Alien-Planet; my friend! my love! my long reviewer oh my god I love you hello! So! I can't reveal much because you were right about it being mega spoilers for the future and the weirdness I'm working into Sakura. I can tell you for sure she won't be doing any fuinnjutsu. As for a weapon, I haven't considered that angel actually. I don't know what I would give her! A war hammer maybe? Or a whip? Any ideas? As for romance, I don't have anything planned yet. Naruto and Lee have crushes on her for sure, but I haven't settled on anyone for her to like, end up with. The dream was supposed to be confusing, it'll all make sense in time! I'm not sure what'll happen with Sakura's poor parents, but I do feel bad for them. Very bad! I also... really like that fanboy and girl idea. A LOT.

littleditto: Thank you! We'll see, huh?

Sazaleli: but i caaaaaan't. I have to be consistent with my own plot and weakness. Goddamn it.

Amulet Sugar: That scene was actually one I've had in my head for a long time, so it really means a lot to me that it was impactful for you. I wanted to try and show Sabella's character a little more and I hope that's what I've done. Isn't Lee fucking cute?! I love that boy!

Angelsailor: That's actually a game I played with all the neighbor kids when it was too dark to play kick ball anymore!

The first time that Sabella met Neji she was… less than impressed. He seemed like a douche canoe, which she told Lee straight to his face.

She was honestly surprised that, with all her trips to the Hyuuga estate over the past year or so, that she hadn't bumped into him at least once before. Then again, considering his current uncle issues, she wasn't that surprised he would stay away as much as he could, and she had only really started to frequent the place after he'd graduated and had somewhere else he could reasonably be.

Their first meeting consisted of him showing up with Might Gai's arm locked around his upper arm to a game she had put together with her other friends and offered to let Lee invite his team too. They all showed up, though Gai disappeared to she-didn't-know-where, probably to play fight Kakashi or something.

Their first meeting was of him telling her games were a waste of time and their second meeting, not counting when he took a snack from her begrudgingly, was when she smashed him into a tree and told him bluntly that he was a ghost now.

Hinata, of all people, had won the game in the end.

When Sakura went to see Lee and his team a few weeks later, her wrists and ankles heavy from Lee's birthday present to her, they were in the middle of a spar. Lee and Neji were going at it in a vacious back and forth that actually made her wince in sympathy.

Sabella sat herself in the grass at Gai's feet, waiting patiently to pick Lee up and take him away.

Then, Neji's face snapped towards her. Lee's fist connected hard with his cheek, but he was away a second later, realizing that it had been a dirty strike. Sabella wasn't known for fighting fair, but Lee believed in it.

Neji picked himself up from the ground, glared at Lee, then levelled that same narrow eyed stare at Sabella. She sat straighter, lifting her chin in challenge as he stalked closer to where she sat. She didn't stand though. She didn't feel like it.

"Can I help you?" she leaned back on her hands to look up at him.

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded. The veins around his eyes were bulged grotesquely. Hinata's did the same thing when she used her Byakugan.

"Excuse me? Rude!" she glared right back at him.

"Why do you have that much chakra?" he switched questions to one that was, while more specific, no more polite. And, to one she wasn't going to answer.

"...Ha? I can't use chakra," she told him blandly. She picked herself up, slowly brushing grass from her skirt. "Lee must have told you."

"He did. But you're lying. You can use chakra. His chakra coils are twisted beyond use. Yours are swollen with excess energy. Energy that-" here, he swallowed, his face growing pale, "it burning you from the inside. Why?"

Sabella made to hum before it cut off and her eyes got wide. She was right! Her theory from the beginning of this whole misadventure was true! Haha!

"So that's why!" she leapt to her feet. "When I tried to use chakra before, my skin exploded!" she said, delighted by this new discovery. She clapped her hands together. "Whoo! I mean, that's kinda fucked up, but why needs chakra anyways, huh Lee?" she yelled over Neji's shoulder to her friend, who had gotten a haircut sometimes, and beamed at her.

"That isn't a good thing," Neji snapped at her. "If you don't do anything about it, it could tear your body apart."

Sabella's smile slid off of her, falling apart like wet bread. Her excitement vanished and her stomach plummeted. Tear her body apart? No. No, she was just starting here, she was just starting to live again. She couldn't-

She couldn't die.

"It'll be fine," Gai slapped her back, smiling down at her a few watts short of his normal one. Gentling it, for her. "You'll work something out, don't worry."

"I- yeah," she nodded, slowly, turning this information around in her head. She still had a couple of questions left though. "Yeah," she said again. She grabbed her bag off the ground and swung it around her shoulders. That feeling of her body itching, the sensation of not fitting in her skin just right was back. Only now she could feel something else.

Something hot and dangerous licking from inside her veins.

"I gotta go," she said abruptly. "I'll see y'all later!" she waved to Lee and ran off, a rabbit hearted girl running through the village until she was stumbling into Naruto's apartment, her gifted key shaking in her fingers.

Naruto, for all he was brash and loud and had no manners what so ever, had absolutely no qualms with hugging her when she threw herself into his arms without warning. An old fear clawed at her throat, trying to choke her.

She wasn't ready to die.

She had to find a way out of this.

Naruto did not like to sit still, this was a known fact. The boy had more energy than a power plant, literally and figuratively, and it manifested in constant fidgeting and running around.

Sabella had discovered very quickly that the best way to keep him still was, simply, to hug him.

It was cute, how quick he settled down as soon as she wrapped her arms around him and dragged him into her lap. She wouldn't be able to do it forever, once he actually hit his growth spurts. Girls got taller faster, but she knew that Sakura was going to be incredibly short later on.

But for now, he was content to sit there with her, chatting up a storm while Iruka read off their team assignments. He was noticeably more stiff today than he had been the day before.

