Chapter Thirteen:

Midori stared up at the summer clouds drifting lazily in the sky from where she lay sprawled on the slope of a hill, her head hanging downhill. Her heart was still racing from the rigorous training they had just finished, but her breathing had slowed and her expression grew thoughtful.

"Sensei?" she asked without bothering to lift her head.

"Mnn?" Minato replied from where he sat further up the hill. Obito and Kakashi were resting in between. They had both just been released from the hospital two days ago after sustaining heavy injuries during a mission on the eastern coast of Fire Country. Midori and Minato had been working separately and she couldn't forget the heart-stopping chill she had felt when they had finally rendezvoused and found the two boys covered in blood and barely conscious in the middle of a field of copses.

Over a year had passed since she had first killed someone and she had since lost count of the number of lives she had taken – especially after becoming a Chuunin and participating in increasingly dangerous missions. But seeing her teammates so close to death had planted a new type of fear deep into her heart. One which she hadn't been able to shake during the weeks Obito and Kakashi had spent recovering in the hospital.

"How do you cope with facing death?" she asked. "Both your own and people close to us?"

Minato's easy smile slipped away and he regarded his student with somber eyes. He had known Midori was struggling with something – had felt it during the long hours she had sat in oppressive silence beside her unconscious teammates in the hospital room. But he had never thought this was what she was grappling with. Then again, a voice in his head said, he should have known.

He gave the question some thought and realized it was something he had never discussed with anyone before, not even Kushina. It was one of those things shinobi just figured out on their own as they grew older, much like how one figures out how to cope with stress. It suddenly struck him how child-like her question was and it felt like someone had just punched him in the stomach. Sometimes – too often – he forgot they were only nine years old.

Midori sat up and looked questioningly at Minato when his silence stretched. Obito and Kakashi looked between the two and the straightforward curiosity in their expressions pained him all the more. To them, death wasn't some vague concept to be grasped as they grew older. Death – and more specifically their own death – was a tangible, inescapable presence standing right next to them and they wanted to know if there was a proper way to deal with it.

Pushing all the contradictions and absurdities of their circumstances to the corner of his head for fear of being swallowed by them, Minato took a deep breath and glanced at the sky, thinking.

"Well, let's see," he began slowly. "There's of course, no single answer. Everyone will have a different opinion, but if you're okay with hearing mine, here's what I think. You're all familiar with the Will of Fire, right?"

His students nodded, having heard the philosophy from the Hokage himself when they had been promoted to Genin.

"Just as the Will of Fire is passed down from one generation to the next, I believe the wills of every individual are also passed on from one to another. It may be between family members, friends, teams, rivals, even enemies." He gave a sheepish smile. "Mine's simple: I want to protect the future of Konoha and all its people. Even if I die, as long as someone carries on my will, I feel my life and death wouldn't have been in vain. Similarly, I'm also carrying on the wills of all my friends and comrades I've lost. They're a part of me, just as I'll be a part of someone else if I die."

The three Chuunin were silent as they mulled over his words.

Eventually Midori spoke up. "Our will… it's what we fight for, right?"

"Right. What we fight for, our dreams, our hopes."

She lifted her face. "I want to protect the children of Konoha, and make sure they can grow up without being afraid of the war."

Minato smiled and nodded.

Midori looked between her teammates. "What about you?"

"I want to fight to protect my comrades," Obito said.

Kakashi was silent until they both turned their expectant eyes on him. He sighed and shrugged stiffly. "I just fight to grow stronger," he muttered. "Without strength, we're powerless to do anything."

"He has a point," Obito agreed.

"Then it's decided," Midori said, rising to her knees and extending a hand to each of their chests. "Even if one of us falls, the others will carry on their will. As long as one of us lives, we all live." She grinned. "No one's good enough to kill all three of us."

Obito returned the grin. "It's a promise."

Kakashi nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"Make that four," Minato said, drawing them all into one big hug.

Midori laughed. "With you on our side we'll be invincible!"

.-.-.-.

Midori's hands fell loose from their shirts and landed with an empty thud at her sides.

