Don't own Naruto .o.o.

"talking"

'thinking'

The spray of bullets continued across the table and then eventually hit the chair Jiraiya was sitting in... if he were still at the table. The noise of the metal hitting the dinnerware and Tsunade's scream for her daughter alerted the other people in the room that something was happening. Naruto quickly dragged Hinata under the table when his sister's chair received the first hit, and he was currently loading his gun and trying to locate which direction the hit man was coming from.

Tsunade, though still worried about her little girl, got out of the line of fire, and was up against the back wall near the entrance of the theater; she was desperately trying to see if Sakura was hit, but at her angle she couldn't see any of the kids. "Sakura!"

From nearly under the table, Sasuke was still shielding the young princess as the second wave hit. 'Man, he went all out on this one, he's not planning on leaving anyone alive.' "Sakura-san... Sakura-san are you alright?" he was beginning to panic when she didn't respond, and he thought that she got hit. When he pulled away from her body, he didn't see any blood or injuries on her; yet when he looked at her face, he knew the reason for her silence. The young girl was blushing madly and seemingly unaware of the attempt on her life just now.

"Uchiha-san... I... I'm alright," she couldn't bring herself to look at the man practically laying on top of her. Sakura had never touched a man before, except for when she and Naruto would get into fights and hit each other as children... but that didn't count, because he's her brother. She and Sai were best friends but she didn't even so much as hold his hand when they were little, and she hadn't built up the courage to ask him out on a date before he was... so to put it bluntly, this was the first contact she's ever had with the opposite sex.

And it wasn't bad, in her opinion her bodyguard was a very attractive man; but she never allowed her thoughts to go passed that however. She knew a man like him probably had a wife and maybe a child at home, or at least a girlfriend. Knowing this was probably correct, she felt horrible that he had to spend so much time and risk his life for a kid like her.

"Sakura-san... you need to stay down, understand?" he saw her flinch and he realized his words came out a little harsher than he meant them too. He wasn't mad at her, for some reason he couldn't get mad at her, no he was angry that Orochimaru was so desperate to gain power that he would kill anyone who got in the way; when Sasuke found the shooter, the man better pray he ends his life quickly.

"Uchiha... where's my sister? Is she alright?"

"Hn."

"Damn-it Uchiha, give me a straight answer!"

"Yes Naruto... I'm fine." They both heard the blonde's sigh of relief as Sasuke helped Sakura sit up.

"Sakura-san... you need to stay down here, do you understand?" his tone this time was softer and she nodded her head.

"Hai Uchiha-san."

Sasuke pulled the table cloth up to reveal Naruto and Hinata sitting there, the Hyuga was relieved to see the young girl unharmed and pulled her into a hug. Sasuke moved over next to Naruto and drew his gun, "Have you found the shooter yet?"

"Yeah, I think he's up in the private box near the stage, that's where the shots are coming from; but I can't get a good look at him."

"Let's flush him out then."

"Right... Hinata-chan, Sakura stay down and don't move till we tell you."

"Naruto what's going on?"

"Everything's going to be okay sis, we'll handle it."

Sasuke looked around the room trying to locate anymore snipers that maybe hiding. When the shooting started everyone on the lower floor began screaming and running for the closest exit in the building, leaving the main floor open except for the one or two bodies laying on the floor that were hit by stray gun fire. He spotted a few men on the balcony with raffles, but he recongized them as the councel's army. Many of the men on this secret police force were from the Hyuga clan, Sasuke had seen many of them the night before at the family dinner; he only hoped they were as good a shot as they were at hiding in the darkened restaurant.

As the next wave of bullets came, Sasuke decided he was tired of hiding from the moron that couldn't shoot. Using the table that was shielding the girls, Sasuke knocked it on its' side to set it up as a base and still protect the girls; the boys were able to go on the attack now. But it didn't mean they were going to be good, Naruto's first two bullets wound up in the pillar just to the right of the stage. Luckily Sasuke was a better shot and took the sniper out with just one pull of the trigger. However just as he went down, another started shooting in the lower box.

