Preventing The Inevitable

Prologue

Year Zero

"Sakura?"

She whirled around, searching for the source of the anxious voice that had appeared behind her. It shouldn't have caught her this off-guard, and it wouldn't normally. Perhaps she could blame it on the nerves.

Sky-blue eyes gazed back at her.

She raised an eyebrow. "No suffix?" It was strange for Naruto's voice to be this meek and nervous, and even stranger of him to forget the 'chan' at the end of her name—something that had been ever-present since childhood.

"Oh. Did I–Did I forget it?" His voice pitched higher towards the end, as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Huh. Guess even someone like you gets nervous," Sakura mused, turning back to her backpack, filled to the brim with medical supplies.

"I'm not nervous, 'ttebayo!" She suppressed a wince at his suddenly shrill voice, way too loud for how early it was.

"Whatever you say, Naruto," came her dry reply as she got up, fastening her Jōnin vest.

A ray of sunlight seeped through the gaps of the tent, illuminating the dancing dust particles. It felt almost peaceful. Almost.

She turned back to Naruto who continued to be unusually quiet. "Why are you here? Things must be hectic for you too." It was unnerving her a bit—although she'd never admit that.

"I just," he started slowly, voice unsure and anxious and so not like the energetic, smiley boy she knew so well. "I came to say goodbye, you know. Since–Since, I'm fighting the bad guys at the front and you're gonna be saving people at the medical tents. So, like, I won't see you at all probably, so I just wanted to check in on you and—"

He was stumbling over his words with how fast he was speaking them, only stopping momentarily when he ran out of air in his lungs to inhale a sharp breath.

Sakura wasn't sure if this was better than his earlier silence. It certainly wasn't helping her already uneasy state of mind.

"—and 'course I'm gonna try to help everyone, but it's a lotta people, you know? And—" Naruto's voice turned into a whisper. "...so many will die." His breath hitched. "And they're all fighting and dying because of me."

What? How did they end up on that?

"Huh?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Naruto scrambled for words. "If I—I mean... this war is happening because Madara wants the Bijū, right?" His voice kept thinning. "I'm a Jinchūriki. He wants me. So if I had just... gone with him—if I'd let him take the Kyūbi—maybe... maybe this wouldn't be happening. Maybe no one would have to say goodbye right now. Maybe no one would have to..." He didn't finish his sentence, as if he didn't dare to say the word that was on both their minds once more.

Sakura glared at him, hard. It wasn't anger—not really. It was panic trying to disguise itself as anger.
"Naruto," she said, stepping forward. Her hand closed around his shoulder. "Look at me."

He nodded, slowly. His eyes held an ocean of guilt. Perhaps he had been hiding this side of him all along.

She squeezed his shoulder. "This war is not your fault." she said, emphasizing each word.

"But if I had gone with him–"

"Madara wasn't just demanding you. Shishō told me. He was telling them to hand over the Hachibi, too."

"But Sakura!– ...chan. We don't know for sure, right? What if he would've been satisfied with just me? What if he hadn't declared war then?"

"And what if he wasn't satisfied?" she shot back. It was far too early in the morning for this conversation. "What if he had planned to declare war from the beginning? What if we had given you up for nothing? Just because he asked for you, doesn't mean the outcome could've been changed."