This is the first time I've done time travel... or any fanfics at all, so tell me if I should continue with this once you're done with the chapter.
-s-
Sakura rushed through the halls of the hospital in her medic suit, her eyebrows knotted in worry. She burst through the doors of an emergency room and hesitated slightly before continuing to her new patient.
Fighting back the panic and fear, Sakura looked over her bruised and bloodied ally, quickly scribbling down some notes on her clipboard, silently cursing whoever brought this misfortune on this man.
It was her patient that spoke first.
"S-Sakura-chan... you look t-tired. Why d-don't you rest a f-few hours once in a w-while?"
The medic looked up in alarm.
"Naruto! You're awake!"
Naruto grinned weakly back at her.
"Of c-course. I'm just fine. Y-You should stop w-worrying about me and go get s-some sleep. You look terrible."
Sakura couldn't stop from sounding hysteric. "Just fine? Your ribs are all broken, your kidney was stabbed, your heart rate is constantly speeding up and slowing down, your lungs are both punctured, and your legs are amputated!"
She was by his side in a heartbeat, vainly trying to heal all of his injuries when the wall to her right suddenly exploded. There, glowing in the light of dawn, stood their enemy.
Sasuke Uchiha.
The kunoichi recovered from her shock and spat, "Uchiha! What are you doing here?"
His curt reply was, "The Jinchuriki. I need his body."
Sakura's response was to grab Naruto's body and run out of there as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn't bother to look back, knowing that it would only slow down her progress.
'I need somewhere to hide Naruto for the time being...'
She was so busy running that she completely forgot that her friend was conscious, so she nearly tripped when she heard his hoarse voice.
"Sakura-chan... I have o-one last request f-for you..."
Startled emerald eyes met determined sapphire ones. Sakura mutely nodded, silently saying that she would do anything for her best friend.
Naruto's eyes became serious as he said, "Burn m-me. W-When I die, b-burn my body so that S-Sasuke won't be able to take the N-Nine Tailed Fox."
Sakura stopped in her tracks, her grip on Naruto tightened in horror.
"I-I can't do that! There must be another way!"
Her best friend shook his head gave her one last bright smile... and he closed his eyes, never to open them again in his time.
At the sight of the smile still lingering on his face and the feel of his limp body in her arms made Sakura's throat constrict painfully. Tears flowed freely out of her eyes as she mourned over the wasted life. She had failed to save him, just as she had failed to save everyone else. Now there was no one left... but her.
And she couldn't deny that she didn't want to join them, but she had to complete the task given to her first before she could do anything.
Just then a voice came from her left.
"Give it to me, Sakura."
Her name came out just like he wanted it to. Alluring and tempting... but dark. If she was a few years younger, she would've fallen head over heels for that voice and hand Naruto over in an instant... but she wasn't so disloyal now, and her blazing crush had subsided to a feeling short of hate.
She hissed, "Over my dead body!" and then started running again with Sasuke in pursuit.
Sasuke was faster than her and possibly more skillful, but she was running for her life, and the adrenaline boosted her speed. She hadn't noticed before, but she was ironically in the Uchiha village. An idea suddenly came to her... and she was going to try to follow through. Normally, she wouldn't go so low as to fiddle around with people's feelings, but she was desperate now.
Blindly running through the village, Sakura frantically searched for the right building. Right when she got to the district with the larger houses, Sasuke appeared in front of her.
At her astonished face, he explained, "You think there's not an inch of this village that I don't know? You think that I have no idea where the shortcuts are?"
There was an edge to his voice, making the pink haired girl feel slightly guilty, but also victorious with the new knowledge.
Sasuke is still affected by this place.
She expertly jumped high over his head, but her opponent was faster. He jumped up, grabbed her ankle, and swung her down. Sakura landed roughly on her bottom, and mentally thanked Kami for not damaging Naruto any further.
Sasuke stepped closer to her, his tall figure looming over her smaller one. The demand was written all over his posture, his face, and his mood.
Hand the Jiinchuriki to me.
And Sakura made it so that her posture, her face, and her mood that said, Never.
Jumping to her feet, she abandoned her last attempt and instead skirted around him. She could faintly hear his light footfalls on the concrete, getting closer by the second... but she had to make it to her destination before he caught her.
