Epilogue is up. This is the end of this fanfic and I must say I'm actaully quite proud of this one. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. And review please. I know it's the last chapter, but it's not too late to write something nice XD

Epilogue

Two years had passed and Sakura's only regret was that they'd left Naruto behind. Her feelings for Sasuke developed slowly and steadily overtime and she never loved anyone the way she loved him, but a great part of her missed the loud-mouthed, hyperactive shinobi that both she and Sasuke referred to as a best friend. In fact, Sasuke had admitted at times that there was just one more thing they needed to brighten their relatively peaceful life. Naruto.

Neither Sakura nor Sasuke were aware of their old teammate's whereabouts, although they had tried numerous times to track him down. His trail ended at the Hidden Village of the Sand and from there, no one really knew where he went off to. The only information the Kazekage could provide was that Naruto had stayed in the village for two weeks after Sasuke and Sakura left, then took off without a word. He left in the dead of night; one day he was there, the next day it was as if he never existed at all.

This left Sakura angry at herself, of course, and sent her into a state of self-blame that resulted in repeated arguments between her and Sasuke. The only solution was obvious- find Naruto. But it wasn't as easy as it sounded. Naruto may have been rather clumsy and impulsive, and he often acted without thinking things through, but when he didn't want anyone to find him, he was surprisingly good at hiding himself.

Although they repeatedly made attempts to find their old teammate, both Sasuke and Sakura knew that life had to go on. They normally moved from village to village, never staying for more than a few months at the most, in fear that Sasuke's past eventually caught up with him. They took these opportunities, while meeting new people, to ask about their teammate's location. But, like always, there were no results.

Thus, it came as an extremely pleasant surprise when, while on the way to meet Sasuke at a restaurant one day, Sakura saw Naruto rounding a corner several meters ahead of her. She immediately broke into a run, with inner Sakura cheering her on. But by the time she reached the same corner, it was too late and she was forced to reluctantly go back on her way.

"I saw Naruto today", Sakura announced as they entered the restaurant.

"You-table for two, please- you saw who?" Sasuke waved a hand nonchalantly at the waitress standing by the door.

"Naruto", Sakura repeated, "but he disappeared before I could catch up to him". They were led to a table by a second waitress who bounced merrily ahead of them. Sakura waited for her to set two menus down, then bounce away again.

Sasuke pulled out the chair closest to him, then walked to the other side of the table, giving Sakura a look he'd normally give a child. "You were probably just imaging it. I know we both want to -"

"I know what I saw!" Sakura argued back, sitting angrily in the chair.

Sasuke sat down across from her and folded his hands together, placing them under his chin, the way he often did when thinking.

"You're sure?" he asked after a while.

"Yes", Sakura stressed.

"Hn", he fell silent again, eyes narrowing slightly.

"What?"

"Nothing. You're sure?"

"Are you doubting my abilities?" Sakura challenged.

Sasuke gave her a long, hard look, then shook his head. He knew Sakura had a tendency to wish for the best of everything, but he knew she wasn't stupid. If she said she saw Naruto, then he believed her.

"So how would you suggest we go about finding him?" he asked, picking up a menu.

"The same way we track anyone down, I guess", Sakura replied, taking the other menu. She vaguely scanned the items, then set the menu down. "You order. I hate ordering food".

"I know."

Sakura smiled sheepishly.

"If you've seen him, then I'm sure the locals have seen him too. If we give a description, it shouldn't be too hard", Sasuke continued.

"Yeah, how many guys with blond hair wearing an orange jumpsuit do you see around here?" Sakura said lightly.

"Still?" Sasuke peeked up from behind his menu, one eyebrow raised in surprise.

"Yep, still orange", Sakura nodded, "that's why I knew it was him".

"Hn".

"Are you ready to order?" the bouncy waitress returned to their table, eyeing Sasuke hopefully while trying her best to ignore a glaring Sakura.

Sasuke ordered without looking up once, leading inner Sakura to celebrate wildly while Sakura bit back a smug grin. My Sasuke, she thought, not caring that she was acting just the teeniest bit immature.

