And here's the ending. This chapter is somewhat inspired by I Have Called You Friend, but it seems kind of possible that Karin modified his memories and the court scene is inspired by Grisu's Uchiha's Bane.

"Is it today the day? Is it? Is it?" prodded a raven-haired female.

Her silver-haired companion chuckled as he wound the bandages around his legs. "Yes, today is the day," he replied at last.

"Finally!" she shouted as she hurried out of the shared bedroom after a short session of jumping up and down excitedly. Her companion shook his head as he leisurely stood and checked over the room. The queen-sized bed was made, the shuriken print covers perfectly flat. The bedside lamp was turned off. The dresser drawers were closed. Closet was closed along with the bathroom door. Window was closed and not one volume of Icha Icha out of place on the small bookshelf he kept by the dresser.

"Hurry up, Kakashi! We don't want to be late!" Amaya shouted, sticking her head out from around the corner before running back out the door of their apartment. Kakashi shook his head and muttered aloud, "Now when have I ever been late for anything?"

The sky was overcast this morning, noted the 19-yr-old jounin medic, Haruno Sakura. She heard footsteps behind her as she stood by the Western gate and turned. "Hey Naruto."

"Hey Sakura-chan," cried out the exuberant shinobi, his shy girlfriend beside him.

"Hello Sakura-chan."

"Hi Hinata-chan," she greeted. Naruto smiled. "It's been three years," he said softly.

"Yes," she replied in a similar tone. 'Three years and so much has changed, but also so little.'

Slowly, the others began appearing. Everyone from the Konoha 12 with the addition of Sai. It was surprising to see that even when three years had passed, they all looked relatively the same. 'Where's—'

Then she heard it. "Sorry, we're late, but—"

Amaya cuffed Kakashi over the head. "Enough with the excuses and what do you mean 'we?'" she grumbled before turning worriedly to Sakura. "We aren't late, right?"

Sakura shook her head. "No. You're fine."

"Oh, good," she said before giving an apologetic kiss on the cheek to her boyfriend.

They all turned to the gate, staring into the forest of trees, their eyes honing on the dirt path. Sakura bit her lip. "Where is he? He said he'd come today. It's been three years," she muttered to herself. Where was he? He promised her three years in the letter he left in her bag all those years ago in Suna and in the letter that appeared in her mailbox, so where—

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura looked up from biting her nails to see a figure on the horizon. He wore a black traveling cloak over his clothing, but every now and again, you'd see a flash of his white shirt and his black pants. He had a sword without a hilt and when he came closer, he had a small smirk on his face and her heart fluttered as tears stung her eyes. "Sasuke-kun?"

He looked at her with a smirk and raised his hand to brush his thumb over her cheek. "Hello, Sakura."

Tsunade rested her chin delicately in the cradle her fingers created as she propped her arms up. It was noon and paperwork stood on either side of her, sake bottles neighboring the stacks. She stared contemplatively at the young man before her. For everything he did, not only to the village, but to her apprentice and her future recommendation for Hokage, he deserved some form of horrible punishment and she could see it in his eyes that he realized her sadistic plans. She smiled at him for a second, fueling his unease, but put her face into a stony expression.

"Uchiha Sasuke. You betrayed the village of Konoha, defected to Sound, led to the death of many valuable shinobi of our village, and caused grief for everyone who has ever cared for you. You will be imprisoned and evaluated before being brought to trial before the council," Tsunade explained and Sasuke flinched. Imprisonment, evaluation, trial? He sighed, it was to be expected. He hung his head and awaited his fate.

"…But that can be done tomorrow," she said cheerfully.

"What?!" he shouted, startling Tsunade and Sakura, his escort. "I'm not sure I heard correctly—"

"You did," she interrupted. She turned to smile at Sakura. "You two have fun. I'm sure you have some catching up to do."

Smiling at the stunned duo, she watched with amusement as Shizune pushed the two out the door before turning to the Gondaime. "Are you sure that was the best thing to do?"

"Probably not, but hey. The kid killed a sannin and an S-class nin and came back of his own accord. He deserves some kind of reward for taking care of our problems."

And in spite of herself, Shizune found herself agreeing.

After a quick stop at her apartment to check Sasuke over, the two went over to the old Team 7 training grounds. Not surprisingly, it was empty as many people knew Kakashi would be haunting this area at this time and tended to avoid it until he was gone, as to not disturb him.

Sakura sat in the lush grass beside her raven-haired companion and tucked her legs under her chin. "So, what was it like?"

"You're being too vague. I can tell you what a lot of things are like without you ever getting the answer you might want," he replied as he lounged against the tree.

"Smart aleck," she remarked, making him chuckle. She turned to face him. "But seriously, what was it like being a missing-nin and traveling?"

"Why? You thinking of becoming one?"

"No. It's just, it has to be a different experience than if you were a regular nin."

"Hn," he grunted and she chuckled at his trademark response. Though she heard it all the time from Kakashi and Neji, it was different hearing it from Sasuke. It was special. "Well, I had you guys tailing me all the time. We could never stay at an inn and I've gotten propositioned by more women than I care to remember, but…"

"But what?"

