Victrix
Disclaimer: Not for profit. I do not own Naruto.
Beta: ouranchimaru. tumblr. com (Thank you.)
Notes: Will try not to over explain things that you already have a concept of. Romance? Probably eventually, I have yet to decide who.
Not A Friend In All The World
When Sakura woke up for the first time in a world where open war was in the past and future - but not right now - she lifted her tiny hands above her head and wondered why she couldn't remember being so small, having such delicate little hands. She instinctively tried to summon chakra to her hands, circulating it evenly, with understanding of the practice, but her control was not as natural as it had become. She chalked it up to disuse in her child body. She wouldn't have had it so developed yet, but she missed when chakra came easily and with reserves stockpiled behind it.
First things came first though; she needed to familiarize herself with the surroundings. She rolled out of the bed and realized this wasn't her room, but it seemed a little familiar. Small hands found the string hanging from the light switch by the light of the window. The room was set aglow when she pulled the string and she searched the walls for a mirror. The mirror was set above the dresser, and she pulled the chair in the corner from its desk to climb up top for a better look. The face was familiar, blonde hair, blue eyes. She was here, she was Sakura, waking from the realization that she was Sakura, but she was also Ino. Ino Yamanaka, her very best friend, the last friend beside her at the end of the world, who she would never, ever, ever, speak to again, but would still exist in her world.
It took a good deal for all of this to register, and although Sakura was the smartest little kunoichi in terms of understanding concepts in her head, she couldn't quite wrap her mind around this one. Finally, uncomfortable from leaning over the dresser, she slipped off the chair, took it back to the desk, turned off the light, and crawled into bed.
She didn't cry; she wants to and if she was really barely older than a toddler than she might. She was not, though, so she did not cry. Instead she thought. Ino, so beautiful, was lost to her, and she begged the god to change it. Take Sasuke away instead. She could be Sasuke, if she knew she had to be one she would have picked Sasuke! All her problems with Sasuke could have been prevented just by being Sasuke. She wanted Ino back, she missed her fiercely. It would be one thing to just see Ino from afar and never go up to her, but now she had to live with Ino just across the other side of the mirror, and she still couldn't talk to her, couldn't watch her grow fondly from afar.
Ino's parents would miss her, she thinks. That's not quite accurate though, they can't and won't because they won't ever know Ino. Nobody would know Ino except for Sakura. Everyone else would know Ino as the way Sakura was in her body. Nobody would miss Ino because they don't even realize she's gone. Sakura remembered, though. She stumbled out of bed again, turned on the light, and searched in the drawer where she knew Ino kept her scrapbook of pictures. The book was still there, neatly labeled in an adult's hand, and the inside even has a few pictures. There was one of Ino, recently if the mirror was to be believed, smiling and wearing a chain of daisies like a crown. Sakura took the picture out and searched the desk for some tape. She found tape and a red ribbon. She tied the ribbon into a bow and dragged the chair with her to tape both the picture and the bow to the mirror. A shrine, she thought, a memorial to Ino, who gave way for her, who she will not let falter. Ino, who would grow up fine, and powerful and strong. She will be respected, and by Sakura she would be remembered.
Sakura crawled back into bed, sad and overwhelmed and entirely emotional. Her best friend died on the battlefield that day, and Sakura was here now. She would make Ino proud. She had a chance to make the world into something Ino could be proud of. She would make Ino into someone people will be proud of again. It's emotional beyond what Sakura thought she was capable of these days. She was so used to being only logical. Tonight, though, she wanted not to be logical. She turned off the light and crawled into bed again, just feeling sad. Tomorrow would be the time for plans. Right now was the time for mourning.
Goodbye Ino, Sakura thought as she fell asleep, I love you, I love you, I love you, and I will miss you. That night the tears streamed down her cheeks silently onto the pillow and Sakura couldn't stop crying for hours, but she never made a sound.
If the night was a time for sadness and goodbye, the morning was time for plans. Sakura was up with the sun, though she didn't feel rested, just weary. She knew she was young, maybe in the academy, maybe not, she could check with In - her parents in the morning. It was going to be strange calling somebody else's parents mom and dad, but she figured it was best to think of this as a deep cover mission. She hoped Ino's personality isn't too well established, but she thought of what she knew Ino to be when they were kids. Of course, they were both in love with Sasuke, so there's that. She didn't think she could even act in love with Sasuke, even to the extent of a childhood crush. Outgoing and friendly she could do without much effort. Of course, she realized she was young enough that if she were to announce something out of the blue, like "I actually want to be a medic instead of working intel, interrogation, espionage and all that." It would probably be taken quite well, but with a lot of patronization. She was a Yamanaka, fated to walk the line of enemy minds and actions alike. Hang on- That might just work. She has all of this knowledge about the future and people out there and nowhere to apply it- and yet, she was born to a clan of espionage, she could - and would - make this work. She had to make this work. Last time she was a medic, smart and calculating. This time she needed to grow up to be something else entirely. Someone else could be the medic.
