Naruto 1. Prologue

**A/N: Well, this is Starchii back for another one! This story is definitely going to be less serious than my other, current story, _The Howling._ I love having humor in things, and I love making good out of a bad situation so this story came into being! Not to say there won't be serious parts, but it generally is a fun idea I came up with. Well, the main characters are Haruno Sakura and Deidara. Now, even though there is romance between them there are a lot of parts where they aren't interacting because of the plot. Well, I think I've said enough. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. –Insert witty banter here-**

* * *

_Prologue_

Haruno Sakura's life was…boring. Well, she wouldn't really call it boring, but it was most definitely mundane, repetitive, and…okay, maybe a little boring. Every weekday it was the same thing. She woke up, got ready to go to school, went to school, dragged herself through eight forty-minute periods (with the exception of 5th), and finally was freed from school to go home.

So, it was with much reluctance on this sunny Thursday morning, that Sakura slammed her palm down onto her alarm clock and dragged her lazy ass out of bed. Stifling a yawn, she ran a hand through her long pink strands of knotted hair. Barely aware of her motions, she scuttled across the wooden floor of her bedroom and slipped down the hall to the bathroom. Downstairs, she could hear her father watching the early morning news while thumbing through yesterday's edition of _The Star Beacon_.

Running on auto-pilot, Sakura picked up her black hairbrush and ran it through her hair _almost _worried about the small chunks of hair that were getting pulled out from the knots. When she was satisfied with her work, she brushed it all back with the exception of her bangs, and twisted it into a high ponytail. Next, she slid her contact case over to her and, one-by-one, put the two flexible things onto her eyes. Blinking away a few tears, she turned on the faucet and ran her toothbrush underneath it. She slathered her green toothpaste onto it and first, brushed her teeth, then, brushed her retainer.

These normal tasks were only the beginning of the long day that Sakura endured every weekday from fall through spring.

After throwing on some clothes (she was never really sure what she wore until later), the rosette girl flopped back down onto her bed and began to wait for her committed boyfriend to come and pick her up for school. Sighing, she pressed a side button on her almost primitive cell phone and saw that the time read 6:20 A.M, which gave her about twenty minutes to just relax and think.

Unfortunately for Sakura, the next thing she heard was her dad yelling up the stairs that her ride was there. Groaning, she once again pulled herself from the comfort of her bed and skipped lightly down the steps. Her father quickly handed her the schoolbooks she needed and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Bye daddy, I love you!" She said with a bright smile before walking out of her front door. Once outside, an oddly feminine hand reached out and took one of her heavier books. Glancing up, Sakura stared into the traditional smirk of her boyfriend.

"You know I hate when you carry my books, Deidara, I am not some incapable person that needs assistance," she said with a quick roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, well you know I love doing things you hate," he said still wearing that damn smirk. Sending him a quick glare, she slipped into the passenger side of his small, maroon Chrysler Sebring LXI. Setting her books onto her lap, she glanced out of her window and heard Deidara turn on the car. The cars loud idle rumbled into life and Sakura heard the click of the automatic shift moving into drive.

"So, how was your morning?" Deidara asked, already moving away from her earlier frustration with him. That was the way things were with the two of them. They fought, but they were always ready to put those spats behind them. Unlike her best friend, Ino, and her boyfriend, Chouji, who never fought and claimed their relationship was perfect.

"Meh, same shit different day," she replied as they turned into the school's parking lot.

Geneva High School was probably the most architecturally unsound building that Sakura had come across in the small state of Ohio. The design of the building would most likely be alright in any other state, but for the harsh winter conditions that this part of Ohio were known for, everything was all wrong.

Deidara slid into an unused parking space in the middle row of the student's lot. Mornings were one of her favorite parts of the day; Sakura could simply relax for ten minutes and spend quality time with her boyfriend. Stretching her back a bit, she leaned over and rested her head on Deidara's lean shoulder.

Apparently God was not with her today because as soon as she got comfortable, a small tapping sound was heard from the window. Groaning, she looked over and saw Yamanaka Ino, her proclaimed best friend, standing there with a goofy grin on her pretty face. Akimichi Chouji, her boyfriend, was, like always, attached to the blonde's hip looking just as goofy as his partner.

Sighing, Sakura opened the door to the car and stepped out into the chilly, spring air. Ino immediately began to laugh at something, which thoroughly irked the other girl.

"What is so funny?" She asked loudly, only causing her friend to burst into even louder giggles.

"Jesus, Sakura, I knew you didn't care what you wore, but that is kinda ridiculous," she said while flicking a piece of short, blonde hair away from her face. Ino was always predictable when it came to the way she wore her hair and did her make-up. Everyday, the blonde girl wore her shoulder length hair down and straight while her make-up consisted of a thin layer of cover-up and dark- black eyeliner lining the bottom of her eye, causing her already unnaturally blue eyes to stick out even further.

Luckily for Sakura, this meant that Ino was also very predictable about the comments she made. Usually, first thing in the morning her best friend always tried to piss her off with something. The rosette girl had a feeling this was one of those mornings.

"Shut up, Ino…don't tease Sakura," she heard Deidara say from the other side of the car. Turning her head slightly to the side, she saw her boyfriend standing there with an irritated expression adorning his features. Now, Deidara didn't exactly _hate _Ino, but she did annoy him a lot. He was constantly annoyed with how the blonde girl didn't work for what she wanted; she had it handed to her. This wasn't a bad thing…it was just slightly annoying to some people.

Ino's pretty, pale face scrunched up into a scowl before it broke into a sickeningly sweet smile. "Don't worry Dei-kun, I was only teasing. Don't get your panties in a bunch," she said before skipping away with Chouji. Deidara, in turn, rolled his blue eyes and walked around the car towards Sakura.

Together (hand-in-hand), the pair walked into the school building that was their home for seven straight hours.

"You know, you shouldn't get so mad at Ino. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't even know each other," Sakura said while giving his hand a squeeze. It was true; Sakura just didn't make friends by herself. Ino and Deidara had become friends during her freshman year and his sophomore year. They immediately began to like each other as something more than friends, but it never turned into anything because of their inability to admit their feelings. During August band practice the following year, Ino had introduced Sakura to Deidara and _that _had turned into something.

"Whatever," he said as they turned the hall and flowed into the science hallway. "Well, I'll see you after homeroom Sakura-chan."

"Bye Deidara-kun," she said as he moved into Mrs. George's homeroom class.

The first half of her day was…boring. She threw that word around too much, but that's the way it felt. First period was Pre-Calculus with Dr. Poluse. Nothing about that woman was friendly. She was arrogant, slightly disillusioned with the world, and intelligent. Fortunately for her classes, she knew how to teach because…well, she had a doctorate in math education, which was something that most of the people in this class could only hope to achieve.

Her torture session was quickly followed by Keyboarding, which was most likely the most laughable class she had. Mr. Ankrom taught it. The man was generally happy and, in his own words, had a warm and fuzzy feeling surrounding him. That is until you pissed him off. Then, he turned into a raging animal bent on destruction. Luckily for her, he stayed relatively peaceful only beset by a stupid freshman playing solitaire while he was explaining something.

Almost running out of that class, Sakura followed Ino to the school library where they spent their study hall in general peace. Usually they both took this time to talk or do pointless homework assignments since the librarian held a general like of the both of them.

Fourth period was Spanish IV and she along with Hyuuga Hinata were the only juniors in the class among seniors. Señora Sweigert usually allowed them to work together on projects and in general she was a very easy-going woman.

