This is my first fan fiction. Im reasonably proud of it .... (Its kinda NaruSaku-ish i spose.)... I'm not that good at proof reading so you'll most likely fine a bunch of errors, or sentences that don't make sense! But don't let that stop you from reading it! Let me know what you think anyway. Constructive criticism is appreciated! :)
Chapter 1
Sakura was paralysed. All she could hear was harsh breathing. All she could smell was burnt flesh, and all she could see, was black. Black eyes, that pierced her like daggers.
She was terrified.
That icy stare had numbed her entire body, but she could still feel the heat of hatred and anger radiating from Sasuke. Anger and hatred was something Sakura had felt from Sasuke before, but never like this.
This time his anger and hatred was mixed with pleasure, and that's what terrified her the most. His twisted grin, the gleam in his eye. She couldn't believe what had become of someone that used to mean the world to her. Someone, that when she saw him smile, made her heart light up.
Now her heart was frozen, that smile made her stomach churn.
The hand resting on Naruto clenched into a fist. As she did she felt thick warm blood ooze between her fingers, and his chest rising and falling in violent jerks. She knew Naruto wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. That blow from Sasuke's chidori had gone straight through his chest.
The worst part was, it had been all her fault. If she had been skilled enough to save herself, Naruto wouldn't have to die this way. He was always protecting her, and she never disserved it. Her whole life she had been causing Naruto pain. Even when confessing her love to him, all she was doing was playing with his emotions. It hurt her to realise how sad it was that someone so close to her couldn't believe that.
Though, it only came to light how much she wanted him in her life when she had finally confessed. What she thought she had forced herself to say, was really the feelings she had been denying ever since he returned from training.
Sasuke was only a stranger to her now, and seeing his personality die in front of her hurt, but Naruto's pain hurt her more. He meant more to her now.
All she was thinking was how much she wanted Naruto to be able to live. How much she wanted to fight for his life. But she knew she wouldn't stand a chance against Sasuke.
She tore her eyes away from Sasuke, and lowered her head in shame. Wind blew her cherry coloured hair in wisps across her face, tears poured down her cheeks. It was impossible for her to protect either of them now. She couldn't stop Sasuke from a life of revenge, or Naruto from being murdered by his best friend. She was useless, she always had been. Always a burden. Now all she could do was close her eyes, and listen has Naruto took his dying breath.
"I'm sorry" She whispered. Memories of Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry flashed before her eyes. Some times where fun, others she found heart wrenching. Watching her team mates try to kill each other right before her eyes, she couldn't stand it.
Sakura felt something squeeze her hand. She opened her eyes, and gasped as her heart skipped a beat.
Naruto was squeezing her hand with his own very lightly. He didn't have much strength left. The light was leaving his eyes, they were glazed over, and shining with tears. Their deep oceanic blue wasn't there anymore.
His mouth opened, but all that came out was a deep rasping cough. Sakura lent over, she placed her hand around the back of his head, and tangled her fingers in his hair. Then she buried her face in his chest, and sobbed.
He was so cold, she felt his blood moisten her hair, turning it a deep red. Tears slid down her face onto his chest, she could feel his breathing becoming slower and softer. It wouldn't be long till it stopped.
Then the noise she had been dreading. Sasuke's chidori. A thousand chirping birds filled her ears. The last strike of lighting would kill them both at once, she thought it better that way. How could she possibly sit and watch as Naruto was murdered in front of her.
Suddenly a rough hand grabbed the back of her neck, her eyes widened as the hand threatened to strangle her. She gasped when it wrenched her backwards, and flung her off Naruto. She landed in a heap, coughing from having her windpipe crushed.
Sasuke was now standing over Naruto. Lightning flashing in his hand, he was about to strike.
Sakura tried to cry out, scream, anything. Her inner self was telling her to get up, block the blow with her back, grab Sasuke's hand. Cut it off.
