Team 7!
Sakura screams as Sasuke drops to the ground on his knees, his broad back facing her, his white shirt now stained in blood. He turns his head and makes eye contact with her, his rinnegan piercing her soul. He smiles slowly, a sad one and then he's gone. His body flops to the ground with a loud thud.
Naruto cries and so does she, they run. But there's only so many places they can run from the mother of all shinobi. Kakashi covers them as they form another plan, without Sasuke, their original route was severed and the only way was to defeat Kaguya by force.
The impossible.
Kakashi dies next, stabbed in the stomach by Black Zetsu, Sakura had her back turned and couldn’t sense the killing intent in time and it cost her their sensei’s life.
He yells at them to run, activating his mangekyou sharingan and teleporting himself away with his killer, giving them one last chance.
They don’t get far at all, Naruto collapses, dragging her down with him.
“Naruto come on! We have to keep going!”
Naruto grunts in pain and grabs onto her wrist, to stop her from moving. “Sakura-chan listen!”
Sakura tears up and shakes her head. “You can’t leave me alone!”
“I don’t have-” He coughs up blood and grips her wrist harder. “The old man told me to do this if me and Sasuke fail… you’re our last hope.”
He forces her to sit with him, opening her palm. Sakura watches as he draws a seal on her left palm with his blood, similar to the one he has on his stomach whenever the Nine-tails is released. It takes her a second to realise what he was doing and she tries to yank her hand away but his hold is unforgiving as he continues to draw.
“Naruto you can’t! You’ll die! You can’t do this!”
Naruto grins widely. “I’ll always be with you, Sakura-chan. Kurama will help you, you guys will be great friends… you’re both so angry all the time haha….” His smile falls and his eyes grow tired. “Old man Six Paths will tell you how you can save all of us… We’ll meet in another lifetime.”
And with that, he transfers Kurama into Sakura, every last bit of the Nine-tails chakra is extracted and he slumps over Sakura’s weeping body.
“No….nononono!” Sakura grits her teeth and shakes Naruto’s body. “Wake up! You can’t leave me here! You can’t-” She looks up and she's in a different place. It’s stark white, she couldn’t tell the ceiling from the floor and Naruto was gone from her lap. Instead, in front of her was a cloaked figure, floating while they were sitting in lotus position. The man had horns protruding from his head, two rinnegans and his kimono cloak had distinct magatama patterns, like the ones she saw on Naruto.
This must be the Sage of Six Paths.
“Sakura Haruno. Pupil of Tsunade Senju, the last surviving shinobi.” He calls. His voice reminded Sakura of the third Hokage, all knowing and wise.
“Where am I?” She asks, and she stands up so she can look at him with height. “Where is Naruto?”
“Naruto has died, transferring Kurama to you. Young Shinobi, you have yet to rest, there is much to do and only you can carry out this final attempt at stopping my mother from destroying the world we love.”
Sakura clenches her fists. “How well do you know me?! I’m useless compared to my teammates! I can’t carry such a burden! I’ll fail!”
Hagoromo shakes his head. “You underestimate your own will of fire. You yearn for the world to be peaceful, you desperately want victory. That is what will drive you forward. The result of your hard fruitful work will be worth all the while. All you have to do is believe in yourself and the power Naruto has entrusted you with. Kurama!” He shouts.
Sakura flinches as a bigger, more forbidding presence forms behind her, casting a massive shadow onto the white scenery.
“Gramps.” The fox greets him.
She turns around and lifts her head up to see Kurama sitting behind her. He grins a toothy smile at her, she gulps at the sheer size of his teeth. She wonders if Naruto was ever scared of Kurama.
“Sakura Haruno will be your new partner, the two of you will work together to change the outcome of the future.” The Sage weaves hand signs so fast, Sakura could barely keep up. “I will have to restrict what you can speak of and your actions, there are events and certain deaths we cannot save in order for this to be successful. Unfortunately, sacrifices must be made for the better good. Seal!”
Sakura holds her mouth as she feels something circling on the top of her tongue, stopping and then giving her a brief burning sensation.
