Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.

AN: Chapter title: The Marks of Time!

Everything stilled for a moment. Pakura's eyes were wide open in shock. Kakashi's was narrowed with focus. The spiraling sphere of Chakra, the near legendary A-Rank Jutsu made famous by its creator the Fourth Hokage, in both his hands as he drove them towards the Sungakure Shinobi. Pakura's Scorch Release covered body made an attempt to stop the attack, destroy it with the power of such focused heat, but there was nothing to be done.

Nothingness consumed the two in that moment.

The Scorch Release Armor held firm against the force of the Rasengan.

A second Rasengan was too much for the armor.

Pakura's eyes then widened in horror.

Kakashi's single visible eye widened in pain.

His gloves were incinerated by the heat.

The bandages Pakura were around her waist were shredded by the force of the Rasengan.

Kakashi pushed forward, the diminished Rasengan in his left hand and the more powerful Rasengan in his right hand.

Pakura felt her skin begin to shred.

Kakashi felt his hands burn, the skin there blister and burst.

The Konohagakure Shinobi took a single step forward, drove his Rasengan forward.

Pakura was forced back.

Her Scorch Release Armor finally ruptured. The Scorch Release Chakra in her hand, rendered unstable when she lost her focus from the pain, followed suit.

Pakura threw her hand forward, found a new target for what was left.

A massive blast consumed her.

The Rasengan finally powered Pakura away with their remaining might.

Kakashi was thrown back, the blast not outright lethal but still far from weak. Even with Pakura's depleted reserves it was powerful.

Stillness engulfed their battlefield for several long moments.

A broken body shifted where it laid a moment later. Hate grew and made the broken body thrash to free itself.

"Hatake…" It was broken by the voice of the Kunoichi before she coughed up blood after the devastating technique sent her through the air, crashing through wall after wall as she was powered back and into the shell of tunnels and rooms behind the seating area. Her face contorted in agony when she moved, one of her hands coming to touch at the raw and shredded skin. The aura of her Scorch Release Chakra was gone, focused on her hand and she grit her teeth to keep herself from screaming at what she had to do.

She was forced to cauterize the worse of the wound with her remaining Chakra, her Scorch Release swiftly breaking down to simple Fire Release Chakra that broke down further until it was nothing but a dull blue haze around her hand. Her limited medical knowledge was used next, doing her best to repair the worst of the damage done to her by the attack. She forced herself to remain calm, count the seconds between inhaling and exhaling. She forced her panic away from the surface of her mind, beat it down so she could focus on healing herself.

'If I didn't have my Scorch Release Armor I would be dead right now.' She couldn't help but remember the clash of her Chakra against the might of two of the Fourth's legendary Rasengan. 'Most of the force behind both of them was wasted breaking through it. If I hadn't activated it in preparation…' She didn't want to think about what would have happened. She was already close to death despite her quick actions to heal herself and if she had actually taken both orbs of rotating Chakra without her armor, she wouldn't have to deal with the pain she was in now.

'This isn't over.' She could rise, the damage from the twin use of the Rasengan was more than enough to defeat other Shinobi but she refused to be like other Shinobi. 'I can't lose to him.' She only had one chance to end him. It was her only chance to finally finish what she had started during the Third Shinobi World War.

Her Chakra was put to use, Chakra Threads connecting to her arms and legs. She forced herself to move, force her broken body to jerk itself into the air. Her face twisted with the pain every movement brought her, the damage she was doing to what was already broken impossible to know.

'How the hell did she get so much stronger?' Kakashi collapsed to his knees across from her, his Flak Jacket was mostly destroyed by the explosive results of Pakura's Scorch Release Armor being broken. He was lucky he still had some of the tattered shreds of his shirt still covering his chest, the fishnet armor he wore beneath it all revealed. His mask was also still somehow in place, ripped and torn but still covering the majority of the lower half of his face.

They were near equals during their encounters during the Third Shinobi World War, before the alliance between Konohagakure and Sunagakure. They had clashed enough times that he knew the ins and outs of her Scorch Release techniques and she knew more than a fair share of his tactics, from his clones all the way to his Taijutsu. He had learned to counter her, she learned to counter him.

Their last clash during the war had left them both nearly dead.

'Have I gotten that weak?' The thought, even the mere idea of it, made him wince. Not from pain, from shame.

