Author's note/ Ugh. This chapter. It was necessary for the story, but it was so painful to write. Guys buy yourself a cup of coffee, get some comfort food. Take care of yourselves. Song of choice nothing's gonna hurt you baby- cigarettes after sex. This song was actually the one that inspired me to write this story. I could not get the image of Sasuke telling Sakura nothing would hurt her, even as she died, out of my head. So i had to put it to paper, and here we are with what it turned into. I took graphic design, does anyone want to see some art for this fic? Let me know in the comments. Happy reading!

Ps. My schools semester picks up tomorrow, everyday updates may not happen for a bit.

Sakura's POV

How had it all ended up here? Sakura berated herself mentally. How had she come so far, worked so hard, only to meet her end hundreds of miles away from home. Alone.

It wasn't fair. It was all so unfair. She had so much she still planned to do. Sakura wanted to run the hospital in Konoha, when she was older. She wanted to make Jonin. She wanted team 7 to reunite. Now as she bled out, she knew there wasn't time for any of it. Sakura might be able to stop the bleeding, she'd live a little while longer but without another medic around she was done for.

Sakura knew she'd been poisoned. She hoped she used the right things to counteract it, but it didn't really matter. If the poison didn't kill her, the blood loss certainly would.

Fuck.

Sakura didn't swear. She could count on 1 hand the amount of times she had sworn in her life. She swore then though, and it felt good.

There was a gruesome trail of blood smeared behind Sakura, from where she had dragged her battered body. Her once flawless and porcelain skin was now almost all covered in blood. She had deep lacerations, and they were leaking crimson. Her flak-jacket was soaked in it. She whimpered as she peeled the vest off of herself. The pain coursed through her like lightning with every movement she made. Her head was throbbing. She pulled a black glove off from her hand, on the arm that wasn't broken, her gloves were wet and slick they were useless to her now with out any grip. She tossed it next to the abandoned vest.

Sakura peered around the boulder she was hiding behind. There wasn't any movement she could make out but she knew he was still out there, lying in wait with his puppets. She set to work peeling back her shirt so she could work on herself. She let what little chakra she had left in her flow to her hands. The green glow surrounded her fingertips and she guided them across her body she targeted the areas where the devastation was the worst. She didn't have enough chakra left in her to heal herself properly, the best she could do was stop the bleeding. And now she had even less chakra to use to fight Sasori when he inevitably found her.

Sakura was screwed.

The mission was far passed sideways. Their intel had been wrong, and this had been a trap.

Sakura glanced at the ring on her finger. 'Please, just let Naruto be okay.' Sakura wasn't religious but she sent that prayer out into the universe all the same.

Sakura was smart, and so she knew what this was about. The demon fox. The Akatsuki were after Naruto. Sakura was in the way, and Sasori meant to kill her quickly to get back to his partner so they could deal with Naruto together. She hoped Naruto was giving his opponent everything he had, she hoped he was giving him hell.

Sakura had the bleeding stopped, and she wanted to try and work on her arm but she didn't get the chance. Suddenly the boulder she was hiding behind exploded.

No, oh no! Sasori.

Sakura shoved herself backwards and away from it as fast as she could. Sakura had raised her hands, she was trained to protect her head before anything else. Chunks of the hard rock crashed into her knocking her back down. Her knees scraped the ground as she went down. When she opened her eyes bits of debris were still floating around her, and she could see her vest now had a layer of dirt that was seeping into the blood.

Move. I have to move.

Sakura sprung up and just in time, because a steel metal beam ripped through the air where she'd only just been standing. Her head whipped around, and there he was. Sasori of the red sand.

The puppets, where are the puppets?!

Sakura darted and dodged as more metal beams were launched at her. She kept a careful eye out, his puppets were out there somewhere.

Sakura was smart. Sasori was out of her league she knew. She was aiming to buy Naruto as much time as she could. If Naruto took out his opponent, then maybe just maybe he could make it out of this. One of them would make it back to Konoha.

Sakura was weaving between trees and giant boulders, and she doesn't know what made her think of him, but she did. His shoulders had gotten broader, the last time she saw him. His face as sharp and sculpted as a statue. Sasuke Uchiha.

