Haruno Sakura is not just an average girl dreaming of a glorious, romanticised career as a ninja. Instead, she's a girl with prodigious levels of chakra control, a determination to match and a will of fire that burns as hot and bright as an inferno. Haruno Sakura is an ambitious and cunning girl with equally wild goals to match, and here are some of them to name a few:

- Complete the Strength of A Hundred Seals before Sasuke attempts to leave the village
- Find a way to contact Kurama and warn the other bijuu
- Become more legendary that the Sannin before original Sakura

OR. Haruno Sakura remembers a life before she was Sakura. She remembers a place called Tokyo, and with it are memories of a potential future as seen in the Naruto series. Given this new chance, the wealth of knowledge at her fingertips, and no way to back out, she hopes to change things for the better. But does her presence and knowledge make it better or worse?

A/N: Hello and welcome to my sleep deprived, caffeine-induced brain child. The idea literally came to because I dreamt that I woke up and went through my entire routine that day, did all the work I was planning to do and finally came home to collapse onto my bed which is when I actually woke up in the reality and realised I just dreamt everything. It was sad and a new form of torture, and so I decided to turn my pain into this story.

Anyway, I'm slowly ironing out the finer details of this story and I know it's gonna be a loooong journey. If you have the patience for it, then please stick around for the first few chapters! Things will get better (I hope) once I have the foundations ironed out and done with. So, yeah! I have no idea why I keep doing this to myself but I hope you'll stick with me and enjoy it.

The title is inspired by the poem, Now The Flower Blooms, also the opening poem for the card game karuta.

This work has been crossposted on under the same pseudonym.

.

Chapter 1 – 夢か? 現実か? A dream? Or reality?

.

The first time Sakura dreams of this other world, she is three and a half and everything is wonderful.

She dreams of a city called Tokyo, in an island country called Japan, where the streets are packed and buildings reach far high into the heavens. People are doing their own thing and minding their own business yet they are equally kind and trusting in their hospitality. Everyone is always buzzing with energy, moving against and with each other from one place to another, absorbed in their errands or devices like phones. The buildings are made of concrete and metal and glass, a stark contrast to the old trees and gardens, and they reach indescribable heights that Sakura has never seen before with bright signs of flashing light hanging from its side and all she can do is stare at them in awe.

Some of these buildings have shops too – ranging from single units along the street to whole buildings with miniature shopping cities inside. There's a shop for everything one can think of and they display their products in glass cabinets to entice passersby. It's all so foreign and breathtaking that her attention barely holds for seconds before she is called to another store. But her favourites shop displays are that of restaurants with their perfect, mouth-watering sculptures of food, of every kind of food that she knows tastes just as good as they look and she can't get enough.

In this dream world, there are also things called cars that drive down streets, and trains and subways that stretch across the city and county like a spider's web. What would take hours on foot has been reduced to minutes, and Sakura wonders not for the first time if Konohagakure could hold a candle to this gigantic city and its ever growing population. And unlike Konoha, there are no ninjas or military powers roaming the streets. Most of the people here are civilians and crime rates are low and streets are clean, and Sakura knows in her heart that her mother wouldn't mind if she played well into the night. But that, too, isn't her favourite thing about Tokyo though it's a close second.

No, Sakura's favourite thing about Tokyo are the lights. When the sun has gone to bed and the moon rises from its slumber, the city comes alive with lights so bright and vibrant and a skyline so beautiful, Sakura is left breathless. The city barely notices the shift between day and night because the activity doesn't stop or change, it continues well into the early hours. But the night is when most of the population have shed the busy buzzing of labour, and the city shifts from the high energy of tension and serious business to excitement and anticipation.

And it is breathtaking.

When she wakes from her dreams, Sakura often feels like a piece of herself is missing and her chest aches with phantom pains. So she tells anyone who would listen about this amazing world that she has dreamt. Every morning her parents, Haruno Jiro and Akane, would listen to her prattle on about her dreams around the dining table, always with a fond, indulgent smile, but the city is hard for them to imagine. None of the other kids her age get it either, unable to understand her vocabulary or simply have the patience to listen when they rather play. None of the adults take her seriously, not even her parents despite their awareness of her intellect. To them, she's a kid with a hyperactive imagination going through a phase. And none of them understand the yearning that burns in her, wishing and hoping that it's all real.

