Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

On their way back to the Land of Fire, the delegation from the Hidden Leaf stopped at an oasis near the Hidden Sand Village to refill their water gourds and replenish their supplies. Everyone went about their tasks in silence, as morale was at an all-time low. Even though no one had died during the Chūnin Exams, the failure to protect Gaara from the shadows weighed heavily on the Jōnin, and their gloom had spread to the Genin under their command.

Unlike the adults, who had lived through the horrors of the Third Shinobi World War, the Konoha Twelve knew nothing of war beyond old stories, so they could only imagine the ramifications of the fracture between the Leaf and the Sand…

"So, mind explaining what the senbon was for?" asked Sakura as she walked up to Tenten, who was busy refilling water bottles and sealing them inside a scroll for ease of transport.

"I designed the senbon to deliver a microscopic bead inscribed with my Jutsu Formula into the target's body," Tenten sighed. "It was meant to help me infiltrate the Hidden Rain Village using the Flying Thunder God Jutsu, but it doesn't matter now. It was a long shot anyway."

The real reason Tenten had wanted Ajisai seeded was because she was fated to be murdered and turned into one of Pain's puppets, in the near future.

Naturally, Sakura hadn't recognised her without the Rinnegan in her eye sockets— but Tenten remembered her face all too well from the village's records, in the world of the future. Morino Ibiki, head of the Konohagakure Intelligence Division, had very briefly captured the Animal Path puppet during Pain's invasion of Konoha, so documentation was extensive.

"I thought as much, which is why I poked Gaara with it earlier," said Sakura, "Do you think you could…"

Without giving her a chance to finish, Tenten turned on her heel and ran towards the Jōnin, who were gathered in a loose circle near the water. Kakashi was scribbling something onto a scrap of parchment, while Asuma stood nearby with a messenger hawk perched on his arm, feeding it scraps of raw meat.

Tenten whispered something to them— and they all looked in Sakura's direction.

"Karin," said Kakashi, beckoning in Sakura's direction. "Come over here, please."

Sakura glanced over her shoulder and jumped. Karin had been spying on her, hidden behind a palm tree.

"Coming!" said Karin hurriedly.

She scrambled to her feet and hurried towards them, but her foot caught on something shiny protruding from the ground. With a sudden stumble, she pitched forwards, landing face first in the sandy soil. Red-faced, she sprang to her feet and ran to the circle of Jōnin. After discussing something with the group, Tenten reached out to Guy and Karin, and all three of them vanished, producing a popping noise as the air rushed in to fill the space they had just vacated.

[Beep! Faint space-time fluctuations detected!]

"A bit too late on the warning there, System," Sakura whispered into her hand, pretending to scratch her nose. "Tenten's already gone."

Sakura turned her attention to the item sticking out of the sand that had caused Karin to trip. It was rather shiny, and it glinted in the afternoon sun.

[Beep! OOPArt detected!]

OOPArts, or out-of-place artefacts, had been a popular urban legend from Sakura's past life. Supposedly, archaeologists would occasionally unearth ancient relics that were astonishingly advanced; being technology OR made with technology far surpassing anything that should have existed thousands of years ago. Most of the time, these items turned out to be hoaxes, but sometimes, they would turn out to be real and prove that the humans of the past weren't as dumb as previously thought.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, watching as Sakura knelt to dig out the object, like a child in a sandbox.

With the Chūnin Exams behind them, Sakura no longer had much reason to linger around Ino and Chōji— not that either of them minded, now that Shikamaru was back at their side where he belonged. Sakura, for her part, much preferred the actual Sasuke's quiet company to Ino's endless gushing about Sasuke in her ear.

"I don't know yet," Sakura admitted, lifting a metallic box to eye level.

Her curiosity finally getting the better of her, she popped the lid open and peered inside.

"It's full of rubbish," said Sakura in disappointment. "There's nothing but gears and springs and…"

Sakura's voice trailed off— there was a note at the bottom of the box, beneath all the metal parts. She fished it out, but the instant she laid her eyes on it, she was struck by an odd feeling of familiarity.

"What the…" Sakura muttered.

That was her own handwriting, of that there could be no doubt!

She recognised the way she wrote the kanji for space, which came up in a lot of different words— instead of writing it as the character for day under the character for gate, she used a simplified shorthand character that looked like the character for day taking refuge under a box, with the final pencil stroke being a bit squiggly.

Upon turning the slip of paper over, Sakura discovered that the message had been written on the back of a coupon for a limited time offer of 10% off at Ichiraku Ramen. She then flipped over the coupon again to read the actual message.

"A little gift of chakra metal, it should be enough to suit your purposes," Sasuke read out loud over Sakura's shoulder. "P.S.: Take a good look at the coupon."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly— Sakura was holding a veritable fortune in her hands! How lucky could one girl get?!

"You must have found a smuggler's cache," said Sasuke, a note of envy in his voice. "I've always wanted a chakra metal longsword like yours…"

Kakashi had taught Sasuke his Hatake-style swordsmanship over the past two years, but Sasuke didn't have a good sword to use it with yet.

"Before you ask, the box isn't for sale," said Sakura, hugging the box tightly to her chest, so that it sank into her soft, pliable flesh. "I just happen to need a lot of chakra metal too, you know!"

Remembering the instructions written on the back of the coupon, Sakura flipped it over yet again. At first, she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary… and then it hit her like a ton of bricks.

Today was the twenty-second of July, but the coupon was only valid for a few days in the spring… of next year!