'How many are there? Why didn't we see him sneak in there?' Sasuke was angry with himself that he missed that little but of information, he was always a very observant person, so to miss that he would have to be completely distracted.

At their angle, both Sasuke and Naruto couldn't take out this new shooter without pushing the table completely over; but that would leave the women unprotected from the bullets and neither man wanted that. The men on the balcony, that worked for the councel, were finally in position and could easily take out the guy. Just as a precaution, since it happened so many times before to him, Sasuke looked to the other private boxes across the theater. On this side the girls were unprotected and were easy targets, hell the snipers could have killed them while Sasuke and Naruto were busy with the first two. But whoever planned this didn't do a great job; so Sasuke was thinking it wasn't Orochimaru, the man had enough hits put out to know how to plan one perfectly. Just as he thought, the third shooter was trying to set up his raffle when Sasuke spotted him; without thinking he took him out, his killing instinct egging him on to do it. When there was no shooting for twenty minutes Sasuke was still suspicious that something was going to happen.

"Naruto-kun... is it safe yet?" Hinata, though trying not to seem scared, was visibly shaking while she held Sakura in her arms. Yes Hinata knew about the 'family business,' when Naruto and she began dating in high school he told her; she was a bit freaked out at first, but when she thought about it... it made sense as to what her father was always doing. Hyuga Hiashi was the leader of the secret police and was needed whenever the royal family was out; she was sworn to secrecy and she couldn't even tell Sakura. Knowing of the mob and hearing Naruto retell gun fights he's been in always amazed and terrified her; he told her this was a part of his life and it would only increase when he took over the mob from his father. But not for a long while did she think she would be caught in a fight.

"I... I think so Hinata-chan, you both okay?"

"Hai."

The first thing Sakura wanted to do when she stood up, was cry; that was the most scariest experience of her young life, and for some reason her mind kept flashing to Sai. She didn't feel safe out in the open like this, the only place she did feel comfortable during this whole ordeal was in Sasuke's arms. But she couldn't ask him to hold her to make her feel safe again, that wouldn't be right on her part, and he was currently busy with something as far as she could see.

Sasuke too didn't like her being such an easy target, but he couldn't see any other threat to her life right now. He had moved around the table to check its' damage, he counted a total of thirty bullets embedded in wood, a few in Jiraiya's chair, and two in the chair Sakura was sitting in. Something was bothering him about the whole situation, either the shooters were drunk, of had really bad aim otherwise there was no way they could have missed that many times... unless.

'Unless it was a trap from the beginning!'

When he had first gotten up, Sasuke noticed that except for the men on the balcony and Jiraiya calling the shots from the stage. No one other sane person should still be in the building after the gun fire.... but there, still sitting at the table as if nothing happened, was Orochimaru and his entire crew. It didn't bother the Uchiha at first, because he knew the man hired the gunmen and he wanted to hang around to make sure the job was completed. What made Sasuke's skin crawl was the fact that the man was smiling; the men he hired for this job were dead, Sakura and her family were still alive. Sasuke had out right betrayed him by protecting the young girl and figthing along side the mob prince... the man shouldn't have been smiling, he should have been angry and on a war path right now; but he wasn't, he just sat there... smiling at Sakura.

Sasuke looked over to see Tsunade had her daughter in a bear hug, and was barely letting her breathe. She did the same to her son, and once she was sure they were alright, she dashed off to check on her husband. Sakura herself was oblivious to the snake's stares at her, she seemed like she was in shock with what happened and Sasuke would have to find a way to snap her out of it later; in a place safer than this, most likely back at the house.

He was just about to move to her, but some thing black caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Just as he feared, the shooters were just distractions for Naruto and himself, Karin had moved from the table and now had a gun aimed at Sakura's back. Sasuke didn't have any bullets in his gun nor did he have the time to reload before she would get the shot off. He wouldn't think twice about killing the red haired slut, not if it meant keeping Sakura's life out of danger, but again no bullets so he did the only thing he could.

"Sakura!"

