She couldn't remember how long it'd been since the Akatsuki had vanished to—wherever. Somewhere between the moment of hearing the words 'he won' and realizing what they might have meant, her memory seemed to blur away into nothing.
She knew she wasn't the only one running—dimly she knew Naruto was running somewhere next to here, and there may have been others—but it wasn't her concern. The only thing she could think of was making it in time: if she could only make it to the battlefield, there still might be time. This sort of thing was her true specialty, after all, all of her strength and her ability to take away lives were always second to her ability to preserve and save them.
If she could only make it there, she could save him.
Not now, not when they were so close—
Whatever used to stand in front of them was a great mass of ruins now, burnt and crumbled into upturned chunks of rock and Earth. It didn't really matter to her what it used to be or how it got this way—the battle no doubt—because it simply wasn't as important at the moment. It took her only a few bounds through the ruins to spot his form, lying next to one of the only standing walls left, crumpled on the ground.
"Sasuke!" She hadn't even really decided to scream, and the scream itself barely sounded like her own voice: yet the anguished shout must have been hers, because her throat felt raw and torn afterward, and no one else could have been there yet.
The moments between finding him and reaching him blurred into nothing, too.
It must have rained recently, due to the cool droplets still running down his skin…but he—he was still warm, and that meant…he…she could still save him. She needed to save him. When she took hold of his shoulder and turned him over she nearly recoiled—there was…so much blood. Not only that, but his previous position had concealed the terrible burns across his skin. He was nearly unrecognizable due to his damage, but…
No.
No.
She could fix him.
Healing chakra poured from her hands into him, forcing gashes and wounds shut with pure willpower. If she could do that—she could replace the heat he'd lost, she could make his heart beat again.
She could…
She should be able to take her life and put it in him.
Through the buzz of chakra in her head she heard Naruto speaking, shouting, screaming words she couldn't be bothered to understand. Why couldn't she just—if she just kept on trying, if she turned all of her stamina, every ounce of her life energy into chakra and poured it into him—wouldn't that work? It was her life, and they were so close to getting him back! It was her life, why couldn't she choose to trade it for whatever she wanted to?
For a moment, she thought the rain returned, dropping onto her hands and fighting against her work to keep him warm, but—her breathing hitched and she realized suddenly it wasn't rain. When had she begun to sob? She couldn't remember it at all.
Someone grabbed her shoulders—not Naruto, Naruto knelt in front of her, hunched over the healed—still, empty—form of their comrade. Someone grabbed her shoulders, though, and pried her away. For a few moments she struggled, lashing out—shrieking at her captor if she could only try a little harder she could save him!
Other arms encircled hers, keeping her firmly held away from Sasuke's body, arms pinned and useless to save him. Had her chakra points been blocked, or had she simply forgotten how to summon her strength? Either was possible in her state, in her single-minded need to use it all on healing him instead.
He's gone, someone said in her ear. I'm so sorry, someone else whispered.
Please…
Wide green eyes finally broke away from his body in desperation, seeking out her teacher and permission—she needed to—!
Please let me save him!
Mismatched eyes full of far too much grief and understanding met hers, and for a moment—a moment—she thought that understanding might mean he might…
He shook his head—the slightest of movements, really, but clear as any gesture he could have made.
It's too late.
She—
After three years, after finally, finally catching up to him and finding him again, after coming so close…
She was too late.
This time, she knew exactly when she began to sob.