Already feeling better about the Ankrom incident, she walked into her favorite class of the day, band. Smiling, Sakura grabbed her flute and took her seat with the rest of the Symphonic Band (named that because they were too good to be degraded as concert band). Today they were playing her absolute _favorite _song. _Scenes from the Louvre _it was called, and she was so wrapped up in warming up to play that she didn't notice Deidara until he was almost an inch from her face.

"Hello! Sakura! You alive?" He asked, waving a hand in front of her face. Snapping to reality, she saw her boyfriend standing before her with his baritone sax hanging around his neck from the thick, black neck strap hooked to the large, metal instrument.

"Yeah…I'm sorry I got wrapped up in the music," she said sheepishly as Mr. Carrel, their band director, took his stand on his podium. Deidara quickly fled to his chair farther down the row from her. Their old, rather angry band director tapped his conductor's stick on his music stand and the entire room fell silent in the breadth of a moment. Every single person at least respected the man before their group, if not feared him at least a little. He had the power to rip your soul to shreds in mere seconds, but only if he was truly angry. The task of making him angry…really wasn't that hard. Thus, this was the reason why the band lost at least one member every year.

Sakura turned to Ino, who was on her left, and watched as the blonde girl took out all of their music diligently. Ino absolutely _loved _the band. Her life began and ended with band. This was probably the only class her friend truly enjoyed during the day.

Almost too soon, the bell ending five 'A' and 'B' rang and signaled the class to go to lunch.

Sighing, Sakura swung her navy green messenger bag over her shoulder and fell into a diligent step between Deidara and Ino. Deidara quickly grabbed her hand while Ino nudged her shoulder with her elbow, attempting to get her attention. Sakura sighed and turned her head to look at her best friend. Ino smirked while holding Chouji's hand and pointed to Inuzuka Kiba, their mutual friend.

"So, Kiba wants to get the foursome together sometime this weekend, what do you say?" The blonde girl asked as Chouji grumbled something incoherently. Ever since that fateful August band practice that Sakura and Deidara had begun dating, there had been a sort of group that consisted of Deidara, Sakura, Ino, and Kiba. Kiba and Deidara both played the saxophone, thus easily became friends before Sakura and Ino knew either of them. Now, since Chouji was dating Ino it became harder to hang out just the four of them because of the jealousy that practically radiated from Ino's loving boyfriend.

"Yeah, that would be fun. Do you want to, Dei-kun?" Sakura asked, turning to her silent boyfriend. Deidara tilted his head to look down at her before giving a small nod. By this time, they were already at their lunch table. The rosette girl sat down and took out her lunch bag while Deidara, Ino, and Chouji went up to buy the horrendous school lunch.

Seeing Kiba sit down across from her, she pulled out one of her Hostess sweet treats and handed it to him. Happily, he reached across the table and took it from her.

"Thanks, Sakura! You know I love my Hostess!" He said as he quickly unwrapped the treat and began to devour it. Deidara and Ino returned around this point with pizza and French fries, which was just about the only thing edible in the entire cafeteria.

"Hey Ino, wanna hear the word of the day?" Kiba asked with a shit-eating grin plastered onto his face. Ino smiled up at him and nodded. Kiba was Ino's best guy friend, and the two of them were almost inseparable, which caused for a problem when Chouji was added into the mix.

"Okay, the word of the day is legs. You wanna come back to my place and spread the word?" He asked with a smirk. Ino frowned and kicked him from under the table while the rest of the group burst into laughter, minus Chouji.

"Hey, watch it Kiba," Chouji said with a frown while Kiba simply rolled his eyes.

"You guys are way too serious," he said as he sat back in his chair and took a few sips of his strawberry milk. At this point, Hidan and Tenten decided to make themselves known and took their seats at the table. The two of them had been dating for who knew how long, and they were also two of Ino's closest friends. Sakura never really talked to either of them, but that didn't mean that she didn't like them.

"Hey guys! Sorry we're late, but _Hidan _decided he'd get into another fight with Kakuzu," Tenten said as she placed a brown paper bag on the table before them. Slowly, she took the items of food from the bag and began to munch on some baby carrots.

"Oh whatever! That asshole deserves it, and you know it!" Hidan shouted indignantly at his girlfriend. Tenten rolled her eyes and blew a couple of bangs from her face.

About the mid-way through lunch, Kiba made his way to a different lunch table because of the awkwardness of sitting with three couples. Ino snorted when the boy left and crossed her arms in a pouting expression.

"Bastard always leaves. I mean, what the hell! Ever since Chouji started sitting here, he's been so distant…he hardly talks to me anymore!" Ino huffed and allowed herself to be pulled into Chouji's comforting hug.

"Well, look at it from his point of view for a second. We used to hang out all the time, and then you started dating Chouji. Then, instead of hanging out with him we were always spending time with Chouji. He probably feels replaced," Sakura said, but quickly realized that her friend wasn't listening anymore. Sighing, Sakura turned her attention to Deidara.

"Uh, Dei-kun, how much did you get to eat?" She asked as her boyfriend dipped a fry in ketchup and threw the whole thing in his mouth.

"I don't know, it's the usual. A piece of pizza, some fries, an iced tea, a cupcake, some ice cream, a fruit roll-up. Why? You want some?" He asked offering her some of his food. She shook her head rapidly; horrified that he could eat so much and not gain a pound.

As soon as Deidara finished his…smorgasbord, the lunch bell rang, and they were forced to go to sixth period. For Sakura, this meant physics, which she hated. It wasn't the teacher she hated, Mr. Burgard was actually insanely funny, but it was the actual context of the class that she stumbled over. Ever since day one, she hadn't understood a word of what either the teacher or the book was saying. It all seemed like gibberish to her. And since today seemed to be a gift from God himself, today was her class's day to have a double period. Luckily for her, these were the periods where she actually saw her best guy friend, Uzumaki Naruto, and her former, secret crush, Uchiha Sasuke.

"So, Naruto did you play World of Warcraft _again _last night?" Sakura asked during the break in periods. The hyperactive blonde turned to her and smiled brightly.

"You know it, Sakura! I pwn everyone in that game!" Naruto said enthusiastically. It was no secret that her friend spent every waking moment playing the online, computer game. Ever since it had come out, his life had revolved around progressing in it, which unfortunately meant that Sakura had been kicked to the backburner.

"Why must you even ask anymore, Sakura? You know the dobe derives entertainment from people kicking his ass," Sasuke said from his position beside Naruto. Sakura restrained some giggles behind her hand and watched as the blonde turned his attention from her to the black haired Uchiha.

"Well, at least I don't let myself get pushed around by my older brother," Naruto shot back, and the air instantly grew colder. The rosette stiffened in her seat as Sasuke glared angrily at the other boy. It was no secret that Sasuke's older brother, Itachi, pushed him around. Itachi was a senior just like Deidara, and the stoic man had a special way with words, which meant that every word that left his mouth made you want to punch him even more.

"Don't talk about him, Naruto," Sasuke said, and just like that the conversation was over. The rest of the class dragged by, and Sakura nearly jumped with joy when the bell rang and they went to the last class of the day.

Her last class was C.P English with her favorite teacher, Mr. Kiess. The class itself was also her favorite, and today they were watching _Of Mice and Men_, a movie rendition of John Steinbeck's book.

"So, Sakura, what's the news today?" Mr. Kiess asked as soon as she took her seat. The question wasn't uncommon; in fact, he asked her that exact question every day. Smiling, she shrugged and delivered the usual answer.

"Oh, y'know, the usual."

* * *

"Guys, I'm home from school," Sakura said as she walked in the door after school. Her father simply grunted and held up a finger to show that he was on the phone. She simply nodded and walked up the stairs to find her mother. Her mom was in the kitchen, as usual, making dinner.

