…
And she cries,
Kiss it all better,
I'm not ready to go
It's not your fault, love,
You didn't know... you didn't know
…...
Warning: Graphic descriptions of violence, blood, character death and dark themes.
Like most things in life, it happened without true warning.
Wasn't it ironic, though?
How, out of literally everyone, Kiharu had the least right to be surprised by what was transpiring? How enemy nin raced through the streets, overturning carts and destroying shops and lashing out at the screaming civilians with knives and fists.
But it was.
It was a surprise.
Because, one second she'd been laughing with Mikoto-hime, arms filled with shopping and cheeks flushed under the relentless noonday sun, and, the next, the Uchiha Matriarch was pushing her back with a sharp sweep of her arm, eyes scalding red and barking out orders for the innocents to flee the open streets.
Her feet were lead, heart thudding in her throat, but the nineteen-year-old still found herself scrambling back, lungs heavy and mouth agape.
There was a body in the street, red smearing the pavement below as if it had been thrown a great distance, legs bent wrong and stiff.
Its face was turned away. Maybe it was easier that way.
Because Kiharu could barely breathe, in and out, sensitive nose picking up on the tang of copper and iron and terror and cloying in her throat until she wasn't sure if she was choking on a sob or her heart or the stench of death around her.
Maybe it was easier that way.
The streets were dead now, in more ways than one. A few bodies scarred the pavements, tucked under carts or slumped in doorways. The enemy was quick and ruthless, truly a dagger to the neck and gone the next instant.
Mikoto was long gone now. As if to emphasise that, a huge shock of smoke rumbled skywards, off towards the Hokage Tower.
Kiharu couldn't tell if it was another attack from the Oto/Suna forces or if an Uchiha was making their presence felt. Absently, ears ringing with the force of her pulse as she blindly staggered down alleyways and ducked into gardens, Kiharu wondered if it was anyone she knew.
Most of them were at the Stadium, she reasoned, although the Officers should still have been running the Station as normal. Maybe if she could find Ensui-
Blue eyes widened in realisation, hands rising but she froze, realising that summoning Hitoshi was a terrible idea.
He was...he was with her dad. What if they were in the middle of a deadly fight? Or hunting the forces? Or-
She was on her own.
Reality collided with the bludgeoning force of a brick to the skull, Kiharu's hand finding the wall again as the truth of that statement sank into her bones. This was happening. This was happening and-
She was alone.
Her moment of inattention cost her.
It was...ironic.
….
When the feathers started falling, Shisui had reacted on instinct.
Sharingan flaring as the comparably pathetic Genjutsu shattered like Kiharu's shells of spun sugar, his fellow Shinobi threw themselves against the forces of Oto and Suna (Suna!) like the meeting of great waves.
The Genin in attendance were easy to find but, by the time he'd rushed over, their sensei's had already sent them off. The stands were chaos. Maybe it was better this way.
He only just managed to catch Ino-chan's eye as she scampered off, blue equal parts determined and terrified.
His mouth set into a hard line, Shisui nodded in encouragement.
'Nee-chan', she mouthed back, easily visible with his Mangekyou whirling. But then, she was ducking after her teammates, platinum hair disappearing into the crush.
The bottom fell out his stomach.
Shisui found himself swallowing once, twice, at the realisation that most of their Shinobi were here but the enemy wasn't.
The civilians.
Hokage-sama was trapped above them all, the huge chakra shield throbbing malevolent purple. Through the misty walls, Shisui could just about see Genma and Raidou, along with the other guards and a smattering of ANBU, battling side by side with the Sandaime.
He'd be of no use there, not really.
"Kakashi-senpai," Shisui snapped back around, hand finding his tantō as he reflectively ducked under a clumsy kunai swipe and slashed through the Suna nin's chest. Too easy. "I'll clear the village."
The older man nodded shortly, book away and hitai-ate pushed up. Shisui had learned a long time ago not to react to his cousin's eye staring out of his captain's face. "The Ino-Shika-Cho Heads should already be there. Go."
Shisui went.
…
She was almost home when she heard the screaming.
Oh god, but this was like every nightmare brought to life; the doors had been locked, if they hadn't been broken in, and the streets hauntingly empty.
