Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto.

A/N : Wow I finally managed to write another Naruto fanfic. This fanfic is actually not a new fic. I have created it some time ago but I found it again and decided to edit several parts before posting it.

Summary : Because it's wrong to live. Because it's wrong to hope. And foremost… because it's wrong to fall in love.

And She Smiled to Death

This is the nearest I can get.

The thought crossed Sasuke Uchiha's mind in an almost absentminded manner. He crossed both of his arms in front of his chest upon watching Naruto by her bedside. The Kyuubi boy's sobs were echoing in the hospital room. It wasn't a small room. As the apprentice and the right-hand of the Hokage herself, Haruno Sakura had managed herself to get the privilege of a spacious, big hospital room. Yet, despite the rather large space, Sasuke couldn't help but to still feel… claustrophobic. The sound of the machine beside her weak body wasn't easing his mind at all. Sasuke gazed at the machine in painful anxiety. Each minute, each second, he was faced with the gamble.

Would she die this second? Would she die the second after?

…

It was killing him.

He gritted his teeth and tried his best to control himself. To stop himself crying like a girl, to stop his heart breaking in crumbles.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn't seem to pay attention to any of those self-restrains. Sasuke envied him at times like this. How the blonde-haired boy could yell what was on his mind, how he could hold her hand without any worry that the touch would hurt, how he could protect what he truly wanted to protect…

Unlike him, who had failed, oh he had failed miserably at protecting her.

Unlike him, who, for the first time ever, felt that the Uchiha name so heavy, so…unbearable, and so…shameful.

Sasuke wasn't even sure whether he still had the right to be in her hospital room. Sakura hated him, he knew. After what he had done, after all the betrayals, the rejections, the pain he had caused her to feel, there was no way that she couldn't hate him.

He knew his place, he knew his position.

So, standing near the door of the hospital room and being feet away from her unconscious body –was the nearest he could get.

"Don't go…"

Sasuke's attention was dragged back to reality by Naruto's whimper. The blue-eyed guy's hand trembled as he clutched firmly at her pale, pale hand. "Please, not you too…"

Of course. To people like him and Naruto, who had lost everything (everyone), losing a precious person was never going to be easy.

Especially not Sakura.

Never Sakura.

The pink-haired woman finally cracked an eye open and forced a smile –a smile, that even when it was forced, was still beautiful.

As beautiful as the rest of her.

"Ne, Naruto…"

Tch, Sasuke thought. She hated me that much that she ignored me, that she only speak of Naruto, Naruto, and Naruto.

Naruto seemed to be surprised at the sound of her voice. There was uncontrollable happiness shone in his blue eyes. They all had waited for Sakura to open her eyes and to speak for 2 weeks already. That attack that had happened during their mission to the Water country was damaging her internal organ –she had been in comatose ever since.

However, unlike Naruto, the happy gleam was never in Sasuke's eyes. That prodigy knew better, oh he always knew better.

"Yes, Sakura-chan?" the future Hokage asked with a voice so hopeful, that it sounded merely like a squeak.

Sakura's gaze was vaguely cast at Sasuke once, in a moment so quick, as if to check, to ensure that he would hear, to ensure he would taste his own…payback. Then those jade eyes slowly looked at Naruto's blue ones and the gaze lingered there.

"Naruto… I think, I fall in love."

"Huh?" Naruto asked the incoherent non-sense Sakura was suddenly talking about.

Her breath was raspy, painful, and sad. Sasuke was so tempted to take a step, to break the limit he created himself and reprimanded her of her condition: that it was clearly not her time to talk about her girlish gibberish. If she wanted to make him tortured, if she wanted to make him feel jealous, if she wanted to enhance how…regretful he should have been, she could do it later. She could torture him later, he wouldn't mind.

But just live. Live a little longer.

And he swore he would let her cast any kind of jealousy, any kind of pain inside him.

Being her stubborn self, of course, Haruno Sakura heeded no attention to his silent threat and continued her slurred speech. "The… angel. I fall in love with the angel…"

For the several first seconds, Sasuke almost snorted at her senseless mutters.

Sakura –childish, annoying, illogical Sakura –who probably still thought of such fairytale creature exist. The very same Sakura who was stupid enough not to be able to evade that attack, the very same idiot girl who had once fallen in love with one Uchiha Sasuke.

Now, she was falling in love with an angel?

