Chapter 1

Ino's eyes snapped open, her body covered in sweat, heart pounding, and body shaking. Immediately, her hands went up to her neck to check if her head had separated from her body. Immediately, she calmed down a little once she realized that she was still alive. She was breathing heavily, eyes slowly getting adjusted to the darkness of her room.

The moon illuminated half of her room, and Ino saw, in the full length mirror across from her, that she looked younger than she remembered.

Confusion struck her.

How could she still be alive? She clearly felt the pain from when the blade fell on her neck.

The whole scene in Central Square, where she was falsely accused and executed, felt so real. All the events she experienced up to that point felt so real and vivid that it was impossible that it was only a nightmare.

Suddenly, there was a movement beside her.

"...Ino?"

A deep and raspy voice called out to her, and in the darkness, she can see a long muscular pale arm reaching out for her.

The person moved from the darkness and into the light. He opened his eyes and Ino subconsciously shook from fear seeing those blood red eyes staring at her. His three irises were spinning and all the memories from before she woke up came rushing back. The heartbreak of seeing the person she loved turned his back against her, the disappointment she felt when she saw how easy it was for him to move on from her. The fear she felt when she knew that he wanted to kill her for killing his brother.

Ino's heart started to pound faster, she remembered the venom dripping in his voice when he came to her prison cell, torturing her, repaying her for all the things she was accused of doing to his late brother.

Out of fear, Ino jumped off the bed and nearly tripped once her foot touched the carpeted floor.

But instead of hatred and anger in those red irises, the blonde only saw worry and a flash of hurt.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Sasuke was in a white tank top, worry etched on his face.

They stared at each other for a few beats.

"... what are you doing in my room…?" Ino whispered, the cold air raising goosebumps on her body. It didn't help that she was only wearing a thin nightgown on a chilly autumn night.

She spotted Sasuke's general uniform neatly placed on her sofa and vaguely remembered from a long time ago that Sasuke used to sneak into her room just to spend time and simply sleep together. They have not done anything remotely close to sex, as she was meant to be engaged to Itachi and she would need to be pure in order to not be ostricized by her family and society. But they loved each other so much, that these stolen moments were the only time they could be together.

Her head turned to the left, to see today's date on the large calendar hanging on her wall as part of her room's decor.

The moonlight showed that it was the Imperial year 985, eight years before her execution, which meant that she was 18 years old again.

Impossible.

Did she dream everything..? But everything felt so real, the memories she had in her dream felt like they were her own real memories.

"Where is Itachi?" Ino blurted out.

Ino spoke before her mind was able to comprehend what was happening. She wanted to know if he was still alive. If he was still alive, then there's a chance.

"Ino."

His voice indicated that he was getting impatient. She knew that he always felt inferior towards his brother, bordering on resentment, but Ino didn't care about that now. She wanted to know desperately if he was still alive. If he was, then that meant there was a chance Ino could prevent her tragic future from happening.

The blond turned back to Sasuke, who was lifting the blanket up, motioning for her to come back to bed.

"Come back in, let's go back to sleep."

The blonde reluctantly got on her side of the bed and laid down on her side, facing the windows. Sasuke followed her, but he turned towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her towards him.

A gasp left her mouth, when she felt Sasuke's lips place a light kiss on her shoulder, "Don't mention his name when we're in this room together again." His tone indicated that this will be the only time he will allow her to mention his brother's name, jealousy evident in his voice.

Ino only nodded her head, at a loss for words. She never thought she would feel anything other than hatred from the younger Uchiha again. Once Sasuke settled back in, she could feel that he had fallen back to sleep after a few moments.

Ino on the other hand, couldn't fall back to sleep, the last thoughts she breathed her last breath resurfaced.

In my next life, I would never love Sasuke Uchiha again.

When Ino was finally able to catch some sleep, it was already noon the next day.

Any traces of the young prince were gone from her room.

Sophie, the maid who had followed the young heiress since she was young, entered her room.

"It's time to get ready, my lady. We came in a few hours ago, but were unable to wake you up."

The blonde smiled towards the woman who had raised her, "Yes, I must've been too tired."

