Part 4 in the Obelisk Series:
Kingdom of Man, Kingdom of Beasts, Kingdom of Monsters, and Kigdom of Gods.

OBELISK:
KINGDOM OF GODS

Blood ends and blood begins.
Blood ends and light begins.

We are broken dams.
We are goddamn broken.

We are God: dams broken.

—

Jeremy Radin, from "With These Hands

Recap: When she pulled back she was dizzy and had to blink to see again. Sasori was drinking some of the last of the juice and burning up at the edges for it. It hurt to watch him turn black at the edges, but he stopped after a moment with only a mouthful left behind and looked to her again.

"I'll see you in your dreams," he whispered before kissing her again. He burned away on her lips and Sakura opened her eyes to see nothing where once there had been the man she loved.

"I'll see you again, I swear."

Sakura grabbed the edges of the basin and braced once more. She tilted it up all the way and drank the last drop.

In the morning her body was discovered casually discarded on the docks, staining the wood with blood like wine. They said she drank bleach and ruled it a suicide. Her body was a mess that began to break apart when they collected her, festering with beetles and moths, but her dental records were checked and her DNA match.

It was Sakura and that was the last they saw of her.

It's late in the year and the world is a mess of gold and crimson as leaves change colors and fall. The chill is harsh enough that scarves are out in abundance and it's not too hard to imagine a world bare and cold. Soon it will be Thanksgiving and the holidays that follow are all fast approaching.

But then Thanksgiving comes.

And goes.

And it's December and the world is white.

White

White

White

The sun still rises every morning, burns across the sky, and sets each night to continue. Days run on without hesitation and the world continues to spin. There is no quarter given to the great tragedy of gods and mortals and the things that might be both.

The earth turns on and on and on…

Here you are at the end of it all.

Danzo stirred and lifted his chin from where it had settled against his collarbone. He had fallen asleep in the chair again and knew it would hurt when he pulled himself up out of it, so he settled back into his place and decided to wait a little longer before feeling the ache of burdened muscles.

He heard a door open behind him, somewhere down the hall. He kept his eyes closed and listened to the footsteps that were without sound. It was the sounds around those silent footfalls he listened to. Gemma the clumsy or Yamato the restless. Between the two of them, Yamato deserved hi name more. The others had been calling him that since the body was discovered. The small teasing was a small mercy in the grand scheme of things considering what Genma went through to keep the others from seeing how broken their senior shinobi truly was.

The only one worse off was Jugo, Log's grandson. After losing Sakura he found himself in a long empty mansion on an apple farm without a relative alive. Log has been dismembered and left in the river, but no one had been charged with the crime. Danzo knew his boys would never be touched by the law as well as he knew anything, like how he was in his last days. Some told him he wouldn't see the new year and he believed them. He didn't need to see the new year.

"Shouldn't you be in a hospital or something? This doesn't look too comfortable," a voice spoke up behind him.

Danzo forced his tired eyes open and lifted his head a fraction of an inch. He hadn't heard the figure come in behind him. When had he lost the edge of his senses. He had heard the body in the hallway but then…ah, he was getting old. He wasn't what he used to be.

"Hospitals are a waste of time. I'd rather be here, doing whatever the hell I want."

It took some effort, but Danzo reached for the arms of his chair and pushed himself up into his best posture and drew the can leaning against his side up to hit the floor with. He folded one hand over the other and rested his palms atop the head of the black wood cane. If someone had come in to see him as he was when he righted himself in such a way, no one would assume he was as bad off as he was.

"I can't see you behind me. Come here."

She laughed behind him and a lazy hand pat his shoulder in affection before the woman in furs rounded his chair to stand in between him and the window. Her body was facing the sun and the scenery beyond the glass, but her face turned back to watch him.

"It's been so long and this is how you greet me, with crusty demands?" she teased.

"You're a pain, young lady. What are you doing here?"

She hummed and looked back out the window and reached for the glass. "I'm actually saying goodbye. I'm going on a cruise with Ino and some of the others. I heard the others weren't visiting you so I thought it best if I pop in. I don't know how long I'll be gone."

Danzo huffed in annoyance. "You thought you would come here to say goodbye to me, the old grandfather you never knew? If it hadn't been for Sakura you would have never known me, so don't pretend you have feelings for this old man," he snapped at her.

Karin looked away from the scene outside and frowned at Danzo. "That's not my fault. You were the one who never contacted me. I didn't even know you existed until…until…ugh, it doesn't matter." She breathed out a huff of agitation as she reached up to fist her hand in her hair. "I thought I would try and make an effort. Sakura trusted you at the very least so it was good enough for me to give it a shot. I don't know if I wasted my time though."

