I'd like to say a quick thank you to all the people who have been reading and giving me feedback on my stories. I greatly appreciate everyone who gives this poor, aspiring author a chance. I won't drag this on for too long, so here is my entry for SasuSaku month day eleven.
The sky was a brilliant scarlet, the sun setting over the ruined land scattered with the corpses of the ones who have given their lives in the war. A war which was finally over, and through the combined efforts of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke the allied forces have succeeded.
There was no cheering or laughter. There were whispers between the people who were still alive, tasked with finding the dead and identifying them. Sobbing, loud and painful, coming from the ones who have lost worse than a limb or their life but a loved one. The air hung heavily with the misery of those who realized that winning a war was barely better than losing one.
In a small part of the now peaceful world, the heroes of the war along with Haruno Sakura and Hatake Kakashi were gathered in a small group. Naruto, leaning back against what was left of a tree, his broken ribs and bleeding leg slowly being healed by the chakra inside of him was looking over his best friends, Sasuke, laying on the ground dying and Sakura, desperately trying to heal him.
Sasuke had become frantic towards the end of the fight against Kaguya, anxious to end it as soon as possible, and in his haste he managed to get himself wounded badly. There was a large hole on his chest, blood gushing out of it colouring his skin and clothes. His vision was blurry, all he could see was pale pink, which he suspected was Sakura's hair, and her figure blocking out the light. He could hear Sakura's desperate voice and he could feel her hands, chakra pulsating out of them, trying to stop the bleeding.
"Come on. Come on. Come on!" she pleaded with herself, pouring everything she had in the jutsu.
Sasuke was breathing unevenly, finding it harder and harder to inhale and exhale, trying to ignore the pain in his lungs when he managed to do so. A while into it, he could not tell after how much time, he could feel drops of water on his neck and chest. He found it strange that it started raining, but he soon figured it was not rain but Sakura's tears.
"Sakura..." said Kakashi, looking over her shoulder with a saddened look on his face.
Sasuke knew what that tone meant, and he could not bring himself to care too much that he was dying. He wanted to do many things to honour the memory of his brother and clan, and he hoped Naruto could achieve at least half of it, but he wanted more time.
"No!" Sakura spat out. "I am not letting him die. I am not stopping even if my chakra runs dry and I have to keep him alive on will alone."
Sasuke tried to smile, almost sure the corners of his lips did go up. Sakura, a never ending stream of stubbornness. She did not intend on giving up on him when they were twelve and so many years later she was still determined enough to hold on to him.
Her hands were covered in blood, and she had managed to close a lot of the wound, but the last of it was stubbornly trying to remain open, trying to spill the rest of Sasuke's life on the ground beneath him before she even got the chance to hold him again.
Sasuke's breathing was getting worse, now trying to gasp for air. He could feel the wind touching his wet skin, and above him was now a clear night sky. He tried to focus on Sakura and how the wind was gently moving her hair. He thought of all the times she and Naruto saved him, how much they cared. He could almost laugh it was so ridiculous, this bond between them that did not seem to go away.
His body was going numb, the tips of his fingers and his toes were now cold and stiff. It was harder and harder to keep his eyes open. He gasped in pain, although it was not as sharp and intense as before, and he felt an even heavier pressure on his chest.
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto's voice sounded distant."What are you doing? What is that?"
She did not reply, the pressure on Sasuke's chest persisting. It was not her palms that were so heavy, he realized, it was her jutsu, so much more aggressive and warm than the one she previously used. The effect was almost instantaneous, his vision getting clearer, his chest going up and down faster and soon enough it felt like the blood he had lost was suddenly streaming back into his system, urging his heart to beat.
Naruto and Kakashi were looking at Sakura, worried. The jutsu would not kill her, not unless Sasuke was dead, but she was exhausted, and he was dying, so they did not even dare blink until she thew her head back, breathing heavily and laughing, filling the air with the sound of her success.
Naruto and Kakashi joined in, smiling at the sight of the colour returning to Sasuke's face. He groaned in pain as he moved his upper body, now sitting instead of laying down. He looked at her in awe, knowing full well he was close to dying. She looked pale, and tired, and she smiled at him before losing her balance, falling on her knees. Sasuke managed to move fast enough to grab hold of both of her arms to hold her up. She breathed a word that sounded like sorry.
"Sakura, what did you use to heal me?" asked Sasuke in a hoarse voice.
His strength was not back yet, so for a moment his arms went numb and Sakura fell over on top of him, knocking him back. She was shaking, so Sasuke moved his left arm to her back, holding her into a half hug and patted her head to try and comfort her.
"It was a dangerous jutsu..." explained Kakashi "that she learned on her own. It is essentially meant to pour her life force into whomever it is she is healing. There is only one person, the creator of the jutsu, who has ever used it before."
Kakashi looked down at Sakura with a proud expression on his face. All of his students have come very far, and seeing them together now, at the end of the war, made him feel a lot less tired.
Sasuke did not know how to respond, so he held Sakura and looked up at the sky. The only source of light was the crescent moon, shining brightly, just as it did when he left the village and the same pink haired kunoichi came screaming and begging not to lose him. He glanced over at Naruto, who was smirking, and he mouthed an insult at the blond. Some things really don't change.
Sakura's shaking stopped, and she managed to pull herself up and sit down next to where Sasuke was. Her expression was filled with emotion, but the main one Sasuke recognized was anger.
"Don't ever do that again." she said in a small voice that was meant to sound threatening. "Don't you dare put your life in danger like that ever again."
Sasuke nodded, not knowing how else to respond, and let his eyes wander over this new Sakura he had not yet gotten used to. The moon was right behind where she was sitting and he could not help but smile at the irony. She looked confused, then he pointed behind her and she turned around, her eyes widening slightly at the memory that was most likely playing through her mind.
"You owe me one now, too, you know?" she said, her tone playful and a smile on her lips.
"Sakura, thank you." he said without hesitation.
Her heart skipped a beat, as it did back when he originally said it. She did not know how things were going to be when they returned to Konoha, and they would have to face everything that happened since he left. She did not know if things would get better or worse after the calm would wear off, but she knew she wanted to try. God knows she never wanted anything else.