Disclaimer: I won't be panicking about my exam results if I owned Naruto. -tries to breathe-

A/N: Wow, you're all amazing! 320 reviews for me! -dances the happy dances and tries to grab a few bunnies bouncing around- Hmm, this chapter is once again different from my normal style (if I actually have one). There's no happy ending in this story, so for those waiting for some happy endings- sorry. I can't even think of what to say now, considering that my brain is focusing to hard on the results that aren't going to be published for another 8 hours! Oh...please just read!

Summery: All great things must fall before Genesis can happen; a tree must burn before new leaves sprouts – Caught in their last moment. Sideline AsumaKurenai and GenmaShizune

Apocalypse

When the end comes, Kakashi is the first to fall. It is only right, he thinks as he sucks an entire piece of Konoha into God-knows-what dimension – he has run out of time and luck. There isn't Sensei to pull him back at the last minute, there isn't Rin to heal his wounds and there certainly isn't Obito to give him another eye. (Not that he wants one. One is already too much.)

Kakashi has Team 7 though. He always will. He thinks his success is in them and not the gazillion justu that pile up under his name. He has Sasuke's respect, he has Sakura's smiles and he has Naruto's bright laughter. So he must not be as bad as he may think he is.

Pakkun is next to him as his vision narrows and turns red. The tiny pug asks him what he has done this time. He also tells him that there is no way he can help him now – not even if he goes find a medic nin. Kakashi smiles underneath his mask; it's okay, he says, they still have a war to win.

And he lets the dog sit next to him as red turns dark and the world is quiet.

He thinks he see his team smiling……

Konoha is falling, they realize. Like burning forests, like dying trees, like scattered leaves. There is little they can do but pick up what they put down years ago for some comfortable, peaceful days. Those years were stolen.

I guess, he lights his cigarette (she doesn't frown like she does in that other life), this is the way we're meant to live.

(Or die. That, he doesn't say.)

She gives a thin cold smile and he tries not to cry. There is a kunoichi in his house, not a wife.

Reality bursts into their secret haven in the form of bloodied enemies. And once again, the killing machines hidden in this paradise are churning to work. This time, she wonders, whether they can halt the screams and the blades before they too, turn into cinder.

Her red, red eyes blaze and her enemies spew the same color.

Kurenai is beautiful when she kills – he admires and does not hesitate to tell her. Because hesitation can kill too. And you are still, she says, you – a runaway monk who can't keep his mouth shut. Asuma will always be the same.

Stay alive; they tell the other as they join the chaos beyond their past.

Neither agreed to the promise, but they try not to notice

Anko waits when the end comes. She is, for the first time, not actively pursuing but waiting. She waits for Orochimaru to find her. Just like the way her sensei used to find her – amongst the rubble and the dead. She supposes that after all these years he will come to her again. Or at least where she is now.

She sits in front of an entrance and bars the way to the hell he made underground. Anko doesn't see the others. She does, however, pile bleeding presents next to her with the finished dango sticks. She thinks her sensei will like the gifts – they're all clad in purple and have a curvy note on their headbands.

The area is empty of life now, only the debris of what was once the Konoha research center is left, and he appears to her in the dust and coppery smell of ruined lives. She rushes to him with excitement and tries to hug him with her explosive tags covered body.

Sensei…, she still smiles like she used to (because she loves and hates the man who gave and stole her life) because her seal still prickles; you've found me; look what I've got for you.

Everyone is down. Dead or just seriously injured, she doesn't have the time or heart to check. So selfish, she sneers at herself, and you call yourself a medic nin.

Last war, she was running towards him for help and protection; now she thinks she's the only one alive to stand between the enemy and Tsunade-sama so she runs towards her Tsunade-sama. Konoha crumbles and so does her protectors; she's probably fighting a hopeless battle. But Tsunade-sama is still fighting and so shall she.

Shizune, he calls to her. Genma is next to her again. He smiles – a smile that is slightly cocky, slightly affectionate, and so very much him. She thinks she's going to die. Because (she can't bring herself to say this aloud) this is a hopeless struggle; because (she can say this and does) she can't give him what he wants; because she can't give him what they want. Her everything belongs to Tsunade-sama who belongs to Konoha which is falling apart. It's been that way ever since the day she walked out, hope and despair all embodied into a hurting woman.

We're going to die, probably; Genma still smiles and the senbon still dangles.

She smiles too; after all that is the least she can do for them.

Most likely they will die. That's fine though; she isn't going down without a fight.

We're not going down without a fight, she tells him.

We End Here...

A/N: I've finally got the ruler working and the actually working on scool internet! Please Read and Review! I will be forever grateful! And -cough- by reviewing, you might just get another chapter out of me.

Oh! And please take the time to read and review my 2 new fics: Teahouse (which is about five women's lives and how they experienced the past mentioned in Naruto. Not AU and no OC as main characters); 20 No-so-secret Disasters That Shaped Konoha (a 20 truth of The Sannin and the White Fang- you know you want to read this!). Please!