Author's note: I wouldn't want you all to get comfortable and think I no longer have it in me to write angst, so here you go. A nice portion of angst :D For once I will NOT be giving all the warnings at the start - instead, the MAIN WARNINGS WILL BE AT THE END OF THIS FIC. So if you want to check the warnings before diving into this, please read the end AN first!

General warnings: Dual pov, including Kakashi's; canon divergent; set after the war; established slash; angst

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

Dedicated to: one of my dearest friends, who will now think twice before saying something to me. You know who you are. This one's for you, sweetheart!

I hope you'll like it ^^

I'll Be There

There was no doubt in Kakashi's mind that Naruto could accomplish anything he set his mind on. As a kid he had constantly proclaimed that he would become a Hokage one day and that he would gain the respect from the villagers. He was on his way to accomplish the first goal and had managed in the second one after he had defeated Pein. The village basically carried him on their hands now, especially after it was revealed Naruto was one of the main reasons why they were still alive to respect him.

Naruto managed to befriend Bijuu and had succeeded in making dangerous opponents like Pein see the error of their ways. He had stated to everyone who wanted to hear it – and even to those who didn't want to listen – that he would bring his best friend back, no matter the cost, and lo and behold, he had managed that as well. There appeared to be no end to what Naruto could accomplish when he set his mind on something, but Kakashi feared they had finally found something so insurmountable that not even Naruto's eternal optimism could fight it.

The Council's opinion concerning Naruto's very own best friend, Uchiha Sasuke.

To say that the Council hadn't been happy when Kakashi had chosen to release Sasuke from prison was an understatement. Naruto knew that the Council members wouldn't approve of that decision, but he had no idea just how many arguments Kakashi had had with them prior to Sasuke's release. If it had been up to Koharu and Homura, Sasuke would have rotted away in prison with not even a chance of visitation. They hadn't wanted him free at all and the arguments about him had been fierce and long-lasting; the elderly duo refusing to relent. Kakashi had eventually won the discussion out of sheer stubbornness and the respect he had for Naruto.

Because truthfully? Kakashi himself had some doubts about Sasuke. It would be easy for Sasuke to go off the rails once more; his family history didn't speak in his favour in that regard. And if he turned his back on them once more, who was going to be able to stop him? Could Naruto do that a second time? Should they expect him to do it again? They shouldn't, because it wouldn't be fair on Naruto, but truth be told only Naruto could still stand on equal ground with Sasuke. The only one who had enough power to match with Sasuke and subdue him if necessary was the same one who insisted on letting him out of his cage.

No, Kakashi wasn't entirely certain about releasing Sasuke, but Naruto had vouched for him and that would be enough. Sasuke was released and promptly decided to travel around, rebuking Sakura's offer to join him and giving Kakashi a vague promise to keep in touch.

Kakashi expected that to be the end of it. Sasuke would travel around, in search of more clues concerning Kaguya, and the rest of them would get to work, reforming the shinobi world and tightening the bonds between the villages, ensuring that no new shinobi war could ever occur again.

It should have been the end of it. Naruto's charming personality helped Kakashi during his talks with the other Kage; the villages rebuilt themselves; Sakura had thrown herself into improving the healthcare system and Sasuke occasionally sent a letter detailing what he had found. Kakashi's team might no longer be together, but it was a team he was nevertheless really proud of; they were each doing their part in improving the world and how could he not be proud of that, as their former sensei?

It should have been the end of it – but it wasn't.

Kakashi had no proof, no actual evidence to confront Koharu and Homura with, but he started to become suspicious when Sasuke's letters mentioned attacks aimed at him with an alarming frequency. It had been an offhanded comment at first, crammed at the end of the letter; a flippant mention of having been surrounded by a group of five before he had been able to disable them. That had been easy to dismiss; a shinobi's life was never completely peaceful, not even now when the villages had started cooperating better.

But as the mention of attacks increased in the letters, so did their severity and Kakashi became alarmed. Sasuke refused any offer of help, naturally, even when Kakashi insisted he should come back to Konoha so that they could figure out who had it out for Sasuke. Because it had become clear pretty early on that these attacks weren't just random, but planned, meant to take the last remaining Uchiha down. The person or people behind these had to be powerful and influential enough in order to convince these rogue shinobi to attack someone of Sasuke's calibre – and Kakashi's only suspect were Konoha's very own Council members.

Koharu and Homura had attempted after Sasuke's release to convince the other villages to put Sasuke on trial there for his supposed war crimes. None of the villages had taken the bait, but the Council had been less than subtle in their attempts to get Sasuke back behind bars.

These sudden attacks on Sasuke? Kakashi had a hard time believing those were just accidental.

