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Chapter 1: The Scroll of the Circle
The light was blindingly bright. Sakura blinked repeatedly until she could see again. What she saw was the cliff face, somehow she had gone from being at the top of the cliff, to the bottom of it. She was currently lying on the ground, in a puddle of her own blood.
"Great," she mumbled as she tried to get up, wincing with every movement she made. She only managed to get herself into a sitting position, with her back to the cliff. "just great,", she continued "now I'm a sitting duck…" As she said the last part however, she noticed that she couldn't feel the Chakras of the Akatsuki at all. No, the only Chakras she could feel were so far in the distance that she could barely even feel them.
Sakura sighed, thanks to the scroll her Chakra levels were almost at empty. She took inventory of her wounds and found that all the open wounds had stopped bleeding, but she also knew that it wouldn't be a smart idea to move from where she was anytime soon. If she did, she would only reopen her wounds. She could tell she had a number of bruises and a few fractured ribs. There was something else odd about her, but she couldn't put her finger on it, so she continued her health check. She looked at the bite mark on her ankle and winced, the area around the bite marks were turning an awful shade of purple.
"Seems I was right, it was poisonous." Sakura mumbled as she carefully took a closer look. After analyzing the ankle she decided that the poison was merely to stop her from moving, not kill her. She sighed and carefully sat back up again. She figured it would take a couple of hours for her Chakra to build up enough for her to heal the worst of her problems, then maybe a couple of minutes after the healing to be strong enough to start walking.
She sighed yet again, then looked at the now open scroll that she was still holding in her hands and found that there was something written inside of it. She opened the scroll enough to read the first few lines:
Sakura, if you are reading this
It means that you have opened
The scroll I gave you.
Sakura raised her eyebrow, the first line had stated the obvious, but it told her more than what was written. It told her that Tsunade had written this note for her benefit. She continued reading.
Though the scroll technically
Doesn't have a name, we,
Those who know of it, call
It The Scroll of the Circle.
It's not its name that's
Important, however, it's what
It does that you have to
worry about.
The Scroll of the Circle can
Only be used by certain clans;
The Uchihas, the Hyuugas,
The Hoshis, and the Kages
(Yes, I know Kage isn't a clan,
But we can use it too.).
Sakura paused and looked up, wondering how she had used it, she was a Haruno, and Haruno was not on the list. She shrugged and continued reading.
I'm glad I guessed correctly
About your heritage when
I gave you this scroll.
You know you've lived with
Your aunt and uncle since
You were a young child
Because your father,
As well as many other Leaf
Ninja, were killed in an
Ambush by rogue ninja.
What you don't know
Is the story of your birth.
You were not born in Konoha,
Where exactly you were born
Is a mystery, but I have my
Theory. And since you are
Reading this, my theory must
Be correct. Yes, your father
Was a Haruno, but that's only
Half of who you are.
I believe that your mother was
A Hoshi, due to things that the
Previous Hokage left for me
To find, including the fact that
A woman from the Hoshi clan
Once passed through Konoha
And your father was assigned
To act as a bodyguard for her
Until she reached her
Destination. And that after
That day your father started taking
Many, many, missions that were
In the area where the woman lived.
One day when your father returned
From a one person mission, he
Brought you with him. A baby's
Sudden appearance didn't
Surprise anyone, apparently.
Sadly, only a week after that,
Your father went on the mission
That he'd never return from.
Sakura blinked, making the blur of unshed tears leave her eyes, then continued reading.
But anyways, that means
That your mother was most
Likely that Hoshi woman.
Another thing that clued me in
Was your pink hair because
The Hoshi clans trade mark
Is pink hair, kind of like the
Hyuugas white/purple eyes.
This is all important because
You can use some of this as
An alias for wherever and
Whenever you are.
And yes, I said whenever.
The Scroll of the Circle
Casts the user back in time.
I will tell you all that I know
About The Scroll, but I warn
You, my knowledge is not
Complete. I only know what
Is written about the few others
Who've ever used it.
The first thing you need to know
Is that there should be some
Sort of mark on your body
Where you got the blood from.
