Chapter Text
The battlefield stank of blood and scorched earth. Smoke twisted in the broken sky, a veil of gray that clung to the dead and dying.
Sakura’s hands trembled as she pressed them against his chest, her chakra blazing in brilliant, frantic bursts of green. He was so cold—far too cold—and growing colder by the second.
“No, no, no—” she gasped, forcing more of her strength into him, weaving desperate, intricate patterns of healing chakra through his shattered body. His chest was a ruin of blood and broken bone, his once-proud armor torn to shreds. She could feel the terrible damage inside him—organs shredded, chakra pathways frayed like snapped threads.
“You’re not—!” Her voice cracked. She bit down on the rising sob in her throat, gritting her teeth so hard it hurt. “You’re not allowed to die, dammit!”
She could feel his chakra, faint and flickering, like a candle in a storm. Every second, it dimmed a little more. Every second, she lost him a little further.
Don’t die!
Her own reserves burned low, but she didn’t care. She pressed harder, her vision blurring at the edges. Her chakra flooded into him, wild and uncontrolled, ripping through her own body in the process. Blood dripped from her nose, her fingertips, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop.
His hand, limp against the dirt, twitched once.
Sakura’s heart leapt, only to crash a moment later when it stilled again.
“Please,” she whispered. Her voice cracked, raw with fear. “Please… don’t leave. Not like this. Not alone.”
Another surge of chakra—bright, blinding. The green light around her hands flared, then guttered, flickering weakly like the dying embers of a fire.
But it was slipping through her fingers, no matter how hard she fought, no matter how much she gave.
The world around her twisted. The very air seemed to shudder, the ground beneath her hands growing warm, then searing hot—chakra, dense and ancient, rose up around them like a storm.
Sakura didn’t notice the crack forming beneath his broken body. She didn’t see the jagged threads of time, unwinding and fraying like snapped strings on a loom.
All she knew was the feeling of his fading pulse under her hands, and the raw, bottomless agony in her chest as the world tilted, shattered—
—And swallowed her whole.