Konoha was in ruins. The streets had been blasted to rubble, and the buildings were burning. The air was scorching; it hurt to breathe. She felt her lungs dying from the soot and heat she inhaled. Yet inhale she did, pulling in breath after breath. Her body ached, she could feel her blood on her skin. It felt so wrong. Still, she pushed herself forward, step after step, running on and on for what seemed like an eternity. She wanted so badly to stop, to give up. She hurt so badly. She just wanted to it to stop. She knew all she had to do was to stop running, and she would be free of the pain. The flames were licking at her back, burning her. If she stopped, they'd destroy her in moments.

She was still needed, though, so she ran on. If she could get there in time it would be okay. Of that she was certain.

With a flash of glee she veered to the side, down the alleyway - her goal. It looked so familiar. Why?

She stopped, a scream tearing from her lips. She had been too late. She watched as the dead man struck Naruto's head from his neck. Little Naruto, only a boy. The man she only knew as the Retired Genin grinned at her as Naruto's body slumped to the ground.

"Sakura."

She knew that voice! It was the Kami. She could fix this. Give her another chance.

Sakura whirled to face to speaker, and found herself staring at the face of Kaguya.

"No-" Sakura started, but was cut off by the woman's hand plunging into her chest. She felt that hand wrap itself around her heart, and pull. Everything went black, except for the words 'Game Over' that flashed into her vision.

"Sakura!"

Someone was screaming. Her throat hurt.

Someone was next to her, shaking her.

'Danger.'

She lashed out at her attacker as hard as she could, pushing herself up from her lying position, her eyes flying open. She heard Naruto cry out in pain.

'Naruto?'

Power Strike has gained a level.

-2498 Faction lost with Uzumaki Naruto

No one was screaming anymore. She was breathing heavily, and fast. Naruto was on the floor, looking up at her with tear filled eyes, his expression confused, and wary. His right cheek was reddening.

She had hit him.

"Oh, Naruto! I am so sorry," she choked out, sobbing, as she pushed herself out of bed. "I'm so sorry. So, so sorry." The words rushed out of her mouth as she pushed herself to her knees in front of the fallen boy.

The wary look was gone from his face.

"Its okay, Sakura-nee," he spoke, his voice soft.

She raised her hand to hover over his cheek before coating it in healing green chakra.

"What's that, Nee-chan?" Naruto questioned incredulously as the chakra soothed his pain.

"Medic ninjutsu. At least thats what the people at the hospital called it. I've been able to do it for as long as I can remember," she lied. She wondered if he would remember her bloody fists from a few days prior, but if he did he didn't mention it.

"Cool!"

"There," she said as she moved her hand away from Naruto's healed skin. "All better. Forgive me?"

"Of course. It was an accident."

The lost faction was not returned, however, though she waited. Her eyes began to sting, and so she forced herself to smile.

"I'll go make breakfast." And with that she stood, and hurried from the room, leaving her former best friend - now just a friend - behind.

'This feels wrong.' She told herself as she stood outside the academy in the crowd, listening to the Hokage speak words she had heard once before. She looked around at all the familiar faces.

'Deja vu,' She thought with a shiver. Perhaps it was the dream, but this all seemed so wrong to her. Her eyes found Ino in the crowd. Their eyes met for a second, but the blonde's gaze moved on. She hadn't noticed Sakura as all. She was just a nobody to her. She was just a nobody to everyone here.

It hurt.

'They're all gone.' She squeezed her eyes shut, letting her head hang. The long bangs she had taken to wearing pushed to the sides of her face fell forward to cover her forehead, shading her face.

A warm hand grabbed her own.

'Naruto.' But he wasn't her Naruto. What was she going to do?

'Make them proud.'

She lifted her head, and opened her eyes, turning to look at the blonde beside her.

'I am here to make this right. To make everything right. I'll make them who they always wanted to be. I'll be who I always wanted to be. Don't be so pathetic!'

A smile made its way to her lips at her self admonishment.

"You ready, Naruto-kun?"

He grinned at her, and nodded.

"Congratulations! You are now all Academy Students. Good luck!" The Hokage spoke, setting off a text box from the game.

Tutorial Complete!

Title Gained : Academy Students

Daily Quest Unlocked

Faction Quests Unlocked

Dungeons Unlocked

Kami Shop Unlocked

Map Unlocked

The game difficulty has been increased to Normal.

At the top right of her vision a small semi transparent map appeared, showing her location and her nearby settings. It didn't show much, though.

'Map.'

