Title: Regret About the Hitai-ate
Pairings: None
Rating: T
Description: Upon which Rock Lee regrets the placement of his forehead protector.
Author's Note: Hitai-ate means forehead protector.
Warning: Lots of blood.
He lay on the ground, blood spilling from the side of his head, mouth, arms, and everywhere else on his body. He was getting cold; and every time his body tried to regain his internal heat by creating a shiver, his body would be suddenly racked with tearing pain. His breath shuddered within his ribcage, and his skin was becoming numb.
Damnable weaknesses against genjutsu…
He could feel the spear, which was lodge in his head by the weakest part of the skull: his temple, shift as he let out a gurgling groan.
The pain was numbing; his skin paling; his eyes closing; his hopes of help dying; his brain failing…
His heartbeat was off: the after thump coming later than it should have.
A wave of blood spilt from his lips and washed down the side of his face, staining his cheek and hair and neck a bright crimson.
He couldn't keep his eyes open; the fatigue that sat on his lids was much too heavy.
Rock Lee spat out blood, trying to clear his mouth so that he could breath. But, instead of clearing his mouth of the reddened ooze, it just allowed more room for it to fill back up. He tongue flicked over his gums where a molar, a canine, and a front tooth were missing. How the molar was punched out; he wasn't quite sure.
He couldn't move his arms. But was unsurprised by this. He had opened six gates and completely snapped and shattered his left leg and arm. While the other arm was broken in half when the enemy had kicked it while trying to break free of his Omoe Renge.
Lee gasped, a sudden compulsion in his left leg making his pain renew itself. Hot, stinging pain coursed through him, heating his body some but making him even more fatigued.
He could feel tears sing his eyes and let them fall freely. He shook his head but gasped in pain as the spike lodged within his head moved when he did.
His body was broken, and no one would find him alive. They would be too late.
The logic inside his messed up head told him so and for some reason, he was unable to think against it.
No thoughts of youth and determination and luck entered his thoughts: nothing but dread and losing.
The spike must have been messing with his thought process. It had to be.
No fear trembled through him, no undying regret, and no disappointment: just pure, perpetual numbness and pain.
And then nothingness: absolute and complete nothing. No dark tunnel with light at the other end, no fluffy clouds with golden gates, no burning caves filled with darkened demons, no holy being telling him his good deeds in life, no damned monster telling him his wrongs, no limbo… Just plain nothingness…
Cold nothingness…
He had not died at the hands of a demon. He had not died in the arms of the one's he loved. He had not died quick and painless. He had not died protecting someone he loved with every inch of his heart.
He had died by the hands of a skilled shinobi who happened to be lucky that day and have a genjutsu-centered teammate…
He couldn't get out of genjutsu alone. He was unable to.
A thrown spear piercing his unprotected temple; no hitai-ate wrapped around his forehead with a special protective plating within the cloth to protect the weak spot within the skull.
Just plain luck on the enemy's side; and just plain regret on his side.
Regret…
He really shouldn't have worn his hitai-ate around his waist…
