Sown

twenty-one

There was no village left.

A vast crater gored the ground where Konoha used to be. She sat on the outer edge, resting on the buildings that had all but been scooped from the earth and dumped into a morbid ring. An arena wall constructed from what used to be their home.

Her mind was blank. It couldn't be true. Everything was gone. Everything. Everything that had been worked for, that had been fought for. It was gone. Destroyed. The battle fought. The struggle felt. The lives lost.

All for naught.

All gone.

Burning lungs snapped Hanae back to reality. She had forgotten how to breathe, lost all will. But her body continued to fight, to not let go, to remind her that if anything, she still had her life and that she must protect it. She coughed roughly into her hand. Somewhere to her right a voice called out. Hanae turned to the direction. She couldn't see anything but the strong voice continued to call out to her.

She pulled herself up, leaning against the now engorged slug to her side as she made her way carefully down the rubble. An overweight boy with long spiky brown hair and red spiralled cheeks beckoned her over. He was surrounded by three similar slugs. The woman collapsed to the ground in front of him and panted with overexertion.

He laid his hand on her back. "Ma'am, are you alright?" His voice was shrill with concern. She could only respond with a nod and a grasp of his hand. Something about the armor decorating his red uniform brought her a familiar comfort, thought of the Land of Iron and her father easing her into a childlike comfort.

Hanae spotted two more on the ground. A man large like the one in front of her lay unconscious, shallow breaths undulating his chest. She assumed the two were related based on the fact that their uniforms were the much the same.

The other was Kakashi, laying motionless and bloody.

Her heart plummeted into her heels. "Kakashi." She choked, reaching out to him. "Kakashi." His face was cold. "Kakashi, it's me." His eyes were closed, forehead protector lost in the destruction. "Kakashi, it's Hanae." His silver locks were matted with dirt. "Kakashi, can you hear me?" She pushed his scarred eyelid open, recoiling at the angry red iris staring back at her. "Kakashi, look at me." His other eye was cloudy and unfocused. "Kakashi?"

" . . . Ma'am. . . "

Hanae leaned over him, motions sluggish as if moving through molasses. Her hand fell from his face to his neck, fingers pressing just under his jaw. Nothing. "Kakashi's this isn't funny." She grasped the zipper of his flak jacket, inching it open with trembling hands. "Kakashi, c'mon." She pressed her knuckles into the center of his chest and gave it a harsh rub. The fabric of his shirt bit at her skin but she kept on in the motion."Kakashi, please." Hanae slowly lowered her ear over his heart.

His chest was silent. There was no heartbeat.

"Ma'am. . ."

Hanae pounced on the fallen man and pressed her hands into his chest. She pushed down into his ribs with the weight of her entire body. Her hair bobbed with the force of her thrusts. After thirty compressions she leaned into his face, pinching his nose closed and breathing hard twice into his masked mouth. His chest swelled with both breathes but he did not respond.

"Ma'am."

She continued the compressions, working herself into a fervor. She abandoned the breathes and focused solely on restarting his heart. Gasps left her mouth with every downward motion, strength behind her hands growing until her left arm bowed.

"Ma'am!" The conscious boy grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away. Hanae struggled in his grasp and screamed out. "Ma'am, your arm!" Crimson bloomed over the fabric, too white bone ripping through the wrappings. The despondent woman ripped away from the shocked shinobi. She continued the previous motion with her right arm but saw that it wasn't working.

Hanae started punching Kakashi's chest, bringing her fist down in violent strikes over his heart. "Kakashi, no! You can't die! You were supposed to come back! You were supposed to bring your heart back to me!" She didn't realize she was crying until his shirt was soaked, black fabric sodden with hot tears. "You can't leave like this!"

The other man finally spoke up. "He died saving me . . . Kakashi-sensei gave his life for my dad and I." He laid a shaking hand on her back, his own cries racking his body. "I'm so sorry."

She collapsed into Kakashi's figure, mouth gaped in anguished wails. Hanae sobbed into his chest and gripped at his shirt, trying feebly to feel close to him one more time. "Please," she begged into his chest.

Her heart was numb and her body moreso.

War had taken its toll.

It vanquished her spirits.

It crushed her heart.

It mangled her body.

It destroyed her home.

It stole innocent lives.

It stole Kakashi.

"Please, don't go. I haven't told you I love you yet. . ."