...that typo makes it sound like your dog died. and then you ate it.

It DID sound like you ate your dog, LoL.

Since my teacher is sic, i have 3 hours till the next lesson. I wanna be productive. Also, I can't take anymore of that Sasuke/Gaara Soulmate b%llsh*t, so bear with me.

I'll edit when I get home. ...

"Shikako told me you believe us two to be Soulmates." Gaara says to him.

Sasuke has no idea when Shikako could have talked to him, since she is still in the hospital and the both of them had not been alone for any amount of time. Maybe she had written a note? Shikako is smart like that.

Sasuke feels hope well up. Surely, that Gaara would seek him out is good, right?

"I feel it is my duty to inform you that I already know my Soulmate's Identity and have so for a long time. I am sorry, but you are mistaken .You and I are not Soulmates."

Oh.

"Are you sure? Isn't there any way to check?"

"I am sure. In adition to her own families way to identify Soulmates, which showed when we were only two years old, I recently learned that members my own family can heal their Soulmate with only a touch. If you remember, we had physical contact while you were injured before. You did not heal then."

Oh.

That is true. Gaara had helped him up after the fight with the Sound four. Clearly the sand armor isn't a problem with hos other Soulmate, so if he han't been healed then... denial at this point is only delusion.

"Oh. I am sorry then, for inconveniencing you. I am ...glad we cleared up this missunderstanding."

"So am I." Gaara says. "I wish you luck in your search nonetheless." He left.

Edit: OH, lookit, space!

Now I imagine this leaves Sasuke utterly confused, and back in the realm of a sparkle-coated Lee to contemplate.

Has anyone ever considered the idea of Crossover!Soulguides?

@ WhiteDragon - That would probably go on the crossover thread, I got told Digimon/Pokemon summons/Spirit Deamons (Golden Compass) would go there, so crossover soul guides would probably go there too.

It would be cool if what started out as a really common ability started being affected by... weird stuff. Maybe in Suna people had slightly mis-matching days when Shukaku was sealed. Maybe the first Hokage died two different deaths.

(Some say ninja can reach into your true-dreams and change them. The truth is more obvious- powerful ninja, powerful chakra, strong impressions of my will upon the world- that has the ability to change your life. Its the dreams that stay the same, keep chugging along on that same path, unaltered.)

So.

Sealing accidents, encounters with bijuu, ...Izanagi.

These things cause small hiccups in the stream of time.

You live your life a second time in dreams, and if sometimes the details are different... well, things correct themselves eventually.

And then. Well.

The night of the Kyuubi attack, 'you live your life a second time in dreams' morphed to 'oh hell, something just broke.' Maybe the moment Minato summoned the shinigami.

(Shikaku woke and- knew his infant daughter was dead- rushed to see that Shikako was alive. But he held little hope (these things correct themselves) until, well... she kept living. Every day.

Wow. When you put it that way, Juno… I have thoughts on DoS world where each night, you dream of the day your canon counterpart just lived. (We'll say that the vice-versa isn't happening for now. This is complicated enough as it is.) I haven't looked at anything if people have posted since Juno did, so bear with me if other thoughts came up while I was typing this. Heads up that a lot of this is really awkwardly phrased, as I was word vomiting really fast to try to keep up with my thoughts.

XxXxX

For my sanity, let's say in this world, you may see little changes in your dreams – you ate something different for lunch, a fight went slightly differently, etc. – but for the most part, the universes course correct to stay about on track with each other, otherwise things would be way too different by the time we got to canon. So, you don't normally survive for long if your counterpart didn't.

Enter Shikako Nara.

Yoshino and Shikaku's dreams that first night after their twins are born are of their counterparts grieving their stillborn daughter. They're woken by the sound of a baby crying, and both rush over to the twins' crib, half-expecting to see that their baby girl passed away in the night. But no, Shikako's the one who's crying. She's fine. Yoshino holds her extra tightly anyways. Shikaku, usually an easy sleeper, doesn't even make it back to bed that night.

