Chapter 21

I do not own Naruto

A few days had passed, and Kakashi had dealt with the news surprisingly well. Itachi had then explained the importance of that information before telling everyone the plan.

"I hate the rain!" Naruto groaned as he, Sasuke, and Sakura sloshed through the mud towards a village near the cave.

"What do you want us to do about it, Naruto?" Sasuke growled. Sakura was proud of both of them. They hadn't tried to kill each other once.

Naruto grumbled under his breath something about evaporating it with a katon. Sakura couldn't complain, she found the rain soothing.

"How much further?" Naruto groaned.

"We're almost there, Naruto," Sakura reassured him. "Look, you can see the lights of the village from here."

"I can't see anything through this rain..."

Sakura laughed softly and relished how good it felt to laugh again.

Sakura rushed into the market like death was at her heels. Even though the market wasn't very crowded, she shouldered herself through in a way that aroused suspicion around her. She filled the basket quickly with random items and slammed them on the counter to purchase them. Sasuke had to admit, she played nervous very well. She tapped her foot and bit at her nails impatiently.

"Your total is-"

Sakura interrupted the woman by slamming a large amount of cash on the counter.

"Sakura, what are you still doing here?" Sasuke asked rushing towards her and pulling her away by the arm.

"We had to get more supplies," Sakura explained.

"We have to go, now," Sasuke urged.

"What's going on here?" a burly man called from behind them. Sakura stopped and turned to the man practically shaking with fake fear. "We don't want any trouble around here. What seems to be the problem?"

"If you don't want any trouble you should leave town," Sasuke warned.

"Why?" the man asked.

"The nine-tails jinchuuriki is staying in a cave just west of here," Sakura whispered out, "and rumor has it, lately he hasn't been able to control the Kyuubi."

Sakura did a double take in Naruto's direction and froze in fear. Sasuke followed her gaze and stiffened as well. Sakura raised a shaky hand at Naruto and the man's gaze followed where she was pointing.

"That's him there," Sakura whispered.

Sasuke grabbed Sakura's arm and pulled her away. When the man looked back at them, they were gone. He turned back to look at Naruto and jumped when Naruto appeared right in front of him.

"Where might I find a market?" Naruto asked.

Naruto grinned devilishly as the man swallowed thickly.

"How was town?" Itachi asked casually while turning a page in his book.

"Good," Sakura answered. "We got some food."

She held up the bags and set the bags in cave.

Naruto arrived shortly after with an armful of ramen. "Who knew making my eyes red could get me enough free ramen to last a week?"

"In your case it will last day," Sasuke sighed. Sakura let out a laugh, and Naruto shot a defiant look her way.

"Well it's true," Sakura pointed out.

"I was thinking about sharing, but now, none of you can have any!" Naruto shouted clutching the ramen protectively to his chest.

"We don't want any of your ramen, dobe," Sasuke told him.

Sakura let out a laugh and for the first time in years, let herself believe everything was going to be okay.

Two days had passed without any disturbances. Everyone but Naruto took turns keeping watching for Tobi's arrival. It would only take him a few days to get to their hideout after finding out about it. Sakura was just beginning to think their scheme was a dud when a shift in the wind caught her attention.

"He's here," Sakura muttered to Sasuke who was sitting next to her. He slowly nodded in acknowledgment of what she had said and subtly telling her he knew.

Sasuke and Sakura went back into the hideout and warned Naruto.

"It didn't take you long to show your face here," Naruto greeted as Tobi entered.

"News travels fast," Tobi shrugged.

"You must have had you ears peeled for any news on Naruto," Sakura scoffed.

"When one has a goal," Madara started, "one stays completely focused on that goal and ignores everything else."

"Which means we're focusing on nothing but killing you," Sasuke growled.

"Sasuke, don't!" Sakura shouted, but Sasuke had already rushed towards Tobi.

Without hesitation Tobi threw a kunai at the three of them. Sasuke sank into a low crouch, Sakura performed a back handspring, and Naruto leapt into the air. The kunai sailed by without causing injury. Sasuke used his crouched position to swing his leg around to Tobi's. Tobi leapt away from Sasuke's foot and landed on his hands. Naruto took the opportunity to throw a kunai at Tobi's head.

It went right through without phasing Tobi. Naruto cursed as he landed back on the ground. Tobi took the moment of distraction the Naruto's kunai provided to swing his legs around and kick Sasuke in the jaw. Sasuke flew backwards, but Naruto caught him by the arm, spun around, and released Sasuke towards Tobi like a human bullet.

Unfortunately at the exact same time Sakura charged at Tobi with a chakra-enhanced fist, but Tobi grabbed her by the wrist, swung her around, and threw her like a human bullet right at Sasuke. Sasuke and Sakura collided in mid-air and fell back on top of Naruto.

