Written while waiting for chapter 699. Jeez I'm emotional all over again, fuck this manga. Goddammit I'm crying. Goddammit I thought I was over Naruto! Fuck! Dammit!

... Anyway. I'm still salty that Sakura got shafted in the last moments of the manga, but whatever. Take this instead

Home

by hashtagartistlife

Sakura had waited all night with a sick heart, but when the red sun finally broke over the horizon and the fighting from the direction of her boys had been quiet for too long, she could not wait any longer.

Sprinting with all her might, leaving her sensei behind her, Sakura ran towards the rising sun, her heart beating frantically in her chest. Each rhythmical thud of her pumping blood felt like a censure; surely she had waited too long, surely she was too late, she had not heard a peep since that last, cataclysmic explosion that had shook her to her very bones, surely her boys were– dead. And if they were, it would be her fault. Why had she hesitated?

"There's nothing you can do, Sakura!" Kakashi had hissed at her, even as she attempted to rise unsteadily in the wake of the genjutsu and showed every sign of wanting to follow after her boys. "There is nothing you or I can do, now. We're both too weak to be of any help should we follow Naruto. Stay here, and trust him to bring Sasuke back."

Sakura had known the truth of his words down to her wretched soul, and yet she was not able to keep still. Even if she had been at her full power, she would not have been able to stop them fighting; in her current depleted state, she could do even less. Worthless. Pathetic. But still Sakura paced, restless, as the sky darkened around them and the moon rose, only stopping to shield Kakashi from the occasional quakes and debris that highlighted Naruto and Sasuke's awesome power and her own incompetence. They were fighting several miles away from where she stood, and yet the shockwaves reached them undiminished and strong. Sakura had never felt more useless in her life.

It was impossible to say how long she had waited before the devastating final explosion; the clash had been so big that she had actually seen the ball of energy balloon out in a glowing halo of orange and blue before the wave of debris had reached them. She had wanted to run out to them right there and then; surely something had gone wrong?! Nothing could survive an explosion of that magnitude. She needed to go check on her boysnow. But Kakashi had held her back yet again, an achingly sad look in his eyes; perhaps he trusted Naruto to win, perhaps not, but whatever the case, Kakashi was a man of practicalities, and he was not prepared to lose his only remaining student before his very eyes. And so Sakura had waited.

But morning had come, and she could not wait any longer. Her chakra stores had been somewhat restored, and she activated her byakugou seal as she ran, prepared to find anything in the place that had once been called the Valley of the End. Kakashi had protested, but she was able to easily outrun him; in truth, she suspected that even if he had been at full strength, she would have been able to outmanoeuvre him if need be. She had grown. All three of them had.

And now they three might become just one, and Sakura was terrified, her breath roaring in her ears that she was too little, too late. Staring at her boys' backs as they left her in the dust, once again. Leftbehind. But this time was different, she told herself, this time she was chasing after them, come hell or high water, she was going to be with them, dammit, and if they were going to kill themselves over this stupid fight then she was going to stop them or die trying. Because they were a team.

A sob tore through her, and Sakura's throat burned with the effort of holding it back, because she couldn't break down yet, not yet, she had work to do, she had to save her boys from themselves because god knows they couldn't do it on their own–

And then she rounded the last spike of rock in her way, and her breath caught in her chest, because she saw them, both of them, lying in a pool of blood, motionless, eyes closed, still and pale as lakewater, cuts and bruises everywhere, and one of their arms a bleeding stump; the left for Sasuke, Naruto the right, and surely two people couldn't have possibly contained that much blood and they were dead, dead, dead–

"Sakura?" Naruto cracked one blue eye open and said her name in a voice as dry as the desert, and Sakura's knees nearly buckled with relief. "Is that you, Sakura? Thank sweet Kami you're here. Took you long enough!"

"Naruto – you–idiot!" She was laughing and crying at the same time, but Sakura couldn't bring herself to care as she closed the last few metres between them and alighted by Naruto's side, resisting the urge to hug him; and even though Sasuke remained motionless as ever, it was okay, because Naruto would never laugh and joke around with her while Sasuke was seriously injured, and both of them would live.

And then—

"Hello… Sakura."

Sasuke turned to her with the softest expression she had seen him wear in years, his eyes back to his beautiful, fathomless obsidian, his hair tousled and tangled and falling over his face, the faintest hint of a smile lingering on his bloodstained lips.

"…Sa….su…ke…. kun."

And sunlight fell from the sky like rain, bathing everything in a warm golden glow, and Sakura swore she would remember that moment for the rest of her life, because Sasuke-kun was finally home.