Screams echoed throughout the battlefield. Some as a battle cry, and others as anguish. It was nothing but chaos. Shinobi sprinting around one another, the clang of metal, the smell of blood and vomit filling the air. Bodies littered the ground. It was almost impossible to not step on part of a fallen Shinobi, whether it was still attached to their body or not. Blood was splattered on almost every inch of the dirt and grass below them. What was once a beautiful open field filled with tall grass and shrubs, was now filled with dead bodies and blood.

Asami grunted, swinging her chokuto into the stomach of the Sarutobi clan member. The straight blade slid across their flesh, blood splattering from the slice and onto the grass. It joined the blood that was spilled there from someone else's wound. Their eyes went wide, hacking up a mixture of blood and bile. Stumbling backward, they fell to the ground back first, blood gurgling from their mouth and dribbling from their cheek. They twitched, obviously still alive, though they were dying a slow, painful death.

She flicked the blood off of the blade, looking away.

Asami had lost count now of how many people had died because of her.

The moment the Uchiha stepped on the battlefield, chaos ensued. Sarutobi clan members rushed at them with their weapons, not wasting a second. The flash of a fire jutsu and some smoke. A sudden explosion. There was no discussion—no diplomacy. Only violence. Asami wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't to be charged the second they spotted one another. Not that she thought there would be a formal handshake and bow before someone was shanked—but the chaos of it all took her by surprise. It was all so... mindless.

That wasn't the only thing that stuck out in Asami's mind, though. Hana had been swept away, disappearing into the swarm of shinobi fighting amongst themselves. Since they were separated at the beginning, she hadn't seen her. It was worrying.

Activating her Sharingan, she scanned the open field, looking for her sister. Anxiety pooled in her chest, not able to see her. She could tick off plenty Uchiha, but not the Uchiha she was looking for. The infuriating Sarutobi clan members were so erratic in their fighting style, not to mention the absolutely annoying tendency to create clouds of smoke to give them cover, making it hard to focus on anything for long. She was worried about her. She said she wouldn't linger over her shoulder. And she hadn't. So far at least. She may have told Izuna she wouldn't be attached to her sister's hip just for the sake of protecting her, but just because she told that to Izuna didn't mean she would actually keep her promise. She needed confirmation she was okay. Securing her sister's safety was more important than keeping her word.

So focused on spotting Hana, she nearly missed the blade sliding over her shoulder. Asami flipped around, striking at whoever attempted to swipe at her neck.

Expecting to see another aggravating Sarutobi, she blinked, taken aback at the sight of a man with shaggy brown hair hanging in his eyes. A man adorning the Senju crest, blood splattered across his battle armor. The man smirked at her surprise, thin eyebrows narrowing. "Uchiha. Pleased to see me?"

It seemed Izanami was right about the Senju showing up to the fight. They really did like to stick their nose in others business.

"Pleasantly," Asami responded, raising her chokuto, the thought of her sister leaving her mind for a moment. Her focus was on slitting the even more aggravating Senju's throat. Honestly, she would have preferred it to be a Sarutobi. Less annoying.

Somewhere across the battlefield, the sudden shout from her elder cousin rang out.

"HASHIRAMAAAAA!"

Asami cringed, knowing the outraged cry from Madara was bound to turn into a nasty scene.

The Senju was distracted by the sudden cry from Madara, so Asami took the opportunity, focusing her attention on the man who attempted to slice her head off. She lunged for him, swinging her chokuto at his midsection. The clang of metal rang out as he blocked it with his own katana, sparks flying from the impact. Deciding to not pull the blade away, she slammed her knee into his stomach, sending the Senju stumbling back a few steps.

The man grinned once he regained his footing, readjusting the grip he had on the katana. He tilted his head to the side, hair swaying with the movement. "Ha! The Uchiha always prove to be interesting in battle."

Asami didn't say anything in response, her irritation growing by the second.

