DISCLAIMER: Not now, not ever, nor before. Naruto isn't mine, darling :D

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!
And, if you don't celebrate that holiday...
Happy almost 4th Thursday in November!
Woo hoo!
Well, as usual this took forever, and I still think you should all hate me for taking so long with these chapters D:
Even though I will continue to love all of you readers & reviewers forever and ever.
Please enjoy the chapter. :3

Naruto clapped a hand on the shoulder of his best friend and gazed at him sadly for a moment. The blond and usually energetic lad seemed drained of everything he could possibly posses. "Thanks for understanding dude. I just...I just gotta get out of here for a while you know?"

Sasuke only nodded. "I was the last one. Go away." He said.

"Okay." Naruto muttered tiredly in response. He turned away from Sasuke and began walking, and a hand came up and waved back and forth as goodbye, without Naruto turning around.

Sasuke turned away from the view of his friend and started at the door to Sakura's hospital room. That was where he stayed, for a few minutes. He didn't seem to have the ability to open it just yet.

After a while, a voice appeared at Sasuke's side. "Is everything all right, sir?" a female voice asked him. Sasuke jumped a bit, and looked startled to where the nurse, Risa, was standing next to him. She smiled slightly at him. "I'm sorry for noticing, but you have been standing outside this young lady's room for about 5 minutes now. Is everything okay?" she asked him, without the air of someone being pushy.

"Uh..." he said, his mouth and throat he found were dry and speaking was a bit difficult. "Ah, uh...yeah. I'm...I'm just fine." He said, absent-mindedly. He looked back through the window in the door and looked once again at her covered feet. He sighed and looked solemnly at the nurse.

She was still smiling softly at him. She looked as if she knew something new...possibly something he didn't know. "She's your girlfriend?"

He shook his head once. "I only wish. She won't have me, cause she thinks I'm only out to prove something. Oh, and she hates me." He spat sourly. 'And whose damn fault is that, eh?' he thought bitterly. "I'm too late, once again." He muttered, anger lacing his voice. "Er..." he looked awkwardly at her once and then felt pretty dumb. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you all this.

She laughed once. "No need for apologies. I'm a bartender part time, so I'm quite used to people telling me things. Good for you, being man enough to admit all of this." She patted him on the shoulder for a moment. "I say go in there and talk to her. She has a better chance that way, and so might your heart."

He nodded at her once, still feeling vaguely stupid. He was supposed to be detached. Not admitting his stupid feelings to a random stranger, bartender or not. Still, he didn't want to go in there either. To see Sakura in the state which had broken both her closest friends and her family? His chest felt so constricted he was surprised he could still breathe. Risa patted him once more on the shoulder. "Good luck." She said to him, and then she was gone as abruptly as she had appeared, vanishing into the bustling of the hospital.

He was a bit relieved when she was gone, for she had been an awkward young lady. Nice enough, certainly, but her blunt words and brutal honesty made him thoroughly uncomfortable. He wasn't used to emotional things, as he usually attempted to resemble that of an angry robot.

He sighed deeply, and put his hand on the door and turned the knob once. He pushed to door once and it creaked into the room, though he did not follow it just yet. He was pacing himself, or so he wanted to believe. He knew he was just acting cowardly though. He stepped into the room, and felt his breath catch as he caught sight of Sakura.

An IV was hooked up to her left hand. She was surrounded by machines that beeped and were hooked up to her in various ways and areas. A white bandage surrounded the top of her head, squashing her hair and holding fast to her forehead. Her right arm was in a cast, and her right leg was larger then her left, and had an awkward look to it. He figured that it was encased in a cast just as her arm was.

Her left eye had a beautiful black eye, and gave her the look as if someone had punched her in the face. So did the cut lip. She had scratches randomly etched into her skin, where it was visible and he was sure there were more in other places. The beeping of the monitors were the only noises in the small, sterile room.

Sasuke was, simply put, horrified. The seemed to be the only word to explain this feeling. But also...it was something deeper then anything and word could ever pin point and describe. It was too raw for words. It felt more like his soul was being hurt. Torn at, stabbed, ripped, being clawed, set on fire, take your pick it felt like all of them...but deeper. It felt kind of like what he had felt when his parents had died.

Suddenly these feelings registered. It hurt...oh, Gods it hurt. It hurt that he had brought someone into his heart. It hurt that he had let himself care for her like this. That he had let himself care for anyone like this. He looked at her, noting every painful detail. Her head, the top carefully wrapped. The black eye and bruised, purpling cheek. The fat lip. The obviously broken nose. The dark cut that ran from under her ear to halfway down her neck. Her beautiful face painfully deformed. Most of her face deep shades of blue, purple, grey, yellow and greens. Awkward colors that didn't belong on her porcelain skin at all.

His gaze traveled down her neck, which also had plenty of nicks and scratches, most likely from flying shards of broken glass. Then he looked at her arms, which were also bruised and scratched. His eyes found her bright green cast, surrounding her right arm. It was a startling color, but it didn't even begin to compare to the emerald pools that were Sakura's eyes. He was pretty positive that under her hospital gown her torso was probably wrapped tightly if she had any cracked or broken ribs, which he had a feeling she probably did. Her leg also obviously has a cast on it. Who knew what else or where else she had been hurt that the blankets were shielding his eyes from.

He startled himself a little as a sob wracked its way loudly from his throat. He attempted to keep another one from escaping and choked it down. He wiped furiously at his eyes, feeling silly that tears were there, even if they WERE justified. He still wasn't used to all these feelings, all this pain that was continually attacking him.

