"Life is the tragedy,' she said bitterly. 'You know how they categorize Shakespeare's plays, right? If it ends with a wedding, it's a comedy. And if it ends with a funeral, it's a tragedy. So we're all living tragedies, because we all end the same way, and it isn't with a goddamn wedding."

- Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

When he heard her scream he was certain all the blood had drained from his face to flood the area near his abdomen. There, in the pit of his stomach, a fierce sense of dread bloomed violently until it seeped into his throat and made his mouth go dry. The same inky tendrils of sheer anxiety whipped his neck around as if he were a mere puppet to the panic coursing through his veins.

Now, this sounds as if Uchiha Sasuke is being melodramatic in every sense of the word. But you must understand, Sakura is a fearsome kunoichi with (as a medic) a very high tolerance for pain. One that does not get injured and most certainly does not cry out in agony. So you see, when such a rarity such as this occurs Sasuke takes the opportunity to thoroughly, flip the fuck out.

As his sharingan-wielding eyes shifted about the battlefield, which lacked a splash of pink, a tight fist wrenched at his heart. It was a simple escort mission, or so they thought, that had been a set up with an ambush waiting patiently for Team Seven. The collective bounty for six ninja in the bingo book must be quite hefty for any band of idiots to even attempt such a feat.

But apparently, this was a highly skilled band of idiots if they can make Haruno Sakura release a howl of pain. Not only had she reached the accomplishment of being the most skilled medic under Tsunade's tutelage but Konoha's strongest kunoichi. So if she is so capable there is no need to panic, correct?

Her long time boyfriend would tell you differently, especially as his obsidian gaze locked on to her long rosy tresses. Despite her eye catching, exotically tinted mane, pink was not the color his senses were drowning in. But it was a distinct, vibrant yet rusty red that was splattered all around the slight figure of his girlfriend.

Sasuke heard desperate calls for her in a voice, which was surprisingly strangled with emotion. Although the distorted cry sounded mangled and unrecognizable, he felt the strain deep within his throat. "SAKURA!" he repeated as he ran to her in the fastest dead sprint he could achieve. He could only observe with every nerve in his body alight with fear for the first time in years, as her knees failed her and collapse in the arms of the person she had just saved.

Naruto wore a mask of horror as Sakura's limp figure sagged into his embrace, the mucilaginous fluid drenching him to the bone. "Sakura-chan! Sakura, oh god no." As Sasuke slid to his knees beside his best friend who had lowered her dead weight to the ground, he felt his heart drop into his feet.

Sasuke took this time to examine her face, too scared to let his gaze fall to the gaping whole in her middle that caused all this warm liquid to stain everything in reach with it's viscid dye. She was smiling at him, blood streaming from the corners of her upturned mouth. Sasuke was losing everything precious to him and she was smiling, but Sasuke didn't have to heart not to smile back.

"I'm sorry." She rasped as a foreign stinging sensation erupted behind his now onyx orbs. "What for?" he choked, shaking his head. "It's alright, everything's okay. You're okay, you're okay." He repeated as he lowered his forehead to Sakura's, maybe if he said it aloud enough, he could convince the both of them.

But fate was not so kind as Sakura smiled knowingly at him and he realized for the first time, just how much of the syrupy substance clung to both himself and Naruto. "I am sorry there wasn't enough time, Naruto didn't see the attack." She continued faintly, pressing her hand to her fatal wound. "Better me than the future Hokage, ne Sasuke-kun?" She whispered with her sad smile still in tact.

Sasuke almost recoiled at her words, shaking his head furiously. "Don't you ever say that again, you know I-I don't know how to do this without you." He hissed and registered somewhere in the back of his frenzied mind that Naruto had shed his shirt and attempted to stanch the tremendous blood flow with shaky hands but Sasuke didn't care. His only focus was the pink haired mess of limbs in front of him. "Ah," Sakura started but paused as blood bubbled past her cracked lips and streamed in thick rivulets with a honey-like viscosity that was almost charming. "But you must learn." Sasuke felt his shoulder blades clash as absolutely everything became too much in a tense second.

"No! You-you can heal yourself. Do something, anything!" An unprecedented thread of rational thought entered Sasuke's mind and told him that after so much loss in one lifetime, Sakura should merely fade into the growing statistic. With a shudder the idea was discarded.

Sakura let out something akin to a laugh but was caught dangerously in her throat, yet the inappropriately amused expression still lit her emerald eyes. "Gee, I didn't think of that one." Came her weak rebuttal. "I am sorry Sasuke-kun but I am fresh out of chakra." Sakura murmured and the beam she wore returning to her face.

"Saku-Sakura! Listen to me god damn it! You don't get to leave me, do you hear me? If not anyone else I get to keep you. So get up." Sasuke wanted to shake her, tell her how irresponsible she is, scream at her and let her know how she is breaking his heart and yet the uncharacteristic affection stays predictably caught in his throat. And then he was a child again, the same disabling fear played in his mind like a memory. Like one remembers their childhood friend he remembered this fear, now paired with an aching sense of finality that beckoned him into resignation. This was it for Sasuke; limitations make no exceptions or place discriminations, a man can only be pushed so far.

Sakura was the one to coax him back from that treacherous boundary and here she was, shoving him off the edge.

"Sakura, get up."

"Mm," She hummed as she let her thick lashes caress her cheekbones while her lids fluttered shut. "But I am gunna sleep now, okay?" She breathed out hardly loud enough to make out but Sasuke, true to form, defied all expectation and caught the wheezy sigh. The words that sent ice throughout his limbs and crushed his skull, ringing about his mind. A shin splinting pressure was all, no sadness or despair. Depression was too easy to fall into it seemed and the weight of loss settled upon his mind, bypassing his heart. Sakura had stopped breathing and all there was was a faint ringing in his ears and the push and pull of a pressure that radiated from the soles of his feet.

His scream was animalistic and it seems the man who has lost it all still had more to lose.

Je suis désolé, lo siento, 미안 해, I am sorry for mistakes/run-on sentences and improper grammar, english is my second language and it can be a bit rough at times but thanks for reading!