So she needed to be stronger and more informed. That was the first thing. She spent the next hour meditating and another ten minutes just staring at the picture taped to the mirror. She decided that moving the chair was too much work so she just climbed up, sticking chakra to her feet to help. Her control was very good mentally but this body didn't have the practice or the reserves. It wasn't as natural to Ino as it was to Sakura, and now, standing in Ino's shoes, Sakura could understand why. Her chakra flowed with water, effortlessly. Ino's felt more⦠sticky, perhaps. It didn't flow but it expanded easier. Sakura could feel the difference, but she was not sure if it was different for each person or simply her body's lack of practice.
If she wasn't in the academy yet, she needed to enroll and familiarize herself with people. She knew Ino could mind-transfer - a trait of the Yamanaka clan - and search the minds of others as well as reinforce illusion by the time she was in the Chunin exams. She wasn't a chunin though, not really, at least in thought process. In body and chakra manipulation though, she was below academy student and genin respectively. Somebody had to teach Ino the clan jutsu and skill beyond was was simply expected of her by her formal teachers. Sakura was willing to bet that that her father was the one who taught her so. Ino's mother, after all, had married into the clan.
So far the plan didn't divulge beyond that. There was, of course, all the major events of the future that needed to be dealt with accordingly. The Akatsuki would be out there, already in it's infancy. Zetsu, who would be cloned into an entire army and unleashed. Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Sasuke, and really every goddamned Uchiha in existence; all of them nothing but trouble.
There was tomorrow though, and the next day. That was better than she had before, so most of the planning could wait until she had resources at her disposal.
For now, though, she heard the sound of people moving about the house and decided that it's a fine time to get up and get to work. She ruffled around the drawers for appropriate clothing and picked out simple black pants and a purple - her heart ached at Ino's favourite color - simple T-shirt. She found a pair of small black sandals at the door to her room and slipped them on before navigating down the stairs and into the kitchen. After all, Ino's house hasn't changed much over the years at all and it had been a while, but she still remembers where everything is.
Inoichi - her father now - was eating breakfast at the table - toast, it looked like. His eyes were as blue as hers now, although his hair was a darker corn blonde. "Good morning, Ino, your mother went to mind the shop already. I was expecting you to sleep much later."
"I woke up when the sun came in, it was very bright this morning," It seemed like an innocent statement. Ino did leave the curtain open when she went to bed last night, but that was a painful thought for another time.
Inoichi chuckled. "Still spending the evening counting the stars? There are too many to count in one evening, you know. Some people spend their entire lives mapping the stars."
"So? They're beautiful," She protested, and finding the right stars in a storm or disoriented and half dead on a battlefield might lead you home instead of to enemy camp. "I've been thinking, though," Sakura began, and it was hard to just say something without thinking of how a small child would say it. This was a world of child soldiers, though, so maturity might even be expected in this non-civilian family. "About what it means to be an Yamanaka, and I mean, I'm supposed to follow in your footsteps, right?"
"If that's what you want Ino, I wouldn't ever ask that of you," The crow's feet around his eyes seemed suddenly more pronounced as he sighed, Sakura supposed he might be bracing for his daughter to tell him that she wanted to follow the stars instead. It was not to be so; Sakura did not intend to waste Ino's life chasing dreams instead of reality.
She gathered up her thoughts, sitting up at the table across from Inoichi. "Yeah," she started, "You are a serious ninja, and I think I would like to be a serious ninja too. I want to learn, and," she channeled Ino with as much as she remembered of her youth, "I want to be the best at it. I want to be the greatest ninja. Ever."
Inoichi smiled. "Let's work on the ninja part first, you don't need to be so serious yet. We only talked about you going to the academy in a year or two, but you could go earlier, though. Your mother and I planned to let you join when you were eight, but five is old enough, I suppose," he set down his toast softly and drew his calculating gaze to her. "Don't expect to graduate early unless you really are the very best. Even then, though, we're not at war, so that's extremely unlikely." Inoichi looked at her with resignation and not shock though, so she supposed the couldn't have been too off the mark with her impression. "It's not something you get to leave unfinished once you start, though. Give it some thought. If you're really serious, show up for training in the backyard tomorrow morning." He pat her softly on the head, ruffling her blonde hair.
"Why not today?" She asked, smoothing out her hair again. She needed to look for other pieces in the puzzle of this new father figure in her wayward life.
"There is toast on the counter, eat some, and we'll go get the academy paperwork," He said, "That's what we can do today. After, I have work to attend to, you can go help your mother with the flower shop for the rest of the day."
"Okay." She nodded and set herself about to getting breakfast off the counter and smothered it in the jam that had been left out with it. Content with ending the conversation there, she sat on the chair silently and did her best to ignore Inoichi's appraising stare. Eating her toast avidly, she missed his look of approval completely.
Such ferocity in one so small, who has always been so bold, Inoichi knew she would be a great legacy. He would be made proud of his daughter. He couldn't wait to tell his friends how motivated and easy to deal with his progeny is. She was not troublesome at all.