"Such a severe face, Hokage-sama," Koharu tutted during their latest meeting. "Too much paperwork to deal with?"

"Ah, young people nowadays don't know what it is to work hard anymore," Homura scoffed, tightening his wrinkly hands around his cane.

"Paperwork is paperwork," Kakashi said dismissively and watched them attentively when he said, "Sasuke sent me another letter recently. It appears he got nearly ambushed by a group of twenty rogue shinobi, hailing from Kirigakure."

He was still awaiting Mei's reply. He had contacted her immediately after Sasuke's latest letter, with a request to offer all the information she had about this band of rogue shinobi. He had no idea whether she could be of much aid, but as the Kage of Kirigakure she had to know of her people going rogue and attacking someone of Konoha.

Koharu lifted an eyebrow. "Oh my, it appears he does not have much luck outside, hm?"

"He was nearly killed in the ambush," Kakashi said flatly.

"If that is the case, he cannot be as impressive as young Naruto-san has claimed so many times," Homura said dismissively.

Kakashi leant forwards, clasping his hands together and resting them between his legs. "I am not the Third Hokage," he smiled finely, attracting both their attention as he knew he would. "And I am definitely not Danzo. I do not take betrayal of any Konoha member lightly; especially not when that member happens to be a part of my team."

"What are you implying, Hokage-sama?" Homura asked coolly.

Kakashi rose up, too aggravated to tend to their idiosyncrasies any longer. "That it would behove you to realise that I will be the least of your worries if something were to happen to Sasuke."

Koharu's face visibly cooled and her already wrinkly mouth puckered even further. "I do not appreciate the implication in your words, Hokage-sama."

"And I do not appreciate one of my students being attacked for the simple fact of existing," Kakashi told her curtly.

"He has not been your student in many years, Hokage-sama," Homura pointed out.

"I suppose you can consider me to be more like the Fourth Hokage in the regard then," Kakashi smiled sharply and turned his back to them. "One does not simply stop being my student because of something as inconsequential as time."

He left the room, with no more proof that the Council was behind this before the meeting had started, but with an ever increasing suspicion that they were.

He supposed it was up to him to put a stop to this once and for all.

It should have been the end of it and it was. Just not in the way Kakashi had ever hoped it to be. Especially not in the way he had ever envisioned it happening.

"You cannot fake Sharingan eyes," Tsunade said quietly.

She and Kakashi were the only one in the cold room, standing in front of a long steel table. It had to be quite late by now, but Kakashi couldn't bring himself to look up and search for a clock. All he could do, was stare at the table and face the consequences of his inaction.

"Did you know," he started conversationally, aware of the way she gazed at him, "that I never even worried once when they were younger? They were stupid brats, overly confident and argued more than the bickering old couple down my street, but – I never once worried about them. Which is quite stupid, I realise now, considering who was in my team."

"He was a prodigy, Sakura was amongst the smartest in their class and Naruto is Naruto," Tsunade murmured; her gaze shifting towards the table again. "I don't blame you for not worrying about them. Naruto especially knows just how to put someone at ease."

"I should have insisted on sending someone after he started mentioning more and more attacks," Kakashi muttered and rubbed his face harshly, welcoming the sting, though it did nothing to fill the emptiness in his chest. "I don't know why I backed down every time."

"Because he had proven to be able to handle everything seemingly," she said softly.

"But that's just the thing, isn't it?" he snorted harshly and slammed his palm on top of the steel table; the noise reverberating like waves through the room. "I let him down again! I messed up when he was still just a kid and I kept messing up every damn time afterwards!"

"You couldn't have - " she started, but Kakashi whirled around and glared at her.

"A TEACHER SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BURY HIS STUDENT!"

His shout echoed around them, bouncing back and forth between the walls, clinging heavy to the air.

He heaved harshly, watching her take a step back almost instinctively before she composed herself, pursing her lips. At once he felt ashamed and he turned away, pressing the palms of his hands against his eyes. He wasn't angry at her. He was angry at himself, for making the same mistake over and over again with Sasuke. He was furious at the world which after all these years still couldn't have given the lone Uchiha heir a goddamn break.

He was empty.

As a shinobi he wasn't a stranger to death. As an ANBU captain he had seen plenty of his comrades fall, never to get up again. As a teacher he had failed teams again and again, having spotted their weaknesses before those could lead to those kids' demises.

Team Seven had been the first team to pass his test. It had been the first and only team to fill him with a sense of hope, a foreign sensation after having felt so numb for years on end. This had been the team that would make it, that would allow him to make up for all the mistakes he had made in the past.

