Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Warning: Might lead to eventual Shonen Ai (sasuXnaru)

Spelling of terms might be wrong

Horrendous vocabulary and Grammer mistakes might be scatter about

The end of the end

Chapt 1

Haruno Sakura clasped her hand together. Gathering her chakra on to her palms, she set her muscles to work, flexing and extending digits into a series of seals before casting them down onto the injured ninja before her.

Sweat tricked down her forehead, generating a ticklish sensation which she longed to get rid of, yet, she can't afford to be distracted, not when the healing remain incomplete. Resisting the urge, she focused on the patient before her. The ninja had suffered a blown to his arm, resulting in a dislocated shoulder and numerous tears to his tendons. Under normal circumstances, treating such injury should have been easy for her, but considering the fight she had just went through and that this was her tenth patient after more serious cases that ate much of her remaining chakra, the task became more difficult.

Finally, the ligaments started healing and other medical nins were called to aid in setting a cast. Exhaustion overtook her soon after that and she stumbled away leaning upon a tree for support. Sliding down the trunk, she managed to pull her body into a sitting position, head resting backwards and arms wiping away sweat. She kept her eyes open reluctantly and took in her surrounding. Much of the damages had been cleared, seriously injured comrades had been deported back to the village, those who had sustained fewer injuries were currently receiving their treatment. And then there were the corpses, this triggered a wince from the girl as she recounted the lifeless bodies slumped upon the ground; they too had been transported back home, back to the village.

"Here." A voice disrupted the disturbing images and she looked up to find Shikamaru looming above her. Before she could react, a bottle was shoved into her hands and so was a package.

"You look like you need some water and food," the jounin said.

Sakura smiled in appreciation before uncapping the bottle and drowning a gulp full of water. Immediately, she felt much better and did not hesitate to show her pleasure with a loud sigh.

Shikamaru smiled at her response before drinking his own ration of water. It seemed like he needed it badly too and this must have applied to others too after what they have been through.

"Mm… Shikamaru…" Sakura muttered looking at the jounin who nodded in response urging her to continue. "The raid was successful right?"

After pausing to assess the situation, Shikamaru turned his attention back to the pink haired girl before drawling out an agreement lazily.

"But many from our side had died too." This set off another grunt of approve from the other boy.

"It can't be helped, Sakura. What we are dealing with calls for sacrifices, it can't be avoided, though after much planning with the others, we have managed to bring the death toll to the minimum." Shikamaru addressed, shuddering when he remembered his enemy, a powerful ninja from the mist country. Even when the konoha nins operated in a favorable position of 5 against 1, the effect went unnoticed as one by one they were brought down by the enemies.

"I understand, they were the Akatsuki after all…" Sakura replied.

Their raid tonight was against the Akatsuki, the secret organisation formed by some of the most wanted ninjas out there. The organization had been keeping itself well hidden from public for quite sometime now. They abstained from interfering in affairs of the country, and lurk within the shadows collecting information on various jutsu. But recently, right after the destruction of the sound village, they had decided to carry out their secret plan and the Hokage had decided to take them down before they should pulled any tricks. Thus the reason for tonight's raid.

The mission was risky, Sakura admitted. The information available was simply insufficient, not much was known about the member of the Akatsuki. It was as if they were playing an unfair game of hide and seek where the preys knew exactly where the opponent was while the predators set off with a veil across their eyes. The damages were huge indeed, but frankly, it could have been much worse, they might be totally destroyed.

Now, all members of the Akatsuki had been brought down, except for one…Itachi.

The man, being a sharingan user, seemed to have weaseled away from the battle easily, and only one of them was able to notice it and gave chase.

"Do you think he will be alright?" Sakura asked.

"Sasuke?"

During the battle with Orchimaru, Naruto was finally able to convince Sasuke to join forces with Konoha and together along with some other nins, they had managed to get rid of that snake for good. Sasuke did not return with them to the village though, he left right after the battle in his pursue for Akatsuki. In fact much of the information supplied to the village had been provided solely by Jiraiya and Sasuke. Not many knew that he had remained in contact with Naruto. He only returned tonight, for the final showdown.

" He had been gone for 4 hours now."

Eyeing the healer who had remained silent, Shikamaru chuckled as an attempt to comfort the girl. " Don't worry, he will be back." Making sure to have caught Sakura's attention he continued, "Besides Naruto went with him. He had promised time and time again that he will bring Sasuke back and he always kept his promise. Remember that's his nin way."

This earned him a smile from Sakura. "You are right. Naruto is with him, he will be alright."

Another moment of silent ensued right after and Shikamaru was beginning to regret approaching Sakura, women are so troublesome; their mood swings are highly unpredictable. Before he could distract the girl with something, Sakura stood up, fist clutching revealing white knuckles.

"This is so unfair, I should be with them, I promised. Why is it that Naruto always gets the good parts? Huh Shikamaru?"

It was then that Shikamaru realized how wrong he was about women needing protection. 'Women sure are resilient creatures', he noted, 'they just never give up.' Somehow, that sent a shiver down his spine.

Ignoring Shikamaru's dazed expression, Sakura continued to rant about how the two boys had always left her behind etc etc. She finally concluded much to Shikamaru's amusement "I guess I will have to wait till they come crawling back bruised and battered, begging for my healing, before I can show them who's the real queen here. Muhahahaha!"

Suddenly, their little conversation was disrupted as someone pointed out to a figure approaching their camp fast. Anxiously, the jounins scanned the figure wearily, bodies stiffening as they prepare for any attack. The nightly fog was an annoyance as it masked the features of the nin.

As the distance shortens, one managed to identify the unknown and shouted out " It's Uchiha!"

"Which one!"

"Sasuke!"

Not many lowered down their guard though, most still had not forgiven the younger Uchiha who had once betrayed the village and went to their most hated enemies from the sound village. It was Sakura and a few others who ran forward to welcome him with glee.

However upon approaching, they realized that something had gone horribly wrong. Naruto was slumped over Sasuke's arm, looking pale if not lifeless, his clothes was stained a dark red from blood and a large gaping wound was spread across his right shoulders.

Sakura's eyes widen, too shocked to react. She was pulled from her daze with Sasuke's scream.

"Hurry! Save Naruto!"