[restart.]

I'm back with another chapter. Sorry for the wait, I was procrastinating and I was looking for ways to separate the story.

Anyway, not much has been happening, but this chapter is the start of the Wave Mission. I'm going to add some SasuSaku scenes and crap throughout the entire story so prepare yourself. I can also put in some minor ships if you ask me to.

Without further ado, next chapter of Restart!

Oh, by the way, Happy SpoopyTime!

[restart.]

She felt a dull throbbing in her chest as she tried to calm her breathing. She fisted the long grass under her feet, trying to find peace of mind.

She made sure to cover up her blood trail, and let herself fully recline on the bark of the old tree. She felt her back lightly protest as the dried, sticky blood on her back, kept her form in her tense state.

She let herself absentmindedly finger the left side of her chest, silently contemplating what to do.

A gaping wound through her abdomen from a sword piercing through her skin flaunted itself as her shaggy breaths began to quicken.

She was out of chakra.

She didn't have peace of mind.

She didn't really want to live.

So...

She let medical chakra flare to her fingertips. She'd stop her heart; a simple, plain way to die. Plain just like her.

No one will miss her, right? No one truly loved her anyway. A peaceful escape...

A cowardly escape.

The pinkette let the already flickering green hue completely die out as she let go her hold on her chakra.

She was no coward.

She's made it this far, she can make it further!She moved her fingers from over her left chest to hovering over her lower abdomen, numbing the pain and clotting the wound.

All she could do now was lie in wait.

{ involuntary help }

—Restart—

"involuntary help"

{ involuntary help }

Their feet made soft contact with the dirt road on the civilian path they were forced to take. Sakura wanted to let her eyes dart back and forth, to reach out with her chakra and find out exactly how close they were, but she couldn't. Not with them around, not to blow her cover.

The wind blew her hair out of proportion rather quickly, and Sakura felt fabric brush up against her legs, as she decided to wear her impractical red dress to make the statement 'I'm weak.'

She impatiently blew a strand out of her line of vision as she continued onward. Just like last time, she was left to take care of the client, and the emerald-eyed girl couldn't really blame them, as she was serious deadweight right now.

She let her hand brush up against the uneven bark of the tree as she reached out to feel the chakra circulating in it. She looked up; the skies were as blue as ever, not a cloud in sight.

'Okay, that's a good sign.'

She inconspicuously grazed the ground with her feet. It was dry, not slick at all. Rather easy to kick up dust, too.

She sneaked a few glances at her team; Sasuke's eyes were darting to and fro, and she watched him tense slightly as she purposely made her gaze heated just to mess with the Uchiha.

She soon shifted to Naruto, who was oblivious to his surroundings and quietly sulking. Why, she couldn't figure out at that point.

'Stay alert, Sakura. This mission will be the real start of your mission.'

She kept her eyes forward, occasionally allowing an innocent glance at her surroundings. It was a bit quiet. Didn't she say something to lighten the mood? Oh, yeah.

"Kakashi-sensei?" she asked innocently. The pinkette watched his eyes switch from watching the road to focusing on his kunoichi.

"Yes, Sakura?"

"Does Wave have any Ninja?"

'Psh, no.'

"I don't think so."

They made polite small talk, with Tsunami butting in every now and then, and Sakura could see her teacher's attention drifting from her to their surroundings, as he probably sensed the oncoming chakra, too. She let the conversation drop and allowed his full attention on their presumed enemy.

'The Wave Mission is officially starting.'

'Yeah.'

'Remember, you've changed the past already. Be prepared for something to go wrong.'

'I just can't believe changes are being made this early..'

I felt my foot step onto something deep, and there was a small splash as I hurriedly pulled it out. It was a muddy puddle. Her eyes widened. She quickly wiggled her foot in a casual fashion and hit back on track with the others. Sakura noticed they all gave her one more backwards glance.

'Yeah, to make sure you're still alive,'

'Yeah yeah.'

"You okay back there?" Kakashi asked lazily. She glanced up at his retreating back and let her eyes once again start shifting all around them. "Mmyeah, I'm just fi-"

At that moment kunai and senbon all aimed for their client raineddown upon the group in quick succession. Sakura, not thinking clearly, jumped back in front of Tsunami and began deflecting and dodging the oncoming metal, letting some graze her and open up a cut while she sent numbing medical chakra coursing through her body.