At her thought the map grew to take up her entire vision. The game freezing as it did so. Most of the map was semi uncovered, but outside of the bounds of the village everything was covered in a grey fog. The places in the village she had visited since her reincarnation had no fog, and had name tags over places. The rest of the village was covered in a semi opaque fog. She could see the features, but nothing was titled.

One spot of the map caught her attention.

? Dungeon

It was located at her house. 'How convenient.'

'Close Map.'

To the right of her vision, halfway between the map and bottom, was a check list.

Daily Quest

Complete at least five of the following :

Train Ability for One Hour (limit of three)

Train Underneath Mentor for One Hour (limit of three)

Mentor Someone for One Hour (limit of three)

Attend School

Complete All School Work

Complete Quest for Faction (limit of ten)

Complete Dungeon Quest (limit of ten)

Defeat Dungeon (limit of three)

'Interesting. I wonder what the reward is.' However, no message came up to inform her. 'I guess I'll find out.'

"Come on, Sakura-chan!" Naruto spoke, dragging her towards the now open door of the school. She followed, hand in hand, as they were lead to their classroom by a chunnin. Naruto found them an empty row, and they both took a seat; Sakura in the middle, and Naruto at her right. She looked around at the other students milling about to find seats, and spotted Sasuke near the back of the room. Their eyes made contact, and she waved him over. His chin went up, and he continued to peer around for an open seat. She presumed one where he wouldn't have to sit near someone at akk, as he eventually made his way over to the seat next to her. Perhaps he had been trying to play it cool? That seemed to fit.

"Hey Sasuke-kun!" she greeted the dark haired boy as he took his seat. "Its good to see you again," she added, cheerfully.

"Yeah, good to see yah," Naruto said right after her.

The teacher spoke before Sasuke could get a word in, so the Uchiha chose to simply nod in reply.

It was good enough for her.

The teacher introduced himself, then passed out syllables, and then, since most couldn't read, went over it aloud for them. It was very dull. Afterwards they started on learning to read and write. That too was very dull. Sakura was having to recite medical facts to keep herself from falling asleep. It seemed like forever and a day until they were released for lunch. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura all ate their bentos together.

"Oh, you brought rice balls too, Sasuke-kun? Who made them?" Sakura asked, attempting to make small talk with the quiet boy before they started eating.

"My mother made them for me. She makes the best rice balls!" he answered, smiling as he spoke about his mom.

"Nuh-uh, Nee-chan makes the best!" Naruto argued.

"Why don't we test it?" Sakura suggested before the obviously annoyed Sasuke could reply. "You both give me a rice ball. I'll cut each into half, then you can try both, and tell me which one is best. Only I'll know which is which, so it'll be fair. Deal?"

Both boys agreed, and soon they were munching at the rice. The decision was unanimous : both boys liked hers, but Mikoto's were clearly superior.

Naruto sputtered when he found out the conclusion. "No way! I must've said the wrong one. I liked the one with the fish."

"That was Sasuke's mother's," Sakura said, with a small giggle. "There is no shame in being beat by someone older than me. I still want to get better though! I'll just have to practice until I'm as good as her."

"I wanna learn too," Sasuke said. "Hey, maybe my mom can teach us! I'll ask if you guys can come over when she comes to pick me up after class. Do you guys have to ask your parents? Are they coming to school too?"

"Uh," Naruto started, shooting Sakura a wary look. He'd never seen anyone ask about her parents before.

Sakura let out a nervous laugh, and shook her head. "Ah, no. We're orphans. My parents were killed on missions recently. Naruto's parents, um," she trailed off, looking over at Naruto. She wasn't supposed to know anything about his parents.

"I never met them," Naruto finished. "I don't know anything about them."

"Oh." Sasuke said, then was quiet for a moment as he processed the information. "Well, anyways, if you guys want I'll asked. Maybe my Nii-san will be home, and will train with us. He is a high ranking ninja, you know. He's very strong."

"Oh? Tell us about him?" Sakura asked, and so Sasuke did. He talked, and talked; he spoke right up until the teacher asked them to quiet down. Sakura was sure he wouldn't have eaten his food at all if she hadn't reminded him to – he took to Sakura's gentle chiding easily as he was used to following a woman's orders already.

After lunch they started on math. Simple stuff. The teacher went over some concepts, then handed out worksheets, and told them to raise their hand if they had a question. They started to fill them out, but soon the boys came across something they did not understand, and raised their hands. The teacher went from person to person who had their hands up, and helped them. He stopped by Sasuke, then carried on to someone on the other side of the room, ignoring Naruto altogether. Sakura leaned over to see what Naruto as stuck on, and to offer help. Before she could get more than a few words out the teacher said, "No talking."

After Naruto was passed over again he put his hands down, and did what he could.