Where was everyone? What if she was just dreaming? Wh-
A scream rent the air, howling and twisted and young and the blood drained from Kiharu's face so quickly, she felt faint.
But her feet were moving, arms slow but pumping faster and faster, until she was sprinting. A child, a child, achildachildachild-
There were Shinobi when she came around the corner, chest heaving from far more than just exertion, two of them.
A father lay slumped against a lamppost, a screaming child thrashing behind his limp shoulders.
They'd killed him, killed him before his own child and-
There were ninja coming, Kiharu knew. The Police couldn't have been far away. Maybe if she screamed loud enough, if she risked a summoning, if she ran for help. They'd be stopped within a minute.
Kiharu didn't have a minute, though.
Without conscious thought, her body was moving again.
And, as her arms shoved the little toddler over and down, as something sharp and hot like a white poker slid through her back and out her stomach - easy, it was so easy for them-
Kiharu didn't regret a thing.
…
His blade dripped red, splattering on the dusty earth and trickling down his wrist, the exact same shade of his active Mangekyou.
"Shisui-kun!" Mikoto-sama called, voice as chipped as ice. Beside her, Akane-sama carefully wound bandages around the thigh of a trembling merchant, his face clammy and sickly pale. "Continue the sweep, they may have fled down side alleys!"
"Hai, Hime!"
His Shunshin was a thoughtless thing, as easy as breathing after a decade of refinement. Even at 21, Shisui was rumoured to be almost as fast as the Yondaime, despite obvious differences in their techniques.
A scream, all the more jarring for its singularity, had the Jounin's head snapping to the right, closer to the residential neighbourhoods.
Closer...closer to Ki-chan's house.
The unwelcome reminder was shaken off with a twitch of his jaw and Shisui reminded himself that Kiharu was probably tucked into the Station or her house, guarded by Hitoshi or her dad or, maybe, both-
The scream abruptly cut off and Shisui grit his teeth, praying it was for any reason but the most likely, leaping over the final rooftop and freefalling to land in the middle of the street.
A young girl hunched over a baby, their father already slumped and bled out beside them.
The little boy, no older than four, was soaked scarlet but, as Shisui tugged his tantō from between the final nin's ribs, he was crying and the relief shook the breath from the Uchiha's lungs.
"Hey buddy," Shisui crooned, swallowing hard at the tears tracing the father's cool face. Fuck, but this never got any easier. Sometimes even the fastest couldn't save everyone, Kiharu had told him so many times when he'd failed to save someone, client or innocent or teammate, but the truth still settled like a stone in his throat. "It's-" okay, he swallowed because it wasn't okay, but, "- You're safe now, I've got you-"
Gently, gently, Shisui's fingers moved to pry the child from his sister's arms, only to freeze at the warmth he felt from her grip.
She was still alive, sword spearing through her but-
"If," a woman's voice croaked, choking and wet as scarlet bubbled past white lips, "if you touch him, I'll ki-kill you."
But those lips were familiar, he'd watched them smile at him and stretch into laughs and frowns and snarls and, suddenly, Shisui was terrified to shift the mess of knotted, curly hair concealing the rest of her face.
But he didn't need to. Because he knew that voice as well as his own and the world turned inside out.
"K-K-Kiharu-"
…..
Reality was a strange thing, wasn't it?
Falling asleep… she dreamed so rarely and, when she did, it was always so realistic Kiharu was left questioning truth and false far into the morning.
Was this a dream too?
"K-K-Kiharu-"
There was a blur above her head, dark against the white sky and warmth in her arms. Her mother had always said that sight was the first sense to leave.
Kiharu wondered what else was leaving.
But, the blur above her knew her name, a friend perhaps? Regardless, an ally was the final straw and the fight fled her system, head lolling bonelessly. They'd protected the kid, maybe they could even find his mother and give him a hug-
Kiharu couldn't feel her arms enough to know if she was holding him anymore.
There was wetness on her face and neck, warm and trickling like the softest rainfall. Was she bleeding again? Was the baby crying?
"S-Shh…" she tried, throat thick and rasping. Don't cry, little one, she wanted to whisper, wiping away tears with gentle thumbs and tucking a small head under her chin.
Shika...Shika never truly cried as a baby...he just wanted to be held, grounded in human touch…
Her little sister had been different, hiccuping and clingy with cheeks flushed like apples. She missed those days, when life was so much simpler.