"Oh, hey honey, are you going to be around for dinner?" Her mom asked with a smile as she turned to face her daughter.

"Yeah, and I think Deidara is coming over too," she said and her mother nodded before turning back to her work.

"So, how was school?" Her mother questioned as she flicked her head to get an annoying piece of red hair out of her face. Sakura opened the fridge and picked out an apple before taking a seat at the kitchen table.

"Meh, it was okay," she said with a shrug. She saw her mom shake her head and she took a bite from the apple.

"You always say that. How am I supposed to know if you're doing well?" She asked as she filled a pasta shell with whatever it was that went inside stuffed shells. It's not like Sakura really cared that much about the domestic stuff.

"You approve of the report card, so you know I'm doing well," Sakura replied before hearing her cell phone begin to ring. "Hey, sorry mom, but I think Deidara is calling."

Quickly, Sakura dashed out of the kitchen to escape further questioning and ran into her room. Her cell phone was playing its happy rendition on an Avenged Sevenfold song, and she flipped it open hurriedly.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sakura-chan, you want to go somewhere for a little bit?" Deidara's voice questioned from her black LG Voyager. A smile grew on her face as she nodded, and then she remembered he couldn't see her and proceeded to feel like an idiot.

"Yeah! I'd love to. Where do you wanna go?"

"How about we go to Arthur and Lloyds for some phosphates?"

"Sounds amazing!"

"I'll be there soon." The dial tone rang out, and she set the device back on her desk. She plopped down on her bed and glanced around at her room. It was adorned with everything that had to do with cherry blossom's, compliments of her friends and family. Apparently, everyone around her liked the irony of her name a little too much.

* * *

When she heard Deidara pull in, she darted from her room and down the stairs, yelling a quick goodbye to her parents. Sighing, she plopped down in the passenger seat of the car and relished the sound of music pounding out of the stereo. Other than the rock music, the ride back to Geneva was silent. Casually, she glanced over at Deidara and found him staring out of the windshield, grimacing. Sakura decided to let it go until they were happily inside the soda fountain with phosphates in their hands.

When that time actually came, she found her mouth still firmly shut, and she was still unwilling to bring up the look on his face in the car. Luckily, she didn't have to.

"Uh, Sakura…I've been thinking lately," Deidara started, looking horrendously awkward.

"About what? You can tell me anything, you know that," she said while reaching out and placing her hand gently on his arm. A horrible feeling began to crawl into her stomach when she saw him sigh.

"I know, but this is really hard…I've never really said this to anyone but my parents," he said, and all dread was erased from her because she couldn't really imagine him breaking up with his parents.

"Dei-kun, I'm sure it isn't that ha-," she began, but was quickly cut off.

"Sakura, I love you," he blurted out quickly. At first, she was almost positive that she misheard him, but when she looked up and he had this look of serious sincerity covering his usual countenance she ditched that idea. An abundance of emotions washed over her at the four words, and she wasn't sure where the sparkling joy was that was supposed to fill this moment. Instead, she was quickly becoming light-headed, and with a groan she lifted herself from her seat.

"I think I need some fresh air," Sakura said before turning and practically throwing herself out of the door. Cursing that there were no benches on this side of the street, she slowly began to cross the street, too dizzy and nauseous to watch where she was going. Vaguely, she was aware of Deidara moving behind her, attempting to get her attention. Then, the tone of his voice changed from annoyed to terrified.

"Sakura! Get the hell out of the way!" Deidara screamed as he sprinted towards her. Unhurriedly, she moved her head to the side and saw, with horror, a giant truck heading her way. The driver realized a little too late that she was still standing in the middle of the street, and slammed on the brakes.

Sakura inappropriately realized at that moment, that this is what a deer must feel like when caught in the headlights. Terrified, she scrunched her eyes closed and awaited the impact, but found instead she was flying away from the moving truck.

Her eyes flashed open and she caught a flash of blonde above her. Her body landed with a crunch, and her head was slammed onto the concrete of the sidewalk a bit too roughly.

The dizziness became unbearable at this point, and as she slipped into unconsciousness she realized that Deidara was lying on top of her.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that'll be it for now. Let me just explain right now that I know some of the characters were OOC. Well, I wanted them to be that way right now because this is a totally different reality than what we see when we watch the television show, Naruto. Trust me, this is only going to make it more entertaining when Sakura wakes up and finds herself with the same faces but different people. Also, most of the stuff above actually did happen to me…well, except the accident. The conversations, the teachers, the classes, those were all things that really happened to my friends and me during my junior year. So, if you find it unrealistic I apologize, but I was just trying to go off what I knew.**

**Please review, your words seriously make my day, and keep me from going insane. I love to know what you think, and a review shows me that you took time out of your day to slap some words down to either praise or criticize my work. Truly, I don't give a rat's ass about whether you love it, like it, or hate it…just tell me!**

**Oh, and please feel free to check out my other stories _A Test of Insanity _(multi-chaptered, COMPLETE), _The Howling _(multi-chaptered, In Progress), and _In Desperation _(one-shot).**


	2. Breaking the Surface

**A/N: Wow…I took a long time to update this, didn't I? Well, at least I'm not giving up! I really want this story to continue, so I hope I didn't lose any of you from the jump between the prologue and chapter one. I hope you all enjoy this one!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. –Insert some kind of comment here-**

* * *

_Chapter 1: Breaking the Surface_

Sakura awoke calmly and slowly with her mind still groggy and clouded with sleep. Opening her eyes, she vaguely wondered why her alarm clock hadn't gone off. Did she not set it the night before? Was school cancelled? Then, with a start, she remembered the day before, from the love confession to the truck hurtling towards her, it was all there.

Jumping into a sitting position, she wondered how she wasn't dead.

…Deidara…

He had saved her. His blonde hair was the last thing she remembered seeing before she blacked out. So, why wasn't she in a hospital?

The room around her was most definitely her own. The walls were their familiar shade and all the little souvenirs and gifts were littering their usual corners. Looking to the right, she was startled to notice that not only did her alarm not go off, but also she didn't even _have _an alarm clock _there_. Flipping her legs off the side of the bed, Sakura stood only feeling slightly lightheaded from the sudden change of position.

"Mom?" She called out hesitantly, wondering if her mother had any idea what had happened to the missing device.

When no answer reached her ears, she coughed uncomfortably and began to search her room more thoroughly. She ran her fingers across the walls of her room lightly, surveying all the memories stored inside of it. Suddenly, she stopped, backtracking a few paces and looking at her small wooden bookshelf that had pictures and books sitting inside its ledges dutifully. Kneeling in front of the familiar object, Sakura scanned the layers carefully looking for one picture particularly. Quickly, she got to the top shelf and found the picture missing even though it was probably the most important picture to her heart.

It was simple really. There was nothing really extraordinary about it. Pictured in the direct center was Deidara and herself sitting cozily under the branches of a cherry blossom tree located in their favorite park, which was located just a few miles from both of their homes. Slowly, she ran her fingers over the spot where the portrait once was noticing there was no sign that it had ever been there because there was now a new one in its place.

This picture she didn't even remember _taking _let alone _being _in. It showed herself in the center surrounded by Naruto on her right and Sasuke on her left with the two of them glaring at each other and Sakura smiling happily. Above all three of them stood a man she barely recognized as a teacher that they had all shared in junior high. The picture itself seemed to have been taken when they were all eleven or maybe twelve, it was hard to tell all she knew was that they were young. Leaning a bit further over, she touched the glass curiously.

