Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters.

THE OTHER HEART

Time had frozen.

If it was something with a flow of an unstoppable river, it would never have come to it; it would have broken any obstacle in its path and moved on. That was what they said about time, it was a like a horse, grab its tail to stop it and it would throw you back. It went and never returned.

But now it hung, motionless, as if it had been encountered by a fiery and stealthy snake in its way which is famous to strike at a sudden move. As if it had just gone through the existence of the universe breaking all traffic signals and now it had been stopped by the constables. As if it was used to things going its way and an alteration had stunned it into silence.

But the question was…Had it stopped for good? Did it fear the snake killing it, or the constable punishing it for violating laws, or the world changing and taking control over it?

Or was this just a temporary situation? Was it brainstorming to remove the hindrance in its path? Escape or otherwise kill the serpent? Dodge the punishers? Gag the world so that it may not change its decisions, its way?

But looking from a positive perspective, perhaps it had gone soft. Perhaps it had grown to sympathize with the barriers it had always demolished, the beings that it had destroyed in order to travel to its destination. Perhaps it felt guilty, or perhaps it felt exhausted of its lifetime's job of surging forward, or perhaps it meant to take a break, and give the others a relief to have.

Or was it even a relief that it had stopped, and no one knew what to predict of the outcome?

Wasn't it more terrifying to expect the expected, because you know it's bad for everyone? If time had halted or seemed unforeseen, would it make it easier? Or just the opposite?

No more tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. If it wasn't permanent, any moment would it be "Time's up"?

So many questions.

A sigh burst out of my lungs. It was the first sound I had made since I had entered this hell of a room, and the ghastly aura that hung in the air had petrified me to a silence. It had been a day, and I already felt suffocated. I had no answers, no solutions, no way to make everything perfect and right like it was a few days ago. It was right what everyone said:

Scholastically, Sakura Haruno is the smartest girl in school, a total genius bringing forth straight A's in every test, in every subject, taking her studies seriously and a hardworking student. Winner of the Academic Excellence award, stood first for all years studying in the Hidden Leaf Academy. Prefect, honored by the Special Service to the School award, first in several debate competitions, presented by the Student of the Year award. But her abilities are not just limited to education; she channelizes herself with sports and activities she can participate in, she takes part in the school's fashion and beauty contest once every two years, with good results. She's attractive, and the first thing people deduce from her academic record is a NERD but that is not even the case. A girl of such talents is an asset to the whole school, and the Konoha city. She also comes from a wealthy family, born with a gold spoon in her mouth.

But generally, Sakura Haruno? I found myself questioning. I knew I couldn't last more than a minute in the competition of life. There was a big difference between school-smart and world-in-general-smart. You have to use your mind in the world, bring out solutions to conquer the problems which sometimes do not use the logic employed in a physics test. Sometimes emotions overpower logic, and then you have to search for the solution that goes along with it, and perfects everything.

An IQ level of such kind, an impressive studious record, awards and prizes…they all gave nothing. They were buried in the corner, and I was left alone with my mind.

It felt so humiliating to be so utterly useless.

The hospital was a melancholic place, though I doubt any other was different. The walls, the ceiling were a very light and pale green. A color of calm and pleasantness but also the color of sickness. The floor was sparkling white and tiled, scrubbed thrice a day by quick workers. The hospital had about six storeys, all wide and numbered with big rooms, wards, offices, operation theatres. The doctors wore tan scrubs, and tan caps and white uniforms distinguished the nurses. It was quite a big establishment, and the doctors got paid a salary worth an average American household's yearly income. The benefit came from being under the boss whose name screamed MILLIONARE.

I did visit the hospital a few times because my honorary biology teacher, Tsunade, was a cardiovascular specialist here, and I had maintained a very high level of frankness with her. However, I had never visited the patient rooms. For the past days I had been frequently checking in and departing late from room no. 304. It was an airy room, and very wide enough for two beds, the privacy protected by light colored curtains. The wall across the entrance door had an open window covered with blinds of the same shade. Only one of the beds was occupied, and I currently sat beside it.

Linen bandages swaddled the left arm of the tenant, and a drip was fixed to the hand. Healing scratches covered the forehead and the left cheek. The body was limp, but ragged breathing caused movement of the chest under the white sheet time to time. Perspiration matted the spiky, dark hair to the head resting on the pillow. The pale skin of the face was shiny with the sweat.

Even in such a condition, Sasuke Uchiha was so beautiful it took my breath away.

It was so unfair, so unjust. That such an exquisite and perfect self was wasting away. His heart had to be replaced, and there was simply no donor, and no way to cure him.

Such a waste of all the knowledge about the human heart, all the qualified doctors, all the treating instruments and apparatus, that a dying person could not be saved.

A tear rolled down my cheek, leaving a fine, dusty trail behind. My hand crept forward automatically, and chafed his in my grip.

Even if I wasn't smart, even I was useless and helpless now, even if my factual knowledge was of no importance now. I knew I had at least experienced the most significant of the subject of life's chapters. I had loved.

I loved Sasuke, and there was nothing which could change this fact.

This was the reason why the room felt suffocating despite its airiness, why my breath hedged when I anticipated the dying patient's upshot. Why time felt like it had become motionless statue. Because I was frozen midway. I couldn't let him die, but I also couldn't help him live.

The past incident seemed carved into the tissues of my brain. Sasuke's mother sobbing on the phone. Son seriously wounded in an accidental firing, admitted in Konoha City Hospital immediately. The doctor informing me when I reached the place, breathless with exertion and fear: got hit straight in the chest with a bullet shot from a .25 automatic. Fell down on the rocky dirt road and hurt his arm, forehead and face. The gunshot was purely accidental; he wasn't the actual target, but he became due to his untimely wandering in an uninhabited area. Fortunately he was spotted after a few moments by some people headed in that direction, and brought straight to the hospital. All other injuries were now half-healed, and the bullet had been taken out of his chest. But his heart was damaged irreparable, and needed an immediate heart transplant for his life.

