It was a sunny cheerful day the day Naruto's heart broke. He had failed to bring back Sasuke and Kakashi was too late to save him. Instead all the one-eye jounin found was rubble, a scratched headband and a broken jinchurikii.
It was a sunny day indeed.
Naruto woke up half-way on the way back to Konoha, Kakashi was silent the entire way and Naruto took this for hostility and remained silent as well. He should've known he couldn't count on those who knew his secret. Still Sakura and the others would understand right?
They didn't.
When Naruto arrived he got out of Kakashi, and limped to the gates, preparing himself mentally for what was about to happen next.
But Sakura wouldn't hate him for failing right?
"Sakura, he… Didn't want to come back…I tried to make him but, he beat me an I-"
The sting on his cheek confirmed to Naruto what had just happened, what Sakura just done. But she wasn't finished.
"Naruto you…you, you…" Sakura turned around to try and hide the tears filling her eyes.
"I knew it, I couldn't trust you, not the dead last. Now I know for sure and Sasuke-kun is gone now he might not even come back." A sob wrenched through her.
"Sakura I-"
"SHUTUP!" She turned to him furiously and was going to hit him when the anger in her eyes turned to sadness and her raised fist was lowered.
"Just go Naruto, just go and never come back…
Maybe Sasuke might come back then, maybe then we can get some peace, without you" Sakura almost spat out the last word
Naruto took one last look at Sakura feeling worse and worse with every passing second.
"Fine then, I'll go." Sakura bit her lip as she realized what she had just said, she turned to Naruto but his eyes were fluttering lightly, Kakashi caught him just in time to prevent Naruto's wounds from getting worse.
Sakura looked to her sensei for help but there was naught but cold fury and shame. She felt tears well up in her eyes again as she realized she had just hurt Naruto really badly; and looking at the wounds on his body Sasuke had too.
She widened her eyes at the sight of the hole going through his chest but just as she was going to take a step towards him Kakashi spoke.
"Sakura, just go; take the day off." There was a certain razor edge in his tone that told her that by no means necessary was she to talk to Naruto for the next few days. Kakashi exploded in a cloud of smoke and Sakura clenched her fists.
Sakura never felt more helpless, having lost one of her teammates, and now had gone into new depths of hurting the other. She looked up at the clouds and vowed she wouldn't let anything hurt Naruto, or Sasuke. She had to get stronger both physically and mentally; especially mentally; another thing like this could never happen again.
She turned and remembered someone who had been stuck in an eerily similar position last generation.
Maybe she could get help with that, or at the very least some advice on what to do next.
It was a sunny day indeed.