A/N: Hey guys! Thanks so much for the warm welcome back and for sharing your thoughts on the climax. It's always so inspiring and encouraging. :) I have been dying to write this chapter and I'll be honest with you: this is the first chapter in the whole story where I've had to physically stop writing because I started to cry (which was followed by a twisted little celebration because I was proud I did that to myself). And yeah, maybe I'm just a big ol' sap, but even so, as a warning: if it does what I intend it to do, this chapter should hit hard in the feels. Hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing it. :)

Muse: Lift the Atmosphere – Jeremiah Pena

Disclaimer: All characters belong to the great Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 37: On Death Row

Sasuke connected the dots in an instant and froze, his entire body jolting back and locking in place. His eyes appeared to cloud over while, Sakura presumed, he was struck by a debilitating slew of emotions.

Guilt rooted in her core. And it was a guilt that made no sense – it was his own future self who caused this turmoil! None of this would have happened – these casualties, the time travel mission – if it weren't for him. Sakura was just the bearer of bad news.

But this Sasuke was forced to take the brunt of it. And this Sasuke sure as hell didn't deserve to.

I'm sorry, she thought while another tear spilled from her tear duct. I'm sorry you had to hear this…

"I'll start on the serum tonight," Tsunade said in a commanding tone and jarring Sakura from her worries. "I expect I'll have it ready in about three days. In the meantime, just –" But then she paused, her eyes narrowing and turning towards the heart monitor on the opposite side of Naruto's bed. Sakura followed suit just as the machine began to blare. Shit, Sakura thought, and then Naruto's eyes were rolling back into his skull and a pained moan rising from his chest. Kakashi and Shikamaru leapt back with alarm and Tsunade neared the bed.

That was when the chamber door was slammed open, only adding to the chaos.

"Tsunade-sama!" a familiar voice cried. Sakura spun around, her heart racing, and found her former supervisor, Ayame, standing in the doorway, looking frazzled and completely breathless. Sakura subtly released the sound-altering genjutsu she previously cast on the room as not to rouse any suspicions. "Oh – Sakura! I didn't realize you were also…" Her stare briefly flitted to Naruto's blaring heart monitor before continuing. "Shoot, it seems you're in a pinch too. It's Karin. We need help in the other room."

Sakura's eyes flew to Tsunade, who met her gaze and nodded. We'll divide and conquer, Sakura reasoned and making a beeline for the doorway to follow Ayame, her time travel stress cast aside.

Even if this world just might be on the brink of vanishing, it simply wasn't in Sakura's nature to pass up saving a life.

The procedure lasted an hour. It turned out the disease had found its way into one of Karin's coronary arteries – a particularly dangerous location given its proximity to her heart. The only way to ensure the parasites' immediate removal was if they were targeted and destroyed manually– a feat only possible for a medical ninja with immaculate chakra control, given the sensitivity of that area of the body. Thankfully Sakura was brought onto the scene when she was. She was a greater help than all the other medical ninjas combined. Even with her hand tremors.

"Come on, Karin," Sakura had muttered throughout the procedure, egging on the girl's mysterious healing energy, which she hoped would win out and staunch the disease in the end. But now that they were seeing parasites venture so close to Karin's vital organs, her faith was dwindling.

As much as Sakura had been feeling desperate to escape the horrific tension she caused in Naruto's chamber, this certainly wasn't the kind of distraction she had in mind.

She hardly knew Karin. But the fact that this girl did survive in Sakura's future life implored her to do everything in her power to ensure she had every opportunity to survive again. Because what if something went wrong with Tsunade's serum? What if she was stuck in this world after all? Sakura wasn't taking chances.

When it was all said and done, and Karin's heart was parasite-free (for now), Sakura shed her medical cloak and gloves and stumbled back out into the hallway to catch her breath. She ran a hand through her tousled hair and swallowed hard. Her thoughts were jumbled and her emotions were running amok. But her legs carried her back to Naruto's chamber to check on him and pick up where they left off.

But when she got to Naruto's room, he was the only one in there, blinking at her through glazed eyes.

"Where's Tsunade-sama?" Sakura barked and reaching Naruto's heart monitor in three big strides.

"She's just getting something," Naruto muttered, his voice hoarse.

"You're in good shape then?" she asked, rounding on him with a wide, anxious stare.

Naruto's mouth twisted into a loopy smile. "Yeah. One of those little bugs got in my lung so my body flipped out. But it's gone now so it's no big deal."

"Right," Sakura breathed.

"You can take it easy now, Sakura-chan," he added and nodding weakly towards the seat beside his bed, his smile never faltering.

