It’s all wrong because that never happened and Sakura never killed Kakashi and Sakura has only ever healed Naruto because Sakura always knows what she is doing and it’s all wrong and Naruto feels his jaw clench as Kakashi writhes and that is his sensei there on the ground and he thinks: help him even as she does not, even as she cannot. Even as she kills him.
And Sasuke on the ground has Naruto’s stomach twist so sharply that he tastes the bile in his throat and its all wrong-
Sakura would never-
Could never-
Sakura always knows what she is doing.
[Except for when someone else is pulling the strings.]
She never killed him and he can ignore his own face, the charred skin and the sick twinge of curiosity that wonders how often she thinks about him- them- like this, dead or dying, but she never killed any of them.
You didn’t kill us.
You didn’t kill us and he should not close his eyes but he does when he sees Madara. And he thinks: coward, then, but the thought is not directed at Sakura, it is directed at himself (and maybe at Madara) so he makes himself open his eyes again to see-
And he sees…
He cannot look away. He feels the hate as he watches that man kiss his best friend and he has no right and he is growling and Naruto is glad for the hate, so glad for it because it allows him to ignore the twinge of other things that no longer belong in him.
He has burned the earth. He will salt it over.
He knows this as he feels Sakura lose herself, lips curling back from his teeth, silent fury ripping through him.
The dream ends
Just a dream-
Just a dream-
He cannot respond to it because the Hitomi is nothing more than cracked pieces in his hands, the small screen, the buttons, all shattered.
And for a while he sits there. Very still.
How long, he thinks.
How long?
And he was here. And she was there. Dealing. Coping.
Believing she killed them?
Hurting.
Asking how he was.
Walking on broken glass.
So carefully.
For weeks.
Hiding.
Surviving.
...
Enough, he thinks.
He is already moving, letting the broken pieces of the Hitomi fall to the ground and picking himself up.
It’s all wrong because that never happened and Sakura never killed Kakashi and Sakura has only ever healed Naruto because Sakura always knows what she is doing and it’s all wrong and Naruto feels his jaw clench as Kakashi writhes and that is his sensei there on the ground and he thinks: help him even as she does not, even as she cannot. Even as she kills him.
And Sasuke on the ground has Naruto’s stomach twist so sharply that he tastes the bile in his throat and its all wrong-
Sakura would never-
Could never-
Sakura always knows what she is doing.
[Except for when someone else is pulling the strings.]
She never killed him and he can ignore his own face, the charred skin and the sick twinge of curiosity that wonders how often she thinks about him- them- like this, dead or dying, but she never killed any of them.
You didn’t kill us.
You didn’t kill us and he should not close his eyes but he does when he sees Madara. And he thinks: coward, then, but the thought is not directed at Sakura, it is directed at himself (and maybe at Madara) so he makes himself open his eyes again to see-
And he sees…
He cannot look away. He feels the hate as he watches that man kiss his best friend and he has no right and he is growling and Naruto is glad for the hate, so glad for it because it allows him to ignore the twinge of other things that no longer belong in him.
He has burned the earth. He will salt it over.
He knows this as he feels Sakura lose herself, lips curling back from his teeth, silent fury ripping through him.
The dream ends
Just a dream-
Just a dream-
He cannot respond to it because the Hitomi is nothing more than cracked pieces in his hands, the small screen, the buttons, all shattered.
And for a while he sits there. Very still.
How long, he thinks.
How long?
And he was here. And she was there. Dealing. Coping.
Believing she killed them?
Hurting.
Asking how he was.
Walking on broken glass.
So carefully.
For weeks.
Hiding.
Surviving.
...
Enough, he thinks.
He is already moving, letting the broken pieces of the Hitomi fall to the ground and picking himself up.
He turns around.
...
He heads for home.
Home, and Sakura. ]
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