3I can't believe I spruced this up. Again. (*pretends to I'm not happy about it*)
... Now, what genre would you consider this?
Disclaimer: I claim none of Naruto as mine.
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Another Life, Another Choice
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Night murdered Spring
and the Stars leaped to intervene.
Hopeless as ever, the Wolf sang goodnight.
The Moon, red with dawn, could only wonder 'why?'
But it was the Sun who never stopped to weep,
too blinded by the blue of the skies.
-x-
It had been a reflection of a past that haunted his waking hours only slightly less than his sleeping ones.
A lightning-charged fist and a mission that Fate itself had to have designed by hand. The memory replayed over and over in his thoughts as if those actions had been his own (and they were own. Just not then. No, that moment had already passed for him).
Red cloth had ripped, flesh and bone had given way, and the tremors of a heart that was barely missed rattled like chimes against his (but not his) arm before stuttering to a halt. That's when the noise registered: the chirping of a thousand birds and a scream wound its way into the fabric of the universe to join ranks with countless others (and one in particular that he had heard for years already whenever the forest birds sang in chorus).
But it was his face that haunted him in that reflection of the past. That boy's face which had been a replica of his own. Those wide eyes fulling of numbness and creeping horror as her weight settled against him and against his arm where it still rested in the hollow of her chest. There was no light in those green eyes, and he knew that Sasuke would never forget the moment he realised-
She's dead.
"I killed her."
"Not you, Sasuke," he rasped, unable to move but trying to shake his head anyway. "Me."
In front of him, the young man's eyes remained open and his face permanently caught in a rare display of emotion. Caught in surprise, no less. (If he didn't know him half as well as he did, then it would have been easy to pretend that there wasn't desperation also trapped in that expression.)
"You killed her!"
Sasuke rose shakily to his feet, straightening as much as he could. "And I've regretted it everyday since."
Tears streaked down a mask of rage and betrayal that had stewed for too long. "You don't get to say things like that! Not after all these years, not after-" A rattling breath. "Not after all this!" He swept a hand outward, towards the crumbled buildings and shattered roads lit by the light of a watery sun.
Dark eyes grew shadowed and the Uchiha's lips curled in a snarl. "No. This is all you, dobe."
Naruto wasted no time in charging forward.
He drew himself from the memory and reeled in a shuddering breath. Blood gurgled in his throat, leaking into his airway and slowly drowning him. He was too tired to do anything about it.
Yellow and orange slipped into his vision and he squinted. The sun hadn't been that bright for months, why change now of all times?
"Kaka-sensei?"
If it were possible, Kakashi would have stiffened. As it was, he could only spare the energy to think: of course, he's wearing a colour brighter than the sun.
An arm slipped beneath his shoulders, lifting him up until breathing was slightly easier and the blood could move away from his windpipe. Sasuke's body left his view as he was dragged around a corner and propped against stone rubble.
"You're alive," Kakashi managed to rasp as a bright blue gaze moved into focus.
The blonde's smile was bitter. "Yeah. It's just us now, eh, sensei?"
Panic flared deep in his gut and his eye (there really was only one now) widened. "The...others?"
Naruto's head bowed, long yellow bangs moving to hide his face and making him look so much like Minato-sensei that it hurt. The silence was answer enough.
Kakashi could think of nothing to say to that so he said nothing, allowing his eyes to slip away from his sensei's son and study the broken visage of his home. A humourless chuckle escaped him at the sight of what was once the Hokage Mountain. "No more H-Hokag...e, huh?"
"Ah," Naruto followed his line of sight to what remained of the carved faces. "I gave up on that a long time ago," he returned quietly.
He wasn't the bright boy that Kakashi remembered. The resemblance to Obito was completely absent now. Well, not the Obito he had known, at least. "Whe-re's... Madara," he wheezed, somehow managing to sneer the name even in his current state. (Although the effort left him with a spotty vision.)
The Child of Prophecy turned back to him. His face was full of so much emotion it might as well have been blank for all that Kakashi could decipher.
Naruto looked away first. "You mean Obito? I killed him."
Kakashi inhaled sharply, choking a little.
The blonde shifted on his heels and reached out to ease his companion into a better position. "I meant it when I said it was just us."
Spots danced until Kakashi could scarcely see and there was a pressure on his throat that had nothing to do with his internal injuries or the emotion welling up beneath his skin. "Why?" He choked out just before those fingers could press deeper.
A pause. Then the words were spilling out into the winter air as if the question was one Naruto had always been waiting for and no one had ever asked. (And maybe that comparison wasn't far off. Maybe his old student was desperate to explain. To confess.)
"You know how it was, people don't like being reminded when all they want is to forget. All of Konoha saw me and they hated what I represented: a bright-eyed boy with a murderous beast in his gut and carnage at his back. They saw me and they saw the past and all those things that hide behind regular faces."
His lips peeled back in an animalistic snarl and he kept his glare pinned on the distant sky, but his voice remained quiet and calm - everything Naruto shouldn't have been.
"And I thought I could change that. I wanted to be Hokage so people would see me and not be reminded. I wanted to help them forget. To convince them that wounds healed and that pasts did too."
"Naruto... "
"Then Sakura-" He cut himself off and started again, emotion leaking back into his words through the cracks in his facade. "Then I realised that I didn't want any of that after all. I wanted- I want everyone to be safe."
"My parents, Jiji, Sakura-chan, I couldn't keep losing people, Kaka-sensei! I couldn't- I needed-"
Kakashi was wrong.
The man in front of him was the same loud-mouthed upstart from all those years ago. He didn't smile anymore and there were shadows in those eyes of his, but he was still Kushina and Minato's son - he was still Naruto.
But even so, if that was the case… Then... Why w-would he- Pressure was welling up beneath Kakashi's eye sockets as well as around his throat. He couldn't breath and the pain…
"'In this world,'" Naruto continued, swallowing, "'wherever there is light, there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exist, there must also be losers.' That's what Madara said.
"And I believe him.
"Trying to protect and keep the peace means we're just going to keep causing suffering and war and..." Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, hunching forward (curling inward).
"And people are just going to keep suffering unless- So I- Everyone's gone, Kaka-sensei, and that means no one has to suffer. I'm keeping the future generations safe, dattebayo! And Sasuke-" He cut himself off, finally looking back down at his old sensei. "He killed her and he was going to try an' stop me," he whispered, "you can understand that, right?"
There was no answer.
"Sen-" Naruto stopped and his eyes squeezed shut again as he took deep breaths. When they opened next, the tears had stopped and the sun was slipping past the horizon.
He removed his hands from Kakashi's throat and shifted him so that he was flat on his back. For a few minutes longer, Naruto watched the wind sift through the silver hair. A moment's consideration and Naruto's hand stretched out to grip the man's mask.
Team Seven had never been able to figure out what kind of face their jounin-sensei had been hiding. As the last member left and with the last chance available resting before him, it wouldn't be right not to… It was the last bit of mystery his childhood self had that remained unanswered.
Just as the fabric was about to leave the tip of Kakashi's nose, Naruto stopped.
In another life, Sasuke would have done it. In another life, Naruto would have done it. In another life, Sakura would be waxing lyrical about honour and common decency up until she pulled the mask away completely.
With a sigh, the Naruto of this life dragged the mask back into place and stood.
"Next time, I guess." (There would be no next time.) He started walking. Imitating the familiar, jaunty wave that he hadn't seen for years, Naruto didn't take his eyes off the blue sky as he called out, "see ya, Kaka-sensei."
If his smile didn't reach his eyes and if his voice was a little rough around the edges... Well, it's not like there anyone was around to notice.
x
-complete-