"Reminiscing again, Sakura-chan?" A distinctly male voice said from her right. Jumping quickly to her feet, she staggered back a few steps before raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"Naruto? What the hell are you doing here?" Sakura questioned uneasily. Hell, she hadn't even known Naruto knew where she _lived_. Immediately, the blonde also became confused and scratched the back of his head.

"Er, you asked me to come by this morning and make sure you were awake for our meeting with Tsunade-obaa-san," Naruto replied, honesty lining his words. Her first thought was, _she had_. Since when did she rely on Naruto to be her timekeeper? Wasn't that Deidara's job?

"Oh…right…I remember now," she lied easily. Sakura figured everyone had gone loopy and she should just play along for now. Standing swiftly, she noticed his odd attire. He looked like he was more ready for a jog than for a meeting with an obviously important person. Actually, thinking about it she didn't even know whom this Tsunade person _was_.

"Sakura-chan, you should probably get dressed or we're going to be late," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. Nodding, she vaguely began to wonder when he started calling her 'Sakura-chan'. Moving around Naruto's awkward form in her room, she made her way to her closet. Opening the doors, she found a rather odd arrangement of clothes presented to her. Gulping, she grabbed the first thing her eyes laid on (so as not to cause Naruto to be any later than he already would be), and dashed to the bathroom down the hall.

Slamming the door behind her, she slid down to the tiled floor beneath her. At least everything _here _looked normal. Well, almost normal. She quickly noticed the bare counter beside the sink. Not to say it wasn't bare before, but there was a distinct lack of her father's shaving supplies, toothbrush, toothpaste, and everything else that belonged to him. Sucking in more air, Sakura stood woozily and walked to the mirror. Her eyes immediately rejected the sight in front of them.

"What the hell happened to my hair?" She wailed loudly, grasping at the shoulder-length pink locks. Suddenly, she heard pounding on the bathroom door. Naruto was asking, rather worriedly, what was wrong.

"Um, nothing. I just dropped something on my toe," she said pathetically and she heard Naruto walk away, apparently believing her lie.

Something was definitely wrong here. First the alarm clock, her mom, the missing picture, the new picture, Naruto appearing in her room, this Tsunade person she apparently had a meeting with, her closet, her dad's apparent nonexistence. And now, her long, pink hair was mangled into this…mess. Slowly, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Nothing was going to change unless she learned more about her situation. For all she knew this could just be a dream, a very vividly, descriptive dream, but a dream nonetheless.

Hearing Naruto shout something about the time, she quickly changed from her pajamas and into the strange outfit. It took her some time to figure out the straps and zippers, but somehow she managed to make it look halfway decent on herself. Glancing in the mirror, she noticed that the short locks didn't look so bad with her current attire and decided to let that tragedy slide for the moment.

Rapidly, she moved out of the bathroom and met Naruto in her room once more. He turned around to meet her, but quickly huffed in impatience.

"Sakura-chan, you still need to get your gloves and boots on. Maybe, we should have Tsunade check your mind while we're there, you seem really off today," Naruto said before smiling at her, "At this rate we'll be there at the same time as Kakashi."

Noticing that his statement was meant to be in jest, she laughed nervously before turning around to find her gloves and boots. She found them quickly, stuffed in a corner of her room. Staring at the boots, she wondered how the hell she was going to _walk _in those things. Acting as normally as possible, she slipped the leather, fingerless gloves over her hands and the knee-high boots onto her feet. Turning back to Naruto, she nodded that she was ready to go. Smiling, he turned to the window and…jumped out of it.

In shock, Sakura ran to the window and looked down to see him standing perfectly unharmed and looking up, waiting for her. This Naruto was obviously out of his mind and super powered. Did he think she was too? Because she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to jump from her window and live. And that's when she noticed. This most definitely wasn't her home. Instead of the subtle differences inside her home (well, she considered the disappearance of her mother and father a rather _major_ difference) and on herself, the entire town was flipped upside down into an almost medieval style village.

"Oi, Sakura-chan! Come on!" Naruto shouted from down below. So, without thinking, she launched out the window after her friend. Noticing her obvious blunder a little too late, she closed her eyes in terror until she landed…she landed…safely…on her feet…without even a prickle of pain. Shocked, she allowed Naruto to pull her alongside him, not even really feeling the incredibly fast pace they were moving at.

It took a rather significant amount of time for Sakura's brain to catch back up with herself after taking a flying leap out of her window and living. Her mind slowly settled back into itself and barely registered that the buildings and people were flying past them as they basically flew through the village. Sure, she was shocked. But how much was she forced to endure before her brain simply exploded? Sakura figured she was in the numb state now and that nothing would really affect her anymore. Naruto brought her to the front of a rather large building, actually, she noticed, it was the largest building in the little village. So, it was without much deduction on her part that she noticed that this must be where this Tsunade person was.

Without wasting anymore time, Naruto rushed up the stairs making Sakura wonder how they weren't falling on their faces. She was barely conscious of the fact that Naruto had never been this lean in her original home…reality, perhaps? Yes, she would start referring this as an alternate reality from her own. It was obvious this wasn't normal in all meanings of the word.

Suddenly, they burst through a single wooden door at the top of the stairs much to the protest of a dark haired woman sitting behind a desk. As they flew into the room, a rather busty, blonde woman looked up from what appeared to be a mountain of paperwork.

"Ah, Naruto, Sakura, you've finally decided to join us. Kakashi was even here before you," the woman said as she stood from her seat behind the important looking desk. Oh, yes, Sakura never thought she would consider a _desk _as important, but today just seemed to throw shit in all of her former beliefs.

Looking around the room, the pink haired girl finally noticed the presence of two other men standing there. The first one she noticed had horrendously pale skin and dark black hair. Perceiving that she was looking at him, he turned and gave her a faint, _very creepy _smile. Smiling unsurely in return, she quickly averted her eyes to the other man. Shock overtook her features as she stared at the man from the picture. The silver-haired one that she remembered having as a teacher in junior high. Shaking her head and vowing to contemplate this further at a later date, she returned her attention back to Tsunade.

Tsunade gave a large sigh and grabbed her forehead with a firm hand. "Now, what I have to discuss with all of you is actually rather important, so you should all take a seat," she began, gesturing to the four chairs in front of her desk. They all willingly obliged.

'_Oh, this is just wonderful. First, I wake up not knowing where the fuck I am, and now I'm apparently involved in something life-changing that I most likely won't know anything about! Absolutely fucking perfect,' _Sakura thought, allowing her anger to overtake her thoughts.

"Now, as you're all very aware of, the Akatsuki are heightening their search for Naruto seeing as he is the last remaining jinchurikki. We are unaware of which current members are actively pursuing him, so I need all of us to be very well versed on the techniques of all seven of the remaining members. However, two of the seven of these members we have absolutely no knowledge of besides their names, so I don't expect you to find much on them. Alright, now that that's out of the way I will get to point of this meeting," Tsunade said giving Naruto a very frightening glare, just tempting him to say something. As for Sakura, she was almost sure the woman before her was speaking in gibberish.

"I am temporarily removing Naruto from active duty missions outside of the village walls." And just like that all hell broke loose. Naruto immediately shot up from his seat in protest.

"We've already had this conversation before! We agreed that I was not going to let my precious people die defending me while I cowered like a pathetic dog inside the village!" He shouted while slamming his palm down onto Tsunade's desk right next to where the woman was standing. Apparently, his anger had nothing on that of the blonde woman's.

"Naruto! Sit down and shut up! You know very well that that is not what I'm implying, damn it! Their lives are put in even greater danger if you are ever caught. Judging by what we know of the Akatsuki's plans so far…if the Kyuubi was ever taken from you, the world as we know it would be destroyed. Do you really want that Naruto?" Tsunade bellowed as the force of her palm broke the desk clean in half. Sakura was damn near pissing her pants. What the _fuck _was going on?!

