One last strike
No, I will never be but a memory...
His hand clenched with fear, despair, shock, anger...
This can't be how it ends.
Out in the distance, the mangled corpse of Sasori disappears as if it never was, the wreckage of his puppet creations fading away. All an illusion... only a memory.
No, that's not right... it really happened, it wasn't just my memory, just an illusion...
As his blood drains to the ground, he loses more and more strength, his power wasting away.
Deep in the ground, the immortal form of Hidan fades to nothing, only a shadow of things that had been so long ago.
No, it's not the right time. I'm alive, aren't I, even if my life is fading?
His vision blurs. What now, what now, what now? Is this how it was? What was it? Was it even occurring? Was he here, was he ever here, will he be here even after he is gone?
In a shallow crater, the corpse of Kakuzu blurs, then fades, another specter of what had been, those events that occurred in that fateful time...
I was certain that this was the right moment, the right year, the right day, the right minute... I am here, aren't I? This must be the right time, but why am I losing this thought of mine? Why is it fading so slowly away?
He collapses to the ground, no longer having the strength to remain standing.
Out in a forest, the crater left behind by Deidara's self portrait fades to reveal a much older crater, covered with new growth and trees. It was as if two hundred years had passed...
No, only twenty years have passed, so this can't be right. Surely I remember correctly...
The bloody battlefield left behind by the fateful battle between Itachi and Sasuke shudders, blood washed away by time and rain, leaving only an overgrown slab of rock...
Itachi was definitely there, I couldn't have moved to Konoha with him always around...
He can't see anymore. The members left around him look on in concern.
The form of Kisame is standing over him, but suddenly he too fades away, a shadow haunting the landscape.
Where did he go? I know he was here, I just saw him! I only formed this team a few years ago... They still exist!
His body starts to fail him, and he is starting to lose focus.
The forms of the others... Zetsu, Pein, Konan... they fade to nothing, leaving the old man alone with his memory.
They... no, I was so certain! Before this time, I could reach out and touch them, they were real! All of them were real! Why do they desert me now? Why is this happening?
The illusion around himself fades, leaving only the eternally young man alone and fatally injured on the field, surrounded by only shadow and thought, alone and frightened.
This isn't real... it was only an illusion. But I am still here... I am alone, but... I am here.
With one last sigh, he gives in and allows himself to finally part from this lifetime.
When his blood red eyes finally close, the massive genjutsu he had surrounded himself with for so long fades with him, leaving only his lifeless body. His memory, his desire, his fate... all nothing after all.