Original ask: Just stopping to say I love your writing! I hope one day you'll do mor continuations is the dark Hashisaku short fics you did a long while back. Even if you don't returning to read them once in a while is a treat. I hope you are doing well at your new classes. (Sorry for my english)

Sakura seats herself atop the burbling waters within one of Takara's numerous gardens. It is difficult to manage, requiring absolute precision with chakra as the waters are disrupted and thrown about by the small waterfall that feeds into the garden. However, Sakura does it with ease, enjoying the white noise provided by the roar of the falling water.

Sakura closes her eyes, releasing her thoughts and worries as she begins to meditate. Her chakra filters away from her in a fine sheet, coating the nature around her. In this way she senses the moving waters, the rocks warmed by the sun, the lively flowers, and the strong, thriving trees.

The trees…

She was running, racing through the young forests of Fires, unable to calm herself. This world was younger than the one she was born into and her mind could not comprehend it, could not reconcile this alien familiarity. This world was but a skeleton of the one she knew and she did everything she could to outrun that truth.

She ran with no destination in mind, but her heart proved to be treacherous compass, leading her to her home.

Konoha.

Only, there was nothing there. No gates, no buildings, no people. Just the river that would one day be the life blood of a village that had yet to be built.

Sakura fell to her knees at the river's side, heart breaking as she was forced to face the reality of her situation.

Her home was gone.

She stared down into her reflection, surprised to find that she shed no tears. It certainly felt as if she did, her heart and mind as one aching for the loss of a place and people yet to be born, yet no tear tracks marred her face.

Sakura had nothing left to give.

So, she fell away from herself, releasing her Yin Seal. She reached into the nature around her, desperately seeking something to fill the void, something familiar that could anchor her.

And the world around her reached back.

As did someone else.

"What manner of creature are you?"

Sakura's eyes opened slowly. The riverbank around her was transformed, filled with colossal trees in bloom out of season. Her body was encased in loamy riverfront mud up to her waist, but she was unbothered. With but a thought, she stood, the mud sliding away from her almost at her bidding. She did not contemplate this, turning her attention to her interloper.

Only to find the breath knocked free from her lungs.

He was young, younger than the carvings depicted, but Sakura recognized the shape of his eyes as a mirror of her teacher's.

Hashirama.

Sakura's eyes went misty as she finally found something familiar in the midst of chaos. "My name is Haruno Sakura," she said. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

He watched her with awe, taking in the lines that marked her skin and the songs the trees sang in her praise. He didn't know why she was in this place, the place he and Madara made their promise of a lifetime. He didn't know how she'd grown these trees as he was almost certain she did not possess the Mokuton. She was otherworldly. She was a puzzle. And Hashirama was going to enjoy figuring her out. "The pleasure is all mine. I am Senju Hashirama. I have some questions for you."

Sakura's concentration breaks, plunging her into the waters below. She is grateful for it, for the way it masks the sting of tears that flow freely. She lifts herself out of the pool of water and heads to her chambers to dress anew, suppressing any and all of her memories as best she can.

Sakura does not dare meditate again, for fear of what other memories will be unearthed.

Original tags: hashisaku; sakura haruno; hashirama senju; you can't wake up (this is not a dream); i feel a bit bad for making sakura so miserable; this story does not have a happy ending; this is the angst!au; my fic; drabble; prompt; ask; anon