"Come on. You need your rest." Sai gently lead Sakura to their bed and before long, both were asleep. Sakura smiled happily in her sleep as she dreamed of red autumn leaves, cheery blossom petals and rain tainted gold by the sunset intermixing.
The spring rain turned the bright crimson blood to a softer, almost pink, color. Sai briefly wondered if it was normal to muse so nonchalantly about the color of his own blood as he half leaned on the tree behind him, half propped up by the roseate-haired medic in front of him. Sakura's hands and a good deal of her arms and clothes were covered or splattered with blood. Though none of it was her own.
Everything looked so artistic Sai noticed with a trained eye. The light from the setting sun striking every rain drop and giving them a golden glow as they continuously plummeted down around the two of them. Rolling down her arms, hair and face magnificently, meshing with liquid crimson and her own tears...
Dimly, in the back of his mind, Sai wondered if his careless attitude about his impending death was due to his lack of blood, or if he would have reacted in a similar manner regardless of the quantity of blood in his body.
Sakura desperately pumped healing green chakra into his body, trying to mend that tragically wide gash cutting across his chest, through bone and muscles, before he bled to death. Too much blood, not enough chakra, too much pain, not enough time, too much to lose...
For six years, Sakura had laboriously trained under Tsunade so she wouldn't have to lose anyone precious to her. She had yet to lose a patient to death, yet the prospect of it happening here and now was all too real and terrifying for her to bear. She'd be damned if she let Sai, whom she had grown to respect as a close friend, up and die on her. So diligently Sakura worked, taking no notice of the warm rain or the tears that mixed with them on her face. She took no notice of his onyx eyes, golden in the light, staring at her as if mesmerized.
Sai might have missed her tears if it were for the unusual sheen in Sakura's eyes and his own rapt observation. His own eyes widened by a fraction. Was she crying for him? Or, were her tears for her own helplessness? He knew about the vow she had once upon a time made to never be weak and helpless again.
Sai was many things, but he was no fool. He knew nothing short of a miracle or the immediate arrival of aid would save him now. While Sakura's medical abilities were great, there was only so much she could do by herself with chakra alone after the draining battle they had just ended.
He smiled, not the smile he attempted while learning about "emotions". Crooked and tiny, seeming more like a smirk than a smile, but an actual smile.
Selfish as it was, Sai hoped that the tears were because she didn't want to lose one of her precious people.
"Stop that crying..." he said, smile still in place. "You look uglier that way."
Her expression was making his heart feel like it'd been doused in cold water- or was that death's icy grip squeezing away what life he had?
Sakura ignored him. She was almost out of chakra. She knew it, and Sai knew it as well.
"Stop wasting chakra on me, Sakura. If you don't stop soon, we'll both die here. So, just go," Sai muttered.
His words were becoming slurred and his vision blurry. The indescribable, absolute pain in his chest and everywhere else was being replaced with numbing cold.
This only prompted Sakura to look for hidden reserves of chakra deep within her. She wouldn't, couldn't, let him die; not here, not on any battle field, not until his hair was silver and his face full of wrinkles.
"Shut up, you stupid idiot! I'm not gonna let you die!" Sakura all but shouted at him.
"...I always thought you hated me," he murmured softly, the task of keeping his eyes open a little too hard. "It would seem I've been proven wrong again... like that time with Naruto..."
And then he forced his vision open just one last time to see her looking at him, green eyes raw with emotion and desperation. If he was going to die, he might as well part with kind words for once.
"You're beautiful," he said, just a bit awkwardly.
Her eyes filled with even more tears, but she strengthened her resolve and tried to focus on her task, thinking that he was merely talking in delusions from the blood loss.
"Just try to relax Sai- I'm going to save you. A-And then we're going back to Konoha, and go to Ichiraku and I'll buy you and Naruto all the ramen you want. And then I'll set you up on a date with Ino- she really likes you, you know that?" She tried to laugh but it came out as a sob.
Her chakra persistently tried to mend the ruptured vital organs within him, but she was only delaying the inevitable. She continued to ramble on, trying to comfort the both of them, but mostly herself. He was already resigned to his death.
His deathly white, bloodied hand wrapped itself around her wrist to get her attention. She immediately ceased with her pointless chatter and looked at him in confusion.
Sai choked on the blood filling his mouth, but tried to say the words as eloquently as possible.
