Scarlette's POV

The world - the agony along with it - came rushing back all at once, leaving me without a moment to catch my breath or prepare myself. Sight, hearing, touch - all overpowered by a flash of pain so vibrant and stark, my head reared back in whiplash.

I felt ready to explode from all the pressure built up in my body, being produced faster than it could be drawn out. Chakra. A seemingly infinite supply that had been lying dormant inside me, all this time, suddenly being unleashed without warning... My body simply couldn't handle the stress.

I only had moments before I was overwhelmed.

And then, a hand reached out, softly enveloped my own, brought with it a wave of relief.

I managed to pry open my tear-stained eyes, fighting back the nausea rolling in my clenched stomach. There stood (or rather, floated) Rin, a halo of light accompanying her; she smiled, seeing my eyes open and focused on her.

"Scarlette." She radiated warmth, the way Ari and Violet radiated insanity. It was a welcome change. "You've been through a lot." Her hand tightened around mine, her smile strained and helpless. "And I'm sorry that I'm the cause of all of it - everything since coming here, anyway."

It struck me that she knew all about our past, not just since arriving in this world - she knew it all. I swallowed thickly, feeling the sticky perspiration begin to break out on my palms. "I don't blame you." I despised just how small and quaking my voice came out, but it couldn't be helped.

Whether Rin believed me or not was irrelevant; she was clearly so engrossed with her own guilt that my opinion on the matter was all but lost on her. And can't I say I minded much. There were things I wished I could take back, things I would like to change. It's a tragedy of life, that not everything goes the way you'd like it. But it's reality, and must be dealt with accordingly.

And not by murdering three semi-innocent teens to bring back a dearly-departed.

That's just ridiculous.

It was only now that I realized that time had once again come to a subtle, rhythmic halt, with only Rin and I caught up in the motion of the world. A bubble of pure light had screened us from prying eyes up until this point, but now I saw that it was gradually dissipating, a mass of glitter falling away in slow-motion. We only had moments left in which we could talk peacefully, and I for one wasn't very enthusiastic about the prospect of tackling Obito once we were free. 

Rin - reading my fractured mind with what Ari later referred to as her epic ghost-y powers that are totally better than that goddamn Casper - gave my slick hand a reassuring squeeze and said, "No need to worry; I'll be with you and your sisters the whole time. Obito won't touch you, I promise."

As the last of the opaque eggshell evaporated, and the quickly-encroaching world brought back the sensation of having my insides scraped out through each and every pore tingling along my feverish skin, Rin mouthed the words live for a future that outweighs your past.

And I found myself smiling, a true Scar smile that Violet claimed was rarer than even the elusive Flying Mint Bunny, despite the feeling of fire rushing through my veins.

My heart skittered, skipped a frightening beat, then pounded like a herd of wild horses as my eyes flashed open to green trees, etheral, curling smoke, and one stupefied Uchiha.

The webs of sparking chakra that had latched onto me, digging beneath paper skin to reach the translucent treasure it guarded, began to recede, trickling in reverse and sliding out from my bruised flesh. Blood welled up in their place, flowing fast and free in a dizzying array that I forced myself to look away from. I was alive, for now; trivial (putting it mildly) matters could be handled when I felt I had the time.

Rin was gone, hidden from my narrow view at least; yet Obito looked as though he'd seen a ghost. Or was currently seeing one, based on the dewdrops of crystalized sadness that were gathering at the corner of his shattered eyes. 

He mouthed one word, over and over and over again.

Rin.

Rin. 

Rin.

Rin, Rin, Rin, Rin. Rin.

I tore my gaze away, looking instead at the slumped, huddled forms of my sisters sprawled out behind me. Ari's shoulder was no longer grating against my spine, as she'd fallen forward, knees drawn up part-way to her chest, trembling arms held around them, face buried in the fabric of her sky-blue shorts she'd been so proud to wear. They were stained a disgusting crimson now.

Her blood.

My blood, as well, if I wasn't mistaken.

A snarl curled my upper lip. We'd been put through hell, and they - both Obito and the Iwa Nin whom he had killed (I could see their smoke-wreathed corpses in the distance) - had reduced my bubbly, cheerful sister to the pathetic, shivering heap she was now.

A kind, merciful death was not in order. Unfortunately, the Iwa Ninja were dead and gone already, leaving only the ever-vexing Obito behind. Could I...?

I pushed away the thought, as well as the crippling pain that surged throughout my body, and turned around to shuffled over to Ari, as Violet had since stirred and pulled herself to the bluenette's side before I'd moved. My eyes roved over the visible, raw burns that marred her once flawless skin, and another round of fury sparked within me. Yes, she'd mostly likely done the damage to herself, but who was it that forced her into casting the jutsu in the first place?

