Chapter Text
The world ended when the last light bright enough to see by was snuffed out. The world ended when all 6 of them of them felt it, but none of them accepted it. Three of them went as far as to scream and sneer and refused reality, and they tore into something that should should be beyond them, beyond everything, and thus everything was over because of that- because of them- but they didn't care.
The second he died, it was all over anyway. In every way that mattered.
The last thing she remembered was dying: It started when she felt him die, and everything caught up to her at once, like a bucket of ice water was poured onto her. Her brain tugged at chakra that just wasn't there anymore to fix wounds that were bleeding far to fast, and she had a lightheaded and cloudy feeling. The realization that she was dying, and a laugh, because if he had died then she was already dead.
There was a deep breath, a ringing in her ears as other voices may have tried to reach her, a molten rock of anger settling in her gut, grounding her from floating off to the afterlife despite the parts of her that ached. She refused to take the easy way out- she refused to die like this- she had to win first, goddammit, for their sake if not for her own- and then a bone-rattling gasp. Chakra she knew for a fact she didn't have imploded in her body, and she heard an otherworldly rip and screech as everything went black. She felt like a match that flung itself into a volcano, burning and burning and everything hurt, and, despite everything, it was over.
it was over.
So what the fuck was this?
It was dark. She couldn't see anything. Or feel anything, or even smell or taste anything either. So, being the amazing and ruthlessly efficient kunoichi she was, she took a deep, calming breath and tried to move, bring her hand in front of her face. To her horror, she was pretty sure that she was alone. She couldn't feel anyone around, at least. She swallowed the panic that threatened to bloom at that.
She was pleased to find that movement came easily to her, but concerned to find exactly how easily movement came- there wasn't any strain, no aches or tension, it felt like there wasn't even any muscle.
The real panic started when she lifted her arm to her face and saw nothing but a chalk-white outline of a hand.
Genjutsu was her first thought, and before she could even really think about it she was forming the hand seal and snarling "KAI!", spending her actual thoughts trying to piece together what was happening, what Genjutsu this could possibly be and who could even be left on the planet to cast one.
She snapped into her body all at once, fists and teeth clenched, and she was flooded with that overwhelming spite that burned her up when she died. She swore she heard Inner's offended scoff at something, alarmingly louder then normal, but couldn't be bothered to figure out what.
She felt small, and she did not like that At all. The first thing she noticed was the Sun, the actual fucking Sun, bright and shining and in the pale blue sky. Like that was possible, like the sun was anything but a distant memory at this point, an impression of light and warmth and tans and burns and safety and peace.
"Sakura?" a painfully familiar voice drawled, sounding exasperated, but, in spite of everything, she still knew that voice well enough to hear the spark of confusion and caution.
She chocked on her next breath. What was happening? This wasn't a Genjutsu, she could feel it, but she checked anyway with a murmured "kai", spiking her chakra to break another Genjutsu, but- nothing. And she was phenomenal at Chakra control, the very best in fact, so Genjutsu from anything short of Ino, the Sharingan, and Moon-Bullshit couldn't touch her. This obviously wasn't Moon-Bullshit (thank sage-), and there weren't any Uchiha left, and Ino wouldn't do this to her, So it couldn't be Genjutsu.
Well, the only thing she could do now was play along. Spite coursed through her as easily as blood and Chakra, but she pulled the age old trick of channeling as much of it as she could into Inner and hoping for the first time in years that she could keep the oncoming outburst tucked away until it was safe. Inner did not sound very confident, but tried anyway.
"Yes, Kakashi-sensei?" she responded, sweet as sugar, eyes stopping on his mask. She almost flinched at how high her voice sounded. She was nauseous and weak. devoid of every last drop of usable Chakra. She needed to know what was happening.
"Dreams for the future." He prompted, mask tugging in the tiniest way that meant a frown, and apparently, despite her hasty efforts, that was her breaking point. Inner shivered and shattered and nothing in the world seemed right but it was still better then the hellscape she was in before.
Kakashi-sensei was here, Kakashi-sensei was alive, and she hadn't a clue how. she clenched her fists a little tighter to keep them from spasming with the need to reach out and check him over.
The sky was shining bright with a Naruto-bright (well, maybe not that bright) ball in the sky, lazy off-white clouds floating casually.
She reached desperately, feeling an idea and primal hope begin to bloom, and she almost choked when she felt two Chakra signatures more familiar then her own sat on either side of her, one that dissipated months ago and one that faded what felt like minutes ago. She opened her mouth to say something inconspicuous and fitting, smile slotted on her face, when she was overcome by grief and denial and confusion and a million other emotions she couldn't hope to name or repress.
Determination and Spite roared the loudest, and she held onto them, doggedly hoping that she never had to face any other emotion if she kept these ones blazing, because she wasn't sure she could deal with that.
Instead of saying something along the lines of cute, innocent Sakara-chan, answering with a blushed babble about Sasuke-kun, she gave a smile that felt like it should be bloody and snarled-
"I'm going to punch God. I'm going to punch her right in her stupid face through a fucking mountain. I'm going to kill her."