Sakura was furious. After class ended, and the trio started to head out, Sakura spoke. "I forgot that I had to do something. Why don't you go with him, Naruto? You two can have fun while I take care of the boring stuff. You wouldn't be able to come with me anyways. If his parents say you can't come over then just wait outside the Hokage's office for me, okay?" And before Naruto could protest she dashed away from the two, making her way to the Hokage's office. She made a brief stop at the secretary's office before she was sent in.

"Sakura-chan? How can I help you?" the elderly shinobi asked as he set aside his paperwork.

"The teacher won't help Naruto! He told us to raise our hand if we had questions, but purposely ignored Naruto. He passed by him twice! I know he saw him. When I tried to help him he wouldn't let me talk." Sakura said, her words coming out in a rush. She sniffled at the end, fighting to hold in tears. "You should fire him. He is a bad teacher."

The Hokage sighed, and steepled his fingers in front of his face. "Do you think that another teacher would be better to Naruto?" he asked after a moment.

Sakura too took a few minutes to find her answer. "No. No one is kind to Naruto. Why is that, Hokage-sama?"

Again the man sighed. "It is not something I can speak of. The village, they, well, they are judging Naruto on something that concerns him that he has no control of. It isn't something he did, mind you, but they blame him anyways."

"So, you can't fix this?"

Another sigh. "I'm afraid not. Not really. I will speak to this teacher of yours, though, about you. I'll make it clear that I don't want the two of you separated. Though, you know this might affect you badly as well, don't you?"

Sakura nodded. "You could tell him that I'm to keep an eye on Naruto. That, maybe, I'm there to keep him from upsetting the other students, and that he is not to interfere as long as we are not bothering the class. I, well, I don't mean to brag, but I am good at the school stuff. I can just study a bit harder, and then I can help Naruto-kun. If the teacher doesn't like him, then maybe he will be happy that he won't have to deal with him, and leave us alone."

The Hokage silently considered her words, then nodded. "That seems wise to me," he spoke, then a small smile made its way onto his face. "You really care about Naruto, don't you?"

"I-" she started, "I do. Sometimes he is a bit too hyper, but he is more kind than anyone I have met before. I really feel lucky to have met him."

"Good, I am glad."

He made some more small talk: asking how the two were doing, how their budget was going, and other topics like that. Soon they were say their goodbyes, and Sakura left the office. A popup message informed her that she had earned Faction with the Hokage. Naruto was not waiting outside for her. She knew that he would be watched, and so he was safe. She couldn't help but to feel a bit worried anyways. She contemplated trying to find him, but figured it would be wise to use her free time to get something productive done. She had attended school, and, as they had not been assigned any homework, gotten all her school work done, and so had two of the five requirements for her daily quest complete. Still, two requirements in about seven hours was pretty bad. She figured that she would be able to get a lot more done on school days, which, she thought, might give her a better reward as the quest said at least, and not only, which meant she could possibly overachieve the quest, and get a better reward. She hoped that was how it worked, anyways.

With her mind made up the pink haired Academy Student made her way home, intent on finding the dungeon. She considered it lucky that she had decided to bring her bag to her room, instead of leaving it downstairs or else it would have taken her much longer to find the entrance to the dungeon.

Still, she was bewildered to find that the dungeon was somehow inside her closet. At least that was how it seemed with the Leveler's Tower : Dungeon sign hovering in front of her door.

'Here goes nothing.' she thought as she reached out to open the door.

Access Dungeon?

'No?' she thought before opening the door to see her closet still very much intact. She closed the door, then went to open it again.

Access Dungeon?

'Yes.' she thought, then opened the door. Her closet was no longer there. What was there, however, looked like a swirling nexus of colors. A horizontal whirlpool of light.

'Save slot three.'

Game Saved

And with that she stepped into the light.

Haruno Sakura

Academy Student

Age - Five (17)

Level - 4

Xp - 359/1,000

Health - 70/70

Chakra - 53/53

Mind – 20 (49)

Body – 23 (55)

Spirit - 15 (26)

Group Factions

Konoha Civilians : Unfriendly : -4962/20,000

Konoha Ninja : Unfriendly : -4810/20,000

Uchiha Clan : Neutral : 962/20,000

Solo Factions

Uzumaki Naruto : Friends / Trusted: 48,062 /100,000

Sarutobi Hiruzen : Friendly : 29,596/100,000

Hatake Kakashi : Positive / Curious : 9,844/100,000

Uchiha Itachi : Positive / Curious : 8,209/100,000

Uchiha Sasuke : Postive / Curious : 5,840/100,000

Uchiha Shisui : Friendly / Curious : 14,194/100,000