Kakashi cried out as the thorns sank into him. Blood spilled freely, and Sayami smiled faintly. The whip thickened, darkening as it absorbed more of his blood.
"I must thank you," she said, her voice almost conversational. "I could not bring many blood reserves. This mission came suddenly. You are being very cooperative. Bleed more, would you?"
Kakashi's vision blurred. His chakra was dangerously low, strained by the constant drain of the Sharingan. Since Obito's eye had been implanted, his reserves had never truly recovered. He knew that he had only one option left.
He gathered chakra desperately, forcing it into his right hand despite the agony tearing through his arm. Lightning screamed to life, the sound of thousand bids became piercing and feral.
"Chidori."
With his chidori, he tore free of the bindings, severing the blood thorns in a spray of crimson liquid. He surged forward, tunnel vision narrowing everything to a single point in front of him. Pain vanished beneath the drive to strike.
Sayami laughed softly. "Don't kill me."
Kakashi pushed harder, lightning flaring brighter as he closed the distance, his Chidori aimed straight for her chest.
"Kidding'," she added lightly. "You should be more careful of your surroundings."
Blood erupted beneath his feet, coiling around his ankles like living chains. His momentum turned against him as he was yanked backward, slammed into the earth again and again. Each impact knocked the breath from his lungs, and his brain jolted inside his skull.
Then he heard it from the side. "Kakashi, fall back."
Guy's voice, strained but resolute, cut through the chaos. Kakashi twisted his head just in time to see a blinding blue aura envelop his teammate. The pressure was overwhelming, even from a distance.
His heart sank.
"No… Guy, don't."
Sayami followed his gaze, curiosity piqued. "What is that?" she asked, genuinely interested.
Kakashi struggled to rise, his body refusing to respond. He could not think anything to use against his opponent. "Dammit… he's opening it. Seventh Gate… Gate of Wonder. His body can't bear."
Sayami tilted her head slightly, assessing the situation. "What happened? You said I should be worried about my teammate. He is strong, though not stronger than me. Your teammate will die. See."
Just then, the battlefield seemed to warp again as Guy's red aura surged higher, his body trembling on the brink of being broken down. Kakashi felt that Guy was preparing to cross the final line.
The Eighth Gate.
Yushiro moved first.
Blood surged around his feet in a violent tide, propelling him forward faster than the eye could track. A razor sharped blood blade formed instantly. Before Guy could complete the transition, before the final gate could fully open, Yushiro struck.
The slash was clean and deep.
Guy's body jerked, then stilled, the aura shattered like glass as it dissipated into nothingness.
Kakashi's scream tore from his throat and he shouted like an animal. "NOOOOOO! GUYYY!"
Something inside him snapped. His left eye burned like molten iron, Three tomoe spinning violently as chakra surged out of control. The world twisted, colors bleeding into one another, as the Sharingan transformed.
Mangekyō Sharingan.
Kakashi dropped to one knee, breath hitching as tears mixed with blood fell beneath his mask. The battlefield blurred from his eyes.
Kakashi had no will left to live. Everyone he had been close to was gone one by one, each death carving something out of him that could never be healed.
It had started with the Third Hokage, the pillar of the village. The man who had believed in him, who had stood as proof that his presence alone would win the war... even with that power he still died. Then Obito... crushed beneath boulder, dying with a smile. Rin followed, her death delivered by his own hand, her body collapsing against him as the world broke. From the grief, he was probed to join the root by their now Hokage, Danzo.
Even his sensei had been taken piece by piece. Minato, once the embodiment of speed, returned from the battlefield maimed, his right hand gone, his reputation shredded by rumors calling him a coward for leaving the Hokage to die. The cheerful presence Kakashi remembered never truly came back. And then Kushina, Minato's love, was taken away. After that, Minato's eyes were always distant and hollow, as if a part of him had already died just like what he was experiencing.
And now Guy.
Guy, who had no reason to be here on this mission... insisted on coming even joining the root because he was worried about my sinking too far into silence. Guy, who laughed too loudly, trained too hard, and believed with sincerity that effort could overcome any strength.
The world slowed and lost its color, sounds dulled. The battlefield became distant, as if he were watching it through glass. His Mangekyō burned, but even that pain felt far away.
He remembered his life moments instead.
The day he became a jōnin. Standing stiff and wanting to prove my worth in the war while Hiruzen-sama spoke. Obito grunted about him becoming a jōnin. Rin holding out a carefully prepared medical kit, her smile shy but proud. But the same Obito in the moments of death plucked his Sharingan into Kakashi's hands with that same ridiculous grin, calling it a gift, calling him a hero and asking him to protect Rin.
And Minato.
His sensei had handed him a kunai. Simple, three-pronged, heavier than it looked.
"For emergencies," he had said lightly. "If you're ever truly in danger."
Kakashi's breath caught.
A kunai.
His hand moved on instinct, fingers reaching into the pocket at his thigh. His vision tunneled as metal brushed against skin. He pulled it free, and the shape confirmed.
Three prongs, he conformed with the feel in his hand as he could not see with his blurry eyes.
His pulse thummed in his ears. I won't let any single one of them leave alive.
Even jf he had to die, then he would take them with him, every one of them. He would call Minato-sensei here, even if it meant dragging death down upon the battlefield. He no longer cared about consequences.
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A/N: Upto 20 Advance chapters available @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0
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