Copyright: Take what you will from this, but I own nothing...sadly...

"It's been raining non-stop for the past two days."

"Sorry senpai...I might have missed a day or so..." Yamato apologized as he and Kakashi watched the chakra-enriched storm continue without any sign of weakening, "But I'm very certain that it should weaken by tomorrow evening."

"Good, we can deal with our intruders under nightfall." Kakashi's eye scanned the surrounding woods though the thick rain fall made it impossible to spot anything without uncovering his Sharingan, "How can they move in this condition anyway?"

"A puppet." Yamato answered, holding up a severed constructed arm, "Likely a Ronin band supplemented by Missing-Nin. Since this is neutral ground, the Land of Iron can have pockets of missing-nin congregate here and go into hiding within the border lands."

"Normally they're rooted out by the Iron Samurai. Which means that the situation at the Summit must have increased security and drew away patrols from the borders," Kakashi added while examining the puppet, "We have an Iwa Puppet user. He must have used it as surveillance while hiding in the ground or a rock...where did you encounter the puppet?"

"I was on watch and used my Mokuton to examine the trees for past weather patterns to predict this one." Yamato explained, "Then a hand reached out of the ground and grabbed me, so I grabbed him instead. This was all that I got though."

"Then they've been following us at least since the Bridge." Kakashi figured though he internally suspected being monitored earlier given that they were dealing with Madara, "Your seals are keeping them from finding us with Sensor techniques, but once the storm dies down, they'll make their move."

"They'll need an army if they really want us."

"Tenzo...what did I tell you about tempting fate?"

"You don't have to shoulder such a heavy burden yourself."

"What burden? All I've done is put it on Naruto..." Sakura sat in her room, listening to the others chat about the weather in the living room. But she remained here, it was the only place that felt safe now.

Every time the others looked at her, it seemed like they wanted to kill her.

Her sensei had taught her about the five stages of grief that a patient endures when they were told that they'd die. In fact, Tsunade believed that the cycle could be applied to any form of grief though some move faster through some stages and linger on others for the rest of their life. Tsunade herself admitted to being trapped on the Depression stage after her younger brother and latter her lover had died.

Sakura herself felt as though she were in the Bargaining stage.

There was no point in denying her mistakes...the lie she told Naruto to help him, but it only hurt him; taking the burden of Sasuke on herself and failing miserably with others suffering needlessly; and how Naruto nearly died because of her failure. She had no one to be angry with but herself and just left bargaining. She just wanted a chance to make things right Naruto and the others.

Even if it meant she would no longer be their friend.

"Sakura?" Sakura heard a knock at the door and recognized the voice as the last that she'd wanted to hear at that moment, "Can I come in?"

"What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you Sakura...please."

"Alright..." Sakura bit her lip as she opened the door for Hinata Hyuga, "You hear to yell at me too?"

"What good what that do?"

"Good enough." Sakura decided and let the girl in, closing the door behind her and turned to face Hinata, "What do you want?"

"To thank you." Sakura gasped in utter shock when Hinata curtly bowed in the medic-nin's direction, "For saving Naruto's life."

"Don't thank me Hinata...I don't deserve it."

"Whether you deserve it or not, you have my gratitude." Hinata told her, "Why are you locking yourself in your room like this? You've barely eaten or talked to anyone."

"You know why. They hate me...everyone hates me."

"They hate what you did..."

"That I've been a useless load like I always am..."

"If that were true then Naruto would be dead."

"Maybe...but I'm wondering if I ever should've been a shinobi..." Sakura admitted and sat upon her mattress, "At least I shouldn't have been in Team 7 and maybe none of this would have happened."

"Stop it Sakura...you're blaming yourself for things that you couldn't control." Hinata told her as she sat down next to the medic-nin, "It's not your fault that Sasuke betrayed the village or continued down a path that you could not follow him on."

"But if I had been stronger, he would've never had to leave..." Sakura told her classmate, "From the start I was just a stupid fangirl who thought she was too smart to see how weak she was. Naruto was an idiot and the dead-last, but he was the better shinobi by a milestone. Me? All I did was stay back and left the burdens to them...when I should've been on their side from the start instead of looking at their backs. If I had been at their side then I could've pushed Sasuke to stay...he never would've wanted to leave because we would've helped each other become strong like the other teams have done."

"But I couldn't do that because I was weak. When Sasuke left, it was too late...no matter how strong I became, there would always be a valley between us. But Naruto...he kept getting stronger and made a decision...unlike me..." Sakura continued, "I'm supposed to be kunoichi, but all I do is rely on Naruto for everything. Then the one time I wanted to take the burden I pushed on him onto myself...I choked and I hurt him."

"Naruto's tough and I'm sure he understands."

"I didn't mean to hurt him."

"We know Sakura-"

"Why can't I do anything right?" Sakura sobbed as she felt Hinata embrace her, "Back when we were kids, I always acted like I was better than Naruto and was Sasuke's equal. But it was all empty words. I was so far behind both of them that it's hilarious...the only reason that we made it through the Exams was because of them...while I rode on their backs...a useless burden."

