Date: October 16th, 2014
Pairing: SasuSaku
Prompt: Chapter 696
Title: Dancing in the Dark
Summary: Hurting somebody and saving somebody is sometimes the same thing.
Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine since 1999.
Recommended Listening: Carry Me Down (Acoustic) by Demon Hunter
Author's Note: IT'S MAH BIRTHDAY. And Kishimoto has given me absolutely nothing to work with for this chapter/prompt. I have no plan. So please enjoy this random brain spew.
Sakura has been this way before.
The route is as familiar to her feet as is the from her apartment to the hospital. From her apartment to Naruto's. To the training ground and the Yamanaka flower shop.
Her feet have never touched this ground before, but her heart knows the way. Knows that Valley of the End will not be just a symbolic name if she doesn't get there on time.
She doesn't kid herself. She knows that she can't stand between Naruto and Sasuke, that no matter how strong she gets, she will never be part of this fight. There is nothing left that she can say to reach them, so all that's left is to show them how much she loves them.
As she runs with everything she has left, Sakura thinks of Sasuke's face in the moment before he cast his genjutsu. Sasuke is the master of hiding his emotions when he wants to, so she wonders why he's allowed himself to show regret. Her heart aches.
The genjutsu itself was serene, quiet. She had awoken to cherry blossom petals raining from the sky and blanketing the ground. Easing her aching body into a sitting position, she had seen a flickering image off in the distance.
Her breath caught in her throat as she realized that the image Sasuke had left her was the one of her bloody, bruised twelve-year old self holding him back from his curse-seal rampage.
Seconds later, she shattered the genjutsu with renewed determination.
She is not going to allow Sasuke to say goodbye without saying it to her face.
Sakura reaches the base of the waterfall where her boys are fighting high above. Stopping for a second to catch her breath, she considers her options. Her chakra reserves are very low, even with her Strength of One-Hundred Seal. She has enough to make it to the top, beyond that, she doesn't know.
But she has to try.
Her face set in a hard expression, she steps vertically onto the waterfall. Walking on moving water is a lot more difficult than standing on still water, but the motion acts like a treadmill, propelling her upward. It takes all of her concentration to reach the top, but the sounds of battle from above fuel her drive.
At the top, she is out of breath, very nearly out of chakra. If she pushes much more, her body will give out. But all she needs is a little bit more.
Naruto and Sasuke are what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.
Their attacks are primal elemental forces of nature that rend their air, shrieking in fury. The kyuubi's chakra and the static discharge from Sasuke's Raikiri leave a metallic tang in the air.
Sakura knows this scene. She's seen it before on the roof of a hospital, from what feels like a lifetime ago. Two boys, close as brothers and yet so far apart, aiming for each other with impossibly accurate aim. Their hands charged with deadly attacks.
This time there is no Kakashi to stop her.
Somehow, she hears the echo of her footsteps over the screech of the Raikiri and the defeaning roar of the Rasengan. Or maybe that's her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
She has only seconds to wonder how much it will hurt, and then she knows.
"SAKURA-CHAN."
Black and blue stare in horror at their pink teammate impaled through the chest. There is blood everywhere, and neither one thinks that it will ever wash off their hands this time.
"Sakura-chan, why?!"
"Sakura." Sasuke's eyes and voice are full of panic, an emotion that hasn't been present there since the day he came home to his dead family. "Sakura, heal yourself."
"No."
Her breathing is bloody and ragged, the Rasengan from behind has smashed her ribs and crushed a lung. The electricity from the Raikiri has jolted her heart, which is now working overtime frantically pumping blood as she bleeds out of the gaping hole in her chest. She has precious little time before she drowns in her own blood.
"Sakura, HEAL YOURSELF." Sasuke's eyes are pleading with her now, he is begging.
She smiles at him.
"I...I can't do that...Sasuke-kun..."
"WHY NOT?" he roars.
"This-" she chokes, blood leaking out from between her lips, "this is the price."
He stares at her in horror.
"You-" cough "you want..to take on this darkness...all by yourself." More blood. "That's not how it works, Sasuke-kun." She is struggling to breathe through all the blood now.
"As long as I live...as long as I breathe...and even after...your pain is my pain. Your darkness is my darkness."
Those once sparkling, brilliant green eyes are growing dull and unfocused.
"You wanting to become Hokage...to be the target of everyone's hate...that's a road I can't follow you down. So-"
This coughing fit is worse than the last, and she is very nearly vomiting blood.
"So if that's the road you choose, then this is the road I choose."
"NO. Sakura, NO." Sasuke grips her shoulders painfully hard, but she can't feel it anymore. She's still smiling at him.
"You're not alone, Sasuke-kun. You never have been."
Her smile slips and she goes limp in their arms.
Sasuke stops breathing.
"Sakura?"
"SAKURA?"
"SAKURA, WAKE UP. WAKE UP, PLEASE."
He crushes her ruined body to his and screams, the sound echoing throughout the valley.
Tears slip down Naruto's cheeks as he watches his best friend finally break.
Author's Note: I'm really sorry this one is so short. I really have nothing here, there was pretty much nothing to work with. I will make it up to you with the next one, I promise.