Because I haven't written in a while.
Disclaimer: Carrots help you see much better in the dark...disclaimed. The song and the story.
"I don't...understand," he said slowly. Sakura wanted to hit him.
"Yes you do," she said patiently instead, her face blank.
He blinked, one large hand moving up as if to shield himself from her. Denial; Sakura had seen it so many times.
"That-- this can't-- you must be mistaken." He stood up faster than she could move forwards to restrain him, faster than she could warn him of the pain that would shoot up his side. He collapsed onto the floor and she sat back in her chair with a sigh.
"I can assure you there's no need to question my medicinal abilities," she said in a clipped tone. He had no right to doubt her-- he had no idea all the shit she had been through to get to where she was now.
His eyes were squeezed shut tightly from the pain, and she would never admit to being intimidated but Sakura was glad he'd stopped glaring at her like it was all her fault. When he spoke again, his voice was hoarse and she had to take a few step forwards, not quite sure if he was talking to her or mumbling to himself.
"There's nothing you can do?" She hated it when patients asked that.
"There are-- some experimental treatments," she said hesitantly, "but in your condition, and with your history..."
"It would be better to just give up," he finished quietly, though his words held a razor-sharp edge at the words give up. Anger laced his next words and his breathing was harsher as he repeated, "Just give up. No!"
She was expecting this reaction, she really was, but the way he said it with such conviction made her chest clench involuntarily and she drew in a sharp breath, clutching his charts in her hands.
Shit, she thought. Shit, shit, shit.
Her mask was cracking.
"I won't do it," he told her fiercely.
"You have no choice," she replied in a last ditch effort to be professional, to be clinical. "Your body has chosen for y--"
"I'm not d-- I'm not stopping!" he exclaimed, and oh god her chest was definitely having some strange kind of spasm.
"It isn't something you can just decide to stop--"
"What is it then?!"
"A death sentence." Better blunt than never.
Bright blue eyes, darkened with fear, bore into hers.
"I'm sorry," she said, feeling something in her throat she hadn't felt since she was just beginning to take up medicine, something painful. "I'm sorry, Naruto."
Carrots help you see much better in the dark/ Don't talk to girls they'll break your heart.