Reviewers;

Jayk24: Naruto had to suffer because I never really make him suffer, and so he is dying for the cause! Your choice on saving things sounds funny and yet memorable. I suppose that you care for your past as much as Sakura does! (haha!)

Czar Joseph: Yes, we can see that Naruto will proceed to somewhere where Sakura is, and that Ino is broken over having to do the hard things.

7th Demon of Razgriz: Maybe I am. Maybe Naruto is just fated to die by Ino's kindness.

St3rfire: You have hope that Naruto will escape from death itself? Hmm...maybe i should have gone that way, but I failed to do so, and...I would have made that into a whole ten chapters more. Nice memorial for your father. I like it a lot!

Duh Bomb: Like how you separated the seal master that Naruto is. You have captured Naruto's heart and emotions all around the chapter, ending with his death inside his heart. Well, if I killed Sakura, I could make this into Ino's tale of fighting back, but that's not to be.

AN: Hey everyone. So I enjoyed those who said what they would take from their homes, but was surprised by the lack of surprise to Naruto's death. Anyways, for me, I feel bad at saying that I would take my laptop case. The reasoning behind that is that in it is my laptop, as well as four flash drives with my families's vacation photos and of course, my stories.

Now then, I hope you like this chapter. This is what I first thought up before any of the rest of the story, now changed three times because of this pivotal point in the story.

So I welcome you to this 3 part series...You'll understand why.

And so...Welcome...to Arc 2: Let It Go

Fire & Ice

Arc 2: Let It Go

Chapter 20: In Death, There Is Life

Kakashi watched from behind the shadow of a chimney down at the attackers below him and his battalion of knights and ninja. They had infiltrated the city with the rest of the ships of attackers and now watched as everyone slowly filled into the square before them. Kakashi would never have done such a thing as this while the city was barely under his control, and no veteran would leave their post to attend such a celebration.

Kakashi heard a roof shingle move slightly and turned to see some of his men shaking their heads in irritation and annoyance. His men were here for Lord Itachi, to report when the attackers had settled down and that the city was ready to be placed under siege by the combined Alliance forces. But until then, they could only watch as the men celebrated below them.

Slowly, a wave of cheers sounded and Kakashi's eyes widened in horror to see Queen Sakura, his pupil once upon a time, as she was pushed forward and he himself held in a growl inside his throat as he watched as the men fondled her body. Royals were not meant to receive this. Sasuke was supposed to give her an honorable and quick death.

"Sir Kakashi," one of his lieutenants spoke in horror and pointed to the center of the square, and Kakashi saw the hangman's noose and platform being erected.

"Disgraceful."

"That's disgusting."

"How could they-"

"Because he can." Kakashi spoke, silencing the shock in his men as well as himself. A noose was this world's death for murderers and psychopaths, and Sakura had never killed anyone. Even if she did, she was a royal, and therefore was held to a completely different set of standards. Kakashi, while only a minor royal among the level of the highest of knights, had killed hundreds of men from invasions and by leaving them to die. Sakura was an angel compared to all soldiers, she was loved by all.

But the men that surrounded her as she approached the platform were not her allies or even the soldiers of the land. These soldiers covering the square knew nothing about this land's customs, and traditions. They wanted only for greed and wealth of the markets that the Haruno Royalty had begun centuries ago.

The reason Port Haruno had peace more than the other nations was because they shared their wealth equally with all of its allies, and even a small part to countries that could not survive without them. But they did not go to war as often as others did, and so, while other treasuries were like waves moving vertically in height, Port Haruno flourished on their sustaining wealth.

And now, that wealth was being destroyed by these marauders. Sakura was not even a typical princess or Queen, growing up and wanting extravagant gifts. Instead, she spent the wealth for others. Kakashi reached to the center of his chest where a pendant lay, with either side written out 'Sensei,' with a red cirecle surrounding the fine edges. It was worth a year of a knight's pay, but Sakura had gotten many pendants made for her own knights at the expense of only her own pocket. She was generous and kind, but these men wanted it all for themselves.