"Ari, Ari, you ok?" Vi whimpered, prodding at Ari's unresponsive arm while I inspected the puncture wounds on her wrists - exactly the same as my own gashes, as Violet's. She seemed to have reacted more violently than I had, the wounds more ragged and deep, the edges slashed as though she's struggled when they first pricked her skin. Bright red blood streamed down her forearms, oozing over the back of her hands, between stiff, white fingers. 

"Oh, Ari," I breathed. She didn't move, didn't twitch. Only her shoulders moved, racked with silent sobs. Freed from the anguish, she'd been as ditsy and shameless as ever in Rin's frozen world; now, with the aftereffects of our torture settling in, she was barely holding up.

A crash caught my attention, snapping me from my anxious daze, and my head shot up in time to see Obito, glistening tear-tracks cutting into his misshapen cheeks, dribbling to his chin, falling in perfect droplets to the bloody ground below, lift his arm, fingers stretching, reaching. All for a filmy apparition hovering mere inches from him.

My heart soared into my throat.

"Rin..."

From here, where I was super-glued to the unstable earth, unable to find any sort of feeling in my legs that would serve to help me stand, I could see Rin's soft, lamenting smile, mirrored in her watery brown eyes. 

Her intangible fingers brushed against Obito's cheek as she dipped her head to place an airy kiss to his brow. His eyes closed, lips parted as though he wanted to speak, but couldn't quite find the words.

I knew the feeling all too well.

"I'm sorry." Her words were breathy, barely above a whisper, but they drifted to my ears all the same. Ari's quaking shoulders still as she continued. "You deserved so much better than I gave you, Obito. So much better."

"No, Rin, you--" he choked.

"Shh" - she placed a finger to his lips, her pained smile faltering a moment - "I don't have a lot of time, and I need to say this to you before the girls' lingering chakra disappears. So, Obito. You have to let go."

At the beginnings of his fruitless protests, she cupped both his cheeks in her weightless hands, and even though I was sure he couldn't feel the warmth of her skin on his own, blood rushed to his cheeks, turning them a faint, rosy pink. "I'm dead, Obito," Rin whispered, pressing her forehead to his, "and nothing you can do will bring me back. I won't allow it. You know I wouldn't want others' lives being sacrificed for my own. You remember, I know you do. Please, please, Obito, forget me, let go. You'll never be able to live again if you don't. You'll be stuck in a pit of memories, wasting away until you die a lonely old man who only sees a ghost of a girl. You have to let me go." 

The air buzzed, awaiting Obito's response. I myself was breathless with anticipation, a tightness in my chest that wouldn't release, save for the answer Rin so dearly wanted to hear. Ari's hand slipped into mine, twined our blood-soaked fingers together; Violet found her free hand and quickly wound her fingers around Ari's. I could just see her amber eyes - half-hidden behind a tangle of sweaty, knotted blue hair - peeking just above her scraped knees.

There was a crescendo to the budding silence, and then:

"You're my light, Rin. All I'll ever see is you."

Panic crossed her ashen face as our hands simultaneously clenched, our disappointment palpable in the charged air. As much as I loathed Obito for all he'd done to us (uprooting us from our home being the least important factor among them), I wanted to see Rin's cheerful smile, that twinkle in her eye she'd shown me not too long ago. With this, the only thing that show in her once bright gaze was a terrible, terrible fear.

"Obito, no! You can't--" She made a grab for his outstretched hand only to have her fingers pass through his living flesh, and what was worse, her already hazy form started to shimmer, a precusor to fading from this world altogether, I guessed. Her head whipped around. We locked gazes, saw the dismay, the regret blossoming in her wide, wavering eyes. 

Her lips formed the words I'm sorry.

Her apparent mantra.

She winked out of existence, just like that.

A heavy, suffocating silence spread over the clearing, unbroken, unyielding. Not a soul breathed, not a creature dared to move. 

Obito's hand had yet to fall, hanging in the air, hovering, like he still clung to the vague hope that Rin would return to him so long as he always kept an open palm out for her. Neither gravity nor time seemed to have an effect on him.

Then, Ari sneezed (followed shortly by Violet, her blonde hair flying in all concievable directions), and his attention was drawn sharply to us once again.

"You." He stood, his movements lethargic, weighted, like one emerging from a hundred-year slumber, only just regaining control of his stiff limbs. "I don't know when exactly, but Rin" - even with all that had happened, her name fell from his lips with the utmost care, the utmost passion - "placed a sealing jutsu on the three of you, locking away that untapped power of yours."

A frightful sneer pulled at his lips, wrinkling his whitened skin even further. "Without that, you're worthless. Three little brats lost in a world they don't understand. What a tragedy. You must be scared, hm?" Something glinted in his hand, caught the meager sunlight and threw it back into the mist. Metal. A kunai. "What pitiful creatures you are, girls.... Shall I... put you out of your misery, so that you don't share the same fate as me?"

