a/n: this could be an au.
disclaimer: me? own naruto? hahaha, good one.
"You aren't very good at lying."
"Shut up!"
Her chakra fizzled from her fist and into his skin, connecting them, green flowing into the red wounds. Sakura hardly breathed. Sasuke watched her, his eyes slit, reclining on the ground. He looked so—so calm. He didn't look like he'd nearly battled to the death with his best friend less than thirty minutes ago. Sakura hated it.
She pressed harder into the wound, scrubbing it clean with chakra, and was rewarded by seeing him wince. He should be grateful she hadn't gone for his stomach wound first. That was nasty—it would need surgery and stitches when they got back to Konoha. He'd probably have an infection. The Rasengan had only burned him, and Naruto hadn't punched through Sasuke completely, thank God. No, the impact was more what she was worried about. Sasuke had flown backwards and landed in a pile; something like that must have damaged his ribs.
"Why don't you just let me die?" The question was lazy and indolent, like he thought he'd been doing her a service. Sakura gritted her teeth. At this point, Hell—he might be.
The instant that occurred to her, Sakura returned to her work with renewed fervor. His pulse was getting slower. He wasn't burning chakra at an inordinate rate. The only thing wrong with Sasuke (physically, at least) was the blood loss, shown through his slurred words and clumsy movements.
"I asked you a question." His fingers fumbled at her sleeve, brushing the inside of her wrist. Sakura was painfully paralyzed by it. She shook it and him off and resumed.
Why should she answer any questions he had? The last time he'd seen her, he'd tried to kill her.
"Sakura."
"For a dead man," she snapped, "you sure are talking a lot."
He laughed, weakly, spraying his chest with blood. Sakura had to close her eyes at the sight. She gathered the broken pieces inside of her and tried to put them together. No matter how strong she became, she doubted she'd ever be able to look at him bleeding and broken and not feel something inside of her ache.
She drew three deep breaths and counted to ten, the weight of his eyes on her shoulders.
"I'm not letting you die because you were once of my precious people, and I don't let my precious people—past or present—die."
Sakura opened her eyes and began again.