"After dinner, then", Sasuke announced after the waitress had left.

"Huh?"

"We'll go ask around after dinner", he explained.

"You really believe me, then", Sakura smiled.

"I thought we already established that", Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I-"

"Shut up and eat". The bouncy waitress had returned again with the appetizers and frowned slightly as she stepped into the middle of their conversation. The sympathetic look she gave Sakura made the latter want to laugh.

"She heard you, you know", Sakura grinned as the waitress walked away, no longer bouncing.

"What?"

"All she heard you say was 'shut up and eat', so now she thinks you're some demanding, overbearing-"

"What's your point?" Sasuke asked as he dropped some food into his plate.

"Well", Sakura began slowly, her grin growing wider, "she took quite a bit of interest in you earlier. But not anymore. You know, you push people away when you have an attitude like that".

"Would you rather she still take interest in me?" Sasuke replied.

"I-argh", Sakura shook her head, then stabbed her fork into the food in front of her. She glared at her plate, then slowly looked up at Sasuke, who was trying hard not to let a smirk grace his features. "I don't know why I put up with you", she stuffed the food in her mouth.

"You know perfectly well why you do. It was your choice".

Sakura stared at the person in front of her in disbelief. "What?!"

"And it's still your choice", Sasuke continued to eat, as if nothing in the world could bother him.

Sakura lowered her head and didn't reply. Yeah, she had a choice. She'd always had a choice to leave or stay with Sasuke. Obviously, she'd chosen to stay with him for the past two years, and she wasn't going to change her mind now.

They finished dinner and left the restaurant, leaving the waitress a generous tip in hopes that good karma would reward them and allow them to find their old teammate. The couple ambled down the street that led away from the restaurant, heading for the lively market square a few blocks away. The sky was dark, but with the festive lanterns and lights lining the shops, it was easy to see a good distance ahead.

"Excuse me", Sakura approached the first stand in the market square, "have you seen a young man with blond hair wearing orange pass by here?"

"Sorry, dear, no oranges today", the old lady shook her head, then offered to sell them some vegetables.

"Where'd you see him?" Sasuke asked as they left the stand.

"Oh, uh, by the dock", Sakura led him in a new direction, "and now that I think about it, he was walking that way…he- oh! Sasuke! He must have just arrived. He was coming from the dock. I bet he checked into one of the hotels around here!"

"You can't jump to conclusions like that", Sasuke shook his head, but allowed Sakura to eagerly tug him away from the market square and towards a cluster of small inns lined up on one side of the street.

"C'mon, c'mon, we'll split up so it's faster", Sakura had, for some unknown reason, reverted to a childlike state, her eyes shining with enthusiasm and excitement as she left Sasuke in front of one of the inns while she darted into the lobby of the one beside it. He shook his head as he watched her race off, letting out a sigh of defeat.

"Excuse me, but has anyone new checked in today?" Sasuke asked the man behind the counter.

"No new arrivals, sir, but we've got a few free rooms. You meeting someone here?"

"No, thanks". Sasuke walked out of the inn just as Sakura burst out from another one, skipped right past him, and into a larger hotel farther down.

"Wait!" he managed to catch her as she ran back out of the larger hotel and struggled for a moment when she wiggled in his grasp. "You forget we're skilled shinobi", he hissed, "isn't there a better way to approach this?"

"Sasuke", she stopped moving and turned to face him, "we've tried every way of tracking there is. If Kakashi-sensei were alive, I bet we'd even have tried using his dogs. Maybe the shinobi way isn't the right way to approach it".

"What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should try-"

"Wait! Is that him? There?" Sasuke whirled Sakura around by the shoulders so she was facing the same direction he was. "See the orange?"

"Wha-Naruto!" Sakura called out.

"No, wait, no, too short", Sasuke frowned as he looked more closely.

"What if that was the person I saw?" Sakura suddenly asked, turning back to give Sasuke a hesitant look.

"Now you're doubting yourself?" he asked.

"I mean, it's possible…"

"If you're doubting yourself, then there's no point in any of this. I'm willing to believe you, but you have to be willing to believe yourself".

