And here we begin at the beginning.
Inside her own mind, Haruno Sakura was arguing with herself and losing.
"This is my body, you creepy old woman! I won't let you have it!"
"You goddamn brat, I am not old! Also, I am you, so this is technically my body too!"
"Hah! Like I would believe anything you said. Get out!"
"Look, I didn't want to do this to you-me-whatever, but I've got things to do and no time to play games."
"Wh-what are you doing? Stop! Don't come near me!"
"Sorry kid, it's for the greater good."
Sakura placed her palm on her younger self's forehead, slowly absorbing her, grimacing at the integration memories. When the last wisp of her new-old psyche passed into nothingness, the entire blank mindscape sagged with her exhaustion and she saw spots and finally darkness.
She surfaced to consciousness with a groan, pressing a hand to her throbbing head. I'm pretty sure I wasn't with the Naras last night, so no sake for me. What the hell happened?
She sat up, only to blink rapidly once she noticed that she was surrounded by violent splashes of pink everywhere. "Wha?" She squinted her eyes. This is my old room at my parent's house.
Her sluggish brain finally caught up to her reality and she leaped off the bed, landing awkwardly in a heap on the floor. It worked! Sakura patted herself down, taking stock of her new-old body. Once she assessed her exceptionally low chakra reserves, she huffed a sigh. Looks like excessive training is in my new future.
She glanced at her calendar, noting the day with unease. I couldn't make it back far enough. Just a few weeks until the massacre. I have a lot of work to do.
Though it was not even dawn, Sakura was anxious to get started with everything. She dug through her closet looking for something, anything that was not a dress. She needed practicality with the amount of training she was about to put herself through. She found a pair of old black shorts and a red zip vest with a Haruno symbol embroidered along the bottom hem. It had been a gift from her father for her last birthday, though his constant missions meant he had given it to her weeks late. She stared in the mirror and nodded in satisfaction; these clothes would do. She frowned when she took in her lengthy pink strands. It had been nearly fifteen years since her hair had been this long and she found herself strangely hesitant to cut it.
Sakura compromised by braiding it tightly and wrapping it into a bun on the top of her head, securing it with two senbon that she found on her dresser. They were nearly the only weapons she had in her possession. She left down the stairs rather than through the window, not certain of the true extent of her abilities yet.
Less than thirty minutes later, she was face down in her backyard panting and cursing. All that remained of her previous formidable abilities were her knowledge and the innate chakra control she had been born with. She would be starting from scratch all over again.
At least I know what to do. Hopefully that will speed up the process.
She stretched carefully and started going through her katas again from memory. She would need to think about building up her Yin Seal again, but placing it elsewhere on her body. Tsunade's seal was entirely too well known for Sakura to pass it off as her own work. There was a chakra point in the sternum that would work well enough. Especially considering how little chakra I have to use right now.
She continued training until she could barely move, then dragged herself in to clean up and eat breakfast quickly. It was time to head to the Academy and start her new life.
Sakura strode confidently into her classroom, not hesitating to seek out Naruto and sit next to him instead of her usual seat. Internally, she was wary of throwing off the adults with her abrupt change in routine, but she knew that Naruto would respond best to overt and obvious friendliness. Sakura was a woman on a mission and no shadowy figures would stop her this time.
"Good morning!" She fairly sang it, ecstatic to see her best friend, young and alive again after nearly a decade of mourning his loss. Naruto was wide-eyed beside her, frozen at her greeting. He slowly looked around suspiciously, wondering if someone was pranking him this time.
"G-good morning, Sakura-chan." She just smiled brightly at him and he returned it after a moment of staring. "Your, um, hair looks different today."
She reached up to her bun self-consciously and laughed. "Yeah, long hair such a liability in the field, but I just could bear to cut it."
"Liability?" He questioned it without thinking and then leaned away, ready to be yelled at for being stupid.