Hearing the familiar voice call out her name without the normal honored suffix at the end caught the young girl off guard, she turned to see why he sounded so panicked and froze when she saw the gun aimed directly at her. The satisfied smirk on the woman's face as she fired the gun confused Sakura, why was she happy about killing someone, Sakura didn't know her and yet the look she was receiving was like that of a jealous girlfriend finally getting her revenge. Everything happened in slow motion, the bullet slowly making it's way towards her, Naruto's scream for her to move out of the way... Sasuke appearing in her line of vision.

'Wait! What?' Before she knew it she was on the floor again with Sasuke on top of her. She heard a grunt of pain and everything speed up agin.

Sakura didn't feel like she was in pain, nothing hurt... then why was she bleeding? The front of her white diamond dress was now covered in crimson blood. She could hear more gun fire going off around her and realized Naruto was shooting at something again; but right at this moment she didn't care, she wanted to find out where the blood was coming from. Despite Hinata's warning to say down, Sakura sat up and looked around, when she found the reason for the blood she realized what happened... Sasuke was laying on his back, unconscious and bleeding out from his shoulder.

'He took the shot that was suppose to kill me, he's dying... Sasuke's.... dying!' "N-no... no Sasuke!"

Immediately her training from the hospital kicked in, and be damn her mother for telling her to act like a young lady tonight, she wasn't going to let him die.

"Hinata help me! Sasuke's hurt!" Sakura moved around his prone body to put pressure on the wound in his shoulder. The wound was a through and through but blood was seeping from the openings and he was already paler than his normal skin color.

"Sakura-chan what are you doing?"

"We need to stop the bleeding, help me please," Sakura wanted to cry so badly at this moment, she's never done this before and didn't know if she was even helping him or not. Her dress was already ruined so she might as well make good use of it now; she began ripping the bottom part into small strips for bandages and one long one to stop the blood flow to his arm for the time being so they could fix the damage.

"Sasuke... Sasuke look at me! Come on Sasuke, open your eyes please!.... Sasuke!"

'Why's everything all black? What the hell happened and ah... why does my shoulder feel like it's on fire?'

"Sasuke!"

'Who the hell's calling me, and why... why do they sound so panicky? Who would worry about me?'

"Sasuke please open your eyes!"

'My eyes are open... aren't they? What happened damn-it, why am I in so much pain!' Gun shots not far away pull back some of Sasuke's recently forgotten memories. 'The banquet, the shooting... Sakura!' The young girl shot through his mind and his eyes opened while he tried to sit up; the pain and someone elses' hands on his shoulder prevented him from fully sitting up though.

"Sasuke! Oh god you're awake, don't move the ambulance is coming okay, just hold on... hold on Sasuke."

The Uchiha was mesmerized by the light haired beauty hovering over him, covered in what he hoped was his blood and not hers. The darkness of unconsciouness was pulling him back to sleep, and the last thing he saw were the tears and look of desperate panic in Sakura's eyes. It was unfair, for the longest time he had nothing to live for and wasn't afraid of death; he put himself in danger often enough to try and feel anything. And now that he found his angel, a reason to keep waking every morning in this hell, he was going to lose all that. But he couldn't think selfishly, he would die knowing she was safe, that gave his life some meaning; to be able to protect a pure person like her, he would go willingly now and not fight his inevitable death.

Maybe this one good deed would be rewarded in the next life, maybe he could see his parents again if only for a second, before he was dragged to hell for his eternity of servitude. Or maybe he would be allowed to wait in limbo for Sakura just to see her one more time, though he hoped that was a long time from now. But that was only a dimming hope for either wish, with everything he's done in his life he knew that would never happen; the gods don't reward the damned.

As he slipped under the veil of complete darkness for the last time, Sakura's panicked and tear stricken please began to fade away... her voice was the only thing he would truly miss.

Note: Sasuke's dying! Sakura is beside herself, and what while happen now that he won't be there to protect her... or will he? I'm finished my finals, so now I have more time to work on this and my other stories, so hopefully the chapters will be coming faster, for two weeks at least.

Special thanks to:
Fantom Phreeke
sakurasapprentice7
Moonwaterpetal
Reicheru-chan2
Thanks for reviewing... keep it up!