Chapter 1: Haruno Sakura
"Hah!"
A small fist, wrapped in a blue aura of chakra, smashed into the astonished enemy's face. The terrified expression on the bully's face twisted under the force of the blow, and his body was sent flying several meters before landing heavily on the ground.
"Hmph!"
Retracting her fist, the protagonist of this story, a short girl who looked to be only five or six years old, crossed her arms. She swaggered over to the chubby boy who was now in a pathetic state on the ground. Looking down on him from above, she let out a cold snort, though inwardly she felt a little proud.
Covering my fist with water transformed from chakra is a great method. No matter how hard I hit, my fist won't get injured. At this age, children's fights were usually decided by who was bigger. But learning to use chakra was like possessing a tactical weapon; she was essentially invincible among her peers. This little fatty in front of her had been acting arrogantly for his age, bullying kids all over the place. She'd had enough of him for a long time. He definitely needed to be taught a lesson!
Although he looked like he was in a miserable state, she had controlled her strength. When he was about to land, she had even used a cushion of water made from chakra to soften the fall. It would hurt a lot, but he should be fine.
"Waaaaah!!" After taking the punch, the chubby boy started crying and wailing from the pain. For all his earlier blustering and arrogant expressions, his spirit was quite fragile. He was all bark and no bite. Seeing the girl walk over, the chubby boy instinctively covered his head and face, as if he had already mastered the art of getting beaten up. When he saw she had no intention of hitting him again, he scrambled to his feet and tried to escape.
As for his little gang of friends, they had been scared stiff when they saw their boss get sent flying with a single punch. Before the chubby boy even tried to run, they were already turning tail to flee.
"Stop!" the little girl shouted, her face expressionless. Her voice seemed to nail their fleeing figures to the ground. "I'll beat up anyone who runs!"
These little punks, just because they developed a bit earlier and had more numbers, they think they can bully anyone. Don't they know this territory is under my—ahem, right, can't really talk like a 'boss' anymore—protection! They need to be taught a lesson! After mastering chakra, any disadvantage in physical size could be completely compensated for, or even overturned!
"You lot, listen up! The next time I see you playing here, or if I see you bullying anyone, I'll beat you up every single time!"
Even as she spoke such classic chuunibyou lines, the protagonist felt that they sounded incredibly cool. This was probably what they said in those old delinquent movies she watched in her past life, right? She finally got to cosplay as one!
"Did you hear me? What are you still standing there for? Scram!"
The chubby boy and his friends scrambled away in a panic.
The little girl watched them go with a cold expression, her arms crossed and her posture perfectly straight. A gust of wind blew past, causing her short pink hair to brush against her cheeks and sway in the breeze. Her coolness factor was off the charts.
In that moment, the protagonist felt that since she had been reborn—no, even including her previous life—she had never had a moment cooler than this.
"Yeah! You sent that guy flying with one punch! Sakura-nee is amazing!" This was her follower, Minion #1. Since he was unlikely to appear again, his name will be omitted.
"Sakura-nee is so cool and strong!" This was her follower, Minion #2. Nameless for the same reason.
Thwack! Thwack! She gave both of them a bonk on the head.
"I told you not to call me Sakura-nee. Call me Boss! Got it?"
"We got it, Sakura-nee!"
...The little girl, Haruno Sakura, put a hand to her forehead and sighed. She had already given up on trying to fix them.
Ignoring her two silly sidekicks, Sakura turned to look at the child who had been bullied earlier, and then she froze for a moment.
It's him.
A dirty jacket, dusty orange-blond hair, and the iconic whisker marks on his face. No, they were whisker-like marks. His eyes didn't hold the passion and confidence they would in the future; instead, they looked a bit timid and fearful.
Uzumaki Naruto. The protagonist of this world, the hot-blooded boy who would one day fight his way through the world with his Shadow Clones and Rasengan, the symbol of disaster who had the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed within him. The first half of that sentence was her impression of him before she was reborn; the second half was the perception of the ninja in the village who knew a bit of the truth.
She never expected to run into him here.
Tsk. Sakura pursed her lips slightly, feeling that this was a bit troublesome. Although many fanfictions had the transmigrator try to get involved with the original protagonist in every way possible, Sakura felt that contacting him too early was actually a bad thing. As the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, he was undoubtedly the center of the village's attention. As a transmigrator, Sakura had her own abnormalities she didn't want Konoha to discover—like her precociousness. Therefore, she didn't want the Anbu to start monitoring her as well. The best way to avoid that was to not get to know him outside of a "reasonable" setting. With this in mind, Sakura had always deliberately avoided the areas near Naruto's home.
And yet, by sheer coincidence, she had met him now. Sakura pondered for a moment and quickly realized that a child her age wouldn't know his identity, so as long as she acted normally, there shouldn't be a problem.