She released a sigh. "True," she lied and easing into the chair, her nerves no less on edge. Then she instinctively took hold of his hand and began stroking it with her thumb, careful not to make any sudden motions and disrupt the IV in his inner elbow. "Y-you're feeling okay then," she said, inviting an affirmation.

He made a miniscule nodding motion, the breathing tubes in his nose and bed restraints keeping his face relatively locked in place. "Uh huh," he said. "But you guys aren't."

Sakura met Naruto's blue, bloodshot eyes and found tears collecting in his tear ducts. Her throat dried.

"Why did he leave us?" he whispered, and Sakura could tell that he was using every fibre of his being to keep himself from sobbing.

Sakura's eyes drifted down, her grip tightening on her teammate's hand. "Sasuke got… he got too caught up in his revenge. He wanted power at any cost," she mumbled, the words tearing her throat as they left her. "I was hoping that this time he wouldn't… But it doesn't…" She faltered and her eyes strung. Don't cry, don't cry…

Then Naruto spoke so softly that Sakura hardly caught the words over the heart monitor's steady beeps. "Don't do this for me, Sakura-chan." There was a fiery determination in Naruto's stare. It was plain to see that he knew exactly what decision she was making and why she was making it.

And that was precisely why she needed to follow through with this choice. Naruto, the boy who was on his own deathbed yet crying over his friend's future plunge into darkness, needed to live.

"I'm doing this for all of us," she said automatically and giving his hand a reassuring pat. "I promise."

Kakashi was waiting outside Naruto's hospital room, leaning against the wall and perusing through a familiar book Sakura was certain he'd already read more times than she could count on her fingers. She wasn't sure how long he'd been there for, or whether he'd overheard her conversation with Naruto (not that she cared).

"Hey," she said a little uncertainly. She wasn't sure just how much of a shock her revelation came to her ever-perceptive sensei.

"Yo," he replied while snapping his book shut and straightening up. He matched her stride and then they were walking through the hospital's hallways together.

"How did… How is everyone…," Sakura began, her voice failing her again.

He shrugged in response, somehow deducing what she was getting at. "Well this isn't a matter to be taken lightly, as I'm sure you know more than anyone," he said calmly. She nodded. "Shikamaru seemed a little startled by your choice. But I wholeheartedly support it."

Sakura's chest tightened. "Thank you, sensei," she said quietly and glancing up at his masked face. "And how is…" but she didn't even need to finish the question before the answer was written in her sensei's expression.

"Sasuke can be a live wire in unusually stressful situations," Kakashi said honestly and Sakura felt a pang in her heart. "I mean, the most comparable situation I can think of was the surprise encounter we had in the Land of Rivers."

When he encountered his brother, Sakura thought. She could remember many scenarios in her other life when Sasuke met confusing situations with bitter impulsivity. "Is he… okay?" she asked carefully in a low tone. This must be impossible news for him to cope with, that he became Orochimaru's apprentice. In fact, this revelation was probably hitting him even harder than her.

"I decided to give him space," Kakashi said and Sakura noticed he never answered her question.

"Ah," she grunted.

"I'll keep an eye out, but I think you should be the one to check on him first. He listens to you more than me. In fact, you might be the only person he listens to," Kakashi said matter-of-factly.

Sakura shrugged. "Maybe not anymore." But he was right that she couldn't just neglect him like this. It wasn't fair that she dumped such horrible news on her teammate then up and left. Even if this world was going to end, this Sasuke didn't deserve to spend his final days alone to wrestle his emotions.

"I doubt that," said Kakashi.

Sakura huffed and folded his arms. "We were never actually dating, you know."

"Oh I know. I was just giving you idiots a push."

Her jaw fell open. You've gotta be kidding me.

Sakura didn't see Sasuke again until late the following morning. And it was a peculiar interaction to say the least.

She had been on her way to Tsunade's flat to check on the development of the time travel serum and was wearing a signature red training dress, tall heeled sandals, and black gloves.

It had been a relatively restless night. Her mind and body were in perpetual states of defensiveness now that there were a select few – albeit a trusted few – who could finally see right through her. There were no more secrets. No more games or fantasies of building a perfect new world with hit list targets she could cross off like grocery items and romantic delusions where Sasuke would stay and everyone would be alive.

Instead, her days in this life were numbered. A war that was supposed to be far behind her was just on the horizon. And Sasuke would never be saved.

Yeah. It was a restless night indeed.

The only fleeting relief Sakura allowed herself to bask in was that her time travel mission hadn't been revealed in some catastrophic way. At least, with the way she revealed it, it had been controlled and directly to the people she trusted. She was fairly certain that knowledge of her mission wouldn't get into the hands of the villagers, reporters, enemies, or the Hokage (all of whom she was determined to hide her true identity from).

