Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, merchandise, TV rights, ect… (I think you get the point.)

Summery

Sometimes in life you have to see things right through to the bitter end, even if you wish you didn't. (Sasuke/Ino)

Like all of my work this is just something that happened to float through the empty void inside my head. Like it or hate it please R and R as honest opinions are always welcomed, as are random acts of worship.

Lamb: As always sorry for any bad spelling and if you feel the need to throw things at me please wait until I've hidden behind the sofa kay!

Dedi: This chapter is dedicated to fallenmad

Muse: On with the fic!

You have a way of coming easily to me,
And when you take, you take the very best of me,
So I start a fight cause I need to feel something,
And you do what you want cause I'm not what you wanted,
Oh what a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day,
Just walk away, no use defending words that you will never say,
And now that I'm sitting here thinking it through,
I've never been anywhere cold as you,

Start to Finish

Hatake Kakashi sighed as he watched the two ninja battling it out on the training ground, that so many years ago had been the favourite of Team Seven. Looking at the pair, it would be hard to believe that they were just meant to be sparing for they looked like two long standing enemies determined to bring their enmity to a close once and for all. She had been given the authorisation to kill him should the need arise, and looking at her now it was plain to see that she would do it without a second thought if he pushed her far enough.

But in some perverse twist Ino was the one constantly pushing at the Uchiha. There was no love loss between Kakashi and his former student, but he felt a twinge of sympathy for the way the blonde temptress was treating him. It was almost as if she wanted him to snap, to lose control and breakdown completely. The silver haired jounin winced slightly as Ino performed a textbook sidekick that caught the dark eyed male full in the face, if that hadn't broken his nose then Kakashi didn't spend most of his time with his own nose buried in one of the Icha Icha series.

It had been some three weeks since he and Ino had last been together, though they had managed the odd intense make-out session the last of which had left her with the impressive love bite on her shoulder which she seemed to be flaunting just to piss Sasuke off. He had been stupid to mark her up in such a way, especially as they were normally so careful, but he had been caught up in the moment and the blonde mind walker had done nothing to stop him. Not that he was really surprised, Ino might be proficient when it came to hiding her feelings from herself, but he knew that, in spite of what she said, she was falling for the Uchiha all over again.

If he was honest with himself, the copy-nin wasn't really sure how he felt about that fact. He didn't mind that the bright bubbly blonde was falling in love with someone, he just objected to who that person was; a one time traitor. Kakashi loved Ino as a friend, but that was all, their relationship could be summed up as friends with benefits. Something that was almost impossible to pull off outside of the ninja community, but it was common place amongst most shinobi even if it was not something that was advertised. Neither of them had the time or the inclination to pursue long term relationships, and if he ever felt the odd twinge of guilt Kakashi could always point out that at least this way it stopped Ino going out and picking up some random stranger.

It was safe. Neither of them was fooling themselves by trying to pretend that what they shared was something more than it really was. There had been times when he'd looked down at Ino but seen the face of another person looking back at him. Looking back at him from over the years, a face he could maybe have fallen in love with. Twice it had been her name he had called, but Ino didn't mind. She knew that it was not always her that the copy-nin was thinking of, just as he knew that at times Ino's mind strayed to another person. He could still remember the look on her face from three weeks past, the joy, and the ecstasy as a single word slipped past her lips.

"Sasuke…"

One dark eye watched impassively as Sasuke easily deflected the blonde's next attack, then side stepped her right hook and scored a direct hit on her thigh with a kunai. The mind walker threw back her head and screamed like a wild animal before rushing headlong at her opponent only to be sent crashing to the hard, sun backed, ground. Oh yes, Kakashi thought with a soft sigh, Ino was falling once more, and this time she was falling harder and faster. She was always volatile and explosive, but at the moment she was letting her feelings get the best of her which was why her ability to score a hit on Sasuke was decreasing rapidly. The girl was attacking out of blind hatred, which was never a wise thing to do. She was just lucky that the Uchiha had no interest what so ever in trying to take her life.

Except in so far as possible trying to it, and her, to bed.

"Enough!" Sasuke's frustrated yell echoed around the otherwise empty training ground. "Much more of this Yamanaka and you'll be dead."

"What!" Ino spat, and Kakashi got to his feet, preparing to separate the two of them, or at least try to, if necessary. "Are you saying you couldn't be beaten by a kunoichi?"

"I'm saying that right now you couldn't beat me. Your head's all over the place." A contemptuous sneer twisted his face as he waved his hand towards her shoulder and the red mark that adorned it. "It's probably still with whoever gave you that."

