Summary: She had a choice: Sasuke or Naruto. My version for the ending of Naruto.
Naruto fluff probably. My version of a NaruSaku ending to Naruto. I tried to stay in character as much as I could in this kind of situation. I want things to be resolved between Naruto and Sakura. I feel like things are too jagged for things to end yet between the two.
-To say goodbye-
The intense pain shot through her shoulder and down to her elbow, making her twitch unexpectedly. She had been careless. Putting her guard down just for a second only to leave an opening for the enemy. She lost sight of 'him' long ago. His powerful chakra has given his position away and since she felt the wave of power of the tailed beasts, she pinpointed his location every so often just to make sure he was still alive. She knew where he was and who he was fighting but she knew from the depletion of his chakra that he was running low on time and effort. He was still human. One of them was going to die or maybe her fear would come true and both of her teammates would die. She couldn't focus much longer and gave the Zetsu clone one last punch before running away from the battle field, every so often helping a comrade with an enemy. Never loosing her focus she kept running, feeling his chakra in waves like something may have happened that disturbed his chakra flow. The woodland area was no longer a canopy for the creators and the surrounding area was leveled and destroyed. Hills covered the horizon but they were bare of any life. Even the animals had left the scene of the battle to save their own skin while she and thousands of others ran towards the battle. Sakura wondered who was really the smart ones in this case.
Her sandals were covered in mud. Even the inside was damp from the heavy rain falling down, soaking through her layers of clothing down to her bare skin. Every step she felt a cushion of wetness. Running didn't help while her feet was kicking up behind her, coating her in more mud. Dirt could be cleaned off. Blood could be washed away. Memories were another story.
The pinkette neared one of the larger hills where she knew they had taken off to, away from other shinobi. Their battle was to be too large for anyone to be standing by. Not that Sakura had seen the major fight between them, it was more or less the fact that she knew what Naruto was capable of and for Sasuke to be of equal strength, things would look ugly.
A shockwave flew past Sakura, causing her to stumble before realizing that familiar blast. She felt it once before.
At the bridge.
The bridge where team seven finally meet once again.
The day she almost died, twice.
"Naruto." She whispered.
The pinkette took off again, racing, praying, crying that she would be able to save them. If not both of them than at least one of them. That last wave was the last she felt of both chakra signatures. She came to a clearing, dirt, rocks and trees scattered in the area and a light dust make it hard to see. She waited for a second before the dust scattered. And it was indeed the final blow. Her heart raced as she saw the sight before her. Both Naruto and Sasuke were laying on the ground but they had faint signatures. They were both alive, but barely. A couple jumps down into the large creator and she stood there. As a medical ninja in a war, you see a lot of things. Blood, gore and everything in between but one would never want to see that in a friend. Not that she haven't seen a ninja be cut in half before and try to sew them back together but when you see your teammates both hanging on by a thread called life, you suddenly lose all knowledge on what to do. You want to cry out and get help when you yourself are the help. That was probably why Tsunade made it a rule that you are forbidden in the emergency room when one of your loved ones is in there being treated. You don't think clearly when it is someone close to you. You can't acknowledge death at a time like that. It drives even the best medical nina mad and delusional, Tsunade knew from experience. But Sakura didn't have time. She paced quicker towards the bodies of her teammates. Sasuke was near death while Naruto still had a little bit left. She had to make a decision.
Naruto.
Or Sasuke.
She felt like it had always been one or the other. She couldn't have both ever since the beginning. For the longest time she wouldn't have a double or triple thought about this and run towards her long time crush- the raven haired boy. But every time she had ran towards him, choosing him over Naruto, she ended up being rejected and hurt. Even as he left the village, she knew he was leaving, she knew to expect that much but she never expected to be left behind. Her childish young dreams ached for Sasuke to turn around, grab her hands and they would run away together. They would leave the village behind. Her family. Her sensai.
Naruto.
"Tsunade was right." Sakura thought.
-backflash-
It had been two days after the news of Jirayias death. Everyone in the village was mourning over the death of one of the great Sanins from their village. It had been grim news for everyone. If Akatsuki could take out of the great Sanins, who could stop them?
It was around three in the afternoon when Sakura received the message hawk from her master. It was a simple message letting her know that she was wanted in the office as soon as her shift at the hospital was completed. Signing out for the day, Sakura made her way towards the Hokages office. She knocked. After hearing her mentor call her in, she opened the door and made her way in front of her. She could tell just by looking at the honey-eyed women that she was tired and more importantly, hurting. She couldn't imagine what it felt to be in her position but she could imagine that life would feel like a bitch. Sakura admired her for everything she had gone through and still managed to be a great medical ninja and hokage.
"Sakura." The blonde stated before leaning back in her chair, releasing a heavy breath before continuing. "I made a lot of decisions in my past that I regret. Things I should have seen that I could have changed but decided against it for my own selfish reasons. Some were out of fear but most were selfish."