While the three of them were being knocked over like human dominoes, Tobi jumped into the air and threw three kunai at the pair. Sakura had been knocked unconscious by the collision with Sasuke, and a very dazed Sasuke was trying to get Sakura's unconscious body off of him, which left Naruto who threw a shuriken to knock the kunai off course.

It worked, but Naruto realized too late that the kunai were just a distraction, and Tobi landed on top of Naruto. Tobi placed his hand on Naruto's forehead and began to suck out Naruto's chakra. Sakura regained consciousness, and Sasuke shook his head and noticed Naruto's predicament. He quickly got to his feet and ran towards the struggling Naruto and Tobi. Tobi let out a grunt as Sasuke elbowed him forcefully in the ribs to knock him off Naruto. The collision knocked Tobi's mask off, revealing his face for the first time. Naruto had lost consciousness, and Sakura was making her way towards him to rejuvenate him, leaving only Sasuke and Tobi. Sasuke rushed forward and engaged in a taijutsu combat with Tobi. For some reason, Tobi was allowing Sasuke to actually make contact with him.

"Come on, Naruto," Sakura whispered watching the battle between Sasuke and Tobi while injecting Naruto with her own chakra. Naruto stirred and got back to his feet. Sakura watched as he formed the rasengan and began running towards Tobi and Sasuke.

"Duck!" Naruto shouted to Sasuke. The shout distracted Sasuke enough for Tobi to knock him unconscious and throw Sasuke's limp form into Naruto's path.

Sakura saw that Naruto couldn't stop himself or the jutsu while Sasuke's body flew directly towards him.

"Naruto!" she couldn't help shouting.

A puff of smoke appeared in the middle of the battlefield, and Naruto launched backwards with a yell. Sakura squinted towards the smoke. Whatever had just happened, she had to get Sasuke's body out of the way of the battle. The smoke finally cleared, and Sakura saw Sasuke was slung over the shoulder of Kakashi.

So, he had been the one that stopped Naruto. Sakura rushed forward to take Sasuke from Kakashi while Kakashi glared at Tobi.

"Obito," Kakashi growled after Sakura had taken Sasuke from him.

"Kakashi," Obito said. Looking passed the hate, Obito was actually slightly surprised.

"Wh-"

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Obito interrupted calmly. "Now, shall we continue?"

Obito got into a defensive stance, egging Kakashi on. Kakashi sped forward, flipped into the air, and brought his leg down on Obito. Obito stopped the attack with his forearms, grabbed Kakashi's ankle, and threw him to the ground. Obito then jumped into the air and threw a kunai towards Sasuke - still unconscious - and Sakura. Kakashi let out a warning cry to Sakura, and she ducked. Naruto - who had used Kakashi's distraction to sneak behind Obito - had formed a rasengan and was flying towards Obito. Obito simply let the attack faze through him causing Naruto to come crashing towards Kakashi. Kakashi performed a back bend to dodge Naruto, and Naruto - his rasengan no longer active - crashed into Sakura. Obito had used the distraction and threw a kunai at the group, but Kakashi - still in his backbend - performed a back hand spring and kicked the kunai off course.

Sasuke regained consciousness and nodded to Kakashi and Naruto. Kakashi and Sasuke performed the hand signs for chidori and Naruto performed rasengan for the third time. The three charged towards Obito, but Obito simply used his sharingan, and the three disappeared.

"It's just you and me now, Sakura," Obito said as if he were talking about the weather. "I think I'm going to rather enjoy killing you."

Sakura yelled as she charged at Obito with a chakra infused fist. Obito blocked the attack by grabbing her wrist. Obito kicked at Sakura, but she grabbed his calf. He then lifted his other leg up and brought it down towards her head, but she dodged to the right of his attack. Sakura used her grab on his arm and leg and slammed him to the ground. She released his leg and punched at his face, but he caught her wrist and simply kneed her in the gut. Sakura rolled onto her back and let out a groan of pain. Obito pinned her to the ground and head butted her. While she was dazed from the blow he punched her hard in the face repeatedly.

"I find using brute force to kill someone is more enjoyable," Obito smirked. Sakura let out a cough in response. She hated this. He always had a way of making her feel so weak. She struggled feebly to push him off of her, but she didn't need to, Obito was knocked backward without her. She looked around, and, through blurred eyes, she saw Itachi standing next to her. Sakura let out a sigh of relief and lost consciousness.

"kura..."

Sakura let out a groan, who was calling her? She opened her eyes and saw a very battered and bruised Itachi and Obito - who was in the same condition.

