Ancient Sakura

Summary: When Sakura's parents are murdered before her eyes at the young age of five, she is contacted by her ancestors through her connections to the Planet Herself. The true Last Ancient is now charged with not only preserving her race, but also finding those who will help her with saving the newest generation of WEAPONS and their protectors from a dangerous, murderous group. The Akatsuki.

"speaking normally"

'thinking normally'

"Planet/Lifestream/deceased Ancient speaking"

"Bijuu/WEAPON/possessed Jinchuuriki speaking"

"Jutsu"

Chapter One:

"…"

Haruno Sakura couldn't believe what she was seeing. It wasn't possible; her five-year-old mind just couldn't comprehend what had just happened. Her short pink hair was disheveled, flying about her face haphazardly as if she had just gotten through with running, her pretty pink lips were parted in a shocked "o" as her breath flew past them rapidly, and her brilliant and unearthly green eyes were wide as they sparkled with unshed tears.

Before her, lying in pools of deep and shining crimson blood, were her parents' dead bodies.

And standing above them was a man wielding a knife with a crazed look, observing his handiwork almost proudly.

"Fuckin' awesome job," he mumbled darkly, his voice boring into Sakura's subconscious as she stared up at him in horror. "Outta be pretty fucking pleased with me…" Suddenly, the man looked up, purple-red eyes locking with Sakura's. The man sneered and the young girl almost instantly began to sob, but he merely turned away from her, blood dripping still from his knife's blade. "You're pretty damn lucky, girl, that I don't kill kids. Maybe I'll see ya in a few years."

The man left.

Sakura's tears flew down her pretty porcelain face, her shoulders shaking as she crawled weakly over to her father's face-down body. After only a moment's hesitation, she reached forward and gently touched his shoulder with a shaking hand; it was almost instantly retracted as Sakura gasped at the slight coolness of the body before she started to sob again. Her face was quickly buried into her hands and her whole being shook with her cries.

"Child…please, do not be so sad…" an unfamiliar and slightly disjointed voice whispered in Sakura's ear. The girl, again, gasped and her head snapped up, but this time she had no idea where she was; green mist-like threads flew around her against a backdrop of white, with beautiful pastel flowers blooming about her knees and seeming to caress her skin.

"Wh-what?" asked Sakura aloud, looking around with wide eyes as she sniffled pathetically. The voice made a cooing sound and a slight wave of sudden, calming images within her mind's eye.

"Oh, my Child…my poor, poor Child…I am so very sorry about the fate that your parents have suffered," the disjointed voice told her gently. "I am so very sorry about the fate that you have suffered."

Slowly, Sakura blinked, reaching up with her hand to wipe at her tears as she sniffled again. She knew that she should still be sad, but for some reason, this voice calmed her a lot. It was like she was little again and her mother was singing her favorite lullaby.

"There, that is better." The voice gave off the idea that it was relieved, but Sakura realized with a start that it really wasn't a voice at all. Instead, it was like a whole bunch of pictures and feelings were shoved into her head and she instinctively knew how to decipher them into words. "Please, my Child, believe me when I say that I dearly wish I could have prevented what has happened."

"Wh…who…are you?" Sakura slowly asked, twisting her head to look at the area around her with wide green eyes. She got the distinct impression that the voice was amused.

"I, my Child, am known as the Planet. You, however, may call me Mother Gaia."

Sakura's eyes widened to almost comical proportions. "Mother?! Y-you mean like my Mom!?"

The voice chuckled slightly, but sadly at that. "Not exactly, my Child," soothed Mother Gaia calmly. "I am the Mother of All, from the flowers to the animals to humans like you. You are all formed from my Life—my Blood. The Lifestream."

"The Lifestream…" Sakura echoed reverently, somehow knowing that the word was important.

"Correct." Mother Gaia paused for a moment before going on, images pulsing through Sakura's mind much like she was looking at a picture book. "Within the Planet where you live is a continuous river known as the Lifestream. It holds the spirits of everything that has ever had life. Every time someone is born, they are given part of the Lifestream to create their Soul; every time someone dies, they return that Soul to the Lifestream."

