One Path

by Erendhyl

Another kunai flew, hitting Itachi’s kunai at exactly the right angle to send it harmlessly into the dirt. The person that landed in front of her, cat-like and graceful, was the last person she expected to see. “Sasuke-kun,” she breathed. SasuSaku

Team Seven: One Path

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke wouldn't have left. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

"Naruto, we should rest here," the pink haired kunoichi informed her teammate. The hyperactive blond may be Jounin level, but he was still as idiotic as he had been as a Genin when it came to realizing his own limitations. As his next words clearly showed.

"Ne, Saukra-chan, shouldn't we keep going? We still have half an hour of daylight-"

"Which we will need to set up our camp. Unless you fancy setting up in the dark?"

"It would be worth it," he replied solemnly. If it brought Sasuke back to Konoha, anything would be worth it." Sakura bit her lip at his words. It would be worth it. If it brought Sasuke back to them, anything was worth it. Anything at all. But still…

"Naruto, we don't even have any idea where Sasuke-kun is," Sakura responded sadly. "Searching an extra half hour won't help right now, and we need to rest so we can travel again tomorrow." She was convincing herself as much as Naruto. As foolish as Naruto's idea was, her yearning to have Sasuke back dominated everything. She needed to see him again. In the three, nearly four years since he'd left for Otogakure, she and Naruto had only seen him once. It had been six months before their time limit ran out, and Orochimaru would be able to perform the soul transfer jutsu that would end Sasuke's life. Tsunade-sama had received reports that he survived though, killing Orochimaru even. However, he hadn't returned to the village. He'd assembled his own force, for the purpose of tracking his brother, Uchiha Itachi. Originally a squad of eight assorted ninja had been assigned the task of tracking them down. But, after rumors had reported, and confirmed reports of the deaths of Sasuke's new teammates, Naruto and Sakura had asked to be allowed to continue the mission alone. They'd been at it for nearly a year. One long, painful year, of false reports, false hopes, and false trails. It was suffocating. Sakura choked down a sob.

Naruto turned to look at her. In his eyes she saw the same grief and pain that was undoubtedly reflected back in her won. Even Naruto was hurt by their situation. The laughter in his eyes was dulled, though not entirely extinguished. Like her, his predominant emotion had been replaced with a fevered longing for Sasuke's presence by their side.

With a sigh of almost utter hopelessness and defeat, Sakura resumed the task of setting up camp.

She and Naruto sat beside their fire, her head on his shoulder, gazing into the flames, each lost in their own silent world of pain. With anyone else, they would have looked like a couple. But Naruto had promised his heart to Hinata-chan before they left, and she had thought of his as a brother for so long it seemed strange to think of him as anything else even for a second. Besides, she couldn't love Naruto. Even after almost four years, she still loved Sasuke.

The fire crackled merrily, oblivious to their pain. They had no fear that enemy nin would attack. They were more than a match for anyone outside the S-class, and even then, there were two of them. They had no fear of enemy ninja as their fire burned itself to ashes, slowly but surely. Their only fear was voiced aloud by Sakura.

"Naruto?" The blond looked up at his name, blinking himself out of the silent trance he'd sunk into. "Do you… do you think we'll ever find him?" Sakura asked, her eyes welling with tears at the thought of never finding Sasuke, of never hearing even his cold 'hn' again, of never gazing into those fathomless onyx eyes and seeing not only his usual coldness and hostility, but the trace of warmth and friendship that had filled them so briefly when they had truly been a team.

"Sakura-chan…" For once, even Naruto could not calm her fears, dismiss them as groundless. For he too, in the depths of his soul, feared the same. Sakura took his inability to answer as a sign that he too doubted in their abilities. She blinked back tears. She had cried far too much over Sasuke. She wouldn't cry again. Not for him. Not when he had left as he had. And, even with that, even though she was furious with him for running away, she couldn't stop loving him. Sakura doubted that she ever would.

It's always been my dream to be the first one to put something besides hatred and bitterness in his eyes. To let him know what love is. Sakura gazed into the bushes now, picturing Sasuke's onyx eyes. She wondered, not for the first time, if her dream would ever come true, or if Sasuke would die, knowing nothing but hatred since the murder of his clan.

