title: Road to Sakura
pairing: possible eventual SasuSaku.
dedication: Special thanks to TheBloodyLoveOfSakuraHaruno and Amaterasruice and Katsumi Hatake for always reviewing probably all of my chapters so far. You three are one of a kind! Also to Wlkwos for reviewing this story! Thank you for putting up with my request of analyzing this story! Your review made my day!
summary: Sakura doesn't understand why she's crying but, as she weeps on top of his body, she finds herself wishing. "Sasuke-kun, don't leave me!"
notes: Hello, readers! Spoiler alert: your long wait for some SasuSaku fluff has come to an end! I believe this chapter will be very much to your liking, even though it isn't really heavy fluff. And I believe this will be the end of the Land of Waves arc. Sorry to those readers who wanted more appearances from Zabuza and Haku.
notes 2: Lyrics from Namie Amuro's Come (Loved Inuyasha and this ending was one of the best anime endings of all time along with Every Heart and Dearest, of course) but I added what I believe was missing in translation
°∴✿° ·°✿∴° .·°∴°·. °∴✿°· °✿∴°
Road to Sakura
"If you're filled with sadness now,
You can lean on me
As you cry"
A shinobi must never show their emotions. A shinobi must never show their emotions.
It's like a mantra that repeats itself in Sakura's head, but still she cannot stop the tears from overflooding her vision. "Oy, Uchiha! You better not die, you hear me?" She's screaming, and she's yelling. "You can't die! You can't!" It's a demand and a wish. "Oy, Uchiha! Uchiha Sasuke!" But she gets no answer.
How is she supposed to return back to the village and face his family? How is she supposed to tell Naruto? The blonde is still fighting off Gato's goons and, even now with Kakashi's help along with Kaiza's and Zabuza's, it's still a never-ending task. And in all this distraction, she and Sasuke had been able to free Tazuna and had almost crossed the bridge back to the Land of Waves when, out of nowhere, one of Gato's lackeys appeared and attacked. He had been aiming at Sakura, and he would have killed her, too, but Sasuke had jumped in the way and taken the hit instead. Sakura had taken care of the man afterwards, but she had no idea why Sasuke was fading away. He hadn't even been hit in any of his vital points! Why was he dying?
"Don't you dare die, Uchiha!" Sakura yells again, her hand holding his so tightly that it seemed as though she were afraid he would disappear if she didn't. "Don't forget that you still have to prove to me that you aren't a spoiled brat and that you can get anyone to like you! And you promised me that you'll always be there for me... You promised, so please . . ."
She feels someone's hand on her shoulder, most likely Tazuna's, but the gesture only makes her feel worse. She throws her head over Sasuke's unmoving body and wails.
"Please! Sasuke-kun! Please, don't leave me!"
As she cries, she doesn't understand her actions at all. She doesn't know why she feels so strongly about this. Sasuke isn't even all that important to her. Why is she crying this loudly? And for him?
And as she cries, she doesn't even realize that Sasuke's eyes have fluttered open.
"Please, Sasuke-kun! I'm begging you! Don't leave! Please!"
"How can I leave when you're on top of me?"
Her weeping comes to an abrupt halt when she hears his voice. "Sa . . . Sasuke?"
"Geez, for such a small thing, you're really heavy."
"You're . . . you're not dead?" Sakura's eyes are two times their regular size.
"Dead?" Sasuke asks, scoffing right afterwards. "Why would I be? That creep only succeeded in knocking me out for, like, five seconds. I'd be the laughing stock of the whole Uchiha clan if he actually managed to kill me on my first mission outside of the village."
"But . . . but you weren't . . ."
"Oh, well, you were crying and all," Sasuke explains as he sits up, "So I thought that I'd go along with it for a while. I can't believe you actually added a -kun to my name, let alone call me by my first name twice."
"So . . . so that means . . ." Sakura has never felt more like Ino than she does now, her face feeling as though it were burning. "You were . . . you were only pretending to be dead?"
"Well, duh!" Sasuke laughs. "And I can't believe you of all people actually fell for it!" He's laughing so hard that he doesn't even realize when Tazuna decides to take a few steps back and when Sakura cracks her knuckles.
All in all, the scariest person on the bridge that day hadn't been Gato or his goons nor was it Zabuza or Haku. No, the scariest person had been Haruno Sakura. And Sasuke had the proof beaten into him black and blue. Literally.
Uchiha Sasuke? Important? Phbt, as if! But better alive and beaten up than dead? Definitely. Well, at least, that's how Sakura saw it at the moment.
"I realized that
In this whole world
You were the only precious person"