Gisei nu Suru: To Sacrifice

Prologue

If you could have your greatest desire granted, what would you be willing to sacrifice for it?

What would you give?

A child's figure slowly kneels in front of a grave, their parents' names engraved on the cold stone, with the setting sun at their back. Heavy thoughts fill their mind as eyes stare blankly forward. As shadows slowly swallow the cemetery into the growing darkness of night, one terribly childish thought grows louder and louder until it becomes a cry of anguish.

"It's not fair!" Tears start to gather as their shoulders shake and a fist strikes the unyielding gravestone. "Why did things have to turn out like this?!"

Memories of simpler times keep playing on repeat in their head. From before the Chunin Exams catastrophe, before being placed on a team. Before home became something cold and lonely. Back when the biggest concern was trying to master their family's jutsu to make Otou-san proud.

'The look on his face when I proved I could do it, it was the proudest I'd ever seen him be in me.'

Thoughts of the team that had become a second family, had become a home, flooded their mind. Memories of their time together as genin speeding through their mind on fast forward: When Iruka-sensei first announced their team's formation. Meeting their new sensei for the first time, & the resulting survival test. The many menial D-ranks before they received their first real mission that left none of them unchanged. Celebrating successful missions with team lunches. The Chunin Exams… and everything it seemed to taint afterwards.

The rage, the pain, the blinding loss, and the growing feeling of inadequacy that became so suffocating it was hard to breath sometimes. The stagnating progress while their rival… their best friend… seemed to flourish in training. Using Sakura as a crutch even while lashing out at her like a wounded animal because it was Sakura. She was safety. She was warmth, and compassion, and comfort. No matter how many hurtful words or rejections were hurled at her, she would still be there to offer whatever support she could.

'How could I have treated her like that? She didn't deserve it; she was only ever trying to help me, since the very beginning. All I've done lately is hurt the ones around me.'

Waves of self-loathing and regret swelled up from within. A tsunami of pure despair and heartache that had merely just been shoved aside for some time now had finally reached its breaking point as the dam broke, their body folding in on itself from the weight of it all. When their back finally straightened itself again sometime later, no evidence of their breakdown could be seen on the genin's passive face. Shouldering the bulging backpack that had been sitting beside them, they then stand solemnly in front of the grave for one last moment. Back then, those halcyon days seemed untouchable… but nothing lasts forever. No matter how tightly you try to hold onto it. Everything comes to an end sooner or later. With the full moon now high in the sky, the resolute genin turns purposefully to follow it towards the village gates while taking care to avoid Konoha's patrol routes. It wouldn't do to keep Orochimaru waiting.

[GnS]

Approaching the gates, their steps falter upon seeing Sakura standing beside a bench.

"What are you doing out here? It's the dead of night," a blank voice asks of the pinkette.

"This is the only road out of the village. I've been standing guard here all night" Sakura responds with a voice that is full of both trepidation, and resignation.

[To Sacrifice]

Casting one last look behind them at Sakura and Konoha, they cross the gates threshold.

"What I would give…"

'Otou-san, Okaa-san… I wish you both were still here. None of this would have happened.'

Got the idea to write this a few months ago, & have (very) slowly been working on fleshing out the timelines & AU elements that are going to be involved in this ambitious project. This will be an AU with some large differences (and yes, some OCs as a result though I will try to keep them as minimal as possible) which will be mentioned as they become relevant, except for the one that was the metaphorical light bulb for this story. At least, not until it has been guessed by a good bit of you. I plan to focus mostly on Teams 7 & 10 with the genin, but there will be 2-3 characters who get most of the attention. I'm tentatively planning for this to wind up having a sequel, depending on if I'm actually going to be able to finish this first part. I am a horrible procrastinator, but will attempt to update semi-regularly between my job, college, & life in general. This will be my first story on here so bear with me, I'll probably revise older chapters as I write new ones to help it all flow together. Since FF. net has limited editing options, I'll be using [GnS] & [To Sacrifice] to help indicate passage of time or scene breaks in between sections of the story. Trolls are not welcome, but actual constructive criticism is. Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.