"Dimensional Exchanges"

by XyoushaX

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Wedding Peach. I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's why I'm poor, okay?

Summary: Sakura is sucked into another world, and has to figure out a way to come back to the Shinobi world. But what if her origins lie in this new dimension, and not in Konoha? Is she really meant to be a kunoichi? This fic will later be AU, and centers on Sakura. No pairings. (Unless the readers want it to be, but if any they will come much later.)

I'm kind of taking this idea of Sakura falling into another world from Serpentine Rose. Her "Kamikaze Inn" and "Three of Fates" were so damn good, and it was such a shame that she discontinued them. I honor you, Serpentine Rose-san, and please don't get mad at me! I'm just fascinated with watching Sakura growing up, and I PROMISE that this story's plot will be my own.

It is slight AU, and a slight crossover with Wedding Peach, but it won't hinder the story for those who aren't familiar with the series. (For those who are, you must be thinking, "What the hell...?") This is my first fic. This is just for FUN, and I'm doing this to improve my less-than-professional writing skills.

"Quotations"

'Inner Thoughts'

(( Flashback ))

Chapter 1: Dreams and Visions

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It was a normal day in Konoha. Three kids and a teacher perched on a bridge, apparently waiting.

The boy with blond spikes and the fox face was standing, motionless, with the exception of his foot tapping. A brunette with her hair in buns chucked shuriken and various other lethal projectiles at a tall, dark-haired jounin, who stealthily dodged all. The pink-haired girl was sitting on a nearby bench, clamping her hands so hard on its edge that her nails dug into the wood.

'I ought to strangle that jounin when he arrives," Sakura thought in fury. 'SHAAANAROOO!'

An easy-going voice echoed from above. "Good morning everybody!"

"YOU'RE LATE!!!" Naruto and Ten Ten screamed together. Sakura was only seething.

Gai was dramatic, as usual. "Eternal rival, the one thing in which I always beat you is punctuality, and that is hardly an accomplishment!"

Kakashi had a small smile under his mask. "Well, you see, I had to save a poor little kid from a group of bullies—"

"Never mind whatever excuse you came up with, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura intoned rather coldly. "The mission must be important if both you and Gai-sensei are required to supervise us."

The silver-haired jounin glanced at her briefly, before showing Gai the plans. Their double-team group was a rare occurrance.

Sakura pulled a hand through her hair, frustrated. Her attitude had gotten rather frosty in the past couple of months. And it was not just because Inner Sakura had been repressed for so long.

She had been getting strange dreams. Very strange. They showed people, but they looked too... god-like. These so-called people were clad in pastels, golds, silvers, and whites, the exact opposite of what a shinobi would wear in this world. White clothing. Looks like purity or death, people in this culture would say. Even the daimyo would be ashamed to wear such regalia instead of richly-dyed kimonos and gold-tipped ornaments. And more bizarre were the ones with WINGS sprouting out from their backs.

And then the other people: they were clad in darker and even eccentric styles, and they had various auras burning, bubbling, or just vibing out from themselves. A few had wings, but they were those of bats rather than of doves. The dark beings were as beautiful as their heavenly counterparts, but their looks screamed bloody-murder-seducer rather than a pure radiance.

'It's the same dream that has fucking repeated itself every night for months!'

Sakura would nightly see the two peoples, or races, or whatever they were, make war. She saw details that woke her up in the middle of the night, gasping for breath. The blood, the screams, the tears... If she could have compared the dreams to anything in her own life, it would have been Haku's bloody demise, replayed a thousand times over. She was restless in her sleep, and when things really turned gruesome, she would jerk awake and retch a little into the cup of water she kept beside her bed.

"Damn." Sakura on quietly muttered to herself while she walked with Naruto, Tenten, Kakashi and Gai. 'I have to tell Tsunade-sama about these dreams later. Seeing them in repetition is unnatural. Am I really schizophrenic?'

Lee was hospitalized for the time being, and Neji was busy. But Naruto had stopped by, so he and Tenten slipped together with Sakura for missions this week. Needless to say, Tenten wasn't too happy with Kakashi's easy-going attitude when it came to schedules and choice of literature. It couldn't be helped, though. The organization of Konoha's genin teams were haywire after Sasuke's departure and the battle with the Sound thereafter.

Tsunade had become Sakura's tutor when Sasuke left the village six months ago. With Sakura's impeccable chakra control, she would easily learn the fine techniques needed to disinfect and bind together heavy battle wounds.

That was, if only she had enough chakra to do it.

