Chapter Text
Left.
Sakura had chosen left.
Hyuga Sakura was born again on April 1st, the same year as the rest of the heirs and heiresses of their class had been born. When pink hair had clearly shown through at the time of her birth, her parents had been perplexed. Who had ever heard of a Hyuga with pink hair? And minutes later, when her eyes opened slowly, they were once again at a loss. Black and Hyuga white. Two different eye colors were extremely uncommon in the Hyuga household, and the last person to be born with such had been Hyuga Kimiko, her great-great-grandmother on her mother's side. But even then, they had been dark lavender and the typical Hyuga white.
So, maybe she wasn't so different after all, but everyone questioned her parentage. Had her mother been in a scandalous relationship with another man? Had the main branch of the Hyuga overlapped so strongly that an anomaly like Sakura could've been born? No, many thought, her mother is simply a harlot.
And yet, Hyuga Hizashi couldn't have been happier that his second child had been born. Yes she looked different, but she was theirs, she would be given all the love he and his family could afford to give her. Neji had been there mere minutes after she had been cleaned and returned to their mother's arms. He looked at her in wonder, he was but a baby himself, but he knew that it was his job to protect her. He was nii-sama now- and he had another duty to uphold.
He and Sakura were special. Their father had been saved from the Caged Bird Seal when their grandmother had put her foot down to a tradition that would separate the two twins permanently. They were the only ones saved from the curse the rest of the side branch family had to face every day. Yet, they were still not the main branch, all the same.
Should a time come where their disobedience is strong enough to earn them the seal, then their fate was set. Should there ever come a time that the main branch member needed the life of theirs, they would receive it all the same. Fate could not be changed. There was much talk if the young children's mother should be removed from the picture for having such an unsightly second child. Hizashi would have no say in the matter, he was a part of the "middle" and so would his children be. But their children, should they chose to have them, would be forced into the cursed seal regardless of their parent's status.
The mother must be put on trial, some argued. The girl must be put down, some agreed. Send them both away, others wanted.
They were always to be cursed. Neji was acceptable, even if he was a child of his mother's. But the mother and daughter duo must be kicked out. They were cursed, vile, unsightly.
Hizashi could do nothing about these words. He had a place in this clan. Defending his family would bring them nothing but strife. He couldn't risk anything happening to his children. They were so innocent. They didn't deserve this.
Neji wanted to cry at what they had called his family. He was barely one when she had been born and he didn't understand how Sakura could smile so carefree like she did. He began to grow bitter towards the world. Face, plain in front of the clan but twisted in disgust in the privacy of his own home. He adored his mother, and Sakura was just a baby. But, he knew. And dammit, it was ingrained into his being. He couldn't defend them. He couldn't protect them. But one day, he swore to the gods above, one day he will be able to be proud of himself for being able to defend his family.
But Neji and Sakura's fate would constantly be on thin ice. There would be no one to turn to in their case, they were hated by every member of their clan besides their parents. They were free but also chained down by colossal weights, should they ever go against the main branch's wishes. The constant shadow of doom clearly hugged the small family.
The mother, Kaito, a wicked harlot.
The father, Hizashi, the only exception.
The son, Neji, a nobody, the outsider.
The daughter, Sakura, a cursed monster.
Sakura never once cried as a typical baby should. She didn't cry if she was hungry, didn't cry if her diaper needed to be changed, didn't cry if she got hurt, didn't cry if she was awake and alone. Sakura was not a typical baby but it showed proof that she was a Hyuga, nonetheless.
The Hyuga did not make a fuss, they did not complain, they did not show emotions. The Hyuga were good soldiers who followed orders and served the clan until their deaths. This was the life of a side branch Hyuga and it would be their law so long as that's the wish of the main branch.
The first time Hyuga Sakura cried, she cried silently as she watched her mother die from the opium she consumed in hoards. The sticky, sweet buns had been specially made by their mother's request and happily filled out by the side branch. No one would breathe a word of this to her husband before her death. It wasn't as if they objected, this is what the clan had wished for. An overdose of opium was a woman with class' way to die. While the clan disagreed on her every move, they agreed that she deserved a simple way out of this world. And if this is what she wanted, then this is what they would grant her.
Their mother, who loved Sakura and Neji and Hizashi dearly, was clinically depressed and deeply suicidal. The freedom Hyuga Kaito wanted was a permeant one. She wanted to free her children of their problems that they would continue to face should she stay alive in this world with them.
Hyuga Kaito was a simple woman. She loved her family dearly, completely every duty and task with elegance and grace, and would take any secret to the grave with her. The birth of Hyuga Sakura would be the sole secret she would take. She couldn't let anyone know how Sakura had been created. She would take the darkness and pain of that night to her deathbed and let it rot in hell where it belonged.
'Sakura deserved better,' she always thought.
"Please forgive me, my love," were the last words she would ever speak.
In the middle of the day on August 21st, one year and some months after her last child's birth, Hyuga Kaito died without a last note or explanation for her deeds. The moment her body started convulsing, Sakura's black eye had turned a fiery, glowing red. The flower pattern in black spun slowly as it drained the chakra reserves of its host.
By mid-afternoon on that warm August day, a startling commotion awoke the youngest child in the Hyuga household from her chakra exhaustion. For the second time in her life, and on that day, Sakura cried once more.
Sakura knew the truth, and she would take that truth to the grave with her. She had seen what she had gone through during the war. PTSS, Sakura had diagnosed it in her head. In such a cruel twist of fate, Sakura knew that the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
When she had still been alive, Sakura knew that she could never face the child that had ever been conceived from such a nightmare. Yet, she knew that she wasn't given the choice. She would never have known if she could face what that monster had put inside of her. Her mother, the beautiful and kind Kaito, had been stronger than Sakura could have ever imagined being.
Hyuga Kaito was as perfect of a parent as she could be. She made it through what Sakura had killed herself over, she had birthed a child from a monster, and she had gazed at Sakura with a look of love. She never once showed the pain of raising her. She never once thought of smothering the reminder of that night in her sleep.
Something clicked inside of Sakura that night. She was the child of a monster. She had been loved by a woman who was reminded constantly of that pain. She had originally set her mind on living to give Neji the freedom he had always deserved. But now, she would live for her mother and fight for that monster of a father to rot in hell.
Yes, she had been given a second chance. Yes, she would fight to get her way back to the top. She would fight for those who've lost their battle in her world and in this one. Here, she would not stop until the wrongs of this world were set right.
She chose left while Neji had chosen right.
She had gone left, where nothing is right.
But damn it all, it'll be righted if she has anything to say about it.
Here, she is Hyuga Sakura.
And here, she will not fail.