Full Summery: What happens when a woman from our world wakes up one day in the body of an anime character, Haruno Sakura, at the age of five. Exactly seven years before the graduation exams, and she refuses to follow the time line and be the weak damsel in distress fangirl canon!Sakura was in the original series. How will this change anything? Rated T for language and violence in later chapters.
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me, he and the characters belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Chapter 4: The Love Of A Five Year Old
Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy. Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you.
— Ralph Marston
"Humph!"
Sakura huffed and puffed, for some bizarre reason, she felt slightly hurt, but very annoyed at her dad.
After he left so abruptly, Sakura continued to gaze in childish anger and disbelief at the front door for a few seconds, trying to calm down her unstable emotions and needs. The need to cry, to run after her daddy, to be beside him. She felt scared; being alone. The fear was unreasonable seeing as Sakura has the mentality of a old, mature woman. A woman who lives by herself in her very own apartment, so why fear temporary, in addition, short term solitude? It wasn't even 'solitude', but more like being being some free time for herself for a few short minutes, before strangers would come to babysit her so that she won't somehow hurt herself. Very unlikely to happen to some me like her, but it's not like anyone knew that, and if they did, she'd be dead where she stood.
After that whole episode of tiresome feeling and raging emotions, and after gaining control over her unpredictable younger body, Sakura decided to walk as calmly as possible to the living room, and jumped gracelessly onto her couch before grabbing the controller.
It was time to have fun.
Sakura's body trembled, filled with giddy excitement with simply seeing the front screen of the game, and listening to the catchy music that came with it. She took a deep breath and pressed 'Start'.
The screen faded to black for a few seconds before giving her options to choose from.
Story Mood
Adventure Mood
VS
Practice Mood
Options
Sakura instantly pressed 'Story Mood', and was met with a diagram tree that began with a single glowing blue flame-like dot that extended to many different blacked out dots. She guessed they could be the many choices she could make throughout the game, and seeing all those blacked out dots layered out before her filled her with anticipation for all the many routes and outcomes waiting to be explored. It's exactly like a 'choose your own adventure' game!
She began the game by pressing 'X'.
Then began the introduction to the story. The introduction simply took her breath away seeing how it was filled with beautiful visuals and moving characters who were colored so beautifully. The game went on to explaining things on the Noah's, exorcists, innocence, then finally, it mysteriously mentioning her in the game, and how her actions affect the outcome of the game. The introduction ended with the screen cutting to show something that nearly made Sakura jump in joy. A character customizing setting.
Sakura grinned widely, her heart beating erectly in her ribcage. "No way! I can costuming my own character!?" She squealed happily to herself. Glad to see that she wouldn't have to play an already made character, but one made by her design, and so that's what she did exactly.
First and foremost, she choose female as her gender, then went on with carefully making her character in the image she found she liked, which was an older, and more beautiful version of her. It took her exactly fifteen minutes to be fully satisfied with her choice after flipping through many different options that made her head spin.
In the end, her statues went like so:
Name: Sakura Haruno.
Age: 15
Innocence type: Equipment.
Personality: Confident, Generous, Forgiving, Determined. (Reached maximum personality traits.)
Ability: Super strength.
After pressing confirm, four different colored flaming dots came to life in a straight line. They read:
Friendship Route.
Romance Route.
Neutral.
Noah Route.
"Woah." Sakura instantly went to check out the 'Noah' route, unfortunately, the Noah route was blocked off, saying it cannot be accessed until after completing at least one ending.
Sakura shrugged the slight disappointment away, 'it's fine, I wanted Romance anyways.' She thought carelessly, purposely ignoring the way her face started to grow hotter by the second, and the faint feeling of embarrassment twisting around her insides at the mere though of romance.
Sakura gazed deadpanned at the tv screen, her face glowing and steam rising as she selected 'Romance Route', her fingers hovered over the controller, still not willing to pressing 'X', till Sara finally snapped.
'I'm over thirty years old!' She shouted at herself. Mentally beating herself up.
