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"Hold, we will stop here and cross the bridge after an hour of rest."

As the caravan stopped, a red-bearded man slipped out of it without anyone noticing.

"this place hasn't changed a bit since i was here the last time"he muttered to himself.

he wandered around a bit and stopped before the bridge.

"the great naruto bridge" he read out aloud .

As he was just about to reach the end of the bridge he heard something, people were screaming. The moment he turned to look behind him he saw, what he can only call, hell.

The people with whom he had travelled for about a month, were being mercilessly slaughtered. he ran away from them, he knew they were after him. He could only hope that today won't bring his death.

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the head of the caravan, was the first one to go, he was killed by one of deidara's clay bomb. "deidara, don't have too much fun or you'll end up killing the target." said Sasori.

"but that's not fair, i was waiting for this moment for a whole month, un" he only received a deadpan stare. deidara just muttered something about 'old man don't know how to have fun' and obliged his partner's demand.

sasori ordered some of his puppets with chakra strings to kill more than half of the travellers.

his eyes narrowed.

"He's not with them."

he motioned with his fingers and a figure wearing an akatsuki cloak emerged and charged towards the direction of the bridge.

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The cemetery.

you can always find one of the members of team seven lurking there.

they are always there in their free time. even if there isn't a body buried there, they feel as if their late female teammate is always there, listening to them.

they imagine her smiling at the irony that now that she wasn't here nagging their leader to come on time, he's always early.

they imagine her laughing, when they told her about naruto and sai's bickering. how proud she would've been when naruto promoted to Anbu and then eventually the hokage.

"naruto" called kakashi softly.

the said boy didn't say or do anything to acknowledge his former teacher. but kakashi knew that he has his attention.

"Do you really meant what you said in the office earlier?"

no reply came.

kakashi stared at the stone in front of naruto which bears the name of one of the most powerful kunoichi he knew. the one he thought of as his own daughter.

" If you do then i am sorry, I realised after hearing your words that i truly was neglecting sakura from the very start. but i wasn't doing it to bring down her self confidence i just wasn't the right person who could teach her to reach her full potential. i was afraid that i would do something bad which will hurt her. But i didn't realise that in the process i was causing pain to her, i am truly sorry."

still no reply.

" naruto, just...just don't overexert yourself"

Kakashi was about to leave when he heard him.

"It's too late for your realisation, far too fucking late."

Kakashi looked at him with solemn eyes and left.

but he did hear the blonde's words.

" but i am sorry too "

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they catched up to him. he knew it. he can feel someone's presence.

he knew he didn't have a choice but to confront the enemy. so he stopped at the nearest clearing.

he took a deap breath and called out " come out akatsuki, I know you are here."

A figure stepped out and stood ten meters from him. "so, you've finally decided to stop running like a coward." the figure mocked in a monotonous tone. it's voice clearly feminine.

"your a woman" he yelled.

she removed her kasa,"why, are you scared of being defeated by a woman." her voice was like a robot.

he hissed. "not only a woman, but a dead woman at that"

"well, ur special, so we brought a combo, un." yelled a blonde man who looked like a psyco.

he emerged from the trees with a bored looking red-headed man.

"we are here to capture the four tails" said the woman.

roshi got in his stance to fight off his enemies. he knew that there is zero chance of him emerging as the victor, but he will not give in that easily, he will show these youngsters what real hell is supposed to look like.

...to be continued