Sakura roared in aggravated fury. She punched at the sandbag hard with all of her might. She couldn't use the chakra for it anymore. There was a limit to what she could do now. All because she was a stupid idiot.

She had gotten greedy. She thought that she could rework the Strength of a Hundred Seal so that she could tap into its chakra, it backfired in the worst possible way. Now the seal functioned as a permanent leak of her chakra.

She was dying slowly.

It was eating away at her chakra reserves, depleting her like a pierced balloon. Already she was back down to the level she had when she was in the academy. Another three months and she would have to stop being a shinobi.

Three months after that she would die.

Once more with a primal scream that echoed throughout the training room, Sakura punched the bag so hard that the entire apparatus had been scooted back.

She pushed herself harder than she ever had before knowing that she was going to die. Every day she took a soldier pill to boost her chakra, and she devoted all of that into a permanent lasting strength in her muscles.

If Lee could fight without chakra, she could have a full six months of being a shinobi. She wanted to give Naruto those final six months of her life so that they could find Sasuke and bring him back.

She tightened the gauze around her knuckles once again. It was fortunate that nobody else came here at night. Otherwise, she'd have to explain why she was only wearing her shorts and gauze around her chest.

It helped her focus on her muscles.

Maybe it would be better if she died of embarrassment.

Without warning, she spun around hard on her heel and kicked the sand bag clear off of its hook and stomped away. Normally she'd pick it back up. But she really felt like being just a bit of a bitch right now.

XXXX

Five hours until she had to be at the hospital and all she could do was stare at the ceiling. "Either go to bed or find a way to not die." Great, she was talking to herself again. Only this time, it was out loud.

Bringing her knuckle down to her forehead, Sakura stared up at the pale white space that was her ceiling. In theory, she could reverse the effects of the seal if she had enough chakra to fill it instantly twice over. But that was very unlikely. There was probably nobody in Konoha that had that much chakra.

Maybe if Kakashi and Tsunade fused. Gai had a lot of chakra but she doubted that he would keep quiet about her fuck up. And she doubted he had enough without going into the eight gates. It would probably be fine if he could stay in the fourth gate for an hour but that would likely kill him.

Sakura wasn't certain her life was worth it.

"Come on idiot, think." She tapped her forehead gently. And her eyes went wide.

"Idiot." She repeated. "I need an idiot!" Sakura kicked her legs on her bed several times as she'd found the solution to her problem. She was out of bed again quickly changing out of her sleeping attire and into her work clothes.

It wasn't the first time she had missed a night's rest.

She needed an idiot. Not just any idiot. She needed a blond idiot that had so much chakra he used shadow clones like regular clones. "Naruto you better hurry back, I need you now more than ever."

She bolted out the door and to the library; she had a jutsu to create and a process to develop.

XXXX

A month later Sakura grinned at Naruto as they walked down the busy Konoha streets. They had just defeated Kakashi and had gotten the bells this time. Then Kakashi had vanished. Now all Sakura had to do was to get Naruto to agree to help her with the jutsu tonight.

"Well since he's gone, want to go on a date Sakura?" Naruto asked with a nervous smile.

Sakura smiled, Naruto still had his crush on her it seems, and as much as she hated it. She was about to use that crush to her advantage.

But it was life or death, so that made it okay right?

"I'll tell you what Naruto, you help me with something tonight, and I'll go out on a date with you." Sakura did her absolute best to look cute for Naruto. It helped that he had an absolutely heart warming smile. It felt good knowing that she caused that smile. Doubly nice that it was for her.

No matter how hard she tried to deny it, Naruto had come back attractive. He was still the same lovable idiot that didn't think before he spoke, but that was just Naruto.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and smiled. "I'd help you with anything Sakura, you don't have to bribe me with dates"

Sakura took his wrist and began to pull him away. "Think of it as a reward then if you do a good job, in the meantime where do you live?"

With a goofy smile, Naruto led Sakura to his home.

"So what did you want me to help you with Sakura?" Naruto asked in confusion. They had sat down on his couch for all of two seconds before he gotten nervous and asked the question. Still, Sakura had pulled him to his own home he had to try to put on the moves right?

Sakura rolled her eyes she didn't trust Naruto's goofy look one bit. He was thinking something perverted right. "Well, that's just it. I need your chakra."

That snapped Naruto out of his stupor. "Huh, my chakra? What for?"

