Land of the Waves
They finish their ramen in top speed, Naruto eating 3 bowls by the time Sakura could even finish one. She found herself tearing up because she had not had the nostalgic ramen since the day she left to fight in the war. Thankfully, her teammates thought it was because the ramen was a little too spicy for her.
Kakashi leaves them with a bunch of bills and says that he would meet them again tomorrow for their first official mission. Sakura keeps her mouth shut about chasing cats.
On the way back, not even ten minutes after leaving Ichiraku, they bump into Team 10. Sakura didn’t think they would be seeing so many familiar faces so shortly and suddenly remembers how Ino would remember her. If anyone could catch on to her sudden change in persona, it was her best friend.
“Oi Forehead!” Ino yells, she looked as pristine as ever.
‘I’ll let you deal with this one on your own, kid.’
Sakura huffed at her companion but nonetheless accepted the fact that not just anyone could handle the Yamanka heiress.
“Ino.” She greeted her kindly. “Back from BBQ so soon?”
Choji cuts in, “We’re heading to another place to get the best deals! You should join us!”
Sasuke ‘hmnphs’ and walks away, leaving only Naruto and Sakura.
“Forehead, you’re wearing boyshorts, you know that’s going to make you lose, right?” Ino digs at her and then notices her hair. “My oh my, what happened to your hair! Sasuke likes long hair! Are you throwing on purpose?!”
Sakura narrowed her eyes in confusion before it hit her, she had ended their friendship because of Sasuke. She wants to smack her younger self for being so stupid. This was her chance to mend things with Ino before it was too late. Now that she was too busy for boys.
“Ah… well… I take the challenge back, I don’t care anymore…” She says, lamely.
Ino stares at her with a blank face, even Shikamaru who usually remains stoic opens his eyes in shock, while Choji keeps munching on his potato chips. Sakura cringes how little her friends thought of her and promises to become a better person, instead of the petty girl she was before.
“Are you kidding me?” Ino stomps over to her, just a couple of steps away and points accusingly at her. “You’re the one that made a whole big deal about Sasuke and now you suddenly don’t care?!”
Sakura winces and shrugs, “I thought about it and I was wrong, I-I care about our friendship more… not some boy.”
That comment made everyone stop breathing and blink to make sure it was the same Sakura they went to the academy with. This wasn’t the bumbling, flustered, embarrassed Sakura they knew. In fact, Sakura looked so different, and seemed so much more confident.
Ino couldn’t buy it and Sakura couldn’t blame her.
“What?! You can’t expect me to believe you! This is some twisted way to one up me pretending you don’t-” She stops when Sakura steps into her personal space, slotting herself so she could hug Ino despite having one arm still out pointing to where she once was.
“W-w-what are you doing!” The blonde blushes at the sudden physical intimacy, her other hand itching to hug the pink haired girl back but she refused, thinking that this was just Sakura pranking her. They haven’t been this close since… well, since they found out they both liked the same guy.
Sakura wraps her arms around the taller girl tightly. “I’m sorry for everything, I really mean it.” Her voice was muffled by Ino’s shoulder. “Lets be friends again, Ino.”
Ino lowers her arm finally and hugs Sakura back tentatively. “What happened?” Worried, she hasn’t seen Sakura this subdued since she was bullied.
Sakura doesn’t answer, or rather, couldn’t answer. The seal takes away her ability to speak away, no matter how much she wants to say that she’s already lost Ino once, she can’t. She hasn’t lost her yet. She won’t lose her again.
“Wow, I never thought to see the day you two getting along!” Naruto grinned and rested his hands behind his head.
‘For once I agree with the brat’
They hug until Ino deems it too embarrassing to carry on and gently shoves Sakura away, pretending to wipe something for her nose. Sakura could see Ino’s eyes get a little red.
“Y-yeah well, I-I give up on Sasuke too!”
“Eh? Didn’t you say you wanted to marry him earlier?” Shikamaru pretends to clean his ear and leans his weight on one leg. “I remember you wanted to dye your hair black for the wedding.”
Ino bristles and smacks Shikamaru around the head, causing him to stumble. “Shut up lazy ass, read the room!”
“You don’t have to do that, Ino. He’ll be lucky to have you.” Sakura says kindly.
“Forget it! H-he's not that handsome anyways!” Yamanaka lies, Sasuke is very handsome.
