Mask Off, Spot On

Chapter 6.3

You woke up in Konoha's Hopital with the agonising cries and screams of both those inside and outside of the building. You quickly saw the cause of so much pain, it being Pain himself, who mercilessly killed and destroyed everyone and everything down on his path.

Kakashi Hatake was meant do die today, and you didn't want to rely on the possibility of Naruto's success in destroying Pain and giving sense back to Nagato, Pain's puppet master, to prevent otherwise.

You cared deeply for everyone. But Sakura was at the medical centre, and Sasuke, with his mangekyo, wouldn't go down easily. All you had to do was to go out there and prevent that final blow to reach Kakashi. If you'd remembered correctly, it was Pain that sent a metalic object right through his sharingan eye that ended his life.

You just had to stop that from happening.

As you quickly left the Hospital in a hurry, you could hear cries of pain and rage all around you. You first went over to where your appartment used to, and was supposed to be. You were able to dodge any unwanted attacks along the way.

It seemed like it was about to fall down on your head.
You still ran inside and picked up your weapons pouch, and a katana. That katana, you'd kept it for months thinking it could be a new way for you to be able to fight, but never muttered the courage to pick it up after you bought it. Now, it was now; or never.

As you ran outside your house you suddenly stopped. A weird feeling overcame you, like you'd been stabbed in the heart. You felt a chill run down your spine, whilst the crumbling sounds of your house began to reach your ears. You looked backwards to watch it fall apart behind you.

The home you'd spent 3 years living in was now gone, just like that.

But no, perhaps that was wrong.

The true home that kept you company through this whole time; you had to prevent it from being disrupted as well.

You just had to prevent that one blow, and he'd be okay.

...Hopefully.

You ran and ran, looking for your sensei, screaming his name, dodging attacks and rocks that flew through the air. Even if Pain didn't attack you then, the environment could've killed you by now if you weren't careful enough.

You soon reach an area where all the noise around you begins to muffle. Silence surrounds you, making you feel strangely uneasy.
You begin to look around more carefully, inspecting the lifeless bodies on the ground. Certainly, none would've been his...?

You breath in a deep breath, letting your eyes fall closed, keening your ears. You heard everything: from the dust flying through the floor, the dead leaves that layed on it, and even the muffled noise of screams and cries coming from afar.

Your ears could then catch the sound of ragged breathing. Whose ever it was, it was still alive.  A feeling kicked you in the guts, making you beggin to run towards that sound.

You clench your teeth as soon as the sight of Kakashi stuck inside broken walls and rocks on the ground reached your eyes. You noticed how Pain held a nail in between his fingers, and aimed it towards Kakashi's head.

You threw your shuriken to knock it out of his hand, succeeding, much to your surprise.

Pain slowly raised his glare up at you, and as soon as you saw his eyes, you knew... you were going to die.

But hey, if you were going to die anyway, might as well die trying, right? Protecting someone you cared about, right? Might as well die in style.

"...Pain, I've come to tell you a little something here. Will you listen for a minute?" You say, raising your glare to look straight into his.
"I don't care if you're a masochist; don't go around bothering other people about it. If you want pain, then inflict it on yourself!" You scream, quickly readying your katana to attack.

You decide to infuse the least leak of chakra you had left in your body into the sword, before charging towards Pain.

You saw his attack coming: from a distance, he was about to throw you off as if using the force of gravity itself to do so. Everything suddenly seemed to move in slow motion. So you decided to attack before then: although from a great distance, you swinged your sword, releasing the chakra you'd infused into it, as it slashed through the air, and it hit his chest slashing through. At the same time, his power of "the force" sent you flying several feet back, making you crash against a bunch of rocks piled up on the ground. You immediately felt a head concussion blurring your sight, and your consciousness fading away.

"[Y/N]...--" Kakashi stuttered in pain, his voice hoarse.

You smiled to yourself in response. Yeah, it was fine if he called out your name, it was fine if he was in pain now, at least you knew that he was alive.

Unlike you, whose body had gone numb, not even pain could make your senses activate right now.
And even if Naruto succeeded in defeating Pain by reaching Nagato, you weren't sure if you'd survive... after all, you didn't belong to this world like the others did. So if you died now, that could've just be it.

Your eyes closed slowly, as you readied yourself for what came next.

If you were reborn after this, you hoped that it would be in this world...

****************************

After so much had happened to Konoha, the Sun of the shinobi world, Naruto, succeded in his mission and reached out to Nagato, for he gave back all the lives that Pain had taken.

Deep wounds were healed, and shinobi that were believed to have died already, began to reopen their eyes, and the whole of The Leaf was left to cheers of joy.

But your eyes were still left closed.

Your body raised from the ground, lifted by the one who'd saved you, and the one you now saved, and was held close to his chest. He tightened his grip.

As well as you feared, he'd realised that your downfall wasn't exactly due to Pain's attack, but more over the fact that you'd exausted your chakra completely.

The sky seemed to dimmer down on you, a gray cloud standing above the sun, covering its light.

For a moment, you thought the sky would cry for you.

You open your eyes just to make sure it didn't. And instead of tears, you found the rays of sunshine piercing through the sadness of the clouds, and your eyes soon met the odd coloured ones of Kakashi.

He stared at you wide eyed for a moment, not grasping the reality of the sight you beheld. Your body wouldn't properly move as you'd like it to, so instead, you simply smiled at him. You smiled only enough for him to understand, that you as well, were alive.