Requiem

Prologue: Springtime

It was done.

His black eyes were widened in surprise, filled with arrogance and pride even at the very end and faded into glossy obsidian with every passing second. A cough; blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth and down his chin. And then — nothing. It was a lovely, sunny day and Uchiha Sasuke was dead.

Her face was as blank as a fresh canvas and Sakura stepped back, drawing her hand from his chest as she went. His body fell to the ground with a muffled thud, revealing him for what he truly was when it all came down to it — not the boy she had known, but a bundle of meat, lifeless without the electrical signals that had once run through it. Sakura had thought that it would be harder to kill him. Apparently, she was wrong.

It had been a day like every other when a messenger hawk from Suna reached the Hokage's tower. Upon reading the letter, Tsunade had first thrown her desk out of the window and then immediately summoned Kakashi, who had then been assigned the unpleasant task of informing his former genin squad. The fallout had been messy. It had been the worst kind of betrayal Team 7 has ever had to endure, even worse than the night Sakura had failed to stop a certain dark-haired avenger from defecting.

Uchiha Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki.

Sakura still remembered the cold fury that had washed over her when Kakashi told Naruto and her what their teammate had done. This went beyond betrayal — no, it was nothing as simple as that. This? This was an outright declaration of war. Breaking her heart was inevitable. Leaving Konoha was a mistake. Training with Orochimaru was outrageous. But to go against Naruto, the one person who loved Sasuke with all his might, who had faith and believed in him like only a brother could? To ally himself with the organisation that wanted to hunt Naruto down like he was some sort of prize; that wanted to extract the Kyuubi out of him and leave him dead, an empty husk of himself? Sakura had been there, back then when the Akatsuki had Gaara in their grasp. She knew. And there will never a time where she will not remember. The picture of the Kazekage's motionless body on the cold, hard ground was forever burned into her eyelids, often haunting her in her sleep. During her worst nights, red hair would turn into golden and lifeless jade eyes would give in to blue, and she would wake up gasping for air and drenched in sweat. Sakura would never, ever allow that to happen. And it would have, she knew it. Because in his heart of hearts, Naruto would have never been able to let go of Sasuke, his second half, his best friend. He would have gone after him, regardless of Sasuke's affiliation with the Akatsuki, chasing after a long-lost promise and the boy they had all once loved. And it would have gotten him killed. Because if Sakura was aware of that, then Sasuke would have known it too. He would have known, and he would have taken Naruto to a place where she would not been able to reach him. And that — that was simply unacceptable. Once she came to this realization, an icy sort of resolve wrapped itself around her heart. The fury she had felt ebbed away and Sakura knew what she had to do.

So she excused herself from the meeting, leaving Kakashi to console the distraught Naruto on his own and sought out her teacher. Tsunade seemed to have expected her (and probably Naruto, too), but when she showed up alone, with her head held high and focused on the woman who made her a true shinobi, the Hokage looked confused. But Sakura had not allowed herself be deterred by the surprised, maybe even shocked, expression on her mentor's face. She had only stood rigid, voice collected and firm when she asked:

"Does the order of capturing or neutralizing any Akatsuki member still stand, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade's face seemed to have frozen over. After a while, she had given a slight nod. It was the only confirmation Sakura had needed. Her words didn't waver when she requested one last search mission. And Tsunade — brave, unbreakable, strong Tsunade — trembled when she gave her pupil the consent to conduct an A-rank solo mission. She did not lecture Sakura, said no more words than needed. It was a stark contrast to the million times before when the members of Team 7 had stormed into the office, demanding the approval to track down their missing part. Now the Hokage was almost completely quiet. There was something — something in those honey golden eyes that spoke of unfathomable sadness and yet, understanding. Leaning back, with her face partially obscured by the shadows in the quickly darkening room, and made it clear that she would send an Anbu Squad as Sakura's backup. They would stay in the shadows and only interfere if the situation called for it. She watched in silence as Sakura bowed. It was only when her student reached the door that Tsunade spoke up.

"Sakura, are you sure? There will be no coming back from this."

There was no hesitation. It had to be done. Sakura had already lost one teammate — she would not lose another. Not Naruto. Not like this. As long as she and Sasuke were still breathing, there was nothing that could have prevented this from happening.

"Yes."

And with that, she left. In the dim light of her office, the stars outside her window swallowed by the dark night, Tsunade poured herself a drink.