She'd thought about checking on Sasuke, as Kakashi recommended she did, but she failed to because 1) he probably did need some space to make sense of it all, and 2) she never chalked up the nerve.

But I've got to, Sakura thought as she arrived at the walkway leading to Tsunade's apartment building. This isn't fair. After I talk to Tsunade, I'll go…

She faltered. Sasuke was standing on the walkway.

He noticed her, of course, and he was fully clad in one of his trademark blue shirts and training gear.

Shit. Here we go, Sakura inwardly groaned, her stomach flipping as they approached each other.

"Sakura," he said in a casual tone, his expression pointedly blank.

She swallowed a lump in her throat. "What are you – ," she began, but was interrupted.

"You agreed to train this morning," he said sharply. Sakura met his gaze and felt her eyebrows raise with surprise.

"Y-you still want to practice chakra transmission?" she got out, utterly perplexed by his choice of topic. What was going on? Didn't he understand what Sakura confided in them yesterday?

"We'll meet in an hour," was his response and then he continued pacing forwards, passing Sakura by, and leaving her to gape at his back.

Her eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right.

"Tsuande-sama!" Sakura growled and slamming open the door to her mentor's temporary flat.

Said woman glanced up from the lunch she was eating at the small kitchen table and blinked, looking as unfazed as ever.

"What was Sasuke doing here?" Sakura continued after she carefully shut the door behind her and kicked off her sandals. It was a valid question, strange circumstances aside, because to Sakura's knowledge, the Uchiha heir had never personally sought out her mentor for anything before.

"Sit down and I'll pour you a tea," was Tsunde's curt reply as she got to her feet. "You might as well get as comfortable as you can because this isn't going to be pretty."

Sakura blanched. Something was going on. "What isn't?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "I said sit down."

Sakura gritted her teeth but obliged. She was not in the mood for Tsunade's attitude but knew that resisting would get her absolutely no where.

She perched on the edge of the chair across from Tsunade's and waited anxiously for the woman to place a steaming mug of tea down and return to her seat.

"So?" Sakura prompted immediately, her eyes flitting across Tsunade's face. She noticed frown lines, a furrowed brow and pursed lips. Those were bad signs.

"You're right that Uchiha was just here. He stormed in, not unlike yourself, and demanded that I tell him how the time travel scroll worked."

Sakura's breath caught in her throat. "And?"

Tsunade shrugged. "So I told him – about the rip, the serum, the costs of travelling through time… I figured, what does it matter anyways? He's about to cease to exist like the rest of us."

"Okay," Sakura said, nodding. "So you're confident that the serum is going to work then?"

"I'd put my money on it," Tsunade replied. And Sakura's hands instinctively balled into fists. This is really happening then. I'm definitely going back. The confirmation was equally unsettling as it was reassuring.

Because the last time Sakura remembered Tsunade Senju gambling on something, it was the time travel mission.

And we all know how that turned out.

"T-that can't be all Sasuke was here for," Sakura said, her voice shaky. She clasped her mug of tea to steady her hands.

"It wasn't," Tsunade affirmed and closing her eyes, her lips forming a frown. "He asked me what would happen if someone else was injected with the serum."

Sakura's eyes just about bulged out of their sockets. "What?" she gasped while leaping to her feet, nearly knocking her tea across the table.

"… hypothetically, of course," Tsuande added, as if that would clear things up.

"Why would he ask that?" Sakura spluttered. "I would have to be the one to go back, wouldn't I? I'm the one who's connected to the scroll!"

"Correct," Tsunade agreed, nodding. "In fact, if someone else went back in your place, I expect it would end terribly. That connection across dimensions was created for you and you alone."

"Then why…?"

Tsunade released a sigh. "Sasuke wasn't asking if someone could replace you. He was asking if someone could join you."

Sakura's mouth slammed shut and she stared at her mentor with wide eyes.

"I'm sure that would end badly too, if I injected the serum into two people. Like I said, you'd probably get back there safely because the connection is yours, but there would be guaranteed complications for the other person. To both them and their future self. Two versions of a person can't be in a dimension at the same time."

Sakura couldn't breathe.

"To my knowledge, no one has hitched a ride across time dimensions, at least like this, before. All I know for certain is that if a person successfully travelled to the future with you, it would be a short trip, especially if they didn't have regenerative chakra. Both that person and their future self would almost definitely be killed for it. Messing with time is a dangerous thing."

There was a pause. Sakura's chest was rising and falling with each shaky breath and she could feel perspiration lining her brow. "This… this isn't hypothetical anymore, is it?" she asked quietly.

Tsunade also stood up, and something in her face softened, like she wished what she was telling Sakura wasn't true. "It's a shame the kid turned out the way he did," Tsunade said, ignoring the question. "He's very determined to help you."

