Sakura absentmindedly gummed on the plush kitty toy someone had bought for her, snuggling it to her chest. She had ripped the last rabbit one to pieces before throwing it across the room. Her parents had seemingly swiftly picked up on her aversion to all things rabbit. She liked cats. Cats were affiliated with the Uchiha.

Sometimes she even dreamed of getting cat summons. Big cats with teeth sharp enough to rip adults to pieces. Pretty and deadly. Katsuyu had been a wonderful summon, but she hadn't been enough. Maybe she could have multiple summons this time around? Sasuke had at least two contracts. Humming as best she could with her disused vocal chords, she mulled the idea over. It would likely depend on her compatibility.

Maybe she should reverse summon herself to her most suited realm? Nodding to herself, Sakura decided that would be best – but like with most things she was plotting, it would have to wait until she got a bit bigger. Until she didn't have the chakra reserves on a one-legged kitten.

Until she could rip Kaguya to pieces. That so-called goddess wouldn't survive her if she ever showed her ugly mug around her. Punches hadn't been enough the last time around. She hoped she would awaken the sharingan eventually. The higher evolutions would be useful… She swallowed. But unlikely for her to obtain.

A snort escaped her. The next thing she knew, and she'd be trying to obtain the Rinnegan like old man Madara—

Sakura froze. Oh. She was actually kind of related to him now, wasn't she? Giggles reached her ears, and Sakura took a moment to realise they came from her. She was laughing, albeit hysterically, at that realisation.

"Sakura-chan?" the calm voice of her mother rang out through the room, and she paused in her laughter to peer up at the pretty black-haired lady. She hoped she'd grow up to be just as pretty.

Dimly, Sakura wondered if it was time to play. Her parents made sure to let her enjoy lots of tummy time. She was probably due to start crawling soon. Clan children always developed faster than civilians thanks to the increased amounts of chakra compared to civilians. Her tiny little body was the result of years of bloodline marriages designed to result in good shinobi, and she was going to make full use of it – along with her knowledge from her last life.

The creak of the door interrupted her musings, and Sakura looked up as best she could, pulling herself to a seated position. Advanced clan baby skills lesson one. Sakura snorted. She missed Kakashi-sensei.

She missed everybody.

They had left her behind…

Gone off to the Pure Lands without her…

Sakura doubted she would ever find them again. She was in a different dimension and had seemingly transcended the limits of Team Seven weirdness. A soft sigh escaped her, even as her beady little black eyes – yes, she'd checked in the mirror, and the verdant of her old life was gone, replaced by the Uchiha black – fixed on the even smaller figure edging into the room.

Her heart stuttered in her chest at the sight of short, spiky, inky black locks. It couldn't be… "Now, Sasuke," her mother continued, ignorant to her internal panic as she stared at a miniaturised Uchiha Sasuke. "I know you've been looking forwards to meeting your sister, but make sure you hold her correctly, just as I told you, understand?"

"M'kay," Sasuke said, voice far more high-pitched than she last remembered. "Can I hold her now?"

"Sit down," Mikoto ordered, and then Sakura found herself being scooped out of her crib. "You ready, Sasuke?"

"Un!" Sasuke smiled up at her so eagerly Sakura couldn't help but coo – though it came out as more of a gurgle as she was passed down into the tiny arms of a toddler. But it was still Sasuke. She blinked up at him, tiny hands clawing at his shirt as her black eyes stared up into his big, matching ones. Kaguya hadn't gotten to this Sasuke yet. He was safe… innocent. Sakura giggled. And he was all hers. Now she only needed to ensure he never left her again. She wouldn't survive it. "Hi, Sakura!" he chirped, voice bright and cheery. She didn't remember him sounding like that before. "I'm your second biggest brother, though kaa-chan says you don't remember seeing me before 'coz you're so small." The world shifted as Sasuke adjusted his hold on her, another set of hands reaching out to steady her, and Sakura blinked as she stared up into the pretty face of who had to be her eldest brother. "This is Itachi-nii, and he's the bestest nii-san in the whole world. Understand?" Sasuke continued seriously, and Sakura cooed at him. So adorable. So innocent. So pure. Sakura wanted to wrap him in cotton wool because he was hers – hers to protect – but movement from her other side had her attention turning onto her other brother. Her older brother.

Itachi.

The infamous kin slayer who Sasuke had eventually killed.

She had seen the reports Tsunade had found after digging through all of Danzo's old files. She knew the truth about who Uchiha Itachi really was, though she had never properly met the man. But he wasn't a man just then. He was a boy. The same boy who was staring down at her with adoration and love in his eyes.

