They knew this could happen. They knew, because she should have,but didn't. How could she? She was aware of the risks, she knew they could all lose, she knew she'd see people die, and she knew that people she cared about might be included in the people she'd be unable to help.
But him…
Kakashi Hatake was brilliant, experienced, powerful, adaptable, versatile, smart enough to know how and went to back off and escape, had lived through a war before already.
Kakashi-sensei was supposed to be invincible.
Blood smeared all over her hands, squeezed through her fingers, ran down her wrists, spread through thick, useless cloth, soaked into dirt.
There was so much blood.
Tears fell and mingled with the dark red on her hands, brightening the almost black to brilliant crimson where they touched, and she could barely see past the glow of her hands, futilely trying to regrow vital organs that medical jutsu was never designed to fix or repair.
No, no, no, no
She couldn't stop. She couldn't just give up. She had to try. She needed to. She couldn't accept this as the way things would end. She couldn't let him slip uselessly through her fingers after all he'd done for her.
Not him
"Please…" She hadn't mean to speak, hadn't thought about it at all, it simply slipped out, thick with tears, broken with the sobs that wracked her body like the pained shudders and labored breaths of her wounded (not dying, never dying) sensei.
"Please…please…please…no…no…please…"
I won't let my comrades be killed
I won't let my comrades be killed!
"I won't let you! I won't let you die, I won't let it! No! I won't let you!"
Her chakra burned, twisted, boiled inside her, flared out of her hands with an intensity that could have destroyed, should have destroyed, instead of healing. The wounds she hovered over finally sealed shut…and violent choking escaped him moments later, spraying fresh droplets of red across her cheeks and flak vest.
She couldn't…
She couldn't—
He was so weak. Fading so fast. She couldn't do anything.
When it counted, when he finally needed her help, she…couldn't.
After all the years, after all she'd learned and how far she'd gotten, when it really counted…she was still just the little girl on a bridge, clutching a kunai to her chest as if it would do anything, unable to help or protect the people important to her in even a little, insignificant way.
Her fingers dug into his jacket, and she hunched over him, as if shielding him from the world could still somehow protect him from the damage it had already done.
Too late
She's too late.
It's too late.
There's nothing left to say, no time left to say it in.
Kakashi-sensei was supposed to be invincible.
This…
was never…
supposed to happen.
Her screams were as silent as her sobs were loud, frustrated, helpless, painful.
"…please…"
"…no."