Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I DO own the Uchiha brothers.

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Sakura walked home in the pouring rain, listening to the sound of leaves blowing in the wind. What could this dream mean, and why now? Why had he come back?

She opened the unlocked door to her house. It was such a lonely house. She was loath to come home. Most nights, she slept outside. It hurt too much to enter that house. Looking under a textbook on cardiac disease she discovered those keys that had been missing for so long. Exactly where they were in her dream. She let out a long sigh.

At least it wasn't that other dream.

She walked over to her sister's room and found one of the many matchboxes she kept in a drawer. Taking out the now warped picture of the boy from her vest, she lit it on fire. Paper blackened and disintegrated, ink bubbled, and the face of a traitor melted away. Good riddance.

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Sakura stared at the ramen bowl before her, stirring it absent-mindedly with her chopsticks. Naruto was blabbering on about something again. She tried to pay attention, she truly did, but she found her thoughts kept wandering.

That dream. He should not have come back. But it was so strange; she felt his feelings, shared his thoughts, remembered his memories. The world looked so strange through the eyes of the Uchiha. Is that what the sharingan is like?

There was a knock at the door. Sakura was up in her room studying her textbooks again. Her mother and sister were sitting in the living room watching TV. Soon her father would be home from his latest mission, and the family would once again be whole.

A second knock at the door. Sakura rushed downstairs just as her mother opened the door. An ANBU stood at the door and took off his mask. This was not her father. Her mother and sister stared quizzically at the strange figure.

"I don't understand, where's my husband?" Sakura knew exactly what this meant.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Haruno." She turned towards Sakura with a concerned look on her face. Sakura shook her head, giving her mother a sad look.

"Mom, I can't bring back the dead."

"How? How did dad die? How could this be happening to us?" Her sister fell to her knees sobbing. Sakura wanted to cry with her, to release her pain, but she couldn't. She had to be strong, for her sister and mother.

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The smell of ramen wafted up to her nostrils, but she didn't feel like eating. That's how it always was. She was always a crutch for the people around her. Shortly after Naruto returned after the three years he had been away, she made a pact with herself. She would never cry again. She would be strong, so that others wouldn't have to be. She would be strong, so that she would no longer be a burden. And, no matter how hard it was, she kept her promise, until last night.

"So what do you think Sakura-chan?" Naruto was wearing his silly grin again.

"That's great Naruto," she said, never taking her eyes off her bowl.

"You haven't been listening to a word I've said, have you?" He was worried. He only remembered seeing her like this twice. The first time he saw her this distracted, Sasuke left the village. The second time was after she had been found at the Northern Gate of Konoha, unconscious. For several weeks after that, she was not Sakura. She was a ghost.

"Eat something please!" The fox boy pleaded with the girl, unsuccessfully. The ghost just sat there, on the windowsill, her eyes staring out into space. He wondered what she was thinking. After they found her, she had not said a word to anyone, touched a single piece of food, or left the spot where she now sat.

"Please Sakura-chan, eat SOMETHING! If you don't eat, you'll die!" Tears streamed down his face. What was he supposed to do? Slowly she turned her head to face him.

"There is no pain in death." What the hell happened to her?

"Oh, sorry Naruto. What were you saying?"

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh no. There's just this girl at the hospital with an unknown infection. I'm a little worried about her, that's all." This wasn't a total lie. There were many people in the hospital with tricky diseases, but that wasn't what she was thinking about.

"Anyway, what were you talking about?"

"Hinata and I, well, we're getting married." A huge grin leapt upon Sakura's face, and without warning she pulled the poor boy into one of her deadly bear hugs.

"Oh, Naruto I'm so proud of you!"

"Sakura-"

"I knew this would happen and it finally did! Such good news!"

"Sakura-"

"How exciting! Finally, my little Naruto is growing up!"

"Sakura-chan . . . you're . . . crushing . . . me"

"Oh sorry." She quickly let go. Naruto coughed a couple times, then went on.

"I have more good news. Jiraiya has been studying Orochimaru's immortality jutsu, and he thinks there might be a way to-" Sakura's grin melted away into a disappointed frown. The cup of tea she was holding exploded in her grip.

"He's not coming back Naruto. Even If you do save him from Orochimaru's grasp, he won't come back."

"But-"

"But nothing! Don't you understand? Sasuke is an S-class criminal now! If you bring him back, do you think everything will just go back to normal? NO! He will be imprisoned and interrogated, tortured, possibly even sentenced to death! If I could, I would go back and stop this from ever happening. If I had decided against taking the chuunin exams, that year, they wouldn't have allowed you two from taking the exams, and Sasuke would never have gotten that damn cursed seal. But I can't change that! It happened, and there is nothing any of us can do to restore Team Seven! WHEN WILL YOU REALIZE THAT?" Naruto was stunned. Her words were so harsh, her voice so angry. She slapped some money on the counter and stood up.

"Thanks for the ramen, Naruto." He watched her retreating figure for a while, then looked down at his ramen bowl. Suddenly, he didn't feel like eating.

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Sakura stared at her hands. She sat on the edge of her paper-covered bed. She didn't want to sleep. If she did, They would come back. And if it was not Them, it would be Him. But she had to sleep. Tomorrow, she would be helping Tsunade-sama at the hospital, and she needed to be alert. Taking a couple sleeping pills, she laid back, awaiting whatever nightmares that would be coming her way.