Authors Note: Oh look, the author actually updated at a decent time, what on earth is happening you may ask - well we hit 100 reviews! I'm so happy guys, please leave more reviews! Let's get my baby up to 200 reviews next!

Me myself: lets not take 6 months to post a chapter again, ok dickhead?

Title: If I Live

Author: ALightLit

Beta: - MIA (as in Missing In Action)

Type: AU

Status: Incomplete - Ongoing.

Rating: T (Rating may change due to maturing characters.)

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto!

Pairing: Undecided.

Word Count: 2,216

Intro: It took one minute, one choice, and one girl, to mess all of Orochimaru's plans up. Sakura Haruno managed to beat fear – with love. She moved in front of her crush as a last resort. However, every victory has its price.

R&R

"Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it"
― Gautama Buddha

Sakura was - late.

It was Naruto's fault, not that Sakura was truly upset about that. After not seeing her joyful teammate she found herself oddly eager to spend time with him. When they finally arrived - Naruto splitting off towards the viewing stands with a cheerful wave and shout for luck - the proctor had squinted at her and cursed Kakashi under his breath.

"The other one is late too," He grunted, before turning towards the crowd.

"Stand proud you lot, today you are the victors of this exam."

The Exams go something like this.

Shikamaru is first, facing the female of Sand. After a long and drawn out battle the lazy boy forfeits anyway, but secretly Sakura thinks it was smart. He took the fight as far as he could and tapped out before he had a real chance to lose.

Kiba and Ino are paired against each other, Sakura had been surprised to see the pair there but then she remembers the team from Sound that had attacked team 7 in the forest and then Sakura pretends she doesn't remember.

Astonishingly, the fight ends in a draw, with Ino taking over Akamaru with her clans Ninjutsu and using Kiba's number one weapon against him - but not without paying the price. A double knockout.

After the Sand boy forfeits his fight with Shino, they call Sakura and Neji down.

Sakura heard second hand what had happened between Neji and Hinata during the prelims, she heard of Naruto's promise drawn in blood, and she feels rage.

"You should forfeit too," The boy says, "You have no hope to win here, destiny had deemed it so the moment you were paired against me."

Sakura shifts her weight from one leg to the other and smiles with too many teeth.

"Maybe," She murmurs, "Destiny chose me to shut you up."

And because Sakura doesn't quite like destiny, because she refuses to believe that it's something that can't be changed, she decides she will not lose this fight.

The proctor nods for them to start and Sakura moves before anyone can blink.

[If I Live]

"Watch closely, Hanabi," Up in the stands, the pale-eyed clan head of the Hyuga stares down at the pair. "There's no one in our clan that's inherited such a strong Kekkei Genkai."

The young child stares on in wonder, but behind them, a certain blonde haired boy scoffed loudly.

"Doesn't matter," He snaps, "Sakura-chan is going to thrash him."

And if Naruto grins a bit too ferally at this, Hiashi does an amazing job of hiding his discomfort.

[If I Live]

Sakura thinks it was pure luck and surprise that she landed the hit, she could tell by the widening of his eyes as she neared that Neji hadn't been expecting her to charge so quickly.

While he recovered she put space between then, sporting her own little feral grin.

"My teammate is the village's number one most knuckleheaded ninja, don't underestimate me!" Sakura can see from the tightening of his eyes, that he won't be doing that again.

"You won't land another hit." Neji spits, wiping the blood from his lips.

Sakura snapped off her arm weights and tossed them aside. The hundred pound weights slammed into the ground audibly, kicking up dirt as she darted forward. Even if she didn't take off her leg weights her arms would be faster to work with now at least.

The teens exchanged a flurry of hits, and after they broke away Sakura realized numbly that she was losing.

She kneeled down, breathing hard and glaring at the Hyuga.

"Do you see now?" Neji sneered, "You think you can win, that's absurd, I can see a lot with these eyes of mine, and one of the things I've seen is that people's limitations are set."

"Someone like you who can't do anything, who can't change, should stop wasting everyone's time because you will fail."

Sakura dove at him in rage, the battle picking up once more but it only lasted a few seconds before she had to retreat, clutching her left arm. He had missed her chakra point thankfully, but just barely.

"You are the weakest of the graduating class, aren't you?"

[If I Live]

Sakura landed hard on her knees in the water, gasping for breath. Her Hokage stood before her, his hat and robe discarded for their spar.

"Are you frustrated, Sakura-chan?" She didn't bother answering, trying to get air into her lungs seemed more important than another lecture at this point. "You may feel like you are the weakest, but if you hold onto that feeling it stands as proof that you haven't given up yet."

Sakura stood on shaky legs as he gestured her to charge him again.

[If I Live]

"Who are you to call me weak!" She snapped, trembling with rage.

Neji ignored her and carried on. "It's like your fool of a teammate, the one who vows to become Hokage," He stops for a short, harsh laugh. "Not just anyone can be Hokage, there is only one fate we all share, and it is death."

Silence. Eerily loud silence as a breeze swept across the arena, rufflings trees and clothing alike. Sakura slowly rose to her feet.

"You," The whole girl's frame was shaking. "You don't say a word about my teammates, call me weak, tell me I'm bound to be a nobody, but never talk about him." By the end, Sakura was snarling and Neji was smirking.

