Chapter 9

[FLASHBACK]
" … Poor Sho-kun passed away this morning. He fought his little heart out but I'm afraid he didn't make it." A nurse said as she tried to hold back tears.

"He… died?" Sakura said to herself as she sat there in her bed.
[END FLASHBACK]

After hearing about Sho suddenly passing away, Sakura couldn't fully comprehend the idea of the little boy actually not being around anymore.

[SAKURA FLASHBACK]

"Ne, Sakura you're lucky to have friends." Sho said while walking beside her.

"Friends?" Sakura questioned. "That came to visit you today." Sho pointed out. "Since I've always been in the hospital, I don't have any." Sho admitted while looking at the floor.

"Huh… friends, you want some?" she asked the boy. "Yes" he replied again.

"Well friends aren't that big of a deal," Sakura said while opening the door to their room.

"But I want some…." Sho wined as he looked up to Sakura. "Ah Sakura-chan will you be my friend?" he asked now giving her puppy dog eyes.

Sakura was quite, since she was still shocked that he asked her of all people. "Fine alright," she finally said.

"Really… Yeah a friend," Sho shouted as he jumped around.

"Sakura… Thank you."

[END FLASHBACK]

Finding herself strangely feeling numb, Sakura sits in her bed while blankly staring at her broken cell phone. Clenching her phone tightly, Sakura recalls that she was messing with it the day that she first met Sho.

"...Sho" she said to herself while she started to mess with some of the broken components. Sakura found herself in a very different place than she had ever been in before. She for once didn't know how to react. In one sense she didn't want to feel anything, yet she was feeling everything but instead of angrily lashing out like she had become accustomed to. Sakura just sat there dwelling in her mind over how her life has turned out thus far trying to figure out what went wrong.

"Sakura?" Shizune said shortly after knocking on the door. Sakura didn't reply as she kept looking at her phone, deep in thought. Shizune wiping away a few tears slowly walked over to her.

"Sakura here this is for you... Sho wanted you to have this… If there is anything you need me to do for you let me know OK?" she asked while she got closer to her.

Seeing Sakura still in a shock and not responding to the question, Shizune carefully placed the object in her lap. Focusing on Sakura, Shizune noticed how much thinner she had been looking recently and how pale she became.

"Sak…" She started to say before she suddenly turned to leave the room. Once she shut the door, she fell to the floor; as she couldn't hold back her tears anymore that came over losing Sho and possibly losing Sakura soon the same way.

Elsewhere, Ino finally feels better from a horribly long hang over she received from drinking too much with Rena. She couldn't remember the last time she drank half as much as she did. Since she still lived with her parents, she had to play as if she had the flu; so they wouldn't get suspicious about her being so sick out of nowhere.

After she cleaned her room, Ino noticed her cell phone under her bed. "What in the world, how did my phone end up there?" she asked herself before remembering, that it had rung on two different occasions that night; which she missed.

"I bet Choji was calling again," Ino said while seeing the two missed calls. After Ino flipped open her phone, she noticed the two missed calls came from Uchiha Sasuke instead. Staring at her phone, Ino felt a knot in her stomach at him calling her out of the blue. "Maybe oh no maybe, he knows" Ino thought next, when she wondered if Sasuke found out what happened at the club and that she didn't help Sakura after she humiliated herself.

Ino took a deep breath, before she pulled up her voice mail to take a listen to it.

"You have one new message…"
"Hey Ino it's me Sasuke… Look I'm calling because Sakura's condition has worsened… and speaking with Tsunade, I've decided to forget telling Sakura about what happened to her... I want this to be clear to everyone, that no one else needs to say anything to Sakura about it anymore… and if you feel that you can't do that then just know you'll be killing her if you do. And if it comes to that I'll personally kill you or anyone else that does… Sorry for the harsh words, anyway I'll try to call again later… Bye."

After listening to the chilling voice mail Ino's heart sinks, Recalling bits and pieces of the night with Rena, she did remember speaking to Rena about Sakura. Worried about Rena knowing and Sasuke finding out, Ino hurriedly got dressed so she could go and find Rena as soon as possible.
Back at the hospital, Sakura hears the door open once again. Annoyed at having anyone else come in to her room she finally finds a voice to speak up.
"Please…Go away?" she said in a monotone voice, "Sakura it's me," Sasuke said hurrying through the door.

After he took a seat beside her, he watched as she slowly lifted up her head to look at him. It took Sakura time to register it was Sasuke, since she still felt numbness from her distress.

"...I heard about Sho… I came as soon as possible, to see if you're alright." Sasuke asked while placing a bag he had with him down on the floor.

[SAKURA FLASHBACK]

"Can you...I mean will you lay with me for a while?" Sakura asked a surprised Sasuke

Sasuke taken back by the request slowly walked over and took off his shoes first; before lying in the hospital bed, wrapping his arms around Sakura. "Like this?" he asked making sure not to cross any boundaries with her.

"Yes ... Thanks" Sakura admitted as a tear fell from her eye, "Can I tell you something?" Sakura asked next as she looked at the wall. "Un" Sasuke grunted as he held her. "I can't explain it but I feel really relaxed with you around…"

[END FLASHBACK]

After hearing and seeing Sasuke's face; Sakura whom had felt deaden up until now, started to feel a change. As a tear gradually started to seep out, scrunching her face; Sakura finally fills like she could no longer keep how she truly felt inside.

"I... didn't even want to be his friend." Sakura admitted as more tears trickled down her face.

Sasuke watched as Sakura clutched onto a drawling Sho had made for her, of him, her and Sasuke at the park. While she looked at a paper; Sasuke tried his best to be there for her.