'Something such as playing a stupid romance game should definitely not make me feel so nervous! Get over it!' She tried to convince her silly mind, and clicked on the bright pink flame. More than ready to get on with her new game.
Sakura played around for nearly half a hour, not much in her opinion, yet she was still very pleased with her progress. Already her and Allen Walker, who was her romantic partner— cue heavy blushing from Sakura —were becoming such close friends! She even thinks he's started to develop feeling for her after the— awkward and embarrassing —situations they found and were put in. The part where Allen blushes nearly killed her. Sakura was more than ready to visit the Undertaker by then, and order a coffin.
Right now, in game Sakura was trying to deny her obvious feelings for the young exorcist, but Sakura from out of the game was feeling the determination to get them together, and thusly, she was choosing every option possible to speed up their feelings of love for each other. Love will bloom! She swore it.
Bang!
"EEK!" Having been too immersed with her game, Sakura was startled at the sudden sound of her front door opening as if it was kicked open, very loudly might she add, causing her to jump, and nearly giving her poor young body a heart attack. She paused the game and silently crawled towards where the unnatural sound came from. I couldn't have been her dad, that she was sure of no matter how little she knew about the guy, so it must have been someone else.
Obviously.
'Hopefully that's my babysitters and not a burglar...' She gulped, peeking around the corner only to be grabbed roughly by the scarf of her dress and coming face to face with a young, sneering, face of a boy who was wearing an annoyed expression, along with a vaguely, yet naggingly strong familiar headband on his forehead.
"Tis the brat we're supposed to watch?" He grumbled, clearly perturbed, to the two people standing behind him.
A deep part of the young bubblegum haired girl couldn't help but chide the child for his improper use of grammar, but that was quickly pushed away seeing as the girl felt curious about her new temporary guardians, but she couldn't see them, since, at the moment, she was preoccupied with trying not to choke or breath in any of the— rude! —boy who was holding her's breath, or have him breath in any of her's, fearing how nasty it might be. Her past life told her enough to know that EVERYONE she knows have smelly breath of some sort, no one's breath is minty fresh and smells like Jasmines or whatnot.
While Sakura was busy with breathing, yet not breathing anything unnecessary, she heard a second voice, definitely feminine, utter with disinterest, "guess so."
"Hey, just drop her. You must be gettin' tired of holding her by now." A third young voice spoke, clearly male by the boyish tone, amusement clear in the way he spoke and sounded.
As if right on cue, the boy holding her dropped her, and being a young untrained woman in a child's body, Sakura landed painfully on her behind. Having miscalculated her landing, since she was still unused to the vast night difference. The fall wasn't big, but it still sent shocks all over her body and giving her a minor headache.
"Ow..." She winced, purposely ignoring the cuss the boy that that was previously holding her utter at the sight of her pain, she stood up to properly observe her temporary babysitters while rubbing her backside to lessen the pain. Headache already passing.
But what she saw made her forget the pain completely and stole her breath away.
The boy that carried her has silky black hair falling elegantly in front of his deep sea green, captivating eyes. Sakura would have considered him attractive was it not for his rough treatment of her, and that angry scowl on his face. Yikes, someone was defiantly not a happy camper.
The second male has short dark brown spiky hair that fades to a lighter color at the tips with red eyes. Or were they pink? His eyes were a cross between red and pink, so Sakura wasn't positive about their precise color, but they were very cool in her opinion, and they were filled with clear mischief. He looked like a fun type of guy, cute to boot.
The third and final member of the 'team' was a young bored looking girl with waist length black hair falling like waves behind her and deep narrow purple eyes. She was very pretty, and no doubt would be a killer in a few years time, but her bored and nonchalant expression was a turn off in Sakura's eyes, maybe a turn on to others, but not the young pink haired girl. Very attractive though.
'Woa~ they look like superstars~!' Sakura squealed mentally, gazing at the ANIME characters with shinny eyes. There were even flowers and sparkles behind each character, like in every harem Shoujo anime or manga where a handsome boy in introduced for the first time! It was so awesome!