"You did."

Karin's eyes narrowed, but whereas once upon a time that would make her look dangerous, something in her expression had broken so badly that dangerous looks weren't possible anymore. She hid behind a layer of hurt too thinly masked to look dangerous. She didn't have the energy for it.

"Would you not do this, please. I can see what your game is. You're being a bitch to everyone on purpose, poor Yamato and Genma, because you don't want them to see you die. Let people make that decision on their own. Maybe they want to be with you in your final moments. Maybe they want to share what little time you have left making good memories."

Danzo let his eyes close, too tired to keep them open. "I've made too many terrible memories to be forgiven. I dragged both those boys down a path we can never come back from, and that heresy will haunt us all into our graves. I thought I knew better, but I was wrong."

Karin was quiet for a long time. She left one hand on the glass and it warmed in spite of the cold outside. The afternoon sun warmed the glass while the rest of the world glistened in melting patches of snow. People were making bets on if it would stay white for Christmas or if it would all melt again and return to warmer than normal temperatures. Every weekend it was different.

"No one knew what would happen. Sakura…Sakura made her choice."

Danzo lifted his head but couldn't open his eyes. He remembered his boys taking the news terribly. At first neither believed it. Everyone was holding their breath, waiting for something to happen, for the reveal that was an accumulation of all their hopes and dreams…but that never came. After the first week it was tense, the second week was heavy, by the third week they were dragging themselves to the lot where her badly burned body had been laid to rest and crying into her soil like it would do a damn.

Two months later and they were still crying into her grave.

Gemma had adored her as a close friend, someone he could let close to his true self. She was one of the few women he saw as anything more than a potential lover, but rather a true friend. Gemma didn't have many of those, and it really had very little to do with her being a part of the curse. It was a sick twist of fate how close they had grown before the curse became an open secret between all their members. To Genma, Sakura was one of his family, and killing Log hadn't helped ease the pain any.

Yamato took it worse from an outsider's point of view. While Genma retreated to his vices Yamato wallowed in his feelings and shut the rest of the world out. Sakura had been a friend to him, but Yamato had always devoted a part of his heart to her that wasn't a token of friendship. His adoration for her was a bit more humbling and it had only grown worse after realizing what plagued her was a curse he had sworn his lift against. He thought they were fated for their roles, that he was the one had picked by destiny to be the what and the who she needed in order to win. But his hope was what tormented him into the present.

It made Danzo think of the story of Pandora, and how at the very end, emerging from the forbidden box, after all the vile evil sins were set upon the world, the last thing to emerge was hope. Too many children believed that Hope emerging after all the sins was a benevolent ending to the the myth, but Danzo thought different now. Hope was the most brutal of tormentors. All of their bright burning hopes for one girl had turned back on them and obliterated their spirits far worse than any sin. Hope was a dangerous thing, it's power should have never been underestimated.

How dangerous a thing hope is.

"Did you hear me?"

Danzo lifted his head again, keeping his eyes shut as he turned his thoughts out. He had been musing on how Sakura's loss hurt all of them, but he hadn't considered Karin, the girl who arguably knew Sakura best and loved her better than any of them.

"Do I look like a man fit for hearing?" he groused.

"Not in the least."

He grunted and waved a hand at her dismissively. "Then figure it out yourself. I haven't got all day if it's something important you better spit it out now while I'm still awake."

Her tone was sarcastic when she spoke. "I was talking about how I hope I inherit all of this once you finally croak, old man. You're not enjoying any of it like you should."

"You were not even a concept when I considered my will. You mother left my home for thin, little white lines all those years ago and none of her blood were ever considered again. You can cut the act. Faking cute won't get you anywhere."

"Are you sure? I do a real good Shirley Temple impersonation."

"How do you even know who that is?" he couldn't help but mutter.

"Sakura used to love those stupid old movies. I couldn't stand them without something strong to drink but…you know what, never mind. I was saying earlier that I'll be back in a few weeks because of university classes."

He didn't ask her how she was affording classes even though he knew she wasn't taking out loans, he had been kept up to date on her finances to that point at least. He was too tired for that conversation. He was likely too tired for most conversations.

"We're nothing more than strangers to each other," Danzo grumbled. He was too tired for this conversation too.

Karin clicked her tongue. "Strangers don't care like this."

"You don't care."

Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not in the habit of wasting my time for no reason. I thought you might need, if nothing else, someone to take out some of your anger on. You're a pissy old man waiting around to die. I'm sorry if I thought I should try to be anything to you, you crap apple."

He snorted at her insult. "How creative."

"Whatever. I'm heading out. If I don't see you after this then…it was nice, I guess." In a huff she reached up and ran a hand through her hair. "I mean, it was nice to know someone Sakura trusted at least. Thank you for taking care of her when I couldn't."

The biting edges fell out of him and Danzo couldn't find them again. He would have bit something out to his once estranged granddaughter about the situation, but there was nothing for him to ridicule in her words. What a fitting way for her to leave him.

He heard her move away, and when he forced open his eyes he saw the window, the sunlight, and nothing else. Once more, he was alone with himself and his thoughts. He didn't like his thoughts.

'You failed. You did't do what you said you would do. You didn't take care of that girl. You were too hungry to see a god you missed the child in front of you. Serves you right. Wallow in it.'

It was almost as if Karin's visit had shaken free something rancid in his mind. He knew his thoughts wouldn't lighten for another great while and he wasn't in the mood to withstand the regret.

The sound of heels coming down the wooden hallway made his skin crawl. What had that damn granddaughter forgotten now? The door to his room was pushed open and he heard her come in even though he didn't turn around to greet her.

"There's nothing left to say, brat," he barked out in an effort to hide how hurt he really was. What more did she want from him? Maybe it served him right to be pricked this way by his estranged kin.

A smooth pale hand settled on his shoulder and squeezed through the fabric to find the shape of his bone there. He was little more than skin and bones these days, after all.

"That's not how someone with stage four liver cancer should talk when he has visitors."

He stilled as the energy he needed to open his eyes came out of nowhere. A half second later he turned in his seat and Sakura smiled down at him. She wore an oversized white fur coat that brushed around her thighs over a slim fit black dress meant for holiday parties. There were glittering jewels dangling from her ears but he hardly noticed.

"You," he whispered like a prayer. "You didn't…."

Sakura released his shoulder and walked around to stand in front of the old man. Reaching for his hands she knelt down on the floor in front of his chair and smiled up at him with soft eyes and kind lips. Her hair was expertly styled into a finger wave that culled under her ears and flirted with her jawline.

"It's me. It's really me. No ghost this time."

"You're too warm to be a ghost."

She laughed. "I'm sorry. I'm running a little hot these days. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but it's not bothering me much. You're just too cold in comparison."

The shock abated as logic reigned in his thoughts. When he looked at her he saw a face he knew good and well, but there was something else there. There were lights in her eyes that reflected the light in beams of gold and her skin was missing the little stars and imperfections almost all teenagers carry into early adulthood. There was nothing wounded or imperfect about her.

"You didn't die, then? Was that your plan all along?"

"Oh no, I died. I couldn't fit inside my body anymore, after all. It hurt like you wouldn't believe and I almost went crazy in panic after the last trial. I woke up and burned through my body until I couldn't take it anymore and then I…just let go. I didn't know what that would mean at the time, I thought I might really died, but it was….different."

Her voice was light in a whisper but Danzo could hear other sounds layered under her words, like there was something she was trying to hold back.

"What happened in the dream? What was the last trial?"

So Sakura told him about the tree and the fruit and the acid she had to drink to become a god. She told him about all the other actors and how it was only through their efforts and with their love, support, and belief was she able to swallow down the last of the holy nectar.

The last drop forced her away and into a panic as suddenly her body was too small, too harsh, too sharp, too everything for her to live inside of anymore. She could feel herself dying, decaying, moving closer to death with every breath and it was too much for her to take, so she burned her way out of her body into something else that wasn't a physical form at all.

"I drifted for days, not knowing what to do. Eventually I got the hang of it and started to craft for myself a…something to live in. I was a spirit that needed a body and I wanted on that wouldn't decay, but was still recognizable.

"You made a body-out of what?"

Sakura's smile slipped into a smirk as she released one of his hands to hold her own up, palm out. There was nothing there, but in the next instance, winked into existence, sat a bright red apple. Sakura turned it around before letting it roll off her hand and melt into gold and dust on the way down.

Sakura wiggled her fingers and the dusty gold mess on the floor was gone. "I made it out of whatever this world is made of, it was just like being in the dream. It's a little harder sometimes, because the texture of this reality's fabric is denser and more chaotic, but the style of it is the same. I guess that was one of the lessons we were supposed to learn while in the Obelisk. It was training for this."

