"John, you really shouldn't text and drive. I know you say you can handle it, but isn't that what they all say?"

I pause as I'm scrolling through my phone with one hand and holding the steering wheel with the other. I lock the phone, and my reflection is clear in the black glass.

"Yeah, you're right, Ma. Sorry."

The woman in the seat next to me, my mother, the woman that gave birth to me and raised me, that made me the man I am today, didn't see the truck going eighty miles-per-hour into the side of the car until she woke up a few minutes later being strapped onto a stretcher.

My beautiful mother, not a day over 60, had enough strength to reach up and grab the young latino man by the arm. She couldn't speak, but the tears forming in her eyes conveyed exactly what she needed them to.

The EMT could barely bring himself to shake to his head, no.

I was killed on impact.

For a while, I was floating. Cliche, yeah, I know. I still feel uncomfortable retelling this story because of how cliche it all is, so just bear with me.

So, i'm floating. Except, it doesn't feel like floating. I don't feel anything, really. And yet, it's as if as soon as the thought forms in my mind that I'm not feeling anything, I begin feeling warmth all around me. Warmth, and an odd sense of being underwater.

So, birth is an odd thing to experience a second time. Not to mention when your mental faculties are fully mature the second time around.

My lungs burned as they slowly transitioned to breathing air. Not really knowing what else to do, and feeling so unbelievably upset at the realization I was being born again, I wailed. I let everything out.

For a long time, months and months, my senses weren't acclimating at all. I felt like all day I would cry when I shat myself, and scream when I was hungry. I had no control. Despite my mind running a mile a minute, the connection between my mind and my body simply wasn't there.

Most days I cried because of my mother. Sorrow seemed to be the only thing that worked the same.

Voices and shapes would talk to me, talk to other shapes, and carry me around and do things every day. Most were unfamiliar. One shape was a constant, however. Something about the shape was warm. I could feel it swirling around the both of us. When other shapes, that I deduced had to be other people, would come near me, I could feel the swirling energy. There were only three that were even close to being similar to mine. My mother and father, I assumed, and a sibling. My father's voice was deep, obviously, and my mother's soft. However, my sibling's voice was very easily recognized to be female. Not very much older than me, either.

It took me many nights of crying and screaming to get over the fact that I wasn't living in a dream. In fact, I never really did. To this day, I think about my mother every day and send her prayers. I only hope that wherever she is, she gets them.

Back to my infant stage. Despite my unnatural hesitation to bond with this woman, over time I accepted the fact that she was (probably) just a regular woman that only wanted to love her child, and her childe to love her, unconditionally. And something tugged at my gut every time I tried to resist. I quickly realized the bond with this woman was on a chemical level. I scientifically wanted to love this woman, and grow from her nurturing. Over the months I grew to need her. My original dislike for her quickly transformed to a deep need to get to know this woman as soon as my physical capabilities allowed it.

Over time, the language these people used seemed to click in my head. Nothing that I could speak, no, but a language I at least recognized. Japanese.

So at least I wasn't in some insane, alien world or universe were no semblance of reality was even close to what I had known. Maybe, I was simply reincarnated as a Japanese baby.

But that didn't explain the swirling energy I felt inside me. Over time, this energy inside me slowly grew and grew, until one day I simply couldn't contain it any longer.

I began trying to interact with this energy in any way I could. For a long time I simply couldn't do anything with it. Then, one day, I commanded energy to gather in my palm. And it did. I could feel some energy move down my arm and collect right at the base of my wrist. I was a laughing, giggly mess for the rest of the night.

As the days progressed, my senses steadily began to snap into focus. My sense of sight began to get better than my eyesight in my previous life.

Allow me to clarify; I could distinguish shapes and colors easily enough in my previous life, but without glasses that was about it. So this new eyesight was another thing that made me absolutely giddy with excitement.

Then, one day, the regular interactions with my new family clicked.

I was sitting in a highchair, being fed–with our mother's assistance–by my sister.

The first thing that registered, since I had never thought it odd before, was the strikingly-pink hair on my sister. And then, seemingly snapping into perfect clarity out of nowhere, was the face of a very young Sakura Haruno smiling with glee at her baby brother.

It was sooner than one might think to acclimate to the fact that I had not only been reborn into the Narutoverse, but as a non-existent younger brother of one of the main characters, who also happened to be one of my favorite characters.

I only say that because I literally had hours, if not entire days at a time to process this fact.

I was partially excited, partially dumbfounded, and more than a little scared. Would I be able to hang, so to speak? Would I be an important character in the grand scheme of this story? Or would I fade into the background while the true protagonists did their thing?

I guess since i'm telling you this story, I'm at least alive at the end, so you can look forward to that.

As for adjusting to my family, my new life, I found it unnaturally easy to fall into the role of little-brother-that-would-protect-his-older-sister-like-an-older-brother. The fact that I never had the chance to experience this type of affection in my past life, and that Sakura was one of my all-time-favorite characters, made it remarkably easy to love her as a brother would.

I guess, in a since, there wasn't any doubt about it. I was her brother. And at some point, I decided i'd try my hardest to make that be in every possible way.

Sakura was only three years older than I was, only barely being past the age of potty-training and speech when I was born. But for some reason it was much easier to associate with a four year old then I had ever thought possible for someone with a mind that was in it's late-twenties.

It was also very easy to pick up Japanese when it was the only thing people spoke.

"Mommy! Reo says we need to eat!"

Ah, yes. Reo. Reo Haruno. I think it has a certain ring to it.

Mebuki chuckled as she carried in a tray of snacks for Sakura and formula for me. After an explanation from Mebuki to Sakura, I found that this was not just regular baby formula, but it also helped the growth and flow of my chakra and my chakra coils.

So when I say I tried to swallow the stuff faster than Mebuki could buy it, I'm not exaggerating.

Days went by like this, eventually morphing into months, and those morphing into years.

Funny enough, the first word my punt vocal chords could produce was, "Mommy!"

Mebuki had bawled her eyes out at that one, and once I realized they were tears of joy, I laughed along with her and tried my hardest to suffocate her with a hug when she picked me up.

I still felt a pang of guilt every now and then. I felt as though I was betraying my real mother.

But being a toddler brought time. And time brought acceptance that nothing could have changed the outcome.

I was Reo Haruno, now. And while I will certainly never forget who I was, I wouldn't let it burden me now.

Yeah, so, this is short, but, I have an undying need to post this. It's 3, no, 4 in the morning, and I won't be able to sleep until I know I've gotten this idea to the public.

Obviously this comes from the wonderful fic, Dreaming Of Sunshine, by Silver Queen. (If you haven't read that yet... What are you doin' with ya life?)

I've also really loved Sakura for a long time, so I thought what better way to write a story where she's an important character than one like this?

I can say a very big inspiration for writing this is also Kill Your Heroes, by the wonderful Evil Is A Relative Term. That is another absolutely incredible fic, so go give the both of them some love!

So, as for this story, I literally only have this written, but I can assure you that I will definitely be working on this more. The first few chapters will obviously be slow, but I intend to pick up the pace at around the third or fourth chapter. Not by much, of course, but that's when the original time line will have started.

So, thank you all for reading this little tid-bit, and expect the next chapter soon!

With love,

DaGibzz.