XXXIV: The End is Nigh

When we were sucked back to the real world and not a different dimension, we were greeted by the undead Kage and none other than the Sage of the Six Paths. I was at Kakashi's side all along, supporting him as he did to me. Both of us were depleted heavily of our chakra, but something more was troubling me.

It was Sasuke.

I could not place it, but something about him put me off from what he normally was. I stared at him, trying to work something out that was not there, but could not figure out what was troubling me about the boy I hardly knew.

"Naruto, Sasuke, and everyone, thank you for saving the world." The Sage of the Six Paths smiled at all of us.

While Naruto had his reunion with Kurama, the Kyuubi, I listened to Kakashi telling the Sage about Obito and what he had done, what Naruto had done, to save everyone. He wavered on his feet, broken in a way at the loss of his friend, and fell against Sakura while using me as support on his other side.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she cried. "Your eye!"

"Yeah, I guess Kakashi of the Sharingan ends today."

I tightened my grip on the Jounin, feeling the depletion of my chakra as well, but I refused to drop. He needed my support, both physically and mentally.

"But, we've won," I whispered to him and his tired eyes landed on me.

"Yes, we have, haven't we?" Nonetheless, his eyes crinkled.

"It's time. I'll send them all back." The Sage of the Six Paths raised his staff, but Naruto leapt from us to land in front of the man I had met earlier this night that resembled him.

"Oh yeah, there's something I got to tell you," the man said to the savior of this world. "Happy birthday. You've grown so much, Naruto."

This was Minato, the Yellow Flash of Konoha and Naruto's father. The resemblance was uncanny now; only a fool would be unable to see it.

I did not miss the symbolism the night brought with the words that echoed from Minato's mouth. With the dawn, we would see a new world, but with the end of the war also brought with it the day that Naruto was born many years ago. It felt right that we would see such great changes, starting on the day that belonged to one of the saviors of our lives.

"Maname-senpai," Naruto called over to me, but did not glance away from the undead shinobi before him, "is there any way Ichi can bring him back, fully?"

"Yes, but it would take time to get him," I answered truthfully, "and I'm not sure how much chakra Kaguya stole from my son."

"Thank you, my son, but I can't. We don't belong here, so we can't stay for long. This is it… I'll tell Kushina all about it," Minato told his beloved son. "I am not mean to live in this world any longer, Naruto. I am meant to be with her again. You've grown so much, I have to tell her all about you."

Naruto's face turned solemn for just a moment before he grinned and said, "Tell her that I'm eating a lot and doing fine! I'm not a picky eater either. I put miso and soy sauce in my tonkotsu. Ah! And I only eat ramen! I shower almost every day and I sometimes go to Konoha Hot Springs! Apparently, it's called the Crow's Bathing Tub or something like that…"

My heart was breaking for him, knowing that he was about to say goodbye to a man he never really got the chance to know. Yet, Naruto knew him well, regardless of their short time together. He loved his father and his mother dearly, despite being dead, and the tears fell down my face freely.

"Oh! And I've made lots of friends. They're all good guys. And I'm not really doing well in my studies, but it doesn't get me down. Well that could be because I'm confident! I do listen to the Third Hokage, Kakashi-sensei, and Sayomi-sensei when she's around. I respect them too! And the old man is here so you can ask him now!"

Naruto continued his heartfelt recollection to his father and I wept for him, wishing Minato would stay in this world with his son. It was possible; thanks to Sayomi and her interpretation of Edo Tensei, we could fully resurrect him into this world to spend the rest of his life with his son. Minato did not fully want that; he felt he did not belong here and his beloved remained on the other side.

"So tell Mom over there, won't you, to not worry about me." Naruto was bawling by this point, no longer able to keep up his happy visage to his dissipating father. "I'm doing… very well!"

And they were gone; every last shinobi that had been undead disappeared, never to return again.

"My heart breaks for him," I whispered.

Kakashi eyed me again, clinging closer to my body, and said, "Because you love deeply, Maname."

"Now, all that's left is to undo the Infinite Tsukiyomi." The Sage brushed off Kurama's questions as I wiped the tears from my cheeks. What would happen when he brought down that evil jutsu? Would I disappear back into the stalk I had been in?

I did not have time to worry about it; Uchiha Sasuke was not fully the savior we had believed him to be. The moment he had the chance, he captured the Bijuu and asserted himself as future Hokage, one that would eliminate all in his wake. He became the jinchuriki of all the Tailed Beasts and began to walk away from everything to face Naruto at an undisclosed location.

Not even Sakura could stop him. He placed the poor girl under a Genjutsu after she declared her love for him, after she was torn apart emotionally by this wicked boy. How had Sayomi cared for him so genuinely? Had all of this come to pass because she had left him? What about Itachi?

No, Uchiha Sasuke was not evil. Deep within my bones, I knew better. He was a savior and a kind soul, but one that was turned on the wrong path. There was only one person that could help him at this point, and that was Uzumaki Naruto.

"Love is a complicated thing," the Sage told us when the two had left. I risked a glance at Kakashi and saw the man looking off into the distance. "I, too, once had two sons. I loved them both as they loved and respected me. But I left everything to my younger son, a mistake I regret. Because of that, my elder son began to despise both me and his younger brother. This love had transformed into hate. The Sasuke we see today is the result of the love he lost in the past, the same goes for Madara."

It was Itachi that Sasuke had lost, but not only him. Sayomi had a part to play in what had happened to that boy and now we were suffering from the repercussions. She should have never left him.

She had done so for a reason.

