Forever

SasuSaku

summary: After Sasuke came back from Orochimaru, he found a note in his apartment. From her. It was always her. But, it wasn't what he expected. After 3 years, it still wasn't what he expected her to be. Black with red clouds.

Hello dearies!! Hope ya'll liked the last chapter. Yes, yes I know, this chapter's title is long but, it does pretty much summarize the chapter. Does anybody know who the Tsuchikage is YET!?! Well, vote and I'll be putting up what you say at the end of the chapters building up to his identity..which will be revealed in the sequel sometime. Right now, I just want opinions. I thoroughly enjoy getting reviews, but I REALLY want to reach 100.

HAHAHA FINALLY! I can FINALLY upload my smexii drawings to my deviant art account. I have the same name ( kunoichixakura ) and I currently have three drawings(one of Naruto and the other of Sakura but they suck beacuse I did them during school with blue ink on lined paper and the last one is a character of YuYu Hakusho, Hiei. he's in pencil with my awful shading.), one picture of my dog, and a random, stupid icon I made in five minutes, just to put something up. Plus I have a drawing that my friend helped me with, its a skull and its my ID. There will be ALOT more of my drawings to grace DeviantArt, I just haven't drawn them yet...

Anyways...ONWARDS!!

FYI: When its in bold, that means its in a certain point of view. There will only be a certain POV in this chapters.

chapter 15

If Only I Could Feel Alive, Once More, For The Last Time

"No...it's been decided. He's gone." Gaara mumbled, looking at the cold, dead body in mild surprise. Temari and Kankuro stood behind him, their catious gaze upon him.

"So, he's gone. He's finally gone." Kiba whispered, trying to cheer himself up. His claws tore into his palm as his hands shook, his best attempt to stop himself from crying. Though he knew it would do him no good, he continued as the tears sparked from beneath his eyelids.

"Konoha's number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja is dead." Neji sniffed. Not even he could refuse the tears.

"We'll give him a proper burial. We all know it would be too hard for you to carry him back to Konoha. Come on, we have everything already prepared." Temari smiled lightly. She had to be the adult of the situation, even if it was hard to.

"Sure. First we need to clean up abit. We'll meet you up at the cemetary." Shikamaru stated, his face showing tremendous hurt. The rest of the group nodded.

---

((remember, the bold means Point of View!!))

Cold. Thats all I could feel that didn't bother me much. My head was pulsing, pulsing out of control. I couldn't move. My limbs felt heavy, like giant boulders were tied to them. My chest feels tight, I can't breathe because of it. My lungs feel like they've fallen off and my pulse is extremely slow, or my heart beats no longer. I heard a noise coming from behind where I lay, so I scarecly turn my head to face them. I open my mouth.

"..." My voice is gone. I still see them, I can sense their anger. Wow, they must be pretty angry. Red aura surrounds them and they're glaring. Glaring at me. I don't know whats going on, but I want to. "...I" Is all I could muster. My throat feels numb and raw. The figure walked closer to me. I felt my eyelids reluctatnly closing on me, drooping down by the second.

"Uzumaki Naruto," The voice said, which made my eyes open wide on their own. After not speaking for a while, they were closing again. "This is the end." After his voice lingered in the air, my eyes shut. I couldn't feel anything. The cold was gone, replaced with nothingness. I couldn't sense the figure any longer, my strength drained from my body.

Untill a searing pain spread through my veins like wildfire. I could feel my heart clench and my breath restored. The pain, the pain was too much. I screamed. Screamed in agony only a few people could live through and, unfortunately, I was one of them. It felt as if...as if my soul had been ripped in two. The other part was currently being dragged out of me, or pulling itself, I couldn't tell at the moment. All I knew was that it hurt so bad.