"There was a sense of freedom that came with it. This feeling of being your own person, having control over your life. It made you appreciate things more, like a bowl of rice or just sleeping under the stars."

"You've become more philosophical since you've left," Sakura noted.

"And talkative. You've grown out your hair," he stated out of the blue, fingering her pink hair. It was the same length he remembered her having as a genin. It looked nice on her.

She smoothed her hair self-consciously. "Yeah. It's a bit of a hassle," she admitted. "What was it like with Hebi?"

Sasuke was caught off-guard by the question. "What?"

She played with the grass beneath her fingers, relishing in the slight tickle they offered. She felt like a kid again. "What was it like with all of them? Karin, Juugo, Suigetsu—how was it?"

"It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. Suigetsu was a bit cocky and a bit of a whiner, but he was a good fighter and a good friend," he answered.

"He faced off against Kisame, right? What happened to him?"

"He got dehydrated. He lived by getting water from the pine needles. I met up with him after I left you guys. We traveled for about a year together before we parted ways. The last I heard, he was still looking for the rest of the swords."

She nodded and turned to look out at the trees contrasting against the grey sky. "What about Juugo?"

"He didn't seem to really belong. He was just cursed with that enzyme in his body. That's how Orochimaru got the Curse seal. It was to duplicate what the enzyme did to him. He was actually quite gentle. I was a bit sad after he died. He grew on a person." Sasuke turned to face Sakura. "You faced against Karin, correct?"

"Hai," she answered.

"How was that?" he asked calmly.

Sakura looked up into the tree before answering. "She underestimated me and I killed her. She forgot to tie my feet up."

"I remember she tried clawing your eyes out in the beginning and thinking it was an unorthodox method."

Sakura chuckled. "Yeah. The whole entire time we were fighting, she was talking about you. When I cut off her hair instead of her head, she freaked out about what you would think of her." Sakura mentally cringed. If she hadn't pushed herself, would she have turned out that way?

Sasuke's face became shadowed. "Karin…I hated her." Sakura looked up and blinked, a question in her eyes. "She…she altered my memories of you. She made you seem like a villain in the beginning when Orochimaru tried to make me forget about you and then she begun to replace you with her. I knew they weren't real, but if I said anything, she might not have helped me so easily."

Sakura blinked at him. "How did you know they weren't real?"

Sasuke slowly lowered his lids and opened them to expose the sharingan. "This."

"Your sharingan?"

Sasuke closed his eyes and when he reopened them, they were obsidian once more. "To a degree. It's my blood. Being an Uchiha. What she did only managed to glaze over my memories. I could remember you and everyone else, but not clearly."

"I see."

"I'm not surprised she died the way she did. She was careless. Even when she was trying to modify my memories, she was careless. There were so many inaccuracies that it made it hard to believe what happened was real."

"Oh," Sakura said quietly.

The wind blew, kicking up leaves and carrying them on the breeze. The grass bowed and in the trees, a bird sang.

"You know…I was wrong."

She turned to him quizzically. "You were?"

"When I said you were annoying all those years ago—when I left the village, I was wrong. You weren't annoying. She was."

Sakura chuckled and after the laughter subsided, she was left with an inner calm that made a serene smile appear on her face. "I like this."

"You're being vague again, Haruno."

She ignored him, but decided to elaborate. He wouldn't understand unless she told him anyway. "This moment. This place in time. This calm. I like it."

"Hmm," he said contemplatively. "…I agree."

"We should do this more often," she stated.

"Aa." She chuckled and he turned to her. "What's so funny?"

"'Aa.' It's been years since I've heard you say that."

And after a minute, he couldn't help but chuckle as well.

Amaya sat by the window of the apartment she shared with her boyfriend. She looked down over the bustling streets of the village, watching all that went around her.

It was a few months after the sentencing. The village had been in uproar when they found out Sasuke came back. The trial was long, tedious, but unbearably nerve-wracking. Almost everyone on the mission became a character witness. Even Tsunade put her title on the line to vouch for him.

After much deliberation, taking into account that he betrayed the village, but killed an S-rank sannin-turned-traitor and crippled the Akatsuki by taking out two of their specialists, it was decided that Uchiha Sasuke would not be able to leave the village for the next year. He would be put under house arrest and observed for a period of six months before they would decide whether he would be able to apply for the Chunnin exams to regain his chunnin rank. He didn't mind. He knew he had brought this upon himself and now, here they all were.

Sasuke finally came back after completing his first goal, Sakura got the love of her life back, Naruto was well on his way to becoming Hokage, Hinata got the boy of her dreams, Neji was finally happy with his life and Tenten couldn't agree with her boyfriend more, Kurenai had a pair of healthy twins, Ino had finally got her troublesome teammate, Shikamaru was keeping true to his word and making Asuma proud, and Kakashi and Amaya had each other. Everyone got their own piece of happiness, because fate had a funny way of making things alright again and Kakashi and Amaya were fated to have a bit more happiness in their lives.

"Amaya, I'm home!" Kakashi shouted from the entrance, just having gotten back from a three-week A-rank mission. Amaya smiled.

He just didn't know it yet.

Owari