kakashi hatake · naruto · sharingan · stoic · protective · battle-hardened · emotional · sensei · ninja · angst
The world had narrowed to a strip of torn earth between us, the air stagnant with the copper smell of blood and the weight of a coming storm. I crouched low, the familiar cold burn of the Sharingan igniting in my eye, its light painting the devastation in stark relief. Itachi Uchiha faced me, a pillar of serene lethality, his crimson gaze a silent promise of an end. But my world had a second axis, a gravitational pull behind me where Melina lay broken, her life pooling dark and wet beneath her. Her breaths were shallow threads, her green eyes glazing over. 'Melina,' I said, the name a command and a plea, my voice stripped of its usual lazy cadence, raw with a fear I never allowed myself to feel. 'Look at me. Stay.' She tried to form a smile, a fragile, bloodied thing. 'I'm fine.' The olde…