Chapter Text
Reincarnation was a curious thing. Some believed it to be a second chance, a divine opportunity to right the wrongs of a past life. Others viewed it as a cruel, inescapable cycle—a fate worse than death itself.
For them, it was neither.
It was simply existence.
Their first life had long since faded from memory, blurred into the endless cycle of rebirths that followed. Twenty times they had died, twenty times they had lived again. In each life, they had fought, loved, lost, and suffered. Some lives had been long and peaceful; others had been cut short by war, betrayal, or disease. They had been a king, a hunter, a warrior, a pirate. A fishman, a demon, a child, a curse. Each identity had been temporary, and yet, no matter what form they took, one thing remained the same—
They always remembered.
Memories of past lives never truly left them. Each time they were born anew, the knowledge and experiences of their previous existences returned, fitting into place like pieces of an ever-expanding puzzle. By now, they had stopped questioning why.
When they had first opened their eyes, they were met with the dim flickering of candlelight in a cold, unfamiliar room. Their tiny body ached, their limbs frail and weak. Their breaths came shallow and uneven. That was normal for an infant. What wasn’t normal was the sheer terror they felt radiating from the woman holding them.
She was not their mother.
The first year of their twenty-first life had been spent in constant movement, their fragile body carried across the vast desert of the Land of Wind. Their so-called “mother,” a desperate woman with wild eyes and trembling hands, whispered words of delusion to them—prayers, promises, frantic reassurances that the “gods had sent them to save her.” They never understood what she meant, and they never got the chance to ask.
By the time they had reached the border of the Land of Fire, the woman had succumbed to exhaustion, her body crumbling beneath the weight of hunger and madness. And so, at barely a year old, they were left to die alone in the vast wilderness.
But fate had other plans.
Konohagakure took them in. The village that had once been an enemy to their homeland became their refuge. They were given a name, a home, an identity. Haruno Sakura.
The name felt foreign on their tongue, but they accepted it. What else could they do? They had no proof of who they truly were. The memories of their past lives meant nothing to those around them. They were seen as just another orphan, a child with no ties, no family. And so, they learned to live as Sakura.
But they were not just Sakura. They were so much more.
They knew where they had come from.
Sunagakure.
They knew who they had been born alongside.
Gaara.
Their twin brother.
The realization had nearly made them laugh. Out of all the possible reincarnations, this was the one they had been given? Born as the sister of the boy destined to become the Jinchūriki of Shukaku? To be ripped away before they could even know him?
Fate was playing a cruel joke.
But it didn’t matter.
Now, five years later, as they stood at the gates of the Ninja Academy surrounded by other children, they made a silent vow.
They would survive.
They would grow strong.
They would find Gaara.
(And this time, they would not be separated again.)