Hiya! This is my attempt at getting back into ItaSaku. I've been super immersing myself into Naruto lately to get back into it, and it's working like a charm. I've got ItaSaku, GaaSaku and NejiSaku rolling out of my brain, and it feels good to be getting back into the swing of things.

This fic has been inspired by a few like this that I've been reading. I was thinking 'how would I do it?' and this is what I came up with. Hopefully you'll all like it. ;)

In any case, disclaimer and enjoy, folks!

Betsu No Sekai

Chapter One

There were explosions everywhere, Sakura was ducking and weaving as she ran. The nukenin responsible for her current predicament was laughing maniacally, enjoying the fact that he had her on the run. The explosions were a combination of chakra induced ones, and paper bombs, with the former mingled in with some kind of space time warping that she'd only ever seen one of the few Uchiha's she'd ever met use. Oh, and Kakashi-sensei, too.

Swearing as one of them went off right in front of her, Sakura dodged once again. "Give up, Leaf-nin!" her enemy guffawed. "You're out matched and out gunned."

'Never!' Sakura swore silently, and took advantage of his cockiness to launch a surprise attack on him. He stumbled at the suddenness of her attack, going on the defensive as she launched her chakra laden fists and feet at him. The explosions stopped at his surprise as he was forced into a taijutsu match with her. He tried blocking, only to have her severely fracture his right ulna and radius. He stumbled in surprise, then further when a kick broke clean through his femur. Another kick cracked several ribs, forcing them inwards and puncturing his lung.

Her opponent then fell to the ground, gasping for air. He coughed up blood, and she knew he was done for. Looking around, Sakura found the knapsack that was the cause of this entire struggle, letting out a triumphant, "Hah!" when she found the forbidden scroll he'd stolen. This was going to go straight back to the Konoha vaults where it belonged.

Sakura was busy concentrating on making sure she had everything, that she didn't notice the nukenin's last action, which happened to be letting off one last explosion, right behind her. There was less of a bang than the others had been, and more space time warping, and it was because of this that, instead of dying horribly in the resulting explosion, Sakura instead saw the innards of some kind of sub-space, before she passed out from the pain of her injuries.

OoOoO

"Who is she?"

"That's a Konoha hitai-ate!"

"I don't recognise her though."

"We'll take her back to the village, then."

"Ssh! She's waking up."

OoOoO

Sakura groaned as consciousness assaulted her. She blinked rapidly in an attempt to bring her surroundings into focus, and when the first thing she saw was a pair of sharingan eyes, she failed to fully swallow a rather embarrassing squeak of fear, before also failing to scurry away. Every nerve ending along her back and on her head screamed in pain, and she vaguely remembered being part way blown up.

"Whoah, now, careful!" the wielder of the sharingan said, and Sakura blinked a bit more, trying to bring his features into focus.

Once she could clearly see his features, she realised that she didn't recognise him. "Who..." she started to say, then groaned as speaking sent a throbbing echo through her skull. Forcing herself past it, she tried again, "Who are you?"

"I think that's a question we should be asking you," another voice said, and Sakura swallowed another indignant squeak of fear.

Uchiha Itachi.

Logically, she knew she didn't really need to fear him, since he'd apparently been a loyal Konoha ninja all along. But that aside, he was also supposed to be dead. How was he here now? And who was this other Uchiha, if he really was one? Looking around, she also saw a few others, and was quite relieved to recognise one of them.

"Shika?" she said, and he looked confused.

"You know me?" he asked, and now it was Sakura's turn to look baffled.

"Of course I do," she said. "Nara Shikamaru, lazy-ass genius and jounin rank."

They all looked at each other, and Sakura recognised that they were about to do something like incapacitate her and haul her off to Ibiki for questioning. "What's the last thing you remember before waking up?" Itachi asked.

"I'd just finished taking care of a nukenin," she said. "He'd stolen a scroll and I was sent on retrieval..."

"Just you?" the other Uchiha scoffed, eyeing her doubtfully, and she glared at him.

"Yes, just me!" she snapped at him. "I am more than capable of taking out some idiot nukenin who thought he had the balls to get away with stealing from underneath my shishou's nose!"

