Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its characters, its storyline, or any related trademarks.

Warnings: this story isn't exactly linear, also violence and character death

regret not a thing
by: theevilmuffin

x-x-x-x

Kakashi regrets time wasted. He regrets missed opportunities and failed expectations. He regrets the lies he's so carefully woven to protect himself. He regrets not admitting what was truly important to him. He regrets not being on time.

Time has failed Kakashi, again.

"You're late," Naruto murmurs.

Too late, Kakashi thinks.

Naruto stands at the end of a wake of destruction, caked entirely in the blood of others. Smoke and ash still flutters from the blackened sky. Forests and mountains are flattened and charred behind the blond shinobi. Several chakra sources are winking out, flickering out into death at last, like a candle going out in his mind's eye. Forty yards back, surrounded in his own blood, the masked Akatsuki lies, body crumpled and crushed, his orange mask in pieces around him.

Kyubi did this, Kakashi knows.

Naruto is clutching his face now. The Kyubi is still trying to take over. It has tasted freedom and it wants more. Naruto's face sets in a grimace as he tries to contain it. One half of his face twitches and his eye swirls between blue and red behind his fingers. His fangs are bared in pure, unadulterated rage, but there are tears streaming down from his one eye. His one eye, still pure blue, still unaffected, is staring at Kakashi with something that only could be described as infinite sadness. The grimace on his face, as he battles the Kyubi in his mind, is battling the starting creases of a deepset grief.

As more and more chakras wink out in the back, Kakashi notices a pair of slowly fading chakra at the very origin of the wake of destruction.

'What's going on?' Kakashi thinks. He wants to shake Naruto's shoulders to get him out of his stupor, to yell and say some very harsh and probably stupid things, but those people out there are-

One of the chakra signatures in the distance suddenly flickers out. It doesn't come back.

Kakashi is frozen, staring wide-eyed in the direction that the chakra used to be. Kakashi can do nothing as Naruto collapses on the ground in tears.

Naruto regrets his optimism. He regrets believing the best of everyone and that people can change. He regrets pushing others to change – allowing others to change.

He feels Sakura's arms around him, pulling him away from an attack that was meant to kill.

They hit the ground. The ground is hard, a rocky clearing near the edge of a forest. A jutting rock jars Naruto's shoulder and forces him to stagger back up, but Sakura tumbles agily to her feet.

They regroup, prepare to go on the offensive. Their tactics are obvious to each other and Naruto is thankful that it is someone he knows so well that is with him at this moment, because he thinks that he might break otherwise. That he might be forced to do something he never wanted to do.

For one brief moment, Sakura looks Naruto in the eyes. Her face is set with sadness, with determination.

"Next time, we'll get him back together," her voice, distant from a memory, says in his mind.

Then the Sakura in front of him is gone. She leaps over the rock they were crouched behind and charges the enemy. Already, Naruto can see the enemy's counter-attack in the making. In the set of his eyes, in the twitch of his left hand, the jerk of his right shoulder.

'No! Defend!' He screams in his mind, but Sakura's offense does not falter. She flies towards the enemy with a speed that even Naruto was unaware that she possessed. Her limbs are still lax, but the chakra encasing her hand blazes all the mightier.

She leaps to attack.

Where is the weak Sakura that let him do all the work? Naruto wonders. Where is the friend who remained unharmed and never took the hits meant for him? Where is the girl who stayed on the sidelines – who stayed safe?

The tip of the enemy's sword peeks out from between her shoulder blades, impaled neatly through her ribcage. Blood seeps into the red fabric of her shirt.

Her fist is just short of his chest. She couldn't make the killing blow.

Couldn't? Or wouldn't? Naruto wonders.

Time slows for Naruto. Grief throws itself into rage and he loses the reins on the Kyubi. Already he can feel the burning chakra coat his skin. His mind goes blissfully blank.

Outside, the Kyubi grins and charges his enemy with a snarl.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke regrets not picking life over vengeance. He regrets not getting to know Team 7 better. He regrets not being the brother Naruto wanted. He regrets not being the lover Sakura needed. He regrets not believing that Naruto and Sakura could make him happy.

(Because, in truth, they did.)

Sasuke stares at the sky, unable to do anything else. Naruto had torn out his throat in a fit of rage. Sanctioned, Kyubi had taken off after Madara when it realized Sasuke could no longer fight.

To his right, Sasuke can hear Sakura's laboured breaths, his sword still pierced through her.

There is a cough, then movement.

"Sasuke?" Her voice is weak.

Sasuke can't speak. The open wound on his throat gurgles with blood. His vision is going, too, so maybe that's why the sky is suddenly pink.

There is a soft touch on his arm, on his cheek.

It's her hair, it's her – Sakura. She is next to him.

Fuzzily, he wonders what she'll do now. Finish him off? Drain his chakra to heal herself? Tell him he's a monster and that he's deserved everything?

He feels her hands on his throat and smiles, anticipating the blissful hell that will await him.

He lulls into a restful trance.

He feels her hair near his ear. Then, she whispers, "Let me tell you a secret, Sasuke-kun."

He expects her to say so many hateful things, but what she says is nothing he expected.

"Even after everything – I love you."

Suddenly, Sasuke becomes aware of his flesh knitting back together, of the chakra pouring out of her and into him.

Her head is on his shoulder, unable to support itself. The sword is gone from her body and blood is leaking freely from the wound. It pools around her on the ground and begins slide along Sasuke's arm.

The chakra in her hand flickers – her shoulders jerk.

She falls to the ground, spasming.

Sasuke, refreshed and healed, scrambles and hunches over her, tries to stabilize her.

Her chest heaves for air. There is blood between her lips. Her wide, blank eyes find him.

She smiles.

Her hand reaches up, brushes his collar, and then falls back to the ground. Her chakra is gone, like a candle so easily blown out by a stray breeze.

Sasuke bows his head and draws her limp body to his. He holds her as if it's enough to keep her here with him – to bring her back.

There is still a smile on her lips.

Sakura regrets nothing.

x-x-x-x

END