For a moment Kakashi thought that Ino was actually going to jump at Sasuke and try and claw his eyes right out of his head. Her lips drew back in a silent snarl and her eyes blazed with so much loathing that for a moment they looked almost silver. But then the moment was past and with a toss of her head the blonde had spun on her heel and started to walk off of the training ground.

"You watch him for a bit Hatake," Ino said neither stopping nor turning round. "I've got some things I need to do."

The pair of Sharingan users stared in shocked silence at the blonde's retreating form. Sasuke was more confused by what had just happened than he would care to admit. Ino wasn't the type of person to run away from anything, confrontation was what she thrived on but instead of retaliating she had simply walked away.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was not altogether surprised by the way the mind walker had reacted. His one time student had been right when he had stated that the blonde's head was all over the place, but he had been a little off in guessing where her attention had focused. The copy-nin would be prepared to stake quite a lot on the fact that Ino's mind was not on the person who had given her that love bite, him, but rather on the person she wished had given in to her, Sasuke. That, coupled with the fact that around this time of year Ino normally found it hard to keep her head straight anyway, had made it clear to him that it would only be a matter of time before she snapped.

"Come on," At the sound of his former sensei's voice, the Uchiha finally turned away from the place where Ino had vanished from sight. "There's no point hanging around here if she's gone. And if I know Yammy she won't be back for sometime so we might as well go and get something to eat."

Sasuke nodded his agreement, but could not suppress the flash of anger that ignited within him at the causal way that the lazy jounin referred to the blonde. But he was also well aware that while Kakashi's words had been friendly enough the reason he was doing this was because the blue-eyed kunoichi had asked him to do so. Trust once lost was almost impossible to regain; it was proving to be one of the most painful lessons that he had ever had to learn. When he had left all those years before he had never once stopped to think what his reception would be like if he ever dared to return to the place of his birth.

XXXXXXXXXX

Ino leapt from tree branch to tree branch, her vision blurred by tears she refused to shed. She was in the upper reaches of the forest, high above the ground and was thankful that there was no one around to see the pathetic sight that she was presenting. Since she had woken this morning she had felt the tendrils of grief starting to wind themselves around her heart but had stupidly tried to push them to the back of her mind. A course to action that had left her like this.

A blubbering wreck, scampering off into the trees like some sort of terrified rabbit. So what if it had now been three years to the day, there were some wounds that never truly healed. Some instead only got deeper with the passing of time. Loss and loneliness pierced her heart with more cruel efficiency than any blade could have done.

She wasn't thinking, her mind was a hot white fog of pain and grief and her feet were moving of their own accord but Ino was not shocked when she found her self standing in one of Konoha's three grave yards. With one trembling head she reached out and as she traced the name etched into the cool marble allowed her tears to fall. With no one to see or judge, one of the strongest kunoichi the Leaf had every seen gave in to the misery and loneliness that filled her.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hey Sasuke! Kakashi-sensei! Come and join us!"

He's the Hokage, one of the most powerful and influential people in the five great nations and yet he still refers to Kakashi as his sensei. The thought, though a little incongruous somehow made Sasuke feel slightly better, it just went to show that some things would never change. That Naruto was still as happy-go-lucky as he'd always been, that even with his rise to power could still be found eating lunch at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar and that he was still as much of and optimist as he ever was.

But perhaps the most comforting thing of all was that Uzumaki Naruto the sixth Hokage of Konohagakure still believed in him. And that, Sasuke was quickly realising was something to be highly prised.

Hyuuga Hinata, now Uzumaki Hinata was seated beside the blond her hands resting lightly on her belly which was swollen with pregnancy. She smiled warmly at the two men, or at least she smiled at the silver haired jounin, her expression when she turned her opal eyes onto Sasuke was not exactly unfriendly but it wasn't as open as it had been when she had looked at her husbands former sensei. Guarded was probably the best way to describe it.

Sasuke had noticed it before, not just with Hinata, but with almost everyone he met. Those who were not openly distrustfully still looked at him warily and were always careful to watch what they said within his hearing. Once a traitor, not necessarily always a traitor but still someone to keep a constant watch on.

Conversation flowed easily enough and from the outside Sasuke supposed that they must have just looked like four friends sharing a meal, though Kakashi was not eating and Uchiha wondered if anyone had every managed to see under that mask. But if you knew the signs things weren't as relaxed, as they seemed. Kakashi kept his remarks to the minimum when responding to anything the Uchiha said as did Hinata, the later also reverted to her pre-teen habit of playing with her fingers when forced to converse with him for too long. Of all of them only Naruto seemed completely at ease, he too was the only one oblivious of the tension that hung around the small group.

