After Hour II (Epilogue)

She was standing, facing him with a tightly clamped fist in his direction. She turned her hand over and slowly opened her fist. His eyes widened when he saw what she was holding.

Naruto's loud voice broke the silence. "Sakura-chan! What is that?"

Kakashi didn't say anything, but from his strained sigh, Naruto understood that he knew. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei! You know what it is, don't you? Tell me!"

He didn't look like he was going to answer. "Fine, I'll go there myself." Before he could even take a step, Kakashi was in front of him. "Leave it to Sakura, Naruto. Please."

His voice lacked any source of mischief and fun. It was the voice he had always used to lecture them back in the days.

It was a sign that he was being serious.

Naruto swallowed nervously. "I got it, okay? Chill!" He returned his attention to his teammate who was uncomfortably close to the Uchiha right now. It looked as though he could pounce on her at any moment with the way he was eying the object in her hand.

"Lie down," came her soft command. Sasuke looked a bit wary, but he obeyed her nonetheless.

"You're gonna do it here?" I mean, he was right next to his brother's corpse.

"Where else? You're not going to follow me to Konoha and I'm not going to follow you to your base." She sighed, lowering herself until she was kneeling. "Hurry up. The faster we get this procedure done, the faster I can go home."

She sounded so tired just then that Sasuke felt like he really should just shut up and let her do her job. His curiosity got the better of him though.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"Shut up." She brought her hands to his eyes and he immediately flinched. "Stop worrying. If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't aim for your eyes."

He had to smirk a little at that. Years before, she may have opted out in killing at all. If forced to kill, she would probably have chosen the quickest and most harmless way to kill. However he had a feeling that this new Sakura would be able to heartlessly torture someone before killing them in the most gruesome way possible. And he kind of liked it.

"Stop moving."

"Of course, doctor."

"Shut up."

It was silent for a few minutes as she worked her way into his eyes. Slowly, she incorporated Itachi's sharingan into Sasuke's eyes. This wasn't so much a physical surgery as much as it was a spiritual one. She didn't replace any eyeballs or anything like what she had learned from her medical books. Instead, the sharingan in her hand was coaching her way through it, guiding her hands as they worked. The procedure was an entwining of powers, if anything.

"Done." She said a short moment later, wiping the sweat off her brow with her arm as she got up. Sasuke caught her arm before she could stand up though.

"What happened?" he asked, referring to her meeting with Itachi. "Tell me."

"It's none of your business."

"It is. That's my brother. And you're…" He stopped just then. What was Sakura to him? He didn't know anymore.

She couldn't have cared less. Tearing her arm away from his vice grip, she spun around and proceeded towards her teammates, signalling to Kakashi to grab the corpse.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home," she replied solemnly before walking again.

"No." In a flash, he was behind her, hand gripping her wrist once more. These new eyes, they felt amazing. They gave him more insight, more speed. He could feel Itachi's power flowing through them, but that was not all. The remnants of Sakura's chakra were still there, acting as an agent to slowly merge the two powers together.

"I fulfilled Itachi's last wish. I healed your eyes. What more do you-"

He didn't let her finish. "You're coming with me."

She looked shell-shocked for a moment, but that expression was quickly replaced with a furious one. "Oh, hell no! I've had enough of you Uchiha's!"

"Your power will be a great asset to me."

That argument sucked and Sasuke knew it. There had to be something more that was preventing him from letting her go. And somewhere deep inside, he knew what it was. It was just a matter of coming to terms with it, acknowledging it.

She never knew how stubborn Sasuke was, but she should've expected it seeing how he was so obsessed with chasing Itachi down. She sighed.

"Itachi's true wish was for me to save you. Knowing that, do you really think I would want to come with you and become a missing nin myself? I've healed your eyes. From now on, you're on your own. Fight your way through it. I am done babying you, Uchiha Sasuke."

In the next moment, she was gone. The only trace of her was a pink petal in the grasps of the hand that had once been holding her wrist.

Did she just…

"-DITCH US? SAKURA-CHAN! WHERE ARE YOU? Kakashi-sensei, we have to find her!" Naruto shrieked. He turned to Sasuke abruptly, looking the most serious he's been all day. "I'm not going to feel sorry for you about...your brother, but I'm not completely heartless. We're not done yet, but know that I'll come back for you another day. Just...believe it." He kept eye contact with Sasuke for a moment, a mutual understanding forming between the two of them, before leaping into the trees and screaming loudly to find his teammate like the ninja he was.

"Well…I guess we'll meet again." Kakashi gave a wink and a salute before gently picking up the corpse he had just finished wrapping up. In two seconds, he was completely gone.

Once silence resumed, he looked down at the petal in his hand. Bringing it up to his nose, he gave it a whiff. Cherry blossoms. There was a twinkle in his eye as he smirked. "Not bad, Sakura. Not bad at all."

With the bystanders here before, he didn't have the chance to do a thorough examination on his new eyes. Taking the opportunity now, he closed his eyes and focused. He felt it: Itachi's feelings, Sakura's feelings, and his own feelings…but that was not enough. He channeled deeper until he hit the core of his brother's sharingan and that was when he saw it: Uchiha Itachi's resolve. It came as a shock to him at first, then as a mix of different emotions. He didn't know what his brother had gone through at all. He didn't know a thing. This whole time, he had been hunting down the man he thought was a murderer when all he was trying to do was protect him.

Staring thoughtfully at the ground where his brother once laid, he allowed a lone tear to roll down his cheek. Itachi wouldn't want him to regret anything. Surely, he wished for Sasuke to keep moving forward. So by the time Sasuke turned around, all confusion was lost. His eyes were clear, and so was his own resolve.

He quietly slipped the soft petal into his pocket and walked away.

A/N: Now that this big update is over, I can finally have a long author's note. I am so sorry I was on hiatus for so long. School took a bit out of me and then I lost my muse too. Once again, I apologize!

On another note, that's the end of The Last Seventy-Two Hours! I would like to thank everyone for reading this sorry excuse of a fanfiction. There were rough times...and even rougher times, but now that it's all over I'm kind of going to miss this series.

Now to address some questions/concerns:

1. Will there be a sequel? - As of now, no. However, even if there is a sequel, it will be SasuSaku. As you may be able to imagine, Sasuke has now transferred his obsession over to Sakura and her new personality. If readers don't mind, then I would love to write a sequel following the aftermath of Itachi's death and the effect it has on Sakura & Sasuke, but the SasuSaku will be inevitable for me as SasuSaku is my OTP. (Yes, I have betrayed my OTP by writing this series, but I just couldn't resist!) So yep, definitely let me know what you think about a sequel.

2. How was Sakura able to extract the sharingan from Itachi and transfer it to Sasuke? - Uh...magic? :D dkm

3. What happened at the end? What's Sasuke going to do from now on? What's his resolve? - Open for interpretation! ^^

4. Why did you have to kill Itachi? - I know this sounds bad, but I've always planned for him to die. It's not because Itachi & Sakura aren't my OTP. I definitely love them a whole bunch even though they aren't. I just thought that it was something inevitable with the universe I wrote it in. I liked the forbidden atmosphere it gave this series. I wanted to make it a happy ending even if he passed away. I'm sorry if I wasn't able to achieve a happy ending for everyone though. :(

5. What about the Edo tensei? Will you write about Itachi when he gets reincarnated? - I feel like that will be another tragedy there so I'm gonna have to say no. :( Sorry!

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask them!

Once again, thank you.