Sakura sighed. Naruto was always confused, so he never stopped asking questions. She didn't want to tell him that she was dying.

He'd worry and tell Tsunade. For a moment she wasn't sure which would be worse.

"My chakra reserves are tiny." Sakura began slowly. "And well yours are massive, if you give me some of your chakra, I'd be able to expand my chakra reserves." And stave off inevitable death.

Naruto's face scrunched in confusion. That was never a good sign. "But wouldn't that make my chakra reserves smaller?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, smiled and sighed all at the same time. Something only Naruto had the ability to make her do. "No, it wouldn't. You'd be putting your chakra into me just like you use a shadow clone, so your reserve wouldn't shrink. And besides with your chakra control, losing a bit of reserve might help you."

Naruto smiled brightly and rocked towards Sakura for a moment. "Oh okay, I would have done it anyways, I was just making sure. So what do I need to do?"

Sakura's own smile never faltered. "Good, so all you need to do is give me your right hand. And then touch my forehead after I start the Jutsu. After that start pushing in a small amount of chakra when I say start, okay?"

Naruto nodded in confirmation quickly. He was eager to help Sakura to the best of his ability.

Sakura took Naruto's hand and for a moment, she admired its roughness. It was so much larger than hers. There was dirt under his nails. Hers too she realized. But Naruto's were so different from hers. Where hers lacked calluses Naruto's seemed to be made of it. And somehow she punched harder.

His large veins pulsed gently when she touched them. His pulse was quickening. He wanted her. He found her attractive. Part of her wondered why. She knew that she wasn't pretty or was particularly womanly.

"Sakura?" Naruto questioned.

Sakura shook her head. "Oh sorry I got uhh.. lost in thought, I'm going to start now, okay?"

Once more Naruto smiled and nodded.

Using Naruto's hand Sakura began the seals for the Jutsu. It was a modified version of an offensive technique that Orochimaru had developed in his years of loyalty to Konoha. It left a sour taste in her mouth to use anything related to Orochimaru, even if it was just the basis. With a deep breath, Sakura finished her jutsu, it was time to see how it went. "Okay, now touch my forehead."

Sakura watched as Naruto's fingers slowly inched forward. The bastard was taking his time. It was a slow, deliberate movement. When he was close she leaned her forehead forward the rest of the way.

She could feel Naruto's chakra. It was immense; a mountain with no bottom and no top. An endless ocean that toiled endlessly. And she was but a single blade of grass next to that mountain. A single leaf floating along in the sea of Naruto's chakra.

It felt as though she was basking in a thousand warm sunny days at once. Her entire body felt hot. Her insides exploded with raw energy. Every single nerve in her body exploded twice over in both pain and pleasure, blending the two into the ultimate form of feeling.

She grabbed his hand and dragged it down to her mouth, making certain to never break skin contact. There was no thought in the action, no intention behind it. She placed Naruto's finger in her mouth, licking its salty filth with her tongue along the sharpness of his untrimmed fingernails to scrape against her sensitive tongue. She began to suck it slowly.

She wanted more. She needed more. She was already full. There was no place else to put more. Her withered chakra reserves began to beat once more filled with the seemingly infinite warmth that was Naruto. She took more in. Over filling her capacity. Her coils cracked. And cracked again. Her chakra ran rampant through her body as more of Naruto's flooded into her.

It flooded into her chakra hungry muscles strengthening them again and again. It flooded into her lungs where into her stomach. To her breasts, to her reproductive organs. There was so much chakra.

Her chakra coils reformed ,larger and stronger than ever before. Any damage that she had done to herself because of that seal had long vanished.

"Sakura!" Naruto's voice echoed through her mind.

Reality came back to Sakura rapidly as she noted the then trail of saliva that connected her to Naruto's finger. His chakra was gone, no longer pouring into her. But she had never felt more alive. She had so much chakra now.

Was this how Naruto felt? All the time? No wonder he was so hyper. She felt like she could beat Lee in an endurance run around Konoha and then come here and see how much stamina Naruto had. Where on earth did that thought come from?

"Sakura, are you okay?" Naruto gripped her shoulders. The Jutsu was broken, so there was no transfer, but her body still screamed at his touch and she could feel all that chakra just sitting there waiting to be sent to her.