"Greedy Sons of bitches." A man sneered and Kakashi agreed. The men below threw Sakura to the ground and she moved back up to her feet, and Kakashi wished he could defy his orders and save her. But he served Itachi, and Itachi took Sakura's plea as an order. Sakura did not want to be saved, and even if his men made it to her, Kakashi did not truthfully know whether they could escape. If only Sakura had told Kakashi her secret, he could have trained her in more versatile combat when she was younger.

Then Sasuke spoke out loud that he wanted Sakura to bow and beg, and Kakashi let a tear fall down his right eye. His red eye, a gift bestowed to him by a royal who did not survive a battle so long ago, did not cry on the left side of his face. He knew how proud Sakura was as a royal and this was the ultimate humiliation.

But then pushing arguments and pleas for help sounded and soon, civilians were lined up for execution and Sakura said that she was sorry, before bowing completely to Sasuke's will. He forced it upon her, and her fatal flaw made her cave in to his ruthless request.

"Steady…men." Kakashi breathed as Sasuke kicked Sakura repeatedly, over and over. Sakura looked like she blacked out sometimes, and so she probably thought he only kicked her once or twice, but no, he kept kicking her legs and arms and once even her head, but Sakura stayed firm, and begged for her citizen's lives.

The civilians began to walk away and Kakashi signaled to his men. "Half of you, follow them back to their ship and Get them out of here."

"Roger, Sir."

Half of the men slipped off the roofs and landed between the enemy soldiers conspicuously and Kakashi knew that all of them were sailors and men of the sea. He nodded to his diverse group of the assassination sect of the Uchiha lands, and they all slipped out concentrated balls of smoke in their hands. These items were filled with a single grain of transportation powder that could take them as far as the Nara Woods and to the Uchiha grand palace.

Kakashi glared as Sasuke began to break Sakura's leg. He wanted her to cry, and Kakashi was so proud of her for not doing so, and yet he saw that she was beginning to crack under all the pain. It would feed Sasuke's lust for power, and he needed to be stopped here and now.

Kakashi looked at the ball in his hands. Transportation powder was created by a mixture of sealers from the infamous Namikaze clan and random groups of people who possessed small bits of magic. Even Sasuke's sword as well as Kakashi's were instilled with magic to make it stronger, and yet Sasuke fueled this rage against witches.

Sasuke jumped on the stage and soon went to work on Sakura's left arm, breaking it as well after he brought it back and Sakura whimpered and Kakashi could see the tears fly down her face, but her eyes began to glaze over as she was dragged up to the noose before being stabbed in the side. Attacking a defenseless and self-sacrificing girl? Sasuke had stooped so low.

Kakashi saw Sakura standing on her bruised right leg and saw her swaying as her breathing began to come in gasps. Kakashi let more tears flow, and sucked in air and looked down to see that he had cut himself on his sword. He breathed in. She didn't want to be saved. Kakashi chanted the saying in his head. Sasuke walked up to her and nodded to the executioner. She didn't want to be saved. The executioner nodded and placed his hand on the lever.

Kakashi closed his eyes and looked away. She…didn't want to be saved.

And that was when he heard the girlish scream that was the talk of the entire Uchiha nation, and Kakashi opened his eyes to see Sasuke falling off the platform with a wolf protecting her master. Kakashi knew that the wolf was dead when the first rope found its way around her paw, but its defiance made Sasuke frazzled, and Kakashi's men smiled at the wolf's dedication.

But then Sasuke pulled out his sword and as he killed the wolf, he looked to Sakura, who choked on her blood, and watched as Sasuke signaled her death.

"T-Tanya?" Sakura breathed out, coughing up blood that trickled down her mouth and down her chin until it began to cover the rope. Sasuke saw the ultimate despair and misery of life fill into Sakura's eyes and grinned madly. He looked to the executioner and frantically nodded. The burly man covered in black armor and helmet nodded once and pulled on the lever.

Sakura did not cry out as the wood floor beneath her bruised leg gave way and suddenly, Sakura was weightless, and felt like she had gone to heaven because she was flying downwards and her eyes flew underneath the wooden platform and then the rope tightened around her neck and Sakura gasped for air as her neck broke in two.