She watched in the corner of her eye as Naruto froze up, scared because he wasn't expecting that or scared in general, she didn't know. She risked a glance at Sasuke, with weapons strewn all over the ground around him, kunai in hand and his eyes darting to and fro, waiting for their enemy. And Kakashi-sensei wasn't doing any better.

"Who's there?" He shouted. Sakura felt a shiver go through her at the sight of the time line changing again.

Two figures jumped down from the trees, and Sakura's heart skipped a beat.

There, in front of them, were none other than Zabuza and Haku.

'No way,'

'Where are the Demon Brothers?'

"We're only here for the bridge builder.

Give them up." Zabuza growled threateningly.

'Oh good, at least he doesn't know that this isn't the bridge builder.'

'Actually, what if it is? We can't count on any information that we earned before coming to the past anymore.'

'Shoot.'

"Well, that won't be happening. Sakura, up your guard. I have a plan." Kakashi said, not even looking back at his 'young' kunoichi. She brought up two kunai with 'shaking' hands, before the girl calmed herself and fixed a steely gaze on their opponents.

'Okay, we're going to have to wing it.'

That was her last thought before everyone lunged at her. Her eyes widened imperceptibly before she proceeded to get Tsunami out of the way by means of pushing pulling and shoving as her team engaged in combat, Naruto falling out of his stupor sometime between.

"Come Tsunami-San!" Sakura called out quietly as she pulled on the woman's wrist once more and led them behind a tree. The kunoichi hurriedly set up leaves and bushes to hide their client while sneaking glances toward the fight.

Sakura was soon finished and gave the 'bridge builder' one last warning not to leave before she herself leaped into the fight.

She blocked a senbon coming to Sasuke just out of his range with a quick kunai and touched backs with him, faking her heavy breathing and frantic eyes.

"Sakura! What are you doing? Where's the client?!" The Uchiha demanded heatedly.

"D-don't worry, Sasuke-kun, they're safe. I-...ok I'll back y-you up. " the pinkette said, tripping over her words purposefully while blocking more off-course projectiles with feigned skill.

She felt his glare on the back of her neck and turned her head to smile hesitantly at him, plucking a kunai out of the air infront of him.

"Just fight. I've...got your back." she assured him, handing the kunai with slight impatience. He turned his head quickly and went back to asses the enemy, Haku, as Naruto and Kakashi were separated from them by Zabuza.

'Their plan was probably to divide and conquer. Too bad.'

"Just give us the bridge builder, I don't want to fight you all." Haku asked them politely. The two Genin shared wary glances, but came to a decision to stand their ground easily. She watched Haku shake his head remorsefully before he sprinted towards them.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered raggedly, "I can't trust myself in a fight like this. I'll be your back-up, you engage them." Sakura whispered with vigor as she began taking steps backward to assist on the sidelines as Sasuke came at them with around the same speed, maybe a bit less.

She felt the mist pile up thickly as the clangs of metal against metal from all around her became distant. She quickly checked her chakra levels; full. Checked her weapons pouch; healthy. Checked her state of mind; a bit cluttered, but she'll make do.

Sakura deduced herself ready to engage the enemy and sprinted out of the boys' line of vision, and she could tell Haku was considering trapping the boy in the Ice Mirrors, as his colleague has 'fled.'

'Not quite,'

She thought quietly to herself as she silently slipped her metal toys out of her pouch. She watched with a critical eye as Sasuke was periodically lured into getting draped in senbon, and soon he was trapped in the Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors.

'Our time to shine!'

'You're so loud.'

She flicked her wrist in quick succession, and with one well aimed kunai and a few blend in senbon, none of the needles hit any of Sasuke's vital spots.

' I got that one from TenTen,'

She thought idly as she took off towards the battlefield and stopped just outside the mirrors. Sasuke turned to her in shock, and she knew he wasn't expecting her to help at all. Haku ignored her.

Sakura channeled a small amount of chakra to her fists and punched a mirror close by, and now it had an imperceptible crack.