"Ok, ok. I know I saw him", Sakura nodded, more to herself.

"Alright. Let's go".


Naruto was trying to juggle a handful of dangos and a popsicle that could broken into two halves as he walked down the market square. His wallet was well emptied out after a night of great food and he knew he'd have to stay in this town to work for a few weeks before he started traveling again. Such was the life of a nomad: traveling, training, earning, spending, eating. Oh, and sleeping.

He'd just finished stuffing the last dango in his mouth when a pair of familiar figures in the distance caught his attention. The way the moved, the way they oriented themselves around each other… everything looked so familiar. He drew hard on his memory and saw two images in his mind. Two teammates. Two friends. Sasuke and Sakura. He could hardly believe it was them, but it was worth a try. He had to know for sure if it was them or not.

It'd been a long time since he'd even heard new of them. They were keeping a low profile, just like he'd expected them to. After all, both Sasuke and Sakura were relatively well-known in the shinobi world, and he knew they wouldn't want to risk being recognized. He briefly wondered if they'd ever tried to contact him, but he knew that even if they had, there was no way he could have received anything. Like his two teammates, he was keeping a low profile as he traveled, choosing to enjoy the simple things in life instead of trying to become the best shinobi there was. That was the past, and his dream of being Hokage was dead anyways. It wasn't like him to be pessimistic, or to give up on re-building a dream, but the destruction of Konoha, even after all this time, still lingered heavily in his mind.

In a way, traveling was like his mental healing.

But, this was different. If that was really Sasuke and Sakura, just a bit down the street, then he had to, just had to, see them again. Everything else may have been dead, but he still felt the bonds that had once made them come together so closely.

Finishing half the popsicle and giving the other half to a small boy who looked like he was waiting for someone, Naruto quickened his steps, keeping his focus on the two figures that were growing closer and closer. When he was near enough to be sure it was his two teammates, an immensely large grin spread across his face and he had an urge to rush forward and grab them both, giving them probably the biggest hug they'd ever felt. But that wasn't fun.

Naruto slowed down and kept a good distance behind them, thinking of the "funnest" way to let them know of his presence. He watched them as he thought, observing the way they constantly looked around them, as if searching for something. Could they know he was here? If so, he knew he had to think of the best way to make his entrance before they found him. What would be something unforgettable?

He continued to trail after the pair, his mind working furiously until a brilliant plan came to mind. He brought his hands together to form a seal. In the end, they were all shinobi, so what better way to approach them than with a jutsu?

"THOUSAND YEARS OF PAIN!!"

Before she could register it, Sakura felt the person beside her shoot forward, only to be replaced by a whoosh of air, then by the very person she'd spent the past hour searching for.

"Naruto!" she squealed, throwing her arms around him.

"Sakura-chan!" his long arms enveloped her in a tight hug.

"We were just looking for you! I thought I saw you today, so Sasuke and I were- oh, wha-" Sakura stopped herself and looked around, then spotted Sasuke a good distance away from them before she realized what Naruto had just done. "Oh, oh, Naruto, you're gonna get it now", she said between bouts of laughter.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke's face was pure comedy as he collected himself and stormed towards his teammate, only to be grabbed by a hysterical Sakura who was laughing so hard she looked like she could pee on herself.

"Ahhh Sakura-chan! Protect me!"

"Naruto! You brought this on yourself, you know that?!" Sakura didn't have the strength or the will to hold back her raging teammate.

"Sakura-chaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

"Sasuke! Stop hurting him!"

"NARUTO GET BACK HERE!"

"Wait! Sasuke! Naruto! We're all mature adults now! We're not supposed to-" Sakura sighed. They were both gone.

Once again, like all the times when they were children, she was left to walk behind her two teammates, stepping in the paths they'd once taken. She was left to chase after them and to hope to eventually catch up to them.

But this time, she felt no sadness. No disappointment in not being able to be where they were. For once, she was happy with where she was. And although she was now a few blocks behind her two teammates, their yells echoing in the distance, she knew that in the end, when she finally caught up with them, they would be waiting. And they would be together.


This is the end, guys.

Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing.