Sakura hit the ground hard, her knees skidding on the rock as she halted beside Naruto in a whirlwind of dust and debris. Her hands began to glow as she pressed her fingertips into his chest and hissed, air escaping between her teeth.
She tried her hardest to ignore the chuckling man lying not ten meters away from them. Tears pooled on her eyelids as blue eyes gazed up at her with all of the love in the world. Love she knew she could never return. "Sakura-chan..."
"Stop talking you bloody idiot!" Sakura screamed as her hands began to glow even brighter. The chuckling intensified and blood ran out of the side of her mouth.
"What are you doing Sakura-chan?" Naruto murmured as he blinked slowly at the crying girl positioned above him. Blood pooled beneath his back and he knew that it wasn't all his own.
Sakura took a moment to wipe the blood away from her face before she grinned at him hopelessly, "I'm trying to save your life, idiot." She coughed and blood splattered onto his shredded orange jacket. Tears continued to pool on her eyelashes and run down her face. This time she used the inside of her elbow to wipe at the dripping blood.
Naruto grinned weakly. He could feel her shaking hands, he could feel her determination in not looking up and in not choosing the love of her life and saving the betrayer instead. "I love you Sakura-chan."
"O-oh, Naruto... I..."
"She still loves me dobe."
Sakura clenched her fists as his deep, dark and twisted voice echoed on the inside of her skull. The voice she loved so much, the voice that was always, always taunting her with his lovely and sick words. "Thank you." The cold seeped into her bones just like that night she had been left on the stone bench and she resisted the urge to shiver.
Sakura gasped deeply and tried not to sob as her green chakra continued to flow into the body of her dearest friend. Just a friend... only ever a friend.
"I know."
"N-Naruto..."
"I know Sakura-chan, I have always known. Even in this very moment..."