She needed to get rid of this Senju so she could go find Hana. Just to reiterate, she hadn't been hovering. But now her patience was running thin. She needed to at least spot her sister fairing just fine in her fight, then she would be on her way. All she needed was a glimpse of her sister. Just for a split second, and she would be satisfied. But this idiot was taking up her time.

Her eyes narrowed.

Realizing Asami was not one for banter, the Senju ran at her again, katana outstretched to make for a quick swipe of death. She stepped to the side, narrowly dodging his attack with the help of her Sharingan. Spinning the chokuto in her hand, she slammed the end of the blade into his back, completely piercing through his armor with her chakra-charged stab.

The man coughed blood. He hunched over, eyes widening in surprise as blood ran freely from the wound. It dribbled to the ground, creating a red pool on the grass.

Asami prepared to strike at him again, going for his neck.

Even with blood dribbling from his mouth, obviously in severe pain, the Senju flicked the katana over his shoulder, blocking the chokuto before it could slide across his neck. He heaved in pain, face barely turned toward her, eyes narrowed with nothing but pure hatred. She barely caught the look, blinking as she tried to process it. The intensity of his glare caught her off guard. No one had ever looked at her that way.

With a loud grunt, he shoved her off, this time sending her stumbling backward. His look filled with intense emotions distracted her.

Not giving her a moment to regain her footing, the man charged at her, taking her to the ground. She hit the dirt with an oof, the wind knocked out of her from the impact. He pinned her down, the sticky blood of whoever had fallen there moments before leaking through the back of her yukata. She turned her head, catching sight of the dead Sarutobi that lay next to them, their eyes wide and mouth agape.

Presumably, who's blood she was laying in.

Asami's heart hammered in her chest, alarmed at how fast the situation had turned on its head. She was pinned to the ground underneath a Senju. Whether he was mortally wounded or not, she needed to get out now. This was a compromising situation. If she didn't act quickly, she was going to end up just like that Sarutobi. Was this karma to pay for how she killed that Senju when she was a child? For the deaths of the Sarutobi she had slaughtered the moment she stepped onto the field? It was almost laughable how similar this situation was to the one she encountered as a child. If she were to die here, it would seem like some form of karma, wouldn't it?

The Senju pulled out a kunai and slammed it down on her, aiming for her neck. She wiggled in his grasp, the blade coming down on her shoulder instead. She gasped, heaving from the intense burning sensation that spread through her shoulder and upper arm. The pain was terrible. Awful. She could practically feel the muscle torn at its fibers from the sheer impact of the blade and his anger combined.

Ignoring the intense pain the best she could, she did the only thing she could think of to injure the man without any sort of weapon. Her chokuto laid discarded feet away from when he slammed her to the ground, out of reach.

Kunai still stuck in her shoulder, she grit her teeth and grabbed the Senju's side. She pressed her fingers into the dribbling wound with as much force as she could muster with her injury, carving her nails into the exposed, reddened flesh between the layers of battle armor. There was a loud squelch. The slick warmth of his blood coated her fingers, running down her wrist and the length of her arm.

The Senju let out a shrill scream and collapsed on top of Asami.

Wheezing at the sudden impact of his weight, she quickly shoved his body off of hers. He tumbled to the side, skin pale and clammy as more blood gushed from the wound than before. Her prodding at the fleshy area had made what was a painful injury a mortal one.

Ripping the kunai out of her shoulder with a sharp gasp of pain, she wasted no time turning toward the heaving Senju. She slammed the kunai into his throat. Blood spurted from his neck the moment the tip of the kunai pierced his flesh. The man gasped, eyes blown wide. He clawed at his neck in desperation, drowning in his own blood. Red liquid dribbled down the corners of his mouth. The veins in his eyes were prominent and red from the strain his body was being put through.

Asami stood, shaky as she walked over to her chokuto. The pain from her shoulder had returned tenfold without the adrenaline rush. She pressed her hand to the wound, grimacing. Glancing over her shoulder, she looked at the Senju who was now barely twitching, hands limp at his sides and head turned at an odd angle. Almost dead.

