I do not own Naruto so please don't sue me!
This is my first time participating in SasuSaku month so please be gentle when reviewing!
I will try to update everyday but there are no guarantees.
Day 21 – Rewind the Time
The chilly rain fell against Sasuke's face as it tilted upwards toward the sky. He opened his eyes to the sound of Naruto whooping in excitement as Kaguya was finally defeated. The rest of the shinobi from the Alliance joined in as well and the cheers were deafening to the Uchiha's ears. His eyes scanned the battlefield seeing that there were countless bodies scattered on the ground; some dead and others injured.
From Konoha he saw that familiar faces gathered towards them. Hinata and Naruto were embracing a few feet from him with smiles on their faces. Everyone was safe from what he could see from where he stood but one person.
Sasuke's eyes scanned the field for a rose-haired woman that just moments before their enemies were defeated, took a blow for both him and Naruto. Since she had the regenerative ability she took it upon herself to distract Kaguya with her body, allowing an opening for Sasuke and Naruto to finish her off once and for all. Sakura was then flung behind Kaguya quite a distance away from them but she should have shown up by now.
'Where are you Sakura?' He thought, walking toward the direction of where he thought she could have been thrown.
Sasuke limped slightly with his left foot, he was certain that it had fractured from the fight but he paid it no mind. After walking a short while across the battlefield, he saw a flash of pink in the distance through the now pouring rain.
Feeling his heart clench in his chest he sped up slightly, nearly losing his balance over the rocky terrain. Getting closer he saw that it was Sakura lying on the ground with wounds and cuts on her body. Her eyes were closed and her hair was splattered on her face with streaks of crimson in it.
"Sakura." He called, kneeling down beside her but there was no response.
It was then that he felt a surge of fear overwhelm him and he reached out with his left hand to touch her cheek with his fingertips. She was like ice to the touch and he cursed himself for finding her too late.
Sasuke moved his hand to her shoulder and shook her gently. "Sakura! Please open your eyes!"
She was silent and didn't move. "Sakura, please be alive. I have so much to tell you."
It sunk in that she was gone and he clenched his right fist before striking the ground next to him. Tears welled up in his eyes and he growled in anger that he couldn't save another important person.
He leaned forward and rested his head on her abdomen while his hands grasped her side. Regrets filled his thoughts of how he wanted to drop the facade of not caring about her all these years and take her into his arms like in that desert dimension. He wanted to beg her for forgiveness and stare into those glimmering emerald eyes again.
The rain continued to fall on them relentlessly but his cries drowned out the sound of it against the ground.
"Sasuke-kun..." A weak voice whispered next to him. He barely heard it, but was unsure if it was wishful thinking. When he heard it again, he knew he wasn't imaging it.
"Sasuke-kun, you're heavy..."
With her choice of words it was like time had rewound to when they were in Mist, in the exact situation but reversed. He then felt a hand rest on his head and his heart raced with excitement. It was the voice he never thought he would hear again.
Lifting up his head to look at her face, her tired emerald eyes glistened in the rain. "Sakura, you're-"
"Yes, I'm alive and well." She said, but her pained face gave her away.
"I need to get you to a medic fast. I couldn't feel any chakra coming from your body." Sasuke told her as he leaned down to scoop her in his arms.
Sakura nodded slowly and allowed him to carry her. Immediately, she noticed the limp in his leg and stared up at him.
"You're hurt."
"I can handle this. Your injuries are more important."
"I sealed the majority of the damage but it expended my chakra nearly to the end."
Sasuke looked down at the blood staining her shirt before trailing them to her eyes. They were the opposite of the ragged state her body was in as he neared a medical camp.
"Sasuke, is it over?"
"Aa." He responded earning a smile from her.
"I'm glad. There were one too many lives lost in this war." She then groaned in pain and met his worried eyes.
"You should refrain from speaking until you receive medical treatment."