He could already see her forcing herself to move, her body jerking with unnatural stiffness and fluidity. She was both limp and stiff, her body seemingly confused on how to act after the beating it had taken from his twin Rasengan. She was using Sunagakure's technique no doubt, forcing her broken body up and keeping up the technique through sheer will. He briefly opened his covered eye and saw the blue strands of Chakra that forced her body to move, the source behind each erratic step forward.

'She's unbelievable…' Kakashi couldn't bring himself to move his burned and exhausted body. Even now, each of his breaths was a ragged thing. He could hardly fight down the urge to vocalize his pain, scream as his burned skin split and cracked, as his scorched hands involuntarily moved no matter how much he desired them to be still, and the bones he had no doubt broken when he had clashed his Rasengan to Pakura's formidable defense.

It didn't help she had decided to forsake her attack in the end and simply strike him with it on top of all of it.

'How can she even stand after I hit her with two Rasengan?' Kakashi tried to rise back to his feet, he gave an honest attempt, and nearly collapsed to the ground for his efforts. His body, broken by the explosive climax of the battle between himself and Pakura, did not want to do anything but fall. It was too much of a struggle than he would like to admit to stay on his knees. 'And…if she can get up, why can't I do the same?'

He made another attempt, pushed himself to ignore the pain, ignore whatever limits were in place like a certain Jonin he knew, and forced himself to put one foot under himself. He panted for breath even as Pakura once again stepped into the seating arena. Her body struck a seat but she ignored it as she jerked herself to the side, her unnatural steps carrying her forward as the dried out corpse sitting in it fell to the ground at her feet. Her eyes were only for Kakashi, seeing his attempts to rise and Scorch Release Chakra took hold of her hands.

Kakashi knew what was coming. He refused to die without putting up a fight.

His broken arm moved, threw a kunai hidden up the shredded remains of his sleeves towards the Kunoichi.

She didn't bother trying to dodge it. Her body twisted in a way that was definitely unnatural, was no doubt painful despite how flexible she no doubt was, and the kunai struck her in the arm. She hardly seemed to show pain, her fingers twitching to send her forward once more.

"Hatake…" Pakura growled his name as she forced her body forward. Her eyes didn't leave him even as the meager amounts of Chakra around her hands broke down, her focus shifted only to maintaining the Chakra Threads that were the only reason she was moving to finish the fight. "Hatake…"

Kakashi's abrupt movement, what may even become his last act, had made his body refuse any future command from him. He was lucky he could remain upright and not collapse. His broken arm made him wince but he did his best to ignore it, focus on the battle he still had to win.

His eye drifted to Anko.

'Anko.' He needed to save her. He still had at least some time.

At least he hoped he still had time.

"Hatake…" Pakura's puppet-like steps brought her closer and closer towards him, ignoring the pain she no doubt felt with the determination to kill the Jonin in front of her. One hand briefly went limp at her side before the Chakra Threads took hold once more. The fingers were made into a sloppy fist, bound there with a thread wrapping around her fist. Her blow was as telegraphed as it could be as her arm bent at the elbow and lifted awkwardly into the air at her shoulder.

Spars with Gai let him know exactly where she was going to punch him as her fist flew forward. His broken body didn't move to let him avoid the attack. He struck the ground, feeling blood in his mouth from Pakura's blow to his face. He forced himself to rise on his elbows, tried to force himself to get up to his feet, but it was useless.

The back of Pakura's extended fist struck him on the side of the face as she ripped it through the air, made the world shift as he was forced onto his back.

"You can't even get up, can you?" Her voice was hardly above a whisper, pain and exhaustion showing itself at last. When the world came back he saw that Pakura was above him, the indifference the two had somehow maintained throughout the fight gone from her eyes. She was angry at him. She wanted to hurt him. Pain filled her eyes as much as any anger. Pain and resolve to finish the mission.

Blood dyed his mask red as he coughed. He attempted to sit up, glare at her, but she knocked him back down to the ground with a stiff arm, her Chakra Threads forcing her body to nearly fold in half to accomplish such a thing.

"Where's that fight you once had Kakashi?" Pakura almost fell even as she spoke, forcing herself to regain her balance as her body jerked upright thanks to her Chakra threads. Her eyes locked with his sole eye and he knew she hated everything about him in that moment. It was clear even for him to see. "Where's that boy from the battlefield?"

