Before you read:
I. Do. Not. Like. NaruSaku. It. Is. Plot. Seriously.

If any of you read the twilight series but Stephanie Meyer, I did not steal a line off of her, it just makes sense to me, and I hadn't considered it until after I wrote it!

3 days later…

"Naruto, I'm being serious!" it was the third time Iruka came, nine in the morning, like clockwork for the past three days.

"I know." I answered. I didn't even sound like myself anymore.

His voice softened a fraction. "You have to eat something. It's been three days, do you want to die?"

I rolled over on Sasuke's bed. "A tiny bit." He was right though, the only thing I had gotten in the past three days was sleep and water, no exercise or food.

Iruka sighed sadly. "I know what it feels like."

We were both silent for a few moments, besides the bed rustling, then Iruka spoke again. "Sakura's funeral was yesterday. Kakashi went for you." His voice was hesitant, and I knew he was watching me with out having to look.

"I know that, too." I had gotten my fair share of crying out in the beginning. I had never seen Kakashi cry, until then. Tsunade didn't, but it looked like she could have. I remember giving the mission report and not being able to say anything. Yamato had to say it all, and I just ran out. Since then I had been in Sasuke's old mansion.

Sakura. Was. Dead.

I felt like I was half dead in a world without the sun.

Iruka had wanted to tell me, but he hadn't wanted to upset me. He left long pauses and was careful about every word he said.

"He said they buried her, so her body is still here in Konoha."

"That's good." I answered.

He didn't hesitate this time. "If I take you out for ramen, will it make you yourself again?"

I pressed my face against one of Sasuke's pillows, inhaling. "Maybe."

He sighed again. "Naruto, even more than the food, I'm worried about your psychological health. This isn't you at all." I knew I was hurting him more than myself, but I couldn't do anything about it.

"I just need some time to get over myself." I answered, attempting to get out of my laying position, and failing. Much too comfortable.

"Please eat, and try to feel better." I heard Iruka walk away to leave. Then he added, "Yamato wants to talk to you, and Lady Tsunade as well. Yamato wants you in an hour, so please try to eat before that. He'll be at your old training grounds."

They had left me alone for three days, but they must have gotten sick of waiting. "Okay."

I had been in here, but I hadn't been alone. Kiba's team, Lee's team, and Shikamaru's team had come with flowers and sympathy. I had wondered why then, because they seemed so worried and sad. Then I remembered that they never knew about Sasuke and I, so they thought I was in love with Sakura. No wonder they acted so weird.

Maybe I should tell my friends the truth.

The one thing I had been thinking about even more than everything else though, was that the person who blacked out my sun, was Sasuke. Like the moon, but the eclipse was eternal.

(If you read twilight, Sasuke is like Edward and Sakura was like Jacob?)

And that Sakura, in her last words, had told me twice not to blame him. To never hate him or feel vengeful because it wasn't his fault.

Just his hands, sword, and stab.

My feelings and hope for Sasuke would never extinguish, but it was impossible not to be angry at him for it. How could it not be his doing? When I saw, it was just him, Sakura, and his sword. Like he had stabbed her for no reason.

Remember how she said she wanted to protect you, but it wasn't you?

Yeah Kyubbi, but no one was there.

Maybe you missed something.

…

Then of course, though I wasn't thinking of it most of all, was Sasuke's appearance.

The younger Sasuke had won almost every girl in Konoha over by his looks, and me. If he was gorgeous then, he was godly now. His hair was longer and fuller, and his face had developed to be more sharp. He was tall, (taller than me still, damn.) lean, and well toned. Not to mention his shirt was slit completely down the middle.

But I still wasn't thinking to much about him.

Keeping Kyubbi's previous advice floating in my head, I decided that even if it was just soldier pills, I needed food. Just enough food to go see Yamato and Tsunade, then be done.

With strained effort, I sat up. When I tried to stand up, my legs and fingers were shaking. I managed, but nutrition was in my future. I hadn't noticed it so much until now.

I walked down Sasuke's stairs, clinging to the railing for fear of falling. I was so weak I couldn't believe it. There had been the lack of food for three days, yes, but right after I had been drained of chakra, and my skin had been recovering from third degree burns, was making it unbearable.

When I finally got to Sasuke's kitchen, I decided on soldier pills. They were fast acting, and would make up for all the nutrition I had lost. I wouldn't have been surprised if I lost a few pounds since Sakura…

No.

Yamato wanted me in an hour, and while I waited, I walked around Sasuke's house, waiting for the two soldier pills I had taken to work their magic on my weak body. All the while, still thinking.

Sakura was so much more deserving than I was. She had a family, friends, a bright future, and yet all her time was spent helping me. Supporting me, making promises to me. All she ever talked about was how I had to get stronger and bring Sasuke back. And it was never for her own sake, just mine. She was always concerned about me. It made me wonder, why me? She had had feelings for Sasuke, and she never told me that they ever went away, or changed.

If they didn't, I couldn't grasp why she had helped me, and never considered envying me.

If she had dropped those feelings, why?

When I felt my body getting noticeably better, and the time when I was supposed to meet Yamato got closer, I headed out to see him. Luckily no one I knew had spotted me, because I'm sure they would have flipped.

By the time I got to my old trainning grounds, Yamato was waiting for me. I hadn't been here in a long time. Not since I had been home from traveling with Jiriya.

