Disclaimer: Okay, this is just ridiculously boring. I don't own, I wish I did, but I DON'T. Sue me and die, fool of a lawyer.
Warnings: Angst, post-time skip spoilers, AU now that the post-time skip stuff has come out.
It's funny how different people think they're running out of time.
Sasuke sees time slipping through his fingers, time to grow and learn and maybe just lose his body and mind to a creepy snake-pervert, but really all that matters is if Itachi dies at the end of the year and then Orochimaru can have his body and I don't care, I don't feel, I am an avenger and they got in my way and so I left them behind maybe, just maybe, he is afraid of running out time because Itachi will be dead and then Orochimaru will take his body and Naruto and Sakura and Kakashi won't have come for him.
Naruto sees time in a completely smaller scale, and yet a much larger one. Naruto the person has learned how precious each day is, and if he hasn't accomplished something, whether it's saving the world or getting seven bowls or ramen for the price of five, then he counts the day as a failure. Naruto is afraid of failure. Failure defined his life once before and he fears the day it rules his life again. But Naruto is also afraid of time because he while he knows they'll get Sasuke back, and still in control of his own body, he also knows that Kyuubi will force him to live two centuries at least. No other human, even with advanced medical ninjutsu, can live that long. And so Naruto fears the day he'll have to sit by the beds of his friends, his family, and watch them die, old and weak and frail, while he'll still look as young as the Yondaime did.
Sakura fears time not for herself, but for her boys. She fears time because she's afraid Orochimaru will get to Sasuke before they can. She fears time because she's afraid Naruto will go permanently mad with the endlessly long future looming ahead of him. She fears time because she wants all of her boys to find happiness, even Kakashi, and she knows even if he doesn't that true happiness isn't found within the pages of Icha Icha Paradise (however much her sensei will try).
Kakashi…Kakashi is more selfish than Sakura, but he has had longer to live and therefore less left. He doesn't fear age, because he knows he'll die before his bones will wear down from constant stress. He doesn't fear death, because he's sure that when it comes it will be welcome. Kakashi fears love. He found it once, and because he was young and stupid and assumed he had his entire life left in front of him, he scorned that chance. The poor dumb scarecrow spurned the innocent young love, and the love would cherish that cruel friendship enough that he'd die for it. Kakashi hasn't found love since, and he's afraid that when he dies, he'll still be unable to remember someone saying the dangerous three words.
As unlikely as it sounds, Kyuubi fears time as well. No one ever asked the demonic unofficial member of Team 7 whether he'd want to live out centuries of life in a human host, and as it turns out, he can't. Yes, he can prolong Naruto's life far beyond his expected lifespan, but he was the most powerful demon in the entire world, and he would have lived for thousands more years, damnit! Kyuubi's not angry really. Not even sad. Just a bit scared, for all the centuries he'll miss. And maybe, just a bit, when he's feeling brutally honest with himself, Kyuubi fears death more than anything.