Quickly, Sakura's mind began to process this information. "So, then…Mom and Dad…they're now part of the Lifestream?"

"Exactly," agreed Mother Gaia. "However, soon, their Souls will be given a new Life. They will become someone else entirely."

Sakura slowly nodded. It may have been because of the images, but she understood almost exactly what Mother Gaia meant. The Planet soon went on.

"The Lifestream has a system of checks and balances for how many Souls survive on my surface and how many do not. Yet, in recent times the implement of shinobi in almost daily combat has caused that system to become unstable. The rate of deaths and births has increased too much as a result, and the Lifestream is beginning to become too worn. I created a group of WEAPONS, protectors of myself and my children, to stop the devastation—nine, to be precise—and charged them with challenging the main centers of the shinobi and destroying them to show my children the error of their ways. What I found was that this was all for naught; each and every one was captured by the villages and labeled as demons. I believe you would know them as the Bijuu, Tailed Beasts."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the name from stories her parents used to tell her. Most specifically, the story of the Nine-Tailed Bijuu, Kyuubi no Youko, came to mind—the demon that had attacked her very own village. No…not the demon. The WEAPON.

"I regret doing this, now," Mother Gaia admitted to the rapidly paling Sakura. "I merely wanted to stabilize the balance as quickly as possible. I have realized over the years that perhaps a more subdued and gradual approach would have been better. But what is done has been done. The only thing I can do now is try and fix my foolish mistakes."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sakura asked breathily, shaking her head rapidly. "I-I mean…I'm…I'm just a kid! What do you want me to do about it!?"

Mother Gaia chuckled softly. "Ah, but that is where you are wrong, my Child. You are not merely a child—you are one of my Children, a being known as a Cetra or an Ancient."

Sakura's eyes widened again. "An…cient?"

"Yes," affirmed Mother Gaia. "An Ancient. Many years ago, when I was still very young, I gave life to a set of beings known as the Cetra. They were able to communicate with myself at will, without hardly a second thought. For years they were my Protectors. However, tragedy eventually struck. A being known as the Calamity from the Skies, or Jenova, crashed upon my surface and began to terrorize my darling Cetra. They eventually had to sacrifice most of their number to subdue the creature. Eventually, I was forced to create simple humans as a result—those who could no longer communicate with me, but reproduced much more often than my direct Children. Slowly their number dwindled until they practically died out. After a Crisis involving the return of Jenova was adverted, I was able to recreate some of the Cetra using the descendents of my Saviors."

"S-so, then…" Sakura stammered, barely able to believe what she was hearing (sort of). "I'm a…Cetra!?"

"Exactly." Mother Gaia paused for a moment before sighing sadly. "Unfortunately, the recent times have resulted in the death of many of your indirect Siblings. As a result…you, my Child, are the Last."

Silence followed this proclamation as Sakura processed this. So then, not only was she alone as far as family went…but she was also the last of a whole entire race of people. Tears, again, welled up within her eyes before sudden determination blew through her being, allowing Sakura to blink them away with a sense of resolve. She turned stubbornly towards the swirling green mist-like threads around her.

"I want to help you," she said purposefully. "And, I want to help your WEAPONS, too! What can I do!?"

Mother Gaia instantly seemed to become relieved; Sakura could easily sense it. "Oh, my darling Child, how I had hoped you would say this," the Planet announced. "However, I must warn you now that the journey will not be easy. You will have to make many sacrifices, some easier than others, in order to make it possible."

Sakura snorted in a very unladylike way. "I don't care! I still want to do it!"

A moment passed. "All right, then my Child. I…can only hope you will be truly ready. For now, I will tell you more about this situation." Mother Gaia paused. "As a Cetra, you have many special talents that others do not have access to. You will be able to converse with myself and my animal Children, as well as my WEAPONS, when you shall meet them. You will also have access to a power crafted by my own being known as Magic."

Sakura's eyes widened dramatically. "Magic!?" she echoed loudly and excitedly. Mater Gaia chuckled.