One morning she admits this aloud for the first time and her father ruffles her hair with a soft chuckle, and four words that stab at her, ' It's a nice dream ', and then the matter is never spoken of again.

And the dream continues on every night in spite of everything and soon enough, it starts to feature people she knows are precious to her and schools. She dreams of good but absent parents with big dreams and bigger expectations. She dreams of classrooms and long hallways, organised and structured and so very nostalgic. But most importantly, she dreams of friends and there are four in their little group, each with their own different talents and backgrounds but they are inseparable. They are the kind of friends who study together, eat lunch together, leave school together, spend their weekends together, laugh together, cry together and celebrate together, and she misses them so much it hurts despite it all being just a dream. Every night she learns a little bit more about this world that she dreams and loves, and every night she learns a little bit more of herself too. And not for the first time, she thinks the saying, ' you can't miss what you never had ', is the biggest and ugliest lie ever spoken.

But then Sakura turns four and everything changes.

For the first time in her dreams, Sakura isn't in motion. She's not exploring the world or interacting with her friends. Instead she's sitting in front of a TV with interesting ads playing one after the other until there's an announcement that says the show, 'Naruto', will begin promptly and Sakura knows for some inexplicable reason that it's a new show and she's bubbling with excitement. Not soon enough, the show starts and Sakura doesn't know if she's still breathing because on the screen, staring right back at her, is Konoha in all its glory with the four Hokages faces overlooking them from the side of the mountain.

Never has dream and reality mixed in such a way before.

She barely regains her composure when she is shocked once again. Shocked because she sees herself in the screen. She is older. Twelve , her brain supplies helpfully, but it's her face, her hair, her eyes and her name, only more matured with the added height and the loss of some of her baby fat. She thinks that her mind and dreams are playing one big trick on her – that her own body and psychology is attacking herself and how pathetic would that be – but for some reason she knows it's important. Very quickly the TV has her undivided attention as she absorbs every bit of information that she can like a sponge.

And the thing with dreams is that there are no commercial breaks and there's mostly no need for toilet breaks when one is sleeping. At four years old, Sakura sleeps between ten to twelve hours every evening and dreaming has become a Naruto binge fest of thirty plus episodes every night with no commercial breaks, openings or endings. In the first night, Haruno Sakura was well on her way to finishing second part of the chunin exams, the Forest of Death. Waking up had her feeling all kinds of wrong and all she could say was that her behaviour was appalling, to the point where it made her slightly nauseous, and she felt an acute burning sensation of shame despite none of this having happened in her reality yet.

That next morning, for the first time in six months, Sakura doesn't talk about her dreams.

This routine goes on for the next twenty or so nights, give or take, until Sakura has finished watching the entire series and she is left stunned speechless and a blubbering emotional mess. But it doesn't stop there. Dream Sakura is obsessed as she tears through fan theories and stories, and isn't the first time Sakura wonders which one is the dream and which one is the reality. Like many other people online, she's not quite happy with how the series turns out, how her possible future will turn out , and has been filled with self loathing more than once and she'll be happy if those dreams stay as dreams. But it isn't that simple. She can't deny what she knows is true in her heart of hearts. She's a four year old little girl who knows the future, a possible future but a future nonetheless. She's a four year old little girl with knowledge she shouldn't have and Sakura feels herself age until she's even older than even her parents. And for the first time in her very short life, Haruno Sakura feels hopeless.

Was she destined to be a useless, worthless, shallow ninja with only an inflated ego and barely nothing to show for it? Was she destined to be a horrible manipulative person? Or could she change the future? But would this future be better or worse? She becomes possessed with all the possibilities presented and it comes to the point where her parents begin to worry.

They sit her down on the large sofa in the living room one evening, kneeling in front of her with frowns maring their foreheads and tired eyes. They haven't spoken but Sakura knows that they want to talk about her recent behaviour. They want to understand what is happening for her to have caged herself in her room with pens and notebooks writing scribbles in a language that they don't understand. (It isn't the first time she's glad she's bilingual in her dreams, and everything she knows in her dreams, she also knows in reality and luckily for her, nobody else in her reality knows English.) They want to understand why their cheerful and bubbly little girl has suddenly become sullen and quiet like a mouse. They want to understand but Sakura knows that she can't tell anyone. The fear of being found out by someone like the Hokage or Danzo is palpable and enough to drive her into a panic. Sakura is only four but she already fears for her life, because age is just another number in this chaotic world she lives.

