Sakura Haruno have gone through so much.

Sakura knew the sacrifices taken when she decided to become a faithful shinobi of her village, but things like it never gets easier. She was taught pain, heartbreak, anger, and grief through her younger years of violence taken and she will hold on to them forever. The First Shinobi War have taken so much in her; to see bloodshed in honor of victory, to see her loved ones and important people in deathbed knowing their deaths were not in vain, and to see what the war accomplished to the minds and hearts of widowers death left in their doors. She was the embodiment of innocence and light, but to see herself lead someone's life towards death's door was heartbreaking just as much as longing because it wasn't her profession of choice.

She seized death in every corner of a tilted honorarium sense called life; she would see it in the hospital corners whether from the weeping old woman whose husband was no longer with her, she would see it from those civilians of the village corners whether their sons or daughters died in duty, she would see it in every shinobi there was whose life was now tainted of red, and she specifically saw it whenever she was alone and survival regretted her at the knowledge her loved ones didn't. Death grip her in every corners like a chain, and she'd gotten used to it and loved it even.

But she saw a chance of redemption when she found love and peace afterwards, and things have never been better. She married the love of her life knowing he love her too, she created a person she swore to love and protect with all her life, she was surrounded by many people who loved and was endear to her despite her flaws and scars, and she thought everything was fine. She knew that the pain she held dear was nothing like that thousands of grief they hold close, but she thought they were equal and they thought they were her equal, and everything was going great.

That was until now.

"Whatever it takes."

Three years ago, half the population of life in this planet was dusted under the hands of the Warrior God, Nabuya, who seized all deadly and powerful stones in his hand, and snapped his fingers. He believed all nature in life to be finite, and so to stop extinction he created a maddening solution to cease half of all life at random. Everyone was lost in the air of reconciliation of death, whilst some they weren't even aware of was gone, but some unfortunately remained. She lost her husband, her daughter, and her parents, and she was the one to survive. Everything about this wasn't fine.

She remembered the sinking realization in her stomach as her husband uttered his last words of love, and everything's changing. Surviving have never been so painful and she wanted to be with them, to stop her suffering once and for all—

— but she didn't. She couldn't break down when her people was vulnerable and there's no one to guide them. She kept her tears at bay until at night, and proceeded to do the right thing because it's what they would've wanted. They wouldn't want her mourning and parading the dark, she kept her masks and provided a need of comfort and smile. They were divided and so was she, but she needed to maintain hope because everyone have given up and she needed someone to handle the mantle.

Sakura stood up from her forlorn, and strud towards Shikamaru with faceless determination.

"If we don't get that stone, billions of people will stay dead."

"I guess we both know who's it gonna be," Shikamaru muttered, throat bobbing with indignation.

Sakura slowly nodded her head and averted her emerald gaze towards the ground. The beating of her heart have ceased and was now replaced with defeated sense of heroic tale.

The two began to lean to one another, their foreheads touching in sync as if for one last embrace of commemoration. Their lips did not touch, but the closeness between them was something they desperately needed for their sanity. They were losing another battle and losing another loved one, but they did not know it yet.

Shikamaru looked at her as realization sinks in. His eyes sharpened seeing her defeated gaze towards him, and his mouth quivered in lost amusement. "I'm starting to think it's not the same person we're thinking."

Sakura kept her tears at bay, and the pain in her voice in control as she spoke: "You tell my family I love them, yeah?"

They saw an opportunity to bring everyone back by going back in time and bringing the powerful stones with them. They will use the power of those scrolls to bring them back, and the future wouldn't be affected at all by going back in time. Those past few weeks spent devicing a plan and bring information needed about those stones, there were still blanks left and it was one of them. That was why they're currently here, ready to leap for their person to live.

But at what cost?

"Sakura—"

"Whatever it takes, we bring them back—"

"I'll do it—"

"I'm the rational choice! You have a family-"

"And you don't?"

"Don't you get it? I'm trying to save your life here," Sakura gritted her teeth and kept her eyes firm to her friend.

"This is your chance," Shikamaru laid a hand to the widower's cheeks and wipe the tears already lingering to it. "We are bringing your family back, you can't throw that away."

