The last thing Sakura could remember was pain.

"You really are... damned annoying."

Before she could really process his words, she saw swirling red and a flash of electric blue. Something impacted her in the chest. Then there was pain. Before the pain, she only felt confusion. But when she felt the sea of nerve endings light up, she realized that this was a fatal wound.

It had to be. With where she had felt it hit her and the amount of pain she was feeling, there was no other possibility. She was a medic, this was her bread and butter. If this had happened to someone else, she doubted Haruno Sakura would have been able to save them.

No... This can't be... How was it that I couldn't do anything...? I don't want to die yet... Sakura thought.

Her life flashed before her eyes. All that time spent chasing after a moody raven-haired boy and a laughing blonde-haired boy. The blonde boy smiling at her. The raven grunting in response to the blonde asking a question. Visiting Ino at the flower shop. Going on missions. Working at the hospital. That one birthday party that had gone horribly for her. Naruto arriving to save everyone from Pain. Sasuke's red eyes glowing against a white backdrop of snow. Her first day at the Academy. The first time she met Naruto. The first time she saw Sasuke. Fighting against Sasori. Learning medical ninjutsu from Tsunade. Walking up trees with her team.

The flashbacks stopped. In front of her was the real Sasuke. He had his hand in her chest. Her consciousness started fading away.

I wonder if you'll become Hokage, Naruto...? Heh... Sorry I wasn't much help... I wanted to see what you would do...

She wondered if Naruto would be able to defeat Sasuke. It was out of her hands now. Was Sasuke going to kill him too? She hoped not.

Do you feel bad for killing me at all...? Sasuke-kun.

Then everything went black.

/

Some time later, Sakura opened her eyes. She looked around and blinked drowsily.

I'm alive...?

She looked over at Kakashi. He gave her a meaningful look. She touched her chest where she had been struck earlier.

It was a genjutsu... It was a fucking genjutsu...

Sakura began to laugh out of utter disbelief and shock. Kakashi looked at her like she was insane. She continued to laugh, not caring what Kakashi thought right now.

She stood up. Kakashi told her something about where Naruto and Sasuke had gone. She barely heard a word he said.

Kakashi started walking in that direction. Sakura stumbled after him like a zombie, her mind completely blank.

/

When the pair arrived in the Valley of the End, Sakura's mental state had improved somewhat. She could now hear the words that Kakashi was saying. She cared very little for what he had to say, however. All she understood about the situation was that Naruto either had fought or was fighting Sasuke. She remembered that she really wanted to be useful for Naruto. She decided to go with that for now.

"Sakura, they're over there. Look," Kakashi said, pointing down into the ravine.

Sakura looked down and saw her best friend laying next to Sasuke. Their arms were severed and blood from both of them was pooling in between them. She saw that they were both still alive. Both of them were smiling. She couldn't understand what there was to smile about. She wondered what the two had shared that made them happy. She felt happy to be alive, but that was all.

"Sakura, you should go," Kakashi suggested.

I should, shouldn't I? I need to heal Naruto. I guess I'll be fine if I don't look Sasuke-kun in the eyes...? Sakura thought.

Sakura leapt down in front of the two. They looked at her. Naruto smiled at seeing her. She knelt facing Naruto.

"You came, Sakura-chan! Thanks...?" he said.

She looked at Naruto, her eyes watering. She blinked the tears away.

If I just keep looking at Naruto, I won't have to look at him.

Unfortunately, Sasuke said something.

"Sakura... I..." he mumbled.

Out of sheer habit, Sakura turned her head to look at Sasuke. She immediately cursed herself and looked away from him. In the split second she met his eyes, she had a mental image of swirling red. The color of despair and loss. She decided to keep her eyes locked on Naruto's face.

"I'm sorry..." Sasuke continued.

Bitterness rose up within Sakura.

Is that supposed to make it all better?

"You're sorry?! For what?" Sakura spat in reply.

"For everything up until now..."

Sakura ignored him and put both her hands to Naruto's stump. Her hands began to glow as she activated the basic healing jutsu. Naruto looked at her confusedly.

"Sakura-chan... You..." he said.

"Shut up, Naruto... I'm trying to concentrate," Sakura replied.

"No... What...? Sakura-chan... You need to-"

"I said shut up... Don't make me do it... Please..."

A tear rolled down Sakura's cheek. Naruto was looking at her desperately.

"Sakura-chan... Why? Why don't you-"

Then Sasuke spoke up.

"Dobe, be quiet. It's fine... Give Kakashi... my eye..." he coughed out.

He sounded very weak.

"Teme, no! Damn it! You're supposed to live... I worked so hard... Sakura-chan! You need to-" Naruto replied frantically.

