THE Epilogue

Author's note: Hey everyone, I would just tell you now that this is an alternate ending. Although I wanted readers to make up their own ending for their own based on the other epilogue before this one, I thought that maybe I can have a go on my own ending. Which is weird because it's my story, and yet…

Anyways, there were actually three possible endings for HTL. The first one, surprisingly, was this one. That one was supposed to let readers come up with their own ending, in other words, the epilogue ended ambiguously. I was kind of thinking that maybe this ending was a little biased, but at the same time I really wanted this ending more than anything.

The second choice was the one I wrote for the story and actually published as the original epilogue. It was more realistic… yeah…

The third ending was Akemi's death… but I have a feeling that a bunch of people with torches and pitchforks would want to know where I lived. Holy shit, I had to trash that out right away.

So I wanted to let you guys read this particular ending because it was my favorite out of the three endings. I guess it is a happy ending, but after reading it I think you might get warm and fuzzy inside. Well, er, I think so. Meh.

Anywho, enjoy!

Settings: This part covers the idea after Kakashi says his final goodbye to Akemi before she loses consciousness.

AKEMI'S POV

I remembered that there was something in front of me. It was probably some sort of glass or plastic wall. Everything was bright with white light, so bright that I can see an angry glare in front of me, which was reflected by the glass wall.

When I tried to move, I couldn't. I couldn't even speak, let alone move my mouth. I was only able to move my arms and hands. I noticed a small smudge on the glass and I involuntarily tried to wipe it with my fingers.

But as soon as I touched the smudge, my mind started to race. Every image that raced through my memory involved someone. That white haired, porn reading ninja…

More memories flashed before my eyes. This time, they involved those three pesky kids. And then I realized that everything was going by so fast that I was afraid to blink. The images, the movements, the memories… they all happened at once. What was this? Why am I seeing all of this?

And then suddenly, I was back in the white room, with the mirror in front of me. I saw my reflection now, as before it was a large glare of light, and the smudge started to disappear. I tried to call out, because the last image I had seen was Kakashi, but I couldn't because my voice was gone.

The smudge disappeared and all I saw was my reflection. The girl who looked like me, standing opposite of me, looked extremely sad. Then I noticed that she was crying. She was crying, covered in silver light. She was stretching out to touch something. All I could see was a hand.

My head started to hurt as I heard a loud noise echo in my head. It was followed by numerous amounts of voices of speech, combined together to create such a noise that I couldn't interpret what each individual voice was saying. Then I heard a small cry from a wolf, but it disappeared by the mingled voices.

However, I did hear one voice, very loudly and clear.

It was deep, warm, and soft at the same time. It reminded me of someone so familiar. He spoke so softly, as if I was next to him. As if he was talking in my ear.

"I'll see you later."

It was then I woke up with a start. I was back at my apartment again, the white bed sheets all ruffled around me. It was morning and I heard the birds chirp as I lied on the bed on my side, hoping that whatever I just dreamt was just a bad dream.

I felt myself growing tired again and I yawned while I stretched as a warm hand lightly caressed my cheek. I smiled as I turned to the owner of the hand. He grinned back at me while I yawned again.

"Good morning," Kakashi said cheerfully. I saw that he was out of his pajamas and into his regular teaching attire but without his forehead protector. He was snuggled inside the blankets with me. My eyes quickly darted at the clock and I realized that I was an hour late to meet Naruto and the other kids.

"Good morning," I said slowly. "Am I late again?"

"Yes, but I warned you about staying up too late reading the latest book," he said, still smiling. "I told Naruto and the others to start training without us. I was going to visit Obito, but I was hoping that you would wake up before I left."

"I'm awake," I assured him. His hand, which was placed on my cheek earlier before, had now gently grasped my free hand. I smiled again as I snuggled closer towards him.

"I had a weird dream…" I whispered, as Kakashi stared at me with his one eye.

He smiled. "Hmm?"

"Yeah, it was something about mirrors… and a wolf…" I mumbled, shaking my head slightly. "If there such a thing as a demon wolf?"

"You mean yourself, when you're starving?" he asked. I punched his arm while he laughed.

"I guess it was just a dream after all…" I said, sighing.

"Akemi?"

"What is it?"

Kakashi's eyebrows were contorted in worry as his hand raised to me cheek again. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

I raised my own hand to my cheek and realized that I was crying. Hot, wet tears were slowly dripping down my face. I quickly wiped them with my hand, while Kakashi helped me.

"Whoa, that was weird," I said, startled, as he continued to stare at me worriedly. "I didn't know where that came from."

"Did you have a nightmare?" he asked.

I shook my head. "It wasn't a nightmare. It was just a really weird dream."

"Why don't you talk to me about it?" he encouraged.

"Do we have time?" I asked, as I nervously glanced at the clock.

"Of course," said Kakashi, almost immediately. He plopped himself comfortable next to me and faced in my direction. His face was barely an inch from mines. "Do tell."

"Well…" I said, trying to think about my dream and refraining myself from making out with him. Stupid mask. "First, it was about a girl from another world. She also had some sort of person talking within her and some sort of wolf demon that was kind of like Naruto's Nine Tails."

"What… the…?" Kakashi muttered, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I know. Weird, eh?"

"And then what happened?"

The End

So I hope you guys enjoyed my alternate ending. As I said before, I liked this ending way more than the one I published before. I thought that maybe this chapter was biased but after reading it a couple of times I realized that it wasn't as bad as I thought. I just hope people didn't find it too cheesy. The final revelation?

So you guys are probably wondering… wait, did Akemi forget about everything? Is this scene a reality or just a made-up dream? Did the wolf exist? Wasn't she supposed to be in her world? Where did Sai go? Let your imaginations fly everyone. That's up to you readers.

And now, HTL is finally ended and I hoped you guys enjoyed this ending. I certainly did. Until next time… Toodles!

Oh, and check out my new story Simply Nothing.