Sakura was among the last alive. Her death impacted him and Sasuke more than any before it...
But she was the first to go from Team 7.
It was about 3 years into the war, the year proving itself the worst in the entire war by the sheer number of deaths, injured, and sick. Their food was starting to run out thanks to the infertile land, lack of sunlight, and water. Their enemies were getting smarter, and they were at a huge information disadvantage.
Sakura was Head Medic, teaching everyone she could about medicinal everything. Even things she knew wouldn't happen again. Thanks to her, everyone knew what to do in a pinch and saved many lives several times over.
She was the last officially trained medic, so she had to make her knowledge count.
When she had time, she wrote everything she could about everything she remembered medically, which was basically everything with her amazing memory. She drew diagrams, explained processes, and explained what to do in every situation she could think of.
She barely finished when she fell.
She was in battle, fighting to reach an injured Sasuke with everything she had and more.
She reached him just as she was struck from behind fatally.
And she knew that only one of them would make it. Working quickly, she healed a little of her own wounds to give her time, summoned Katsuyu, and set to healing Sasuke. Within moments, he was conscious and she was dead, her last words whispered in his ear.
He later shared them to their spouse, as she asked him to.
"I love you. All of team 7 was my family, and I'm forever grateful for that. Don't get yourselves killed in this. Live, for me, for Lady Tsunade...
For the future."
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"Where is he? He left before Idid!"
From his perch in the tree, Aki watched the cute (naive) genin underneath him. He absent-mindedly fiddled with a loose feather, letting his mind wander back to that morning...
The red-head got up at 4, giving him time to set up some traps in the training grounds. He packed his breakfast and lunch and left Naruto's lunch on top of his shoes. Aki had to make sure that the kid saw it, after all.
The man smiled. He had a new seal to test out, but he needed someone else to help him. It was supposed to record a target's chakra and activate when someone not recorded came into contact with it. It was a large, complicated seal that didn't fit on any paper, so it had to be drawn from scratch. That wasn't much of a problem for the seal master, but it was tedious for anyone else. So, he approached Kakashi's chakra signature at 5 in the morning.
Unsurprisingly, the Hatake was wallowing in despair in front of the Memorial Stone.
"Hey Kashi, come help me out with this seal."
When the older man didn't respond, Aki sighed and took a jogging leap onto Kakashi's back, causing him to stumble forward. He just barely regained his balance before they both fell and looked over his shoulder to find the red-head clinging onto his back like a koala, limbs wrapped around him. "What was that for?"
Aki shrugged half-heartedly with a grin. "You ignored me. What else is an immature idiot supposed to do? Poke you?"
Kashi sighed, looking down to notice the other's hooked limbs. 'So no shaking him off..'. "Yes. Well, you have my attention. What is it?"
"A new seal. All you'd need to do is send some chakra into it and laugh at me when I set it off."
"You're going to set it off? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
Aki shook his head and readjusted himself so he could wave his arms around while he spoke. "I need to see if the main effect of the seal works, and if you set it off, I can't see if it would. If I set it off after writing it, then I know for sure. Now take me to the training grounds! We need more space!"
"Walk there yourself," Kakashi stated bluntly, but didn't try to force the energetic 'adult' off.
They ended up in a clearing with Aki drawing a seal around the silver-haired jonin. He explained as he worked, brushing his bangs behind his ear with his free hand. "This seal will take a little bit of your chakra and store it. Well, some of the chakra of everyone in the center. When someone comes in contact with the seal, it should cross-check that person's chakra with the chakra it has stored. If there's a match, it won't do anything. That, I've already made sure of. If it isn't... it should activate. It doesn't do anything if there's no stored chakra or if it's similar chakra. For example, it won't activate if a sibling or someone with extremely similar chakra steps into it unless I tweak the seal a bit. It'll store any chakra it activates for, and each time the intruder chakra steps on it, it'll do something different. For this one, the first contact will release a cloud of glitter at me. The second will be various colors of paint. The third time should be feathers, and the fourth time should release a cloud of chalk dust. Ready?"
When Kakashi nodded, Aki placed the last line and flickered back a ways. "Now, just focus a little chakra into your feet and step on the lines."
Kakashi did as told, but nothing happened. Aki nodded and continued. "I'll do the same."
