A/N: The finale.

The world swims in and out of focus. The black abyss of unconsciousness is a void impatiently waiting to consume him, but Neji resists for as long as he can. Team Gai's final performance on the battlefield had been grand; a fitting finale to showcase the skills borne of lives filled with labor, loss, and love. But, Neji surmises, as his body slowly numbs, the trauma his body has endured has left him slightly delirious, and briefly, at the trick of the moonlight filtering through the treetops, he imagines he sees flickers of past lives, and murky glimpses of lives to come.

His other senses largely failing, Neji is acutely aware only of the two hands he holds in his own. Lee lies to his left, his breathing shallow and unsteady. Tenten is on his right, her pulse dangerously slow.

He knows the three of them will die here tonight.

There is blood everywhere, pouring thickly from their veins, like the scarlet threads of fate that have bound them together in this life, and that will bind them together through the next.

He looks to the moon again and he feels something prick, a spark in his mind, renewing a connection long unused. What emerges is a sentimental flashback to their genin days, when their bonds of friendship were just beginning to bud, and the three of them would lie under the stars after a day of training, trading banter in the light of a full moon just like the one that watches over them now. It is an old memory, one that he has not thought of for a while, but as he turns it over and over in his mind, it becomes sharp once more. He tries to stay there, safe in that childhood moment, but Lee squeezes his hand suddenly and the memory fades as quickly as it had surfaced.

He hears Lee give one last shuddering gasp, his breath curling in the night air, specter-like as it dissipates. Tenten follows shortly after, voicing only a small grunt that sounds like his name before she is gone.

One by one they slip from this world.

But Neji vows, as his grip slowly slackens and death lurks ever closer, eager to finally claim the last member of their trio, that he will find them again and again.

In his final moments, it is the only thing of which he is completely certain.

A/N: I created this collection nearly six years ago, and it has been such a pleasure to watch my own writing improve over the course of its 50 chapters. Originally I had intended the first and last chapters to be related and to serve as bookends to the collection, but I am a very different writer than I was six years ago, and I wanted this final chapter to reflect that.

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing over the years. Thank you for your words and kindness. Time and time again you have given me the confidence and resolve to continue pursuing writing. I will be publishing a new collection shortly.

~M.I.