"Godhood?" Danzo breathed.

"If you want to call it that," Sakura hummed, frowning to herself. "I don't feel like a god. I feel powerful, but if this is what gods are made out of I'm disappointed. I'm still me, just with a new trick or two."

Sakura released his hand completely and stepped backwards, pulling herself up to her best posture before extending her hand and drawing the creases of light together. In her palm formed a small galaxy that sucked all the sunlight out of the room until Danzo sat atop a chair of darkness in a void of space. In Sakura's hand was the only light, but it sparkled and winked around her fingers.

"I can destroy, I can create, out of nothing but thought and imagination I can construct empires and castles and monsters. I can erase from my sight the form of all my enemies, I can eradicate your diseases and yet I am still too soft with feeling." Sakura looked up from the galaxy in her hand and the light on her face made her frown stand out all the more. "But I have never been more scared in my life."

Danzo couldn't help it. The heat in his eyes spill dover and he felt the tears on his cheeks. His chest hurt as a hick up shook his body. He was seeing nothing but his dream made flesh. After all his years and all his struggles and all his sacrifices in blood and bone he was finally, finally, seeing the summary of his heart's greatest desire. He had done it. He had lived to see the beginning and the end. He had lived to see a human make herself god.

Sakura scattered the galaxy around them and it grew to glitter all around them while she fell at his knees. Her coat and dress had melted into a slinking gown made out of space and stars, clinging and then flowing in parts. She took his face in her hands and wiped away his tears.

"Danzo, I can heal you now. I can take away your cancer."

He felt his heart shudder in his chest as he struggled to breath the way he always had. "There's no need for that now. I don't need to live anymore."

"Danzo."

He reached to lay his hands over hers that still cradled his face. His eyes were open and he saw her. "I have lived to see my dream realized. Would you help me?"

The question hadn't been explained but Sakura still understood what he asked of her. Her eyes shut as if she didn't want to see him anymore, but she swallowed and nodded. "I will." Sakura let go of his face and stepped back. "Watch me, don't look away."

Danzo stared straight ahead as Sakura cracked open her shell and flooded the room with the condensed essences of her new self, the soul that needed a body. She shined so bright the world cried out around her, a multitude of voices shrieked at the sight of her though they were still alone, the rumbling circled back around and then there was nothing.

But

Silence

Danzo's body was later discovered by the housecleaner and they toured the death of a man who had died suddenly in the midst of his battle with an incurable cancer. No one cared to notice how the cancer had actually been removed from his body, or how all the old scars had been stripped away, or even the way his face seemed to just naturally rest in a smile.

Sakura tugged the front of her fur coat and looked back up at the house one last time before sighing. She had hoped things might go differently, at least with Karin and Danzo, but it had all unraveled as she assumed it would. Danzo had been Danzo to the very end. He died from the weight of her glory. What should have killed her ended his life.

"You'll get cold."

Sakura blinked and turned back to smile at her driving companion. Sai instead he be the one that drive them both everywhere they needed to go since driving was still a fairly new concept to him now that he had a human body. He claimed it wasn't the same as when he had to drive in the dreams.

"You know I don't get cold," Sakura teased, climbing into the backseat.

Gaara looked up from the phone in his hand and smiled when she slid in to sit beside him. His hair had been left a little too wild for the soft gray suit and Italian leather shoes cleaned so well she could see reflections in them. It was an outfit Ino had picked out, after all.

"What did the old man have to say?" Madara asked, turning around in his seat to watch her enter their car. He didn't spare Sai a second glance as the last door shut and the engine turned back on.

"Nothing I didn't expect. I'm glad he had his peace though…at the end. Karin was right."

"You going to be okay?" Gaara asked, reaching for her hand and brushing his thumb across her knuckles. The touch drew her attention and saved her from staring off into nothing.

From the front seat Madara glowered at the contact but said nothing. He was getting better about it, but sometimes he would still let his reactions slip out and beyond his control. Still, at the end of the day he said he was just glad he was with her at all.

After Sakura manifested a body it had been a shaky day or two of stumbling about in Cairo where only a handful of people spoke English. It was Sai who found her next and helped her through the transition process. Those days had been hell. The world had been too bright, too heavy, too smelly, too constricting, too much for her in a body that hadn't been made for such constraints.

He helped her understand the feel of power in a new body, and before two weeks were up she was fluent in half a dozen languages and pulling apples and hamburgers out of thin air.

