AN: This is actually the first part of a much longer, creepy, AU, adult!fic that I cannot post in full, but I like this opening a lot, so here it is, on its own. To satisfy the curious, Team Kakashi has just been attacked by Akatsuki (this is explained later in the full-length story).
The Final Breath of Sasuke Uchiha
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Sasuke's body had crumpled to the floor.
He was hurt badly. So badly, he was lucky to still be alive. A few minutes ago, they were being chased… and then… what was it? They had come here as a last resort, and now, this… this had happened. Sasuke struggled just to prop himself up on an elbow so that he could see what was going on. The room was now warped and hazy to his eyes.
He could feel blood dripping through his hair and streaming down his neck and back, but he didn't even know what he'd been hit with. He didn't have any chakra left to try to heal himself with either—he'd wasted it all in the battle to get away, stupidly thinking that everything was going to turn out well, as it always did.
How much could you bleed before you were dead?
He tried to make sense of the situation, despite the ringing in his ears and the urge to vomit. He needed help, and a way out, before anyone returned to finish the job...
There was a problem he had just now become aware of. The whole room was, in fact, completely silent and still. Nothing was there, it seemed, except for the debris that had come crashing down just a moment ago. Where were his teammates? Would help come for him, or were they hurt? Were they dead? Somewhere in the struggle, he'd lost sight of them, and now there were no signs of life anywhere around him. Certainly silence could only mean…
He called out, hoping that someone would hear him that was on his side. At first, there was no answer at all, but then a feeble voice answered him from not too far away. He was greatly relieved, and he forced himself to move across the floor to meet the person who answered him. Where there was life, there would be hope for him yet.
"Sasu…ke-kun."
Sakura was lying in a darker corner of the room, where sunlight that streamed in through the damaged roof did not reach. Sasuke found it hard to take in what he saw: a horribly bruised face, an arm draped over a large wound in her chest, and also, a leg, broken and twisted.
"My leg…" she whimpered. "It really hurts…"
"Don't move it," Sasuke demanded, though whether she could have, he didn't know.
"S-sasuke-kun, you're hurt too…"
Sasuke said nothing. Instead he tried to see whether he could manage to lift his teammate, or at least drag her to a safer place. He reached out to try to pull her, but he noticed that his hands suddenly felt something warm and moist.
"Please don't," she implored. "Just… stay here with me… okay?"
Sasuke glanced at her bruised face for a moment. She was doing her best to smile, and Sasuke understood that Sakura already knew what he could not tell her.
"Okay. You just… rest. Kakashi. Kakashi'll come soon. He always… comes right on time."
"…Yeah."
They fell into a deep silence, and Sasuke watched her, occasionally wincing as pain came and went, but this was of little consequence. What did matter was that his teammate was dying in front of him, and he was watching it happen, unable to help.
Sakura's eyes grew very dim, and she breathed less frequently, but she never seemed frightened. When her eyes finally closed, you would have though she'd only fallen asleep.
A painful silence came to pass, though he would have little time for misery. Sasuke knew that his own body was beginning to fail him, just as Sasuka's had.
It was very sudden. He felt an odd sensation, as though something inside him had shut down entirely, and he crashed sideways. His head slammed against wooden flooring, nearly knocking him out.
Sasuke had seen far too many deaths in his fourteen years to not understand what this was, and yet, he did not want to accept it. He had known that one day, yes, he too would inevitably die, but he did not think that it would be now. He had never even considered that he might die so young, and in this slow, miserable way, because Sasuke, the last—at least as far as he was concerned—of his clan, was not supposed to die here, nor anywhere else, for a long time.
He was supposed to avenge his family. He was supposed to kill a man who had wronged him. He had so much life left to live, and yet it was ending at this very moment.
His vision darkened. He felt weak, and he was cold. Rattling breath roared in his ears. A heart was beating weakly in his chest, slowing every second. The blood kept pouring, his and Sakura's—it covered the floorboards and ran down the gaps between them.
He couldn't pull himself back up.
It wasn't uncertain anymore. He was going to die.
Well, he thought, smiling inwardly, at least it's slightly better than dying next to Naruto.
He was met with a sudden peaceful feeling, and, for a moment, he thought he was already gone.
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