"Ooookay? Pinky's starting to freak me out." The scowling boy took a step back away from the creepy girl with the shinny eyes.
'What kinda Genjutsu is this?' He sweat-dropped.
"C'mon Tsuki! I think this might be fun!" Pink eyes grinned.
"Fun?" The scowling boy, now dubbed as Tsuki scoffed, "What kind of fun is it to be ditched by our lame ass sensei! The jerk left this loser—" he jabbed his thumb at the pink haired weirdo. "To us while he's out there doing who knows what!"
The three teammates looked up as if recalling a memory and shuddered as one.
'He's defiantly getting drunk with a woman!' They thought as one. No matter how bizarre that may sound, they were certain their perverted Sensei was somewhere that involved either sake or woman, maybe even both. No matter the hour of the day.
"Yona?" The pink eyed make turned pleadingly towards his female teammate.
"Don't you dare try to involve me with your stupid plans, Shu." The female; Yona shut him down mercilessly, and she then walked with her head held high towards the living room, where Sakura was playing her game before their arrival. She took a random book laying around, and sat down to read in silence.
"W-well then..." Shu muttered, disheartened. A gloomy cloud hung over his head.
"A-ano...?" Sakura took a few steps towards him, feeling kind of bad for him, only to be startled back by having his head shoot up in her direction with a wide, excited grin on his face, now surrounding by a cheery air.
"Saaaaay~ what do you do for fun around here~?"
"Tch." Tsuki glared and walked towards the living room, very eager and all too happy to get away from them as soon as possible.
'What a party pooper.'
Sakura turned happily towards her new favorite babysitter; Shu, and grinned. "Well, I was playing my new video game before you came! It's really fun!"
"Huh. Well, then let's see it!" Shu grinned back good naturally, but inwardly he wondered how the hell a young kid could speak so... Maturely.
'Oh well, each generation are different and younger, I suppose~' he shrugged it off easily. 'Makes this dumb so called 'mission' much easier.'
They both entered the living room, and Sakura raced towards her spot in the couch, quickly grabbing the controller, and un-pausing the game as Shu sat next to her to observe the interaction.
'Maybe this won't be so bad, after all.' She thought as she continued her interrupted conversation with Allen.
'Eeeeeeeee~ Allen-Kun~!' The young cherry blossom swooned mentally at the exorcists gentle and beautiful smile.
"The hell...?" Tsuki muttered, completely put out by the hearts and sparkles surrounding the young, clearly insane, five year old.
'A five year old. I repeat, a snot nosed five year old is fangirling over a dumbass fictional video game character.' He deadpanned. 'Damn, I'm sooooo bored.' Tsuki groaned, then frowned at being completely ignored by both his teammates and Sakura. 'I swear, I'm gonna kill that sorry excuse of a sensei!' He vowed to himself.
Meanwhile, our young heroine was feeling very accomplished about her progress with her lov-crus-Allen! She was so immersed with the outstanding game that she completely forgot about her babysitters. Currently, Sakura felt confident about her and sweetheart Allen will finally go out!
'A-ano... Sakura-chan... Do you want to... Well, I m-mean...'
No. Way.
"Eeeeeeek!" Unable to hold in her excitement, Sakura squealed happily, her heart beating hard against her ribcages, and butterflies filled her stomach.
THE Allen Walker was blushing and gazing shyly at her!
'He... He's...! Oh my goodness! Holy lasagna! Holy heavenly lasagna!' Sakura pressed next. She felt like she was about to burst from happiness and the anticipation.
Virtual Allen took a deep breath and spoke quickly to the point it was hard to decipher what he said exactly. Thankfully, the text box sitting proudly below the screen told the world exactly what the virtual character spook.
'I really like you! Would you please go out with me?'
Grooooowl.
Sakura felt her stomach move around unpleasantly, to the point it hurt, yet she brushed it of after re-reading the text again and again happily, then pressed next where she was brought to a few answers to choose from for Allen's proposal.
