Authors Note: Oops?
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: 2,437
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
"I've always been a hunter
Nothing on my tail
But there was something in you
I knew Could make that change."
― Become the Beast, Karliene
"Sakura-chan," Kakashi and Sasuke both looked down at the girl, who offered a weary smile.
"You're late," Sakura offers blandly. Sasuke took in her slightly battered form, her bloody lips and the seal that stood out so starkly against her pale skin. The young boy takes in her grimace of pain and flinches because it should have been him suffering but she had saved him. So, Sasuke walks forward five feet to where Sakura is kneeling, bends down and helps her stand on her own, a small smirk brightening his features. "I knew you'd win," Sasuke started to say and Kakashi watched with pride as Sakura puffed up happily. The moment was ruined however, as feathers began to softly fall from the sky.
Time slows as bodies drop into sleep, and then, an explosion shakes the entire stadium. Blurs fly too fast for the eye to catch, some initiating battles with those still standing while others head towards where the Kage are (where the explosions started) Sakura blinks and there's a Sound Ninja in front of her and Sasuke.
The man is a lumbering monster, towering over the two teens, and as he reaches for Sasuke she can see the workings of a reverse summoning jutsu branded onto his body. Her heart stutters and her eyes connect with Kakashi's the moment she makes up her mind. She can see the dread in his eye, the complete and utter shine of understanding. Sakura's only seen it done once before, she was barely awake but her mind had been reeling from the moment she witnessed it; a substitution jutsu done with another person. She knows Sasuke's chakra well enough, she's a genius in her own right, and there's no room for failure.
So the jutsu comes as naturally as anything else and she finds herself standing to Sasuke's right instead of his left. The man in front of them has no time to change the direction of his grab before the summoning jutsu drags them away.
The world tilts and spins and then Sakura is falling, landing on hands and knees, the contents of her stomach coming up upon the red tile of the roof she's on. "You've done it again," An all too familiar voice sighs from right above her. "Always getting in the way." Sakura freezes, blood running cold as a horrible shiver wracks her body. She watches numbly as the barrier goes up, locking the three of them inside and away from the rest of the world.
He swoops down and faces her fully, clearly unconcerned about the elder man interfering. "I hadn't planned to do this so soon but there's no better opportunity," He produces a small bottle of pills, eyes gleaming as Sakura tries to retreat. Too much was happening too fast, she couldn't process it all. There are ANBU outside the barrier, watching with growing horror as the Missing Nin approaches the young girl, their Hokage frozen in the background.
"This will speed up your Curse Seal, it'll make you so much stronger, Sakura-chan," His hand was around her throat blocking off her airways and Sakura gasped, eyes going wide. The pill slid down her throat effortlessly. "I don't need them for this, you'll understand soon enough." She froze, limbs locking in horror as he stepped away from her, victorious grin in place.
Orochimaru begins to make hands signs as her eyes connect with the Hokage's, dread pooling in her stomach. She can see his lips moving as he talks but there's a roaring in her ears and she can't hear him and - and there's a new, smoky purple barrier raising around Sakura, trapping her in.
"It'll only be a few minutes Sakura-chan, and then we can leave." Orochimaru laughs, cutting through the ear-splitting numbness just as the barrier closes and she screams, palms slamming into the purple walls around her.
There's no escape and she watches with stinging eyes as her world crumbles around her. The fight that takes place between the Hokage and Orochimaru is a testament for how far she has to go, the battle so far out of her league it's almost painful to watch, but there's a numbness spreading from her head to her toes as the chakra in her system riots against her body.
Sakura Haruno closes her eyes, and wonders if this is what it feels like to die.
[To capture a predator
You can't remain the prey]
The sun drips like honey into a sea that wishes desperately for that bright light of day to engulf it. To forget it's impossible darkness, to render itself a part of the beautiful world, to finally silence the girl who screams in the center of its maelstrom — it wishes to become something it can never be.
She's falling.
Above her is her team, is all of her friends, illuminated by a golden light. They burned with the Will of Fire. Bright and fierce, and good. They were watching her fall, eyes filled with worry. Naruto, blonde hair shining like a beacon, was reaching a tanned hand towards her, mouth open in a silent scream.
Sakura's face is impassive, hair flying wildly around her as she descends downwards. One of her pale arms rises up, even if her numb mind can't fully understand what she's reaching for. Wind roars in her ears, a cold seeping into her marrow. Her eye's meet Naruto's, his sky blue orbs shining in the golden landscape. Sasuke is beside him, eyes once empty and dead filled with life. He says thank you and she doesn't understand why.
[You have to become
An equal
In every way]
And then she hits the water.
There's no pain, no overwhelming pressure as she sinks down into the dark, icy depths, just a constant numbness in her body, the beating of her heart in her ears. Sakura feels absolutely nothing as she sinks down, watches those she loves live in light and fade away from her. A part of her knows she could fight this, but she doesn't.
The cold is comfortable, the numbness is easy.
So she lets go, and closes her eyes.
[So look in the mirror
And tell me, who do you see?]
Sakura opens her eyes and she's in her bedroom, looking out at the dark village from her window. Hands resting on the cold cement that frames her window. Though night is falling, Sakura can see every lit window in the village from where her house is located, ever so slightly on a hill. From Naruto's apartment, where the light is shining so bright, to Kakashi's, where the light shines steady and strong, to the Uchiha compound, dark all save for one light that flickers and fights to stay on.
