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__ Leveling Hidden Sound to the ground might have been overkill. Seated on the wreckage of what had once been an impressive structure, Naruto doesn’t think so. There isn’t much left standing in the village and the absence of life is a stark silence. Five translucent tails of pure chakra lash the air around him, tearing at the shattered and charred beams, grinding the plaster into dust. Soon, his mind goes blessedly blank, and he watches the sun settle toward to horizon with eyes that bleed from red to blue. Rubble shifts behind him; he doesn’t turn as Sakura picks her way carefully to his side, gaze focused on where she puts her feet. Her hair is tangled and dusty, mingling with the black hair of the body hoisted up on her back. The body has been dead for a while, but constant application of medical jutsu keeps it fresh, as though it just passed on from life yesterday. For the space of a heartbeat, Naruto feels the urge to attack Sakura too and reigns it in, recalling his chakra into a tight coil. She crouches next to him, balancing her weight carefully. “Well?” Naurto looks at her, at Sasuke’s limp head pressed into her shoulder. The Uchiha looks like he’s asleep, like he’ll wake up if Naruto just reaches over and gives him a good punch. He keeps his hands to himself. “Itachi,” he says. Sakura nods, short and blunt. Her cheekbones stand out starkly on her face and dark smudges make her green eyes even more intense and empty. “Okay,” she says, rising, “Let’s go.” She waits until Naruto gets up and then follows after him, keeping pace in the shadow he casts. ___ As a child, Sakura thought about death. It was a very romantic thing to do. She thought; when Sasuke dies and leave me widow, I will be brave. I will cut my hair and wear only black and never cry in public, but all who look at me will know my pain. Children will huddle together and watch me pass with awed eyes. I won't speak. I will never love again. Then she grew and learned; it was hard to be romantic about blood and screams and cracked bones, and the sickening emptiness of loss. Now she follows death, carries it on her back, and thinks only about the next step. She made herself stop feeling the strain of running and carrying Sasuke's body, of preserving it with her own energy, a couple days ago. It will eventually kill her. Naruto doesn't move as fast as he could, allowing her to keep up with him but not get to close. Charka shimmers and burns the air around him, a constant wave of heat that reaches Sakura where she runs after. "He'll know we're coming," she says. Naurto hits a branch and lunges off of it, leaving long tears in the bark and a shower of dead leaves. "So?" Sakura squeezes her hand gently on Sasuke's cold thigh. "We'll go home soon," she comforts him. END
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