Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. This fanfiction was made for fun not for profit. Ya sue... and I'll sic my schizophrenic muse on you. "They" like to bite....heeheehee...

Pairings: Hints of SasukexNaruto (for this part only), but other wise pairings are undecided at the moment.

"Speech"

Thought

Demon's speaking


Epilogue:

Everything had gone horribly, horribly wrong. As Naruto vaulted through the tree tops he tried to comprehend what exactly had turned everything in the damned snake's favor. He had no idea where to start. Should have studied more; paid attention more to Iruka-sensei and what he had to teach. It was too late for that now. He needed to find Shikamaru and the others. He needed to tell Tsunade-baba and everyone else the truth about Itachi.

Naruto looked beside him to his left to see Itachi following closely a little behind. Everything we've all heard about the Uchiha Massacre. Naruto shook his head to clear his mind of what he'd just learned from the now proven innocent Uchiha. Gods, Sasuke was not going to believe this, but he needed to tell the raven-haired boy anyways. His koi needed to know the truth.

Naruto ran faster; he was running out of time.

"Hurry! It's going to fall any minute!" With his Byakugan activated, and ignoring his own advice, Neji ran at top speed to get to where his cousin was still lagging behind. The hospital had been the first target of attack by the Sound-nin. So many powerful shinobi had already been lost in the ten days that had past. Kurenai and Asuma –sensei had been the first two, along with whatever hospital staff was with them, to die having been in the heart of the explosion.

The sound-nin had used fire tags that, once triggered, would burn the paper and then burst into a roaring flame. There had been over a thousand of those tags in the entire room; the walls, ceiling, and floor of the small room hidden beneath them. No one could have survived.

They are gone. They will be missed, Neji thought, rounding the corner and taking out two unsuspecting sound-nin as he did so. Have to get to her...have to get to Hinata. Neji didn't stop running even as the three sound Anbu came around the corner behind him; before he could take out the electric tags, a gift from Tenten on his seventeenth birthday, a wave of sand feel over the Anbu killing them instantly.

Sand? Gaara! Looking away from the ocean of bloody sand he saw three blurs rush past him. One of them stopped, the girl with the four pigtails, and rushed back towards him.

"It's too late. Everything's lost," she said, breathing heavily finally getting the chance to slow down after all her running. She coughed; the smoke had finally gotten to this side of the hospital. He had been surprised that the hospital had not exploded. Instead, it was burning to the ground.

"What do you mean "everything is lost"?" he asked. This whole war had been one mad event after another.

"Everyone... the civilians and the academy children and teachers; they're dead. There was one with a scare across his nose. He was the first to die." Neji's eyes widened, his surprise deactivating his family's blood limit. No... Dear gods not Iruka –sensei. Even though Umino Iruka was only a chuunin –level academy teacher, Neji had always held a great respect for the scared man. To handle all those children, and Naruto, yet treating them with a kindness that any academy student needed to handle the pressure of what their parents expected of them, no child could hate him. Naruto would be pushed to insanity if he found out.

"How did you find this out?" asked Neji, already fearing the answer. He remembered the last resounding order from the Hokage to the famous silver-haired jounin to get to the academy students now. Her order to him was to get to the hospital and find Sakura and Hinata. He had already found the bloody cubed pieces that were left of the pink –haired kunochi, and now his cousin was just at the end of the hall.

"Hatake Kakashi told us. He was holding the teacher in his lap." Temari was clearly crying, her heart going out to the silver-haired jounin. And the one in green, with the freaky, fuzzy eyebrows... Only Maito-san though. Yes the self titled Green Beast of Konoha was gone. The girl with the buns that was part of their team had ended up with her limbs cut off and then raped. Her bloody, naked body had been pinned to the wall with large shuriken. The scene would give her nightmares even in the afterlife.

Neji's gaze traveled to the door at the end of hall. Wisps of fire came out from beneath the door. Even from this distance he recognized the room number. Kiba and Shino; Hinata must have been with them. Tears flowed freely from his eyes. It's too late to save them now.

"But it's not too late to save whoever's still alive." Neji looked behind him to see the pale green eyes of Gaara of the Desert. "We need to find Naruto, now."

Damn. That was the only thing Shikamaru could think of as he and his team stood in the river of blood that had become the path into Konoha. Bodies, mostly leaf-nin, littered the red ground, the gates having long been destroyed. The rest of the wooden barrier burning to the ground; everything they ever cared for...gone.

Shikamaru had the sinking suspicion that there were no longer any civilians left alive. They would certainly be dead had they stayed. Next to him Ino was silently crying, a defiant look on her face. To his left was the jounin Genma having the unfortunate task of carrying an unconscious Choji.

