"Naruto," Sasuke whispered, atop the waters once again, gripping tighter onto Naruto, blood already pouring from mouth to mouth. "You're nothing but a fool, Naruto…"

He pressed down, vengefully kissing his prey, not an ounce of affection exchanged. Naruto struggled against him, and Sasuke's grip tightened.

The young Uchiha whispered into his ear, "How could you ever think that I could actually love you?"

Chidori electrified his body, and Naruto's scream was stifled out with the choke of blood and Sasuke's mouth over his.

"How could you ever think that your love could be enough to change me?"

"Please, just let me be! Sasuke!"

Sasuke threw his head back, maniacal laughter bellowing out, Chidori exploding, ripping through Naruto's body again.

Sakura's laugh joined in, "You deserve this."

"You've chased it, after we've all urged you to stop," Kakashi came in too.

Jiriaya chimed in, white and glowing, from the beyond, "I never dreamed you would fail me so greatly, I couldn't be more ashamed of what you've become Naruto…"

More voices followed. Lady Tsunade. Iruka Sensei. Konohamaru. Soon, the whole Leaf Village.

"You'll never be our Hokage!"

"How could we have ever hoped in you?!"

"You're a fool, Naruto! You ran headfirst into this!"

Suddenly, Kushina and Minato, his own parents from the grave, "Naruto, we were counting on you. You've ruined our legacy. What shame and disgrace to call you our son…"

Naruto could no longer bear it. He writhed and thrashed against Sasuke, screaming out for help, for strength, in apology.

"Nine Tails – lend me your chakra! Please!"

Even the Nine Tails laughed from within him, "No, Naruto. I've been waiting for you to reap the harvest of your foolishness for years, and now, I'm relishing it. Suffer, little Jinchuriki, and know that you have brought this on yourself…"

The world began to spin – surely he was going to die soon, he begged for it.

"You fool…" Sasuke cackled, "Your love was never in my heart, Naruto, but now, my hate is in yours."

Naruto screamed, "Let me go! Sasuke, please let me go! I'll do anything – Sasuke, please!"

"Let me go!"

Naruto drank in cool air with wild breaths, Kakashi's hands immediately on his chest and back, easing his former student to lay back down.

He was awake again, out of the nightmareand into the sharp pain of reality. At least at this point, he could distinguish which was worse.

"Easy, Naruto, just breathe," Kakashi soothed, wetting a rag and laying it over his blonde comrade's sweaty, fevered forehead.

"Kakashi…" Naruto moaned.

"Shh… Breathe."

"He had me…"

Kakashi stilled, letting out a long sigh.

"It would seem he still has you…"

The room became heavy. Slowly, Kakashi began to straighten out Naruto's tangled bedsheets, and to tuck them back in.

"I'm sorry that Sasuke made the decision he did, Naruto."

He flinched back, it was the first time someone had used Sasuke's name with him. It sounded bitter, wrong all of the sudden.

"If no one has said it to you yet, you need to know that it was his decision, not your fault."

Instantly, Naruto's eyes brimmed with tears. He ground his teeth against them.

"Kakashi, you're supposed to just be a quiet support, ya know. I don't want to-"

"We've been quiet long enough. It's time to talk."

Naruto protested in silence.

"I said the same thing and have had the same talk with Sakura."

His interest was piqued, "You spoke with Sakura?"

Kakashi nodded.

"What'd she say?"

"It doesn't matter what she said. She'll speak with you herself soon enough-"

"She will?" Naruto interjected, Kakashi raising a hand to silence him again.

"What matters, is what I have to say."

Naruto frowned, his brow creasing in frustration. "A little high and mighty on yourself, don't you think Kakashi Sensei…"

A small chuckle escaped the silver-haired shinobi, and he sat himself down.

"Listen, Naruto… My father took his own life when I was a child."

Naruto gave a slight gasp at this sudden honesty. "Kakashi Sensei…"

"He was an amazing father, and an incredible shinobi; I'm more than honored to be his son. But, he disobeyed direct orders on a mission, abandoning it, in order to save his comrades, and the aftermath that followed left him with a long shadow of shame
in the village. Eventually, he believed that his grief could only be relieved though death. I was eight."

"Kakashi, I'm so sorry… I had no idea."

"Let me finish, Naruto," Kakashi continued. "From then on, I consumed myself with the rules of the shinobi. I was so completely incapable of properly mourning the loss of my father, that I became obsessed with rules, and regulation. This cost me dearly.
After having just made Jonin, I went on a mission during the Third Great Ninja War with your father, and my two former teammates, Rin and Obito. You have so much of Obito in you, Naruto. He was all about his comrades, about protecting his friends,
about the heart of the mission, rather than the rules that structured it. He even had dreams of becoming Hokage someday. And he loathed me. We were water and oil then… Wrapped up in regulation, I missed out on what could have been between my team
and I, and it very quickly cost Obito's life…"

Kakashi lost himself in the memory for a moment, his visible eye glassing over, fraught with pain unspeakable.