"Shut up... Usurakon...ta..."

Sasuke passed out, clearly from the blood loss. Sakura continued to stare at Naruto's face as if her life depended on it. His face was full of fear and desperation.

"Sakura-chan...! He might die... I thought you loved him...? Please, Sakura-chan..." Naruto said.

Sakura stared at Naruto's features. She watched as he kept looking between Sasuke and her. She started to feel a pain in her chest.

"Damn it... Naruto..." Sakura muttered softly.

"What are you doing, Sakura-chan...? Please don't let him die... He's good now... If you can't do it for him, do it for me...?"

Sakura bit her lip. She noticed Naruto's eyes were starting to water. She moved one shaking hand over to Sasuke's injury which was still bleeding. She reluctantly activated the jutsu.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan... I'm going to sleep now..." Naruto whispered.

Sakura watched Naruto's eyes close. She looked over at Sasuke. They were like two friends who stayed up too late playing outside.

She began to weep.

/

After the war ended, the days were going by quickly. Sakura spent most of her time working on making a synthetic arm for Naruto. She didn't know what they planned to do about Sasuke. She knew he was in a cell, but that was it. She didn't really care as long as she wouldn't have to see him. She had asked Ino about deleting the memory of Sasuke's genjutsu. Ino said it was possible, but said it would take her several sessions to locate and extract only that memory. Sakura didn't have time for that with the work she was doing. Sometimes when she closed her eyes, she saw Sasuke's features amid a pastiche of blue and red. She was having difficulty sleeping, so she worked like a robot in hopes of making herself exhausted.

When Sakura did sleep, she often had strange nightmares. She would be going about her day, then suddenly everything would become dark. She would feel trapped. She would look around nervously. Eventually, two glowing red points of light would appear. They resembled a pair of Sharingan eyes. They would get closer as she began to fear her imminent death. Then she would wake up in a cold sweat and remember that Sasuke was still in ANBU prison. That was the only thing that stopped her from going and turning on all the lights.

Sakura knew that Naruto would lobby for his freedom. The thought turned her stomach. Her best friend would fight to free the man who had hurt her so badly. It was so cruel for Sakura to think about, but she had no confidence to bring it up to Naruto. Because Sasuke had always been so important to him.

Sai told me Naruto loved me... But would he actually pick me over Sasuke-kun? I'm not confident at all that he would... Sakura thought sadly.

Sakura had mostly been avoiding other people and focusing on this project. While she was working on constructing the arm, her mind didn't wander to unpleasant areas.

There was also the matter of whether or not she regretted listening to Naruto. After some thought, she decided that yes, she did. She would really feel better if she knew for sure that Sasuke could never do something like that again.

His death would have accomplished that.

Damn it...

Sakura laid in bed wide awake. She stared at her white ceiling. It almost looked like it was more of a light red.

/

After a couple of weeks, Sakura had finished the arm. Tsunade had brought up the possibility of making an arm for Sasuke. Sakura had laughed just as she did outside the Valley of the End before telling her to find someone else. Tsunade had given her a strange look and said, "Well, he didn't want one anyway."

Sakura was now in one of the rooms of the hospital waiting for Naruto. She was going to test the functionality of the replacement arm for him. She sat in a chair and waited for him to arrive.

Hopefully he doesn't talk to me about that bastard, Sakura thought.

Naruto was late, and her mind was wandering. She hated it when this happened, because it would only go to one place. She suddenly put chakra into her fist and punched a hole in the wall.

The door slammed open. It was one of her medic colleagues. He was a man with glasses and a beard who was in his late twenties.

"Haruno-san! Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, Fujiwara... Just leave me alone, please," Sakura replied.

The medic nodded and left, shutting the door. Sakura continued staring at the door. She imagined Naruto painting it orange with the conspiratorial smile of a prankster on his face. She smiled sadly.

The door opened again. It was Naruto, wearing his typical black and orange outfit. His new arm was completely covered in white bandages. He grinned at her.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! How are you?" he greeted jovially.

"Fine, Naruto..." Sakura answered.

She tried to smile, but she didn't feel like it was very convincing. Naruto gave her a strange look and sat down on the bed. She began to tend to his arm.

"So, I haven't seen you much lately... I missed you, Sakura-chan... What have you been doing?"

"Just working on your arm, Naruto... Nothing else interesting..."

"Wow... Sorry, Sakura-chan... I didn't know the arm took that long to make."

"It doesn't... I just haven't had much else to do."

"Oh... Well, you could have asked me if I wanted to do something, Sakura-chan... I always like spending time with you!"

