Trying out this new idea. Launching this chapter as a pilot to see what response it would get and if I should continue. Suggestions, comments, and constructive criticism are dearly welcome.

Disclaimer: Naruto or any of its characters do not belong to me. They rightfully belong to Masashi Kishimoto-sama who is doing an awesome job of handling them. :)

Frozen

-Prologue-

Pink, wet strands clung to the young girl's face as sweat broke out of her pores. The torrent of rain was strong and hard but the sound and cold receded to nothing but a buzz that was hardly noticed in the back of her mind. In the dark storm, only a warm green glow offered shining light. And this was emitted from the trembling hands of the girl herself.

"No…" a shaky breath escaped her lips. "No…please…no…" It soon grew to a steady sob.

"Sakura," the young girl looked up in response and saw her trembling self reflected in the cerulean eyes laced with worry, concern, and grief of her very own best friend. Said best friend shook her head slowly, one hopeless message clearly conveyed, the green in her hands fading to nothing. There was nothing more they could do. Saltwater and rainwater mixed in one steady journey down creamy white cheeks as her own green, hopeful light flickered and faded for one despairing moment, only to burst out again with newfound fervor.

"DON'T! DON'T LEAVE!" Nobody had the heart to pull her away. A few meters away, somewhere in the fog, the girl knew her own mentor and her assistant knelt over another figure, working as hard as she did. Perhaps if they were here too- No. She was horrified the thought even entered her mind. If anyone had the right to live, she knew it was that boy they were working on. How could she afford to be selfish - after everything he'd done for her? But already, she could keenly feel the fatigue that crept up her skin from the wasted energy and effort she was pouring. What once was a faint but steady and agonizingly slow beat is now reduced to the occasional drum.

The girl was frantic. She could feel herself being pulled away by panic, logic slowly slipping away – or she was distancing herself from it. Either way, the girl knew that if she didn't do something now, she'd lose – whether it be to the weariness that spread through her body, the frustration that threatened to overcome her mind, the faces around her prevented from pulling her away by only a word that could be said at any second, or the wicked, cruel game of time itself.

Whatever it may be, Sakura knew she held the life of someone precious in her hands and she was racing against the unstoppable pace of time to keep it. "S-Sasuke-kun…" she withheld her hands from reaching out and stroking his terrible, blood-filled face. Her hands were urgently needed elsewhere at the moment. But even at a glance, the girl could tell – he looked so much more peaceful with his eyes closed. But he was in pain – so much pain. And for a moment, Sakura almost had the heart to let him go.

Her index fingers twitched and she slowly withdrew her right hand, her breathing close to hyperventilation now. She hardly even noticed the muddy earth her fingernails clawed, trying to keep the thought that he would soon be buried underneath the likes of such earth away. Empty, lifeless, hollow, and weary emerald green eyes lifted to the grey sky for some kind of answer – a solution, consolation maybe, or maybe just in search of something she could blame.

No. Hell would freeze over before she allowed death's clutches to take a hold of him and finalize his fate. Everything that meant something would go with him. And before it was too late, before his fate was sealed forever, she did the only thing her adrenaline-driven mind could come up with at a moment's notice. Strength renewed with a newfound purpose in mind, Sakura started pounding a different kind of chakra into his system. Chakra that would not heal him – but freeze him.

"Please…don't leave me." Her request was drowned in the storm.