“Ouch!”
“This will prevent you from changing specific events from happening. I know you are emotionally attached to people who are part of history but it cannot be helped.” He explains. “Kurama will also guide you during this time, as he retains the memory of his Yang half.”
“I will be sending you back, far enough so you can make the necessary changes.” He weaves his next set of signs, his rinnegan spinning.
“Wait!” Sakura shouts at him. “How far will I be sent back?! The start of the war? The point where Sasuke shows up?”
“Further. Now go young Sakura. This will all be in your hands. I am sorry, this will be the last time you will see me and I wish you the best of luck.”
A portal appears behind her and she’s pushed back by an invisible force. All she sees is swirling lights until a feeling of numbness takes over, like sleep.
/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x
When Sakura opens her eyes again, she's back in her room, specifically her childhood room, filled with incredibly girly things. She sits up quickly, running her hands down her body, her head, checking for any wounds but then finds her body reverted back into a 12-year old’s. Her chest is definitely smaller. She feels rested though, not at all like she had just fought for days on end.
“I really…. I really got sent back in time.” She looks at her palm and sees the seal Naruto painted on her hand but in black.
‘You’ll have to find something to cover that.’
The voice startles her and she turns around and finds herself in a wide meadow, shallow water up to her ankles. The amount of flowers around her would make even the Yamanka jealous. She then realises who was speaking to her. She looks up and sees the fox relaxing in the water.
“Kurama…”
‘Nice to meet you, kid.’
“Is this the place you and Naruto speak in?” She asks. It’s bright and kind of cheerful, not like the dark, damp place Naruto described to her before.
‘No.’ He replies. ‘The place in which I reside reflects how you perceive me, I’m actually glad you have more imagination than that punk, it was boring in his mind.’
“I guess we’re stuck together for a long time huh? We have a good few years until the war.”
The fox nods and holds out his index finger. ‘I will not be able to give you Chakra until you become used to my presence. My Chakra requires a lot and it will kill you if you aren’t adapted enough. The hosts before me, the Uzumaki clan, have immense chakra reserves. You, however, don't. At least not yet. You will have to work on that Hundred healing technique of yours and learn the arts of a Sage. You will have to be exposed to my chakra slowly, going through what Naruto did, each tail means you’ve gained more of my power until you reach what Naruto did during the war.’
Sakura scratched her head and pouted, much like Shikamaru would. “That's a lot of work. I guess we do have the time. We do have a head start…. Right?”
Kurama shakes his massive head. ‘No, unfortunately sending you back means you go back to how much chakra you have during this time. You will retain memories of what you have learned, so I guess you do have a headstart when it comes to jutsu.’
Sakura thinks for a while, lost in her own thoughts, coming to terms with the fact that she’ll need to relive a lot of her life again, changing things subtly too.
“How will I keep the fact that I have you inside me a secret? People will see the red chakra cloak around me when I transform… won’t I go berserk like Naruto did?”
‘We will figure it out when the time comes but you will not go berserk. Naruto only did so because I was feeding him anger and hatred, I have none towards you or the rest of the world anymore. You’ll be in full control’ He assured her, Sakura was glad she had someone to talk to.
“I have one chance at this.” She's back in her bedroom and she checks the calendar beside her bed. It marks the day of meeting her new sensei. Kakashi. “Shit! “
She scrambles off the bed to get dressed, she gets frustrated at the long hair and takes a kunai out of her leg pouch to cut it all off, she’ll get her mother or Ino to clean it up later, she doesn’t have the time. Next thing was her outfit, she holds the dress she used to wear up in front of her, she remembers how tight the thing was, restricting her movements. She chucks it over her shoulder and digs further into her wardrobe finding a knee length pair of black shorts and a top similar to her dress’s top half. It will be more comfortable to move in, she doesn’t want to look pretty for Sasuke anymore, that wasn’t the mission. She had more important things to focus on. She finds that her parents weren’t in the house and remembers at this point they were on missions too. So much for having her mum fix her hair. She shakes her hair and ties her headband on top. Sakura also finds the fingerless gloves her father gave her but never used because she deemed them too dull but she could care less now and shoves her hand through them.
