A/N: Did I worry you guys that much? Is that how you all love Sasuke? Well… see for yourself what happened to him!

Cold

It wasn't supposed to end this way. He promised her, he really did. He even smiled at her and assured her that everything was going to be fine. Yet here she was, standing under the rain with Hinata embracing her trembling figure while they both stared at Sasuke's unmoving body. "T-this is… this is just a dream! I… Sasuke…" she choked out his name a couple of times and slowly fell to her knees, not caring if she was dripping wet and drenched in the rain. "Sa…Sa…" Hinata rubbed her back, comforting her and hushing the girl.

Itachi staggered forward to his brother, seemingly afraid that if he got nearer, his little brother might disappear. With one more step, he heavily fell to his knees, hands shakily grasping his brother's clothes as he tightened his grip on it. "Oi, Sasuke…" he hissed, his bangs shadowing his eyes that were starting to water with tears. "Get up… Sasuke..!"

Kakashi held Neji back from attacking Orochimaru. He wanted to kill the bastard too but it wasn't his fight. The Hyuuga kept pushing away his arms but they kept firm and grasped tightly on his shirt. "Let me go Kakashi! That Sound bastard deserves to die!" he growled, prying the older man's fingers off of his shirt. "Let go of me!" Kakashi gave him a stern look.

"This fight does not concern you Neji, back off."

Slumping his shoulders in defeat, he lowered his head and clenched his fists, his nails digging into the skin of his palms as blood began to ooze from it. He heard footsteps running towards Sasuke's direction and just when he looked up, Kakashi's hand grabbed Naruto at the back of his collar, pulling him back. "Damn it Kakashi! Let go! I need to kill that snake! I need to make him pay!"

Orochimaru only snickered at them. His yellow eyes observed every assassin's reaction. Itachi's comrades were shocked and aggravated. Some weren't able to hide their emotions, like Naruto and Neji, who were within Kakashi's grasp. The silver-haired man made no move at all but from the look in his eyes, it said enough of how much he wanted blood to be shed. As for the female killers, they too, were in a state of disbelief, especially Sakura, who was loosing it.

"So, one more Uchiha to go…" he was taken aback by the look that Itachi gave him, one of pure hate, his sharingan- it was different; and he made a mistake by looking into those crimson red eyes. A second later, his world collapsed and vanished, it was replaced by a black void, wherein he was crucified, and before him stood Itachi, holding onto a katana.

"You will pay…" was the older Uchiha's last words to him before he felt pain.

Chapter 9: A New Beginning

There was something going on, Shikamaru can tell. Earlier, Orochimaru was just laughing his head off; now, it was literally dislocated from his body after one look from Itachi. His head started to ache from thinking or coming up with a solution to it. There was definitely a logical explanation. It was probably the sharingan; but last he heard from Sasuke, it can only hypnotize, create an illusion and predict attacks. Besides that, the illusion that was to be made can be seen by anyone in the vicinity, yet it was only Orochimaru and Itachi who were sucked into the genjutsu.

"Sasuke!" Shikamaru snapped from his thoughts when Itachi had yelled. He watched as the older of the siblings started shaking his brother's body, slapping the side of his face and yelling his name. The Orochimaru-dead thing can be discussed and solved later; now, they need to know, is Sasuke still amongst the living? Shaking his head, he finally got his senses back. "Are you an idiot or what? Get him to the hospital, now!" the others got back from la-la land as well, and nodded altogether.

Cursing the dead Sound leader, Itachi scooped his little brother in his arms and ran after Kakashi who told him to follow. Neji and Naruto followed after them as the remaining assassins went to the other cars. Hinata still continued to comfort Sakura as she began to shake once more, her eyes widened and fear was evident in her expression. Kurenai noticed this and quickly started the engine. "Sakura, snap out of it! It's not good for your condition!" Ino cried out, seated beside her.

Ten-Ten looked back at them since she was at the passenger seat and gave a worried glance to the pink-haired assassin. "Come on girl, you must have faith in him! You know him better than any of us and you know very well that Uchihas don't easily give up, whether it's a fight to the death or against death himself." Sakura slowly lifted her head up at the one-year older assassin who smiled reassuringly. Kurenai smirked at this. "Ten-Ten's right, besides, he's under Kakashi, there is no way a guy like that can be brought down easily."

