The white feather began slowly drifting to the battle stained ground below. He caressed the soft skin of the kunoichi he held in his arms. His breath coming in painful gasps, his chest constricted. This shouldn't have happened to her...not her...not his perfect doll. Her clothes tainted with deep crimson, a trickle of red trailing down from her mouth. She could almost be asleep if not for the coldness of her touch, the snow white skin he now saw drained of color. A single tear broke free from the moisture in his eyes and landed on her pale cheek. She was too perfect. He lifted her easily, her body feather light in his arms.
A feather described her perfectly, he thought as he carried her. The softness and purity of a white feather; her kindness and gentleness never starting a fight, but always ending them with quiet words. Her heart pure as the first snow; never assuming, never judging, never convicting. Her fluid movements as she danced in the air as a feather is carried by the gentle breezes of spring. The whiteness of her fair complexion and the lightness of her honey brown eyes perfectly preserved in her body all these years, never changing. She would always be like this, he thought. Always the little feather he'd been following all these years. The one he'd been chasing since he was a boy. The one that helped keep him from the darkness. It had given him something to work towards, something to depend on when everything else seemed to fade away. He'd always been chasing that feather, but never catching it; the wind carrying it away easily any time he got too close.
He sat against a tree, pulling her into his lap so she could lean back against him. The snowy feather was nearly on the ground now. He felt her squeeze his hand one last time as he heard her throat croak in a desperate attempt to tell him one last thing.
"I love you," he whispered in her ear. He'd finally caught his feather, the one he'd been pursuing since boyhood, since he'd met...her. Her grip on his hand loosened, a sigh escaping her lips. The man began sobbing.
The feather landed.