"Goodbye..." I heard a faint voice say, it was the one from before. In that instant, I see pictures flashing through my head. I felt as if I am supposed to know these people, but I don't remember anything. The images stop at a certain picture. I see three other people standing beside me. It looks about 8 years ago. Two were my height, the other looking over 10 years older than us. The taller one had shiny silver hair and held an orange book in his hands. The girl, she had bizzare pink hair and green eyes that had a frustrated glint in them. She held out her arms between me and the other guy, as if keeping us apart. The other guy's hair was pitchblack and was spiked up in the back, like the ass of some animal, and black eyes. 'Kakashi-sensei...Sakura-chan...Sasuke-teme...' Those names ran through my head untill I realized it. I knew them. I remembered

---

((now It will get abit confusing here. The POV above will be the same with the rest of the chapter, except in this section it won't be cut off into it's own place by this: ---. Mainly because this will all be happening at the same time.))

"We hope that his spirit lives on, freely and peacefully." Gaara said, looking at the coffin. He nodded towards the shinobi who slowly lowered the coffin.

The voices, I heard voices. I know they're not in my head. I feel what I lay on rattle abit. But, yet again, my body refused to move.

Gaara nodded to the sole group who stood for the burial. Shikamaru took a step forward, clearing his throat.

"I just want to say, Naruto. We will miss you so much. If only I was stronger..." Shikamaru was crying now as Ino patted his back. "I could have helped you fight off Deidara. And maybe you'd be standing here with us right now."

"Shikamaru, its not your fault." Shikamaru just shrugged her off.

Why, why was he crying over me? I couldn't be...no. I won't. I can't. I refuse.

After the coffin was properly in the ground, everybody was crying.

"W-We must go back to Konoha and inform Tsunade-sama." Tenten stuttered. The group nodded their heads and walked away, their backs facing Naruto's grave. Soon after, Temari, and Kankuro left, leaving Gaara to wonder how Naruto died so soon, especially after knowing he was to become the sixth Hokage.

My eyelids snapped open as a structure, like a crate, was put into place and I looked at the place where I was. I could sense where I was...what I was in. I just chose not to accept it. 'I'm not dead!' Tears sprang from my eyes as my body shook, the most movement I've done in who knows how long.

"I am not dead!" I yelled, surprising myself. What shocked me more was the response.

"Naruto?" Gaara's tone was louder than usual.

I heard that voice before. I racked my brain for who it could be...

"Gaara!"

Gaara took a step back. 'No, its just Shukaku. He's using mind tricks. Naruto isn't alive. He can't be..its impossible.' Gaara frowned, turning to walk away.

I could tell he was leaving, and I wasn't happy. So, he's was just going to leave me here to die even more, ne? Well this'll show him. It took all my strength but I concentrated my chakra into my hand, forming a swirling ball.

"RASENGAN!" I yelled, pushing my palm through the coffin and sand, making my way to the surface. Gaara was frozen in his spot, not daring to turn around.

---

During Deidara's part of the interrogation, Sakura felt sick. She knew something was wrong. Something was very wrong, but she didn't know what. She looked over to the captive, who defiantly sat in the chair. He was a little boy and it was a simple mission. They needed to know what he knew. They needed to explore his brain for vital information. Noticing that his tactics weren't working, Deidara exited the small room, closing the door behind him.

"Maybe a woman's motherly instincts will get him talking, yeah?" Deidara chuckled, sitting in the chair next to Sakura who smirked.

"Maybe" She got out of her seat and, on the other side of the room, transformed. Deidara nodded towards her, giving her encouragement. Not that she needed it. The boy's head snapped up upon Sakura's entrance. She looked just like the woman in the picture he carried in his little bag. Just like his mom. Layered ruby hair with choppy bangs and deep chocolate eyes.

"Okaa-san?"((mother)) He whimpered, staring at her in awe. "OKAA-SAN!" He went to jump out of his seat to embrace her but couldn't, due to the binds on his arms and legs.

"Shh. Keijo. It'll be alright. Just, please, answer your okaa-san's questions, alright?" Sakura pulled up a chair and sat infront of the eight-year-old Keijo. He nodded, tears pouring out of his eyes. "What do you know of the Akatsuki?" His eyes widened, shaking his head.