The sight was gruesome. Blood all over the grass. Blood in his hair. Blood covering his armor. It was as though someone held a pouch of blood over him and popped it. There was red everywhere. Asami didn't think people could even bleed as much as he had. He looked like an animal, blood coating the outside of his mouth and painting his neck a deep shade of red. The kunai stuck out of his neck, right where she had left it.

She had brutally murdered him. Not just a quick death, but a brutal, bloody murder.

She looked down, noticing the blood of the Senju that covered her front. Her back was still wet with the Sarutobi's blood. The sticky blood that ran down her arm from her hand when she grabbed at the Senju's wound... her hand was completely red. It was flaking and crusty, it beginning to dry. Her shoulder was still bleeding too. She honestly couldn't tell where who's blood ended and began.

Asami coughed, a watery feeling forming in her mouth.

She keeled over, throwing up whatever was in her stomach from that morning. Her eyes watered, a wheeze leaving her throat as she continued to throw up.

She was suddenly slammed into, someone taking her to the ground. She slammed face-first into the dirt, someone sitting on her back and pressing her into the earth. Their fingers wound into her thick hair, tightly pulling at the roots as they forced her face deeper into the ground. She tried to get a look at who was shoving her into the dirt, but couldn't turn her head. They must have felt her trying to catch a glimpse of them, because they shoved her back into the earth. Rocks and the rough ground scratched at the side of her face. She grimaced, grunting at the force.

"You bitch!" They roared. Asami couldn't see who had her by the hair, and she was struggling to get out from underneath them as they kept her pinned. "You killed my brother!"

Ah, so that's who she had pissed off.

"Now you're gonna pay for that, Uchiha." They spat, the grip they had on her hair tightening. Tingling spread through Asami's head. If the Senju pulled at her hair any harder she wouldn't have been surprised if it was yanked out of her head. She struggled underneath them, but because of the odd angle, she couldn't get them off. They were heavy, and her arms were pinned underneath the Senju.

She couldn't get them off.

She just narrowly scraped by death minutes ago—and now here she was again, back in a compromising position. Whenever she thought she was safe, something else came for her. Did she deserve this, though? For killing someone else's sibling? A loved one? In the moment all she could think about was staying alive. There was no thought behind killing that man. Or any other person she came across today. There was no time to consider the moral dilemma or the effect that Senju's death would have on others. If that Senju was a father. A brother. A son. There was no time to think about it. It was all out of self-preservation.

For a moment, she thought that maybe she deserved to die like this.

She was ripped from that morbid thought though.

"Ack!"

The Senju that was once on top of her slumped to the side, their weight dropping on her all at once. This time though, she could easily shove them off. She made quick work of rolling their body off of hers. She turned around to see who had saved her, still sitting on the dirt. Asami blinked in surprise, Hana standing over her with a bloody katana. She held it out in front of her center with both hands, as though she had just shoved it straight in the Senju, then ripped it back out again.

Hana was not as covered in blood compared to Asami, only light splatters across her front. Some blood was streaked on the side of her face as though it had been put there by wiping her face with a bloody sleeve.

Hana dropped to her knees without a second thought, hugging Asami.

"Are you okay?!" Hana squeezed her sister in the embrace, before pulling away, looking at Asami's appearance. Hana's eyes raked over her body, checking for injuries. She didn't say anything about how she was covered in blood. But she did grimace, noticing the continuous bleeding coming from Asami's shoulder. "You're hurt."

Asami still hadn't said anything, shocked that Hana had been the one to come to her rescue. Not only that, but the thought that she was almost content with her death moments ago. The realization of that iced her core. Where had that thought come from? Why was she so ready to give up? The thought had lingered while fighting both the Senju. It was unsettling that the thought was lurking in her mind. Especially in such a dangerous situation.

"Asami?" Hana shook her sister, trying to get her attention.

