Reborn as Sakura and Hinata: Lost in the Wind

Betrayal

I woke up with an odd feeling of calm. Stretching luxuriously, I climbed out of bed and moved to get dressed. I picked Lipstick up and began to pet her.

"I think good things might happen today." I smiled, for once feeling more optimistic. I haven't had one of my horrible dreams recently, leaving my mood much more unburdened than normal.

I stared into the nebulous void, allowing the dog to speak to me.

"'Don't lull myself into a false sense of security?' Damn, you're sounding like Hinata right now." I scoffed, setting her down, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

I marched confidently out of my room, playing with the newly petaled charm on my necklace. I hoped down the stairs to the kitchen, preparing myself to try and cook breakfast.

"You seem to be in a good mood." Sasuke mumbled, leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee. I frowned.

"Is that illegal or something?" I sassed, "And, also, Jerry!" I shouted. Jerry poked his head into the kitchen.

"You called?"

"I told you not to let Sasuke have coffee! It's going to stunt his growth!" I scolded. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"C'mon," Jerry deflected, "It's just one cup, and he said he was tired."

"That means he should eat!" I turned to Sasuke, "You haven't eaten yet have you? It's clear that breakfast hasn't been made." He ignored me, "You're going to make yourself feel sick. You can't just drink coffee on an empty stomach!" Sasuke shot me a glare and took a prolonged drink of his coffee.

"Don't come crying to me when you get nauseous." I threw my hands into the air in defeat, going to the oven to begin making toast.

"What's all the yelling?" Ben walked into the room groggily, "Sasuke, put the coffee down, you'll stunt your growth."

Sasuke threw his head back with a dramatic groan, "Fine." he pushed the mug to Ben who picked it up with a satisfied hum. I shot Sasuke an indignant glare.

"Oh, so you listen to him but not me?" I asked.

"Sorry," he shrugged, "But you just don't scare me as much anymore."

"Ooo, should not have said that." Jerry winced.

"I will teach you to fear me again, Sasuke. Just you wait." I promised. Sasuke just shrugged and strolled out of the kitchen. A knock on the door drew all of our attention, and Ben went to answer it.

I turned back to the stove with a sigh, tending to breakfast. Sasuke had started teaching me how to cook, breakfast being the beginning of my lessons.

I couldn't help but wonder what was taking Ben so long, but my thoughts were interrupted when Sasuke walked briskly back into the room, walking over to the bread and snatching up a piece before swiftly leaving.

"Told you you'd get nauseous." I teased.

"Shut up!" he shouted back.

I heard the front door close, and Ben popped back into the kitchen.

"Hey, Sakura, the Hokage wants you." he stated.

"Yeah, I've already spoken with her." I answered.

"No, this is something else, and it's urgent." his tone grew more serious.

"Oh... okay, I'll get ready to leave now." I didn't know what was going on yet, but something about Ben's demeanor told me not to mess around right now.

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I stood apprehensively in front of Tsunade, alone in the room right now besides a few ANBU. The door behind me opened and... Shikamaru walked in? Something wasn't right. He shot me a confused glance, which I returned with a shrug. He stood next to me, and we both looked to Tsunade expectantly.

"I'll just cut to the chase since we don't have the time. You both are being promoted to Chunin." she stated bluntly.

"What!?" I sputtered. I definitely wasn't expecting that after what a disaster my match was.

"Really? Man... what a drag." I heard Shikamaru mumble almost silently.

"Congratulations, both of you." she stated. This was the part where she was supposed to smile right? Say she was proud of us? Why wasn't she smiling? My thoughts instantly started moving to the old timeline.

"That's great!" I beamed, "Thank you for this honor... but where's Hinata? She's super talented and deserves this more than I do."

Tsunade's face fell. She shot a look somewhere behind me. Holy shit... no fucking way... it couldn't be. There was no way that Hina had... Why? I felt a needle plunge into the side of my neck. Shikamaru whipped around with a shout.

"What the hell are you doing?" he gasped as I collapsed to the ground. Everything was starting to go numb.

"No... I need to... You need me... she needs... people are going to..." incoherent strings of thought slipped between my lips as I melted onto the floor. I couldn't move. I was being knocked out? Why!?

"I'm sorry Sakura, but you are just too valuable to lose." Tsunade seemed genuinely remorseful, but fuck that! I tried to pull myself up to no avail, my limbs lost to the heaviness of space.