Summary: The life of a shinobi was hard. Character death. Response to prompt thirteen (drowning) for SasuSaku Month.

Disclaimer: Naruto is (c) Masashi Kishimoto and Shueisha, Inc.

SHINOBI LIFE

It was raining, which Uchiha Sakura felt was more than appropriate under the circumstance. The heavens should be crying for her loss.

Listlessly, she stared at the still form in the child-size casket. The unawaking boy was beautiful. Twelve years old, pale skin, black spiky hair, and a face bearing the distinguished features of his father. His eyes, however... those brilliant viridian eyes, hereinafter to remain unseen, were an exact replica of her own...

Sakura's stoic façade cracked at the waning thought. She could no longer breathe, and her lungs burned as if set afire. She was drowning, and mournful tears freely fell. Strength gave way, and her tremulous knees buckled from the weight of it all. This was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

She did not realize that the last word was being brokenly chanted aloud.

Achingly familiar arms surrounded her, imparting much needed comfort and support. In response, Sakura desperately clutched at the front of her husband's dark tunic and wept without constraint. He, in turn, rested his chin atop her crown and silently endured. He would be strong, if only for her sake.

"How do we go on?" Sakura rasped as her racking sobs finally began to subside.

Sasuke's lids met, concealing the overwhelming pain that lay within his obsidian depths. "The same way we do with everything else; together, and one day at a time."

The life of a shinobi was hard, but to be the parent of a shinobi was even harder.

THE END