Sakura had considered doing this many times. She always came to the conclusion that Naruto would definitely talk about Sasuke, so she didn't. She didn't want to think about Sasuke, but more importantly, she didn't want to have this conversation. It was not going to be remotely pleasant for either of them.

"Sorry, Naruto... It must have slipped my mind."

"Oh, okay."

Naruto grinned at her.

"So, Sasuke should be getting out of jail soon. Isn't that great? We can be Team 7 again," he stated.

Sakura's stomach twisted up in knots. Her skin was covered in gooseflesh.

"Can we not talk about him, Naruto...?"

In reality, she desperately wanted to talk about this with Naruto. She wanted to tell him what happened so that he could make her feel better about it. But she was terrified that Naruto would pick Sasuke over her. Naruto always chased after him, leaving her in the dust. She was almost sure that when it came down to it, he'd do the same thing again.

That would hurt her worse than what Sasuke had done.

"Sakura-chan... Why don't you want to talk about him?"

Sakura didn't reply, staring into space with a haunted expression. Naruto looked at her with concern.

"Look, I understand why you didn't want to heal him... No one blames you for that. He was our enemy at the time... It's fine, Sakura-chan. You don't have to feel guilty about it," Naruto continued.

Feel guilty? He thinks I feel guilty?! Well, I do feel bad. But not for how long it took me to heal him! For healing him at all! For letting that bastard near me to begin with! For being so weak that I let him get me with that jutsu... For letting him do this to me... Damn it... There's no way that Naruto will understand.

Sakura stared down at the floor hopelessly.

"Naruto... I don't feel bad about not healing him."

"Oh..." Naruto scratched the back of his head with the new arm. "What's wrong, then? Please tell me, Sakura-chan."

Sakura wondered what she should say. There was no way she could get him to turn on his friend and destroy him for hurting her. Naruto just didn't work like that. He always forgave. This was the one time that she deeply resented it. She felt very alone.

Naruto looked at her curiously.

"Sakura-chan...?" he asked.

She decided that this could no longer be avoided.

"Naruto... If I tell you this, I need you to promise that you won't leave me..." Sakura said slowly.

"Of course, Sakura-chan... I'll never abandon you. You're my most precious per-"

"Is that really true?" Sakura snapped, interrupting him. "What about in the Land of Iron...? You left me standing in the snow like a fool... Then you said you wanted to die with him. That would have left me alone, Naruto!"

"But me and him are both fine, Sakura-chan... It's over now... And I'm sorry... But you weren't telling the truth, Sakura-ch-"

"So what if I wasn't telling the truth?! I didn't want to be tied to Sasuke-kun anymore! Don't you understand, Naruto?! Look what happened because of it! He-"

Sakura suddenly stopped talking. She hung her head in sadness and frustration.

Why didn't you just let me take you home back then, Naruto...? I liked you... Thinking about Sasuke-kun was making me suffer... Now he did something horrible to me... And you're not going to care, because you care more about him than anyone...

Naruto was staring at her with interest.

"He what, Sakura-chan...?"

She lifted her head to look at Naruto. Her eyes were watery.

"He tortured me, Naruto..."

Naruto jumped up out of his seat. He was gaping at Sakura.

"Sakura-chan... What do you mean?"

She was looking up at him with a devastated expression.

"That genjutsu he used on me back then... I thought I was..."

Sakura paused as tears fell down her face.

"He put me in a genjutsu where he stabbed me with his Chidori... And I thought I was going to die, Naruto..." she explained.

Naruto's eyes widened.

"It felt real... I had no idea it was a genjutsu. I was so scared, Naruto. I was in horrible pain... It was the worst experience of my life... I was sure I was going to die... It felt so awful knowing I'd never see you again... I've hardly been able to sleep since then... And the worst part is, it was all my fault..."

He took a step towards her and hugged her in an attempt to comfort her. She continued to sob as she weakly returned the embrace.

"For still trying to love that evil bastard... For being so stupid as to look him in the eyes... For being so weak... I let him do it to me... I hate that I made it so easy for him to hurt me...!" She tightened her grip on Naruto to the point that it bruised him slightly. "Damn it... Why, Naruto?!"

Naruto flinched and gazed down at her with worry.

"Sakura-chan... I don't know why he would-" he started to say.

Sakura shouted over him as he was talking. She was glaring at him angrily.

"No, Naruto! Why do you care about him so much?! Why did you tell me to save him...? I didn't want to! I didn't want him to be able to do that to anyone ever again..."

"Sakura-chan... I'm sorry that happened... I didn't think he would use that kind of genjutsu... But he's better, now... He won't-"

"I don't care! I'm not risking it... Keep him away from me, Naruto...!"

