AN: Long time no update! Have a good holiday? I apologize for the long delay. Here's the chapter. Hope it makes the wait worth it!

Happy 2012, people!

Disclaimer: I do not own this story or any characters other than my own.

Thank you to you wonderful reviewers!

To:

mrgirmjaw: Thanks! Hope you like this chapter too :D

9-tailed reaper: I'm glad the spider moment served its purpose! I have a habit of adding in little bits of humor (pathetic humor though it may sometimes be haha) when things get less than cheerful. I don't have any stories planned at the moment, but it's likely that I'll write another one at some point. I hope you read it when I do!

Ichigo Kuroyuki: I feel bad about the long wait. Hope you still like it though!

Emmy loves her Demon Naru: I hope this chapter turns out to be to your liking (same to the rest of you, of course!) And if you have any questions after the explanations of this chapter, just let me know and I'll do my best to answer them^^

Kurai Shigashi: I'm glad you were able to review in any case :D I appreciate you telling me about the setting thing. It's good to know what I need to work on. (Although you seem to have gotten where I imagined the setting to be anyway! XD You're amazing!) It's so wonderful to know that you were so touched by this story! I sincerely hope you like the rest of it, although to be honest I don't have high hopes^^'

The Fall

Chapter 11

Sakura

The links were loosening.

"What the–?" I wondered aloud.

"Sakura-ch–"

"Shh," I hushed Naruto absentmindedly, trying to think.

What was going on? What had changed?

And then it clicked. I didn't have any way of knowing for sure, but I had a pretty good feeling that this was it.

"Naruto, listen," I said. He nodded. I explained to him about how the chain had appeared all of a sudden. While I did so, somewhere in the corner of my mind I couldn't help but marvel at how focused he was on what I was saying. He didn't interrupt or even look around; he just met my gaze with his own, diligently paying a hundred and ten percent of his attention. It was a little unnerving. But I just sort of pushed those thoughts to the side, because the last thing I needed was to be the one getting all sidetracked when Naruto was being so attentive.

"At first, I thought it represented my, uh," I hesitated, finding what I was trying to say somewhat awkward, "attachment to you." God, I hoped that didn't come out the wrong way.

It took me a few seconds to think of how to best explain the next part – precious seconds, I was starting to think as the links slowly bent and curved themselves in a way that threatened to undo their binding with one another. I felt a flutter of panic and hastily tried to soothe my nerves. Panic would only make things worse.

Naruto

Once I realized that Sakura-chan was going to try to explain things to me, to finally let me understand what was going on inside her head, I was a statue. I froze in place with my mouth clamped tightly shut and my eyes frozen on her. I had no idea what was going on, so I thought it best to let her try to explain it all to me.

When she told me about the chain thingy, for some reason I felt kind of embarrassed. I mean, she'd just said we were connected, right? We were connected, Sakura-chan and I. Connected. I looked at our wrists, but I didn't see or feel a thing.

Thoughts shot through my mind going a mile a minute as I listen to what she had to say. Especially when she admitted she was attached to me. The fact that she cared about me – not to mention that she said it out loud – was enough to make my heart skip and jump up into the air and dance the Macarena. (I would've wished I had that recorded, but somehow I doubted she'd show up anyway. Darn.)

On that note, she continued, "You know, Naruto, lately I've been noticing things. About you and me, that is."

I inhaled out of some sudden, inexplicable anticipation.

"All this time, ever since I…fell, died, whatever–" my heart sank at the memory and I let out the air I'd sucked in "–and then came back as a ghost…ever since then I've been dependent on you."

Wait, what? "Sakura-chan," I said confusedly, "I don't understand. You were dependent on me? Wasn't I the one who was dependent on you?"

"What do you–?"

"I depended on you!" I insisted. "Because, look. Without you, I'd still be all upset!"

"Naruto, the reason you were upset in the first place was because I'd died!"

I opened my mouth to argue, but couldn't really think of anything to say. So my jaw just kinda hung loose like that until I thought to shut it again.

"See?" Sakura-chan said pointedly. She didn't sound triumphant, the way someone usually would when they prove themselves right. She only sounded upset. "You can't deny it, can you? Because it's true. Naruto, all I've done is burden you." I felt a painful throb in my chest at the tone of her voice. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have to worry about getting caught speaking to me. You wouldn't have to question your sanity."

I considered telling her that I hadn't been questioning my sanity but thought better of it, figuring I'd just get hit or something.

"You wouldn't have to worry about me at all – you still don't, not to mention shouldn't! – or be considerate of me or anything. All I've done is make you into a crutch for the problems that should've died with me!" Tears flooded her green eyes and spilled over. They left shining tracks down the cheeks that no one but me could see.

