No Longer Weak

Not Yet

He was tired of this shit. Why would the bad things always happen to them? Shikamaru closed his eyes tiredly and thought of Sakura, who was lying inside the hospital. She hadn't woken up since he brought her there three days ago. Was fate really so cruel?

He frowned when he thought about Sasuke. It was his fault that Sakura was lying lifeless in the hospital. If the stupid man wasn't also in critical condition he would do him in, but Tsunade would kill him for touching her patient.

Opening his eyes he prayed to the kamis, while watching the stars through his office window. He hoped that it will be a happy ending.

* * *

Naruto sat beside Sakura, holding her hand and watching the stars. "I'm sorry" he whispered. "If I just weren't so stupid to bring him back. I didn't know that it would be like that." Pressing her knuckles against his forehead he started talking again. "I wanted us to be happy. Like the old times. I'm sorry and I will say it until you wake up again, because you will wake up Sakura. You always were the strong one, holding the broken Team Seven together. I wanted that back and I was selfish to believe that everything would be okay."

He choked, trying to hold in the tears but failing miserably. Silently he cried for his friend. He had wanted to protect everyone dear to him.

"It's not your fault," said a voice from the window. Looking up he saw Shikamaru sitting on the window sill, watching him out of the corner of his eyes. Naruto didn't even try to hide the tears. "Of course it is" he whispered brokenly.

"I'm not going to pity you Naruto because a part of me wants it to be your fault so that I can kick your ass since the Uchiha is unavailable." He made a pause, looking at the stars. "But she would kick me if I would do that."

Naruto cried harder, knowing that maybe he hadn't ruined everything with Sakura. It had hurt so fucking much, feeling that she rejected him, gave him up. "She was always loyal to you" came from the window. He watched Sakura with wide eyes. "But she had been so angry" he murmured.

"Of course" Shikamaru drawled. "You left her again. Nevertheless, she even refused to be trained as the next Hokage, always believing that it was your part."

Suddenly his throat was so dry but full of remorse at the same time. She could have been Hokage in training but refused, because of him. "Fuck!" he shouted, but when nobody replied he looked up and found the window empty.

* * *

Tsunade was staring out of her office window watching the dark grey clouds obscuring the stars. "Tsunade-sama" whispered Shizune after an eternity of oppressed silence. "She will wake up." The blond turned to look at her other apprentice. Her skin was too pale, the bags under her eyes way to prominent. She doubted that she looked any better. Both of them had been worrying too much.

"Of course. She is my daughter in all but blood. Way too stubborn for her own good. Has to marry the genius anyway." They both smiled sadly at each other and continued to stare into the night.

* * *

Saskue lay in his bed. Wide awake and staring at the ceiling. Slowly the shadows of the night were replaced with the dim light of sunrise. She defeated him, put him in the hospital and refused him.

"Your awake" came to a cold voice. He didn't need to move his head to know that Kakashi was sitting on his window sill. "Everybody is out for your blood." Sasuke knew what that meant. They wouldn't want him to stay. Possible they were out to punish him thoroughly. A sigh was the only sound in the little room. "I'm not trying to understand you, but we haven't worked so hard for you to mess up faster than we could blink. You will do everything they say, and you will apologize. Not only to Sakura but also to Naruto. He took it harder than you can imagine." The copy-nin vanished the way he came. Without a sound.

Sasuke slowly lifted one of his arms and put them over his eyes. He always thought that Naruto was the idiot. Seemed he was an even bigger one, on a very different scale.

This was his home. Always was and always would be. Kakashi had asked them what their dream was when they were still genin. "I have an ambition. Resurrect my clan and kill a certain man." He had killed his brother. And now he wanted to resurrect his clan. It wasn't a bad dream but some time ago he knew, that he wanted to share his dream with Sakura.

And suddenly it dawned on him. He was emotionally crippled and she deserved better. Maybe he should accept when they expelled him.

* * *

Sakura was aware what was going around outside of the safety of her mind. She heard Naruto crying an apologizing, how Shikamaru came every night to stay beside her and tell her about his day, that Ino was calmly informing her that she would be very well a genin if she slept this long. The funniest party was by far the few times Tsunade came into her room and started ranting at her in her drunken form.

But she couldn't wake up. Sasuke tries to send her into the genjutsu had stirred something inside her that she had long forgotten. The part of her that was terrified of encountering Itachi Uchiha again and falling into the despair of power.

She had remembered how much she was isolating herself when she wanted to get stronger, how much she carved human interaction. Nobody told her that there were people not made to be isolated until she learned the hard way. While learning genjutsu from Kurenai she never felt any remorse when she exploits her weakness. Killing the son of her teacher over and over in her mind had done nothing to her. She could function and that was all she needed to become stronger. Until Shikamaru showed her that darkness and isolation were slowly but surely killing her. "You're wilting away. Weakness is staying alone while interacting with people shows the strength that you're able to hold the power you mastered. You can't stop caring. That's your nature. Explore it and make it your strength."

And she had done that until Itachi stole him from her. Tortured him, nearly succeeding in killing him. But she had been persistent. Making sure that nobody could do that to her again. Always protecting what was hers.

Still, she lay silent and dead in her bed. Not yet. Not yet ready to leave the safety of her mind. Not yet ready to wake up and show them. Show them that she was stronger than Uchihas playing mind games! But not yet.