Author's Note: For dark puck

The burning in her chest was spreading. Sakura had spent long hours studying the workings of the human body, and she knew what the burning meant.

If she had all her chakra reserve, if by some miracle what she was feeling wasn't the failing of her heart from a hand going through her chest, then she might have been able to heal the damage. She wasn't the Godaime Hokage's protege for nothing. But she didn't have any chakra left, having spent an hour regenerating Naruto's leg, only to have him go back out and die skewered on Sasuke's sword, his blood leaking out of him as Sakura watched from a distance, his blue eyes fading (why hadn't he used the Kyuubi? Why? He could've won, could've killed-), his life leaking out of him-

But the hand hadn't missed her heart. Kabuto, for all his brutal uses of his talent, was a medic-nin as well. And he didn't miss.

Sakura coughed and felt the blood dribble down her chin. Sign of internal damage, the analytical part of her brain noted. Had to be treated within the hour or doomed to be lethal.

She would have laughed, except she knew that all that would come up was more blood.

"Why?" The word came out in a whisper. Sakura's chest- what remained of it- felt too tight to draw breath.

Kabuto looked at her. His hair fell loose around his shoulders and he had lost his glasses at the beginning of their fight, but despite that his eyes remained focused. The glasses had most likely been a hoax. Something to fool the opponent. Sakura had to admit to their ingenuity. She had been surprised when the Sound-nin had failed to hesitate when his glasses fell to the ground, cracked neatly in half at the nose piece. That surprise was the reason that there was a cut on her forehead that continually leaked blood into her left eye.

His hand was still in her chest as he responded calmly, "Why what, Sakura?"

His reply, so empty of anything, be it cruelty or satisfaction or, hell forbid it, compassion, made the words pour out of her, her voice growing weaker and weaker with each word she spoke to the man with even less humanity than his immortal master. "Why would you betray Konoha and join Orochimaru? Why would you help him destroy the village that used to be your home? Who do you think you are, to do this to us?"

His gaze was steady as he met her eyes. "Konoha was never my home. As for who I am.. ?" He smiled. "I am the man who is helping to bring about the downfall of the most powerful shinobi village in the world. Anything else about me you have no right to know, Sakura. Even if you are about to die."

Sakura closed her eyes. She couldn't feel anything anymore. "That's good. I wouldn't... want to..."

Kabuto frowned. "What?"

It was then that he looked down and noticed the kunai shoved below his ribs. His eyes widened. The cough that followed was flecked red. "You shouldn't... have the strength to do that after your heart is gone."

Sakura smiled, and pulled out the kunai. Blood splayed, and the Sound-nin fell to his knees, his eyes already gone dull. "I don't have the strength... to do a lot of things, Kabuto-san. But getting just this little revenge for what you did to me, and my comrades... that I can do."

Sakura's smile didn't waver as she collapsed on top of the man who had killed her. Her heart was gone, yes. But Naruto was dead, Kakashi was dead, and Sasuke wasn't the boy she had loved anymore, and maybe never had been. Her heart had died with them, and it was from pain, long festered within her from the long ago betrayal of her innocence and the years of despair that followed, that she had drawn her strength. Love was stronger than hate. But hate was all she had left.