"Why are you sharing this with me, Kakashi?" Naruto questioned softly, never having seen his Sensei in such grief.

"As always, Naruto, I want for you to learn something, and in this instance, to learn from my mistakes. Yes, the pain of my father's passing was worthy of my mourning, but mourning does not mean fixating. I lost myself, tried to console myself in trying
to fix what I thought were the mistakes of my father, in order not to deal with the pain of his passing. Does this behavior sound familiar at all to you?"

Naruto chewed on his lips. It did sound familiar. He opened his mouth, and he forced out his name, "Sasuke…"

It tasted bitter and wrong now too.

"Exactly," Kakashi confirmed. "You said it to him yourself, he wraps himself so deeply in vengeance and hate to try and avoid the grief of his loss. His grief and loss are real, his hate and vengeance don't have to be. If it brings you any peace, you
should know I had a similar conversation with Sasuke before he left with Orochimaru… Obviously, it was to no avail. Sasuke has made his decision, Naruto, and now it's time for you to make yours."

"Mine?"

"Yes, Naruto, you have the same choice in front of you now. You can either, keep yourself hung up in isolation and defeat because of Sasuke's decision, and the grief it has brought you, or you can begin down another path. It's a difficult path, mourning,
but it is one that is worth it and it keeps you from missing out on what's in front of you, one that keeps you from even deeper loss."

Naruto stared hard into his former master, concern and long-suffering riddled into his ever-masked face. What weight he had carried, and Naruto had never even noticed it?

"How do you even begin to find such a path, Sensei?"

Kakashi smiled, it reaching up to his visible eye, "That, we can find and journey down together."

Naruto returned the smile, and hope flickered again into his blue eyes.

"And I get the sense," The Copy Ninja continued, "that I'm not going to be the one helping you along the journey for long. Rumor has it there's a certain highly-recognized shinobi already more than willing to carry the torch and lead the way."

A hot blush lit up Naruto's face and he began to stammer out of a suddenly dry mouth, "Kakashi…I-what are you…What-what rumors...There's not-who is saying…I don't know what you're… I need to rest…"

Rich, full laughter rang out from Kakashi. "What? I've exhausted the pages of my favorite books; I look for action where I can find it now."

Naruto was purple, sinking beneath his sheets and a deep shade of purple. Kakashi laughed harder at his squirming former student, until Naruto gave in to the absurdity and laughed with him.

After a moment they quieted back down, grinning at one another.

"It's good to hear you laugh again."

Naruto nodded. It was good to hear his own laughter again; it was good to be genuinely laughing and smiling again.

"Kakashi, thank you. You're an incredible Sensei, and I'm more than honored to have been your student."

"Thank you, Naruto. I'm honored to have had you as my pupil, and I'm more than proud of the shinobi you've become."

"Well, well, I'm hurt Sensei, you didn't speak so highly to me in any of our talks together. I see who your favorite student really is."

"Sakura!" Kakashi and Naruto exclaimed in unison.

There in the doorway stood their incredibly strong and skilled teammate, looking rather haggard, her pink hair pulled back, donning a wrinkly medical ninja uniform, with a basket of home-made food pills in one hand, and a handful of Ino's finest flowers
in the other.

"Sakura, you know how highly I think of you, your skill, your growth-"

"Don't try to back-peddle now, Kakashi; I would be disappointed in you if Naruto wasn't recognized as your favorite student…" She made her way slowly into the room standing between her former Sensei and her weary comrade.

It was the first time they had all been together since the incident, and it was a bittersweet mixture of comforting and disquieting. Once a brilliant and tight-knit team, teacher and students, innocent, adventuring, learning, growing, now and finally
severed.

Kakashi knew this pain too well, and it ached in him more to know that his students were experiencing it for the first time.

"I'll take my leave, let the two of you talk," Kakashi stood, gesturing for Sakura to take his seat.

"Oh, no, please stay," Sakura requested, her stomach churning at the thought of finally being without escape from facing Naruto.

"I'll be back to check in on you two again soon. There are matters I have to attend to for now, after all, we are at war."

Sakura's face reddened with anger, "Kakashi! Naruto is not supposed to know!"

"Oops, I guess the cat's out of the bag now. Surprise, we're at war with the Akatsuki, Naruto!" Kakashi gave a wink to the two of them and vanished out the window.

Staring after him in disbelief for a moment, Sakura muttered, "He just can't ever use the door, can he?"

Turning back to Naruto, but unable to meet his gaze yet, she outstretched her hands, warm, green chakra flowing out. He winced slightly at her inspection.

"It appears you're healing very well, very quickly," She stated rather softly, withdrawing her ninjutsu and sitting herself down, eyes on the floor.

"Yah, my body is always pretty quick to bounce back…" A 'thank you' for saving him perched with anticipation in his mouth, but the still remaining desire to have simply drown reigned it back. Instead, he asked the question that had been burning at him
since Sasuke's lips had touched his own. "Sakura, do you hate me now?"