If she died here, would Sasuke even care she wondered. When they last met, it had ended poorly. Sakura's throat went dry. She couldn't let that be the last memory she had of him, it was to pathetic. She was getting out of here. She was going to Konoha, and giving Kakashi her notice. Then she decided she was going to the sound Village. Sakura would bring him back. She had to. Even if he didn't love her, Sakura wanted to save him. She wanted Sasuke to be happy.

Sakura's hands began to tremble when she pushed chakra into them, she swung around on an axis. She only had 1 blow left in her, she had to make it count it had to kill him. She was going to do some of the chasing, now.

Sasori was momentarily caught off guard, and he was unable to block her punch in time. Sakura sent him down hard into the ground. He somersaulted through the air. His red head bounced off the earth like rubber, when he came down. The sound of his body hitting ground was sickening.

Yes! Got him.

But then Sasori was sitting up and he only spat out a mouthful of dirt. Alive, he was.

What the hell is this guy?!

Sakura let herself forget about the puppets for just a moment, and it was her fatal mistake. Before she even knew what hit her, her breath was out of her lungs, and she was pinned down. She screamed out when her broken arm was restrained. She couldn't move any of her appendages. Her chakra was depleted. They had her.

No. Not like this. Not like this.

Sakura wasn't sure if it was because she was so terrified or if she just knew this was really, finally it. Whatever it was she began to ramble out loud.

"Naruto-" She was listing all of the people she loved. "Ino, Kakashi- Sensei, Sai, mom, dad-" she could hear Sasori's footsteps as he got closer. "Lady Tsunade."

Sakura's heart thundered against her rib cage, her eyes were squeezed shut. Sasori was standing over her now, she could make out his shadow from behind her eyelids.

"Sssasuke!" It was a declaration of love as much as a plea for help. "Sasuke." She begged, but he wasn't there to help her.

Tears had fallen of their own accord, Sakura could feel the hot heat of them sliding down her face.

"Look at me." A voice commanded her, but she squeezed her eyes tighter, she didn't want the last thing she saw to be Sasori of the red sand. A hand slid against the side of her cheek. "Look at me." It coaxed.

Sakura opened her eyes slowly, Sasori's tone had changed.

"Such beautiful, eyes." He told her, towering above her. "I've never seen eyes like them."

Even if the puppets weren't holding her down, Sakura was to afraid to move. She couldn't speak. There was something so threatening but gentle in his words, and in any other context than a battle they might have been construed as romantic.

"Rise, Sakura Haruno. Today, i allow you to walk away."

The puppets went slack on her, and they slithered off. Sakura scooted herself backwards in the dirt. She wanted as much distance between herself and Sasori as she could get. She could barely believe it. He was just going to let her walk away.

Sakura turned her back on Sasori to flee, and before she even got 10 feet her vision swam. Had he poisoned her again? She crumpled on her side, and that's when she saw it. A metal beam sticking out from her back through her entirely. Her nerves had been destroyed and she wasn't processing the pain like she should. She had been skewered it should hurt like hell. It should have killed her instantly, but Sasori hadn't wanted that, she guessed.

Sasori bent to look in her eyes again, and he whispers to her the final words she would ever hear.

"I told you i would allow you to walk away, but I never said you could go home."

Swirling colors of red and blue mixed around in her mind. Everything was foggy. Her brain is dying she realized. Sakura struggles against it. No. She fought against the darkness. It was futile.

Sakura lets her mind wander. She makes up the goodbyes she wishes she had, in her last moments. She allows these self indulgent fantasies, to distract herself from the shutting down of her brain, her organs, and her eventual death.

Like petals in the wind, the people she loved most fall away from her reach, one by one. In quick bursting images, she sees them. Her parents hold her. Ino and Tsunade share a drink with her. Naruto slings his arm around her. Kakashi ruffles her hair. And for the man she's loved for as long as she can remember, well she kisses him goodbye.

Sssasuke.

There's a rattling breath in her chest, because it's her final one. Sakura fixes her green eyes on a point far beyond Sasori, far beyond this world, and then she's gone.