Hinata supported their answers by nodding and giving a soft smile. "That's right Sakura, Naruto even told me that Sasuke was too stubborn for his own good. I'm sure he'll be just as hard-headed against death. He did promise you that everything will be okay right?" Sakura looked at every one of them and gave a small smile as she finally relaxed. "Yeah… you're right… I don't know what came over me when I just… lost hope like that. Thanks guys."

"Sure, no problem Sakura..!"

They finally reached the hospital as Kakashi and Naruto burst open the doors for Itachi to enter, in his arms was the near-to-death Sasuke with Neji following him for assistance. "We need a doctor, now!" Naruto yelled as the people inside stared at them. Some of the nurses and available doctors noticed the condition Sasuke was in so they quickly assisted Itachi, leading him to a stretcher. "Sir, what about you-"

"Forget about my fucking wounds! Tend to my brother now! He's dying!"

The nurse was startled at his sudden outburst but nodded none the less and followed the doctor that accompanied the unconscious Uchiha. Kakashi gripped onto Itachi's shoulder, telling him to stay calm. "He's going to be fine Itachi, don't worry too much."

"Don't tell me to not worry! That's my brother! He's the only family I have left and I can't loose him!" he punched a nearby wall, creating a crack on it. Some of the passerbies quickly walked pass them, not wanting to get involved. "Damn it! Naruto, get Tsunade!" he ordered and the blonde just nodded frantically and left, heading to the front desk. Neji turned to Itachi then at Kakashi. "I'll go with Naruto." And he ran off, passing by Shikamaru, Shino and Kiba who all raised a brow.

The three approached Kakashi, asking what was going on and where Sasuke was. "I'm not sure which room, Shino, Kiba, go ask the information desk about it." The two nodded and left. "Where are Kurenai and the BL assassins?"

"Right here," Kurenai said. "What happened back there anyway? Within three seconds, Orochimaru wasn't able to notice or sense you slicing his head off. How did you do it?"

Itachi sighed and eyed every one of them. "While you guys were all busy fighting, Sasuke attempted to use the sharingan but it would eat away his life if he did, since he was already wounded from our battle. I was too busy thinking up of a plan to notice that Orochimaru was aiming a gun at me, and when I heard a bang, I was alerted and then I saw Sasuke rush in front of me and heard another bang. Next thing I knew, I was calling out to my brother."

"That's not what we want to know Itachi," Kakashi said as Shino and Kiba came back with Naruto, Neji and Tsunade, leading them to Sasuke's room. "But still, tell us everything."

"I knew Sasuke was worried about Sakura, she was fighting with Kabuto after all. I saw Hinata help her out so, he was rest assured that she'll be fine since Hinata was there. I too, breathed a sigh of relief when Kabuto fell dead after the two of them threw a kunai directed at his head." He sighed and sat down on a chair when Tsunade had told them to wait outside. The others took a seat as well, listening to his story.

"Well, I used my sharingan on Orochimaru. He made a mistake by looking into my eyes. Three seconds later, he was already trapped in the world of the Kaleidoscope sharingan, the mangekyou, and within those three seconds, I killed him while he was still trapped inside the illusion. I had to catch him off guard, otherwise," he stopped. "To be exact, we… planned the whole thing, but not exactly in the way Sasuke would get shot…"

"What did you two plan anyway?" Kurenai asked.

"He was supposed to distract Orochimaru while I find an opportunity to look at him in the eyes. I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I didn't notice the bastard actually had a gun pointed at me."

Kakashi nodded at this and turned to everyone. "I assume all of you were able to kill all of the Sound?" they nodded; their bruises and injuries were enough to tell the story of how hard they fought against the enemy. A nurse came out from Sasuke's room as all eyes turned to her, clearly asking how the young adult was doing.

