She had fought harder than she ever had before in her entire life. She had pushed out everything she had, and still, still she was forced to watch their backs. Forced to watch them as they fought, watch them as they outshone her. And now she could do nothing but to watch them die.

"A pity, isn't it?" a fellow spirit, so Sakura assumed, asked.

"How?" the incorporeal Sakura choked out as she watched her boys, her friends, her teammates face the same fate she had. "How could we fail? We fought so hard!" she wailed, furious, heartbroken. She sobbed. "I failed them."

"Yes," the spirit agreed, "Yes, you did, but then, really, what else could you do? I've been watching you, Haruno-san. You've become a strong shinobi, stronger than most, and yet you have more potential to grow. But they, well, they are barely even human, are they? It was all stacked in their favor. What could one little girl do against gods among men?"

Despite the compassionate tone the woman's words were enough to further enrage the distraught kunoichi. "I punched a god in the face," she growled out.

The spirit laughed. "Ah, and that you did! See? This is why I like you, Sakura. This is why I am going to give you a gift."

"A gift?" the broken kunoichi asked, wary. She was in shock still from her death, and had thought little of the spirit that had become visible to her once she had lost her battle to keep her body alive. Now she was less certain of her original theory that the spirit was just another fallen shinobi who had yet to move on. Could she be some sort of monster that preyed on souls? She knew that she had to be careful until she learned more about the afterlife.

"Yes, dear one, a gift. I will give you a second chance, and, if you work for it, a chance to truly stand side by side with them, as you have always wanted. The path will be hard, harder than before. I will make it so. You can choose to say no, of course. I will let you pass on. So, what do you say?"

Sakura thought she had lost her sanity along with her life; this all seemed surreal, and though she could scarcely bring herself to accept that this could be anything but a trick the only word that she could think to say was, "Yes." It could be a trap, but the hope that she felt blossoming inside her swept away all caution and fear.

Her world faded to blackness, and she let herself be pulled away from the blood strewn battlefield.

The only light she could see in the darkness of her new surroundings was the spirit. It was strange, the spirit, as she did not have a form as Sakura did - her spirit looked the same as she had while in life, though she was intangible, even to herself. The other spirit, however, was a human shaped light, and clearly female. The light was white, and so bright that Sakura knew that if she had eyes, real eyes, that light would have been blinding.

"Now then, let me explain how this will work. You will be starting your life back at the age of five, the year you started at the academy. Certain aspects of your life will be changed. As I said, this will be a challenge for you. I want to help you make things right, but I will not hold your hand for you. You must earn this, Sakura. You will, however, be given a few perks based on things I saw as achievements in your previous life. Are you following me so far, Sakura?"

"I think so, yes. I don't understand how this is possible. Who are you? How can you do this?"

"Haruno-san, I am a god - a true god, unlike the woman you just faced. I can do far more than this if it suited me. Regardless, back to the topic at hand. You will be starting at level one. You have seven years to prepare yourself for the trials that await you."

"Level?" Sakura asked, utterly confused by the term.

"Yes, for you the world will be changed. Your growth will be measured in levels, and your power displayed with stats. You will be able to directly see just what you can do. In short, your life will be played like a videogame, of sorts."

Sakura was intrigued by the idea. "Will other people have levels too?"

"Yes, but they will not be aware of the game, and you will not tell them of it. This is for you alone, Haruno-san. Now, enough talk. The world awaits you."

And, just like that, she was no longer in blackness, nor was she a spirit.

As this is a story is about an RPG, sort of, I will be using a number generator for things. Lots of things.

Critique, criticism, and ideas are always welcome!

Chapter Last Edited On : March 16th, 2015