—— Bloom Again——

"If we're going to die anyway,then it's better to die fighting than to do nothing!"
-Haruno Sakura

——————————

It happened to her suddenly.

She didn't know the cause of it. Maybe it was the way he was eating, or the way his eyes were glistening when she had defended him after a drunk civillian insulted him on their way to her house or his smile —or maybe all together but either way her world had suddenly stop.

Everything wasn't moving. Even Naruto nor the water dripping from her sink was moving. It was as if someone had paused the universe.

The last thing she saw was Naruto's blue eyes widening as she fall and fall before her world turns dark.

::

Child,open your eyes.

Her eyes snapped open. She was floating—that was the first thing she noticed. Floating in nothing but a sea of black wherever she look.

Listen to me,child.

A smooth soft voice call upon her. She look around her. Where is she? Is this a dream? She had questions that are all unanswered.

You are in your mind, little one.

It was the same voice again. She tried to find the source of the voice. Where was it coming from?

Don't fret to find me, as I am only here to remind you your purpose. I see that you've start to notice that you are in the past.

Her purpose? She's not stuck in some kind of weird genjutsu and instead is in the past? This is all so confusing,it's starting to hurt her head

Child, I don't have much time left. You must remember the purpose you are here and protect it.

Her head starts to spin as the world grew more blurry every second.

Remember

The voice whispered softly and the world around her crack.

::

"Sakura-chan!"

"Sakura,"

Sakura recognise their voice almost instantly. She look frantically for the source of voice.

"Sasuke, Naruto? Is that you?"

"Sakura,"

"Sakura-chan!"

"Forehead!"

"Inopig? Where are you all?"

"Sakura—"

"—Sakura-chan!"

"Forehead!"

"What's going on?"

"Sakura—"

"Forehead!"

"—chan!"

She snapped her eyes open. Blue eyes fill with concern met her green ones.

"Naruto,"She greeted him as she tried to sit up. Naruto reaches out for her elbows and slowly pull her up.

She groaned as a wave of nausea hit her as soon as she sat up. She leaned towards Naruto's hand,it was warm she noted—or maybe she was just cold.

"Naruto, what happen?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well, I was going on about my favourite type of ramen, then you just had this dazed look and suddenly you just fell on the floor. I didn't know who to call, because your parents weren't home and I panicked. I didn't know whether I should call your neighbours or bring you to the hospital first —and that's when you woke up,"

Seeing as the blonde's is slowly turning purple, Sakura put her hands on his shoulder."Naruto, breathe. I'm fine now."

Naruto took a few deep breath and his face is slowly returning to it's normal colour.

'The thought of a loosing a friend;it must have been terrifying for him' Sakura thought ,biting her lips in fury. She should have protected him from that experience. She was a medic for godsake,yet here she is, fainting and not even knowing the reason why.

"But, are you really, Sakura-chan?"Naruto's voice brought her back to the real world. His cheerful persona was now gone, and was replaced with a concern one.

Sakura stiffen up. Somehow, Naruto always, always manage to read her like an open book even as she tried to hide it. Inwardly, she really wanted to burst out to Naruto about everything—from the war, to his death and now to this. But she knew, she couldn't. It would risk everything and she wouldn't want nor would she let herself lose them all over again.

The mysterious voice that she heard when she was unconscious— she named it 'Kami'(God) for now, didn't tell her whether it is possible to tell another being about her predicament. She didn't want to risk it,so Sakura with convincing smile, reassured the blond boy and nod her head. She would have to researched more about the effects of time travelling before telling anyone about it.

Naruto nod his head, pulls her up and continues to ramble about his favourite ramen but Sakura knew better. She could see the gears in his head moving. He knows she was faking it. He knows unless she doesn't want to tell him about it,he couldn't force it out of her.

He hid his worried look underneath his cheerful facade.

::

The next day, early in the morning Sakura was seen rushing to the Nara compound. She had her own theories but wanted other people's opinion on time travelling and who else better to ask for an opinion other than the  smart but lazy ass himself?

After being squished tightly by Yoshino, Sakura was told that Shikamaru was unfortunately not at home. He was training with his father at their clan's sacred forest. Seeing that Sakura was in need of her son,Yoshino took the advantage and send Sakura off with three bento boxes with only directions to the sacred forest (Even though she still remembers it from the past—but Yoshini doesn't know that)

As she neared the sacred forest,the sound of birds chirping and water splashing was audible. Her legs inch to move forward but she found herself stuck to the ground. Her hands move quickly, reaching for her shuriken to throw it to the hidden duo but it was pointless. Her hands were stucked to her side as if they were glued.

"Good work, Shikamaru," A voice called out 

"Whatever, this is such a drag," Shikamaru emerges from a nearby bush and release the jutsu he cast on Sakura.

Sakura brushes away the imaginary dirt from herself and smiled at her friend.