No… She can't mean…

"What did you tell him?" Sakura asked in a very small voice while raising a hand to her chest and gripping onto the red fabric of her dress.

"That this is for the two of you to decide."

No amount of chakra could have brought Sakura to the training grounds as quickly as she needed to get there.

Her body was numb when she arrived, her green eyes blazing, her hair wild and jaw locked. Sasuke was waiting, like she knew he would be, perched atop the very log Naruto was tied to after the bell test, his legs dangling leisurely over the edge. Sakura made a beeline for him without averting her unforgiving stare. After the slightest hesitation, he hopped down to meet her.

He could tell she wasn't here to train.

"What are you doing?" she snarled and approaching him as closely as she dared.

Sasuke folded his arms and assumed a defensive stance. "That is none of your concern," he shot back, the iciness in his tone rivalling hers.

The words struck Sakura like a slap in the face. "Are you serious?" she snapped, her thoughts spilling out without reservation. "This is my mission! I was sent here on behalf of Konoha as a battle tactic to stop a war. And it failed. So I'm going back to regroup and come up with something else. It is not your place to interfere!" Sakura's fists were shaking at her sides.

Sasuke had the audacity to smirk. "You're wrong," he said quietly and shaking his head. "This is up to me."

"It's suicide!" Sakura cried, desperation creeping into her tone and her cold demeanour cracking. "If you come back with me, you'll die. Don't you get it?"

"Not just me, by the sounds of it," Sasuke corrected, his rigid expression unchanging. "I might take my future self down at the same time."

"You're stupid," Sakura snapped, her heart drumming and her lips quivering.

That was when Sasuke lowered his arms and took a challenging step forward. "Don't you understand the position I'm in, Sakura?" he hissed, his voice rising. He towered over her, his face just inches away. "It's either I sit around and do nothing and cease to exist or I try this. I'm the one who needs to be defeated in the future and this might be our best shot at doing it!"

Sakura brought her trembling hands up to her face as it sunk in that she was fighting a losing battle. His rationale was crystal clear. This Sasuke had nothing to lose if this life was ending anyway. And if his scheme didn't work and his future self survived, what difference did it make? He just wanted to help in the only way he could.

But knowing that didn't bring Sakura any peace of mind. She wanted to save Sasuke. This wasn't supposed to end with him throwing his life away!

"Please," she whispered into her hands, her voice breaking and tears collecting in her eyes. Don't do this…

But she knew her efforts were futile because they were irrational and selfish.

Sasuke's stance relaxed slightly and he ran a hand through his unruly, black hair. "Look," he said, "whether or not I choose to help defeat an enemy of Konoha is not your decision to make. It's my life. And even if I just survive for a few minutes then at least…" He paused to release a shaky breath. Sakura stole a glance at his face and noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and held a hollow, steadfast air.

There's nothing I can do to change his mind.

Sakura turned on her heel and fled as fast as her feet could carry her, just as the tears began to stream down her cheeks and the sobs shook her at her core.

He didn't follow.

"Sakura?" came Mebuki's surprised voice as Sakura slipped into the private hospital room in the inpatient wing.

"Hello mother," Sakura replied, as if this was their kitchen and not the hospital and as if she were just getting in from a day of training instead of a day of crippling trauma. But of course Mebuki could see right through her. She reached forward and patted the bed, beckoning for Sakura to join her there.

And she did. She got to her knees and rested her arms on the bedsheets, then buried her face in them and exhaled sharply. The tears never really had a chance to stop flowing since she left the training grounds and now her eyes and abdominals and heart were aching.

Sakura felt her mother's fingers tease through her short hair and the gesture was soothing. She appreciated that Mebuki wasn't asking what exactly she was crying about (after all, there were infinite possible reasons at a time like this).

So she just stayed there and the two of them shared a silent acknowledgement that right now, Sakura needed to be.

Mother has a lot to be sad about too, Sakura thought with a pang of despair. Although she hadn't specifically mentioned it, Sakura knew her mother had lost friends and colleagues during the war with how many civilians perished by the hand of Orochimaru's terrible disease. And, not to mention, she lost her ability to walk. And though Sakura knew her mother was brave and resilient, this unexpected transition was bound to take a toll.

Sakura sat up slightly and wiped her eyes. At least, by returning to her other life, Sakura would give her mother her legs back.

At the expense of Sasuke's life, a voice chided at the back of Sakura's mind and she tried to ignore it, her heart pounding and stomach churning. She didn't want to acknowledge what was about to happen. She didn't want to think about him.