How…stupid.

…

Then the seconds later, Sasuke realized. His onyx eyes widened in disbelief and he gritted his teeth in anger.

Naruto seemed to realize her metaphor too and he clenched her hand tighter –not willing to let her go. His head was buried to her hand; his tears must have drenched her skin there. "You can't!"

"He's so…" Sakura trailed and finally settled for a word. "…Angelic," she said, for the lack of better term.

"He's an illusion!"

"I wanna…" She coughed blood. Naruto grew panic. Sasuke pried his gaze away –the weak sight of her was too unbearable sometimes. "I wanna…"

"Don't speak! I'll go get the doctor!" Naruto shouted to the dying girl.

Sasuke was standing closest to the door and he knew that logically he should be the one to call the doctor, he should be the one to save her life, at least after his endless failures, he should try to protect her at least one more time. But he couldn't move. His legs wouldn't bulge, he could only stare at her weak form in fear, his pupils dilated, and he found his throat so dry. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't protect her. He could only break her heart, he could only make her hate him more and more.

Even until this point, he still was…useless.

Naruto's yells were, fortunately, enough to get the doctors. Sasuke could feel those white-coated men barged in, trying to strengthen and prolong her life, while he himself could only stare, and stare, and stare, and do nothing.

He hated himself.

He hated Sakura for being so stupid.

And still that stupid girl still talked about all those stupid things. Even with all the panicked movements of the doctors, even with all the frustrated shouting from the doctors, or the endless wailing of Naruto, Sasuke could still hear her stupid, stupid, stupid words.

"I fall in love with him, the angel… I wanna… I wanna…"

"Sakura-chan!"

"…go and meet him…"

"Damnit, Sakura-chan!"

"…in heaven, in his beautiful place, meeting him…"

"The angel's taking you nowhere!" Naruto's sayings…were starting to get equally as idiotic.

"…Fall in love with him… I'm in love with the angel…"

"NO Angel can take you away from me!" Naruto wailed.

Stupid, Sasuke thought. Stupid friend of mine…

Stupid angel, he added bitterly. Never before had Sasuke felt any kind of remorse, any disdain, to the guys Sakura chose, until now.

Don't fall in love with the angel.

Don't go with him to heaven.

Don't go…

Don't die.

A long pause.

And she smiled to death.

"I'm so sorry," the head doctor spoke; his words were short, curt, and felt stabbing cold too.

Naruto's screams were unstoppable. He wailed like a crazy guy in the hospital. His fiancée, the Hyuuga girl, tried to hug him, to ease his misery even when those glistening tears trailed on the Hyuuga heiress' cheek too.

Sasuke could only drop himself down warily to the hospital chair. All began to blur faintly before his eyes. He thought he heard Kakashi's voice, so haughty and sad, it was hardly like him. And then Yamanaka's equally crazy wailing. And then the Fifth Hokage who burst her temperaments to the doctors, uncharacteristic tears were on her face, and then Sakura's mother, who didn't even have any strength to walk, or even to wake.

And in that ruckus, Sasuke just chose to sit still, speak nothing, do nothing.

Sakura…

He closed his eyes, trying to close the empty gap in his heart.

On the background, he could hear Naruto's endless screams.

"Why do you have to go too? Why? After Sasuke-teme, after him, not you too…not you too, Sakura-chan…"

.

.

.

"Sasuke-kun?"

He cracked his eyes open and saw her standing in front of him. She was dressed in a pretty, white, simple dress and she practically glowed the aura of heaven. Her long, pink tresses framed her beautiful face and she smiled softly, so angelic, so beautiful…

"Sakura…" he spoke to her, finally.

She smiled and reached out her hand to him. "I'm sorry to make you wait. Let's go."

He stared at the hand then at her eyes. How he hated, hated her to be such a foolish girl. He had hurt her countless times in his lifetime, and even in his death, he still caused her to depart from her other loved ones.

"Why?" he questioned.

Sakura only replied with a big, cheeky grin.

Wasn't falling in love with him once enough? She shouldn't have undergone the same foolishness again and again…

But then again…

He knew he couldn't let go of that hand again. "Hn."

.

.

.

"I fall in love with an angel who will take me to Heaven."

The End

A/n: Done in 2 hours. Haha. Just to clear the plot up, Sasuke was already dead before Sakura died, and the angel Sakura was referring to was, in fact, him.