"You have a family too," Sakura shot back, silencing the man for a moment. "You have a wife and a son waiting for you. Are you throwing them away?"

"I've lived a life with them and I'm happy," he said after a momentary of silence. "This is your chance to be with them again."

Sakura was speechless and resisted the urge to cry. She knew he was right, that this was officially her chance with her family. He already lived a life of peace with Temari and his daughter, and this was his chance with bringing this peace with his village even if it requires his death. But she was not letting him do it, and he was not letting her too.

"I've lived a life too," Sakura whispered in a wisp of air, her breathing hitched when she closed her eyes at the resounding cold air. "Shikamaru, this is my choice."

Vormir was surprisingly a beautiful place for two friends on the bridge of death. The air was cold and soothing to their pain, and the sky above them was remnants of violet and blue— something so unusual to see for the everyday setting they've grown used too. The air was stifling with unmatched gravity of two people, but it soothed the fear into a share of numbing sense of death. The sun in front of them have long dissipated, and is now replaced with orange hues giving them resigned hope.

Shikamaru stared at her for a moment and nodded in resignation. He kept his intention carefully hidden from her. "What a drag. You win, fine."

Sakura took a deep breath as tears fell from their embrace. She was just preparing when she felt herself fall from the ground, his foot inches away from where he tripped her.

"Tell my family I love them," Sakura grunted in surprise and kicked him in the groin with gritted teeth. She shoved him aside and she stood up, punching a crater of rock towards him like waterfalls.

"You tell them yourself."

Sakura turned away and began to run to the cliff, determination wavering with inches of step she took. She cried out in surprise for she was tackled to the ground and received a kick to her ribs. She opened her eyes and found Shikamaru who was now turning from her and was now running to the cliff. Sakura grasped her broken ribs as she stand, now lips quivering and legs weakening, and she was moving to her own accords.

No.

Sakura ran faster than she ever has before, and tackled Shikamaru. She felt the gravity leave her breathless as she twisted into the air, her dread quickly turning into relief once she was now barreling towards the bottom.

Shikamaru's eyes widened and quickly used his right hand to grab one of the stones off the cliff. Her body was now slipping from his grasp, he immediately hook his hands to her own and he couldn't help the cry of pain at the sudden burden of weight to lift her up.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He felt his frustration bubbling inside in his sadness, and he desperately come to think of any strategy to get her out of the mess. His mind was blank of it for once, however, and the drumming of his heart against his ears was doing nothing to help him out of this situation.

"Let me go," Sakura softly whispered to his own.

Her words did nothing to ease the trepidation, and only made him tighten his grasp to her hand which was now slipping from his own.

He stared at her through watery tinted eyes and noticed she was the same. Her mask is now slipping from her control, and he could now see an underlying fear she kept hidden away. Her lips quivered with unmasked sobs silenced through a aghast, her warm green hue akin to regret and bittersweet ending it would prevail.

"No... Please don't," he begged her friend to stay. His tears was now leaving their socket and keeping him alone, his composure was slipping.

This was denial he's feeling, the first stage of grief was coming too him too soon and it was doing everything to keep her to falling apart. There was nothing more she wanted than to follow his wish and go, and it took everything in her not to go of her decision and be brave.

"It's okay."

Shikamaru stared at the pink haired girl on the brink of her death, and loosened his hold on her through shaking fingers. A sacrifice was about to happen in this very place, and it wasn't him. He was gonna witness another death of a comrade, but this time it was someone who's close to him. He needed to brought himself back to logic. They need to bring everyone back now for the sake of one another's half, and he needed to let go. Will it be worth it to leave everyone for the sake of Sakura's life? It wasn't worth it and it wasn't the rational choice.

He needed to let go.

She was gonna miss everything when she's gone. She still had a lot of things to do and yet this was how her story will end: she still wanted to grow old with Sasuke, see all of her children grow and have a family, be with her friends and family and teach, but none of that was happening. She hated to leave them unannounced, but if that's what takes for a hope of better world then so be it. She lived a great life, while short, had been very memorable and keep her at peace.

This was up to them now.

