Rating: T

Words: 2200

Pairing: None really, maybe slight KakaSaku because I lean that direction?

Warnings: Violence, blood, injuries, angst, flashbacks, light fluff? Who says you can't have it all? You trust me, don't you?

Author Notes: A friend on tumblr asked made a request of Kakashi seeing Sakura get chidori'd by Sasuke, and thus this story was born. I mostly blame tumblr for this but how could I pass up such a prompt? So . . if there's anything you want to see, ask on tumblr. I do requests, kind-of? This wasn't supposed to be this long but it was complex. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Blood roared in Kakashi's ears, and he willed his feet to move faster. Before he took the first step, the jonin knew that the distance between himself and Sakura was too great, Sasuke was too close. He couldn't make it in time, but he pushed harder anyway. He'd done it a hundred other times, beaten the odds, been the difference between life and death. You weren't quick enough the one time mattered, his conscience mocked.

Time slowed and stretched as the memory slammed into Kakashi hard enough to steal his breath. The sunlight around him faded to darkness, crisp air filled with sea spray, and Kakashi couldn't breathe. It felt like he was drowning, like the sea had closed over his head, sucking him into its inky depths. He wished it would; dying would be preferable to reliving this moment again. Horror and pain etched it forever in his mind.

Kakashi had been all coiled tension and confidence, lunging toward the first enemy. Then Rin was between them; Kakashi couldn't stop, even though he desperately wanted to. Her name rose in his throat mere seconds before he felt the warmth of her blood. It coated his hand, dripped from his fingers, and stained the skin in a way that soap and water would never wash off.

Kakashi ripped himself away from the memory, and forced strength into his muscles. I'll be faster this time. I can't go through that again-the man pushed his body, straining for every ounce of speed that training had produced. It wouldn't be enough. His sharingan spun a warning, but Kakashi didn't focus on that. If Naruto had taught his sensei anything, it was that making the impossible, possible started with not giving in.

The silver-haired man stretched forward, reaching desperately. It was too far, and despite the painful correlation, he cried Sakura's name the same way he had Rin's. Green eyes widened with shock rather than fear and Sakura's face glowed from the flickering blue-white light of the chidori. Pain arced through Kakashi's chest as the world stopped, teetered, then shattered.

Sakura didn't cry out, didn't even look surprised, as Sasuke's chidori-wreathed hand slammed into her chest, then burst out the other side. Her eyes softened as she gazed at the last Uchiha with a mixture of confused love and pain. Like Rin's face, Sakura's would haunt Kakashi.

The jonin's composure snapped like an over tightened spring. Sasuke pulled his hand free, not even looking at the pink-haired girl who would have given him everything as she collapsed bonelessly to the bridge. He managed a half turn before Kakashi's shoulder slammed into him. The momentum carried both men from their feet, and even mid-roll, Kakashi punched and fought for control over his former student. When they stopped, Kakashi pinned Sasuke with his weight.

Sasuke grinned, arrogance made human, and Kakashi slammed a fist into his mouth hard enough to break teeth. The logical part of Kakashi knew that fists weren't the answer, but the emotional side wasn't convinced and his blows rained down. Blood ran from Sasuke's mouth, matching his activated sharingan. Kakashi captured the boy's wrists with one hand to prevent hand signs. It wouldn't stop the ocular jutsu, but it was better than nothing.

"Why?" Kakashi snarled.

Sasuke didn't fight Kakashi's hold; he looked up at his former sensei with amusement. "Because I could."

Despite the arsenal of jutsu and weapons at his disposal, Kakashi punched Sasuke again. He couldn't draw a breath, his lungs refused to expand. His entire life since Obito's death had been about protecting his teammates, his friends, and the people he cared about. He'd watched so many lives slide between his fingers like water. Sakura was simply the most recent in the string of failures that defined Kakashi.

