100 Themes fics

Title: Sacrifice

Pairing: None... not really.

Rating: G

Warning: Oneshot, no sexual content, COMPLETE

Summary: Sometimes what you had to sacrifice were the things you never realized you'd want to hold onto.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did the fight scenes wouldn't last forever and ever like they do.

Dedicated to: Saniika (DA) as part of my 'Fic for Pic' Free Request. Her picture, All For One, won in the end because it's the one that drew a story out of my brain. There were a few others that were awesome and super close but I couldn't get more than a couple sentences. Also part of my 100 themes which I'm trying to work on getting done.



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Sometimes what you had to sacrifice were the things you never realized you'd want to hold onto.



When Lee had declared his love for her she'd blown him off and now that he wouldn't even look at her she finally understood what it had come to mean to her. He wasn't cute or talented like Sasuke and she wasn't in love with him the way she was with Sasuke. Her heart didn't race at the briefest touch or look or smile, but it ached now at the lack of them. She'd wanted Sasuke and she'd wanted things for Sasuke, for him to be happy, for him to have friends and family he could count on, for him to understand there was more to life than revenge. With Lee at first she hadn't cared and then when Gaara had broken his leg she'd been relieved to know he had them, but she still hadn't put herself forward as one.



Sasuke and Lee were as different as it could get, maybe even more so than Sasuke and Naruto were. Sasuke was determination built from anger, resentment, and an underlying talent for everything that said he could do it. Nobody ever had to tell him he could do anything because he already knew he could and his only doubt was in the person who also inspired those emotions. Everyone around him told him that he couldn't. They fed that doubt. It wasn't because they didn't believe he was amazing because they did, she did, but they could all see the darkness in him and were afraid of what it would become. 



Lee's confidence came from the joy of accomplishment, from the assurances of his sensei and teammates, and from more practice than likely any other shinobi to perfect the limited skills he had. His doubt came from failures and weaknesses. Gai had had to believe in him before he could believe in himself. People questioned his ability to do most things, but once just one person believed in him nothing they said could stop him because one person saw the best in him and believed in what he could be.



The things she'd seen as weaknesses in Lee were his strengths and the strengths she'd seen in Sasuke were his weaknesses. It amazed her the day she realized it though she couldn't, now, say when that was.



Sakura leaned against Gai and they walked away from the end of the scaffold, back to the ladder, leaving Lee sitting their with his back to them. She knew that at least Gai understood and maybe eventually Lee would. She'd come to tell him she was leaving, that she was going with Naruto for the showdown with Sasuke, but he'd already heard and wouldn't look at her or talk to her. It had been Gai who had told her why, that Lee was worried she and Naruto wouldn't come back. She knew there was a chance of that and it was why she had come to say goodbye, because he was her friend as much of any of the other rookies. "I don't know if I'll be able to do anything to stop them, but I'm going." She wouldn't let Naruto go alone even if she could do nothing in the end except watch them both die.



Gai nodded and hugged her shoulders. "Do not worry, Lee does not hate you. If he did, he would not care so much and would simply wish you well."



"I know." Sakura had hoped he would anyway. She needed all of her friends to believe in her, because she didn't and she was relying on their strength to not give into her fears. "Both of you take care." She smiled, though it took effort and looked back at Lee. "Thanks for being my friend even though I wasn't as good at it as you were." Turning, she climbed down the ladder.



"Sakura-chan!"



Her feet hit the dirt beside the newly constructed building and she looked up.



Lee stood at the top of the scaffolding, his feet set, his arm out giving her a thumbs up, and a wide sparkling smile on his lips. "As you think, so shall you become! You are strong, Sakura-chan!"



The tight ball of fear disappeared and she smiled. Whatever happened she would believe in her friends. She would sacrifice anything but that and if they all believed in her then she had to believe in herself.



Sometimes what you had to sacrifice were the things you never realized you'd want to hold onto and sometimes you got to hold onto the things you thought you had to sacrifice.