She blinked back into reality, gazing at her sister. Asami didn't have much to say. She couldn't let go of how willing she was to give up. Especially when her sister had come to her rescue. Hana of all people speared through someone without a second thought to protect her. Yet here Asami was, that same sickening feeling creeping into her system. Clawing at her insides and squeezing her gut. Asami doubted Hana's skills as a shinobi countless times, when here she was, not faring well herself. She berated Hana for seeming gentle. For being too kind. Yet she couldn't keep down her breakfast after killing a man.

She had been fine so far throughout the battle. What was different about them? About that encounter? She realized Hana was still looking at her, expecting a response.

"I'm okay." Was all she could think to say to tide her sister over. Even though she didn't feel it in the slightest.

Hana was unfazed by how she mindlessly stabbed the Senju. Asami would have probably acted the same way if the roles were reversed. But after the fact, there probably would have been that lingering feeling that she did something wrong. Hana didn't seem to harbor that emotion. What was Asami doing differently? Was she putting too much weight into her actions?

"We can't stay put for long." Hana bent over to pull Asami to her feet.

There was the sound of flesh. Wet, squishy, and then an ambiguous noise to follow. Hana's facial expression suddenly dropped, going pale. Asami looked at her in confusion, eyes scanning her sister's face, trying to understand what was wrong. She couldn't find anything.

"Hana?"

Hana looked down, blinking at the blood creeping across her yukata. The once blue fabric was becoming drenched with blood, the red liquid inching from her abdomen like a spilled drink. Hana placed her hands against her front, touching the point where the blood seemed to be coming from. She pulled her hands away, her motions slow and robotic. She held her hands in front of her, mouth opening and closing at the red liquid that painted her palms. Hana looked up from them, visibly trembling as she met her sister's gaze.

"Asami—"

Hana tipped, falling forward. Asami caught her before she could hit the ground. Asami was shaking. Her sister's blood was beginning to leak onto her clothes, mixing with her own and those that she had killed so far. She looked up slowly, everything in a daze.

Crouched where Hana had been standing a moment ago, was the Senju Hana pierced through with her katana. He was visibly in pain, sweat dripping at his forehead and making his hair damp. Even with clammy skin and a hand pressed to his stomach, the man barred a grin. He winced as he did so, a low chuckle leaving his lips. Blood leaked over his fingers, the pressure he applied to the wound not doing much.

"You took my brother from me—and now I will take your sister from you."

It didn't feel real. Her sister laid in her arms. She was still alive, though not for long. The blood around her center was only increasing by the second. There was no one near them to help. Asami wasn't a healer. She didn't know how to help her besides putting pressure on the injury to slow the bleeding. She wasn't sure what a healer would be able to do to save her at this point.

Hana didn't even seem aware of her surroundings, eyes squeezed shut in pain. The Senju stood above the both of them, in some kind of sick, twisted triumph. Hana was losing so much blood, and the Senju above them was taking nothing but enjoyment from this.

"H-Hana!" Asami grabbed her sister by the chin, trying to shake her awake, not even considering the fact that the Senju near them could kill her at any second. All she cared about was getting her sister to open her eyes. To acknowledge her. But she wouldn't focus on Asami, her head lulling to the side like a doll. The wound was in her upper abdomen, and from the looks of it, the Senju had given the Katana a sharp twist when he stabbed her. Wounding her even further than the stab itself did.

The Senju grit his teeth, grinning maliciously. "It hurts, doesn't it? Losing a sibling?"

Suddenly, all she could feel was anger. Hot, red anger.

Asami pounced for the Senju, dropping her sister to the ground.

He grunted as she forced him down, Asami getting on top of him. Gritting her teeth, she pressed her knee into his stomach on the open wound. He threw his head back and let out a scream as she pressed harder. She found satisfaction in how much pain he was in. The pure agony. She didn't even think to check Hana for a pulse before she jumped. Didn't think to check for any other sign of life. All she could feel was anger, pushing the desire to make this man feel as much pain as possible. To put him through the turmoil he had caused her sister. How he had taken her life as a form of what he considered to be even exchange.

