A/N: Hello . This is the first time I've EVER posted a story online. I've been reading stories from this site for years and decided I should write something. I'm a big fan of Naruto and I especially like the pairing of Sasuke and Sakura. So this is my story. Hope you like it.

Desclaimer: I do no own Naruto or any of it's characters.

Learning to Live

Chapter 1

The entire area was a war zone. Almost every square inch was covered in dead bodies. Thankfully, most of those bodies were of the many Zetsu clones. Some of the bodies were of the shinobi fighting for the Great Nations.

It had been a month since the Fourth Great Ninja War started between the Akatsuki and the joint army of the five Great Nations. Not much has changed. By day, shinobi would fight and sacrifice their lives for their nations. By night, many would rest, get treated from a wound they received, or they would stay up plotting a battle strategy to defeat the enemy.

Currently, Haruno Sakura found herself on the battlefield. She had spent all morning in the medical tent treating the injured. It wasn't until noon she was called out on the battlefield to assist a squad that has been fighting the same enemy for hours. It was hard enough to deal with enemies that were alive, but to fight the dead? The thought made her cringe. These people had past on, breaking their ties with the living world.

Sakura once again found herself fighting the previous Akatsuki member, Sasori. She thought she and the Sand elder, Chiyo-baasama had gotten rid of the puppet master for good. Apparently, she had been mistaken for he's here fighting her. This time, however, she wasn't alone. Many other shinobi were fighting off over a hundred puppets.

Being buried six feet under hasn't made him or his puppets rusty. Sakura found herself punching, kicking, and dodging numerous puppets. No matter how many puppets she gets rid of, there seems to be more and more. She shouldn't be surprised. He is an Akatsuki member after all. Her chakra level was running low and it didn't help that she used most of it to heal the injured earlier that day.

She just managed to crush two puppets with her inhuman strength before she had to dodge a puppet that had numerous weapons in hand. The pink haired kunoichi cursed under her breath. This was getting ridiculous. She's been doing the exact same thing for the past hour and a half.

As she dodged another puppet, one managed to grab both of her arms. She tried to kick her way free, but another puppet grabbed both of her legs. She struggled to get out of its grip but her attempt was futile. She had lost too much chakra and her strength was fading. Right as she thought things couldn't get any worse, another puppet was heading towards her from the front with a sharp dagger in hand. Worry ceased her and she clamped her eyes shut, waiting for the impact.

"Leaf Hurricane!"

But it never came.

Sakura opened her eyes just in time to see Rock Lee destroy the puppet that was heading towards her.

"Lee-san!" exclaimed Sakura. "What are you doing here?"

"I have been ordered by Kakashi-sensie to come and assist you." he replied.

It's been a few days since Sakura saw Kakashi, Lee, or anyone that was familiar. Her team had been sent to be a backup team for a different squad. She would have gone, but Kakashi told her to stay and take care of the injured here.

"Thanks Lee-san. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't showed up."

"It is an honor to protect the beautiful Sakura-san!" he exclaimed.

She didn't know why Lee was always so nice to her. She knows how he feels but she doesn't deserve his kindness. After all, he already knew she couldn't return his feelings. Everyone already knew how she felt about Sasuke. But after their last encounter, she was lost and confused. She had tried to kill him by stabbing him with a poisoned kunai. She thought she was strong enough to kill him, but she couldn't bring herself to do the task. In return, he tried to kill her too. The only difference is that he would have done it if Naruto hadn't showed up at the right time. The thought made her sad.

"Sakura-san, look out!" Lee hollered.

She was so deep in thought she hadn't realize she was still fighting Sasori and his puppets. She turned around just in time to crush the puppet that was heading for her. She jumped behind a large bolder next to Lee for shelter.

"Are you alright Sakura-san?" Lee asked.

"I'm fine but my chakra is running low. We need to defeat him, but I'm not sure how. Based on the reports I got a month ago, there's no way to kill them. Not even killing the wielder of the jutsu will get rid of them."

"I have been informed by Kakashi-sensie that emotions are their weakness."

"Emotions?" Sakura asked quizzically.

"Hai. If they are reminded of an important figure in their past lives, then it is assumed they will break free from the jutsu." Lee answered.

Sakura thought about it for a second. She fought Sasori before, so she should know what his weakness is.

"Think, Sakura, think!" she thought to herself.

"It seems like he has favored those two puppets over there." stated Lee.

