Author's note: Had to split year 18 into 2 parts. Last update will be soon. I listened to stolen- Dashboard confessionals while i wrote this. Additionally my favorite part of writing this whole thing is the concert which is in the final chapter, hope you come along for the conclusion.

Hugs and kisses lovelies

Year 18 part 1

Gran died during the winter after year 17. Itachi took a week off from work, and headed to Kure to settle her affairs. Sasuke decided not to go with him. He was to afraid it might disturb the enchantment that kept Sakura coming back in the summer. He lied and told his brother his school work was more demanding than it really was.

Sasuke only asked Itachi for 2 things when he left for Kure that December. Firstly that the flower crowns on the fences not be disturbed, and secondly that he have someone fix up Gran's place. He still wanted to spend his coming summer in Kure afterall.

When Itachi came back Sasuke finally found out what it was that Itachi did with his summers.

Imagine his surprise when he realized just how much more similar his life really was to that cheesy Supernatural show.

"Gran was there." Itachi said over a bowl of soup. Sasuke nearly choked on the sip he had just taken.

"-Gran was where?" Sasuke asked and silently prayed to Gods he didn't really believe in. Not Itachi to.

"At her house- her spirit was there lingering." Then Itachi gave him a very serious look. Sasuke didn't even attempt to play dumb. He could tell his brother knew he understood exactly what he had said.

"What did she want?" Why had she stayed, was what Sasuke meant. Gran had never struck him as the type to regret anything, so she must have stuck around for something important.

Sasuke wondered how long exactly Itachi had known he was touched or 'gifted' like Gran said.

"She had a message." Itachi rubbed his jaw, and pushed his soup back. "I don't think it was for me though- in my experience at least-"

"Your experience?" Sasuke pressed his lips together.

Itachi smiled. "You think i spend my summers drifting around some beach?" His smile was coy, and playful, and it spoke of more than what was said.

Sasuke connected the dots then. His life had turned into an episode of Fucking supernatural overnight.

"Gran and i- we didn't think you..." Sasuke let his words hang heavy between them, the implication being they never suspected Itachi to could see the dead.

"Yeah, it's interesting but not how i want to spend my summers."

"So you like go around finding ghosts or something..."

"Pretty much."

"Why?"

"To help them move on." Oh God. Sasuke had just watched Supernatural, where that was the exact plot of the episode. The brothers found a ghost and were attempting to help it pass on. It's fine. Sasuke told himself. It's not like Itachi carried around salt or anything truly insane.

"Gran said she thought we had to have a connection to the ghosts or sprits."

"No. They just have to want to let you see them." Itachi leaned across the table. "Most of the ghosts i meet are complete strangers."

"So you saw mom and dad then?"

"No?"

"Oh Gran said she did."

"I expect neither of them wanted to see us after- it probably would have been to hard to see us."

"What was the message Gran gave you?"

"She said 'It would be over soon.' Time in Kure.'"

Sasuke frowned. Grand couldn't have meant...

"There's a ghost there isn't there? That's why you're always running out the door for Kure when summer comes."

Sasuke admitted to his brother what would have him committed if anyone else heard.

"Yeah. I've sort of been dating this girl for a couple summers." Sasuke flicked a piece of bread off the table. "She's been dead like 6 years."

Itachi grimaced. "Sasuke." Sasuke hated when people looked at him in a pitying sort of way.

"It's fine, not ideal sure but-"

"It can't go on. You shouldn't go back again."

Sasuke crossed his arms. "I'm going back, Itachi." There wasn't anything on heaven or earth that could stop him.

Something occurred to Itachi then he shrugged his shoulders and gave up on the fight that might have brewed between them.

"That's what Gran's message must have meant." Itachi rubbed his head with the back of his hand like he was checking for fever. "The girl will be gone soon."

"What the hell do you mean, she'll be gone soon!"

Sasuke stood ramrod straight out of his seat.

"The ghosts, spirits, even poltergeist, it's only a finite existence. Eventually they all move on. Some sooner than others if helped, but eventually they sputter out. They can't stay here forever, and neither will the girl. You should try to help her move on."

"Fuck you, Itachi."

How could he not understand? How could he not see that Sasuke could not allow that to happen.

Sasuke was about to turn and leave, but Itachi grabbed his arm.

"Unfinished business or not they go, Sasuke. It's kinder if they go on their own terms though. It's easier for them if they were able to find what they were looking for, so they can be at peace."

Sasuke shrugged him off.

He raged internally at his brother for 2 weeks. Not speaking with him or acknowledging him in any way, then suddenly one night while he was studying he needed to ask him a question.

"Itachi." Sasuke had called him on his work line. "Why can't they stay? What makes them leave?"