But he kept making mistakes. Team Seven fractured, broke apart not even two years after becoming whole, and he was left to deal with the aftermath of that before he was left all alone again. He had failed as a teacher.

He had failed Sasuke when he had been a part of Team Seven and he had failed him again now. He just kept making the same mistakes with Sasuke and wasn't that just laughable? How could he not have learnt from his fuckups the first time? He had had several years to learn and yet …

There would be no more chances.

"You're sure it's him?" Kakashi asked, breaking the silence, pleading to get an answer he wouldn't receive.

"You can't fake Sharingan eyes," Tsunade repeated; her voice heavy with apology.

An apology that she couldn't lie to him. An apology to be the one to confirm the dreadful news.

Sasuke – no, Sasuke's empty husk of a body laid across the steel table. His skin had been lacerated so badly, the cuts marring his body so deep and disfiguring, that only his clothes, his hair and his Sharingan served as proof of who he had once been. Those Sharingan eyes who had once induced terror in every person they had looked at, now stared emptily at the ceiling above them. Their immaculate state – the only body part left whole – was plain mockery, clearly meant to hit those who would be hurt the most by his death. His katana was nothing but broken, useless shards of cold steel; collected hastily by a poor pair of sisters who had had the misfortune of encountering his dead body on their morning walk.

The local police had found Kakashi's letter in Sasuke's bag and had brought the body to the morgue today for official identification.

Kakashi had thought it to be a joke at first. Was he really supposed to believe that Sasuke, someone who had gone up to the chakra goddess herself, had been bested by a bunch of rogue shinobi? That was just ridiculous!

But Sharingan didn't lie. It couldn't lie.

Kakashi touched his own eye and thought he was going to be sick.

"Who is going to tell Naruto and Sakura?" Tsunade inquired, leaning heavily against the counter. She had her arms wrapped around herself; the lines on her forehead and near her eyes showing off her true age for the first time since the war.

"Right, we have to tell them," Kakashi realised bleakly.

How was he supposed to tell them that the person they had been chasing after for years, their friend who they had finally got back after the war, was dead? How was he supposed to look them in their eyes and tell them the devasting truth?

"We'll have to keep an eye on them – on him," Tsunade said quietly, biting down on her lower lip.

Right, because Naruto … Fuck, how was he supposed to tell Naruto that Kakashi had failed Sasuke once again?

The rapid approach of footsteps registered too late. The door swung open with a 'BANG', causing both Kakashi and Tsunade to jump in fright, and Naruto's cheerful voice rang out, turning Kakashi's blood into ice.

"Hey, Kaka-sensei! They told me upstairs you've been down here for a long time, so I came to look and see what's taking you …"

Naruto's voice died out and Kakashi realised too late that neither of them had drawn the blanket over Sasuke.

He just kept failing his team over and over again, didn't he?

They had been too careless. Or no – not careless. Naïve. Too blinded by their own grief, perhaps.

Whichever it was, there was no excuse. Nothing could ever serve as a good enough excuse for this, but then again, hadn't Kakashi's life just been one string of excuses after the other? What was one more to add to the count, right?

He stood there and watched earth be piled on top of the coffin. He kept standing there even as the first raindrops fell down, wetting the earth that had just been painstakingly patted down. Looked on as the heavy tomb was placed over the fresh grave and gazed as that same tomb became almost buried itself underneath a multitude of colourful flowers; the only bright colours amidst a sea of black and grey.

He kept standing there as the stream of visitors thinned out. Until finally it was only him and one other person left behind.

The rain was a steady downpour now; not fitting at all for the one they had buried today.

"They are buried next to each other," Gaara observed blankly, coming to a halt next to Kakashi. "He would have loved that, I'm sure."

Kakashi glanced at him. The Kazekage's normally vibrant red hair looked dull today; his bags even heavier than usual. It was at times so easy to forget that Kakashi wasn't the only one affected by this loss. That he had touched so many people's hearts, not in the least that of the man standing right next to him.

"I'm sorry, I know you two were close," he murmured.

"Naruto had always been closer with Uchiha," Gaara said simply, staring at the tomb.

That was right, Kakashi mused emptily. Naruto had proclaimed time and again that he would never leave Sasuke, hadn't he? Hadn't he once stated boldly that he would shoulder Sasuke's hatred and die together with him? Kakashi had considered him to be rather melodramatic at the time, yet it had been such a Naruto thing to do …

"You checked thoroughly?" Gaara questioned; his fists almost hidden within his sleeves.

"Five times. Tsunade stopped me from checking a sixth time," Kakashi answered listlessly, not even blinking when a cold raindrop landed on the bridge of his nose. "Kyuubi is gone. Completely. Not a trace of him left. And Naruto … He's gone too."

