Happy Birthday, Sakura

Angel of Anime

It all began on a very special day, Sakura's birthday. She wouldn't be able to celebrate it for another few days because she had a mission, which was to deliver two scrolls that held a super confidential secret. Even Team 7 wouldn't be permitted a peek, and would have to guard them with their lives to make sure it didn't fall into enemy hands.

"All right, are we ready to set out?" asked Kakashi at Konoha's gate. His students nodded and they began their walk, each of them on their guard in case anyone was stupid enough to decide and attack while they were still so close to their village.

Naruto had remembered that March 28th was his crush's birthday, but it wasn't until about twenty minutes after they left that he enthusiastically mentioned it. "Happy birthday, Sakura!" he laughed. She would have smiled and thanked him sweetly; however, the blond ninja was walking a bit too close to her for his own good. This earned him a large bump on the head and two bruised eyes.

Sakura looked at Sasuke expectantly, anticipating his "happy birthday" to her; only, she got it from someone else: "Oh, that's right. It's your birthday, isn't it, Sakura?" remarked Kakashi. He'd actually taken the time to look up at her and give her a brief grin before returning to his Make-Out Paradise book, authored by Jiraiya.

"Thank you, Sensei," said the green-eyed kunoichi, leaning in somewhat closer to Sasuke while they continued walking. The Uchiha just ignored her, not caring that it was her birthday at all. Birthdays, in his point of view, were meaningless and a waste of time. He didn't care about them at all, not even his own. They were nothing to make a big deal out of, and he wasn't going to make one just because Sakura wanted him to. He averted his gaze so Sakura couldn't look into his onyx eyes.

She was hurt that she'd received nothing from the one she wanted most to be acknowledged by, but tried not to let that ruin her day. The mission would take a total of seven days. Three to get to their destination, the Sand village, one day to rest there, and three more to get back home. One way or another, Sakura Haruno wouldget the words out of Sasuke, she swore.

So, after two and a half long days of travelling, Sakura had made more than several attempts to make the dark haired boy say those words, but he would not budge! Actually, he'd said hardly anything at all and barely looked at her, as usual. It was depressing; so depressing that she didn't even realize it when enemy ninja attacked them. By the time she did it was already too late. One of the two assailants had thrown a knife, aiming for the Jounin of the group. He'd missed and hit Sakura in the back instead. All of them were surprised. Even Kakashi hadn't detected the men dressed in black cloaks with forehead protectors that showed they were from the water country until they had first attacked.

"Oh no!" yelled Naruto, gaping at Sakura, who was lying on her back on the ground. The dagger was still in her back, a couple of centimeters left of her right shoulder blade, and by then her blood was an enormous puddle around her. She was half-unconscious but still awake enough to know what was happening.

Kakashi had already uncovered his Sharingan eye and began his fight against the ninjas. "Sasuke, go to Sakura and pull out the knife. Hurry!" he added when the perfect pupil hesitated.

"R-right," he answered with a nod and ran to his teammate's side.

"Naruto, you protect the scrolls. Make sure these guys don't get either of them, got it?" Naruto nodded his head and promised they wouldn't get them, though he was still distracted by the amount of blood that Sakura had lost. And by the fact that Kakashi had acknowledged himas the scroll's protectors instead of Sasuke, but then it became clear once he realized his teacher probably believed the raven headed boy could handle Sakura better than he; he was cross at that, but kept the objective in mind.

Sakura was shivering. The amount of blood that had left her body was too much. At this rate she would… An immense amount of pain struck her body. Sasuke had just pulled out the weapon, which had luckily missed any vital organs, though it was lodged almost three inches deep. But, the quantity of thick red liquid surrounding her was so great that she could fill a tub half way up, and that wasn't good.

The boy didn't have medical ninjutsu, so all he could do was bandage her wound as best he could to keep anymore blood from continuing out of her body. He wasn't able to sew it shut, either, and Kakashi couldn't do it until he'd finished with his opponents, which turned out to be stronger than expected; but, if somebody wanted the scrolls, they had to be strong to get them, otherwise they wouldn't succeed.

Kakashi hollered, "Get her out of here now, Sasuke. And Naruto, go somewhere safe where these guys won't find you." The boys obeyed, although Naruto objected some, wanting to stay with Sakura. Eventually he did go and found himself surrounded by trees, tall and short, and he also saw a nearly dried up river.

Almost half an hour later, Sasuke stopped to rest, figuring he'd gone far enough and Kakashi should have been finished with the guys some time ago. Any minute, he thought, his sensei and Naruto would arrive their and Kakashi would begin sewing up Sakura's wounds, since it was too far from the Sand village to wait and they shouldn't be moving her at all anyway.

He set Sakura on the partially grassy and partially sandy ground. They were still half a day away from the desert, so the landscape was neither of the two. Looking at her, Sasuke noticed the girl's chin was covered in blood, as well as almost her entire outfit. Sasuke's clothing also had red stains on them, mostly just on his shirt, from when he carried her. At the ends of her hair was also blood, where her strands had fallen into her face when she'd coughed. Her eyes were cracked open, but she was clearly resting. Sakura's breathing was low and shallow. And suddenly he feared that her heart beat might have been slowing. When he leaned down on her chest to listen, he discovered that his notion was correct, though he didn't like it.

