Summary: If you could have just one more day with someone who is gone, who would it be? What would you do? What would you say?
It was raining. It seemed like it always rained. Maybe it was the rainy season coming three months early. Maybe it was a special jutsu someone was using to quickly replenish Suna's depleted food supply. Maybe it was just the deep sorrow that had fallen over Suna since the Kazekage's death.
It had been six months since the end of the war. Six months since Suna and Konoha had barely scraped past total annihilation. Six months since most of the shinobi population from Suna and Konoha had been wiped out. Six months since Gaara's death.
Nothing seemed to matter anymore. At least not to Haruno Sakura. She had never felt so utterly hopeless in her life. Everything had been perfect before the war. She'd had a family, friends, and a wonderful life ahead of her. She had the perfect fiancé before the war, but now… All those hopes and dreams for the future? They were lying on the ground at Sakura's feet. Broken. Crushed. Trampled by the terrible things that had happened during the war. The last had been crushed only six short months ago. Now she had nothing to live for. No one to go to. She was alone and left without any dreams to dream.
Sakura stared blankly at the sign in the window of the small newspaper office of Suna. In big black letters the words jumped out at her:
If you could have just one more day with someone who is gone…
Who would it be?
What would you do?
What would you say?
Already her mind played the traitor and brought up every last 'what-if?' that had passed through her mind since Gaara's death. What if the war had been avoided? What if Sakura could have grown old with Gaara? What if they had children? What if they had been married? What if… What if Gaara had never died?
Sakura felt a tear slip down her cheek and quickly brushed it away. "Kunoichis don't cry." She whispered.
"They do sometimes." Came a soft voice from behind Sakura. TenTen was standing there, her own tears mingling with the rain on her face.
Sakura knew that she too had lost someone very dear to her. TenTen had lost Neji. Many of the Leaf and Sand kunoichi had lost the men they loved. Why only the men had been killed no one knew. But TenTen and Sakura were not the only two to have lost the men they loved to Death's cold embrace. To add to the list was Hinata losing Kiba, Ino losing Sasuke, and Temari losing Shikamaru. So many had lost the people they loved the most during the war. It just wasn't fair. It felt so awful to be the one left behind. To have no one waiting for you when you got home. Being alone was a terrible feeling and Sakura hated it as much as the other young women.
"We are meeting at Temari's house tonight," TenTen said softly, "She wants to talk." She didn't have to add about what, because Sakura already knew what the topic of conversation would be that night. It would be the newspaper topic. Sakura already had a good idea as to who each person present would be talking about that night.
"I'll be there." Sakura replied as she turned away to walk back to her lonely apartment.
Sakura shut the door to her silent apartment and gazed around at the clothing piled on the floors and saw what she had been looking for.
Three pictures sat beside the head of Sakura's bed. The first was Sakura's old team when she had been a genin. Out of the three male teammates, Naruto was the only one to have survived. Her second picture was of Sakura's genin that she had been training before the war started. All three had been killed in an ambush on the camp they were in. The last picture was of Sakura and Gaara. Temari had taken the picture of her brother and best friend the night they had announced their engagement. Sakura had randomly jumped onto Gaara's back. He wore a startled expression on his face while Sakura was laughing madly.
Tears prickled at the corners of Sakura's eyes as she gazed down at Gaara's picture. It hurt so much to know that she would never see him walking down the street with a ridiculously large bag of groceries in his arms. To know that she would never hear his calm voice in her ear in the late hours of the night. To know that Gaara would never hold her and tell her that everything was all right. No matter what she did or what she said, Sakura could never bring Gaara back.
A tear dropped onto the picture glass, blurring the image as more fell.
"I know what I'd do if you could come back, Gaara." Sakura choked out to the still room, "I know what I'd say. If only I could see you just one last time. I'd make you your favorite foods and I'd show you your daughter. I'd tell you how much I love you. How much I wish you'd have stayed with me."
Sakura ran a hand over her swollen belly. She'd never had the chance to tell Gaara that she was pregnant. She'd never found the time. He'd been killed before she could tell him. Now he would never know about his child.
The meeting at Temari's house never took place that night; none of the kunoichi even gave it a second thought. Each was too lost in their own grief to notice.
Twelve Years Later
Sakura hugged her daughter as she ran over to her. Kisa's Sand hitai-ate was wrapped proudly about her slender waist.
"I'm so proud of you." Sakura whispered as she stroked her daughter's flaming red hair. Kisa gazed up at her mother and her eyes watered a bit.
"Let's go show dad." She told her mother as she took her by the hand.
The two kunoichi walked slowly to the place where Gaara had been buried. His tombstone had been specially picked by Temari and Sakura to be shaped like a heart. It rested on the ground, Gaara's name etched into the smooth, shiny surface.
"I did it, Dad." Kisa said as she knelt beside her father's grave. "I'm a Sand shinobi, just like you."
Sakura felt the tears well up in her eyes for the first time in many years. She visited Gaara's grave every day, but this was the first time she had cried at it in a long time. Seeing her only child speaking to her father's gravestone did that to her.
When Kisa turned around she, too, had tears in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. The mother and daughter embraced over Gaara's grave just as the sun set.
"I'm proud of you, too. My little Kisa." Gaara smiled as he watched the woman he loved hug his daughter. "And I love you both."