Third Chapter!
RyOuKaMaGI: I'm glad that you liked it! Thanks for reviewing, I appreciate your taking the time to do that!
The next day the girl-who-was-now-Sakura bid her mildly concerned parents and went out into the new world, the ribbon in her hair replaced with a headband that marked her ninja. It was still disorienting and worrying for her to navigate the area, to even live after the earth quake had caused her death in the last life.
The village was, luckily, wide and open, with views of the sky and towering trees that were as much a part of the place as the houses, which looked relatively normal in comparison to where she used to be, and ranged to the odd, traditional appearance she had once only seen in pictures. The people were diverse in the sense of their hair and eyes but she had yet to meet anyone of a darker skin tone, which lead her to the conclusion that most of them lived in Kumo. Instead the village of foliage was filled with strangely colored hair and unusual eyes. From red to green, orange to blue, yellow to purple, all in an assortment of people with various occupation.
For all there were so many shinobi there were also many civilians that supported them, selling weapons, clothing, food, and lodging to the ninja that protected them.
All of this she noted as she walked, hands clasped behind her back and bow in her hair. Being twelve again was one of the weirdest experiences she had ever been a part of, and she got the feeling it would only get worse the more time she spent there.
On her way she spent some of the money her parents gave her every week, her allowance, on something to eat, picking up a double order and going on her way to the school. For the first time in forever there was a skip in her step. The first steps she needed to take to get to where she wanted to be had been taken, and there was only one more person she hand to apologize to before she moved on.
It was stressful, as she had never been very good at planning, but at least she had some idea of what she was doing, and if nothing else the things she was learning were more interesting than a lot of other studying she'd done in her life. Pre-life? Existence?
She could figure out the correct pronouns later, she decided as she walked into the academy and to the classroom she was supposed to meet the rest of the graduates at. She wasn't at all surprised to see Ino already there, as she had left earlier than intended and taken her sweet time getting there. She also wasn't surprised to see Naruto and Sasuke sitting next to each other, glaring in opposite directions while Tobio, a boy from one of the other classes, snickered in the row in front of them.
Sakura walked over, her bag swinging off of her shoulder and onto the seat next to Tobio, directly in front of the little blond.
"Morning Naruto, Sasuke, Ino," she greeted, leaning back against the desk. The others looked at her, both blonds smiling cheerfully.
"Hey, Sakura!" Naruto nearly chirped, perfectly chipper.
"Forehead, I thought you weren't going to show up," Ino teased, and Sakura smiled good naturedly.
"I couldn't leave my favorite flower girl to face the future alone could I, Ino-pig?" she joked. Sasuke had glanced at her, which was more acknowledgment than he usually gave, so it was all good. The girl looked up at the blond boy, her legs swinging as she sat fully on the desk.
"Hey, Naruto?"
He perked up at her addressing him, curiosity painting his face. "Yeah?"
"Can I talk to you after team assignments?" she asked, watching the light over take his expression.
"Sure!" he nearly shouted, "Where do you want to go? On a date or-"
"I just need to talk to you," she corrected, voice lilting with a laugh, "It's not a date, sorry. We probably won't have time for that kind of thing once we're officially ninja."
Naruto seemed to deflate, but only a little.
"Alright," he still agreed, and soon enough they were cut off by the entrance of Iruka. Team assignments went as the girl remembered them, and when her name was called with Sasuke's she smiled apologetically at Ino, who just waved it off. With their rivalry over the girl was immensely nicer. Naruto still questioned the decision and their teacher was still very, very late, which gave her the time she needed to talk to Naruto when they braked for lunch.
She lead the way to one of the benches outside, offering him the other serving of the fruit cups she's bought earlier. Naruto thanked her, and asked what she wanted to talk about, looking as sly as a twelve year old with baby fat on his cheeks could.
