A/N: Yay! Chapter 3!

This is another addition to Halfkyuubikat is sooooooooo sorry and feels sooooooo bad about everything that she promises (swears on her life and Jesus Christ -gasp-) that for the next week there will be AT LEAST 1 update everyday cause she feels just that guilty-Week. the week where every single one of my stories will be updated –awestruck- So make sure you read your favorites!

# of reviews: I need at least 7 reviews before I update this again. Shouldn't be hard. Enjoy!

Warning: Violence, Blood and a lot of it.

Beta: None. No comments on errors please. I'll edit it as soon as I can.

XxX Halfkyuubikat XxX

XxX Surviving Death XxX

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The Beginning: A Cherry Blossom's Tale

"You have a choice.

Live or die.

Every breath is a choice.

Every minute is a choice.

To be or not to be."

~Chuck Palahniuk

She was twenty years old. The spring time of her youth; she just had finished her sophomore year in college and was studying to be a doctor. A student who was going to clubs and drinking and living her life. It was that year that her entire world fell apart.

She came home for the summer.

Just a few weeks that she hoped would pass by quickly.

She hated returning home. It was an unstable place that just never seemed could stop the screaming and shouting. Her mother clinged to her and always expected the sympathy to her husband's unfaithfulness. She attached herself to Sakura in order to keep her husband from leaving her. Sakura knew this.

She hated it.

She was the only thing that kept her father in an unhappy marriage. She tried so many times to convince her mother it was better for her sake just to end the relationship. Her mother wasn't happy, her father wasn't happy, and Sakura herself certainly wasn't thrilled with her family.

And yet her mother stubbornly clung to her love.

Sakura loved her mother dearly, but being a tool for a shredded relationship wasn't how she wanted to show her mother kindness.

But despite the destroyed home, she did want to see her friends.

And well more importantly she wanted to see her childhood sweetheart.

Oh well maybe "sweetheart" is the wrong choice of words. It would actually imply that she had a relationship with the boy. No, in fact Sakura had realized with horror she had wasted a good portion of her life being hung up on one boy from middle school till her Senior year of High School that she failed to notice the "other hunks of goodness that actually give you the time of day" in the words of her best friend.

So a childhood crush ended when she decided to attend a school in Iwagakure, so that she could get a great education and pursue a career in medicine.

But apparently her stunted love live wasn't getting any better despite being determined to move on.

It was unfortunate on Sakura's part.

But despite everything she still wanted to see that one boy when she came home to visit. So that was a plus in her mindset. Of course her other friends were important as well.

Yet though she had already spent a week at home, she hadn't had anytime to see her friends yet. Apparently they had decided to go to the beach in celebration of the summer. And Sakura hadn't been informed of these plans on their part.

She didn't blame Ino of course. Holding a grudge was Ino's thing and since the two had planned to attend Konoha's College for Prestige since forever, Sakura knew that the fact she choose to attend a faraway school at the last second still was a sore spot in Ino's point of view.

But a week with nobody, but an emotionally unstable mother and a father that was never home was not how Sakura wanted to spend another second doing.

So everyday she said she was going to hang out with friends, but instead went to the library and read various articles on medicine procedures and a few romance novels here and there. Every day from 11 to 9 she was at the library desperate to escape her home.

She should have tried to study abroad or something.

It was one week since her arrival that she came home from the library that her world ended all around her. She had stayed until closing hours as always and stepped into her car to drive home. When she arrived it was dark from the outside; not even a porch light on. It would have been a relief for Sakura had she not seen her father's car parked in the driveway.

'Oh great...he's back tonight.'

'I bet Mother's happy.'

'Of course.'

After parking her car alongside her father's, Sakura walked into the house wearily, ready for anything. She wouldn't be surprised to see either her parents going at it like rabbits, them screaming and fighting, or her mother wasted and crying hysterically. Either option seemed a very likely outcome of her father's return.

Instead though to Sakura's surprise there was no noise in the house at all.

She tenderly walked into the house and searched for the light switch along the wall. When she flicked the light on she was met with the overturned tables, broken chairs and glass-wear, and a faint amount of blood on the walls.

'Oh my god...Oh my god...Oh my god!"

Sakura walked over the cluttered mess, her fear growing as she tried to navigate through broken glass and wood. For a moment she thought that they may have been robbed, but something deep inside her warned her otherwise. Something whispered that this mess had been created by one of her parents and that the small amount of blood that was lining the wall had spilled from her mother or father.

The little whispers grew louder with each step.

It was when the sheer terror griped her soul, she did something partially foolish in the type of situation when you don't know what has happened.

"Mom...Mom!" Sakura's panicked cry was quiet, but it echoed around the silent house. Her fingers were trembling as she entered the dark hallway that lead to the stairs.

"Dad..."