Naruto immediately sank back into his seat, feeling defeated. Tsunade had obviously made him realize something and was now sulking in his defeat, but Sakura could clearly see in his eyes that he had more fight in him.

"But, that's not all I was going to say. Now, since Naruto is being taken off of active duty, the rest of you are going to need to be temporarily relocated to different teams. I can't afford to have some of my best shinobi off the roster right now," she said placing a shaky hand to her forehead.

Okay, so Sakura's Japanese history was a little rusty, but she was almost positive that shinobi equaled ninja. And she was also almost positive that Tsunade had just referred to her as one of them. _'Right…I'm apparently living every nerds fantasy…'_

"Alright, Sai! You're going to be continuing ANBU missions for now seeing as your rather…unique personality clashes with almost every other team besides these idiots." Sakura was slightly offended that she thought that she got along easily with…_that._

"Kakashi, I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing with you. For now, you will be put on missions whenever I feel you're needed." Great, that just left herself to be placed somewhere else…whatever the hell that meant.

"And Sakura, you're help is always needed in the hospital and you will taking up the position of Jounin team leader for Ino's team seeing as you two get along quite nicely. Though, I must warn you, you're going to need to work yourself into their strategies. They're rather unwilling to change for anyone now that Asuma has passed away."

_'Um…what? Am I a doctor or something? Wait, Ino! Great! Maybe she'll know what the hell is going on!'_

Unfortunately, Sakura's inner musings were cut short when Tsunade began to talk once more. "You meet with them tomorrow morning in their usual training grounds," she said simply before calling in a woman named Shizune and asking her to make arrangements for a new desk to replace the now broken one.

"You're dismissed!" The others immediately disappeared leaving behind a rather confused Sakura. Laughing nervously, she stood awkwardly from her seat and began to inch to the door that she had entered through. Tsunade was looking at her rather oddly and raised an eyebrow at her student's rather abnormal behavior.

"Sakura are you feeling okay? It is unlike you to arrive late for anything. Do you need to talk to me about anything?" Tsunade asked, feeling concern wash over her for the girl she basically considered as a daughter. Sakura had grown so much from the awkward little girl that had come marching into her office demanding that she teach her. Now, she was a strong, beautiful kunoichi.

Sakura noticed that now that the two of them were alone that the woman seemed…friendly. Maybe, they were close here or something. Or maybe she was just acting so odd it elicited surprise from everyone.

"Uh, no, I'm fine Tsunade-sama. I think I'm going to go the library and then go home for some rest. See you later!" She said as she slipped out of the door and basically ran down the stairs and out of the building. Slowing to a walk when she was far enough away, she began to wander not really knowing where the hell she was going. Deciding to actually go to the library like she had told Tsunade, she began to search for anything remotely close to looking like her usual safe haven.

Sakura desperately needed more information about her situation. She was running out of time…fast. Tomorrow she was expected to go in front of a whole team of ninja and sound like she knew what she was talking about. Well, right now, that was most definitely not going to happen. Every word that had left Tsunade's mouth had sounded foreign to her ears, so she quickly found herself in front of the Konoha library.

_'Well, at least now I know where the hell I am. Konoha…'_

Stepping hesitantly into the building, Sakura found herself in heaven at the appearance of all the neatly shelved books. Now with more confidence, she made her way through the many shelves looking for books that could possibly help her in her quest for knowledge. Actually, this turned out to be one of the best ideas she had had all day. Quickly, she had found about five books that would most definitely serve her purposes. _'Konoha's History, The Secrets of Taijutsu, Ninjutsu for Beginning Shinobi, The Elusive Genjutsu, _and _A Medic-Nin's Guide to the Body, _which was apparently written by herself along with Tsunade and that woman, Shizune. The medic one was picked up _because _she had helped write it meaning she obviously knew a lot about this medic-nin business.

Sakura eagerly brought her books to the main desk to be checked out, correctly assuming that this Sakura would have an account here. The woman behind the counter looked at her with a smile shining on her features.

"Welcome back, Miss Sakura. It's nice to see your face around her again. You've been so busy with missions lately; I've rarely had the pleasure of seeing you around my humble library. Ah! I see you're checking out this one again. Please, try not to write on the pages again, dear," she said, gesturing with her last statement to the history book. Sakura smiled happily and nodded to her even though she couldn't even remember writing on a book in her entire life. Well, except Macbeth, but that had been necessary, a teacher's orders.

"Oh! And we've just received the latest copy of the Bingo Book, I'll just slip it in there for you free of charge because you've been so good to us here," the woman said, placing a little black book on top of her other books.

"Um, thank you," she said uncertainly. Slowly, she took the stack of books and made her way out of the door. A very startling realization then came over her.

"Where the hell do I live?" She asked herself out loud as she began to aimlessly walk along the streets again. Suddenly, a gift from God came into view over her stack of books.

"Naruto! Wait up!" Sakura shouted as she began to uncomfortably hobble over to her friend. The blonde boy instantly stopped at the sound of her voice and turned to face her.

"Um, do you think you could help me with these? I'm having a hard time walking home with all of these books," she said sheepishly, lying through her teeth. In reality, the books barely seemed to weigh anything at all, which seemed odd to Sakura.

"Sure, Sakura-chan. But, I'm surprised your alien, super-strength isn't making it easier for you," Naruto said as he laughed a little. She could automatically tell that there was something wrong with her friend. He was most likely still upset about what had happened in Tsunade's office.

Naruto took three of the books off the top of her stack and they began to walk again. The boy's attention turned to the little black book on top of his pile.

"Hey! You got the new Bingo Book! I need to get one of those. How much did it cost you?" He asked as he led the way to her house. The funny thing was that he didn't even notice he was leading Sakura around. The question took the girl off guard because she had been watching their surroundings so she could find her own way home later.

"Huh? Oh, it was free. The librarian said that I could have it because of everything that I'd done for them in the past," she said as they continued down the path.

"Ugh! You're lucky! I'm going to have to buy mine!" He said with a grimace lining his usually bright features.

"Well, maybe if you used the library more than you would get a free copy too," she said with a barely constrained giggle leaving her lips. Somehow, she just knew that Naruto here loathed reading just as much as her own Naruto. Hell, Sakura would probably just give him the damn book because she didn't even know what it was. But there was something in her that was stopping her.

Naruto simply grunted a small laugh as he stopped in front of a house. Sakura stopped next to him and realized that this must be her home. They walked up to the front door, which was thankfully unlocked because she wouldn't know where to find the key if it wasn't. Also, she wasn't really looking forward to trying to jump up to her still open bedroom window.

"Thanks, Naruto. Have a good afternoon," she told him as he put the other books onto her current stack.

"Anything for you, Sakura-chan. See you later!" Naruto said with a big, bright smile lighting up his features. Sakura immediately felt the need to return that smile; it was just so damn contagious. Then, he began to walk away while waving to her. She just continued to smile because of her current inability to wave. Sighing, she turned and walked into her home.

Using her foot to close the door behind her, Sakura quickly made her way over to the living room couch. Carefully, she placed the pile of books onto the coffee table in front of the couch and then went into her kitchen and grabbed herself a glass of ice water. Finally, she moved back to the couch and took a seat on the plush cushions. Sipping from her glass, she picked up the Bingo Book still on top of the other books. It seemed so tiny in comparison to the other books she had picked up and yet she could tell it held great importance.

Flipping on the television and turning down the volume, Sakura opened up the black book to the first page.