She waited for another figure to drop from a tree branch to right beside her before greeting both of them.

"Hello, Nara-sama, Shikamaru-kun," She bowed her head politely at the clan head.

"Ah, call me Shikaku. You must be Sakura-chan right?" Sakura nods at this and the man continues,"Yoshino talks a lot about you. Said you are good for my son,"

At those words, Shikamaru's ears went slightly pink yet no one except his father noticed.

"Glad to hear that, Shikaku-san,"

"So, Sakura," Shikamaru started,"Not trying to be rude but what are you doing here?"

"Oh, right," Sakura took the bento boxes out of its bag and handed it to them. Both accepted the bento boxes more than willingly—they were starving.

"Here, Yoshino-san wanted me to pass it to you both. I also came here to talk to Shikamaru-kun,"

"Ah, well I'll leave you both to it then,"Shikaku said sending a smirk towards his son before shunshin out of the forest. Shikamaru's eyebrows furrowed before finally sighing and mumbling something incoherent about a troublesome father.

"So,what do you want to talk about?"Shikamaru sat on the ground and open his bento box.

Sakura took her time and sat beside the boy. She eyed the forest around her "Well, this is just a hypothetically question, but do you perhaps believe in Time travel?"

::

Sakura was restless. She would turn her body to get a good angle to sleep but it didn't work. She just had too many things to worry about.

In a few years, Sasuke would be leaving Konoha. In a few years, she would be fighting Sasori. In a few years, a war will come. In a few years, she might loose her love ones all over again. In a few years, Naruto might die again. But all of this could change.

She sat up on her bed. She pondered about Shikamaru's previous word when she had asked about his opinion.

"Time travel is a troublesome thing. It is assumed that it will cause many ripples. If you were to travel back in time to probably fix things, the chances of you to make it worst is also there and high."

"What do you mean?"Sakura had asked

"I mean if let's say you travel back in time and killed a certain someone who would probably destroy the world in a few years time. You would also be stopping everything this man had done, meaning he probably wouldn't kill certain people. This certain people on the other hand might be killing you or your love ones instead."

"So it'll all end up like a butterfly effect."Sakura whispered under her breath,but Shikamaru caught it

"Theoretically yes, but it doesn't have to be."

At Sakura's silence Shikamaru explained further,"You see, there's no one ever in records that has succesfully travel back in time and went through the process. Therefore, no one really knows what would happen. All I said earlier could just be wrong or it could be the truth. Either way, one who is time traveling must be very careful to not mess things up."

Sakura nod her head and pondered in her thoughts. Unknown to her, Shikamaru let his eyes trailed all over her before narrowing and closing his eyes.

Shikamaru's last sentence in particular make her nervous.

"...Must be very careful to not mess things up,"

How does she know whether or not she is messing things up? Maybe her presence in the past itself is already changing things. Either for the bad or good,she didn't know. She really wish its the latter one.

She closed her eyes and lied down back onto her bed. She would need a lot of rest because she had a big day ahead of her.

::

"Sai, what do you think you are doing?"

"I believe I was appreciating your mounds the exact way I got off an ilustrated book Sakura, although oddly enough you lack of them."

A twitch. Sakura swore if it was Kakashi or Jiraiya who had expose poor innocent Sai to the world of Icha-icha,she would destroy, demolish every single books exist out there and tear down their limbs,piece by piece.

"Of course I lack of them,I'm only 11!Now get your hands off my chest before you land yourself at the hospital!"

"I don't think that's how transportation works, Sakura. Maybe you would like a book of mine that I can borrow you?"

Another twitch.

"Sai, it's a figure of speech,"

Sakura was seriously reconsidering her choice to get to know Sai in this timeline. Suprisingly it wasn't too hard to find him. Danzo had apparently ordered him to blend within the crowd and she first bumped into him at the market. Immediately she apologized and offered to take him out for a sweet treat.

12 year old Sai was much more annoying than the Sai she met when she was 15. This Sai had more questions about everything,especially his name—He didn't know why must he have a name when to him, he could just be refered as "That boy"

Sakura had hugged him tight by the end of his small question then. Sai became more confused but she shut him up with a threat and continued to hug him tight.

She swore to herself right then once it was the right time,she would kill and watch Danzo's downfall proudly for everything he had done.She would avenge all those poor souls he had stolen and for turning them into emotionless robots. She would make sure he regrets everything he did and make him beg for death. There was no way she would let him off the hook after everything he did.

But first, she would need to gather evidences. And for that she would need someone from the inside—someone she can trust to report to her if there was any suspicious thing going on. She knew who was perfect for that job.

"Sai, I have an offer for you."

—To be continued—

Sai's here now!Yay or Nay?

What's Sakura's true purpose of being in the past?

The plot thickens.Next chapter is probably going to be a Pre-Team 7 bonding moment and also Sakura's assessment of herself!

So look forward to that!