The silence was more terrifying than the darkness. Only the dull thud of her shoes touching the hardwood floors was heard. It was suffocating.

And then just as she reached the stairs she heard a whimper from back down the hallway from which she came. As if she was in a trance, she traveled back down toward the dining room that was still bright from where she turned on the light. The whimper came again, this time louder. Sakura was able to recognize the small feminine whimper as her mother's voice even above the crunching of glass as she once again navigated the destroyed dining room.

"Mom?"

"S-Sakura?"

The stuttered sound of her name was something that Sakura had never thought would be such a great relief. She quickly entered the kitchen and flipped on the light switch. The room was in the same condition as the dining room; drawers were open and their contents spilled across the floor, glass littered the floor, and the kitchen table was overturned.

Her mother sat curled up against the corner of the cabinets, her face looking at Sakura with so many emotions that they were impossible to identify.

Sakura was at her side in an instant.

"Mom! Mom, what happened? Where's dad!" Her barrage of questions was only interrupted when Sakura noticed the blood that was located on her mother's arm. On instinct, Sakura reached for the arm, only for her mother to violently yank it away.

"I-It hurts." Her mother whimpered out.

"W-What hap—"

"He bit me."

Sakura's eyes widened substantially when she heard that. She turned her head back toward the blood and noticed the wound that had caused it. There was a crescent moon shaped gorge in her arm that seemed to match the description of a bite wound.

In classes Sakura had seen various pictures of bites. From animals and insects to humans, Sakura was well informed on the type of bites that would be seen through a Medic's career. Recognizing the wound as a human bite, Sakura was shocked at how the person who had supposedly bit her mother and ripped the skin from her arm.

"'He' bit you? Who is 'he?' W-where is Dad, Mom?"

Her mother looked her straight in the eye. She said nothing to her question, only vaguely looked toward what Sakura assumed was the basement door and then back toward Sakura.

"Mom! You hav—" Sakura stopped mid-sentence however when she realized what her mother was holding in her hands. The black object was cradled in her mother's hands. Sakura recognized it immediately.

It was a small hand-held pistol.

The same pistol that her father kept in her parent's room in case the house was ever robbed.

Sakura ripped it from her mother's hands.

"What is this! Why do you have this out Mom?"

"Nooo! Give it back!" her mother pitifully attempted to take back the gun. Her eyes were wide in panic. She seemed like she would crack at any moment.

"Mom! Where is Dad!" Sakura cried out in fear. She didn't want to think. She didn't want to think that her mother could possibly...that she would...

Thump.

Both Sakura and her mother turned toward the basement door upon the sound of a fist hitting the door. Sakura stood slowly at the sound came once again. The usually open unlocked door, had the clasp for the lock down. Sakura took a step toward it, when she felt her mother's boney fingers suddenly grab at her pants. She looked down to see her mother with such fear in her eyes that it nearly took Sakura's breath away.

"No! Don't open it...don't..." Her mother whispered quietly. Like she was afraid that she would be heard.

"Who's in the basement?"

Her mother stayed quiet, but when Sakura struggled to take another step toward the basement, she quickly answered the question.

"Y-Your f-f-father."

The thuds against the door became more constant and more violent.

"You locked Dad in the basement! Did you hurt him? Mom!"

Quickly escaping her mother's futile grasp, Sakura walked toward the basement. When she turned to see if her mother was going to try and stop her, instead she saw her mother pathetically attempting to shelter herself in the corner. She was curled in a ball with her head buried in her hands. Like she was ashamed.

'Ashamed of what?'

'Oh god...what did she do, what did she do?'

Placing the gun on the counter, Sakura went to the door. The thudding had yet to cease and in order to calm her father down, Sakura attempted to calm him down.

"It's me, Dad. I'm gonna get you out of the basement ok?"

The thudding did not cease right away and Sakura worried that her father was in critical danger. If her mother had shot him? Quickly ripping the lock open Sakura was just about to open the door when the thudding finally stopped. In panic she turned the knob and was just about to throw the door open when the door suddenly was pushed open with such force that it knocked Sakura off her feet.

Her eyes closed upon the impact to the floor and when she quickly opened them, she saw her father standing in the middle of the room. His body was hunched over and there was blood covering his mouth and arm. His body was a pale color and his face looked like part of it was rotted. And he was looking right at her.

"Dad?" Sakura managed to gasp out.

"Grrrarrrgghhhh!"

She didn't have a moment notice to move out of the way before he was on top of her. His body hit her hard, knocking the wind out of her. When his hand swiped at her face, Sakura barely had time to throw him off her.

She was lucking she had been taking self-defense classes since the first grade up until she left for college, or else she would have never been able to get her much larger than her father off her. Being able to manipulate the attackers weight was a great help.

But why was her father attacking her?

