"Wake up, you idiot! Don't you dare to think for even a second that I would let you leave me again." Her voice was cracking and tears refuse to stop falling down. Sakura kept pumping up chakra into his lifeless body, desperately trying to make his heart start beating again. She wiped away the tears that were blocking her sights, blurring her of his image. Chakra depletion was making her feel light headed but she didn't stop trying, one hand healing his fatal wound, the other pumping chakra into his body and to his heart.

"Sakura-chan, there's no use. Sasuke's gone. You wasting your chakra wouldn't bring him back." The usually cheeky blonde put a hand on her shoulder, trying to assure her that everything's going to be alright. His face was grim and every living soul witnessing this knew that he was trying his best to not let his tears fall.

"No! I will never give up!" She didn't even spare him a glance, not wanting to look away from her fallen teammate's body.

"Sakura, Naruto is right. You need to stop before you deplete all of your chakra. It'll be dangerous for you especially in this kind of situation. We don't even know if all the enemies are dead or not. There might be another ambush." Kakashi gave her a pained look. He knew how much his pupil is hurting right now, but he can't afford to lose even one more of his family.

Yet, she didn't stop. She never stopped until she couldn't handle the exhaustion anymore and collapsed on top of Sasuke's body. The last thing she heard before fainting was Naruto calling her name desperately.

She woke up in a hospital bed. She abruptly sat up a second after she gained consciousness. Tears started streamed down her cheeks. "Sasuke-kun." Only god knows how much she missed calling him that. All these time, she was trying so hard to keep herself from calling his name with the suffix '–kun' because she wanted to show him that she moved on and she's not the same girl that used to cling to him annoyingly anymore. Now she wished for nothing but for him to be right there in front of her, calling her annoying while she clung to his arm like a love sick fool. She wouldn't even mind if he thought that she's annoying and useless as long as he is alive. She'd give anything so that she could say how sorry she is for being such a jerk to him even after having him apologize to her sincerely.

Sakura let out a heavy sigh before she lay back onto the soft bed. She shut her eyes tightly that they started to hurt. She didn't want to cry anymore, but she failed to block her tears from falling. She knew that she was doing something disgraceful by crying her eyes out over a dead comrade. She is the strongest kunoichi in Konoha for goodness' sake, but she endangered herself by doing something careless and disobeying her team captain's order just because she couldn't accept the fact that he was gone. The raven haired shinobi has sacrificed his precious life just to save her useless one. His last words to her made it even harder for her to stop thinking about him.

-Three days ago-

Everything was just as usual. They were at the usual training ground, training like they usually do. Just like usual until an ANBU operative appeared in front of Kakashi in a puff of smoke. "Hatake-san, the Hokage requested for you and your team's immediate presence."

"Understood." The silver haired shinobi gave a slight nod before dismissing the said ANBU.

"Alright, that's enough for today. Tsunade-sama wants to see us in her office immediately." He said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Aww, man! What does Baa-chan wants now. I was just about to kick Teme's butt." Naruto wailed like a child and stomped his feet on the ground, sulking childishly.

"Hn. You wish, Dobe." Sasuke sheathed his kusanagi back into its hilt.

"What was that supposed to mean? I can beat you whenever I want, Teme!" by the time he finished his sentence, all of them already left, leaving him to sulk alone.

Naruto burst through the door, panting heavily. "I'm he-," gasp "here."

Every heads in the office turned their heads towards the loud mouthed blonde.

"So nice of you to finally join us, Naruto." Tsunade said sarcastically.

"Give it a rest would you, Baa-chan? It's not my fault my teammates decided to act like bitches and left without me." He pouted in protest.

The blonde woman balled her fist, restraining herself from strangling the disrespectful idiot in front of her. "You're lucky that I don't have the time and energy to kill you right now." She rubbed her temples, easing the pain in her throbbing head.

"Excuse me, Shishou. Can we get back to the mission, please?" Sakura glared at Naruto, warning him not to say another word.

"Yes, about that. I got a message from a jounin guarding Konoha's border this morning. He said that two of the shinobis on duty last night was found dead early this morning. He believed that enemies had trespassed. However, we are not sure whether this is true or not and their numbers are still unknown. I need you guys to go and check out the situation. If I don't hear any news from you in a week, backups will be sent out. Is this clear?" Tsunade asked with a serious tone. Her forehead was creased with worry.

"Yes." They said in unison. They were all serious. Even Naruto didn't say anything stupid for once.

"Good. I expected nothing less. You are all dismissed."

They were about to leave when Tsunade spoke, "And oh, Uchiha. I spoke to the Kazekage and he said he would be glad to have you in Suna. You are to leave for Suna next week so this will be your last mission under Konoha's order. You better not screw up."

"Hn." Sasuke clenched his fists tightly. 'Why did she have to say that in front of them? The dobe would never leave me alone during the mission. He'll probably make me explain myself for a thousand times before he gets it. Joy!'

"What?! Teme's transferring to Suna?!" he said in an ear deafening yell.

"Shut up, dobe."

"Not until you tell me the reason you're leaving." The blonde continued to yell in Sasuke's ears.

