapon. He patted himself down and dug at a pouch in his waist. He pulled out a sharp, triangular-shaped knife with a loop at the end and hefted it a bit, checking its weight.

It would do. He rushed at the figure, who caught his wrist. Cloud broke his hold easily and followed it up with a kick. The figure crossed their arms with a block, and Cloud heard something snap.

"You broke my arm," the figure said, shocked. Cloud's kick had bent their right arm at an unnatural angle, the radius and ulna fragmented.

Cloud just scowled. That should have taken him out. This body must not be as enhanced as his old one, either. And judging by the size of Cloud's body and his voice, he was a whole hell of a lot younger. He moved, standing protectively over Zack. "That's not all I'm going to do."

He didn't know what kind of sick twisted joke this was, but Cloud wasn't going to have it. He leapt at the figure again, clashing knives. As he moved, he was figuring out how his body worked, and he became faster.

They clashed again and again, the figure using some kind of ice materia to throw spikes at him. They must have run out of senbon at some point. The sound of crackling lightning and then the masked figure said, "I can't die here!" and tried to run away with enhanced speed.

Cloud didn't let him, matching his speed easily. Before he'd made it ten paces down what Cloud had realized was a half-finished bridge, he'd caught him and driven the knife straight through his carotid artery. The figure bled out in moments, the arterial spray splattering all over him and covering his face, hair, and clothing with blood.

It took about a minute for the mist to dissipate. Cloud looked around. He hadn't been the only one fighting on the bridge. There was another man with a mask covering the lower half of his face and spiky silver hair that could give his own hair a run for its money standing in front of a corpse, blood covering his right arm from his fingers to his elbow. He wore a plate of metal on his head with a stylized leaf on it.

There was a little girl with pale pink hair standing in front of an old man wearing a Wutaian sugegasa. She was staring at him and Zack both with calculating green eyes. She also wore a leaf headband.

Cloud dropped his knife. The hair color was different, yes, but the face—the face—she looked just like Aerith. Cloud fell to his knees, feeling suddenly lightheaded. Children that looked just like Zack and Aerith; was he dead? He looked down at his hands, smaller than he was used to with calluses all in the wrong places. Everything felt too real. The blood had felt warm. It had not been a nice way to die.

The pink-haired girl shot a look at the old man before she took his hand and started running towards them both, shooting him a concerned look before making her way to Zack's corpse. Cloud got up and followed her the ten or so feet. A little bit before they got to where Zack lay, she said, "Tazuna-san, wait here." The old man nodded, and stayed put as they walked the rest of the way. He looked at Cloud with something a little like fear. Cloud noted it, but he really didn't pay attention to it. It wouldn't be the first time he'd gotten looks like that.

She was chewing on her bottom lip, feeling his pulse to check his vital signs. She held her hand over his mouth and nose. She shook her head and wet her hand and tried again. Something in her loosened and she went slack, a wide smile covering her face.

"He's not dead," she said. She went to work on the needles in his neck, pulling them out and placing them gently to the side. Then she clasped her hands together, closing her eyes. Cloud could tell by the green aura she was giving off she was close to her limit. Then it broke and a wave of healing energy washed out of her, covering all of them with a feeling like a warm hug. Zack groaned and rolled over, but he remained unconscious. She stood to her feet and dusted off her hands.

"Aerith? Is that...you?" Cloud asked hesitantly, voice wondrous.

"Yeah," she said, smile wide. "It's me." Her green eyes glittered. She tilted her head, "Cloud?"

"Aerith," Cloud said, enveloping her in a hug, voice absolutely broken. He was getting blood all over her but she didn't seem to mind. "I'm so sorry," he said, sorrow emanating from his voice.

Her grin shrank, leaving her with a small, close-lipped smile. "Now what have I told you, silly?" she asked him, pulling back so she could look him in the face, searching his eyes. "I never blamed you. Not even once."

"But Aerith," Cloud said, ready to argue.

She shook her head. "It's Sakura now, Naruto," Aerith said pointedly, stressing the strange names, glancing over at the old man and the silver-haired man that was coming this way. It took him a moment to realize that Wutian word was his name. In fact, this whole place reeked of Wutai. Though he'd never heard narutomaki being used as a name before. He sighed. It was like Cloud all over again. "Don't worry. It'll settle in a bit, and things will start to make sense."

"Sakura. That's pretty," Cloud said. Then a thought occurred to him. "That better not be Sephiroth," Cloud said darkly, glancing over at the man. Aerith laughed, her voice as light and clear as a bell.

"That's our sensei, Kakashi," she said. "And Zack is called Sasuke." She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially. "We're ninja!"

Cloud looked up at the sky. "Sasuke, huh? Hmmm."

"Naruto," Cloud heard an unfamiliar voice say. He turned back. Kakashi was standing behind him, a look of concern on what Cloud could see of his face. "Are you okay?"

Everything was suddenly too loud. "What, Kakashi-sensei?" Cloud snapped, barely managing to remember to tack on the honorific.

"That was your first kill. Are you all right?" Cloud looked down at his hands again, covered in blood. He jumped, realizing he'd likely have gotten blood all over Aerith. Yeah. Definitely not his first kill. But if they were ninja, and what with Zack and Aerith being alive and them being in this strange place he couldn't remember—He looked over at them, and then back to his "teacher."

"No," he said honestly. Then he looked out over the water, putting his hands behind his head because it felt comfortable and natural. "But I will be."