Perhaps it was equivalent to what she was doing now. Killing him because he had killed her sister. She had killed his brother. But she didn't care. Her sister was special. They were the enemy.

The guilt from before about killing the Sarutobi, the Senju—it was all out the window now. All she could concentrate on was causing him pain. How deserving of the pain he was for harming her sister. Her sister, who was kind, gentle, and loved tending to her flowers. Who would greet people with a kind smile, no matter if she was in a bad mood. Her sister, who was the only thing she had left. Her sister, who she promised her father she would protect.

"Does that hurt?!" She growled, leaning in closer to him. Their faces were inches away, her hair dangling around his face like a curtain. "Because I hope it does. I hope it's the worst pain you've ever experienced. I want you to be begging for death. Begging for me to kill you, and bring you relief, like the pathetic, Senju dog you are."

The man, heaving and his face drenched with sweat, refocused his gaze on her. He was paler than before, Asami's torment pushing him to the brink. Even so, he still managed to give her another sick, twisted grin.

He cursed her in a pained, breathy response. "Fuck you, and your... fucking sister."

That was the final straw for Asami.

She grabbed him by the neck, squeezing his throat with as much strength as she could muster. She let out a pained cry, gasping from the intense emotion that ran through her as she continued to press on his throat, cutting off his airway. The Senju made a slew of intelligible noises, scratching and clawing at her hands. She continued to squeeze, easily ignoring his desperate attempts to get free through her rage. His nails dragging along the top sides of her hands only fueled her adrenaline. She was sweating. She held his life in her hands. She was in control now. She would make sure he died. She wouldn't let anything else get past her. She would make sure he was finished.

The man's eyes rolled into the back of his head. But she continued to press, squeeze, and hold him down. Once his arms went limp, she finally let go, gasping out heavy breaths. She leaned back, allowing her weight to fully rest on top of the dead Senju. Bruises and red marks littered his neck in the shape of her hands. She was easily able to make out her fingers along his jugular, and could tell just how hard she had him by the neck.

Asami heard a quiet whimper from her sister. It was hard to hear with the battle still going on around them, totally oblivious to the brutal string of events that had just transpired. But Asami had heard her. Suddenly alert, the anger dissolved into a consuming sense of urgency. She rushed over to Hana, dropping next to her and pulling her head into her lap. Hana lay flat on her back, legs outstretched and head resting on the cushion of Asami's thighs.

Asami stroked her cheeks with the pads of her thumbs, choking down a sob as tears began to dribble down her cheeks. She sniffed, her breathing coming out in shaky shudders. Her sister was much paler than normal. Her skin was clammy, sweat gathering at her brow. Hana let out short breaths. She was in so much pain. Something caught in Asami's throat, making it difficult to swallow.

"Hana, p-please open your eyes..."

She knew it was worth nothing. Begging Hana to wake up and be fine, would do nothing. She could tell Hana was tired. She had lost so much blood. There was no going back. Asami knew there was nothing she could do. She couldn't do a single damn thing to protect her sister. Her sister's death was unpreventable at this point. All she could do was cry, and hold her. To be with her as she died. To let her know she wasn't alone. That Asami wasn't going to abandon her now. She was going to stay with her as she died.

The realization settled in her mind.

Her sister was going to die.

A sob racked her body, head bowed over Hana, her thumbs continuing to stroke her skin in what was intended to be a comforting motion. Tears fell off her face and onto her sister's checks. They hit her skin, before running down the side of her face and into the dirt below them. Asami continued to cry, the battle around them continuing. The sound of metal clanging. Another scream of anguish. Bodies hitting the ground. It didn't stop. Even as her sister died in her arms, the world around her continued to be plagued with violence. Her sister was not a special case. She died, just like the Senju she killed, had died. Just as the Sarutobi died. Just as everyone else who fell to this terrible act of violence did.

