Happily Ever After (Finished)

The Last One Left

Kakashi could only stare as his students - no family - died in front of his eyes. 

Sakura was the first to go.

 Madara exploded the infirmary and all the buildings near it.

Thousands more died after her. They had lost their head medic, that alone was a tragedy.

Sasuke went next, fighting alongside Naruto, brothers as they had always been.

He went down shielding Naruto from an attack.

Naruto blamed himself to the very end.

Sakura was the first of his students, not the Konoha 12, and definitely not the last.

They were all trying to stall Madara, for the slim chance that maybe, just maybe, they could buy enough time for the others to come up with a plan.

It didn't work.

Lee

Tenten

Neji

Hinata

Kiba

Ino

The list goes on and on.

The senseis died soon after their teams, engulfed in so much rage and guilt that their moves were lazy.

They all died fighting for their fallen students.

Now it was just Kakashi and what seemed to be the endless sea of dead bodies. He could hardly recognize most of them, their faces covered in blood, their hair sticking to their sticky faces.

All he wanted was Gai to jump out of the dead grass and shout, "Kakashi, my youthful rival!"

Or Sasuke to say "Hn, dobe." to Naruto when he was being an idiot.

He missed the ramen stand that Naruto loved so much, and how they used to eat there as a team, even after Sasuke went on his quest for revenge. 

But the stand was rubble now, if there even was that much left, with his friends, his family, his purpose for living.

They were all gone.

Madara just laughed at the state the once famed Copycat Ninja was in.

Madara wanted to torture him. 

So he didn't kill him.

He could only think about how he was in this position in the first place, how he could've let this happen, as Naruto faded in his arms.

He had a faint pulse, too faint.

Naruto mumbled incoherent words.

"What?" Kakashi's voice was faint, his soul already shattered from the losses and the one that was going to be added to them.

"Go..." Naruto coughed and tried again, "Good...lu-ck." He finished, choking again.

Kakashi was confused. Good luck for what? There was no one else here. 

"Naruto? You can't leave me, not like they did! You have to help me. We were going to celebrate your engagement with Hinata! We were going to win and then you could be Hokage like you always wanted to be. Please..."

"Sor...ry sen..sei. Sa...ve th..em." Naruto was barely breathing at this point.

"What..." Now Kakashi was really confused. Save who? They were all dead.

Naruto, with all of his remaining strength, reached up and took Kakashi's hand in his own and smiled up at him.

The next thing Kakashi knew he was in a bed in his old apartment, the one his father died in.

He passed out right there and then, consumed by guilt and sorrow. His chakra was too low to move much, and he had been fighting for a while so, naturally, he was tired.

Even in his sleep tears rolled down his face.