Sabella didn't really understand what was happening, in the sense of none of it made sense.

The day before everyone else had taken the test, as they were meant to, and passed. Except for her. Because she was a 'special circumstance' she had been given a written and physical test, with no chakra involved. Lee had, thankfully, turned out to be a wonderful addition to the ranks and paved the way for her and other people who couldn't use chakra to have the opportunity to follow their dreams of being ninja.

Naruto had taken the same test as everyone other than her, and passed. Like a regular person.

"I don't know how you did it," she said, propping her chin on his shoulder, "But I'm glad you did."

Naruto smiled broadly at her. "I'm just that awesome."

"Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke!"

Sakura peered at him. "Sasuke wasn't talking to us." They had gotten into plenty of trouble over the last couple of years for chatting in class.

"No, I mean that's your team!" Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose. Sakura could imagine he was thankful to finally be getting rid of the pair of them.

"Oh," she said.

"No!" Naruto wailed. Sabella patted his head like he was a whining puppy.

"Oh hush. It won't be that bad. Maybe we can get him to play with us," she comforted.

"But he's so lame," Naruto slumped back against her.

Sasuke scoffed. "I'm not the one that failed every class we have."

Sabella looked at Ino, who was pouting deeply. "Please, send help."

"I'd trade you if I could! I'm stuck with these two lazy bums," she jerked her thumb towards Shikamaru and Choji, who didn't seem at all upset by this turn of events. Sabella didn't know why Ino was so surprised, the Ino-Shika-Cho was famous and well rehearsed, of course they would go for another generation.

"You'll be fine," Sabella reached over to pat her hand. "Just be nice, okay love?"

Ino huffed and nodded along. "Yeah, yeah. Good luck with them."

"We'll be fine too, just watch," Sabella tossed her a thumbs up, grinning at her.

Ino reached over suddenly, yanking Sakura into a hard hug that crushed most of the air out of her lungs. Startled, she was still happy to hug back.

"We won't see each other as much anymore," Ino said to her hair. "So- so make sure you come over for dinner on saturday, okay?"

Oh. Ino didn't want them to drift apart.

Sabella hugged her back tight. "I will," she vowed. "Now go meet your teacher. Kakashi isn't here yet, I don't think."

Ino finally let her go and left, walking a few steps ahead of the boys. Hinata, who was sitting in front of her and Naruto next to Kiba and Akamaru, and interestingly enough Shino,turned around to smile and wave at Sakura before she and the other two departed.

Sabella had asked, the next time she saw Hinata, why she had never told her what was wrong with her chakra. Hinata had confessed that she thought Sakura had known. They should have checked it at the hospital.

So, why hadn't they?

Why hadn't anyone told her that her chakra could kill her?

"Hey, hey, Sakura?" Naruto poked her cheek. She turned and bit his finger. "Ow!"

"What's up?" she muffled a laugh at the look on his face.

"I'm bored," he said, slumping against her. Sasuke made a disgusted sound. Sakura ignored him to pet Naruto's fluffy hair. He was so cute.

Sasuke was cute too, in a sad orphan boy sort of way. Sabella wanted to wrap him up in a snuggie and sit him in front of a tv with some hot chocolate and tell him everything would be okay.

At the exact same time she wanted to smack him silly for being a dick.

She, too, had lost everything she had and she wasn't moping or telling other people they were worthless.

Different people grieve differently, she reminded herself.

"Sorry doll, I don't know what to tell you. I can tell you more about Bilbo Baggin's if you want?"

Naruto shook his head and hopped out of her lap to go put an eraser on top of the cracked door. Sabella watched him with unhidden amusement. She tapped her pencil lightly on the table and paused with an idea.

"So, Kakashi-sensei, are you just going to watch us the whole day?" she asked abruptly.

Naruto and Sasuke both stared at her like she was crazy. Sabella almost screamed when the air was displaced next to her shoulder. Naruto did it for her. As it was she managed to just tense her muscles and look up at him with wide eyes. There was a knife in her hand.

"You... move fast," she said at length.

Kakashi stared down at her. Slowly, she put the knife away and tried to calm her racing heart. Goddamn sonuvabitch!

"Whoa!" Naruto shouted, "How'd you know he was there?"

Sabella smiled sheepishly at Kakashi.

"I guessed?"

Kakashi, to his credit, didn't roll his eyes at their antics. He didn't look very impressed though. He had to know that Sabella was full of shit, he had only popped up to scare the shit out of them. She was sure of it. What an ass hole.

Sabella smiled brilliantly up at him. This was going to be fun.

"Alright," Kakashi leaned against the desk she was sitting on. Sabella leaned back against Naruto when he came to stand next to her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders obediently. He knew how she liked to cuddle.

"Let's get started. You," he pointed to Sabella. "Tell me your name, your dream, mah, Likes and dislikes."

Sabella startled. "Um. I'm Sakura. er, Haruno," she hoped that didn't sound like a lie. "I don't think I have a dream. I like playing with my friends, and I dislike sleeping in hammocks, and Neji Hyuuga."

Kakashi didn't say much to that. He moved onto the blond.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! The Next Hokage! I like Ramen, and hanging out with Sakura and Ghosts in the Graveyard, and I hate stuck up assholes!"

"You're a loud one," Kakashi observed. His dark eye went to Sasuke, "You next."

Sasuke, still at his desk, steepled his fingers. "I'm Sasuke Uchihga. I don't have likes or dislikes. My only dream is... to kill a certain man."

Sabella stared hard at him. Leaned closer.

"You're going to need so much help. Hey, you should be friends with me and Naruto."

Sasuke squinted at her. "Hell no."

"This will be fun," Kakashi declared.