This is sad.
No really, it's sad. Like the story is.
This is actually based on a forward I got in my email from one of my friends. She told me it was true and I was like "Pshyeahright." But still, it could happen. So grab a tissue and settle in for installment number two of 100.
Disclaimer: I forgot to add this in the last chapter, so...I don't own Naruto. And now there will be no more disclaimers for the rest of this series because dammit, do I look like Masashi Kishimoto? (I would hope not, cause I'm not a man...)
Summary: The brakes were shot, he realized. And then clarity struck. KibaSaku, character death.
The motorcycle's engine purred under them as Kiba sped down the road, Sakura's arms wound firmly around her waist.
"Can we go faster?" Kiba turned his head for a moment to ask her. Sakura shrugged, grinning, hair whipping around her face in the wind.
"Okay," she answered, and Kiba spurred the bike on until they were rolling along at nearly one hundred miles an hour. Behind him, Sakura laughed, looking back to see the trees forming a blur as they passed them.
"You can slow down now," Sakura said when the stars began flying by fast enough to make her dizzy. "Slow down."
Kiba obeyed, applying pressure to the brake slowly so they wouldn't get thrown off. Nothing happened, so he pushed down on them again. And again. And again. And then his heart began pounding loud enoguh to drown out Sakura for a moment. The brakes were shot, he realized. And then clarity struck, and he knew that Sakura, who was helmetless, would die when the bike crashed into the jersey barrier that was coming at them ever faster.
"No, this is fun," Kiba choked out, trying to sound nonchalant. This girl he loved, she couldn't die now. Even if he had to sacrifice himself, Sakura would live.
"Seriously, Kiba. Slow down," Sakura demanded with increasing urgency.
"I will if you give me a hug," Kiba repsonded, his voice almost cracking. Behind him he could almost imagine her rolling her eyes with a tiny pretty smile one her face, the one that had always told him she wasn't really angry.
He felt her arms tighten around his waist, felt her face press into his back.
"Now will you slow down?" Sakura asked. Kiba squeezed his eyes shut to stop the tears that were blurring his vision. There was one last thing he could do for her now.
"Tell me you love me, Sakura," Kiba requested. He felt her frown.
"Huh?"
"Please!" Kiba tried the brakes again, hoping that they had just shorted out before and were working now. No such luck.
"You know I love you, Kiba. But slow down!" Sakura pleaded behind him.
"One last thing," Kiba said softly.
"What?"
There was only one helmet and he was wearing it. "Take my helmet off, will you? It's bugging me," Kiba said, and he laughed--a real laugh, because he knew now that Sakura would at least be okay. Even if he wasn't, she would be.
Kiba felt the straps loosen and the plastic shield slip off of his head. Behind him, Sakura loosed her grip to put the helmet on; and his heart ached and a single tears trailed down his cheek.
"Now--God, Kiba, stop the bike!" Sakura screamed as the barrier loomed, now only some ninety feet away. That gap was closing fast.
"I love you," Kiba spoke, the smallest of smiles turning up his lips.
Sakura was speechless with horror.
And then they crashed.
The impact threw Kiba from the bike and against the barrier and bucked Sakura off. And the bike crushed Kiba into the barrier as Sakura, prone on the cold, hard concrete, could only watch as the motorcycle exploded into flames. And then the terror that had held her down released her and she pushed herself up, ignoring the screaming pain in her arm that told her it was broken, ignored the dizziness and the blackness that hovered at the edges of her vision, running as best she could on her fractured ankle, and collapsing at the edge of the inferno. Her sight blurred and she pushed herself on, through the flames that were melting the tar to her hands and knees, over the twisted chunks of metal that were the remains of the bike, and past the cracked stone of the barrier to where Kiba's body, yet untouched by the fire, lay still among the wreckage.
"Kiba.." Sakura whispered, cradling his head in her hands. And then she saw the contented smile gracing his mouth, and although she felt frantically for a pulse, calling his name wildly, vainly, there was no pulse.
No flicker of life.
And over the wailing of the ambulances and fire trucks, a raw, grief-tainted howl cut through the night as the dead were lamented.
And later, sitting in the hospital room that still housed the boy she loved, Sakura learned the truth.
That the brakes were broken.
That she had lived because Kiba had given up his helmet to save her.
That he knew that he would live and she would die, and that he'd done everything in his power to reverse that fact.
And he'd succeeded.
And when Akamaru came dashing into the hospital room and jumped on the bed and pushed his master's hand with his nose before realizing something was horribly wrong, all the tears that had been bottled up inside Sakura exploded out and her voice mingled with Akamaru's as he cried pathetically. And when Kiba's family followed the white dog inside and his mother put her arms around Sakura and his sister told her that she knew Kiba loved her, Sakura simply stopped fighting her agony that welled up inside her and let her feelings through in three simple words, the words that echoed in her mind for days afterwards.
"I love you."
God, I'm such a sap. I cried while writing the hospital scene...
Review...or cry yourself to sleep and then review. Either one's good.