I had stayed by his side in vain, cooling his forehead with a compress, rubbing his hand, crooning to him, hoping to no avail that the limp figure would rise up, all awake, and assure me that he was all right and let us go from this damn place. But I had gained nothing but the news that he couldn't be saved until outside help came. His parents were searching everywhere, calling their contacts for any assistance, but seeing that no one had come for the good news, I was probably justified to assume that they were failing.

Failing.

It made my breath hitch.

The door opened a crack, and a nurse's face popped in. she was pretty, with long brown hair with a cap on top. There was an expression on her face that I failed to recognize. I knew the word, but I couldn't exactly pinpoint it in my memory.

"Miss Haruno, would you please come outside for a mo'?

The smile on her face did not completely disguise the inflection in her voice, in her eyes. I stared at Sasuke's face for a long while that seemed to long in my opinion, but she waited nevertheless. When she cleared her throat, I tore my eyes unwillingly from him, and followed the nurse out.

"What the –!"

"Miss Haruno, this is no decision for you to make, I understand your situation –"

"If you would understand it, you wouldn't say such a stupid thing! HE'S STILL ALIVE, FOR GOD'S SAKE! ARE YOU CRAZY?"

I felt breathless, but the incredible fury made me want to scream, hurl the things in my path at the calm face of the doctor, and leave it crooked. The frozen condition had somehow gone, and the dreadful atmosphere of death and pain had again reassembled. Maybe this was what had to happen, what I never foresaw. It seemed too real, and made a strange heaving in my chest I couldn't escape.

They were moving him to the morgue.

They had had enough with having him here useless when he couldn't be healed. They left unnoticed the sharp intake of breaths and the slowly beating heart, damaged and fading. They did not want to waste their time and space for a person who couldn't be salvaged. So they were moving him to the morgue, the place for dead.

I now knew the exact expression that had displayed in the nurse's face and now the serious, businesslike façade of the doctor. It was a grim, but determined expression. They would do it.

I thought the pain of this news would numb me, but instead it awoke the dormant volcano which was ready to explode any moment because its ferocity was uncontrollable. I couldn't let it happen. Love required me to hold on to the shreds of his life left. Love required me to save him. He couldn't not exist in the world. It would be gloomier without him.

And then the answer suddenly came to me. Like it was just a logical explanation that I had missed, and just a little concentration had dug it out of my memory. I knew the answer, and the solution that would make it perfect. I felt stupid that I hadn't thought of it first. It had hung just in front of me, quite visible, but I hadn't been able to see it through the translucent barrier that my human instinct for self-preservation had created.

I remembered thinking that I couldn't let him die, but I also couldn't help him live. It wasn't a lie, but it was more like an unfinished sentence than an actual lie. I couldn't help him live … and then live myself.

I had a living heart, undamaged and in perfect condition. I could volunteer. I would just have to be brave enough to be a donor.

A startled laugh burst through my lips as I realized the possibility. The doctor and the nurse looked bewildered at this sudden swing of my mood. I looked up at them, and my eyes were shining with tears. They come when you're aggrieved, they come when you're elated, and they come when you're somewhere in between. "I have help. We can save him."

"Is there a volunteer?" The doctor's face seemed more bemused by the passing seconds.

I twisted on my heels, back towards the room, and closed it lightly behind me. I stood over Sasuke's bed, and I visualized animation in his face, life, joy, and vibrancy, given to him again. The thought lessened my burden, and I finally felt of use. He would live. If I gave him my heart.

The question was would I? Not could I, because I had the potential. Would I give up my colors of life for him?

It looked like time had actually frozen to give me a chance, to give me a minute to think about my capability, that what lengths I could go to save him. It was on my side. Then maybe it was written in my destiny to give it to him. Give it to him and receive a better happiness and sense of being the one who saved the day.

I would be the donor, and I would be the recipient.

A smile pulled up the corners of my mouth. It felt stiff, because I hadn't had any reason to smile for quite a while now. There was a slight, warm pressure on my shoulder. I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and turned around to find Tsunade's kind face in front of me. There was a fresh hope in her voice as she asked, "Do you have a volunteer?"

I looked at the patient's face, and a smile broke out on my face again. "If you give me your word, that you would make use of the volunteer to save him."

She looked befuddled. "Of course! What kind of a question is that, Sakura? Of course if I had any help I would save him."

"Then you have given me your word."

"Yes…" She couldn't seem to process what I actually meant, because she didn't know how much I loved him, how self-sacrificing I could be when it came to him. I felt satisfied as I said, "I volunteer. I'll give him my heart."

I didn't register the expression of shock and dissent in her face as she took in what I had said. She was a woman of her word, and she would comply. I didn't notice her, I moved forward slowly to Sasuke. I bent over him, inhaled his sweet scent for the last time, and pressed my lips to his cheek. The tears had dried now, and they didn't come. I was happy and feeling light enough that no other emotion peeked in; I had found my place.

"Goodbye," I whispered softly to him, and then moved past Tsunade's still form to lie down on the other bed. The room didn't feel suffocating now; on the contrary, it seemed very spacious and well-ventilated. Maybe it was just the glow of happiness and a renovation that had changed the atmosphere around me. I could see Tsunade moving now, coming over to grab my hand and protest.

I closed my eyes. "Please, Tsunade. Please do it for me."

My time was up.

A/N: reviews make my day! Because I really need to know what I lack in my stories and what should I make better.

Thanks for reading.