DG32173
Sarah: this is gonna be … weird.
Naruto: no kidding …
Sasuke: Sarah-chan doesn't own the dobe's anime, manga, or the cast from said anime and manga.
!!!WARNINGS!!!
TONS OF ANGST!! Also, this is a short collection of four one-shots. Each one-shot surrounds the same event, but with some differences. Character deaths, moderate cursing, and … um, not much else.
SUMMARY
What would it be like to be the last one of Team 7 left? Here are some possible scenarios of this in the perspective of each member…
NOTE
(Authors note)
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Memory or reading something"Quotes in or from a memory"
Scene change in memory
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Sasuke
A young-seeming man with shoulder-length black hair and saddened onyx eyes stands before a dark monument in the middle of a fairly large clearing. Rain is pouring lightly from the sky above him. His eyes trace the kanji to three particular names. "My best friend's name is also carved here." The voice lingers in his mind; a statement said so long ago, as fresh as if it were said only yesterday.
"Heh, is this how it felt, Kakashi?" he whispers. "Is this how it felt to lose your teammates and team leader? Cause it sure sucks." He tilts his head back and looks up at the rain clouds above him. "Dammit, I still miss you guys," he murmurs. "Why the hell did all three of you have to leave so quickly? Couldn't you guys have spaced your deaths at least a couple of years apart? It would have been a bit easier to cope with, then, ya know?" he asks the sky. His eyes turn back to the names on the dark stone of the monument in front of him.
Uzumaki, Naruto, he reads, remembering how his best friend, rival, and lover had died as he reads the kanji.
"Dammit, Sasuke! Get down you bastard1" a loud, masculine voice yells, the blonde owner pushing the brunette out of the way of an enemy ninja's attack.
"Oomph!" Sasuke gasps, falling to the ground and sliding several feet in the mud as Naruto takes the blast full-force. "Naruto!" he screams as the twenty-one-year-old Hokage falls to the ground at the same time as the enemy ninja. The blonde had somehow done a jutsu to tie his life to that of the enemy ninja, and when the ninja's attack hit, they both died.
Sasuke hastily stands up and runs shakily to his lover. He skids to a stop beside the blonde. "Dammit! Naruto! Open your eyes! Please, open your eyes!" he sobs brokenly, crouching down and shaking the blonde's lax shoulder. "Don't die on me, koi, please! Don't you dare die on me, Naruto!" he screams, continuously shaking him. But the blonde had died before he hit the ground. The falling rain rinses the blood into the mud and mixes the two together, masking the tears falling from onyx eyes; thunder hiding the broken sobs.
He wipes the tears out of his eyes. It does no one any good to mourn forever. It's been nearly ten years since he lost Naruto, anyways. He had become Hokage in the blonde's stead. The next name also brings forth a few more memories: Hatake, Sakura. The beautiful, pink-haired girl had wed their former sensei on her twentieth birthday, the entire town completely supportive of the newlyweds. Every free person in the town showed up for the grand wedding, held right here at the monument that holds the name of Kakashi's dead best friend: Uchiha, Obito. And it was the same monument that Kakashi had taken them to on the first day of their training. Sakura had said that it would be a place of old endings and new beginnings for the two of them; Kakashi had smiled lovingly at her and nodded his agreement.
"Sasuke! I'm taking that mission! I don't care that it's off the charts of importance and danger; that's my sister that needs saving!" Sakura cries, glaring at him. It has only been three months since Naruto had passed on, leaving behind only three years of being the Hokage and the post for his lover.
"Sakura, I can't let you do that. Kisha needs you here," Sasuke says softly, mentioning the twenty-month-old daughter of Sakura and Kakashi. Sakura had been three months pregnant when she and Kakashi wed; the whole town was wondering who the father was and, upon finding out, insisted that the two wed.
"Kakashi agreed to take care of her until I get back," she says, her soft green eyes tearing up. "I've got to save my sister, Sasuke! Please! I can't leave her to some other ninja! It would feel like I abandoned her! I can't do that to family, Sasuke! You of all people should know what it feels like to lose family and not be able to do anything about it! I can't do that to her! Please, let me go," she begs.
Sasuke winces slightly as her comment hits home and finally concedes. "Just be careful, okay?" he pleads.
"I'll bring her back even if I die right at the gate, Sasuke. I'll get her back with the information. And … thank you for letting me do this," she whispers giving him a hug before heading off to save her slightly younger, Anbu sister. Haruno, Melody had been sent on an undercover mission to retrieve some valuable information from Sound Country, and had been caught when she was about to come back to Fire Country. Sound and Fire have been at odds for several years now, and word had gotten to Konoha that Sound was preparing some form of army. Melody had been sent to see if this information was true and, if so, find out how to defend against it.
One month later
Sasuke looks up as a ninja bursts into his office unannounced. "What is it?" he asks, annoyed.
"Hokage-sama, Hatake-chan has returned with her sister! But both are half-dead! We need you to come to the hospital at once! Haruno-chan has the information, but both are losing blood faster than the medic-nins can restore it!" he says urgently.
"I'm coming," Sasuke says, leaping up. "Inform Kakashi that his wife is back immediately and tell him to meet me at the hospital … and you are to take care of his daughter until I send a messenger for you to bring her to us."
"Hai, Hokage-sama," the ninja says, bowing before leaping out the window and towards the Hatake manor.