He should have seen it coming. He really should have, but once again he had failed yet one more student of his. He had known to keep an eye on Naruto after the younger man had discovered his best friend to be dead, and he had been so careful, but one moment of slackened attention had been enough.

They had been too late to save him.

Kakashi didn't think he would forget Tsunade's scream of anguish any time soon. It was imprinted in his mind, just like Sasuke's dead, bloody body was permanently engraved in his memory. Now Naruto's lifeless body was etched into his mind forever as well. He had looked peaceful, even in death, and Kakashi's only comfort was that now Naruto was with the one he had loved the most.

It was a meagre comfort at best, but it was all he had left to cling to.

He cast one more look at the two tombs and turned around. The last one to leave.

Two pairs of sharp eyes greeted Gaara when he stepped inside the inconspicuous house. It wasn't by any means large nor beautiful and it was more a hovel than a home, but it had served its purpose well for now.

"They passed the test?"

One pair of sharp eyes turned anxious until Gaara nodded in reassurance.

"They couldn't find anything amiss with the bodies," he affirmed and Naruto sighed relieved. Gaara raised an eyebrow. "Did you think my sand wouldn't be able to pass their tests?"

"Well, it's not like you've tried that jutsu out a lot, did you?" Naruto defended himself. "I've never done anything like this before either."

"And we're not going to again," Sasuke stated and nodded at Gaara. If the gesture was a bit stiff, neither man remarked on it. "Thank you for your help."

"Of course," Gaara said neutrally and tilted his head to the left. "How did you find those Sharingan eyes? Clearly you're still in possession of your own."

"Orochimaru had an obsession with my family long before he Marked me," Sasuke answered curtly.

Naruto wrinkled his nose while Gaara nodded.

"I see. I'll be back in two days to bring you to your new home," he informed them and turned back to the door. "In the meantime, don't get caught."

"Really, Gaara, thank you," Naruto said sincerely.

This time Gaara's features softened a bit before he disappeared again; the door melting seamlessly into the wall.

"It's over now," Sasuke sighed, sitting down on the threadbare bank that would be their makeshift bed for now.

Naruto nibbled on his lower lip; a troubled look appearing in his eyes. "I feel bad for Kaka-sensei and the others," he admitted. "I didn't want to do this to them. It's way too cruel."

"And what the Council was planning wasn't?" Sasuke asked cuttingly. He sighed when Naruto hunched his shoulders. "We tried everything, but they weren't going to let us go. They wouldn't let me live in peace and they weren't going to stop pushing you to the Hyuuga either."

"I know," Naruto sighed heavily and fell down besides him. "I hate that we had to resort to this, just to get them to leave us alone."

"There's no going back now," Sasuke reminded him kindly. "Not without having to answer a lot of questions." He hesitated before adding gruffly, "I could have done this on my own if you really - "

"Are you stupid?" Naruto cut him off scornfully and Sasuke smiled. "I've told you again and again, I'm not going to leave you, you bastard. I'm in this until the very end, you hear me?"

"I hear you," Sasuke murmured and laced their fingers together; warm and pale skin folding around each other.

"This means you're really stuck with me now, though," Naruto said lightly; his eyes clearing up a bit. "You better not get sick of me after this, bastard."

"Never," Sasuke promised and leant forwards to catch Naruto's mouth in a soft kiss, sealing the promise they had made so long ago.

They shouldn't have had to do this: creating a fake death and leaving everyone behind. They shouldn't have dragged the Kazekage into this, nor Tsunade, but they hadn't been left with any other choice. Rogue shinobi would keep coming after Sasuke. The Council would keep trying to push Naruto into the arms of that Hyuuga girl, had come even close to using blackmail in order to convince Naruto. They would keep trying to gain control over the Kyuubi using whatever means necessary. They weren't going to be left alone when alive – so they found peace in death instead.

To the rest of the world, war heroes Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke were dead. And they were. For all intents and purposes the war heroes had died in that lonely field and that small apartment. They were no longer shinobi, bound to the village of Konoha.

Now they were just Sasuke and Naruto. Just them until the very end.

The End

AN2: Warnings: main character deaths; they die like Shen Qingqiu; reference to implied suicide but not really; faking their deaths; Council's manipulations.

I'm curious: how many of you check the warnings at the end of a story before reading and how many of you decide to just dive in and take the brutal punch to the face as it comes?

Is this a healthy coping mechanism? No, but did we ever claim that Naruto and Sasuke have healthy coping mechanisms? Also no. Obviously this is not the way to handle shit, but it's how they chose to handle their shit.

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.