"You've got to be shitting me. Where is everyone?" said Genma in obvious disbelief.

"Just about everyone's dead, if Orochimaru hasn't gotten to them already,"

"Hokage-sama!"

There, in fact, stood Tsunade with Shizune, Jiraiya, Naruto, and, surprisingly, Itachi on either side of her. All five of them had dirt and blood covering their clothes and skin. Shikamaru turned a questioning look to Naruto before moving on to keep an eye on Itachi.

"There is no need for the distrust, Shikamaru," stated Tsunade. "Itachi is on our side."

"You'll have to..."

"I will later," she said cutting him off. Her gaze narrowed at the sight of what was left. Shikamaru looked back and then up as about half a dozen people came their way.

"Is that..."

"Gaara!" yelled Naruto.

And indeed, it was Gaara, along with his siblings, Neji, Lee, and Kakashi. The group landed next to them. Before anyone could ask Kakashi answered, shaking his head.

"...No one is left alive....Hokage...sama." the masked man kept his head down. Tears began to slide down his now unmasked face as Naruto fell to his knees.

"Are you sure about that?"

"We looked everywhere before heading out to find you, Hokage-sama. We found no one," replied Neji.

Tsunade sighed, "Let's go then. We need to get out of here before Orochimaru or anyone else comes back. And we still need to find others that might still be alive or willing to help us."

"Rest up, gather troops, get equipment, and come up with a plan. Sounds good to me; I'm pretty sure I saw two teams of our Anbu chasing some sound-nin heading west," replied Genma. Looking at Naruto he said, "It's the best we can do right now, kid. If we try to attack Orochimaru as we are now we might as well kill ourselves and save the bastard the trouble." Everyone else nodded their heads. Reluctantly Naruto stood up, and without looking back at what was left of everything he loved, he ran back into the forest, the others behind him, leaving it all behind.

The dead would have to wait.

It took three days to gather up the remaining leaf ninja they had. Only two hundred and sixty-seven were found (mostly Anbu and jounin), and in the five days after they lost nine from severe injuries. To Neji's amazement, Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru, and Shino were miraculously alive having left the hospital hours before the war even started. Sasuke was found a week later, drained of chakra and covered with blood.

The death toll was much too high for their taste but it made everyone happy that they still out numbered Orochimaru's troops five to one. Many survivors from other, smaller hidden villages who had been attacked by Orochimaru soon joined them: Grass, Rain, String, Moon, Waves (to Naruto's happiness it had been Inari who started this one), and Darkness. Their numbers continued to increase as Orochimaru continued his reign of bloodshed.

"Are they done yet?" asked an agitated Naruto, pacing.

"It's only been fifteen minutes. Of course they're not done!" yelled Ino.

The four of them were sitting outside the Tsuchikage's office. Sasuke continued to look out the window, his gaze traveling over all that was Iwagakure. They had arrived in Iwagakure over a month ago and they were still trying to persuade the Tsuchikage into helping them defeat Orochimaru.

His gaze traveled over to their ex-jounin teacher, Kakashi who had fallen asleep after going days without it. It continued to amaze everyone how handsome Kakashi was now that he no longer wore the mask that they had all been accustomed to. In memory of Iruka-sensei I suppose. Like everyone else the absence of everybody's favorite chuunin could be felt, and Naruto continued to cry himself to sleep; though he would deny it if anyone asked.

Farther on the bench tucked in the corner was his older brother, Itachi. The story of Itachi being controlled had been hard to believe at first, not wanting to give his brother a second chance of taking away everything he loved. But after several attacks by the remaining leaders of the Akatsuki he no longer had to worry. Itachi had proven time and again the he could be trusted. Deep down, Sasuke was happy that he could let go of the past, with no more burdens to carry on his shoulders.

"Sasuke,"

"..."

"Sasuke, is Naruto ok?"

He sighed, exasperated. All their friends, old and new, had been asking that same question. "Would you be if you knew that the one person you could really call family was gone forever?" He had said that a little too harshly, but it matched with his current mood. He finally sat up to look straight at Ino who was staring back with an angry look on her face. "I'm sorry. Just...don't ask me anymore. You know as well as I do that Naruto isn't ok. None of us have been given any time to mourn the dead, Ino. We all miss him, so drop it."

"Ok, okay. You don't have to bite my head off." Ino muttered this silently as she turned away, continuing to watch the door. Sighing in relief Sasuke turned back to look out the window. He didn't want to tell anyone the truth about Naruto. He was worried about the blond idiot and it was hurting him that no matter what he did couldn't stop the blond kitsune holder from hurting inside. Just last night he had dragged an unconscious Naruto out of a tub of blood colored water trying to stop the flow of the thick red liquid from lithe pale wrists. He knew about kyuubi but it concerned him that the wounds still had yet to heal, in fact they weren't healing at all.

