"Sakura?" his heart was beating like crazy, in his ears he could hear the blood rushing "Sakura?"
Silence. Nothing answered him - not her voice, not her breathing. Even the birds had stopped chirping, looking down at the lying girl.
Sasuke approached shakily, blinking all the while to ward off the tears gathering in the corners. It couldn't end like this, he repeated in his mind. The three of them were supposed to train, but they started earlier, because Naruto was running late. Sakura suggested they could practice climbing a tree, and Sasuke agreed right away. All was well until she wobbled and fell.
The pink hair stood out against the green grass. The petite body, huddled in a large space, looked grotesque.
Sweat ran down the back of Sasuke's neck, his heart pounding even harder. He crouched down, unable to brush Sakura's strands of hair away from her face. The fear of seeing empty eyes terrified him, the same as the night he lost everything. It was then that Sasuke realised how fragile life is.
"Sakura?" he repeated once more, hoping to hear her voice, just this one time.
But none of this.
Why didn't she wait for him? Why didn't she give him time? Why was she in such a hurry to leave him? Should he have let her enter his heart sooner? How would he cope now?
Death was an unknown that did not allow one to say goodbye.
Sasuke stood up, looking at Sakura. His hands were shaking unmercifully, and pain radiated from his chest to the toes. Revenge sprang to his mind, but there was no blame here.
There was nothing left for him to do but accept.
"Sasuke?"
Time stopped.
Though he looked, he didn't see Sakura twisting onto her back.
"Something wrong?"
Sasuke looked at her, wondering how she didn't know. But he didn't have the strength to do anything else, so he grabbed her forearm and pulled her upwards, hugging her tightly. He squeezed his hand on Sakura's head, pulling her even closer until there wasn't a single gap left between them. She could feel him shaking all over.
"Never do that again."
"Okay," she tightened her hands on his shirt "Okay, I'm sorry." Sakura's voice cracked - she hadn't heard Sasuke this terrified since she'd met him.
Tomorrow they would forget about it, but all that mattered now was that Sakura was alive and Sasuke could hold her in his arms for at least a second longer.