Kitsune: I do not own the anime/manga Naruto, if I did, Sakura would be paired up with WAAAYY too many guys. Yes, this is HakuSaku, there is not enough of that pairing here.
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She had thought he was a girl, at first.
He had come up to her while she was keeping an eye out on Tazuna, while the others were training, training their chakra control. He had seemed so innocent, so kind, that she had found herself talking to him. It hadn't been too long of a conversation, during which she had found out, with a bright red face, that he was indeed a guy. He had chuckled, and she had no idea that was the first time he had laughed in years. Nor was it a memorable conversation, other then the one word he had said before leaving, one word that had burned into her mind.
"Live."
She had been startled, then she had nodded, promising him. He had left, and she found herself hoping to see him again, not knowing who he was. All she knew was the wind blowing by, watching him leave, and the promise she had made, imprinted on her soul.
---
The next time she saw him, she didn't reconize him from before, only catching a glimpse of him in her tear-filled gaze. A gaze filled with tears because Sasuke-kun was dead. And in that split second, she found herself hating him, hating him for killing her precious Sasuke-kun.
When Sasuke awoke, she was glad, and forgot her hatred momentarily. And the look in his eyes after she told him he was amazing for living through it told her what the one she had hated for a while did for him, and she felt her heart jerk, and she didn't hate him anymore.
---
After the battle was over, she found a moment alone, alone to thank him, thank him for not killing Sasuke-kun. And that was where she reconized him, and remembered, remembered the wind blowing by, and watching him leave, and the weight of her promise, her promise to live. And she knew a simple thanks would not suffice.
As she looked upon his still body, she knew. So she knelt by his side, looking down at him, feeling tears come. She cried, cried for the boy she barely knew. And then she gave him her most precious gift, the gift she had been saving for another, but gave to him.
She knelt over, and pressed her lips to his, giving him her first kiss, a kiss from rosy lips to pale ones, a one of warmth, and one of cold, a kiss from the living to the dead. And she found herself desperately wishing to breathe life into him, and she kissed him harder, knowing she wasn't thinking rationally when she thought if she kissed him hard enough, long enough, he would be alive, but she didn't care, and just kissed him.
She finally pulled away, jade eyes still glistening with tears. She felt his cold blood on her lips, and scraped it off with her teeth, coating her tongue in it, wincing slightly at the bitter, salty taste. She looked down at the boy, no, the shinobi, and whispered her words to him, using the name she had heard.
"Thank you, Haku. Thank you for sparing Sasuke-kun."
With that she stood, turning to leave, still tasting his blood, his blood heavy on her tongue. "Goodbye."
---
She didn't think of him for a long while afterwards, pushing the experience to the back of her mind, and continued on, until the Chunnin exams.
That sound nin--her name was Kin, she believed--had her pinned by her long hair, taunting her. "What ninja technique is that--the art of deep conditioning?" And on she taunted, even threatening to kill the ones she cared for.
'No! They wouldn't!' she though desperately. She faintly heard Lee say her name. Tears came to her eyes as she realized she couldn't help her loved ones. 'I need to help the people I care about!'
She grasped the dirt with her fingers, trying to gather strength for her next move. 'Sasuke...Naruto...Lee...I...can't...' An image flashed through her mind, and she let out a low, quiet, sharp intake of breath.
"Live." That feminine face, softly smiling. She grasped her kunai, strength filling her. "Live." Her lips burned with memory, her tongue felt heavy from memory of blood, and she faintly felt the wind blowing by.
"Your tricks are useless against me, little girl,"Kin scoffed.
His face was in her mind, smiling softly, like he did at his death. He was saying something, something she didn't understand. And she knew what she had to do to escape, just knew as she looked at him.
"You think so?" She looked up with a feral grin, kunai in hand. And in one, fluid motion, she sliced her hair off. As the roseate tendrils drifted down, the shinobi faded from her mind, and other thoughts replaced him.
'I'd always...thought of myself as a full-fledged ninja.' As she thought this, memories flashed before her eyes, memories of her friends protecting her, teaching her. 'And you've showed me what I want to be...like all of you!'