The fire had weakened her night vision, leaving spots in front of her eyes. She had bee so engrossed in her vision of Sasuke's eyes, that it was a while before she noticed that staring out of the bushes at her, were two cold onyx eyes. It couldn't be…

"Sasuke-kun?" she asked, almost afraid to breathe. After all this time, could her missing teammate have returned to them? She felt as though her heart was attempting to fly out of her chest. But the figure that stepped out of the bushes…

Where there had previously been hope, excitement, and desire, only one thing remained. Hatred. For the man that stepped out of the bushes was not her beloved Sasuke. It was Sasuke's elder brother. Uchiha Itachi. The man who had indirectly taken away all that was good in her life.

Following Itachi into the firelight was his Akatsuki partner, Hoshigaki Kisame. An S-class missing-nin from Kirigakure Village and one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist. Combined, they were a deadly pair, even for Naruto and Sakura.

Both Konoha ninja stood up, hands reaching for weapons, faces alight with fury. To both of them, these men were the enemy.

"Well, if it isn't the Kyuubi and the girl who killed Sasori," Kisame drawled. Sakura's glare hardened, bringing to mind the phrase 'if looks could kill.' Referring to Jinchuuriki as the demon they contained was one of the rudest things that could be done.

She shot an anxious glance at Naruto, and her worst fears were confirmed. The demon fox's chakra was already beginning to appear; soon it would start to form around the boy's body as he began the transformation into a monster. His vow to return Sasuke to the village using his personal strength alone obviously held no bearing on how he would treat members of the Akatsuki.

"It seems that this kid's learned nothing," said Kisame, swinging his massive sword-that-should-not-be-called-a-sword-it-should-be-called-a-cheese-grater. Sakura drew breath to scream, but the sword never made contact with Naruto's flesh. Instead it absorbed (ate?) his Kyuubi chakra. Her surprise must have registered on her face, because Kisame smirked evilly at her.

"My massive blade, Samehada, cuts through chakra, and devours it." That was very bad news for Sakura. Beyond the basic ninja tools, all her attacks required her precise control of chakra. Without it, she was no more help in a fight than she had been five years before, when she first became a ninja.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said, not taking his eyes off Itachi and Kisame for even a second. "You fight Itachi." Sakura began to protest the thought of Naruto fighting Kisame by himself. "He fights with genjutsu, which you're better at dealing with than I am," he informed her to silence her protest. It wasn't that she wasn't afraid for herself, fighting Itachi with no backup. She just knew that the danger for Naruto was far greater than the danger to her. "I'll fight Kisame myself," the Jinchuuriki finished coldly. Sakura nodded to show that she understood.

She began to survey Itachi, who had not mover or spoken the entire time since he and Kisame appeared. Apart from the lines beside his eyes and his slightly more tanned skin, the resemblance between him and Sasuke was alarming. They really did look a lot alike…

No! That wasn't what she was supposed to be thinking about. Sasuke wasn't here, and distracting herself with thoughts of him would only result in her and Naruto getting killed.

Itachi noticed her distraction.

"Are you going to muse about how alike my younger brother and I look, or are you going to fight?" he asked, apparently bored by her scrutiny. Sakura blushed. She'd forgotten the ease with which the Sharingan could read faces. Or maybe her thoughts were just particularly obvious. Either way, Itachi was right. The time to observe how much Sasuke resembled his brother was not now.

She focused her chakra into her right fist, readying one of her famed punches. All she had to do was not look into Itachi's eyes, or at his hands, and she would be fine. But she was prepared for this. Tsunade-shishou and Kakashi-sensei had trained her until she was able to beat the Sharingan. Or at least, Kakashi's Sharingan, which was the best they could do in Konoha. She charged forward.

At the last second, Itachi dodged, but Sakura had planned on that. She followed with a kick, which Itachi blocked in the same way that he had blocked Sasuke's Chidori all those years ago. Itachi threw her back into a tree, causing her to cry out at the impact as her arm twisted painfully behind her. He followed by throwing a kunai at her.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto screamed from across their campsite where he fought Kisame, already reaching for his own kunai. But Sakura could see that he would be too late. This was how she would die then, never having rescued Sasuke. Even as she was about to die, her thoughts were all of him.

The kunai was about to hit her. She stared at it in an odd, detached way, waiting for the impact. Goodbye, Sasuke-kun. She would miss him. And Naruto, and Tsunade-shishou, and Kakashi-sensei, and Ino Pig, and Lee-san, and even Sai. She would miss all of them so much. Sakura hoped that they wouldn't be too hurt by her loss. The next few seconds seemed to occur in slow motion.