Sakura looked over to what he was talking about and saw two puppets dressed in white. Although they had many weapons in them, Sasori continued to use them to block any attacks. They stayed close to Sasori at all times, protecting him from any assault.

"That's it!" she exclaimed.

"Sakura-san?"

She ignored Lee as she thought about it. Sasori's strongest attachments were towards his parents. She remembered what the elder, Chiyo-baasama, had told her. Sasori's first puppets were of his parent. She was about to tell Lee when a sudden wave of powerful chakra hit her. It made her nauseous. She looked at Lee and saw that the ninja clad in green had a look of fear on his face. He had felt it too. Sakura looked around to see if anyone else felt it. To her surprise, the battle had stopped and Sasori was retreating.

That was a good sign for now. But that chakra has left her feeling sick, like it was evil. The worst part of it was that she knew this chakra. She felt it many times before. It was the nine-tail fox's chakra. That meant Naruto was somewhere nearby and was clearly in danger.

Sakura froze. She hadn't seen Naruto in six weeks and now she had felt the nine-tail fox's chakra. She couldn't stop herself as her feet began to move until she was in a full out sprint. She heard Lee call after her, but she didn't stop. She headed towards the thick forest and started hopping though the trees. Her mind was blank. She only had one goal in mind and that was to save Naruto before he got out of control

She ran towards the direction of the fox's chakra and towards her teammate.

Kakashi looked at the scene before him. Naruto was currently enveloped in the nine-tail fox's chakra. He had lost control and was already forming a third tail. There's no way to stop this. Naruto shouldn't have known about the war in the first place.

The eight-tails jinchuuriki had tried to stop him, but Naruto was too stubborn.

Kakashi was amazed that they could hide something this big from someone like Naruto for so long. Then again, it was Naruto and he can be completely clueless sometimes. But after a while, things started to get suspicious and the nine-tails jinchuuriki was determined to find out. He was inside the shell of the giant turtle for quite some time before he decided he had had enough.

From there, everything went downhill. Naruto soon found out about the war and once he reached land, he took off. No one could stop him as he searched for answers. Eventually, Naruto ran into Kakashi and demanded to find out what exactly was going one.

Kakashi was surprised to see his student in front of him demanding answers. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Naruto wasn't supposed to be here and he definitely wasn't supposed to find out about the war. It seemed like he had no choice whatsoever but to explain everything to hyper-active ninja before him. He would have found out sooner or later anyway.

So Kakashi explained everything to his pupil while heading towards his destination. He and his team had been called up as a backup team. He would have got there sooner if he hadn't run into Naruto. Said boy was furious after learning the truth about the war.

Kakashi didn't really know what to do with Naruto. He had told the boy everything and he knew he was angry. Things only got worst as his team, along with Naruto now, arrived at their destination. There was fighting all over the place. It was a true war zone. But that's not where it gets bad. Standing on the other side of the war zone was Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Sasuke.

At that point, Naruto flipped. The boy he has been chasing after for so many years was standing next to his enemy. Not just his enemy, but the world's enemy. He had charged towards Sasuke shouting out profanities at the boy. They immediately started to battle each other.

To say he was surprised would have been a lie. Kakashi had expected Sasuke to be with Madara. But a month has passed and the copy-nin had not seen Sasuke or Madara since the war had started. He couldn't go after Naruto or Sasuke since he was called here to assist the other team. Many were fighting off the Zetsu clones and were having a hard time since there was an endless amount.

The next thing that happened made everyone terrified with fear. Naruto's seal had broken and the nine-tails had come out.

That brings us back to the present. Kakashi watched as his two students fight to kill each other. Naruto was starting to form a fourth tail and he didn't know what to do. He couldn't get close to Naruto, because he would end up killing himself.

Naruto had formed the Shuriken-Rasengan and was heading towards Sasuke. Said boy had an enormous Chidori formed in his left hand. As Sasuke ran towards Naruto, Kakashi panicked. When those two collided, they will liberate the entire area.

Everyone saw the attack and tired to find cover from it. Even Madara moved away. He had been entertained by watching the two teens fight. His plan was working out the way he wanted it to.

As Sasuke and Naruto came in contact, the two jutsus touched and collided with each other. An enormous amount of power was formed that turned the area around them black. Five seconds after the two ninjas had collided, an explosion went off. A shock wave had been sent all around them for the next two miles radius, destroying everything.

