Alright guys, you've made it with me ALL the way to the end. Take a breath and pat yourself on the break for me. THANK YOU.

Your support has made it all the worthwhile. I am humbled.

Enjoy. I present the final installment of Blade.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi exclaimed, but his breath was already taken away.

The sight of Sasuke—after what, over two years?—had made such a difference...was he still the same person he knew…or had he evolved into someone completely anew?

Sasuke had broken through the wall, coming in from the outside of the building.

The broken wall left an opening for Naruto and Sakura to come running and see what the hell was happening—and they stood speechless as well.

Sasuke said nothing, eyes zeroed in on Orochimaru, who he had pierced through with a long sword made of chakra. Mercilessly, Sasuke pushed his weapon even further through Orochimaru's torso, draining even more chakra out of Orochimaru's snake form.

"Sasuke!" hissed Orochimaru, who was still alive. The appendage just broke off Orochimaru and the Sannin's fangs came clasping over Sasuke, ready to inherit his body.

Naruto stepped in to save Sasuke first, but Sasuke was adept enough to swing his chakra sword back up and around again, slicing another chakra appendage off of Orochimaru.

"You won't get away, I promise!" Orochimaru snarled, and suddenly, his form split into several pieces, and floated off into the air surrounding Sasuke.

Sasuke prepared a small jutsu in advance, and did so just in time to create a sphere of lightening chakra around him while the broken pieces of Orochimaru all shot towards him.

Now Sasuke's Sharingan was unraveled.

"Orochimaru, you've become so weak," Sasuke murmured as the particles of Orochimaru's form began to assemble themselves together.

"That's why I must obtain your body!" he hissed when his body was completely reformed.

And Sasuke simply stared at him, a new Sharingan eye technique growing over his left eye.

Orochimaru stopped laughing.

A small pocket vacuum appeared next to Orochimaru, slowly beginning to suck Orochimaru in.

Orochimaru remained persistent, attempting many times to break and return, but he was only slowly, slowly sucked into Sasuke's vacuum.

"Sasuke!" Orochimaru cried, angry in betrayal.

"Die," Sasuke replied, and waited until Orochimaru was gone before closing off the vacuum.

He then closed his eyes and looked down.

Not one word was spoken.

Sasuke reopened his eyes again afterward and turned his head to face his former team.

Silence.

He tucked his chakra sword away.

"We've all changed, haven't we?" Sasuke mused. His eyes scanned them briefly, and then he turned about to step out.

Naruto yelled his name in time to stop him from leaving so soon.

Sasuke stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"Sasuke…" Naruto repeated, unsure of what to say.

Sasuke waited for another word, but was impatient; he waited only a moment before leaving.

Again.

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Kakash closed his eyes, looking down until he heard a small squelching sound from the wall.

A snake head seemed to push out of the wall, opening its mouth.

Inside, was Tsunade.

She was spit out to the floor, covered in snake spit. She coughed a few times before getting up.

"Where is he?" she demanded when seeing them.

"Sasuke…finished him," Sakura answered.

Tsunade's face morphed into a completely different expression.

And then all her memory started to come back, after all that time trapped into one of Orochimaru's traps.

"Where's Anko?" she asked.

hotcocoatoo

Many people attended her funeral.

Kakashi looked over at the other jounin.

Kurenai was flooded in grief, her eyes closed and glistening with tears as Asuma tried to comfort her to almost no avail.

Everyone else was solemn, heads down, mourning.

She didn't deserve that end.

Was she thinking to become a martyr? Perhaps she had given up trying to discover her potential and her purpose? Was she so knocked down that she felt there was nowhere left in the world for her to go?

The last words he remembered saying to her were: There are lots of people that would hate to attend your funeral.

And she gave him some look that he couldn't recall—guilt? Regret? Realization?

And here he stood, at her funeral—the one place he didn't want to be.

Tsunade stepped towards Anko's funeral shrine.

"Mitarashi Anko lies here in eternal peace, having given up her life to stop an enemy that has haunted us for so long. In return for her accomplishments here, she had willing given her life.

"None of us want to see a fellow comrade like this, but we have to remember her even if she is no longer with us. Let's take a moment…to remember Mitarashi Anko."

A long silence claimed them.

Tsunade continued, "Anko…thank you for all you have done."

She set her flowers up against a photo of her.

The Hokage then stepped back and each person proceeded to rest flowers, gifts, and trinkets alongside a burning candle. They returned to their places, gathered around and watched the burning candle while they recollected what they could of her.

Kakashi stayed in place until even the candle burned out, darkness swallowing the remaining flame.

epilogue

The medical examiner pulled on his surgery gloves and secured his equipment over his head before stepping into the lab where his teammates awaited him, all ready to start the procedure.

On the table lay a decomposed body—recognized as Orochimaru's last host. They had hoped to obtain at least parts of the host's chakra so that Tsunade could study them more in depth.

The examiner sighed. "Okay, let's start this," he finally declared, holding a coarse scalpel and knives with a smaller blade in his pocket.

"Whenever you are, Miroku."

"Hold down the torso, I'm making a cross sectional…geez this smells like shit."

"Yeah, but it's only been dead for less than a few hours."

Miroku quickly cut through skin and subcutaneous layer. If they were lucky, there would still be undamaged dermis underneath, given the body was still normal.

Miroku separated the skin and slivered off a nice portion of it for later examination.

"Fuck," he blurted when accidently cutting himself.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh no," he lied. "Just this section isn't good enough."

And so here ends the story, Blade. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did writing it—though I actually wrote it quite some time ago on some scraps of paper. I think it's safe to say that this story actually grew out of its epilogue, lmao, but what happens happens.

I'm sitting here, having woken up randomly in an ungodly hour of the morning but I am thinking that perhaps I shall think of writing a sequel. I have in my head a few alternative versions of a plotline, but I haven't chosen a definitive endpoint, and I like to work from the end for longer stories.

But, if anything, the sequel will probably be called Momentum. Soooo…since I'm coming to the end of this story, I'll see you around—and for the last time, ask (no, beg) for a review! Critiques are well accepted, especially since it's the end of the story! So [insert more encouragement] and write a review! I'll give you [insert bribe items]! Again, thanks for reading all the waaaaaay through!