"Tsunade-san is still taking care of him, we're still not sure of the results. She sent me out here to guide all of you to another room. Although none of you are in a fatal position as Uchiha-san is, you're all still wounded, badly I must say." She said, eyeing Itachi and Naruto's wounds. "And if I don't do as she says, I may end up loosing my job." She said, sighing.

"Alright guys," Kakashi stood up and looked at every one of them. "You heard the beautiful nurse here." She blushed at the comment. "Let's go and-" a bonk on the head cut him off as Kurenai muttered a curse under her breath and walked off, her face very red. The silver haired assassin blinked and raised a brow at Kurenai. "What..?" he asked as the others sighed and shook their heads.

Itachi glanced at Sakura who seemed to be oblivious to her surroundings. He gave a sigh and placed a hand on top of her pink tresses as she looked up at him while he gave a small smile. "Don't worry, he won't give up that easily." He used his free hand to point at her belly. "Not with a child he has here, he won't leave his responsibilities like that, he won't give in to death. Believe in him alright?" he said, ruffling her hair.

Unsure though, she nodded and forced a smile as Itachi turned and followed the rest. Sakura got up and eyed the door for a few seconds before walking towards it, stopping just a foot away. "Sasuke-kun…" she placed a hand over her chest. "…Don't give up." And she left, following the others.

His eyes opened yet all he could see was a black abyss surrounding him. Sitting up slowly, he glanced around the room, or wherever he is, trying to recall what had happened before he passed out. He shook his head and placed a hand on it. He looked up when a voice called him, a man's voice; it was deep and had a tone of authority. "Tou-san…" he whispered, seeing his father walking towards him. "Get up." The older man commanded. "On your feet Sasuke."

Sasuke gaped and slowly got to his feet, staring straight at his father. Fugaku smiled slightly and turned his back to his son. "Come." And he started to walk away as Sasuke looked back, then ran after his dad who was starting to get a good distance away from him. "Tou-san, where are we going?"

"To see your mother of course, we miss you. It's been a while. A long while that is."

"You… guys tried to kill me."

"There was no other way, I thought you understood that."

"I know." He said, lowering his head and still following his father like a lost puppy. "But… it was too much, even for me, I was only a kid…"

Fugaku stopped and turned his head slightly to the assassin. "Tell me, do you remember anything before you passed out?" he asked. Sasuke looked away for a moment, thinking. With a sigh, he shook his head and looked back up at his dad. "Where am I?"

"You're in your own mind Sasuke."

"My… mind? How-" but he never got to finish as he felt electricity shock his whole body as he saw blinding white lights before going back to the darkness. He panted, falling to his knees and looking up at his dad with wide eyes. "W-what was that? Why did I hear panicked voices..?"

His father only turned to the darkness before him, looking at the horizon, if ever there was one. He smiled slightly once more. "Are you happy with your life?"

"What-" and the feeling of being electrocuted surge through him once more, He opened his eyes and was blinded by bright lights. His ears picking up the sound of a woman's urgent voice, ordering the other people inside the room to take action or whatever as he felt two hands pressed against his chest. He gasped for air and then his vision started to blur once more, his eyelids feeling heavy as he was swallowed into the pits of darkness once more.

"Sasuke," Fugaku faced him fully, kneeling down on one knee to be in eye level with him. "Tell me, are you happy or not?" Confused, he only looked down once more, trying to think what was going on, if this was all a dream and why he kept going back and forth to the darkness and then seeing white lights and back again to the black void. "Happy with what..?"

"Your life Sasuke, would you rather stay with me and your mother, or go back to your old life?" he asked.

"I… don't understand…" he said, looking at his dad as a hand was outstretched towards him, pulling him up when he took it. "Let's go then, you'll be better off with us." And he didn't argue, walking after his father. "What do you mean by- I'm better off with you and mom?"

Smirking, he shrugged. "Seeing as you're not in any good condition, your mother will take care of you."

"I don't need that, I'm already twenty-three years old dad, geez."

"I know, but in your mother's eyes, you're still the little Sasuke that she cares for."