This was why he liked the numbness. The lack of feelings he usually lived with. Angry robot, dammit!

...What if she dies?

A small, dark voice whispered the words to him. He froze completely. His heart seemed to skip a beat and then everything was instantly moving much faster. His thoughts launched into an automatic panic. Two other pains instantly began to course through him. The first was fear. Sheer and utter terror at the thought losing her. He knew it wouldn't be something he could bear. And the second pain was something had had been trying to squish and eliminate for years. It was a deep hurt, long tended. It was the pain of a child. That pain of an event that had happened long ago, but still haunted him. A pain that time had only made worse and not healed at all. The type of pain that was impossible to fully heal.

The pain still residing in him from the death of his parents.

As soon as he was haunted by the thought of Sakura's possible doom, the death of his parents began streaming back to him. He tried to stem them, force it to just stop already. It didn't work. The only thing that happened was another cry tore it's way from his throat. After a few moments of too clear and too painful memories and more wiping at his tearful eyes, he looked back at Sakura's still form.

Another wave of hurt assaulted him, but he shoved this one off roughly. He grabbed one of the chairs in the room and set it down on her left side, soon plunking himself into it. He took her left hand in both of his and looked at her intently.

"Sakura...don't you leave me! You can't just leave. We need you here. All of us. Your mom and your crazy cook would obviously be lost without you. And Naruto...which cousin would he treat like a little sister if you were gone? Who know when TenTen is upset, or calm Temari down in bad situations without you around, eh?" he demanded of her quiet body. "Who would Ino constantly complain too about how stupid Shikamaru is? If you don't come out of this, what is going to happen to confidence you inspired in Hinata?"

"And...what about me?" he said finally. His eyes once again filled with tears as he spoke. "What would you expect me to do if you were gone, huh? Just find some other girl or something? I couldn't do that if I wanted to!" he insisted, frustrated. "Sakura, we...I need you here!" he said sadly. Tears were coursing slowly down his cheeks now, and he took no notice of them what so ever. There was no point in the words uttered next because for all he knew they were falling on deaf ears. All the same, the poor boy felt as if he were going to explode if he didn't say them.

"I love you Sakura." He murmured to her quietly.

"There is no rhyme or reason to it, and it CERTAINLY has nothing to do with logic. If I were a logical person I would have stayed as far away from you as possible. I knew when I was falling. I could tell, sort of...but I was stupid and refused my own feelings. But not anymore. I can't pretend they aren't there, and that they aren't real. They aren't some prank, some joke, or me trying to prove anything. I love you Sakura. And I need you here to beat me up over that fact." He said hurriedly. The words had gushed out of him thoughtlessly. He knew trying to stop them once they had started would be utterly pointless. Like trying to stop the ocean from rushing at you from a freshly broken dam. It didn't work, no matter how hard you tried.

Once the words were out, he wished she had been awake to hear them. But, he knew they had probably fallen on nothing, and he may as well have been talking to a wall. He sighed once and raked his fingers back through his hair. So he had admitted them. All of them, every one of his feelings. What now? She hadn't even heard him. He may as well have not said them. But...he was still glad to have voiced them.

He sat back in his chair, still holding her hand in one of his. He grabbed a remote and turned on her TV. They said noise and voices helped, right? He turned the channels continuously, until he found some anime that she had once said something about liking. He left it there. It was shoujo. Oh...boy.

And there he sat, hand in hand with the girl he loved, watching girl manga. Dammit. He should only have to watch this stuff if she was awake to watch it with him. All the same, he left if on. And he sat there for the next hour, watching something called Host Club.

Then, Emi and Adelie came back. They had books, a CD player and at least a hundred CD's, and a bunch of DVD's too. Apparently, there was going to be noise at all times for Sakura. Sasuke smiled a bit wearily at them.

"Hi." He said.

"Hello." Emi replied. "How was your visit?" she asked him politely, though he could tell she was exhausted.

"It was...good. Full of that." He said, pointing to the TV, where the anime was still playing.

Emi smiled once. "Ah. That's one of her favorites."

"Yeah." Sasuke replied. "I heard her say that once last year." And he looked blankly back at the screen for a moment. A look of shock registered on Emi's face. He had heard it once, and that was the reason he had left it on for God only knew how long? She became a mite more impressed with the boy.

"Thank you for staying with her." He only nodded. "If you'd like, you can stay and continue to visit."

"Thank you for the offer, but I think I'll let you guys have some time alone. I should be back tomorrow if that's okay."

She nodded. "Sure, that will be fine. Oh And...here. I suppose this should be in your custody." She said, and she handed him a canvas bag. He gave her a quizzical look and opened it. There, at the bottom of the bag, was the baby's head. It's beat up torso, and it was missing one leg. He snorted once with laughter. Then, he spotted a packet under the baby. Their homework. Jeez. He really should do that.

He nodded his thanks to Emi, then looked back at Sakura. He leaned down and ever so softly laid his forehead against hers. "Think about what I said, okay?" and then he squeezed her hand once, and left.

Sakura didn't even twitch.

Well...there it is.
It feels really short...I dunno. Maybe it is. Blah.
Heh. Cause I didn't make that ending depressing enough or anything. X.x;
I'm...not going to lie. God only knows when the next chapter is going to appear.
But I hope you will all bear with me until then.
Oh, and I should really slap a DISCLAIMER: on the fact that I do not own Host Club. Although...that would be fun xD