AN: I am really sorry for the really, really late update. I lost inspiration to write and update this fic. My muse is a fickle thing. Jumping from one idea into another without prompting. Still I hope you are all interested in the fic just enough to stick around.
"It appears that you have dispatched most of my Root Operatives. But it doesn't matter. I was only testing your prowess and I found it…exemplary." the older shinobi remarks.
Sakura grows cold at Danzo's words while she begins to plot her escape.
If she can escape, that is…before Danzo can use the Kotoamatsukami that he stole from Uchiha Shisui on her.
One word and Sakura's fate will be sealed. One command and Danzo will own her life forevermore. She won't be able to escape from him at all if that happens, not even to try and kill herself.
She needs to make a decision. At once!
"You will be a good addition to my cause…" he says to her as he starts to remove the wrappings around his right eye socket, where the Kotoamatsukami must be implanted.
Sakura is so terrified of getting caught and becoming a prisoner to Danzo that she doesn't think twice about doing her next move. For certain, Danzo is going to keep her alive but unable to control herself just to use her knowledge of the future for nefarious purposes.
She knows that she can't escape in time from him because he is faster and has years of experience than her. She also hasn't explored her new doujutsu yet to help her in this dire situation with some kind of technique, like opening up a portal to another dimension similar to what Kaguya did during the Fourth Shinobi World War. She has no idea how to do that yet. She needs time to learn it but she doesn't have that at the moment. In fact, she is already running out of time.
Sakura has also used a lot of chakra during her fight earlier with the Root agents. So it's only a matter of time before Danzo captures her and uses Shinsui's notorious sharingan on her.
There is no other choice but to give up this life and start another one from the beginning.
Hence, her ultimate move.
Without hesitating, Sakura raises her hand, then she punches a chakra scalpel straight into her brain and kills herself in seconds. She can almost feel it when her skull is cleaved in half.
Haruno Sakura then dies immediately and painfully.
However, not even a moment later, she wakes up again in her old bedroom, looking relieved but full of regret.
Sakura should have known not to show her entire hand at the first opportunity. She won't be making the same mistake again.
This time she will keep her new found abilities to herself. Not unless her life is threatened.
"Sakura, aren't you going to the exams at the Forest of Death today?" her mother – Haruno Mebuki – asks her when Sakura is eating breakfast at the table.
"Amm…I am not really ready for the exams Mom," Sakura replies, avoiding her mother's penetrating stare.
"Won't your teammates be angry at you if you don't go? Especially that Uchiha Sasuke…didn't you like want to impress him by agreeing to go for the Chuunin Exams this month?" Sakura's father – Haruno Kizashi – inquires.
Sakura winces at the reminder.
She is no longer a Sasuke fangirl anymore. It's been years since she has acted like it and she isn't going to do so again even though she is back in the past. Maybe she will for a little bit but to keep appearance and to prevent anyone from suspecting anything about her.
"I know I told you both, Mom, Dad…but I am not really ready to fight in the Forest of Death. The written exam was fine but going for the second part of the exam might be quite deadly for me. So I won't be going. Also, I no longer really care what my other teammates think of me anymore. So there's that…" she lies.
She definitely cares about what her teammates think of her, but she has to pretend that she doesn't just to explain her reasoning for not entering the Chuunin Exams.
"Well, if you say so Sakura…" her father remarks and resumes eating his breakfast.
"I hope you won't regret your decision, Sakura…" her mother says, regarding her closely.
"I won't Mom," she tells her firmly, finally meeting her mother's green eyes, which are similar to hers.
"That's good. Now, go ahead and finish your breakfast," her mother encourages.
"Alright," is her reply and continues eating.
Much later, Sakura begins to wonder if Orochimaru is still going to look for Sasuke even though the Uchiha won't be at the Forest of Death.
Will Orochimaru attack Sasuke at his home instead the moment he finds out that Sasuke hasn't joined the Chuunin Exams? She thinks. Will the Snake Sannin test Sasuke again just to see if he fits to be his next vessel?
Sakura hasn't been idle that day of course. She still wants to prevent the invasion. Hence, she uses her knowledge of stealth and espionage to leave a tip to the Hokage about Orochimaru's presence during the exam and the planned invasion.
Subtly disguised in a henge and with her chakra masks like a civilian, Sakura slowly walks to one of the usual dead drops in Konoha. She only knows about these dead drops because she has learned them from reports during her time as Tsunade's assistance.
