The enemy swooped down on them suddenly. Sasuke and Naruto were fast to react, they immediately guarded themselves from the attacks of the foes that came down upon them. Kakashi took on the boss, while Sakura stood in the corner looking baffled. Surprise attacks always resulted in this sort of scene. It always ended with a victory for Team 7, and nothing really ever went wrong. The three guys in the team were too strong to let anything go wrong. But this day it didn't go as usual. It was probably because for one split second all three of them let their eyes off her. They didn't see the fourth enemy coming down, or her turning around and her eyes widening. They only noticed when they heard a scream from the left corner. Sasuke was the first to react.

"Sakura!" He screamed giving his enemy a big whack and running toward the girl.

"Sakura chan!" "Sakura!"

The Jounin and the other boy said as they also approached the girl.

Stabbed in the back, Sakura lay on the ground in a puddle of blood. The one that attacked her lay wounded on the ground next to her. Sasuke slowly took Sakura into his arms and looked into her face.

"Sasuke kun. . ." Sakura said weakly smiling. "I, I got him! I took him on all by myself! I'm not the only one that didn't do anything this time!" Sakura closed her eyes and smiled.

"Yeah Sakura, you did. Just don't speak any more," Sasuke said squeezing her.

"Am I going to die Sasuke kun?" Sakura said, a tear falling down her cheak.

"Of course not Sakura, we'll get you to a hospital!"

"Don't worry Sakura chan!" Naruto chanted in behind, but you could tell he didn't believe what he was saying.
Kakashi silently took his eyes off the girl.

Sasuke squeezed Sakura even tighter and closed his eyes. "Sasuke kun?" Sakura whispered. She seemed even weaker than before and only could talk in a whisper. ". . .Everyone," she continued eyeing Naruto. ". . .Please. . . Don't forget me. . ." Her last tear fell down her cheek as she closed her eyes. Sasuke felt as her strength left her.

"Sakura. . . no. . ."

"Sakura chan!"

". . ."

The rain started pouring down on the three of them.

* * *

Just as many people came to Sakura's funeral as to the Hokage's. When one member of the Konoha Village dies it is pain to everyone in it. Sasuke could be seen slouched in a corner, he couldn't bring his eyes to seeing the girl's dead body. Naruto and Kakashi stood up front. Sasuke stared at her corpse as they carried it up to where it would be cremated.

"Do we have to burn it?" Naruto asked eyeing Kakashi. He couldn't bear to see the body of the beautiful girl being transformed into a mountain of ashes. When she used to be the being that unified group 7. Her smile would be the thing that brought warmth to all of them.

"It's a custom."

"But still. . ."

"Even if we didn't want to do it, it isn't up to us."

Naruto turned his gaze to Sakura's parents. They were both in tears and holding onto each other. Naruto's eyes thinned as he looked at them in pity. It must be hard for them to lose such an important member of their family.

Sasuke couldn't bare it, he got up and left.

"Sasuke!" Naruto screamed.

Everyone looked up at him.

"Are you just going to leave at Sakura's funeral? You were also a member of group 7 you know! You know how important you were to her!"

Sasuke glared at Naruto in silence and turned his back, "I don't want to watch this."

The whole village watched as Sasuke left. Naruto stood with his back straight and eyes closed but was trembling. He clenched his fist and suddenly opened his eyes. "Wait!" he screamed to the priests that were carrying Sakura's body up. They all turned as the blond hair boy came running up to them. "Don't cremate her. I can't bare to see her as ashes."

Naruto was expecting the village to look at him as though he was a maniac, but he was surprised when the whole of the village suddenly began to shout out the same. "Yeah, you shouldn't be doing this!" "She's only a girl!" "The boy's right!"

The priests looked puzzled. They had no idea what they should do. Suddenly Sakura's mother approached and said, "isn't there anything else we could do with the body?" The priests looked at each other.

* * *

Sasuke slowly walked up to the grave stone that had all of the names of the ninjas that had died during battle engraved onto it. He gazed into the line with the name "Haruno Sakura" on it and slowly traced the letters with his thumb.
"Why? Why you Sakura?" Sasuke said with his head facing toward the ground. Tears began to flow down his face as he remained there with only her name left. He'd never thought of her as something that he needed in his life. Than why was it that right now he felt so alone. . . So utterly alone.

* * *

Later that night Kakashi stood alone in his room with a picture of the former group 7 in front of him. The angry looking kid, the sneering kid, and the girl with the bright smile on her face. Without the girl the picture wouldn't be something fun to look at, it would be a group of kid's with a bad attitude and a lazy looking teacher. Or rather, that's what group 7 was now, and it would probably never become anything different. Sakura couldn't be replaced by anyone. She was the one bright substance that brought light to everyone. Although she hardly made any contribution in missions, she was the thing that brought them together. Kakashi poured his bottle of sake onto the picture and watched as it dripped down the picture and off of the shelf onto the floor. When the sake was all poured onto it he took the picture and threw it into the fireplace.

