Hi! This is an AU fiction, so you're going to need some background information. I haven't written a story in a long time, so I hope this goes well received. More than 5 reviews and I'll feel a bit more confident to post the next chapter, which is already written :)

Konoha neighbors a sea, and so does Suna. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura remember themselves as orphans. Kakashi is briefly mentioned as the person who took care of them and sent them through school. He moves to Suna when all three of them are independent. I tried to keep the storyline as similar to canon as possible, without being too ridiculous.

February, part 1

The worst thing about late night practices was that Sakura would have to walk back home alone. Safety was not an issue, since almost everyone knew of her lethal punches, and she has gotten used to being alone. Darkness, however, she surrendered to. Unpleasant memories filled those frosty nights, and she had to live in them as she walked back to her apartment. Her thoughts usually lingered on two certain boys – now men, technically – whom she cared for, to say the least.

"Naruto would convince us to go to Ichiraku…"

Talking to herself, she tried to bring up the good memories of them when they were caught by Kakashi while stealing food, of them when they first went to school, of Naruto barely getting a passing grade, of herself when Professor Tsunade was in charge of her internship, and of Sasuke laughing with them. The scenes flashed through her mind, and soon she was left with the distasteful memories – of Naruto and Sasuke's first fistfight, of Sasuke's bitter departure, eventually followed by Naruto's.

They had all left her, trusting her to wait for them for the unknown date of arrival.

Six long, gruesome years had passed since Sasuke thanked her (for what? She desperately sought the answer) and Naruto left his jacket on her as proof of his existence under the stars. All seemed to be mere scenarios she had replayed over and over in her head, and sometimes she forgot why she was still living in the same apartment – with a great view to the ocean, where the plane that took away Naruto and Sasuke soared over. Too bad they didn't take her emotions away with them. Left behind and with no place to go, Sakura couldn't move on.

As if it were on cue, rain started pouring. Great.

Sakura hated, absolutely hated the rain. The cold seeped through her skin even when she was sleeping between Naruto and Sasuke, and the rain caused all three of them to shiver, unable to rely on each other's body heat. On the day Sasuke left them, it rained. She saw it coming; his trivial, yet irregular behavior – taking extra five minutes in the shower, looking around the classroom instead of starring outside the window, eating less of her cooking – warned her of the pending changes. When she found the cursed one-way ticket to Suna, she obsequiously pleaded him to at least graduate from high school, or take her with him. He stated the separation was inevitable. Under the calm, firm tone, he implied her to stay out of his business. She caught the subtleties and bit her lips in hopelessness. The next morning, Sasuke was greeted with all his clothing washed and neatly folded, smelling like Sakura's favorite softener.

That afternoon, the sky joined in her cries as she hoped his flight to be cancelled. But it didn't, and she dwelled in the two words – "thank you."

On the night Naruto walked with her down the streets of their childhood, it rained as well. He invited her to his jacket, and when she accepted, he wrapped the jacket around her, told her he would bring Sasuke back, and kissed her with such longing. She froze under the burning touch – a plethora of reactions filled her brain, and she chose the least violent one: to pull away. She shut her eyes, refusing to meet his, and break under his disappointment. They stood in the rain, his arms still around her, although the grip had loosened a bit. He asked her a delicate question, and she pretended that she never heard it in the rain. She couldn't answer, anyway. He didn't wait for a reply, and she loomed in the guilt and mixed feelings.

Six years later, she still dwelled in the question, blaming the rain for her inability to decide.

Her elongated shadow formed under the street light, and followed her as she walked down the main street. She mindlessly kicked a pebble, venting her frustration. The pebble cast off to the side, when Sakura's gaze met two pale feet between two stone buildings. Surprised, her eyes traveled up from the cut black pants, past the icy pale abdomen, to a pair of closed eyes. She ran over to the man.

"Are you…okay? Wake up! What's going on?" She hastily asked, but the man seemed unconscious. Panic filled her as she stumbled to find a steady pulse – four years of college and two years of medical school must be able to help this situation somehow. He didn't seemed to be bleeding anywhere; maybe a strong concussion? Looking at his hollow cheekbones, she figured he hadn't eaten in days.

