Maybe it was better that she had lived instead of them. Those whom she had loved with all of her now shattered heart. Each of their deaths ate at her like a wound that grew until her knees became weak, her vision swam, and she just wanted to lie down and join them wherever they may be.
Over time she knew the wound would stop bleeding, never heal no, but it would stop being so painful. The bite of bitter-sweet memories would eventually be replaced with a numb acceptance and however reluctantly she would continue with her life, never truly moving on. No, her memories were far too precious to her to ever forget and move on from them but she would keep going like a lost soldier fighting to accomplish their final task before they could finally rest.
If their sensei had lived, would he have kept doing so? In some small part of her she knew that he wouldn't, he had already been far to broken for such a thing to happen and him to bear it. In a way she was happy for him. How many mornings had she found him in front of the very stone that she now stood before, as he traced the names over and over trying to atone for sins that never had been blights upon his name? He was free from that now and she was sure that somewhere he was finally at peace and that kept her standing before the great stone that only bore misery.
Ah, the dark avenger. He had accomplished his task and had died by his brother's side. The blood that had united them however unwillingly had flowed together meeting somewhere at the bottom of the grassy knoll, once again becoming one as it was meant to be at the beginning. She liked to think that maybe in his last moment the avenger had been happy, even if it was for but a second. He had spent his life to attain it though in all reality he had been dead the moment he refused to let his ghosts leave him, no instead he kept them close and comfort and acceptance far from him. He was the living dead, alive only by technicality. It had been an empty hollow life he had lived.
It wasn't that she had lost her 'love' or teacher that saddened her most, no she lost something far more precious. She lost the light. The golden pillar of strength that had seemed invincible and eternal had finally given way and all the demons that it had long held at bay came rushing forward breaking on her with all the force of a tsunami. All the fears and doubts that he had before effortlessly kept at bay with a simple small and some little statement that he probably never knew how much it truly helped, that alone was an instant cure all and now…it was gone and how she missed it.
The land that had once shunned and hated him now wept and mourned for the loss of him. Fate was cruel that way. He died to save them; them that had scorned, mocked, and even despised him now mourned his passing. The veil of ignorance had been lifted from their eyes and they saw his greatness. The old woman that had once beaten him with a cane when he was small had been seen laying flowers down along with the cane by the accursed stone. The thing that got her the most was she had never heard the painful story from the one who bore it, no the woman had told it at his funeral. Never did he utter all the many stories of his childhood that would explain the bruises that had been there before she had truly cared; somehow he kept it all in and helped others.
Maybe it was good that she was the one to live. She couldn't imagine that simple honest purity lost, no not just lost, twisted. She would live and make them proud like she had never done in their lives. All as a tribute to their memory, so that when they were united again she could be for once proud of herself.
Kakashi would grin in that peculiar way of his, Sasuke would smirk which could almost be counted as a smile, and Naruto…Naruto would laugh in that carefree way before he challenged Sasuke to some ridiculous duel to establish who was the best, and she would smile truly and laugh as it all came back to where it was supposed to be before all the 'bad' things had come to pass.
Team seven would be whole again.