Warning! Major Character Death ahead! I know I sound cheery. I actually have a lot of fun planning hot to kill characters in fanfiction.
Sakura waited, not speaking a word. The longer her silence lasted the more uneasy the Academy students became. They exchanged question glances amongst each other.
"Uzumaki-san," a young Yamanka boy probed, "aren't you going to continue?"
"None of you understand what fear is. What loss means," she said in lieu of answering. "The story I am sharing with you is no fairy tale. You are lucky to grow up in a time of piece. Just because I survived does not mean everything was alright."
The class grew impossibly quieter at her pronouncement.
"That day, everything was definitely not alright."
Sakura knew when she woke to room packed beyond the point of comfortable of her housemates that something was wrong. She tried to speak, but all that escaped her throat was a dry wheeze.
Naruto was at her side instantly with a glass of water, which she drank as emerald eyes scanned the room.
Sasuke hung in a corner like a dark shadow, one knee bent and foot planted against the wall. Yamato hovered next to the door, on the side where he would not be seen by anyone who came through it. Sai was perched on the foot of her bed, sketchbook open on his lap. Karin was across the room, near the window, attempting to ignore Suigetsu.
"Where's Kakashi?" she rasped.
Not one of the six people in the room would look her in the eye. Their silence was more telling than any words.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"He's dead," Sasuke said flatly. Her jaw dropped.
"Kakashi's dead," the Uchiha repeated, "because you were stupid enough to try and contain Juugo when you knew it was impossible."
Sakura could only stare at him in horror. Kakashi-sensei was dead. It was her fault because she went down to the isolation ward with no way to stop Juugo. She was the reason he was dead.
Naruto leapt to her defense. "Don't you go blaming Sakura-chan, you teme! She was just trying to help your friend."
"She was being stupid and reckless."
"Stop. Please, stop." The pinkette's pleads went unheard over the rising voices of her teammates.
"Dickless. Traitor. You're upsetting Sakura." Sai easily returned the room's attention to her. Sasuke shrugged unapologetically.
"How?" she asked, frightened to say any more than that one word. She didn't want to ask if Juugo had been responsible. As horrible as she felt now, no doubt the gentle man felt worse. He always did after one of his rages, and he was so terrified of hurting her.
Instead, Sakura had hurt him.
"His Sharingan," answered Tsunade, who stepped up to Sakura's side. "The strain was too much for him. Didn't I tell you not to tell her?"
The question was snapped at the room at large.
"But Baa-chan!" Naruto complained. "She asked about him."
So that's how one of the greatest men Sakura had known died. Obito's Sharingan had finally taken its revenge.
Tsunade insisted that they all leave her to rest. While Karin practically flounced out, Naruto was extremely reluctant to leave. Sai was the second to last to leave; carefully tearing out the picture he had been working on and setting it on the small table at her bedside.
Tsunade turned pointedly to stare at Sasuke, who had not evacuated his corner. "You said she's responsible for me," he grunted.
Despite how rude and offhand it sounded, like he was only staying because he wasn't allowed to be where she was not, Sakura took it for what it was. An offer to be there for her so she wouldn't be alone while she grieved.
The Hokage huffed but allowed it. Sakura waited until Sasuke had fallen asleep to look at the paper her artist teammate had left behind.
Tears welled up. She was careful to hold the delicate drawing away from her so the salty liquid wouldn't ruin it.
It was a sketch of how they found her, she surmised. It only featured her and Kakashi, but Sai had drawn Juugo's shadow on the wall. She and Kakashi were on the ground. He had tucked her against him, his back facing Juugo's shadow, still looking to protect his lone female student.
Tears splashed onto her bedding. He looked so peaceful in the picture. Happy even, that he had done as he was always promoting, protecting a comrade. Dying, before he would allow her to be harmed.
Sakura sobbed herself to sleep that night, watched over by Sasuke who never slept for a minute.
"The funeral was three days later. Scores of ninja crowded on top of the Hokage tower to say goodbye to Kakashi Hatake."
There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Even though these thirty kids had never known Kakashi, the pain in her voice when talking about her was so raw that they couldn't help feel it.
After that day, Sakura had unconsciously picked up one of her sensei's bad habits. For the longest time, she stood in front of his grave for a couple minutes, reading the words engraved on the stone over and over again.
Those who break the rules are trash. But those who abandon their friends are worse than trash.
She repeated those words to the room. "Those are the words he lived by. Remember them. Because we are stronger when we stand together."