Just a little oneshot of what I believe would happen if Sakura got fed up enough. Sakura-centric I suppose, which is the very first one I have written. I really admire her character, and considering that there's so much "ohmygod Sakura's such a poser/loser/Sasuke-obssessive bitch" that I, quite frankly, am sick of it. Yes, Sakura was not one of my favorite characters when I first got into the series. I suppose that coming from a series like Rurouni Kenshin that Sakura seemed a little like a school-crush-obssessed girlie girl unable to do any real fighting. But as the series progressed, she grew, and I have to respect that.

I think when I realized how much I geniunely liked and respected her character was during the Chuunin exams, when she cut her hair and gave her speech about "watching her back." So many of us have had to watch others backs, watched them walk away, that it struck a deep chord in me. I guess that having to always watch Naruto and Sasuke run off would get you pissed, too.

So this is in honor of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and I respect that so many people hate her--I just don't agree with it. No flames for this, because this is what it is, and I, heaven help me/us, like it.

WARNINGS: LANGUAGE. (more than I prefer to use, really, but it mattered in this fic.) Character death (s); one definite, a few more implied. Spoilers, but only if you've never read the Chuunin Exam Arc or... well... anything above that.

Disclaimer: (I usually forget these, haha...) Sessha owns nothing except this story itself. Anything you think is licensed probably is. I just wish I owned the Naruto: First Season Uncut boxed set...

Watch My Back

It was dark here.

It wasn't supposed to be dark; because he was here, and he was light and energy and fire, and everything she feared and hated and needed because he was all she had left.

She cursed, hands shaking from the exhaustion and the fear and the sheer horror, as she pounded his bleeding, broken chest in desperation. She was not going to lose another one.

The others with her on the mission looked on in horror, frozen and hushed as if time had stopped in their own little piece of hell. To move at this point would be risking breaking the spell or whatever curse had landed on them.

She grit her teeth and uttered every single curse word she knew (which, considering her friends, was considerable.)

This was not Tsunade losing Dan.

This was not Rin watching Obito die.

This was Sakura saving Naruto because, damn it, he'd saved her so many times that it was about time she returned the damn favor.

She wished to hell that she'd watched Chiyo-baa-san use that jutsu when she'd had the fucking chance.

Because she was not going to lose him.

The only other medic-nin, barely conscious but alive, forced himself to memorize the seals, watch the chakra flow. Because this wasn't Tsunade the Legendary Healer, this was Haruno Sakura, the genius medic-nin, the apprentice of the Godaime Hokage, the fucking prodigy that had been rivaled only by the orphaned Rin of Team Yondaime.

Tsundade, Rin, Sakura.

"Damn it all to hell, I'm not going to let you die! Do you hear me, Naruto! I'm not letting history fucking repeat again!" she screamed as she poured every last ounce of chakra she had into his unresponsive and cooling body.

Damn it all, she was the weak one, she was the one who was supposed to die.

She pounded healing into him, so lost in the intricate chakra-weaving and Naruto that she knew she was going to die after all of this and didn't give a shit.

Though she really shouldn't be thinking of Sasuke at a time like this.

She realized that she was going after this all wrong; forcing the chakra into him blow-by-blow was taking up too much precious time and energy. She closed her eyes, falling into what medics called The Zone, and concentrated. She pulled all of her energy, every last bit of chakra down to the last ounce, and forced it across the tense, taut bowstring of her soul. Shooting it into his body, she collapsed on top of him, panting from the exertion.

For a moment that was longer than her lifetime nothing happened.

"... S-sakura-chan...?" the faint whisper made her open her eyes, giving him a weak smile.

More than ever, the other medic couldn't look away.

He found he hated himself for it.

"Hey, Naruto..."

Blue eyes, still dazed and a little unfocused, grew alarmed at her fading voice.

"... thanks... for watching... my back..."

In the end, there was only one body brought back in a bag.

Another one was brought back without his soul.

----

There is a name on the Memorial Stone that is worn down from being gently rubbed every single day for years. It is not an especially beautiful name, if you didn't know who it belonged to.

Everybody knows the legend of how the person saved their future Hokage, their beloved Rokudaime, when he'd come so close to death they'd nearly lost him. Everybody knows of her bravery and courage and unbelievable skill. Everybody knows how he'd saved her on that mission, and how she'd returned the favor. Everybody knows this.

Few people know that he hates her for it.

...almost as much as he hates himself.

----

---owari---