The rest of the battle was a blur, with her barely registering the blood, and the pain. All she could feel was the wind blowing by, the burning of her lips, and the blood on her tongue, and through the haze of the fight, she could see a shinobi waking away, the weight of a promise on her.
---
With every time her life was endangered, she saw him, reminding her of her promise, then continuing on to say something she didn't understand. And he was always there, whenever she needed him the most. After Naruto returned without Sasuke, she fell into depression. But not a few days after they returned, his words burned. "Live."
And so she picked herself up, picked herself up, and continued on with her life. Whenever she was at her lowest, he was there, reminding her, always reminding her of her promise, and speaking the words she couldn't understand.
---
When Sasuke returned, three years later, no, when Sasuke was brought home, three years later, three years after he left, she looked down at him, at his battered and broken body. She remembered a day when she had seen him like this, near death, and her pain. She remembered seeing another that day as well, battered like he was now, but dead.
And so she set to work, healing, closing wounds, fixing him up, pouring chakra into him, cleaning him up, hesitating a moment before wiping the blood away from his mouth, all the while remembering another like him, and his words. "Live."
And so she poured that promise into another, the two mixing in front of her eyes, one moment healing Sasuke, the next healing a shinobi long gone, the shinobi who's promise she held.
When she awoke, woke from her place at his side, woke from where she had fallen, exhausted, Sasuke was Sasuke, and he was healed, all signs of the other, dead, shinobi gone.
Dead. Emerald eyes blinked furiously. Dead? When did he get dead? No, when did he get so alive? In that moment, looking down at Sasuke, she realized how important he had become. How important he had become to her.
---
It was her first A-ranked mission, her first mission as a jounin, and she became tainted with the blood of another for the first time, and she became tainted with the knowledge of death. It was her fault. She had hesitated, hesitated a split second before killing him. His blood splurted over her, and she became tainted with the life of another.
She turned, shaky, turned to tell her teammates she had taken care of him, when she saw him, dead. He had been killed, killed in that split second she had hesitated by a poisoned senbon needle, and she hadn't noticed.
And Shikamaru told her it was okay, it wasn't her fault, he didn't blame her, but she saw the pain in his eyes, and she wished she hadn't hesitated, so that he needn't had to have lost his best friend, that she needn't have caused him this pain.
That night she tried to make amends for her actions, but the burning of her lips, the heaviness of the blood on her tongue, the wind blowing by, and the weight of her promise didn't let her, his voice telling her, "Live,", didn't let her. In that moment, she hated him, hated him for not letting her go, hated him for coming from the land where the one she hesitated with came from, hated him.
She tried, tried so hard, but her promise to him wouldn't let her, and she screamed at him, demanding to be free, free after seven years, and to just let her die. And he didn't listen.
---
She coughed weaked, feeling exhausted. Blood sputtered out of her mouth, and she wiped it away, concentrating on the task at hand. She poured her chakra into him, feeling the signs of chakra exhaustion, but continued on, pouring life into her blonde friend.
Tears poured down her cheels, and she ignored the burning of her lips, the heaviness of blood on her tongue, the wind blowing by, and the weight of a promise. She ignored his persistent words. "Live."
She ignored him, and poured life into the one almost dead, poured life into her Hokage, into her friend. Her vision blurred, and she continued on until he awoke, never stopping. And then she fell, a smile on her face, distantly hearing her newly awoken friend shouting.
"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!"
---
She walked over to him, smiling softly. He looked at her, a sad look, and his mouth moved, saying something she couldn't understand, not even when she was so close.
"I'm sorry I broke my promise,"she said,"But I kept it for nine years. Is that long enough?"
And he spoke again, that sad look still in his eyes. And she still didn't understand.
"I can't understand what you're saying...but, all I know is..."And she pressed her lips to his, a kiss from the dead to the dead. It soon broke, and he repeated the words he had been saying. And she finally understood. A broad smile spread across her face.
"I love you too."
And they stepped into the afterlife, together at last.