_This is the Bingo Book of Konohagakure. It holds all of the former and present threats to the village and any known information on these criminals. If any of these people are ever found, they are either to be killed or avoided at all costs. Also, let it be known that there is a small section in the back of this book that holds the names and pictures of members of this village that are currently featured as threats to other villages._

Well, that was rather blunt, but at least it solved the mystery of what the fuck a Bingo Book was. Curiosity overwhelming her, she flipped to the back of the book to see who in the village was a threat.

Featured on the first page was Tsunade, which seemed almost like a no brainer to the pink haired girl. Continuing on, she found Kakashi, Sai, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Naruto, and a couple of others she didn't know, such as, Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, Yuuhi Kurenai, Morino Ibiki, Anko, and a deceased man named Sarutobi Asuma. Then, on the last page, she saw a smiling picture of herself for the entire world to see. Her eyes widened in shock, and she instantly began to read the information on herself.

_Haruno Sakura  
Age: 17  
Birth Date: March 28  
Rank: Jounin  
__Strengths: Proficient in Genjutsu and shows high ability in Taijutsu. Also, medical abilities are said to surpass her mentor, the current Hokage, Tsunade.  
__Weaknesses: Never been witnessed to have particular talent in Ninjutsu._

Other than that last part, which was rather rude, she found her profile to be rather flattering. Satisfied, she flipped back to the beginning of the book to look at the actual threats to the village. Not expecting to recognize any of the people, she was shocked to find on the first page a grimacing portrait of Sasuke. Blinking rapidly, she read through his profile and the reason for him being a threat and shook her head.

_'He betrayed us to kill Itachi? So, apparently, the guy's even more of a nut job here than in my reality.'_

Flipping away from the eerie feeling that Sasuke's betrayal left in the pit of her stomach, she turned the page and, sure enough, there was the profile of Itachi. Apparently, he was a member of that Akatsuki organization that Tsunade had been going on about. Losing interest, she turned the page once more to see a _blue man _named Hoshigaki Kisame, who apparently was partnered with Itachi in the Akatsuki. Shivering at the sheer fact that blue people could exist, she flipped the page and saw a black and white man with a Venus flytrap encasing his head.

_'So, apparently, everything is possible in this freak show.'_

Reading through the plant man's bio only enforced her opinion. She quickly began to feel nauseous when she read the fact that he ate his victims. Actually, the eloquent way the book put it only seemed to further her warped opinion on this place.

_After defeating his opponents, Zetsu then begins to consume the evidence of his battle, which shows a rather shocking display of cannibalism._

Well, she would say so! To avoid puking all over her living room, she flicked to the next page. She was quickly becoming revolted by the sheer amount of psycho's that this village had vendettas against. Why couldn't the crazy be here? Then, maybe they wouldn't have to worry about anyone kidnapping Naruto.

Finally, she decided that she was only going to look over one more page and then be done with that book for as long as it was physically possible. Turning the page away from the picture of a deceased man that looked eerily similar to snake, she felt as though her chest was going to explode at the picture she saw on the next page. Quickly, she backtracked to make sure she was still in the criminal's portion of the book and found that yes…she was. Sakura's breath left her lungs as she stared into a rather familiar smiling face. There in large, bold letters was the last name she had expected.

_Deidara_

* * *

**A/N: Well, there it is folks! I hope you enjoyed her initial reactions to everything. I thought they were kind of funny, if not a bit frightening. I mean, if you woke up in the middle of nowhere, wouldn't you be scared? Poor girl. Anyways, please review!**

**Please review, your words seriously make my day, and keep me from going insane. I love to know what you think, and a review shows me that you took time out of your day to slap some words down to either praise or criticize my work. Truly, I don't give a rat's ass about whether you love it, like it, or hate it…just tell me!**


	3. Identity Crisis

**A/N: Well, I'm finally back and I decided I wanted to get this chapter up as a Christmas present for my readers! Maybe some of you will appreciate it! Or, maybe not. Either way, it's all you're getting out of me so…like it! That probably wasn't the wittiest thing I could have said just then but oh well.**

**Thanks to all of my reviewers so far: Artchick, TrinaK, wateveruwannacallme, Everfly, black55widow, TsuShi, pawikan, CrazyCat95, Cute_Kitty16**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. –Witty banter, perhaps?-**

* * *

_Chapter 2: Identity Crisis_

Dusk filtered slowly through the windows in Sakura's home. The television flickered patterns against the wall as the pictures moved in the slowly dying light of the day. Rubbing her head from the headache that had gathered behind her temples about five hours ago, she flicked shut the medical book that she had co-authored. Sighing, she glanced at the glass of water she had brought with her from the kitchen when she had first ventured into the books. The ice had all melted and the glass was only one-quarter of the way full now.

Sakura had long given up on the Bingo Book because of her sheer inability to believe all the things that were featured there about Deidara. It seemed ridiculous to think that her Deidara could possibly have mouths in the palms of his hands that he used to create bombs, which he considered art. Her Deidara hated art. Well, he hated the art you could find in a museum. Music was his art in her reality. Here, his art was apparently to blow shit up. Also, the small section that described his attack on the Kazekage, who was the leader of the Sand Village she had later learned, was completely implausible. Deidara wasn't a ruthless killer. Someone with the capacity to love someone the way he loved her just couldn't be a killer. Could he?

This was the point in her internal musings that the headache had come on. Getting extremely frustrated, she had slammed the tiny book shut and had started into the history book. After she had finished that one, including all of her hand written notes in the margins, she had read through all the technique books and finally found herself at the medical book. The last one was the one that had held her attention the most. She found it fascinating that the people here could use their chakra, or life force, to heal another. Chakra also interested her, and apparently she was pretty good at handling it because the medical book had made many references to her near perfect control of it.

The books had left her with an empty feeling. The knowledge presented was indeed fascinating, but she still had no idea how to use the intellect she had actually gathered. Tomorrow, she was going to go in front of Ino and look like a complete idiot and if this Ino was anything like the one from her own reality then she would never live it down.

Reluctantly flipping off the television, Sakura sat up off the couch and dragged her feet over to the stairs to get some rest. The pain in her head had intensified, spreading to encompass the entirety of her skull. It was becoming unbearable and all she wanted to do was lay down on her bed and sleep forever.

When she finally reached her room, she threw herself onto the soft mattress without worrying about changing her clothes. Shutting her eyes tightly, she felt herself drift easily into sleep. Unfortunately, as soon as she slipped away from reality a dream exploded into her minds eye.

_She couldn't see through the blinding lights overhead as they flickered in and out of view. Faces kept peering down at her, but their faces were shadowed from the brightness above them. They kept speaking to her but her ears just couldn't stay focused long enough to understand their words. A hand grasped her own firmly and she felt comfort wash through her from the contact. The pain in her head was once again unbearable except this time the pain was stemming from the back of her skull._

_All at once, she became aware that she was still lying down and she was moving at a rapid pace to some unknown location. Her body reacted rather violently to that piece of information as she began to thrash on the bed the people were moving her in. The grip on her hand tightened as_ _she flailed against the unfamiliar. Konoha seemed like a paradise compared to this strange experience._

_The bed abruptly stopped moving and a gentle hand caressed the skin of her forehead, wiping away a few strands of sweaty hair. Suddenly, a gust of warm breath assaulted her cheek as someone kneeled next to her and spoke comforting words into her ear. The familiar, calming voice soothed her and she stopped resisting, trusting the voice completely. Weakly, she squeezed the hand that was holding her own and in response a pair of warm, soft lips touched her own in a sweet, lingering kiss. A small electric tingle passed through her from the contact even after it was over._

_The voice passed over her once more as a warm drop of liquid dripped onto her face, sliding down her round cheeks and gathering in her sweat-matted hair._

"_I'm so sorry, Sakura. I love you…please, just stay with me."_

Sakura lurched out of bed, running a shaky hand down her sweaty face. Groping through the darkness, she attempted to grasp at the shadows clinging to her walls, positive that Deidara was there. His voice in her dream had seemed too real to be part of her imagination. The smell of his hair still lingered sweetly in the air around her.