"I don't want to talk about them, okaa-san. They killed otou-san((father))...don't you remember! Two of them took down the entire village, only two of them killed everybody! One was pale and had these scary red eyes. The other had crazy blue skin...he looked like a shark! Then, just as things got worse, two more came. A blonde with one eye and one with red hair and he controlled puppets! Aniki((older brother)) and Fakimu-sensei tried to hold them off and they went into the woods. Aniki never came back but Fakimu-sensei told me that aniki died but sucessfully killed the one with red hair!" Keijo sobbed as Sakura rubbed his back affectionately. She looked over to the glass window behind Keijo where Deidara sat, trembling. 'So, it's Itachi and Kisame's doing... Did Pein order it or...was it...no.'

"And what do you think happened to me?" Sakura whispered, pulling away and looking into his wide crystaline blue eyes.

"Fakimu-sensei told me you died too! He said that they attacked because you knew some information and Fakimu-sensei told me. He told me all about the Koritaka((kori- ice, taka- falcon. aka...the Ice Falcon!)) and how it is said to have power equal to the Kyuubi but more than the other Bijus...Okaa-san, now that you're alive, you MUST stop the Akatsuki...please..." He finished, his eyelids closing.

"Arigatou, Keijo." Sakura whispered, walking out of the room, looking at Deidara. "We need to figure out who the Jinchuuriki is for the Koritaka and where they might be." Sakura sighed, sitting down and looking at Keijo. Somehow, she felt abit sad for him, due to his predicament.

"Isn't Keijo's almighty okaa-san supposed to know all about the Koritaka, or are you just a fake, yeah?" Deidara joked, moving to the door quickly to avoid being hit. Sakura transformed back, glaring at him.

"'Keijo's almight okaa-san' is probably dead, like his sensei told him." Sakura snapped. Deidara feigned a look of shock.

"Oh my! We must tell Keijo the horrifying news about how Akatsuki were impersonating his dear okaa-san, yeah!" Deidara walked down the hallway, Sakura now in tow.

"Can you be serious now?" Sakura gave him an angry look from the corner of her eyes as she walked infront of him. "We will report back to Pein and maybe he'll have a useful mission for us to complete." The two headed towards the main hallway of the dark Akatsuki base. After reaching the entrance to Pein's door, Konan gave them questioning looks.

"Information on the captive, Keijo." Deidara said, face showing no trace of his earlier joking with the other female member of the Akatsuki. Konan nodded, only after giving an unsure glance towards Sakura. The blue-haired shinobi opened the creeky door.

"Its Deidara and Sakura, back from the interrogation." Sakura and Deidara walked in and Konan slammed the door shut behind them. Deidara handed Pein a manila folder. After a couple of eerie minutes, Pein gracefully placed the folder upon his desk and looked up at the duo.

"This is somewhat valuable. You two continue to prove your worth to me. I have your next mission and, don't worry Haruno, it's not too easy. Track down the Koritaka. If I get any other information, I will send Zetsu to contact you to come back. Is that clear?" His eyes pierced through the pitch-black atmosphere clearly, like a steak knife cutting butter.

"Hai" They bowed, walking out of the room into the slightly lighter hallway.

"So, the Koritaka, eh? The eight-tailed demon. Wielding water and ice. As strong as the Kyuubi is. Correction, as strong as the Kyuubi was." Konan's smile was chalk-full-of malice. The entire Akatsuki knew about Sakura's connection with the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki and were semi-shocked about her success in killing him. Then again, it was her duty to.

"We should try the Mist..." Deidara started as they stood outside the base. Sakura nodded and off they went.

---

"Go ahead, Kankuro. Just tell Tsunade of it!" Temari said to Kankuro. They were getting ready to depart to Konoha. Kankuro nodded, heading off on his own. About and hour later, the other three headed out.

tbc

Aww...I feel bad for Keijo! What mayhem will ensue in the Mist & Konoha? YOU WILL SOON FIND OUT! Now here are the current votes/guesses:

-Pein (1)

-Itachi (2)

If you think you know, either tell me in a review or PM me! Don't worry, I don't bite...

REMEMBER TO VIEW MY "BEAUTIFUL" ART((that actually sucks)) ON DEVIANTART!!

your I FEEL SO ARTISTIC RIGHT NOW authoress...

kunoichixakura