Sakura scrambled to her feet just as her father lunged at her again. She dodged out of the way as he hit the wall. Blood splattered against the wall. And Sakura suddenly recognized her mother's fear and words. The blood staining his mouth...

"'He bit me'"

When his head turned at an award angle to look at her, Sakura knew that there was something clearly wrong with him. That he wasn't himself.

He launched at her faster than she could prepare herself. The blunt nails somehow managed to grab ahold of her arms and dug into her skin; ripping apart her flesh. Her scream stopped short as her father's mouth bent down toward her neck.

With the way his mouth was sickly wrenched open she realized immediately that he was going to bite her. She only just managed to throw him off her as his mouth closed in on her jugular. The direction she had shoved him in had caused his head to hit the edge of the counter and when he slid to the floor, Sakura was sure she had knocked him out.

Until his head snapped up once again to look at her.

Noticing the overturned table beside her, Sakura grabbed it and used all her force to slam it at her father just as he struggled to stand up. When the collision occurred, it nearly sounded like a body hitting cement. She was sure she had knocked him out this time, until a growl came from behind the table.

'What do I do? What do I do?"

'The gun! The gun!'

Sakura whirled around and caught sight of the weapon that she had confiscated from her mother, laying innocently on the counter. She lunged at it the same moment that her estranged father threw the table across the room. Her hand caught the weapon and she turned to see her father looking straight at her. She lifted the pistol to point straight at him.

His mouth opened to let out a vicious snarl.

Sakura's mother let out a scream from somewhere in the room.

He charged at her.

BANG!

Her father's body hit the floor with a heavy thud. It took Sakura a moment to realize that she had pulled the trigger to the small pistol. It took her a few more seconds to realize that her father would not be getting up any time soon. A pool of blood had formed around where his head lay on the kitchen floor.

It took her a minute in complete silence to realize that she had killed him.

That she had murdered her father.

The gun clattered to the floor as Sakura's shaking hands were held in front of her face. They were unmarked and undamaged, but to Sakura she felt like they were soaked in red; covered in blood. Because from this moment forward she would be a murderer.

The tears formed at the corner of her eyes and although they did not yet spill over the rim, the sobs that escaped her throat were enough for any person to understand what heartbreak was now filling her. It was only the soft groan that came from her mother that broke Sakura out of her self-wallowing.

Her head turned to where her mother was crouched in the corner; her head placed in her knees. She numbly stood and maneuvered to her mother. She gently touched her mother's head.

"Mom..."

Her mother's shoulder jerked slightly in response to the noise.

"Mom...we have to leave. We have to...we have to go to the police. I-It...We have t-to...ah...Ca-Can you stand?"

When her mother made no response, Sakura gently grasped her uninjured arm and started to pull it upwards in an attempt to help her mother stand. She stopped however when her mother violently ripped her arm away from her daughter's touch. It came as a shock to Sakura. Her hand did not move from its position for a moment, before it limply fell to her side.

The first tear slipped down the corner of her face and many more followed. Sakura wasn't surprised that her mother was rejecting her touch. After all, Sakura had murdered the love of her life. However there would be no way in hell that Sakura would leave her mother in this disaster while she went to the police.

'Why don't you call them, baka?'

'Ah...I-I don't wa-a'

'Don't want to stay in sight of his body...'

"Mommy?"

There was still no response and Sakura had enough medical training to know that she was in shock. Perhaps it would be best if they didn't leave the house at the moment.

Sakura stood and grabbed the home phone from the counter. However just as she was about to dial the number for the police her mother finally responded.

"Rrr.."

"What? What did you say?"

Sakura placed the phone back on the counter and started walking back toward her mother. However she stopped once she heard more clearly the growl that escape from her mother's lips.

"Rrrargh..."

It was like time was frozen when Sakura dimly watched her mother turned her head toward Sakura. The lipstick covered lips were wide open as a mixture of blood and saliva slipped out of the corner of her mouth. The lips pulled backwards over the white teeth as a long, vibrating growl escaped from the mouth.

Her mother's small body slowly uncurled itself as it took a form similar to a lion about to pounce on her pray.

"Rrrraaaahhhh!"

Sakura did the only thing that was purely instinct. She ran.

When a weight hit her back and knocked her to the ground, Sakura automatically used her leg to hit the body as she flipped her body around. The body slid across the ground until it hit the wood against the wall. And in a brief second Sakura saw her chance to escape. To escape without hurting her mother; because that was the one thing she could never bare to do.

Sakura stood quickly and ran toward the pantry door and threw it open. She turned around just in time to see her mother launch herself back at Sakura. She dodged out of the way with only an few inches to spare. Sakura heard the crashing sound as her mother hit the various items that were in the pantry. Apparently that was enough time for her to stand back up and grab the door.