'If my calculations are correct, the mirror is technically damaged and he can no longer use it. Which means he now has a blind spot.'

She continued punching all the mirrors, showing exasperation all over her face, while inside she was chuckling. Literally, Inner was chuckling.

She punched the last one on the bottom row, and jumped back, having ignored Haku's small in-battle speech as he began to fling the senbon. Sasuke tensed and waited for the impact, having realized there was nothing he could do. But just as Sakura predicted, he noticed that all the mirrors on the bottom row were lagging. With the reflexes of a self-esteemed prodigy he crouched into a push-up position, switching now and then to avoid the senbon raining from the top of the dome.

She saw him smirk at this new discovery. "Sakura!" He called out. She 'jumped.' "Y-yes..?"

"Keep punching the mirrors on the second row! I think I found a loop!"

Sakura saw her cue, and began articulating chakra into her punches of the mirrors that were just out of her reach, having to jump on the ones from the first row to reach the second.

She quickly maneuvered, jumping from mirror to mirror, saving just enough time to make minor slips and punch some glass. She was soon done, and called out in the mist, "Third row, too?"

"Go as far as you can!"

She leapfrogged off the first row mirror and latched on to the second as she pulled herself up with nonexistent upper body strength. She was cursing her younger self by the time she managed to get up.

Once again she began the exhilarating procedure of sprinting around the mirror dome in circles, making leaps of faith to get to the next mirror in time as Sasuke found more and more ways to evade the senbon coming at him from only above, now. He was silently hoping that she'd reach the top soon, but that wasn't long as soon the mist cleared slightly, a sign this man's partner was drifting, and Sasuke saw Sakura swinging from mirror to mirror, reducing her contact with them to mere flicks.

She soon made her way to the top and took down the overhead glass with a swift axe kick. Glass shards rained upon them and Sakura made her way back to the edge of the enclosed battlefield, her job done. She was panting heavily, having never gotten used to her physical state as she half-listened to Sasuke and Haku barking at each other, the former prideful at the fact he was able to find a way to evade the latter's attack.

Soon Haku stopped mid-reply, and flashed away. Sasuke fell to a quick knee and began the tedious process of plucking the needles out of his body once the mirrors around them shattered, making him assume they fled.

Sakura came running to his side, half sprinting, half sliding on her knees to take a stop at Sasuke and help him with plucking the needles out.

"Thanks," he grunted out of the pain. Thanks for helping him win or helping him with the needles, she did not know. Though he might have done this on purpose.

Typical.

"I'm glad I was able to help," the pinkette added with a smile. That smile soon vanished on her lips and her eyes darted to and fro around them. "We should go find Kakashi-sensei and Naruto. If they're in danger we need to help. How are you holding up, Sasuke-kun?"

He grunted in an affirmative tone.

"Okay," Sakura started talking to herself. "We don't have time for bandages; you'll just suck it up. We can apply first aid when we find a safe place to stop. You go ahead, I thought I heard a scream northwest. I'm going to get our client. See you there."

She quickly helped Sasuke up, as in, touched him and he says he's fine as he proceeds to stumble, and she made sure he was heading in the right direction before she left to go and grab Tsunami. She didn't know what she would do if the mission failed because of her idiocy. Though she used the evasion skills acquired in the war to hide that woman, so it should be fine.

And she was not proven wrong, as when she reached the area she hid their client in, there was an imperceptible rustling in one of the many shrubs. She took off a clump of leaves to see a smiling Tsunami staring back at her. Before the woman could speak Sakura dispelled any henge, genjutsu, or illusion that could have been on her, and eyed her calculatively.

After deducing this woman was in fact real she sighed in relief that she hadn't single-handedly botched the mission, and apologized profusely at her rash and rude actions as she helped the woman out of the bushes. They walked back over to where Sakura could sense a slight scuffle to find Naruto and Sasuke duking it out with Kakashi resting on one of the large trees. Everyone stopped as they saw the kunoichi of the team return with the client, as Naruto glomped her and began bragging about his battle and Kakashi ruffled the young girl's hair and complimented her on her protection of the client.