Why? Why couldn't she move? Why was it that all she could do was stare? Then Sasuke's head turned, she stiffened as he grinned at her.
" Now you will feel the pain, the pain of watching something precious leave you forever, right in front of your eyes."
Sasuke's hand rose.
"No!" Sakura finally managed to scream. But by then it was too late.
The explosion was magnificent, a large flash of white light, the ground shook as bits of dirt and rock scattered for miles.
And Sakura felt the full impact of it.
She found herself hovering over Naruto, with her knee bent into Sasuke's gut. All her strength had forced Sasuke's hand past Naruto, and a large chasm in the earth was created where the lightning had struck.
Sasuke was hacking up blood violently, the force she'd pulled him into her knee with could have done a lot of damage to his lungs. But he wasn't the only one. Sakura felt the vile taste of blood crawl up her throat, and gagged as it came spilling over her lips. She could smell the flesh on her hands burning, and the smoke coming from her rotting gloves. She was shaking from the adrenalin rush, and breathing so heavily she was surprised she heard his pathetic whisper.
"Don't." Sakura didn't dare look. "Don't throw your life away for me." Tears welled up in her eyes again.
"You dam hypocrite Naruto."
Closing her eyes, she used her last ounce of strength to rip Sasuke's limp form hanging over her knee, and they both reeled backwards. Sasuke fell flat on his back chocking on his own blood, while Sakura stopped and knelt forwards over Naruto. Clutching her side she discovered what was causing her blood loss.
Sasuke had thrust a kunai directly into Sakura's right lung. He obviously saw her coming at the last second. Yanking the kunai out, she began to feel her strength fail, most of it had been used trying to heal Naruto. Things started to go blurry, she could feel herself about to pass out.
Sakura collapsed next to Naruto. She lay there feeling dizzy and disorientated. She looked at her hand, the skin on it was peeling off, leaving it red and raw. Once again, she also found it resting on Naruto's heart.
She would have given anything to be able to feel his heart beating right now. But it had stopped. There was no life left in Naruto's body, she didn't dare sit up to look at those glassy eyes, she preferred to pretend that he was only in a peaceful sleep, dreaming.
"Sakura!, Naruto!" That was Kakashi, but she could hardly hear as he charged at Sasuke.
Sasuke got away of course, being kneed in the ribs wasn't going to be enough to kill him. The footsteps of Kakashi came up behind her, he felt her kneel next to her. His hand wrapped around the back of her neck, and lifted her to face him. He was blurry, and his voice echoed in her head. "Sakura, are you…. is Naruto…." He was speechless. It was obvious how shocked he was at Naruto's defeat.
Naruto had always seemed invincible, it just wasn't right for him to die like this. Thoughts of Naruto swirled in Sakura's head. She smiled, he was so annoying, no, he is so annoying. Being such a goof. Laughing with that stupid grin of his. How those deep blue eyes would sparkle. With that, Sakura washed her old tears away with new ones, and fell into a beautiful nightmare.
Chapter 2
A bright light. That was the first thing she saw. Her head was throbbing, but she felt warm. Is this what I feels like to be dead? She slowly sat up, the bright light was coming from the sun. She stared out the window with glazed eyes. "Sakura?" Kakashi had just walked into the hospital room. Sakura didn't move, she wasn't feeling anything, no emotion on her face, or in her heart.
"I understand"
"How could you possibly understand?" All emotion had even gone from her voice.
"You weren't there."
"I've been in that same situation before Sakura, I didn't have to be there."
Sakura tensed. Anger had suddenly come boiling to the surface. "You should have been there!" she screamed, " If you had been there Naruto wouldn't be gone!"
That was the first time Sakura had looked at Kakashi's face. It made her regret what she said immediately.
"Your right."
Sakura had never seen Kakashi like this before. The one eye that wasn't covered by his headband was filled with more emotion than she'd seen from him in her entire life. At that point she was glad she couldn't see the rest of his face.