Sasuke was just finishing off his second bowl of ramen, he'd skipped breakfast so was feeling hungrier than he normally would have done and the Ichiraku Ramen Bar still served the best that he'd ever tasted. Hinata had eaten half her order before pushing it away with an apologetic look on her face while she rubbed her stomach. Ayame had appeared as if by magic, whisked away the bowl, paused, placed it in front of Naruto and then vanished only to reappear a moment later with a cup of ginger tea which she placed in front of Hinata.

"What's that for?" Naruto said looking suspiciously at the cup as if it might suddenly jump up and bite the hand of his wife.

"It's to help with her sickness Dobe." The brunette chided the village leader as if he were a child as she began wiping down the counter top, the damp cloth smelling slightly of citrus as curved in wet arcs across the wood.

"You're ill Hinata?" The evident worry on the sixth Hokage's face was almost laughable. His chopsticks dropped from his hand clattering against the side of his partly empty bowl, his eyes widened with fear as he grabbed at Hinata's hands. Sasuke could see Kakashi grinning under his mask.

"No Naruto," The indigo haired young woman said with a bemused smile and shared a conspiratorial look with Ayame who rolled her eyes. "But I'm pregnant, remember?"

"Oh yeah… Hey where's Ino?" Naruto suddenly demanded of the company present as if he had only just realised that Sasuke's baby-sitter/guard dog was missing. Which with the presence of so much ramen he probably had.

"She needed some time to herself." Kakashi answered smoothly but in such a way that he didn't actually answer the question that had been asked.

"But she's meant to –" The blue-eyed male started, somehow managing to sound both reproachful and irritated at the same time, before he was cut off.

"Naruto…" Hinata's voice was soft as she placed her hand on the blond leaders arm, effectively getting him to focus all of his attention on her. The pointed look she gave him was filled with silent meaning, but as to what that meaning was Sasuke was clueless.

"Huh? What…? Oh!" It was almost possible to read the emotions that crossed his face as some sort of realisation struck him. "Is she all right?"

"She will be." Kakashi didn't look around as he answered. His one visible eye seemed to be fixated on the curtained doorway through which Ayame had just disappeared but in his head he was replaying the way Ino had looked when she had bolted from the training ground.

"I should have remembered." He said shaking his head in a self-deprecating manor and Sasuke almost did a double take for Naruto had sounded almost contrite.

As far as he knew his one time team-mate was not overly close to the mind walking kunoichi so what was up with the sudden show of concern about her well being. But all too quickly the answer presented it's self and it was that although they lived together he knew next to nothing about Ino's personal life. Be that her current one or what had gone on in her life in all the years since he had departed.

"You can't be expected to remember everything love, Ino-chan knows that." Hinata gave the father of her unborn child a soft smile as she reached out and squeezed his hand. "She'll understand."

"Yeah, but she shouldn't have to." And for a moment Naruto looked just like a rebellious teenager confronting the reasonable parent. He knew Hinata was right, though what she was right about Sasuke was clueless, but just because she was right didn't make it any easier for the blond to except the fact.

"Beating yourself up about this isn't going help anyone." She took a sip of her ginger tea before fixing her opalescent eyes once again on the face of her husband. "It won't help you and it won't help Ino. And it isn't going to change anything either."

"But still –" Naruto started but was cut off by the former Hyuuga, something that would have been unthinkable in their academy days.

"No but still's, enough is enough." Hinata's expression softened at she looked at the blond's face and the evident anxiety in his blue eyes. "But we'll go and see her later all right.

"You should listen to her you know." The masked male suddenly re-entered the conversation and also effectively managed to bring it, or at least Naruto's personal guilt trip, to an end.

The village leader looked from his former sensei to his wife saw the looks on both their faces and picked up his discarded chopsticks with a sulky exclamation. "Oh fine then, have it your way."

"I invariably do." Hinata said giving his hand a commiserating pat before returning her attention to her tea.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Kakashi, can I ask you a question?" It was several hours later and the pair were walking, not quite companionably, through the darkening streets of Konoha.

"You just did. But feel free to ask another. It's not like I could stop you anyway." Sasuke was prepared for the response and just waited until the copy-nin finished, what he had to ask seemed too touchy a subject to be… well losing his temper wouldn't help him get any answers, assuming the Hatake would actually give him any.