"You'll have to help me find a wheelchair sports league," Mebuki said, cutting the heavy silence, and when Sakura glanced up, she was a little surprised to see the small smile her mother was supporting. "Or at least teach me some seated stretches. I was quite enjoying my new aerobics class but I guess now I need a new game plan."

Sakura chuckled, and it squeezed more moisture from her eyes, but it also raised her spirits ever so slightly. Her mother was one of the strongest people she'd ever known. Sakura reached out and grasped Mebuki's hand.

"Everything always works out in the end, you know. No matter what happens, we'll make the most of it, right?" Mebuki said and raising her eyebrows. And Sakura knew she wasn't only referring to her legs.

"Right," Sakura answered quietly.

"Look at me, Sakura."

She did.

Mebuki's green eyes were glossy but the smile lines didn't falter. "You're the kind of person who finds comfort in looking to others. You live and breathe through their experiences and you fight tooth and nail to help the people around you. That's why I think you'll make a wonderful healer."

Sakura's heart clenched.

Mebuki squeezed Sakura's hand back. "Now I'm not saying to ignore your feelings and your problems," she continued, some of her typical flare creeping into her tone, "but look to your friends. Help them. Let them help you and lift each other up." Her smile broadened. "You're a strong girl. But I think your strongest power is shining a light for others."

Sakura's breath caught in her throat. "Mom…," she mumbled through a watery smile, words failing her.

How does she know? How does she always know just what I need to hear?

"Ahem."

There was a presence in the doorway. Sakura turned and locked eyes with Ino, who was standing unsurely and gripping a bouquet of pale pink roses that were the very same shade as Sakura's hair.

"Ino-Pig," tumbled out instinctively.

"Billboard Brow," was the response. Ino's expression softened at the sight of her friend's tear-stained face.

"Really?" Mebuki cut in and folding her arms across her chest. "You're still using those awful nicknames, huh?"

And then they both giggled and Sakura sprang up and threw her arms around her friend as fresh tears began to spill. "Thanks for coming by," she mumbled against Ino's shoulder while Ino carefully maneuvered the flowers aside so Sakura wouldn't crush them.

"Of course I came by!" Ino replied with some of her usual spunk and while placing a steadying hand on the small of Sakura's back. "And, Mrs. Haruno, you didn't happen to give this nut any of your painkillers, did you? She's acting unusually nice."

Mebuki burst into laughter and Sakura groaned "Shut up, pig…" without loosening her hold.

By evening, Sakura was feeling sombre yet a little rejuvenated after spending quality time with two of the most important women in her life.

Her mother was right. Sakura had been drawn to the medical arts in the first place because she thrived on helping others mend things that they couldn't mend alone. Sakura was the person who swooped in when mysterious diseases spread through villages, when comrades suffered from critical injuries, when impoverished towns needed medical support…

Or when loved ones needed a shoulder to lean on.

Sakura pulled a sweater on over her red training dress and set out for the Uchiha compound.

She'd come to terms that staying by Sasuke's side was the right thing for her to do no matter how much it hurt. She could only imagine the repercussions of making a spur-of-the-moment choice to die. And though Sasuke was the kind of person who usually chose to isolate himself, if he needed any kind of support right now, she would be there to provide it.

When she arrived at Sasuke's flat, while hugging her arms against herself (because she was feeling quite anxious), she knocked on the door. There was no answer. Sakura couldn't detect his chakra either, but also couldn't imagine why he would be concealing it. Where is he then? she thought while her eyes darted around, the tiniest trace of panic welling up inside her.

But then she reasoned that Sasuke could be anywhere and this was only the first place she'd looked. So she released a breath and turned away, and just when she began her descent down the balcony's steps, while pondering where to search next, she felt a tiny, distant flicker of Sasuke's chakra.

Sakura straightened up and twisted her head towards the flicker, the light of the sunset glistening in her wide, green eyes.

He's… somewhere in the compound.

She crept around the base of the balcony steps and turned towards the dark road lined with boarded up shops and homes – uncharted territory left untouched since the Uchiha massacre half a decade ago.

Sakura gulped and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She'd never dared cross this boundary into the depths of the ghost town where Sasuke's family used to live. Honestly, she always felt she wasn't allowed to. Sasuke never invited anyone into it nor did anyone ever express interest in exploring.

She took a nervous step forward. Under normal circumstances, she would have stayed put and waited for Sasuke to return home.

But this was far from a normal circumstance and Sakura wasn't backing out on her resolve to be the friend that Sasuke needed.

Sakura lengthened her stride into the compound, her sandals padding softly against the dirt road. She ignored the dip in temperature now that the surrounding buildings obscured the waning sunlight and channeled all of her sensory abilities into finding the source of the flicker of Sasuke's chakra, which was growing nearer with each step she took.

