retroversion - noun

a looking or turning back.

the resulting state or condition.

a tilting or turning backward of an organ or part.

Sakura blinked.

Her reflection stayed the same – a short, fluffy-haired pinkette, with large jade green eyes which almost looked a bit too big for her face. Something was wrong, but she couldn't quite tell what, given she had landed exactly where she and Obito had predicted. In her two-year-old body inside Konoha. But something was bugging her, and she wouldn't rest until she figured out what. She bit her lip, stepping closer to the mirror propped up against the wall. This was going to bug her until she figured it out, she knew. Curse those damned shinobi instincts. They were clearly the ones responsible, though Sakura doubted she could really complain. Instincts were what kept people alive. They had kept her alive for the last few years before…

Naruto…

Tears welled up in her eyes, her hands curling into fists. She would save them. She'd save them all. Just like she promised Obito before Kaguya had torn him apart. It was an oath she swore to herself, and it was one she was going to keep. Obito had used every last drop of his chakra to get her to where she was, so she was going to make the most of every single second of it.

Red flickered in her vision, her eyes snapping to face the mirror, jaw clenching when she spotted them. Two eyes like rubies, three tomoe spinning about lazily inside them. She pulled at her face, peering ever closer in the mirror. "Obito… what the hell did you do?" she hissed, stumbling back. This wasn't part of the plan. She wasn't supposed to have the sharingan. How the hell was she supposed to explain that?

More importantly, though, how the hell was she supposed to turn it off?

She was two-years-old, and what's more, she had the chakra reserves of a two-year-old – barely more than a handful. The strain was already becoming horribly apparent, her legs shaking as she stood there, willing her body to do something. "Turn off you stupid things!" she muttered, slamming her palms into her eyes, which admittedly wasn't her best plan. Coming to her senses, blindly reaching for her chakra, she fumbled for control, eyes widening when she threw more chakra into the spinning sharingan. "Damn you, Obito," she hissed, staring wide eyed as the tomoe morphed into a far too familiar shape – that of a spiralling pinwheel. "I don't want to go blind."

Her grasp on her chakra tightened, and she yanked it back into its core, snapping the connection to her eyes. Red receded, replaced by black, Sakura breathing a sigh of relief, sagging back against the nearest wall, exhausted. The sharingan crisis had been averted, though she was never supposed to have one. Obito had to have messed something up.

Either that or his chakra had somehow warped her own on the way back.

It was possible, she mused, clinging to the strands of hope she still had left. She would be able to get closer to Sasuke… maybe even prevent him from leaving, since she was technically family. Sakura swallowed. That was right. She was two, which meant the Uchiha Massacre hadn't happened just yet. Her heart leapt. Maybe she'd be able to prevent the whole angsty-Sasuke disaster by heading it off at its source. Then again, she'd probably have to keep the whole sharingan situation under wraps.

She did not want to get killed in the massacre, should there be one. She could change things. She had that chance now, and the foreknowledge of what was really going on in the deepest, darkest parts of Konoha.

"Sakura, honey?" A soft knock came at her door, her mother's voice floating through it. "Are you alright in there?"

"Fine, kaa-chan!" she sung, alarmed at how easily she was falling into a child's persona. Not only that, but her voice was horribly high-pitched, and she squeaked a lot. "I'll be down in a minute."

Sakura scowled, eyeing herself once more in the mirror. How was she going to explain her eyes? She bit her lip, almost drawing blood as she played with the handle of the door. It was going to be tricky. Her whole situation would be… but she couldn't back down just yet. She pulled at the handle, toddling out of her room on oddly shaky legs. It was going to take some getting used to. Her limbs were far smaller than what she was used to, her view of the world drastically limited by the fact that she didn't even reach hip-height.

Plastering a wide smile on her face, she ran down the stairs with all the enthusiasm she could muster – which was a fair bit, considering she hadn't seen her parents in years. "Kaa-chan! Tou-san!" she yelled, sprinting into the room where her father sat behind the table. "Look! Look! My eyes changed colour!" she shouted, tugging at the fabric of her father's trousers, playing the cute-adorable-toddler-act to the max. Acting like a clueless child wouldn't attract that much suspicion… or so she hoped. "They're so pretty now, aren't they?"

Blue eyes glanced down at her, widening slightly when they caught sight of her new black ones. "Sa-chan!" her father said, lifting her into the air with ease, setting her down on his knee, just like how she remembered. "Looks like they've gone from jade to onyx," he mumbled. "But Sa-chan's eyes are still the prettiest!"

The sound of a throat clearing behind the pair had them pausing, jade green eyes glaring down at them both meaningfully.

"Your eyes are beautiful too, dear?" Kizashi said, smiling sheepishly.

"Sakura, honey, let me see," Mebuki ordered, crouching down in front of her, jade green eyes peering into her newly onyx ones.

Silently, Sakura mourned the loss of her green eyes. They had been nice – she liked them but seeing as Obito had messed up the jutsu somewhat, she was going to have to get used to seeing those Uchiha black orbs whenever she looked in a mirror.

If that wouldn't be a reminder and a half about what she'd been through she didn't know what would be.

A single dull black eye staring at her—"Live, Sakura."—air rustling, and then she was nowhere near Kaguya—safe—at the cost of his life.

"I'll take her to see a med-nin once all the heat from this damned incident has died down," her mother said, making Sakura's ears twitch.

What incident?