" If I had been there, I could have saved both of you, I should have been the one to die that day."
Sakura felt like she'd just had a piece of her heart ripped out.
"No, Kakashi sensei, I….. I didn't mean it like that."
"I know Sakura." A sad smile drifted across his face. "I know exactly what you meant."
Sakura's eyes began to water "Why?" she sobbed "Why did he have to leave us this way?" All of Sakura"s emotions suddenly spilled over, and she broke down. She cried for hours, as Kakashi sat next to her in silence.
Chapter 3
It was a light cloudy day, the perfect day for a funeral. It was a massive funeral.
People had come from everywhere. Naruto's death had come as a shock to everybody in Konoha too. Everybody was in tears, except Sakura. Crying had become old, she was sick and tired of feeling miserable and guilty. All she wanted to do was say goodbye, and be done with it. She never wanted to remember him again. It was too painful.
A steady breeze was spreading the disease of grief through everyone, and Sakura was the sickest of them all. She just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep for a thousand years.
Time. Time was the only thing that could cure this type of pain. Maybe when she woke up, she wouldn't remember anything, not even her own name. Nobody would talk to her today, they all looked at her like she was a helpless child. Having lost two team mates over the past years, there isn't a lot you can say to make anyone feel better about that.
People came and went to pay their respects. Sakura stood on the same spot, didn't move all day. By sunset it was only her and Kakashi left.
"You should have spoken to someone today Sakura, you cant keep this
bottled up."
"Who would have wanted to talk to me when I'm like this?"
"I know Ino did, and I could tell Lee was having trouble seeing you this way."
Sakura stared at the large bundle of flowers under Naruto's head stone.
"I didn't bring any flowers."
Kakashi didn't respond. Both stood there for another couple of minutes in silence. Then Kakashi sighed "Please Sakura, don't let this eat away at you, it isn't healthy." He gave her one last glance, then turned and left.
Sakura had never felt so alone, it was getting late, and the darkness began to creep in around her. But she didn't care, the darkness felt like home. She liked being isolated. If she was alone, she didn't have to share her feelings with anyone. Nobody else needed to know how she was feeling, she wasn't going to make her burden somebody else's as well. How could she do to anyone else what she'd done to Naruto.
She was standing in the pitch dark now, it was starting to rain as well. Soon it began to pour. She liked the rain as well. It was hard to distinguish whether it was the rains tears or her own sliding down her cheeks.
She arrived home soaked. Her hair covered her face like a soggy curtain. She pulled it back so she could see clearer. The house was dark, and quiet. Her parents must have gone to bed. So she went straight to her room.
Opening the door to her room tonight must have been the worst thing she could have done. Sakura failed to remember to breathe. Looking at what was sitting on her pillow made her eyes pop. She was frozen again. She hated this feeling. Tensing her entire body, she managed to stifle a scream. She hated Kakashi so much right now, how could he do this?
He had obviously been in her room. Putting Naruto's headband there could only have been his sick joke. She didn't move, it was like the headband was there to haunt her. Like it was there to cause her pain. She didn't want to be anywhere near it.
All of a sudden her fear disappeared. Anger took over. In a rage she ran over, and clenched the headband in her hand. It hurt. Her burns still hadn't healed properly, and squeezing the metal this hard caused her blood to seep over it.
Holding as much of her strength back as possible, she flung it across the room. It landed with an ear splitting crash against the mirror, causing the glass to split directly down the middle and in other places around the side.
Sakura stared at her reflection. It had been split in half too. The biggest half of the glass then slid out of the mirrors' frame, and crashed to the floor in large shards.
Now half of herself was missing. She only had one eye, one arm, and one leg. What could you possibly do with only one arm and one leg? She glared at her half self. She didn't like it.
Naruto's headband lay with the broken shards of glass on the ground. Holding back tears she slid what was left of herself under the covers.