Sakura writhed under the pull of gravity, knowing that she wasn't flying but falling down to hell, and what made it worse was that her feet were scraping the cobble of the streets themselves. Sakura wanted to glare at Sasuke for making the platform so low, but her eyes were not working right. They burned for air, reddening the whites of her eyes, as they bulged out of her sockets.

The blood in her throat choked what air she was taking in, and her feet continued to spasm as her spine was strained to its limit! Sakura's eyes pulsed with tears, but they did not come. Sakura felt her wound in her side pulse as more blood spilled from it, but the thing was…Sakura felt no pain at all.

All she felt was that her breaths were getting shorter and shorter and her remaining lung couldn't give her enough of it. She was dying by suffocation! And yet she was thinking only about the fact that she couldn't be with Naruto! Sakura's life began to flash through her eyes and she could only stare at her past self as she breathed in less and less air into her deprived lung.

When she was six and she was scared of the dark, and slept between her parents at night. Meeting Naruto for the first time, crying into his shoulder as he left on his training trip, Ino learning about her magic, her feelings for Naruto growing stronger every time Naruto took care of her, the necklace she still wore from when he taught her how to swim, Naruto returning to her, all of the kisses they shared, and when he had kissed her that moonlit night and she had almost killed him. Her parents dying, her friend helping her, and then her coronation, her secret coming out and now, her wolf dying.

Sakura breathed in what air she could, but felt the staleness of it, and knew that she would get no more. Sakura's glazed over eyes looked up at the sky and smiled dully as her mother and father appeared and smiled at her. Sakura held in her breath as they opened their arms to her.

"I'm Sorry…Naruto. I'll see you soon." Sakura whispered, though no one heard it, and closed her eyes and let her body die. The magic inside her ceased to repair itself, her veins of magic and blood stopped flowing, and her heart thumped once….twice…and no more.

...

...

...

Kakashi watched as Sakura's eyes widened for a split second and a short lived smile filled her face. That smile was in every thought of flying that was in anyone unlucky to get the hangman's noose, and Kakashi heard the sickening CRACK! Kakashi prayed to the Gods that Sakura was dead, quick and painless, but as he looked on, he grew much sadder as Sakura choked on the rope that pushed deeply into her skin, and saw green magic flow around her neck, which meant that Sakura's magic had kept her neck from snapping. It was now choking the life slowly out of her instead of trying to help her and had just made things so much worse.

And Kakashi reached over and grabbed a young assassin's arm as he had reached inside his pouch for a shuriken in which to cut the rope and save Sakura's life. The man looked at him angrily, and Kakashi realized that the young man was crying. He was one of the retainers that Kakashi's house had received from the Haruno royalty. This must be too much for him to bear, but Sasuke would simply replace the rope and Sakura would have to endure it even longer and Kakashi had little doubt that he would inflict many more injuries on her, ones that were non-life threatening, but mentally scarring. No, it was best to let Sakura's death be as quick as possible.

Kakashi heard and saw the men cheering as the young Queen's rope snapped again as she bounced a bit, and swung around, the rope adding another line around her petite neck, before it unwound and Sakura's face turned whiter as a lack of oxygen began to suck the life out of her.

And then, Sakura gasped in fresh air, and Kakashi noticed that she rose an inch before choking on blood and fell back down and gasped for air once again. Kakashi looked closely at Sakura's feet and saw the tips of her feet scraping the cobble off of the top of the street. Sakura's thoughts were not on this action, but her feet flailed for a way to live, and Kakashi could only think that this was the cruelest of tortures. Sasuke did this on purpose, just to see Sakura have the tiniest bit of hope, and as she was dying, knowing that she could do nothing but die.

Sakura's actions became sluggish and slow, as she flailed less and less, and her breaths became shallower and more blood seeped up her throat and began to turn the rope red. But as Kakashi watched closely, he saw Sakura's lips moving and closed his eyes, using his veteran ears to block out everything else, and listened to what he knew were her final words.