As if on cue, Kakashi and Naruto had shown up. Naruto ran toward Sakura and knelt at her side. "Is she okay?" he demanded in a concerned tone, panting.

Kakashi had appeared at her side a moment later and that was when Sasuke informed them, "She'll need stitches now or she's going to die. Her bleeding won't stop." Stitches were difficult to do, especially if you were doing them by hand. You had to have a hand that didn't shake, and you had to be careful not to stick the needle down too far or pull it back up too tightly; and you also could not leave too large of spaces between the thread.

Sighing, the silver-grey haired man admitted sternly, "I can't do that." Naruto looked up at him angrily and questioned him.

"What? Why not, Kakashi-sensei? You heard Sasuke! If you don't, Sakura's going to die!"

"I know that," retorted the sensei. "But I can'tdo anything. Our best hope is to get her to the Sand village as fast as possible." He knelt down and picked Sakura up. "Sasuke, give me a blanket." He seemed completely calm, as opposed to Naruto, who was all but that.

Sasuke quickly fished out a warm blanket from his backpack and handed it to Kakashi. Kakashi wrapped it around the girl in his arms to keep her warm. At that point, she was beginning to feel like ice, but a small blanket was all that he had. "I'm going ahead of you. Will you be okay alone?" inquired Kakashi, knowing that he would get to the Sand and a hospital faster alone.

"Y-yeah," replied Naruto softly.

"Hn," answered Sasuke just as quietly.

Kakashi nodded and they all took off as fast as they could. In a matter of minutes their sensei was out of site, along with Sakura. Now all that was left to do was wait, wait to see if Sakura survived… Oh, no, that wasn't right. They were going to wait to see that Sakura had survived. She was going to… right?

Naruto felt nervousness inside of him, nagging and pulling at him. He was agitated, and though Sasuke shared the same feeling, he remained stoic as ever. "H-hey, Sasuke…" began the blond. His companion looked at him as they sprinted through numerous trees. They'd found a forest described by Kakashi before they left the village, a short-cut, he described it. It was funny hearing about short-cuts from him, the guy that was always late when heset the time. "Do you think," he gulped, "Sakura will be okay?"

"Dobe," was all he said. In all honestly, it was all he couldsay. The shinobi could trust his voice, not that he was going to break down crying, or anything like that. That was the kind of thing Naruto would do, or, did he dare think, Sakura. No, he wouldn't end up sobbing like a complete idiot, but you never could be too careful.

Hours later, due to the very troubling events of earlier, the Naruto and Sasuke arrived at the Sand village sooner than expected. Kakashi had gotten there a while before them, like he was supposed to, and Sakura was in treatment. Her wound seemed simple enough, but the blood loss was the difficult part to cope with, explained the medics.

"Oh…" whispered Naruto after hearing the news from Kakashi. "But, will Sakura be all right?" That time he spoke a little more loudly, but the vibrancy that usually complimented his voice wasn't anywhere to be heard. Right now, the enthusiastic-knuckle-head ninja was not himself, which really hindered the current situation. He hadn't even cracked a smile since he saw the last state the pink-haired girl was in… so pale, so much blood. In addition to that, Sasuke hadn't spoken a word in a long time, not even an insult.

However, he was the first to speak when the medic that seemed to be in charge appeared, a regretful expression on his face. "I'm going in to see her," he told them before rushing into the ICU, where she was. They'd been working on her all this time, and after the conclusion became apparent, they didn't move her to a bed. Naruto almost followed him, but Kakashi stopped him, giving him one of his vague explanations. Naruto didn't exactly know all the details of what was happening, but he appeared to know enough not to fight his sensei on this.

The room was dim, and Sakura lay limply on the floor, most likely unable to move. She was as flushed looking as before, but at least someone had the decency to clean the blood off of her face and neck. Her back, he noticed when he lifted her in his arms, had been sewn, but not in time. Now he cradled her, murmuring, "You're so annoying," with a smirk over his lips. She smiled. She'd caused so much trouble all because of one little injury; yes, she was annoying.

And then there was shaking, but… what? "S-Sasuke…" she mumbled, barely audible. No, he wasn't crying like she thought; he was way too cool for that. He only shook as if he was crying, but no tears came. Her smile disappeared as she put her hand against his cheek. Immediately he was still. That kind of contact, he wasn't used to it. But that didn't mean he didn't enjoy it.

"Sakura, I…" The words he needed for this moment wouldn't come. Even his mind froze. He never imagined his comrade, especially Sakura, would die. He never thought he would have to say something to her before she did. But, for some reason, he felt the need to appease her in her final moments… or maybe it was himself that needed some satisfaction. He didn't know, or care. This was Sakura's moment, and solely hers.

He could feel her heartbeat becoming fainter and fainter as each second went by. At the very last instant, Sasuke stated, "Happy birthday…Sakura." A small drop of clear liquid fell on her cheek and Sakura's heart beat no longer. Her eyes closed, and a small smile graced her lips.

Sakura was always hugging Sasuke. Sometimes he pushed her away, and sometimes he allowed her. But he never did return her affections in any way. Now it was his turn to give and not receive.

A/n: I kind of got inspiration for this after I wrote Crying for Hinata, so they might be somewhat alike in a few ways (mostly at the end), but still the two stories are very different. Thanks for reading and please review! I hope this was okay...

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto... how unfair is that?