Alright!: This is the official end, it's just sort of a keen snippet for those of you who might actually care about the life they originally came from. :) The lives are over, this story is over and I can call it complete! Thanks for stickin' with it for so long, I'm going to take a deep breath and wait hopefully a day before I start on my next story.

Fate's Garden

Part 4 - Hysteria

Chapter 8 - Someday

Sakura knelt on the cold dirt, eyes locked on the two graves before her. It had been over thirty years since then. She was forty-eight and had teenagers of her own, and a husband, a good one. Sai had surprised her with his sympathy, and his want to comfort her. For the longest time after Naruto and Sasuke's death Sakura hated Sai with all of her heart. She loathed him, him and his (what had seemed to her then) sarcasm, his false emotions. But then one day…just like that, she realized that he really was trying to help her, he was trying to learn feelings, to learn to make bonds with people. From then on it was as natural as breathing, being with Sai. Now she was married to him, had been for twenty-three years, and her children were seventeen, twelve, and eight. Hikiyo, Kayla, and Suoh. Two boys and a girl, not exactly what she'd expected, and certainly not what she'd dreamed of when she was little, but it was wonderful all the same.

Her love for Naruto, and for Sasuke even after all he'd done, was still alive even if they weren't. She would always love them, and always miss them. Being the sole survivor of your genin team was not an easy thing. It was a cold, shut off sort of pain and people treated you differently. They treated you as if you would break at any moment, and Sakura believed back then she very well might. But then she picked up her training with reckless abandon and worked and worked and worked, until she became the head medic nin of Konoha. By now she was a shining gem on a strand of Tsunade's achievements.

It was really Kakashi-sensei that had kept her going, him and Sai, and Tsunade-sama. Kakashi had, after all, lost his team as well, only he'd also lost his teacher. They clung to each other in an oddly emotionless way until they could stand on their own.

"Miss?"

Sakura whirled around, startled. Sasuke and Naruto's graves were in a more secluded area of the graveyard, so usually she didn't run into anyone here. Behind her were two tall men, one blond with blue eyes, and the other with black hair and brown eyes. They weren't them, they couldn't be, and their faces were different. But…

Sakura shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. Of all the miserable coincidences. She stood up and wiped her eyes.

"Sorry to have disturbed you, but, we thought maybe you'd dropped this?" the blond smiled apologetically, holding out a familiar satin coin purse.

Sakura took it from him in relief, not noticing she'd lost it, "Thank you, and…its okay. It's a public graveyard after all."

"But all the same, grieving is sacred, and private," the black haired one said, taking the arm of the other and pulling him along down the path, back towards the main gates.

Sakura watched after them, two men, arms wrapped around each other, walking in a public cemetery. She blinked a few times at the oddness of it, and looked down at her coin purse. It was white with crimson and orange koi fish on it, Sai had gotten it for her recently while he was away on a mission in another village. He said it had reminded him of her. But, it was fuller than she remembered.

Her nimble fingers pressed at it, feeling an odd lump within the soft satin that hadn't been there before. She opened the purse and found a small paper, rolled up and tied with a bit of red string. Sakura looked up, towards the main path where the strange couple had gone and found that they must have picked up their leisurely pace, or taken another route. They were out of sight already.

Carefully Sakura pulled the string off the end of the paper and unrolled it.

Dear Sakura-chan,

We know you are sad for us still, and it hurts us to know that. But we are glad to see how strong you've become! You're the head medic-nin now? Wow! Sasuke's impressed, even though he's scowling and trying to be a stupid teme. We think you should stop being sad now, I mean, look at how much you have to not be sad for! Besides, we're fine. I'm sitting next to a pond filled with stars as I'm writing this, and my cousins and Sasuke are talking about something with the adults, and…I'm getting off topic here. I know it must have been odd, but, slipping this note in your purse was the only way we could think of to get it to you. It was all we could do to not hug you when we handed your purse over to you, but, I think just reading this will freak you out enough. No need to make it worse, though Sasuke said that maybe it would have been more fun that way.

Maybe we'll see you again someday,

Love,

Naruto & Sasuke

End of Part 4.

Fin