Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, don't you think I'd be able to draw well?

-Learning to Live Without You-

Ever since you left, I've been learning to live again.

There's a pattern to my life; have you noticed? I'm happy, thinking life couldn't get better. Then tragedy strikes.

I found you, and I couldn't have been happier. The day I proposed to you, and when you said yes; that day I think I knew that something terrible would happen to me.

I was waiting for something to happen to someone else; I was too afraid to face the facts. I knew something would happen to you, but I didn't want to admit it.

Then, when I finally faced the truth and my fears, you were gone. Dead.

I hate that word: death. That's pretty much all my life is centered around: The death of my clan, the death of Itachi, and the death of you.

The day of your memorial, Naruto said something to me that was comforting in its own absurd way: "She always said she wanted to be and die an Uchiha. I guess she got her wish, in a weird sorta way, ne?" He had a point.

Of all my questions for the gods, the most pressing would be this: why did you have to be the one to get leukemia? Why not Tenten? Or Ino? Or Hinata? Why couldn't it have been someone except you?

Now I've got a guilty voice telling me that that wasn't a very nice thing to say. If Tenten, Ino, or Hinata had died, Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto would be feeling the same thing I am feeling.

You know what I mean, that desperately lonely feeling that makes you want to curl up and die? Sometimes I wish I could do that.

But then the voice comes back and tells me that I have to live for them. Damn voice.

Them. The friends and companions I have gained over the years. I know that if I died or left, Naruto would be torn. His heart has already suffered too many blows: having no parents; the villagers ridiculing him. And now that you've gone, Hinata's gonna have her work cut out for her, healing that idiot's broken heart.

I sit her at your grave, contemplating my life, my past, you, and what would happen if I decided to just end it all. Maybe I should go.

---

The young man stands up, still gazing upon the stone tablet that marked where his dead lover lay.

"I'm leaving now, Sakura. But don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow."

The young man turns, and begins to walk away, looking and feeling helpless. He pauses. Looking up, and a few sakura blossoms fall upon the man's upturned face. He smiles. "So you've been listening, have you...Sakura."