Ino thinks that if it meant throwing away a chance to be with someone as handsome and cool as Sasuke for Sakura, then she’ll happily throw away a crush for someone she's cared about for so long. She angrily thinks to herself why it takes Sakura to instigate to repair their friendship, when it could’ve been her back then. Ino knew she could have convinced Sakura to give up on the stupid rivarly thing if she didn’t add fuel to it. Whatever, she has her best friend back.
“Geez sorry! Girls are such a drag…”
The blonde girl raises her fist again, a vein popping on her forehead and the lazy teammate flinches and holds his hands up in surrender.
Sakura smiles at the sight, she's happy to be back home again.
Ino turns around and places her hands on her hip. “And you! Next time you decide to chop your hair off, go to someone who actually knows how to! You look like a duck! Come on! I need to fix this.” She drags Sakura by the hand towards her house, Sakura quickly waves over her shoulder at the three boys left behind.
“Naruto! Don’t be late for the mission!”
/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x
Sakura and Ino are at the back of the Yamanaka Flower shop, Sakura sitting down while Ino is behind her with a pair of scissors, fixing up the back of her poor attempt at a haircut.
When her friend finishes, she puts down the scissors and asks her a question she cannot physically answer.
“What really happened?”
Sakura stops breathing and her hands form a fist, clenching her shorts so hard, her knuckles turn white. Her tongue burns again. It doesn’t escape Ino’s notice, after all, she is the daughter of the best TI shinobi in the Leaf village. She guesses Sakura wants to tell her but can’t.
“You can’t tell me?” Ino asks.
Sakura stays still and silent. Ino takes that as a no.
Ino sighs and wraps her arms around Sakura’s neck from behind, pressing her cheek down on the top of her friend’s head.
“I trust you.” Ino feels Sakura loosen up and grip onto her arms. “I’ll figure it out someday. I’m just glad we’re friends again.”
“Me too…” Sakura whispers.
/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/
She holds up the ninth cat they’ve been assigned to chase down by the scruff. She eyes the feline with annoyance, repeating these low rank missions were one of the worst things she could relive. They were boring and too easy, Kakashi knew that too. Naruto of course takes that problem to Iruka sensei and demands to have them carry out a harder mission.
The one where it changes everything for Team 7.
She spends her free time meditating in her room, developing her Hundred Sealing mark, slowly but surely, pouring chakra into it every day. She doesn’t place the mark on her forehead like Lady Tsunade, she instead places it on the back of her neck, people are less likely to look there and she made sure her hair was long enough to hide it. When she's not meditating, she's discussing with Kurama how to prepare her body for his chakra.
‘It will feel like you’re burning from the inside out. You can’t let it consume you either, I may not have any hatred left but it has side effects, it’ll shorten your lifespan if you’re not careful.’ He explains.
Between training by herself and with her team, she also spends time in the library, reading up on everything that she finds useful about their village’s history and other hidden villages, what happened in the past and what they were up to.
She has a harder time trying to restrain when training with Kakashi sensei, who constantly pushes her ‘boundaries’ everytime they spar. She forces herself to lose every time but he's never truly satisfied. Sakura knows that he’s caught onto something.
The day comes when they are given the mission to escort Tazuna to the Land of the Waves. A C-rank mission, harmless and perfect to shut up Naruto’s insistent begging.
Sakura packs extra kunais and shurikens, paper bombs and an extra medical kit. Kakashi eyes her extra baggage but dismisses it as Sakura being overly precautious. They head off early in the morning and meet Tazuna, who doesn’t make a comment about her not being strong enough this time. The kunoichi glares at the old man as soon as they see each other.
Sakura keeps her guard up the whole way and senses that they’re being followed. She launches a kunai at one of them, before they could even appear out of the ground, killing them instantly as the blade sinks into their chest. Kakashi follows shortly and eliminates the other one.
Sasuke and Naruto place themselves beside Tazuna in case there were more.
Tazuna, comes clean about not being able to afford an A-rank mission and Kakashi is angered but agrees to carry out the mission despite not having the correct ranking of ninja to do so. He places his trust in Sakura, who he thinks is possibly the most talented kid he's ever met, even more so than Sasuke who he once thought was the best out of their generation. He plans to question her soon about how skilled she is, how it doesn’t make sense for Sakura to be so good without training outside of the academy.