•Of course, I like you too.
•I don't know...
•I'm so sorry, I can't return your feelings.
•No way! I don't even like you!
Sakura didn't even have the chance to read the options, stopping shortly at 'of course,' till she was assaulted by another round of her stomach moving weirdly and painfully.
"Ow, ow, ow..." She whimpered softly, holding her tummy tightly. This feeling felt familiar to her. The past her.
'Uh-oh...' Sakura paled. No she recalled what this uncomfortable feeling was. She experienced the same feeling as Sara, a few years back, when she ate enough their expired food, or something that did not bode well for her body.
"DUTY CALLS!" She squeaked, then ran comically to her new room, leaving clouds of dust behind.
"Well... that was amusing." Shu smiled widely at the direction their charge ran to.
"That's the only interesting this that's happened in this lousy mission." Tsuki mumbled dismissively. Sitting with his legs atop of the other, and his hands crossed behind his head.
"Hn." Yona agreed, "this mission is truly bland, yet we still must be thankful for the fact that our charge is far more mature than other children, and doesn't cause us much problems. It makes this easier for us." She spoke softly, yet firmly. Still glued to her borrowed book.
"Sooooooooo~ booooooring~!" Shu complained, throwing his head back.
They sat in silence for a few seconds. Tsuki still in his comfortable and 'cool' position, Yona reading, and Shu laying dramatically on the couch.
All of the sudden, after accidentally nudging the remote controller Sakura was using, Shu shot up with renewed excitement and called to Tsuki.
"Hey! Why don't we play this?" He happily said. Proud about his ingenious idea.
"That trash? No thank." Tsuki quickly shot his down. "Like I wanna play some lousy dating game where I date a guy." He scoffed.
"Yes, this." Shu said slowly, as if trying to explain something to a two year old. "Why don't we play this game, buuuuut~ we choose our own options! Like, for example," Shu started to fiddle with the controller and landed his option to 'No way! I don't even like you!'. Not yet pressing it, and looked smugly at Tsuki who got out of his position and was now paying more attention to his teammate.
"That... Might be cool." Tsuki agreed, grinning cockily.
Yona said nothing, but she paused her reading to observe the outcome of their choice. A foreboding feeling suddenly washed over the team, warning them of an incoming danger, but it was very weak, so they easily shrugged it off and carried on with their activity.
Shu pressed the 'X' button.
Sakura was washed her hands happily with soup after she flushed the toilet. She felt slightly annoyed at being unable to hold her bladder in this young body, and at such an important part of the game, too!
But all was well, because it gave her time to cool off from her out of character fangirling moment down there to fully hold onto her disastrous emotions.
The adult in the body of a young girl rubbed her small delicate hands on a fluffy white towel, her cheeks dusted pink, which she ignored, and turned towards the door, all the while happily skipping onwards, down the stairs, towards her beloved. Wait, she's a child! She shouldn't think like that! Besides, Allen isn't real, he's just a video game character, but she guessed it's fine to crush madly for him since it's impossible for her to—? Okay, she will not continue that thought. Also, it's very creepy that a five year old has this sort of mindset. How concerning.
Sakura shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts as she got closer to the living room, and as she got closer, she started to hear voices speaking, and no, they weren't her babysitters.
At first, Sakura froze up, the living room was right around the corner, but her joints locked upon themselves after her mind finally put faces to the voices, and processed what exactly was being said.
'No way! I don't even like you like that! I barely consider you a friend, Walker!' Virtual Sakura shouted, sounding disgusted and mortified over something.
A pause.
Laughter. Shu and Tsuki.
"His face!" Shu laughed loudly, sounding like he was about to cry.
"He looks so shocked and— and hahaha!" Tsuki continued, laughing equally as hard.
"Hmm... Whoever made this game must've have fun putting this option and outcome in a dating game." Yona spook in her monotone voice. Strange how this is the longest sentence Sakura heard the pretty young teenager say so far, yet it stabs her heart and fills her with such dread.
