'I'm a little bit insecure. From all of this mis-mis-treatment
But see I'm workin it out, I'm workin it out. It's so damn hard.'

Say no more, stand or fall

"Gaara?"

Ino stopped in her tracks, surprised at the man standing in front of her sensei's grave.

Said man glanced over to her, the wind rustling his red hair.

"What are you doing here?"

Ino moved forward, even though her body shivered at the feel of his eyes on her. Bending, she knelt down and placed the white lilies at the foot of his grave.

"Temari told me of your sensei. Shikamaru talks about him a lot."

Ino jolted, not quite sure how she felt about Shikamaru talking to that sand-woman about their sensei.

"Oh."

Gaara said no more.

Awkward, not knowing what to do, Ino started talking to the grave.

"Well sensei, another update. Forehead is still in hospital, the idiot, and Chouji keeps forgetting about his diet. Mum is dragging dad out on a date tonight so I've got the house all to myself. Now I know I should've moved out by now but I really can't be bothered to wash my own clothes or clean my own house. Nothing much else has happened since yesterday though Hinata has been strangely AWOL. Um.." and here she stopped, wanting to say more though she never did, she always kept her talks with Asuma slightly upbeat.

"Your little guys a real fighter; he's already following Shika around, wanting to play ninja's. Shika just makes his shadows move and it entertains the kid for hours. Kurenai's doing great, too busy doting on the little guy though she's taken a few missions now that she's older. She misses you, you know. We all do though. Mm. So I suppose that's it for today. I guess I'll come see you another time. Love you sensei. Bye."

And she rose up to her feet, nervously looking to side only to notice that Gaara was watching her intensely.

She played with her fridge before moodily saying "what," because she was Ino, a tough-as-nails, go-get-em type of girl that wouldn't let a little bit of nervousness stop her from snapping at the Kage.

Oh gosh, she'd just snapped at a Kazekage, never mind if he was younger than her (and he was, nine months and two days exactly).

"I did not mean to unnerve you," he said softly and Ino scoffed.

"I wasn't unnerved."

Gaara said nothing to that, choosing to continue with his own thoughts.

"I am surprised you still spoke even if I was here. You did not have to."

Ino smoothed down her fringe.

"It didn't bother me. We were both visiting him."

Gaara said nothing, moving his eyes to the grave and back to her.

Silence.

"Well, I um, I'm gonna go now, but uh, what are you doing? Weren't you going to visit Naruto, lord knows he needs a friend, what with Forehead being an idiot and Sasuke is too much of an emotional-retard to possibly offer support so you should go help him and do that friend thing that you do."

Ino's hands had somehow made their way to hips and her voice had gone less from a 'what-are-you-doing' to a demanding 'go-do-this-NOW!'

She had a thing with orders, it was quite hard for her to control.

Cheeks red, Ino quickly crossed her arms over her chest, trying to look Gaara in the face but finding it quite difficult to do so. Why did he have to be so cute?

And so quiet? It freaked her out.

Ino went to speak but the silent-boy spoke. "Naruto is busy. I will see him later."

"Oh." Again, with that one word. She seemed to say it often.

"Well," she began, at a loss what to do. "Do you want to go get lunch?"

And she just couldn't believe what had come out of her mouth. And she certainly didn't expect his answer.

"Okay."

Kakashi held Sakura, breathing in the scent of her hair and wishing, wanting them to just stay like this forever. Too many people left him, too many people had died, but things were different now and he wasn't going to let her go.

And old sensei's freaked out and tried to tear you off the girl you loved.

Things had calmed down, though Iruka got a nice right hook in (he was distracted, it was unexpected) and the Chunnin had finally left. After Sakura made him.

Because he refused to listen to Kakashi.

"I think Naruto might kill you," Sakura said softly and he hmmed, pretending he had been listening to what she'd been saying.

"You weren't listening were you?" She said, and Kakashi winced, placing a kiss atop her head in the hope that it would soothe her anger.

She smacked him over the back of the head and Kakashi pouted.

"I guess you didn't believe me?"

Sakura snorted, squirming around his arms, the hospital blanket bunching up to their hips. "You didn't even fake a lie Sensei. Pathetic."

"Ooh, call me sensei again."

His little cherry blossom smacked him over the head, her cheeks as pink as her namesake. "Dirty old pervert. Shut up."

The copy-nin laughed, a full, deep-throated laugh that made his girl, and she was his girl now, bump up and down with the shaking off his chest.

"I said shut up."

