Won't Break This Silence

Author: Zimm
Title: Won't Break This Silence
Genre: Death
Warnings: Blood, gore, death of main character(s) one shot ficlet. Possible OOCness so bare with it. For those who don't like Sakura... Sakura kicking ass-ness.
Author Note: I thought of this while listening to ALready Gone by Crossfade. So if you want some back ground noise while reading this ficlet you should listen to that song.
Dedication: Dedicated to Sakura fans everywhere, I know your out there no need to hide. ^^

“Won’t Break This Silence”

There was a pause as she came up behind him, he already knew she was there, he knew she had been coming. The only girl of team seven hadn’t bothered trying to mask her presence, she had figured he’d know no matter what she had tried to do. So for her, in her calculations, it was better to conserve that chakra for what was to come. He slowly turned, his white robes billowing in the wind, and red eyes narrowed as they connected with green.

They stood like that, ten feet apart with the strong winds whipping hair and clothes around, in silence. She could already tell he wasn’t going to take her serious, it was aggravating but good to know. She clenched her hands, her heart starting to pound, her stomach twisting up in knots. Thunder cracked in the distance dark clouds building to the west, a mountain storm was coming, it wouldn’t be long before it was here.

“I’m going to kill you.” He stated calm.

She replied just as calm, “probably.”

They stared at each other but a moment more, before they ran at each other, his sword drawn her fist rising for the punch. She easily evaded the sword only to have him quickly move out from around her fist. She looked back over her shoulder as her hands went out in front of her to catch her fall. She had already calculated, with her velocity, that he would try to attack from behind as she fell to the ground. Her hands flattened on the stiff ground, she swung her legs up over head and pushed off the ground just in time to miss his blade.

Landing she pushed chakra into her hand and slammed her fist to the ground breaking the ground and disrupt his run toward her. With out her gloves her knuckles split open and began to bleed, but for her it was nothing and she left the wound as was. He landed fifteen feet away from her a different look in his eyes.

He finally realized how serious she was and that alone, regardless of her being weaker, warranted his focus. She had a quick mind, allowed her to use what strengths she had to her advantage and her opponent’s strengths against himself. If he was going to use his eyes, which she knew he would, she wouldn’t be able to wield chakra until the last second. She would have to test the time limit, but she would have to be fast about it so she could stay just that one step ahead of him. She would always have to be just one step in front or she wouldn’t accomplish what she wanted.

She closed her eyes took a deep breath and rose to her feet, the thunder louder and closer cracked just a hundred feet off to her left. Sasuke was in front of her and then he was gone, she reacted just as quickly grabbing his sword hand and pushing it away just as Sai had done when Sasuke had tried to kill Naruto a year ago. Tightening her had she started to lift him up to throw him to the ground only to get a kick to her gut sending her backwards.

Making sure to put her feet under her she slid to a halt not even pausing before charging forward again. She closely watched as he easily saw everyone of her moves. Counted how quickly he reacted to her molding chakra, and how long before he was able to counter her attack. A very small window, three seconds after she started, two seconds for him to have his own counter. She gritted her teeth, she would have to get very close, with nothing at her disposal, before she could even start to do anything.

She had trained for this inevitability, but she had never been that fast before. She would have to sustain injuries, possibly fatal ones to really do any damage of her own. Just then above them the clouds split open and poured water down on the two as they collided again, Sasuke shoving the but of his blade into her ribs. She could feel them crack under the assault and she pushed back and away, panting.

Sakura knew she didn’t have time to heal that injury, Sasuke would never allow it, not now he knew how serious she was about this fight. She took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat, when she almost choked at the feel of bone jabbing into her lung.

Muddy water splashed up as she ran toward Sasuke, time slowing down in her mind as she prepared for her first attack. She could lessen the damage he could deal out with the sword by taking out the pathways in his arm. His arm rose up as he swung his buzzing sword at her, this was her moment. Rain droplets split in half as his sword went threw them, her heart pounding in her ears as she went as quickly as possible through the medical seals.

Leaping over the swing of the sword, the very end of it catching her in the leg, she had only one second left.
She grabbed his left shoulder with her left hand using it to help her turn her body so she was behind him. Time was up as she slammed her hand down on his right shoulder and he caught her with his left, punching her hard in the already injured ribs.

The broken bone moved closer up into her lung and she keeled over and vomited blood onto the wet ground. She heard the sword clamor to the ground, water splashing up, and knew that he realized it wasn’t of any more use. His right hand would be much weaker now, she had shredded ever chakra pathway she could which also caused muscle tissue damage. He could still use it for simpler things, but it would be an opening. Of coarse she knew he also knew this, and her time window would be even smaller.

She could have went for the neck, but she hadn’t gathered enough chakra to do something like. She now realized that she had very little time left to do what was needed. Sakura calculated that he would probably make be that much more difficult to get to any spot. He may not know the total damage she had caused, but she figured he wouldn’t give her the chance to hit vital areas very easily. Now with the blood filling her lungs and the searing pain of the bone ripping into her damaged muscle the task became that much more difficult.

Sasuke ran at her once again only to find himself stumbling on the breaking ground. He cursed and leapt backwards, giving Sakura a chance to use her healing jutsu just long enough to bring the bone back away from her lung and heal it to a cracked rib. It would not hold long but hopefully it would last long enough to hit him again.

