I smiled while I wrote this whole thing. Because it's just too damn dramatic... XD

Well, this is the last chapter of the Kimiko Chronicles. ; A ; It's been a good run. You have no idea how much I love you guys for sticking by me this whole year. 3 Now go on and read about the last chapter... Go on... Shoo shoo...

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN.

3RD PERSON POV! (This is the funniest chapter I have ever written, because it's so dramatic)

Tsuneni knew only two things:

-Someone just got fatally wounded.

-That someone wasn't her.

She opened her eyes. She had meant to keep them open, but everything happened so fast, she had to close them. You can't stop a reflex.

Above her was Kimiko. Everything was perfectly fine; until Tsuneni noticed it.

There was a sword sticking out of Kimiko's stomach.

The 17 year old gasped. She wanted to scream, but all that came out was a tiny whimper.

"K-... Kimi…ko…"

Kimiko coughed. Tsuneni was splattered with blood.

The assailant stood there with his sword sticking into Kimiko. He cursed. He'd gotten the wrong girl.

"Kimiko… Why…? WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT?" Tsuneni hollered. She felt tears stinging the back of her eyes.

Kimiko grinned still. Blood had dramatically begun leaking from her mouth.

"You… You have my brother's eyes… Tell him… Tell him I'm sorry… about everything… Tell everyone else… I'm sorry…"

"No, Kimiko. No. You… Don't say that…"

Kimiko raised a shaking hand. She touched Tsuneni's cheek. Tsuneni shivered at the child's cold touch.

"Tell Hidan… I'll see him in hell…"

Tsuneni watched the light leave Kimiko's eyes. Those eyes used to be filled with light. They used to be filled with something Tsuneni recognized as love. Now, they were blank vessels; blank and dead and filled with pain that was hidden only moments ago.

"K-… KIMIKO!" Tsuneni screamed.

The assailant pulled the sword from Kimiko's body. He caught it before it hit the ground, and slung it over his shoulder.

"I'll just be taking this."

He made a series of hand signs, then tapped Tsuneni's head. She blacked out and fell to the side. The assailant was gone in a flash. Along with him went the body of Kimiko.

Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, and Kisame stood motionless off to the side. They didn't sense the assailant's presence until it was too late. But they could've done something. They could've stopped the assailant from getting away. But there was no point. Kimiko had been impaled by a sword. Anytime someone was impaled, and they weren't relevant to the plot, they died.

And there they were, in the meeting room a while later.

Tsuneni's memory had been wiped. She couldn't remember anything about who the assailant was. She'd lost, what seemed to be, 2 or 3 years of memory. Everything they needed to find out who had killed Kimiko was in Tsuneni's memory. And that memory was gone.

Kimiko's seat at the meeting room's table was empty. The Akatsuki kept expecting her to walk in through the doorway, rubbing the back of her head and smiling sweetly. They kept hoping that she would rush in, spouting apologies and near hysterics. She always came back. She always made it through whatever the author could throw at her. But the author, they sensed, was sitting and staring blankly at the computer screen with her fingers poised over the keys. Yet nothing was coming. Nothing was gonna reverse this. Kimiko was dead.

"She said sorry…"

Everyone looked up. Tsuneni sat with her face buried in her hands. Her clothes under her Akatsuki cloak still had Kimiko's blood.

"She said… She said she was sorry… about everything…"

"She had nothing to be sorry for…" Itachi said, his gaze travelling back to the section of table in front of him.

"Damn straight…" Most of the Akatsuki agreed she had nothing to apologize for.

Tsuneni removed her hands from her face.

"She sacrificed herself for me… And… And all I did was snipe at her and threaten her… I should've been the one impaled by a sword… Not her…"

No one agreed. No one disagreed either. So they sat in silence.

"Hey Hidan?"

Hidan looked up at the teary Tsuneni.

"She said she'd see you in hell."

Hidan covered his eyes with a hand and sighed.

…

Tsuneni stood before Kazuki. He had been notified of her death a while before. But Tsuneni had to tell him face to face. She thought it was only right.

"She's not okay, is she?"

"No… No, she's not okay…"

The two stood in uncomfortable silence. Kazuki was fighting back tears. Tsuneni had cried herself out.

"She said she was sorry…"

Kazuki wiped his eyes. Kimiko had been right. Tsuneni and Kazuki had the same eyes.

"About what? What the fuck does she have to be sorry for?"

"About everything…"

"She… She had nothing to be sorry for…"

Tsuneni held Kazuki while he cried. He cried for a long time. He was normally a cool, mysterious guy around other people, but when your most precious family member dies, you kinda forgot about image.

"How'd… How'd she… die?" Kazuki asked finally, regaining some of his composure.

Tsuneni didn't want to remember. But the memory was already flashing in her head.

Tsuneni had been expecting to see Kimiko drop dead that day. She got what she wanted, but it was the way she got her wish that made her regret it.

The assailant had been heading for Tsuneni. Tsuneni was supposed to have died. Tsuneni was the one who they were after, not Kimiko like planned. But Kimiko saw it coming. She had knocked Tsuneni out of the way and was impaled instead.

"She… This guy… He tried to kill me with a sword… and… She knocked me out of the way…"

Kazuki broke down in quiet man tears again. (1)

"That's… That's my baby sister for you…"

"You must be proud…"

"So proud… and sad…"'

…

Tsuneni felt guilty. She'd gone to Makoto's house and told him his girlfriend, the one he'd treated so badly when Hanako came into the picture… She was dead. When Tsuneni left, Makoto was left a sobbing mess. His elder brother Yuuto was pretty beaten up about it too. He told Tsuneni if they needed any help, he would be glad to join in the hunt for Kimiko's murderer.

Tsuneni told Miyu. Miyu had a similar reaction to Makoto. She sat down on her couch and cried. Tsuneni high-tailed it out before Miyu could ask questions. Tsuneni didn't want to cause any more heartbreak.

But she still needed answers. The assailant meant to kill her. Whoever the assailant worked for wanted her dead. She was determined to remember who it was. They would catch Kimiko's killer. They would catch that motherfucking son of a bitch and kill him.

PEIN'S POV!

There would be plenty of time to find a killer. But we needed to grieve now. We needed to sit down and cry. Kimiko deserved to be cried over. As far as we were concerned, she deserved all the world's tears. But tears wouldn't bring her back.

We made a memorial stone. There was a beautiful valley just beyond the trees of the training field, and we sat it there overlooking the valley. It was the perfect place to sit down and remember her.

There was a picture of her we kept in the lounge. She was smiling and her eyes were open and there was light. She was so pretty. When I saw that picture I thought of the girl she was back then; that little shy, quiet wad of snide comebacks and words of wisdom. The girl she could still be; that funny, beautiful, lovely Mary-Sue we've all come to know and love.

Then I though about the girl she might've been… What she would be like as a teenager… The future we would never see. It was like a story that had just began… But the pages had been all torn away…

I paused. Why were my thoughts suddenly so organized?

My mind was settled when I remembered the radio was on. Who You'd Be Today by Kenny Chesney was playing…

"Author, you evil little bitch…" I said to the ceiling.

Don't break the 4th wall, please.

That very sentence echoed in my head.

I looked up at the picture of Kimiko. It was almost insulting how quickly we thought we would forget her. I knew it was just a reminder of our new life goal... But…

Who could forget a girl like her? Who could forget… a child with no equal?

(1): Admit it. You laughed.

Yes Pein. Yes. Who... Who's gonna forget a kid like Kimiko?

And thus concludes the Kimiko Chronicles. (_ _||| Review. It's your last chance. Make it count. Arigato... Thanks for reading. -bows-

Ja nai! 3