Movement had them both turning their head. "Man, that sucked," Zack said groaning, sitting up and spitting out a gob of blood. He rested one arm over a raised knee before looking out at the bridge. "What the hell?"

"Sasuke!" Aerith squealed, wrapping her arms around his neck. He stood there blankly, arms at his side.

"Wha—Huh?" Zack began. Aerith squeezed tighter, though any keen observer could see that she was whispering something in his ear. "Aeri—Sakura?" he said, awe filling his voice.

She nodded. "Mhmm! You finally made back to me." She knocked him on the head. "Took you long enough."

And then Zack was hugging her like he would never let her go again. The corner of Cloud's mouth quirked up. Zack spun her around and then saw him. "Cloudy with a chance of rain!" he yelled across the bridge, gesturing vigorously with a "come here" motion.

So Cloud did. Zack let go of Aerith and gave him a noogie, at which point Cloud slapped his arm off. Cloud did let him keep one arm around his neck, though, and Zack had his other arm slung around Aerith's waist and they just stood there, basking in each other's presence.

"So, Naruto, huh?" Zack said, grinning widely. "We made it!"

"Yeah, Sasuke," Cloud said. He noticed that Kakashi was staring at them. He couldn't place the myriad of emotions flickering across the man, not without seeing his whole face, but concern, confusion, and relief were in there. "We did. We're alive," he said with no small amount of relief.

The sound of a large group of people approaching dampened their reunion. All of them turned almost as one as about three hundred mercenaries showed up, led by a short man in a black suit.

"Well, this looks familiar," Zack said, laughing ruefully. "I knew it was too good to be true. You and me against an army again, eh Clou—I mean Naruto?"

"Aa, Sasuke. Something like that, anyway," Cloud said.

"But I'm here this time," said Aerith. "Don't you know that makes all the difference?" She giggled.

"As am I," Kakashi said, shooting them another strange look.

"We'll make it through. You'll see!" Aerith said brightly. "You all right, Tazuna-san?"

The old man looked a little taken aback at being spoken to. He waved them off with a careless hand. "Yeah. You kids do what you have to do."

The man and his mercenaries stopped just short of the battlefield. "So you Konoha ninja actually managed to kill the Demon of the Mist, huh?" The suited man kicked the corpse of the man Kakashi had been fighting. "Good thing I wasn't planning on paying him. Gato thanks you."

"Hey," Zack said, bristling, his hands clenched into fists. "Don't you think that's a little uncool? He's already dead, man. Leave him alone."

The short man in a black suit laughed. "And you got the little bastard of an apprentice, too." He kicked off the mask, showing a young face. Gato snorted loudly, hocking up a wad of snot and spit all over the head. "That little shit nearly broke my arm."

"Way uncool!" Zack said. He tensed, preparing to go after him, but Cloud grabbed his arm and shook his head.

"Wait," he said. But even he thought it was a little excessive.

"You may be ninja," Gato said, "but I've still got numbers on my side."

The phrasing made a bomb go off in Cloud's head. A rush of memories hit him: "I'll bring it back on you a thousand fold!"

Cloud's mouth twitched. "Numbers on your side? I don't think so. Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!" Countless copies of Cloud filled the half-finished bridge, taking up almost every inch of space. Huh.

"Uh, Boss," said one of the mercenaries, a quiver of fear in his voice. "I don't think we can take them."

"They're just ninja. It's a useless bluff." Gato said, stomping his foot like a child. How sad.

"Bluff? I don't think so," Zack said, dashing forward and picking up the massive blade Kakashi's opponent left behind. He had a little trouble lifting it, but he appeared to find the trick to using his enhancements just like Cloud did. Zack swung it around a little bit, checking the weight and balance. He appeared to find something he liked. He whooped and lifted the sword, charging at the mercenaries and slashing wildly. It was funny-looking. The sword was taller than he was.

Cloud followed him; he may have preferred his Fusion Swords, but Tifa had taught him some hand-to-hand, and he was no slouch. Not to untrained mercenaries. And apparently, he had an army of himself to back himself up.

Today has been a weird day, he mused as he attacked the mercenaries en-masse. The first time one of his doppelgangers popped, he found himself staggering with the memories of a perspective ten feet in front. Memory transference. Useful. A mercenary almost gutted him with a sword before he got back to the battle. Sloppy though, if you aren't expecting it. And wasn't he the king of memory issues? Hell, last thing he remembered was going to bed as an old man.

Kakashi was still bleeding all over the place, clearly exhausted, but he got in on the action too while Aerith stayed behind to guard Tazuna.

And suddenly, the mercenaries started turning tail and fleeing. Cloud searched the melee for any hint of the disturbance and saw a little boy with a crossbow leading a whole horde of ragged-looking villagers to the bridge.

"Whew," Zack said, wiping some sweat and blood off his brow. "That was some fight, huh?" The oddly-shaped broadsword he had was covered in blood. He swept it out to get the blood off it and twirled it in his usual victory pose, putting the blunt end on his shoulders. "Shouldn't have any more problems with them, Tazuna-san. If you do, just call me, alright?" He held up two fingers in a peace sign and grinned.

Aerith stretched, smiling as well. "We did it!" she said, putting her fist in the air.

Cloud dispelled his clones and said quietly with a small smile, "Yeah. We did."

Kakashi just stared.

Inspired by Eradicating's Headbangers, story ID 9165416. Ended up surprisingly more serious, though that wasn't intentional. I'm doing this to get away from my more plotty fics, and just for fun, so I really don't know what to tell you to expect. Other FFVII characters to show up, certainly. Fast updates, probably not.