“I don’t look too different do I?” She looks at herself in the mirror and she's very different to what she was like before, almost tomyish.
‘You look better like this.’
She blushes and remembers Kurama can see everything through her eyes too.
She remembers where she's supposed to meet her team for the first time and heads there. Leaping across the house roofs like a trained ninja but forces herself to run like a normal kid on the ground the rest of the way after Kurama convinces her that it will attract unwanted attention to her.
Sakura is the first one there, like before. She sits down and gazes around her at the people oblivious to the future she saw not even moments ago. She has no time to reminisce when Sasuke joins her. Her breathing stopped momentarily when she saw him, he had died not too long ago and to see him so healthy and so young makes her want to cry.
Sasuke was fairly confused at her new appearance too, so used to her old one but he doesn’t say a word and keeps to himself a distance away. Sakura doesn’t mind his silences, as long as he was alive, that's all that mattered. She notices she doesn’t blush in his presence like she used to.
Naruto arrives next, his loud obnoxious voice greets them and smiles widely as he sits down on the steps next to her and she's never been more glad to hear him rant on about his morning.
Sakura smiles internally and vows to treat the orange clad kid better during this life.
“Oh! Sakura-chan, you cut your hair!”
Her hand instinctively touches her hair. “Y-yeah, it’s easier this way…” She was not lying, she would’ve cut it during the chunin exams, this was nothing.
“I like it!” He compliments and she smiles back, to which he wasn’t expecting and makes him blush.
Kakashi is late as always but is all the same, laid back and completely unaware of what secrets Sakura holds. Including the fact that she knows about his sharingan and specifically how he got it.
When he makes them introduce themselves and their aspirations, Sakura changes hers from the past.
“Sakura Haruno and I wish to bring peace to the world.” She announces like it was a statement. Not a dream, not some fleeting wish. She wants it to happen, because it will happen, she can’t afford to fail.
Sasuke and Naruto look at her weirdly, like she was crazy for even thinking such a thing while Kakashi appraises her in a way she knew fondly. He hides it quickly and reverts to his distinct droopy eye. She kept composure and even laughed awkwardly to cover up how serious she was.
“Well now that that's over, I’ll be commencing my test. Meet me at the training field.” The older man is gone in a flash of smoke and Sasuke clicks his tongue but makes his way anyway. Sakura and Naruto follow quietly but the young jinchuriki keeps sneaking glances at her, it makes her wonder if Naruto really does have a crush on her but just as that thought occurs, he asks her a question.
“You seem different Sakura-chan… are you okay?” She knows how she was in the past and is not surprised that people will find her change a little if not, a lot jarring. But she can’t go back to how she was, even for the sake of pretending, she refuses to be that annoying girl she was back then. This was her second chance at life as well as others.
“I’m fine, I just had a really bad dream last night that made me realise I should be kinder to you.” She pats his shoulder.
‘Classic, he’s going to fall for you even more.’
Sakura ignores Kurama’s remark and doesn’t tell him that Naruto’s crush on her was just because he wanted to win against Sasuke, even when it came to girls. Not because he actually liked her. Not that it matters anymore, she no longer had romantic attraction to the Uchiha survivor. Not after the war. Not after all he did. They were both brothers to her, that’s all.
When they get there, Sakura is bombarded with dejavu. Kakashi wastes no time and explains how the bell test works. And like before, Naruto rushes in first but gets countered easily. Sasuke takes over but fails too and Sakura considers playing it like before though this is the perfect opportunity to get used to her old body and a new mindset.
She dashes forward, an incredible speed that causes Kakashi to close his perverted book and concentrate on dodging her attack. She weaves a horse sign, attacking him with a simple water jutsu, nothing flashy to arouse suspicion.
“Good Sakura-chan, your jutsu is very cleanly done.”
Sakura doesn’t take notice of the compliment and keeps the onslaught going, she charges her fist with chakra, at first her body isn’t used to it and she feels a burn going down her arm, though she ignores it and swings her fist anyways.
Kakashi is still faster and jumps away as she hits the ground beneath him, shattering the earth. The copy cat ninja is shocked, Sakura grimaces at her lack of strength, the crater is nowhere near her weakest back in her home world. She needed to work on her chakra control as soon as possible. However, to Kakashi, this is the first he's seen of such a technique used so brashfully. Nothing in Sakura's file indicated she was this talented or skillful. He considers uncovering his eye for her.
Sakura swings back around, quick enough to catch him in mid-air, she leaps at him again, this time with the intent of kicking him. They land in a bout of punches and kicks, Sakura tests her body’s usage of taijutsu and it amounts to almost none at all but she adapts quick enough and Kakashi even takes a blow to the shoulder when he underestimates her speed.
Sasuke and Naruto watch in wonder as they see the pink haired girl go toe to toe with a jounin. Sasuke especially since he was used to the girl following him like a lovesick puppy and barely showed any physical talent besides her above average intellect.
“Was Sakura-chan always this badass?” Naruto gapes as Sakura smashes the ground again.
“No idea…” Sasuke whispers, more to himself. To him, it was another obstacle, another goal to become stronger.
Sakura finally backs off as the body reaches exhaustion. She lets Sasuke and Naruto take over but doesn’t miss the way Kakashi always has his front facing her when he battles the other two.
“How long will it take for me to reach your first stage?” She asks Kurama in their space.
‘I would estimate 2 months.’
“I’ll have to master the 100 healing seal straight away, I can leave the healing for later, it’ll be too obvious if I use it now.”
She snaps back to reality and sees Sasuke almost grab onto the bell, she shakes her hands and runs back into the fight. Years fighting with Naruto and Sasuke by her side, she picks up their patterns in no time and syncs up. Punching whenever there was an opening, the three of them take turns reaching for the bell until Sakura and Sasuke yank them cleanly off his belt. Leaving Naruto without one yet again.
“Yeesh, you guys are energetic.” Kakashi comments, slyly looking at the pink haired konoichi from the corner of his eye. “As I said, the one without the bell will get no lunch. I am the law, when I say you can’t feed him, those are the rules.”
He ties Naruto to a post and casually walks away, saying he’ll be back later but Sakura knows better and knows he’s watching from the tree line. His actual test.
Before Naruto’s stomach could even growl, Sakura turns around and offers her food to him without a second thought, though Sasuke stops her before she could even reach the chopsticks to his mouth.
“What are you doing idiot! If you feed him, we’ll all fail!” Sasuke hisses at her, but she doesn’t falter.
“So? Naruto is hungry, if he’s hungry then he won’t be able to fight properly for the second round.. Plus Kakashi sensei won’t even know, he’s not here to see.” She lies a little. She knows Kakashi can hear them clearly.
“Our orders were not to feed him! Orders are absolute.” Sasuke tries to counter her.
For the first time in a while, Sakura glares at the Uchiha genuinely and says it loud and clear. “Those who disobey order are scum. Those who abandon their comrades are more than scum.” Her words rang loudly throughout the empty field. Kakashi freezes where he stands at the words his friend once uttered to him.
Sasuke stares at her, mouth wide open but sighs. He holds out his bento to Naruto and turns his head away. “Fine. Here, eat the stupid thing.”
Sakura smiles and goes to feed Naruto once more but is interrupted by Kakashi’s sudden appearance. This time he doesn pretend to be angry, he just smiles with his uncovered eye and pats Sakura on the head.
“Well done. You all pass. What Sakura-chan says is right, I don’t tolerate people who abandon their comrades.”
They cheer, well mostly Naruto and Sakura, and they go to Ichiraku to celebrate.
Kakashi thinks that he's found the perfect team. Weird and unconventional, just like his team once was. He pays more attention to Sakura Haruno now, she seems to be a prodigy, just like Sasuke Uchiha.
He has a lot on his hands.