Sakura got drowsily to her feet. How much of the fight had she missed? She grabbed a kunai form her pouch and ran towards Obito just as Itachi was knocked backwards. Obito grabbed his own kunai, and when Sakura passed uselessly through him and plunged his kunai into her chest. Sakura slumped onto Obito and let out a cough full of blood.

"Stupid gir-" but Obito was cut but his own cough of blood.

"It worked..." Sakura thought as she slumped to the ground and everything went dark.

"SAKURA!" Itachi yelled. Itach charged towards a very confused and dying Obito and blunged his own kunai deep into Obito's chest.

Just as Obito collapsed - dead - on the ground, Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke reappeared from the other dimension Obito had sent them.

"Did it work?" Kakashi asked wiping Obito's blood off of his hand. He looked broken.

"Yes," Itachi answered, "but not without loss..."

Everyone looked around. Naruto spotted her first and simply collapsed to his knees unable to process what he was seeing.

Sasuke was the first to rush forward to her. He collapsed on his knees next to her and shook her gently as if she was just asleep and needed to be woken up.

"Sakura," Sasuke choked out at first."

"Sakura don't you leave me," Sasuke yelled, his desperation increasing. He was on the verge of breaking down and no one knew what to do. "Don't you dare leave me."

Naruto took a step forward debating if he should do something, but what could he do when he was close to breaking down as well? He had already lost her once and just when he had gotten her back she was leaving again. Kakashi put a shaky hand on Naruto's shoulder in weak reassurance.

"Darn it, Sakura, stay with me!" Sasuke screamed. Sasuke gave a sad smirk and said much more calm. His voice broke a few times, "I command you to wake up."

It was like some joke between them Naruto guessed. He saw something slide down the bridge of Sasuke's nose and drip off.

"Darn it," Sasuke muttered before pounding the ground repeatedly. "Darn it... Sakura!"

"Sasuke..." he heard a voice thick with sorrow say. Sasuke ignored it and continued to beat the ground while muttering profanities.

"Sasuke," the voice said more commanding now.

"She sacrificed her whole life for me. She never got to live her life the way she wanted to because of me. She sacrificed everything!" Sasuke yelled. He had finally completely lost it, though Naruto found it hard to focus on anything at the moment. The nine-tails was clawing at him and he had to keep him under control.

"You were not the one that placed that responsibility on a seven year old," Itachi said trying to calm Sasuke down.

Sasuke shook his head. "I'm done blaming other people. She gave her whole life to guard and guide me and I couldn't protect her. She was like my guardian angel and I couldn't protect her!"

There was a brief silence.

"Do you know what that's like..." Sasuke whispered and then louder, "Do you know what that's like?"

Naruto heard the sound of someone being punched and could only assume it was Itachi.

"Sasuke," Itachi said, but not in a soothing, scolding, or apathetic way. More like he was trying to get his attention.

"You can't know!" Sasuke was yelling. It sounded like he was punching Itachi and Itachi was letting him. "You don't know what it's like to let the person you love die because you couldn't protect them!"

The punching stopped as if Sasuke realized what he was saying and to whom.

"I-Itachi," Sasuke whispered as he slumped to the ground. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't..."

Naruto look up and saw Sasuke slumped over with his face in his hands. Itachi kneeled in front of him.

"It's okay, look," Itachi said putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "she's breathing again."

Sakura let out a groan and her eyes fluttered open.

"You're alive..." Naruto said breathlessly.

"What happened?" Sakura asked groggily.

"We did it," Sasuke answered back at her side.

Sakura smiled. "That's good."

Sasuke watched as she placed a healing hand on her chest and the wound slowly closed.

"I think I owe you an overdue apology," Sasuke whispered.

"I owe you one too," Sakura whispered back. "I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you. I should have told you my story a long time ago. I should have told you everything and tried to steer you away form dark revenge when I first saw you leaning that way. I also should have told you Itachi was alive, but I was too prideful and insecure-"

"I already forgave you. Now, would you be quiet so I can be glad you're alive," Sasuke interrupted before leaning down and kissing her.

Sakura pulled away with a smile on her face. "Is that your way of getting me to stop talking?"

Sasuke nodded and rested his forehead on hers. "It doesn't seem to be working, though."

"You could always try again," Sakura replied grinning sheepishly at him. He took the suggestion and kissed her again.

Sasuke pulled away and leaned slightly backwards so Sakura could see the rest of the group for the first time. She had never turned so red before.

Itachi laughed, Naruto faked blindness, and Kakashi's eye crinkled in a smile.

"Sakura," Itachi said crouching next to her as well. "It's time to go home."

Sakura didn't think more beautiful words had ever been spoken to her.

The End.

Well, that's the end. I'm sad but happy all at the same time. It's a relief to finally be finished, but I'm going to miss this. If anything was confusing, just send me a message and ask me about it!

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Until the next one!

Fuzz 15