Chapter 4
Days, weeks, even months passed. Sakura would have made it years if a particular event hadn't happened. Over the past months Sakura managed to avoid nearly everybody she knew, except one.
Kakashi was being incredibly irritating. About three times a week he would manage to hunt her down and try to convince her go out with her friends. She refused every time of course. Then Ino decided to have a crack at her. It was hard to ignore Ino, especially when in a way she was her best friend, but at the same time a rival.
Sakura thought she would be able handle her, especially with the way she was feeling right now, anything she could have said wouldn't have mattered. Sakura was too empty to care.
She was wrong.
At the time Sakura had been sitting on her roof, it was a good view of the sky, and since she never did anything all day, she had picked up on Shikamaru's habit of cloud watching.
"Sakura!, come have lunch with me today!, we can go where ever you like, promise!"
"I'm not hungry."
Ino frowned. "Your never hungry these days, I'm so jealous! You must be loosing loads of weight!"
The tone in Ino's voice couldn't be mistaken for anything other than sarcasm. Ino and Sakura were the only chunin that ever went on diets, but both knew that Sakura's eating habits were far from healthy.
" Gee Sakura! Do I have to drag you to a diner?"
"Just leave me alone Ino."
Sakura could tell that Ino was getting annoyed with the emotionless tone in her voice. She hopped gracefully up to the roof as well. " I mean it Sakura, I will drag you!" Sakura choose to ignore her this time. There was no way Ino was going to stand for that.
"Hey! Don't ignore me! I'm trying to help you!"
Sakura looked her directly in the eye this time.
"Help? I don't need any help!"
"Don't be ridiculous! Your clothes are practically falling off you!"
Sakura stood and put on her fake smile. "Hey, there's nothing to worry about, I'm fine!"
That smile hurt so much, she hadn't moulded her expression like that for months. It must have been obvious too since Ino lost total control of her temper at that point.
"Cut it out Sakura! Naruto's dead, there's nothing you can do about it, so stop torturing yourself!"
Sakura winced, and Ino's eyes lit up.
" Oh gee, I'm sorry! Can I not even say his name now? What happened to, he's so annoying, and man I cant stand him?"
Sakura found her hands had sprung at Ino's neck, but a second later and Ino wasn't there. Kakashi had launched just in time to save her from Sakura's deadly hold.
"Sakura! What the hell did you think you were going to do? Kill her?"
Ino was leaning against Kakashi looking petrified. Sakura ignored his comment and choose to scream at Ino.
"It doesn't mean he ever disserved to die!"
She ran from the rooftop. The first place she went was where she felt the safest, the training ground.
There she crouched next to a log. Sakura didn't regret what she was about to do to Ino. She had wanted to see her suffer, nobody should be allowed to talk about him that way. The way she was feeling frightened her, how could she ever be so cruel? But at the same time, Sakura felt exhilarated. It was at that point that she realised, someone had to pay for his death. Someone had to pay for the aguish she was feeling inside.
Chapter 5
It was in the dead of night when she decided to leave. Sakura had most of her weapons, antidotes, and clothes all packed in a bag. She slung it over her shoulder, and casually leaped out the window. What she was about to do, must have been one of the stupidest things she'd ever done in her entire life. Going to kill Sasuke alone.
Yet, for some odd reason, she wasn't scared at all. In fact, she felt really excited. Maybe it was because she would finally be paying him back. Whatever the reason, it made her feel good. Though when she reached the main gate, something froze her in her tracks. Leaning against a pillar, was none other than the silhouette of Kakashi.
"Just thought you'd go for a midnight stroll did you?"
Sakura glared at him.
"You can't stop me"
"Well actually Sakura, I think I can."
It annoyed her how calm he sounded, he was probably right, but it didn't mean she was willing to give up without a fight.
"But, I'm not going to."
"What?"
Sakura couldn't believe what she had just heard. She simply stared at him.
"You can go if you like, id rather not fight my only remaining student."
