It only takes a second for Kakashi to move, although to him it feels like an age. For that second, everything seems to focus and slow down, grow more quiet, all sound swallowed by the rush of water. It lingers, that single instant, for much, much longer than it should. As the world teeters on the edge of the moment, it shrinks to hold nothing but Kakashi, the body crumpled a few footsteps away, and the water still gushing about his ankles, wisps of blood floating serenely on the surface like crimson flowers.
Then he's moving, and around him everything explodes in a surge of noise and colour and sensation. There are cheers, shouts, victory calls. Then, as they begin to realise, screams, sobs. Pain lances through his knee. Water soaks his feet. Red, a fierce sea of it, piercing his eyelids. A deafening rumble as somewhere another wall comes crashing down. Black. Something black and hot and slippery running into his eye. More screams. Dust. Smoke. And water, always the hiss and splash of water as it keeps on pouring through the dam.
He's beside her, now, calling her name, slapping her cheek. Chalky white. Dark tendrils of hair bloom from her head in the wet. Her mouth leaks red. He pulls her onto his lap, calls her again, wipes her forehead, touches her nose, her chin, her lips. There is no breath against his fingers. Her eyes stay firmly shut; the kunai stays firmly lodged in her ribcage.
She is their medic. There is no one else. No one to fix her after she's fixed them.
He shouts for help anyway, even though he knows it's pointless, even though he knows they can do no good. They're crouching beside him, lifting her wrist, sucking their teeth, shaking their heads. One of them is crying. He hates them for it. Someone places their hand on his shoulder but he smacks it away. He holds her closer, shielding her from the others with their 'there was nothing you could have done''s and their 'it's okay''s.
Because they are wrong. Because it's not okay. Because he's really alone, now. He has let them all down. His fault. His fault. His fault.
"I'm sorry," he whispers, over and over, into her damp, bloody locks. "I'm so sorry, Rin."
A/N: Okay, so. My very first fanfic, and it isn't exactly the cheeriest. Nonethless, I really hope you enjoyed it, short though it is, and please, please reveiw! Constructive criticisim begged for. I'm pretty new to Naruto, having only seen bits and peices around thus far, so tell me how I've done!