Kakashi's hand clenched around a kunai he didn't remember drawing or pressing against Sasuke's neck. Crimson eyes flickered with uncertainty as the blade trembled, unsteady hands pushing it against sensitive, vulnerable skin. A chidori through Sasuke's heart would have been fair, poetic even, but Kakashi couldn't bring himself to care. The Uchiha hadn't cared about Sakura. Unconsciously, Kakashi applied more pressure and blood beaded on the tip of the weapon. It would be easy to lean forward, put his weight behind the blade, and slice through the boy's windpipe, severing veins and arteries. Sasuke would be dead before anyone could stop it.

Just like Sakura. Kakashi's body tipped forward, hand pressing down until he felt the choked gulp of air that Sasuke took. Logic clawed for the surface, fighting through the emotion in Kakashi as the stream of blood increased, trickling down Sasuke's neck.

"Sensei!" The world stopped for a second or third time, Kakashi had long since lost count. Beneath him, Sasuke startled as well. Without a shred of remorse, Kakashi used that moment to slam his fist against the boy's temple hard enough to knock him unconscious.

As he pushed himself off Sasuke, Kakashi's breath hitched in his throat. He could have killed Sasuke easily, but Naruto and Yamato stood on the other end of the bridge, watching him and Kakashi couldn't, as much as he wanted to. There were six feet between Kakashi and Sakura's body, three dozen between them and the other Leaf shinobi. Deep grey and red eyes focused on Naruto, the embodiment of hope and sunlight, and Kakashi knew. Knew that in a moment, the boy would never be the same. Sakura's death at Sasuke's hands would shatter him in the same way that Obito's and Rin's had shattered Kakashi.

Kakashi's gaze slid past Naruto to meet Yamato's eyes, and a look of understanding passed between them, even with the distance. The other man closed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, stopping him. Kakashi closed his eyes against the swell of pain, and stumbled toward Sakura. She laid where she fallen, body slumped and broken like a discarded doll. Shame surged inside of Kakashi. If he had been a heartbeat faster, he could have stopped Sasuke, taken the chidori for Sakura, done something. But I wasn't, I never am, the pain screamed.

Every nerve fired like lightning, pins and needles tingled through his hands, but Kakashi felt numb everywhere else. Except his lungs and heart, those squeezed so tightly that he wasn't sure he wouldn't faint. Despite every effort, he still couldn't draw a breath. His knees gave way just short of Sakura's side, and Kakashi couldn't bring himself to look at the ruin of her chest, or the blood pooling beneath her body. I'm couldn't stop, Rin, I tried. I wasn't fast enough, Sakura. I'm sorry.

Pain tore through Kakashi's chest, and sob rattled free before he could stop it. The man grabbed frantically for his walls, trying to force them tighter around himself before the full weight of loss overwhelmed him. They splintered and crumbled as he slid one arm under Sakura and lifted her against him. Kami, she's light, Kakashi thought, because that was easier than admitting she was gone.

For a moment, Kakashi's vision doubled, and though it didn't seem possible, the bands around his chest tightened. He saw Rin's face, brown eyes wide with pain, and heard her whisper his name through the blood bubbling from her mouth. Kakashi wanted to slam his fists into the ground at the unfairness of another person torn away too early. Another part wanted to shatter. Kakashi realized he was rapidly surrendering to the latter.

"Sensei." The whispered word drew Kakashi's eyes open, and he found himself staring into Sakura's vividly green depths. She swallowed audibly, trying to make her voice work but pain robbed half of the words. "-hurts."

Sakura's eyes fluttered shut and she drifted back toward unconsciousness as Kakashi's glanced at the wound. Her shirt and cloak were a mess of scorched fabric and blood, but the hole looked smaller than it should have. After killing dozens of people with chidori, Kakashi was intimately aware of the devastation it caused. This wound was higher, at least a full two inches above her heart, and further to the right. Kakashi trained Sasuke, knew the deadly accuracy the sharingan provided. How could the boy miss?

Yamato and Naruto approached, but after glancing at Kakashi, the pair moved toward Sasuke. His former ANBU teammate needed to use his jutsu to secure Sasuke before he regained consciousness. Otherwise, all of this would have been in vain. It bothered Kakashi that Sasuke had been so easy to overwhelm. He'd hardly put up a fight. If anything, he'd attempted to provoke Kakashi's anger more.