I understood that; she had been pregnant from what I ascertained in her journal and had fled to save her child from the bloodshed that would be the Akatsuki. Her decision had been right, now that I see what happened with Obito and Madara's plotting, but she had forsaken one to save another. As a mother, I understood, but I felt torn when I thought about it. Kimimaro was to me what Sasuke was to Sayomi, thus if I had to choose I know I would be devastated. She had to have been in consistent pain for what she had to do and the decision she had to make.

"Looks like it's time," the Sage mumbled.

"What-What should I do?" Kakashi was just as torn as I was on the situation.

The Sage furrowed his brows together and said to the two of us that were conscious, "Just believe. There's nothing more we can do now." His eyes trained on me and he studied me. "Do not trifle with the undead again, lady. I say this not out of anger, but worry. Things like that will change someone, and you have much to remember this day."

His fingers wove a sign and in a flash, he was gone from this world to return to the land of the dead. It was not just him that disappeared, but my body began to fade and I was no longer able to hold Kakashi up.

"Maname?" He tried to grasp onto me.

"My body is still suspended in the Infinite Tsukiyomi with Sayomi," I explained to him in a voice that was as airy as my body now. "Find me, Kakashi, and perhaps we can end this repetitive cycle of riddles we have been stuck in."

"I will," he promised and I was gone from him.

-( Our Sweetest Memory )-

When I regained some semblance of myself, I was back in that lonely void with Kobayashi Sayomi. We were standing opposite of one another, completely different but altogether the same. I stared at her, trying to make peace with something I could not find, and fought back the urge to scold her for leaving Sasuke to become what he was. It was not my place; I would have made the same decision to save my child.

"You did make that same decision," she whispered.

"You can read my thoughts after all." My brows furrowed. "I believe I have begun to remember what I had lost, Kobayashi Sayomi. Watching Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi made me realize what you've been doing all along."

She smiled, but I could only tell it by her eyes. Those eyes, that were so identical to mine, crinkled and glimmered in the ethereal lights of this lonely plane. I did not feel lonely though; this kunoichi was here with me, in my head, and it was obvious now what I should have known from the beginning.

"Then you have remembered." Her finger hooked in the edge of the blue mask. "Are you ready for the end, Sagase Maname?"

"Is that really my name?" I knew the answer.

No.

Sayomi did not give me a reply, but slid the mask from her porcelain face to give me something I had needed from the beginning of her mind games. Everything was answered then, with the mere slip of a piece of cloth, and I saw everything I had needed to at long last. The burden of the past lifted from me and remained as well, new but old, different but the same.

It was like looking in a mirror.

Finally…

-( Our Sweetest Memory )-

Hatake Kakashi
First Person's Point of View

Sakura had stirred from the Genjutsu Sasuke had placed on her just as a cloud of smoke bristled before us. I could not move to protect us if it were an enemy; my chakra was depleted and I had just enough left to walk away from this mess and find both Maname and my other two students before they died.

"Kakashi!"

I recognized that deep voice and my eyes grew when the smoke lifted and alabaster fur became clear. A set of red eyes stared back at me, both in joy and worry, and he leapt over to the two of us.

"Youko?" Sakura asked before I could.

"No time, Sakura-chan." He turned so I could see a pack hanging off his side. "Kakashi, you must open this in front of the woman you love. The Seer of the Fox Clan has ordered it to bring Sayomi back."

My heart stilled and I choked on air. "What?"

"I know you love Maname," he said quickly, "and I know you love Sayomi. It is time to end all this shit and figure out what my brat of a companion has set up all along. Come on and let's go find Maname!"

I did love the both of them, but what would happen if I did this? Would Sayomi come back, only to replace what I feel for Maname and take me away from that? Which woman did I see myself spending the rest of my life with?

I had searched a decade for Sayomi and I would not stop, even now, until I saw her again. Now was not the time to worry over what would happen, but instead face my fears head on. The world was going to be at peace and I would need to be at peace with the war within my heart.

"Let's go."

-( Our Sweetest Memory )-

Sagase Maname
First Person's Point of View

When I awoke again, I was on the ground with tendrils of the Infinite Tsukiyomi being tugged from my body. As my face was uncovered, I could see the twilight on the horizon and I felt, in my heart, the dawning of a new day, a new world.

Ichiro, Kimimaro, and Itachi all were there, tearing away the last remnants. None touched me, but each stared with some form of shock on their faces. I glanced down at my hands and noticed how strange they looked, as if the life had been sucked clean from my bones. My tan had diminished and I was pale, as if sickly, but not quite an alabaster as Sayomi had been.

"Mother?"

"Wait, Ichiro." I smiled at the boy and stood my ground.

Three figures approached our little group, hobbling on unstable legs. One was Haruno Sakura, another Hatake Kakashi, and finally a fox that was both unfamiliar and not. Kakashi held a jar in his hands, though I could almost briefly remember it.

"Kakashi," I whispered as he drew closer. "Before you open that, I have a story to tell all of you. I need each of you to listen and listen well. We have a brief amount of time before we must find Naruto and Sasuke."

"What is going on?" Ichiro asked with narrowed eyes.

My smile never faded and I held a hand up, studying it. Yes, I had a story to recall to this particular bunch of people, though I wanted Sasuke here to hear it as well. Unfortunately, he would need to listen later. We would not interrupt their fight, one that was brewing for a very long time.

"My story," I said clearly, "this story is short, but long. Please listen."

And so, I began…

Next in 'Our Sweetest Memory':
It was a story that had been created from the beginning. It belonged to Sayomi, and it belonged to Maname. It belonged to their loved ones and, above all, it belonged to their families. It had been building long before Sayomi was stationed in Konohagakure for the first time, and it would not end with Maname's recount after the devastating war.