Sophie had been with the Yamanaka family since before Ino was born. The middle-aged brown haired woman had treated the young lady like her own daughter, and knew instantly who had visited the room the night before.

Of course, she had kept this secret between the two of them, knowing that if anyone found out about what the two young lovers were up to, scandal would be swept across the empire. The Second Prince would only suffer rumors for a couple of weeks, but Ino would be ruined forever. And, with the engagement with Crown Price Itachi not officially announced yet, it was too risky.

The maid felt a pang of sadness for her mistress though, at not being able to choose who she would marry and that she had to marry out of political reasons instead of love.

Ino stretched and yawned, showing signs of youthfulness. She was only a kid, and the burden placed on her being the Duke's daughter was already weighing upon the young mistress.

"Let's get you ready for the day, my lady."

While Sophie busied herself with getting Ino ready, the blonde's head was deep in thought from the night before.

There was only one possible reason why she had travelled back in time.

Mana.

But the thing was, Ino was never particularly gifted at mana, which was why the emperor allowed the marriage between her family and his. So why? She didn't have enough mana to do basic everyday things, let alone turn back time.

Once she finished getting ready, Ino walked from her room to the adjacent study she had for private lessons.

She sat down behind her desk and pulled out a clean paper and a quill.

Let's start by writing down the big events, shall we?

One of the things that started the chain reaction was the Haruno family moving to the capital. Before that, the Haruno's were a humble baron family from the South with a humble status and wealth. There was no way they would've been able to facilitate a move to the Capital financially.

From what Ino had remembered, Sakura's mansion in the capital was vast.

What was it that they discovered that they gained so much wealth and power in such a short amount of time?

A distant memory tickled within Ino's brain.

Lady Tsunade, the queen of the capital's social circle, had invited the pink-haired newcomer to one of her famous tea parties.

At this party, Karin, the Countess of Hebi asked the shy girl with a sneer,

"So, Lady Haruno, how were you and your family able to move to the capital?"

Sakura, who was new and did not know of the brutal words and actions of the nobility of the capital, answered honestly, "M-my father bought farmland that contained Jade underneath."

After she answered, the Jade on her forehead and wrist seemed to glow, as if to let the nobles around her know that she controls one of the newly popular precious stones that swept the capital.

Ino quietly sipped the tea.

Karin uncharacteristically backed down after that and started treating the new girl with respect.

Sakura's innocent jade eyes sparkled at the sudden warm attention she received from the members of the party.

That's right… the source of their income.

It's Jade.

Ino had always found it weird that one of the most cutthroat and arrogant ladies of their circles was able to back down so easily. She guessed that even she, the wife of a rich countess, could not risk angering the family behind the Jade industry. At the time, if you wore jade on any part of your body, it symbolized wealth and power. After Jade was discovered, Professor Shikamaru had discovered that the stone also held elements to amplify mana use, which made it a very important and expensive commodity.

For one gram of Jade, you would need to shell out 100 gold coins. This was how the Haruno family gained their vast fortune in such a short amount of time. They had monopolized Jade mining.

She wrote down, Jade mine.

Then, she also remembered that after her acceptance into the Capital's social circles, Ino had warmly welcomed her into her home and had frequently invited her to her tea parties. Her father had pressured her to make friends with Sakura. To ensure that the Yamanaka family had close ties with one of the rising families of the Uchiha empire, it was set to take the world by storm with the Jade monopoly.

It was here, right in this mansion, that Sakura had bumped into Sasuke, who was waiting for Ino to finish her party to come and hang out with him.

Sakura had mentioned that she bumped into him on the way to the ladies' room.

At the time, Ino wanted to head to her room to let Sasuke know that she would be done soon and bumped into them. The ladies' room she had guided Sakura to was the opposite to where her room was. She felt that it was weird that anyone would be able to accidentally bump into Sasuke, knowing the precautions the two of them made in order to not get caught by the public. She had also brushed that concern away when Sasuke had defended the pink-haired girl when she brought it up.

However, it was from then on that Sasuke's attitude slowly changed towards Ino. From warmth and affection turned cold and hatred. This was further amplified when evidences of Itachi's murder had been uncovered and pointed towards her.

