AN: This is still something different. I'm not sure it stacks up to the first chapter but I think it's at least alright. Enjoy.

Responses to the reviews of Chapter 1 are at the bottom.

Sakura stared at the fire and thought over what had happened that night as they made camp. She was supposed to be keeping watch but there was nothing here and she needed to think. She needed to just think about everything that had happened. Some of it made her just want to scream while other parts made her want to cry. Gaara had told them everything. Everything that had happened. Everything that Sasuke had done and how Akatsuki had declared war on them all. How Sasuke had tried to kill them all. How far he had fallen. All the damage he had caused. The damage he was willing to cause.

She just wanted to pull her hair out at it all.

She thought she had won. That she had saved Naruto. That he would be safe with her wherever they went.

Then she realized she had her teacher's luck. She thought she could hit the jackpot without the other foot falling. Without the house always winning. Without paying for what she had done.

Gaara had ruined all of it. Sasuke had ruined all of it. Danzo had ruined all of it. This fake Madara, she refused to believe the legendary shinobi was still alive, had ruined it. The Raikage had ruined it. Everyone had just ruined it.

A part of her mind wished that they were all simply gone. That Gaara hadn't come back from the dead in the first place.

"Sakura." Kakashi's voice pulled her from her thoughts as he sat down next to him.

"Kakashi-sensei." The words just flowed out automatically. "We should keep moving."

"We all need a little rest. We're all tired. Maybe a good night's sleep will help us all think some things over. Make sure we aren't doing anything rash." Kakashi glanced at the suddenly still Sakura out of the corner of his eye and leaned back on his elbows. "Yup. I'm sure a nice sleep will do us all some good."

"You can stop Kakashi-sensei." Sakura sighed.

"Stop what?" he tried to innocently ask.

"Please just stop." Sakura hugged her knees to her chest as she stared at the fire. "Please just stop."

The laziness was gone from him as he sat up.

"Sakura." Kakashi put a hand on his student's shoulder. "You need to tell him the truth. What you're doing, it won't help either of you. Both of you will just end up hurt in the end. Don't do this."

Sakura stared at the fire as Kakashi waited for a response.

"I really love him sensei." Emerald looked to grey. "I really do. I love him more than you think I do. He's here with me and he's somehow always smiling. I don't know how many times all I had to do was think of him when I thought I was completely spent training with Hokage-sama. One thought of him out there with Jiraiya-sama and I just knew I had to keep going. He's special like that. I think of him and I'm warm on cold nights. He's just so warm. He's still happy even after everything that happened. After everything people said about him and all the ways that people tried to make his life as hard as they could. He just kept going. Kept picking himself up and laughing. No matter what happened to him, he always managed to get back up like it was nothing. He kept pulling pranks on people and running through the village. Kept coming to class with that stupid grin." Sakura smiled. "Always saying that he loved me. But I," her smile vanished. "I was just after Sasuke. I thought he was so cool. Now I know that he's just cold. What happened to him, it froze his heart." Kakashi tried to speak but Sakura didn't give him a chance. "The few times it looked like he would be warm again when he was with Naruto and me? It just got colder the next time. But we kept trying. I kept blaming Naruto for it." Sakura put her face in her hands. "I was so stupid. Every time I tried to help Sasuke, I always had to run back to Naruto because I was so cold. I was freezing. But I kept thinking that I just needed more time. I always had Naruto there anyway. I was fine going between the two of them as long as I needed until I had gotten Sasuke.

"It took me so long to realize that I just couldn't keep running back to warmth when I got too cold. It's like I was stubborn and thought I could fight off the winter's chill with will alone. When I started to get frostbite I would run back inside to the warmth, maybe add fuel to the fire. But I wouldn't stay. I would be back outside as soon as I could. Each time was worse and worse. And each time the warmth fell a little. But the cold kept getting colder. I stopped fueling the warmth. I started putting it out, thinking I just needed to be cold for him. I was dying. I was going to die if I didn't do something. If I didn't realize I was killing myself, killing the thing that was keeping me alive.

"After Sai told me about what happened? I cried for hours sensei. I couldn't hold it back anymore. I realized just what I had done. I tried to find him but he was gone. He left with his face like that to beg the Raikage. To beg him to spare Sasuke. For me. For himself. It doesn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that Naruto was hurt. He was just hurt so bad. I'm the medic sensei. I'm supposed to keep him safe. To heal him when he's hurt. Hokage-sama would tell me to run a diagnostic, figure out the cause of it. Well I did sensei. I ran one and figured out that I was hurting him. I just kept doing it over and over again." Sakura used an arm to wipe out whatever had got in her eye. "How do you fix something like that sensei?" she blinked back tears that she hoped Kakashi didn't see as she spoke. "How do you heal someone who you keep making hurt themselves? Like some sick genjutsu. I'm not supposed to do that sensei. I'm not supposed to hurt Naruto, sensei. I'm supposed to help him. Not cause him so much pain. Sai told me what he looked like. What they did to him, what Naruto let them do to him do before Sai had to stop it. Sai, realized what was so wrong before I did, and he just had to stop it sensei. Naruto just let it go so far. He would've let it go too far."

