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A Clock Stopped


Time—the only proof that we were ever here.


Sakura came to with a gasp, tumbled right into a fit of coughs that left her throat feeling raw. She blinked rapidly, because she could barely see anything. There were tears in her eyes, down her cheeks, and everything was so dark.

She naturally expected relief once she steadied herself, when her lungs stopped burning and the tears spilled leaving everything in focus. But it wasn't relief she found, no.

She found everything painted in blood.

She reached for her wet cheeks in a fit of panic, stupidly willing her fingers to come back smeared with bloody tears. She would rather be seeing red through her own bleeding eyes than consider that the world was now washed in sinister crimson. But with increasing dread, she realized it was futile. Her knees gave out, and she fell forward landing on her palms.

A scream ripped from her throat but it sounded distant like it had reverberated from a faraway place. She saw something reminiscent of a familiar shade of yellow. Only now, it was blood orange.

Naruto.

His dirt-covered face was devoid of the stubborn frown that had made its home in his countenance over the last few days on the battlefield. He looked like he was sleeping, like he had finally found some semblance of peace. But she didn't need her medical ninjutsu to know that he wasn't merely asleep.

Sakura started shaking. All of her worst nightmares were unfurling in front of her very eyes. It wasn't just her best friend—whose heart she'd pumped back to life just hours earlier—that lay dead only a few feet from her. It was the will of fire that was now only a wisp of smoke, the last shred of hope she had saved up in her heavy heart—

gone.

Sakura pounded her fists into the ground. She couldn't make a single dent, but she kept going. Every part of her body screamed in pain, but the thorny cloak of this grim reality wrapped around her heart hurt the worst. She threw punches until she couldn't anymore, until she collapsed. There was only one thing left to do now. Naruto spent most of his life by himself with no one to lean on. She couldn't leave him alone at the end too. She was going to fix it, if it's the last thing she did. Through the mess of blood and grime, Sakura crawled with a singular focus. She inched closer to him with the last dredges of life force left in her. When she was finally close enough, she reached for his hand, held it tight like she never meant to let go.

Then, Sakura turned laboriously, let her back fall on the bleeding earth. Once again, she saw nothing but red. Her eyelids weighed heavy. She'd seen enough, she decided, or maybe it was just her brain shutting down. She was so incredibly tired, and soon she couldn't feel her extremities.

This is it then .

All things considered, it wasn't a bad life.

I only wish I could've protected you better, Naruto. I wish I could've protected everyone.

She thought of her parents and how their everyday, uncomplicated joys always made her walk with a spring in her step. Of her friends—lion-hearted Hinata, bright-eyed Ino with her beautiful flowers, broken and battered Sasuke, who never did find what he'd spent his whole life chasing. Of her shishou, strong and immovable like the mountains she could split in half, and Kakashi, a mess of contradictions yet still somehow always steadfast.

The vast red sky slowly receded as her eyelids fluttered and started closing. Sakura squeezed Naruto's hand right as darkness took over.


tbc