(Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Wedding Peach.
I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's
why I'm poor, okay?
Summary: Sakura is sucked into another world, and has to figure
out a way to come back to the Shinobi world. But what if her origins lie
in this new dimension, and not in Konoha? Is she really meant to be a kunoichi?
This fic will later be AU, and centers on Sakura. No pairings. (Unless
the readers want it to be, but if any they will come much later.)
I'm kind of taking this idea of Sakura falling into another world from
Serpentine Rose. Her "Kamikaze Inn" and "Three of Fates" were so damn good,
and it was such a shame that she discontinued them. I honor you, Serpentine
Rose-san, and please don't get mad at me! I'm just fascinated with watching
Sakura growing up, and I PROMISE that this story's plot will be my own.
It is slight AU, and a slight crossover with Wedding Peach, but it won't
hinder the story for those who aren't familiar with the series. (For those
who are, you must be thinking, "What the hell...?") This is my first fic.
This is just for FUN, and I'm doing this to improve my less-than-professional
writing skills.
"Quotations"
'Inner Sakura's Thoughts'
'Inner Thoughts'
(( Flashback ))
It was a normal day in Konoha. Three kids and one teacher were waiting
at the normal meeting time above the bridge. The boy with blond spikes
and the fox face was standing, motionless, with the exception of his foot
tapping. A brunette with her hair in buns was throwing shuriken and various
other lethal projectiles, which a tall, dark-haired jounin stealthily dodged.
The pink-haired girl was sitting on a nearby bench, clamping her hands
so hard on its edge that her nails dug into the wood. 'I ought to strangle
that jounin when he arrives, SHAAANAROOO!'
A easy-going voice echoed from above. "Good morning everybody!"
"YOU'RE LATE!!!" screamed Naruto and Ten Ten. Sakura was seething.
"Eternal rival, the one thing in which I always beat you is punctuality,
and that is hardly an accomplishment!" Gai dramatically exclaimed.
"Well, you see, I had to save a poor little kid from a group of bullies—"
"Never mind whatever excuse you came up with, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura
intoned rather coldly. "The mission must be important if both you and Gai-sensei
are required to supervise us."
Her attitude had gotten rather frosty in the past couple of months.
And it was not just because Inner Sakura had been repressed for so long.
Sakura had been getting strange dreams. Very strange. They showed people,
but they looked too... god-like. These so-called people were clad in pastels,
golds, silvers, and whites, the exact opposite of what a shinobi would
wear in this world. White clothing. Looks like purity or death, people
in this culture would say. Even the daimyo would be ashamed to wear such
regalia instead of richly-dyed kimonos and gold-tipped ornaments. And more
bizarre were the ones with WINGS sprouting out from their backs.
And then the other people: they were clad in darker and even eccentric
styles, and they had various auras burning, bubbling, or just vibing out
from themselves. A few had wings, but they were those of bats rather than
of doves. The dark beings were as beautiful as their heavenly counterparts,
but their looks screamed bloody-murder-seducer rather than a pure radiance.
'It's the same dream that has fucking repeated itself every night
for months!'
Sakura would see these two peoples, or races, or whatever they were,
make war. She saw details that woke her up in the middle of the night,
gasping for breath. The blood, the screams, the tears... If she couldcompare
these dreams to anything in her own life, it would have been Haku's bloody
demise, replayed a thousand times over. She was restless in her sleep,
and when things really turned gruesome, she would jerk awake and retch
a little into the cup of water she kept beside her bed.
"Damn..." she muttered as she walked with Naruto, Tenten, Kakashi and
Gai. 'I have to tell Tsunade-sama about these dreams later.' Lee was hospitalized
for the time being, and Neji was busy — but Naruto had stopped by, so Tenten
slipped together with him and Sakura for this week's missions. Needless
to say, Tenten wasn't too happy with Kakashi's easy-going attitude when
it came to schedules and choice of literature. It couldn't be helped, though;
the organization of Konoha's genin teams were haywire after Sasuke's departure
and the battle with the Sound thereafter.
Tsunade had become Sakura's tutor when Sasuke left the village six months
ago. With Sakura's impeccable chakra control, she would easily learn the
fine techniques needed to disinfect and bind together heavy battle wounds.
That was, if only she had enough chakra to do it.
Yet Sakura was determined to make herself useful. She trained under
Kakashi and Gai to improve her stamina and chakra reserve when Tsunade
was too busy with paperwork. Kakashi gave Sakura two weights like the ones
Lee used, instead of the twelve which Gai highly recommended.