Sakura had been ready to leave after that, but they heard about an accidental break in around the area where she had woken up and upon investigation, discovered a pair of self aware men looking for her. Madara and Gaara had manifested in their bodies in vastly different areas around the globe, but ran across each other in their shared search for Sakura. Once they found her, it was clear they had no intention of letting her go.

There were others too. Sai was better about hearing things and had found Tsunade of all people, tending to a tribe of sick children somewhere in Brazil.

"All the others who shared that drink with you are here now, a part of your pantheon."

And it made sense. They bore the weight of her sacrifice with her, after all. And all throughout history, there were gods with gods and goddesses with goddesses. Zeus was not without his family and loves just as Isis was not without her brothers and children. All gods came in sets.

Coming back to Karin and Ino had been priority though and once Sakura had her gang of girls back together they had agreed that the best thing to do was just sail away for a little while and let the world move on without them while they all adjusted to what would come next.

What would come next?

They drove to the harbor where only a handful of cars were allowed to park. From the window Sakura could see the sleek contour of the Obelisk, a Sphinx-class cruise ship that was ready for the small party to board and take her out to see. Karin said it was overkill and Sakura said she didn't know the meaning of the word anymore. Imagining a cruise ship hadn't even winded her.

"They're all here, aren't they?" Madara grumbled, running a hand through his hair and ruffling it. Sakura recognized it as a habit that was especially utilized around his relatives or the other Uchiha males who were so much neater with things like their hair and their looks.

Waiting at the ramp Itachi talked to Sasuke, likely scolding his younger brother for something as the pair watched out for trespassers. Sai had said once that finding Madara made it easier to find relatives like Itachi, Sasuke, and Shisui. Others would be harder to find, no doubt.

Itachi smiled at the approaching party, not caring for how Sasuke glared daggers into the side of his face. "The girls have gone ahead already. We were just waiting for you."

"You don't have to look like a sour grape all the time, kid," Madara groused as he passed Sasuke.

Sasuke glared at the oldest Uchiha before glancing back over at Sakura. The glare melted into a puppy pout. "He's been following me everywhere. He won't let me take a shift or a job on my own no matter where I go."

"Now brother, is that really so terrible. It's been so long since we've been together."

"You've been glued to my side for two months! Let me live a little. Go pester Shisui."

Sakura chuckled to herself as she passed the brothers and trailed behind Madara up the plank and onto the ship. Konan was already sunbathing on the desk along with Nageto while Pein made drinks for all three of them at the bar. He noticed at once when she arrived and stopped to watch her. Sakura smiled and waved, still not used to the intense way his eyes always trailed her.

"Does it seem odd to you to be going out to see without Kisame and Haku and Zabuza?" Sakura asked, leaning into Sai.

"We will find them. It is only a matter of time before our paths cross. This world is not big enough for gods to live in it without noticing one another." Sai offered her a small smile. "It doesn't hurt that most of them are actively looking for you the moment they come into awareness."

"It's still weird to think about. Us being all bonded…" Sakura let her words trail off as she stared down at her hands. She couldn't see anything odd about them, but the way Sai talked about the others who drank the ichor with her she wanted to pretend there were threads around her fingers fraying and trailing off to tie off around the fingers of everyone else.

Gaara touched her hip lightly and then left her side with an apologetic smile. Sakura smiled back, watching him cross the deck to where his sister was threatening to toss Kankuro overboard. She was shaking the middle sibling horribly when Gaara raised a hand. His sand materialized out of air and broke the pair up. Temari peeped in embarrassment and bowed her head, blushing scarlet while her youngest brother began to scold her and Kankuro both for being rough. The entire scene made Sakura want to laugh.

When they came into the world, the actors like Gaara and Madara and Pein all came with limited powers, but powers nevertheless. Sakura's abilities were the most developed out of all of them, by far, but Pein still made it rain and struck people he didn't like with lightning, Madara swayed the minds with his red spinning eyes and Gaara was still the same sandman.

"I need to check in on Karin," Sakura said, leaning into Sai.

He nodded and with a quick kiss on the cheek, she was walking off to the lower decks where the fancy rooms for sleeping and resting were. There were too many rooms and half of them would never be used, but Sakura anticipated discovering more people from the Obelisk to help fill up some more of the ship. It was a dream of hers, to find them all and bring them into her fold like a found family.

Sakura spotted Ino in the hallway with an ice bucket and flagged her down.

"Have you seen Karin?"

The blonde nodded. "She's resting in my room. Give it another day and she'll find her sea legs. Did you have something you wanted to talk to her about?"

