A/N:
Well, obviously since I can't post the last chapter of DE right now, I'm posting this instead. I've been meaning to write a oneshot for a really long time and even though character deaths are a little cliche, I wanted to try my hand at it. I've only just started to fall in love with narusaku because there are so many angst opportunities. I'm still an itasaku fan (never fear!) but here's something that's the outcome of listening to Happy Ending by Mika too many times.

This is the way you left me
I'm not pretending
No hope, no love, no glory
No happy ending
Happy Ending - Mika

Maybe if she pinches herself hard enough, she'll wake up. Maybe if she closes her eyes long enough and then opens them slowly, maybe the limping figure struggling towards her won't be there.

But as the rain tears away at her with piercing droplets and plasters her roseate locks to her skin, it becomes evident that this is no dream or hallucination even though she sorely wishes it was. Any nightmare would have been better than the reality bleeding over the forest floor as it makes its painful progress towards her. She can't speak, she can't move- she's paralyzed to the ground in disbelief.

It is only a few minutes later that the shock resides into the depths of her mind to allow blinding, terrifying fear to surface. Her feet move faster than they ever have before towards the weakly smiling ninja. He squints up at her with a cerulean eye, thick red blood trickles into the other squeezed shut one.

"Sakura-chan, I- I found you," He tells her in a haggard voice with a feeble grin and a dim sparkle in his eye.

She reached out for him but she doesn't know why. Maybe she wants to make absolutely sure he's there, mortally wounded in front of her. Maybe she needs to hold onto him, to help stem the burning tears forming in the corners of her eyes because she's so scared. There are so many maybes and so many reasons why but she can't pick one of them because her mind is in turmoil and she can't accept what's happening in front of her.

She finds that the reason doesn't matter anymore as he collapses into her open arms.

His heavy weight brings her to her knees and she clings to him tightly on his way down. She doesn't care that her once snow white skirt is now stained a garish and sickly red as his wounds weep over her. All that matters now is the man, who really was just a boy, in her arms.

"Naruto, don't speak," She tells him sharply as her medic instincts begin to kick in.

"We- We got Sasuke," He chokes out before breaking into a fit of coughs. Blood spittle flies out of his mouth with every agonizing cough. His chest heaves up and down as he fights for breath and his eyes clench shut with the pain.

His words click somewhere in the back of her mind but she isn't listening to him anymore. Her eyebrows are furrowed with elusive concentration as she tries to find a way to help him, tries to find a way to keep him alive but he's losing too much blood…

"Sakura-chan, I-" He inhales deeply, trying to breathe as blood seeps into a punctured lung, "You c-can be happy now. We g-got S-Sasuke back."

She doesn't even realize that her name is the only thing he can say without stuttering. Her chakra runs through him at a speed that ANBU would be envious of as she tries so hard to mend the damage that has been done. She knows there are some people you can't fix no matter how hard you try and she doesn't want him to be one of them because she needs him so much.

"Sakura-chan, are you listening, we g-got Sasuke back. I k-kept the promise to bring him b-back," He repeats it a third time, wondering if she didn't hear him properly. He waits for her joyful reaction and for a declaration of love to a person he wants so desperately to be him but it never comes.

"Naruto, shut up, I don't care about Sasuke right now," She snaps at him hastily, feeling tears of frustration and fear roll down her cheeks.

She doesn't think he even knows that he's dying, dying, because all he can do is talk about Sasuke and nothing else. His body starts to reject her chakra and she doesn't want to accept the fact that his vital organs are shutting down on him. He looks up at her with a dumbfounded look on his face, a boyish face that never seemed to change before but is being forced to now.

Her chakra stops and retreats back into her own channels but not out of her own free will. He feels the cooling chakra leave his body and knows what it means since the pain hasn't left him yet and his wounds haven't closed. His breath starts to rattle in his throat and it hurts to keep on living.

She starts to shout at him now, "Naruto, you're such an idiot!"

She's shouting things she doesn't mean and the both of them know it. She's so angry, so frustrated, so desperate because he's gone and killed himself by picking a fight he couldn't win. He's so stupid for getting hurt, so stupid for dying and she hates him almost as much that stupid promise she made him make.

"I wanted to…to get Sasuke back for you because I promised you I'd bring him back," He tries to keep from stuttering. It makes him feel weak and he needs to at least look strong for now.

She raises a hand to hit him and he closes his eyes, anticipating the hit. When he doesn't feel the sting of a slap, his eyelids flutter open to see her hand drop to her side limply. He stares up at her face and knows even though it's raining, she's crying and he finds it so strange that she's crying now. She should be happy that he got Sasuke back but for some reason she's acting the wrong way.

She demands, "Why does it matter if I loved him? It has nothing to do with you!"

He laughs at her and she grows even angrier with him. Why is he laughing? There's nothing funny about what's happening and he should be crying because it won't hurt her as much as the act he's putting on now. He doesn't even notice that she said loved instead of love but maybe it's because he's come to accept that Sasuke is the only one she'll ever love.

"You would be happy if he came back. And if you're happy…I'm happy," he tells her truthfully with a smile that hurts more than it should.

She asks him, "Why?"

He is surprised. He thought she already knew the answer. "Because I love you, Sakura-chan."

And all he can hear for the next few agonizing seconds are the sounds of raindrops falling. He thinks he can hear thunder in the distance but maybe it's just the reluctant thudding of his heart. She's lost for words and she doesn't know what to do, doesn't know how to tell a dying person what she needs to say.

"Sakura-chan…I broke my other promise though. I can't protect you forever," He breaks the silence. Right now, silence scares him more than it ever has before because words he can say are lost in those few fleeting moments.

She wipes at her eyes and he can't tell if it's because she's trying to wipe away tears or because the rain is getting in her jade eyes. He always thought her eyes were the prettiest part of her and he muses to himself that they probably always will be.

Her voice is breaking as she says, "Why is it that you keep all the silly promises but break the important ones?"

He doesn't want to read deeper into her words because he's scared of what they might mean. Instead he tells her, "Sakura-chan, don't cry. I want you to be happy…"

"Naruto, haven't you noticed that you've made me happier than Sasuke ever has?" She points out to him through her tears.

Something breaks inside of him but he's still not crying even though it hurts so damn much. He tries to hide the regret because he knows that after this he can't make her happy any more. He doesn't know what to say but watches her through dimming cerulean eyes. He thinks that she's never looked more beautiful than she has now but then again, impending death makes everything look more amazing. Even though she always looked beautiful to him.

"But Sasuke…" He trails off and she shakes her head, flinging crystalline tears and water droplets as she does so.

"Are you so stupid that you can't see that I love you?" She asks him in a whisper.

His world comes to a halt. He says nothing but gradually, very gradually, a tired smile begins to spread across his face. The corners of his mouth curve upwards softly into a satisfied smile and his eyes close for the last time.

"Ne, ne, Sakura-chan, the next time we meet you wanna go on a date with me?"

"…sure."

Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear)