A.N.: Bakemono means monster

Kissing his white haired angel, 23 year old Senju Hashirama was distracted by a guilty feeling rearing its head. Again.

"You're thinking about her aren't you?" The woman asked pushing him away.

"I can't help it Kaede…" He told her honestly.

"Why can't you just choose between her and me? Neither Hemiko nor I deserve to be juggled by you!" The woman, now identified as Kaede snapped out at him.

"I-!" He started before she stood up from her seat in the tent she and Hashirama where in.

"I can't take this anymore. I'm a one-man woman and yet you can't choose between me and that Sarutobi girl! I'm done!" She stomped out of the tent with Hashirama hot on her heels.

"Kaede, wait." He said desperately. An arrow came from the right and pierced the unprotected heart of the white haired woman.

The last thing she heard was Hashirama shouting her name before he said in a cold voice,

"Uchiha…"

Sakura woke up in a cold sweat.

'I… I died? But I'm alive? Hashi-kun… I sorry…' She thought sadly. 'I wish I could've told you that. Looks like you did choose Hemiko. Tsunade looks just like her grandmother, blonde hair and all…'

Sakura froze as she drew her hand though her hair, a frustrating habit that Kaede had had.

'But my name is Haruno Sakura, not Yamagata Kaede! Not heiress to the Yamagata Taijutsu masters of Konoha… right? And this guy… wait a minute! Senju Hashirama was the name of the first Hokage… Uhh! How do I know that? That information is s-class… only the Hokage and the council know the names of the first and second Hokage…'

Sakura was more confused then ever. 'Why do I get the feeling that I want to call the second Hokage bakemono? How disrespect…'

Sakura giggled as she remembered that she and Hashi would always tease Takemono, Hashirama's younger brother, who would later became the second Hokage, about his name.

'Hey little monster how's it going?' Sakura remembered saying to the twelve year old boy as she and 19 year old Hashi-kun went off, ignoring the boy's indignant response about his name. They had been the same age, having grown up together as there clans where very friendly.

Confused over these memories of happy times that never happened Sakura got up and took a brief shower and brushed her teeth before walking over to her full length mirror, unconsciously braiding her long hair just as Kaede used to do to her knee length white hair.

Turning to look at her reflection Sakura was surprised to see two strips of white hair framing her face.

'My hair… just like Kaede's… but its still pink, only my front bangs are white. What is going on?' She wondered before shrugging and going to her closet to get her red dress.

"This dress is ugly and not good for serious ninja mission. That wave mission… that was sad. Crying over Sasuke like that." She said shaking her head, not even noticing that she had dropped the –kun suffix on her 'crush's' name.

"I was useless! Aya-obaasan would have beaten me senseless for being so careless…" She said digging through her closet for some appropriate clothes to wear again not noticing her slipup as she talked about Kaede's grandmother's strict views on the fact that kunoichi were just as good as their male counterparts and should regard life and training as such.

Pulling out a black v-neck shirt with elbow length sleeves and black capri-pants set that her uncle had given her when she had graduated from the academy she tried it on and looked in the mirror. It fit her perfectly as she remembered that it had been too big on her back then and she had been upset that it wasn't sexy enough because she was 'seducing Sasuke-kun'. After scoffing at that thought she flinched as thought of this,

'When did Sasuke start to mean so little to me?' She asked herself, not worried at all when she answered that for herself.

"Once I saw how I've been starving myself to look cute, and primping instead of training." She muttered in disgust as she thought of one of the many pet peeves that she had of kunoichi… that Kaede had of them that is…

"I'm so confused!" She said tying her leaf headband to her forehead and slipping on some black shinobi sandals before running to team 7's meeting place realizing she was two hours late.

Sakura stopped at a grocery store figuring that her team could wait a few minutes as she remembered that she hadn't eaten breakfast this morning and wanted to start her body on a more healthy path then the 'dieting' she had been doing trying to impress the pompous Uchiha, effectively starving herself and not training her body any.

Grabbing a small bento box of Tamago kake Gohan(1) off of the store shelf she paid for it and proceeded to think of what she was going to be changing about herself and her surroundings as she walked up the bridge finishing up her small meal.

"Hi Sakura-chan!" Naruto said excitedly as she walked up. "Wow you look great!" He said making Sasuke and Kakashi, who had just arrived, look up to see what all the fuss was about. Her changes were surprising to say the least.

"Thanks Naruto. I just thought it was time for a change." Sakura said not even glancing at the other two.

"Right," Kakashi spoke up "We are going to be doing D-rank missions for a while after that Wave A-rank from last week." He was happy when none of the genin objected.

"Ano sa, Ano sa! Kakashi-sensei, will you train-!" Naruto started before being cut off by the one-eyed Jounin.

"Sorry Naruto. I have to train Sasuke because he awakened his Sharingan." Kakashi said in a bored voice. Sakura frowned as Sasuke smirked and Naruto's face dropped for a moment before he grinned and brushed off the blatant favoritism that their teacher was showing.

"Whatever! I'll just train myself." Naruto exclaimed.

"You do that… dobe." Sasuke said cruelly. Sakura restrained herself from punching the arrogant boy much to her surprise. Usually she taunted Naruto right along with them.

She could tell it was going to be a long day.

After a boring day of D-ranks Sakura trudged her way over to a training ground that held just the person she needed to talk to.

Maito Gai.

"Um excuse me!" Sakura announced herself as the four stopped to see what the interruption was.

"Yes? What can I, the Green Be-!" Gai started before he was cut off by Sakura.

"You're Kakashi… sensei's rival right? The Taijutsu master?" She asked the man quickly.

"Yes, but what could a youthful student of my eternal rival want?" He asked smiling indulgently. Sakura had to restrain herself from laughing.

"I and a friend of mine are going to be working on improving our Taijutsu before the Chuunin exams and I wanted know if you could give us some tips?" She said as she thought rapidly of what she was going to be teaching Naruto who desperately needed help in that department. Brawlers Taijutsu just won't cut it out in the real world.

Gai's eyes lit up when he heard this.

"Of course Youthful Pink girl! I only ask that you and your friend spar with my lovely students as variation will be good for them!" He exclaimed. Sakura, grimacing about the nickname, conceded.

"Deal! My name is Sakura and my friend's name is Naruto." She gave a quick bow before she scurried through the trees.

She had a lot of things to do; buy chakra weights, find Naruto and tell him about this, see if her bloodline was still active in this body(2), and get Naruto some decent ninja clothes.

"This is gonna be a long day…"

1) Tamago kake Gohan is essentially piping hot rice with an egg broken into it. The concoction is usually stirred and the hot rice will semi-cook the egg. It is not unlike soft boil egg on rice except it is all mixed together.

Source - http: /food.3yen. com (remove spaces)

2) Sakura and Kaede's conscious' have begun merging and she now actively thinks of herself as one person instead of two.