She didn't know why, but her instinct told her that it had something to do with the sly pink-haired girl who didn't know her place. If Ino was able to prevent Sakura from entering the capital, she would be able to prevent her tragic future.

Another thing Ino wrote down was to find the possible culprit behind Itachi's assasination, but felt that it was too ambitious for her, since no one ever found the real evidence and culprit behind his murder. Not even the Nara Family, who had a vast network of intelligence on the ongoings of the different empires across the world, were able to find the person responsible.

The only thing they were able to find was very useless evidence that could've pointed away from Ino as the murderer, but with all the accusations piled onto her, they couldn't risk being on the wrath of the public and the Imperial family.

The blonde gave it more thought and decided that she would investigate on the person who, at this moment in time, would be planning the murder of the Crown Prince and would be pinning it onto her, later. When she had enough allies by her side.

After Ino got ready for the day and had her brunch, she called for Ken, the Yamanaka butler.

"You called for me, my lady?"

Ino placed her tea down and stood up, "Yes, I have some tasks I would want you to help me with."

While Ino was eating, she wrote down important events that happened in her dream to ensure that she would take all the precautions to avoid the future events from ruining her family.

She looked down on the paper and the first order of business was to find that farmland and make a sale to the person who owns the land. From her memory, she remembered that the person who owned the farmland was a humble farmer on the verge of bankruptcy.

If Ino was to take some of the money out of her monthly allowance, she might be able to set the farmer up in a nice little cottage and a store near the town he lived in.

The other important thing Ino wanted Ken to help out with, was to find the greatest swordsman that would grace the entire Fire continent, Naruto Uzumaki. Unfortunately, before people started hearing about his amazing feats in battle, he would be living in the slums, trying to make a living as a mercenary.

Since the Yamanaka family is the prime minister of the empire and are powerful politically, her great grandfather's brother married someone from the Hyuuga family, a family that produces some of the greatest fighters and knights the continent has seen and acts as the protector of the Royal family and the realm. Although it was meant to be a political marriage, Ino had heard stories from the maids in her estate that her great granduncle loved his Hyuuga wife very much and lived in a small cottage on the countryside once they retired before peacefully passing away.

She can put Naruto into the Hyuuga family and jumpstart his training as a knight to be the sword that protects the Yamanaka family. It also helped that Ino and the current heiress of the Hyuuga family, Hinata, were close.

Before Ino handed the piece of paper to the kind-hearted and loyal butler, Ino wrote down one last thing on the piece of paper.

Please burn this list once the arrangements have been made.

"Here's the list of things I would like you to help me out with."

Ken took the paper from the blonde and his gaze sharpened when he reached the bottom, making Ino feel relieved that he had understood.

This was to be carried out under secrecy.

Ken bowed and greeted the mistress goodbye before leaving the room.

Once Ino was alone in her room, she stretched her body.

From what she gathered, she had gone back in time right after she died eight years later.

She didn't know how or why, but the fact that she got a second chance meant that she could prevent tragedy to befall the Yamanaka's and herself.

She won't be as foolish and naive as she was from then.

She didn't get a good sleep last night because she couldn't sleep from what happened to her. But deep down, the fact was that she was tense the entire night because of the man sleeping next to her. She couldn't deny that he still made her heart race.

The next thing she had to do was to break up with the Second Prince.

There was a silver handkerchief in her dressing table drawer that she could put up on her window, which would signal Sasuke's knights that she wanted to meet him in her room.

But thinking about the close proximity with one of the people who would eventually kill her made her feel nauseous. Ino wanted to meet with Sasuke, but not in her room, her sanctuary.

She will never allow him to step one foot into this room ever again.

The only thing she wished for in this lifetime, was to simply be ignored by him. Instead of wanting to run away from the inevitable engagement with Itachi, Ino knew of her duties as the daughter of Duke Yamanaka and would embrace her future as the Crown Princess instead.

Ino stood next to her window, looking over her beautiful family estate, and watched her father's carriage take him to the palace to start his day as Konoha's prime minister.

Her fist clenched, she will not let her family down again.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please do not forget to review :-)