This... there was a filler episode where Sakura made a similar deduction, wasn't there? Still, very chilling chapter.
I always find myself hopelessly confused in the face of deception and insincerity...

The bit at the beginning makes very little sense. Top tier Ninja laugh at the supposed oppostition of Normal Military.

Henge, Bodyflicker and Kunai would make mincemeat of any armies command forces, leaving them practicaly leaderless. An ensuring series of Raids upon the hapless force would tear it to bits. Ninja have advantages in nearly every way except numbers- which means shit.

Armies need supply lines, officers and a large amounts of support. They move as slow as the baggage train allows them, unless they want to either A) move on ahead which leaves the supplies easy pickings for Shinobi or B) Carry them themselves, which both slows any advance and limits the total supply load.

Ninjas have nothing to fear from convential militaries during that timeframe, and any technological advances that could help compete against shinobi forces would be destroyed wholesale as a threat.

So no, times have NOT changed, at least as far as the Daimyo/civilian portion of the world goes. You are severely low balling ninja here.

Any army of non-chakra users would be annihilated by a even a small Ninja force in a series of raids. As the villages have yet to be founded the ninja clans are all highly manouverable with no static target for the army to aim for.

The Introduction is highly flawed.

The mandatory "dark past" scenes for stories like this are often done in such a "Shonen" way that they really lack impact. In the Naruto manga, it mostly felt like a plot device to show why Sasuke would be angry and make the reader hate Itachi.
Here it actually feels like a horrible tragedy. I feel sad. Great job.

I'm v. intrigued so far. Good stuff.

Looking good, mostly! I'm a little worried that Izanami is acting like a bit of a bitch when Sasuke wouldn't. But I'm only on ch. 2.

The version of the Naruto universe you are building is very unique and interesting concept to read about. I like the aspect of viewing this through primarily Sakura's perspective because her character's analyzing mindset can give a deeper understanding of the world you are building. Normally I do not care for what ships end up in a story but I wish to know before I get to deep into your story is the purpose of turning Sasuke into a girl to ship him with Naruto because even with him now as a girl such a relationship would bother me so an answer to the question would mean a lot to me. Other than that I think the questions you are posing the audience such as the mystery behind Sakura's lost time are interesting and can not wait for their resolution.

I thought this update was OK, but nowhere near as awesome as the Sakura chapters :)

great story, keep up the good work!

Thanks for updating! Can't wait for the next chapter.
But i have to tell i needed a little bit of time to get used to Your female sasuke ( or not-so-sasuke)... just because i Kind of don't have a favel for OC's.
Well anyway, i have read so many fanfic's to this point (don't know if it's something to be proud of...) But yours turns out to be rather New and exciting , refreshing even , the way you approached naruto in complete different way...
Ok enough of this rambling, 'am just Trying to say that Your Story is very a promising Kind
Keep up the good work :)
Yours nayuta

First of all I love the fact that you have a release schedule and let the readers know about it. I like the fact that the plot thickens but I look forward to reading more from Sakuras perspective.

Ah, Orochimaru. There's a properly creepy rendition of the results of his jutsu, kudos.

(Jiraiya stop perving on the rookie genin-er, wait, they're 15 now at least...well, that's still not great but...)

Huh. Well, that's an interesting change, both of 'em. Certainly may explain, at least in potentially implied butterflies, why Naruto and Izanami know each other beforehand. The question, of course, is whether Danzo still played a part in ordering it or if not, doubly so on what Itachi's changed message means...

A decent interlude, but I dislike the continued suspence of memory tomfoolery and looming conflict being drawn out by the interlude. Or perhaps I'm odd in thinking that three missing hours and pilfered notes without any clues to the perpetrator is mildly terrifying.

Most people don't comment on technical stuff being correct, so I'll take a moment to comment on that. You sometimes have long, complex sentences that should be split, but otherwise, this is technically beautiful, which is so rare in fanfiction. I wish I had a team of betas that good for my writing.

So Orochimaru's infiltrating the Fire Court. The only reason I can think to send Izanami there is to draw him out by offering a greater prize; presumably, Jiraiya Kakashi should be able to take him out.

And if they're not enough, we always have the pretty officer! She's powerful enough to feel a genjutsu cast by a genin! Most of the time!