Sakura could tell he had no idea about her large part in Sasuke's own battle but didn't think too much on it, as she was expecting every part of the hidden accusation when she came back in time.

As Tsunami explained the real situation to the group Sakura wrapped bandages around her bleeding knees and knuckles. At least she now knew Tsunami actually wasn't the bridge builder. Naruto noticed this and bounded up to her, asking bluntly and loudly about how she got hurt. The pinkette got the hidden memo that he didn't think she would be doing anything and wasn't phased.

"Well, Naruto, I was punching most of the battle with Sasuke." she explained cryptically. Kakashi turned slightly worried and surprised eyes over to her. "You were in Sasuke's battle?" Sakura gave him an unimpressed look, expressing 'you really said that to my face?' Through her stare. He looked away in slight guilt. So, she answered. "Yes, by the way. Anyway, we should find a place to rest."

Tsunami put in her five cents here. "Ah, of course! My house isn't that far from here."

Sakura handed the rest of her bandages to Sasuke, silently criticizing his wounds and was relieved when she saw no colorful tint near the scratches before they were covered in white. She turned her eyes forward and slowly coaxed herself back into her facade of a shallow girl.

Soon, they were on the water, the thick mist twisting and billowing casually around them. Sakura breathed in the clean, cold vapor as she tried to calm her mind. She could feel it lapping at her face as they rode in silence, the only noise was the dividing of the water as they made their way across the water in a tense silence.

Sakura fiddled with the edges of her qi-pao as she thought on her recent discoveries.

'If I play my cards right, I could possibly start training as soon as we get there.'

'True that. But since we encountered Zabuza and Haku before now, will we still meet them at the bridge?'

'We better. I can't stand this weak body anymore. As soon as we get home I'm contacting Nanami-sama. Maybe I'll do my training with them.'

'A Reverse Summoning, eh? I like the way I think.'

"This is as far as I can take you. Stay safe."

their driver noted gruffly as he ushered them all off quickly. The group stumbled onto land and before they could blink the man was already driving away.

"Pushy," Sasuke noted with a bit of contempt. Sakura took note of his willingness to state his mind. Kakashi sighed and she couldn't tell who it was directed towards; he was elusive like that. "He's just doing what he has to do. Come on guys...let's get moving. " he ordered casually, and 'I wonder if he'll fail his team in this timeline too' was a brief thought that crossed her mind before she pushed it out. What happens happens.

Slowly but surely, to make up for the small glitch in the timeline, Fate set up many different meetings with the bandits they were told they were going to deal with before the mission started, which they never actually got to last time.

'Interesting.'

"Was that the last of them?" Sasuke asked sarcastically, seeing how Kakashi was panting from exasperation after getting rid of the newer ambush. By himself. But Sakura knew better; she could see his chakra decline clearly.

"It better have been. Sorry...guys..." he teetered dangerously, and unceremoniously pooped face first onto the ground.

'That looks much worse than it did last time. Did he break his nose?'

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto screamed in his shock. Sasuke looked visibly frightened at the sight of their strongest player being defeated and Sakura put on a brace face, but made sure to show internal grief in her eyes as she steadied Kakashi on her shoulders, a silent request for one of the boys to grab his legs.

"Sakura, you're too weak to carry him. Guard the client." Sasuke stated bluntly, looking her in the eyes before promptly taking the reins from her. She couldn't hide the genuine shock in her eyes at this admission, even though she's been silently conditioning herself for the blow.

She looked him straight in the eye for a few seconds, feeling Naruto's chakra fluctuate awkwardly and uncomfortably on the sidelines as they prepared to lug their teacher away.

"I see...good luck with that weight, by the way. Naruto, may you grab his legs?" She said, politely putting off Sasuke as Naruto lunged at the opportunity to escape the awkwardness. Even so, the tense silence continued as they trekked off to Tsunami's house, Sakura spinning a kunai on her index finger and wondering just how much longer this underestimation will go on for before she snaps, and Sasuke brooding.

They soon reached the house, and they laid Kakashi in a guest room. The boys left to go and eat, another competition most like, and the pinkette stayed behind to tend to Kakashi. She was itching to lay a diagnostic Jutsu, but she has taken extreme measures to make it this far. Sakura won't screw up now.