When he did... a cloud of clear glitter flew up into his face, coating every available surface in the sparkly substance. The red-head leaped back and the seal absorbed all the extra glitter to use for later. With a triumphant grin, he again walked towards the seal, this time without channeling chakra into his feet. The second he stepped on the seal, it exploded paint towards him, covering him in blue, pink, yellow, red, green, black, and white paint. It didn't just get his front, so he was covered on all sides- even his hair fell victim to the blobs of color. He again leaped back and high-fived himself. "Now, to test it with my chakra suppressing seals active."
Kakashi didn't notice at first, but he could sense Aki at the Memorial Stone. The younger male felt like... Like sunshine during a chilly day. Warm and bright. He definitely noticed the absence of chakra where there was once warmth.
With the suppressing seals active, Aki once more stepped onto the seal...
But it didn't react. Aki frowned. "Either my suppression seals are too good, or this seal is malfunctioning."
Kakashi was a bit worried. He was, after all, standing in the middle of a possibly malfunctioning seal. He had more than enough scars- both physical and mental- and traumatizing memories with Kushina and Minato and malfunctioning seals to be terrified. "Malfunctioning how."
Aki shrugged and started walking towards the older man. "Can't tell unless I study it a bit more. Just stay there and try not to touch anything for a bit, yeah?"
Unfortunately, Kakashi thought to be a lil' shit and flickered out of the seal, leaving a clone behind. Now, the seal could differentiate between clones, ninja, and other organisms, so it activated the second he left.
Aki only had enough time to pout before an explosion of feathers, glitter, chalk dust, and paint erupted in his face, covering the ninja from head to toe. "KASHIIIIII!"
Aki tuned back into the conversation when Kakashi started explaining the test. "You'll have until noon to take these bells from us."
At that moment, Aki flickered beside the older man and held out a bell, still covered in glitter, feathers, chalk dust, and paint, since he didn't have time to clean up. And the articles didn't really bother him in the first place, so he could go a few hours looking like a walking mistake. Not like he didn't look that way everyday, but that was a different conversation. As soon as he saw the jonin, Naruto burst out laughing. "Aki-nii, what happened to you?!"
The red-head grinned. "A certain dog is such a hypocrite. 'Never abandon comrades' my ass. He left me to suffer! And he hasn't even apologized! Just this morning, he tried to trick one of my seals with a standard clone! As if my creations would be fooled by Tobirama's shadow clones, let alone a standard one!" With a hand held dramatically to his forehead, the ginger called out, "Oh, the pain of betrayal! Oh, the horror of abandonment! Oh, how could you wound me so, Kashi?"
"But what happened?"
"That won't work, Sakura. He never tells what he's working on until the next Great Prank War."
The eldest Uzumaki grinned as he finger gunned at the genin. "A good Uzumaki never reveals their secrets. Especially not during the buildup to the next Prank War."
"...Just what do you do in the Uzumaki household?"
Both Uzumaki turned to the Uchiha in sync and with identical, serious looks on their faces. "Hope you never find out."
At that moment, the three other teammates shivered, resigned understanding crossed their faces.
Then Kakashi cleared his throat. "So... shall we begin?"
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"They'll never pass like this," Aki stated at the silver-haired jonin beside him. Naruto had just been defeated and the other two were still in hiding. Very poor hiding- they didn't even try to hide their chakra signatures.
"That's the plan."
"Is this spite?"
"Yep."
"Why don't you just prank Hiruzen and blame it on either me or Naruto?"
"..."
Realization dawned on Aki's face with the contemplative silence, a resigned horror entering his voice.. "I should not have said that. I should nothave said that."
Their conversation was interrupted by several kunai flying at them. "I'll take this one, Kashi."
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"Aki-nii, WHY. WHY DID YOU DO THIS!"
The 'this' Naruto referenced was the absolute carnage the blond found himself in. He was covered in chakra-glitter and bright orange paint and surrounded on all sides by pits of dark blue paint with an activating seal beneath him and no way out.
Only maniacal laughter responded to his question, growing farther and farther with every second. Revenge tastes sweet. Ah, I mean 'responsible punishment'.
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"You... pass!"
Aki grinned at the team before him, remembering this moment well. His grin turned into a bittersweet smile as that memory led to the next and the next and on... which led to memories of the war and his losses. The rest of the day was a blur for him, or was it only a few seconds? And- oh Kami, they're dead and never coming back and they left me alone again and-
Kit! They're alive now. Not how you knew them, but you can keep them alive! Calm down!
He blinked, seeing how he was pacing on top of his father's head for the first time (when did I get here?), and took a deep breath. Sorry. You're right. Thanks.
He only heard a huff in the mindscape and sat down on one of the spikes in his father's hair, quickly falling into a meditative state as he calmed down.