UFF
I'm considering this one six days late instead of one day early, as I hope to have something else to post tomorrow.
World: Naruto.
This are scenes from one possible future in my LNU universe. Maybe it will happen there, maybe it won't, but it happens somewhere. I'm nick-naming the sequence "Ourobourous." Gaps in the order of events to be filled later.
Warning: character death, and generally being pretty f&*%ing depressing.
.
.
.
“Let me do it,” the Uchiha offered.
“What?” Kakashi’s one visible eye widened, almost comically, although Sakura didn’t think he found the suggestion at all funny.
“If it works the same as it did when Minato performed it, it will effectively kill you. You won’t be you any more. And you still have a life, Kakashi; I don’t. I don’t want to die but I- I- What future do I have, with this body and these memories? The only things worse than that which was done to me are the things I did to other people while in service to Madara and the Akatsuki. At best, this is my second chance at life, Kakashi. At worse, if it doesn’t work and the beast kills me, you still have a shot. Either way, it’s better than continuing like this. And I’ll get to end this life as a hero. Let me do this. I can learn it from you the same way you learned it from Naruto. It’s one of the few things my sharingan can still manage.”
* * * * *
It’s too close. He wasn’t going to be able to finish before the beast reached him. 14 seals left. Try, try, try. 10. 9. Just 8 left-
Too late. A massive paw, with claws longer than he was tall, was lashing out at him.
6-
There was a sound close by, like a thousand birds singing at once.
5-
White light shattered the false night, blinding him, as something dove between him and the paw-
4-
A silhouette tossed back through the air-
3-
Eyes like the pits of hell, leaping towards him-
2-
He stood his ground.
1.
* * * * *
Sakura had just finished healing up her leg and was preparing to launch herself back into the fray when the darkness around her began to evaporate, letting the late afternoon sun shine again. Haze kicked up from the battle still partially occluded the decimated landscape.
Somewhere amid the debris, an infant began to cry.
She threw herself down into the clearing smoke and dust, dodging from one torn-up outcropping of land to another until she located the child. He could have passed for newly-born, if it wasn’t for the lack of birthing fluids around him, and the already-vanishing seal on his belly. Sakura looked around as she carefully scooped him up, and was able to make out Kakashi’s form some fifteen feet ahead of her, sitting against the burnt remains of a tree. He must have been exhausted; even from behind, she could see his shoulders shaking with every breath.
“It worked,” she called out to him, then turned her attention back to-
…Well, that’s not who he is any more, is it?
The boy’s wails subsided to hiccups as Sakura checked him out; all limbs intact, skin free of scars, and when she pulled open each eyelid a bright black eye stared back at her.
“And he looks fine.” She pulled the blanket out of her satchel, and swaddled the infant in the soft fabric. “You take him back to the village, I’m going to check around and see if there’s anyone else who needs my help.”
There was no reply.
“…Kakashi?” Sakura called, shoving herself to her feet, holding the new jinchuuriki against her chest with one arm.
He no longer appeared to be moving.
She made it to his side with one chakra-propelled leap, hands already flying through green-shrouded seals. Her fingers slowed as she got a good look at her former sensei, but she found herself continuing the healing jutsu and pressing it to his chest, even though she could already see it was too late to be of any use.
He’d been ripped open from neck to navel. She couldn’t stop the flow of blood because his blood was no longer flowing, pooled as it was on the ground at his feet. Even if she’d come to him before the child, it was likely he would have already bled out too much to save. Sakura closed her eyes against the tears and the sudden surge of light-headedness, and forced the tremor in her legs to subside. Breath in, breath out. You still have things to do. Sakura looked up at the sky above; it was a flawless blue.
She leaned forward and tenderly closed Kakashi’s sightless eyes, ignoring the bloody streaks she left on his face. She could sit a vigil for him later, but now, the living called. Tying the blanket into a sling across her chest so that the child was secure and both her arms were free, Haruno Sakura headed in the direction of the distant sounds. She didn’t let herself look back.