Tsuande turned her full attention towards her student. Sakura didn't have to see the seriousness in her eyes, she could just feel it in the atmosphere.
"Your team is very similar to my team in many ways. So similar that I am afraid that you will have to go through the same pain I had to. You already have felt some of it but there may come a time where you are forced with an impossible choice."
The pinkette didn't quite know where she was getting at with this. A moment of silence filled the room. Tsunade was figuring out the best possible way to phrase what she wanted to say. Sakura was strong but when it came to her teammates she was very much the same weak thirteen-year-old she was when Tsunade first started to train her in medical ninjutsu.
"Make me a promise, Sakura."
"Hai. I will do my best."
"If you ever have to choose between Naruto or Sasuke. Please. Think hard before you decide."
Tsunade knew better than to come out and tell her to choose Naruto. This was something Sakura had to choose on her own and only on her own accord. To force someone to act the way you want is not genuine. If Sakura was to choose Naruto over the other, at least that would be true desire, not out of responsibility or as a promise.
-end of flashback-
He had always been there for her even when she didn't want him to. Sakura smiled as she remembered Naruto being the one who encouraged her during the chunin exam against Ino. It was him who told her she was amazing at chakra control during the tree climbing training. It was been Naruto who saved her from Gaara. It was always him. He never had to think twice about it and always put his life in front of death...just for her.
This time, she could do the same for him.
As she ran towards his broken body, she investigated his injuries. He had all his limbs attached, which was a good thing in a war but his chest was ripped open and his arms were severely burned. The last blast must have done it since the outer lining of the skin around the wound looked thick and singed. The wounds were not the big problem at the moment, that could heal. It was the blood that was welcoming him to deaths door as the crimson liquid mixed with the dirt water. The rain could have been playing games with her, diluting his blood to make it seem far worse than it was but she wouldn't risk it. A medical ninja never risks it.
Making hast she knelt down to check his vital signs. His breathing was shallow and his heart was pumping but faintly. She didn't have much time. She knew that she had to try and close his wounds as fast as she could. The green glow of her hands started at work, trying to regenerate cells to connect his own cells together to stop the bleeding. It took precision and time but she could do it. She had to start small for the long term effects. It was basic medical knowledge. If even that didn't heal fast enough, she had her medical pouch with her and she could begin stitching but she needed skin close enough to stitch. At the moment the wound was too big, she needed to make more cells.
"Dammit, Naruto." She cursed. His breathing was getting more shallow. Why wasn't the Kyuubi healing him anymore?
A slap to her hand startled her, making her jump. She glared at the hand that dare assault her while she was trying to heal a comrade but to her surprise it has been the very victim that she was helping that had slapped her hand away.
"Naru-to?"
He grinned when he heard her say his name. He wasn't the same though. His eyes looked distant with a glassy look.
"Do-n't." He managed to say weakly between deep breaths.
"Don't what?"
"Save...your chakra. Go heal...Sasuke."
It was always someone else that Naruto was sacrificing himself for. Even as he was laying there dying, he had enough effort to try to push her away and convince her to save someone else. It stung. She wasn't going to let him persuade her this time. It was always been "Sasuke" but this time, even if Naruto didn't want it, she was going to heal him. Ignoring his protest, Sakura went back to healing him. She waited for his argument- him to persuade her to leave and attend Sasuke but to her surprise he didnt. A long minute of silence grew between the two and kept growing. She had to look down just to make sure he was still alive. He was. He just looked exhausted but he was looking more life-like.
"You don't have the effort to argue at the moment. I will take advantage of that." Sakura stated, a small smile grew across her face as she knew Naruto was indeed too tired to make another push. If he wasn't going to be thinking about himself, she will do it for him.
Five minutes went by and Naruto had relaxed completely, putting his health into Sakuras hands. His eyes closed and his breathing starting to steady. Sakura assumed that since she was there, he could finally relax and not worry about another battle at the moment. Madara was placed back in his resting place, Kabuto and the Sage of the Six Paths older son(1) had been annihilated and his soul locked away forever. Sasuke was on his way to death and was in no shape to even move.
This boy who she use to hate had grown into a healthy powerful man. A man she idolized in her dreams and assumed Sasuke would become.
"Heh. To think it would end like this." Sakura said to no one in particular. "Everything I had believed Sasuke was to be was wrong and everything I had believed you were to be were also wrong. I had always dreamed in the academy that Sasuke would be the one to protect me. He would be the one to want to hold me and be by my side. I wanted him to compliment me and to sacrifice himself for me. But...but it was never him. He did what any comrade would do but nothing more. You..."
Sakura blinked away a tear forming in her eyes. She could careless if Naruto was awake or not, she needed to say what was on her mind. She was hitting that breaking point and seeing Naruto in such a state was not helping her.