And, yes. Something's wrong with Shikako. She cries, and she's weak, and the universe is clearly trying to set things the way they're 'supposed to be' – the way their dreams say they should be.

Shikaku's sisters give him pitying looks, and try to find polite ways to tell him not to get attached to their niece. It's far too late for that. Shikaku and Yoshino love their baby, even though they know she's going to break their hearts and die soon.

They raise Shikako to take advantage of every moment she can, and insist Shikamaru treasure the moments he has with his twin.

Shikamaru takes to this advice whole-heartedly. The twins stick together like glue.

(Shika is also rather less inclined to take naps than he might have been otherwise. He hates Dreaming. He has never liked his counterpart. The boy doesn't even seem to know he's missing his other half, or if he does, he doesn't care! How dare that boy be so nonchalant, so happy, when his Shikako is dead????)

Except Shikako doesn't die.

Oh, there are close calls. Yoshino huddles close with her babies during the Kyuubi attack, half-convinced the monster is the universe's curse on her silent little girl, come to set things as they should be. But Shikako survives, and Yoshino's next dreams are nightmares that prove that wild thought wrong.

Learning about Shikako's chakra hypersensitivity likewise feels like punishment. Shikako can live; but she must suffer. Yoshino and Shikaku are willing to accept this trade, and resolve to do everything they can to ease their daughter's path.

Except she doesn't want to be a civilian – she wants to go to the Academy with her brother. Finding her passed out from chakra exhaustion feels like a warning, but Shikaku has never been one to stand in his loved ones' way when they want something. Yoshino almost puts her foot down, just this once, but Shikaku talks her out of it. Every moment with their daughter is a gift, he reminds her. They should let her do what she wants, let her grab what happiness she can in the time she has.

(He refuses to let himself regret this, each time his daughter ends back in the hospital. The universe may keep trying to kill her, but at least she's doing what she wants. At some point, you simply have to throw out the script the Dreams are writing, and hope for the best.)

The higher ups have noted Shikako's survival by now, of course. Shikaku is the Jounin Commander – of course their counterparts interact with him, and his grieving wife, and their only child. Shikako is the longest recorded survival past a counterpart's death in all of Konoha's history, and ninja sit up and take note of things like that.

Luckily, Shikaku is a clan head, and the Jounin Commander. Between his position and the Ino-Shika-Chou clans' political weight, he gets his daughter's unique circumstances buried, and declared a secret. Shikako gets protected from being dragged in and studied in T&I. She still gets studied, of course, just more… from a distance. You keep a watch on an anomaly like that, and you have your Intel Division keep track of those changes. This is the kind of thing that, eventually, could yield Konoha an upper hand, after all.

Danzou, of course, takes note too, though maybe not as carefully. He's not much of a long-term thinker, and she's just a little girl. There's plenty of time for her to die without affecting much. She's too secretly-high-profile to kidnap or kill, anyways, but having agents occasionally take note and report – or simply skim off of Ibiki's reports, when they can – is good enough for now.

So, that's the situation that finds Shikako in the academy. Most of the kids assume she just got sorted into a different class in the 'other' world, if they notice at all. Iruka is let in on the secret, and is meant to keep any other teachers from looking too far into it.

This is a dangerous moment for the Naras – this is the juncture where people outside the clans and the council might start to notice, and cause problems. Luckily, this is also when they find an extra advocate in their corner.

Hiruzen Sarutobi listens to his successor's son – his student's godson – cheerfully recount his first day at the academy, and the new friends he had made. He's pleased that there's finally someone who has looked past all the hate to see Naruto, and that the poor boy has finally made a friend. Then he dreams of his counterpart's dismay to be greeted with a tearful Naruto sulking on the school's swing instead. None of the children in that other world would even talk to him.

