Life changing events can happen at any moment. Sometimes, like in the chunin exams, when you expect them too. Besides the obvious determination of advancement, it was also the first time Sasuke saw Orichimaru. Sakura always wondered years later that perhaps if she had not entered the exams, Sasuke would not have left. If only she had known… But she did not, and so an impact was made on the future. The point is the moment came at a time when change was expected.

Other times people are not as lucky. There are times when a storm comes without warning. Sasuke changing so suddenly after Itachi's death was one of those for Sakura. She had expected him to defend himself. Part of her had known he would stop her; kill her even. But she had never thought he would have dropped so far. She had not expected such a mental relapse as what she had seen. And his laugh…

It shouldn't matter now. She had only went after him to prove a point to Naruto; one that lay completely torn apart in the dust under her ashamed feet. He was right. She still cared something for Sasuke, even if she no longer had a name for it. He was her teammate. She had loved him. She still remembered him as he used to be, and…she just could not kill him.

That was fine. Naruto would take care of it somehow like he always did; she would care for the Uchiha like the teammate he had been and that was all. He had been in the back of her mind so long she could not force him out, but now Naruto joins him there. She cries more when he is hurt than when Sasuke was. She realizes now that there are different kinds of love, that even if she does not feel the burning obsession she felt before with Naruto, she can still love him. Maybe better than she did Sasuke. Not more, but she has learned how to love someone since then and loving Naruto is easy. After all these years she finally learned that if you want to be happy sometimes you have to move on to what is in front of you.

That hasn't stopped the hurt, though. Sasuke's rejection and change hurt her more than anyone will ever know, but being rejected by the one person she thought would always stand by her hurts worse. Sakura is human, she could not help but wonder sometimes if Naruto was right. That she just wished she loved him. Perhaps that is the case. She is sick of emotions and feelings, if he is right then lying to herself is much better than the truth.

Those were her thoughts as she walked back to her lonely tent one evening. She had been called away to heal a shinobi with a complicated wound no one else could fix. It struck her as ironic that she could heal all these people, and yet she could not prevent the war, bring back her lost teammate, or convince the other one she loves him.

But that is the irony of the world. Like the beautiful golden sunset painted above what was a brutal battlefield yesterday.

She could not help but watch. After all, Ino was always telling her she needed some happiness in her life. Sakura would have settled for peace. As the sun zigzagged its way down below the earth, she almost felt both. A single star appeared in the sky diagonal to where the sun had been, and she found herself making a wish out of a habit born in her childhood. "Starlight, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish to night…" She knew it was childish, but with the helplessness she was feeling, she needed some sort of comfort, and that star was all she had. "…I wish…I wish things could be like they were before, when we were genin, without Sasuke's thirst for revenge." It was a perfectly good waste of a wish; she was not stupid. She knew things could never be like that, but just voicing it made her feel better.

She began running then. If she was not back in camp soon, they would come looking for her, and she did not want a search party of the most talented ninja to find her standing there making crazy wishes on stars like I little kid.

She was almost there; if the darkness would hold off for two more minutes she would be fine. You idiot, there is a war on. Being out after dark is extremely dangerous you- She fell on her face before the sarcastic side of her mind could finish the insult.

You can't even run in a strait line. Some kunochi you are. There were times, Sakura decided, when she could be cruel.

She turned her head to see what she had tripped over. Oh please tell me I did trip over something." In the dusk light she could just see the outline of a face. She immediately jumped and curled into herself, goose bumps all over her skin. They had apparently missed a body in the mass burial.

Sakura fought a shudder and pulled herself to her feet. So what if it was dark and she had just tripped over a dead body and this was the way horror movies started? She was an honorable kunochi of Konoha and she owed this person a decent burial.

She leaned over them cautiously. It was mostly dark now. Her eyes widened. The body was a boy, a boy who looked exactly like Sasuke had when he was eight. Or what she assumed he had looked like. She sucked in a breath. How could this be?

She quickly felt for a pulse and was ecstatic to find he was alive. That was good. Very good. She could handle this. After all, it was what she was trained for.

The rest of the night was spent healing the boy the best she could. He had severe injuries. By the morning's first light however, she was sure he would be completely recovered in a week's time. The question occurred: who did this to him? How could they? He could be no older than nine, if that even. Was- was Sasuke his father? Had he done this to an innocent little boy, possibly his own son? Anger rose within her. How dare he!

She kneeled next to the boy and brushed his bangs from his face. "I won't let anyone hurt you again, I promise." Sakura moved her hand to his hair and kissed his forehead. Karin was right. The Sasuke she had known was dead; she should have killed his body also. If she had, this boy wouldn't be suffering. Guilt filled her soul and a repentant tear slipped from her eye. She would do whatever she could for him, to repay for her mistake. Perhaps he had been the answer to her wish; maybe this was a piece of Sasuke she could keep. The thought seemed completely childish, but she could not help it. She needed somebody, and so did this boy; now they had found each other. It had to be fate.

So Sakura resolved then and there she would be whatever he needed. What else could she do?

A/N: Since it's Christmas, can you please review? I'll give you cookies!