After Sakura, took a minute to catch some tears she continued "...But, I liked him being around. He saw hope and laughter in everything." Sakura said while looking at Sasuke.
"It's not fair, he wanted to live so badly and I... just want to die. I would have easily traded my life for his." She admitted while she started to cry harder.

Sasuke taken back by her truth, decided to quickly say something. "Sakura" he said reaching out for her hand.
Seeing this made her quickly jerk her hand away, as she readjusted how she sat. "Sakura you don't mean that …. You don't want to die, because Sho fought so hard and bravely that means you should to." Sasuke lectured to her in a louder voice.

"Look at me" Sakura shouted next, while removing her cap; she had worn to for covering her head.

Sasuke did as she asked and looked at her for a few minutes. "I've lost all my hair, I look like a skeleton, and my skin is…How am I suppose to live like this?" she asked while shaking and grabbing at her arms.

Seeing her so distraught, Sasuke no longer cared if she wanted him to touch her or not; as he got up to embrace her in a strong hug. Feeling the warmth of Sasuke's body; made Sakura stop as she sat there in his arms.
Still holding her thin frame, Sasuke began to talk to her again. "Sakura... I am looking at you; do you want to know what I see?" he said softly while pulling away, wiping away some tears.

"That you're just as beautiful as you ever were," he admitted, while reaching into the bag he had on the floor to pull out a box.
"What is this?" she asked while taking it from him. He didn't answer as he waited for her to start opening it.

Once she opened the box inside was a silver locket, in the shape of a heart. Sasuke grabbing the locket from her carefully opened it in front of her, so she could see on the inside contained two separate pictures of everyone that had claimed to be Sakura's friend.

"I know I told you it would be better for you if we started over, but I wanted to give this to you for some time now. I think maybe if you see this you'll understand something... See there's me, you, Naruto, and Kakashi we were part of a team together as children." he said with a smile.

Thinking back to the first day she came back to Konoha, Sakura remembered finding the same picture under her bed that was covered in dust.
"Sasuke," she said quietly as she looked at the one side, before she looked at the other side.

"And this side has your other friends, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Tenten, Lee, Neji, Sai, Hinata, Kiba, Sho, Tsunade, and Shizune." he paused, "Understand all of these people want you to want to live. I know you don't really know us, but you are very important to us and… to me." Sasuke finished while placing the locket in Sakura's hands.

Sakura closed the locket tenderly as she turned to face Sasuke. "Sasuke, I haven't asked about my past because I didn't think it mattered but... was I ever really close to any of these people." she asked while running her finger over the engraved design.
"Of course we all grew up together." Sasuke replied, hoping knowing at least that would make her want to fight harder to live.
"I don't mean that, I kind of feel like maybe... was there a relationship?" she asked while squinting her eyes at the locket.
Sasuke paused a moment before looking away and remembering what Tsunade told him about revealing the truth.
"No" we were all just friends, I promise." he said while putting the empty box down.
"Oh." Sakura responded, "Thanks," she replied as her tears had finally came to a stop; as she looked at the lockets content again.
"If you ever feel you need strength, let that locket be that for you." Sasuke said after noticing her really holding it tightly, Sakura nodded before reaching up and grabbing her head.

"Sakura" Sasuke shouted at her almost falling over, "I'm fine" she quickly told him as she put a hand up to hold his arm.
"When is the last time you've eaten?" Sasuke suddenly asked as he figured she hadn't. "I...don't remember" Sakura replied. "Well let me get you some food, hang on I'll be right back." Sasuke reassured as he stood up to leave.

After Sasuke left, Sakura looked back at Sho's picture and the locket. "So these are friends," she said to herself.

Before she realized, Sakura heard another knock at her door. Sakura expecting Sasuke was astounded to look up and see it was Rena of all people. Seeing Rena, Sakura quickly put her cap back on to cover her head.
"Can I come in?" she asked as the door opened more. "Rena, what do you want?" Sakura said while looking at her former acquaintance.
"Sakura, I just wanted to come see how you're doing" she said slyly as she looked around the hospital room. Sakura watched as Rena took her finger and trailed it up Sakura's bed, till she got to her bedside.
Sakura also watched Rena as she scrunched her nose and made faces. "Oh this place is truly disgusting...It really does smell like death." Rena pauses before looking at Sakura.

Sakura's eyes grew wide at the comment, especially since her friend had just died. "Wow Sakura you really do look awful, way worse than how you were at the club oh speaking of which…" Rena said while looking closer at Sakura. "That night your friend Toshi, I slept with him… he wasn't very good though" Rena boasted, while chuckling.

"Get out!" Sakura said, while trying hard to concentrate on her locket. Rena doing the opposite sat down beside her instead, "Sakura you shouldn't talk to me like that, and I came all this way to see you. You know I've only been here a while, but I've heard some interesting things about you. Like you used to be a ninja and you even had ...a boyfriend" Rena paused.
Sakura didn't reply or react to any of Rena's comments, as she kept looking at her gift. Seeing she was being ignored, Rena smiled as she continued."Want to know his name? I think it was Sasuke I believe," She finished while getting up to go to the door.
After Rena said Sasuke's name, Sakura's expression immediately changed to disbelief.

"Sakura, you want to know something. All these people here don't give a damn about you ... They in fact hate you, and lie to your face. But since I'm such a good friend, I'm going to tell you a little secret. One that nobody else is willing to tell you; about what happened to you…The night before you loss your memory." Rena devilishly smiled as she closed the door.