* * * * *
World: Naruto.
This are scenes from one possible future in my LNU universe. Maybe it will happen there, maybe it won't, but it happens somewhere. I'm nick-naming the sequence "Ourobourous." Gaps in the order of events to be filled later.
Warning: character death, and generally being pretty f&*%ing depressing.
.
.
.
“Let me do it,” the Uchiha offered.
“What?” Kakashi’s one visible eye widened, almost comically, although Sakura didn’t think he found the suggestion at all funny.
“If it works the same as it did when Minato performed it, it will effectively kill you. You won’t be you any more. And you still have a life, Kakashi; I don’t. I don’t want to die but I- I- What future do I have, with this body and these memories? The only things worse than that which was done to me are the things I did to other people while in service to Madara and the Akatsuki. At best, this is my second chance at life, Kakashi. At worse, if it doesn’t work and the beast kills me, you still have a shot. Either way, it’s better than continuing like this. And I’ll get to end this life as a hero. Let me do this. I can learn it from you the same way you learned it from Naruto. It’s one of the few things my sharingan can still manage.”
* * * * *
It’s too close. He wasn’t going to be able to finish before the beast reached him. 14 seals left. Try, try, try. 10. 9. Just 8 left-
Too late. A massive paw, with claws longer than he was tall, was lashing out at him.
6-
There was a sound close by, like a thousand birds singing at once.
5-
White light shattered the false night, blinding him, as something dove between him and the paw-
4-
A silhouette tossed back through the air-
3-
Eyes like the pits of hell, leaping towards him-
2-
He stood his ground.
1.
* * * * *
Sakura had just finished healing up her leg and was preparing to launch herself back into the fray when the darkness around her began to evaporate, letting the late afternoon sun shine again. Haze kicked up from the battle still partially occluded the decimated landscape.
Somewhere amid the debris, an infant began to cry.
She threw herself down into the clearing smoke and dust, dodging from one torn-up outcropping of land to another until she located the child. He could have passed for newly-born, if it wasn’t for the lack of birthing fluids around him, and the already-vanishing seal on his belly. Sakura looked around as she carefully scooped him up, and was able to make out Kakashi’s form some fifteen feet ahead of her, sitting against the burnt remains of a tree. He must have been exhausted; even from behind, she could see his shoulders shaking with every breath.
“It worked,” she called out to him, then turned her attention back to-
…Well, that’s not who he is any more, is it?
The boy’s wails subsided to hiccups as Sakura checked him out; all limbs intact, skin free of scars, and when she pulled open each eyelid a bright black eye stared back at her.
“And he looks fine.” She pulled the blanket out of her satchel, and swaddled the infant in the soft fabric. “You take him back to the village, I’m going to check around and see if there’s anyone else who needs my help.”
There was no reply.
“…Kakashi?” Sakura called, shoving herself to her feet, holding the new jinchuuriki against her chest with one arm.
He no longer appeared to be moving.
She made it to his side with one chakra-propelled leap, hands already flying through green-shrouded seals. Her fingers slowed as she got a good look at her former sensei, but she found herself continuing the healing jutsu and pressing it to his chest, even though she could already see it was too late to be of any use.
He’d been ripped open from neck to navel. She couldn’t stop the flow of blood because his blood was no longer flowing, pooled as it was on the ground at his feet. Even if she’d come to him before the child, it was likely he would have already bled out too much to save. Sakura closed her eyes against the tears and the sudden surge of light-headedness, and forced the tremor in her legs to subside. Breath in, breath out. You still have things to do. Sakura looked up at the sky above; it was a flawless blue.
She leaned forward and tenderly closed Kakashi’s sightless eyes, ignoring the bloody streaks she left on his face. She could sit a vigil for him later, but now, the living called. Tying the blanket into a sling across her chest so that the child was secure and both her arms were free, Haruno Sakura headed in the direction of the distant sounds. She didn’t let herself look back.
* * * * *