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He felt his wings growing in his back, the cursed seal taking over his body. The chirping sound of his chidori was audible and his red, bloody gaze was looking at his rival's. Naruto was nothing like him: his eyes were directed on his best friend, with nothing but pain.
Both figure were flying toward each other, the lightning jutsu at one side and the rasengan at the other. It was the end. Sasuke was going to win.
But, at the last moment, his chidori disappeared, shocking both of the boys.
I'm sorry, but your time has come...
And it was already too late, everything went too fast. Yet, before closing his eyes for the last time, Sasuke had the time to see his friend's frightened eyes looking at him, unable to stop what was coming next.
Whatever happened after, Sasuke never knew. His still warm body touched the cold ground, next to Naruto's, eyes closed and blood on their bodies.
There again, there was a difference : one's heart didn't beat anymore, while the other's was mean to beat for nothing but guilt from now on.
Maybe it's for the best.
Tears were falling down her cheeks as she looked at her injured teammate, her green eyes fading into sadness. The blonde boy was lying in the hospital room, his wounds were covered with the white bandages Tsunade used after healing everything she could. Now, they had to wait for him to open his eyes.
It had been three days, and she still couldn't stop crying. Just like she always did. It was all she could do after all.
"Sakura..."
She couldn't even look at the sanin's face, directing her gaze at her hands. Everybody was aware of what happened, even if they were unaware of the circumstances: The Last Uchiha, the Survivor, was dea- he had joined his family.
"I can't, Hokage-sama. I...I just can't."
She was crying because her teammate- the one she loved- had died. She was crying because Naruto was injured. She was crying because Naruto had killed Sasuke.
Naruto killed Sasuke.
And she couldn't stop herself from thinking this way.
"I...was there nothing we could do to save him?"
She already knew the answer. She already knew how hurt it was going to make her. And yet, she still asked this silly question.
"I'm sorry, Sakura, but when Kakashi found him...he was already gone."
Tsunade's voice was soft. It was the voice of someone who knew grief. Someone who had lost those who were important to her as well.
A ninja must never show any weakness.
"I see..."
She couldn't stay here any longer or the sadness would make her sick. Not only the sadness, but also the guilt, the pain, the hate.
Naruto had killed Sasuke. And she wanted to hate him for that. Because she felt the need to hate someone.
She couldn't.
Sitting next to his old friend, he had his eyes closed, leaning his back to him.
He failed again. He couldn't protect those who had trusted him. Again. He couldn't protect the one to whom he promised he wouldn't let a teammate die.
"Sorry, Obito. I need to go, now."
He'd been unable to protect one of his students, he wasn't going to let the two others go. He couldn't save Sasuke from revenge, he wasn't going to let Naruto or Sakura fall in the same abysses.
"Forgive me," he had said in the air. He didn't know to whom he was apologising, but he felt the need to do so.
Because he had failed his student.
Naruto had woken up a few minutes ago, his awakening followed the uncomfortable feeling of nausea and the feeling that something was wrong.
Something was wrong, but he couldn't say what. Something was wrong, because he remembered the feeling of blood around his arm. Something was wrong because he knew what piercing one's flesh with his hand felt like.
Something was wrong because-
"Sasuke is gone, Naruto." Jiraiya's voice had told him. "I'm sorry."
"Wha...what?"
But he couldn't process any of the words that had followed. He couldn't tell the moment his ears started to ring, he couldn't stop the flow of words that his mouth let escape- words that his brain couldn't comprehend.
Sasuke is gone.
And Naruto knew what it meant. Sasuke didn't leave the Leaf, he wasn't with Orochimaru, training to kill his brother.
Sasuke was not here anymore. Naruto could cry and scream and train all he wanted- he could never bring Sasuke back. Because Sasuke wasn't here anymore.
And something broke inside of him where his heart was supposed to be. And it hurt- it hurt so much.
"Ero... Ero-senin," he choked on his own words, a shaky breath escaping his lips, "I...I..ki-" he couldn't finish the sentence. The words burnt his lips, like a fire that would burn the world down the moment he let them out.
Jiraiya didn't let him finish, his hand firmly on his back.
"No, Naruto," he said, "You didn't-"
"I did!" Naruto had screamed, jolting out of his bed. "I did! I kill- I killed Sasuke!"
He had to say it. No matter how much it hurt, he had to say it. He deserved to suffer- because he was the reason his friend was gone.
"I'm...I'm the reason why Sasuke is...I'm the reason why he's not here and why Sakura-chan is sad and- and I'm the reason why Team Seven is-" he couldn't finish, hiccuping on every word he said.