As she approaches the non-descript garbage can at the back of an abandoned building near the impoverished sector of Konoha, she uses her innate senses to detect anyone nearby. After a few minutes, Sakura is relieved to find out that there doesn't seem to be anyone close by. So she gradually creeps towards the dead drop location while sticking to the shadows created by the morning sun.
She has already prepared the secure paper containing her message. She made sure to change her handwriting when she wrote it earlier and she also used known coded words from the Shinobi handbook to divulge the secret she only knows about. She learned some of the coded words from her shishou when it comes to imparting messages for the Hokage. Only the Hokage will be able to see her secure message once he opens it.
However, she makes certain that no one will know that the tip comes from her, especially when she wants to keep a low profile.
She finally arrives close to the garbage can, which she knows is empty. She then moves the empty garbage can aside to reveal the hole on the ground, where a metal box is placed. Sakura immediately opens the metal box and puts her message inside a hidden compartment. Then, she swiftly closes the metal box before returning the garbage can back in its place.
Thereafter, Sakura extends her senses further again and is soon assured that there is no one around. After making sure that there is no one close by, she quickly makes a swift retreat while changing her henge every few blocks as she tries to shake a possible pursuer.
There seems to be no one following her when she finally blends in with the crowd, but she continues to walk around and change her henge every now and then just to make sure.
It takes Sakura two hours to finally settle down her nerves and feel assured that there is no one following her around. Afterward, she decides to keep an eye on Sasuke starting that day while the exam is still on. For certain Orochimaru is going to be in the Forest of Death for a couple of days if he hasn't found out about Sasuke yet.
Once more Sakura changes her henge and reduces her chakra output to resemble a civilian as she searches for Sasuke. She first goes near his apartment but she can't detect him inside the apartment. She then goes to the training grounds and hopes to find him there.
Sakura is lucky.
The Uchiha is there.
She finds Sasuke in the same training grounds, where they had their bell test. The Uchiha boy appears to be still skulking after being unable to join the exams in the Forest of Death.
Sakura feels a bit bad for him but she knows that she made the right decision in keeping Sasuke from the exams and especially from Orochimaru's clutches. For the moment.
She is certain that the Snake Sannin will pursue Sasuke once he knows that the Uchiha is not in the Forest of Death.
For hours, she watches him train furiously in the Third Training Grounds. He is doing the katas at first before practicing his punches and kicks on the wooden posts. Once he has finished attacking the posts, he then switches to throwing weapons at the posts and the surrounding trees.
Watching him for hours is kind of tiresome, but Sakura spends most of her time being aware of her surroundings. She tries to detect everyone within her range and makes sure that there is no sign of Orochimaru or one of his underlings nearby.
The sun has already set when Sasuke finally, finally leaves the training grounds and Sakura follows after him. Sasuke goes back to his apartment where she continues to monitor him. She watches him eat his dinner (tomato curry), wash his dishes, read a book about Shurikenjutsu and then go to bed at around ten-thirty at night.
When she is certain that Sasuke is asleep, Sakura creates one shadow clone to keep watch on the Uchiha all throughout the night while the real Sakura goes to sleep. She orders the clone to pop herself out if Sasuke is attacked, but only after she alerts a nearby Konoha shinobi.
At around after eleven, Sakura leaves her hiding spot and goes back to her house without alerting anyone. Her parents are already asleep when she arrives. She eats a late dinner and then spends her time meditating to settle her turbulent chakra. She was so tense when she was watching Sasuke that day. She was silently half expecting someone to attack the Uchiha boy. Fortunately, no one did. Otherwise, she will have to intervene and save Sasuke.
By now, Orochimaru would already know that Sasuke is not in the Forest of Death and Sakura is certain that the Snake Sannin will make his next move within three days to put the curse mark on Sasuke.
Sakura will have to up her monitoring on the Uchiha so that she can alert nearby Konoha shinobis when Orochimaru finally makes his move.
She stops meditating and concentrates on pouring her chakra into the newly developed chakra pathway in the middle of her forehead, where her newly acquired Rinne Sharigan is.