"She seems fine, don't you, Sa-chan?" Her father grinned. "You're just really excited for today, aren't you?"

"You're still taking her to the park?" Mebuki bit her lip, worried eyes peering down into her extremely confused ones. "After everything that's happened with the company?"

Sakura blinked. Since when were her parents involved in a company? Her father was a merchant, and her mother was a baker.

Her shinobi instincts flared again.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

She intended to find out just what. Subtly, of course. A ninja was subtle… unless they were Naruto. Smiling slightly as she thought of her idiotic blonde, she sighed wistfully. Maybe she would have a chance to meet him even earlier in her new timeline.

A savage grin pulled at her lips. Yes. She'd do just that, and then prank the living daylights out of everyone who was mean to him. Her Naruto had taught her well when it came to Pranking 101. Slugs in beds, dango syrup in hair, painting the Hokage faces… anything went. A small giggle escaped her lips, sounding oddly high-pitched and generally evil on the whole as she thought about the hell she could unleash on her village.

Konoha would never know what'd hit it.

Elsewhere in the village, a certain blonde wearing a red Kage hat shivered in apprehension. He had the strangest feeling something was about to happen – something of the pranking variety. His wife and son loved them far too much.

No doubt he'd have to be the one to clear things up afterwards.

Meanwhile Sakura was in a dilemma, a very problematic one too.

Thinking and plotting pranks was all well and good… but… How was she meant to get her hands on pranking supplies? she mused, staring at the supply shop in front of her. It was strange how easily she was growing accustomed to being back. Back in the village, back in her two-year-old body, back in the world before Kaguya had destroyed it. A strange giddiness had set in, and she felt oddly free, rather than the intense pressure she'd expected. Everyone was depending on her… and yet there she was, going about her day to day life as per usual. Perhaps her underdeveloped mind couldn't fully process things, or maybe the realisation of it all hadn't set in.

Sakura bit her lip.

"What's wrong, Sa-chan?" her father asked, smiling down at her widely, seemingly oblivious to all the dirty glares being thrown their way. Something was off, she knew that much. Never before had she seen this level of resentment being thrown at her parents. It wasn't as bad as what she knew had been thrown Naruto's way in the past, but still…

"Tou-san…" she mumbled, staring determinedly at the storefront, blocking out the hustle and bustle of the crowd around them. "If I asked you to get me pranking supplies, what would you say?"

Five minutes later, she had her answer, in the form of shopping bags filled with all the supplies she'd asked for.

"Treat it as an early birthday present, Sa-chan," he mumbled, seating her safely atop his shoulders as they wandered back home. "Though I do hope you won't use these on us…"

"Nah." She shook her head. "Got somebody else in mind for all of that."

Kizashi roared with laughter, earning the ire of a few passing civilians. At least Sakura assumed them to be civilians. Their footsteps were awfully loud, like they were begging for Kaguya to come and squash them like bugs. She nuzzled into her father's spiky hair, pushing that thought to one side. Kaguya was gone. She was safe, and she had a lot of pranks to plan. "So my little Sa-chan is a bit of a prankster… seems like you take after dear ol' dad a bit more than just the pink hair."

Sakura grinned.

"No doubt you'll be joining forces with the Namikaze boy and his friend soon," he mumbled, adjusting his grip on her as they made their way down the street. "Just don't tell your mother, kay?"

Sakura froze, blinking as she registered what her father had said. "Namikaze?" Wasn't that…

"The Hokage's son, silly," her father said, oblivious to her impending headache which was no doubt on its way. Why would Naruto have his father's surname?

Her head snapped around, searching for answers, eyes fixing on the Hokage monument before heart clenched painfully in her chest. No. No. No. No. This couldn't be happening. Black eyes widened, staring at the faces carved into the mountainside. Obito hadn't just sent her spiralling back in time. Oh no. He had sent her spiralling into a completely different dimension too.

Goddammit Obito!

That second face carved into the rockface was all too familiar to her – she had fought against him before Black Zetsu had betrayed him and unleashed his mother on all of them. Well, the ones who were left, and those had been a precious few.

The Nidaime in whatever mad world she'd landed in wasn't Senju Tobirama.

No.

Instead it had been Uchiha Madara.

Her brain felt like it had ground to a halt, an odd wave of calm acceptance coming over her, along with the overwhelming urge to giggle like her life depended on it. She could scream and punch things later, maybe let loose a bit, but the fact remained – she was stuck in a weird alternate dimension in her two-year-old body, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Nothing. She had researched space-time ninjutsu, looking into fuinjutsu and other sources alongside Obito. Evidently, they'd forgotten to ensure the space-stamp had been correctly calibrated, and if there was one thing she knew it was that there was no way back. The sheer amount of chakra it would take… They had only managed it because she'd spent years building up chakra into her seal and the makeshift chakra containers Naruto had managed to complete before his death. The amount they'd had to pump in to activate the seal to send her to wherever the hell she'd ended up was comparable to that of Kurama's own. Possibly even more.

She was stuck.

Hysterical laughter broke out, the sobs stuck in the back of her throat.

Team Seven always had the worst luck.

Sakura grinned wistfully, heart panging as she thought of her idiots. She'd never see them again in her new life… though it wasn't like they'd have been exactly the same in the first place.

Some things never changed. Others did.

At least there were people for her to prank this time around.

Obito had seemingly inherited the stick most Uchiha seemed to have lodged somewhere by the end of their time together.