"Your shishou?" Itachi asked, his voice enquiring.

"Tsunade-sama," she told him, and she noted varying amounts of surprise on their faces.

"What else happened?" Shika asked a moment later.

"I was just making sure that I had everything," Sakura said. "Bastard must've had one of his bombs left, because he set it off with his last breath. Then I woke up here."

"An ordinary explosion brought you here?" that other Uchiha asked sceptically.

"No actually, it would have been the space-time jutsu merged with it," she told him quite snarkily, then she was thoughtful. "Which I guess also makes no sense, because it was weak as. Hmm. Maybe it was something on this side…"

"Who was this nukenin?" Itachi asked, and Sakura was starting to get tired of his questions, though the look on his face prevented her from sassing him.

So instead, she answered, "Jukodo Osamu. He was from Iwa."

"We just completed a mission to take him out," the fourth, previously silent, person said. "He wasn't easy to deal with, he had a few associates with him."

"The one I fought was alone," Sakura said. "Alone, stupid, and arrogant."

The four ninja before her moved aside to discuss things, and Sakura took that opportunity to channel chakra into her back and head, healing herself. She noted that Itachi'd looked at her sharply as soon as she'd started, before returning his attention to his team mates. Though she was sure he was also keeping a close eye on her. By the time they were done, Sakura was healed and on her feet, though rather unsteadily.

"Perhaps it is truly likely that you are from a different world as you seem to be implying," Itachi said. "The jutsu you described would indeed be capable of that, especially if there was a corresponding action in our reality as well. That aside, you are here now, and protocol demands that..."

"That you take me in and hand me over to Ibiki or someone for interrogation," Sakura interrupted. "Yeah, yeah, let's just get this over with then."

Itachi's sharingan flared then, and as Sakura fell once more into darkness, she really hoped that she would be able to find her way back home.

OoOoO

When she came to again, it was to find herself in one of the nicer 'cells' in the interrogation building. It had a bed, a partitioned off toilet area, and even a TV. But the chakra bars on the window and the fact that the door was undoubtedly locked with a chakra seal reaffirmed that she was indeed a prisoner. She sighed and hoped that her 'visit' here wouldn't take so long that she'd never be able to figure a way back to her Konoha.

The jutsu that was no doubt in place on the room to alert when she woke brought Ibiki along a few moments later, just as she suspected. And also as she suspected, the Hokage accompanied him. However, she hadn't expected the Hokage to be this person. Namikaze Minato stood before her, in all his Legendary (to her at least, she had no idea how he was regarded here) glory. If he was here, then did that mean that Naruto wasn't the jinchuuriki? Or maybe he still was?

"Up," Ibiki barked, and Sakura rolled her eyes before complying.

Ibiki moved forward then, slapping a cuff on her wrist and cutting off all access to her chakra, before leading her out of the room. He and the Hokage lead her three doors down to an interrogation room, shoving her into the seat and closing the door behind them. She saw the Fourth place a seal, for privacy by the looks of it, over the door, then he leaned nonchalantly against the wall even as Ibiki switched on a table lamp and pointed the light at her.

Typical. Even in this bizarre place, Ibiki still liked his intimidation techniques. That was further augmented when he leaned over the table slightly and practically loomed over her.

"State your name for the records," he demanded, and she answered, "Haruno Sakura."

He continued with the basic questions, such as her rank, birth date, and who the local Daimyo was, then he started in with the deeper questions. He demanded to know what she knew of village security, who she was really working for, why she thought Konoha would be an easy target. Of course, she'd answered those last ones with the statement that she wasn't out to trick them, and wasn't trying to steal Konoha's secrets. Ibiki didn't seem to like that.

Finally, he asked useful questions, and Sakura repeated the tale she'd told the others who knew when.

Once she was done, there was silence. "Space time jutsu," the Fourth muttered even as Ibiki looked sceptical. "And yet he was no Uchiha."

"Do they actually have the monopoly on that?" Sakura asked. "Because someone should tell Jukodo Osamu that. And anyone else who might know them."

"Show some respect for the Hokage, girl!" Ibiki snapped.

"I didn't intend to be disrespectful," was all Sakura would say in apology.