"Will you tell us what's wrong?"

Her mother is the embodiment of soft and warm and reassuring with her honey voice, bright red hair and her kind green eyes, so patient as she watches Sakura with the kind of worry that only a mother can muster, and Sakura wants to tell her everything but she doesn't. She can't.

"I've been having nightmares," she tells them. It's a lie but it doesn't feel like one because the future is a nightmare that Sakura wishes to avoid.

"And what are these nightmares about, my little Sakura blossom?" her father asks, equally patient and kind, with his ruffled pink hair and eyes magnified behind glasses, "Do you want to tell us? Maybe we can help."

She hesitates. She knows she can't share the future with her caring civilian parents but she also knows they won't stop asking and worrying unless she tells them something, anything. It's a terrible position that she's been put in and lies, she knows, are best when they are based on the truth.

"About the future," she admits a while later, "I have nightmares that mama and papa are no longer there, and nobody cares about me and I don't do anything good and mama and papa are not proud of me."

"Oh sweetie," her mother says as she draws her into a hug, and her hair falls around them like a curtain, trying to protect her from the world but it's already too late, "Mama and papa won't ever leave you. We will always be here for you and care for you and we will always, always be proud of you. No matter what."

That reassurance and unyielding faith breaks something inside her and Sakura cries earnestly into her mother's warm embrace as she feels the weight of everything crash down on her. Moments later, her father has joined the fray and the entire Haruno family is sitting on the ground, curled around one another. They stay like that for hours and end up falling asleep that way, painfully awkward position and all, and Sakura doesn't dream that night. She just basks in the warmth of family and love, filled with both sadness and happiness. It later becomes one of Sakura's most precious memories.

Afterwards, the frantic obsession with the future stops and her dreams begin to alternate between exploring her wondrous dream world and lighter research into fan fictions where she is strong and powerful and it gives her hope. It's no less a burden to bare but the weight feels somewhat lighter. The Haruno household, too, falls back into a similar routine to what it was before Sakura had knowledge of the future but the change is obvious. It stays that way, too, for a while and just as Sakura has gotten used to the routine and accepted her reality, become complacent, her dreams shake the foundation she's built again.

Three months after her fourth birthday, she dreams again. It starts out the same as most dreams and Sakura finds nothing out of the ordinary. She is in an empty apartment, average sized for most families living in Tokyo and its definitely one that has seen many better years. But it's a second home anyhow and she is sitting at the genkan by the door to put on her shoes, and she doesn't need to look back to know that there's an open kitchen and living room behind her. She knows this apartment as well as she knows her own home in Konoha. There's music in her ears she knows is coming from a pair of large headphones and she hums along to the tune. And with the speed honed by years of practice, she's already laced up her sneakers, standing and reaching for the door with bag and keys in hand.

She switches the lights off and closes the door, double checking to make sure its locked, and then she's off. Down the hallway and into the lift, and then she's winding down the streets of her Tokyo neighbourhood. She greets a few people, neighbours and other familiar faces, but she doesn't stop to talk. The sun is about to set and she knows she's supposed to be home, but who can fault her for wanting to go on adventure?

Her feet know where to go and soon enough she finds herself in front of a bookshop, the one place where hundreds of thousand of adventures are waiting to begin. New releases are displayed by the window and she reads a few of the titles before she steps into the shop. The lights have been dimmed slightly to give atmosphere and she can't hear it, but she knows it's eerily quiet. The shop is not packed with people but it isn't empty either. There's a fair amount of people scattered. Some are looking for books, others have sat down in the provided chairs and reading spaces. Some are at the coffee shop at the centre, alone or with a friend. They're all strangers trying to escape into the pages of a novel gathered into one place. Nobody looks up to look at her when the door chimes and Sakura loves it all the more.