Naruto looked at her with wide eyes.

"Sakura-chan... I don't really understand this. I thought you loved him..."

Sakura gave him a desperate look.

"How can I still love him...? I'm terrified of him and I hate him for what he did to me... Sure, I thought I loved him... Maybe some of that love still exists in some way... But I've been suffering over this for weeks. You have no idea how terrified and heartbroken I was when I thought I was going to die. I couldn't even look at him back then... And I never want to see him again..."

"Wow, Sakura-chan... I don't know what to say... Why did you heal him, then...?"

"Because you told me to..."

Naruto looked at her curiously. Sakura glared at him with some resentment.

"But... If you were that angry and scared... Why did you listen to me, Sakura-chan?"

"Because the thought of him dying was hurting you... I couldn't bear to watch you suffer like that..."

"But why...? Why would that affect you so much?"

Sakura thought about this. Why was that? She had thought about it before, and she already knew the answer. She just hadn't really gotten used to it, because it was new to her and she had been extremely distracted.

This was hardly a good time to say it, but he had asked. She relaxed a little and looked at him calmly.

"Because the one I really love... is you, you idiot... Congratulations... You win, Naruto..." she stated in a deadpan manner.

His eyes widened. Naruto pulled back from her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Are you serious...?"

"As a heart attack..."

He let his arms fall to his sides. He stared at her blankly.

"Wow... I love you too, Sakura-chan. This isn't how I wanted to tell you, though..."

"I know... I'm going to go see Ino about having the memory removed. Please don't ask me to see Sasuke-kun..."

"He's really sorry about it... I'm sorry too.. I didn't know that that happened..."

"I don't care, Naruto... All I did was tell him that I loved him and that I was sorry I couldn't help him..." She balled her fists at her sides. "Why did he have to do that to me? I only ever tried to help him... It's not like I was a real threat to him... Why did he have to hurt me?!"

Not knowing what else to do, Naruto gave Sakura a tentative hug again. She didn't return the embrace.

"I don't know, Sakura-chan. It doesn't really make any sense to me. I could ask him, if you want...?"

"No, don't bother... There's no way anything he could say would make it better..."

Naruto felt horrible looking at Sakura. She wasn't meeting his eyes.

"God... I'm so sorry, Sakura-chan."

She finally put her arms around Naruto.

"It's not your fault... I guess... I wanted to save him, too... I remember what that was like... Heh, I was so stupid... I just wish you would have put me first," She held onto the fabric of Naruto's jacket tightly. "I was always chasing you while you chased after him... You never turned back to look at me... I could have been killed, and you would have just kept running after him..."

Naruto felt conflicted and guilty.

"No! Sakura-chan, I would never... He was just really important to me. But I wouldn't abandon you... I wish I could have protected you from being hurt, too..."

She finally looked up at Naruto.

"He was important to me too... But if I have to die, it's not worth it, Naruto... I want to live... Please tell me you feel the same way..."

"Of course... I'll do anything to help fix what happened to you... I'll take responsibility, Sakura-chan. I shouldn't have pushed you to go after him..."

Sakura looked at Naruto tiredly.

"No, Naruto... It wasn't you who did it, it was him. I won't let you sacrifice yourself anymore..."

"But..."

"I'll just talk to Ino... It might take a while, but then the memory will be gone, and I can finally get a full night's rest..."

Naruto gazed at her miserably.

"Sakura-chan... I feel awful... I was so naive and stupid about this. I thought I could save him without any of us getting hurt... But I let something terrible happen to you... You're my Sakura-chan... I never want to let anyone hurt you... But you were hurt so badly and I didn't even know about it... I am so dumb..."

He sighed.

"Yeah, you're an idiot, Naruto... It's fine... I know what to expect at this point..."

Sakura chuckled to herself wearily.

"That's mean, Sakura-chan..."

"I'm too stressed out and tired to be nice, Naruto... Can you leave now? We're over time... I have to go back to work," Sakura said evenly.

Naruto let go of Sakura and stepped back away from her.

"Sure, Sakura-chan..." He walked over to the door. "I'm sorry again... I really love you... And I always have... I wish that could help..."

She smiled weakly at Naruto.

"Maybe it does... Bye, Naruto..."

Naruto smiled apologetically back and opened the door.

"Bye, Sakura-chan..."

He stepped out. Sakura let out a huge breath she had been holding in. She felt incredibly tired, so she collapsed in the nearest chair. Putting her head to the cushion, she felt herself falling asleep.

It's dark... Please, not again... Stop... No...!

Oh... They're blue...

In her sleep, she smiled in relief.