"Oh, yeah. Hmm, a disadvantage?" His face was studiously blank. "Well, it can cause problems because anyone can grab it and cause me harm." She pointed at the senbon. "Now I've kept my hair and booby-trapped it!"
His face lit up in a smile and her heart ached at the sight. "That's good thinking, Sakura-chan! I always knew you were smart." She laughed and Naruto kept on smiling, confused at her strange behavior but willing to go along with it. Sakura was talking to him and even if she stopped tomorrow or after lunch, he was going to remember.
Nakajima-sensei chose that moment to walk in and begin class. He was quickly lost as the man swiftly went through the hand seals and chakra required for a classic henge form. The students were called up to the front of the classroom one by one to demonstrate their ability and Naruto could feel a knot form in his stomach, heavier and heavier as Nakajima got closer to his name. When his name was finally-too soon-called, Sakura put her on hand on his arm with a smile and said, "Good luck, Naruto."
Buoyed by her words, he bounded up to the front and tried to concentrate on his chakra just like Nakajima had said. The power came to him in such a rush that he was overwhelmed when he formed the three seals to transform him into his instructor, but he could tell by the horror on everyone's faces that he had failed miserably once again.
Nakajima looked at him sternly. "Were you even listening when I gave the instructions, Naruto?"
He frowned petulantly. "I did everything you said, sensei!"
"Clearly not." He sighed. "Go back to your seat, Naruto. We'll try again later and maybe you can do it then."
Naruto trudged back to his shared desk with Sakura, intensely disappointed that he couldn't even do the simplest of jutsus. How was he ever going to be Hokage at this rate? No one would ever take him seriously!
Sakura eyed his unhappy face and poked him in the side, whispering, "Do you want to work with me after school? I think I can help."
"Yeah? You think so?"
She put on her most superior face and then giggled. "I know so."
The rest of the day passed like always. Naruto struggled to keep up with their lessons on geography and genjutsu and got entirely too excited when taijutsu lessons were canceled in favor of letting them go home early. Throughout the day, Sakura observed him and the rest of the classroom, only keeping the barest thread of her attentions on the lessons. Her memory of the first time this had happened was hazy; she had spent so much of her time fawning over Sasuke that it had pushed all other memories out of her mind.
She tugged Naruto out of the classroom as soon as they were excused and led him to her house. Eventually she would commandeer a training ground for herself, but today she wanted to work with him in more seclusion, hoping it would help him focus.
"Ah, Sakura-chan? Where are we going?" He asked her fearfully as they passed through the marketplace and into the edges of the civilian district, where he saw adults giving him dirty looks. She glared at the closest man staring at Naruto with disgust and grabbed her friend's hand to drag him along faster.
"My house! It's quiet there, so we'll be able to fix your jutsu issues no problem!" Deep down, Naruto doubted that, but he didn't argue. He had nothing better to do than go home to his tiny apartment anyway and Sakura was still being nice to him. She still hadn't let go of his hand and he savored the feeling.
She ushered him through a bright red door and immediately out to the backyard. "Will your be parents okay with me being here?" Naruto hated to ask, but it was better to know what sort of reaction he was going to get. As far as he could remember, adults had treated him with varying levels of disgust and hatred and at this point in his life, he didn't question why. It was an exhausting endeavor that never made him feel good about himself. He just wanted to brace himself for the worst if Sakura's parents were on the more extreme spectrum.
"They're not likely to be home for weeks." She shrugged casually, though her eyes were slightly sad. "Besides, we're friends now, right? Friends are allowed to visit each other!"
Friends. Naruto grasped the feeling that word created within him, holding it close to his heart. Before today Sakura had just been a classmate who treated him no better or worse than anyone else. He wasn't sure what caused her to change, but he was hesitant to ask in case it broke this fragile peace he was suddenly feeling.
"Yeah," he said, uncharacteristically shy. "We're friends, Sakura-chan."
