Chapter Text
Toneri watched over the earth as promised, until some evil shinobi who obtained Otsutsuki powers wreaked havoc on Earth. He had been too late in giving a helping hand. As he made his way through the wreckage, he came across the body of someone familiar. The pink hair was barely noticeable under all the blood coating it. He frowned as he knelt down to feel for a pulse that he knew wasn’t there. With a defeated sigh, he looked around the wreckage that was once the beloved village of Konoha.
“Kuso,” he cursed, clenching his fists tightly. She was not meant to die this young. He had seen a glimpse of what she could do and her potential. He knew what he had to do. Placing a glowing hand on the girl's forehead, he began to activate his kekkei genkai. It was something he had stumbled upon when he absorbed Hamura Otsutsuki’s chakra. Using every last ounce of power he had, he opened up a dimension portal and traveled back in time. As expected, there was a heavily pregnant woman asleep inside the hut. He placed a glowing hand on her round belly and smiled.
“You died but you will be reborn even better, Sakura. You were always meant to be here with them,” he whispered before he turned around and made his way back to the moon where he silently succumbed to a long slumber.
—--
12 years Later
Sakura and her mother lived isolated outside clan and village boundaries, just on the outskirts of the dense forest. She lived her childhood behind the confines of the wall that had surrounded her small home, aware of the battles that were raging outside of it. Sakura had heard it all before, never stray too far away, and she had always listened to her mother. But ever since she started honing in on her chakra, she had begun to sense ‘them’. Two seemingly polar opposite chakras coming together for a couple of hours a few times a week not too far from where she lives. For some odd reason, she felt drawn to them, their chakra signatures calling to her senses, some form of familiarity buzzing in her veins. At 12 years old, Sakura is no longer considered a child, but truth be told, she had felt much older than her actual age ever since she could remember. Her mother always smiled and encouraged her growing curiosity. It seems her curiosity today would lead her to a destiny that had been paved for her since she was a babe.
–
Sakura made her way closer to the chakra signatures, towards a nearby river that encompasses the boundary that separates shinobi and civilians. She heard their voices bickering as she got closer. There stood two boys around the same age, one with a bowl cut waving his arms animatedly and the otherwith an annoyed look on his face. Sakura felt that pang of familiarity again, but can’t put her finger on why they would feel familiar as this is the first time she’s seen them. Lost in her thoughts, she missed the way the spiky haired boy tensed and threw a rock in her direction. With a shriek, she fell forward when she tried to duck from getting her head smashed by the rock. She fell out of the bush she was hiding behind, rolling forward until she was at the edge of the river on the other side of the two boys.
“You!” screamed the boy that threw the rock, his hair standing on end, making him seem almost like an agitated cat.
“Hey, you could’ve really hurt me with that!” she screamed back, her teeth gritting as she stood up and dusted herself off.
“Now now Madara,” his friend tried to calm him down. Madara turned towards him with a glare.
“Do you know her? Hashirama I swear to Kami if you got yourself followed, I will-,”
“No of course not! I swear!”
“Excuse me! How dare you two ignore me,” Sakura screamed, pouting. Madara turned back towards her and pointed a finger in her direction.
“Can you keep it down with your shrieking woman! We don’t want more people finding us here,” he hissed. Sakura huffed, her heart beating so fast she was surprised she hadn't passed out from the sheer force of it. Something about that Madara boy had initiated her fight-or-flight response. She chalked it up to the fact that he almost beheaded her with a rock, but it felt deeper and somehow she has a feeling it was the same mystery that has her feeling like she’s met them before.
“I’m sorry about that miss…he’s a bit guarded with strangers,” the other boy said. Sakura instantly relaxed when he spoke to her.
“Sakura,” she said softly, her lips turning up into a small smile. Hashirama’s face instantly lit up while Madara scoffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“Sakura-san! What a beautiful name! Come, please join us,” Hashirama invited, to which Madara hissed and voiced out his disapproval.
“What are you doing Hashirama,” he hissed. “She could be a spy. Don’t trust her so easily!”
“I trusted you just as easily, didn’t I?” he said with a smirk. Madara tensed but said nothing as Sakura made her way across the river.
Sakura smiled at her two new friends.