Beautiful Sunset
Oneshot, slight KakaSaku, hinted SasuSaku and NaruHina
Summary: When he last saw her, he promised he would bring Sasuke back. But the harsh reality was in front of him; shattered dreams, broken promises, lost friends, abandoned were those left alive. KakaSaku
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me, because I am not named Kishimoto Masashi. Furthermore, I am not the right Asian. Furthermore, I am not a male. Furthermore, I cannot draw for the life of me or come up with such a great story. Furthermore…I got nothing else.
AAOTD: I was at the beach, freezing my ass off when all of a sudden-
Amon: A car hit and killed you?
AAOTD: How am I suppose to be dead if I wrote this?
Takara: A medium!
AAOTD: Back to my inspiration. I was at the beach, freezing my ass off when all of a sudden, I saw a red sun! Then it snowed before the sun sank into the ocean. Strange, it was sunny but snowy.
When he last saw her, they had both promised her that even without her, they would bring Sasuke back. But now . . . Kakashi lookeddown at his arms, the body of the next Hokage laid still, never to open his big mouth again to tell everyone of his dream.
The best from Sand and Leaf had gone to where Orochimaru was residing in hopes to prevent him from possessing the body of one of the last two Uchiha members, but the mission was a failure. The only survivors of the rookie nine who had gone were all of Team Eight, and Chouji. Tenten and Lee had also met their end by the hands of Orochimaru after he gained Sasuke's body. Ino and Sakura were spared from going, both sent away to the Water Country for false missions. Both girls would be devastated to hear news of their loved one's demise.
Kakashi closed his eyes, pushing back thoughts of how the pink haired jounin would react. Would she just grin and bare it, hiding it and keeping her true feelings locked away as she usually had nowadays? Or would she revert back to her twelve year old self and cry her heart out? Either way, he couldn't help but feel helpless. Naruto had sacrificed himself to save Hinata. The poor girl was broken in so many ways now.
All of his promises had been broken. He vowed to never let a comrade die, and yet dozens of them did. He vowed that he would never disappoint his team. He not only disappointed them, he had practically delivered them to hell's door.
When the survivors of the failed mission arrived at the gates of Konoha, he was relieved from carrying the twenty year old boy, but even as the other nin took away his body to cremate it, Kakashi could still feel the weight of the boy on his shoulders, the weight of Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura's lives on his shoulders.
He failed them.
He had failed them again.
He looked up to the mountainside with the Hokage's faces craved into stone. He wanted help, strength . . . guidance from his sensei or Rin or Obito. He was lost again and this time he couldn't find a way out of the labyrinth that he walked into of his own free will.
"What am I suppose to do?" Was this how his father felt? Kakashi didn't know where he was headed, but he knew that he was trying to avoid the path that his father took. He didn't want to come to the same conclusion, the same end that his father had come to . . .
But it was so hard when he had nothing again. Would Sakura become like Hinata? A mirror image, a . . . reflection or shadow of the person she once was?
Kakashi gripped his hands, his nails dug into his skin. He didn't want that for Sakura, she deserved so much better. Looking to the monument where Naruto's face would have been craved into next, he sighed. Someone was up there, sitting on Tsunade's head. Most likely it was the person he wanted to see last, but it would be best if he gave her the news . . .
Probably.
With a puff of smoke, he disappeared only to reappear behind the famed and renowned Cherry Blossom of Konoha.
"You're late," Sakura told him, emotion drained from her usually cheerfulvoice. She was facing the setting sun sinking into the vast, greenforests of the Fire Country.
Kakashi wondered briefly whether or not he should make up an excuse. He decided that he should, for old time's sake. "I'm sorry but you see, I got lost and was trying to avoid the path my father took." It was a half-truth. He didn't want it to come out like that, but at least it got her to turn her head just a little bit.
She was standing tall, the red orange sky signaled that the end of a horrible day was passing and that tomorrow would be better.
"I see," she said. Not 'Liar!', not 'tell me more,' not even 'where's Sasuke?'. He took in a breath, maybe she already knew, maybe someone had already told her. "So, where's Naruto? Wait, you're bleeding. I'll take care of you first," she said to him without turning, motioning him to come closer to her instead.
He chuckled at the medic in her and at her motherly tone, but complied with her request. He sat down with his back to her, watching the view of the burning sky.
He frowned. It wasn't as relaxing as he had hoped. The blood colored sun, her shivering form behind him, her unsteady hands and her sad chakra. It was wrong, all wrong.
"Kakashi-senpai, you promised me that you would bring back Sasuke. Your promised me," her voice wavered, he could imagine the tears in her eyes. "But instead you brought back death, you knew that I could have helped you in some way!"
He turned in time to catch her punch but he could still feel the bones in his arm cracking slightly at the impact. When her other hand came up to slap him, he made no effort to block. The loud sound of skin against skin echoed throughout the monument, it left him with a bruised cheek and a painful sting in both his body and his heart, maybe even down to his soul.
"Liar! That's all you'll ever be," she whispered to him as their eyes locked together. She was in pain, her very being ached and cried for every dream that had been shattered, every promise that had been broken to her. "Naruto, he promised to me that we'd all bring Sasuke back. He said it was a lifelong promise and that next time, we'd do it together.
"Sasuke, he promised me too! A year ago on my birthday. He came to me just to see me and told me that he'd come back one day, a-and on that day he would ask for my love forever. B-but he's never going to come back, is he?" Her tears ran down her face and dropped to the ground. Kakashi found it easier to watch her cry, to watch her wallow in sadness than to tell her that he had failed her. Speaking those words would make it a reality to them both and not just an assumption.
The older shinobi held the broken woman, engulfing her into a lover's embrace. A sob racked her body, wetness seeped into his shirt. His arms tightened around her small, shivering form. He wanted her pain to go away, he wanted his pain to go away. He wanted to live in a world that was free of any pain, where anyone could be and would be happy, but to him it sounded more like a dream Naruto would have.
The harsh reality was, as he saw it, right in front of him. Shattered dreams, broken promises, lost friends, abandoned were those left alive. Was death the only place where dreams could be fulfilled now?
"I am a liar. I am trash. No," he paused as she stiffened in his arms, her cries reduced to sniffles. "I'm lower than trash to betray the trust of a valued comrade," he confessed to her, still holding her but gazing at the day that was ending.
Wide eyes looked up at him, shocked that words like that would come out of his mouth. Sakura shook her head, taking a step back from him.
"D-don't say that!" Her red tinted emerald orbs burned with an unknown emotion. "Don't become someone I don't know Kakashi . . . please." She needed someone, an anchor, to keep her here, to kee her sane. Someone who would never leave her and someone who would never change. Someone she could blame and someone who could hold her . . . to lie to her, someone to tell her things would be all right in time.
Kakashi looked at her pleading, forest green eyes in confusion, her emotions turning from sadness to helplessness. He blinked at her as she walked back to hug him, holding him, trying to reassure him.
"Everything will be just fine, you'll see Kakashi," her voice and tone weren't very convincing, but neither really wanted to face reality. Her soft, weak and desperate voice broke away his thoughts.
The setting sun burned the forests, seeming to create fires that danced just beyond the gates of the village, the night that was coming out extinguished those flames and the lights of the ones who had died, their dreams forever left unfulfilled.