"Earlier on… what were you all talking about? What's happened to Ino and why was Hinata telling Naruto not to blame himself?" The copy-nin stopped and tilted his head back so he could see the shape of the moon, which was just starting to become visible in the evening sky.

"Hmm, yes. I thought you'd want to know about that." Kakashi turned and treated Sasuke to a look that made the dark haired male feel that his former teacher was seeing much more of him then his one time pupil would have liked him to. For a few long moments it seemed as if he would not get an answer but then the other Sharingan user started to walk once more and with a sigh began to speak.

"The long and the short of it is that not long after the Ho… screw it. Not long after Naruto became Hokage there was a dispute between Konoha and Suna, accusations were made, rumours were spread and the possibility of war became, well became a very real possibility. It was mostly thanks to the strong bond that Naruto and the Kazekage share that we were able to avoid such a fate. This was all in the aftermath of the war with the Akatsuki; the whole world seemed to have been turned upside down." He paused for a moment and his one visible eye seemed to glaze over as if he were looking at something only he could see.

Sasuke knew without needing to be told that his former teacher was briefly reliving the chaos and confusion that had been the aftermath of the bloody war. He wondered fleetingly what he would feel if he had been living in Konoha at that time, if he would have survived that pain that had left lingering shadows on everyone he met. And was ashamed to realise that he was relived that had not been around.

With a small shake of his head Kakashi pulled himself for the grip of the past and continued with his account. "Anyway after a lot and I mean a lot, of investigation was undertaken on both sides it was discovered that an outside group was hoping to provoke a war between Konoha and Suna for whatever reason. It was decided that in the best interests of all parties that this subversive group must be dealt with…. The information that had been gathered about the number of the enemy force was inaccurate. We were heavily out numbered and would surely not only have failed but have all died in the attempt if the Kazekage hadn't have sent back up –"

"Sounds similar to when they came to help… after I… with the sound four…." Sasuke shook he head, disgusted at his inability to voice his thoughts accurately in a coherent manner and wishing he hadn't even tried.

"Yeah, just like that." And for a moment something that just might have been amusement crossed the visible portion of the silver haired jounin's face before he became serious once more. "Most of us made it, even if we will carry the scars for life. But we lost six of the best ninja Konoha has seen on that mission… Yamanaka Inoichi was one of them. Naruto has never been able to forgive himself. Though it was only three years ago he was a lot younger then than he is now; he was a lot less experienced at dealing with the responsibilities that come with his rank. He blames himself for every death but more so for that of Inoichi. After… after you left –"

"You mean betrayed everyone." It was a fact and he had nothing to gain by shying away from it. The first step towards setting things right was admitting what you had done that was wrong. And betrayal was defiantly just about as wrong as things got.

"– Naruto and Ino grew very close, for a time it even seemed likely that they'd…" Kakashi trailed off, but Sasuke had already realised what the end of the sentence would have been and again felt the slight sting of jealousy at the thought of anyone being with Ino in such a way. "He's never been able to forgive himself for taking away the only family that she had and I think it's worse, for him at least, because she's never blamed him. Not once."

"I see." The dark haired male said as he tried to get his head around the information he'd been presented with. If he'd been thinking clearly he would have wondered where the head of the Yamanaka clan was, but he'd been too blinded by his objective, by Ino. The young woman who now was the head of the Yamanaka clan.

Who was the whole of the clan, just as he, since the demise of his uncle, was the whole of the Uchiha clan. "But there's still one thing I don't –"

"It's today." The masked shinobi interrupted as the pair came to a halt outside the house that for the time being served as home to both the Uchiha and the Yamanaka. "The anniversary to their death, of Inoichi's death is today."

"I didn't know." It was a stupid and obvious thing to say but Sasuke could think of nothing else.

A light was on in the room he knew to be Ino's And he wondered how long she had been home, what she had been doing and if just maybe she had missed not having him there. The odds were that she hadn't, that the blonde had enjoyed having time and space to herself away from her charge but there was always a chance that she had missed his company. If nothing else he was someone to throw insults at, right?

"She's been through enough already." Kakashi was already waking off and thus depriving Sasuke of the opportunity to questions the other male about his cryptic statement. But there was no way he could have missed the warning hidden in the words. Warning or possibly a threat.

Looking away from the departing figure dark eyes fixed once more on the lit bedroom window. Oh Yamanaka, Sasuke sighed mentally, will you ever let me know how you're really feeling?

Please R and R I'd love to know what you thought.

Big love and inspiration

Lamanth