That's Life

"Hey Teme! Sakura!" I hear over my song. I'm listening to my competition play list. I just got back from walking the course, and I'm using Sasuke's stomach as a pillow. He has this thing where he has to lay down before a race and get relaxed. It doesn't matter what I do, as long as I have music.

I put I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby on pause, and look over to the front of the tent. I see Naruto waving at us. I give him a slight nod, but I turn my head away from him, and hit play. He must get the message that I'm getting "in the zone", because we're not disturbed again.

"Fifteen minutes to race time!"

I finish triple knotting my spikes and stand up, flexing my feet and making sure they aren't too tight. I step out from under the shelter, and I slowly jog over to the starting line. I'm the last from our team to get over there. Even the alternates beat me. Our alternates this year are Ami and Kin. They're the top of JV so they're next in line to run if one of us gets injured or really sick.

I do some leg and arm stretches, and lead the girls out on a stride. Kakashi meets us out there. He gives us the Vicks container, and then just stands there starring at us for awhile. Finally, he speaks. "You got this far, I don't see why you shouldn't go all the way. We did it last year girls, let's do it again." We all cheer. He continues. "Seniors! This is your last chance! Sakura, I want to see you up there with Gin. You should try going out faster this time. I could tell you had no problem with the first mile. You're strong enough to push through the pain. "Tenten, Hinata; I want you two up there too. Don't let those who you've surpassed beat you now. We're not done until the scoreboard flashes. Oh, and remember, I'm yet to be impressed."

He's walking away, and we all roll our eyes. If anyone not on our team heard him say that, they would think his last sentence was kind of harsh. It's actually more of an inside joke. He always says he's, "easy to please, but hard to impress". He's never once been impressed while I was going to school here, but I learned not to take it seriously. I don't think anyone will ever hear it.

"Five minutes!"

I start stretching. I look to my right and left, and observe that Kiri and Suna are on either side of us. Gin is right next to me, with only the white line divider between us. "Good luck Gin." I say while flashing a smile at her.

She stands up from stretching, and surprises me by hugging me. "Same to you Sakura. I can't wait!"

She lets go of me, and I continue with my stretching. "One minute!"

I crouch down, and before I focus on the coming race, I look for familiar faces to try to calm my jumbled up stomach. I feel like I'm about to puke. Like seriously, I can't take the anticipation. Just before I lower my head, I see my mom. She gives me a thumbs up, and I smile at her. I'm so happy she could make it. She's been sick with a bad cold for the past week, and she didn't know if she'd be able to come. She's still pale and her couch won't go away, but she says she feels a bit better.

"Fifteen seconds!"

I lower my head now, and crouch a bit to get ready to spring forward. My stomach is knotting, and I fight the urge to gag. "Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five…" BANG!

I take off at a full sprint. I decided that I would listen to Kakashi and start off my race harder. I think that as long as I don't keep up the sprint for too long, I'll be okay for the rest of the race. A few try to sprint with me, but quickly drop back, thinking I'm crazy for attempting it. I soon find that I have no one to use as my pacer, and it takes me awhile to decide on one. Once I get to a pace that I know I'll barely be able to keep, I settle into it. To try to distract myself from the exertion pains, I skim the crowd as I run past them. I actually laugh when I see Itachi and his friends. They all have their shirts off, and Itachi has the S, Deidara the A, Kisame the K, Hidan the U, Shisui the R, and Sasori has the A. I'm pretty sure Mikoto has no idea about this, because they would get a beating and a stern talking to about catching a cold from the chilly weather. Fugaku would personally beat Itachi and Shisui.

They chant my name, and I spare them a wink when I run past. They respond with wolf whistles. Not to much further on, I find Naruto and Kiba. They're in red body suits and Naruto's wearing a pink wig. "GO SAKURA!"

I also see Sasuke lingering by them. He's usually relaxing right about now, but he's sweet enough to come watch me. I'll kill that moron if this messes up his race. His dad will hold a grudge against me until the day he dies.

Ino, Karin, and Suigetsu are standing a bit further down. Ino's in a red sports bra and has KXC written on her stomach. Karin and Suigetsu are dressed normally, with borrowed cross country shirts and skinny jeans. They hold up a sign that has, "Beat em' Blossom!" written on it with cherry blossoms painted all over it.

I pass the mile marker, and I chance a look over my shoulder. There's no one in sight. That means there's at least a twenty second lead I have at the moment. I can't risk slowing down though, because this is where Gin picks it up. There's a girl from a distant city who's probably right with Gin at the moment. I think her name was Mai.

I take a deep breath in and hold it to try to get rid of the side ache I have. Unfortunately, the deep breath slightly relieves the pain in my side, but it also triggers my stomach ache. I fight the urge to slow down, and push my pace faster than I ever have. There's only an eight hundred left, and if I want to get into KU with a full ride scholarship, I need to win this race. Sasuke's already been accepted, and if I don't get a scholarship, I won't be able to afford it. Neji got in too, and Suigetsu has an offer like mine. If he wins a swimming event at State, they'll take him.

I look over my shoulder to see if I need to start sprinting, and I see Gin has snuck up on me. She's gaining fast, and I can't let her pass me. I push myself up to a sprint, and I concentrate all of my willpower on not keeling over and passing out. I lengthen my stride, pump my arms, and allow myself to breathe heavily. It doesn't matter if I give myself an even worse side cramp, because I only have fifty meters left to go. The deafening roar of over a thousand people almost feels like a gust of wind propelling me forward. I feel like I'm running as fast as I possibly can, but it seems so slow with all of these people around me. I can hear Gin's ragged breathing, and I give one more spurt of energy that carries me across the finish line and into Kakashi's waiting arms. He hugs me, while I pant and cry into his shirt. He twirls me, and sets me down and I'm engulfed by Mikoto. "Sakura! I'm so proud of you! Are you ok sweetie? Do you need some water? Do you want to sit down, or walk it off?"

Fugaku pats my shoulder, and the next thing I know, I'm engulfed by Itachi and his half naked friends. They aren't forming words, it's more of a screeching and jumping up and down. After Tenten and Hinata cross the finish line right next to each other, the rest of my friends come over by us. They give all of us hugs, and Sasuke even kisses my forehead much to the amusement of Itachi and Shisui. He gives them the stink eye, and they back off after teasing him one last time.

I look around for my mom, but I don't see her anywhere. I start heading through the crowd, calling for her. I walk along the edge of the course, looking all around for her. Just when I'm about to give up, I hear someone yelling for a paramedic. An image of Gin after the last race crosses my mind, and I run forward to help. I squeeze through the crowd that has formed around the poor runner, and I freeze when I realize it's my own mother lying on the ground. "MOM!"

I kneel down next to her and check her pulse. It's faint, but it's still there. "HELP! HELP!"

I hear someone hysterically screams for help, and after glancing over to Itachi and Naruto, we head over in the direction of the screams. It's coming from alongside the course right next to the one hundred marker. We jog over, and a group of paramedics arrive at the same time as us. The onlookers clear a path for them, and I'm able to see Sakura hunched over her mom. They try to pull her away, but she refuses to leave her mother's side. I rush forward, and wrap my arms around her. "I start murmuring softly in her ear, and she flings her arms around me and sobs. When the paramedics start to carry her mother off in a stretcher, she takes off after them. I try to go with, but Naruto grabs my arm.

"She wouldn't want you to leave without racing. Don't drop out Sasuke. She's strong. She'll be ok until you're done.