"Yes. Magic. You, my Child, can use an elemental power known as Magic by channeling small portions of my Lifestream through your own body and the area around you. I will happily supply you with a perfect tutor for that on the eve of your sixth birthday, for that is when your Inner Powers should have developed enough for safe daily use."

Despite herself, Sakura grinned widely. "Awesome!"

Again, Mother Gaia chuckled. "Indeed, my Child." The Planet abruptly became serious. "However, even once you gain access to these powers in conjunction with being able to communicate with myself at whim, I fear that it shall not be enough to guarantee your safety. As such, a set of Guardians will be in order."

Sakura slowly blinked, her excitement dimming in the face of confusion. "Guardians…? What kind of guardians?"

"People to protect you; to make sure you are safe as can be while you make your way to your goal, my Child," explained Mother Gaia patiently. Sakura nodded her understanding. "However, unless you acknowledge them as such, they will not necessarily become your Guardians."

"So, then, I can choose my Guardians?"

"To a degree." When Sakura blinked, Mother Gaia elaborated. "Only certain people have the assets necessary to become Guardians, my Child. And the only way to identify them…they have the same eyes as you."

Those brilliant green eyes widened in surprise. "My eyes?" she echoed.

Instead of responding, Mother Gaia gave a tired sigh. "I am afraid I must leave now, my Child. I have wasted much of my energy halting the outside world to speak for you. Just, please…find your first Guardian soon. I trust in your instincts to find him…my dearest young Child…my sole Heir…"

And, suddenly, Sakura was back to kneeling in front of her parents' dead bodies, eyes wide and confused as she tried to figure out what, exactly, had just happened. The reality of the situation again hit her and tears began to fall again, Sakura stumbling to her feet as she choked out a sob. The words of Mother Gaia rang through her head: "Find your first Guardian."

Compelled by this command, Sakura found herself jumping around her parents' corpses and rushing out of her house, running towards the gates of the village as quickly as she could. She was in such a hurry that she didn't even realize that her speed was nearly at Jounin-level, nor did she notice when an ANBU caught sight of her rush and rushed away to report the anomaly to Konohagakure's Hokage. As a matter of fact, the reality that she was running didn't even permeate Sakura's consciousness until she was out of the Hidden Village and nearly a half-mile away.

When Sakura did realize she had been running, her eyes widened and she screeched to a stop, looking around in disbelief at her unfamiliar surroundings. Tears welled up in her eyes anew and she began to cry loudly, dropping to her knees and burying her face in her hands. The emotional rollercoaster she had been riding for less than half an hour had come to a head suddenly as she poured out her heart.

It wasn't until two ANBU (one a hawk, one a monkey) appeared and began to speak that she jolted back into reality.

"Haruno Sakura, if that is you, the Hokage wishes to bring you in for questioning on the matter of your parents' death as well as your sudden increase in speed from Civilian to high-Chuunin," said the hawk tonelessly. Sakura's head jerked up and she stared at the two ANBU for nearly half a second with teary eyes before she cried out in fright and lunged to her feet, taking off further away from Konoha. The ANBU quickly followed.

"Halt!" shouted the monkey, completely ignored by Sakura in her panic. During her frightful run, something was calling her in this direction…some sort of unidentified aura…

An abrupt turn to the right and a dash under the bushes confused the ANBU for long enough to let Sakura get quite a bit away. She burst into a clearing—

—and cried out when she stumbled over the ground, landing heavily against a wall…of…cloth…

Sakura's head snapped up and she stared in surprise at the owner of the chest/stomach she had just run into. He was a teenager, apparently, with short and messy red hair and soft, apathetic features. His clothes were made up of an odd black cloak with red clouds sparingly scattered across it, covering up his body almost completely from view save his face. He looked quite handsome, actually, but Sakura didn't notice that. No, all she noticed were his half-lidded eyes.

Eyes the exact shade of her own…

As Sakura stared with wide eyes up at the stranger, fingers tightly gripping the cloth over the man's stomach, he staring emotionlessly back, the tree leaves behind her rustled faintly. Finally tearing away from the mini-staring contest, Sakura turned to look over her shoulder and made a half-gasp half-sob sound before letting go of the man's cloak. She quickly ducked behind him and peaked out from behind his cloak's bulk, the man observing her curiously and with the slightest trace of amusement visible in his eyes—which she somehow instinctively knew was obvious only to her.