Sasuke's tree, the spot where Sasuke and I confessed, and the spot where Sakura and I played tick-tack-toe. The spots and the events that happened in them were still clean in my mind, surprisingly. Even simple things like Sakura and my game in the dirt were easy to remember. Most moments in my life stuck to me.

"How are you?" It was the first thing Yamato asked when I got close enough.

"I could be better." I replied with a short shrug.

He nodded, a sympathetic look on his face. "I want you to know, because Kakashi won't tell you. Something you need to know."

I tilted my head slightly. "What?"

"I'll start with the most important part. Sakura loved you." The words came out slowly.

"I know-" I started to say, but his next words stopped me.

"Sakura was in love with you."

That was much harder to grasp than the first sentence. It was easy for me to believe him, but not to understand. Something inside seemed to snap.

"Do you want to hear it from the beginning?" Yamato offered.

I nodded, speechless.

"When you went after Sasuke, the first time, Sakura had pestered Kakashi to go after the two of you." I thought Kakashi must have filled him in on all this. But I still couldn't comprehend what he had clarified to me. "She said she was worried, that Sasuke might hurt you, or maybe even kill you."

That tugged at my heart a little. He had tried to kill me. I still hadn't found out why.

He continued. "That was when Kakashi "hinted" as she told you, to Sakura, that you and Sasuke were in a relationship deeper than friendship."

"Yamato!" I looked up surprised. Kakashi must have told him about Sasuke and I being together, too.

"Relax. That doesn't bother me." I wrapped my arms around myself, and he continued. "After that, Sakura admitted to Kakashi, that while Sasuke was her teammate, and she cared about him, she realized her "feelings" for him were her stupid, childish desires for popularity."

I swallowed, knowing exactly what was coming next.

"Sakura told Kakashi that she realized she had more matured feelings for you."

Why wouldn't she have told me something like that?

"But…Why…" I couldn't form the right question, but Yamato seemed to read my mind.

"Sakura told Kakashi not to tell you, and he didn't. She said that if Sasuke and you were together, it would be selfish of her to tell you her feelings, and hurt you."

It did make sense. And yet, she died, and still never told me? That she-

"Sakura made a promise of her own, to you, after you left that day." He added. "She swore that she would live for you. If you wanted Sasuke back, she would put everything she had into helping you."

Suddenly I understood some of her actions that I hadn't before. When I was in the hospital, and she stayed so unfazed at the fact I was with Sasuke. When she promised to do everything she could to bring him back, "For both of us." When she had such dreading look on her face before we got inside Orochimaru's hideout. I understood it all.

"She didn't…She didn't get to…" I was at a loss for words.

"I thought you should hear that. I think Sakura tried to tell you, but she didn't have enough strength in the last moments." Yamato shook his head slowly.

Even if something does happen to me, don't think to much about it. Things will get better. It'll all work out. I remembered her saying that, too.

Then suddenly I remembered my dream, and I knew I was missing one last piece of the puzzle.

"Yamato," I said suddenly, my voice louder and quicker than before. "I had a dream while we were in that wooden house of yours."

He rose his eyebrows, interested in the subject.

"In my dream, there was Sasuke, Sakura, and me. But there were two of me. I think I saw the future. Sasuke…stabbed Sakura…in my dream. But I could never understand why. I think it has something to do with the "other Naruto" from my dream. Why exactly did Sasuke do it?"

Yamato had been listening intently, and his eyes started to widen. "You dreamed that? Before it happened?"

I nodded.

"The other Naruto…That makes so much sense." He looked shocked.

"Tell me what happened!" I replied.

"I was hoping not to tell you. Don't freak." He ordered.

I nodded, slightly more hesitant now.

"Sasuke appeared to be fighting with you, when Sakura and I spotted him. Obviously, it wasn't you, but Sakura assumed that. When Sasuke went out to stab "you," and in such a fatal place…Sakura didn't want to see "you" get hurt. Her action confused me, but she dove in the way, so Sasuke got her, not "you." That other Naruto, was who she saved."

She wanted to protect me. Like she had said. I didn't understand the first time, but now I did. "So…Who was it?"

"It was Itachi, disguised as you."

The perfect explanation as to why Sasuke wanted to kill him. It wasn't Sasuke's fault, Not Sakura's fault…

"This is Itachi's fault?" My tone got vicious in an instant. "Itachi…" I fisted my hands. "But why would he do that!? He doesn't even care about Sasuke!"

"But he didn't know the real you or Sakura was there in the first place, so it must have originally been planned for Sasuke." Yamato replied.

"I don't get it…Does he want Sasuke to come after him? Is he trying to make him angrier?" I asked, not necessarily to Yamato, but out loud to make my point.

"Maybe. I wouldn't know." Yamato answered. "But now you understand?" His voice got much softer, and I calmed down as well.

"Yes, thank you." I bowed my head slightly, and he nodded.

"Tsunade wanted to ask you personally…" I looked up at his new subject. "But I think I will. Do you still plan to bring Sasuke back?"

99.9 of me wanted to say yes, but what was left was still thinking about Sakura. After a few seconds, I finally decided.

"Well?" Yamato asked.

"Not only do I want to more than anything, but Sakura would want it too. Yes, I am. Until I get him back." I smiled, and I almost surprised myself. I hadn't smiled since I told Sai about Sasuke. Then I realized, I smiled whenever I talked about Sasuke in a good way. It was like second nature.

His face darkened so little I barely noticed, but he nodded. I didn't think to much about it.

I think the ramen Iruka offered earlier sounded like a good idea.

The second to last line you read is for a reason, your only clue!