There had to be some sort of solution some quick fix, Sasuke could do and then Sakura could stay longer.

"Whatever tethers them here by my best estimate, looses it's strength as time passes. Like Gran. She only had something as small as a message she wanted to relay right? Once she did it her teether went slack, and she was gone. If she hadn't been able to deliver the message she would have lingered for a while, but eventually the tether would have disintegrated on it's own and she would have gone anyways."

No.

"Are you still there?"

"Yeah." Sasuke's throat was drier than all of the deserts on the planet. "I just hoped, there was something i could do to stop it."

"I'm sorry." Was what Itachi replied.

"There aren't werewolves or vampires...right?" Sasuke wasn't sure he could handle more than ghosts being what Itachi spent his summers with.

"Far as i know."

"How can i help her to-" Sasuke didn't know what to call the ceasing of her existence. It was to painful to even try to think of a word.

"Transition?" His brother helpfully implied.

"Yeah. How can i help Sakura transition?"

"It's different for everyone but usually the ghost knows what it is that's holding them back. Alot of times it's something they never had a chance to do in life. Like sky dive or confess their secret love to someone."

"I think we established it's me she's coming back for but i don't know of anything she wanted to do before she-"

Then Sasuke realized he did actually know. Probably he knew for awhile before he ever asked Itachi for help.

"I know how to help her."

Sasuke got off the phone with his brother, and spent the rest of his evening planning for the summer in Kure.

It was going to be his last summer in Kure, and Sakura's.

It had to be absolutely perfect.

Itachi gave Sasuke helpful advice as the weeks went on. Sasuke tried to not dwell on the fact that he was living a bad rip off of Supernatural. Sasuke picked up a-lot of good information on ghosts. Some theories, and some facts. He tried to not let it weird him out when he found sacks of salt in Itachi's closet.

This was just his life now.

"You said werewolves and vampires weren't real." Sasuke kicked one of the salt bags.

"You never asked about demons." Itachi pointed out.

Touché. No he hadn't asked about demons.

Itachi taught him about ghosts, and the differences between the different kinds. Sasuke learned demons were very real. Itachi had even compiled an entire book of important facts and information for Sasuke to learn from. When he called it his journal though Sasuke almost gagged.

"I realize the start of the summer of course you're focused on Sakura but afterwards me and you, we could tour around the country and see if we can wrestle up any spooks?" Itachi was reclined on the sofa.

"I don't think so."

Itachi raised a brow at him.

"This stuff really freaks you out huh?"

"It doesn't freak me out...it unsettles me."

"Hmph- well you won't be the first in the family to make it with a ghost, stop thinking you're so special." Itachi tipped a beer at him.

"Itachi." Sasuke warned somewhere between disgust, and sick curiosity.

"It's the right thing Sasuke. For her to move on, and you. I know it's hard, i do."

"You're a dick."

"I know that to." Itachi shrugged. "Offer still stands. Me, you, and the corvett. I've got a buddy says he hears some barn in Virginia's got a poltergeist. We could check it out."

Sasuke went to bed after that. He wasn't ready to think of a world, or a life without Sakura in it in some way.

When summer 18 started Sasuke was ready for it. He had everything planned out perfectly. He was going to give Sakura the best day of her life.

When he got to Kure the first thing he did was rush off to the wildflower fields. During the winter months Sasuke had bought this part of property, and he hired a team to ensure the flowers were magnificent for this year.

It was an even more breathtaking sight than he thought it would be. Pink filled the entire field. Pinks of all shades. Fuschia, and corals. There were begonias, petunias, tulips, and poppies. Sasuke wanted Sakura to have them all.

When she made her appearance he watched her flutter into existence next to him.

"Wow." She pulled him into a crushing hug. "Wow, it's beautiful, so beautiful this year!"

He hugged her back.

"Okay first order of business, new crowns." She twirled on the spot, and began to pluck at various gatherings until her hands were full of petals, and stems.

Sasuke plopped into a spot next to her as she worked.

"I hated that I couldn't make these last year." She told him, while her fingers wove bits together.

"Me to."

She giggled.

"What happened to that little boy, who told me only girls painted their nails and wore crowns?"

"He grew up." She nestled a crown on top of his head, and he traced the curve of her lips.

"Yes." She agreed. "He did."

Then the crown was knocked off his head into the dirt when she kissed him.

They stayed like that for awhile gently kissing, and exploring each other after a year apart. It was all consuming like it always was where Sakura was concerned. She had this siren like ability to draw Sasuke to her, and he was unable to resist her song.

He pulled back then.

"There's another concert this summer."