"He left it." Kakashi was surprised he could still talk, surprised he wasn't dead yet. "You should have too."

"No one leaves a hell like that. No one!" Her hand shot out like a viper and she grabbed hold of him by the remains of his Flak Jacket, pulling him off the ground at least partially. A pair of Chakra Threads wrapped around him was the only reason he was still up and not on the ground again after the Kunoichi's grip failed her.

Her fist was drawn back. He knew exactly where it was going to land. Her blow sent his head to the side and more blood stained his mask. Her hand was jerked back into position, Kakashi struggled to turn his head enough to look at her.

'Huh…this almost fits.' Kakashi hardly felt Pakura's next strike, his exhausted body was beginning to go numb. He could hardly feel anything as his eyes nearly drifted close. The dull shock of the pain was the only thing that brought him back from the brink of unconsciousness.

'A Shinobi like me.' Pakura's blows would have normally hurt but they were nothing now, he hardly felt the warmth of the blood filling his mouth. He could hardly feel any of the blows but his body still reacted, still felt pain and the training of a Shinobi kept him from falling completely unconscious. 'Someone like me deserves to die like this.'

Pakura couldn't actually keep him up anymore, his already destroyed Flak Jacket tearing itself apart even more at the stress and letting him fall back onto his back. The Sunagakure Shinobi hardly seemed to be impeded, not allowing anything to stop her it seemed as her fist descended on Kakashi once more. She nearly fell with her target, her own body nearly just as exhausted as Kakashi's own.

'I should've seen this coming…should've known that this would happen…' He didn't know how the pain kept bringing him back, the pain he couldn't even feel anymore. 'I should've known I couldn't beat her…I couldn't beat her when I was at my best…I can't beat her now…I couldn't beat anyone like her now.'

"Do you want to know why I'm going to kill you Kakashi?" Pakura's voice was still hardly more than a whisper as she drew her fist back, grabbed hold of Kakashi by what remained of his Flak Jacket on his shoulder to hoist him up with a shaking grip. He could look into her eyes, see past the pain filling them, see the hate shining in them instead. "Do you?" She shook his broken body, tried to force him to do something beyond just sit there mute. He had stopped making any sound, lying limp as she beat the life out of him. "Answer me already Kakashi! Answer me you bastard!"

She shook him harder, Kakashi looking at her but didn't see her.

He saw too many faces, too many eyes with the same hatred. He saw her but didn't see her. Another time. Another place. Blood. Smoke. Screams. Scorched air. It was hot, too hot. The world was burning beneath them, the sky was crackling above. There was so much death. Too much death. And still they fought.

"You think you can win, beat a village as great as Sunagakure!" They clashed, ignoring the dead around them, ignoring everything but the other.

"A village like yours isn't worth anything." Both were too similar, too smart for their own good. His Sharingan let him read her movements and her mind was racing fast enough to counter his counters to her movements. Neither would win at this rate. Taijutsu wouldn't get them anywhere, wouldn't let them finish this fight. They both knew it, couldn't deny the skills of the other. But it was all they had left. It didn't matter if it wouldn't work, if they would never kill the other. All that mattered was to finish the fight.

All they could do was keep trying to kill each other before the other could kill them.

"Look at me Kakashi!" Pakura's sudden shout wrenched him back, forced him to look her in the face as she drew her fist back. Scorch Release Chakra ignited around her fist, the last blow imminent. "Look at me so you can die with an ounce of dignity!"

"Like it matters…" Kakashi finally spoke, his voice almost unrecognizable to him. It was more empty than it had ever been, not even war, not the loss of everything and everyone he loved time and time again, could do the same to him. "I thought you were smart Pakura…"

He didn't care anymore. It was impossible to care.

"If you really do destroy this village…if you really can kill everyone here…it won't change anything…" Kakashi didn't know why he was talking. He just knew he wanted to continue. "The same thing…the same exact thing you're doing to us now…will happen to your village. And the next village after that. And the next village. It never stops."