"...you had been the dream I was seeking in Sasuke. I had wanted what you have now to be in Sasuke. I failed to see Sasuke for who he was. Never once had I really looked hard at him or try to get to know him. You knew who Sasuke was before I had and yet I proclaimed that I loved him. Is that really love?"
Tears were flowing freely now as she hung her head low, inches from the chest in which she was healing. She could smell his fresh blood dripping and even hear his heart beat. All this time she had been with him and she never once thought of things in this perspective. She was too narrow minded to see things in broad light.
The rustle of his jacket made her aware that he was moving and didn't know what he was going to do until she felt him sweep his hand along her face, pulling her bangs behind her ears.
"What a large and charming forehead. Makes me want to kiss it."
Those words echoed within her mind, the past spinning back into consciousness as she recognized where that had been said previously. First it was a dream she had wished Sasuke had said to her then the next moment Sasuke said it only to dismiss it as something stupid that only Naruto would say.
And here he was, saying it.
But how did he?
His smile gave it all away.
He knew.
But how?
Naruto snickered.
"That...was you?" Sakura asked.
His eyes became more sky blue, he was indeed coming back to life.
"You henged into Sasuke...just to ask me what I really thought about you?"
"That...wasn't the only reason."
"Then?"
"I Just wanted to get to know you better, to be close...to you."
She couldn't believe it. It made more sense since Sasukes attitude changed dramatically when he returned from her failed attempt at kissing him but that means...
Sakura felt a small anger boil within and decided to hit the closest thing to her which just to happen to be the reason for that anger: Naruto. He expected to be hit. He welcomed it. It meant Sakura wasn't treating him any differently just because he was dying. He loved that. He chuckled as she kept lighting hitting his shoulder. Her punches got weaker and weaker with each hit and her tears flowed more frequently. He could only smile at her.
"You idiot. You stupid, stupid idiot. And you almost...we almost..."
Her punches stopped as a gasp let itself lose form her lips. Fear resided in her dark green eyes.
"We-we...almost kissed!"
Naruto couldn't really hold back his laugh anymore. Indeed, they had almost kissed.
"But I figured something else out that day."
She stopped her punches. There was only so much one women could take in one day. Fighting in a war. Watching your teammates die before you and now this confrontation? But what if this was their last conversation?
"What was that?" Sakura asked, looking at his fading smiling.
"I realized...why I liked you so much."
"Liked?"
"You wanted Sasuke and would do anything to get his attention. He was a goal and you would do anything to obtain it. You wanted to be accepted. Since I watched you from a distance in the academy, I saw something in you that I liked, something that I wanted for myself. You were pretty but I saw more in you that was more powerful than your beauty."
"Oh." Sakura blushed. She had been told by many guys that she was beautiful but to have Naruto say it like he did, like it was a fact, made her heart warm.
"But..." Sakura chocked. That was years ago. This was now. Since then many girls have passed by his attention, Hinata being one of them.
"Hmm?"
"It's used in past tense. You used 'liked'."
Naruto smiled again.
"Yes. Liked. That is the correct word."
"What happened?"
Naruto contemplated in how to say it. He looked up at the sky and Sakura could see a stirring of emotions running through his mind. He was debating. To say it or not to say it? He came to his conclusion and looked up at Sakura with determination but understanding.
"Love happened, Sakura."
"..."
Sakura really didn't know how to handle the conversation anymore. Was it because Naruto was on his death bed that they both decided to be open about their feelings? Why did it have to take death to make them say things they couldn't before?
"Sakura, do you remember what I said to you in the land of Iron? When you were going to handle Sasuke on your own?"
How could she forget? It hurt her more than anything to have to lie to him to save him and to even try to kill a teammate but what choice did she have? Everything she seemed to be doing was hurting either one of both of her teammates. When it came down to having to go behind his back to kill Sasuke on her own and to betray Kiba, Lee and Sai- she was desperate.
Sakura spent a lot of time on her own thinking, pondering and questioning everything about life. Why did people want relationships? What does it mean to truly love someone? Why do we, by nature, want revenge? There had been several times the pinkette had questions, asking Tsunade for guidance but found that even her teacher did not have the answers she was looking for. The only thing the hokage had told her was that as long as there is love, there is hate.
Naruto felt a small wet drip fall on his face. Naruto knew she was sensitive, she was human after all. He cried a lot in his life.
Back then, he was harsh when he said what he did to Sakura but he had his reasons. People didn't have feelings just for others to manipulate or to control. They were there to feel alive, to relate, to grow.
"I said what I did to protect us, Sakura."
"Protect?"
"If I had gone with you back to the village, where would we be? Nothing would have lasted. It would have all been based on something that wasn't entirely there. It may have destroyed what little we still have left of us, of team 7."
