The only accomplishment of war was Death.
In a world full of color and delight, man had become ungrateful and invented the illusion of power.
So they painted the world grey, orange, and crimson.
Grey with their remorse; the effect of tears distorting one's vision, making family members look grey like extensions of the earth they laid upon.
Orange with the fires of unheeded and uncontrollable hatred; the discrimination that spread furiously from life to life and destroyed all things that were not in color-code.
Then man painted the land crimson with their children's blood.
Out of all the beautiful colors in the world, mankind had decided to paint the world in grey, orange, and crimson.
. . . . .
War was a terrible thing, she decided.
"Shizuka, I want to tell you something." His black irises began to lose their dull luster, and when he closed his eyelids just to refresh them, she thought she'd never see them open again.
Desperately, she clung to him, the pain of despair wracking her entire body. His expression had calmed since she removed the sword blade, but a look of pain was still evident on his features. He was making a conscientious effort to fix that, however, as he breathed deeply and looked at her again. His entire face relaxed, giving the false impression that he no longer felt that he was dying.
"In my entire life, never have I ever been happier than when I was with you," he started, speaking slowly and deliberately as though that would bring across the idea more thoroughly. "I want you to know that. You're special."
She wasn't even in the right mind to dodge his compliment. She shook her head several times, leaning closer to his face so that her hair fell around them like a veil. "Itachi, you need to rest…. Save your strength. You can tell me this after you've recovered."
His gaze dulled again, but this time with an accompanying sad expression. "You know I won't make it to the end of the battle. I've lost too much blood," he told her quietly, a hand lifting to cup her cheek. A tear rolled down to meet it, and he softly brushed it away with his thumb. "Leave me here."
"No… No, I won't leave you. You know I can't do that. I can't abandon you. I promised you that I would never abandon you." The cool green of her chakra was still glowing as she continued to heal his worst wounds. They were closing up, but nothing could return the blood that had already leaked onto the grey, cold earth.
He chuckled. "I'm only human," he whispered. "I have an expiration date."
She leaned forward even further and kissed his nose. "You're not due to die, yet." Her tone was confirmatory, unyielding. It wasn't shaky like the rest of her was.
Having completely closed his numerous wounds, she reached her hands around her neck and tugged on a string lying there, pulling it up and over her head. On the end of the black string, there was a blue orb, the same shade as her own blue orbs. The jewel swayed with the sudden movement, then stilled, unnaturally balancing itself to a complete stop even as she put the string over his head.
Itachi could only look at her in question, then relaxed again with a quiet sigh. He wrapped his free arm around her head and pulled her close again. In a tired voice, he asked, "what are you doing?"
She allowed herself to be pulled even closer so that their foreheads were pressed together, a tender quirk of his.
"It's easier to see you this way," he'd explained with a tender smile, his hand similarly resting on the back of Shizuka's head.
She'd giggled in immediate response, hiding whatever negative thoughts she had behind her own smile. If only for his sake. Forehead-to-forehead, she was able to see just how much his vision had deteriorated.
"I'll make sure to do this more often, then," she'd replied before closing the gap between their lips.
"I'm fixing all of this," Shizuka told him, moving her hands and placing them over his heart, right on top of her necklace. "I'm fixing you."
He smiled wryly. "There is nothing more that you can do, Shizuka."
"Try me."
Her necklace suddenly released an unnatural glow as though out of sudden defiance, rays of light escaping between the gaps in her fingers and doing so with a liquid-like effect; slow-moving, but constantly altering in shape. Shizuka smiled pleasantly and closed her eyes to concentrate, said action strengthening the flow of light. Abruptly, the light stopped, and the inside of Itachi's chest glowed. In the brief moment before Itachi lost consciousness, he thought he saw Shizuka's eyes turn gold, and her hair turn white.
"You're abusing your authority," the barely humanoid entity warned in a deep voice. "He was mine."
The white-winged woman stood in all her holy pride with a thin blade pressed up against the dark creature's throat. "My authority lies here. He was not due for Death; I have read his document. You, demon, have abused your authority."
The demon sneered cruelly, yellowed, sharp animal teeth exposing themselves amongst the mass of black. "Angels are such a drag."
Suddenly, the entity became a solid. His hair was black and was tied in a spiky ponytail without bangs, eyes a chilled brown, and a shadow stretching toward her.
"Imitating Shikamaru Nara will accomplish nothing," she said, her wings suddenly glowing bright and dissolving the figure's shadow. "I know the difference between my friends and my enemies. They all have something you do not have."
"And what would that be?" the demon asked with genuine confusion.
"Kindness in their eyes." She twisted her wrist slightly and swung it to the side, black liquid flying gracefully into the air, followed by a loud thud. "Go to Hell."
Suddenly, she giggled sweetly. "I've always wanted to say that."
This is just a random drabble I came up with on a whim; whether it has anything to do with the actual storyline of Saika will be, quite literally, put aside for later thought. It's pretty rusty- sorry about that.
I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. Shizuka is my overused OC.
Thanks for reading!
~ Draw Me An Eclipse