Sakura was leaping into the air before Sasuke had even disappeared from view. Her hand stretched out to grab his before he could utter a cry of surprise. Desperation seemed to slow time for both of them. Though small in comparison to others, this mountain was steep, nearly seventy degrees on one side, and it stretched one thousand feet into the air. Even in a healthy state, not even Sasuke could survive that fall.

Finally, her hand clasped his and she held on, almost tightly enough to break the bones. Her feet scrabbled for a foothold on the smooth wall of the cliff as she released bursts of chakra from her hands and feet. No luck. Rain had worn the sheer rock face smooth, and their momentum was too great for chakra to stop. To make matters worse, neither of them had weapons to drive into the rock as a hand-or-rope-hold.

Now they had fallen three hundred feet. Sasuke's hand gripped Sakura's tighter. Desperate to save them, Sakura focused her chakra once more to her feet. As it glowed with energy, she kicked the rock, jamming her foot into the rock and stopping their fall. She gasped as the inevitable happened; her ankle shattered and became dislocated from her foot, twisting nearly one hundred and eighty degrees as her body defied gravity's cruelty. She screamed in both agony and relief.

"SAI!" she cried. "HELP ME!" He was at her side on a giant ink-bird before five seconds had passed. She stretched out her free hand and he handed her a black, inky rope. With minimal effort, she tugged her foot free, ignoring the pain as Sai pulled them onto the bird's back. As they ascended, Sakura numbed parts of her ankle as she popped them back into place and rebuilt the bone. By the time the bird reached the top of the cliff, struggling under the weight of its burden, she could already stand without pain and had healed the bones perfectly. Sasuke, still running on adrenaline, stumbled to her side and dropped to the ground as his knees buckled.

Sakura reached down to help him, then stopped in shock. A gold-banded diamond ring adorned her left ring finger; Sasuke knelt, not weakened as she had thought, with an empty black ring box sitting open in his palm and a nervous grin plastered across his face. He cleared his throat and spoke shakily.

"Sakura, I... thank you for... well, just now, and then, well, always, I guess... I'm not great at emotional speeches, and to say I've loved you forever would be a very cliche lie, but... Sakura, I do love you, and I have for a while now. I'm not asking this lightly. I would like you to be Mrs. Sakura Haruno Uchiha, now and forever. Will you marry me, Sakura?"

Sakura blushed a shade of red befitting her name before finally managing to stammer, "O-of course I will! I will! But I thought you - and we - and I -" Sasuke hushed her, smiling in joy and relief.

"Sai filled me in while you were fixing your ankle."

"Really?" Thanks then, S- Huh? Sai? Where -"

"Long gone," said Sasuke. "Probably wanted to give us some privacy... so I could do... this..." He pulled her close to him, kissing her passionately and willing time to take a break for a while. The sun had already set when they left, and neither ever noticed.