It felt like the sky was collapsing.

She could see it; The colors melding together, the clouds all ruining the perfect blue of the sky. The canopy above her was fuzzy, and all she could think was disjointed dreams.

No longer could she tell which of the images she was seeing were real, and which were products of too many days spent away from the ones she loved.

Sasuke, why didn’t you come back to me? 

Naruto, I’m sorry I couldn’t live to see you achieve your dream. I really wanted to see you become Hokage.

She didn’t want to die this way. Away from anyone she loved, alone and staring up at a too empty sky. No one to hold her hand, no one to touch her face and tell her that passing wasn’t frightening. It was very frightening, when you’re alone.

She knew tears were rolling down her temples and into her hair, knew that the blood rolling in thick beads out from the corner her lip was drying and becoming sticky.

Sakura knew that she was going to die here.

She released a groan, sob, sigh, and moan all at once towards the sky. It didn’t respond with kind words, or claims of unfairness. It simply gazed back down at her as clouds blinked over the sun, shrouding her in a hazy shade.

The distinct blur her vision had taken couldn’t quite take away the recognition of seeing that face; even in the afterlife she would recognize it.

When the dark figure appeared from the corner of her vision, she froze because it was all she could do. She couldn’t move, for the pain in her size- the gaze that was spilling a puddle of blood, dampening the dry dirt around her- was too great for her to move anymore.

Rather she could only direct her eyes his way, her head still pointed towards the cloudy sky.

In an botched attempt at anger, she tried to yell, scream, shout at him. No sound came out, as if fate was laughing at her. Rather she just opened her mouth like a fish, before clamping it back shut in frustration.

The tall, dark figure came her way now, the wind blowing his cape as he walked. She could only watch from the corner of her eye. 

Surprisingly she did not fear him. Here, this close to death, lying in puddles of her blood, with tears slowly drying on her face and her dreams being squandered by an unnecessary death, she couldn’t be afraid any longer.

Uchiha Itachi appeared above her, the tips of his shoes brushing against the skin of her arm, he stood so closely. She wished she had her strength so that she could do him in with her last minutes on this earth; So she could destroy the person who took away the happiness of the one she once loved.

And yet, strength was beyond her at this point, so she released a defeated sigh that nearly sounded like a sob.

And his sharingan eyes spun maddeningly above her, like a hypnotizing, never ending existence, separate from anything she’d ever seen. Not even Sasuke’s eyes. To die gazing into the abyss of sharingan eyes was most likely her fate, and it was a cruel one.

She could feel the tears returning and she was angry at herself for even now, in her last moment, finding the time to cry.

And the eldest of the remaining Uchiha brother didn’t speak to her. She thought that he might be mocking her. Fitting that both Sasuke, and his brother saw fit to mock her fear, her sadness, her humanity.

She could see no hatred in his eyes. They simply searched her, as if he was trying to see through her. Use his sharingan to capture her essence. 

“I–” She tried to speak, tried to tell him to leave, to kill her, to do something, to get away from her and stop mocking her. “I–I’m dying…” She told him. Her words quiet, broken, hoarse and weak. “I—I hope you die too.” She cursed him with the last of her strength, her eyelids growing heavy as she knew blood loss was haunting her now.

His expression didn’t alter, but his lips did part. “I’m afraid it only feels as if you are dying, Haruno-san…” He seemed certain of this.

She wanted to laugh at him, to say, “I’m a medic, I would know..” But she couldn’t find it within herself. Rather she gazed into his even, attentive eyes a moment longer.

Surprised that there was no contempt. No murderous underlying. Nothing to tell her that this was the man who had committed so many heinous, otherworldly wrongs.

The man who ruined her Sasuke-kun. Who stole her first love away from her.

She couldn’t find anything to hate in the depths of his eyes, and it was a fact that hurt her deeply. Confused her, harmed her good sense.

And just before her eyes closed entirely, she could see the blurry figure of him coming in closer to her. His nose was only inches from her when she gave into the darkness.

————————–

Resurfacing into the fuzzy, yellowish light above her, she could see the IV, could smell the antiseptics, the coldness of an uncomfortable bed, the sound of a nurse checking on other patients.

Her eyes cracked open and she was struck with a sense of loss.

Funny that she was miraculously still alive, and yet, she felt a deep, unbearable sense of loss.

Uchiha Itachi had saved her life.

The man who ruined so many peoples lives, including her own by association, had saved her life.

The empty, mindless thrumming of her heart grew a little faster.