Another kunai flew out of the tree above her, hitting Itachi's kunai at exactly the right angle to send it harmlessly into the dirt. The person that landed in front of her, cat-like and graceful, was the last person she expected to see. If she had looked into Naruto's eyes, her own surprise would have been mirrored there, as even during a battle he found time to stare at the figure of her rescuer. But she didn't look at Naruto. She had eyes only for the man picking himself up in front of her.

"Sasuke-kun," she breathed. Endless nights of waiting, of longing, the pain of years, grief, hope, and love were all bound into that simple spoken word.

The obsidian eyes that looked down at her were as cold and distant as the night sky, but to her, that gaze was a magic spell of awakening. It was all she could manage not to burst into tears of joy at the mere sight of hem. But she was in to muddle of a battle, and Itachi wouldn't wait for her.

"Brother." Sasuke's voice was as cold as ice, putting all the hatred he had felt for Itachi all these years into that single word. "I have come to kill you!" The chirping noise that heralded the formation of Chidori could be heard, as Sasuke readied the attack that would hopefully end his sibling's life. He charged as Sakura picked herself up. Even Itachi could not evade this blow entirely. The gash it left in his right side was neither deep nor serious, but it was a wound nonetheless. If Sakura had still been a stupid fangirl, there would have been anime hearts in her eyes. As it was, she merely drew her own weapon and prepared to attack.

"What are you doing?" asked Sasuke coldly. His voice was barely and kinder to her than it had been for Itachi. This too she remembered, though she had hoped that time would gentle Sasuke. It appeared to have had the opposite effect. "This is my fight Sakura. Mind your own business!" There was a time when she would have obeyed him, crying all the while that her precious Sasuke-kun hated her. That time was long past. Stubbornly she sent chakra into her fist, readying a punch for whoever got in its way, either Itachi or Sasuke would do.

Sasuke caught her fist as she drew back.

"Let go," she ordered. Apart from a slight shock that she gave an order to him, Sasuke's face held no emotion. "I said let go, damn it Uchiha!" she cried. The use of his surname instead of the usual Sasuke-kun only seemed to amuse him. His grip strengthened, though his voice was softer, gentler when he spoke to her next.

"Sakura, this is my fight. You told me once that you understood how I felt."

Flashback

"So that's it, you're choosing the lonely path? Remember how you showed me what it means to be lonely?! Well, now I understand. It's all painfully clear to me. I've… I have family and friends… But Sasuke, if I lose you, I… I'll be… I will be very lonely."

End flashback

"You said back then that you understand how I feel," Sasuke continued. "So tell me, knowing what I feel for this man, do you still want to get in my way?" No. The answer was no. The answer was always no. How could she deny Sasuke something so important to him that he was willing to turn his back on everything he had? Her decision must have shown on her face, for Sasuke released her hand.
"Help Naruto," he ordered her as he turned to face his opponent. Itachi had not moved throughout their entire conversation. He spoke now.

"So I shall fight you, my foolish little brother." Sasuke nodded. "Very well then." Sakura screamed. Itachi had just appeared behind Sasuke, stabbing him in the back with a kunai. The younger Uchiha gurgled as his lifeblood began to pour out of his body. He was dying…

Sasuke's eyes turned to her, and he attempted to speak. A sob caught in her throat before she realized what he was trying to tell her. Genjutsu. Sure enough, another Sasuke appeared behind Itachi, stabbing his older brother clean through with the katana he had been given by Orochimaru. Sasuke smirked at her. She nodded, and turned her attention to Naruto's fight with Kisame.

The blond was dodging fairly effectively, and it looked like with a little help, he could win. All that remained was for Sakura to find an opening and attack. The problem was, that was a lot easier said than done. Her attack style was comprised almost entirely of taijutsu, making it dangerous for her it fight a guy like Kisame, who had a sword. Yes, ninja skills were wonderful, and deadly, but sword still beat flesh. Sakura did not want to wind up missing a limb. However, she was not the same girl she had been nearly four years ago. She was stronger, wiser, and a true kunoichi. And that meant that she was willing to risk herself for the good of the mission.

Sakura crept behind Kisame, using the bushes for cover. She probably didn't even need to hide, Kisame was so busy fighting Naruto, but she didn't want to disgrace her teachers by messing this up. After being a hindrance to her teammates for the first year of her career as a shinobi, Sakura still constantly felt the need to prove that she had changed. It didn't help this any that Sasuke would see her fighting for the first time since he'd left the village. More than anything, she wanted to make him see that she wasn't just some weak little girl that needed to be protected anymore.

She was in position, almost directly behind Kisame. Luckily his fight had moved to the edge of the clearing, so she could wait, undetected, in the bushes. All that she needed was for Naruto to push the Akatsuki back a little farther, and she could stab him directly without ever having to worry about his sword.

Seeing her, Naruto grinned, shoving Kisame forward. Sakura readied her kunai, hoping to impale the unaware man. If this worked, they would have eliminated another member of Akatsuki, and Sasuke would be able to finish his fight unchallenged. She smirked, ready for Kisame's blood to drip from her knife. The Akatsuki fell, the trajectory was perfect; he would fall on her blade without her even having to move…

Quick as a flash, Kisame spun around in midfall, whipping Samehada so fast that Sakura had no chance to dodge. The blade whipped across her arm, cutting through layers of muscle and flesh to reach the bone. Sakura's scream was lost amidst the fear filled cries of her teammates.

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

"SAKURA!"

She fell to the ground, clutching her bleeding arm, sobbing in pain. Kisame raised his sword above his head for the deathblow, no need for subtlety now that his opponent lay broken and bleeding on the ground at his feet. Naruto could not help, for if he hit Kisame from behind, the blade would still fall on Sakura, ending her life. For the second time that night, Sakura was certain she was going to die.

For the second time that night she was proved wrong as Sasuke again came to her rescue. He slammed into Kisame from the side, snarling like some feral beast. The older man's grip on the sword was firm enough that he took it with him when he fall, keeping it safely away from Sakura. Naruto blocked Itachi, who had used the distraction of his opponent to press forward and attack the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. This was not lost on Sakura, who even in her pain was paying attention to both battles, determined to come to her teammates aid should they need her, regardless of how much pain she was in. It was also not lost on Sakura what it meant that Sasuke had been the one to save her. He had just turned his back on Itachi, on his chance at vengeance, to save her. Even though her arm felt like it was on fire, it still felt like her head was in the clouds.

In front of her things were less joyous. Naruto was on his hands and knees, apparently a victim of Itachi's Tsukuyomi. The blond clung desperately to consciousness, knowing that to give in to the blackness was to give in to death. His Kyuubi chakra swirled around him, attempting to heal wounds that were not there. The damage was to his mind, not his body.

For a moment it was as though Sakura's arm had not been wounded to the bone. As though she was unhurt, she leapt up, grabbing her kunai from the ground beside her, and threw it with all her might at Itachi. It struck him full on in the chest, causing his eyes to bulge. She expected blood, but there was none. Instead there were crows. Genjutsu. Sakura focused her chakra.

"Kai!" she cried, feeling a rush of satisfaction to be able to do something. Sure enough, the illusion dissipated, revealing that Itachi had dodged, though he was distracted from going after Naruto. Feeling satisfied, she began to heal her arm, stopping once the pain became bearable. She was in too deadly of a fight to waste all her chakra on healing.

Sakura smirked as she and Naruto faced off against Itachi. Taking the cue, the blond charged headlong at the older Uchiha brother. To the casual eye, it seemed that Naruto was making the same kind of foolish mistake he had as a rookie Genin. However, this was far from the unplanned attacks of his youth. Itachi did not know this, and threw a shuriken at him, apparently bored. Naruto didn't even appear to notice it, and was pinned to a tree with the throwing star through his jacket without any attempts to dodge. But it was all part of the plan. While Itachi's attention had been focused on her teammate, Sakura made her move. She punched him, all of her inhuman strength focused into the blow. The Akatsuki staggered back, coughing up blood. Sakura panted, glaring at the hated man. Itachi smirked, an even colder smirk than Sasuke's.

"Very good. The Slug Princess chose well when she picked her successor." That was a part of Itachi's creepiness. He could compliment a worthy opponent while murdering them, and genuinely mean it. Most were too blinded by battle rage to appreciate an opponent's skill until the bitter end. Itachi's coolness in the face of battle made him a deadly enemy. His next words scared her more, though.

