"God breathe upon our souls..."
"Mina?"
"Naru."
"How long it's been?"
"Little more than two decades for me. And you?"
"A few seconds, but you knew that."
"Yeah."
"Do you need help?"
"This human brain is so... so... lacking!"
"You've enhanced it so much already..."
"Still... I know what I've to do, but I can't seem to put this together."
"Mina... first off, we're alone and no one can hear you. Second, I've missed you."
Minato chuckled, complying.
And the shattered mirror
Scatters throughout the ground,
Fragments
Because no one who lives
Remembers Death as a whole...
Naruto wakes. His room is bleak.
He rises, complying to his routine.
Comply...
His mirror stares back at him, mischievous. He's confused.
Breathe...
He leaves his apartment.
No one looks at him.
There are stars dancing in the skies. Naruto wonders if that's normal. No one seems to notice, or care, so he does not dwell on it.
Kakashi looks up, dark eye narrowing. The skies dance before him again, just like...
He slaps his book closed, placing it back in his pouch, wandering off.
And then... he remembers.
Remembers the Before.
He's going die. And soon.
He sees Ino and Sakura tending to the blond's flower-shop. He knows they'll choose the same person.
"Sakura-chan," he calls, quietly, cheerfully, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
Her head was spinning. He didn't... he couldn't... how could he...?
"Kakashi-sen--"
"Just Kakashi."
"Kakashi," Sakura took a deep breath, her face pale, her heart hammering wildly, her blood roaring in her ears, "You are, or at least were, my--our sensei, our teacher, our master and commander. This will not be well seen..."
"I don't mind," he murmured, eye creasing in a half-moon.
"I mind," she almost snarled. There was so much at stake! How could he not see that? "I have many things to worry about, Kakashi, Tsunade-shishou will not be pleased, I may lose whatever prestige or reputation I have gained and so will you! The only thing working in your favor is that I'm already eighteen years old!"
He shrugged, and that just maddened her even more.
"Fine," she gritted her teeth, "Court me. Woo me. Whatever. But if anyone finds out, and I mean anyone, I will make sure you're a perfect eunuch, hear me?!"
"Loud and clear," he breathed out softly, and she batted away the thought that he was smiling gently, resignedly, at her, "I'll do my best," he promises still in that soft voice, gently taking her hand and giving her knuckles a butterfly kiss. Then he disappeared.
He was still grinning in triumph when he closed the door of his apartment, for he had stayed long enough to watch her blush brightly and hold her cheeks, screaming strangledly 'Oh My God!' over and over.
"I mean it, Ino!" Sakura hissed, eyes darting at the rooftops around them, "Since six days ago he started giving me gifts, popping up anywhere and everywhere and I can't get rid of him!"
"Sounds like he's desperate," Ino raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Someone really wants to get laid. You should take him up on his offer, you know? You need it too."
"Ino!" Sakura hissed, scandalized, "I do not! And in the name of the Yondaime, Help! Me!"
"Who's the bloke, then?" the blonde rolled her eyes. Sakura blushed to the roots of her pink hair as she approached her friend to whisper in her ear.
Ino's hands banged on a nearby wall as she gaped at Sakura.
"You're kidding..!" she gasped after a moment, "Wasn't he your..?!"
Sakura nodded furiously while making gestures to stop talking, eyes paranoically searching the street around them.
"How the hell did you get into this, Forehead?!" Ino whispered furiously, clutching one of her hands and dragging her to a side alley, out of the crowd, "Now! Everything!"
"Yo."
Both girls screamed in surprise, Sakura jumping into Ino's arms. Ino stared at him with hair disheveled and wide eyes.
"The fuck, Kakashi?!" she gasped at him, clutching Sakura to her chest.
"Sorry about that, I was just passing by!" he told them with one of his eye-smiles, "By the way, Sakura-chan! This is for you!"
Shivering nervously-- anxiously-- she slowly released Ino and hesitated. Kakashi was standing there, patiently smiling at her. She carefully stepped towards him, as if she expected him to spring and attack her-- or maybe molest her (and no, she was not eager for such a thing!)-- and stopped at about two feet.
Kakashi suddenly looked crestfallen. "Hmm... closer, please?" he asked timidly.
Sakura stared at him as if he had grown a second head. He might as well had, since when was Kakashi so... so... She gasped, mouth falling open.
Was he acting shy?!
He winked slyly at her.
Sonnoffa--!
Her eyebrow twitched, eyes narrowing, veins popping and lips pressed in a thin line. "Are you playing with me, Kakashi?"
"Playing? No," he told her, his eye and posturing sobering and straightening quickly, "Teasing? Maybe."
She shivered suddenly. Heat pooled in her body, in her stomach.
He took slow, measured steps towards her. "I never play around like this, Sakura."
Where was the '-chan'..?
Stopping with barely an inch between their noses, even if he was taller, she could feel his breath ghost over her lips. Her knees quivered.
"Here..." he whispered. His hands cradled one of hers, placing something and closing her fingers over it, "To remember me by."
"What..?"
"Come with me tonight?"
"Ah..."
Ino watched as Sakura followed Kakashi as if in a trance. She knew what Kakashi was going to do. But strangely... she agreed. It almost seemed... as if Kakashi had no time left.
Two weeks later, Sakura is quite smitten with Kakashi. When Ino questions on how (the fuck) Sakura just gave in, she blushes and mumbles that Kakashi is a perfect gentleman, and, though quite domineering (surprising as it is with such a lazy man), he knows how to make her feel absolutely loved.
And the sex is great too.
Not a month later Sakura is thanking whatever deity can hear that she works mostly in the hospital, because a mission in her state would be the worst thing. She has gained the habit of caressing her cherished locket, one that dangles from her neck and that she has never managed to open.
The next day she curses everything in her sight while trying to keep a ruined Kakashi living.
"Sakura-chan..." his ruined voice grates on her nerves, makes her eyes burn. Tsunade takes over her work and gestures for her to speak with the man.
She stands beside his head and wonders what the fuck does he want, because she could be helping bring him out of danger zone (but she knows he's already lost, because one of his lungs, his entrails and a good part of his arms, and don't forget his eye!) but instead she stares into his right eye, there's no left eye to save, there's no Sharingan anymore.
"Sakura-chan..." he rasps again, his eye locked onto her feverishly, "I'm not afraid..."
Everyone in the room freezes. He knows. They know.
"You should be," Sakura whimpers, taking the hand he holds out to her and cradling it gently between hers, "You should be..."
"Sakura-chan..." he continues almost, almost, as if he didn't hear her. His hand squeezes hers, "There is one last task and one last test for you," he murmurs, and she can see he's making a valiant effort in keeping everything riddled even when his thoughts are hazy beyond return, "There's our beloved Dream, and there's your valiant Death... never be afraid," he ends in a whisper, he has no strength left to use his vocal chords.
She nods, even if she doesn't understand what he's saying either, but she knows, she knows beneath everything, that one day she'll understand.
And his last breath is "I love you."
Roughly nine months later, Sakura gives birth to a silver-haired, green-eyed little girl.
She names the baby Yume, their beloved Dream.
To be Continued...