Violet screamed. I remember that, so vividly the sound still haunts my nightmares on nights when sleep is hard to come by and ever harder to hold down. Ari only stared, her eyes wide and unblinking, as Obito rushed towards us, his kunai poised for three successive kills, teeth bared in a manic snarl, his eyes alive with the intense madness Rin's departure had instilled in him. 

I don't quite remember my own reaction, and neither Ari nor Violet can recall it themselves. There was no sound tearing from my lips, or widening of my hooded eyes. I must have been quite calm in the wake of everything I'd seen, all I'd done, all the emotions that had spilled from me, thick and free as the blood that was now crusting in thin, dusty lines over my scarred skin. 

What I do remember, with as much clarity as the eerie sound Vi somehow managed to produce, was the moment when the earth itself erupted, thrusting forth a white blur that intercepted Obito, and the rain of crimson that fell in a dusky drizzle afterwards, painting the world in death.

Obito's body thumped to the ground, skidded a few feet, halted a little ways before our feet. 

Blind with rage, lost to his insanity, he'd been unable to avoid the katana that had curved round and pierced his gut, before ripping upwards into his chest, severing muscles and cracking into ribs with sickening ease.

Ari was the first to suck in a sharp breath, leaning forwards slightly, as though she thought her eyes might be playing tricks on her. 

"...H-Hibiki Sensei...?" she croaked uncertainly.

Violet joined the chant, gasping, "Sensei! Sensei!"

I merely cocked a dumbfounded brow. Everything was surreal. Everything felt unreal. "....Sensei."

He was spattered with blood - none of which appeared to be his own, as he lacked any sort of laceration or bruising on his fair skin. Strands of ivory hair had fallen across his forehead and cheeks, pasted their with cooling sweat; his chest heaved with every ragged breath that passed over his parted lips. One hand was balled up into a lethal-looking fist, held loosely at his side; the other was wrapped around a familiar hilt.

It belonged to the same sword that had nearly done me in, what felt like a lifetime ago.

It must have been discarded by its previous owner (obviously, being dead, he didn't very well need it anymore), and Hibiki Sensei simply plucked it up before burrowing underground to cut Obito off. 

His hooded teal eyes, darkened with an emotion I failed to interpret, slid around to us, momentarily disregarding the enemy he'd left bleeding out in the mud.

"Girls..." He dropped the sword, took a tentative step forward. "Kami, I'm sorry. I didn't... I thought..." He took a slow, deep breath, pressing the flat of his palm to his jumping chest, before looking back at us with a dimmed version of his usual cheer. "You're alright. I mean, you're obviously not alright, but you're alive, and I just..." Without another pause he fell towards us, all the energy bundled up inside him expelled in one foul swoop as he crashed to his knees, his arms thrown haphazardly around the three of us, gathering us in the warming group hug I've had to date.

"You're alive..." he murmured, his head tucked over Ari's and my shoulders, his breath hot against our clammy skin. 

"Course we are, Sensei." Ari swallowed, a bit thickly, fixing a perfectly explosive grin onto her face as she patted his back in a comforting manner. "You think kids as awesome as us die so easily? Pffft. Yeah right. You're gonna be stuck with us for a long time, Sensei!"

He laughed, a very relieved, very grateful laugh that ghosted over my bare skin, leaving electric tingles in its wake. "I'm glad to hear it, Ari," he said, squeezing us tighter together in his emphatic embrace.

"Sensei, Sensei~!" Violet chirped, tugging at his sleeve. "Is... is he...?" She made a muted, jittery motion towards Obito's limp body, something that had (ironically) slipped my mind since Sensei's appearance. 

"Dead," I pronounced in a weighted sigh. "Or close to it. I think you nicked his heart with that thrust, Sensei. Excellent control for one not particularly suited for a blade."

He turned his head against my shoulder, smiling up at me; a faint flush crawled across my cheeks at the warmth of his gaze. "You're incredible, you know that, Scar? Just... you're incredible."

I had nothing to say to that, so I dipped my head in acknowledgement and swiftly moved my gaze away from Sensei's prideful expression. He chuckled and turned back to where Violet was pestering him for praise, conceded after only moments of her "torture". 

Ari and I exchanged a glance, in which we mutally made a decision.

We craned our necks, looking around Sensei, to see that Obito had managed to roll himself onto his side and was watching us through unfocused eyes. His lips moved, formed words too jumbled for me to make out. But Ari saw, Ari understood. She took up the role of his translator, speaking in time with his harsh breathing:

"I.... just wanted.... to save her.... We should have... saved her.... back then... Rin.... Rin... I... love..."

Silence.

Obito, the bane of my existence, the perpetrator of my most recent misfortune, the mastermind behind everything that ever went inherantly wrong in the world of Ninja, was dead.