Sakura obliged and remained silent until she was brought into a large brown tent where other injured ninjas lay on beds while nurses tended to them.
Before Sasuke could speak, Ino had spotted them when she turned around.
"Oh my God, Sakura!" She exclaimed and they saw that the person she was tending to was Shikamaru. He looked alright except for the bandages wrapped around his abdomen with a few scrapes and bruises on his arms that they could see.
Ino motioned to an empty bed two beds away from Shikamaru. "Put Sakura down here and we'll take care of her."
Sasuke laid her down gently while Ino immediately began working on her while he sat down to the chair next to the bed. He watched Ino cut her shirt off her and stare at the slightly open wound on Sakura's chest.
"Were you stabbed with something? It doesn't look like a sword." Ino asked, seeing the wound was slightly thicker and that it had pierced through to her back.
"Yeah, Kaguya's hand."
"And only a few inches closer and your heart would have been ripped out."
Sakura nodded as Ino began treating her with her chakra, stopping every so often to make sure that she had sealed anything that needed to be.
"Alright, that's done. Now you need to rest for a few days and fortunately you'll only have a small scar on your back from Kaguya."
"Thank you Ino. I'll be fine; there are others in need of more medical help." Sakura said as she tried to sit up but was met with her friend's glare.
"Sakura, I said to rest. I don't want to see you get up from that bed." Ino ordered before shifting her eyes to Sasuke. "You're next, lay down on the bed next to hers."
"Aa." He said lying down while Ino rolled up his pant leg.
She saw that his bone was shifted in his calf when she ran her chakra through his leg. "I need to realign your bone. It's baffling how you can still walk on it. Wasn't it extremely painful?"
"Yes, but I've had worse."
Ino positioned her hands over his calf. "Ready?"
"Just get it over with."
A resounding crack echoed along with a snarl from Sasuke. Ino then pumped her chakra into his calf and sealed the bone, allowing him to feel the pain dissipate as quickly as it came.
"Give it a few hours and you should be okay." She told him. "And watch Sakura so she doesn't run off okay?'
He nodded and sat up, looking over at the rose-haired woman next to his bed. She had fallen asleep from exhaustion and quietly breathed in and out.
Sasuke laid back down and rolled onto his shoulder to watch her sleep. Not long after he too drifted off to sleep.
When he awoke in the morning, he saw that Sakura wasn't there in the bed next to his. Sasuke jolted towards the opening of the tent, nearly knocking into Hinata.
"Sasuke-kun, what's wrong?"
"Sakura is gone."
Hinata saw the worry in his eyes. "Ino took her back to Konoha because her condition stabilized hours ago."
"What time is it?"
"It's nearly 2 PM. Ino didn't want to wake you since you were exhausted and instead told me to let you know Sakura's whereabouts."
"Thanks."
Sasuke arrived back to Konoha in the middle of the night and wasted no time heading towards the hospital. He ignored the nurses telling him it was past visiting hours as he took each clipboard from their hands to find Sakura's room. After the third one he saw her file along with the room number: 103.
Opening the door he saw Sakura sitting on the bed staring out of her window. Without turning to look in his direction she parted her lips. "I thought you said you were done of the night."
Hearing no response she looked towards the door and saw that it was Sasuke. "Oh, Sasuke-kun. I thought you were the nurse that was here not long ago."
Replying with a soft grunt he walked over to her bed and sat on the chair next to it. She smiled to herself because it was as if he was still the same Sasuke she knew from three years ago.
"Why did you come here so late? Shouldn't you be heading home?" Sakura asked puzzled when he grasped his hand in hers.
"I am home."
"The hospital? But Tsunade has an apartment for you set up."
He shook his head as he stood up and embraced her against his chest, allowing her to smile at his words. "It doesn't matter. It could be the apartment, the hospital, hell; it could even be our training ground from when we were Genin. Home to me is where you are next to me. Nothing will ever change that."