So, our first ever non-other-fanfic related X-over is here!

We would like to thank Aankon27 for the idea and the inspiration to get this story started~

Chapter ONE

When Sakura opens her eyes for the first time in what seems like years, it is as though her body has not forgotten what it was like being dead.

Her limbs are heavy and her senses are numb at best. She can sense many chakra signatures around her, mostly civilians, but her foggy mind instantly notices that something is wrong, because everyone is dead.

She was supposed to be dead.

She does not remember the final moments of her life but she has a pretty good idea of how she had ended. The battle had been gruesome and long and tiring and a part of Sakura knows that at some point, she had wished for everything to end.

Perhaps she had been brave enough to end everything herself and cowardly enough to leave behind the reunited Team Seven.

Sometimes, she wonders when she had broken enough to willingly leave behind the one thing she had been fighting for from the moment Sasuke had defected.

She does not weigh herself down with such thoughts, though, because she is supposed to be dead and she has had enough suffering for a lifetime.

It takes only the slight sharpening of her senses for her to realize that she is in a hospital. The smell of iodoform and the faint beeping of machinery gives away the place she has spent the happiest, satisfying time of her life.

However, none of this makes her feel any better in the least, because Konoha Hospital was destroyed ages ago, the battlefield should be too far away from any village that she should have died along the way, there are no facilities with the necessary equipment to keep her alive and there are no shinobi as far as her war honed senses can detect.

It takes a while longer for Sakura to realize that the environment is not the only thing that is wrong at the moment. Sakura still cannot move her body and when she tries to tap into her chakra reserves, finds that not only are they unnaturally low, she cannot control it like she has been able to prior to whatever is happening now.

Perhaps 'underdeveloped' will be the better word.

She drifts between conscious and unconscious a lot after that. People come and go around her and Sakura soon begins to notice the chakra signatures of those who are constantly checking on her.

There are still no shinobi and in between the smell of disinfectant and the sound of the machinery, she begins to hear sounds that do not sound familiar at all.

Then one day, someone lifts her into arms that feel too big. Her vision slowly begins to clear and it is all she can do not to scream.

The nurse smiles down at her and in her eyes, she can clearly see her reflection.

When she finally realizes that she is in the body of a child, she curses fate. She curses the pain Naruto has gone through, the choiceless path Sasuke has ventured into and the broken state Kakashi has started off at. She curses her sin of stealing the body of such a small, innocent girl that could have had a great life before her.

She curses her inability to finally rest.

Nagi's father passes away when the girl is young and had Sakura not stolen her body, she is sure the girl would have been too young to remember anything about the man.

Her mother is a famous actor and she is good at hiding her pain out in public, though she suspects this is half because she does not hold anything for her now passed husband. Her next work is a big hit, where she plays the role of a woman who loses her husband and struggles to raise her child on her own.

Sakura is also quick to notice that the look she gives the child on screen is fake, but so is the look she gives Nagi at home. At least in the movie, she makes an effort. Sakura does not receive a single genuine smile from the woman.

Soon, she remarries another man, this time someone who is an assistant manager in some famous overseas company. Sakura knows a marriage for convenience when she sees one and she knows people like Nagi's mother, who is good at using what they have to wrap others around her finger. The man she marries thinks he has gotten a good catch but it is Nagi's mother who is actually pulling the strings.

The merciless shinobi part of Sakura respects her, but she also knows that no child should have to grow up in a household of politics.

Sakura keeps to herself. She learns that primary education is compulsory and she attends school with all the other children her age. She does not make any friends and does not attempt to create any relationships. She is at the top of her class but she does not do anything to stand out too much. A simple genjutsu keeps her out of sight and her grades are enough to keep Nagi's parents off of her back. She can tell they do not really care for the girl who is supposed to be their daughter and she does not care for the people who are supposed to be her parents, so it works out.

She feels bad as she strays Nagi away from her parents but a part of her decides that it is for the best. Neither of them understands her and neither of them tries to reach out to her, and Nagi does not deserve such neglecting parents.

Years pass with nothing happening. Sometimes, Sakura feels the traces of what she is sure to be the real Nagi in the back of her mind but they are nothing but small prods and weak bursts of emotion. Sakura has tried a few times to call out to it but a girl who has never experienced any aspects of life surely cannot communicate with someone who has seen more than one should ever see in a single lifetime.

Or perhaps Sakura's abundance of memories are enough to count for two people because as the days pass, the process seems to get stronger.

Then again, maybe it is just Sakura's wishful thinking.

She swears to keep the girl alive, out of guilt for stealing the second chance she does not deserve at the price of an innocent girl with an entire lifetime in front of her.

Guilt may be the wrong emotion to use to drive herself forward but there is nothing else left for Sakura to keep herself on her feet.

So, we're trying out a slightly different writing style here.

Also, just in case it wasn't clear:

-The Sakura in this story comes from a world where the Shinobi Alliance lost, or is losing, the war.

-Sakura died sometime somehow during the war.

Darque: I love Hitman Reborn.

Raven: I know, I can tell.

Darque: It's very good~

Raven: I know, I've watched it too.

Darque: I'm still hoping, just a little, that the anime has another season.

Raven: I hope, but I doubt it. Then again, Code Geass is getting a 10th anniversary third season, so who knows?

Darque: Well, I'll just hope.

Raven: I'll join you.

Please read and review~