The skies are dark, blacker than ever with an emerging thunderstorm. The colours of inky ebony against the uniqueness of her surrounding is perfectly harmonious with an atmosphere that radiates dejected emotions.
As tired and as feeble as she is, her legs are determined to stray tentatively after the stallion. And for the first time in so long, she is afraid. Not out of her impending fate, but of the repercussions that follows.
But soon the wind escalates. It takes her deleterious mind from the toxic environment that is reality and forces her to breathe untainted air in an act of pure contradiction.
Reality is everywhere, the environment, the skies, the ground, the sea, the air. There is no escaping it now.
Behind, she hears the sudden rush of heavy footsteps. Obito is fumbling after her with an expression of immense terror and helplessness.
"Rin!"
She turns from him and stares out into the dark ocean.
Ahead, the stallion halts and watches their interactions closely, as if awaiting something.
Then Obito is standing beside her.
"I'm sorry," she says softly, "I wish things were different."
"Then you wouldn't…" he briefly glances at the stallion.
His tone is blunt with almost a level of accusation beneath it. Perhaps it stems more out of fear than anything remotely to do with her impending actions.
"Please don't," she answers hurtfully, "I'm sorry."
There is a sudden wave of numbness that sweeps through. It temporarily stalls her conscious, then releases her several seconds in.
On Obito's end, he seems acutely unaware.
"Are you really?" He replies brokenly.
With such levels of weakness, she is surprised the urge to throttle him is real. But it manifests in a wave of hurtful emotions that ends with a trail of tears.
"Do you doubt me?" She asks quietly.
"I don't know. I'm not used to people caring."
The brusque statement stings
"Kakashi cares," she says shortly.
His face darkens at the comment, as if Kakashi's name evokes a deep-seated fury.
"He's irrelevant," he answers pointedly.
"What are you saying?"
"Kakashi failed to protect you so in my eyes he betrayed me. Don't you go making excuses for him," he replies coldly.
"Don't blame him for what he couldn't control-" she retorts exasperatedly.
"I know why you did it," he interrupts indifferently, "But that doesn't matter anymore."
He moves to hold her shoulders.
"I'll protect you this time, I won't let anyone hurt you and this reality, I'll make this world a better place," he continues quickly.
She steps from him. There is an irrational desperation in his gaze that dangerously resembles delirium.
"Rin."
"No, you can't," she whispers frantically.
"Why are you saying that? I will protect you!"
This time, she backs from him fearfully.
"I'm dying Obito! Why are you denying the inevitable when it's so blatantly obvious before you?" she cries hurtfully.
"No! You're not going anywhere!" he says fiercely.
He takes several uneasy steps to cover the distance between them. When the firm grip on her arms strengthen, she lets another bout of tears fall.
Light rain drizzles. The wind escalates and she notices it. Those dark-grey lines on her shoulders crack, like the thirsty ground of a very dry desert.
Within her line of sight, the black stallion continues to gaze intently.
"Obito, I'm so sorry, l wish things were different, but I don't know what else I could do."
The comment sends an electrifying shudder through the air that manifests in his violent wince.
"All that I've done, that I've tried…yet I could not save you…twice I failed, what kind of person am I?"
He kneels before her with a wave of sickening despair. And without realising the detriment of his action, his head presses firmly against her torso. The firm grip he has around her waist instantly slackens, as if the connection between his mind and body have suddenly disengaged.
There is a strong bout of harrowing devastation that sits against her like a heavy boulder. Obito is unusually still, and pale. It takes several seconds for her to feel the same torment that is hacking ruthlessly at his insides.
"Why…" he whispers vacantly, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I wanted to protect you from the very thing that is breaking you now," her cries are no match for the grief that is sitting so angrily within his deepened gaze.
He knows. Her chakra is too low to obscure the secret any longer.
In just that moment, that sweet new life is first to go. Her diminishing chakra can no longer sustain the precious energy-consuming existence.
They both feel it leave, slowly, bit by bit, as if torn torturously from her body and disappearing from the mortal world it will never see.
In the same seconds that agonisingly stretches for hours, the ancient necklace breaks and vanishes in a beam of gold-blue light.
"No…please no…not like this…"
Obito's frantic voice is barely audible above the sounds of the stormy winds. But the more she tunes into it, the bigger the gaping wound gets.
With every drop of rain comes another crack in the lines, until the wind syncs with the rain and it crumbles and disperses into the air. She cannot feel anything, but the gradual separation of reality into another strange warm realm is remarkably welcoming.
Incredibly, she can still feel the tightened embrace and hear the frantic incoherent whispers that is drifting painfully from him.
"Rin…I don't want to be alone," his voice breaks and roughens into heartbreaking misery.
"Obito," she says delicately, "promise me you won't blame yourself for this."
He is watching her with increasing agitation, as if he is not processing a single word she is saying.
"You said you'd watch over me, you said you would, you said you would…"
"I won't break my promise to you," she whispers.
He flinches and lets out a noise that sounds a lot like a wounded animal. His fingers press deeply into her sides, as if endeavouring to prevent anymore of her from crumbling away.
"No…no…you're not taking her away from me, not again."
His mutters are feverish and incomprehensible. The immense heart wrenching sobs that radiates through is synonymous with the grief and confusion of his failure to protect her.
"Rin, please don't leave me."
Her embrace is a temporary safeguard against the violent trembling of his body, but she knows its absence will lead to regrets.
Behind him is the black stallion, who is standing incredibly close and is awaiting patiently. But it is also giving her an option. Instinct says it is the right thing to do.
Her memories of their relationship will not tarnish, and if one can preserve its fragility, its existence will always be a reality.
And it hurts yet she does it without hesitation.
Time is unforgiving but it is the one thing that forges those wistful memories. Without time, there is no existence.
The irony sits heavy, but to her - and Obito, it is allowing for time's inevitable victory yet depriving it from its prize.
When her hands rest on either side of his face, the convoy of despondent and agonising emotions depart from his conscious. A part of her lifts at the sight. He may not be free from the grief that manifested seventeen years ago, but at least he is free from the burden of self-blame, the despair of their relationship and the deprivation of fatherhood.
When the wind disperses her, there is only one thing left of her memory. Just enough for that small beaming conscious to grasp - she was a shinobi of Konoha.
Yet still, if only there was more time.
I promise I'll always watch over you. I'll be waiting.