Preventing The Inevitable

Chapter 2

Sakura had one thought, waking up screaming her lungs out.

Shit.

Because she wasn't supposed to be screaming. She wasn't supposed to have a voice at all. And she sure as hell wasn't supposed to know that.

Her last memory was a hazy mix of echoed shouts, blurred movements, and a warm liquid trickling down her cooling body. Though she couldn't remember how, it was clearer than anything that she had died. And death wasn't reversable, last time she checked.

Of course, there was the eery, human-sacrificing, resurrection jutsu the Second had created in hopes of seeing his deceased brothers again, but that option was already crossed out since this wasn't her body.

At least, not the one she last remembered having. The small figure she looked down at was young. Very young compared to the adult body she'd at the time she died.

Besides, if she really was resurrected by some future version of Kabuto and Orochimaru, one would expect her to wake up in some shady cave or a laboratory, reeking of strange liquids of unknown origin. Or perhaps even face-to-face with the reigning power of the future, asking to assist in a war against an enemy too great to subdue without help from powers of the past.

Not unlike the situation the Hokage opened their eyes to, back in the first stages of the war.

Back when a peaceful future still seemed reachable.

But Sakura found herself in none of the situations she would've expected to find herself in. She was currently lying on an unnaturally soft surface that had her wanting to melt into the material and never wake up again. Unfortunately, she'd already tried "going to sleep and never waking up again" and last time, it got her into whatever this mess was.

Careful so as to not make any noise, Sakura (but was she even still Sakura? This can't be her body. Does that make her someone else, a spirit possessing a body?) got up into a sitting position and surveyed the room she had now a better view at.

And as she looked upon a room that looked all too similar to her childhood bedroom that was destroyed decades ago, she could've sworn everything came to a complete halt for a short moment. Her heartbeat, the countless questions and theories circling around her mind, and even the constant ringing in her ears she couldn't get rid of ever since it started the day Ino died.

The next seconds went by in a haze. Stumbling on legs, too short and weak to be hers, to where she remembered the bathroom of her childhood home to be. Locking the door behind her, just in case she was in the enemy's lair (even though everything in her told her this was home). Reaching for the chair, her mother had gotten her when she first started walking. (She distantly remembered holding a single wooden leg to her chest, as she kneeled in the wasteland that was once her home.) Looking up in the mirror at where she expected the face of a kunoichi, a warrior, to be, only to find a pair of too big eyes glaring back at her. And in those young, young eyes, an innocence and naivety that she had despised herself for not giving up on soon enough.
All whilst the ringing gradually got louder, drowning out the panicking knocks and calls from the other side of the door and the thoughts that should've been racing in her head by now, until it finally overwhelmed her and she could do nothing else but let go.

She felt herself falling backward as the door behind burst open, a voice she'd almost forgotten shouting her name.

"Sakura!"

•

"I... nt... ow... just started... ming... ldn't... ear... s" 

She wanted to do nothing more than to hit whoever was making so much noise and sink back into the endless abyss she'd been in before the voices woke her.

"...nd ...e... didn't... eem... rent... ore... is?"

But her instincts, seemingly the only thing she'd brought here with her, told her to get up and find out more information. Years of having this drilled into her very being weren't gone for nothing, and she promptly threw the suddenly too hot blanket back and propped herself up. (Why was her body so heavy?)

That got the voices to finally shut up, and through blurred eyes, she looked at the figures of a much younger version of her (dead) mother and a stranger she assumed was some kind of doctor, judging by his attire and the specks of sentences she'd made out. His expression changed into a softer one that would've probably been soothing for children, but not for her because she was 25 years old. (She pushed the fact she looked like a 6 year old into a deep corner of her mind.)

"It seems little Sakura has woken up. " He leaned in and put on one of those smiles Kakashi would have on when he wanted to end a conversation as soon as he could. "My name is Yamanaka Inomaru. I am here because I heard from your mother that you were screaming really early in the morning?"

When Sakura remained quiet, the man's smile faltered a bit, and she could've sworn she heard him click his tongue. He turned to her mother, who had been looking at her with an anxious expression. "And you are sure there's no sign of someone breaking in?"

Upon seeing her mother nod slowly, Inomaru sighed as if this was the most stressful thing he had ever faced. (Like he knew about the things she had gone through the past 7 years.) Then he turned back to face her.
"Look, Sakura-chan. I'm supposed to be somewhere else right now, maybe helping a shinobi that actually needs help. I can't waste my time on civilian children having nightmares. And I'm sorry to break it to you, but we won't know what is wrong with you unless you tell us. So, please–"

While the doctor rambled on and on about things he shouldn't be telling a child, Sakura watched as her mother's expression slowly turned into one of anger, until finally, she cut Inomaru off.

"Inomaru-san, it seems you aren't going to be of any help to my child, so I'd like to ask you to leave now. And I'll make sure to inform Inoichi-sama that you consider this a waste of time." She walked towards the door and gave the man a look. "You see, I'm actually on pretty good terms with his wife, and since I'll be seeing her next Wednesday..."

Sakura sunk back into her cushion, happy to finally see Inomaru leave along with her mother, still happily chatting about the things she was going to tell the head of the Yamanaka. 

Were the situation different, she would've smiled at her mother's wits (something her father would always mention when retelling their high-school love story)  and cursed at the way Inomaru treated her for being a civilian.

The problem was that her mother was long dead, and she long since last considered anything other than shinobi, and the Yamanaka the first clan to completely perish during the war. (Their ability to control minds was their greatest strength and what eventually lead them to their demise.)
At least, that was what should be.

Now that her ears weren't ringing and the voices of the two adults far away (as much as she loved hearing her mother again), Sakura finally found time to think.

She didn't need to look back into the mirror (she wasn't sure if she could) to know her body was still that of her six year old self. A quick glance down her body and the immense weakness she felt at her nearly empty chakra coils were enough to confirm as much. And the room, she found herself back in, was as much her childhood bedroom as the whole house seemed to be her old home.

Now, there was one question that remained.

What happened?

A/N

The first chapter was quite long, but the next few are going to be around 1000 words (or a few hundred above that, depending on where I decide to cut the chapter) just like this one.

But yeah.

Still 11/9/23 but 5 minutes later.