She knew he was trying to pity her into staying, but as soon as she'd left for this journey, she knew she had to put her feelings aside.
"Thank you Kakashi." Then she pushed past him without saying another word.
Chapter 6
Sakura had been on the road for eight days now. Food was difficult to find since winter was just around the corner, and there weren't any villages close enough. Not that she had enough money to buy anything anyway. She had no idea where she was even going, there was absolutely no way for her to track Sasuke. Her plan was just to walk around like a zombie, maybe she'd get lucky.
Today she found herself walking through rain, it didn't bother her though. Mud squelched under her boots, and her bag was becoming unbearably heavy from soaking up water. She ignored it all. Despite all this, it turned out luck was on her side today.
Sakura suddenly found her feet had hit more solid ground. She paused. The earth was all she needed to see to tell she'd been here before. Looking up, she saw the crater again. As she got closer to it, she was horrified to find a patch around the edge of it was stained a rusty red. The horror didn't show though, emotion was something her face had forgotten how to react to.
"Heh, Sakura, its really sad how predictable you are."
She swirled around in surprise.
"Sasuke."
He grinned, "What were you staring at hah?"
She looked back at the rusty red, except, it wasn't there anymore. Could she really have only imagined it?
"So, you've come back so I can finish you off right?"
Sakura flicked her hair at him, and grounded herself. She was ready to fight.
The next second, she was flying through the air, then getting a face full of mud as she crashed to the bottom of the pit. Sakura yelped, as she heard her leg crack under her. Tears began to gush from her eyes. Groaning from pain she cried.
"Why! Why! Why cant I ever do anything right?"
"Your pathetic Sakura."
Sasuke was smirking down at her from the top of the pit.
"You can't do anything, cuz you don't really want to."
Sakura was lying in the mud, with her back to him, and cradling her leg. Shifting her teary eyes at him she whispered. "What do you mean?"
"Come on Sakura, be honest with yourself. Why did you really want to find me?"
Sakura was startled by this question. She sat up clutching the bone protruding from her leg.
"Its your fault that all this happened! I'm the one who should be dead!"
She gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth.
"Well, I guess I'm about to do you a favour then hm?"
Sakura was in so much shock she hardly noticed when Sasuke joined her.
An iron grip was suddenly clinging to Sakura's head. Sasuke lifted her from the roots of her hair so that she was at eye level. Tears flicked everywhere as she squealed and squirmed under his claw.
"No! No! Why should you still be alive? It isn't fair!"
"Why should you be alive?"
Sakura's pale green eyes flashed, her body went limp. He was right. Why should she be alive? It was her fault as much as his. The reason her heart stung every time that name was said, she caused it. Guilt. It was guilt that had brought her here today. This wasn't only for Sasuke, it was for her too.
In a sudden adrenalin rush Sakura swung her knee at Sasuke, he let go immediately and soared out of the dark ditch.
"So, you've decided to die the hard way have you?"
"You're going down with me Sasuke!"
He simply smiled in response.
Sakura started to gather all her chakra in her right leg, one powerful kick was the only way to get out. Using all her strength she felt the ground fall away, and aimed a fist straight at Sasuke's head.
He dodged it easily.
The impact made her stumble, landing with that much force made a blinding pain shoot up the leg she landed with.
A huge dust cloud now surrounded Sakura. This wasn't good, he could attack from any angle and she wouldn't see it coming.
"Chidori!"
Even with the warning being screamed, she hardly had enough time to dodge. Her leg was thrown from underneath her. She screamed as the burning heat encased the bottom half of her leg. Despite her panic she still managed to land on her hands, and flip herself backwards. She landed on her back, now both of her legs were useless.
"Your not making this much fun Sakura."
The dust was still thick, she couldn't see him. Using her arms she began to shuffle herself away from the cloud. Dodging his next attack would be impossible. She knew that if she stayed any longer, she would probably wind up dead.