Soon, they arrived at the Uchiha compound where Sasuke used to live. It listed the members of the family, but when it got to Itachi's name, there were many scratch marks that nearly made the elder brother's name unreadable. Sakura quickly entered the household and ran up the stairs. She paused there to see Sasuke's reaction. It seemed like he had none, for he entered indifferently with that stoic look on his face with all intentions to continue the chase.
Letting out a small squeak of surprise, Sakura restarted her run again, and ran for the nearest door, but she gasped when she saw the blood stains on the walls and floors.
'This must be where Itachi killed his parents...'
Shifting Naruto's body into a more comfortable position, Sakura examined the slightly faded stains. It looked like Itachi gave his parents a quick death, but not entirely painless.
Sasuke's footsteps entered the room, making Sakura spin around, switching to defense, her eyes glued on her opponent. She could see his reluctance to enter this room, and she decided to use it against him- no matter how cruel that sounded.
"If you attack me, then you'll destroy this room," she warned.
Onyx colored eyes hardened and a katana was unsheathed. In one swing, the whole room was obliterated, leaving them each standing on a wobbly, scorched plank of wood.
Sasuke took a menacing step forward.
"I'm not the Sasuke you knew."
In a moment of desperation, Sakura threw a picture frame at the teen, but he just sliced through it. When the picture frame fell to the floor, it showed Sasuke and his family... happy and laughing. Split ironically where only Sasuke was cut off. A tear escaped Sakura's eye.
"Sasuke... how did you become like this?" she asked, her voice cracking.
"When I learned the truth," was his reply, and then he took another swing of his katana, the tip barely missing Sakura's heart- and would've made its mark if she didn't jump back.
The pink haired female clutched Naruto closer to her chest, praying that he wouldn't get hurt and tried to persuade Sasuke not to kill her.
"Stop this Sasuke!" she cried. "The Akatsuki is just using you! For universal rule! Don't do this!"
When there was no pause in his swings, Sakura added in, "Itachi wouldn't have wanted this! What he did was to save Konoha, and you're destroying all his hard work!"
Finally, the attacking stopped. Sasuke lowered his head so that his bangs were covering his face. When he finally looked up again, his face was dark and furious.
"Stop pretending that you know what Itachi is like!"
Sakura squeaked in surprise, turned, and ran. She ran at full speed until her muscles ached and screamed for a moment of rest, but her brain knew that she would be a goner if she even took a few seconds to stop.
An ocean became visible in the distance, and Sakura planned to use that as a hideout, but right when she got to the shore, she was ambushed. Kisame rose out of the water, a feral grin on his face. He pulled down his sword so that the tip was pointing at his prey.
"Hand over the boy if you know what's good for you."
Sakura took a step back, confusion written all over her face.
"Y-you're dead..." she whispered. "N-Naruto killed you a m-month ago... I saw it with my own eyes!"
He snickered and smirked, "Can't kill the water beast. Now hand him over."
"No!"
"Then let's hope you're someone worth killing."
A kunai was flung at her from the back, and since she couldn't block it with her hands, she had to side-step and dodge, but then came kunais from all directions but upwards, so she had to jump up... and that was when Sasuke's katana stabbed right through her back.
The sword was lowered slowly along with her body, and she was just glad that the sword didn't stab through her deceased friend. Even though she was bleeding and rather out of options, Sakura still remained defiant and shielded Naruto's body with her own.
She heard footsteps come and stop right beside her with a sigh. It was Kisame.
"We could do this the easy way or the hard way, pinky."
He held out an expecting hand, eyebrow raised- well it would've been if he had any eyebrows.
She yelled out a muffled, "No!" since her face was buried in Naruto's shoulder.
The next thing she knew, her chakra was being sucked out of her. Having your chakra stolen from you wasn't a pleasant feeling. It was like someone sucking large amounts of blood out of you, draining your energy.
Sakura fought to keep consciousness, but then a multitude of weapons were plunged into her back. A small scream left her mouth before she was kicked to the side, and in the same moment, her best friend was pried from her grasp.
The last thing she saw was Sasuke standing on that cursed shore with Naruto carelessly slung over his shoulder and then a wave crashed over her, pulling her into the sea. The last thing she heard was the sound of rushing water, dragging her in deeper and deeper. The last word she was able to utter out was the traitor's name...
Until she let the darkness take her body.
-s-
The first thing she heard when she awoke was warbled voices. She couldn't make anything out of them except a few words that frightened her a bit. The words: dead, knives, kill, and died kept reaching her ears, but all the other words were complete nonsense.
