Sorrow

"Just stop me from doing anything stupid." Was what Sakura said as she stormed through Sasuke's door at seven in the evening, clutching several bottles of Sake to her chest.

And now she sat hunched over on his couch, halfway through her second bottle still not uttering a word since her dramatic entry to his apartment three hours earlier. He's tried asking her what's wrong, offering her food or a distraction but she's been unresponsive so far.

"It's my fault, you know." He looks up at her over the book he had picked up in an effort to pass the time. "My fault she died." She stops and takes another gulp of her drink. "If I was a better doctor I could have saved her."

"What happened?" Sasuke tries again.

She just look's at him and breaks down crying. "I couldn't save her. I tried everything - Everything Tsunade taught me - Everything I have ever read. Not even directly applying my own chakra was working. All I could do was pump her full of pain killers and watch as she slowly slipped away." She picks up her bottle and gulps another mouthful. "I'm not worthy to be called a doctor."

Sasuke just moves closer to her and wraps his arms around her, fully prepared for her to react by punching him. He's shocked when she reacts by leaning closer and starts sobbing harder, using his shoulder as a pillow. Sasuke carefully removes the Sake bottle from her grasp as he smooths her hair.

Later, when she has fallen asleep and he's lying her down on his bed, a note falls out of her pocket. It read:

To who ever found this,

Today Sakura lost a patient. The last of the victums of the explosion. This isn't the first or the last time, but she's taking it worse than normal. Not even I could have saved that woman, not with the amount of damage done to her body. Please just look after her, try to stop her blaming herself. It wasn't her fault.

Tsunade.

Sasuke sighs as he look's at the sleeping kunoichi and begins to understand what she was saying a little better.

May or may not have been influenced by me revising the Hiroshima bombing for my history exam tomorrow.