A gust of air suddenly blew past her. She froze, and held her breath. It was so fast, it couldn't possibly have been seen by the human eye. But she could definitely sense him behind her.
She felt his hot breath down her neck. She shivered when he lightly laid his hand on her shoulder. He laughed at her playfully.
"You can't go yet!"
He was actually enjoying tormenting her. It made her feel nauseous. Then she felt cold steal sliding up her back, there was no way to move.
No tears came this time. Her death was closer then ever, and she had nobody to save her now. It didn't bother her though. Nobody would have to die for her this time, and she wouldn't have to watch it. Closing her eyes, she knew she would finally be free of her guilt.
Chapter 7
"Chidori!"
That hadn't come from behind her. There was a flash of white light. Sakura crouched as low to the ground as she could, with her hands over her head. She squealed when the flash blew past her. Grinding her teeth she picked up the courage to look over her shoulder.
There was Kakashi, his hand glowing with power, and his face lit up with rage.
"How dare you try to get to Sakura as well! Your fight is with me Sasuke!"
Again Sasuke squawked with laughter.
"Fine! I don't care which of you I kill first!"
This time, tears came. Tears came like never before.
"No Kakashi No!" Sakura began to hyperventilate.
"I ….. I ….. can't watch you die too! Please, don't make me watch it again!"
She was sitting up now, one hand was tightly squeezing the end of her skirt, while the other clutched at her side. She was sucking air into her mouth at an alarming rate and her eyes were bulging out of their sockets.
"Hey, Sakura calm down!" Kakashi was at her side immediately.
"Relax Sakura! I promise, nothings gonna happen to me."
He smiled at her calmly.
"Nothings going to happen to either of us."
Sakura began to slow her breathing.
"Good girl" Kakashi said lightly stroking her back.
Sakura found herself able to breathe normally again, but her eyes were still bulging.
"I don't want to be here anymore Kakashi."
After having come into this with so much confidence, having Kakashi here made her feel so anxious she thought she was going to puke.
"No." She corrected herself. "I don't want you to be here."
She wasn't looking at him. All she could do was hold her gut and glare at her legs like they were a couple of incredibly venomous snakes. Despite this she could still feel the look of horror Kakashi was giving her.
"Sakura."
That was all he was able to say.
"Come on Sakura! Don't send him away! This was just about to get interesting!"
Sasuke was feeling very smug. It made him feel good to watch them battle over who should be killed first.
Kakashi scowled at him.
"What if I kill you here and now Sasuke! Does that sound interesting?"
"I'd like to see you try sensei."
Both men now had their hands glowing with lightning.
"Chidori!"
They clashed. Flashes of white light were ricocheting everywhere, it sliced trees clean in half and set them aflame. Sakura had to turn away to stop a large chunk of rock smashing into her face. That didn't stop it from successfully rebounding off her back, then colliding with the back of her head. Unbelievable pain shot through her skull. Though she was still thinking clear enough to know that more rock would be coming. Clutching the back of her head, she flattened her body against the ground. More earth shot past her, narrowly missing most of the time. Others she knew would be leaving large bruises.
One hit her right leg. She let out an ear piercing squeal, then grinding her teeth she tucked her head into her body.
Kakashi shouldn't have to worry about her at a time like this, she only wished she could help. She wanted to stop being a burden.
All she could do know was stay out of the way. Trying to fight with one leg burnt and crushed, while the other had a bone sticking out of it wasn't going to work.
Then it was quiet. No more rock was coming. It was only when she took her hands off her head and looked at them that she realised they were dripping with blood. Her hair was once again stained a deep red, and sticking to the back of her neck.
"Oh no."
She whispered to herself. If she didn't stop the bleeding she would probably die of blood loss. Then again, did she really want to stop the blood loss? If she died now Kakashi wouldn't have to worry about her anymore. Sakura smiled to herself. Was that really the reason she wanted to die? No. She knew it wasn't. Sakura had a more selfish motive.
"We're finally alone Sakura."