He's dying from the inside. A lone tear fell from the corner of a sharingan eye.

"We need this, Tsuchikage-sama! The reason we were defeated by Orochimaru is because Orochimaru was from Konoha himself! He knew almost all of its secrets! He already had an advantage!" yelled Tsunade. A month! A month of trying this shit and they still won't help! She looked up at the Iwagakure's new Tsuchikage with contempt. Insolent bastard!

"And my answer, again, is no. I will not risk my ninja to fight a battle that has nothing to do with us,"

"You don't seem to understand, Tsuchikage-sama. What Hokage-sama has been saying all along is that this war is everyone's problem," said the Hoshikage, his youthful face calm and steady. "If you hadn't noticed, Orochimaru didn't stop with the total annihilation of Konohagakure. You obviously haven't been listening to your ninja or anyone else in your village. They're afraid, Tsuchikage-sama. And only a fool wouldn't fear Orochimaru."

The other kages nodded in agreement. Though young, the Hoshikage was an insightful young man and a fine ally. The Tsuchikage sat down his gaze unwavering. "Are you saying that I am a fool? My answer is still no. You...all of you, can take your ninja and leave!" he firmly stated.

"Then you will lose ninja either way."

Behind the Tsuchikage appeared a small number of jounin. Each of them took off their hitai-ates and placed them in front of their 'leader'. As they did so they joined the other kages.

"What is this!" yelled the Tsuchikage.

"We do not believe that what you are doing is right. We ninja of Iwagakure are not cowards," said the tallest of jounin. "The previous Tsuchikage would not have thought lightly of the current situation. If you will not help our allies then we are no longer your ninja,"

"Wa-WHAT?"

"Have you not been watching? We are leaving; the people of this village are leaving. You no longer have any ninja."

They moved to stand behind the other kages and as one they left.

Itachi opened his eyes as footsteps sounded past him. The others stood up just as he did when the Hokage appeared.

"Hokage-sama, what's going on?" asked the blond kunochi, Ino.

"We are leaving. This new Tsuchikage is a coward. We wasted our time here; it is time to go," she said not looking back. As one all of them left the building walking into the now semi-deserted streets of Iwagakure. They walked a little farther till they were only a short ways away from the stone gates. There in front of them were all the ninja of Iwagakure each of them without a hitai-ate.

"The rest of you," said the Yorukage, turning around to look at them with sullen eyes. "Pack only what you need. We need not worry about the people of this village; they have gone already into safety. Orochimaru will only come so far here to fight us...and we ...we will go to meet him, to fight him...and to win!"

Itachi looked over to his younger brother and lover, Kakashi, and every other Konoha ninja that was left. They did not yell out with the others. Getting their hopes up would do nothing; their foe was powerful, crafty, and merciless. Every leaf-nin there had experienced battling against Orochimaru and his army.

We are not strong, not like this. Our two most powerful weapons are still just mortal. One is dying and the other has been mad since he lost his innocence...since he lost his heart. Yet...the both still try. He looked over to Gaara who was looking at Naruto's still slowly bleeding wrists. And then he looked over at his brother. He frowned. You don't belong together, Sasuke. There needs to be someone else to take care of Naruto but he isn't you...and you know it. You've known since the two of you started going out. Itachi's eyes shifted over to stare at Kakashi's back. The silver-haired ninja held a dirty, blood smeared hitai-ate. Your light's anchor to life is gone; your love isn't enough to hold him here to you... He looked at his own hands turning them into fists. Itachi looked to the setting sun. That person is already dead.

That day was the last day Itachi lived. Five hours later Orochimaru and his sound-nin attacked. The battle was long and bloody. Shikamaru and his team were the first to go having gone head long into a suicide attack of their own. Genma, Kakashi, and Lee went down the next day but not without taking every single rogue-nin Orochimaru had hired with them. Kankuro, Neji, Hinata, and Sakura fought against some of Orochimaru's best and took each of those "best" down with them. Neji managed to go on long enough to get rid of Kabuto leaving Orochimaru with little protection now that it was just him against the five that were left: Tsunade, Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, and Temari. Itachi himself was killed by Orochimaru taking a desperate last attempt at destroying the damned snake. It was found out a little while later... three days later to be exact, that the new "Tsuchikage" had been on Orochimaru's side all along.