She gave him a grin and tugged him down to sit with her in the grass, away from the overgrown garden by the sunroom's window. "Okay, so I think the best way we can do this …"
Two weeks later, Sakura was stuck. She had no idea how to approach Sasuke and time was running out. Her initial plan was to come back even earlier, to stop the massacre entirely, but it was too late for that now. If everything was the same here, Itachi would sweep through the Uchiha compound in just over a month and she was helpless to stop it. The information that she had uncovered at Tsunade's behest had given her much needed insight into Itachi's behavior that night, though she disagreed heavily with the mission he had been given. Sakura understood the nature of psychological warfare, had engineered many manipulations herself throughout the years.
Still, she could felt sick when she considered the choices the Hokage and Danzo had pressed on a thirteen year old boy. In her heart, she wanted to lay the blame exclusively on the current elder, knowing full-well the extent of his ruthlessness and martial drive. But the Hokage's soft heart had done as much damage as Danzo's icy pragmatism and Sakura couldn't let that go unpunished, even if it was only in her mind. The were both complicit in the tragedy. To ask Sasuke's brother to murder his entire clan to save Konoha from an ongoing war, to brand him as a traitor for life? To push him to such damaging extremes that he would feel the need to torture his precious only sibling with their parents' death?
In her original time, Sakura had managed to gain access to Danzo's private residence on a single occasion, not quite knowing what she was looking for. She had quite frankly stumbled upon the knowledge of his involvement in the "Uchiha solution". It just a singular scrap of paper, written in barely distinguishable code and did not outline any singular plan or even give commands, but Sakura could read between the lines.
It had been incredibly demoralizing when Sakura had finally pieced it together, out of that tiny paper and the fragments of information she spent years collecting. Sarutobi had been nearly deified in the village, the "Professor" who had saved them from Orochimaru's wrath before dying a hero's death.
The Hokage had known. He had known all along. Maybe he wanted a better solution, but he stood by while this happened …
She could respect him for the many things he had done for the good of Konoha, for his skills as shinobi. But Sakura could no longer entrust him with her friends' lives. Not while they could be used like tools.
"Sakura-chan! Are you okay?" She looked up, startled. Naruto was poking at her side, still a little hesitant in his welcome. It was lunchtime and the classroom had cleared out, the students intent on spending their break period outside in the sunshine. She gave Naruto a smile, partially because she was still so happy to be with him, but also because she knew how well he responded to them.
"Of course! I was just lost in thought. You know how I get." He nodded, having roused her multiple times over the past few weeks from what probably looked to be intense daydreaming. "Let's eat!" She grabbed the bentos that she had packed and handed him one, which he took with careful hands, eyes wide.
"Sakura-chan, you don't have to keep making me lunch …" Naruto was torn between devouring the food immediately and savoring the idea that someone cared about him, cared enough to go out of her way to make sure he's fed.
She shrugged. "I already pack my own. It's no trouble to make one for you too." She stretched, sore from her morning spent retraining her aim with a shorter reach. "Do you want to eat outside?"
Naruto looked troubled. "If that's what you want to do. Where ever is okay with me."
Sakura understood why he didn't want to go where their peers were, but she dragged him along anyway, glaring at anyone who looked at him strangely. They settled down in the shade of an old oak tree at the far end of the Academy's training field and Naruto immediately started in on his bento, shoveling the food into his mouth quickly. Between bites he crowed, "Sakura-chan, this is great! You're such a good cook."
She laughed at him. "Slow down, Naruto. I promise no one will take it if you decide to breathe between chews." Sakura made a note to invite him to dinner again tonight. Clearly he wasn't eating enough for him and his extra tenant if he was so ravenous just by early afternoon.
She poked at her own food, mind still on how she would be able to get close to Sasuke. He was quiet in class, but not with the same brooding attitude that had attracted her infatuation the first time around. Sakura grimaced when she thought of her long faded crush, knowing she had been attracted to his pretty looks and bad-boy persona without even knowing the reason behind it. Still, Sasuke had started gaining the attention of the girls in their class and she knew that was the wrong way to go about it.