Her senses slowly started coming back to her and she could now tell that she was lying down on something gritty. The smell of saltwater drifted to her nose and she made the guess that she was on the beach. She opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times to get used to the bright light that awaited her. Pushing herself up, Sakura winced at the reopening of the wounds on her back.
"Hey, are you alright?"
The kunoichi swung her head to the left to see who spoke, and relaxed when she realized that it was Iruka... but then she put up her defenses again when she remembered that Iruka had already died at the hands of the Akatsuki. Her guard only heightened when she saw who was standing next to him. Sarutobi. He had died a long time ago thanks to that bastard Orochimaru.
'Iruka' tilted his head to the side and asked, "Are you mute? Can you hear me?"
Sakura slid out a kunai.
"I know that's you, Kisame. You can't fool me!" she hissed.
Iruka blinked in surprise.
"I'm Iruka, and this is Hokage-sama. There's no one named, 'Kisame' around here. If there was, then he's gone now."
Sakura didn't believe him for a second, and looked around for an escape route. She then noticed that the weapons which used to be embedded in her back were now thrown into a pile to the side and that her torso was neatly wrapped in bandages.
Her common sense whispered, 'Why would the enemy help? The healthier you are, the easier it is for you to break out.'
She then realized that her body was physically... altered. It was the exact same as when she was 12 years old again. Maybe... maybe this was all a genjutsu! The Akatsuki are going to try to taunt her and then she's going to snap back to reality with the burning houses, the dead bodies, and the horrible truth.
Her hands immediately flew up into the desired hand sign.
"Release!" she called out.
When nothing happened, she tried again, but the same result. Her hands slowly lowered down to her sides in confusion.
Iruka placed his hands on his waist and turned to Sarutobi.
"She's been trained in the ninja arts. Where do you think she came from?"
The hokage replied, "Her headband has our sign on it. Have you seen her face in your class before?"
"I have a student with purple hair, not pink hair."
Sakura rose an eyebrow. She didn't remember anyone with purple hair in her class. What were the Akatsuki trying to do? And... wouldn't they make everyone actually know her? Maybe she should play along and see what happens.
She said warily, "I'm Sakura. My parents taught me everything I know and I haven't been outside often other than our backyard."
Iruka leaned down and offered a generous hand.
"Hello Sakura. How'd you get here?"
Sakura thought quickly and answered, "I was taking a walk on the beach when I tripped and fell in the water. I guess I was washed ashore again."
Sarutobi spoke for the first time since their encounter.
"Would you like to enroll in our class?"
The girl was frozen for a second, shocked at how great an opportunity this was. She would be able to start all over again! If this wasn't really a genjutsu.
After a while, she smiled and agreed. Both men smiled back at her politely, and Iruka helped her up to her feet. Hissing at the pain, Sakura turned to look at her back and narrowed her eyes at the reddening bandages. She was suddenly swung up into the bridal position and saw that it was Iruka who had pulled her up.
"Let's get you to the hospital."
-s-
Sakura glared openly at the glaring white walls of the hospital. She hadn't minded them as a medic, but she found how hateful they were as a patient.
'I'm going to have to replace the wallpaper with a duller color so that they don't blind you when you first wake up.'
The nurses had given her some time alone, and she had made sure to use every minute to her advantage. First, she had healed herself at a painstakingly slow pace- if the nurses come back in and she's suddenly all healed and new, then they might suspect something. Sakura wanted to keep the 'Going-Back-to-Twelve-Years-Old' thing a while longer... because if this wasn't really a genjutsu, then everyone would think that she was crazy... but maybe she could tell the hokage.
She looked out the window to see if anything could give her a clue whether this was all fake or not. To her surprise, she saw that the hokages' faces that were set in stone were all painted over and drawn on. A tinge of blonde caught her eye and she spied Naruto running through the town with a paint bucket and a paintbrush. Not far behind were two other ninja chasing after him.
Two pink eyebrows rose. How could the Akatsuki have known about this? Unless this was all just something conjured up by her memories... but then again she was at school when this all happened. She didn't really see it, but she knew about it.
A sweet, female voice cut off her thoughts.
"Miss Sakura?"
Pink hair swished as the girl turned to see what the nurse wanted.
Guessing that she was allowed to speak, the nurse continued, "It seems that you've been healing at a unusually fast pace. You should be able to be out as soon as you can walk without pain again."