"Hey, you with the orange hair," she said in an arrogant tone. "This is our territory. If you want to play here, you have to accept me as your boss, you hear!"
Wait, how is this "acting normally"?! Is there any novel where the protagonist recruits the original hero as their underling in the first chapter?! Sakura silently roasted herself. But she had no choice; this was how she had acquired her other two followers. She didn't know if any Anbu were monitoring Naruto nearby, but it was likely. To be safe, she had to act even more like a little brat.
"—No way!" A direct refusal. As expected of this world's protagonist, daring to resist tyranny at such a young age! He was impulsive and bold enough!
"Hey, orange-hair! I just saved you, you know! Isn't it a bit cold-hearted to refuse to make me your boss? Besides, I'm this strong! If I protect you, no one will dare bully you again!"
Sakura walked up to him, glaring with what she hoped was a dangerous look in her eyes. Well, something like that. Though it's hard for a four or five-year-old little girl to look dangerous in any way.
Sakura's glare was fierce, conveying the message: If you don't agree, I'm going to beat you up!
Naruto stared back with an equally determined look, conveying the message: Even if you beat me up, I'll never be your underling!
A cold wind blew past, rolling a fallen leaf that spun and fluttered before landing between their feet, creating a desolate and tense atmosphere. As their eyes clashed, the world seemed to change color, mountains cracked, a storm brewed, and all the beasts fled in terror.
...Okay, I admit the above was just the author's fantasy. The real situation was that Naruto, who had been squatting on the ground, suddenly jumped up, turned around, and ran!
"No way! I'll absolutely—never—be a girl's—underling!" After creating a safe distance, Naruto stopped, making a funny face and taunting her.
Hearing Naruto's words, a vein popped on the protagonist's forehead.
He not only refused me but also put the wrong emphasis on it! Does he think he's safe just because he's ten meters away? How naive. A person like me who can use chakra is on a completely different level from you!
A forward burst! Pouring chakra into her leg muscles, she went from a standstill to top speed and back to a stop in an instant. In the blink of an eye, Sakura was standing in front of Naruto and brought a sharp karate chop down on his head!
"Ow!" Naruto clutched his head and yelled.
"Hmph, you little brat, you don't know what's good for you! I wouldn't want a dumb idiot like you as my underling anyway!" She said this to give herself an out. In reality, Sakura had no intention of making him her subordinate. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox having a boss? Even as a childish joke, that was going too far.
"Then why did you hit me?!"
"Because you dared to refuse me!"
Actually, I just wanted to bully him a bit before he got all powerful.
Unable to win a fight and unable to escape, Naruto could only stare at her resentfully with his cerulean eyes. Hmm, it would be even more perfect if he had tears in his eyes while holding his head and squatting on the ground.
Just then, a voice faintly calling "Sakura, Sakura," could be heard from a distance. Oops, I got carried away and forgot to go home for dinner.
"Let's go. It sounds like my mom is calling me home for dinner. It's getting late," Sakura said to Minion #1 and #2. These two lived near her house and were considered neighbors. She didn't remember seeing them in the original story, so Sakura guessed they weren't anyone important.
As she reached the edge of the clearing, Sakura stopped and turned back to look at Naruto, who was still squatting on the ground, rubbing his forehead. "Hey, orange-haired kid! If anyone tries to bully you in the future, just use my name, Haruno Sakura! Tell them you're under my protection, and you'll be fine!"
She pointed a thumb at herself and said with emphasis:
"Remember it well! My name... is... Ha-ru-no... Sa-ku-ra!"
It had been more than five, almost six, years since he was reborn into this world as Haruno Sakura. In his past life, he was a man named Kenji, from a country called Japan. He was unmarried, had just graduated from university with a good job, and was full of ambition to start his career and life, but he had somehow transmigrated—he woke up and found himself a baby, and a baby girl at that. He wouldn't complain about that for now. Then he discovered this was the world of Naruto, and he himself had become the female lead, Haruno Sakura! To my parents in another world, your son has been unfilial and can no longer care for you. I hope you are healthy and happy. At least my younger brother is still there for you.
As one of the "big three" shonen manga, the protagonist had of course seen Naruto. The problem was, he had watched it when he was a chuunibyou teenager in high school. Once he got to university, his time was spent playing DOTA and LOL. Besides, he always felt that Shippuden had too many things to complain about, so he never kept up with it. In short, Sakura, who had never thought she would be reborn into the Naruto world, had only watched the earlier parts, had forgotten many details, and had barely seen the later parts at all. She didn't know what new bosses appeared, only hearing from her roommate about things like Sasuke's perfect Mangekyo, Pain destroying Konoha by himself, and Madara Uchiha's revival. This information seemed useful, but she only knew the gist of it, with absolutely no details. She didn't even know the sequence of events. How was she supposed to play this game?!