"No… no, no, no, no," Obito rambled beneath his breath. He immediately grabbed her hand and squeezed hard, reaching out to tap her face insistently as he searched for any movement. "Midori! Midori, wake up! I know you love to sleep but this isn't the time! Midori!"

Kakashi's hands were trembling, soaked with blood where he was pressing against the open wound. He didn't know if it was still bleeding. He couldn't feel anything. He pressed harder, searching for a pulse. Anything. All he could feel was the stupid shaking of his fingers. Obito's voice rang painfully in his ears, piercing through the echoes of his own harsh breathing. His heartbeat, his rushing blood, everything was too loud – everything around Midori was too quiet.

"Is she dead? Lucky her."

Kakashi looked up and saw Iku staggering toward them, most of his body burned an angry red and bleeding profusely. He swayed dangerously as he dragged his feet, one after another, slowly closing the distance between them.

Kakashi felt something squeeze his heart so tight he thought he would never breathe again. From afar, he had glimpsed the figure slashing Midori's throat and hadn't want to believe the one-armed silhouette he had seen, or the outline of a face he had left unconscious and alive just days prior.

Alive, alive, alive – Kakashi had let him go alive. His eyes slowly fell to land on Midori's peaceful, bloodied face. She was still smiling. Why was she smiling when she knew he had let him live?

"I did you spineless assholes a favor don't you see?" Iku said, stopping just a few feet from them. He spread his remaining arm and twisted his half-scorched face in a sickening grin. "You couldn't kill me without a reason so I killed your teammate for you. Now you have a moral reason to kill me! Isn't that true? Doesn't that feel –"

His words were drowned in a wave of blood rushing up his throat as Kakashi and Obito slashed his neck open from both sides. Their kunai dug in so deep they nearly decapitated him. For a second, as he fell back, the Cloud's eyes filled with tears and remorse.

"I'm… so sorry…" he spluttered through the blood in his mouth. Somehow, they knew he meant it.

Kakashi landed on his feet, clenching his jaws so tight it hurt. Obito went down with Iku and knelt over the body with his shaking hand still curled tight around the kunai. He lifted the weapon high and with a broken scream, plunged it deep into the Cloud's neck again and again and again. He didn't stop when his breath ran out and his voice turned to ragged groans or when his arms and face and chest were drenched blood and bits of meat.

He only stopped when Kakashi grabbed his slippery wrist and gripped it so tight the kunai fell out from his fingers.

Obito finally lifted his face, his eyes obscured behind the blood running down his goggles. His mouth was parted and twisted horribly as if in physical agony.

Kakashi didn't say anything. He couldn't. There was nothing to say. He simply pulled Obito to his feet and walked back to where Midori lay.

As if a dam had broken, all the sounds of the battle rushed back. What had been a secluded area of the field was suddenly filled with shinobi. Something had turned the tides, driving the enemy back. Absently noting the changes in the battle but hardly paying the enemy any attention, Kakashi knelt above Midori's head and brought his hands together in a set of seals.

Before he could finish, a group of Clouds descended on his defenseless figure and Kakashi paused. But Obito tapped his shoulder lightly as he kicked off the ground. I've got this, it said. Keep watch over Midori.

Hooking his finger around a kunai as he flew to meet the enemy, Obito wiped his other hand roughly across his goggles. The eyes revealed behind the blood were a deep carmine red, flecked with two black tomoe swirls, spinning with the fury and grief that writhed in his chest.

Kakashi turned back to Midori. Completing the seals, he pressed his hands gently into the ground and formed a small, earthen dome over her body. He clenched his eyes shut as it closed over her peaceful face and his fingers dug into the loose mud. They would protect her. This time, they wouldn't fail.

Kakashi rose to his feet and met Obito's eyes as his teammate stepped over the bodies of the enemy he had dispatched. Then another wave of shinobi rushed between them and Kakashi threw himself into the battle, shutting down all thoughts and losing himself in the deadly chaos – wishing and knowing that nothing he did would change the fact that his world would never be the same again.

.-.-.-.