Minutes passed as she scoured the empty alleys with her eyes, searching for some sign of a presence nearby – perhaps footprints or a dim light flicked on in one of the buildings. But Sakura had no luck until she reached the road's dead end.

The dirt transitioned into an expanse of unkempt grass Sakura had never seen before. There were tall evergreens spotting the outskirts of the field and beyond it was a humongous body of water – a secluded lake which separated the Uchiha compound from the forest on Konoha's outskirts. And on the edge of the lake was an old boardwalk and an abandoned dock – save a lone figure sitting at the end of it.

Found you, Sakura thought and breaking into a jog before she could think better of it, the cool evening air filling her lungs and tingling her exposed skin.

She only slowed her pace when she reached the edge of the dock, gauging if Sasuke was angry with her for trespassing. But he continued staring out at the water without even stirring, though Sakura knew he sensed her there.

She took his nonresponse as an acceptance of her approaching him.

Sasuke was wearing a signature blue shirt with an Uchiha crest on the back and white shorts, his bare toes dipped into the water. The sunset painted the water's surface in yellow and orange hues and shimmered across the gentle ripples made by the evening breeze.

Sakura treaded carefully as she neared him and kept Kakashi's words in her mind. Sasuke was the type of person who needed space. Did he get enough of it? Was she intruding on something?

Well, there was no way of knowing unless she asked.

But just as Sakura opened her mouth, Sasuke broke the silence.

"I never found out about the massacre," he said.

She paused and let his words sink in before her heart began to pound with a mixture of relief and sorrow. This was an invitation for her to talk to him about his future self. Sakura promptly slipped off her sandals and sat down beside him, noticing how his body stiffened ever so slightly when she did.

"You didn't," Sakura confirmed.

When Sasuke nodded, she stole a glance at his profile and found that, like her, he wasn't wearing his forehead protector and that there were traces of exhaustion and fear in his eyes. "What happened?" he asked softly without looking anywhere near her.

And for a moment, Sakura considered withholding or obscuring the information so it didn't hurt him as badly. But she'd learned her lesson when she failed to tell him about the massacre all that time ago. Sasuke deserved the truth.

"Orochimaru offered you power and you accepted it to help with your revenge," Sakura said in a much steadier voice than she thought she was capable of. "You became… trapped in the darkness and Naruto and I have spent our whole lives trying to pull you back out of it, to bring you home… but…" Sakura's voice hitched. But you're probably beyond saving.

Sasuke put his head in his hands and Sakura's heart stung. "I'm sorry," she whispered and resisting her urge to reach for him. She wasn't sure how he would react to her crossing physical boundaries in a predicament like this. "This is a lot to take in. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth any sooner."

"It was a mission. You did what you had to do," was Sasuke's blunt response.

A moment of silence passed. "Thank you for understanding," Sakura said quietly while gazing out at the lake.

The silence stretched on. Sasuke didn't ask any more questions, nor did he ask her to leave. And Sakura didn't know what to say or whether she should say anything, until, bravely, she mumbled, "Do you actually want to train?"

Sasuke lifted his head and tilted it to the side to consider her. He sighed and said, "Sure." The words What have I got to lose? went unspoken.

She sat a little higher, invigorated that she might help provide a distraction from Sasuke's inner turmoil. "You want to learn about chakra transmission, right?"

He also straightened up, and his eyes started to come back into focus when they landed on her face. "Yeah I do," he said, like he was reminding himself.

Sakura smiled, pulled off her sweater and unzipped her dress, ignoring Sasuke's perplexed stare. "The easiest path for a non-medical ninja to transmit chakra is right to the center of another person's chakra circulation." She shrugged the dress off her shoulders, and then she was just wearing black shorts, a black band around her chest, and a fishnet undershirt (pretty standard kunoichi undergarments). "You can reach the center from either the front or the back," Sakura continued, while removing her gloves and placing one hand on her torso, just below the black band, and the other on the corresponding place on her back. "Feel for the lowest ribs as your benchmark, and place your hand directly in between them."

Sasuke nodded, and though she knew she had his full attention, she noticed his eyes drift lower on her body, to the gruesome scar on her abdomen left behind by Kabuto's impaling. "I'm not practicing on you," he deadpanned. "You said non-medical chakra transmission hurts for the receiver, right?"

"Right," Sakura agreed.

"And I don't know how to use my chakra in a way that isn't lethal yet," he added.

"So let's hone in on that skill," Sakura said with a determined nod and standing up on the water. "You'll start by transferring your chakra into something else – something you can't hurt." She discarded her medical and weapon pouches onto the dock and took another step forward.

Sasuke's expression filled with understanding and he did the same, parting with his weapons and following her onto the water.

