Hello, all! I went through and cleaned this chapter up a bit, since it's been a while since I started writing this story and I have decided to come back to it. Please enjoy!

(I don't own Naruto!)

He watched her as she stood side by side with the Hokage on their summon, the giant slug Katsuyu. It seems that over the time he had been gone, she had grown into the spitting image of her shishou, simply swapping the long blond pony tail for short pink locks and lacking only the enormous chest of the older woman. She had even managed to gain the Byakugou no In upon her forehead, which he noted she had grown into since their days as genin.

Sakura Haruno had become strong and resourceful, something he had never imagined possible for her.

Madara had been taken care of and Obito finally put to rest. The end of the Fourth Shinobi World War was upon them and as the former weak link of Team Seven watched the allied forces initiate their celebrations – Naruto at the lead – he found that he was unable to do anything but watch her, his former team mate. He watches as she turned her warm smile not on him, but on his replacement, who had taken up watching the loud-mouthed savior alongside her.

He felt their presence behind him as he was joined by Orochimaru and Team Hebi, Karin standing too close at his side, though he hardly found the will to care at the moment. Now that all the fighting was done, he was finally free to look at everything objectively. To see the shinobi world as his former team mates might see it, a task that he found rather difficult.

Sasuke broke his gaze from the pink haired medic and found his blond haired rival at the center of the crowding members of the Alliance. Sensing the eyes of the Uchiha, Naruto turned and met his gaze. Slightly unnerved by this show of awareness, and the possibility that Naruto was right and something existed between them that could never be broken, Sasuke turned and stalked away from the battlefield.

Though he didn't turn to watch, he knew that Naruto would follow.

What he didn't expect was that the other original member of Team Seven would notice and do the same.

Stopping just out of view of the Allied Shinobi Forces, Sasuke gazed out upon the empty land before him. Facing away from the destruction the battles had left behind, it was easy to imagine that nothing at all had happened. No war to save the shinobi world, no battle to end his ancestor's deluded plots. Just untainted, beautiful land that stretched out past the horizon, where the sun was just beginning to set.

He didn't have long to wait until he could feel Naruto's presence behind him, and they stood there side by side as they watched the sun dip below the edge of the world and a million tiny specks of light took its place in the sky.

"So," the blonde said slowly, a soft smile plastered on his face at the simple fact that he could now stand next to the friend he had been relentlessly chasing for nearly four years now. "Were you serious about becoming Hokage?"

"Perhaps," Sasuke replied slowly, smirking at the question though his eyes never veered from the horizon. "At the very least, it wouldn't do to have a candidate in the running that I could easily wipe the floor with."

Quick to catch on to the invitation to do battle, Naruto turned his mischievous gaze toward the dark haired ninja to his left and bared his teeth in a cocky grin.

"I don't think we have anything to worry about then," and with that response, the two former team mates flash stepped out of view.

As the battle continued, both boys were so wrapped up in their fun that neither noticed the pink haired kunoichi watching them from a distance, a warm smile gracing her features as she realized she no longer needed to pretend that this was the past and that nothing bad had ever happened. It was alright now, that Sasuke had returned and Naruto could finally bring back to life the bond they shared with one another. The one that had never truly broken, no matter how hard Sasuke tried.

She couldn't stop the tears that silently fell however, when she realized that even though things might be alright for them, they would never be for her. Sasuke had attempted to kill her, more than once. He had threatened her friends and her village and while she could never take away the first real friend that her beloved team mate had ever made, she knew that she could no longer welcome back the Uchiha the way Naruto could.

Naruto was full of love and forgiveness and hope. As far as she was concerned, his acceptance was more than Sasuke deserved. Therefore, even though she could stomach the return of the stoic young man back into the village should that be what was to come, she would not offer him the same courtesies that she knew Naruto would give him without reservations.

She continued to watch as the stars multiplied in numbers and the energy reserves of the two fighting men visibly drained. It wasn't long until others had joined her, watching silently as the two rivals made up in their own special, slightly twisted way.

Hinata was the first to join her, the shy girl sitting next to Sakura without a word. As a medic, it was part of Sakura's duty to be understanding, and thus when she saw the matching tears leaking from pure white eyes and a small, sad smile, she grabbed the delicate hand that belonged to the Hyuuga heiress and squeezed softly, offering her support for the loss of the quiet girl's cousin.

On her other side was where Kakashi sat, his ever present book stowed away as he watched two of his former students fight for the first time in years without the intent to kill one another. Sakura didn't protest when her former sensei's hand rested on her shoulder and a nearly silent whispered apology slipped from his masked lips. She merely tilted her head to rest on his shoulder for a moment, offering her forgiveness and support to the teacher she knew regretted his lack of attention during her time under his tutelage.

Finally, Sai joined them as well, standing just behind Sakura and Kakashi, watching the fight with a mixture of confusion and concern, though he had learned enough by now not to ask any questions. His mind simply couldn't understand the concept of fighting one's rival in such a way that it wasn't quite sparring, but wasn't deadly either.

And that was how he found her at the end of the duel, while he lay on his back opposite Naruto, both too exhausted to continue. Still clutching Hinata's hand with Kakashi's almost painful grip on her shoulder, crying into a sad smile that he knew was for him. And behind her was the rest of the Allies, and off to the side stood Suigetsu and Jugo, Orochimaru waving once before he turned to leave with Karin at his heels.

Sasuke closed his eyes and waited. He heard Naruto mumble something too low for him to make out as he discovered that he could no longer lift his eye lids. After a short time he felt a warmth spread through his chest and a calming sensation as the pain began to fade, a soft green glow filtering through the thin layer of skin covering his eyes.

"Thank you," Sasuke whispered hoarsely before he lost consciousness. "Thank you, Sakura."

Read and Review? I wanna be fanfic famous as the respectable age of 23, guys!