"I swear, I'll sew your mouth shut if you yell one more fucking time you idiot. Besides, why would I explain anything to you? My transfer to Suna doesn't concern you in any way." Sasuke continued to walk away from the team.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! After all these years all of us tried so hard to drag your ass back home and you dare say that you don't have to explain anything to us? You bastard!" Naruto grab him by the collar and was ready to knock some sense back into his best friend when Sakura suddenly interrupted him.

"Stop it, Naruto. He's not worth wasting time over. We've got a mission right now and I think it's better spend our time to save someone that actually worth something." She said in cold emotionless voice as usual when she's around him.

Naruto let go of Sasuke's collar before walking away, muttering incoherent words under his breath with Sakura and Sai in tow. Sasuke watched them leave. He let out a heavy sigh. 'I knew dobe would overreact when he found out. This mission is going to be hell.' His train of thoughts was interrupted when Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder.

"I really hope you know what you're getting yourself into, Sasuke." He said before walking away with the rest of them.

The whole journey had been really quiet. No one even tried to start to a conversation. The air around them was thick with tension. Even the usually cheeky blonde didn't open his mouth. Sasuke didn't mind it at all actually, he was rather content to have a long period of silence but what really bothered him was the way the chatterbox would glare at him while cursing under his breath when he thought that Sasuke wasn't paying attention. At first the raven haired Uchiha didn't give any thoughts to the blonde's behavior, but he thought that it was getting annoying when the blonde started to curse him openly. Sasuke heard Naruto called him various things using his colorful vocabulary. Shit, jerk, asshole and every curse words you could think of was thrown at him by the frustrated blonde shinobi.

They were only 17 kilometers from Konoha's border when a kunai came flying out of nowhere, aiming for Kakashi's head. He easily dodge the flying metal and it flew straight into a tree bark.

"This is bad. I can sense many chakra signatures coming from all direction. At least 50 of them. We're out numbered." Sakura looked at her sensei, asking for a plan.

"Since they're coming from all direction, there's no way we can get out of this without a scratch. best just prepare ourselves for battle." the silver haired jounin shifted his hitai-ate, revealing his sharingan.

All of them got into a fighting stance, preparing for a battle that seemed impossible to be won.

"It doesn't matter how many of them coming, we can kick their sorry asses. Believe it!"

"Well aren't you a confident little boy." A man with a scar on his left cheek appeared from their left.

"Little boy?! How dare you call me a little boy, you fucking bastard!" Naruto made a hand sign and yelled "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" and hundreds of Naruto appeared. "Not so tough and manly are you now ?" All the Narutos said at the same time.

The ninja suddenly burst out laughing. "Did you actually think that I would be intimidated by a bunch of weak shadow clones.? Pathetic little mutt." He snapped his fingers and all of the enemies hiding came out with a smug look on their ugly faces, probably thinking that they would win this battle by a land slide. Just like Sakura predicted, there were 50 of them.

"Kill them all." The man from before said with a confident smirk on his face. He must be their leader.

The fight went on for almost 5 hours and Team 7's chakra were running low. well, except for Naruto's of course. Sasuke and Kakashi managed to kill all of their opponents with the help of their sharingan. While Naruto and Sai both have one opponent left. Sakura how ever, had five left. It's not because she was weak, but they seemed to target her more because she's a girl and they thought they could easily take her down. Nevertheless, she managed to kill them all. When she was down with only two of them left, her chakra was running dangerously low. Sasuke went looking for Sakura in the direction she went when they dispersed 5 hours ago. He was glad when he saw her. She was alright and she only suffered minor injuries. Sakura was slitting her opponent's throat with a pair of chakra scalpels when Sasuke found her. His eyes went wide when he saw an enemy charging at her with a sword. She was unaware of the brunette's presence because she had her back turned towards him and she was too tired to even move let alone track the enemy's whereabouts. Sasuke acted on instinct and he found himself taking the blow for her. The blade of the sword pierced his chest and the pain was unbearable. Sakura quickly turned her back when she heard the sickening sound of blood splattering from someone's body. She was beyond shocked when she saw Sasuke standing right in front of her with a sword in his chest and blood trickling down to his chin from his mouth. The enemy pulled out the sword mercilessly and he laughed maniacally when he saw Sasuke on his knees, clutching his chest. Kakashi, who just arrived at the scene took the opportunity and slit the brunette's throat with a kunai while he was distracted. He died immediately.

"Sasuke! " Sakura went to him.

"Sa- Sakura. " He said between gasps. "Are you alright?" He asked her, genuinely concerned of her well being.

"Why the hell are you asking me whether I'm alright or not? You're the one who's bleeding your life out here. I should be asking that! Not you! " She pulled him into her embrace, letting him lean to her for support. She brought her hands towards his chest and started healing him with the chakra she had left.

"Sakura, stop healing me. It-it's too l-late. We both know how this is going to end Sakura, so st-stop. You'll just bring harm to yourself. " He grunted. The pain was getting too much for him to handle.