At this, Sakura jumped up and off the bed, grabbed her clothes, and walked to the bathroom. A few seconds later, she appeared fully dressed and exited out the door with a wave. Since she had worked in the hospital for such a long time, Sakura could easily navigate her way through the familiar halls. She suddenly noticed something that she didn't remember was in the hospital.
Calling the closest nurse, Sakura asked, "What is this plant for?"
The nurse smiled.
"It's really a sake detector, just in case someone smuggles sake inside the hospital."
A light bulb flashed inside Sakura's mind. Now she remembered the plant. When Tsunade had taken over the hospital, she had to walk past this plant to get to her office, and the plant would beep every single time she passed by, signaling that she had sake. Shizune would be by her side in an instant and would rid her of the sake stash hidden beneath her bra. After a while of this, Tsunade became annoyed by this plant and ordered for it to be removed.
Nodding her thanks, Sakura moved on. Sarutobi had asked her to meet him in the hokage tower once she recovered from her wounds. She took her time to breathe in the fresh air that was omnipresent throughout the town and admire the green leaves that were starting their color changes.
'A big change from the destroyed city,' she thought.
She realized that she never thought of doing this when she was younger. Never stopped to see the beauty and nature all around.
-s-
"Welcome to Konoha, Sakura. What is your clan's name?"
Sakura was now standing in the hokage's office being interrogated.
"Haruno," she replied.
Sarutobi leaned back and seemed to be in deep thought.
She heard him mumble, "I've never heard of that clan name before..."
The pink haired girl furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. What?
"Hokage-sama, the clan is nearly right in the middle of the town!"
The hokage lifted his head. It was obvious that he had no idea what she was talking about. Sakura walked towards the window and pointed to where the clan's village was.
Sarutobi shook his head and explained, "That's not the Haruno village, that's the Aki village."
The girl stood frozen with shock for a few seconds. The Aki village?
"O... okay..." then she recovered. "I forgot that the Haruno village had moved it last location. Now it's on the border of the woods."
The hokage eyed her intensely for a second, and then resumed his previous mood.
"Well. You will be joining our academy today. Go there immediately. Good luck."
Sakura nodded mutely and left for her new school... that she would be starting near the end of the school year.
-s-
She walked through the door of the academy and shrunk back when she noticed the many pairs of eyes staring at her. Even Naruto- who was tied in rope- stared at the pink haired newcomer.
Iruka broke the silence.
"Sakura! You're already healed?"
Sakura couldn't squeeze any noise past her lips since she was so nervous, so she merely nodded and hugged her backpack closer to her chest.
'Why am I suddenly so timid?'
She tried to speak.
"W-Where should I s-sit?"
She heard a girl whisper to someone, "Not another stutterer!"
The kunoichi blushed furiously and managed a glare at the girl, which turned to a look of surprise. It was a girl she had never seen before in her life. A girl with purple hair and strange shining orange eyes.
And she was sitting in Sakura's old spot.
'A... replacement?'
Iruka snapped her out of her thoughts.
"You may sit anywhere you like... but there's only one seat open and that's next to Choji. Now everyone make Sakura feel welcome."
(A/N: I saw a picture of the academy and there was only one empty seat next to Choji. Poor Choji...)
Sakura nodded politely and settled down next to Choji, who was eating his favorite bag of chips. Her new seat partner gave her a shy look and continued to eat even faster than before.
The girl guessed that this was due to nervousness and smiled at him saying, "Hey Choji. I'm Sakura. Nice to meet you."
She held out a kind hand, mentioning for him to shake it. At first he was reluctant, but then he took her hand in his and shook. Sakura's smile became wider and brighter- if that was possible.
Choji pulled his hand back, lowered his head, and asked, "You don't think I'm disgusting?"
"Why would anyone with the right mind think that?" Sakura snapped, her hands now on her hips. "The Akimichi clan is a strong, respectable clan. They're far from disgusting!"
Their conversation ended there with Iruka's, "I'm on the end of my rope, Naruto! You failed the graduation test last time, and the time before that! Tomorrow, you get another chance and you're messing up again!"
Sakura turned her attention towards the bickering males. Her eyes landed on Naruto and the sudden desire to rush up to him and give him the most bruising hug in his life was nearly unbearable! Yet she pushed the want down and diverted her eyes. Then, she just closed them completely. There was no helping that she wanted to hug everyone. Except Sasuke.
Iruka's voice rang into her head as he shouted, "Ha! Because you missed it Naruto, everyone will redo the Henge Jutsu!"