"…I'm…sssssssorrry…Na-…" Sakura sluggishly whispered, the blood drawing out her words, before she coughed on the end of her words, and Kakashi wondered who Sakura was sorry to. Whoever it was had to have been the closest of friends and the most betrayed to warrant an apology.

Kakashi watched as Sakura's eyes glazed over completely, and stilled, her feet still flailing until her eyelids closed, falling into an endless slumber, as her feet stilled, and the rattle of chains were silenced behind her, as cheers increased exponentially. Kakashi turned to his men.

"Let us pray for Queen Sakura." Kakashi spoke solemnly and his men nodded and bowed their heads, praying that unlike evil witches, Sakura would be shown mercy and be allowed to join the realm of her parents' and enjoy eternal rest and happiness with that of her ancestors.

Sakura's body ceased to move and the cheers erupted around the town square. Sasuke's eyes widened in glee. His biggest sacrifice yet to Akhlys, and he knew that she would reward him greatly. Perhaps he would get her in his bed, and as the legends foretold, he would gain immense power afterwards, and he would rule the world.

Sasuke turned to his men and laughed aloud. "The Witch is dead!" A chorus of cheers went up and Sasuke knew that these men would follow him forever. They were his to command. He was the Witch hunter, slayer, and the one who brought peace to the world.

A brief gust of wind surged through the square, and every man shivered and rubbed their arms at the sudden temperature drop. Surely, they still had a few weeks until winter, or maybe it was the fact that the moon was almost completely hiding the sun. Sasuke smiled and stared up as the moon moved completely in front of the sun, and a shining blue glow emanated around it, casting blue light over the land.

Another gust of wind blew from the north…and another from the south…and two more from the east and west. Men swirled as these winds pushed them around and more stray winds continued to pour into the square, not leaving and moving on, but coming closer and closer together. Suddenly, they rushed to the center of the square, and all eyes swirled to watch as the wind turned silver in the moonlight and hit the witch's body from every direction and the witch spasmed like a rag doll falling from the air.

The temperature around them dropped dramatically and Sasuke widened his eyes in fear for the first time at the thought of Sakura. Sakura's head dropped down, moving to roll forward and stayed in place, and for a minute, stayed, and the winds ceased.

Men moved forward slightly, and Sakura's head shot up to face the men in front of her, and Kakashi choked back a scream as many men's surprise left them. Sakura's eyes were open completely, but these eyes were not just blue ice, her entire eyes sparkled with magic and that smile she gave to the army before her. It was not a smile that had ever been on Sakura's face before. It was a smile that was associated with maniacs and serial killers, and Kakashi felt the aura that was coming out of Sakura's body as that of bloodlust, like what was inside the bottom of every person's heart. That mad suppressed rage had finally filtered its way to the surface and it was out for revenge. Everyone in the square swallowed noisily as the witch turned her neck forty degrees to the right, her smile turning demonic.

Slowly, ice formed on the rope around her neck and moved up to the wood, and hellish blue mist surged out of her hands and froze the metal chains around her. In a single movement, the ice broke apart, and the objects were no more. The witch's neck cracked back into place as the witch landed on her feet and Sakura's possessed body took a step forward, sending men scampering back a step. The leg that was broken cracked repeatedly, moving in demonic positions, before returning to normal, as the bruises and wounds all over her body healed in a single second and a new outfit formed along the skin of her body as her old outfit burned away, leaving nothing of the past girl who had died.

That sick smile along the witch's face widened even larger before she raised her hands, one towards the sky and the other at the dead animal before her. The demonic mist surged out and shot into the sky, creating a dome of mist above the entirety of the city, as a small portion of the mist moved to surround the dead wolf, before a trigger clicked and the mist surged into the sword wound and suddenly, the wolf stood on its paws, and its eyes blazed as frozen as its master.

"K-K-Kill her!" Sasuke raged, and the men charged at her in pressed haste. They got only a few steps forward when the witch glared and wind as cold as ice shot all around her and sped around the courtyard as if ghouls hell bent on destruction, and knocked all men down to the ground. Even above on all the rooftops, Kakashi's men flew back, and grimaced as ribs broke at impact with the taller rooftops.

