DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in this story. All rights belong to the brilliant Masashi Kishimoto.

Summary

A breeze sweeps by gently as they meet on a grass clearing, under a cloudy blue sky. Haruno Sakura, now a ruthless ANBU agent, and her ex-teammate, the notorious criminal, Uchiha Sasuke. Will this final battle finally bring them peace? SASUSAKU

The Last Battle

CHAPTER ONE

12 hours.

The battle had been going for 12 agonizingly long hours. Within half a day, the two teammates, former teammates, had thrown all the weapons in their arsenal with every single one aimed to kill the other.

Sakura took 3 deep breaths. With knees on the ground on all fours, she continued to heave, hoping to get her respiratory system functional again. Years of training under a Legendary Sanin, spilling blood, sweat and tears, and she could still not avoid his last attack.

The second he yelled "Chidori nagashi!", she had braced herself for the dreadful pain. Should she have been prepared for this? Of course. She knew of this jutsu. She had even witnessed it first-hand when they had found him all those years ago. Back then, she had been the only one spared of the excruciating pain that Naruto, Yamato and Sai had experienced as the electricity coursed through them, contracting almost every muscle in their bodies.

"So this is what it feels like" Sakura thought bitterly.

Sakura coughed and cursed as thick dark red liquid splattered onto the flattened grass of the open field they had been ensuing their vigorous battle on since sunrise.

She had miscalculated. The reason she had been unprepared for this attack was because she had assumed that he would have an insufficient amount of chakra to carry out the jutsu.

Using all her strength, she forced her head to look up, and realised she had been almost correct.

His heart clenched. On one knee, both his hands clutching his Kusanagi to keep himself up and steady, Sasuke cursed. That had been reckless of him. Now he was at his limit. Even as he formed the hand signs for the chakra-straining jutsu, he was unsure whether it would work. But he couldn't bare it anymore. The look on her face every moment they clashed. A look of hatred. Although he was certain the look was also plastered on his face, to see it on her…

Looking up he saw that she was at her limit too. Her bloodied, bruised body covered in that dirty, tattered ANBU uniform, shook violently as she struggled to get up.

"Sakura, don't get up" Sasuke willed her body in his mind.

"Please, don't get up…"

After seeing that Sasuke was still up, Sakura had immediately begun healing her body with some of the limited amount of chakra she had left. Just enough so that her body could stand. However to save the amount she was using, she had to endure the excruciating pain that meandered through her body as her body struggled to heal itself.

Oh, how she wanted to give up. If it were up to her, she would have let the traitor pierce her straight through the heart the moment they met. However, every time the thought of surrendering herself to death came, warm baby blue eyes would flash brightly in her mind. A stupid big laugh that accompanied "Sakura-chan!" as he yelled through the streets of Konoha would faintly ring in her ears. His goofy and undeniable contagious smile that he made as he would finish his tenth bowl of ramen at Ichiraku covered her vision. She would then remember the warmth of his body as he gave her the breath-chokingly tight hug the day he left for, what would be, his last mission. And hence, the thing she remembered most, every moment her body pleaded her to just give up and die, was Naruto's cold lifeless body as she held him, screaming, and crying for the first time she had in years.

Flashback

"No! Don't you dare do this to me Naruto! Don't you fucking dare!" Sakura yelled, tears falling down her face as her hands glowed green, attempting to heal corpse.

"He's gone Sakura" Shikamaru touched her shoulder.

"Shut up! No he's not. He's not… he's not…" her hands glowed brighter but she could feel her teammate's skin go colder.

"That's enough Sakura" Kiba urged, fighting down his own tears.

Sakura screamed. She cradled the blonde's head in her arms and cried until she felt dead on the inside. Sakura died with him that day. From then on, the pink-haired kunoichi was just a soulless carcass with only one deadly goal in mind.

End of flashback

Tears threatened to fall as Sakura remembered the day like it had occurred every single day for the past three years. Unlike now, the Akatsuki were still around wrecking havoc around the world, and had captured Naruto on a mission. They had been successful in extracting the nine-tails from him just as her ANBU team had arrived at the scene. Sakura relived the exact moment when his lifeless corpse fell to the ground. She remembered herself instinctively catching him and pouring all the healing chakra she had in her in a futile attempt to save him. For her, she relived his death over and over again ever since that day three years ago.

That day had been the beginning of the making of her becoming the cold ruthless killer she was today. Before, her hands had only sought to heal. She was, and still is the today, renowned as the second best medical ninja in all the five nations. She had always wished to preserve life, save it, taking it only when necessary. However she realised shortly after her best friend's death, that to avenge him, to kill every single one of those Akatsuki members that took her brother, her light, from her, she would have to change. So that year, at the age of 18, at her request, Lady Tsunade assigned her the mission to assassinate those black and red-cloaked criminals.

And by the end of three long tiresome years she had completed her mission. Her team, ANBU's top elite squad, that at the beginning consisted of Neji, Sai, Kiba and Shikamaru had eliminated all the remaining members of the criminal organisation. Although they had lost Neji when battling Kisame, they realised they had defeated the final member of Akatsuki, after word had spread that Sasuke had defeated Itachi. When her teammates assumed that she would need comfort, Sakura coldly told Shikamaru "I expected sacrifices when we started this". However after their final kill, everyone saw Sakura become more secluded within the village and even more ruthless in all her missions.

A few days ago, Kakashi, the recently appointed Hokage, had summoned her into his office not long after his initiation ceremony.

Flashback

"You're overworking yourself", Kakashi said to his former student as he sat at the desk with hands resting under his masked face. Sakura stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall on one side of the Hokage office, her ANBU mask placed tightly on the side of her hip.