"Dammit, Sakura, what the hell happened out there?" he whispers while leaping out the same window and heading for the hospital. Upon reaching the hospital in the center of town, he and Kakashi land in front of it at the same time. Kakashi's visible eye is clouded with fear. Sasuke merely nods in greeting and heads inside, quickly followed by his former mentor. The young nurse at the counter looks up as they enter. She quickly directs them to the room Sakura and Melody are in and tells them that the two are in critical condition, but Melody is semi-stable while Sakura's condition is rapidly getting worse. As soon as they receive the information, the two men are gone in a flash.
By the time they get to the room the sisters are sharing, Sakura's heart beat is next to non-existent. While Sasuke get the information from Melody, Kakashi runs to hold his wife. Sakura's sea green eyes open slowly to look up Kakashi. She smiles weakly. "I completed my mission, Kaka-koi. I did it," she whispers.
"But your going to die for it," he murmurs.
"The price of being a ninja," she whispers. "You give everything, even your life, for the safety of your village." She slowly lifts her hand to cover his. "Tell Kisha mama had to go away and that I love her, okay?"
Kakashi realizes that arguing with his wife is useless. She wouldn't live long enough for even the fastest of ninjas to bring they're child to the hospital. He nods, his throat clinched and eyes watering. "I love you, Sakura," he whispers.
"And I love you Kakashi," she says softly. "I'll always watch over you, Kisha, and the village," she says, her eyes closing as her last words leave her lips. The heart monitor spikes one last time before leading into a long whine to say that Hatake, Sakura has died.
Sasuke feels his chest clench. "I shouldn't have agreed to let you go," he whispers to the name. "I should have sent someone else. Kakashi never forgave me for that. He only did what I said because I was Hokage. And only then because he respected the position. But he would never talk to me again about anything other than missions. Until… that last time…," he whispered, his eyes finally landing on the name of his former teacher. Hatake, Kakashi. He had died not even two weeks after Sakura. "Dammit, Kakashi, I let you down. I let you all down. I didn't see the threat until it was too late. Then we lost half of our best ninja. But you were the best of our ninja… and you died protecting this village."
"Hokage-sama! The Sound nins! They're on the outer edges of our land! And are heading straight for us!" Konohamaru cries as he bursts into the office.
"Dammit!" Sasuke growls. "Get the nins together! We meet at the gate!"
"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Konohamaru says, leaping out the window to follow orders.
About twenty minutes later, Sasuke and all the ninja are at the gate. "I'm sure you all know. But I'll say it anyways. The Sound has risen to attack us. We have to save our village and defeat them before they can get here. So we must hurry. Do your damnedest to keep them away. If you must, use your best jutsus. Don't leave one Sound nin, no matter his strength, a chance to get around us and reach the village. Understood?" he says. Many variations of yes echo through the crowd of ninja. "Alright! Let's move out!" With that, the gathered Leaf nin leap off to fight the Sound. A few of the more experienced ones were left to protect the village on the small chance of any Sound nin actually making it to the village.
3 days later
Sasuke bites his bottom lip as he combats the sixty-plus Sound nin around him. Suddenly, Kakashi appears, his nin-dogs attacking the other nin. The nin-dogs wipe out about ten of the sound nin; Kakashi takes out another twelve. "Get out of here, Sasuke," the silver haired jounin grunts through his pain.
Sasuke immediately knows that it would be impossible to argue with his former teacher. "Hai," he says, clutching a slash wound on his left shoulder. He turns and sprints off for Konoha to get healed. Only to turn back seconds later to see Kakashi blow up himself and the enemy nin around him. His eyes widen in shock and despair; the last of his childhood team has died. He is glad the rain hides the tears flowing down his cheeks as he turns back toward the village. Another close friend's name will be added to the memorial stone when this is over. There are very few of those he befriended back when he was a genin left. Many have died already, three days into this horrible war.
Sasuke lowers his head as he slouches despondently. "Uncle Sasuke?" a soft voice asks from beside him. "Daijobu?"
"Daijobu," Sasuke says in response to the twelve year old daughter of Kakashi and Sakura. Kisha has waist length hair of the same silver as her father had, and the bright green eyes of her mother.
"You've been standing here for a while, you're gonna get sick," Kisha says, frowning at him. "Let's go home, ne?"
Sasuke smiles softly at the young girl who he has taken in as a favor to her deceased parents. "Hai. Give me a few more minutes alone, onegai," the dark haired man says.
Kisha's frown deepens, but she accents. "Hai," she says. "I'll be at the other end of the clearing. I'll give you fifteen minutes, then I'll come and drag you all the way home."
Sasuke chuckles at the image of the twelve-year-old dragging him, a thirty-one year old man, to the Uchiha manor. "Hai, hai," he says. Kisha nods, then goes and leans against a tree on the other side of the clearing to give him privacy. Sasuke turns to look at the memorial again, a melancholy smile gracing his lips. "She gets more like you guys every day," he says softly to the names of Kakashi and Sakura. "She has your drop-dead looks, Kakashi; and Sakura's fiery yet protective nature." He sighs. "Well, I should go. I'll be back again tomorrow." With that, he turns and leaves the memorial stone to head to his ancestral manor with Kakashi's and Sakura's only daughter.
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Sarah: here's one turnout with Sasuke being the only one of team seven left. Well, I'm gonna see if a get good reviews. I know I'm gonna have at least four chapters in this. If I get lots of good reviews, I might make more.