That chilling voice. It could only be one person.
She felt a foot slide under her gut. It kicked her so that she rolled onto her back.
Sakura was limp. She had no way to fight him off, and she could feel herself loosing consciousness from lack of blood.
"Where's Kakashi?" Her voice was so weak Sasuke didn't even hear her.
He drew his sword. The light hit it. There was a flash. Then nothing.
She couldn't feel the soft breeze or the damp earth anymore. She couldn't feel anything. Not even pain. If she had been able to move her face, she would have been smiling. No pain, physical or emotional. That was what she had wanted.
She didn't know where she was going now. But wherever it was, she knew she'd never see Naruto again.
He would have been in heaven.
Chapter 8
"No Sasuke!"
Time seemed no move in slow motion as Kakashi watched Sasuke raise his sword over Sakura.
He was stuck, there was no way for him to save her. Kakashi never noticed Zetsu come and grab him from behind until it was too late. Now he was stuck in a death grip.
Then time froze altogether. Or had it? Sasuke had poised his sword in mid air, and that's where it stopped
.
"Sasuke, what's the matter? You gonna do it or what?" Zetsu asked.
Kakashi's eyes widened. For a split second he thought he saw moisture in Sasuke's dark eyes. It was hard to tell since he had lowered his sword and turned around.
"It doesn't matter anymore, we can go now."
Zetsu feeling highly confused reluctantly let go of Kakashi.
"Fine then, but next time I get to do the killings." With that both of them simply disappeared.
Kakashi had gone numb. What had just happened? He couldn't believe he wasn't dead. Then he saw a large pool of blood surrounding Sakura.
In horror Kakashi sprang into action. Kneeling beside her he could see a large chunk of her skull had been removed.
"No."
Kakashi could only sob in silence as he realised he'd managed to loose all three of his students. He was the only one left of team 7, and the only one left of his previous team.
"Obito. What do you think of me now? Why am I always the soul survivor? Its not fair, I cant deal with anymore of this pain."
Leaving those questions unanswered he began to carry Sakura back to the leaf village. She was still warm. When he got back he was going to resign as a sensei. Looking at her peaceful face was enough to make him want to crawl into a hole. She looked as though she could have been sleeping.
Chapter 9
The sky was a light bluey grey colour. Not many clouds either. Sakura had been buried right next to Naruto. Her tombstone had white lilies lying around the bottom of it. Naruto's had none. They had all died since his burial.
Everybody was so shaken about loosing Sakura, Naruto must be old news.
Kakashi wanted to be buried with them. Lying a couple of feet under ground didn't seem like a bad idea at the moment. Kakashi wasn't allowed to die yet though. He had to make sure Sasuke was buried on the other side of Naruto.
All three of them together again. Not quite how he'd imagined it, but it was better than nothing. It will only be then that Kakashi would be allowed to follow them to the heavens.
He promised himself this was what he had to do before he died. He wasn't going to seek revenge on Sasuke. Sasuke was still considered his student, that was never going to change. Kakashi was sure that He would end up running into Sasuke without having to look for him anyway. It was fate. If he never saw Sasuke again by coincidence, no matter how painful it may be, hunting him down and killing him would be the only way to finish this. He could never let Sasuke outlive him.
Committing suicide afterwards wasn't exactly on his agenda either. He wanted to die a proud shinobi, in battle with his comrades. Going out the way his father did wasn't an option.
Sighing, Kakashi pulled out two headbands from his pocket. One black, the other red.
Tying the ends of them together, he then placed them neatly between Naruto and Sakura's headstones.
"Stick together you two, if I cant get Sasuke….. You'll only have each other left. I should have learnt a long time ago that I couldn't protect you. Your on your own from now on."
With that, Kakashi left them in alone in peace.
A soft wind was blowing through the cemetery. As it did, one of Sakura's lilies rolled over to Naruto's headstone, and that's where it stayed.
The End.