Chapter 12: The Divide

Naruto, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata just stared at this newcomer who had the same face and body as Sakura, but different eyes. None of them had any idea what to do or say about this.

With a sigh the other Sakura loudly clapped her hands together. "Somebody do something dammit! I hate awkward silences."

Sakura shook her head as if to clear it, then frowned and stepped forward. "Who the hell are you? You're not me!"

"Actually, in a sense, I am." The other Sakura replied.

"Bullshit! There can't be two of me!"

'Two of me...' Ino thought, gasping when it came to her. "Wait, that other Sakura I saw in her head years ago, is that what you are?"

The other Sakura nodded. "The one and the same."

The original Sakura looked between the two. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you remember her saying when she took over your mind it was like there was a second presence in there fighting her off?" The dark-eyed Sakura said.

"Wait, are you saying that Sakura-chan has a split personality?" Naruto asked.

The other Sakura shook her head. "Not exactly Naruto-kun. It's... well, to be honest I don't have all the answers."

"And why not?" Sakura demanded.

"Because I'm you genius. How can I know something you don't know?"

"You must know something." The original Sakura insisted.

The other Sakura nodded. "On that you're right, but if you're going to have any chance at understanding you're going to need to calm down and be willing to listen. I imagine some more good kisses from Naruto-kun will put you in the right mood."

Sakura needed a moment, but she managed to keep herself silent though still annoyed and confused as hell. Though she didn't kiss Naruto again in order to do that.

"Okay, the most important question is naturally what exactly am I. I've been thinking that over for quite some time, and I think the most likely answer is I'm Sakura's dark side." The other Sakura started.

"So you're evil?" Naruto asked in a somewhat accusing tone.

The other Sakura shook her head. "Not dark in that sense Naruto-kun. Dark as in 'dark side of the moon' dark. The side you don't see. The persona behind the social persona."

Ino snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah, I remember my dad saying something like this when I was younger. In a way everyone has two sides to their personality. The public 'mask' and the true 'face'. There's the side we let people see, and the side we hide from them for one reason or another. Are you saying you're Sakura's hidden side?"

The other Sakura nodded. "Yep, every thought Sakura had but didn't acknowledge, that makes me. I am every idea she brushed aside, every laugh or cry she silenced, every scream she bottled up, all that accumulated into my being. I am every truth about this girl that she didn't want you three to know. Hell, I'm some truths that she herself didn't want to know."

"So... you're Sakura-chan's opposite?" Naruto asked.

"Somewhat, but not exactly. Let's try this another way. Hinata?"

The white-eyed girl blinked. "Yes?"

"For years your cousin was, pardon my French, an asshole to you. Didn't you at any time ever want to hurt him back? Give him a taste of his own medicine?" The other Sakura asked, and Hinata was clearly uncomfortable answering. "I'm not asking if you liked it, but you did have those thoughts once in a while didn't you? In the ten years he acted like you should have been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery, you must have at least once imagined punching him and telling him something off-color, right?"

Hinata sighed. "Yes, I have."

"But you never acted on those thoughts, did you?" The other Sakura asked.

Hinata shook her head. "No, never."

"Well, those thoughts don't just go away. They get pushed into the dark side of your mind. That's what I am. Every thought Sakura had but pushed aside."

"Okay, we get that, but what makes you so special? Why are you... self-aware but none of our own dark sides are?" Ino asked. "Clearly if they were they'd be right here too."

The other Sakura shrugged. "I'm not 100% sure on the why, but my best guess is Kyuubi's chakra had something to do with it."

Naruto silently gasped. "What?"

"We got hit when you were using the four tails form. We didn't get too hurt, but I like to think that somehow the direct exposure to the fox's chakra might have 'awakened' me in some way. But for all I know that's completely wrong and this is all some bizarre allergic reaction to the coffee in the hospital. The important thing is I have a chance to do something now."

Sakura frowned. "And what exactly is it you want? To take over my body?"

The other Sakura shook her head. "Isn't it obvious? I want to make Naruto-kun happy and hopefully be a part of his happiness too."

The original Sakura blinked. "There's no way that's it. What else do you want?"

