Final chapter! Yay! More of a short filler chapter than anything to just finish stuff up and be set up for the sequel.

Yaoilover S – Yes, the pairing will be a threesome.

Sinn – There's going to be a sequel, which will just continue with the story, but the plotline changes slightly. I felt it'd be better to make it a separate story than to add it onto this massive thing. I think the sequel will take place a month or two after this fic.

Eilonnwy – That's what I originally wanted to do but I was afraid I'd describe it all wrong and chickened out.

Hurricane-rider – My stomach ache got really intense when I was writing. 'sniff' Gaara….

kawaii kitsune-kun – Yeah, the sequel will actually get to the pairing I set out to write. Naruto better be obedient this time.

Lala to the power of 2 – No clue where the story was actually going? Sounds about right. 'sweatdrop, grin' This story went through a few plot phases, and did do a nice 180 flip on me. Started out like it was supposed to start out with the conflict between Naruto and Sasuke. Was supposed to turn into a threesome, and Naruto wasn't having any of that. Then Gaara showed up (and I hadn't planned on him until I wrote him talking) and screwed everything over. Then the yaoi-ish rain scene was destroyed by Gaara showing up again, and on a completely random brainstorm, Gaara kidnaps Neji. Then Gaara dies. The starting point is waaaaaay far away from the ending point, and the story doesn't even fit the title very well anymore. Oh well, it was an enjoyable ride anyway. :) I think I have a more solid idea with the sequel, but hopefully that wont blow up in my face as well. I'm glad you like it though. 'Sallies forth.'

Burning tree – Evil love is the greatest. ;)

Chapter 29: Home

It had be three weeks since Gaara had died, and things were finally getting back to normal. People had stopped fussing over Neji and bombarding him with questions of what had happened. He didn't tell them much, and if their prying got to be too intense, Sasuke and Naruto were always around to tell the others to back off. They had both had to serve punishment with labor work for the first week because they had run off to rescue Neji without permission.

Neji had told the Hokage and any of the elders who asked that both he and Gaara had been captured by Kanaroe. In a sense, it wasn't exactly a lie. Temari and Kankuro had become so distraught about not being able to find Gaara in the village that they had decided to take matters into their own hands. Neji knew if he had told the truth, even if it was slightly accepted, the village may still view the two sand-nin as enemies. What Neji didn't fully alter was that Gaara was killed in battle trying to help Neji to escape.

The Hyuuga never realized how much the sand-nin had meant to him. Most of the time he had been angry and frustrated by Gaara's confusing remarks and split personality, but now that he understood why, that anger seemed irrelevant. He didn't know if he would've gone so far with the redhead's offer as to run off with him, but Neji would have been happy if he had been able to convince Gaara to stay in Kohana. Neji remembered Temari's last words to him.

"He died free. That was more than he ever expected."

Neji walked down the streets, lost in thought, and ignored the stares that had followed him since he had returned.

"Oi! Neji! Over here!" Naruto waved from the ramen stall for Neji to come and join them. Sasuke was sitting in the seat next to the blonde, trying to maintain his bored appearance. Neji could see his lip corners quirk though as Neji walked over.

The three chatted amiably, and Neji found himself surprised with the realization of how sociable he was being. Even Sasuke had become slightly more talkative, and smiled more often. Whatever uneasiness had existed between Naruto and Sasuke seemed to have lifted, and it seemed that they had gone back to being friendly rivals again.

As Naruto ordered up another ramen, Sasuke turned to face Neji.

"How have things been?"

"Better," said Neji. "Most of the questions have died down. Though the others aren't fully convinced with what I told them, they've accepted it."

Sasuke nodded. "That's good." He looked over at Naruto. "I told you that if you exceeded seven bowls that I was not going to pay for it."

Naruto just grinned and started in on his eighth. "You can pay for the first seven."

The Uchiha rolled his eyes. "Forget it. You're on your own with this one. Come on Neji." He got up off the stool.

"No, Sasuke, wait!" Naruto said quickly, downing his bowl. "I don't have enough to pay! Don't leave me!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and Neji laughed, putting down some money on the counter.

"Come on then, Naruto. Let's go."

"Since you're so nice; one more bowl please?" Naruto grinned at Neji, and the brunette responded by pulling the headband over his eyes before running away, smirking.

"Hey, you jerk!" laughed Naruto, uncovering his eyes and chasing after Neji.

Sasuke smirked and followed the two. Somehow, everything had all worked out. He furrowed his brow as Neji all of a sudden stopped and rubbed his temple. Naruto went crashing into him, unable to stop his momentum. Sasuke ran up to them.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked in concern to the two nin.

Neji nodded. "Sorry Naruto. I'm fine." He smiled as he stood up, and offered his hand to help the blonde to his feet.

Sasuke shrugged and joined the two in walking. He wasn't sure what had caused Neji to all of a sudden stop dead, but after all, it was probably nothing. Little did he know how much more than a nothing it was.

Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. I actually had the entire thing written days ago, but couldn't find a good concluding sentence. I'd like to thank Kowaikage for helping to coax that out of me, or I would've let it sit for many more days. The sequel may be delayed a bit since I'm going on a camping trip (lol, for work again) for a week and I probably wont write much before then. Then again, I may surprise myself. I want to thank all my readers and reviewers for taking the time to sit down with my fic through all the twists and turns to read it. I hope you liked it. You guys are the greatest. :)