Something is going on with his student, and he’s not sure whether he likes it or not.
They get attacked again when they reach the Land of the Waves, this time by Zabuza, one of the 7 ninja swordsmen of the mist. Kakashi recognises him instantly and orders for the three of them to protect Tazuna at all costs while he fights the swordsman one on one. It’s then when he reveals his sharingan, desperate to win and protect his genin. Sasuke is in shock, seeing one of his clan’s eyes in his sensei’s possession.
Sakura watches as Naruto and Sasuke rush over to help their sensei when the fight tilts in Zabuza’s favor. It’s like watching her memories in high definition. Sasuke throws Naruto in the form of a giant shuriken, allowing the orange clad boy to land a meaningful blow. This time, she leaves Tazuna’s side and charges her fist with chakra, sprinting over the terrain where they fight. Sakura punches him in the side, hearing a few cracks of ribs before the missing nin is propelled towards a tree, smashing straight through it.
“Go after him! I’ll help Kakashi sensei!” She orders her teammates and works on freeing Kakashi from the water sphere. She knows she's already screwed this up by helping.
Naruto and Sasuke rush to finish Zabuza off but another force comes and kills him for them, therefore freeing the copy cat ninja from his prison. It was a masked figure, needles in their hair. Sakura wants to stop them from leaving but her body seizes up and she falls down, her body twitches. She supposes this is how the Sage of Six Paths will stop her. A trial and error. She can’t change things. Deaths that she can stop.
“Let me go!” She screams inside at the fox. “I can save Haku!”
‘This is how it will be Sakura. Stay strong.’ Kurama watches Sakura tremble in anger, he also wishes he could change things but if this was how his creator wanted things to be, he and Sakura will have to live with it. The guilt of knowledge.
Kakashi and the rest of the team mistakes it as an injury and rushes to help her. She pretends to faint and lets them carry her to Tazuna’s house. She falls asleep on the way.
Kakashi doesn’t wait when she wakes up in a familiar room. Outside, through the window, she can see Sasuke and Naruto training their chakra control through their feet. Failing miserably.
“They’re training, but I’m sure you already know and can walk up trees can’t you?” Kakashi sat beside her futon, arms crossed and studying her expression closely. Thankfully not as injured as he was in her last lifetime. “Answer my questions truthfully.”
Sakura looks back up the ceiling and feels the seal on her tongue ready to stop her. She nods and takes the interrogation in stride. She’ll try to drop as many hints as possible, trusting her sensei is smart enough to read in between the lines. She could choose not to attempt to answer, save herself the pain, but she knows the seal will stop her forcefully if she tries actively to answer. She hopes that her physical reactions will give her Kakashi enough information.
“How do you know how to control chakra so well?”
She clenches up and her hands form claws, baring her teeth as her tongue burns. Her first answer would’ve been Tsunade but it won’t do.
Kakashi narrows his eyes in suspicion. He moves onto the next question.
“What is your name? Who are your parents?”
“Sakura Haruno, daughter of Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno.” She answers easily.
“How old are you?”
“Old enough.” Kakashi tenses and moves on.
“Did you know that Zabuza and the assassins would be there?”
Again, she seizes up. Kakashi watches as Sakura’s fists clench the futon covers and quickly moves on, confirming his guess.
“Did someone put a sealing jutsu, so you can’t talk about certain things?”
Sakura can’t answer.
“Who is this person?”
This particular question makes Sakura screw her eyes up and thrash in pain as blood dribbles out her mouth.
‘Why are you doing this? What if he turns the village against you thinking you’re a spy?’ Kurama growls.
“Kakashi sensei is smarter than that.” She says simply.
Kakashi in the real world ponders for a while before asking his last question.
“Assuming you’re not lying. Are you the enemy of the Hidden Leaf?”
“No.” Sakura replies confidently. “I am not.” She sits up and wipes the blood off her face.
Kakashi heaves a heavy sigh and nods, she dusts off her shorts as she gets up. She watches as Sasuke manages to get halfway up the tree before dropping like a dead log. Kakashi pats her shoulder and apologises for the rude awakening and warns her that he’ll have to report this to the Hokage. She doesn’t try to convince him not to. She has Kurama yet to reveal and wonders if she might be hunted when the truth comes out.
‘I hope you don’t regret this’
“It’s better to have someone on your side early, he’ll protect us somehow.”