I've got one solution to your 'snake' problem kit...but you might not like it. Kyuubi laid still, her gaze following the circling path of Naruto's ponderings. She was on the verge of losing her patience with Naruto especially with his constantly trying to kill himself. She couldn't heal the wounds only keep them from getting infected and making sure that there wasn't a lot of blood loss. The wounds weren't just physical they existed on a spiritual scale as well and those wounds were near impossible to heal because love was the only thing that could heal them, as cliché as it sounded it was true. The blonde's depression and withdrawal wasn't helping so the only thing she could think of was the one last resort that she really didn't want to resort to.

"And what might that be?"

Kyuubi looked down at the kit that she had been sealed within and wished more than ever that she could somehow gain a body of her own to be the mother or big sister to the boy. It was the one thing he truly wanted. Not acceptance from his peers and teachers or anyone else in the village, that goal had been achieved a long time ago. But a family...a family was what he really needed.

A release of chakra will do the trick. It will kill everyone within the range of the explosion but it will kill Orochimaru. All that remains is to keep Orochimaru in one place long enough to do it. I believe Gaara and Shukaku can take care of that.

"...it's not like any of us have anything else to live for," Naruto muttered. He stopped making a grove in the stone floor and looked up to her red eyes. She saw that he new he was dying...that they were dying. His eyes had long ago lost the light that drew everyone to him. This had to end now.

Turning his back he made his way towards the dark corridors. "I'll go and tell everyone then." Naruto turned his head enough to so that she saw the last embers of the blonde's fire die. Without another word Naruto was gone.

It was one thing to get Kyuubi's words out of his month and a completely different story to get everyone to listen to them. The only two people who trusted Kyuubi like he did were Gaara and Temari with obvious reasons. Tsunade wasn't so sure about the plan and Sasuke...well... Sasuke wasn't taking it very well.

"No, absolutely not! This is exactly what Orochimaru wants!"

"No Sasuke, I see Kyuubi's point. It shouldn't matter anymore whither we live or not, just as long as we can purge the world of Orochimaru."

"Ho....Hokage-sama."

Gaara watched as Sasuke sank into the lone armchair that was normally reserved for their Hokage. It seemed the ebony eyed one needed the most now. But this was the end...it had finally come to this last resort. Shukaku had given up trying to take control of Gaara and instead would hopefully be satisfied with having the blood of the snake.

He looked around him at the others and saw that they understood too. This war was going to finally end.

You better hurry up! I want his BLOOD!

Gaara closed his eyes and pushed the sand priest back into the recesses of his mind telling the demon he would get what he wanted soon enough....very soon.

"Than it's settled. We'll go through with this plan."

Everyone nodded their heads.

"Than tomorrow...we die."

It was still the early morning when the final battle began. On the tree tops stood the last defense against Orochimaru, leader of the Sound and one of the Legendary Three. He was not expecting his defeat to be so soon.

The battle didn't last very long and the remaining five put their plan into action. To make sure that Orochimaru kept from somehow breaking out of Gaara's sand, Tsunade, Sasuke, and Temari used their own way of keeping Orochimaru firmly on the ground. Tsunade took the northern point behind him as Sasuke took the southern point behind Naruto; Temari was in the east as Gaara stood in the west. Orochimaru finally saw why the blond did not fight. Naruto had been gathering all his chakra just as the other four were doing now.

"Ha, so you have finally submitted to your fate," hissed Orochimaru, wincing as sharp needles began to pierce into his skin. Snake eyes met ruby red eyes. He saw that Naruto was now gone leaving him with Kyuubi now in control. But as she spoke it sounded like the both speaking as one. He could hear her in his head invading his mind.

Yes, we have submitted to death but we won't go alone. We're taking you with us.

Orochimaru smirked. "I have nothing to fear. This isn't over yet." Orochimaru's eyes widened as he saw the souls of the dead rise up, each of them watching with satisfaction in their eyes as the five chakra began to skin him.

There was the Rookie Nine, the ones that had passed on. Their teachers including the chuunin that Naruto loved so much. The elders of Konoha and the entire Uchiha and Hyuuga clan stood together. All of Konoha was there watching. Then looking up he saw that Shinigami had appeared and with him stood the last four Hokages.

Feeling that his life was slipping away he smiled wickedly at the four dead Hokages. "Sarutobi-sensei... this...isn't over. Not yet." As he said this the world of the ninja ended with them.


In the next installment of To Finish What He Started:

Teaser...

Hinata realized that she was the only one who remembered the past. It was almost too much to take as she let her cousin turned brother walk past her heading towards his first class of the day. Her old personality was beginning to rise up but she quickly enough pushed it back down. She had changed and for the better. Right now was not the time to reminisce; she needed to find Shino and Kiba. If what she had seen yesterday was true than they too remembered. Now it was only a matter of time...

R/R! And I could really use a beta so if anyone wants to beta read my chapters than tell me in your review. Thank you!