"Neji told me about how you defended them from the Oto shinobi-"

"I bit one of them...give me a medal!" Sakura sarcastically laughed, "Lee, Ino's team and Sasuke were the ones who saved us. All I did was cut my hair and bit them. Even after that, Naruto was the one who got us the next scroll. The only reason that I didn't lose to Ino was because of Naruto's encouragement. What did I do after that? Cry like a useless little girl...I didn't even try to seriously stop Sasuke."

"When Naruto came back from the Retrieval Mission, that was the last straw. I realized that I couldn't rely on others to do things for me, so I acted." "I trained for two and half years under Tsunade-sama, hoping that when Naruto returned, he and I could find Sasuke together and bring him home, side by side."

"When I learned that Sasuke had been labeled as a missing-nin by Danzo...about all of the things that he had done...how Naruto's feelings for me were hurting him...I don't know, I shut down." Sakura shivered, recalling the moment that Sai had told her that Naruto loved her and that love was hurting him, "I was ashamed Hinata...because I didn't deserve his love. Not after everything that I had done and now, he finally agrees with me. I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and look how well it turned out...Naruto was forced to kill Sasuke and almost died from my poison and I betrayed everyone by lying and going behind all of your backs. I'm surprised that you're even speaking to me Hinata..."

"So am I to be honest." Sakura squeezed her eyes closed and was reminded of her quiet offense against Hinata, "What you did was stupid and wrong Sakura...when I saw Naruto-kun suffering and as a result of your poison...I was ready to kill you."

"I see..."

"But when I saw how hard that you worked to save Naruto-kun, I realized that you hadn't meant it. You just made a mistake...you just failed."

"You're really blunt..."

"But how can you succeed without failing?" Hinata gently asked, "Making a mistake doesn't make you a horrible person, Sakura...it just makes you a person who made a mistake. But you can always make up for it...you can still make things right with Naruto-kun."

"He doesn't even want to see me right now..."

"It may take time, but you know how Naruto is. He's always been able to make enemies into friends, so of course he'll forgive you. You just need to give him space, give him time to think over things. A lot will be different now that Sasuke is dead."

"Yeah..." Why was she still remorseful when she thought about her late fallen comrade? Was she truly so weak as to still have loved him? Or was it pity that she felt, "Thanks for listening Hinata..."

"Anytime..." Hinata released her embrace and stood up with her back to Sakura, "I have one more question."

"What is it?"

"When you told him that you loved him...did you mean it?"

"No I didn't." Sakura admitted to herself and the girl who'd nearly died for Naruto. As much as she truly cared for Naruto and how much she knew Naruto cared for her, she knew that she didn't feel the same no matter how much he should have earned it, "Maybe I'd seen him for who he truly was before...I would have, but I was blind."

"If you did love him...I wouldn't get in your way-"

"No...I don't deserve him, not after this...maybe I never did." Sakura affirmed to a surprised Hinata, "I know that you'll never hurt him like I did."

"I hope not."

"As you inherited the Will of Fire, Sasuke has inherited the Curse of Hatred."

"Guess I had to die, didn't I teme?" Naruto found himself facing Sasuke, who wore a vacant expression in his empty eyes, blood gushing from the hole that was in his chest. "It was fate. I was destined to be an avenger and you were meant to be the guardian in my path."

"Fate my ass! You choose your path!"

"So did you." He turned and saw a tearful Sakura staring upon him, "You choose to kill him. You had to be one to pursue him and tried to save him...even if it meant abandoning everyone else."

"I didn't want to abandon anyone!"

"What about me?" Naruto looked down at his feet to see Hinata looking up at him, her torn body leaving a crimson trail in the blackness, "I gave my life to protect you and I loved you. Do I matter to you? Did you even weep for me? But you weep for a traitor!"

"Hinata!" Naruto knelt down, but coils of black sludge wrapped around the girl and pulled her into the floor, "NO!"

"You wanted to keep everything and then you lose it..." Shikamaru laughed, his face heavily emancipated and frail, "You're so indecisive Naruto...it's getting to be more troublesome for the rest of us."

"The more you tighten your grip on sand." Now Gaara stood as pale as he was after Akatsuki extracted the Shukaku from him and killed him. He reached out his hand, clutching a mound of sand which quickly flowed from his grip, "The more that it slips through your fingers."

"If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them." A wizened Nagato spoke with the six paths of pain flanking his throne of torment, "But just because you understand them doesn't mean you can come to an agreement. That's the truth."

"Shut up...I did what I had to do!" Naruto's hands gripped onto his head, trying in vain to keep out the voices that surrounded him, "All of you...leave me alone!"

"You're not hurt are you?" Now he faced his own reflection save that it had black eyes with red hate-filled pupils. The reflection laughed and spoke with a voice that sounded like both the Kyubi and his own, "Little girl?"

"Boss!" Feeling a sting on his face, Naruto shot awake with a happy spiky haired boy seated next to him happily, "How are you gonna be hokage by sleeping for so long?"