"Tell me more about this other world of yours," the Fourth said. "There would naturally be some differences, since your experience with the nukenin was different."

"Well," Sakura started, wondering what she should really say. "For one thing, there's only one Uchiha left alive in my world. Sasuke."

"What happened?" the Fourth asked, interest in his eyes.

"There was a massacre," Sakura said. "When I was about eight. Um… Uchiha Itachi carried it out, under direct orders from the Third Hokage."

A slight brow raising was all the reaction she got, so Sakura continued after sighing, "Also, you're not the Hokage. You're actually dead."

That got more of a reaction. Ibiki couldn't hide the slight widening of his eyes, and the Fourth stood up straighter, his demeanour more serious. "How did it happen?" he asked.

"Konoha was attacked by the nine tailed demon, the kyuubi," Sakura told him. "You gave your life to seal it away and saved the village. Then the Third came out of retirement to be Hokage again."

"So the Third is Hokage in your world..."

"Actually, he's dead too," Sakura said.

"Is anyone alive in your world?" Ibiki demanded.

"You are," she told him, smiling sweetly, and he grumbled at her.

"Who's Hokage, then?" the Fourth asked.

"Well, Tsunade-shishou became the Fifth Hokage," Sakura said. "Then Kakashi-sensei became the Sixth. My gennin team mate, Naruto, is in training to be the Seventh."

"Naruto?" Minato asked, looking surprised.

"It's been his life long dream," she told them. "He wasn't even deterred when he realised just how much paperwork there would be. Well, not much, anyway."

"Naruto doesn't want to be Hokage here," Minato said, ignoring the 'look' Ibiki gave him. The Hokage sighed. "No matter. I think this interrogation isn't really going to get us anywhere, you don't seem appropriately terrified of Ibiki, and he's not that useful when he can't intimidate people."

"Hey!" Ibiki complained, and Sakura giggled, earning a glare.

"Sorry," she told him. "But after witnessing some of your interrogations while I was apprenticing under my shishou, well, you just stopped terrifying me at some point."

"There is still something we could try," Ibiki said. "Inoichi."

"That would work better," Sakura agreed, but they ignored her.

The Fourth removed the privacy seal and said, "Alright, we'll be back later with Inoichi. In the meantime, back to your cell."

Left alone, Sakura stared boredly at the walls, waiting until they came back with Inoichi.

OoOoO

Yamanaka Inoichi was rifling through her head, and Sakura was feeling a bit left out. He'd come into the interrogation room she'd been led back into, sat down opposite her, and started going through her memories. She felt his surprise at the sight of his daughter in Sakura's memories, and she was kinda fine with letting him look, but when he came to the barrier she'd locked her Inner behind, she felt it necessary to speak up.

"Please don't let her out," she asked, using a mental image of herself to talk to him. "It took a long time for me to be strong enough to shut her away, and she's such a nuisance, I don't really want her running rampant through my head again."

"Who is she?" Inoichi's own mental image asked.

"I call her Inner Sakura," she told him. "She was born when I was young and a prime target for bullies. She protected me back then, but I grew out of needing her, and now she's just a bother."

"I'll need to confirm that," he said. "Don't worry, I'm quite capable of leaving your mental barrier intact."

It seemed he was right, because a moment later, when he re-emerged, the barrier was fine. Though Inoichi did look a bit flustered. "Sorry about her," Sakura told him with a sympathetic wince, and he just huffed.

This 'interrogation' was soon over, and once he'd withdrawn out of her mind, he spoke to the Hokage. "What she's told you is true," he said. "It seems she really is a Leaf-nin from another universe."

Minato nodded, looked thoughtful a moment, then sighed. "Unfortunately this means I can't hold you any longer," he admitted, ignoring Sakura's eye twitch at his comment of 'unfortunately'. "So I guess we should find you some temporary accommodations until we can figure out a way to get you back to your own world."

"That would be great," Sakura said cheerfully. "So, where will I be staying then?"

So what did you think? Personally, I'm not sure, but I wrote it all in one go the other day, along with a third of the next chapter. Still, I know where it's going, just gotta get it out of my head and onto the laptop.

Review please!

Betsu no sekai: Another world, different world. Google translation.