Sakura should have known that being friends with Konoha's most unpredictable shinobi would do the work for her.
Her bento was knocked out of her hand and Naruto jumped to his feet. "Oi, watch it! You just ruined Sakura-chan's lunch!"
She stared at the food mournfully and then looked up into the wide-eyed and apologetic face of Uchiha Sasuke. Now that's an expression I have never seen on him before.
"Sorry! I didn't see you here. I was just practicing …" He motioned to the blunted kunai on the ground next to her bento and she cursed herself for not realizing that he had even thrown it. She had to be more aware of her surroundings or she'd be dead before she changed a goddamn thing. Sakura resolved to work on her sensing abilities after school while she forced Naruto to work on his assignments.
Naruto snorted. "The training ground is over there." He waved at the posts that were littered with pockmarks from years of Academy students. "You must have really bad aim."
Sasuke's face scrunched up with anger. "I bet I'm better than you, moron!" At the insult, Naruto marched right up to him, gesticulating wildly.
"No way you're better than me! I've been getting special training!" He preened at his own idea, elevating Sakura's status from helpful friend to elite shinobi.
Sasuke looked unimpressed. "Oh yeah? Who would train you?"
"Sakura-chan! She's way better than anyone in our class!" Now Sasuke just looked even more unimpressed and she didn't blame him. Her physical abilities at the original age of eight had not been anything spectacular and she knew no one but Naruto and Nakajima had seen her enormous increase in skill level.
Their sensei had questioned her earlier that week about it and while she had felt a jolt of hot panic, she forced herself to shrug casually. "It's time I took this career seriously. I've been training outside of the Academy." The man had looked at her proudly, something she found strange at the time. Teachers just love overachievers.
"She couldn't beat me." Sasuke sounded infinitely sure of this, so much like his former-future self that Sakura had to hide a wince. Ouch, way to hit a sore spot.
Naruto, loving and supportive friend that he was, immediately challenged him to a contest on her behalf. "You're going down, jerk. Sakura-chan will wipe the floor with you!" Sakura sighed, not even part of the conversation they were having about her. It seemed that no matter what time she was in, Naruto and Sasuke would find a way to fight, argue or otherwise disagree with one another.
"Fine," Sasuke said, giving them a small smirk. "Let's meet at one of the empty training grounds after class is over. I can beat you both then."
This time it was Naruto dragging her, eager to get to the training grounds so that she could really "show that jerk who's boss, Sakura-chan!" She was happy he was starting to be more comfortable around her and faintly amused that it, of course, took Sasuke to get him there. Sakura wasn't going to disappoint Naruto by losing so she took advantage of this opportunity to get Sasuke's attention.
He was waiting there for them, smirk still on his face like it had been drawn there. "Ready to lose?" Sasuke had addressed Sakura, but stared Naruto down as if he were the one in the contest. She rolled her eyes, resigned to their eternal behavior problems.
"I'm here to win, Sasuke." She smiled at him sweetly, dangerously as his eyes swiveled to meet hers. "Don't get overconfident."
He huffed. "Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" He pointed to the five posts on the training ground and said, "Each one is marked with a red dot. Those are our targets." Sakura could see that the dots ranged from dead center to near the bottom of the post and nodded at him.
"From here?"
"Why?" He smirked at her again. "Do you need to get closer?"
"Don't be a brat, Sasuke-kun. I just want to make sure I understand the parameters of our challenge." He looked slightly confused and a voice behind them said, "She means the rules, little brother." Sakura briefly closed her eyes in fear? panic? giddiness? She wasn't sure how she felt about meeting a Itachi before, well, everything.
Sasuke had spun around in delight. "Nii-san! You're back!" He wavered between wanting to compete with them and his clear desire to spend time with his brother. "How was your mission?"
