"What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?"
~Friedrich Nietzsche
When thinking of historical Shinobi, one always thinks in threes.
The great Hashirama Senju Shodai Hokage, flanked by two dark Uchiha Brothers, Madara and Izuna, built the Leaf Village.
Hashirama's younger brother, Tobirama, was the second Hokage, and he taught Hiruzen Sarutobi, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane, all of who would later become the Third Hokage and the two highest ranking Advisors in the Village.
Hiruzen Sarutobi later went on to teach the Legendary Sannin: Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya.
Jiraiya would even later go on to teach his own Genin team, including Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage.
Minato Namikaze would teach his own Genin team before he became Hokage, consisting of Rin, Obito Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake.
Kakashi Hatake would later go on to teach the New Sannin: Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Haruno Sakura.
But, when thinking of historical Shinobi, one always thinks of tragedy.
Izuna Uchiha gave his life and eyes for his brother, and Hashirama and Madara were locked in battle ever since.
Hiruzen Sarutobi would be killed by his very own prodigious student, Orochimaru, and his two surviving teammates would grow into their old age with a jaded bitterness towards youth and a ruthless view on life and the greater good.
Orochimaru would later desert Konoha to spend his remaining days plotting his home village's demise. Jiraiya would be killed by one of his very first students. Tsunade would survive the others, alone, as the Fifth Hokage.
Minato Namikaze would give his life to save his Village's, his surviving teammates whereabouts are unknown.
Uchiha Obito would give his life to protect his teammates at a very young age. He gave his only undamaged Sharingan eye to Kakashi, so he would have the means to protect Rin.
Kakashi would later fail, and Rin would be added to the memorial rock Kakashi now stared at, one of thousands of times.
Today, though, he had company.
Hands deep in his pockets, Kakashi moved his one uncovered eye from Haruno Sakura, the girl (woman—he corrected himself) kneeling on the ground beside him, back to his teammates names.
Sakura stared at a totally different set of names on the rock.
Taught by Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Uchiha Sasuke, all 25 at the time, would fight one last battle together, against each other. In the end, the cost was high, and their powerful techniques would take the lives of both Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. The clash of their elemental techniques would leave their only female teammate critically injured and close behind their backs.
Kakashi can still picture her broken body in his mind: sunk into the thick mud and covered in burns of ever sort and degree. He could still see the light start fading from her eyes. It made Kakashi's throat tighten.
But two years later, alive but mayhaps not well, Sakura stared at those names like Kakashi did to his teammates. Tomorrow, she would be assigned her first genin team.
"Sakura," Kakashi said, like he had never said her name before.
She stood, and faced him. She said nothing, but it was clear that she was listening.
"Promise me…" The Silver-haired Jounin's words were a bit hoarse, and he trailed off for a moment, "Promise me that you won't be a great teacher."
His eye moved to search her face. "What I mean is, promise me you won't teach them anything extraordinary…. Promise me they will just be average ninja's."
At this, his eye moved back to the monument, intent on Sasuke's and Naruto's name.
"Promise me you won't make monsters like the rest of us."
Sakura stared for a moment, but then turned back to the monument, staring at all the names of great shinobi. Dead shinobi.
"I promise," she whispered.
A/N: Don't expect rapid, on-time, or regular updates.