She still didn't regret strangling that Senju to death. Even with the sickening thought of all the violence lingering at the forefront of her mind, she knew he deserved to die. She would have killed him a thousand times over. A million times over.

Even if she knew it was wrong.

Hana's once slow, uneven breaths came to a stop. Asami shook her head, crying harder now. She didn't beg for her to wake up this time, she knew she was gone. Her sweet sister was gone. She failed her father. She couldn't even keep Hana alive as she had promised. She couldn't control anything. She couldn't keep her sister from dying, she couldn't control whether her father died, if her cousins died-it was all out of her grasp. People would die, and she couldn't do anything about it. She was helpless in the grand scheme of it all. It made her so, so angry.

She lifted her head, eyes settling on a particular group of Sarutobi fighting some Uchiha not too far away from herself. These Sarutobi seemed to be fighting together in a group. One of them used a swift fire jutsu, a cloud of black smoke filling the air. Using the cover, the rest of the Sarutobi clan members fighting together jumped out of the cloud. They cut down her clansmen, their bodies falling to the ground with cries of agony. The flash of anger was back again. All these people, people she loved, were dying, out of her control.

It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. She should be able to prevent those she loved from dying. But she couldn't. No one could control who lived and died. Even if someone brought their blade down on another with the intent to kill, there was no definite their strike would be lethal. There was always the sliver of a chance they would live. The end of it all, was that the fate of the ones they loved or even hated, was out of their control.

A sudden surge of emotion filled her. An experience that she only felt a few times in her life. Consuming, overwhelming waves of grief, anger, and helplessness. It overtook her, crashing like a massive wave, swallowing her whole. Each of those emotions alone had the strength to throw someone into total misery. But combined, was another story.

The Uchiha and Sarutobi who caught Asami's attention had finished their fight. The Uchiha they cut down had died. The group of Sarutobi, now a group of three, looked for their next target, spotting Asami sitting over her sister's dead body, crying and shaking. Upon noticing her, she seemed like an easy kill. A blubbering young girl consumed by her emotions, not paying attention to her surroundings. A quick and easy opportunity to be rid of another Uchiha.

One of the Sarutobi folded their hands into a flurry of signs. They breathed out a controlled line of fire in her direction. His fellow clansmen charged toward her, long knives at the ready to strike her down if the fire jutsu didn't prove to be enough.

Asami raised her head, cowering over her sister. She shielded Hana's bloody body, hovering over her like an angry, rabid animal. She felt so many things. There were so many emotions swirling through her, gripping and suffocating. But the most present emotion, was the anger. The anger, that even though her sister was dead, bleeding below her, they still kept coming. How dare they disrespect her sister, and continue to press forward with the intent to kill. How dare they try to kill her too, after taking away one of the last living things she loved?

The Sharingan, red, three tomoe visible, spun, her eyes going wide as a new sense of power surged through her.

Hadn't they taken enough?

Asami scooped up her sister's limp body and jumped out of the way of the fire, ignoring the searing pain from her shoulder. She landed directly in front of the group, kneeling with her sister in her arms bridal style. The Sarutobi stumbled in surprise, having expected her to run away, not come closer to them. The Sharingan spun again, the three tomoe taking the shape of a sharp, eight-pointed star. The enemy raised their weapons, preparing to fight, but it was too late. She already caught them, and they had looked into her eyes.

Willing her Sharingan, the visible strain of her eyes became prominent. Red veins stood out in the white of her eye, blood dribbling from her eyes and running down the length of her cheek. The Sarutobi dropped to the ground as if their souls had been ripped from their bodies. To those on the outside, it looked as though with a single look Asami had knocked them unconscious. But Asami knew exactly where they were. In fact, they probably wished they were simply unconscious, and not where they actually were.

The three Sarutobi men stood in a white scape, not a single speck of color surrounding them. There was no way to tell where the white ended and began. It was an empty void of endless white. They stood, totally conscious, unlike their bodies on the battlefield. They were alone, just the three of them in the scape, no sight of Asami or any of the other fighting shinobi once surrounding them.

