"Rise and shine," you say to yourself as you climb out of bed. The afternoon sun lit up the room as you collected some clothes, heading to the bathroom for a shower. Your reflection looked exhausted, dark rings under your green and (e/c) eyes and a grumpy look on your face. "What are you looking at?" You glare at your own reflection, deciding it's way too early to be awake and taking your shower. After drying off and getting dressed you searched Sakura's drawers for something to cover the bags under your eyes, at least until you can get more sleep. Sakura's mother was sitting at the table, sipping a warm drink and staring off at a wall.

"Hello dear," she says as you walk into the room. "Please take a seat, we need to talk." You sit down across from her as she brushes her hair out of her face. "Why didn't you tell me about your ability?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't really allowed to discuss it with anyone else until we understood it better." You weren't really lying but you still felt guilty about it. "Only Kakashi and the Hokage really knew about it."

"I understand, is this why you've been spending so much time with Kakashi?" You nod, she smiles weakly. "Can you see my future?"

"Hmm...." You close your eyes and rub your temples, "unfortunately no. Can I ask you a question?" She nods, sitting up straighter. "When did you find out you could turn into a flower?"

"Oh, they told you about that?" She sighs, "they say it's a kekkei genkai but it's not really at all. When I was younger I toyed with the idea of being a ninja, I thought if I worked hard enough my chakra would grow and I'd eventually be able to control it. That doesn't work, as you probably know, but I was young so I tried. It was a couple months into my 'training' when something did happen, I thought it was a sign that I had finally done it and immediately went to my father to show him. I don't remember how to do it now but I turned into a flower, it was a very odd feeling. Everything got bigger and I couldn't move, I thought it was so cool until I tried to undo it and couldn't. I spent two days as a flower, scared my parents to death at the idea of having a flower for a child forever. Once it wore off I never tried it again, I no longer wanted to be a ninja and that was probably for the best. I mean, if I had been a ninja I never would have married your father and you would not be here." She smiled softly at the memory, something she probably never thought she'd be sharing.

"What flower were you?"

"I was a tulip. A pretty red tulip, it's still my favorite flower." She got out of her chair and rinsed her mug, "so what are your plans? You'll be fighting again won't you?"

"I will be fighting Haku, he wouldn't kill me so you don't have to worry about that. I'm going to be training a lot these next few weeks so you maybe I'll actually stand a chance." You say jokingly and she shakes her head.

"Of course you stand a chance, you'll do great. I'll be there cheering you on, good luck with your training." She watches as you gather your stuff to leave, "oh Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't sleep in so long, half the day is gone already."

"Will do..... won't do? I will try to wake up earlier."

"Good, now have a nice day and don't get into any trouble." You wave to her as you head out, heading toward the hospital to see if Tenten was still there, you found her pretty easily and waited outside the room until her company left.

"Hey Sakura," she calls out as you knock at the door.

"Hey Tenten," you respond as you set up your supplies beside the bed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot," she replied while setting up her supplies.

"Say I need to suppress someone's chakra, even for a minute or two, without their knowledge. Is there a way to do that?"

"You'd probably have to put the seal directly onto their skin, for best effects" Tenten narrowed her eyes at you, "it would be very difficult to do that without their knowledge. You're not planning on cheating are you?"

"Of course not, now I was wondering if I could make the seal with invisible ink? Would having multiple seals take away more chakra?"

"I've never tried invisible ink and I'd assume so, can't say I've ever tried suppressing someone's chakra either."

"Well, that's all I wanted to ask. Thank you Tenten-senpai."

"No problem, and it's sensei to you."

"My bad, sensei. So how do I seal living things in a scroll?"

"You barely know how to seal a pencil in a scroll, you're not ready for that." You sigh but cheer up a bit as she begins to teach you, it was almost like art class but cooler. Nurses came in frequently to check on Tenten, sort of giving you an idea that you weren't sure would work.

"How do you seal chakra into a scroll?" She showed you the seal in your book.

"What are you thinking about now?"

"Nothing, on a completely unrelated note where would I find Gai at tomorrow? I think I'll train with him a bit."

"Training grounds, if you really want to impress him be there super early."

"Does nine work?"

"Try five," you groan but you know it'd be smarter to take her advice. "Alright, let's try this seal again." She continues teaching you the seals throughout the day, seeming to genuinely enjoy your company. By the end of the day you're ready to sleep before even having supper, which you do. As soon as you make it back to your room you fall asleep on the unmade bed, watching Sakura research quietly. It looked like she had stayed up all night, which explains why she wasn't there all day.

"Sasori looks really young." You mutter, Sakura jumps a little and curses in her head. "We do not say those words in my good Christian body." She rolls her eyes and leans back with a sigh.

"Sasori is pretty adorable, isn't he? He's actually about 33 and not so nice, he turns people into puppets."

"Horrible, let's save him." Sakura shakes her head with a small smile, clicking to a different tab with another Akatsuki member.

"What I've learned so far is that the person you need to convince is Tobi but you also need to convince Nagato, who you will meet under the name of Pein. Or, as some call him, Pain."

"I don't hear a difference."

"It's in the spelling, anyway, if you convince Pein then you've got Konan too. If you convince Tobi that means you're pretty convincing and probably means you prevent the apocalypse." Sakura explains, she doesn't specify what you need to convince them of but you figure that's something you can learn of later. "Kakuzu will be difficult, his village betrayed him and that probably means convincing him will be harder." You examine his appearance.

"What about that dude?" Sakura clicks over to Hidan's page, "he looks cool."

"He's immortal and obsessed with his god, Jashin. He frequently makes sacrifices to him, you need to prevent him from killing Asuma. I really want to see all of these smol children live," Sakura clicks onto another tab.

"They kill people Sakura."

"Smol children, all mine."

"Do you have a crush on Itachi?"

"No, but.... I started watching Boruto recently because I wanted to see my daughter's life and.... you know?"

"Boruto? There's more?"

"Yes, that's Naruto's son. But anyway, maybe I should move on from Sasuke."

"Because you don't like your daughter?" You weren't sure if you were following her at all.

"No, Sarada isn't the problem. Sasuke is, we are. Us, as a couple. Or maybe it's you two as a couple? I can't tell at this point, I just know that Sasuke will never love me the way I love him."

"I have a feeling this 'Boruto' stuff will be changed in the same way as Naruto is, neither of us are truly psychic so we won't find out until the time comes but I do know that you deserve someone who feels the same as you do. If you feel like moving on from Sasuke is best then I'll help you any way I can, I don't think crushing on his brother will help much though." Sakura blushed at the last part.

"I don't have a crush on Itachi, so let's discuss what's happening in my world. Who's training you?"

"Tenten-sensei taught me some sealing, I'm going to talk to Gai tomorrow morning about training. Also, I wanted to run some things by you about that day." Sakura turns her attention from the computer and meets your eyes, listening as you share your ideas and shares her own back. The two of you slowly start to form a plan, it was actually really nice to spend time with Sakura in your world for a while. Your conversation eventually leads away from the plan and moves towards other things, talking about movies and books as you relax. The time for you to wake up comes sooner than you expected and you're a little disappointed to leave.