Her eyes widened as fear have finally come to her aid and left her alone. She swore that her heart stopped for a moment, a crippling sense of ice numbed her of everything as she kept falling into the abyss and out from their warmth. Sakura could feel the gravity pulling her down, and the wind encasing her in a shell of a drowning sensation in which she relished the memories they shared with one another. She kept remembering and remembering until—

Her body landed on the ground.

Shikamaru watched everything about it with a wordless scream, watching and waiting right until her body landed on the ground as her blood seeped into it. His traitorous eyes remained focus on them, the light in it now devoid of anything seeing another one of a loved ones die. His sobs echoed throughout it all and closed his eyes, until the light from the above finally overtook him and—

He woke up to find himself in a place of solace. Water littered his surroundings and he was laying on it, unaware. There was something heavy on his hands and when he looked into it, his memories finally resurfaced and he let out a whispered cry for the dead.

Because there on his hand was a stone for the soul. Sakura sacrificed her life for it and it was now on their hands.

Shikamaru kept the stone tight despite how much he wanted to unfurl it to the lake. He'll be protecting it with his life, and he's gonna do everything to get them back for her and for her sacrifices.

"Did we really do it?!"

The gang finally came back to their mission with their each shares of the stone and the foreboding happiness in their eyes knowing they were one step away to victory. Naruto and Kakashi was the one in charge for the reality stone which was located in Makushi Mountain, Temari and Chouji was assigned to the mind stone in Rio Valley of Water, and Sakura and Shikamaru was assigned to the soul stone which was in the foreign place of Earth, Vormir. Boruto and Tsunade opted to wait in the present time and bring them out if something went wrong.

"Yes Naruto. I think we did," Kakashi laughs underneath the mask appearing in utmost disbelief. He'd been the one to doubt that it was gonna work, but stayed despite his doubts and even decided to volunteer with the time heist.

The declaration of success sent the entire crowd of heroes into fits of happiness that wreak havoc to the entire room. Some were crying tears of happiness in which that they joined, a bottled up trauma extinguished by hope, and some were jumping and hugging one another as if it was an end of war. The sun was shining upon them, unaware of the impending news ready to stop it all.

Shikamaru found himself an outsider amongst the gathering. While he was happy for the achievement, Sakura's death looms over his entire being and he couldn't shake it. He couldn't find himself to enjoy, not with the upcoming grief he'll announce. He tried to keep a straight face throughout it all, his control shaking from his grasp, and fought to keep himself from completely falling to the ground.

Finally, the celebration was cut short when Naruto noticed that one member had been missing throughout it all.

"Eh? Where's Sakura-chan?" that question was innocent, puzzled, and even cheery for a bit but it still stung nonetheless.

"Shikamaru, where's Sakura-chan?"

Shikamaru finally to looked up and Naruto was struck by the overwhelming mourning and pain in his eyes. He felt his breath hitch, as if he was struck by a sudden realization.

His stomach dropped.

"We were at Vormir when this guy came up to us and told us the cost to get the stone," he felt his voice break as he said the mantra to get it. "A soul for a soul."

"Sakura sacrificed her life for it."

He could see how the news had taken over their ire, and felt so awful to see it. Naruto, whose emotions he wear to his sleeves, fell to the ground with tears streaming down his face at the faults and shattered pieces for a family he could no longer get back. Kakashi, who remained civil about it, failed to keep his composure and silently cried for another death of a family. Tsunade, who'd always been so brave and aggressive, was fragile and had a hand over her mouth and cried for the loss she deemed her daughter.

The crowd gathered and cried with them for their connection with Sakura, some with different ways to show their ache but have the same reason to mourn, and Shikamaru joined them once again. He felt a hand laid out to his shoulder and when he looked up, he could only cry harder seeing Temari so broken and vulnerable.

Later that evening, the gang was gathered in a private service to mourn the death of Sakura Haruno. They didn't have the time to announce it to the village and also the other nations the death of an important figure— not when they didn't even know about their attempts and haven't accomplished a thing to do so. They paid their respect to her and promised to give her a much better funeral with everyone this time, and make sure that everyone knows of her heroic sacrifice and intention.

