Waiting, Watching, Coughing
Hours crawl by… no one comes.
Blood drips out of his sides, his heart is racing. And still, there is no one to save him. He feels cold suddenly. Cold and hopeless.
He knows, deep inside, that his time has come. He didn't want to be protected. Didn't want to be the weak little boy everyone thought him to be. He wanted to protect them.
Now, his time has come, and he's not gonna quiver. He's gonna take it like a man. Like an already dying man.
'Cause he'd rather die fighting for his country than succumb to a coughing fit.
Crows are flying in circles in the sky, crying, mourning their little prince.
He just smiles at them. Because he knows, deep inside, that this is not the end. Hokage-sama told him once that the crows were the secret protectors of Konoha no kuni. That they all were the reincarnations of defunct shinobis, dead for the sake of the Hidden leaf village.
By tomorrow morning, there will be another raven soul flying up there, Waiting, Watching, Coughing.