"One day, you'll be so strong!" Sakura stated excitedly, green eyes shining at the young child as she fought the tears building in her eyes. "Your friends will fight hard when they're older, but you, you've always fought just to be equal." The little girls eyes watered as she heard words she had always wished for, seeing the experience and heartache in the older woman's eyes and believing in the encouraging words. Hearing these words from herself, a self that had been through the struggle and had fought the same fight felt empowering.

Sakura pulled the child into a tight embrace, showing all the love and comfort she hadn't received at such a tender age and in a span of seconds the little girl grew into a young teenager. The teenager bore a beaten and tore form, one far too familiar to the Sakura. Sakura didn't stop though, the words pouring out of her. "You'll make yourself a place among the great," she declared knowingly. "You'll save lives! Your name will go down in history and it will all be because of you!" As Sakura spoke the words she knew them to be true because she had got to where she was with her own hands, she had encouraging people in her life but none of them had been her. Sakura had done all of this by herself and no one would take that away from her.

The teenager buried her face in the crook of Sakura's neck, hands tightening around the woman in an embrace that thanked her for the love. Sakura had become the teenager's life line in a world that seemed to want nothing more than to push her down. "Life is hard right now, and that'll never change. Like will always be hard, but it'll be harder for you. But you are strong, so strong. You'll lose a lot of people on this path of glory, but you'll gain so many too. You'll never forget those who helped you, but you'll repay their kindness by helping others. You're in a war that seems never ending, but you'll be one of the ones to help stop it. Out of this war you'll gain friends and family." And that is all she had ever wanted.

The fragile girl pulled back, two lines crossing on her forehead before pooling down, long black streaks dotting the girls form. "How do you know?" The girl begged, wanting the words Sakura had said to be true. But she wasn't ignorant enough to believe anything without so evidence, she had a great teacher and he had always taught her to know something from belief alone but form evidence, from your gut.

Sakura smiled and cupped the cheek of the girl, watching as the form slowly started to flicker. The teenager would be waking up into a world of war, the little girl had already awoken to a struggle of everyday life in an academy. "Because I've already lived that part of our life. I don't know how it ends but I know how it begins."