They threw roses in the lake in four of the afternoon.

They weren't able to take her body in Vormir because it was now a property of the stone and if they took her, that would mean giving back the stone. They hated that; because it means Sakura is really gone and they can't even properly bury and mourn for her.

It was late in the afternoon and everyone in the gang have come back to their quarters to rest and strategize, and a remaining sum of five opted to stay and watch the sun sets from the underground. They were drained, in mourning, and felt the need to stay with a bodiless casket of flowers washing over the lake.

Naruto sat on the ground of a lake, gripping the necklace his wife left of her before she was dusted. His mouth was pulled to a tight frown, eyes red rimmed with bags under his blue hues, and fists clenched to a grim line. Shikamaru remained distant as possible, his eyes locked to the piece of rock played with between his toes.

Kakashi approached the Hokage in utmost reluctance, laying a hand to his shoulder for comfort. Aside from the four, he'd been the one to bear the news better than them but appeared with solemn consideration. He'd considered Team Seven his family, Sakura his daughter, and must console them as his responsibility.

"Sakura made up the plan to bring everyone back, did you know?" Kakashi spoke amidst the silence. "She spent the past three years gaining information and leading therapy for the village."

"She had always been dedicated to rescue the people she could. I admired that about her," Naruto choked up from the sentence, smiling a rather bitter smile as he recalled a few memories with the pink haired kunoichi.

"Why are you all acting like she's dead?" Temari demanded to them. Denial, that's what she's feeling for right now. She wasn't about to give up hope over the fact that her closest friend was dead.

"When we use the stones, we can bring them back. We can bring Sakura back and everything will be fine!"

"We can't do it," intervened Shikamaru. He still kept his eyes closed, his hand holding his wife's own in comfort as he stared into the abyss. "What's sacrificed by the person is a property of the soul stone, we cannot bring her back because it's permanent, the guardian said so himself."

By then, the usually charismatic Shikamaru have dissolved into his own hatred and was blaming himself for the events transpired. If it weren't for his hesitance, he would have sacrificed himself instead of her. She would have lived her life with her family in peace.

"It was supposed to be me," he croaked out the truth, loud enough for everyone to hear. He didn't care of Temari's loud gasps from beside him, or the warning statement from Chouji, they needed to hear what's been burdening them the most. "She bet her life for the fucking stone. It should have been me!"

Tsunade could no longer keep her anger at bay and threw the bench sitting across her. She hurled the bench miles away from their destination, her eyes radiating hurt a good teacher could give to a student. An exhale was seen escaping from her lips, and she angled her head to face the ninja.

"It was supposed to be no one," she uttered regretfully and faced the horizon. The lake was translucent beneath her gaze, a sight to numb the pain yet overpowering her all at once. This lake reminded her of Sakura. "She's not coming back."

Kakashi rested his head against the palm of his hands, hiding the glossiness of his eyes away from them, and kept his composure to do so. "We need to make this worth it."

Naruto suddenly stood up and walked towards the lake. He clenched his fist to the necklace of his wife, as tears streamed down his face and to the ground. Determination sets inside Naruto, and he wanted to scream for the unfairness of this world. For taking another of his loved one, but he didn't and instead, redirected his anger to his goal.

"We will."

Right after her funeral, the crowd gathered to discuss whose fingers would snap to bring everybody back. They were divided, wanting to snap the stones themselves. It's something guilt driven, they wanted to do it right for Sakura who spent her remaining years doing good for the village, while they spent their time mourning.

In the end, it was decided that Naruto will snap his fingers to the stones. Naruto have massive amount of chakra from the demon fox, and the stones required a massive use of chakra and strength to handle the recoil. They prepared themselves, using a share of their own shield to protect themselves and their partners, as they awaited the moment.

Naruto have fallen into the ground, gripping his left arm in pain as the stones were now brought together and spreading into his arms. He needed to make it quick or else he wouldn't do what he wished and die from this massive amount of power. He needed to do this.

For everyone.

For Hinata and Himawari.

For Sakura.

"Everyone always comes back..." he cried out in pain before bringing his fingers, with a strengthened resolve.

He snapped.