She asked fruitlessly. "What happened?"

Homelessness. That's what happened to him, obviously. She put her hand over his forehead, and even in the cold winter night, he was burning. She thought of going back to that place she spent most of her time in: the hospital. No. No. I am going back to my apartment for at least five hours. I have a home and pay rent for a reason! The emergency room was out of her budget, anyway. So what was she going to do?

Her own memories of being a homeless orphan stopped her from leaving the man. She was always hungry. Naruto was always hungry. Sasuke never expressed his hunger. The three kids rummaged through bins to find cans and bottles to sell, occasionally stealing food from the marketplace. She cried, wishing her parents were alive. Naruto wailed after her, mostly because he didn't want to see her cry, and Sasuke would wake them up to the reality. They were together through the weathers. At least she wasn't utterly alone, and had a savior like Kakashi, who took them to his house and cared for them.

If I leave him here, he'll probably be stone dead by tomorrow dawn.

She couldn't let that happen, even to a stranger. She proceeded to piggyback him, put her bag and his backpack around her neck, and struggled home. He wasn't that heavy, and her muscles could easily bear his weight. At least that's what she thought for the first ten minutes. As the weight got heavier, she discovered that she needs to go work out more.

"Damn it, why is my apartment so far away from everything?" Sakura muttered, as she got on the elevator. She dropped the man, watching him slide slowly to the floor. Under the obnoxious elevator light, his pale skin looked even paler, and they were both wet from the rain and the sweat. Horrors of hypothermia passed through her mind.

Shit, she thought. She had to hurry. When the elevator door opened, she hauled the man to her door, brutally shoved her key in, and after a moment of struggle to open her own door, she dragged the man to her studio apartment.

Sakura took off his wet jacket, dried him off, and provided him with her thickest blankets. The wet cloth she folded over his forehead kept on drying off, and she realized she would have to stay up all night near this man. With a sigh, she walked over to the kitchenette to find something to eat.

Looking out to the huge window, she habitually looked for any planes flying into the airport. Busy, busy airport, bustling with planes from everywhere, but none of the aircrafts told her that either Sasuke or Naruto was on it. A plane was rising into the darkness with its menacing two red lights winking at her. She absentmindedly envisioned Sasuke's eyes, those fiery eyes he fought against the world with. In her earliest memories, he only fought for himself; it seemed so in the beginning of their meeting. Then he fought for her and Naruto's safety. She then recalled Naruto's blue eyes: those brilliant sapphire eyes that as she matured, she noticed them looking straight through her. Embarrassed of her ambivalent feelings, she feared looking at him eye-to-eye. She probably still would, too.

The blinking red numbers told her it was past one in the morning. Her eyes moved from the empty fridge to the stranger's bag. It might not hurt me to know what he's been doing till now, she thought. Digging through the objects, she found notebooks, a heavy pencil case, and some old brushes. In curiosity she opened the notebooks. Innocent, rough sketches of the landscapes and human figure filled the pages, and the more she looked into the more detailed and beautiful they were. She gathered all the sketches and put them all in the backpack again, when she felt something smooth and cool under her touch.

She instinctively realized it was something important. Tucked safely in a silk cloth, a shiny black gun was hidden. Feeling slightly intimidated, she opened the bottom to check for ammunition. One bullet filled the roulette, as if it was his last release from suffering. Was he out there to really kill himself? Or was he using this a threat to people to get his way with things? Either way, the man who laid sprawled out on the floor became a threat. He's got to leave this place once he gains consciousness. She decided to keep the gun in her drawers, between her underwear – one place the stranger was never, ever going to reach. She couldn't let a homeless guy with a gun on the loose.

Grabbing two juice boxes from the near-empty fridge, she went back to nursing him. She just hoped tonight won't be something she would regret doing.

Rate and review C: I forgot if there is even a rate button...or was it read and review..trolol