The sorceress's wolf sat on its hunches and let out a long howl as the witch raised her hands as if in praise to the blue moon, and a screech of men sounded to the west and Sasuke looked hurriedly to see his men still in the castle surge outside the gates, and running across the bridge. Suddenly, figures appeared in frozen armor, wielding swords, spears, axes, and shields, bows and quivers full of frozen arrows.

Kakashi widened his eyes at the armor that was the exact armor of the Imperial Haruno forces. Were these reinforcements, or just a backup to Sakura's plan? But as men ran, their guts and armor spilled along the street as the mysterious warriors slayed soldier after retreating soldier.

Sasuke yelled at his men as the commanders got over their shock. "Formation! Phalanx!" They yelled and men dropped their ten foot spears in a row of shiny metal before them and at the still retreating men. By this time, the enemy had reached the city stables, and Sakura made another dramatic motion towards the ground and the dome of mist surged in through the roof of the stables, and the mysterious men with spears shot into the stables on one side, and the mass neighing of horses sounded as spearmen appeared on frozen armored horses, which sped forward and knocked into the phalanx, smashing it to pieces.

Sasuke yelled at the men around him. "Kill her!" He yelled again, and the men leveled their swords and spears towards the sorceress and her pet, but as they moved to strike at Tanya, the wolf howled and made the men pause as the witch dropped her hands onto the stone road and suddenly, Tanya's howl echoed all around the city.

Another mass screaming sounded as Sasuke's forces looked towards the walls to the north to watch as the mist paused and suddenly a blizzard formed from the mist and fell down upon them with a vengeance. But it was as the snow suddenly fell that the howling became clear as a huge pack of wolves as large as Tanya appeared on the walls and crunched their sharp teeth into the legs and throats and arms of the soldiers.

"Archers! Fire!" Commanders shouted and these archers, safe behind men carrying large body shields shot their arrows with shaky fingers at the enemy horsemen and soldiers and a cheer went up as a few soldiers burst into bits of hail and splattered against the front row of soldiers.

Just as the archers reloaded though, the blizzard picked up in speed and suddenly, the cawing of white and black falcons and dirty golden eagles dropped from the sky of snow and sank their talons and claws into anything that wasn't protected with armor.

For the army surrounding the square, that was the breaking point as men began to run for the ships. Sasuke saw his men running and pulled out his sword and charged Sakura's body before she sliced her hand across his direction and Sasuke held his sword arm as a small slice of blood appeared through his armor, and suddenly, his arm froze in a lair of ice. Sasuke screamed madly and ran away, pushing men down, which some died where they laid as others ran for their lives.

Kakashi and his men had started to run as well, and were ahead of the pack when the birds fell upon them and Kakashi saw his men being cut to pieces. But Sakura wouldn't hurt her friends, surely not. Suddenly a positively stupid idea came to Kakashi's head and he yelled to his men. "Drop you weapons! Everything..."

At Kakashi's orders, every man began pulling out their swords and arrows and knives and discarded them around them as each man raised their hands in surrender. They turned to see the rushing of enemy soldiers and the mysterious warriors as the blizzard sunk down to street level and covered everything from view.

Kakashi and his men couldn't even see each other, but all heard the screams of those around them in the city for ten full minutes of fighting. But after that, silence reigned and Kakashi told his men to stay still. Slowly, the blizzard parted and the witch appeared before them, her wolf at her right side, and her glowing eyes stared at Kakashi, her grin gone from her face.

"...The Haruno are no more. Not ever again will you see me..."

And with that, the blizzard swirled once and disappeared around the city, and Kakashi saw it at the edge of the canyon, seeping inside it. Kakashi and his men gasped as they looked around themselves as all of the buildings had changed as if frozen in time as a thin lair of see-through ice covered every inch of surface, and the snow crunched under their feet and moved into the homes of the open house doors.

"W-What do we tell Lord Itachi, Sir?"

Kakashi looked at the blizzard and breathed in slowly. "Tell him that Port Haruno is lost. Tell him that the Haruno are no more."

AN: In Lieu of a Question, tell me what you think of the chapter.