She spends the rest of the day teaching a jealous Sasuke and a whining Naruto how to walk up trees. Sasuke gets it first, then Naruto later.
/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x
She stands bitterly by the front of the bridge when Sasuke almost dies and Naruto rushes in to save him. Kakashi being beaten already and outside the crystal cage, he watches too as Naruto uses his Kyuubi power for the first time. Kakashi already caught on, he assures her quietly that he’ll explain to the other two when they recover, why she couldn’t help.
Zabuza dies. So does Haku.
They return to the village, her sensei and teammates mostly healed and the bridge has been built.
Before Kakashi can sneak off to report the mission and his findings on Sakura, Kurama asks Sakura to swap with him so he and Kakashi could talk. She agrees and asks Kakashi if they could talk in private when Naruto and Sasuke go to the hospital to be checked up.
They stand on the outskirts of the town, overlooking the village.
“Sensei, I’ll be swapping so you can have more answers.”
“Swapping? With who?”
Sakura closes her eyes as Kurama takes over her body, when she opens her eyes again, its red and pupils turned to slits, her cheek bearing the same whisker-like marks like Naruto has. Kakashi raises his guard and leaps away, drawing out a kunai in front of him. Kurama takes care into suppressing as much chakra as he can so the elite shinobi won’t be alerted by his active presence.
“Who are you?”
“I am Kurama. You may know me as the Nine-tailed fox, or at least half of it. My other half is in Naruto Uzumaki. Before you try to kill me, I am talking instead of Sakura because her tongue is sealed. I can talk freely but I can’t tell you a lot of things either.”
Kakashi raises his headband, revealing his spinning sharingan in case he needed it. “So Sakura is a jinchuuriki?”
Kurama nods and crosses his arms. “She is. We were sent here to change some things. If you want the world to be saved, you need to protect our secret until you can’t anymore. That's all I can tell you.”
The jounin’s mind rushes through every possibility of what the fox means until he comes to a wobbly conclusion, a long shot at best. He relaxes his position but keeps his eyes trained.
“The future… Are you from the future?”
Kakashi wasn’t expecting a grin in response and the air from his lungs to vanish. “Well what do you know, the sensei is smart, Sakura.”
“You are?! What happens? Does the Leaf fall? How many die? How did you come back? Is Sakura older than she looks?”
Kurama growls. “I can’t answer any of those but just trust Sakura and I to do our thing.”
Kakashi grabs his head in disbelief. “Y-you. Why are you telling me this?”
Kurama raises his voice. “Because the girl is right! We need people to help keep our secret, we know the Hokage trusts you so we’re relying on you to keep him off our backs. There’s a lot we can’t say or do.”
“So I’ll be left in the dark too?”
The fox sighs and looks down on the village in thought. “Maybe when a day comes, I’ll reveal more but until then, yes. All you need to know right now is Sakura and I can handle ourselves. We’re allies of the Leaf, no, the whole world.”
Kakashi narrows his eyes and then closes them in thought. When they opened, he's in more control of his emotions. “I’ll help keep your secret but if I find that you two are doing something that is sketchy, I won’t hesitate to report.”
“That’s fine by us.”
Kakashi disappears then and Sakura is left alone to contemplate if telling Kakashi was truly the right call but concludes that she had to. Otherwise the whole world would turn against her, while she’s trying to save it.
/x/x/x/x/x/x/x//x/x/x/x/x/x
A week later.
Sakura is having a sleepover at Ino’s house when she wakes up from a terrifying nightmare...no, a memory of the war. She helplessly stands above the war as everyone is trapped by the infinite tsukuyomi, as she's unable to save her beloved friends and allies. She watches as Ino is trapped, the last time she saw her on the battlefield.
She wakes up in cold sweat, clutching her chest, heaving as quietly as she can so she doesn’t bother her best friend who was sleeping beside her. But of course, Ino has some kind of sixth sense as she pulls Sakura down by the waist and cuddles up to her. Comforting her.
“I’ll protect you this time… I’ll save us all.” She whispers. She falls asleep easily in Ino’s arms.
While she sleeps Kurama forms a training plan so Sakura doesn’t hurt herself while she tries to master his chakra. He also prays that Sakura will be mentally prepared to make sacrifices along their journey and let important events play out again, just like before.
‘Old man… This is cruel. Even for me.’ Kurama thinks.