Sakura's green eyes widened in disbelief, "Do I hate you? You think I hate you?"

"I-I just mean…I know how much you loved him… And, when you didn't show after I was hospitalized…"

Tears slipped down Sakura's pale and sunken cheeks as she crossed from her chair to the side of the hospital bed, grabbing gently onto her teammate's hand.

"I'm so sorry, Naruto… I've been so selfish… I just-I couldn't seem to find the will to accept reality… I knew seeing you would make it undeniable… How could I hate you, Naruto?" She asked. "He broke both of our hearts."

Naruto's teeth ground together, his eyes squeezing shut, tears pouring out and onto his own cheeks. "Sakura…"

She gripped his hands tighter, and leaned her body down unto the hospital bed, curling into his, and together they wept in complete understanding of each other's loss.

"I'm so sorry he betrayed you so humiliatingly, Naruto…" Sakura whispered when their tears receded from a downpour into a drizzle.

"I'm so sorry I broke my promise to you Sakura…" He whispered in return. "I'm so sorry I wasn't strong enough, that I wasn't enough…"

"Naruto…" She was at a loss. "You're more than enough, more than strong enough… He just, he chose differently… I wanted you out of his relentless rejection and abuse; I wanted you to let go of your promise, remember?"

Naruto chewed his lips.

"There's nothing to be sorry about…"

"I just feel like such a complete fool and failure, Sakura," he admitted in defeat.

"I understand… At least though, you got to know his kiss at least once, that has to count for something, right?"

"No," Naruto replied in sobriety, "It was all for my disgrace. His only intention was to mock and destroy me. It wasn't a goodbye, or gesture of affection at all… It wasn't a kiss…"

"You don't think he ever felt for you at all?"

"I think he could have. I think he could have loved you, too. But he loved the comfort of his vengeance most, and missed out on the chance to love anyone."

Naruto let out a long sigh.

"It's funny…" Sakura remarked, "I think I can see now that I wasn't ever truly in love with him, at least not who he really was. I was in love with the idea of him, of fixing him, of filling the void in his life, with the potential of who he could have
been. You could see glimpses of it, back when we were young… But he didn't ever become that man, and it's clear now, that it's not that he thinks it's impossible for him to heal, but that he doesn't want to."

Naruto nodded, hugging his dear friend close with his one functional arm.

"I think all that's left to do now," he decided, "is to mourn the death of who he could have been, who he was to us."

"To not miss what's in front of us…" Sakura added, and together they wordlessly agreed it was time finally let Sasuke go on the dark path he had chosen, and for them to turn forward to find their own paths.

"Hey, did you ever- I mean, did you know that, well, that I had feelings for him at all?" Naruto asked sheepishly after a moment. "I'm just curious."

A small, embarrassed smile crept up between Sakura's lips, "No… I was too busy with my own infatuation for him. Not to mention how often you would come after me. Kakashi told me he knew though."

"Of course he did…" Blush rushed once again into Naruto's cheeks at the thought of his overly-perceptive Sensei relishing in playing matchmaker from afar.

"He said that he, Lady Tsunade, and Shikamaru would all discuss it. And, as you can guess, our very own Hokage tried to get a betting pool running as to whether or not Sasuke would return the notion."

Naruto was crushed with embarrassment, wanting nothing more than to crawl away into a hole. Sakura's smile swelled into satisfaction.

"While we're laying all our cards on the table, may I ask you something?

"I suppose…" Naruto mused, thinking to himself that the conversation couldn't possibly be any more humiliating than it already was.

"Did you ever really have feelings for me, or was it just an act?"

Naruto recoiled in shock, "Of course I did, Sakura, from the start. You are so beautiful, and so very smart. I was struck by you first and hardest. My love for you simply changed over time. I see you more as my kin than anyone else."

Sakura blushed, pink as her hair, "Thank you, Naruto. I should leave you to rest; you'll need to have your strength up if you're going to be transferred home this week."

She gave her companion a gentle kiss on the forehead and rolled off his hospital bed to her feet.

"Sakura, wait," Naruto called after her. "I have a last question."

Cocking her head, she shrugged her shoulders, "Yes?"

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but, what did Kakashi suggest you would miss out on? What did he imply was in front of you?"

Sakura smiled big, teeth shining out and eyes closed.

"Myself," she answered, and turned for the door.

Naruto returned her smile.

"You're not going to ask me what he implied was in front of me?"

Sakura was almost out of the room, "No, I already know who's in front of you. And I've thrown my own bet into the pool on the outcome of this one."

She flashed a wink, just as their Sensei had, leaving Naruto to fall back into his pillows exhausted, embarrassed, and admittedly, slightly, deep down exhilarated.

"Sakura," He caught her from leaving a last time. "Thank you, for saving my life…"

She nodded in deep appreciation and relief, "Of course my dear friend, of course."