He was hers, just like Sasuke.

Sakura gurgled, a happy smile pulling at her lips as she stared up at her brothers. A giggle escaped her. She'd never had brothers before – and that was something she was looking forwards to. Her family was going to be bigger that time around.

And she would never let Kaguya touch any of them.

They were hers, and she would cling to them until the ends of the earth. She wasn't going to be the weak link that time around. She would protect them all.

Her fingers curled in a shirt each, only loosening when larger hands moved to take her miniature ones in their own. She gurgled happily, wishing she could talk. Wishing she could tell them they would be fine under her watch. The only one allowed to hurt them was her, and that was only because she knew how to heal their injuries. No one else would touch them.

Especially not Kaguya.

Eyes closed all of a sudden, exhaustion taking its toll, her higher mental faculties placing a strain on her body, forcing her to sleep before the stars even came out to play.

He stared up at the sky, watching the moon high in the sky above. It was beautiful, and he likely would have kept thinking that way had he not learnt the truth about it. About why it had been created and what it kept from the earth below.

The mark on his shoulder burnt, the inky black lines of the seal stretching there making him wince. It's power wasn't natural – or should he say the power wasn't natural to him. It clashed with the chakra humming through his pathways, but it kept him there. Kept replenishing his tired cells, anchoring him to the earth itself, because that was what the earth needed.

It was why he was still there. Why they were all still there – watching and waiting as time moved on without them. His gaze turned south, where he knew the village was, snow crunching under his boots as he shifted his feet in the heavy snow. It was everywhere he looked, lining the ground, covering the trees above, and silently he missed the plains of Suna. At least there it wasn't horribly cold and wet.

Not that anyone else seemed to mind it.

"Something on your mind, nii-san?" his brother inquired, feet crunching the snow underneath them as he moved to join him there, staring at the starlight from a short ways away from their mountainside cottage. Their place of solitude in a mad mad world which they hadn't quite worked out how to fix.

Sighing, he watched as his breath misted in the air. "Do you think we'll ever manage it? A world without war and conflict?"

He shrugged, long slightly less spiky hair fluttering out in the wind behind them, the red ribbon – a present from his best friend's brat – catching in the scant moonlight as his little brother turned to face him. "Don't ask me," he said oh-so-helpfully. "You and that idiot are the ones chasing this. Me and the snowman were just dragged along for the ride."

"All we can do is try," said snowman spoke up – having materialised behind them fast enough to make them both jump in surprise.

"Dammit, stop doing that!" his brother snarled, waving a kunai in his face. "One of these days we'll stab you, no matter how much wailing the oaf inside will subject us to."

"You should head back in soon," he continued, heedless of his brother's cries and threats in the background. "It'll be getting colder. There might even be a blizzard hitting soon, and you'll need shelter for that no matter how good you are at wrapping yourself in warm chakra."

He waved a hand then. "Fine. I'm coming."

There was a beat of silence, before the little shit that was his brother chimed, "That's what she said."

Flat black eyes locked on the matching ones. "If there was a koi pond, you would be in it… as it is…" he trailed off, grabbing the lump of snow closest to him, lobbing it right into his brother's face with the unerring accuracy they all had. Though admittedly he was better at throwing smaller, metal objects.

All of them were.

Just another part of shinobi life – not that their lives were anything close to the norm even for all the craziness that was just simply being a shinobi.

Sakura stared listlessly at the moon, hatred clawing in her belly. She wanted to grow big enough to walk around – big enough to practice throwing shuriken and kunai. She needed to get those skills nailed down. They were a shinobi's bread and butter, and she had failed to realise that in her previous life.

She was getting a reset. A reboot. If only with a slightly different start point… and she was going to make the most of that.

Yet another gurgle escaped her, and Sakura turned in her crib, blinking at the sight of Sasuke's face with which she was met. His hand slipped into the crib, clutching at her own for a few minutes, delight and adoration written on his face – the kind children always had when they received something shiny and new.

"Sasuke!" their mother called softly, sticking her head into the nursery. "There you are… come on. It's time for bed."

"But I wanna stay with Sakura!"

Mikoto sighed, a soft smile on her lips. "She'll be there in the morning, sweetie, and she wakes up a lot in the night. You need your beauty sleep," she said sternly, ruffling his hair in the next second. "You're going to be a brilliant brother – one who gets enough sleep so he can play with his cute sister tomorrow."

"Un," Sasuke muttered, looking downcast.

Sakura squeezed his hand, giggling happily at him before he was herded out of the room. He was so different to the Sasuke she had loved and known.

It only made her love him all the more.