"That's the end of this group," he said as he started to get ready for bed. Even though no one else was around he tried to hide the fact that he had lost something extremely important to him.

* * *

Sakura's body lay on her bed in her room. No one knew what to do with it. No one wanted to bury it, no one wanted to cremate it. All her parents could do then was to put a jutsu on it to preserve it. It lay coldly in her room without making a sound. Sometimes people would come and bring flowers, but other than that there was no motion in the room. That's how it was left for a year.

* * *

A year had passed. Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi were all on different paths. Naruto and Sasuke were both promoted to chuunins, and they accomplished mostly C rank missions on their own, other than occasional B rank ones accompanied by others. They never did a mission together after her death, however. Kakashi rejoined the ambu. He didn't really have any other choice, seeing that he had no intentions on taking on another group of kids. The sun shone into the room in the Haruno household that contained Sakura's body. The usually motionless room was suddenly stirred. Meanwhile Sasuke was in his room surrounded by scrolls. He was always alone. Ever since Sakura's death he'd decided to never associate with others when he didn't have a need to. He felt that he would be betraying the girl if he ever became intimate with anyone else. The silence in his room was broken by the ring of a doorbell. He tried to ignore it but it kept on ringing. Sasuke sighed and got up to get the door. He slowly opened it and looked into a pair of green eyes.

"Sasuke kun!" Sasuke gasped as a body ran into his arms. Sunlight shown into his house as he stood there. He quickly pulled away the body to look into its face. Its eyes stared at him full of tears. ". . .Sakura?" The girl nodded. He pushed her away. "No, this is a dream! Snap out of it! Your dead!" "I know, I am dead." "Shut up. Then how could you be standing here?" "No one buried my body." "Huh?" Sakura smiled and said, "no one buried my body so I was given a final chance. I get to go to anyone I want to and say goodbye. I've only got until sunset for my soul to remain in my body though. But even if you keep my body for another a year, I won't come back. I came back to see you, that's the one thing I had to do before I died. I've done it now, so I can go to the other world." At this point Sasuke didn't care if it was a dream or not. He approached Sakura and hugged her tightly.

"Sakura, stay forever."

"I can't Sasuke kun," Sakura said in tears.

"I didn't have anyone else."

"You had Naruto and Kakashi Sensei!"

"Well look at me and them now."

". . ."

"Sakura, stay with me."

"Sasuke kun, don't stay alone forever because of me. I just want you to be happy."

"Then why did you die?"

"I didn't want to die!" Sakura said drowned in tears. Sasuke held her gently. "But I have no other choice."

Sasuke slowly brushed Sakura's hair. The two let their lips come together and kissed. The silent kiss made everything still. It seemed like the only beings moving in the world were them. Their faces parted and they looked into each other's eyes and then they let them come together again. Sakura was alive. Although for only a short period of time, she was alive. She was breathing, and her cheeks were warm. This was the Sakura he knew.

The two were together until right before sunset. Sakura announced that she didn't want her parents to get suspicious, and that she still had to meet them. On her way home she passed by a strangely familiar boy, although he looked ten times sadder than before.

"Naruto?"

". . .Sakura chan? No! You're dead."

"I, I've been given a chance. I have my body back until sunset."

Naruto eyed Sasuke's residence and stated, "I see."

Sakura approached Naruto and hugged him. "Naruto. . . I know I'd never seen you in 'that way,' but. . . You were always there for me. Thank you." Sakura said in tears.

Naruto touched her face and brushed the tears away, "No Sakura chan. I don't want to see you cry. It was your smile that made me like you. Could you smile for me, just one more time before you go?"

Sakura smiled softly. Naruto looked sadly at her and said slowly, ". . .Thank you."

After Sakura embraced with her parents she silently laid herself on the bed in her room and closed her eyes. Just as she said, her soul was carried into the other world. Everyone decided that they shouldn't keep Sakura's body any longer, and came to the conclusion that it should be buried at sea. Sakura's family, Naruto, Kakashi, Kurenai's group, Asuma's group, and Gai's group all attended the mini funeral. They sadly watched as the body of the young girl silently sunk into the depths of the ocean.

What happened to everyone after word, well here's a short insight. Naruto eventually became a Jounin and worked skillfully with other ninjas, making him a popular ninja in the village. Sasuke stopped isolating himself and joined a group with some other people his age. Kakashi later decided that there was no point in what he was doing and took on another group of kids. Everyone moved on, but like they promised her, they never forgot the young girl that was the light of the Konoha Village.