She first gravitates towards the new releases, picking up every book that captures her attention and reads the blurb. One in particular, a Haruki Murakami new release, Killing Commendatore , captures her attention and she joins a small group of people at the nearby chairs and reads. It doesn't take long for her to be hooked by the story and she gets up to pay for her new book – it's already dark out and she knows she'll be in trouble if she returns any later. And she's almost out the door and ready to head home when her eyes catch a glimpse of the shonen manga section.

It's only for a while , she tells herself, a few minutes won't make a difference .

There's no one there at the front of the store with her, so she freely and gleefully runs her fingers along the spines of mangas she's read, animes she's watched, and all the one's on her to-watch and to-read list when she comes at a halting stop at Naruto . She takes the first volume out and she knows she's looking at it fondly. There are many thoughts that are running through her head in that moment, none of them are quite coherent, and her emotions are thick but that's okay.

The world around her melts into the background. She's in her own little bubble, remembering and fantasising and theorising. That is until a sound not even her headphones could block out brings her back to reality. She turns around but it's already too late.

Hurtling towards her is a large truck with its glaring headlights and there is no way she can escape.

And for the first time, she sees her own reflection in her dreams. It's not the pink hair and green eyes she sees every day. It's an average face with dark hair and dark eyes contorted to one of fear and horror and shock. It's a face that most wouldn't look twice at, like any other face in the crowd. But it's a face that she knows intimately like you would know a close friend or a family member.

A truck is hurtling towards her and she can only watch as the events unfold as though its been slowed down. The truck is honking at her, not rapidly but held into one long drawn out sound that hurts her ears as much as the glaring headlights hurts her eyes. She can't see the person driving the vehicle or anyone in the passenger seat. All she knows is that it's hurtling towards her and there is nothing she can do to avoid the impact. Her hands with the Naruto manga still clutched tightly are slowly moving upwards in an attempt to protect her face, but deep down she knows she's not going to survive this.

She feels the glass break as shards pierce her body in multiple places. One particularly large piece lodges itself in her throat and comes out the other side. She can taste the coppery tang of her own blood in her mouth and she knows she'll drown in the liquid too if the impact doesn't kill her first. Already, all her energy is leaving her and falls backwards into the shelves. It's not a moment later where she finds herself crushed between the shelves and the metal contraption, and she feels all the bones in her torso break.

Then everything is moving fast again and all she knows is pain and darkness.

Sakura screams herself awake.

It tears through her painfully and jolts her body upwards, adrenaline is pumping through her veins in a quick procession like war drums. She barely registers the fact that her scream wakes her parents and they're slamming the door to her room open, already beside her as she cries into their arms and warmth. She saying a jumble of words that make no sense to anyone and she fights the phantom feeling of a punctured throat. Because everything she knows and feels in her dreams, she too knows and can feel in reality. Her parents are saying their own mantra to comfort and reassure but it does nothing to ease the blinding pain.

They're trying their hardest to figure out what's wrong and they can't because there are no physical wounds. They're asking Sakura to tell them what's wrong but all Sakura has is a seemingly endless amount of tears even as the adrenaline seeps out of her bloodstream, leaving her tired and broken. She cries and screams so much she knows that her throat will be a pain in the morning and her eyes puffy and red. She cries and cries and cries in the early hours of the morning until she makes herself pass out in exhaustion.

"That was fast."

She swivels around to find a pale haired, middle-aged woman with spectacles sitting at a desk at the centre of the room like a typical drawing of a kind but stern librarian. The desk itself is made of a deep wood, large enough for well six people to sit around it comfortably, but it's surface is strewn with stacks upon stacks of loose papers and books. The chamber is circular and surrounded by bookshelves that seem to stretch infinitely above them but the woman's voice doesn't echo at all. There are no windows but the room is well lit and warm. Everything is orderly and somewhat sterile.

"It seems as though I have underestimated your ability to panic," the woman says, "But no matter. It just means we'll get this over and done with earlier."

The woman gestures towards the seat in front of her. Sakura walks towards it hesitantly but she takes it and it takes a while for her small body to clamber up into the seat, but it is probably one of the most comfortable chairs she has ever sat in. It doesn't, however, distract her for very long, "Where am I? And who are you?"

"What do you remember?" the woman asks as she peers over her spectacles.

Sakura takes a deep breath to calm herself, the images of the bookshop and her blood still fresh and flashing through her mind rapidly.

