Author's Ramblings: You know those Naruto fics where Boy Wonder gets to time travel through some unknown jutsu/near-death experience/scroll back to when Team Seven was just starting out and does his little angst thing while changing the past to save his future? Yeah, this is one of them. Sort of. You know, since there's always a omgpowerful!Naruto or repentant!angsting!Sasuke or even both (gods, isn't that a nightmare) who gets to go back in time, I thought, hey, it's Sakura's turn now, right? I mean, sure, there are fics where she goes back and falls in love with Itachi or Yondaime or whatever monstrosity the author feels like putting her through, but there aren't really genfic with her as the shining star, y'know? So, I thought, what the hey? I'll give her a shot. So yeah. There's my whole brain process right there.

Disclaimer: Boy, if I owned the Naruto franchise, I would be rolling in dough, wouldn't I? Huh. Wonder why I'd be writing fanfiction then when I could make anything I want be canon? Le duh.

Warnings: Be prepared for plotholes and half-assed characterizations. But hey, I do this for fun, not for the joys of canonverse. This fic is AU starting from the most recent chapter of Naruto, meaning that everything in canon gets screwed around with. Beware of recent spoilers and keep an open mind, I guess. Fic is completely unbeta'd.

NOTE: This is not a full-out fic of epic proportions. This is a series of ficlets and snippets of a would-be epic fic in arbitrary order because I don't like writing fics of epic proportions since I can't finish them. This way is much easier and more likely for me to work on regularly as opposed to a real epic!fic which would take me years to crank out a single chapter.

Haruno Sakura woke up twelve. And this did not surprise her one bit. Why would it? After all, it was her birthday, and shouldn't she expect to wake up twelve after a long year of being eleven? Of course she should. And that was why she woke up exactly twelve years old.

She had an interesting dream on her last night as eleven, but she couldn't quite remember what it was about. It seemed to be very dark, though, very dark and depressing, and she made no attempt to think about it, being a person easily unnerved by things that were not fluffy, cute, and pink. But one thing that stuck in her mind was a pair of sad bright blue eyes and whisker marks on ragged cheeks. That was ignored, though. She had no time to be annoyed by somebody's eyes (unless they were Sasuke-kun's, of course, but his were black, not blue), especially not on the day of her birthday. And if the whisker marks unwillingly reminded her of a certain nuisance plaguing her village, well, she ignored that too.

Because who would want to be thinking about the village reject? Certainly not her. Ino-pig would never let her live it down.

Sakura greeted her mother with a kiss on the cheek and her father with a firm hug. She sat down in her seat at the kitchen table and ate her ultra-special-congratulations-Sakura-you're-finally-twelve!breakfast with appreciation. Mother did always make the best birthday meals. She beamed brightly at Mother and turned to Father with shining eyes. It was time for her traditional birthday money, and she had been itching to buy this new skirt she saw near Ino-pig's family's flower shop.

Father looked at her expectant face and chuckled, ruffling Sakura's carefully brushed hair, eliciting a scowl on her pretty face. He held out the customary birthday envelope with their family insignia on it with an affectionate smile, and Sakura eagerly took it, squealing her thanks and bowing before rushing out of her seat for the door, yelling that she'd be back by dinnertime. She could hear her father's bellowing laughter and her mother's exasperated voice calling after her to close the door properly behind her as she jammed on her sandals and sprang out the door, pushing it shut as afterthought.

Sakura walked excitedly down the market path, near skipping as she made way for the shop with the pretty skirt that she wanted to buy. She grinned widely to herself and thought, once I wear this skirt to class, Sasuke will totally notice me and ask me out! The thought made her blush and giggle. Sasuke will see me in a new light now that I'm twelve and totally mature, not like Ino-pig who's still just a child! The thought of Ino-pig made her stop for a moment and decide whether or not she should go into Ino-pig's family's flower shop to buy some flowers for herself.

She squared her shoulders and prepared herself for a confrontation with the girl. Knowing Ino-pig, things could turn ugly very quickly, and she didn't want to ruin her special day with a fight. Holding her head up high and birthday money clutched tightly in her hands, she marched into the flower shop, nodding to Ino-pig's mother who stood outside sweeping the pathway. Ino-pig sat behind the counter, looking bored and out of her wits. Sakura took a deep breath and stared squarely at the blonde girl in the eyes.

"Today is my birthday, Ino-pig," she said, standing in front of the counter. Ino-pig straightened and looked at the pink-haired girl with cool eyes. "I'd like to buy some flowers for myself." Ino-pig sneered a little at Sakura and inspected her nails with disinterest.

"Think yourself special now, huh, now that you're twelve, forehead-girl," said the blonde snidely. Sakura stiffened at the name, but turned her nose up.

"Since I'm twelve now, I find it unnecessary to respond to your immaturity, Ino-pig," she said snootily, placing emphasis on the word immaturity. Ino-pig reddened and opened her mouth for an angry retort when her mother came into the shop, giving her daughter a displeased look. She wilted and looked at the ground as her mother turned to Sakura with a kind smile.

"Sakura-chan, I hear it's your birthday today! Happy birthday! You must be so excited to be twelve," said Ino's mother. Sakura smiled happily and nodded, murmuring her thanks, sticking her tongue out at Ino-pig when her mother wasn't looking. "What would you like, dear?"