"That's why you can't let something like this cloud your mind Kakashi. Vengeance, it just creates an endless cycle. One person takes vengeance on another, another person takes vengeance on another, and another person take vengeance on them. It just keeps happening. We as Shinobi let this horrible cycle continue. We let it consume us, let it cloud our minds, and we let hate spread everywhere we go. We feel pain and we do nothing but spread that pain to others. It's a damn shame to see the same thing that happened to my generation keep happening in the next. I don't know who was behind the attack on Konoha but I can make a good guess that this is the work of that vicious cycle."

"Everyone feels wronged by the world, feels as if the world owes them something, and when they don't get what they want they let hatred consume them. They let that hatred consume them until they can do nothing but act on it. With that hatred, they make terrible things happen. They make the world an even worse place, they make other people feel wronged, they make other people be filled by hate at the world. Those people then let that hate out and endlessly spread it. The world is consumed by endless hate and endless hate fuels vengeance."

"You feel that hatred now. I know you do. I lost my student, the man I thought would change the world for the better, to this cycle and I know your pain. I feel hate too Kakashi, I feel nothing but hatred towards the man behind the attack. I want to do nothing but take revenge, go to where he would call home and destroy it. I want to go out and find all those he cares for and take them from him just like he took so many I knew from the village. I buried too many friends to do anything but want to kill the man behind the attack."

"I want to take revenge but I also know what it'll cause."

"That man, the man who caused this attack, he is only another iteration of the same cycle of hatred that's been sending this world into conflict after conflict, making men, women, and children fight war after war, and be responsible for death after death. If all we do is spread this cycle, if all we do is know how to hate the people who have wronged us, than we can never escape it. We'll always be cursed to live this cycle, to see our friends live this cycle, to see our family live this cycle, and to see generation after generation throw their lives away thanks to it."

"Because of that cycle, because we've let it consume us all so much, the world is in a horrible place. Iwa hates Konoha. Konoha hates Iwa. Suna hates Kiri. Kiri hates Kumo. Kumo hates Suna. Kiri hates Iwa. Iwa hates Kumo. We're all simply trapped in a cycle and it never ends because we can't see past it, can't see past the blinding hate we all let fester inside us day after day. We're not a world ruled by Kage Kakashi, we're a world ruled by hate. We let hate rule us more than any rules of any village. Just look at what's been done in Kirigakure because of hate. People die more and more there because the cycle of hatred we've all lived with is driving them to madness at last. I've heard stories of parents killing their own children and then turning on each other, all out of hatred. If we're not careful we'll end up the same. Do you understand me, can you understand anything I'm saying Kakashi?"

"If you let this hatred you feel now consume you like everyone else in this world does, if you let that festering hate we all have inside us out, you'll become another piece in that vile machine Kakashi. Don't be another part of the cycle of hatred. Be a part of something that you can be proud to give to the future generations, work towards something that is harder to work at than hatred ever will be. Be a part of something that makes this world a better place."

"Be part of peace instead of hatred Kakashi."

'Huh…it took nearly dying to figure it out in the end.' Kakashi would have smiled if his body could do anything like it at this point. 'I thought you were crazy that day Jiraiya, just some crazy old hermit having finally lost his mind, but you were right. You've been right this entire time. I can see the smoke, I can hear the sounds of battle, hear the screams of hate even so far away. Every Shinobi down there is fighting with hated. Everyone down there is just another part of the cycle of hatred. All we do is hate.'

"We're all trapped in an endless cycle Pakura…you…me…even the Kage…everyone who carries the name Shinobi is a part of the same cycle." He almost wanted to laugh. He didn't. His humor wasn't that black. "We're all trapped…"

Pakura didn't respond with words. Her eyes told him all he needed to know, let him know she felt nothing but hate for him in that moment. She wanted to do nothing but kill him and she would. Chakra flickered around her hand, her legs suddenly trembling, her grip was already slipping.

It truly was just sheer will keeping her on her feet now.

"Shakuton: Kajosatsu!" She poured nearly all her remaining Chakra into her last attack. Despite it all, despite the pain she was in, the broken state of her body after enduring Kakashi's last desperate attack, a mad smile spread across her face.

'This is it.' She couldn't help but smile despite her pain, her exhaustion. The success of her mission was so close at hand. This was the end for Kakashi Hatake. The Copy-nin would be dead by her hands.

Kakashi knew it was over. He let his eye close, felt the approach of the blistering heat, and let out what he knew to be his last breath.

'This is the end a failure deserves.'

AN:...Bye Kakashi.