The Hokage wakes with a spot of gratitude in his heart for Shikaku Nara's little miracle child, and any moves against her in the following years are thoroughly shut down before they even really begin. There's more important things to deal with, anyways, once the Uchiha Massacre goes off.

By graduation time, Shikako has presented the administration with something of a dilemma. It's policy to try to match up with assignments given in the Dream World. There tends to be fewer unfortunate accidents when they voluntarily go along with the universe's plan.

But this year, there's an extra student, and there's no where to put her without changing things.

Sarutobi wants to put her with Naruto and Sasuke. Best-Best-Worst is the way things have always been done, and besides, Naruto deserves to have his friend beside him. Ibiki is wary of the changes this could make to his intel, but admits that analyzing those changes could provide them with intel on their own. Shikaku refuses to pick a side, one way or the other.

They bring Kakashi in, and ask him to choose.

Kakashi wants to say no. He's deadly enough, do they really need to tempt fate by defying the universe's choice? He doesn't want to be responsible for the Anomaly. He can't have that on his conscience too.

Except he's also not quite brave enough to face down 'Team Minato, 2.0.' Switching out the girls changes the whole dynamic – and for the better, too. It would be better for the boys – for Sensei's son, and Obito's last little cousin – to have Shikako as their teammate instead of Sakura. Well, IF they manage to pass his test (unlikely) he just won't get attached, he decides. He'll protect them, and train them, and send them on their way before he can get them killed.

Decided, he agrees to take her on.

They're brilliant together. It's clear the first time around, and painfully obvious once he's dreamt of the pitiful showing his counterpart's team puts up, only scraping a pass by the skin of their teeth. Kakashi doesn't mean to be proud of his team – to think of them as his – when he wakes up, but he is. Oops.

(At first, Naruto is glad to have his friend on his team, though he's mad he got Sasuke instead of Sakura in her place. He doesn't have anyone to teach him about how dreams normally work, so he hasn't yet heard the first whispers that his best friend is 'supposed' to be dead.

Sasuke doesn't care about that other world. His family's dead either way. At least he doesn't have to put up with Sakura every day now. He appreciates Shikako for that, and for her skills, at the very least.

It's not long before Team Seven truly loves each other, though. By now, the changes have started to become obvious. Shikako's not 'supposed' to be with them. This makes Naruto further resolved to protect his precious people, but Sasuke and Kakashi are terrified.

People learn not to call Shikako the 'Anomaly' in Kakashi's presence, as surely as they learned not to do it in Shikaku's.)

Team Seven takes their first C rank - the Wave mission.

Zabuza and Haku know something is different the night after their first encounter with team seven – the screaming pink haired girl is gone, a calm, calculating brunette has taken her place.

The night after the battle of the bridge, they dream of their own deaths. Haku wakes up with a gasp in a cold sweat, still practically feeling the chidori through his own chest. He's disappointed when Zabuza wakes up only moments later – his death saving his master was in vain. Then he realizes – he's still alive. They're both still alive. Why? If anything, their opponents were stronger in this world than in the Dreams. How did that save their lives?

They go to check out Team Seven, hoping for some answers. Naruto cries – Haku's counterpart's death last night upset him, and he's so happy that they're still okay. Sasuke doesn't comment. Kakashi steps between them and Shikako every time they look at her too closely.

Eventually, they get dragged into a water fight, of all things, and end up leaving with more questions than they started with.

(Two days after Mei Terumi dreams of receiving the news that her top lieutenant had been killed, Zabuza and Haku arrive at the resistance's base, money the rebellion desperately needs in hand. "Konoha sent a different team." Zabuza shrugs nonchalantly, at her shocked inquiries. She lets it drop – two of her strongest shinobi have returned with the funds they need to pull of a crucial operation.

They don't forget. Zabuza and Haku may no longer have dreams to watch, but Mei constantly attributes the rebellion's victory to their efforts – apparently things are going much more poorly in the Dream.

