This is Your Something Worse
Warnings: Character death, angst, slight KakaSaku, faint SasuNaru.
Disclaimer: Obviously, I dont own. If I did, I wouldnt be posting this, would I? It would be in the actual fucking canon. Ferserious.
(& this is what could have been)
This was a classic case of 'mission gone wrong'. They'd been ambushed while sleeping, and sustained heavy injuries, all four of them. Sakura, of course, had sufficiently healed all of them - even though it exhausted her greatly (she would never admit this, of course - even after all these years, she still had to prove herself to them).
And then they'd left her there to rest - Kakashi to find shelter, Sasuke and Naruto to go find food (together, because neither would go alone anymore - nobody said anything about it, nobody needed to).
That was when things went wrong - the ambushed team had regrouped and come back, supposedly to finish them off. Sakura fought like a wild thing, sustaining heavy injuries as she did so. Injured, exhausted, terrified, it wasn't long before she'd decimated half of them (because an injured shinobi is always more dangerous in their desperation, in their refusal to give in to the inevitable -)
That was when Kakashi arrived, and decided to help her with the enemies. When the corpses were piled all around them Kakashi turned to Sakura and realized he'd have to do something now if he didn't want her to be one of them. (which of course, he didn't - because who'd ever thought she would be the one to go first-?)
And then she'd just collapsed, right in the middle of the clearing, and for all his prodigy-ness, Kakashi almost didn't catch her. She jerked in his arms, blood bubbling up from her mouth (internal bleeding, broken ribs, lacerations -)
Kakashi knew she was dying.
He'd seen it before, over and over and over again - felt the crushed bones in Obito's body, felt the coldness of Minato-sensei's body, heard the stuttering breath wracked from Rin's chest, watched the eyes gloss over of many, many now-faceless comrades - and he was no green chuunin, like she was (but she was so much better, he'd have to get her to take the jounin exam when she got back, but oh, she might not come back -)
And so Kakashi knew she was dying. This is why he did not stop her from speaking once she started - what was the point? If she wanted her last words, he would give her that. It wouldn't make a difference, in the end.
"T-tell - Sasuke, Naruto… T-tell them I'll m… miss, them. Tell N-Naruto I always l-loved him… and Sasuke, tell him I d-don't mind th-that he chose N-Naruto…" Sakura stuttered out between weak coughs, her voice thin. Kakashi nodded solemnly and she suddenly smiled (a cadaver's smile - she's a dead girl, and she already knows this, always known this, so don't tell her -)
"And… I-its not… not t-too late, to start… start over, you know?" The last words were a sigh, and her eyes started to drift closed (no, don't you dare leave yet -!) before they suddenly snapped open, and she gripped his shoulders in both her hands. He hadn't thought she could still move her arms, much less her fingers.
"I didn't want… this. I've never… n-never even b-been… kissed." She breathed, her eyes wide and sightless.
(how could you live like that?) He wants to scream at her, as he leans down and kisses her gently, blood smearing on his lips. (how could you know, and not be able to accept it?)
Because she always understood. She knew how desperately lonely Naruto was, and that's why she stayed with him. She knew how angry Sasuke was, and that's why she let him rage at her. She knew how Kakashi was scared of getting close, and that's why she let him be so distant.
Sakura was the only thing keeping them together. She was like glue, the way she stuck them together and balanced them out. She felt righteous anger for Naruto, because he could never be angry at the civilians he fights for. She felt sorrow for Sasuke, who could never just break down and cry. She felt everything for Kakashi, because they were too dangerous for him.
Sakura said what they couldn't - pointing out their flaws, their worries, their happiness. She showed how Sasuke and Naruto were so well together - how they were so dangerous to each other. How Sasuke was destroying himself with the power he craved. How Kakashi was drifting away, and wouldn't be able to save them anymore.
She simply understood - and that should have been enough.
"We could have been great." She whispered, without coughing. (yes) He thinks, as the life dulls from her eyes.
They could have been great.