Check the previous chapter. I merged the Sequel with teh current story cause I was losing views and that made me sniffles :(

I have no name. I know everything that I need to so I can fulfill his wishes. His wishes are all that matter. And that's fine by me, because he is my master and I serve him and him alone.

I have all the knowledge in the library, I know every dead and living member of Konoha. But something odd happened to day.

I thought about Uchiha Sasuke. This is not an unnatural occurrence for me, because Uchiha Sasuke seems to reoccur in my dreams, in strange events which have not happened. And I heard him say that he once had a wife.

And I began to think about this woman, searching through my mind. I found her children, Uchiha Yuki and Haku, but found no results. And seeing as his children have the Sharingan, it's no wonder that he has a wife. Why was I finding something missing? It must be a flaw.

And Uchiha Sasuke also only has one other person in his past genin team. This must be incorrect. Something is going on, and I want to know what. I also need to check with my master. Something is wrong with me.

Because every time I think of him, I feel my chest constrict.

-SasuNaru-

White lilies.

I don't particularly like them, actually. She did though. That's why we place them here. White lilies, piles of them today. While the villagers celebrate with dim red lamps and stands and happiness, we sit down and mourn for a shining smile lost. For the sun kissed skin, for the luscious blue eyes that used to gaze at us in a sympathetic happiness. Sympathy. She had so much to give, yet so little to receive. "If I am not the loved... I will be the lover." So many regrets I had. So many things I never said that week, because my throat would choke whenever I looked into those eyes that sucked me in like a pair of suction driven whirlpools. And those little things that told me she didn't want to go were there too; the slight knotting of her eyebrows when looking at her children, the trembling of her lips when I lay mine upon hers. And the way her fingers would shake when she ran them across my skin, as if mesmerized by every contour and indentation that lay there. It was like she was trying to enjoy everything for one last time. She did. And I never forgave her for leaving me, for letting me stand here today, in front of a feigned sapphire rock with countless names carved inside.

My knees gave out beneath me and I fell to my knees, clutching the lilies to my chest as I quietly cried, silent tears running down my face and my body trembling with the heart racking sobs that I couldn't hold back any more. The things I could never do. The things I could never say to her. Overwhelming all at once in that silently destructive moment. No, my heart wasn't broken. It was with her and she was gone.

I don't regret meeting her. Even if they hurt, the memories are reasons in themselves to carry on. Because she would want me to, she would want me to look after our children. To take care of them. To grow them up to be fine, first rate shinobi. And I will do that, because I love them and I love her. And that will never, ever change.

She was such a beautiful person. And not just on the outside. She was so forgiving, everyone who hated her was forgiven without a thought, and she would clutch them close to her with a sickening desperation that made you realize with a jolt how badly treated she was through the entirety of her life. And it made me hurt. Her hurt was my hurt. And I would never turn his back on that. That's why I kneel here now, forehead just centimetres away from the cold translucent blue stone.

People stayed away from me when I came back. No longer did the people look at me with pride in their eyes, just hate and pity for loving that girl. And though it angered me, it felt nice to feel a slight taste of what Naruto's life had been life. A slight taste of the bitter and unconditional hate bestowed upon her bosom from her birth to her death. Everything was picked for her, wasn't it? From where she lived, to how she died; she never had a choice in the matter. And she never complained, only silently endured the torture, silently endured everything. Though she spoke so loudly through her entire life, in reality, she never spoke a word.

These days, even saying her name is a feat in itself. My mouth doesn't seem to be able to move in that order of syllables, my brain not able to comprehend that simple name. I was the fool, wasn't I? I was the fool in this situation. I made mistakes. I made a good deal of them. I shouldn't have left. I have no revenge left any more. Itachi is long gone, dissipated into the dark claws of the Akatsuki. And I don't have the will to follow him inside, either. Because my feet won't obey me, my feet won't let me go after him. There's no revenge for her death. Nothing. The blame just thunders down on my heart. My heart belonged to her. I want to run my hands through out her hair once more, I want caress her sun kissed, whisker-scarred cheeks once more. I want to tell her everything I didn't.

I love you.

Please don't leave me.

They love you. We all love you.

You're the person closest to me.

Revenge pales in your resonating love.

Please don't forget about us.

Don't leave.

Beloved.

So many things I never did. I regret it. I want to go back and stop everything from happening this way, I want to stop myself leaving the village. I want the power to protect her. I want... I want her back. But she's not here any more. She's in the hands of Death, now. Far, far out of my grasp.

