"Agape: The highest form of love. Selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love; persists no matter the circumstances."

Discombobulated.

That's how she feels when her green eyes flutter open, and she takes in the achingly familiar room of her childhood. It's hard for her to ease the tension her muscles involuntarily found pressing, because at this moment Sakura was a little girl who wasn't perceived as a threat. "It worked." She breathes out as her petite hands, void of scars or callouses, twist the periwinkle pink sheets in relief.

The pastel pink walls covered in childish drawings and pictures of a happy home cause Sakura to bite down on her tongue, so she doesn't sob. The traveling seal had work, and a huge portion of her soul was overjoyed about the results, but the relatively depressed side of her soul wasn't.

Sakura was truly and fully alone with the weight of many on her now tiny shoulders. "Naruto, Sai, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Tsunade-sensei, Lee, Hinata, Tenten." The coral haired girl sobs the names of the dearly departed.

The candlelight casts long shadows in the already deeply dark night. "Sakura," the smoky voice of Shikamaru calls out softly, pulling the green-eyed beauty out of her depressing thoughts.

"Shikamaru?" she mused tiredly as she rubbed her sleepy eyes. "Is something the matter? Are you hurt?" She quickly leaned up and started to examine the former Nara heir.

Shikamaru merely stared at Sakura with a raise brow, "Sakura, I'm dead." He stressed out dryly.

Sakura was both embarrassed and mortified as tears gathered in her jade colored eyes. "Shikamaru, I'm sorry." She babbled as a sob left her mouth unwillingly. "I forgot," She buried her head into her trembling hands, coated in scars and calluses.

Shikamaru gave out an unnecessary sigh as he pulled the war torn women into his stiff and frigid arms. "Silly, girl." he mumbled softly as he placed a chaste kiss to her forehead.

"It hurts, Shikamaru." She gripped tightly the front of his shirt. "It hurts so much."

"Shh, Shh," he soothed as he held her just a little tighter and allowed his slender fingers to dance through her hair. "I know, Sakura, I know." He hummed a Nara song underneath his breath as he allowed Sakura's sobs to even out. "Sakura, you don't have to do this, you know." He spoke softly to one of his dearest friends.

Sakura pulled back from the hug, her eyes blurry from her tears to stare intently into smoky-brown eyes. "If I don't, who will?" was her mournful response.

"If I don't, who will?" she repeats as she leans forward in her bed and clutches one of her pillows to her chest. "I," Sakura bites the tip of her pillow to muffle her soul-baring sob, "I'm alone and scared." The time-traveling kunoichi bit into her pillow even harder to try and hide the agonizing pain and loss that swam in her heart. "I don't want to be alone anymore."

"Sakura?" There is a pause, as her name is called with concern. "Sakura, honey, are you okay?" the sweet voice of Haruno Mebuki inquires as she pushes the door open, and Haruno Kizashi is the first to enter to greet his sobbing child.

Sakura stared with wide eyes at her acutely alive parents, who were staring at her with concern. How long had it been since Sakura had the chance to appreciate her parents again? The jade-eyed girl was at a point in her life where she barely remembered how her mother's face looked when she was thrust back into the past.

Sakura burst into tears.

Pure gut-wrenching sobs left her tiny body as she stumbled from the sheets and tossed herself into her father's chest in the ache for safety and comfort. "Papa!"

Kizashi and Mebuki exchanged concerned glances over Sakura's head as she clung to her father's chest as if she hadn't seen him in years instead of hours. 'What nightmare could have affected her deeply like this?' "Honey, did you have another nightmare?" Kizashi cooed softly as his finger brushed a stray tear off her chubby cheek.

"Hai," Sakura choked out another sob as she clung even tighter to Kizashi and his smell of sandalwood, cinnamon, and sage. 'She had long forgotten what her father had smelled like.' "Hai."

Kizashi ran his fingers through his daughter's relatively slender locks as he strove to quell the heart-wrenching sobs that seemed to come from the depths of her soul. "Sakura-chan, remember what we said about nightmares, hm?" he hummed softly.

Sakura gave a loud sniffle as she pulled away from her father's comfort and peered into eyes that matched her own. "That the nightmares aren't concrete," she answered softly with a hiccup.

"That's right, Sakura-chan."

Sakura only expressed utter devastation when she took in her young-looking parents, "You guys died, and I was alone." She sobbed again as she returned to the comfort of her father's arms. "I don't want to be alone, I'm going to be shinobi. I want to protect like you guys do," she grumbled as she slowly dozed off back to sleep. Her tiny body utterly drained from her crying, and of the future she had to change at all costs.

"Mebuki?" Kizashi could only gape to his wife with an expression of helplessness.

"I truthfully don't know," she whispered softly back with equal confusion as she watched her husband cradle their daughter in his arms and bring her to their bed.

A nightmare should not have caused sobs like that...

Sakura acknowledges she has fucked up, as both her parents give her twin expressions of concern and worry. It also could attribute to the fact that Sakura consumed her sixth pancake with relish and did not appear to slow down any time soon, even though with her tiny body she usually only ate two. However, to her parents, it was last week she had pancakes, when in reality it had been years. "Sweetheart as you remember, your Kaa-san and I will be leaving to visit your uncle Sadao."

Sakura paused mid bite as she recalled her mother was not a Konoha-born citizen, unlike her husband and daughter. Haruno Mebuki was once known as Hamasaki Mebuki before she fled the Village Hidden in the Mist during the Second Shinobi War. Sakura remembered in what seemed like a lifetime ago that when her 'shark teeth', a staple to people born from the Mist, started to grow, she demanded her mother to sand them down permanently. To this day, Sakura still remembers the hurt expression her mother had given her for denying a part of her heritage, and deep shame still burns inside her heart. "Hai." she grumbled as she shoved the delicious pancake into her mouth.

"We wondered if you would have preferred Aiko-chan next door to watch you or for us to hire a genin team?" Mebuki asked her adorable daughter, who had her face stuffed like a squirrel with nuts.

Sakura allows on her face an expression of innocence tinged with shyness to appear as she glanced to her parents after swallowing the last of her pancake. "I actually want to meet Sadao-oji, Kaa-san." She wonders inwardly how many lies and masks she was going to have to carry for the rest of her life.

Mebuki and Kizashi exchanged another round of glances, before turning back to their daughter, who seemed to have changed overnight due to whatever nightmare she had. "If that's what you like honey." Mebuki answered her blue eyes, holding intimate concern. "Is this what you want?" She's reluctant to bring her daughter to a village known for their bloodthirstiness, but she would never deny her daughter the privilege to visit family.

"Hai, Kaa-san." Sakura mumbled as she used her chakra to force a blush to spread across her adorable dimpled cheeks. "Tou-san always says Sadao-oji would love me!" she chirped cutely in the end, allowing her head to tilt to the side.

Kizashi gave a boisterous guffaw as he leaned to ruffle Sakura's soft locks. "I did say that, didn't I?" he mused with a thoughtful hum.

Mebuki gave a sigh of resignation at her husband's antics and the paperwork she was going to have to fill out. "I'm going to have to request a chunin or jounin team to join us, then if Sakura-chan will be attending with us." She moves from the table and places her plate in the sink, before giving her two family members a stern look. "We leave in under a week, so pack well."

"HAI!"