Glancing around the room now that her eyes had adjusted to the moonlight, she found no one there. But there still seemed to be a sense that something wasn't right about the place. Taking a more thorough look, she found the picture of her and her teammates was missing. Narrowing her eyes, she swished the covers off of her body and stood. Walking cautiously to the shelf where the portrait had originally been, she found no trace of it ever even being there except for the small clear area inside the thin layer of dust that coated the shelf.

Her eyebrows furrowed in disdain. Who could have taken her keepsake? She didn't even remember taking the picture, but it still left her feeling a little empty at its absence. Sighing, she returned to the comfort of her blankets, looking for her alarm clock before realizing that it was gone. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she dropped back onto the bed and closed her eyes hoping for a dreamless sleep. Fortunately, this time she was granted her wish.

The following morning, Sakura awoke unnaturally early to some internal clock that her body had obviously installed. Rubbing her eyes as early morning sunlight drifted lazily onto her form from the window. Getting out of bed once more, she looked over to mourn the absence of the picture only to find it sitting dutifully in its usual spot. Maybe that part of last night had also been dream. Or maybe she had been so tired that she had hazily looked at the wrong shelf. Whatever it was, the picture was there now, so she decided to ignore it for now and categorize it later.

Groaning, she slipped out of her bed and walked lazily to the bathroom for a shower. A cringe graced her features as she looked at her shortened hair in the bathroom mirror. It wasn't so much that she hated the way it looked as the blatantly obvious difference between the girl from this reality and herself. Fingering the pink locks, she stripped from her pajamas and stepped into the blissful warmth of the water to forget last night's happenings.

When she had fitfully cleaned herself, she got out and wrapped her body in a soft blue towel as she walked back to her bedroom. Not bothering to close the door since no one lived with her, she ripped the towel off and dressed herself in the confusing outfit from the day before. It seemed her closet was filled to the brim with the same outfit. It was almost infuriating that there were barely any normal clothes inside. What did she wear out with her friends? This? She certainly hoped not.

Running a quick brush through her hair and slipping on her gloves and boots, she glanced at herself in the full-length mirror right next to her door. Slumping her shoulders in defeat at the complete turn around of herself, she placed a shaking hand to her forehead. Did she even know who she was anymore? How could she act like someone she had never met? Did she even want to? Her normal self just wouldn't be good enough here. Here she was being forced to become another person. A person with the same name, but with a completely different life. The faces of her friends flashed briefly through her mind. They were the people that held _her _as important. Here the same faces and names looked at her but they were expecting a different person to be looking back at them.

The question was could she be that person?

The headache began lingering in the back of her head once again and she stopped her thought processes. She didn't need to be worrying about that right now. She needed to go find where Ino was.

Skipping down her stairs, she walked to her front door and left it unlocked. She figured that being in a world of ninja's that it didn't really matter if her house got broken into. One of her friends would probably track down the robber and beat the living shit out of them before they could even say "one".

Nibbling on her lower lip, she glanced down the street to see if she recognized anybody. Shop proprietors were opening up there businesses as the sun climbed steadily higher in the sky. Shielding her eyes from the glaring brightness of the rays, Sakura began walking unsurely down the street. Annoyed, she flung down her hand and squinted ahead at the street. Suddenly, she ran into someone.

The person made a grunting noise as they stumbled back a few steps. Sakura's arm immediately shot out from instinct to catch the person before they fell. Her hand wrapped firmly around their upper arm and yanked her back to a steady position. The girl's mind was still running through the possibilities of just how she had gotten so fast when the other person spoke.

"Geez, Sakura. Mind watching where you're going once in a while?" The person said in a clearly feminine voice. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Sakura finally looked at the other person. The girl was tall, taller than Sakura, with long, pale blonde hair that was tied up in a tight ponytail. A small strand covered her eye, and the one that was visible was a startlingly familiar shade of perfect blue.

"Ino?" Sakura asked with trepidation.

"Of course it's me, forehead, who else would it be?" Ino said with a scowl marring her perfect, pale face. For some odd reason, the fact that the blonde beauty before her was her friend shocked Sakura into stillness. Ino looked like her the Ino from her reality with her round, pale blue eyes and pale blonde hair, but the way the two held each other was completely different. This Ino stood before her with her hands planted firmly on her hips, expecting an answer that would never come. Confidence about herself practically radiated from her, a confidence that her Ino had never been able to come to terms with. Then, there was the use of the nickname. It was a nickname that her Ino had long given up on because of Sakura's own insecurity with herself.

"Are you feeling okay, Sakura? You look like you just got hit by a bus." The sound of her friend's voice fluttering from the very different girl brought reality crashing back down.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Just have a little bit of a headache," she whimpered. The sound was pathetic and it made her force a calm down on herself that didn't exist at the moment. "So, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm going to meet with my team so we can all meet our new Jounin team leader. Tsunade-sama refused to tell us who it was, so we're all a little anxious. I hope it's not Genma, that man does _not _know how to keep his hands to himself," Ino said flippantly as she began to walk again. Sakura quickly caught up with the blonde and walked beside her as they moved through the village heading for the forest.

"I wonder why she wouldn't tell you guys," Sakura mumbled more to herself than to the girl walking along with her. Ino answered anyway.

"Probably because she doesn't want us to flat out refuse again like last time." Sakura pondered just telling her friend that _she _was supposed to lead their team, but held herself back for the pure entertainment that the next moment would bring. It seemed that Ino didn't even notice that Sakura was following her because the blonde didn't question her.

When the pair walked into the clearing in the forest, Sakura noticed that Chouji was already there with another man with brown hair that was pulled up into a ponytail, giving him an almost pineapple look. She noted he seemed rather bored with the entire situation.

"Chouji! Do you have to eat again?" Ino practically shrieked across the clearing to her teammate who sat munching a bag of barbeque flavored potato chips.

"Ino, I needed something to do while me and Shikamaru waited for you," Chouji protested as he slipped away from her prying grasp. With a firm hand, Chouji had Ino pinned a safe distance away from his food by her forehead. Meanwhile, the brunette man simply sighed and ran a hand over the top of his head.

"How troublesome," Sakura heard him mutter. The entire group seemed to ignore her presence as they fell into an obviously familiar routine. She felt sorely out of place.

Regaining her confidence, she coughed lightly into her hand to attempt to get their attention. They continued to ignore her as Chouji and Ino fought about how much Chouji ate and Shikamaru lay back on the grass to take a nap. Sighing, she thought about giving up before a rather loud voice shot out of her mouth.

"Hey! Are any of you idiots listening to me?" Her voice reverberated through the clearing successfully gaining the attention of the three shinobi. The question shocked Sakura almost as much as it shocked the team before her. She hadn't even thought about, it had just spilled out of her mouth like water. For a moment, she felt like a completely different person as she placed her hands firmly on her hips and began to speak.

"I'm your new Jounin team leader, and I'm not about to let you kick me out like you did with the last poor soul that tried to lead your squad. Now, I know that we're all friends and that's not going to change, it's just that now I'm the one that going to be calling the shots," she said. What the hell was she saying? She didn't even know that they had tried to have a Jounin leader before her. Was the brown haired one her friend? She didn't even know his name. She had always been rather timid and hearing her voice booming across the field was extremely unsettling. Who was she?