Sakura shook her head. "I can speak to her about it later. She already knew I was going to be there visiting Danzo right after her visit. I just wanted to update her on how it went but I can wait until she is feeling better."

Ino stared at Sakura for a moment longer and then smiled softly, seeing something. "She'll understand. You don't have to beat yourself up for any of it."

Sakura flushed. "I'm not. Who said I was?"

"Your face, honey." Ino laughed and reached over to kiss the side of Sakura's face. "It's written all over. You care for us too much. Make sure you come visit me later too."

"I'll fit you in somewhere on my busy schedule," Sakura mocked in an overly fancy British accent, pretending to write in a book.

It made Ino laugh like it used to when they were both girls together, mocking the men and women who worked too hard and never enjoyed life enough. Now they finally could be the people they said they would become when they were kids.

"Hey, where are you going after this?" Ino asked. Sakura had been walking away but she stopped to look back at her blonde friend.

"I was going to check in and see if Yamato and Genma made it here yet. Last I heard they said they were going to be on board before five, but it's four and Yamato has been known to arrive ahead of schedule. Sai needs their help plotting a course that brings us closer to where some of the other actors might be."

Ino's brows drew together. "I don't think either of them showed up, I would have recognized them, but we did get another arrival. Check your cabin."

Sakura thought that was an odd place to check since most of the people who were new or newly arrived, would wait for her in open spaces like the deck, like Lee and Neji had.

Her quarters were three times as large as the normal cabins and in their own wing of the ship with too many windows and a bed big enough to sleep forever in. Sakura let herself in and slipped her fur coat down to her elbows before shrugging out of it completely and folding it over her arm.

"Hello?" she called out. She let herself further into the room, hearing movement behind the curtain on the small balcony her room led out to. She tossed her coat aside and put on her best smile, eager to see who had come to them.

The white gauze of the curtains blew around her and settled only when she reached to pin them down with her hand. He placed his palm over her hand, helping her restrain the curtain while also drawing himself closer to her. Sakura stilled, her eyes going wide.

"You said you'd see me again, why are you so surprised?"

Her voice was barely there when she breathed out. "Is this a dream?"

Sasori chuckled and drew her closer with an arm wrapped around her waist. Another hand went into her hair and tugged her to him. "Not this time, doll face."

Sakura melted into that kiss and every kiss after.

Here we are at the end of it all

The music and the lights don't dance on daggers like they used to

Here we are at the end of all things

The wolves and the bests don't bite on our bones like they used to

Here we are at the end of another dream

The monsters and the lovers don't bleed into the sea like they used to

Here we are at the end of it again

The gods and the sands don't swallow things like they used to

Here we are at the end

-Vesper Chan, Kingdom of Gods, 2017

-FIN-

AN:/ And that is the Epilogue. It's not perfect in explaining everything, like how Jugo stayed behind to finish writing Sakura's story off of vice recordings she sends him from different places around the world, or how Ami who is in Europe studying photography is surprised but happy to see friends she hasn't heard from in months? And then there is the whole drama with the council members and the leftovers of Danzo's Root soldiers. Yamato and Genma take over and keep track of their small army for Sakura I think.

I love happy endings. I love sad and heart crushing moments too, but I'm a sucker for the happy endings and originally this was supposed to end with Sakura just sailing around looking for Sasori, but I...had to make them kiss at the end. Let the guy have his kiss. The nature of her relationship with the rest of the guys...that's up to you. Maybe Sakura's a one-man sort of gal, or maybe she's the goddess of a small harem. Who knows. I will leave that up to you.

This isn't Naruto chapter 700 where nothing makes sense.

If you've been here since the beginning or you're coming to this story long after it's ended, I hope you enjoyed the adventure. Obelisk has been my heart's delight for years now, and it's done and finished on my birthday like I planned it that way or something. (I didn't.)

I'm going to be emotional about this for a while-days more. But thank you all. You guys have been awesome. I am so thankful for all you lovely readers for reading, reviewing, and sticking with me this whole time. It's been amazing to hear from people who are depressed or broken or hurting and hear how Obelisk resonates with them and their struggles. That is Obelisk and I'm humbled to be able to work as a person who manages to help others.

Thank you for sharing Obelisk with me. You're all lovely, I love you, I wouldn't not have gotten this far without the support, love, and care from this community. You guys are amazing. I love you all. Thank you for sticking with me!

That's the end.

If you can, please leave me a review to let me know you're still on board with the story and still find it interesting. I love to hear back from you and know my work is reaching people. Thank you!