The other Sakura leaned in closer to her counterpart. "Oh Sakura, what else have I done? Think about it, outside of trying to make Naruto-kun happier, what else have I actually done?"

"You've been controlling me from time to time. Making me do things I didn't want."

The other Sakura looked indignant. "So you didn't want to get closer to Naruto-kun? You didn't want your friends to start being nicer to your teammate? You didn't want Hinata to finally come out of her shell? Geez bitch, what did you want?"

The pinkette felt rather uncomfortable with the implication, and could tell that everyone was looking at her. She closed her eyes to prevent herself from seeing how hurt Naruto must feel right now. "You know that's not true. Obviously I'm okay with all this, otherwise I wouldn't be here right now. But maybe I didn't know I wanted it, and you're trying to make me do things before I'm ready for them."

The other Sakura crossed her arms. "Okay, then let's say I let you set the pace. How long do you think you would have taken to get where you are now if I had stayed silent?"

"That's not a fair question to ask."

The other Sakura frowned. "You want to talk fair? How fair is it to keep Naruto-kun AND Lee both on the hook all these years? Two spares in case your number one choice stops being an option? How fair is it knowing that Hinata has feelings for him and doing nothing for either one? Then again that might mean Naruto-kun wouldn't want to be with you anymore now would it?"

The original Sakura looked ready to slug her doppelganger in the face. "How dare-!"

"What, can't face the truth? Here's the truth Sakura, I'm all the affection you felt for Naruto-kun but didn't admit you felt. That means I know what you really feel and I know why you didn't want anyone else to know what you felt."

"Then if that's the case, how are you helping Naruto by attacking me?"

"Because if you don't accept my feelings, then you'll only hurt Naruto-kun." The other Sakura answered.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Naruto jumped in.

The other Sakura calmed down a bit and stepped closer to the whiskered blonde. "Naruto-kun, Sakura is... let's say 'divided' on her feelings. There are a lot of things she hasn't come to terms with yet, and that's what I'm trying to help her with. Getting her to accept what she's spent her whole life running away from. Until she does, you'll never have a 'complete' Sakura to love. You'll only get half, and you can't love only half of a person."

The original Sakura blinked. "Wait, are you saying you want us to... combine?"

"In a way, yes."

Sakura looked to Ino. "Is that possible?"

Ino shrugged. "Search me. But off the top of my head, I would say it's... possible. Still, I'd suggest getting my dad involved to clarify this mess."

The other Sakura couldn't help but laugh a little. "Oh sure, try telling him this problem without letting him know you were about to be in a mental orgy in the process."

That certainly made the platinum mindwalker blush and more than a bit fearful.

"Not to change the subject, but what's an 'orgy'?" Naruto asked.

The other Sakura got a rather lusty look in her eyes and trailed her fingers across Naruto's bare chest. "Well we're still here and in case you all forgot, still completely naked. Why not finish what you started?"

Everyone blinked and checked themselves. In all the confusion, they had overlooked the fact that everyone was still naked.

"You know, she's got a point. Why waste the opportunity?" Ino commented.

"The mood is kind of gone..." Hinata started, then took a deep breath. "But we can get it started again."

While searching for their daughters, the three fathers were as Tsunade predicted struck with the fact that none of them knew where Naruto lived. Fortunately for them Hiashi had some tracking skills of his own. All Hyuuga were naturally taught how to be trackers even if not all of them specialized in the field. He scanned all around to find his daughter's chakra signature, knowing that was the best way to start. And naturally it did not take him long to locate his missing daughter.

"My daughter is inside these premises." Hiashi told Inoichi and Kizashi when they got to Naruto's apartment complex. "And there are three others with him, one of which I know for sure to be Uzumaki himself."

"Should I be concerned that you can recognize him too?" Kizashi asked.

Hiashi gave the pink-haired man a dry look. "I dare you to tell me the name of someone who can't recognize him one way or another."

"Point taken. Are they doing anything inappropriate in there?"

"No, they're just holding hands. Is that too much for your daughter to do?"

Inoichi blinked and looked shocked. "Wait, they're just sitting there holding hands? Motionless?"

"Was I not clear enough the first time?" Hiashi asked.

