On her fifth birthday, Haruno Sakura died for approximately four seconds.
Her viridian eyes went glassy, her breath catching in her throat as she fell forward, forehead banging on the table in front of her decorated strawberry shortcake.
Haruno Mebuki screamed, rushing forward to pull her daughter up. Haruno Kizashi scrambled to his knees, grasping her small face and shaking her, and when that didn't work, frantically pressed his ear against her sternum.
"Is she breathing?" Mebuki cried, panicked tears starting to well up in her eyes.
No.
Kizashi's heart dropped, bringing up a hand to clutch his daughter closer in disbelief. Just as he opened his mouth, a gasp rang out from the small body he held in his arms, followed by a long coughing fit.
The relief was almost tangible in the room, both of her parents smothering her in a tangle of tight embraces. Gentle hands alternated between carding through her hair and pulling her close, tender kisses pressed lovingly to her temples.
What they didn't know, and couldn't possibly understand, was that five year old Haruno Sakura would never, ever be the same again.
Her fragile, developing mind had been shattered, and then completely reforged in the span of a couple of seconds. A sudden, overflowing surge of spiritual chakra had overwhelmed her meager supply of physical chakra, temporarily stopping her small heart.
Haruno Sakura blinked, her pupils dilating as a stream of conflicting memories bombarded her, too fast for her to catch anything but snippets. Uzumaki Naruto sitting with her under the shade of a tree, grinning as he jingled two bells. Uzumaki Naruto running away from a vendor as he was chased out of a store. Her best friend. No, that annoying kid at the park. Her best friend.
She lurched forward, tearing at the roots of her hair.
Playing with the new doll she got for her fourth birthday last year. Celebrating her fourteenth birthday with Team 10 and Kakashi-sensei at Ichiraku. She was five years old. No, she was two months away from twenty-one. No, she was—
A striking pain pierced her skull, nearly making her vision go white. The scenery changed into something horrifying.
Blood, so much blood. Her hands in a chest cavity. Pumping Naruto's heart and—don't die, don't die, don't die. Tears on Ino's still face. An ear-piercing scream—oh, that was her, wasn't it?
The panicked voices of her parents suddenly tuned back into focus as her vision cleared. The cake sat untouched in front of her, smoke lightly curling from the put out candles.
"Sakura!" Mebuki squeezed her, staring at her with fearful eyes. Her mother who had been killed during Zetsu's second raid on the village. No, her living and breathing mother in front of her. Bile rose in her throat.
"Kaa-chan?" She whispered, before her eyes rolled back in her skull.
"Sakura! Sakura—"
"—happening? Kizashi—"
"—don't let—"
•
Antiseptic.
A smell she lived and breathed. Familiar to her. Safe.
Sakura tried to will her eyes to open, but even that motion seemed impossibly strenuous. Her mind sharpened, extending her other senses as she laid patiently still.
It was quiet, the only sounds being her deep, even breathing and the steady beep of a heart monitor. Judging by the almost non-existent echo, she was in a small, moderately furnished room. Enclosed.
The material surrounding her was soft, covers pulled up to her chin and a pillow under her head. It smelt like lavender, a familiar detergent used at Konoha hospital. A gentle warmth kissed the right side of her face, turning the back of her eyelid a glowing orange. Sunlight. A window. An escape route, if needed.
Sakura kept her breathing deep, feigning sleep as she tried to sense the chakra signatures nearest to her. She was no Ino by any means, but her range had significantly improved since the beginning of the war. The skill had been forged under pressure, forcing her to quickly adapt to danger at every turn.
The click of the door opening. A bright, flickering chakra signature. Chunin level maybe? Soundless footsteps—definitely chunin.
With much difficulty, she managed to crack her eyes open, viridian irises sliding over to settle on a tall, dark haired woman. The medic blinked in surprise, a gentle smile pulling at her lips. "Ah, Sakura-san, you're awake."
"Why..." Sakura croaked, then cringed at the unappealing sound.
The nurse took pity on her, pouring a cold glass of water and placing it in her shaky hands. Sakura discreetly sniffed the cup, before swallowing the tiniest sip. When her chakra didn't start breaking down poison molecules, she gulped down the rest of the glass greedily, only pausing to breathe when the cup sat empty on her mattress. She cleared her throat.
"Why am I here?" She rasped, her voice only slightly less grating than before.
The nurse paused, glancing at her in concern. "What do you last remember?"
Sakura stared up at the ceiling, furrowing her brows. Well, she remembered pulverizing Zetsu clones like her life depended on it—it did. Then Kakashi-sensei raising a wall of hardened earth to buy them time to escape the never-ending horde once it became overwhelming. Running into a dark cave. A bleeding Shizune shoving a scroll into her hands as she collapsed against the wall. Her sensei and Hokage's one good eye as he gave her her last mission. A pain in her finger and a smear of blood across parchment paper. Her fifth birthday party—oh.
Sakura blinked, her breath hitching in her throat. Then suddenly, a slow grin spread across her dry, cracked lips. Blood beaded at the wounds.
"S-Sakura-san?" The nurse's eyes widened, her left hand immediately glowing green. "You're bleeding!"
Sakura closed her eyes, letting the panicked medic-nin heal the shallow cuts on her lips.
Internally, her mind swirled with a mix of relief, mourning, disbelief and rage. Her fists clenched under the sheets, nails digging in hard enough to pierce the skin.
This time, she would protect her home, and anyone who stood in her way was going to pay dearly.