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Nothing made sense.
One-minute Tenzo had been captured by Kabuto and poisoned, and then he’d woken up in the middle of a battlefield only to find himself being wrapped in a strange cloth and placed into a reality that he, quite frankly, would rather return to. After all of that he found himself standing back in the middle of that same battlefield trying to make sense of everything that had happened.
Was the battle over?
Had they won? Or was this just the beginning of a different, even more terrible end?
Why was it that when he looked out on the battlefield, he could see everyone except the people that he wanted to see.
His eyes scanned the large group of equally confused people trying to pick out a familiar face, but all of them seemed to blend into one giant unidentifiable mass.
He couldn’t spot Gai, who he knew would be jumping for joy even if he was just as confused about the situation as everyone else.
Shizune was no where in sight, though even in its haze his brain could reason that she wouldn’t be on the front lines as a medical ninja.
Most importantly, Kakashi was no where in sight.
His Senpai, the closest person he had in the village and his best friend, was no where. His spiky silver hair wasn’t in the sea of people. No matter what direction he looked in, or how closely he searched through the people, he couldn’t spot him.
Panic was beginning to set in already, but when he continued to look and failed to spot Naruto’s bright yellow hair or Sakura’s vibrant pink hair, he could feel his chest compressing inward. Each breath he took burned, and his mind began to race with various scenarios.
They were either dead and he’d never gotten the chance to stand at their side and fight with them, or they were trapped somewhere. Captured just as he had been and tortured for information.
“Tenzo!” Kakashi’s voice called out to him, muted and distant. It was as if his brain was trying to remind him of his Senpai’s voice. To keep the memory of such a precious sound fresh just in case he never got to hear it again.
“Oy, Captain Yamato!” Naruto’s voice followed, a bit louder but still distant. Like a far away memory that he was clinging to.
Burying his hands in his hair he stared down at the ground with wide, panicked eyes. “No,” his knees buckled, sending him crashing to the ground. He’d promised to protect Naruto for his Senpai. To keep him safe and alive.
He’d failed.
Even though he’d put all his energy into protecting Naruto, even facing Kabuto head on in the hoped of keeping him and the Akatsuki away from the young Jinchuriki, he’d failed.
Breathing became harder as the reality sank in. every breath, he took felt like he was sucking in broken glass that left little cuts in his throat. Those cuts burned with every new breath, and a hundred new cuts were created alongside them.
“No, no no no no,” He whispered out his mantra of failure as images of Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Sai’s bloody dead bodies flashed before his eyes.
The world had survived, but the people most important to him hadn’t made it.
All he could think as he sat there staring at the ground was how he might have been able to change things. How, if he hadn’t been captured, he might have been able to save them.
“Hey, Tenzo,” A hand gripped his shoulder while Kakashi’s voice rang in his ear, much closer than it had been before. Almost as if he was standing directly behind him. “You alright?”
Dragging his eyes away from the ground and upward, he could feel his breath getting caught in his throat as he prepared himself to see someone, or something, else.
A ghost perhaps, haunting him for the rest of his life because he hadn’t been there to fight alongside his Senpai.
It wasn’t a ghost that his eyes locked onto, though.
It was Kakashi. The real, breathing, very much alive Hatake Kakashi.
Releasing his breath he could feel tears beginning to well up in the corners of his eyes. “Senpai…”
“Hey,” In an instant Kakashi dropped down in front of him and Tenzo got a good look at his eyes. They were heavy with exhaustion, but that did nothing to stop Kakashi from placing his other hand on Tenzo’s free shoulder and squeezing.
A small gesture meant to assure him that he was really there.
That he was really, truly alive.
“Come on, Captain Yamato,” Sakura appeared behind Kakashi, a bright smile on her face. “No need to cry. We won.”
“We…won?”
“Of course!” Turning his head he frowned when he saw Naruto standing there with Sasuke at his side, the usual cheerful smile on his face as he ran a hand through his short blond hair. “You didn’t think we’d go through all that effort to lose, did you? We had that fight in the bag, Believe it!”
“Oh shut it!” Sakura snapped. “You and Sasuke just about killed each other after we won! You have no right to be acting like everything went fine!”
“Tenzo,” returning his attention to his Senpai, Yamato watched as he closed his eyes and smiled at him with that soft, comforting smile that he always used when he was trying to get Yamato to accept what he was telling him. “I’m happy to see you’re alive. I was worried-“
Charging forward, Yamato wrapped his arms around Kakashi’s neck and hugged him as tight as he could while tears ran down his face.
They were alive.
All of them had survived against all odds.
“Ya,” Kakashi chuckled, his breath brushing over Yamato’s ear. Feeling his arms wrapping around his shoulders, he couldn’t help but smile past the years when he returned the hug. “Me too, Tenzo. Me too.”