Hot fingers shifted the hair from her face, trembling against her cheeks and half-closed lids and Kiharu struggled against the weight of her lashes, blue finally finding focus on a mess of dark curls above her.
They reminded her of Shisui and her lips somehow curled into a smile.
But she could hear someone crying, choked and wild, like her dad when kaa-san-
"Is," her teeth chattered, tongue struggling to formulate but this was important. "Is, is he o-okay-?"
The head above her shifted in an unmistakable nod but Kiharu wasn't finished yet. She had to, she had-
"D-don't let, let him-" twist. Don't let them take his suffering and Forge a weapon as they did to Shisui. To Itachi and Kakashi and so many. "P-P-Pleas-"
A noise, barely human, whined breathe her ear and the teenager finally noted that she was off the bloody pavement, head cushioned in the lap of this stranger. Her stomach and arms were soaked, numb and painless and her legs weren't even there.
Deja Vu swept through her and she couldn't contain the snort that jarred her ribs, vaguely aware of the blood the bubbled over her lips and the shaking thumbs that wiped it away.
A woman, a stranger with dusky skin and dark, thick hair, brushed her hair back with trembling fingers. She'd been screaming, crying and sobbing for an ambulance.
"Oh honey, hold on, it's gonna be okay-"
As the last words, she'd thought they were lovely. Honey. No-one had called her that in years…
Vaguely, Kiharu wondered if that boy holding her would call her honey, too.
It was getting dark already.
Wasn't it funny that this time, she'd not even make it to 20?
"-no, no, no, Kiharu! Keep your eyes on me, Ki, Akane is coming, come on-"
Ki...only Shisui really called her that.
Oh, her dad and Hitoshi and Ino and everyone-
Her throat throbbed, thick and sore. She couldn't see anymore, the world a blur as warmth spilt from her eyes, saltwater trailing from her eyes to her temples and disappearing into her hair.
Oh, but she didn't want to go.
"I-I'm s-scared," her lips parted, mouth twisting and eyes blind and the boy made a sound like Kiharu had ripped something inside him and torn it out.
She didn't want to go.
What if it happened again? How could she try again, when she'd been burned twice? How could she love again when, finally, she'd-
"Shi-" her lungs spasmed, air juttering as her body slowly slipped away. She'd never been so cold.
The blur blocking out the sun shifted closer, crying messily as hands rose to cup her face again. But it wasn't him...it wasn't him.
"Where's...Shis.."
"-tell me, Ki, w-what-"
"Will you...w-w-will you tell him?"
Had it always been so hard to breathe? Isn't it funny that we take it for granted…
Her vision went white and the shock of it had her eyes clamping shut- she didn't want to lose this, to feel the world falling away as-as-
Last time, she'd fallen asleep, or maybe it had been unconscious.
But, last time, her family had known how much she's loved them.
"I-I lov-"
"Kiharu-"
"Tell, tell him-" there was nothing below her neck. She couldn't feel how the man clutched her closer, still desperately pressing on the curtain he'd ripped from a smashed window and balled up against her middle. The sword was still within her but she didn't feel it. It was the only thing stopping her from bleeding out immediately, holding her torso together whilst the Shinobi waited, frantic, for Akane to return with his crows.
It had only been a few minutes.
It felt like another lifetime.
"-tell him I love him-" she needed it known, for Shisui to know that she'd loved him since that very first day and she'd wanted to stay with him. She'd wanted kids, thinking that, this time, she'd get the time. Get the chance. She needed him to know that he'd been her only love, in both lives. She'd never loved anyone like him. And...she was terrified of moving on.
Because she didn't want to go where he couldn't follow.
She didn't want to build a new life of it wasn't with Shisui.
But she'd been a coward, hesitant and proud and now she lay, bleeding out in the arms of a stranger.
Above her, the man started yelling.
Her mother had always said that hearing was the last sense to go.
Shisui.
And then…
Kiharu died again.
….
A/N- I cried writing this
There's a part two, too
Playlist for this chapter:
a href=" /hS5ak6Zjr_M"Song one/a
a href=" /-2U0Ivkn2Ds"Song two/a
a href=" /iH77LUvAKuA"Song three/a