Quickly attempting to slam the door shut, Sakura was surprised upon the harsh pressure that pushed back against the door. Her mother was weaker than the average woman by a long shot. The fact that Sakura was struggling to keep the door from opening was something that her mother should never have been able to do.

Pushing with all her strength, Sakura finally managed to slam the door shut completely. She slammed the lock down immediately after and slowly backed away from the door. A thud emitted from within the small pantry.

Sakura picked up the abandoned pistol from the ground.

"Ahhh! Rargh! Raahh!"

The screaming soon turned into a feral snarling noise and the door of which Sakura's mother was trapped behind started to shake with the force it was being hit with. Sakura kept the gun pointed at the door, despite the fact she could only see the blurry outline from behind the tears in her eyes. When a particularly load thud hit against the wood, Sakura took a shaky step backwards and accidently tripped over a large object.

It only took seconds for her to realize that she had fallen over her father's mangled corpse.

Scurrying backwards, her fingertips were sliced on some of the broken glass that littered the floor. Yet, the pain barely registered in her head.

The snarls that escaped from behind the door became constant as the thrashing and banging against the door grew substantially.

"Mom...Mom..."

"RAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGG!"

Using her arm to wipe the tears from her eyes, Sakura took once last look at her father's body in front of her. And then when another blood curtailing scream came from the pantry, Sakura scrambled to stand up and turned with the gun still clasped in her hand toward the garage. She didn't think as she ran into the driveway and opened the door to her car. She didn't think as she threw the black object in her hand onto the passenger seat and started the ignition.

She didn't think about where she was going. She didn't think about who could help her. She didn't think about how she had murdered her own father. She didn't think about what had happened. She didn't think about anything.

She only knew that she had to escape from her forever broken home.

The screams from her mother still echoed in her head as she drove into the next street.

They wouldn't fade from her nightmares until over a year later.

She clenched the gun to her chest.

The footsteps were starting to fade away now. Her body was exhausted though; she didn't want to run anymore. She didn't want to fight. She was so tired.

It had only been three weeks. Not even a month of running.

And she wanted to stop fighting. She just wanted to stop. Nothing made sense to her anymore. Not the violence, not the savagery. She was going numb with the pain.

Everything was so hard. From finding food and bullets to just trying to sleep without waking in fear of someone being in the room with you.

The fight had left her the first night she had started fighting.

She almost wanted to run into the most crowded of buildings and start screaming. They always came running at the slightest noise. She almost wanted them to just rip her to shreds. But just giving up like that...wasn't how she wanted to leave this world.

So she would keep fighting until her body gave out under her.

Sakura stood quietly and started to walk through the fields, keeping as quiet as possible. If she stayed quiet they usually wouldn't find her.

She walked for a few hours before she saw them.

Three figures standing on the horizon. They weren't moving, just standing. And yet Sakura knew they would go into a frenzy in a matter of seconds. She ducked down in terror hoping they hadn't already realized that she was there.

Except when she glanced up at them again she realized something.

Looking at the back of their heads...she recognized one of them. One had bright blonde hair, another with white hair that almost glowed a silver color and the third...the third had raven colored hair that was spiked up in the back. It defied gravity with the way it stuck up in spikes. That hairstyle...she could recognize it from anywhere.

And then as if the gods had decided she had suffered enough in this life and where finally giving her a chance she heard them speak.

"We should head toward the river, we can find a boat."

"We would have to pass through a city to get there. It's asking to die Naruto."

"But the way we just keep walking around in circles isn't doing anything good Kakashi-sensei! No one is going to evacuate us!"

"It would be better to just to keep on the rural path and try and find a working military vehicle."

And then she heard the voice from the boy she had been craving for since she was still a child.

"I agree with him Kakashi. We are going to run out of bullets soon anyway. The cities always have an abundant amount of them. We aren't going to find a helicopter or boat in the rural towns anyway."

They were human.

And Sakura stood up with more energy than she had experienced in a long time. And without another thought she was running toward them.

"Sasuke-kun!"

And she was no longer alone in this world of death.

Waaaahhhh! It was so long!

I know you guys are dying to know what happened to Sakura in the last chapter, but you'll have to wait till the next chapter. I'll also have a 'The Beginning' chapter for the three boys as well, so they will come in due time.

Thanks for reading.

National Halfkyuubikat is soooo Sorry Week:

(updates)

~Never Alone (Chapter 12) -Done-

~Always Alone (Chapter 4) -Done-

~The Darkest Knight (Chapter 3)

~My True Love's Kiss (Chapter 2)

~The Captured Uchiha Matriarch (Chapter 1)

~Motherhood (Chapter 1)

~Sakura's Accumulation of Epic Fails (Chapter 3)

~Surviving Death (Chapter 3) -Done-

~My Father's Mistress (Chapter 1)

~The Only (Chapter 2)