When she finally felt control of herself again, she noticed the rather shocked expressions of the people before her. Even Shikamaru looked a little more aware than usual. Giving a sheepish smile, she walked over to them.

"So, what are we doing today, mighty leader?" Ino asked sarcastically, breaking the tense atmosphere that had settled over them after her outburst. And with a horrifying revelation, she realized she had no idea. The question began to bounce around through her mind and memory as she searched for a decent answer. In reality, Sakura just didn't know that much about ninja's, but wasn't that the point. Weren't they supposed to be mysterious?

"I suppose we could…fight," she finally said after about ten minutes of blank silence. The history book she had read last night had had a lot of things about fighting in it, so she thought that maybe that could be an appropriate answer. But judging by the looks on the other's faces, she was horribly wrong.

"Fight?" Shikamaru lazily drawled out, making Sakura feel like an idiot. Chouji scratched his head in bewilderment and Ino looked downright pissed.

"Do you mean spar, Sakura?" The blonde asked with her arms crossed firmly under her chest. Sakura quickly ran through the definition of the word 'spar' and realized that it seemed like a plausible idea.

"Yeah, I mean spar. Sorry, I've been a little out of it lately," she said apologetically. Shikamaru and Chouji's faces both relaxed, but Ino still looked ready to come at her with a butcher knife.

"We never spar, we don't need the practice. We practice mostly with our father's and work on our techniques with them. We've always been prepared to fight in the traditional Ino-Shika-Cho formations," she spat out, making Sakura cringe slightly under the weight of her stare. Another silence spread throughout the four as Sakura contemplated what to say to _that. _Then, something Tsunade had said the previous day rang out in her mind.

"Well, I need to find a way to fit myself into your formations, so I think we should have a little sparring session," Sakura said with an air of finality that left little to no room for argument. She head Shikamaru mumble a small 'troublesome' under his breath before standing and dusting himself off. Chouji also stood and Ino followed reluctantly.

"Okay, so who fight's who?" Chouji asked as he munched another potato chip, ignoring Ino's small glare.

The question left another pit in Sakura's stomach. How was she supposed to reply to that? Thinking of her own reality, she replied with an answer that would make sense there.

"Well, I'll fight Ino, and you two boys can fight," she said even though she wasn't even sure of their skill levels. Ino smirked almost imperceptibly, and Sakura wouldn't have caught the gesture if it didn't look so blatantly wrong on her friend's face.

"Finally want a rematch, Forehead Girl?" she asked with the same smirk planted on her face. Sakura nodded slightly, not sure really when they had fought before but not really wanting to sound like a complete idiot.

Shikamaru and Chouji walked a little off to the left and began a small Taijutsu match. Watching the beginning of their spar, Sakura turned her attention back to her own opponent. Ino was already in a fighting stance, ready to fight against her friend. Her blonde hair swirled lazily behind her in the wind, a few strands pulling away from her ponytail. Sakura gulped slightly in her throat, only now realizing what she was getting herself into. Here she was, facing her friend, her ally, and her teammate. And at the moment, she was a completely lethal assassin, preparing to fight Sakura with her bare hands.

"Okay, let's make this a purely Taijutsu based match," Sakura said only loud enough for Ino to hear. Taijutsu was the only form of ninja art that Sakura had understood from the books last night and according to the Bingo Book, it was the form she was most proficient in.

Sighing, she squared her shoulders and placed her fists in front of her in a loose defensive position. Her body immediately reacted and allowed her feet to slip into their familiar stance. Suddenly, she was no longer in control.

* * *

That night, she returned to her home feeling some familiar aches and pains along with new ones. Though, Sakura was almost positive that Ino was feeling significantly worse. The blonde had left the training field covered in bruises and in a generally sour mood. Sakura made a mental note to never suggest sparring ever again.

Opening the door to her home, she rubbed her arms when a collection of goose bumps rose on her skin. Glancing around nervously, she closed the door behind her and decided to ignore the feeling for now. Slowly, she walked across to her kitchen and made herself a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Apparently, her counterpart also loved the sweet drink, as there was only one packet of it left in the cupboards.

As she walked up the stairs to her room, Sakura began to think back on the loss of control she had had twice today. Both times it had felt as though she was standing behind a wall of glass with no control over the motions her body was going through. Of course, if she tried hard enough, her body easily relinquished it's control, but both times she had been too stunned at first to try anything. Plus, considering the significant damage she had caused Ino, she was almost glad that she had no control.

Sitting on her bed, she sipped at the chocolaty froth that had settled on the top of her mug. Stretching, she grabbed the Bingo Book from her side table where she had left it the night before. It had been to only book to make it up to her room. Quickly, she flipped to Deidara's picture.

He still looked mostly like she remembered from her own reality except for the length of his hair, which had changed significantly. Her Deidara had always wanted to grow out his hair but had always been foiled in his attempts by either his mother or herself. Now, though, looking at him made her think that maybe he would look rather nice with the longer hair. His hairstyle was almost reminiscent of Ino and this fact left a pit in her stomach that she couldn't really explain. Grimacing, she glanced through his facts and noticed for the first time that he was labeled a S-class criminal. She was only A-rank according to her profile.

Suddenly, the chill was back and another set of goose bumps traveled across her skin. The pain in her head returned with throbbing accuracy as it laced through her skull and caused the rest of her body to go numb. She dropped the book as her fingers began to shake.

Her eyes shot up as she looked around the room for the source of her discomfort only to find the moonlight from her window was being obscured by a figure perched easily on the sill. The person delicately dropped into her room and allowed the light to wash over their body. Sakura quickly did a double check on the picture in the book even though it wasn't exactly necessary. She would recognize those eyes anywhere.

Deidara suddenly lunged at her and pinned her to the bed, holding her arms down with his familiar, almost feminine hands. His presence attacked her senses and made her stomach churn. Weakness spread through her limbs from his closeness even though a little niche in her mind was trying to remind her that he was a criminal here. Still, her body didn't react like it did with Ino earlier on. Instead, it left her in control and reacted just as strangely to his presence as she was.

"You're not Sakura, un," he said in a breathy whisper, sending more chills down her spine. His statement was almost completely lost on her, but it was registered by the voice in her mind still trying to make her push him off.

"Of course I'm Sakura," she said, matching his tone completely. Who else could she be?

"Not my Sakura, un," he replied, holding onto his conviction.

The scent of his skin assaulted her nose and left her mostly speechless and without a reply for a very long moment. Her lack of response irritated him immensely as he grit his teeth in frustration. He suddenly leapt away from her off of the bed.

Sakura, feeling hollow at his sudden lack of presence, shot up to stand up in front of him.

"Where are you going? Don't leave," she practically whimpered and some small part of her felt disgusted with the tone. The rest of her, which was a large majority, didn't care as long as he stayed.

"Stay away from me, un," he spit out, shoving her away from him. An unfamiliar ache spread through her body at his obvious rejection. The pain in her head intensified and sent stabbing pain jolting through her body. Blackness began to weave into the corners of her vision and as the pain became worse her eyesight started to waver.

The last thing she remembered seeing was Deidara's hate filled face.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter was lacking, but I'm working on too many things at once. The ideas for The Howling, my fictionpress story, and the real life story I'm writing for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day have all been bouncing around in my head, leaving little room for this. Thank you for putting up with me! I love you all!**

**Please review, your words seriously make my day, and keep me from going insane. I love to know what you think, and a review shows me that you took time out of your day to slap some words down to either praise or criticize my work. Truly, I don't give a rat's ass about whether you love it, like it, or hate it…just tell me!**


End file.
