Crimson Drop – Self Sacrifice
Another ear piercing clash rang out through the abandoned crater, sending shivers down her slender back. In front of her shivering figure, a battle rolled out like a play, though in its case, the actors weren't pretending to try to kill each other. No, here, there were no crumpled scripts to be memorized, or swordfights to be choreographed. Here, it was the end. She just knew. The way their muscular fists exchanged blows, the way vermillion eyes glared back at the cerulean blue…The way they wouldn't wait for each other to recover and would pounce when a moment of weakness washed over. Her knees buckled violently as her form collapsed. She didn't understand. Why was it that the others could lead happy lives with their teammates while she had to constantly worry about Sasuke attacking her or Naruto? Why was it that Ino could live a happy life with Shikamaru yet she couldn't live one with Sasuke? Why did she have to fall for the bad guys and had to watch her closest friends kill each other? This wasn't how it was supposed to go. She had wanted a happy life, a life where her own teammate wouldn't try to kill her. She felt useless from behind the bush she was watching from, whereas her teammates were out there clashing and fighting. She knew they didn't have a limitless mound of chakra and that soon one of them would falter. Sasuke's susano'o had started to flicker some time ago, but now it was flickering much more violently. Now she knew. He would die first. Unless of course she did something about it. All her life she had wanted to be useful to him somehow and now she had the most beautiful, and probably the last opportunity to do so. She had seen how vulnerable he'd become when his sight blurred, how frightened he was then. She knew if it happened again, Naruto would take the chance to kill him…what to do? And there it happened. Susano'o's shields disappeared, one by one, leaving only a measly skeleton, which also disappeared when Naruto landed a blow with all his nine-tailed glory. There, a shaking and horrified form of Sasuke stood quivering, and she knew Naruto would attack. Soon a rasengan's blue swirling from began to appear in the palm of his hand as he shifted his weight, getting ready to charge at Sasuke. It was like that time when they were genin, when Sasuke and Naruto were about to hit each other with their strongest jutsus, and when she jumped in between them like a fool. She couldn't control her body to stop. As Naruto sped towards Sasuke, she lost control of herself again, jumping out and running in between Sasuke and Naruto. Time stretched out, and she could see the despair on Naruto's face as he attempted to stop. After all, the rasengan was meant to kill. Glancing at Sasuke, she could see a mixed emotion plastered on his face. Sadness, annoyance, arrogance, hatred, despair…these were some of the many emotions shown on him. Knowing there wasn't any turning back now, Sakura, for that was her name, turned around proudly facing her death on behalf of her teammate. The last thing she remembered before she died was her name and to broad arms around her. Whose they were she'll never know. But before she slipped away, her lips formed a smile of joy, because she knew that leaving everything in their hands would be fine and that they would sort it all out. In the meantime she would wait for them in soul, and maybe one day, when they came to meet her in the afterlife, she would get the life she dreamed of with Sasuke and Naruto…Until then, she would wait…