Salvation

Disclaimer: All rights belong to Kishimoto the man behind Naruto the anime/manga. Chapter title is credited to Pink Floyd.



Chapter 1: Shine On You Crazy Diamond



**
***
**

It was the kind of night where everything seemed diminished: two dimensional. The trees and tall grass bathed in the moonlight made everything look sketchy in a grayish white hue. The constant rain made the vision a blurred canvas of white lightening and land.

It was a charcoal and pencil dream. She knew a certain artistic friend of hers would have loved it. It was a muse in the making.

But he wasn’t there. Sai was in another part of the country with another team defending another line of territory. For that she was thankful.

This was no place for those she cared for. The picturesque landscape was nothing more than the remnants of a soon to be forgotten battlefield. The lone brilliant color that mixed on the limited palette was red -blood red. Crimson soaked into the darkened earth like jam spread on bread, thick and rich. Bodies lay strewn in the weeds; milky lifeless eyes staring up into the rumbling sky overhead.

Rock had invaded Fire. The soiled field of war was but one of many conflicts plaguing the lands in and out of each countries borders.

A wounded black and white uniform clad woman lay pained among the many corpses littering the wet earth, images of her friends flashing before her jaded, heavy-lidded gaze.

--Brilliant blue eyes looked out upon the gathered crowd beneath the balcony like rooftop, a hand held high in oath.

“I, Uzumaki Naruto swear to uphold the traditions of this village. I swear to treat it’s people like my own. This day, I accept the responsibility of being the Village Hidden in the Leaf’s Hokage”.---

Warm, sticky fluid slipped past the weather wrinkled hand trying to stench its flow. “N-Naruto.”

The gash right above the shapely hip, a product of a precisely aimed clay projectile, proved deep. Vital organs being missed, that fact did nothing to assuage her fears. The slip of life was felt with each ounce of ruby liquid lost. Weeping lacerations on both a thigh and an arm left the feminine body immobile at best; naturally pale skin turning clammier by the second being exposed to the down pour from the heavens.

The projector of memories played on unhindered.

--A set of vengeful sharingan eyes stared down upon the dying leader of Sound. “Did you really think I would let you use me?” A lightening enhanced sword twisted in the numbed reptilian body. “No one uses me.”--

Another track of cleanliness ensued upon the mud and blood tainted face, this time by a warmer water flowing from pain filled eyes. “S-Sasuke-kun.”

--“I was never naïve enough to think that you could ever return my love in that way, but damn it! I thought I meant more to you! Yes. I let you use me to further your clan…but I draw the line at being used this way! I will not let you use me to cover up your dirty little secret anymore!”

The distraught Kunoichi slid to the floor, back to the solid whitewashed wall. Slender hands covered shame filled, crying eyes. “How could you two do this to me? How?”

A watery gaze flicked to the photo of a loving father standing behind a smiling wife holding their newborn son. Those eyes hardened as they turned to the framed picture beside the first: the aged still of team Kakashi –taken upon the Uchiha’s return. Glistening orbs narrowed upon the image of the smiling blonde. “I never thought…”

Pink hair obscured scowling features as a neck was bent tiredly in defeat. “How could you two do this to me? To our son?”

The bringer of pain stood erect, unable to console the emotional woman, incapable of giving a rightful excuse. The only sign of movement was the small clench of a hand as hysterical words were shouted into the significant space between them.

“I hate you. I hate you both!”--

Regret replaced fear then as a chest shallowly panted. The pain made pink brows furrow; a grimace contorting blood drained lips.

“I-I could…never hate you. I Love you…both. Always…will.”

Her last words before even the constant plat – plat of the rain drifted out of her range of fading senses.

-O.O-

A shadow moved among the human debris. Its pace slowed by a slash to the left calf muscle, the only wound adorning the established, battle scared body other than the two broken ribs on it’s left side.

A bloodied gloved hand swept silver hair plastered to the cloth and metal covered forehead to the side as mismatched eyes scanned the area. The darkness and rain made the ordered search and rescue mission a daunting task as it was, he didn’t need his own follicles to become his enemy as well.

Search and recovery, it was a mission that left apprehension in his usual lax body. The team that had been sent to this position, previously, had not been meant to come back. It was the type of mission where one kissed their loved ones farewell, trying not to convey the truth in their eyes. The reality that, that particular unfortunate soul was not to be seen again, at least not on the same mortal plane.

Why had she volunteered?

He didn’t know, but he was aware that now was not the time for such questions. He had to find her. Uncover some form of clue, some tidbit of knowledge that she had in fact lived …or died a hero’s death -an end befitting a Konoha shinobi. The way he wanted to die, the way his father should have. That thought was tossed back into the abyss in the depths of his mind. Again, not the time.

The task became even more dilapidated as the shower toed the line of a monsoon.

One pale, rain-slicked face mixed into another. Black and white torn, stained uniforms seemed to merge together each meter that he walked. One would think a glimmer of pink would shine like a beacon in the night.

But he knew otherwise.

The woman he sought was just as intelligent as she was beautiful. A well placed hood always camouflaged the rosette locks he had become fond of.

A sandaled toe kicked a fallen enemy to the side, like a boy upturning rocks in pursuit of interesting many legged creatures.

Any survivor was his target, but she was and would always be his top priority. He had to know. He had to see. For, love pushes those who are chained by it to do such things.

When had the shackles first begun to chaff his scarred skin? The day, the time, the minute were lost from his brain. But the feeling was there. It birthed inside him for eternity it seemed -not a time before this feeling his mind could conjure.

She was a pebble of earth the sands of time had heated and polished into a diamond -a beautiful jewel that he had watched and gazed upon from afar for quite some time now.

He had known something had been bothering her the moment she had stepped foot into the security encampment. It was in her eyes -glimmering orbs that had lost that certain spark. She had been adamant in being placed leader of the perilous expedition. With her experience and abilities, it hadn’t been questioned.

But as Kakashi finally drew upon the love he had always known was not meant to be…he sorely wished it had.

Slow motion was his moves; numb and cold was his touch. But the heat from her bloodied form was even icier. Black soaked knees fell to the muddied earth. A head bent in defeat. Taken. Another one ripped from his calloused, work hardened fingers.

A gloved hand moved to caress the cheek of the one whose image was held captive in the organ he thought had shriveled and died many years before. She had unintentionally touched him in life and now she was inadvertently scarring him in death.

The rainfall mingled with the evidence of human pain then, masking his sin. An adulterous love that was one-sided at best. She had belonged to the lone Uchiha, body and soul; a fact that he had always known. Alas now, she resided in heaven, yet further out of his reach.

Forcing his body to comply, a thumb brushed over a tender cheek one last time in goodbye, savoring the feel, ingraining the moment.

But before the silver shadow rose from its mournful position, hope sprung eternal in the form of a flutter. Pale lashes flicked just once like the last burning flames of a candle. In pain’s place sat relief and love, but above all hope.

With wishes to those who reside above the darkened skies, Hatake Kakashi carried the afflicted kunoichi tenderly, but hurriedly in his grasp.

Speed became his friend then just as Haruno Sakura unwittingly became his future.

-O.O-


To Be Continued