When Sakura arrived at the huge crater that had been created by two young and very powerful shinobi not to long before, her jade eyes desperately scanned the landscape, looking for any signs of life. She quickly spotted a flash of orange, a torn piece of cloth fluttering from a charred tree. Her eyes followed it as it floated gently down into the crater, where it came to rest on top of a puddle, so peaceful and seemingly oblivious to the violence that had just taken place. 'Wait…that's not water.' Her eyes widened as she realized that the "puddle" she had been looking at was a pool of blood. She swallowed visibly, glad no one was there to see, because she was, after all, a medic-nin. She was supposed to be accustomed to the sight of blood and wounds. 'This time it's different.' Sakura tried to convince herself that her fear was justified. She steeled herself for the possible sight to come, and started searching the forest for what she hoped would be her friends.
Being a shinobi, she couldn't just run away as fast and far as she wanted to, especially when her teammates and teachers would be arriving soon. Sakura spotted a lump of what might have been orange, had it not been shredded, torn, and soaked in blood, among other things. She was torn. It was Naruto, no doubt. The question was, was he alive, or was he dead. 'If he is dead,' she thought, swallowing a lump in her throat, 'then…where is Sasuke?' She tried to walk over to the sorry lump that was her teammate, but found her feet moving faster and faster, until she was right by his side. Sakura knew at once that Naruto was alive, but fatigued. She breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, she stiffened. 'Sasuke, where are you?' was her only thought. She practically flew towards the other bloody heap lying just on the outside of the crater. Tears poured from her eyes as she examined her former crush, determined to find just one tiny sign of life. Of course, she found none. Rage consumed her normally cool and collected self, and she ran to where Naruto still lay unconscious.
"Stupid!" she shouted, kicking Naruto's limp form. "Stupid Naruto! Why did you kill him!"
She continued to batter at poor Naruto's already beaten-up body, ignorant of the fact that the rest of the team had arrived and had already investigated Sasuke's body. Finding him well and truly dead, they continued on to where Sakura still stood pummeling the man who had risked his life for her on multiple occasions, this being the most dangerous so far. Sakura hadn't even registered her team's arrival when she found herself being pulled away from the tree under which Naruto lay. She whirled angrily and found herself looking into a deep red eye with three commas swirling around the pupil in the center of the eye.
"Sasuke?" she whispered.
"No, Sakura. Kakashi. Sasuke is dead."
At this, the shock of the whole incident finally sank into Sakura's mind. She looked at the body that was draped over one of Sai's ink lions. Her eyes started blur and grow hot. She looked at the prone form dressed in ripped orange cloth and bruises. She felt a warm drop force its way out of her eye and down her dirty cheek, leaving a clean track the color of porcelain. Then another tear fell. And then another, and another, until there were countless sparkling drops of salty water staining her skirt until it, too, was the color of dark, wet blood.
"I'm sorry." was all she could manage to get out of a mouth that had gone dry. "I'm sorry."