The jonin noticed something catching the sunlight in Sakura's right hand and gently pushed it open. A tiny syringe slid from her palm and Kakashi caught it before it could hit the ground. Whatever liquid had been inside of it was gone, plunger pushed all the way down. Had Sakura poisoned Sasuke as he attempted to kill her? It was a possibility.

Kakashi turned back to Yamato and Naruto. Sasuke had been wrapped securely from shoulder to hip with wooden bands, and was being carried by two of Naruto's shadow clones. It wasn't ideal transport for a wanted ninja, but it would have to do given the situation. Both looked to Kakashi for an answer about Sakura.

The girl's consciousness came and went too quickly for him to ask how much blood she'd lost, or how bad the damage was. Kakashi looked at the angle of Sasuke's attack. It wasn't straight through her chest, the way a killing blow would have been. Instead, Sasuke missed, or purposely angled his attack upward. The attack was too high to hit Sakura's lungs or heart, and too far to the right to hit the arteries behind her collar bone. In fact, it was in the one spot that wouldn't kill her, though the Uchiha had shattered her shoulder.

He didn't intend to kill her, Kakashi realized with a cold start. Sasuke had attacked Sakura, in clear view of Kakashi, knowing what kind of response that would evoke. Why? What could he have gained? Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he looked at Sasuke's limp form. Even after, he never fought back. Did he want me to kill him? That was a possibility too, one Kakashi didn't like.

"Can we move her?" Yamato asked, startling Kakashi from his thoughts. Sakura had gone limp in the man's arms, and he used that pain free moment to remove her cloak. Deftly, he slid a kunai through the shoulder of her shirt and peeled back the bloody fabric. Kakashi could see the torn muscles and shattered bone in the wound.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, she managed to stop the bleeding before she passed out. But if it starts bleeding again, none of us will be able to stop it." He sighed. "I'll send Pakkun ahead to see if Tsunade has come out of her coma. She or Shizune are the only ones that might be able to heal Sakura. You, Naruto, and Sasuke should meet her."

"Kakashi-senpai," Yamato interjected, frowning. "The Leaf needs you. If Tsunade-sama is still in her coma, you know they intend to name-"

"It can wait." Kakashi growled as he eased Sakura back to the ground. "Do you really want to be the one to explain to Tsunade-sama that you let her student die because it was more convenient?"

Yamato paled, and Kakashi was about to continue when Sakura stirred. The girl coughed, then blinked several times, trying to fit memories together. The amount of blood she'd lost had to be muddling her thoughts.

Against all logic, Sakura smiled at Kakashi. "You're cute," she hummed softly. "Your hair is pretty, like starlight."

Kakashi pointedly ignored the cough from Yamato. "Focus Sakura," he said gently. "How badly are you hurt?"

The girl exhaled as her eyes closed again. "Mostly stable."

Those two words were a lifeline that Kakashi didn't know he needed, and he clung to them desperately as Sakura faded from consciousness. She wasn't in immediate danger, though badly wounded. If Tsunade had wakened from her coma, or Shizune came, or Sakura regained some of her strength, there was a chance that they would be able to save her.

Kakashi looked up at Yamato and saw the argument forming in his eyes. "When she wakes up, I'll see if she can stabilize the wound enough to get back to the inn we were staying at. Meet us there?" Yamato grudgingly nodded as Kakashi summoned Pakkun and explained the situation. The small pug took one look at Sakura and sprang away; the others followed suit soon after.

When they were alone, Kakashi cleaned Sakura's wound, pressing clean bandages to the front and back, then wrapped it tightly to her body. He tried not worry about whether she would wake up again as he idly smoothed pink hair away from her forehead.

Sakura opened her eyes and tried to startle, but Kakashi gently wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay, Sakura, I've got you."

"Sasuke," she gasped, tears forming in her eyes. When she saw Kakashi, the tears redoubled. The jonin tried not to feel crushed that Sasuke was the first name on her lips. Kakashi's own came seconds later as she whimpered, words slurring together. "Shoulda killed him."

Kakashi chuckled and bent down to kiss her forehead through his mask. "If he hurts you again, I will," he vowed, meaning the words as much as anything he'd ever said.