There's a lot of things I never did. She wanted to be happy, in that last week. And I wouldn't let her, because I was already sinking into a depression. It was like she was already dead. And I want to redo that. But perhaps, it was better. Perhaps not seeing her that time – perhaps ignoring her, maybe – eased the pain a little when she really was gone. But it didn't change that last final thing. It didn't change the terror, the moment in which she realized it wasn't a dream, and her eyes dulled into a fluorescent grey. And I reached forward to close her eyes, only to see them soaked in red.

My heart belonged to her.

But she's gone, gone gone.

-SasuNaru-

"Danzo-sama..."

"Get up here," he hissed, spittle lingering on his dry lips.

"But Danzo-sama-"

"Now."

I hurriedly stumbled up, scraping my knees on the stone steps, before settling a knee on one step and placing another one upright on another. "You requested my presence."

"Yes," he murmured, the visible part of his facial expression looking down at her with an amused annoyance. "Sources tell me you were investigating a person called Uchiha Sasuke in my personal library."

I bowed my head slightly, it only millimetres different from it's previous position. "Yes, Danzo-sama."

"Why would you do such?"

My fingers trembled, and I looked up with blank eyes. I was trying to summon some human emotion. Sadness, they call it. Guilt. Regret. Maybe he'll take pity on me then.

"Don't look at me with feigned emotion."

Screw that. "I... wanted to know who I was."

He looked at me with a calculating expression. His eyes pierced through mine, and I instantly knew my master was a bit more mystic than originally thought; and he was definitely more sinister. In an instant, he landed a fierce slap on my face that allowed a loud 'smack' to resonate throughout the room. I showed no sign of pain.

"Don't let it happen again. You are no-one outside of this place. You've always been here. That's all there is to it."

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

I hurried off to my room, a poise of apology written in my posture. Anything less would have sent him into a spiteful rage and I would black and blue currently.

Only someone like me knows how to avoid that. And that's the only thing I pride myself on. And I use 'pride' as a loose term, because that is an emotion – and I feel no such thing.

Books tell me that a constriction in my chest is either love, or sorrow. This is strange. I've never known Uchiha Sasuke, so why would I be upset or in love with him?

Mysteries. I'll never fathom emotions.

-SasuNaru-

I'm turning twenty five soon. I don't want to.

I wanted her to be there on my birthday, I wanted her to watch on and we could drink together, and since we're so lightweight we would get inconceivably drunk and dance together and she'd probably end up sexing Sasuke up in a closet somewhere. It wouldn't bother me. I have my own life now, beyond the crush and beyond the envy. With Lee. Lee's so kind to me, I don't even know why. He loves me. I love him. And I'm sure she's proud. Because she knows I would be proud of her at a time like this.

I was the one who pulled him up, putting my hand on his shoulders and telling him as he trembled with tears that he should pull himself together. Because we can't sit around and wait for her any longer; she's not coming back. He won't move on. He still standing where he stood before, children in hand, waiting for her kohl trimmed eyes to come into sight.

Still staring into her eyes.

But no matter how much I tell him to move on, it won't stop him looking back.

And though they finally came back, I think the Sasuke I knew died when she did. He faded away, following her like a string was tied from her to him. And it was bitterly ironic, because knowing them, there probably was.

I'd love to say that I knew them well, that I knew Sasuke well. That I knew her well. I'd thought that, and then they'd left me behind. And each time I tried to tighten my grip, all they did was slip out of my grasp. I was never strong enough, my grip never firm enough. And no matter how much I tried, I couldn't close the gap.

So here I stand, my hand on his shoulder, him looking up with unbelieving eyes as I tell Sasuke, "Give up on her."

"W-what?" he trembles. "Give up...?"

"She's not coming back," I murmur, my chest clenching as I force out the words through my unwilling lips. I'm following my mind, not my heart. "We can't stand in the past forever. We've got to carry on. She would want you to do that. If not for yourself, for your children. If not for your children, for her." I wish I'd known him as much as I had claimed. I claimed I knew him, that Sasuke was a desperate individual thriving on love and attention inside. And I thought he was, and a part of me still believes that Sasuke is still an unstable child that could never move on from the thought of death. But the rational part of me says that Sasuke changed. I'm pretty sure she got him on the right path; I have faith. I had no help in that. No hand in saving someone close to my heart.

My entire life, all I'd been doing was standing there. Watching them carry on without me. And it hurt.

Because I know Naruto is far, far out of my reach.