"Sakura...thank you."
Here a choked sob escaped her lips and her left hand momentarily left his gaping wound to cover her mouth.
Sai doesn't know, does he?
'Are you trying to mock me for being unable to stop him from leaving all those years ago?' She resisted the urge to punch him in the chest out of frustration.
"Even after all these years, I can't stop anyone from leaving..."
She didn't care if her words didn't make sense to him.
Sai just continued to smile as the world slowly slipped away until all he could feel was the rain, his life's blood draining onto the forest floor, and her hands as they pressed against his chest harder, as if that act alone would keep him with her. Sakura bit her lip as she poured what little chakra she had left into his battered body. Even as Sakura's world turned dark, her hand fisted in Sai's shirt, she refused to let go of him.
Apple green eyes blinked sleepily as the owner raised a hand to rub at her eyes tiredly. Sakura pushed herself up on shaky arms as she realized that she was in a hospital. She tried to recollect why she would be in such a place when the door opened to reveal Tsunade.
"Tsunade-shishou?" Sakura's eyes widened as her memories came flooding back. "How did I get here? Where's Sai? What happened to him after I blacked out?"
"Calm down, Saku-" Tsunade started to say but was interrupted.
"Don't tell me to calm down! Where-" Sakura was getting hysterical.
"I SAID CALM DOWN, DAMNIT!" Tsunade thundered, rage sparkling in her almond eyes, hand smacking the bed side table.
Sakura fell back onto her pillows as her arms gave out on her. "Shizune made it to your location in time. She and her team were able to give him emergency field care to stabilize him. He was given full treatment after he was brought in. Sai will make a full recovery. From the amount of wounds on his body he was lucky to have survived at all."
Then Tsunade grabbed Sakura into a near bone-crushing hug. "Don't ever do that to me again, you hear me? When Shizune and Naruto brought the two of you in, I thought you two might not make it. You nearly killed yourself with chakra exhaustion. Rest now. You'll be allowed to visit him later." With that Tsunade exited the room.
When Sakura finally slipped into slumber, she had a peaceful dream full of softly falling rain and a familiar touch.
Much later, when she was allowed up, the first thing she did was visit him.
And with that angelic, handsome, beautiful smile of his, the first thing he said was,
"I can't believe I called you beautiful."
A woman named for a flower pressed her hand to the cool glass. It was spring again.
The rain fell gently, helping the world be reborn once more. She could hardly believe it had been several years since that fateful day in the rain with Sai. Ever since that day, she'd grown closer and closer to him. During one summer's day, under a sky full of wispy, rain-laden clouds and soft red-tainted summer rain, they'd awkwardly admitted that perhaps their feelings towards each other weren't so platonic.
But Sakura already came to terms with those feelings on that day, under that warm spring rain. She had been in denial until her hands were covered in his blood, as he slowly slipped further and further away from life... from her.
She looked out the window now. The first leaves of spring where unfurling and the birds that had migrated south for the winter were back and making their nests. The gray glow of pre-dawn gave the whole world a hazy, misty look. The kind one could only find in dreams. This was truly a new beginning.
Sakura smiled as she gently stroked her other hand to her slightly swollen belly. She was only starting to show and her husband couldn't be more proud. Warm, muscular arms encircled her waist as Sai burrowed his face into the crook of her neck, the feel of his eyelashes against her skin made her giggle aloud.
"Hey, shouldn't you be in bed?" he said quietly, his long slender fingers running gently over the small swell in her stomach. Sakura smiled, leaning into his taller frame. "I was waiting for you.
He blushed lightly and looked out the window. "Aa. It's raining again."
"Yes... Do you still remember what brought us together?"
Sai grinned, lazily wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pressing his forehead against the back of her head. "Why do you even ask? That day, you made it clear I can never be free of you, even if I died. And also that annoying rain..."
One of Sakura's eyebrows twitched before she drove an elbow (without much force behind it, mind you) into Sai's stomach. However, despite Sai's joking words, he remembered quite well what brought them together.
He stepped back, his hand trailing down her arm to grasp hers lightly.
AN: Did a few minor edits. Also, Seasons of Rain, the companion story to this is now up. It'll be a drabble series with each chapter being between 100 and 200 words long, and should fill in some of the gaps this story left behind. I'll be posting a new chapter a week.