There is a voice screaming in her head that won't let her give up. For once, she can't hear the numbing reiterations of shinobi mandate - there is only fire, blood, and a desperate, desperate will for vengeance.
...
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"We won."
The true dawn breaches the horizon, traces of the horrific puppet world withering away before their very eyes. The worst war they've ever known is over.
Kakashi is the only one who seems to respond to her. His eyes meet hers and it's-- the same. Loss. The kids are loud, lost in the bustle of the world waking up once more, basking in the glory of victory, but they are so far.
She closes her eyes and breathes deep, deep, deep. To the depths of her being, to where she hung up all she is and clung to it like a lifeline, once, not all too long ago. Yesterday, the day before. Today. To the salvation that was taught and learned and remembered. Her breath mists in front of her and sinks back, deep, heavy.
When she speaks, it's into the void that always listens.
We won, sensei.
But now, no one answers.
(And again, she's back to where she started. Alone.)
---
There are people around her, more than she remembers. And they are loud. The fragments of their conversation drag her consciousness back to her surroundings. Her eyes blink open slowly, her senses assaulted all at once by the overwhelming scent of blood. She scowls. Instinctively, she tries scrounging up chakra to send out as feelers for her surroundings, only to draw a complete blank.
Her heart stills at the unfamiliarity of it. This has never happened before. Not to Kaede. (But that's not who she is now.)
"-s not what happened!" The one closest to her is the most familiar, the one Masamune's lot were hunting, his back to her (how easy would it be to kill him now?) and his voice frantic. (Ah, she can't kill him. Not when she's barely alive herself.) "I know she's an Uchiha, but-"