She watched him land through the pouring rain and zeroed in on his left thigh, if she took that out then it would make him unsteady and keep him from evading other attacks. His jumps wouldn’t be as high or as easily executed. Now with her next move in the making she rose back up to her feet ignoring the pain and how hard it was to catch her breath. She knew now she was more than likely not going to live past this fight, but she hadn’t really counted on that in the first place.

Green and red met through the rain and Sakura’s mind started to flash through all her memories of when they had been team seven. She took a step forward testing her mobility, she couldn’t afford to show any weakness, and in her mind she pictured the three of them spying on Kakashi. Another step, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and her all squished together for a photo. It was the one she had kept through the years, it was now the one face down in the trash can.

Sasuke moved, and she knew he was coming, she braced herself and the image of the night he left came to mind, his whispered ’thank you’ following her into sleep. To her right, she reacted flipping backwards landing on her feet she went to a crouch. He came at her and she quickly went through the medical seals again.

Two point five seconds, as expected he was now aware of her jutsu and he was sliding to a stop. Pushing against the ground with her feet she used the wet surface to help propel her towards him. One point two seconds left of her opening, if she messed this up he was going to shove lightening right through her chest.

Sakura’s body slid right under and in between Sasuke’s legs, her hands flew up to his left thigh and dispersed her chakra just as he slammed his fist down into her gut. She cried out as the lightening sliced through her body, but she had to keep moving. Sasuke fell to his knees just as she scrambled out from under him. Now his legs were messed up like his arm he was going to find it difficult to do anything.

Sakura rolled to her stomach placing her left hand over the wound, blood oozing out from between her fingers, and she coughed up more blood. Her mind was starting to feel woozy, her vision blurry, but she was a kunoichi, she had a job to finish. Wanting to conserve as much chakra as possible for what she had to do next, she focused on healing only the more serious part of the injury, to slow down the flow of blood so she would last long enough. She winced and gritted her teeth at the pain of her muscle tissues and organs healing themselves.

Covered in mud and blood she rose back to her feet for what she knew would be the last time, and took in a small breath fighting the fear of not being able to breath, as during the exchange her ribbed had rebroken and punctured the lung again. Her lip quivered, and tears started to fall as she watched Sasuke stand up on shaky legs. She didn’t want to do this, she wanted to go home, she wanted to home with Sasuke, but she had to do it. Sakura could no longer watch Sasuke hurt and destroy those others that she cared deeply for. She couldn’t watch Naruto try harder and harder, only to come up short, try to get Sasuke back for her. No, she had started this hunt for him, and now it would end with her.

“You’re dead.” Sasuke growled charging at her.

She would take this hit, she saw it all in her head. Take the hit and then she would be able to hit him where it counted. To pull this off she would have to seem like she was going to dodge it, and she had to wait for the very last second possible to perform the seals.

She slid her right foot back just a inch, bent her knees, leaned to the left as if do move that way, tense her self for the hit. Sasuke’s hand hit her just below her heart with lightening blazing, her pumping organ giving a sick twist in her chest as she finished the last of her seals raising her two hands to the back of his neck. His eyes widened as he realized he had miscalculated and she had planned it all this way.

“I know,” she finally replied to his comment before he had attacked before she sent her chakra into his body shredding what was left of his chakra pathways.

Sasuke’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell backwards to the ground water splashing as his body made a thud. Blood dripped down from her mouth as she sunk to her knees.

“But you loose.” She added to the man convulsing on the ground.

She fell to her left side finally letting go, her vision blurry, her body weak from blood loss. She had won, and she knew no one could ever fix the damage that she had caused. Sakura had made that jutsu special for Sasuke, she had been practicing for months. Combing her medical jutsu with her ability to bust the ground up and her bizarre strength. She had basically punch the hell out of his chakra ways like she did the ground, but none of that would have been possible if not for her medical training, what she had done took precision. It was now a jutsu that was going to die with her, which was a good thing, she had created a very dangerously powerful jutsu.

She looked over to Sasuke feeling a need to talk to someone, even if he couldn’t hear her. “Even if you make it through this Sasuke, you’ll never be able to do anything again.”

She laughed which caused her more pain and tears began to fall down her face again.

“So much for your plan Sasuke, in the end all that power you cheated and killed for did nothing.” She whispered out her life finally starting to fade.

She closed her eyes and remembered the good times, back when they were twelve. Back when Sasuke had been apart of she had considered her family. Naruto called out to her waving like a lunatic, Sasuke shoved him calling him a moron, and Kakashi looked on with his one eyes upturned in a smile. Sensei had been such a strange man, but he had cared for the three of them, the pervert that he was. Naruto, she thought, I really did love you, you know.

Her chest rose and fell more labored and she knew that she was going to be taking her last breath very soon. Sasuke had done his job very well, but she could die knowing so had she.

As she faded her mind carried her to a time of sunshine, Naruto’s laughter rising over the rush of a river and Kakashi’s calm voice calling out ‘Yo’ from some pole above their heads.

“I got stuck in traffic and had to help revive an old woman who had apparently had a heart attack.”

“Liar!” She and Naruto called out in unison.

A smile spread across her mud and blood covered face as her last breath was expressed.

~FIN~