Sakura quickly searched her body, and fond the 'mark' on her arm, surrounding the cuts that the blue guy had given her. The mark didn't seem to make any sort of purposeful design, it just kind of went all over her arm, from her shoulder all the way to her elbow. The only other detail she noticed was that the design was made up of many smaller marks that looked like they could be flower petals, or maybe comas.
While she looked at her arm, she once again felt like something was sort of off about her appearance. It was after a few minutes of looking over her body, thinking maybe she'd missed a wound, that she figured out what really was getting to her. And when she did, she almost screamed. Instead she quickly returned her gaze to the scroll and skimmed through the things Tsunade felt she needed to know, until she found what she was looking for.
One thing that occurred
In all the cases was that the
Scroll users apparent age
slightly changed. Some aged
up to five years, others got
younger within the same
time spectrum…
That's what had been bothering Sakura, she now looked to be about eleven or twelve, not fifteen, almost sixteen. "Great, now I'm back to being a big foreheaded stick on legs!" Sakura exclaimed, "Apparently today's just not my day!" After Sakura got herself back together, she went back to reading the scroll where she had left off.
This mark will slowly disappear
Bit by bit until nothing remains.
After it completely disappears
You will soon be back in the
Normal time; though the records
Also show that some time will have
Passed since you left.
Another fact that is known
is that the amount of time you
are in the past is not directly
Linked to the time that goes by
In the present.
Another important detail is…
Sakura continued reading, her head spinning with all the information, until she got near the end of the scroll. Now she found that there was an even smaller scroll tucked into the middle of The Scroll of the Circle. It was addressed to the Hokage.
Sakura finished reading The Scroll of the Circle and found out that she was to give the smaller scroll to the Hokage. She also found out that she was to use the alias Sakura Hoshi, the orphaned apprentice to Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin. Because it would be well know that Tsunade was a ninja who kept on the move and hadn't returned to Konoha for a long time (how long was uncertain, but Tsunade assured her that she would go no farther back than 20 years, so the alias would work no matter what). Because of this Sakura was to say that though she had been trained as if she were a ninja, she had never taken a single test, and therefore couldn't be considered a real ninja.
Sakura looked up at the sun and gauged that she had been reading for about three hours, no wonder she felt stiff. She slowly moved her arms first, cringing when the cut on her arm reopened. Sakura sighed and began to heal her arm as well as her other wounds until she was sure they would hold together well enough to let her move. That used up most of the Chakra she had regained, she only had enough left to numb the pain that would be inescapable once she started moving.
Her worst fear was for her leg. It wouldn't take kindly to walking, but she couldn't stay here. Sakura slowly got up, using the cliff face for help. Once she was standing, she looked around and found that there was a fallen tree branch not that far from where she was that she could use to help her walk. She very slowly, very carefully, limped to the fallen branch. It was taller than her, but it would do what she needed it to do, but first, she needed to rest.
She sat down next to the branch, caught her breath, then pulled the branch closer to her. From there she pulled off the smaller twigs that would only get in her way. After that she used the stick as a very big cane. She got up and started limping in the direction where she had felt Chakra earlier. Now that she had rested, at least a little bit, she felt even more Chakras from that direction. So many, in fact, that she knew it had to be Konoha.
Sakura hobbled towards Konoha for hours, ignoring the pain that was being issued from her poisoned ankle. As Sakura got closer she sped up, she was almost there, almost there, almost…
The next thing she knew she had collapsed, her ankle was throbbing, many of her wounds had reopened, and she knew she didn't have enough Chakra to do anything about any of it. Sakura sighed into the ground, "So close…" She muttered to herself, "I'm almost there, can't rest now…" Her eyelids fluttered, and against her better judgment, she soon fell asleep in yet another pool of her own blood.
And that's how he first met her, the girl he knew he'd never forget.
And that's the end of that chapter! How'd you like it? Please review...speaking of reviews, I'd like to thank the people who have reviewed my first chapter so far: Dreamergirl92813, Gothic Saku-chan, pinky101, & free2dream. Thank you for your support. Constructive criticism welcome, flames however are banned. I should be able to update often during the summertime, but once school gets back in, it may take me longer.
I've gone back through and re-edited this chapter.