"I-I've been having dreams about a city called Tokyo, a fictitious TV show called Naruto where I, Haruno Sakura, am a character," she says hesitantly after much thought, "and I just dreamt of dying in a bookshop. Only it's not a dream is it?"

A grin threatens to tear the woman's face in half, "Clever girl. You're just as sharp and smart as the report says."

Sakura looks at the woman expectantly.

"Your body is currently asleep but currently you're in a place you would call limbo, and you can call me Kitsune-sama," the woman answers, "I'm here to key you in to what's going on and what not if you haven't figured it out already. Have you? Figured it out, that is."

"I was an average girl living in Tokyo," Sakura swallows thickly, "and I died and now I'm somehow a fictional character in a fictional series."

"Not quite," Kitsune says, "You were a girl living in Tokyo. Now, you are another girl named Haruno Sakura, who you know will have a great adventure ahead. Both are equally as real, neither of them a dream."

"Why?"

The woman frowns over her spectacles, "What do you mean?"

"Why me?!" Sakura asks, her voice desperate, "Why Sakura? Just why ?"

"Think of this as a way to make up for all the bad luck you experienced in your first life. Karma and all that," Kitsune explains, "Sakura because as Sakura you can have an impact, because that is what you want. You want to change the story of Naruto for the better and this is your chance to do it. Sakura because you can't be Naruto or Sasuke."

Sakura chuckles humorlessly, "Make up for all the bad luck? This just seems like even more bad luck. I never asked for this! Why would I want to live in a world with child soldiers? I'm not suicidal."

"Don't lie to yourself. You were obsessed with the world for a while. You've dreamt about it enough and even if your mind tells you that it's childish, that you don't want this and that it is suicidal, you heart yearns for it. You wouldn't be here if you didn't," Kitsune says matter-of-factly, her eyes piercing as though she was staring into Sakura's soul, "But if you think this really is bad luck, I can take away your memories of your first life and you can live your life as Haruno Sakura without the knowledge of what happens and I will see you again when you die and it's time for me to collect your soul."

That makes Sakura go silent. She tries to think about all the reasons why this is a bad idea, a very bad idea, but all she can think about is how terrible Sakura is in the show and manga. She thinks about her ego despite her lack of achievements to prove it and the many failures, failures that could have costed her her comrades, that she had stacked up. She thinks of all the time Sakura whined and cried and threw tantrums when nothing went her way, begging Naruto to fix everything. She thinks of Sakura who abandoned and broke a friendship over a boy she claims she loves yet knows nothing about. She thinks of Sakura who followed Sasuke around, claiming to be in love with a man that holds no feelings for her and has tried to kill her on multiple occasions. She thinks of Sakura's cruelty to Naruto and how much he must be hurting, and she knows she already has the answer.

She could never, in good conscious, let that Sakura become a reality – won't believe that she could ever become someone, something that makes her feel sick and disgusted.

"What are the rules?" she says once she has her answer, "What can I change? What can't I change? What can you change?"

Kitsune is smiling a shit eating grin, because she knew from that start that there was no backing out for Sakura, not with stakes, "You're familiar with the Alternate Universe theory. You can make any changes you want and there will be no consequences, but all the changes have to be done by your own merit or by consequence of your own merit, meaning you can't change the past and I can't change anything for you. If you wish to change it, nothing is out of reach. You just have to find a way to change it."

"What I can do, however, is provide you with a first push, so to speak," she continues, "Little things to start you off, such as providing knowledge through reading materials or even bring someone to cross paths with you if you need their help, create opportunities."

This gives Sakura a lot to think about and she quickly asks the woman for pen and paper, scribbling down ideas and things that would be helpful. The woman doesn't do anything, just watches her as she takes down notes after notes, planning and thinking of all the things she may need. It's times like this that she wishes that she was more tactical minded, always thinking ten steps ahead with many strategies and many contingencies, someone like Shikamaru or any Nara. Instead, she's just a girl that is more intelligent and sharper than most people her age, not a genius by any means, but she grasps complex concepts easier and can catch onto signs quicker. Many have described her as emotionally intelligent in the way she can accurately read people and act empathetically.

But she's a girl that will now carry a heavy weight on her shoulders.