The ANBU abruptly appeared and took only a second to analyze the apparent situation before they both stiffened. The man Sakura was clinging to ignored them, observing Sakura closely. If he was trying to unnerve her, he failed spectacularly—Sakura merely gave him a pathetic look and a full viewing of her emotions.

"Akasuna no Sasori," the hawk ANBU suddenly said, stepping forward just a hair and subtly adjusting his stance, "we have no business with you at this moment. Hand over the girl and you will find no battle here."

The man, Sasori, took his time to observe Sakura's fearful face before he turned to the ANBU almost as an afterthought. He allowed a moment to pass, then two, before he opened his mouth.

"And if I don't want to hand her over?" he asked mildly, his voice soft and surprisingly unintimidating. The ANBU managed to give off an aura of discomfort at it nonetheless.

"Then," the monkey eventually said, the slightest of tremors in his voice, "we do have business with you and you will find a battle here."

Sasori's eyebrow twitched up just a fraction, like he wanted to arch an eyebrow but found himself unable to. "I see." His gaze drifted back to Sakura, who was staring up at him with pleading eyes, and he lifted his arm just a fraction so that his sleeve covered her view of the scene as he turned back. He glanced back at the ANBU. "You may die now."

Two screams pierced the air and caused Sakura to make a sound of surprise, but they were quickly silenced. Within five seconds of Sasori's words his arm lowered and Sakura stared with shock and awe at the wooden bear-like…thing standing before them with the bodies of the two ANBU tossed carelessly over its thick, tree trunk-like arms.

"Whoa," she breathed, looking curiously at the wooden bear as it began to drift towards the far end of the clearing with surprising grace. She looked up at Sasori with sparkling eyes. "What was that?"

"A puppet," was Sasori's simple response. Sakura slowly blinked and looked back at where the bear had disappeared, curiosity alight in her gaze.

"A puppet…with chakra strings?"

If Sasori was at all surprised by her observation, he didn't show it; instead, he inclined his head forward just a fraction. Sakura couldn't help but smile widely at the confirmation.

"Wow! Could I learn how to do that!?" she asked excitedly, eyes sparkling up at Sasori.

The strangely cloaked man's lips twitched down just a fraction, probably not enough for anyone other than Sakura and her new, surprising awareness of him to notice. "Perhaps," he said despite a slight doubt. He looked at her for a few more moments. "You should return to your village. Obviously they're looking for you."

Despite herself, Sakura deflated slightly. "Oh…right." But she didn't move, still staring up at him curiously. "…um, sir?" Sasori merely looked at her, so Sakura went on. "I…I have a question for you…"

For a long second, Sasori just stared at her. "…what?"

"Could you…" She stopped, thought for a second, then gazed up at Sasori with wide eyes. "Would you mind being my Guardian?"

-END-

MKL's Post-Production Notes (8-18-13): SPOILERS: Sasori would have totally taken that the wrong way, thinking she meant like a custodial guardian, by the by. Anyway, I lost most of the notes for this story when my old computer crashed in 2009 (yes that's how old it is haha), but I remember her other guardians would include Kimimaro and...hrm...I keep thinking Kakuzu but that's definitely not right...I think it was actually one of the protagonists. Temari maybe? Meh, I don't remember, other than that they would join up after Sasori would be killed shortly post-timeskip (notably not from battling Sakura and Chiyo but instead the Akatsuki if I remember right). Sakura's magic tutor would be Aerith OF COURSE and she would model her style in both fighting and life after Sasori but with a more open and childlike approach. She's specialize in magic and poison with a side hobby of puppeteering for regular battle-puppets; her clothing would all feature the Akatsuki cloud (not realizing it was an organization or anything since Sasori wouldn't tell her) and when Sasori would die she'd get a tattoo on her hip of Sasori's scorpion mark in his honor. I even drew her mission outfits at one point both pre- and post-timeskip. God only knows where that ended up haha~