He must have fallen on the floor at some point, because Jiraiya was sitting next to him, his hand drawing small circles on his back as he mumbled nonsense.
The man didn't say much- he knew there was no use. He knew how it was like to lose a teammate- a friend.
He had lost his friend to darkness, Naruto had lost his to Death.
Sasuke's funeral had been a big event.
Konoha had lost their last Uchiha, the last one from one of the founder clans. The rumours had spread in the other villages already, and it became the hottest new in less time than it should have. Everybody was talking about his clan and his fate, as if they were some sort of attraction.
As if his team's pain didn't even exist.
Except for his recovery team and those who were implied in it, nobody really knew what had caused him to die. Most people assumed it was because of Orochimaru, others that it was a mission that had turned wrong. To her displeasure, some even suggested that he had taken his own life to join his cursed clan. Konoha didn't deny anything, nor did the say more. And it eased Team 7 down. Their friend was already dead, there was no need for everyone to think he was a ready to become a missing-nin.
Sakura had tried to hold herself every time she heard some noisy passerby talking about the last Uchiha's death as a causality that weakened the village, as if her friend was nothing but a tool.
"What do you know, uh?" She had snapped once. "How dare you- How fucking dare you-"
Kakashi had suddenly appeared in front of her, a hand on her shoulder, not even looking at the dumbfounded chunin.
"Let's go home, Sakura." The man had told her.
After the funeral, Sakura visited his grave several times a week. Holding a bouquet that she had composed herself, she'd just look at the grave with a sad smile, talking to the white tombstone.
Maybe she felt lonely, maybe she didn't want the boy to feel that way.
His single uncovered eye on the memorial stone, Kakashi was mourning someone whose name wasn't even on written on it. There were a millions things he wished he said, tons of things he could think of. Things he should have told his student- things he can't say anymore.
And then, he felt a presence behind him.
A pair of onyx eyes were posed on him. Pale skin that almost made one with the kimono he was wearing, contrasting with the black hair falling on each sides of his face- Kakashi stopped breathing.
"What are you doing here?"
The boy had tilted his head at the tone he was using- cold and ordering- his eyes not giving anything. He slowly let his gaze fall on his hands, seeming half-surprised at the sight of his semi-translucent self.
"I don't know. I don't know who I am nor who you are," the boy wearing his student's face had finally said. "I just know that I couldn't stay in peace."
Kakashi didn't know what to say. He tried disrupting his chakra but the boy didn't vanish. He must be going insane-
"Apparently, I forgot to say goodbye to my family. I don't know what it means, but I felt the need to come here."
He barely choked on a gasp at the words pronounced by Sasuke- no, not Sasuke. His student never looked at them with dead eyes, he never sounded so empty.
"And for some reasons, I also feel the need to thank you."
He couldn't take it anymore.
"Don't."
The boy merely blinked, his expression shifting into something Kakashi would have qualified of innocence if he didn't look so unnaturally empty.
"Don't thank me. I don't deserve it."
Not when I couldn't stop you. Not when I didn't acknowledge your feelings. Not when I invalidated the only thing you lived for.
Not when I couldn't help you to find a less painful path.
"I can't tell, I don't know you. Or maybe once I did. I don't anymore."
His could feel pain where his heart was supposed to be at the words, his chest rising with sadness and guilt and anger and-
"I'm sorry," he finally blurred out, his knees barely keeping him up at this point. "I should have been a better teacher- I should have helped you. I didn't."
It took him everything in the world not to grab the ghost by his shoulders, not to shake him until he showed an expression that would suit his students face. Anything that wouldn't make him look like an empty shell through which he could see the rest of the field.
"I...I saw myself in you. I shouldn't have," he closed his eyes, "You were more than my regrets- I couldn't see it. I'm sorry."
The boys eyelid dropped slightly, and he saw his chest rise as he could breath.
But he couldn't. Because he was dead because Kakashi couldn't stop him, because he couldn't help him because because because-
"I see. You call yourself my teacher. It must be the reason I came here."
Kakashi wanted to scream.
"That must also be the reason I feel...or should say I felt? Sorry, sensei, I don't know if I can feel anything," he looked at the man for approval, but Kakashi could barely keep himself from gagging.
Sasuke would never call him sensei- why did the ghost wearing his face did?
He hated it.
"You...you can feel things," he said, and he didn't know if he was lying or not. "Your feelings are valid."
Maybe he was just saying what he wished he told him back when he was alive.
"I see. Then I feel like you will not harm me. It looks like my body never tensed around you. I don't know what it means, but that's why I thank you."
I feel safe, he said.
And Kakashi had to close his eye to avoid a tear from rolling down his face.
