Can't Help Falling In Love With You

Chapter 11

After an agonizingly long couple of days, it was finally the night before Itachi's execution. Sakura had come up with absolutely nothing but decided resolutely to change her father's mind. There wasn't much time left. No time at all actually. She didn't have time to decide if this was a smart idea or not. She was desperate, and this was a last-ditch effort.

Her footsteps resounded down the halls of her home as she walked toward the living room, where Kizashi was currently seated.

Sakura gulped as she approached her father. She had always been head-strong, and to a certain extent, Kizashi hadn't rebuked her for it. However, he has always made it clear that there was a line that she could not cross.

She had crossed that line when she had first mentioned the Iwa men, and she was about to cross it once more.

"Father, I have to speak to you." She stood rigid before him.

Kizashi's eyes snapped to hers, "This better not be about the execution tomorrow!" He correctly guessed, his voice already roaring.

Sakura clenched her fists. "What will killing more people do!" She shouted as well, spurred on by Kizashi's incentive.

Kizashi furiosly stood up. "His family is demanding retribution, Sakura! Do you understand that?"

Sakura backed up as Kizashi towered over her.

"What sort of retribution will they gain for being part of the murder of innocent people. You don't have any proof that they did it." She controlled herself from lifting her voice again. Her shouting at him would only get her father more riled up.

"No one wants to confess to the crime so we'll just take the next best thing," Kizashi said, his voice also lowering.

"Danzo was an old man. He could have just keeled over in the water and died, " she said, her voice occasionally dangerously rising.

It was true that so far their interrogations had provided no proof. The autopsy done on the elder had also showed no signs of struggle, only that the cause of death had definitely been drowning. On top of that, they had yet to find foreign DNA to at least prove someone had perhaps pushed him into the water.

Kizashi was a proud man that didn't like to admit when he was wrong. Growing frustrated with his own traitorous thoughts, he carelessly blurted, "Why are you so obsessed with the Iwa men?"

Sakura abruptly became silent. Something seemed to click in Kizashi's mind. It looks like he had accidently hit the nail right on the head.

"You've been disappearing a lot lately these past few months, where have you been going?" He paced around the room, his eyes increasingly narrowing as his mind pieced the puzzle together.

"I-" Sakura scrambled for an answer, but she was cut off before she could even begin to spout off an excuse.

Kizashi stopped suddenly and looked her in the eyes "Don't tell me you've been meeting up with one of them!" He accused aghast, disgust laced in every word.

She didn't need to say anything. The guilty look on her face was admission enough.

"Which one is it!" He demanded.

"Father-"

"No, it doesn't matter. He'll be dead tomorrow anyway." Kizashi said coldly.

Well, there was no point hiding in it now. "I love him." Sakura blurted out.

Kizashi scoffed, "Don't worry, Sakura, this is just a silly dilusion. He'll be dead and you will forget about him before you even realize it."

Kizashi turned and left the room. Deeming the conversation over.

----------------------------------------------

It was early morning. The sky was still painted a beautiful golden glow as the sun slowly came up to brighten a new day. The wonderful scenery was a large contrast to the horrors that were about to take place in barely an hour. Sakura was sitting on a hill, far away from the arena where the execution would take place. 

She wanted nothing to do with it. Denial was a small comfort that wouldn't last very long, but it was a comfort nonetheless. Up here, she could ignore all of the world's problems and pretend for just a little while that everything was okay. As Sakura blankly stared at the open sky, she heard the familiar crunching of footsteps coming her way.

She turned her head only to see her best friend, Ino, coming towards her. As Ino solemnly sat next to her, the wall she had built to keep herself from feeling anything crumbled. A strangled sob escaped Sakura's lips as she laid her head on Ino's shoulder.

"It's all over now, " She whispered brokenly.

Ino grabbed her shoulders and lifted her head up, fiercely staring into her eyes she asked, "you want to save him don't you?"

"Of course I do!" Sakura cried. She covered her face with her hands as the tears flowed steadily down her cheeks.

Ino was taking none of it. She harshly shook Sakura by the shoulders and shouted, "Then what are you doing wasting your time here! Get up and go do something!"

"There's nothing I can do! It's all over," Sakura's voice cracked.

"Well, if there is something you can do, you're not going to accomplish it sitting there! Now is not the time to think, just act! Get up and run, Sakura!"

Sakura's eyes widened in revelation. Vague as they were, Ino's words felt as though they had somehow pried open a door that had been previously closed in her face. Sakura sprang up onto her feet, only one destination on her mind. She didn't even register if Ino followed behind her or not as she swiftly ran to the execution grounds.

Her footsteps thumped dully on the ground and the trees whizzed by. Her mind was blank with only one thought circulating, 'please don't let me be too late.'

Sakura could see Itachi being kneeled to the floor from her position at the base of the arena. A large crowd surrounded the elevated stage but Sakura paid them no mind as she carelessly shoved people aside, her shouts of "Get out of the way!" as she moved towards the stage getting lost in the uproar.

Sakura swiftly ran up the steps to the stage. The executioner was already lifting the large mallet that would crush Itachi's skull up into the air. Without a second thought, She rushed forward toward Itachi and threw her body on top of his, her head shielding his. The executioner had already begun bringing his arm down, ready to bang the hammer into Itachi's head. He closed his eyes as he realized that he wouldn't be able to stop now. The momentum was too great.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the whole throwing her head on top of Itachi's reminds you of Pocahontas, that's because this story was inspired from that scene.