'B-but... All we've been through, and... All the signs... I-I thought maybe...' Oh, Allen. Oh, sweet merciful God, Allen's voice was the thing that truly broke the bubblegum haired girl's heart. His voice, once full of hope, confidence, and comfort was now replaced by one she never heard, nor did she ever wish to hear. He sounded so confused, wounded, hurt, betrayed, distraught, heartbroken.
Sakura finally rounded the corner, only for her little heart to shatter into tiny little pieces after looking at the screen to see a face that equally matches the voice that cracked her heart.
"Wha...?" She choked out, feeling so very confused. Her mature mind unable to function properly and comprehend what's happening. Didn't she pause the game before leaving? Did she accidentally press the rejection option? Did she leave the remote controller in a position where it lay pressing 'X' and this is the outcome? What was going on? What happened while she was gone?
With that thought, Sakura turned to look at where she put her controller, only to stop shortly when her eyes landed upon one of her babysitter— Shu, she weakly recalled —sitting on the exact spot she was sitting on with the remote control in his hands.
Shu was sitting with the remote control. He was laughing along with Tsuki. Yona sat looking amused and unbothered by their laugh as she continued to observe her teammates interact with the game.
Finally, Sakura understood what happened. It was so simple, they— the jerks —took advantage of her departure and messed around with her game.
In the past, had anyone done something like this to the past Sakura, AKA Sara, they would have gotten slapped upside the head and told politely to GTFO, yet for some obscure reason, Sakura watched in pain as the boys continued to choose cruel options. Her throat was constricting painfully, making it hard for her to breath properly, and her unstable emotions were going haywire in her young easily influenced, sensitive body.
Leave this room. Run. Go to your room. Cry till you can't. Sleep will come to wash away all remnants of today.
Sakura's mind whispered comfortably to her, and the young heartbroken girl had half a mind to do all the options presented to her. She turned away, unable to continue to gaze at the tv screen and her babysitters, but before she could leave, she turned to give a final look at the tv, at her favorite character, her tears that have not yet fallen were blinding her, but she was somehow able to notice something about her fictional video game crush. Tears. Beautiful, breathtaking and sorrowful tears were falling slowly from his beautiful misty mercury eyes and down his flawless cheeks.
At that moment, something inside the young girl snapped.
'Oh, hell NAW! Those assholes did NOT just make Allen frickin' Walker CRY!'
Sakura grit her teeth angrily, rage consuming her whole being as she stomped loudly and angrily towards the tv. Her angry approach startled the three teens who were immersed with their new fun game, and they watched completely startled as a child no older than five glared at them angrily, her face red with anger as she abruptly closed the tv and game by pulling the cable, opened the hatch that protected the game CD, and left just as quickly and dramatically as she entered. With the game in her hands.
It was silent for a few disturbing seconds, till...
"Pffffft, AHAHAHA!" Shu threw his head back, and let out a loud bark of a laughter, quickly followed by Tsuki. The only one who wasn't laughing was Yona, but if you were to pay attention, you'd notice a faint outline of a smile forming on her face.
"She so ADORABLE! I swear!" Shu managed to spit out mirthfully between waves of uncontrollable laughter.
'H-how dare they! Those- those—!'
Sakura wasn't even able to finish her thoughts. Her mind was replaying the even that conspired. Those arrogant brats committed a sin worse than death! They made Allen cry!
As Sakura was running towards her room, tears blurring her vision, she managed to hear through the fog of uncontrollable raging childish emotions the sounds of laughter.
'How could anyone be laughing now?' She questioned. Her mind a jumbled mess. Never before has she been so upset. All her young life she was spoiled and given everything she ever wanted, yet at the same time time modesty and to respect her elders. To Sakura, her life was a pleasant, sheltered one where no one ever hated her.