When they show up, still alive, at the Grass Chunin exams, Kakashi catches Zabuza's eye. The Demon in the Mist gives a slight nod. Yes, he knows what Shikako has, inadvertently, done for him and his village. He will pay that debt, one day.)

Team Seven returns home from a successful B-rank. Kakashi would have had to take them up to see the Hokage for a personal debriefing over that upgrade alone, but given that Shikako may have accidentally saved to powerful enemy ninja, their mission report just became high priority.

XxXxX

(At this point, my thoughts devolve a bit because there's so much going on.)

Things begin to go off track. Every mission Shikako takes, especially those outside the village, changes things. Her impact is being felt across the continent, and it's getting harder and harder for Konoha to pass off the changes as them merely sending the wrong team.

And then it's the chunin exams. None of the competitors care that one of Konoha's teams is slightly different from what it's supposed to be. They assume the universe will sort itself out. The Sand Siblings are no different – what does it matter which simpering leaf girl stand between them and their targets? And then Temari finds herself on her knees, begging for her brothers' lives before a stronger force, and is granted mercy by the shouldn't-be-there girl. Their dreams become a little… off.

Hayate watches the Nara girl kill three sound genin on one of the TV's monitoring the second exam. This isn't noteworthy until a few weeks later, when he watches his counterpart overhear plans of an invasion, and be killed for it. He rushes to inform his Hokage of the details. He and Yugao don't get much of a chance to see each other until after the invasion, when things start to settle down, and she holds him tight when he's finally able. She's watched the other Yugao grieve for him for days now, but her Beloved has still not followed his counterpart to his death. They both know who changed his fate.

Suna and Kiri keep mum on their suspicions – Shikako's presence has only benefitted them so far. Grass kicks themselves for attempting a kidnapping – they knew Shikako wasn't supposed to be at the exam, so they should have known

Orchimaru's out of the loop enough that he doesn't know why his plans for Sasuke have failed, but it makes him even more desperate to take the boy when he sees what he could be.

Itachi doesn't know anything is wrong. Not until his Tsukuyomi misfires.

As a teen, Itachi had tortured his baby brother, hoping to give him the Sharingan that would save his life. It worked, and he had hopes that a second shot might give Sasuke the Mangekyou, but without the guilt or the grief. He hadn't expected the Replacement. He hadn't known that there was someone else out there that loved his brother so much – in the Dreams, Sasuke comes alone, and ends up in Orochimaru's clutches because of it.

Shikako ends up on a lot of people's watch lists, and she doesn't even know it.

Oh wow Math that was great!!!!! I'm just imagining Sasuke's pain when he dreams about his own defection, and everyone's reaction to that. If the Rookie 9 didn't have a 'Shikako Support Club' by then they would have one afterwards. And I can just see Sakura's thoughts going from happiness at having two friends to Dream!Sakura's no friends to resentment of Shikako, as because of her she's not on a team like her counterpart, to eventual relief again when she sees how bad things got in The Dream.

Oh, that's right! I did have thoughts on Sakura too.

She's jealous and bitter, at first, that she doesn't get to be with Sasuke. That she doesn't get to be a shinobi at all. But then Shikako shows up to try to comfort her, and she remembers that, for her to be on Team Seven, Shikako would have to be dead, and she feels very bad about it.

(She's quite driven to improve, as she watches her counterpart simper and fail, and let Sasuke leave. If that version of her could become a powerful field medic, so can she.)

Wow. That's great, Math, and very thought-provoking. We the readers know the ripples Shikako is causing, but what if all of the story characters did as well? I think Sasuke would be the most grateful. Because of Shikako, he can basically get all of the benefits of training under Orochimaru without actually going missing-nin, since he knows and can probably replicate anything Orochimaru had him training on. He might have a low-key rivalry going on with his Dream self, as a 'you didn't need to leave, idiot-me' sort of thing.