"Shut up! I'm not going to stop. No matter what you say! Is it that hard for you to accept the help from someone weak like me, you bastard?! " She yelled at him angrily. The tears she had been holding in finally rolled down her cheeks. She hated herself for crying because she promised herself that she would never cry again especially because of him. Yet, she failed again. Still like she used to be when she was a genin, weak, useless and down right pathetic.

"Sakura-chan, are you alrig-. " The sentence was left unfinished when he saw Sasuke's condition. "Te-teme, wh-at happened? "

"Nothing. I ju-just got stabbed in the heart with a lo-long ass s-sword. Nothing unusual." He smirked even though he knew the pain was evident on his face.

"This is not the time to make stupid jokes, you fucking idiot! " Sakura was shaking vigorously,trying to stop the tears streaming down her face. "It's all my fault. I'm still too fucking weak to take care of myself. Sasuke had to risk his life to protect my pathetic ass again. I'm a disgrace." She shifted her position so that Sasuke's head was rested on her lap. She continued healing him with a shaking hand.

"D-don't blame yourself, Sakura. You're the strongest woman I ever know. Y-you took out a number of enemies all by yourself. One slip up doesn't me-mean an-anything. " He brought his bloody hand to her left cheek, not caring if he smeared his blood on her cheek. He just wanted to caress her face for the first and the last time.

Sakura was still healing him while crying her eyes out. "Sak-kura, please don't cry. I pr-promised myself I'd never make you cry ever again. Seeing you like t-this pains me more than being stabbed. I'm glad I could die protecting you, Sakura. After all the h-horrible things I've done to you, I could finally do so-something good for you. " His breath became shorter and quicker by the second.

"What are you saying Teme! You're not going to die. Yo-you're stronger than that. You've been injured a lot of times and you recovered. this one wouldn't be any different, ri-right?" He knew his best friend was running out of time, but he couldn't face the fact so he tried to reassure himself.

"Hn. You're not going to c-cry too are you D-dobe?" He smirked at Naruto.

"You wish, bastard!" Naruto gave his dying best friend a sad grin.

"Good. Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke turned his head towards his sensei who was quieter than usual.

"Yes, Sasuke? " He replied softly, trying to hide his sadness from his student.

"Please take good care of them and get m-married would you? You're not getting younger."

"Hmm, I'll see to that. "

"Sakura, take good care of yourself. I want you to be happy and to stop blaming yourself for every bad things that had happened and will happen, Sakura, it's not your fault. I missed your smile. Can you smile for me before I go? " Sasuke smiled back after he saw her most genuine smile. Even though she was covered with cuts and bruises,she still looked beautiful. "I love you, Sakura. I al-ways have a-and I always will." Slowly, he let the darkness claim him and his hand on her cheeks fall to his side.

"No! Sasuke! Wake up! Please." She brought her other hand to his chest to pump chakra to his slowly fading heart.

-Present-

Sakura was too busy crying her eyes out for him that she didn't notice someone opening the door to her hospital room. Her back was turned towards the door.

"Sas-sasuke-k-kun. " She called out his name in between her sobs.

"Yes, Sakura? " A familiar voice asked. She knew it was Sasuke's but she refused to turn towards its direction. She was afraid that she was hallucinating and she couldn't face the heartache she was going to go trough when she learned that he's not really there, standing behind her. She doesn't want to keep her hopes up.

"Sakura?" He called out again.

"No, go away! You're not real! I know you're not really there, Sasuke-kun. I'm just imagining this whole thing. I know you're not going to be there if I turn around." She said while covering her ears with her hands.

"What are you talking about? I'm real, I'm standing right behind you. " She felt a hand on her shoulder. Sakura slowly turned around and to her surprise, Sasuke was really there, wearing a hospital robe, smiling at her.

"Sasuke-kun! " She pulled him into a bone crushing bear hug immediately, worried if she let go, he'll just disappeared into thin air.

"Sa-sakura, c-can't breathe, wo-wounds still n-not he-healed completely. " He said between gasps.

Sakura loosened the hug but not letting go completely. "Oh, sorry about that. " She blushed. "But h-how?"

"Lets just say that I was saved from death by a beautiful, pink haired angel." He planted a soft kiss on her forehead and smirked when he saw her blushed in all shades of red. His smirk turned into a frown when he saw her starting to cry again.

"W-what's wrong, Sakura? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, of course not. I'm just glad you're alive. You got me worried, you idiot! " She pretended to be pissed.

"I'm sorry. I don't know you love me that much. " He joked while he wiped away her tears. What he didn't expect was for her to suddenly kiss him on the lips. The kiss wasn't a passionate one but it was enough to send jolts throughout his body. He stared at her, wide-eyed after her bold move.

Sakura chuckled at his reaction towards her quick peck on his lips. She hugged him one more time before bringing her lips to his ears and whispered, "Yes, I do love you that much. Actually, I love you so much, it hurts." She pulled out of the hug and watch him stare at her like an idiot, his face turned crimson red at her love confession.

It took a while for him to snap out of his daze. When the information finally registered in his mind, he gave her a smile that would put Naruto's smile to shame. He pulled her closer, until there was only an inch gap between their faces. "I love you, my cherry blossom." He whispered before sealing his love for her with a passionate kiss.