Sakura turned around to face him when they were a few feet away from the dock. "Obviously, we both know how to walk on water. Explain to me how we're doing it," she instructed.

He looked towards their feet, which were surrounded by tiny ripples. "We're channeling chakra to our feet," he said.

"And then what does the chakra do?"

He paused. "It's… being released from our feet in rapid pulses, pushing against the water's surface so we don't sink."

"Exactly," Sakura said, beaming. "But if you were to transmit your chakra into the water particles instead of against them..." Sakura closed her eyes and began the chakra transfer, her body slowly sinking into the water and the ripples around her feet disappearing. She paused when she was ankle-deep. "I'm just manipulating my chakra differently," she finished. Sakura sat on the water's surface and crossed her legs. Sasuke did the same, watching her attentively.

"So I'll know I'm doing it right when I sink and my chakra stops creating ripples," Sasuke said, searching for something tangible to compare his progress to.

"Right," Sakura said and smiling. "The first step, as with most new kinds of techniques, is to visualize what you want to do – to meditate and imagine exactly where your chakra will go."

And then, eagerly, Sasuke began to practice.

The minutes stretched on and Sakura coached him through the technique, providing pointers and holding out steading hands for when he accidently cut his chakra off entirely and fell into the water.

The third time Sasuke accidentally sank, Sakura couldn't hold in her giggle. Sasuke glared at her while he climbed back out, tore off his soaked shirt and tossed it to the dock.

"S-sorry," she stammered, while covering her mouth with her hand. "You're making great progress. This isn't a technique you'll master in an hour."

"How long did it take you to master it?" he asked, and his tone wasn't accusatory – just curious.

Sakura shrugged and lay back onto the water's surface, tucking her hands behind her neck to brace it. It was a surreal feeling, hovering on water. Sakura suspected it was comparable to flying. "A few hours," she said.

Sasuke smirked and continued practicing with a competitive glint in his eye. She grinned back, suspecting that this practice was bringing him some refuge from his ruminating. And that it was breaking some kind of barrier between them.

As the sun finished its decent and its beams became obscured by the distant mountains, Sasuke called it quits and lay back to stare up at the darkening sky. He wasn't quite finished his practice but had made immense progress in transferring small portions of his chakra.

"You'll nail it in the next couple of days," Sakura mumbled and watching him out of the corner of her eye, noticing how the ripples around them collided with each other to cover the lake in glistening, circular patterns.

"I'm bound to learn things here, on this lake," he said. "This was where my father taught me to breathe fire."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. That was news to her.

That was when Sasuke's vigor seemed to fade, and his mood slipped into something rather pensive. Sakura sensed that what he needed most now was for her to listen.

"That was one of my few life goals – to master the Fireball technique in front of him. And I did it." He chuckled. "Thankfully my bucket list was always pretty short."

Sakura's throat constricted at his morbid humour. He was acknowledging, and perhaps even accepting, his impending death.

How are you laughing about this? Sakura thought in horror while turning away and trying to get a grip over her own emotions. It was hard to support someone when your own feelings were spiraling out of control.

But this was exactly how his life was before, wasn't it? Sasuke never wanted an existence that revolved around revenge. It was just something he felt he needed to do; a sacrifice in pursuit of a goal that he felt was greater than him.

And this time, it's not his freedom but his life that he's sacrificing.

Sakura sat up abruptly, her heart pounding, the emotions striking her harder than any physical blow ever could. She pretended she was rubbing her tear-filled eyes from exhaustion.

Sasuke is going to die.

"Your ex-boyfriend was my future self this whole time."

Sakura froze and glanced over to find her teammate frowning up at the sky. "No, not my ex-boyfriend," she corrected, her voice coming out shaky. "It was unrequited." A bitter, painful laugh escaped her. "I mean, obviously. I was never enough for you to stay in Konoha."

Then there was pause. Well, he brought it up, she thought, hoping Sasuke would drop the agonizing topic. Let's not talk about this now. Not now that you're about to…

"So we... so you just…," Sasuke started, clearly uncertain of how exactly he would put to words what he wanted to say. And then, quietly, "You loved me."

A strange anger welled up inside Sakura then. Does he… does he think this is a thing of the past? Does he not get how hard this is for me right now? "Not loved," she snapped, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could think better of it.

But then it dawned on her what she'd just done, so she sprang up to her feet, wobbling slightly on the water's surface. Sakura did not have the emotional bandwidth to face a rejection to an accidental confession of her feelings right now. "I'm… I'm going to order some food," she stammered and making a beeline for the dock. "I'll be back."

And as she padded away, splashing a little with each step, she heard Sasuke sit up and sensed his eyes on her back, but that didn't stop her from pulling on her dress and departing in a hurry.

