Naruto & Sakura: A Second Chance
By: Jho

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-San. If I owned it I would create massive alternate universes to spark even more interest. Naruto basketball, Naruto crossover with Bleach, Naruto High School. Damn they should seriously try it.
Chapter 1: Back to the Past

Italics indicates a person's thoughts, flashback, or action/s
Bold Italics refers to Kyuubi/Inner Sakura talking

Shannaro! Who the hell are you?!

"Ugh…", Sakura blinked tears out of her eyes as she stretched her arms out and gave a huge yawn. She looked over to her stand to check what time it was.

5:24 AM

'Damn, I need more sleep,' Sakura thought as she yawned again.

Hey you didn't answer me! Who are you?

"Who's there?" Sakura voiced out loudly.

I must still be dreaming.

You're not dreaming you dummy. Inner Sakura made her presence known and felt in Sakura's mind.

'Oh?' Sakura voiced mentally, curious at this latest state of affairs.

You're not Sakura. Bring Sakura back this moment!

'Feh, stop being so noisy in the morning, I need my beauty sleep.'

Shannaro! Stop messing with me and bring back Sakura!

'Ugh, I am Sakura you stupid mind.' Sakura glanced wearily at her alarm clock again to check the time.

5:27 AM

'Damn it' she sighed as Inner Sakura continued to rant. She pulled a pillow over her head hoping that it would help drain out Inner Sakura's noise. Dummy, I'm in your head. After a moment, Sakura tossed the pillow away as Inner Sakura continued to bother her.

On another side of town, Naruto was sleeping blissfully unaware of his teammate's unpleasant morning. He just happened to be thinking of the aforementioned girl in his sleep. Hugging his pillow tight to his body, a gentle, "Sakura-chan," escaped from his lips. If you looked closer you could notice drool falling down from the side of the blonde's mouth.

Beep, beep, beep…

Naruto's hand shot out with the quickness to quiet his alarm clock. Blinking his eyes wearily he checked the time.

7:49 AM

Aww, why did I have to wake up, that was such an awesome dream. Sakura-chan was doing THAT. Naruto took a moment to wipe some drool away. Damn that pervert-Sennin, it's his fault that I'm turning into a pervert!

With a sigh of resignation, Naruto picked himself out of bed and forced his body to obey him as he started to move to the bathroom. Once he was there he popped open his toothpaste, applied it to his toothbrush, and started to furiously scrub at his teeth. It wouldn't do for him to have bad breath around Sakura-chan after all. He took a glance at his mirror. He continued to brush his teeth. Then he looked back at his mirror. And he looked. And he looked again.

"Ehhhhhhhh?!"
As Naruto ran ahead to the academy, he looked around at the village. He looked happily around as the villagers prepared for the day ahead, even as many gave him cold and mean stares. I guess the village is still the same…though I feel like those looks of hatred…

Naruto was brought out of his musing as he noticed the academy drawing closer. As he was about to enter he noticed a pink-haired girl waiting outside. Sakura-chan!

"Gooood morningggg Sakura-channn!" Naruto greeted cheerfully with a slight wave.

Sakura gave her teammate a slight frown in return. "What's so good about this morning?" she huffed with bleary eyes.

Taken slightly aback by his teammate's negative behavior, Naruto looked more closely at her. Hmm…seems like Sakura got younger too. She definitely looks exhausted.

Naruto asked, "Sakura-chan, what happened to you? You look like a zombie this morning."

"Never mind that," Sakura answered, "We have more important things to discuss," she said with focused eyes.

The blonde nodded and gave her a look of understanding as he gave his full attention.

"You must have noticed it too," Sakura continued in a serious manner, "We're back to a much younger age. Judging from the other students that came so far and the ninja from our class, I'm pretty sure that today is the day that we break up into teams."

Naruto gave a huge grin. "That's great Sakura-chan! The goddess really granted our wish and gave us a chance to save Sasuke! I never would have dreamed though that she would send us back into the past."

"Yea I know," Sakura said in a pensive mood. "Anyways with us being in the past that means we have a lot of power in being able to change certain events. We need to be careful with that power. My mom has always told me that with great power you also have great responsibility. We can't screw this up."

As the importance of what was taking place dawned on him, Naruto realized that even a guy like him had to be serious. "So what's the plan Sakura-chan?" Naruto was smart, but he knew that it was best in this kind of situation to leave the planning to his teammate.

"Right now we should just try to be as discreet as possible. Try to hide most of your powers and remember what kind of techniques you already had in the past at this point in your life. We don't know how much of the timeline will be changed by our actions, the goddess warned us of dire consequences. We should keep knowledge of future events to ourselves for the moment."

"Roger that, Sakura-chan!" Naruto saluted, "You can count on me!" Naruto ended his pledge with a huge fox-like grin.

Sakura gave a pretty smile in return. I know I can count on you Naruto. Shannaro! Why the hell are you smiling at this idiot!

Naruto gave the pink-haired girl a curious look as she suddenly went from a smile to a serious frown.

"Don't mind me Naruto, let's go in."

The blonde nodded as the two ninjas went into the academy and up to their classroom.

As the two ninjas made their way into the class, they looked for the two seats closest to Sasuke.

Both of them looked at Sasuke and felt an immense sense of relief seeing him like he used to be. There he was in his pre-cursed seal self looking as stoic and calm as ever. This time we'll save him, they thought as they made the promise in their hearts.

Coming closer to Sasuke, Inner Sakura decided to make her appearance. Sasuke-kun! That is one mighty hot piece of –, 'Go take a cold shower,' Sakura mentally chided to her inner self. Sigh, this could get really distracting.

Naruto grinned as he noticed Iruka-sensei coming up to the front of the class. This definitely brings back some fond memories.

"Today we will be creating three man teams," Iruka continued on while Naruto thought back on some of the crazy ruckus he created along with Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and others in his class. Hehe, we must have been a really big headache for Iruka-sensei.

An eraser was thrown that smacked Naruto right on the head. "Oww, Iruka-sensei, what was that for?" Naruto pouted as he rubbed the right side of his head.

"Pay attention, Naruto," Iruka commanded with a large tic above his right eye. "Anyways that's it with the introduction of the teams. This afternoon we'll introduce the Jounin teachers. Take a break until then."

End Chapter 1

Started: 1-27-07
Finished: 1-28-07

Next: Chapter 2: Team 7 Reintroduction