Right away Inoichi darted up the stairs, perplexing the other two fathers and prompting them to follow. Inoichi got there and immediately pounded on the door. "Open up Ino! You better not be doing what I think you're doing in there!"

"What's got you in a twist Yamanaka? You're acting like they're having sex in there." Kizashi asked when he got to the clan head.

"Technically, they might be." Inoichi replied, pounding until the door popped off its hinges and fell inward. He went in and saw the four teens in a circle holding hands. Right away he could tell what they were doing and went up to his daughter, doing some handsigns. "Jutsu Interruption."

He put his glowing hands on his daughter's arms, causing her to sort of jolt in place then gasp and open her eyes. Within seconds Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata did the same, like they were all waking up from a nightmare simultaneously.

"Dad?" Ino asked, trying to make sense of the situation. "Geez what the heck are you doing?"

"I don't owe you any explanation Ino. But you sure as hell owe me one. What the hell were you doing using the Mind Share Jutsu like this? I forbade you from using that jutsu."

"You okay Sakura?" Kizashi asked.

"What's going on here Hinata?" Hiashi asked his own daughter.

Inoichi glared at Naruto who looked rather afraid. "Don't you ever come near my daughter again." He demanded before starting some more hand signs.

Ino all of a sudden grabbed a couple of her father's fingers and pulled them. It wasn't enough to break or dislocate the bones, but it was painful enough to stop him in his tracks.

"Ino what the hell?!"

"Dad there's no way in hell I'm going to let you mess around with Naruto's mind like that!" Ino shouted. "I'm sorry that you had to find out this way, but I take full responsibility for this and can explain things to you. But if you want to hurt Naruto you're going to have to go through me first to do it."

Inoichi didn't look too happy with this, not helped by the fact his fingers still hurt. "You want to explain? Fine, but it had better be good."

"Yamanaka-san, is there something you're not telling us?" Hiashi asked.

"Yeah because I don't see why you're so worked up." Kizashi added. "They were just sitting here holding hands. Even by chaste terms you're overreacting."

Inoichi silently fumed then took a breath, like he wanted to make sure what he said next came out loud and clear. "My daughter was just using a private jutsu of our clan that, on the surface, allows members to have private conversations regardless of the setting. It helps to keep secret information secret and remove any chance of eavesdroppers. But the majority of my clan members use it for more... personal reasons."

Hiashi and Kizashi were starting to put the pieces together and glared at Naruto, who looked clueless.

"Someone want to fill me in on what I did?" He asked.

"Naruto did absolutely nothing, unless all three of you want to say he's the one to perform Yamanaka jutsu." Ino warned the fathers.

"You are still getting punished for this later Ino, but he's not off the hook one bit." Inoichi threatened.

Sakura defiantly got to her feet and stared down the men. "If either one of you tries anything against Naruto over this I swear I will have you arrested for committing a hate crime!"

"Excuse me Sakura?" Kizashi asked, surprised by this.

"I know what you think happened, and I know you know that Naruto did not commit any crime here! If anyone committed a crime it's Ino and she confessed to it, yet all three of you are knowingly and willing taking it out on Naruto instead just because you think he deserves it more! I'm pretty sure that legally anything you do to him right now will qualify as a hate crime!"

Hinata stood up to in support, while Naruto tried to make himself look invisible. Too bad that was yet another thing Jiraiya had no real interest in teaching him.

The three fathers looked to each other, trying to figure out if Sakura's threat had any real merit. Neither could be certain, but her claim did sound logical and she was connected to the hokage, so it wasn't like Tsunade would just dismiss the incident. Especially since they had also barged into his residence uninvited. That surely would only dig themselves deeper.

"Alright, we won't do anything to Uzumaki, but for the time being I think I can speak for all three of us when I say you girls are to stay away from him until-"

"No!" Sakura, Hinata, and Ino declared in unison.

Inoichi and Hiashi frowned while Kizashi looked surprised. "I wasn't asking." Inoichi continued firmly.

"Neither were we." Ino replied.

Naruto sighed. "Fine, I'll go away and stop bothering you all. I'm sorry."

The three girls turned to him in shock. "Naruto?"

"Thanks you guys, it was nice to feel wanted for once." He said, smiling but shedding a tear.

Before either could object, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, gone without a trace.