Misa found her teammates lying unconscious some distance away from the worst of the fighting. She shook them awake to find they were otherwise unharmed. Another wave of emotions tightened her throat as she looked back to where she had left the Leaf girl who had protected her unconditionally. She realized she didn't even know her name.

"What's going on?" Kakyou asked, pressing a hand to his aching head while looking out at the battlefield. It was obvious their forces were being scattered and pushed back.

"It's Konoha's Yellow Flash," Misa replied, having picked up the name as it was uttered by the shinobi on the field in tones of spite, fear and awe.

"We have to go back," Nagi said. He rose unsteadily to his feet and turned to the area where the shinobi were concentrated. "We have to prove ourselves."

Misa stopped him. "Not over there." It was the direction she had just come from, where she had glimpsed the Leaf's two teammates fighting. The sight had chilled her to the bones. "They'll kill you."

"What are you saying?" Nagi snapped in anger and frustration, but their argument was cut short by a short flare that rose into the dark sky.

"It's the retreat sign," Kakyou muttered. "Let's go."

Misa nodded and rose. As she placed a hand on the boulder, she noticed a small flower growing between its cracks. It was nothing more than a weed, but she plucked it and then followed Nagi and Kakyou. Her teammates skirted the battleground while Misa slipped into its midst, using her speed to duck between the lingering fights. She didn't stop when she saw the mound of earth covering the Leaf girl, but dropped the flower onto it as she passed by overhead.

.-.-.-.

As the heavy clouds finally gave way to rain, Minato stood with the other Leafs and Sands and watched their enemies disperse. They left behind a gruesome scene of charred earth and twisted bodies. Minato closed his eyes, wishing he had been able to finish his mission much sooner. With a shake of his head, he pushed the pointless regrets to the back of his mind and began to help the others look for survivors.

He couldn't tell the exact time, but the thickening darkness signaled nightfall and made their task that much harder. Fires were lit and all the shinobi still able to stand assisted the medics as they scoured the plain, bringing in anyone alive and sorting through the dead.

Minato moved further down the field, stooping down to check on every body he came across, still hoping to find someone still breathing, be they friend or foe. As his eyes drifted between the ragged boulders, he caught sight of a familiar tuft of silver hair, matted with blood, dirt and rain.

He straightened in surprise. When he had briefly checked in at the Village, Hiruzen had said his team hadn't returned from their mission yet. How had they ended up here?

Minato rushed to his team, recognizing both Obito and Kakashi despite their different clothes. The two boys stood silently over a figure on the ground.

"Kakashi, Obito," he called.

They turned and the movement revealed Midori's face.

"Is Midori –" okay? The word froze in his throat. He was close enough now to see the black stains on her neck and chest in the flickering light of the fires nearby. Her face was blue-white and waxen, lacking all signs of life. He had seen enough bodies to know she was long dead.

He swallowed hard and turned his eyes to the two boys. Later, he told himself. He would have time to grieve later. His responsibility now was to his living students.

Kakashi stood slumped to his left, his arm hanging limply. A gash along his temple stained his hair and bloodied the side of his face. His eyes were cast down and Minato couldn't read his expression in the darkness. Obito had wrapped a hasty bandage over a wound on his thigh, but it was clear the bleeding had yet to stop. His shoulders were hunched, rising and falling in small, shallow breaths typical of someone with rib injuries.

Nevertheless, Minato knew the raw pain in his eyes when he looked up had nothing to do with his wounds.

"She died protecting Gamashi Misa," Obito said, answering Minato's silent question. He remembered the name. He also remembered the silent wish he had made that day, praying that his students wouldn't have to meet the girl on a battlefield.

The heavens had never liked to answer Minato's prayers.

"I see," he said, kneeling beside Midori and placing a hand against her cold cheek. He tried to smile and didn't quite manage. "You kept your promise to Gamashi-san."

Kakashi stirred. "Sensei…"

Minato looked up and what he saw in Kakashi's eyes told him that there was more to Midori's death.

"Not now Kakashi," he said, cutting off any further remarks. "Whatever it is, it can wait. Go get treated, both of you. I'll take care of Midori."

Obito shook his head. "We'll take her. They'll need you to take command."