When Sakura returned to the Uchiha compound with enough food to feed ten people (because who cares?), the door of Sasuke's flat was unlocked so she stumbled in and put everything down on the kitchen table. The flat's owner was no where in sight but there was a lingering humidity in the air which indicated that he must have taken a shower recently. Then it occurred to Sakura that her wet underclothes had soaked through her dress and that a hot shower would be quite refreshing. So she grabbed a towel and some spare clothes from the hallway closet and locked herself in the bathroom.

She removed her cold and damp clothes and stepped into the hot water, expecting some relief but receiving just the opposite.

Because then she was completely isolated and alone with her thoughts.

And it hit her. It really hit her.

Her mission, through which she hoped to save him, not only failed but did just the opposite. "No," she mumbled and gripping onto the porcelain wall tiles and resting her forehead on the slippery surface.

His death is my fault.

Her heart shattered. Sasuke's suicide wasn't only his choice – it was hers. She could have chosen to stay in this world and salvage something good from it, with Sasuke at her side, but she didn't. And even if it was the right thing to do, this decision would haunt her and tear her apart for the rest of her days

Eventually she left the shower, feeling far worse than she did when she got into it. After towel-drying her hair and slipping on the dry clothes – a pair of grey capris and a loose, black sweater – she mopped up her red and puffy eyes to no avail, and stepped out into the hallway.

She crept through the flat and quickly deduced that Sasuke wasn't in it. No, he was on the balcony.

Sakura slid open the door and stepped outside into the night and noticed the yellow, glowing lanterns hanging above her, the sounds of crickets chirping, and how Sasuke was standing there with his back to her, gripping onto the balcony rail and looking out at the compound. He was wearing black pants and a blue shirt with his family crest stitched on the back.

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder at Sakura when she approached and there was something raw in his expression. He was probably feeling it too now – realizing that his life was nearly over, and perhaps realizing what terrors he might witness if he made it to the future.

Daringly, Sakura stood beside him on the balcony's edge and gave the sleeve of his t-shirt a soft tug. And he watched, quietly, as she manoeuvred his arm away from the rail and moved to stand in front of him and wrap her arms tightly around his torso. She nuzzled her face into his collarbone and felt the warmth radiating from him seep through her sweater. And when his hands gripped onto her back and he buried his face in her hair, the sobs got caught somewhere in between her chest and throat.

And maybe this was just making everything worse. Because their time together was limited and he knew how she felt about him and he wasn't pushing her away this time. She was playing with fire.

But medical ninjutsu could heal burns, couldn't it?

Sakura wasn't sure how long they stayed like that for, but when her heartrate calmed enough for her to concentrate, she dragged her head upwards to look her teammate in the eye. Sasuke pulled back slightly and did the same.

She didn't flinch away like she usually did when they were at such proximities but instead, noticed the moonlight and emotion dancing in his dark irises a few inches away. However, staring at him wasn't easy, because she knew it was one of the last times she ever would.

Sasuke must have had a similar realization because she felt his breathing catch a little against her chest. She watched his eyes while they scanned every corner of her face. Something like wonder crossed his features and he made the tiniest movement to shake his head.

Unable to bear it for a second longer, Sakura closed her eyes, but was startled when Sasuke's hand came up to her jaw, and was even more startled when she felt his mouth against hers, his surprisingly cold lips touching hers slowly, cautiously, like he was afraid she was going to crumble against him.

Her body felt numb but when she somehow found enough sensation to move, she brought her hands up to the base of his neck and tilted her head to properly align their mouths.

It didn't take long to find a slow and sad rhythm. Sasuke's hold on her tightened and he pinned her between his body and the balcony rail, his hands moving from her jaw to her shoulders to her hair, like he couldn't afford to leave a part of her untouched. And Sakura greedily pressed her lips to his again and again, completely succumbing to her desperation.

Soon Sasuke's mouth drifted to other parts of her face – the corner of her lips, her cheekbone, and finally her forehead, where he chose to linger.

While she caught her breath, a puzzling thought occurred to Sakura. "Was that… was that on your bucket list?" she breathed because as much as it would sting if this moment was nothing but an item being crossed off a list, she wouldn't be surprised.

She felt Sasuke smile against her forehead and warm moisture on her hairline, moisture which she vaguely recognized as tears.

"No," he said, and Sakura's heart stopped and her breathing hitched. "That was before you're too old for me."

Sakura laughed a bewildered, delirious laugh that rumbled in her belly and hurt when it escaped her. Because after all this time, her love, a love that transcended time, had finally been returned.

But now it was too late.

A/N: I am really, really looking forward to your feedback on this one. Please drop a line if you get a chance. See you soon. :)