"How much information can you give me?" she finally asks, putting down her pen to use Kitsune as a sounding board in case she's missed anything.

"Depends on the subject."

"On chakra, on jutsus," she says, "the anime and manga talk about it a little but it's not exactly helpful when I don't really know how to access it. That and I've read so many fan theories it's hard to remember what exactly was said. I'm pretty sure I read a theory once that all shinobi can actually access all the nature affinities, one is just more predisposed to a single affinity and they train in that affinity so much that other affinities become harder to access, and that sounds very plausible in my opinion. So I want to know everything there is to know about chakra and I'm also working under the assumption that the stuff they'll teach may be misinformed."

"I can do that. Anything else?"

"I'll take anything you can give me to get me started on training my body," Sakura purses her lips, "I'm a four year old kid from a civilian family and most of the Rookie 12 are from clans. Most of them have probably started their training already. Sakura, in the anime and manga, despite graduating from the academy was physically very weak and lacked stamina and power and any form of reserves. I want to change that."

The woman smiles again, "I can do that too. I can give you all the books you need to get you started on your ninja training that should get you into shape if follow through with it. Anything else?"

"I need to meet Yamanaka Ino soon, or at least someone that should 'inspire' me and make me want to become a ninja," Sakura says, "It's an excuse to give my parents but also to start forging the bonds of the Rookie 9 early. That said, I'm not sure if my parents would be supportive of a career as a ninja. Could you...change that?"

"I can arrange for Ino to be at the park on a certain day, say a week from today, but I can't change your parents attitude and make them complacent," the woman says, "I can make them more open to the idea of being a ninja as a career but everything else is in your hands."

"That's fine. I don't want to alter their personalities," she huffs a tired sigh, rubbing her eyes, "Well, after I meet Ino, I want a few months where I can study all the material you can provide and start training up my body before I meet Naruto. Maybe in the summer? It'll be too hot to train as rigorously in the summer heat and I can split off more of my time for breaks since I don't want to get a heat stroke. But I definitely want to meet him before autumn."

"You'll find that Uzumaki Naruto is at the park every single day now that he lives in his own apartment," the woman informs her.

Sakura clamps her eyes shut and pales slightly, "As much as I want to meet him sooner and become his friend sooner, I'm not quite ready yet. I'm not sure I can stop myself though, if he's there. Could you get him to go...elsewhere while I befriend Ino?"

The woman hums, "Okay. In a week's time, Yamanaka Ino will be at the park and Uzumaki Naruto will be spending a day with the Hokage."

"Thank you," Sakura says sincerely, "In exactly two years, three months after I've started studying at the Academy, could you make the head of the Konoha Hospital be more...receptive and open to meeting me? I will hopefully have a good enough grasp of chakra by then and start with my medical training."

"That's doable."

"Halfway through my time at the academy, when I'm around nine, if you could create an opportunity to for me to meet Mitarashi Anko," Sakura says, "As much as I'm scared of snakes, Anko is strong and part of the T&I division. If I can establish a good enough relationship and get Anko to train me, it'll be a huge boost. If I make a few well placed comments about a few rumours I hear here and there, and they deal with it for me? Well, all the better."

"How cunning of you."

"I like the term ambitious more," she says dryly, "Really ambitious, considering I want to have completed the Strength of a Hundred Seal by the time I graduate. Or, in the worst case scenario, have it down by the time Sasuke leaves the village in the original timeline. I might actually have to wait beyond that if I have to wait for Tsunade's approval or something. I'll have to wait for her anyway if I want to sign the slug contract and summon Katsuyu."

"Are you sure you're not overestimating yourself?"

"If I am Sakura and Sakura is me, then I should have prodigious levels of perfect chakra control. In the original timeline, Sakura has really small reserves, is physically weak and already twelve years old by the time she begins to train herself seriously under Tsunade. It only takes her around three years to get it, and I'm starting my training at four years old to build up my reserves and my control at the same time. I should have enough excess chakra to constantly channel and store in my forehead, right?"

The woman hummed, giving nothing away, "Well, if you put it that way. Anything else?"

"The slug contract?"

The woman laughs, "Of course you'd ask. No, I can't touch the summons since it's not something that you pick. The summons have to choose you. You have to fit their requirements and they need to approve. You can try to do it like Jiraiya did and get reverse summoned to the contract that suits you the most or wait."