"Clear!" and she once again brought down the AED towards the man's chest as it gave an electric shock. No effect. "I can't give up, clear!" still no effect. "Damn it Uchiha! Cooperate! Clear!" she turned to see the results, his pulse was back yet it was weak and his breathing was shallow. "One more, clear!" yet his eyes didn't open and he was slowly giving in to death once more. "Shit! Call Itachi- Sakura- or Kakashi! Whoever! Even Naruto! And of them! NOW!"

A nurse nodded and ran outside the room, frantically searching for the mentioned people. "Wait! I don't even know them! I only know who the guy that carried Uchiha-san and the ink-haired one!" she looked around the corridors, stopping when seeing a few blondes, brunettes and even silver-haired ones. "Where are they?" another nurse came out of a room and she peeked inside the door, seeing a few girls, one with pink-hair.

"You! Are you Sakura-san?" she asked, panting. The pink-haired girl blinked and nodded, wondering what was wrong. "Quick, come with me! Tsunade-san wishes to see you!" and without having any hesitations, Sakura got up, despite her wounds, and rushed outside to follow the nurse to Sasuke's room. "Why? What's wrong? Did something bad happen?"

"I-I'm not sure but Uchiha-san's going back and forth from Life and Death's clutches."

"N-no way!"

They both reached the room as Sakura heard Tsunade curse and tried to revive Sasuke again. She rushed towards Tsunade's side and questioned her about everything. The doctor explained to her what had happened earlier and how Sasuke kept dying and living at the same time. Her green eyes shot wide and her hand grasped his quickly, crying out to him.

"..?" he stopped and turned his head slightly behind him, squinting at the darkness. Fugaku raised a brow at his son's actions and wondered what was wrong. "Sasuke?"

"A-Aa… coming." And he continued to follow his father. He felt something grip his hand and he raised it to his face, looking at it, wondering what that feeling was. "Sasuke." His father's voice called out. "…Someone's calling me…" he whispered, looking back behind him. "…it's familiar…" he added, smiling slightly. "It's like… I feel bad whenever… I hear that voice when… in sorrow…" He closed his eyes as he turned around, trying to hear and figure out who was calling him.

"Sasuke please wake up, come back!"

It was a girl's voice, and it held longing, pleading, sorrow and love. The darkness began to light up as images of his life came whizzing by, projectiles coming and going, voices of friends and family; experiences of his life. Slowly opening his eyes halfway, a slight smile on his lips as he felt a surge of electricity shock his body once more. He felt water on his cheeks yet it wasn't his tears, it belonged to someone else.

Sasuke touched it and smiled once more, looking up as another picture came flashing, the darkness slowly disintegrating as he opened his mouth to speak. "Sorry dad, it's not yet my time, I still have a responsibility to someone, I still need to live for her and our child, and besides," he faced the older Uchiha. "Nii-san still needs me as much as I need him."

Fugaku let a smile spread across his lips as he nodded in understanding. "Very well my son. Go." With a nod, his surroundings began to grow brighter and he closed his eyes from the blinding light, feeling a body over his as he heard a few sniffles, cruses and his name being called out repeatedly. His eyelids fluttered open and saw a shocked Tsunade staring at him, along with a few assistants of hers with the same expressions.

Forcing himself to look at what's on top of him, he saw a mass of pink hair as he blinked a few times before saying the person's name. "S-Sakura…" she instantly looked up, eyes widened and were watery with tears as she gaped at him. "I… can't breathe…" he gasped as she quickly got off of him and Tsunade did her role of checking if he was still in a near-to-death situation.

"Are you feeling okay now Uchiha?" she asked, getting a stethoscope and checking his heart beat. "Yeah, a bit in pain but fine none the less." He said, sitting up and groaning from the body ache he had. "Shit, you made me scared!" Sakura yelled at him, letting more tears flow down her eyes as she wiped them away furiously. "Damn you for making me worry." He smirked at her. "Shouldn't I be the one to say that?" and he got a bonk on the head from the female assassin. "Ow! What was that for?" And she just smiled and attacked him with a hug.

It was relieving news to Itachi when a nurse broke in and told him the news. He was happy deep down yet his exterior remained calm. He gave a half smile to the nurse, silently thanking her for telling the good news. Kakashi then stood up and told everyone to head over to Sasuke's room, much to a blonde assassin's delight.