Sakura is standing in her dark bedroom, looking at the lit village before her, and wonders when she lost it. Or did she ever truly have it? She thinks maybe not since her reason for becoming a Ninja had been so weak. A boy, how laughable.
She was nothing like her team, who had points to prove and people to protect and people to avenge. She was a girl standing by an empty grave wondering why her brother never came home and who stole him away and how she could ever become strong enough to prove to them all-
Sakura turns around and looks at her reflection in the mirror across the room. Moonlight shines in on her pale features, pink hair looks bone bleached, skin an unhealthy parlor. The inky blackness of her mark is so stark against her skin. She meets her own eyes and hates what she sees there.
Sickly green, like a vile poison, flashes golden for a split second, and Sakura knows her fate is sealed. The world tips and tilts and slants into grey and she knows, there's no going back. The mirror cracks, breaking the image of the fading girl into a million pieces. In the depths of Sakura's mind, she feels Inner fracture with the glass.
Sakura Haruno dies good and whole and pure, her Will of Fire flickering out with a strong wind in the hollow darkness of night.
[Is it still you?
Or is it me?]
Sakura Haruno wakes up and she looks death in the face as it stands over her Hokage. Its empty eyes bore into her own as it drags the soul of her Kage, only his soul, and the barriers- they don't fall.
Her markings explode outwards at once, swallowing her small frame in seconds.
A surge of chakra pulses around her, dark and vile and everything she never was but now is. Her hair once the same pink as sakura blossoms in spring and cut short is now as white as bone, so long it reaches her ankles. Skin a sickly grey, eyes black and gold. Lightning crackles around her, black and harsh, cutting and burning into her skin. She moves in a flash, faster than any of the ANBU still watching can even fathom.
Sakura is in front of Orochimaru, teeth pulled back in a snarl and mind lost in the dark depths of an ocean she will never be able to comprehend. Both hands are poised to strike him in the chest, eyes gleaming with rage she can barely contain. The man looks down at her, even in the midst of his own rage after his Sensei tried to the upper hand even in death, and smiles.
"Look at you, such bloodlust." He leans down, completely and totally unconcerned that the teen is ready to kill him. "Darkness is a lovely shade on you, my dear."
Sakura's rage stutters, shattering under the weight of his words. Her arms fall useless to her sides, lightning burning into the skin up to her elbows as her hair shortens and her natural colors fade back into the locks. Skin chipping away from grey back to her normal pale complexion, gold to green. Her knees give out.
Orochimaru is there - he seems to always be there. Leaning over her, a cool hand gently pressed against her fevered cheek. His eyes are shining.
"You could be great," He whispered, the promise dripping from his tongue. "One of the greats, one of the greatest, all of this power you have at your fingertips, come with me." He said it like he planned on giving her a choice, but Sakura was sure this wasn't the case.
"I don't want to be great!" Why did it sound like a lie, even to herself? "I'm happy in my village with my team and my family, great people die! I don't want to be great, I just want to be safe, I just want to be happy." She was shaking, trying so hard to be strong.
Orochimaru looked her up and down, gaze sharp and calculating. "I understand."
Her shoulders sagged, relief flowing through her. "Thank yo-"
"You need to be pushed," He continued as if she hadn't spoken, ignoring how Sakura's eyes widened in panic. "You need an incentive to achieve greatness, a mentor, a guiding hand. Don't worry, little one, I can get you to the top and further."
Sakura shoved herself away from him, dread pooling in the pit of her stomach. "I don't want-"
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice." And she froze, limbs locking in fear...and rage. He thought he could guide her to greatness, turn her into a tool, a weapon to be used. He thought he could spirit her away from everything she knew and everyone she loved.
"Yes," Sakura shoved to her feet, the weight of the world on her shoulders but determination in her bones. "I do." Because if she was going to leave, it would be on her terms, her choice. Maybe he was right, maybe she did want greatness, power, to be at the top, but he was wrong to think she would never have a choice in the matter.
Orochimaru smiled, Sakura trembled.
"You can't get rid of this power," He took three swift steps, and then he was in front of her again, one hand gripping both of her small wrists while the other brushed against her cursed seal, making the skin there tingle as the seal struggled to break free. "When they see it for what it really is, for what you really are, they'll fear you. They'll fear you as they fear me, and when they do, I'll be here, waiting for you with open arms." Orochimaru jerked her forward as the barrier suddenly crumbled and fell.
For a heartbreaking second, she was sure he'd take her with him anyway, after all, there was really nothing she could do to stop him, but instead, Orochimaru leaned close to her ear, and whispered a promise that made Sakura feel absolutely numb.
"I'll be here to welcome you home."
And then he was gone, the Sound Four flanking him as they flew away faster than ANBU could keep up with. Sakura collapsed beside the body of her Hokage and teacher, looked at the village that was in ruin around her, and wondered silently if maybe he was right.
.
.
.
tsuzuku
Yes, Orochimaru didn't lose his arms like in canon. Would you look at that, an AU being AU, how odd.
Question for this chapter: Do you think Sakura will leave?