There was a quiet on the war front.
The roar of battle ceased with the stifled cry of one more life struck to the ground; a vibrant soul cloaked in royal blue chakra. Kakashi's sharingan was wide and brimmed in fear as he ran to catch the body as it fell; his limbs caught in fervor the silverette had never before known. The youthful frame that fell in a haze of blood was not another faceless shinobi, not another body to line the blemished fields—no, no—no it couldn't be. It couldn't be.
The weight that fell into his arms was meager and small, the bodies' pale features outlined in deep scarlet that had scattered from a wound buried deep into the youth's chest. Their collision earned a grunt of effort from the Jounin as he attempted to cease them in their tumbling. Dust, clouds of dust billowed in the wake of Kakashi's strong, skidding sandals, vanishing with the incoming winds to reveal a mess of raven black hair shifting without care over battered cheeks and bloodstained lips.
"Sasuke-" Kakashi started, his voice lowered, his partially gloved hands moving to find the bloodied mess on Sasuke's chest to be beyond his help. He called to the uchiha again, more stern in his reiteration as though attempting to garner the boy's attention.
"Ka…kashi..?" Sasuke croaked in question and wrought a dark crimson bubble to rise from his throat and splatter against his chin. A flicker, something faint and dying, lit behind sasuke's eyes as they found his former sensei's masked face. He could see the settling grim on the older male's face, the clenching jaw that often employed the usage of his stoic veneer. One sasuke had come to know in his years apart.
"Wh…ats with your face? Looking like that—-" He paused, his face warping in pain as he coughed more precious scarlet in attempt to clear his lungs.
"Stop talking, Sasuke, the med team is on its way."
"Kakashi—"
"I said enough—"
"—sensei…it's..it's ok."
Kakashi paused, his eyes widening in shock once more with the rare adage of respect, one sasuke had not afforded him since he was a genin fresh from the academy. The copy-ninja's mind was a vast flood of thoughts and memories, all not without purpose as he stared down without words at the bloodied smile that had etched its way onto Sasuke's lips; a haunting parallel, one that brought stinging moisture to the Jounin's eyes.
"I don't…feel any pain. Not…anymore, sensei." The youth's fingers advanced from his side, their quivering touch finding the older male's flak jacket as though he were trying to steady himself from some unseen force.
"You…You were right. Aha, and I am the fool. You must think me a fool now, kakashi—" The life flickered behind his eyes, and Kakashi could feel his resolve to hold strong beginning to waver.
"I'm a fool…Itachi, he gave me—-ngh, he gave me everything…and I..I squandered it. Friends, bonds, a home…I was wrong. I have…always been making the wrong choices." Sasuke's smile faltered and his eyes began to brim with the onset of tears, ones he had not shed since he was a boy.
"No, Sasuke." The Jounin's words were ghostly and soft, accompanying the gentle hold that took the young boy's broken frame against his chest. "No, you came back." His voice wavered, "You came back and saved us."
Sasuke's smile returned and the dark of his eyes began to fade away with the cooling of his body.
"I'm cold, Kakashi. Stay…with me."
Another moment, another cough, another pained groan,
"I'm…sorry…"
There were no more words from the Jounin, only a silent compliance as Kakashi held the broken bundle tighter, uncaring of the vital blood that seeped into the rough material of his konoha standard. There was a faint convulsion, a rattle that begged the tears to fall from older ninja's mismatched eyes. He couldn't suppress the violent surge of anguish that flooded his chest and followed the rattling gasp that escaped Sasuke's lips, or the roar that heralded the young Uchiha's fall from grace.
Kakashi had failed him.