Canon!Sakura learned of how cruel people could be at the academy thanks to the teasing and bullies from other girls her age, while this Sakura has yet to enter said academy, and is too shy to go out and socialize. Why would she when all she ever need is her daddy and family, and the adults she does meet are always so polite and never bother her, besides, they always came for her daddy.
Safe to say, Sakura never experienced a day of too much teasing by people, or anything dislikable happening to her. That consequentially gave the young girl a mindset that everyone was her supposed friend who she was just too scared to approach and talk to, and that mindset made her mentally weak to small teasing from people other than her father.
'So cruel!' The young girl jumped on her bed after slamming her door shut, and she covered herself with her fluffy blanket. Sobs escaping her clenched throat freely.
"W-w-why~?" She chocked out between sob. "W-w-w-why a-re t-they lau-ughing at m-m-meeee~?" She whined, sniffing pitifully to herself.
'What did I do wrong to make them hate me so much?'
A part of Sakura tried to console her, telling her that, no, they did not hate her. That she was being childish. That she was overreacting. That she needed to realize it's just a game—
"No!" Sakura argued with herself.
"They hate me! They hate me! They hate me! That's why they did that! They hate me!" She pushed her more mature side away. Her heart was bigger than her mind, so all common sense was pushed aside by her emotions.
'Hahahaha!'
Their laughters still echoed in her mind. Louder and louder. Poking fun at her. Taunting her.
Causing her to snap completely and go over the edge.
'I'll show them.' She growled. Forcing herself to get off her bed.
"I'll s-show them." She rasped out. Her eyes glinted with something sinister.
'I'll have my revenge—'
"And it'll be so good~" the young cherry blossom let out an evil giggle. 'Don't you worry, Allen-kun~' she giggled again, a foreign feeling consuming her as she walked towards her desk. 'I'll avenge you~'.
Someone else was going to have the last laugh.
A/N: Woah! That got... Interesting?
You can easily tell I had too much fun writing this chapter! XD
I wanted to make everything realistic(yet anime) about Sakura and her new life. Meaning I wanted to describe what she does and where she goes, so I described the game she was playing (made me want a game like that, I swear O-O) I thought it'd be more fun to dive deep into a characters life and their likes, not like:
(Sakura turned on the game and began playing.
-Time Skip- (after her new babysitter came).
Sakura decided to complete her game, it was very fun!
Oh my gosh! Her crush, Allen just confessed to her! Eeeeek!)
Yeah... ._.
And it was really fun writing about the game X3 I personally think this is my favorite chapter I've ever written, so far :D (next to meeting Itachi for the first time in that wonderful mall *activate Sanji seeing Nami mood*) in all honesty, I wasn't gonna make the silly game too 'important-like', but it somehow became just that and basically took over the whole chapter. XD
Sakura felt, to me, like a realistic five year old girl with her tears and thoughts and feeling about what happened (getting esily upset and emotional), yet she also felt like a realistic anime five year who is all cutesy, but then turns demonic when rubbed the wrong way~ XD
So, what do you guys think of this so far? Tell me in your review~ and see you next month!
ANYWAYS! time for a glimpse of the next chapter~! ;D
~~~~~In The Next Episode~~~~~
Ba-bump.
'W-wait... W-what am I doing?'
Sakura felt her heart skip a beat as she was hit by the reality of her standing in front of a Ninja. A real life, air bending, scientific defying ninja. And she was simple a small girl, basically an ant compared to him.
'I'm way over my head! How can someone like me do something to those super powered people?' She panicked. Sakura didn't know what to do. She finally used her past brain as a young woman, instead that of the spoiled child she acted as, and the realization of the situation she landed herself in frightened her.
'W-what am I—'
"Relax~"
A whispered voice spoke directly into Sakura's ear. Soft, warm, and full of comfort. The whole world seemed to vanish in an instant at the presence of this peculiar voice. It dimmed her her focus on reality and made her lose her concentration.
"Sleep, and let me handle everything~ everything will be alright~ I'll make them pay for harming our sweetheart, Allen~"
Before Sakura knew it, she was falling backwards into darkness.