So she complied, placed a simple wet towelette on his forehead, and waited out the storm. She watched his prone form sadly and tuned out the screams and shouts from the lower floor and tried to keep her thoughts off her teacher.

Soon light padding of feet on the old tatami mat was heard, and Sakura let her sharp green eyes peek out to a see a head of raven hair crouching over their teacher. She stared at him silently for awhile, as he kneeled there, assessing their teacher's face as he placed a new wet towelette on his head, discarding the old one with a small 'tch.' And this time, she couldn't really blame him.

She let her toes crinkle inward as she heard much louder, and quicker padding from the door. Sasuke immediately stopped what he was doing and unceremoniously plopped the wet towelette on his teacher's forehead, resulting in a small grunt from his part.

Naruto burst through the door and immediately began yelling at Sasuke, showing no care for the 'sleeping' body of Sakura and the sick form of his instructor. After the bickering got too much for the pinkette to listen to, she reluctantly got up from her warm spot, silently padding over to her sensei and repositioned the wet towelette, sending Sasuke a meaningful look as they both stopped to see her.

"Thank you, I was inattentive, Sasuke-kun."

"Hn. Pay attention."

"Sakura-Chan! You're awake! Agh! Look, Kakashi-Sensei!"

Sure enough, Sakura felt a slight rustling underneath her fingertips and watched as Kakashi pulled himself up silently and held onto his forehead to keep the towel in place.

"You're so so loud, Naruto.."

"S-sorry."

"Are you feeling okay, Kakashi-sensei?"

She took the towel from his hands and scurried of to the corner of the room to twist the towel and force the water out before plopping it on the rim of the bucket. She dried her hands on the sides of her spandex shorts as she walked back towards the group.

"Zabuza' partner and he got away. Though in a moment of desperation he had to weaken Zabuza with a senbon to a pressure point in the neck; he'll be out for a week. "

'Funny how things work out.'

'Wonder when my luck will run out.'

Sasuke and Naruto looked generally surprised. "Ah, I thought he turned on his friend," Naruto said, scratching his cheek. "Hn. So we have a week to prepare," Sasuke responded, looking generally excited at the concept of fighting them again.

'This team will always attract danger.'

"What should we do? You're out of commission, sensei, so should one of us take over training?" Sakura put in her respective five cents. She earned a few sideways glances from her team but otherwise her comment was considered.

"I've got it," Kakashi announces suddenly. "I'm going to teach you one thing; then Sasuke will take over with your training. Can you handle that, Sasuke?" The boy in question nodded quickly.

They went through their plans for the week, and soon Kakashi and Naruto were downstairs enjoying their dinner. Or for Naruto, second dinner. Sakura and Sasuke stayed behind, the former folding the futon Kakashi slept in and rearing all the others when they go to sleep while the latter was sharpening kunai. The pinkette sent the boy a sneaky glance, and sighed quietly. She was too good of a person to not do this now. Plus, the incessant scraping was not only grating the kunai, but also her nerves.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Hmm?"

"I just wanted to apologize if I made you angry in any way; though it probably wasn't my fault, I still feel obliged to do this."

"Hn. You're saying it's my fault."

"Was there an issue?"

'Clearly.'

"No."

"You sound defensive." She muttered quietly to herself.

"You're annoying me. Shut up."

She snorted at that. "Okaaaay.." she said sarcastically, and walked out the room, spirits lifted a little higher.

Tomorrow will be a busy day.

{ involuntary help }

END OF CHAPTER 5

{ involuntary help }

I spent all day writing this in small bursts. I went on a road trip so I had the entire day free, except for the occasional lecture (we went to a conference).

Hope you enjoyed! Leave a like, leave a comment, leave a pumpkin in celebration of SpoopyTime, or just leave. Actually, forget the pumpkin. I don't celebrate Halloween anyway.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes, remember I will be taking a few ideas I got from reading other fanfictions and putting them in this fic so credit goes to them okay?

By the way, my interim for school will be coming out sooner or later. Wish me luck, I haven't been studying.

Have a nice rest of your day! Or night.

Happy SpoopyTime!