"Maa, maa, Sakura-chan," he said again, leaning down to rub his nose against hers. "We're going to get through this, you know? I'm not going to let you fall."

Sakura blushed a pretty blush, the bandages still around her wrists.

"Yeah, you, me, Hinata, Kiba, we have to get through all of this. I'm not going to let what, what he did, what Itome did, stop me from living my life anymore."

Kakashi pulled down his mask and stole a kiss. He planned to keep stealing them for the rest of his life.

7 months later

Sakura laughed as Naruto rolled Sasuke on the ground, the two punching and biting at each other. Hinata beside her giggled lightly, playing with the two rings in between her breasts. They glittered and sparkled on the silver chain and Sakura felt so immensely happy.

Her two boys were idiots, would always be her idiots, but they were both finally Hinata's idiots and she couldn't see a more perfect couple.

Well, except maybe Kiba and Shino, though they were still in the 'undefined' area. Sakura still felt so immensely guilty but Kakashi was helping her through it and Kiba had assured her he didn't blame her.

Sometimes they wouldn't see him for days, not because of a mission, but because he would go off with the animals and visit the hospital with infected scratches and marks that she'd heal with a heavy heart. He waved off her concern and she got to the point where she no longer asked and just waited for him to speak.

Maybe he would, one day. But he wasn't ready yet.

The scars on her thighs had finally healed. Tsunade had done the job.

Now with Hinata's control (and such nice control did she have, who knew Naruto would be useful?) Itome's chakra was gone from her body and his soul was trapped in a place that no longer haunted Hinata's dreams.

"Sasuke's a baka. Baka, baka, baka!" Naruto teased and a cat fell on his head, Kakashi crouched on the tree branch above him.

"What the hell Baka-sensei!" Naruto screeched and Sasuke, after a moment, picked up the cat and placed it on the ground.

"Defeated by a mere cat usuratonkachi? And you call yourself the soon-to-be-Hokage?"

The two fought some more, Kakashi watching with Icha Icha in his hand and a closed eye.

Sakura watched her friends, finally yelling at them to hurry up because honestly, they needed to get to the dinner and she had to see what Ino-pig was wearing. As well as keep her eye on Neji who'd been keeping his eyes on TenTen way more than she was used to. And for some reason, every time she said 'meat cleaver' the boy twitched. It was odd. She'd have to get the story someday.

Giving Hinata a nudge (the girl was still shy, probably would be for years, especially with two boys in her bed – figuratively, not till marriage), she watched the Hyuuga heiress make her way over to her teammates, blushing scarlet when Naruto grabbed her in his arms and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke.

Sasuke, ever-mature, leant forward and pretended to bite his tongue.

Now both Hyuuga heiress and fox-boy were bright red and Sakura still felt a little weird seeing Sasuke act on all that sexual tension that had surrounded the three.

Kakashi was at her side, Icha Icha in one hand even as he encircled her waist.

"Ready to go?" He asked and she nodded, quite ready to turn away from the disturbing/adorable sight her three friends made. She still felt awkward because Tenten (followed excitedly by Ino) had found it necessary to ask which topped in front of her.

And she definitely wouldn't tell Kakashi that the perverted part of her liked the thought of Naruto dominating Sasuke. Because they were all just friends.

Even though Sakura was a normal, hormonal girl and two cute boys on top of her (lucky Hinata) was just a great picture.

Realllly good picture.

But she had Kakashi and that was good enough. Okay, it was great. Because he was there for her, had seen things no one else had seen and she trusted him.

She loved him.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go," Sakura said, and grasped his hand.

Because no matter what you go through, no matter how much pain and hardship, you have to make a decision.

You either stand or you fall.

And Sakura chose to stand.

I'm finishing this. I could've extended it but it's been long enough and I no longer have the same heart I used to. I'm so surprised that I finished this, I started (and finished) two novels in between this, and the constant updating helped me stick to my writing (even if the standard isn't that high) – but I didn't care, it was fun and came out easy and it didn't matter if I used repetitive metaphors. I left high school, I did my first year of uni and now I'm learning a language. I lost friends, I gained friends and I'm just a stronger person all around.

I hope you all enjoyed this time and thank you for coming on the journey with me. I know the Ino/Gaara/Shika thing end unresolved and so many others, but, I'll leave it open for you take as you will. I know how I picture it and well, I always imagined this story finishing with the 'You either stand or you fall' line. Hence the name of the story.

So people! Thank you for this, thank you for your reviews and encouragements and hopefully you'll all read my other stories!

じゃねみんなさん。きおつけてください！