"I knew he was going to be fine." Naruto said, raising a fist in the air as they made their way to Sasuke's room. "Yeah right, you actually thought that he was gone." Shikamaru said, yawning. The excitement and tension was no longer there, so it's back to being lazy for the genius of SS. Neji just shook his head at this as they all reached the Uchiha's room.

"Teme! You had me worried there!" Naruto yelled, running towards Sasuke's bedside but Tsunade had stopped him from giving the patient a death hug. "Wait until he recovers fully Naruto." She said and turned to Itachi. "I do believe that the brother would want to speak first?" The others gave way to Itachi as Sakura got up from her seat and walked outside, along with the SS assassins.

"So, how are you feeling?"

Sasuke slowly sat up and shrugged. "A bit better." He answered and looked straight ahead, eyes half closed and head slightly hung low. "Dad appeared in… my state of unconsciousness…" he noted how Itachi's eyes went wide. "At first, I thought he was just telling me a few things, but as he told me to follow him, it was like… he was taking me with him, to the after life."

The older Uchiha clenched his fists at this and eyed Sasuke, silently telling him to continue. "I was tempted, nii-san, to be honest, I really was. Until I felt the electrocution, I doubted… I was hesitating… if I did follow dad, I wouldn't be here, if Sakura hadn't held my hand, I wouldn't be here, talking to you. If I didn't remember all of you, I don't think I… would still be alive."

"Shit, so this is like your what, second life already?" Itachi asked, clearly angry at the whole thing. Sasuke merely nodded in response, not seemingly affected by his brother's behavior. "You idiot," he murmured, whacking his little brother on the head. "Ouch! Will you stop hitting me? I'm still recovering you know!" he was startled when Itachi engulfed him in a hug, a tight one at that, and Sasuke didn't know how to react. It's been a while since his aniki ever embraced him into a brotherly hug, and though he would never say it aloud, he missed it.

"Just a little more Sakura!" Tsunade yelled as the female assassin gripped onto Sasuke's hand tightly. "Push!" Sakura gritted her teeth and glared at Tsunade. "I AM PUSHING DAMN IT!" she yelled out. Poor Sasuke's ear… which was right next to her lips too. "…shit, I think I've gone deaf!" he thought as Sakura's grip on his hand tightened until finally, they heard a cry. Sakura lay back down, panting, relieved and glad that it was over.

Tsunade cut off the umbilical cord of the baby and took the blue blanket from a nurse, wrapping it around the baby. "Well Uchiha, it's a boy, congratulations." Tsunade said, grinning and handing Sasuke the baby. "I'll be leaving you two now." She said and stepped outside the room, along with the few nurses. Sasuke sat down on Sakura's bedside and Sakura the baby, handing him to her.

"What should we name him, Sasuke?" she asked in a tired voice, cuddling the baby. Sasuke smiled and looked at her then at the baby. "You name him." He said and she looked down at the baby, smiling. "It's winter…" she whispered. "Yuki, snow…" she added. "I think I know what to name him Sasu-kun." Sasuke leaned closer and gave a nod, urging her to go on. "I'll take 'Sa' from our first names, and add it to 'Yuki'."

"Sayuki," Sasuke said, looking at the baby. "Uchiha Sayuki…" he murmured, placing hi index finger on the baby's tiny hands. "Sayuki it is." And thus, starts a new beginning for the two former assassins.

Despite the two of them, taking away lives, they managed to produce one life, caring for the baby, protecting him, shielding him from the truth of their lives. But someday, they have to, just not today but sooner or later, they need to, they will tell their son, including their other children, if they do have a few more, and they will protect them from any danger that comes their way. It was hard to erase the past, but through family, friends and people who love and care for you, the future can be better and brighter.

The End

A/N: Lame ending, don't know how else to end it. To be honest, it was rushed, I ran out of ideas for it and I suck at action scenes when there're too many characters. Hope you enjoyed it still! And please vote on my poll! Check my profile for the question and choices! Now, for Fallen!