Back To The Past

Author's Note: This story begins with Sakura at the Memorial Stone, her friends and lover is dead.

Blue violets stand for faithfulness, Zinnia-I mourn your absence, and Heliotrope is for devotion and faithfulness.

Kumogakure is the Hidden Cloud Village.

Thank you to me beta reader Karen Serendipity for beta reading this chapter for me. Check out her stories or if you need a beta reader.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 1: The mission to the past

Sakura stood facing the dark gray stone. Silent tears traced paths down her face as her green as grass-on-a-summer-day eyes searched out the names she wished weren't there.

"Naruto," she whispers placing a small bouquet of blue violets by the first name, "I will never forgive him, Naruto."

Finding two other names, she laid down a bouquet of zinnia, "Lee, Gai-Sensei...Watch over each other."

Finding the last name, Sakura felt an intense pain in her chest; her heart broke for a second time and it hurt even worse. As fresh tears fell to the ground, she placed the final bouquet, purple heliotrope by the name of her beloved. "Oh Neji, Neji, please come back to me. I can't do this alone!" She traces his name lovingly with her fingertips, "Please, please, come back to me."

"Sakura?" The pink-haired kunoichi turned and watched as Tsunade approached her.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama." She replied, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

Tsunade held out a hand to help Sakura stand up, "Oh Sakura, I know how hard this is for you," The Hokage pulls her apprentice into a tight hug-it was full of empathy, Tsunade understood this situation completely, "I know what it's like to lose the ones you love most."

"I miss them so much, Tsunade-sama; I feel like my heart's been ripped from my chest." Sakura sobs.

Tsunade patted the grieving girl on the back and let her cry for a bit before clearing her throat to speak. "Listen Sakura, I know things are really hard for you right now, but a mission has come up, and quite frankly, you're the only one that can do it." The Hokage paused, giving Sakura a chance to take in what she had said.

"Now? You're giving me a mission now?" Sakura pulled away, her green eyes sparkling through her tears. "Hokage-sama, I'm no good to anyone right now. Surely there's someone else who could take this mission. What about Hinata?"

"Hinata's got her hands full in Kumogakure. Besides, despite everything, I think you might actually want this mission once you know the details." Tsunade said this to Sakura in a matter-of-fact type of voice; Tsunade did know best, and who knew Sakura better than Tsunade? Only Sakura herself.

Sakura sniffed, "Not likely."

Tsunade smiles slightly, "Oh, I think you will. Listen, how would you like the opportunity to have Neji and Naruto alive and whole again? Wouldn't you love to see Gai and Lee racing through the village on their hands again?"

"Of course," Sakura replies, "but that's impo-"

"No, it's not impossible," Tsunade cut in. "We can have them all back again, but you have to be willing to take this mission."

Sakura shook her head, "How?"

Tsunade held up two pieces of jewelry, a light blue pendant with a star in the middle, and a ring made from the same stone but with a moon in the middle. "This is no ordinary jewelry, Mr. Yamanaka and Mr. Nara helped me make them. With this necklace and this ring, you'll be able to go back in time to when you were twelve years old."

Sakura's eyes widened in disbelief.

"However, there is a rather important catch," Tsunade continues and Sakura's eyes narrowed, wasn't there always... She wondered.

"First, should you take this mission; you will need to find Mr. Yamanaka and Mr. Nara to create a crescent moon so that the seal will be complete. The other, and perhaps most important point to make, is that once you put these on, you could be trapped in the past without any way back to this time."

"That's a bit of a catch, isn't it?" Sakura asks, staring at the jewelry.

"True," Tsunade sighed, "but it's not like you won't still be you...and you'll be able to stop the chain of events that brought our village to this point. Take some time and just think about it, will you?"

Sakura looked back at the Memorial Stone and the flowers she'd just placed by the names of her loved ones.

"Neji..." She whispered. Something inside her seemed to catch fire and she shook her head.

"No, Tsunade-sama, I don't need to think about it. I'll do it. But what will you tell my parents?"

Tsunade's face broke into a huge smile, "I'll tell them the truth. That their daughter has taken on a mission that could change the fate of our village. That she is one of the bravest kunoichi I've ever had the pleasure of knowing."

Sakura smiled a small smile. "When do I leave?" She asked.

"No time like the present," Tsunade shrugged, holding out the jewelry to Sakura.

The kunoichi was able to cast one last glance at the Memorial Stone as she fastened the necklace and slid the ring on her finger before she felt herself falling backwards. Her eyes widened and the last thing she saw was Tsunade's smiling face.

As she walked back to Hokage Tower, Tsunade felt her age. She said a silent prayer that Sakura would be successful; Konoha had suffered too many losses. Tsunade herself felt the loss of Naruto most acutely. Once in the tower, she hurried up the steps to her office where she collapsed in her desk chair. Reaching into her bottom left drawer, she pulled out a bottle of sake. She then raised a glass in toast. "Sakura," was all she said before downing it in one chug and calling for her assistant. "Shizune, please inform the Haruno's that their daughter is on a dangerous mission and will be gone for quite some time."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Shizune replied as she bowed.

Sakura rolled over, taking in the decor of her twelve year old bedroom, "What was I thinking?" She rolled her eyes at the pink-on-pink atrocity, before a knock sounded at the door.

"Sakura, you need to get up. Don't forget you have school today," Her father called.

"I'm up," She replied. She got out of bed and walked over to her closet. Her twelve year old self had been quite the clothes horse, she remembered smiling. Unfortunately, her bad taste extended to her wardrobe.

"Ugh," She mutters, "How did they let me leave the house dressed like this?"

She performed some hands signs to make at least one outfit presentable. Admiring her handiwork in the mirror, she noticed the telltale bump on her abdomen.

"My baby, I'm still pregnant..." She whispered, horrified as the room began spinning and she slipped into unconsciousness.

Author's Notes: I hope you like this chapter.

It will be all explained in later chapters.

Please review!