She pours chakra into it. Instantly, she feels it when her Rinne Sharigan suddenly manifests and opens up. Her perspective shortly changes, where she can see everything around her; a 360 field of x-ray vision. She can see the chakra pathways of her parents sleeping in the master bedroom. She also notes the small animals and the patrolling Konoha shinobis leaping from rooftop to rooftop outside her house.
Sakura's goal that night is to learn how to open up a rift in space where she can travel into a different dimension instantaneously, but she doesn't know where to start.
Primarily, she delves deep into her chakra pathways and begins to poke and prod at the eye in the middle of her forehead using her chakra, where she tries to elicit some kind of reaction with her Rinne Sharingan. She can feel something there, which is hard to describe. Some kind of energy concentrated at the center of her Rinne Sharingan. At first, she tries to inject some chakra into it, but there is no reaction. However, when she tries to pour some spiritual energy or Yin release into it, she can see some ripple effect in the air. The same thing happens when she uses physical energy or Yang release.
She spends more than two hours experimenting with it until she finally uses both Yin and Yang release at the same time. She watches a crack appear in the air as a result. The crack doesn't open wide or even open into a portal. It's only a crack in reality.
Sakura tries again, but this time she pours more Yang release than the Yin release. She soon observes when the crack disappears and is replaced by a whirling wind. Once more, she does the opposite and floods the center of her Rinne Sharingan with more Yin release or spiritual energy than the Yang.
This time she manages some reaction. A tear appears in the middle of her room, where she directs her Rinne Sharingan.
Sakura pours more Yin into her Rinne Sharingan and notes the way the tear slowly widens and becomes a portal in no time. The portal stabilizes soon after as she stops pouring spiritual energy into her eye. She sees some kind of glade and a forest in the distance on the other side of the portal. However, the portal only lasts for a few seconds before blinking out of existence.
She finally understands the reason spiritual energy or Yin release is needed in creating a rift in space. Physical energy or Yang releases is rooted in physical reality while Yin release or spiritual energy encompasses more than the physical. It breaches beyond the physical confines and manifests in different ways and goes beyond time and space, where it reaches through different dimensions. It's for this reason that Sakura is able to rip a tear into reality and open a portal into a different dimension.
Sakura is glad that she manages to do it after hours of experimenting with different kinds of energy. It's already around three in the morning when she has her breakthrough and she is already tired. Hence, after calming down and withdrawing the Yin and Yang energy from her Rinne Sharingan, she settles down in bed and goes to sleep.
It's around four in the morning when Sakura is woken up by her mother for breakfast. She goes down to eat right before she leaves the house and goes to relieve her shadow clone. She arrives at the hidden location, where she has been using to stake out Sasuke's apartment. Her shadow clone is still there and still looks alert.
"Nothing happened while I was watching him," her clone reports the instant Sakura appears before her.
"Good. I was hoping for that," she states. "But I am sure Orochimaru will probably make his move soon."
"I agree…" the clone replies. "So please be careful."
"I will," She answers back. "You can disappear now. Thanks for watching Sasuke while I was off."
"No problem. Now, I will be gone. Goodbye Sakura Prime!" the clone salutes before puffing into smoke.
Immediately, Sakura receives the memories of the clone and notes that nothing really happened while the clone was watching Sasuke.
Sasuke also hasn't left the apartment yet. In fact, he seems to haven't woken up yet just judging by the flow of his chakra.
She lets out a sigh and settles down to wait for her teammate to wake up.
Hopefully soon because she has great plans for today.
Today Sakura is going to confront him. For certain, the Uchiha probably has plenty of awful things to say to her, especially after she fails to show up for the exams in the Forest of Death.
"Whatever," she mutters to herself. "It's been a while since Sasuke has said some bad things about me. I will just ignore the insults since there's no point in wallowing in misery….because I've been over him a long time ago. I'm not some kind of besotted girl like I was before. Thank you very much."
Sakura suddenly perks up when she notices the change in Sasuke's chakra, which can only mean that the boy is waking up.
"Thank Kami!" She says as she activates her Rinne Sharingan to peer through the walls of Sasuke's apartment.
She feels a bit like a perv when she does it, but she doesn't have a choice. She has to carefully monitor the Uchiha or else he will slip past her guard and get in trouble.
Thus, Sakura ignores the feeling and continues to watch when Sasuke does his morning routine. She only stops watching when the boy starts to remove his clothes for a shower. Then, she resumes back to monitoring him after giving the boy a good time to finish showering.