She departed before the sun rose and tracked the young Uchiha down with an efficiency that even surprised herself. Tsunade had sent many squads to retrieve the avenger, but not many had found him. And when they did, well… let's just say that it never even came close to a capture. But Sakura also knew that it had only been a matter of time until she would find him. This mission (Naruto)was too important for her to fail. And she would have tracked Sasuke down even it meant following him across the whole world and straight into hell.

When she finally reached him, Sakura had put on an act: she had cried and pleaded with him to come back to Konoha. When that obviously didn't work, Sakura begged him to take her in, so that she was at least able to stand by his side. Unsurprisingly, Sasuke had only sneered. However, after she had… proven her loyalty, he had allowed her to stay, because rejecting her without taking in regard Sakura's value as a medic was borderline stupid. And one could say what they wanted about Uchiha Sasuke, but he was not wasteful. No, far from that. His collection of useful little henchmen showed that much. But for all his resourcefulness, his prodigious skills, his precious Kekkei Genkai, there was one quality to him that had always rendered him lesser, inferior, then his older brother Itachi — pride, and the absolute belief that he had everyone completely figured out. Sasuke hadn't expected her to change and that led to his downfall. When she came up and offered to heal an inconvenient old scar that had never really recovered, he had just let her. Lowered his guard, even if it was only because he thought her too weak to be a threat. The shock in his eyes, the betrayal his expression showed, stung more than Sakura cared to admit. But it had been necessary, dammit. In order for Naruto to live, Sasuke had to die. And it was only right that she would be the one to do it — that she would be the one to topple the fragile house of cards that had been Team 7. After all, she was the weak spot. It was only natural that she would be the first to fall, everybody assumed so. And so she did.

It really was a beautiful day.

The trees showed small buds, sunlight bathed the camp Team Hebi had built on the clearing like liquid gold, and the soft fragrance of peonies and other spring flowers hung in the air like the most exquisite of perfumes. She concentrated to feel any human chakra in her surrounding, stretched her senses for any sign of Jugo or Suigetsu and let out a sigh of relief when she detected nothing out of ordinary. Good. It seemed like the others were still gathering intel about their — Akatsuki's — next target. And that was just fine with Sakura, because she did not really have the nerve to fight against two dangerously skilled ninja, at least not now. She would have difficulties defeating them even at her best and the current circumstances were a huge drawback, which made the chance of her surviving a confrontation with them now very slim. Sakura was aware that although she did not regret her actions, the death of Sasuke had left a strain on her mental health in a way that she could not fully comprehend yet. And she knew that she had to deal with it, eventually. However, right now, Sakura had to concentrate. Right now, Sakura had a job to do. If she fell apart later that was fine. But until she had finished her mission, reported to her superiors and was safe and sound in Konoha, Sakura was not allowed to break down. This all happened because she wanted it to and Sakura had the responsibility to see it through. She could not falter now, not after she had managed to keep her head cool and come so far.

Focusing on the task at hand, Sakura lowered herself unto the ground, kneeling a few inches away from Sasuke. She swept her gaze over his still form, features schooled into an even mask. Taking in a deep breath, she fetched the scroll that one of the Anbu operatives had given her before she catched up with Team Hebi. It was specially made for these kinds of occasions and carefully, as if she was handling delicate porcelain, Sakura placed it upon the corpse. A few hand signs later the body was sealed and Sakura, gone.

to be continued...

A/N So… this is my first official story on this website! I am kinda nervous, but since this is just a side project, it's not as bad as it could have been. Requiem is just a story for fun that I work(ed) on when I'm procrastinating. So please don't have too high expectations! It is definitely not what I'd call my best work and was also not corrected by a beta. This story was born out of my curiosity of what would have happened if Sakura had actually had enough spine to truly eff Sasuke off. So while this fanfiction does not have the same set-up as in the manga (that little scene where Sakura ditches Kiba, Sai & Co. never happened here and she killed Sasuke after he learned of the truth behind the massacre from Madara), it will pretty much follow the canon plotline… just mixed with the consequences of Sakura's actions. Which are very widespread, heh. Hint: it's going to be a dark, dark ride for all of Team 7. And there is definitely more to Sasuke's death than shown here, you better believe it!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. And while reviews are always a treat, it is not a must. :D Hope to read you in the next chapter!