Akari Uchiha

Ch. 60 Grief

Once again a Sharingan was bleeding from pain, to manifest that pain into power, the eyes of the Uchiha diluting thin with the effort her Sharingan was making to produce the other two tomoes. Akari's eye cried blood but couldn't unlock the other levels of the Sharingan because of her own blood-limit.

Now she understood what being a half-Uchiha meant.

But the pain in her eye wasn't what was bothering her at the moment.

What bugged her was... she released her strongest fireball yet, but before she could even put up a fight, she had already lost. She knew she was stronger than the amount of strength she displayed... but what was the point of all that training if she couldn't even act in the face of actual distress!?

Her fireball was too late to save Asuma sensei... but Fuu... Fuu was standing right beside her, she just had to turn back and put up a fight and protect Fuu with her life because... she was her friend... and one of the purest people Akari had ever met.

But she froze when she saw Asuma die. And before she knew it... Fuu was dead too.

Her feet were soaked in their blood and she still couldn't move.

Akari buried her face in her knees as she sat curled up on her bed, the newly earned chunin vest thrown beside her. Not like it mattered anymore.

Her and Fuu had decided to meet as chunins from their respective villages, with their flashy new chunin vests.

Now it was pointless.

She glanced weakly at the untouched plate of food lying in front of her that Ohana had kept, urging her to eat since she returned. Beside it, a worn out, unfolded funeral dress was laying.

Akari never wanted to wear it ever again. Even looking at it reminded her of Asuma sensei's funeral, of Kurenai sensei's numb expression as she placed flowers on the grave, before placing a hand on her belly and looking at it sadly.

At that moment Akari knew.

Asuma sensei left his unborn child behind.

It made her feel worse.

She glanced up when she heard the door creaking open and saw Kakashi standing in the hallway.

He was still wearing his funeral clothes, his head-band hanging loosely around his neck and one eye closed.

Since she came back from the exams, she didn't even remember who carried her back and sent her to the hospital, Akari had only ever seen Kakashi at the funeral. He had been on a mission but came right back as soon as he heard the news.

Ah right... Asuma had been one of Kakashi's oldest friends...

Kakashi stared at her wordlessly, before crossing his arms and leaning against the door, taking her mess of a room in.

"In the shinobi world, the world that you live in, at some point or the other you always lose people close to you."

Akari buried her face into her knees again. "I'm not up for a lecture, master."

"Yeah, I see that," Kakashi drawled. "So how long are you planning to stay cooped up here?"

"Forever," came a mumbling voice.

"And what's that going to do, hm?"

Akari blinked away tears, suppressing her sobs.

Kakashi took a few steps inside the room, before he was standing right beside where the Uchiha was sitting on her bed.

"How will you staying cooped up over here, 'forever', help anyone? Will you blaming yourself bring Asuma back? Or any Hidden Waterfall shinobi you saw die?"