When he opened them, he was alone.
Sakura was tidying up her room once again, unable to find the best spot for the decorative pillow on her hand.
She threw it on the floor of frustration, an ugly sob escaping her lips.
For fuck's sake, can you stop crying already.
She hated it. She hated how everything reminded her of Sasuke- how he was the only thought popping in her head at each and every seconds.
She hated to many things, at the moment.
She had tried to hate Kakashi for being there too late to save her friend. She had tried to hate Naruto for being the one who pierced through him. Hell, she had even tried to hate Sasuke for dying and not holding on (f̶o̶r̶ ̶f̶o̶l̶l̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶r̶e̶v̶e̶n̶g̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶,̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶.̶)̶
How selfish she was.
In the end, she ended up hating herself for ever trying to feel this way toward her second family.
A sudden gust of wind near her window, making her curtains float, was what brought her to her window. Her gaze met a bright red box, sitting on her window sill.
She recognised it right away- it was one of the first aid kits she offered to all three of her teammates who apparently didn't know about self-preservation.
It looked almost unused except for a few scratches. The person using this had been extremely tidy-
Then she noticed a flower lying on top of it, and she fell on her knees.
A campanulas.
'Sakura, thank you.'
In contrary to Sakura, for the first few weeks, Naruto couldn't bring himself to face the place where his friend was buried. His heart couldn't take the sight of the graveyard- it just reminded Naruto that Sasuke was dead- he wasn't going to call him names or shout after him or anything. He was gone.
But he had to go there, at some point.
So, even if he wanted to snatch his eyeballs out and run away rather than looking at the name of his friend on the cold stone, he decided to fix his gaze on his name, and mentally trace every line of the characters spelling it.
That's all he deserved- he killed a friend he was supposed to protect. He deserved to feel the pain.
The sun that once burnt his neck slowly disappeared, leaving the scene for the stars and the moon. Naruto hadn't moved.
"You know...," he slowly began, the words dry against his throat, "you told me that I never had a family and I couldn't understand your pain..."
'Just shut up for once! What the hell do you know about it?! It's not like you ever had a family in the first place! You were on your own right from the beginning, what makes you think you know anything about it?!'
"You were right. I didn't."
'Huh?! I'm suffering now because I had those ties, how on Earth could you possibly understand, what it feels like to lose all that?!'
"And know that I know...I wished I didn't."
'To me, you became my closest friend.'
"I kinda get why you wanted to get revenge," a sound, closer to a choke than a laugh escaped his lips. "But I can't. I'm the only one I can blame."
That wasn't true, but he couldn't bring himself to admit it. He hated Orochimaru. He hated the village for not sending better suited shinobis after him.
And Itachi- he despised him so much it hurt.
"I see. We must have been close for you to say that," a voice behind him said.
Naruto turned around so fast he almost broke his neck. A dozen of thoughts flashed in his head at the sight of the achingly familiar figure but he-
-he couldn't say anything.
His feet sunk on the floor beneath him and nothing existed anymore except for the black haired boy looking at him.
"Sa...suke."
The boy didn't look impressed at his shaky voice.
"I see. It must be how I was called."
And if it weren't for the fear of his translucent figure disappearing the moment he dared to touch him, breaking whatever spell was put on him, he'd have hugged the boy.
But he couldn't move.
"Sasuke...Sasuke- how can you be Sasuke-"
Sasuke was death. Sasuke wasn't supposed to be here because he remembers the feeling of his blood against his hand and his hot flesh around his arm-
"I don't know. I don't know a lot of things."
It was his voice. It was Sasuke's familiar voice- the voice he wished he didn't hear first thing in the morning back then, the voice calling him dead-last.
But there was no warmth. It was a stranger's voice who sounded so much like him it hurt.
"Why- how are you here? I saw you dying- I felt it! You can't be him!"
The boy in front of him made no signs of acknowledgement.
"Because I have something to tell you. Or at least Sasuke does."
Unwillingly, Naruto stopped breathing, waiting for him to continue.
"He says..."
He closed his eyes for a moment, an attempt to remember. But Naruto couldn't hold on anymore.
And maybe he fell on his knees, maybe the sky and the stars and the universe fell on top of him. Naruto only head himself saying.
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me."
He saw the ghost's see-through hand on his shoulder, and if he had eaten anything, he'd have vomited after realising he couldn't feel it.
"There's nothing to be sorry about. You didn't do anything wrong."
"I... I kille-"
"I remember what he said," the boy cut him.
Naruto dared to look into his half-closed eyes.
"Naruto," the name rolled easily in his mouth, "you are my friend. Thank you."