PLEASE NOTE: This fanfiction follows the manga up to chapter 632. Please do not read this if you cannot handle spoilers or haven't read the most recent chapters of the manga.
Disclaimer: As much as I wish I did, I do not own Naruto.
Something Lost
"Naruto, Sakura, cover me," said a nearly exhausted Sasuke. The pink-haired kunoichi moved to the left of him while the container of the demon fox moved to the right. The former member of Team 7 immediately began forming seals at a rapid speed, breathing heavily.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Naruto yelled at the Uchiha while he fought off one of the Juubi's clones. "We need your help!"
"Be quiet, Naruto!" Sakura argued. "I'm sure Sasuke-kun has his reasons for asking us to cover him. Can't you see he's making seals?"
Sakura was running low on chakra, and Naruto couldn't remain in his Kyuubi form for much longer. Even though Kakashi was handling Obito in a separate dimension, and Madara was being dealt with by Hashirama, the Juubi remained a major problem for the shinobi that remained on the battlefield. Out of the Rookie Nine from Konoha, only Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata and Shikamaru were left. The odds were definitely not in their favor.
"Listen up," Sasuke started while still creating seals. "I know a forbidden jutsu that can change the outcome of this war."
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Naruto shouted, moving closer to Sasuke.
"This is a last resort; there's a reason this jutsu is forbidden," Sasuke began to explain the complexity of the technique. "It's a time travel jutsu I learned from Orochimaru, but it's going to cost each of us something in order for it to be successful, something that defines us."
"Something that defines us? What do you mean?" Sakura questioned.
"For example, when you think of Naruto, what comes to mind?"
"The Kyuubi." His idiocy was originally what first came to mind, but she guessed that wouldn't make a very good example.
"Right. So the jutsu would take the Kyuubi away from him, and he would become a normal person. However, there are many things that define every person, so what is taken is chosen randomly."
"I think I get the concept," Sakura said in-between breaths. "So what happens after we go back in time?"
"This timeline will be frozen and cease to exist. We will be sent to an alternate timeline set before the war, if we so desire. Before we start, we all need to agree on one point in time, or we will end up in different timelines. How far back should we go?"
"A few days before we became Genin," Naruto suggested.
"Whenever it is, it absolutely has to be before the Chuunin Exams," Sakura added.
"We'll do it the day of the Genin Exams," Sasuke announced. He actually wanted to do it a few days before the Uchiha Massacre, but he knew that would be difficult to avoid and would have too great of an effect on the future. "Do we all agree?"
"Wait!" Naruto interrupted. "What about Kakashi-sensei?"
"We have no idea how long he is going to take or if he's even alive. The jutsu needs to be done before we die or run out of chakra, and who knows how long that's going to take?" Sasuke informed him.
Naruto looked down at his fallen comrades, and although he wished Kakashi could join them, he realized that was not an option. "Alright, let's go!"
He and Sakura placed their hands on Sasuke's shoulders, molding their chakra with his. In an instant, they were gone, and the timeline they were was frozen.
Sakura woke up in her bedroom. She checked her surroundings cautiously, and let out a sigh of relief when she realized she was safe, and The Fourth Great Ninja War had never actually happened. She sat up, ready to begin her training with Tsunade.
She went into the bathroom to grab her brush and started to run it through her hair. Wait, since when did she have this much hair? Confused, she looked into the full-length mirror on her door and, of course, screamed. She looked exactly the same as she had back in her academy days, and that's when it all came rushing back to her.
She was so happy she wanted to cry, but the question still remained: what did she lose? She did a complete spin in front of the mirror; no body parts appeared to be missing. Something that defined her… what could that be?
Before leaving, Sakura contemplated over whether or not she should cut her hair. She kind of missed having long hair, since she never let it grow that long again after the Chuunin Exams, and therefore she decided to keep it long, at least for a little while.
On her way to the Academy, right before entering the classroom, she ran into Ino. Sakura could feel tears surfacing themselves. After all, Ino had died in the previously timeline.
"Oh, if it isn't Forehead," Ino boasted.
That was enough to stop Sakura's tears and make her remember the intense rivalry that was taking place at that point in time. But when she saw Sasuke and Naruto inside the classroom, she decided to ignore Ino and go to sit near Naruto. When she was passing Sasuke, she allowed her eyes to meet his, and he followed her gaze as she walked away. Considering Sasuke would never look her in eyes the first time she was in the Academy, she assumed this meant that he made it back safely. Her thoughts were interrupted by her other teammate.
"Hey, Sakura! Did you find out what you lost yet?" Naruto shouted to her across the room. She quickly went over to him and put her hand on his mouth.
"Haha yeah, thanks for helping me look for that kunai," she laughed nervously, and she gave him a glare that said, "Do you want everyone finding out we're from the future?" This was enough to shut him up.
"Alright, everyone! Take your seats. It's time for the written exam," Iruka said as he entered the classroom.
Sakura was feeling extremely confident. If she could get a perfect score on the written part of the test before, she could definitely do it now.
It was when she was handed the test and looked over it that she was proved wrong.
No way, she thought. I don't know a single question!
It would seem that Sakura lost her intellect.