"You should go and you can tell me all about it, when you get back." She caressed his cheek, green eyes staring up at him fondly.

"Only if-" Sasuke started to pull the necklace that had once belonged to her from around his neck. "You come with me."

"Sasuke I can't. You know i can't l..." Her lower lip turned down into a pout.

"I did some research. My brother helped me to, he really knows about this supernatural stuff. I can pull you back to the world of the living, but it'll only last for a day, and then..."

"-and then?" Her face seemed so unsure, but trusting of him all the same.

"You'll disappear. Forever. You'll go wherever we all go when we die. After the day is up, we won't ever see each other again."

"You don't know that we won't. I don't even know what lies beyond here. I might disappear into some place where i'm waiting for you- like heaven."

"Yeah, maybe." Sasuke didn't have the answers for what happened to a person after death like Sakura said. She was an optimist, she fancied the thought of heaven. Sasuke was a pessimist. He quite believed the afterlife was nothing. It didn't truly matter in the end because like Itachi had told him, eventually Sakura would blink out of existence. At least this way she could have 1 more day of life, it would be worth it.

The pendant was in Sasuke's hand and he flipped it over in his palm. He wondered what those other girls had done with their necklaces after Sakura died. How did Ino live knowing the part she played in Sakura's death? It was like Sakura had read his mind.

"They threw them in the ocean. The year after i died i watched them from here. They were crying. Ino didn't look well. I don't think she meant everything she said the night i died." She frowned as she recalled the memory.

"Good."

"After it all, i still loved them. They weren't perfect- God knows neither was i. I don't hate them for what happened anymore. It's easier to blame everyone else instead of taking responsibility i guess."

Itachi had warned Sasuke about this. The closer to their existing coming to a halt the more the spirit seemed to accept, the less they seemed to mind what happened to them. Itachi said it was like they were losing their energy. Sasuke expected Sakura wouldn't last the summer no matter what he did.

"Take this." Sasuke held the pendant out to her. "If you want to spend one last day out in the world. You could leave Kure for good, but only if it's what you want."

The pendant he had been wearing would be what Itachi called a conduit. Since it had once belonged to Sakura, and Sasuke had worn it so long it was imbued with both of their spiritual energy's. Sasuke had already performed the ritual before Sakura arrived. All she had to do was put the necklace on, and she'd have an entire a day to be 16 and alive again.

Sakura tilted her head as she looked at it. He was disappointed for a moment, he didn't think she would take it after-all. She bit her lip, then suddenly there was a glint in her eye. Bravery sparked inside those eyes. She grasped the necklace, and put it on carefully. Her eyes were tightly shut, like she was expecting something to burst.

Nothing happened at first. They sat and stared at each other in anticlimactic anticipation. Sakura blinked rapidly. Sasuke wondered if he had screwed up the ritual, and he reached a hand out to inspect the necklace.

That was when something did burst. There was a popping sound, and a harsh light enveloped the area around Sakura's neck where he was touching the necklace. A great invisible force flung Sasuke backwards, and it rippled out through the flowers around them.

"Holy shit!" Sakura exclaimed. "Sasuke- Sasuke are you okay?" She scrambled over to help him up.

He was dazed for a moment looking up at her. Then a voice called out to them both from the sidewalk.

"Hey!" An elderly man in bike shorts yelled at them. "You kids better take those fire works somewhere less flammable or i'm calling the cops!"

"You kids?" Sasuke asked the guy who still glaring at them from the seat of his bike. "You can see her?"

Sakura's mouth was open, and her eyebrows high up her forehead. "You can see me?!"

"Drugs, and fireworks?" The old man said judgmentally. "You're folks must be so proud. Don't blow off an arm, you junkies." Then the old man was back on his bike shaking his hand at them as he rode away.

Sasuke grabbed her tight.

"It worked. It really worked!" She said into his chest.

"Come on." Sasuke pulled her along after him, they had so many things to do he didn't want to waste another second in Kure. They had done everything that could be done in Kure already. They only had a single day to be out in the world together and Sasuke wasn't going to waste a single second of it.

Sasuke started up the jeep, and leaned over to buckle Sakura who was still marveling at the car and all it's baubles. It had been 6 years since she had been inside a car, her eyes didn't know where to look.

"What should we do?" She asked him dreamily with her head out the window as they drove.

"I've got it all planned out. We're going to have an amazing day." He had never promised something so fiercely in all his life.

"I forgot how warm the sun was." She remarked, and Sasuke laced their fingers together. She was warm, her touch was warm. It was amazing.

Sakura started messing with the dials on the radio. She bobbed her head when she found a song she recognized.

"Thank you." She said, and she kissed the back of his hand...