Sakura had been running non-stop for thirty minutes. The nine-tailed fox's chakra was getting closer and she could feel the enormous power getting stronger. It almost felt constricting. None of that mattered to her. All she wanted to do was get to Naruto before he lost complete control of himself. She already lost one teammate; she couldn't afford to lose another.

She was now three kilometers away from her destination when she saw a huge explosion go off. A few seconds later, she was hit with a huge shock of power. She quickened her pace. Her chakra was still low but she didn't care. She had only one goal in mind.

The pink haired kunoichi was too absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice a group of signatures approaching her. As Sakura jumped to another branch, three figures jumped in front of her making her halt immediately. The action caused her to lose her footing and she now found herself falling to the forest floor. She quickly regained herself and tried to grab a branch. She focused chakra to her hands and reached for the closest branch near her. Her hand made contact with a rough surface before her shoulder was nearly yanked out of their sockets and she stopped falling. From there she slowly made her way down to the forest floor.

Once again, three figures appeared in front of her. However, this time she didn't need to worry. She knew who they were.

"Geez, forehead! You nearly gave me a heart attack." Ino exclaimed. She gave her childhood rival and friend a bemused look before she flipped her long hair over her shoulder.

"I gave you a heart attack? You're the one that magically appeared in front of me making me lose my balance!" Sakura replied with an annoyed tone.

"Your giant forehead probably made you lose your balance, not me." the blonde retorted.

Sakura ignored the rude comment. She had better things to deal with than fight with Ino. "What do you want, pig?"

Before Ino had a chance to snap at the old nickname, Shikamaru spoke for the first time since he arrived. "We sensed your chakra and figured you were heading in the same direction as that explosion." he drawled out with an exasperated tone.

"I'm guessing you sensed the nine-tail's chakra too." she replied.

"It's hard to miss." answered the lazy genius.

"Naruto's in danger. We have to hurry!" Sakura was getting extremely worried. Even the lazy genius and his team felt Naruto's power.

"Sakura, maybe we should rest first. I can tell your chakra is low. Plus I'm exhausted!" remarked Chouji for the first time.

"I'll be fine. We need to get to Naruto." Sakura insisted.

"Calm down, forehead. I'm sure Naruto will be fine. Kakashi-sensie is probably taking care of it right now."

"Chouji and Ino are right. There's no point rushing. We'll only put ourselves in danger if we go there immediately." Shikamaru stated.

"I. . ." Sakura didn't know what to say. They did have a point. What would she do once she got there? The last time she got hurt just being around the fox's chakra. There's nothing she could do to save Naruto. That thought alone made her sigh in defeat. "Fine. Let's rest for a bit."

Ten minutes had past and the team was getting ready to leave. Sakura couldn't wait any longer. Naruto was in danger and here she was, doing absolutely nothing. She agreed to rest with Shikamaru's team, but too much time has passed. She managed to regain most of her chakra, but not all. That was good enough, as long as she doesn't get into a battle on the way.

"Is everyone ready?" Shikamaru asked the team.

"Hai!" came the simultaneous reply from the other members.

No sooner did the team utter that word, a kunai came flying through the trees only to land three feet in front of them.

Sakura cursed under her breath. Of course something would prevent her from going to her teammate.

A dark figure in the trees stepped out from the shadows. "You four won't be going anywhere-uh."

Surprise, surprise. It was another dead Akatsuki member. He had blonde hair tied in a side ponytail. His eyes were wide and looked as if they would pop out any time soon. Sakura recognized him as Sasori's partner, Deidara.

"Sakura, go! We'll hold him off." Shikamaru stated.

The kunoichi was surprised. But she didn't hesitate for another second before she turned to leave.

"Be careful." She said before she disappeared in the trees above them.

She was so close to her destination. She applied chakra to her fight and sped off to her teammate. The medic-nin had a bad feeling something was wrong and she didn't like it at all. Ever since she felt the shock wave from that explosion, she's been constantly worrying.

She was almost there. The forest was thinning out and she could see the opening ahead.

"Naruto, please be okay." She thought.

As Sakura came through the clearing, she nearly fell over in shock. She wasn't expecting the sight in front of her. The entire area was destroyed. Even the terrain was uneven with all the boulders and rocks. Numerous shinobi were fighting the Zetsu clones.

But that's not what she noticed the most. In the middle of the battlefield was Naruto in nine-tails mode, falling unconscious. Standing in front of him was Sasuke.

A/N: Well that's the first chapter. Tell me what you think of it. I'm not sure if I should continue or not. Please review!