...kinda feel bad for Sakura, though. Imagine her failing her ninja test, then waking up the next morning remembering passing alongside her crush. She wouldn't be human if she didn't resent Shikako for it a little, even if she's still really glad Shikako's alive in her world. I could see it putting a strain on their relationship right up until Sasuke doesn't defect.

Edit: ninja'd.

Oh, for extra angst while Shikako is under Tsukuyomi does Sasuke dream every night of what his dream self is experiencing? Then waking up and knowing that that's what Shikako is going through right now? Or because of weird Sharingan bs is it all blank? You know, even if the dream is more of an out of body experience and you don't feel the counterpart's pain it's still gotta suck. Especially going through the same awful thing twice like Sasuke would have had to for the massacre.

But there's also small happy things! Like Chiyako not sending the night in pain curled under an academy tree. And the entire Kunoichi group feeling way more confident and proud of themselves.

Other small ideas in this world niggling at me: What Shikako thinks of all this 'dream' stuff. Sai's reaction to everything going different. Neji not liking Shikako because she goes against 'fate'. Hinata liking Shikako even more for this same reason. How eventually the butterflies won't just be attributed to Shikako by other villages. Things like extra genin will be attributed to Naruto for bringing them to Konoha.

I love all of this. Also, my brain apparently loves pain and angst and is dragging me down the path of "what if this happens in the Matching Scars 'verse?" Madara and Izuna would be loosing their minds.

@dona I like how that tangles time-space and such and pkays off the weird naruto timeline.

@Math brilliant! Especially Kakashi not wanting to get attached but waking up smug about how much better 'his team' was.

And yes to all the thoughts about Sakura - guiltly grateful that its not her around about the chunin exams when dream!sakura starts getting hurt.

And Neji- fate is a lot easier to believe when its TRUE.

Prompt: other members of the Rookie 9, annoyed at Neiji's treatment of Hinata, bribe Shikako to go bug that stuck-up cousin-hater periodically during the second and third exams.

The cheery ambushes don't bother Neiji- if he did feel anything for the Anomaly, it would be pity, not discomfort.

(The cheery ambushes don't discomfort Neiji- that's not a lie. But the way Lee's hospital room has flowers in it, the way Tenten is less upset over her poor showing at the exams- because Tenten didn't lose as badly- ...Neiji feels like there's something crawling up the back of his neck, when he wakes from the Dreams.)

Neiji also makes the mistake of referring to Shikako as the Anomaly, while she's in the hospital. ...Possibly a mistake.

(The Dreams are strange things. This version of Sasuke may have stayed in the village, but he also seems to hate Neiji a lot more than his traitorous counterpart in the Dreaming).

After Dream-Sasuke defects, Shikamaru WANTS to point out that he KNEW Sasuke wasn't good enough to be trusted with his sister- but that's not fair.

Somewhat resenting the need to, Shikamaru Nara instead musters enough grudging compassion to mutter that his own counterpart in the Dreaming isn't exactly someone he's ever been fond of, and that Sasuke should stop being so troublesome- it's worrying Shikako.

Also, what happens when the whispers of 'Anomaly' start to turn into things like, "Fate Breaker" and "Course Changer" and, of course, "Shikabane-hime."

@Math - Oooohhh. That's epic. Team Seven, and Shikako specifically, being famous (or infamous). It goes well with the reputation Team Seven has of rearranging maps and toppling regimes. But that would put so much pressure on her. I imagine Shikako in this 'verse might be so much more paranoid. All the eyes are on her.

Also a thought when Zabuza, Haku and the others get their dreams back of their cannon edo tensei selves.

Oh my god, I just imagined during the Wave Mission Sakura running over to Ino and Shikamaru and being all "Shikako and Sasuke were probably just attacked by a missing nin with a giant sword" and Shikamaru being all like "WHAT" and going to Shikaku, with Shikaku being all like, "Well I guess I'm going to Wave Country now, bye."

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