"Sakura things were outside of your control then. You needed to watch over Tsunade-sama and see to the wounded." Kakashi tried to explain to her.

"I'm the medic and I was killing my teammate sensei. I was killing Naruto. He somehow beat Pain and Sakura Haruno was killing him." Sakura continued on as if she hadn't heard him.

"What happened wasn't your fault Sakura." Kakashi tried to reason with the girl again. "None of it was your fault. It was all Naruto's stubbornness and his never giving up attitude."

"I gave him a curse sensei. I just kept hurting him and hurting him." she wanted to shout and just barely managed to keep her voice only slightly louder than normal. Her voice lowered before she spoke again. "I was willing to put him through hell just because I thought I would be happy in the end. I thought that all Sasuke needed was time. That once we found him he would come back with us. That everything would go back to normal. But that can't happen. Naruto will just keep putting himself through hell because of that stupid promise."

"Like I said before Sakura. Naruto made that promise to himself just as much as he made it to you. He needs to bring Sasuke back just as much as you want to bring him back."

"Wanted sensei." Sakura corrected him.

"What?"

"I wanted to bring Sasuke back. Now I hope I never see him again. Because I know he'll just hurt Naruto again. He'll hurt us all over again because Sasuke stopped caring about us a long time ago."

"Sakura."

"You told us something on our first day sensei, remember?" Kakashi kept silent, knowing the exact words that Sakura was going to say. The same words he constantly spoke to himself to make sure he never forgot them even if he forgot everything else. "Those who break the rules are trash but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash." She threw the words back in his face, and they hurt even if he had been expecting them. Had tried to prepare himself for them. "I know I'm bad for what I've done to Naruto. I broke so many rules I can't even count them all. But Sasuke? Sasuke's worse than the worse trash."

She stopped there. Remaining silent as Kakashi thought over what she had said.

"I see." Kakashi rose to his feet. "I won't try to dissuade you but just think about what you're doing. I don't want to see any more people I care about in pain if I can help it. Wake Yamato when you're done with your watch." He left without another word, walking off beyond the ring of light the fire had created.

Sakura was fine to dwell in her solitude. She didn't deserve to be happy for what she did. She wiped away the tears gathering in her eyes and grimaced at the liquid on her hand.

She stuck her hand in the fire, burning away the tears and giving herself a reason to cry instead.

AN: I'm not bashing Sakura. Personally I reread some of the chapters around this point in the manga and realized just how much stuff she was shouldering. Her teacher was in a coma, Sasuke had dived into the abyss, and Naruto basically tried to sacrifice himself for Sasuke. Then Sai tells her that she essentially gave him a curse that won't stop hurting him. I know I've probably missed a few things but people need to give her a break. Oh and then there's a war before she's really able to take some time and think about all of the stuff going on in her life.

That last line kind of sums of where she mentally is right now. She can't justify just crying because she's sad. She would rather say it was from pain then from everything that has happened to her. Really her whole speech to Kakashi was one massive confession for all the wrongs she felt that she's done.

How was Kakashi? Some may dislike his seemingly hands off approach to something he feels is wrong but he's the only other person in the group Sakura would say something like this to. I needed her to have someone to talk to and he might be OOC because I prioritized that first.

Review responses

Kumikocr: Yeah it does complicate things. That I can promise you.

Do Not Feed The Author: It's probably going to get sadder before it gets sweeter honestly. They are definitely confused though.

UzumakiDavis27: They are both conflicted and here's an update.

Harmiona: Everything is now going down a different path.

LegendaryWriterS: Sakura does love Naruto but she's trying to force the relationship more than anything because she's terrified of him dying. Maybe PM me to explain a few more of your points.

Wyle23: I'm glad you like it and I got your attention real good.

mentalist777: Hopefully you liked this one. Again Sakura does love Naruto but the key point here is that she's trying to force it to become something it isn't right now. Maybe if she gave it some time but again she's not thinking straight.

Averum: I'm glad I was able to convey what they were feeling. And it was hard to right after the 'high'. This is really a second one that wouldn't let me go to sleep until it had been written. Also it's still a high chance of some darker stuff before it gets lighter. The main story line shall feel ripples as well.