Sakura hadn't thought that far ahead. The only thing that she was focusing on was getting Naruto to the village. Away from the Akatsuki. Away from Sasuke and away from all the pain...but that wouldn't have solved anything in the long run.
"Yeah."
Sakura couldn't think of anything else to say. What Naruto had said was true and she didn't want to think of not having him around as her teammate...as a friend.
"Why? Why me? I...hadn't done anything to even receive this from you."
"That is the beauty of love, Sakura. You don't have to earn it, it is just given. You know about Jirayia and Tsunade, right?"
Sakura knew they were teammates but she didn't really know much more about them than that.
"He may have been a pervert and a strong shinobi but I learned more than just justu from him or even what to fight for. Pervy-sage loved someone. He cared about her, always standing by her side even when she didn't return his feelings. She rejected him many times, punching him and even came close to killing him one time. But his love for her never faltered. Instead, grandma choose to love someone else and he let her."
"Dan." Sakura whispered.
"Hai. He loved her so much that he let her go to be with the one she loved. He probably died, thinking about her. He never once was able to be close to her in a way he wanted. He never had the chance to give himself all to her because she didn't want it. But, I think that is honorable. She was irreplaceable in his heart and he stood by that. Sure, he was a perv but his heart was already written on."
She didn't know. Naruto would have known from the years he traveled with Jirayia but Tsunade never mentioned to her about Jirayia. As a pervert, yes, but not in the sense that he loved her more than anything.
"I-I still don't understand where you are going with this."
"I have came across a lot of girls since I first meet you. A couple even tried to get with me when I was training with Jirayia but I kindly told them no." Naruto chuckled. "Believe me. I got harassed by Jirayia for that but he knew where my heart was. He knew how I felt about you. And yeah, it took me by surprise that Hinata had confessed that she loved me. Actually I was more than shocked. Deep down I was happy. It feels good to know you are loved by someone but that also makes things harder sometimes."
Naruto saw that Sakura was questioning his last statement.
"What I mean is, since she confessed, how could I turn her down? I didn't know how. I feel like she was glass around me and I didn't want to break her. I still think that. But in the end, I can't force myself to love someone I do not feel that way for. I love her but no more than I love everyone else in the village and no more than I love..."
"You are such a fool, Naruto."
Naruto was shocked that Sakura had interrupted him. Her tears had ceased. She finally understood his side. He told her his thoughts, his feelings. She had figured out her own feelings from this predicament. Maybe this wouldn't end as bad as she thought. A smile grew on her lips as she had rejuvenated hope and strength to heal the idiot and to drag him home.
"I think all along I had also..."
A sharp piercing scream filled her ears and the sound of a thousands birds echoed in the distance. She felt a shock of electricity hit her, jolting her hands away from Naruto. Blood. More blood. Was it hers? Sakura looked down to see a sword of electricity through Naruto, entering through his left lower waist, exiting up and out his shoulder. Sasuke had to have hit one of his vital spots and if not, the lungs would soon collapse. The blonde screamed as the pain jolted his body and Sakura, out of instinct, went to go comfort him but as soon as she touched him she was jolted away from the shock. She had to stop him. He was using the last bit of his chakra to kill Naruto, to destroy what little Sakura had left but as soon as Sakura was going to make a move, Sasuke had stopped, collapsing with his face towards the ground.
Was it ever going to end?
She immediately screamed for Naruto, grabbing his form and pressed him again her own. He was frail in the first place.
"Please, Naruto. Don't. Don't leave me." Her whispers were falling on dead ears but as a medical ninja she knew that hearing was the last sense someone would have before they die. She would at least try, try and let him now how she felt. What her answer was now.
She lightly kissed his growing cold lips while whispering "I love you" multiple times, pressing her face onto his. It was in that instant that she felt his body go limp but she still held onto him, pressing him closer into her like she could mold them, bring him back to life with her own living body. Sakura cried, confessing her feelings and thanking him before herself felt the exhaustion from the physical and emotional battle she was fighting all day.
"Why am I always too late?"
She fell, limp and numb to the world around her. Nothing had seemed to go the way she had hoped. But that was the life of a shinobi. You lose to win.
(1)My theory is that Tobi/fake Madara is the Sage of the Six Paths older son. Research it.
Review Responses:
SuperNeos2: Hehe. I don't hate the Sauce but he has been a d[]ck to a lot of people but that is what I like about his character.
TemaChannaro: Thank you for the heads up on spelling. I changed "loose" to "lose"
raidersfan777: Good. I wanted to make you feel emotions, mostly sad. :)
Apollo: :) I know my assumptions are only my opinion. I been wrong before. Watch as Kishi proves me wrong. xD
fernando11chiki: Thank you for the standing ovation. :) Sorry it almost made you cry. And probably no sequel. Probably.
TraditionalNaruSakuFan: Thanks for the comment.