Yet Sakura was determined to make herself useful. She trained under Kakashi and Gai to improve her stamina and chakra reserves whenever Tsunade was too busy with paperwork. Kakashi even gave Sakura two weights like the ones Lee used, instead of the twelve which Gai highly recommended.

(( "Sakura, you have potential, but breaking your ankles on the first day won't help advance your taijutsu."

Several meters away, a vein emerged from Gai's clenched fist. "Kakashi, if you're going to comment on my teaching skills, say it to my face, damn it!"

Kakashi blinked, turning to Gai. "Huh? Did you say something?"))

Sakura was a bit uncomfortable with the advanced taijutsu. The first days were certainly hell. But she learned that with more chakra, sturdier joints, and long training, she might be able to make as powerful blows as Tsunade by slipping in some chakra into her muscles. With Naruto and Lee as role models and training day-in-day-out, she slowly became a stronger and more attractive fighter. The two former "drop-outs" became her best friends.

Sakura made up with Ino, considering Sasuke wasn't around to compete for anymore. Ino and the many other fangirls were sad of his betrayal to the Leaf. In contrast, Sakura now was rather impassive about Sasuke. On the one hand, she could not have cared less if he died for revenge. He was a heartless bastard.

(( "I... I love you with all my heart!!!"

"You really are annoying." ))

Whenever she recalled that night, she wanted to disappear. How could she get so desperate? How damn embarrassing.

On the other hand, she felt so... sorry for him. His path for revenge would bring him no happiness. He knew it; she knew it. To top that off, those nightmares showed her the slaughter of a people she didn't know of, while Sasuke saw it happen to his own family as a child. He didn't deserve that. No child deserved that.

Strange: even with that personal history and cold attitude, he sometimes did a show a bit of feeling to his teammates.

(( "Sakura... thank you. " ))

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The mission, which involved taking back a few stolen scrolls, turned out amazingly smooth for having the loudest and most hyperactive ninja of the Hidden Leaf. Naruto had fallen out of a tree exactly when Sakura was about to put the thieves into a sleep genjutsu. Ironically, because of Naruto's ridiculous and un-ninja-like entrance, the enemy ninja watched him drop without noticing the floating flower petals above. The few who recognized the drowsy feeling as a genjutsu were about to perform the canceling seal, but Tenten threw acupuncture needles in the right places to knock them out. Soon, all of them were unconscious, and the team merely took the scrolls and skedaddled.

"Tadaima!" Sakura called out as she opened the front door to her house. No response. "Huh, nobody home."

She found a note on the refrigerator from her parents, saying that they had a B-rank mission. -You can help herself to anything in the fridge, Sakura-

The pink-haired girl sighed. She set a pot full of water to boil for heating a package of curry. Some minutes later, she popped a bowl of leftover rice into the microwave.

Sakura ended up plopping herself down onto the sofa, mixing her dinner. One spoonful, and she grinned with pain and pleasure — there was a certain zing from spicy or bitter foods that she had grown to love. Or at least, love to endure. It was training for her taste buds; it only enhanced her fondness for the sweet and sour. She read a scroll while she ate. She had started to pick up her old reading habits, and discovered a new interest in ancient texts.

As she finished her dinner, she noticed a dust-covered box on the table across the living room. Sakura rolled the scroll up, and look at the note placed on the box.

-Dear Sakura,

as I was cleaning out the attic, I found a box of things from your very early childhood. Actually, these are mementos of your first year with us. I thought you might want to look through them.

Love, your Mom-

Sakura opened the box and peered inside. Most of the stuff were cards, baby trinkets and other odd commodities. 'What a pile of junk!'

But one thing caught her eye: a brooch.

It was very beautiful. It was a cherry blossom made from a sort of pink jade or enamel, laden within a gold background.

Sakura turned it around, examining it. 'Why would I have had a brooch as a baby?' Sakura wondered. The jewel was too angular and too expensive-looking, especially for a creature willing to chew anything tinier than a coin. Furthermore, her parents were not particularly rich — neither came from a prestigious clan like the Uchiha or Hyuuga. The exotic piece of artwork in Sakura's hand looked as if should have been on a daimyo's wife, or in a museum.

As Sakura held the brooch in her palm, she felt an unusual sensation. It felt increasingly warm. As if memories were rushing into her. She heard two distinct voices.

(( "Please take my daughter! It's too dangerous here!"

"That would require a dimensional jump. You may never see her again."

"I want her to live! I LOVE HER!!" ))

The brooch clinked on the floor. Sakura felt sweat forming. 'What the hell was that?'

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Notes:

"Tadaima" is a greeting one always uses when one arrives home to one's family. It is often translated as "I'm home", but it's literal translation is "I just came back", so it's a very personal greeting.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.