Many groans followed his announcement.
-s-
Everyone was lined up neatly with the strange purple haired girl first in the line.
Iruka nodded at her and said, "Alright. First is Ren Aki."
Sakura nearly gasped aloud.
'Aki! She's from the Aki clan!'
Ren performed the Henge Jutsu perfectly, transforming into Iruka himself. The teacher smiled in approval. The purple haired girl poofed back to herself and squealed.
"Sasuke-kun! Did you see that, Sasuke-kun? I bet no one else but my Sasuke-kun will be able to beat that! Ha!"
Sakura winced. Was she like that when she was younger? Hopefully not... how embarrassing...
After a few people, Naruto was next, and like last time, he used his 'Sexy no Jutsu'. Iruka fell in surprise and jumped back up with a nosebleed, his face red with fury.
He was about to shout until Sakura intervened.
"Sensei, I know that Naruto's transformation was inappropriate and unnecessary, but the jutsu was very well developed. Other than the whiskers, Naruto's transformation was perfect- his voice was even higher and feminine. It's the Henge Jutsu we're testing, am I right? It doesn't matter who or what you transform into, it matters how well you do it. You can't mark Naruto off too badly for that."
Iruka calmed down and thought for a second and then wrote down something on his clipboard while grumbling incomprehensible words.
Naruto was staring at the new girl with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. She had helped him. Barely anyone helps him! Sakura turned her jade eyes to him and beamed while showing him the thumbs up sign.
Soon, it was Sakura's turn.
Her sensei looked down at her with concern.
"Are you sure you can perform a Henge Jutsu?"
Sakura's response was to transform into him. He nodded in satisfaction and made a check on his clipboard.
'So far, so good.'
-s-
The park. A fun place for people both young and old. To a bypasser, they would think that the playground was empty... but if they really squinted their eyes at the small forest that traced the edges of the playground, they would notice something off about one of the trees... and if they came about 5 feet away from that tree, they would've seen a girl with pink hair and forest green eyes dressed in a camo suit sitting casually on one of the thicker branches.
Sitting on the tree gave Sakura some time to think.
'Ren Aki. Purple hair, orange eyes. Sits in my old seat during class and whose clan has replaced the Haruno clan. Her name... even her name is similar to mine! Aki Ren. Autumn Lotus.'
Sighing, she fiddled around with a scarlet colored leaf.
She mumbled aloud, "It doesn't look like I'm escaping from this genjutsu any time soon."
Then something occurred to her. Where was she going to live?
-s-
The hokage shook his head while looking over some papers.
"Sorry Sakura. It seems that the apartments are all rented out and the inns are all booked up for the year. Either you find somewhere else to live, or you're going to have to live with a friend."
The medic groaned in frustration.
"How am I going to- Oh!"
A light bulb flashed above Sakura's head and she smiled.
-s-
Sakura wiped the sweat off her forehead and examined her handiwork. She circled the cabin, eyeing all sides of it, and once she was done, she stopped and let out a sigh of relief.
"My house... is done."
There in front of her stood a basic wooden cabin made of tree trunks. It was messy and rather small, but it would do for the time being. Sakura started gathering leaves and piled them all in a corner inside the house as a makeshift bed. Once she had more money later, she would buy a real bed and maybe some lighting... but for now, the leaf pile was her bed and any light came from fire, moonlight, or sunlight.
She then noticed that it was nighttime and she knew she should probably get some shut-eye... but her grumbling stomach reminded her of the forgotten dinner.
-s-
Naruto and Iruka both sat at the seats of Ichiraku, talking over something.
The waitress came and asked, "What would you two like?"
Naruto was the first to recognize the voice.
"S-Sakura-chan?"
The waitress lowered her writing pad to see who had called her name and nearly jumped in surprise.
"Naruto!"
It was Iruka who asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I-I work here! I don't have any money, so I work here for free food."
"What do you mean, 'No money'? Don't your parents provide any money?"
"Um... they're on a mission and won't come back in 5 days, and they forgot to give me the key to my house."
"Really? I can probably unlock a window and you could get in that way."
"Oh... thanks for the offer but no thanks."
Sakura then quickly retreated into the safety of the ramen stand's kitchen and shook her head to clear her mind of the nervousness. That was close. Some men are just too smart for their own good.
-s-
Choose which one I should do in your review.
a. Continue
b. Don't Continue
I think I've done well for my first fanfic. What do you think?