March 27, 1994

12 years, 7 months, 27 days prior to Incident

"You did what?!"

"No need to get so huffy, it's not like I did it on purpose."

"Who cares why you did it?! Man, He's gonna be furious."

"Look, if He likes her so much, we can just do this." A pause. "See? All fixed."

"No it isn't, you idiot! We still have to explain why we had to do this in the first place!"

"Oh relax. She'll live longer now, see? I bet He'll even thank us."

"Huh." A head was tilted one way, and then the other. "Maybe... if we tweak a bit of this... add a bit of this... There. Not bad. It might start out a bit messy, but it'll work."

"We still have to tell him though."

"Damn it!"

Haruno Sakura was nearly 17 years old, and she was a highly skilled kunoichi, thank you very much. Not by any means would she presume to claim the title of The Strongest, but she was pretty high up there, able to boast of a great number of high profile victories and impressive accomplishments in her seventeen years of life. She was Senju Tsunade's protégé, one of the next sannin, a key player in the Fourth Shinobi World War and a powerhouse in her own right.

So it came as a great shock when she was found collapsed on her bedroom floor for no apparent reason.

Cause of death: heart attack.

Fuyuno Sakaki was nearly 4 years old, and she wanted her mommy. She'd survived a month of living on the streets - just barely - and she wanted to go back home, pretty please. If only she could figure out where home was... That loud, mean mister had interrupted Story Time a month ago, and daddy had made her go play hide-and-seek; she came out after she was sure she'd won, but her mommy and daddy had both gone to sleep covered in ketchup and wouldn't wake up.

So when poor Fuyuno Sakaki woke up on the eve of her fourth birthday with all the memories that Haruno Sakura possessed, she did what any child faced with visions of death and overwhelming destruction would do: she curled up and cried herself to sleep.

When she woke up the next morning, Sakaki would be surprised to find that her limp, elbow length brown hair had shortened to her shoulders and become a pale pink. She would also be surprised to find that she was quicker and stronger than before, that her hands glowed blue and green, and that she really preferred to be called Sakura, thank you very much.

Haruno Sakura - age 17, Jounin

Fuyuno Sakaki - age 4, no formal education

Fuyuno Sakura - age 4, Jounin (?), no formal education (?)

AN:

Fuyuno Sakaki is the Death Note universe's alternate version of Haruno Sakura, before original Sakura entered the picture. She looks exactly like Haruno Sakura as a child, except with long brown hair. If this event hadn't occurred, she would have died within a week from being beaten to death (she's caught stealing). Well, technically this is a kind of death too, since now she's 81% Haruno Sakura and won't be called 'Fuyuno Sakaki' ever again. Age four ('shi', aka death) seemed rather appropriate.

Sakaki is a type of evergreen that's sacred to Shinto, and Fuyu is winter, so her name was [Sacred] Evergreen of Winter. A contrast to Cherry Blossom of Spring. The title means Cherry Blossom of Winter (sorry, I know it's cliché ;-; ).

There's gonna be L, Light, BB, Mello, Matt, Near, etc. in the story, all having varying degrees of romantic relationships with her. There will be none of that "love at first sight" kind of thing (not counting BB's "obsession at first sight"). All of the relationships will develop at their own rate, without rush.

I'd really like to know what any of you think, so please please review! :)