"I'm fine" Sakura replied staring at the sixth Hokage. After Naruto's death she had hardly talked to the copy ninja. Occasionally they would see each other in Tsunade's office and greet each other, purely out of respect. Other than that, most people would assume they had both been avoiding each other.

Kakashi stared back into her dull emerald eyes, once filled with so much light, and let out a long tired sigh.

"I've given this much thought and… I'm dismissing you from your ANBU status Sakura. You've competed your mission. The Akatsuki are gone. You've served your village in more ways than anyone. Take a break. Go back to the hospital. It's what Tsunade wanted as well", he softly finished, getting up to walk in front of his desk.

"Are you kidding me?" Sakura pushed against the wall, as she felt her anger rise. "You want me to go back to the hospital? To patch up a little civilian kid who got a scrape on his knee? You want me to run health checks on people to make sure that they have a long happy life ahead of them? Do you know what I've done these past three years? Do you know how many people I've killed? The ways I killed them? Now you want me to save them?!"

"Yes" the silver haired former sensei whispered back.

"Well I can't! I can't save them! I can't save anyone!" Sakura shouted, regret painted in her sorrowful eyes.

"Sakura… it wasn't your fault… Naru-"

"Don't say his name" she sharply interrupted. "Don't you dare say his name Kakashi. You weren't there. You didn't see him. You. Weren't. There", she snarled.

Kakashi looked down. He knew this. He knew he hadn't been there. His student needed him and he had not been there. When Kakashi heard of Naruto's death, he had been on another mission in the Snow Country. He immediately abandoned the mission and sped straight home. The moment he entered the village, he had felt it. The air of grief and sorrow that swept the village made him stop in his tracks several times as he made his way to the Hokage tower where a drunken Tsunade, with tears in her eyes, confirmed the news and told him that Sakura was already on a mission with a team to assassinate one of the murderers. He rarely saw his remaining student from then on. Terrifying guilt washed over him every time he saw her. Although death to those close to him was nothing unfamiliar to Kakashi, he knew that the additional empty hole in his heart would not be filled for a long time, if ever. However, he had realised recently that he had been selfish. He should have been there for Sakura. He had assumed that once Akatsuki was gone, she would move on. Find some way to continue on. He had been wrong.

"I'm sorry Sakura. I really am. But it's time to move on. You can't keep going on like this" Kakashi looked to her again, his heart paining.

"It's the only way I can go on

sensei" she finished bitterly.

"So if that's all…" Sakura turned her back, heading for the door.

"You are officially relieved from ANBU duties Sakura" Kakashi said sadly.

Sakura's gloved hand stopped on the door handle.

"He wouldn't want you to live like this", the former sensei murmured.

Sakura opened the door.

"He's not here" she replied in a cold tone.

With that Sakura slammed the door behind her and walked out. There, she came face to face with Sai who seemed have a more distant look in his eyes as he looked at her. Giving her a curt nod he walked into the Hokage office. Sakura stood still, perfectly masking her chakra.
"The mission was a success Hokage-sama", she heard Sai say from within the enclosed room.

"Good. You're next mission will be in two days. Come back here tomorrow for a briefing", Kakashi replied, ready to dismiss the former root member.

Sakura heard the rustling of paper and was about to leave when…

"Actually Hokage-sama, I wish to report the sighting of an s-class criminal that occurred in the north-west outskirts of the Wind Country on my way back here"

"Did you engage with them?" Kakashi asked curiously. Usually for a ninja as efficient as Sai, they would have actually captured the criminal and brought them in, even if it meant arriving a day or two later.

"No, I wasn't sure if it would be deemed appropriate", the former root member explained slowly.

"Who was it?" Kakashi asked.

There was a silence.

Kakashi looked up to see Sai's serious yet hesitant face. He waited for a response, although having a good guess as to who it was. There had been no sight of said criminal for almost five years until they heard news of the downfall of his elder brother a few months ago.

Sakura held her breath. She had the same guess to.

"Uchiha Sasuke"

End of flashback

She glared at the raven-haired man who reminded her of nothing but sadness, hate and betrayal. Who painfully reminded her of Naruto. How he never gave up on his best friend, even after the traitor tried to kill them.

Sakura stood up.

Sasuke inwardly sighed.

She got up. Of course she got up. She was almost as stubborn as his other former blonde teammate. Speaking of which, Sasuke wandered where the dobe was. Surely he would not allow his precious pink-haired teammate to come here by herself.

Although Sasuke had to admit that she had grown significantly stronger since five years ago, when he had last seen her. When she showed up to the clearing adorning the ANBU uniform he had been surprised. She had been wearing a mask. Some sort of feline mask. But as her long pink hair cascaded down her back, and as he stared into those deep emerald seas, he instantly knew who this Konaha ninja was.

Flashback

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are an s-class criminal, traitor to the Leaf, and have committed a number of crimes during the past five years, including your affiliation with Orochimaru", the masked ANBU stated as she stood in the clearing ten meters in front of him.

"Sakura"

"Under the jurisdiction of the sixth Hokage…" she lied.

"Sakura"

"…I hereby sentence you to death" she finished, putting her gloves on.

Sasuke stared.

"What are you doing here Sakura?" he said softly, yet loud enough for her to hear.

"To do what I should have done years ago" she replied, taking off her mask.

The fight began.

End of flashback

Author's Note

Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of my first ever story! I really appreciate it. Please leave a review, comment, ideas, suggestions and I will especially welcome all your constructive criticism! Honestly at this stage I don't have this whole story planned out. I've almost finished the next chapter. But depending on the reviews I think I will determine to release it as I planned or change it up a bit. However, just know... I hate sad endings ;)