"Konohamaru?" The boy nodded with a wide grin as Naruto pat his unofficial protege on the head, "Shouldn't you be back at Konoha?"

"I came here with Neji's group."

"Neji?"

"Yeah! Neji, The bun-girl, the big guy, the smoking smartass, the bug guy, the blond girl and Neji's cousin."

"Hinata..." As mad as he was about Sakura toying his feelings, maybe he wasn't much better, "What are they doing here?"

"Your baa-chan sent them."

"Baa-chan's okay?" Naruto asked while the boy confirmed his rising hopes, "Good...I'm glad she's awake."

"I heard that she was still being looked after though..."

"Understandable considering what happened..." Naruto still remembered her drained appearance after Pain's assault took it's toll on her chakra, "But you all came out here for me?"

"To protect you from Danzo..." Now Konohamaru seemed saddened by the mention of the man's name which puzzled Naruto, "He's gone isn't he?"

"Sasuke killed him..."

"I know he wasn't a good person...but he was grandpa's friend and...my mom's dad."

"What? Danzo was your grandpa?" Konohamaru quietly nodded as Naruto placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Konohamaru...I'm really sorry."

"Since him and grandpa weren't getting along, I didn't really talk to Danzo a lot...I do remember that he made funny faces and helped train me. He said that he'd help me become a splendid hokage," Konohamaru recounted as Naruto listened on, gaining a picture into a man that he thought no one would ever miss, "But we got into a fight over you...I didn't want to be hokage until after you did and he said Naruto would never be hokage."

"What did you say?"

"I said Naruto was a brave and strong like my grandpa. He called you both stupid and told him that grandpa died protecting the village while he hid like a weak coward."

"Did he take it well?"

"He hit me across the room and that was the last time I ever talked to him." Kono replied, "I hated him after that...I hated him even more when he was gonna be hokage without earning it like Tsunade and grandpa did. But I'm still sad that he's dead...I guess I am an idiot."

"No you're not. You didn't like what he did, but you still loved him." Naruto assured the weeping boy, "It takes a lot of guts to care about someone even though you don't like them or what they've done."

"People called you a coward for not wanting to kill Sasuke."

"Maybe they were right...both Danzo and Sasuke were bad people and I don't regret that they're gone." Naruto told the boy, stunning even himself with his next words, "But after I killed Sasuke...it hurt...it still hurts because he was my friend...my comrade...my brother. What had to be done had to be done, but that doesn't change how I cared about him. In fact, it just means that we're not monsters."

"Like Akatsuki? The guys that killed my uncle and wrecked the village?"

"Most of them are monsters, but not all of them...at least they weren't always monsters." Naruto figured that it wouldn't be smart to try and tell Nagato's story so soon after he had demolished Konoha, "Neither were Sasuke and Danzo...it's just that they saw things in their life that changed them. Things that made them choose to become monsters...in fact, I guess we're all one step away from being a monster ourselves."

"The hell kind of talk is that?"

"I've been thinking a lot...and it seems like the only thing that sets us apart from monsters is a bad day..." Naruto said to the perplexed yet listening Sarutobi, "Sasuke had a bad day and it drove him to get revenge. A lot of people in Akatsuki had bad days and now they're trying to take over the world. Danzo probably had a bad day and it made him the way he was. I met a Kiri shinobi named Zabuza who'd killed everyone in his class to become a chunin."

"Did he have a bad day?"

"Think so...or maybe it's more than having a bad day..." Naruto now thought about Gaara and how he tread a path that Naruto himself was close to following at one point in his life, "I had a bad day too...and if I hadn't had Iruka-sensei or you to keep me grounded...I would've become a monster myself."

"Cause of the kyubi?" Konohamaru stunned Naruto again and the knuckle-head ninja became a little afraid, "Danzo told me about it...he said that the village should never be led by a monster."

"Konohamaru-"

"But you're not a monster boss...you said that yourself." Konohmaru assured his boss with a determined gaze, "And if you're too slow, I'm gonna beat you to the hokage's hat!"

"Keep dreaming, you're gonna have to wait in line." Naruto told the boy while both smirked, reaffirmed in the bond that had strengthened for the past four years, "Where's everyone?"

"Waiting on you."

"Don't wanna bore them, don't I?"

Author's Notes:

Right as the storm is about to die down, an enemy waits to strike. Sakura finds a shoulder to cry on and Naruto gets to see his unofficial protege in a new light. How will his recent choice affect Naruto's disposition? Will he and Sakura be able to reconcile and will things be the same between them now that Sasuke is gone? What will Naruto tell the rest of the Konoha 12?

Stay tuned.

Also for simplicity's sake, I'm adding Sai to the Konoha 11 to turn them into the Konoha 12. He's clearly earned it.

Furthermore, I've decided not to change the filters and if you don't like me being critical of a character then you don't have to read the story any further. I've even altered the filters so that Sakura is still a main character, but maybe that should give you an idea of what you're dealing with going in.

Again, I will remind readers that there is a huge difference between blind bashing and a critical analysis. Can't tell the difference? That's your problem.

Later.