The girl leaned back on the bench, wondering how to start. Point blank she supposed would be best
"I've been mean to you," she held up her hand to keep him from interrupting, "I know I have, and it was wrong of me. You never did anything to deserve it, it wasn't fair to do that and just follow the adults example without questioning it. So what I'm saying is… I'm sorry. And I really want to be your friend."
She watched Naruto's face the entire time, and when it lit bright enough that the sun looked dull she felt both happy and guilty. Guilty because such a bright person had been treated to terribly and happy that he smiled like that because of her.
"We definitely be friends!" Naruto agreed quickly, causing her to laugh for the first time since she'd died.
"I'm glad," she told him, tearing the top off her fruit cup, "Now eat your lunch so we can go meet out teacher," she instructed, and the boy hurried to comply before he stopped, turning suddenly very pale. Sakura watched him, brows furrowing in concern before she sprinted off, shouting an apology with his hands over his butt.
For a second she could only stare, confused, before she remembered.
Sour milk.
Wincing in sympathy for her teammate the girl packed up, shouldering her bag and heading back inside. There she took a seat next to Sasuke and pulled out a medical text book, starting to read it before getting stuck. She had to pull out the matching dictionary and a piece of paper, simplifying and translating it as best she could. She was going to need a lot of help with this, unfortunately.
When Naruto came back he managed to last about ten minutes of quiet before his leg started shaking and his mouth started moving, leading to an argument with Sasuke that she had to break up with a chop to both their heads with two-inch thick book.
After that she ended up talking with Naruto, mostly speculating about their late sensei and talking about what he'd done to the Hokage heads.
"Well everyone would see what I did," he tried to defend when she brought it up.
"Yeah, and you'd get caught and screamed at. Do you like getting in trouble or something?" she asked, watching him pout and look away.
"No! But if they would pay attention to me," he waved his hands in gesture, "then I wouldn't do it!"
Sakura arched a brow. "So negative attention it better than no attention at all?" she asked.
Naruto paused, looking down and shrugging. "I guess."
Sakura almost hit herself for being so insensitive. "Still, the Hokage faces? I don't even know how you got up there," she continued before smoothly sliding something in, "You know, you look a lot like the Fourth."
Naruto looked up at her, surprised. "I do?"
"Yeah," she nodded, "Your eyes and hair, you look a lot like him, just different facial structures," she explained.
Sasuke snorted. "Isn't it kind of insulting to them to compare this looser to the Fourth Hokage?"
"What did you just sa-"
"Isn't it kind of stupid to insult someone over something so petty?" Sakura defended, startling both of them. The old on might have thought that avenger was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but this one was going to take him down a few pegs if she could.
Naruto's eyes caught the clock then and he groaned. "Where's our sensei?" he whined.
Sakura shrugged. "No idea. He'll have to be here soon right? You don't think he forgot us do you?"
"He's a jonin, he wouldn't," Sasuke tried to dismiss, though he too sounded unsure.
Naruto stood up and jogged to the front of the room. "Well for being late I'll make him regret it!" the boy decided, taking the chalk eraser from the front of the room and going to set it up on top of the door.
Sasuke snorted. "As if that'll work," he scoffed. Sakura hit him with her book again, causing the boy to hiss a yelp.
"You may be surprised," she predicted, drawing her legs up to cross.
Not five minutes after Naruto had taken his seat again did the door open, admitting one Kakashi Hatake. The eraser fell down, striking his already grey hair and raising a small cloud while Naruto cracked up. Sakura snickered quietly and Sasuke stared in disbelief.
Kakashi let the eraser fall down from his head, looking at the children before he spoke. "Hmmm. My first impression is… I hate you. Meet me on the roof," with a poof he was gone, leaving an outraged Naruto and an Irate Sasuke. Sakura just shook her head, stowing everything in her bag before standing up and stretching her arms above her head.
"Come on boy," she started the walk, "let's go see where this leads us.
"Never ruin an apology with an excuse." ― Benjamin Franklin