She finds him in the kitchen cooking his breakfast when Sakura peers back at his apartment with her activated Rinne Sharingan once again.
Sasuke was eating another meal with tomatoes on it. Sakura knew that that was his favorite vegetable.
She can't help but snort when she recalls something from her past.
"I still remember making him a bento when I was young. Sasuke didn't like it at all. If I knew that he likes tomatoes, I would have added it in the bento," she mutters, looking amused. "But I'm over him. So I don't care what he eats."
Sakura remains vigilant as she observes Sasuke finishes his breakfast, washes his dishes and leaves his apartment.
She stalks after him. As always she masks her chakra and uses a henge to disguise herself. Sasuke goes to the Team 7 training ground again.
After watching him train for a couple of minutes, Sakura finally decides to speak to him. So she drops her henge and releases her hold on her chakra to resemble her usual chakra output.
Thereafter, she slowly walks towards him, making certain that she makes a sound so that she won't startle him as she approaches.
She notes the way Sasuke looks up the moment he hears the sound of her footsteps. She sees the ferocious scowl that appears on Sasuke's face when he finally sees her there.
"You!" The Uchiha growls in obvious rage. "Why the hell didn't you show up for the exam in the Forest of Death?!"
Sakura hears him demand.
"Why hello to you too, Sasuke-kun," is her sarcastic response.
"Answer me, you – you useless trash!"
She silently bristles at his words.
Useless trash, huh? Never heard that one before. He must be really pissed at me. She thinks.
"Sorry, Sasuke. I wasn't able to go to the exam because I overslept…You see I was –"
Sasuke cuts her off.
"You overslept?!" he yells at her. "You missed the exam because you overslept?! You are unbelievable!...But I know you are lying! Just admit that you were afraid to go to the exam because you are weak and useless! That's a better reason than oversleeping!"
She glares at him before she exclaims, "Fine! I lied! The reason I didn't go to the exam is because I wasn't ready for it! I know I am a dead weight from the beginning! So if I went and joined the exam with you and Naruto yesterday morning, I might have pulled you down with me and you won't be able to pass the Chuunin Exam! Also, you can call me weak or useless all you like, but be glad that I didn't come and go inside the Forest of Death because it might have saved your ass from outright dying in the Chuunin Exam!"
"I don't care what you say Sakura! You made me lose the opportunity of passing the Chuunin Exam and finally coming closer in surpassing my brother! For that very reason, I hate you!" comes Sasuke's shout.
Sakura falls silent at his words.
"Well, I'm sorry if you feel that way Sasuke-kun," she says to him in a low voice. "However, I stand by my decision…. Now, if you have nothing good to say to me, I better leave."
"Then, get lost! I don't want to see your annoying face ever again!" the Uchiha snaps angrily.
She simply rolls her eyes at him right before she pivots around and pretends to leave. She walks a good distance away from him, but when she knows that Sasuke has already turned his attention to training once more, Sakura masks her chakra again and don another henge. She then proceeds to watch the Uchiha for the rest of the day. She also creates another shadow clone to serve as the second eye and who will be responsible for calling help if Orochimaru shows up that day.
Monitoring Sasuke is boring but productive since Sakura spends her time creating miniscule portals right next to her. It is small enough to place three fingers or a hand through it but not big enough for anyone to notice the disturbance. Not even Sasuke has noticed anything even when he is still training nearby.
Sakura practices until she gets the hang of it, until she is able to control the size of the portal. However, she needs more training in creating larger portals. She will have to do it when she is not busy watching Sasuke, who appears driven to exhaust himself with training.
It is around after six in the evening when something happens.
She feels a familiar chakra quickly approaching Sasuke's location and she simply hides further when Orochimaru finally makes an appearance.
"Hello Sasuke-kun…"
She hears the man's smarmy voice as he finally shows himself to the Uchiha, who looks alarmed at the sight of him.
Instantly, she senses it when her prepared shadow clone leave the area with the intent to call for help. Meanwhile, the real Sakura braces herself for the fight ahead. However, this time she will be assisting Sasuke from a distance. She will use her newly learned portal creation to attack Orochimaru and hopes that everything goes according to her plan.
AN: I know nothing really happened in this chapter. So sorry about that. You can check for my writing updates on my tumblr. Just search bloomsburry-dhazel. Anyway, please don't hesitate to tell me what you think!