Minato rose and added an edge to his voice. "Neither of you are in any shape to be carrying anything. This is an order. Go to the medics. We're moving out in an hour." He placed a hand on each of their shoulders and was alarmed at the way they swayed under his touch. "There's nothing you can do here anymore," he added softly.

Minato watched them reluctantly turn away before he gently picked up Midori and carried her to where all the other fallen Konoha shinobi were being laid. It was only as he lowered her onto the ground that he noticed the wilted yellow flower caught in the folds of her shirt.

.-.-.-.

True to Minato's words, the Konoha forces began to head back to the Village within the hour, leaving behind only a small group of ANBU watchdogs. Kakashi and Obito travelled in the middle of the group, Kakashi carrying both his and Midori's bags. A tense silence stretched between them. They had barely spoken a word to each other since the battle ended.

The medics' emergency treatment allowed them to keep pace with the rest of the shinobi for the most part, but shortly before reaching Konoha, Kakashi noticed Obito lagging behind. His breaths came shorter and his steps began to slip on the wet ground. Kakashi dropped back and wrapped an arm around Obito's waist and shouldered his arm so he could take some weight off his injured leg.

"Your shoulder," Obito objected.

"It's numb."

After a moment, he felt Obito lean into him and they continued on their way, matching each other's stride without even meaning to.

Several minutes passed before Kakashi spoke again. "You awakened the Sharingan." It was more a statement than a question.

"The elders finally got what they wanted." Obito's voice low and bitter. Kakashi couldn't blame him. For as powerful as the Sharingan was, its awakening and development was often tainted by tragedy. He knew it was for that reason that Obito had never been bothered by his late awakening.

Kakashi had never imagined it would be Midori's death.

He felt a familiar emptiness begin to dig its claws into his chest. It hurt, like something was crushing him from the inside, but he knew the pain would soon pass and leave behind a barren void. It was the same – the very same sense of helplessness he had experienced five years ago when his father had died. Except this time, instead of confusion, it was unforgiving anger toward himself that clouded his thoughts and dragged him deeper into the black hole.

.-.-.-.

The Konoha forces who had stayed behind to defend the Village were quick to spot their returning comrades and hurried to open the gates. Word of their return spread quickly, and despite the late hour, villagers came out into the rain to watch the exhausted troops trudge toward the Hokage Rocks. Many were anxiously searching for friends, family or lovers while others lined the streets in solidarity and support.

The Third met them under the Hokage building, his robes soaked through and his hat dripping with rain. His face looked pale and drawn beyond his years, his eyes heavy with sorrow as he looked over the group – so much smaller than he had hoped.

The shinobi spread out in unorganized ranks before their leader and waited.

Hiruzen took a breath. "Thank you all for protecting Konoha and the people of Fire Country." His voice rang over the incessant patter of rain, but was soft on the ears of the shinobi who had heard nothing but the clamor of battle for hours if not days.

"More importantly," the Hokage continued, "thank you all for coming back to us. Go now. Rest yourselves well."

A murmur rose from the shinobi in response to the Hokage's words and then the crowds began to disperse. Before they knew it, Obito and Kakashi were being led to the hospital by their teacher, guided by his large, warm hands on their shoulders.

Obito looked up as they passed under the gates to see emergency tents set up in front garden. Medics and nurses hurried between patients, illuminating the night with the green glow of their healing chakra.

"Sensei," he said. "Where's Midori?"

Minato hesitated, searching Obito's face. For a second, he thought it was delirium, but Obito looked back at him with dark, steady eyes that knew what he was asking for. He wanted to say goodbye before she was cremated.

He looked at Kakashi, who nodded in response.

Minato knew they were on the verge of collapse, both mental and physical, but he couldn't bring himself to deny their wish. "Come with me."

He cut across the tents where they found themselves surrounded by pained groans and the firm, encouraging voices of the medics.

"Keep still!"

"You're almost done."

"Stay with me!"

"Can you hear me? What's your name?"

"Hang in there."

At the far end of the cluster of tents, Obito suddenly froze. Kakashi heard it too. Midori's voice. Out of reflex, he turned and searched the crowds, his sluggish mind not quick enough to remind him of reality.