"Complete, as always." Itachi was a person of few words even as young teen. His face was strangely gentle as he looked down at Sasuke's adoring face. "Why are you here?"
Sasuke's face transformed into a mulish pout. "That moron said that this girl had better aim than me, so we're having a contest that I'm gonna win." Sakura was not amused to be reduced to "this girl". Since she was mentally an adult in this situation, she held her temper, though her eyes flashed warningly. Naruto protested loudly, to no one's surprise.
Itachi poked his brother in the forehead. "How do you know that? You haven't even started yet." He waved a hand at them all. "Go on, I'll be your referee."
Naruto pointed a finger at him. "No fair, he's your brother!" Sakura put a hand on his shoulder and he stopped yelling, but still obviously annoyed.
"It's fine, Naruto. I'm sure Uchiha-san will be impartial." She smiled at Itachi politely and he inclined his head in response. "Besides, I intend to win so conspicuously we won't need judging."
Sakura gestured to Sasuke magnanimously. "You can go first, Sasuke."
He threw his five kunai one after another with a practiced ease and then cast a glance at his brother, who looked on impassively. He hit each target nearly perfectly; the kunai on the post with the lowest red dot was only a hair off. Sasuke looked at it and then her, triumphantly. "Beat that, Sakura-chan."
"With pleasure." She strode up next to him and withdrew five of the kunai that she carved seals onto, ones that allowed her to channel chakra into them discretely. In her past, Kakashi had once told her of his broken tanto that had done something similar, intriguing her enough to research the possibility of creating more weapons to do the same.
Sakura tossed her kunai with quickly, using the chakra coating to slice through Sasuke's weapons. All five made a solid thunk into the wooden posts perfectly on target, with the pieces of Sasuke's kunai falling to the ground.
She turned to his and Naruto's gaping faces. "Looks like I won!" Naruto recovered first, throwing his arm around her shoulders and whooping with glee.
"Sakura-chan, that was amazing!"
Sasuke stomped over the posts to look at his broken kunai and his brother moved to join him. Sakura smiled her exuberant friend and teased him. "Thanks, Naruto. You should have expected that, since you were the one who signed me up for this contest to begin with!" He gave her a sheepish look and she just hugged him fondly. He tensed for a second, before relaxing into a puddle of happy blonde. They were interrupted immediately by an angry Uchiha.
"What are these? You cheated!" Sasuke waved the sealed kunai in her face as his blank-faced brother stood behind him, but Sakura could swear she saw a flicker of amusement in his dark eyes.
"Cheated? I hit all of the targets perfectly, which is not something you can say."
"You used some sort of technique on these! They're not regular kunai."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Ah, right, the famous Aim no Jutsu, meant to win ridiculous contests." Sasuke's cheeks darkened and his brother's mouth twitched upward. "I placed those seals so I could channel chakra into them. I still throw them the ordinary way." She poked him in the forehead just like his brother had before, to his consternation. "And I still did it better than you."
Itachi smoothly blocked his brother before he could go on another tirade. "You placed the seals? Where did you get them?"
Sakura's eyes brightened at the question and she forgot to be afraid or nervous or whatever it was that Uchiha Itachi made her feel. "I made them. Seals are incredibly versatile. I think all shinobi should have a better understanding of fuinjutsu."
"I told you Sakura-chan was way better than anyone in our class!"
Itachi looked down at his Sasuke and nodded. "I think you could learn a lot from her, little brother."
Sasuke just crossed his arms and pouted petulantly. "I could just learn from you."
Sakura saw Itachi's eyes grow distant and shivered, still wondering if there was anything she could possibly do to stop the massacre, to stop the Uchiha's planned coup. It wasn't right to ask of anyone. Itachi smiled softly at Sasuke and Sakura felt impossibly sad.
All she can do is hold them here with her in the moment, outside the uncertainly of a thousand tomorrows. She smiles at Naruto and turns to Itachi and his brother. "We could learn a lot from each other, Sasuke."