-----

What I wouldn't do to change the world,

What I wouldn't give just to try again;

To fix my mistakes, and to gain a second chance.

-----

In the end, they couldn't be stopped.

While the Leaf was still weak from Pein's attack, the remaining Akatsuki finally got the Nine Tail. Uchiha Madara then released the demons on Konoha.

Hell broke loose.

But why would they stop there?

Konoha at least had ruins along with what was perhaps a couple hundred survivors.

But Suna?

Not even the slightest shadow of a broken building was left. Nothing.

Just gone.

Except for the one person who should have been the first to die.

-----

What dreams lay before me, still whole, unbroken?

How many of my hopes have been crushed?

Is there a single part of my past of which I am truly proud?

My dreams have been shattered, they ceased to exist.

I hold on to mere remnants of the hopes that once were.

My failures weave through my past and my present.

-----

Sabaku no Gaara- Kazekage of the Sand and former Jinchuuriki of the Shukaku -was the only Suna shinobi who survived the attack of the Bijuu. It had a sort of irony to it. He should have been dead when the Akatsuki took the Ichibi, but instead a retired shinobi gave her life to get his back so he could be a great leader of the Sand.

And now he was the only one left.

Everyone he cared about was dead. Suna was destroyed, Kankuro and Temari being two of the many to die protecting their village. Konoha was in ruins, Naruto dead by the hands of the Akatsuki, all of the most notable shinobi dead in order to save the few people they could. The combined efforts of Nara Shikamaru, Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi, Hyuuga Neji and Hiashi, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Tsume finally managed to end the life of Uchiha Madara at the cost of their own lives, but it was too late to make much difference.

-----

If I had done things differently, how many would still be alive?

How many innocent lives ended just because of me?

How many failures do I have to my name? How many have I yet to create?

-----

The Sand was gone, the Leaf was as good as gone, from what Sabaku no Gaara could gather, the Cloud was half destroyed, the Rock was down to one third of its previous forces, and the Mist was gone except for the very outside edges.

The smaller villages were probably nothing more than scorched land and fallen rocks.

Gaara was the last of his village alive. He was one of the last powerful shinobi alive. Even before the Bijuu were released, Gaara was one of the most powerful ninja in existence; but what good did that do him, in the end? The last one left.

Alone.

'If only there was a way to bring them back…'

-----

What I wouldn't give to gain a second chance,

To try it over once more, to learn before it is too late.

If only I could start over again and rewrite the past.

-----

The breeze stirred the empty sands and the sun disappeared behind the place where the Village Hidden in the Sand once stood, casting light on the lone figure of the Fifth Kazekage. His eyes closed, as if hoping this was all a dream, hoping that he would wake up to find that this never happened.

Hoping for a second chance.

-----

If only I could flip the hourglass of time.

-----

The winds stilled, the sands settled, the moon shone, and time shifted.

Poem: Flip the Hourglass of Time (by me, edited for this fic)

I had decided not to start any more multi-chapter fanfictions until my current four were all at chapter ten, except perhaps the one I'm co-writing with 88-x-NekoNinja-x-88. Usually I work the least-recently updated, but if people seem like they will like this, I'll work on it harder.