But there was one thing she knew very clearly: this world of ninja was extremely unsafe! If the plot developed normally, according to the hazy memories she had left, she would first have to fight the Akatsuki, then the village would be destroyed by Pain, killing many people, and later Madara would want to destroy the world. Sakura had a question: in the original story, how did the seemingly useless, "flower vase" Sakura from the early days survive until the end? All in all, no matter how she looked at it, it didn't seem likely she would live past the age of 20!
Unless, before all that happened, she had enough power to protect herself, or even the power to change her destiny.
Otherwise, if she just hoped to get lucky and survive to the end like in the original story, Sakura didn't think her luck was that strong!
This was one of the reasons why Sakura started her ninja—or rather, chakra—training very early. This wasn't uncommon; many ninja families would educate their children in advance, especially in large clans like the Uchiha. Of course, many others didn't bother, because such education was too difficult for young children, and they could catch up at the Ninja Academy without early training. Especially with the famous late-bloomer, Jiraiya, as a role model. Moreover, it wasn't a time of constant war where even children were sent to the battlefield.
In the original story, although Sakura was a bit of a "flower vase" in the early stages, she actually was talented. The most obvious sign was her superb chakra control, which was why Tsunade chose her as her disciple. Secondly, she had a talent for genjutsu, which was unfortunately never developed later on. Finally, there was her monstrous strength. Although this skill was taught to her by Tsunade, Sakura had already shown latent potential for it in Part One. The real bottlenecks holding back her growth were, first, her relatively small amount of chakra, and second, her lack of a strong will to become stronger.
Returning to the protagonist who became Haruno Sakura, while her mentality came from a peaceful modern world and her disposition might not be on par with decisive, battle-hardened ninja, it was certain that she was far more motivated than the original, less ambitious Haruno Sakura.
As for chakra reserves, they were limited by the body and soul. Physical constitution was largely determined by innate factors and was difficult to change. It wasn't that training was useless, but some people had bodies that you just couldn't build up no matter how much you trained. For example, Haruno Sakura's base physical fitness might be a 1, and after training, it could become 1.2, or even 1.3 with extreme training. But someone like Rock Lee, after extreme training, could reach a level of 3 or even 4!
As for the soul—speaking of the soul, Sakura was quite pleased. Having transmigrated into Haruno Sakura's body, she had absorbed the original soul, and the protagonist's own soul had undergone a second phase of development within the young body. Her spiritual energy was several times that of an ordinary person! If a child's was 0.2 and an adult's was 1, then the undeveloped Sakura with her inner personality might have been around 0.4. After the protagonist fused with the original Sakura, it might have been around 1.4, and after the second phase of development was complete, it could probably reach around 7! The difference in quantity was one thing, but the difference in quality was also considerable! Therefore, her chakra would be much stronger than in the original story!
Although since her transmigration, she hadn't received a wise old spirit guide, a creator god giving her infinite chakra and the Ten-Tails as a jinchuriki, or a game-like leveling system that went ding!, Sakura was already very satisfied just by sensing the potential of her body and soul. She didn't know what the original Haruno Sakura would have been like if she started training her chakra at the age of four, but it was impossible for her to have done better than the current Sakura. After all, besides inheriting the original body's agility, she now had a spirit several levels stronger than the original to control her chakra! The original Sakura couldn't hope to match this potential and rate of progress!
It wasn't suitable for children to undergo overly intense physical training, as it would affect their future development; it would be a counterproductive effort. For example, practicing with chakra—over-extracting chakra is very dangerous even for adults. For a child, one mistake could lead to damage to their foundations, stunting their future growth. Therefore, children usually had to wait until they were six years old, when they had a clear enough understanding, to begin learning to refine chakra under the full supervision of a teacher or ninja.
However, under the guidance of Sakura's father—a Chunin—this wasn't a problem. In short, from the age of four, Sakura began to learn how to practice with chakra, and at the same time, she had her chakra nature tested—it was Water.
In the original story, Water Style didn't seem particularly powerful. Water Clones were trash; even a strong Jonin like Zabuza made clones that Sasuke could destroy three at a time. The Great Waterfall Technique purely relied on a large volume of water to overwhelm the opponent, which was clearly a huge chakra consumer—Kakashi was exhausted after using it once, let alone Sakura. Therefore, for the past two years, Sakura hadn't practiced any ninjutsu. Instead, she had been constantly thinking about how to train with Water Style to make it effective in combat. She didn't understand the worldview of Naruto very well; what she could rely on was the knowledge from her previous life on Earth. Based on her observations and thoughts over the past few years, besides chakra, the physical laws of the two worlds should be the same, so her knowledge should be applicable here.
Sakura felt that if her ideas could truly be realized, she would probably become very, very strong.