As if sensing their eyes on her, a girl looked up and Obito strangled the cry that tried to break free.

Kakashi stared, not realizing his jaws were clamped tight until the dull ache penetrated his mind. He looked away. It wasn't Midori. Of course it wasn't. But they looked so alike.

"Rin."

The girl's medical smock was already stained with blood as she straightened from a makeshift bed and hurried toward them.

"Kakashi! Obito! Thank heavens you're safe. Where's Midori?"

Obito opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His chapped lips trembled as he pressed them closed and he tore his eyes away from a face too similar and too foreign at the same time.

"Was she hurt? Has she been brought in?" She glanced over her shoulder, but looked back when the silence stretched unnaturally.

Rin looked between the two, her eyes slowly widening as the possibility flitted through her mind, growing ever stronger when neither Kakashi nor Obito would lift their faces to meet her eyes.

"No…" she whispered. Color drained from her flushed cheeks and she raised a shaking hand over her mouth in disbelief. "That's not…"

"Midori died," Minato said quietly.

Rin flinched as if physically struck. Tears overflowed and she sank to her knees, shoulders shaking as she doubled over. A low moan pushed past the hand she held tightly over her mouth.

"Rin! Rin, where –" Asuka came up short when he saw them. Then his attention snapped to the figure on the ground and he was immediately by her side. "Rin! What's wrong?"

Kakashi felt Obito tense against him at the sight of his cousin. Unaware of it, Asuka looked between the two with wide eyes, for once showing more concern than aversion as he felt the anguished tension spreading thick around them.

"What –"

"Asuka," Minato cut in. "Take care of Rin."

Kakashi and Obito hesitated, then turned and followed their teacher. Behind them, Kakashi heard Asuka trying to calm Rin, but her suppressed sobs seemed to ring in his ears long after they were beyond hearing.

Minato led them behind the hospital and through an arch in a high wall veiled by ivy. Beyond it, they found a large, flat structure, its windowless walls and low ceiling constructed of plain limestone. It was almost cold inside and dimly lit by torches.

The flames shed light on rows of stone platforms, many of which were occupied by bodies wrapped in pristine white kimono. Medics dressed in starkly contrasting black worked silently, preparing the dead for their funeral rites. They barely glanced at the three as they walked down the isles until they came upon Midori.

She looked tiny on the large slab of stone. Her wounds had been wrapped, her face and hair washed clean. The front hems of the white kimono were crossed left over right, as was the ritual for dressing the dead. Her Konoha forehead protector rested on her chest, tucked under her clasped hands.

"Midori." Obito pulled away from Kakashi and limped to her side, reaching out for her hand that felt cold and clammy under his fingers. He pulled down his dirty goggles and shook his head at her. "What are you doing here Midori? You should be outside boasting about that awesome Goukakyuu you –" He choked on his words and lowered his head over the stone until his forehead was almost touching it.

Kakashi stared at Midori's face over Obito's shuddering shoulders and could almost see her crack open an eye and burst with laughter. She would tell them it had all just been a joke and tease Obito relentlessly for having taken it so seriously. Any second now Midori, he thought, even as he knew the time would never come. Even so, it didn't stop him from wishing he could hear her bright voice one more time and see a joyful smile light up her face. Any second now.

Minato combed his fingers through her neatly brushed hair and gave it a ruffle, just as he had done countless times over the years. "Sensei!" she had always complained, her cheeks adorably puffed like a little chipmunk. This doll-like girl wasn't the Midori he knew, but at least now she looked a little more like her usual self.

"Rest peacefully, Midori," he said. "Leave the rest to us."

Obito slowly straightened and squeezed her hand one last time. "I gave you my word. We'll carry on your will. I promise. You'll be right here with us."

"Until the day we meet again," Kakashi murmured.

Minato placed a hand against their backs and they walked away. None of them looked back. None of them shed a tear.

The Shinobi Saying #25: No matter what situation, a shinobi must keep emotions on the inside and possess a heart that never shows tears for any reason.

Author's note (or rather question): Was the violence too graphic?

Thank you everyone for reading along.

.LinSetsu.