Title: The Salvation of Naruto Uzumaki
Word Count: 1193
Rating: K+, for mentions of nakedidity.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only (partly) own the text.

So. I've been wanting to try out the 1sentence prompts from the livejournal community (http:// community (dot) livejournal (dot) com/1sentence/, if you're interested). I couldn't really think of a better couple than KakaNaru/NaruKaka to try it out with. It's a really slow progression romance, though you don't necessarily have to look at it that way. I don't think they even kiss. The couple is supposed to be more about soulmates, rather than a physical relationship, if you know what I mean. I can't claim entire ownership either. I got bored halfway through--uninspired, anyway--so the wonderful J T Elroy took over for me. See if you can tell where the break begins. He really stayed true to the theme I wanted originally, so I'm really happy about this fic. Go check him out, if you're interested.

1. Motion: Naruto is always in motion, tapping his fingers or laughing; Kakashi can stay still for hours.

2. Cool: Naruto thinks his goggles are cool—Kakashi thinks they look ridiculous.

3. Young: Being around Naruto makes Kakashi feel young—for the moment his bones don't ache and the spirits of too many lost comrades don't weigh as heavily.

4. Last: Every time someone else dies, Naruto swears they will be the last; Kakashi watches as he is forced to break those vows, learning slowly what it truly means to be a shinobi.

5. Wrong: The look on Sasuke's face when his corpse is brought in is so wrong, containing nothing of his old self; Naruto vomits in the bushes and Kakashi feels only the sting of failure.

6. Gentle: Kakashi has dulled over the years: everything has become softer as he gradually becomes one of the oldest shinobi in the village—middle aged civilians are older than he.

7. One: By the time Naruto becomes Hokage, he is the only one of team seven left; his new position yields little solace.

8. Thousand: The responsibility of a thousand people is heavier than Naruto could have thought; only Kakashi seems to understand how difficult life has become.

9. King: In the face of danger, Kakashi tells Naruto stories about brave kings of the past; it is all the courage he can give.

10. Learn: The village comes to learn ho powerful the Akatsuki are at a heavy price—the defeat of the organization is paid for by the blood of too many.

11. Blur: The days blur together for Kakashi: peace offers no distinguishing events to separate the days, so he simply lets himself be carried along.

12. Wait: Naruto watches his old teacher detach more and more, waiting for death; he wishes he knew how to save the old man.

13. Change: Change, to Naruto, has come to mean the death of a friend; change to Kakashi is constant and he can no longer keep up.

14. Command: The change of command comes when Naruto is 27; he has been Hokage for 10 years and it has broken him.

15. Hold: Naruto does not go back to active duty after he retires—he is too worn out, and he has the feeling that there is something he wants but cannot do.

16. Need: In a way, Naruto and Kakashi need each other—kindred spirits found too early, or too late, broken into pieces.

17. Vision: Naruto sometimes teases Kakashi about being one eyed ("Cyclops!"), but Kakashi takes it in stride: in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

18. Attention: The two pay no attention to the passing years- they are two men forgotten by a village that has moved on.

19. Soul: "Do you think men have souls?" Naruto asks Kakashi sadly, but he doesn't answer.

20. Picture: They make quite the picture, Naruto knows: an old man obsessed with porn and a middle-aged jinchuuriki obsessed with teasing him.

21. Fool: "They're all fools 'Kashi. I can't look at them anymore," Naruto declares on the morning of his birthday—the hurt in his eyes is contrasted by the festival outside.

22. Mad: Sometimes Kakashi is sure he's going to lose his mind, but Naruto's smile fights back all of Kakashi's demons.

23. Child: "If I had a kid, I don't think I'd want them to be a shinobi," Naruto murmurs, "we grew up too fast- we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into until it was too late."

24. Now: They don't ever talk about the future, don't even think of it: living in the present is hard enough.

25. Shadow: Sometimes a shadow of team seven hangs over them; sometimes they are alone, and sometimes that's worse.

26. Goodbye: One day, Naruto doesn't say goodbye, doesn't leave—he just stays at Kakashi's house.

27. Hide: Naruto makes no effort to hide the fact that he is happiest at home with Kakashi, and Kakashi lets on that he feels the same way, although he is less obvious about it.

28. Fortune: Over dinner (which is ramen) Naruto asks "Do you believe in fortune? Fate?"; Kakashi doesn't know if he does or not, and only produces a "hmmm" for a response.

29. Safe: Their mutual company brings comfort: a feeling of safety in an uncaring world that has forgotten the both of them.

30. Ghost: Kakashi begins to see ghosts of the other members of Team 7—Naruto can only rub his back in comfort, avoiding the realization that Kakashi is truly getting old, and not just by shinobi standards.

31. Book: Naruto reads a romance novel one day; he is surprised by the resemblance the story bears to his own life—he can't bear to read the ending: by that point the book was already too heartbreaking… how pitiful those two lovers were.

32. Eye: Kakashi's eye begins to cloud over—his age is taking his sight.

33. Never: "Never, never, never," Naruto repeats endlessly next to Kakashi's bed—the sickness of time has begun to take root in his old teacher's body.

34. Sing: Naruto sings Kakashi to sleep with tears in his eyes; Kakashi groans in pain that his dying body is giving him, despite the comfort Naruto's voice brings.

35. Sudden: Kakashi's death is sudden: one night while Naruto is singing, Kakashi closes his eyes and stops breathing; Naruto shakes his body, calling his name for hours to no avail.

36. Stop: For Naruto, the world has come to a halt: the center of his world is gone.

37. Time: Time passes but Naruto doesn't care anymore: he has nothing left to live for, and nobody left to live with.

38. Wash: Naruto begins to go weak: he is not as strong as he once was; he is flooded by painful memories of Team 7.

39. Torn: In his solitude, Naruto begins to write, but he is torn between writing a romance, biography, or memoir: he decides it doesn't matter and begins to write what he feels.

40. History: In a year, Naruto finishes the book; it becomes known as The History of Team 7.

41. Power: Naruto has no power left in him: his life is almost at its end.

42. Bother: Naruto lies in bed all day now, as that's all he can do with as little strength as he has fans of his book come to bother him, but he pays no attention.

43. God: As he lies in bed, Naruto begins to wonder about God: he decides it really doesn't matter.

44. Wall: Naruto looks at the wall of his room: Kakashi's picture of Naruto still hangs there, and looking at it brings him to tears.

45. Naked: Naruto lies in bed naked when he dies; he doesn't like the thought of dying in his clothes, they might hold his soul down.

46. Drive: No one knows what drove one idle fan to break into Naruto's house, but that fan was the man who found Naruto dead.

47. Harm: He was not charged, because he insisted he meant no harm: he only wanted to get his copy signed.

48. Precious: The village had lost a precious hero, and he was given a hero's burial; fans of his book knew he must be happy that he was buried next to Kakashi.

49. Hunger: A hunger for knowledge of the man who was given such a ceremony at his death lead to many more of copies of Naruto's book being published; the memory of Team 7 did not fade away.

50. Believe: Many years later, people still visited his grave, and every visitor believed the same thing: Naruto was happy now.