"Huh, yea I'm okay Naruto." Sakura smiled truthfully at Naruto. Everything looked so vivid, so full of life. Since when did Naruto's eyes look so… so… so blue? It was like the bluest blue she had ever seen. Never before had her previous life looked so grey and dreary. She spotted just a single strand of her pink hair. It was absolutely beautiful.

Naruto dried his finger off on his pant leg. Sakura couldn't help but notice that large bulge that she had caused. "Are you sure, because I after I touched you spaced out and started sucking on my thumb before I could even start pushing Chakra into you."

All that chakra she felt rushing into her was just Naruto's natural output. He wasn't trying that much just flowed off him freely. All the time. The thought of what it would be like when he pushed more chakra into her nearly made her wet herself. Sakura pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. It felt so soft. "Yea, I'm fine. So let's go on that date now yea?"

Part of her believed that if she refused him now then he would never agree to do it again.

Naruto's concerned frown remained, however. "Are you sure you got a mark on your forehead now kind of like Granny's."

Sakura's hand darted up to her forehead. She couldn't feel anything. "A mirror!" she shouted standing up quickly. "Naruto where's your mirror?" She repeated in a mad desperation. Did she have the mark already? Was it worse? Did she damn herself to have an even larger drain on her chakra? She needed to see.

Naruto pointed back. "I got one in the bathroom I think." In all honesty, this was his first time home in three years. He never used the mirror much, so he wasn't really sure if there was one.

With a surprising amount of speed and agility, Sakura bolted past Naruto and into the bathroom. She found the mirror quickly enough and was nearly brought to tears. There, standing in front of her was herself, renewed.

She looked the same as she always had. But now she radiated some form of beauty. Some intangible, untouchable thing that she couldn't quite grasp. Everything looked exactly the same. Except the small petal blossom shaped seal on her forehead.

The seal was different from Tsunade's. Tsunade's was angular sharp and jagged diamond. Sakura's was more like a petal blossom caught in the wind floating along with the breeze as it took her where ever it willed.

Is this how Naruto saw her? This pink haired little girl that had some kind of incorporeal beauty that couldn't possibly described to somebody that had never seen it before? Was this how Naruto saw everything? So full of color and life. Even her own green eyes sparkled with a refined excitement.

"You okay?" Naruto asked from the hallway. His shoulder was inside the door frame while the rest of him was facing away from the bathroom in an attempt to preserve the privacy she abandoned when she forgot to close the door.

Sakura smiled and bounded towards Naruto a giant smile on her face. "Well, what do you think?" She pointed a thumb at her forehead with a hand on her hip. She leaned forward only slightly to give Naruto a better view of her forehead.

A sudden hesitation came over Naruto and twice he swallowed down the lump in his throat that grew back each time. "It's really cute and-and it kinda makes me want to kissyourforehead more."

Those words. The way he said them. She was twelve again back in that dreary grey world she once lived in. And then it became as clear as crystal the memories flashed back and played themselves over and over. Way back then on the bench when they became a team.

That was Naruto.

The smile that formed on her face threatened to reach her ears. "You know, if you told me that when we were younger, I probably would have fallen in love with you."

Naruto's face after he said that was worth her weight in gold. It was such an odd combination of revelation, regret, unbridled happiness, something closer to love, and hope. "What about now?" There was a desperation in Naruto's voice. "Can I say anything that will do that now?"

Give me some of your chakra every day.

Sakura smiled wryly and locked elbows with Naruto. She wished that he wasn't wearing his jacket, she couldn't feel the allure of his chakra quite as well through the fabric. "Well, you'll just have to keep trying until you find out? Now won't you?" She was starting to like the way he liked her.

"So where to?" Naruto asked cheerfully as he led her to the door.

Sakura thought for a long moment even though her choice had been made ages ago. "Well, it's been how many years since you had Ichiraku?"

For a second or two Sakura felt like she had the second place smile and that going to get ramen had first place.

She'd put it up that going to get ramen with her is what won first prize.

AN: Beta'd by Spooder. Who is not an Australian. Also beta'd by Layarsir who's planning on writing his own fic soon! I'll let ya'll know when it comes up!

I felt bad for Sakura so I wrote a Narusaku fic for her... In which she basically becomes a drug addict to Naruto's chakra.

And then does things for that chakra... Look this is going to be M partly because I might try to write a lemon or two. And partly because it's going to deal with the mature theme of addiction.