"I'll probably do that, thanks," she says, deep in thought as she contemplated what the woman has just revealed. It's knowledge she already knows but didn't occur to her until now. "And that's it. I can't think of anything beyond this at the moment."

"It's very well thought out," the woman nods, "I'm thoroughly impressed. Everything we've agreed to today, consider it done. I'll have the agreement outlined and written, which you'll find on your desk along with all the books you've requested written in English. It's a security measure to stop anyone other than you from reading it, since you are the only one who knows the language in the Elemental Nations."

Sakura nods.

"Well then, good luck Haruno Sakura and I hope you live a long and fulfilling life, and I won't see you again for many years to come."

Awareness seeps into her slowly.

It starts from the twitching of her fingers and the dull throb at the back of her head. Then she feels her lips open and her tongue moves in an attempt to remove the dryness that has settled there for god knows how long. She tries to clear her throat and winces, but its enough to make sure she won't fall back asleep. She moves slightly, motor muscles waking and easing her out of stiffness. Her eyes move under her lids and open – not fully, just partway in that peculiar way that most drowsy people do – and it takes her a few blinks before she finally comes to.

The first thing she notices is how bright her room is as Sakura pushes herself into an upright position on her too large bed, meaning it's been morning for some time already. Maybe it's already noon. She doesn't know how much time has passed since she collapsed from the panic of realising she was dead at some point. After what happened, she feared that she may find herself waking up in a hospital bed and Sakura will be ever thankful that she isn't.

Idly she wonders why her parents aren't fretting over her as she looks around, eyes immediately catching onto a stack of books on her wooden desk and remembers that nothing is just a dream anymore. She climbs out of bed as quickly and quietly as possible and pulls the note off the top. Her eyes skim the words quickly finding no faults, pausing slightly at the sign off, 'Your Guardian, Kitsune'. Looking skyward, she sends off a silent 'thank you' to the woman, wherever she is and hopes that she hears it. Sakura pins the note on the cork board that sits just above her desk and turns her attention to the books.

There are five in total: blue for chakra, red for ninjutsu, green for medical ninjutsu, black for taijutsu and brown for weapons. Each book is leather bound and gives no indication of its contents, their titles written only on the inside. Each book is also handwritten in clear non-cursive font, but in such a standardised way that Sakura had thought it was printed at first with only minor changes in thickness and a smudge here and there to alert her of otherwise. She caresses the covers and grins down at the books appreciatively.

She skims through the book, eyes only picking out the things that stand out, and she feels as the weight on her shoulder returns. All of this is really proof that her dreams are not just dreams, and her reality is not quite just reality.

And to quote one of her favourite authors, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

Because this life she's living now, her second chance at life, is her reality and even though she is much more knowledgeable of the coming and goings of the entire Elemental Nations, it doesn't make it less real. It's not a game that she can find miraculous hacks for. It's not a dream she can wake up from. It's not something that she can put off and think about at another point in time. Things have already been set in motion long before she was born, long before she remembered , and they weren't going to stop just because she isn't ready or prepared.

At any point time, she could die.

Sakura couldn't, cannot in any way rely on the anime or manga to act as a beacon of assurance that she will survive. She's living in a world where there is no real peace. There is no safety in this world like the one she could find in Tokyo. This is a world where children are trained to be soldiers, to kill and to die, and once she changes something, any assurances of survival is gone and she can't rely on blindingly good luck.

No, she was going to train and train. She was going to train until her muscles screamed, her hands bled. She's going to sweat enough to match the rainfall in Ame. She's going to hone every skill, use every resource available to her and use every day of her life to the fullest because she's also working on a time limit and deadline. She was going to do everything in her power to change things for the better starting with Naruto and Sasuke, and the Rookie 9 Through hard work and determination alone, she will make sure that she and everyone she cares about will be prepared. And if they're not prepared, she'll just have to be strong enough to protect them too.

Her name is Haruno Sakura and this is her reality.

A/N: Thank you for sticking to the end of the first chapter!

Please let me know if anything doesn't make sense. I wrote this, then re-read it and edited it a few times but all of this was done whilst sleep deprived and running on caffeine. But either way, I'd like to hear your comments!