I stepped forward (without really knowing why I was) and drew her into a big bear hug. She squirmed for a few seconds, but eventually gave up and simply leaned her head against me.

I whispered (because for some reason, it felt like we were supposed to be quiet), "I don't think you're a burden," I told her honestly. "Sakura-chan, whether you're a ghost or a sparkly vampire or a bowl of ramen or a teenager," I pretended to shudder in horror and she choked a tiny laugh past her sobs, "I'll always be glad to have you around. Because no matter what you are, you're still you."

Sakura

That was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me in my life (and death). Poor Naruto got more emotional-ghost goo on his shirt, but he didn't seem to notice. I closed my eyes and wished for a second that we could just stay that way.

But then I remembered: I wouldn't rely on him anymore. I couldn't.

I was going to be strong – strong enough to support myself.

And in any case, the chains were almost broken. I had no idea what would happen once they broke apart, so I had to continue.

Reluctantly, I peeled away. Naruto looked at me questioningly, but I still had things to tell him.

"Anyways, the point is," I tried to become the image of cool-mindedness, "I told myself – I promised myself – something: from now on, I'll be independent. I won't rely on you or anyone else to help carry my burdens; I'll carry them all on my own. And Naruto, after that – no, because of that – the chain began to loosen."

"It's– wait– it what?" he sputtered.

"The chain began to loosen," I repeated, "which made me start to think that maybe that chain represented, rather than how attached I am to you, how much I rely on you. My soul, spirit, whatever," I gestured in the general direction of myself, "came to be so dependent on you that it must've…I don't know, somehow reached out towards your, uh, soul." I hated all of this spirit talk. It was so vague and hypothetical. So much darned guess work! It annoyed me how uncertain all of it was. "And now our souls became attached. Which, I'm guessing, probably has something to do with why you can see me."

"Wait," Naruto said, "wouldn't that mean you'd have had to 'rely' on me before you died, then? It feels weird saying this out loud, but we didn't really hang out that much after primary school, let alone share our souls or whatever. I mean, sure, I'd might have liked to, but no. Someone just had to–"

"Be quiet and focus!" I snapped, losing my patience. "I don't know about that, Naruto. I'm as confused as you are. I think it might be because you saw me die, though, and you shouted my name and I couldn't get it out of my head! And oh my freaking God, I can't think straight right now because for all I know, something very bad or unnecessarily dramatic might happen when this stupid chain–" I gasped as the a link disintegrated before my eyes. "Oh my God it's vaporizing!"

"I want to see!" Naruto moaned.

If I'd been more calm, I might have rolled my eyes. Instead, I ran up to Naruto and threw my arms around him. "I'm so sorry Naruto! I have no idea what's about to happen, so I just thought I should tell you–" my mind went blank. Huh? What did I want to tell him?

Half of the links were gone.

If I had been Ino, I'd be shrieking my head off by now. Since I was hopelessly myself, I did the first thing I could think of and punched Naruto out of sheer panic.

"Ow, Sakura-chan! That hurt!"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry. Oh, God, Naruto, I'm so sorry." I kept apologizing: apologizing for punching him, for being such a jerk for all those years, for telling him he looked like an orange marshmallow in his jacket when we were eight, for showing up in front of him again after getting buried. I was sorry for so many things, and he had to know he had to know.

Three-fourths were gone.

"You're an idiot but you're an amazing idiot so don't you dare change!" I was just spitting out whatever popped into my head at this point. My head was a mess. "Naruto, I–"

The chain disappeared.

I held my breath and braced myself for anything from a landscape made up of bones and devils and fire and pain to a world of light and white and clouds and feathery wings to a rain of various kinds of livestock.

I waited.

Nothing changed.

Nothing had changed!

I hadn't thought I'd wanted things to stay the way they were until the relief hit me – sweet, sweet relief.

I turned to Naruto, a smile stretching across my face and opened my mouth to let him know everything would be okay. He beat me to the chase and was the first to speak.

"Hey," he whipped his head around as though he was trying to find something. "Sakura-chan?"

My insides froze. I froze. The world might as well have frozen, too.

No

"Sakura-chan?" He kept looking.

"Naruto?" I whispered.

"Where are you?" he asked.

No!

"I'm right here!" I screamed.

Please, no!

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto called again.

As though he hadn't heard me.

As though he didn't know I was there.

The End

AN: Love it? Tell me! Hate it? Tell me! Don't care? Tell me! :D lol Please review and tell me what you think!

Sorry if the ending came across as abrupt~^^'