Sakura formed hand seals with ease as if she'd practiced a hundred times - she had - and then gunpowder shot from her mouth right at Neji, who stumbled in surprise.

A murmur swept through the crowd as some Ninja present recognized the jutsu, eyes darting from their Hokage who sat upon the highest balcony and back towards the small, seething, pink haired girl.

Sakura grinned, snapped her fingers, and blew the arena up.

She still miscalculated a bit, apparently, because she was shoved back from the explosion, but Neji was the one that collided with the wall over twenty feet behind him. Sakura followed him quickly, not at all surprised when he rose just as easily, but before Sakura could get within hitting range-

"Rotation!"

She landed hard, gasping at the sudden loss of air in her lungs.

Such a strong one. The girl shuddered violently as the voice her head decided to join the fight, she had gotten so good at ignoring it but not…

As it was, Sakura mostly ignored Neji bragging about the jutsu he just used and how she was in range, how she was going to fail, she was more interested in trying to calm her breathing and praying the seal wasn't about to-

Two palms.

Four palms.

Sixteen, and then-

Sakura, in a burst of panic, managed to spew a breath of gunpowder and ignite it in the same moment. The blast sent both teens flying.

[If I Live]

Anko stared long and hard at the girl before her, eyes narrowed into slits.

"Don't be afraid to use the seal, Sakura." She had said at last. "Don't reject what you fear."

Sakura wasn't sure how to do that, and when she thought of the forest - of blood under her nails and empty blue eyes and- no. She doesn't think she wants that.

[If I Live]

They rose at the same time, both breathing hard but not ready to quit, just yet.

"Just give up!" Neji suddenly said and had to nerve to look mad that she was actually fighting back. "What do you hope to gain? Your fate is set."

"Bullshit." Sakura spat blood to the side, "What's with your stupid fixation on fate and destiny, anyway?" She unconsciously placed a hand over the seal. It was burning, pleading to be used.

"The Hyuga clan…" Neji turned hate-filled eyes towards the stands above her head. "It's them, they...it's the heritage of hatred, the Cursed Mark Jutsu."

Sakura spasmed weirdly, nails digging into her neck. Neji wasn't looking, so he didn't notice.

"The mark is the symbol of a bird locked in its cage, the mark of those bound to a destiny they can never hope to escape." He pulled off his headband, and Sakura's breath caught, her hand going limp and falling away.

"I was four when I was branded with this jutsu."

And so, the Hyuga clan's sins were laid bare to all watching, and Sakura found herself feeling very, very ill.

"We have to live with the fear every day of them abusing the use of the seal, and only with death are we ever released from it."

Sakura's emotions were rolling, her neck searing.

"I get it, you lost your father, but this isn't destiny, that mark is not destiny." She shook her head, eyes shadowed. It couldn't be destiny, not for him, and not for her.

"You'll never understand what it's like to be marked like this, to be branded, and to never be able to wipe it away!" He snarled, and years later, Naruto would tell anyone who would listen that that was the exact moment that Neji lost the battle.

Sakura stood fully, eyes darkening as she charged at him, chakra building in her calves for speed but Neji met her halfway a chakra-infused strike aimed at her chest. Blood spewed from Sakura's lips, staining the bandages on the boy's hand and staining her clothes. Mind numbing pain erupted as her heart stuttered, and in that brief moment of weakness, Sakura's world went dark, the mark spreading from her neck and across her body until it hit the halfway point, black chakra pooling around her. Her closed gateways being forcefully reopened, and Sakura smiled.

She was only half there but she managed to cut off the seals progression (the voice was snarling with rage, begging to take over, to make them all bleed), and with a burst, she was in front of Neji.

Black lightning sparked between her fingers, and she grabbed his collar with one arm, lifting him up into the air she pulled back her fist-

"I'm not weak, and Naruto…" The lighting flew at Neji without her having to touch him, "Will be Hokage!"

The resulting explosion shook the ground.

At last, Neji lay on the ground before Sakura, twitching and spasming as the lighting temporarily paralyzed him.

"Why?" He choked out, looking at her with such conflicted eyes. Sakura was panting as she tried to push back down the mark, she had let her emotions consume her and tried to control the damned thing in her moment of blindness, and now it wasn't leaving. "How?"

She could feel the drain, the pull on her chakra, and it hurt.

"Because," She held back the moan of pain as her knees buckled, and she ended up almost on top of Neji. "I understand more than anyone what it's like to be cursed."

Green met milky white.

"I will always protect my precious people, doesn't matter if it's from someone or from what someone's said, and someday…" Sakura thinks of Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke, she thinks of how they've suffered, and her heart hurts. "Someday we'll end the curse of hatred."

Neji Hyuga looks at Sakura Haruno with wide eyes, taking in her candy floss hair and eyes the color of seafoam he saw once upon a time with his father. He takes in the strange markings littering her body and the dark chakra surrounding her. Neji takes in all of this and he knows without a doubt that she isn't lying.

Sakura is declared the winner as they cart Neji away.

Sasuke and Kakashi appear a second later, and from there all hell breaks loose.

.

.

.

tsuzuku

Sakura borrowed Naruto's power to talk sense into people, pretty dope eh? Anyway, i suck at writing battles so yeah. Next chapter is going to be,,, Deep. So bring tissues.

Question for this chapter: How long do you thinks it takes for you to truly love someone?