"Now, Kisame." Sakura turned. Samehada was flying toward her, thrown like a shuriken. The sword spun in a deadly blur; if it hit her, she was dead, medical prowess or not. However, a sword is bulky, and not designed for flying, unlike a shuriken. Sakura easily ducked under the spinning blade, and it lodged in a tree behind her. Ordinarily, she would have been relived that her enemy was now without a weapon, but not now. Because now, that wasn't an ordinary tree. That was the tree to which Naruto was still pinned. He hadn't had time to duck. Samehada was now lodged firmly in his gut, and not even the Kyuubi chakra could save him. It was only a matter of moments until her closest friend would die.

"Naruto…" she whispered. No. No. No… Naruto couldn't die. Not now. Not when they were finally fighting alongside Sasuke, when it looked like there was a real possibility that the Uchiha might come home. That Naruto would die without being reunited with the man he considered to be his own brother was too much, too cruel.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke's shout was filled with grief and rage. Rage at Itachi and Kisame, for taking the life of one of the few people he had dared to allow to become precious to him. And grief, because even though he had tried to deny it these last four years, he had never stopped caring about Naruto and Sakura. He had just stopped allowing himself to show it. "Bastard," he hissed at Itachi, the marks of the Heaven Seal already spreading across his body. Unlike every other time the seal had begun to spread, Sakura did not try to stop him. No, she welcomed it, welcomed the power the curse would give him. Because right now, all that mattered were the deaths of the men that had killed Naruto.

Trembling with rage she focused her chakra to her fist. Charging recklessly forward, she hit Kisame, once, twice, never caring that blows were raining down upon her too. Never caring that her arm wound had opened up again, and her blood was flowing freely, drenching the grass at her feet in a bitter crimson tide. None of it mattered, because Naruto was dead, and pretty soon, she knew that Sasuke would be as well. And she knew one other thing, in her grief-filled heart. She knew that she would not allow them to leave her behind this time. This time, they would all go forward together, as team seven!

Kisame kicked her in the stomach, knocking her back into the tree next to Naruto. She coughed up blood and attempted to rise to continue her attack, but couldn't. She had lost too much blood for her body to be able to move. For Haruno Sakura, the battle was over.

Mere seconds after she was forced to realize this, Sasuke slammed into her, knocking the wind out of her. Itachi had kicked him backward in the same way that Kisame had done to her, leaving him also unable to continue. He barely even had the strength to move himself off of her, so as not to crush her. Although it would have left her suffering for a shorter period of time, he obviously could not bring himself to take her life.

"Foolish little brother, I told you to destroy your bonds, but you did not. And for that, you lie here now, defeated and unable to continue. You always were weak." With that last condemning statement, Itachi and Kisame left, leaving the battered remains of team seven behind.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked. Sasuke turned painfully to face her. "It doesn't have to be the end for you. I have enough chakra left to heal you. You could continue your quest for revenge."

"Yeah, teme, Sakura-chan and I could save you," Naruto said weakly. Using one of his own kunai, he cut himself down, to fall in a sprawled heap beside his comrades. Sasuke smiled at their efforts.

"No," he said solemnly. "Itachi was right. I'm unable to continue on from here. You guys might be able to heal the damage to my body, but this would be the second time I've lost everyone I care about. That is a wound from which my heart could never recover."

"You're sure?" asked Sakura, shocked by Sasuke's change of mind. Revenge had always come before everything for him; he'd given up his entire old life for it.

"Positive," he said. In his eyes was the spark of happiness that Sakura had always dreamed of putting there. She had just never known that it would be like this. "Let's meet again in the next life," Sasuke told them, the life already fading from his eyes as he clasped their hands in his own. With her last strength, Sakura reached for Naruto's hand, noticing that it was rapidly growing colder. That didn't stop his response.

"Agreed," was the last thing he ever said, as the fire died from his bright eyes forever.

"Goodbye, Naruto… Sasuke…kun," Sakura said as her life too faded. She fell onto Sasuke's already cold body, finally together with him in death.

Team seven. Fate separated their paths, sending Sasuke on a quest for revenge while Naruto and Sakura went on a mission of rescue. It would have willed that they never meet again. But destiny had other plans, and arranged it so that their separate paths intersected one last time, and they could walk to the end, together.

-Owari-