Always You

three

13 years old - Sakura
Chunin

Sakura had broken the genjutsu not long after it had been placed on her but she masked it by keeping her chakra flow distorted enough not to raise too many alarms. She couldn't believe she'd allowed herself to be kidnapped! Not to mention that she was certain that she wasn't going to be rescued any time soon, at least not by Kakashi.

That thought hurt more than she would ever admit. The mission came first with Kakashi, always. Obito, however...she felt a spike of worry. If he came alone, he would probably be killed, these Iwa-nin were strong and they had to finish their mission to turn the tide of the war. Kannabi Bridge was more important than her. Slowly, she tried to think of a plan before they noticed she was genjutsu resistant and relied on physical torture to get information from her.

Sakura had never been more surprised when Obito and Kakashi arrived to rescue her. They took out the shinobi guarding her before she could even move. Obito grinned at her, as if they weren't in enemy territory, and cut her binds.

"Come on," he urged her. "Let's get out of here."

Sakura saw the enemy shinobi out of the corner of her eye and realised that he'd used the last of his strength to collapse the cave on them all too late and felt Obito push her forwards out of the way. She stumbled and fell, coughing as the smoke cleared. Her eyes widened when she saw Kakashi frantically searching the dust.

"Obito!" She screamed.

She turned to see him and her heart seemed to tear in half when she saw him crushed under a massive rock. Not Obito, not her best friend. No, no, no, no!

"Sakura," he croaked out. "Are you okay?"

Sakura fell to her knees and gripped the hand Obito had reached out to her with. Kakashi ran over to them and desperately tried to move the rock.

"I'm fine, you idiot!" She answered, feeling tears bubble at the surface. "Why did you save me?"

He gave a weak smile.

"You're my best friend."

The tears spilled over. He coughed and blood spilled out his mouth.

"No!" She cried. "You're not going to die!"

"Obito!"

Kakashi sounded broken. Sakura looked up at him and saw that his eye was gone. Blood ran down his face, and Sakura paled. Everything was going wrong, wrong, wrong. Her heart raced and she felt her panic rising. She looked at Obito when he started to give a strained laugh.

"I finally have - something to give you, Kakashi... for your promotion," Obito rasped, giving a shaky laugh.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura whispered.

"Sakura, you have to take... my eye... and give it to Kakashi," Obito said to her with a weak smile.

Sakura's mind blanked at the request.

"No, Obito..." she breathed. "I'm going to save you."

"My body...is crushed," he breathed. "It's okay." He squeezed her hand. "Please."

Sakura looked up at Kakashi and saw that he was paler than she'd ever seen him. She looked back at Obito and saw that he meant what he was saying. So Sakura did it, sobbing and trembling, she removed his eye and transplanted it into Kakashi, who was shaking. Sakura sat back on her heels. She couldn't accept it. She couldn't. She wouldn't. She clenched her fist and went back to Obito and checked what condition he was in. He was unconscious but not dead. Not dead yet. He wasn't going to die.