A/N: Well, my homie g's, it is time to say goodbye to this fic. Yes, this is the last chapter. So sad…I got bored waiting for reviews, so I'm just gonna go ahead and put this chapter up. Oh, yeah, BTW, there is a parting message for you at the bottom, so read that after you finish the chapter. (AFTER being the key word here!)

Review Corner

Idiot14: Thank ya much! (Inner says: Yes. I know its great!)

Ayako: Yes, he reads my fics. (He's my beta reader.) And he actually knows who the characters are! How could you not love a boy who is into the same animes and mangas that you are? I mean, come on!

BTW-Naruke-chan no own Naruto…damn…

blah demon language, just for this chapter

-Chapter 8: Endings and Beginnings-

::From Toiryu's POV…technically::

"Itachi!"

She stood stock-still, taking in the scene: a one-eyed, silver-haired man and a pink-haired you woman helping a very torn up blonde boy to his feet. A boy who looked just like Itachi had a few years before crouched, poised with a kunai at Itachi's throat. And Itachi…He looked almost a peace.

Looking up at her, he smiled; the girl's heart beat quicker. Toiryu. he whispered. I'm leaving now. Aishiteru. And sayonara.

Without any warning, any hint of his next actions, he snatched the decorated kunai out of the boy's hands and plunged it deep in his own body.

As the red liquid spilled out of him, he closed his eyes and smiled. 'There. I did it.'

"For you, otouto…" he managed to croak out before darkness claimed him.

"No! Itachi!" Toiryu ran towards her lover's body and the boy, who still stood by him, soaked in his and Itachi's blood. She tackled the young boy, sobbing brokenly and pummeling his chest with her fists. "You killed him! You killed him! Why?" her anguished cries echoed in the younger one's ears until he could stand it no more. "Urusai! You know I did not kill him; he took his own life!"

The girl took a deep, shuddering breath and looked up at Sasuke. The amount of grief those beautiful amethyst eyes held startled him. "I know…but why couldn't you have taken the blame? Then it wouldn't hurt so much…" her voice dropped to the quietest whisper of whispers so that he had to strain to hear her next words. "Then I could pretend he hadn't left me because he wanted to."

Sasuke slowly stood up. "Ore wa Sasuke." Toiryu's hands clenched. "Why couldn't you have stayed in Konoha, where Itachi wouldn't have died because of you?"

Sasuke blinked, trying to contain his liquid grief. "He took Naruto away from me. So I had to come after him."

She turned away from him, grinning crazily and laughing quietly to herself. "Just like him…Just like Itachi…So selfish, and yet so damn fine!"

Sasuke blushed heavily at her comment. Upon hearing his comrades' snickers, he roughly yanked Toiryu to her feet. "C'mon, Toiryu-san, we'll take you back to Konoha."

"No. I am going back to Wave Country. With Itachi." She protested softly. "I would like it very much if you would escort me there, please."

Sasuke felt he was obliged. After all, even though she was his dead brother's wench, she deserved to be escorted to her home, what with her being in a shocked state.

She heaved Itachi's still-bleeding carcass onto her back. Smiling lightly, she laughed. "Heh. Third time I've done this."

"Done what?" asked the blonde.

"Naruto, be-" Sasuke began.

"Don't worry, Uchiha-otouto. It is a long way to Wave Country, and my-our story is long." Toiryu interrupted, obviously meaning that 'our' meant hers and Itachi's story. "It began the night of the Uchiha massacre. That one night, nine years ago…"

He stumbles. He falls. He hurts. Yet he still keeps pushing himself. He has to leave the Leaf Country. If he doesn't, hunter-nin will catch up to him and kill him on sight.

Most would ask why he was leaving on the pain of death. "Because," he would reply, "I killed them. My clan." Now you must be startled. Why had this boy killed his clan?

Before you have a chance to formulate any reasonable answers, the boy collapses. He lays there, unmoving, seemingly dead.

Then, by a change of fate, a girl stumbles across the motionless boy. She checks for a pulse and finds a very slight one, gently fluttering under her fingertips.

She grabs the boy and lifts him onto her back. She is quite strong for one so frail looking. She makes the long journey back to her minute village, a journey that is at least several hundred kilometers.

Lugging through the door to her house, she carries him to the only bedroom she has-her own.

She tends his few and far between wounds. With this done, she pulls a chair over to the bedside. She sits very still, keeping an ever-vigilant watch over the younger boy. She closes her eyes and softly hums a peaceful tune to him…

-tbc-

This story will be continued in the prequel, 'Memories.' Until then, ja!