(( "Sakura, you have potential, but breaking your ankles on the first
day won't help advance your taijutsu."
"Kakashi, if you're going to comment on my teaching skills, say it to
my face, damnit!" Gai yelled.
Kakashi blinked, turning to Gai. "Huh? Did you say something?"))
Sakura was a bit uncomfortable with the advanced taijutsu, but she learned
that with more chakra, sturdier joints, and long training, she might be
able to make as powerful blows as Tsunade by slipping in some chakra into
her muscles. With Naruto and Lee as role models and training day-in-day-out,
she became a stronger and more beautiful kunoichi. The two former "drop-outs"
became her best friends.
Sakura made up with Ino, considering Sasuke wasn't around to compete
for anymore. Ino and the many other fangirls were sad of his betrayal to
the Leaf. In contrast, Sakura now was rather impassive about Sasuke. On
the one hand, she couldn't care less if he died for revenge. He was a heartless
bastard.
(( "I... I love you with all my heart!!!
"You really are annoying." ))
Whenever she recalled that night, she wanted to disappear. How could
she get so desperate? How damn embarrassing.
On the other hand, she felt so... sorry for him. His path for revenge
would bring him no happiness. He knew it; she knew it. To top that off,
those nightmares showed her the slaughter of a people she didn't know of,
while Sasuke saw it happen to his own family as a child. He didn't deserve
that. No child deserved that.
Strange: even with that personal history and cold attitude, he sometimes
did a show a bit of feeling to his teammates.
(( "Sakura... thank you. " ))
The mission, which involved taking back a few stolen scrolls, turned
out amazingly smooth for having the loudest and most hyperactive ninja
of Konoha. Naruto fell out of the tree, just while Sakura was about to
put the thieves into a sleep genjutsu. Ironically, because of Naruto's
ridiculous and un-ninja-like entrance, the enemy ninja watched him fall
without noticing the floating flower petals above. The few who recognized
the drowsy feeling as a genjutsu were about to perform the canceling seal,
but Tenten threw acupuncture needles in the right places to knock them
out. Soon, all of them were unconscious, and the team merely took the scrolls
and skedaddled.
"Tadaima!" Sakura called out as she opened the front door to her house.
"Huh, nobody home." She found a note on the refrigerator from her parents,
saying that they had a B-rank mission.
-You can help herself to anything in the fridge, Sakura- the note ended.
The pink-haired girl sighed. She set a potful of water to boil for heating
a package of curry, and microwaved a bowl of leftover rice.
Sakura plopped herself down onto the sofa, mixing her dinner. One spoonful,
and she grinned with pain and pleasure — there was a certain zing from
spicy or bitter foods that she had grown to love. She read an scroll while
she ate. She had started to pick up her old reading habits, and got interested
in reading ancient texts.
As she finished her dinner, she noticed a dust-covered box on the table
across the living room. Sakura rolled the scroll up, and look at the note
placed on the box.
-Dear Sakura,
As I was cleaning out the attic, I found a box of things from your very
early childhood. Actually, these are mementos of your first year with us.
I thought you might want to look through them.
Love, your Mom.-
Sakura opened the box and peered inside. Most of the stuff were cards,
baby trinkets and other odd commodities. 'What a pile of junk!'
But one thing caught her eye: a brooch.
It was very beautiful: a cherry blossom made from a sort of pink enamel,
was laden within a gold background.
'Why would I have had a brooch as a baby?' Sakura wondered. The jewel
was too angular and too expensive-looking, especially for a creature willing
to chew anything tinier than a coin. Furthermore, her parents were not
particularly rich — neither came from a prestigious clan like the Uchiha
or Hyuuga. The exotic piece of artwork in Sakura's hand looked as if should
have been on a daimyo's wife, or a museum.
As Sakura held the brooch in her palm, she felt an unusual sensation.
It felt warm. As if memories were rushing towards her. She heard two distinct
voices.
(( "Please take my daughter! It's too dangerous here!"
"That would require a dimensional jump. You may never see her again."
"I want her to live! I LOVE HER!!!" ))
Sakura dropped the brooch. What the hell was that?
Notes: "Tadaima" is a greeting one always uses when one arrives home
to one's family. It is often translated as "I'm home", but it's literal
translation is "I just came back", so it's a very personal greeting.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If
I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.
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