One of the men looked around wildly, sweating in fear. "What the hell happened?!"

The second man grit his teeth, lifting one of his long, curved knives in a pathetic attempt to defend himself from whatever might come of the new environment. He also took a look around the space, trying to find some sort of clue for where they were. "I have no idea. Where is that Uchiha?!"

Asami stood in front of them, as if she had been there the entire time. She was devoid of any blood, her attire clean. She appeared just as she had before the battle began, the navy blue yukata crisp and without a speck of dirt, black hair clean and brushed. Her Sharingan was still activated, but the usual three tomoe were replaced by that eight-pointed star. No blood was on her face, unlike on the battlefield.

The third man cried out, startled by her sudden appearance. Immediately, he moved his hand for his weapon to attack, but he found that he couldn't move. The second man, who already had his knives in his hand attempted to attack as well, but he also couldn't run at her. None of them could move. They stared at her in fear, though she only looked at them with an even expression. While she appeared to be neutral, there was an underlying sense of maliciousness. She stared at them, not making any movement, but the aura of intent to kill was unnerving.

"You can't do anything here." She said simply. "Not if I don't want you to."

While they couldn't move, they could speak. The second Sarutobi would have been trembling if he could. Instead, all he could do was yell at her. "So then what the hell do you want, crazy bitch?!" Asami didn't react to his insult. "For you to die."

The group went white at her simple statement. It was as though she had sealed their fate with the simple phrase. No more words were passed between the group. The Sarutobi stared at her in fear, but that fear dissolved into absolute terror as with a flick of her wrist, a large wall of fire consumed them. They screamed in agony, burning alive. Asami only stood, watching as they cried out, the orange, hot flame engulfing them. She felt no mercy for them. She knew they would die. Here, their fate was not left up to whatever deity overlooked them.

Here, she was in control.

On the battlefield, Asami refocused on the scenery around her. The bodies of the Sarutobi that were once ready to attack her, were now burnt to a crisp. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. Their death was not a quick one. It was messy and painful. But at least Asami could look upon their bodies and know they were dead.

They met their fate; her.

"Otouto!" A Sarutobi stood on the hill, his eyes wide and mouth agape. He took in the scene of the burnt bodies, and the Uchiha girl lingering over them, another body in her arms. There were conflicting emotions on his tan features. He stared at Asami with a mixture of anger, disgust, and fear. It seemed as though he wanted to run at her— attack for killing whoever laid burnt on the ground. She almost wished he had. She would be more than willing to finish him too.

But with that anger, there was also confusion. One moment, his brother was standing with his fellow clansmen, ready to fight. Then the next, he was knocked unconscious, the Uchiha girl staring into nothing. Then somehow, their bodies were all burnt to a crisp? The fear and ominosity of the situation was alarming. It was enough for him to take a look around the field and call to his fellow clansmen.

"FALL BACK!"

With his instruction, the living Sarutobi began to retreat. The man on the hill spared her another look, before turning around and disappearing over the hill. She didn't have the energy or the will to chase after him. Instead, she dropped to the ground, exhaustion overtaking her. She looked down again at her sister, pain stabbing at her heart. She ran her thumb over her sister's cheek. In a way, Hana looked peaceful. If it weren't for the blood covering her clothes from the stab wound, she would have thought she looked like she was sleeping.

"Asami?"

She looked up, meeting the gaze of her older cousin. Tears mixed with the blood on her face, as she cried at the sight of Izuna. The new shape of her Sharingan was still activated in her eyes. She whimpered, shaking her head, the pain rushing over her again as she attempted to speak through her sobbing. "I-I... I couldn't do a-anything!—I'm so sorry."

Izuna didn't say anything more, dropping to her side. He just pulled her trembling frame toward him, Hana's body wedged between them. He didn't say anything else or acknowledge her blubbering. He was only there for her.

AN: (I just) died in your arms tonight by the cutting crew was on a consistent loop for certain parts of this chapter lol. Too soon?