The sound of fire crackling and everything burning was all Sakura's ears could catch… she lifted a bloody hand to her wounded shoulder… she was covered in blood, pain filled her body in massive amounts, her charka was depleted down to nearly zero; her eyes burned both from the smoke and emotional pain.

She looked up to see her once beloved village burn to the ground all around her… The terrifying screams of fear and pain no longer heard; bodies of both civilians and Shinobi alike littered the ground. Blood saturated her line of vision.

Everyone was dead… women, children, men and elders alike… The people she once fought for and healed to protect and help were all now gone.

Her friends were dead, she saw them fall, Rock lee, Neji, Chouji, Shikamaru, Tenten, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Tsunade-Shishou… and…

Sakura looked next to her… Ino lay there, bloody, bruised and beaten, her blonde hair was saturated in red, along with her mingled body… she was breathing in shallow gasps and Sakura knew she didn't have much time left as Ino looked at her with her once vibrant blue eyes, "Sakura…" Ino gurgled, coughing out even more blood that stained their bodies "Don't look back…" she croaked, barely above a whisper as a barely visible smile touched her lips.

"Ino…" Sakura's tears spilled the ground, mixing with the blood; she didn't know what Ino meant by that… and she couldn't help her friend… her charka was too low, she was no good…

Why was she never good enough?

Ino just smiled, "Forehead girl…" she whispered and her eyes closed, her breathing coming to a halt as she remained motionless.

"Ino!" Sakura chocked out a barely audible cry as the last of her friends were now gone…

An insane laugh filled her ears as she looked farther away to see the three remaining Shinobi…

Sasuke laughed, as if witnessing the most hilarious thing in the world, the curse-mark had engulfed him, he was a monster, his skin was grey and his hair was a light shade and hand-like wings stuck out of his back, he was saturated by innocent blood. He had lost his sanity a long time ago… he was weakening, but his insanity kept him standing.

Madara stood meters away behind him, amused and giddy… the Uchiha bastards…

They had gone against the village… bringing an army and forming an unexpected attack… it had turned into a brutal, inhuman massacre.

"SASUKE!" Naruto screamed in fury, the demon-fox charka had gone haywire during the great battle… but now it was coming to an end… he was weakening… his charka was fading…

The leaf village lost…

"Naruto…" Sakura whimpered, she had to protect her friend… he was the last person to fight off the Uchihas… she had to help him… she had to do something… anything!

With much difficulty she stood on her useless legs, she burned with pain at every movement she made. Her body was at its limits.

She saw Naruto charge up his last strength to form his last Rasengan and Sasuke his Chidori.

It was like that time on the hospital roof all over again…

She ran as fast as she could towards the two, who were now soaring towards each other to land the final blow.

She would stop Sasuke…

Madara had caught sight of her… he ran towards her to end her life and not interfere… The sword was mere meters away from her, she could not dodge…

Suddenly a body came in the way; she looked to see Shizune stab a kunai in Madara's gut as he ran his sword through her.

"Run Sakura! Get out of here!" was Shizune's last words.

Madara looked surprised but then his eyes narrowed, he had been distracted as Sakura, with determination aimed her weapon at Sasuke as her two old teammates went to kill each other.

No… she would protect Naruto, even if it meant giving her life!

Sakura ran in between them.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the pink haired girl, "SAKURA-CHAN!" he could not stop his attack.

The Chidori and Rasengan clashed with Sakura…

There was immense pain, a loud scream ripping through her throat and then… everything went black.

And the ending, was where everything started.

Emerald eyes cracked open, Sakura groaned, her head ached and her body felt sore; she lifted a hand to her head and sat up, the pink haired Kunoichi blinked twice, all the memories suddenly coming back to her.

She gasped and shot up, her eyes widening tremendously as she looked at her surroundings.

"Naruto!" She called in fear: Where was she?! Where's Naruto?! Was he dead?! No he can't be dead! He's Naruto! The future Hokage! Was the village completely destroyed?! Had Madara won?!

No, no, no!

In her hysteria, she stumbled and fell back; she groaned but then realized her body was not in as much pain as she remembered… she looked down at herself…

No blood, no injuries…

Her eyes widened, and grabbed at herself… nothing hurt!

Her clothes weren't torn, her hair wasn't sticky with blood and dirt, her body was fine and her charka was in normal levels.

"What the hell?!" she yelped in fear and shock, landing back on the soft grass.

Wait, what?! Grass?! But everything was burning! There shouldn't be grass!

She sat up again, feeling the grass to make sure she wasn't imagining things… her eyes then finally landing on her surroundings.

A forest was presented before her, green, intact… no fallen or burned trees… forest animals scattering about… birds chirping… the smell of smoke or destruction was nowhere to be sensed…

Sakura stared for a moment, a small gasp escaping her lips, "I'm dead…" she muttered and paused, looking at her hand for a sec but then landed on her back again and started laughing hysterically.

She grabbed her sides, uncontrollable laughter bubbling up and she inwardly compared herself to Sasuke laughing "I'm dead!" she cackled madly and sat up, "I am dead! Yup! Where's Kami?! I'd like to have a word with him!" she yelled to the sky, on the verge of loosing her marbles.

She laughed hard; luckily nobody was around to see her.

Soon her laughter subsided, wiping the tears from her eyes and cleared her dry throat; she got up and looked around.

"Wow, I didn't think Heaven would look so… average." She mumbled and walked along the very…very familiar forest.

"Hello? Kami?! You there?" she called, somehow expecting an angel or something to come down and present her a white robe and a halo.

Nobody answered and Sakura scratched her head, "Weird… if I'm dead, shouldn't I be at peace or something?" she held her rumbling stomach, "…and I don't think dead people should feel hungry… and why does this forest look familiar? Clearly I haven't been in Heaven before…" she added.

The thought then struck her, "Wait… so I'm not dead!" she grinned to herself.

Slow clapping was heard inside her head as her inner clapped sarcastically, 'Way to go genius, you should win an award!'

Sakura grumbled at her imaginary self, "Damn, now I know I'm not dead…"

Sakura's feet somehow managed to take her to a very familiar spot.

It didn't take her more then 5 seconds to realize that she was in training ground 3…

But… it was destroyed during the war… the trees and grass and everything should be burned, turned to ashes and with a small explanation… not be there.

Sakura rubbed her temples… okay, there has to be a logical explanation.

Calm down Sakura, just calm down.

The pink haired young woman took in a deep breath.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

She opened her eyes again and saw that nothing changed. She was now cautious, letting her guard up and keeping her charka expertly masked, she had such a great charka control that not even Madara had been able to spot her during the war, and managed to wound him in the shoulder before he sent her flying first class across the village from a simple punch. How she survived? She would never know.

The 20 year old girl walked across the field, deep in her thoughts.

Ha-ha, it would be really funny if she just walked up to her supposed 'destroyed' village and not see even a scratch on it-

Sakura froze in her tracks, when the village came into view…

There. Proudly and full of strength, stood the leaf village's gates.

'What. The. Hell?' Inner echoed her thoughts.