"I'd like some lilies, please, ma'am," said Sakura politely. The woman beamed and bustled off to get her flowers. While she wrapped them, Ino's mother gossiped lightly to Sakura about the current news circulating around the village about Hiro-kun finally proposing to his childhood sweetheart that he had spent years tormenting as a boy. Ino-pig watched sullenly behind her mother.

Sakura nodded her thanks and handed her money to Ino-pig, who reluctantly took it, and took the bouquet of lilies that Ino's mother had offered her. She waved goodbye and hurried off to the shop with her pretty skirt, having spent enough time in Ino-pig's presence.

At dinner time, Mother and Father listened attentively as she ranted to them about Ino-pig and how immature she was and about the new skirt that she had just bought. Mother had made them her special sukiyaki for a change, something Sakura adored eating. She ate with gusto while telling them of her day, feeling like the special twelve-years-old girl that she was.

For dessert, Mother had bought her a big chocolate and strawberry cake and lit twelve pink candles on top. Sakura closed her eyes with glee and made the same wish as last year's. I wish Sasuke-kun will finally notice me! She blew the candles out and opened her eyes to see presents in her father's hands. She squealed with joy and leaned over to give her father a big hug before taking the presents. They had gotten her a new outfit for her to wear to the Academy, red with slits up the thighs and the family sign on the back, and a book on ninjutsu theory. She told her parents with teary eyes that this was the best birthday ever, as she did every year, and gave them another hug and kisses on the cheek before eating her cake.

Before bedtime, Sakura sat down in front of the mirror and carefully brushed her long pink hair. She winced at the tangles and thought briefly of cutting it all off before laughing the idea off, because Sasuke-kun liked girls with long hair and he definitely wouldn't like her if she didn't have long hair. She smiled at herself in the mirror and looked at her new outfit that she hung on her doorknob. Wouldn't Sasuke-kun be dazzled if he saw her in that! Sakura giggled and made way to her bed.

Once she tucked herself in under mountains of pink blankets, she gave a happy sigh and closed her eyes. Yes, this was a wonderful birthday indeed. And so, she went to sleep newly twelve and excited.

Haruno Sakura woke up twelve and crying. She frowned at the tearstains on her cheeks and wiped them with concern. Had she that bad of a nightmare that she would go so far as to cry while unconscious? It was only a dream, wasn't it? Konoha in ruins, corpses strewn all across the rubble, the skies clouded with dust and air tasting of copper, spilt blood. There was a girl at her feet, Sakura thought, scrunching her face in concentration. A girl with long blue-black hair and body crumpled on the ground. She felt a tang of fear and anger and determination, but it floated away when she tried to fully grasp the feeling. What was so special about the girl? She looked a little like Hinata, now that she thought about it. So a Hinata-look-alike at her feet and Konoha destroyed. Death clinging to the air, cloying and bitter.

Okay, so maybe it was bit of a nightmare, she conceded. She frowned deeper and rubbed at her cheeks. It was just a dream, still, she reassured herself. Konoha was prospering; it would never fall to enemy hands. Their Hokage would make sure of that. Nobody could take down Konoha like that; their ninja were strong.

Sakura took a deep breath and let it out, rolling her head around to get rid of kinks. It was too early in the morning to analyze dreams, and tomorrow, Iruka-sensei would be telling them about their graduation exams. She couldn't risk being late for the Academy just because she stayed up late thinking about fanciful things. She'd be as bad as Naruto!

With a nod to herself, she fell back onto her bed and closed her eyes for sleep to claim her.

Haruno Sakura woke up twelve, not crying, and incredibly annoyed. She wondered if a plague of dreams came to everybody on their first night as twelve years old or if it was just her. She saw Naruto this time in her dreams, which obviously placed her in the foul mood that she was in right now. Of all the people to dream about, it had to be about that deadlast loser that nobody in the village even liked! Really now! Why couldn't she dream of Sasuke instead? Sasuke and his cool eyes and I-don't-give-a-damn attitude, ooh, wouldn't that be a wonderful dream. Instead of Naruto, she would dream about Sasuke this time, maybe about him proposing to her! Or asking her out! Ooh, what a dream it would be.

As she laid back down on her bed, giggling to herself at her fantasies, she forgot completely about the dream that had woken her up only minutes earlier. Where an older Naruto with broken eyes and a sad mockery of a smile had hugged her tightly and whispered a soft apology in her ears before everything turned black. Where she saw her friends all strewn on the ground, dead. Where she had felt tears flowing down her cheeks and regret drowning her heart.

Where Konoha had died.

End notes: I really hate rambling at the end of a chapter. But, it is inevitable for me, heh. Anyway, first fic in 3 years, wowza. Should really be getting a beta for these things. Huh. Any willing volunteers with flexible standards? Hah hah. This fic is completely gen, meaning no pairings from me. It sort of pisses me off when I read genfic with some randomly inserted romance that makes a person go, "Wait, what?"

Characterization of characters is hopefully accurate enough. I doubt it, having not paid attention to the series all too much lately. Eh. Whatever. And yeah, I got really nothing to say here, lol. Which is why I said I hate rambling, ffffff. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think. We starving authors subsist on a daily serving of reviews, hah hah.