A/N: The third and final part of the fic. :D A bit shorter, and in Sasuke's perspective.

That's Loss

In one night, I lost my whole family. Every uncle, every cousin. I had no one left.

Orphaned and alone, with nothing but an empty house to come home to every day, I felt I was truly one to be pitied.

Who could possibly understand my grief?

Naruto gave himself away so easily. Little pieces of himself, here and there, given gladly to those people precious to him. The pieces were spread so widely over so many different countries it was astounding--how did he not fall apart? But he was always so happy to invite someone else into his world, to present them with a piece of his heart.

I asked him about it once. He looked confused for a moment, before his face lit up with a smile. "It's nice," he had said warmly, "to have so many people to protect."

I took me a long time to understand. But I wanted to; I wanted to know how Naruto made himself so strong. I wanted his secrets.

How could he stay standing? How could he climb to his feet, again and again, and fight--even when outnumbered twenty to one?

I could do it--I was a prodigy.

But how could someone like him...

And then I wondered--when did I start thinking of him like this?

He was late for the meeting, so I offered to find him. After checking his apartment and the top of the monument, there was only one other place for him to be; so then I was making my way though the trees, ducking branches and stepping over roots, knowing my way by heart to the small clearing--where I'd last met him as a child. And sure enough, as I stepped from the underbrush onto soft earth, Naruto was there.

He was looking at me; he must have heard me coming for awhile. His hands were dirty, and his eyes too blue. "Oh, hello," he said with a somewhat-grin.

Immediately, I asked him, "What are you doing?"

And maybe what I said funny, because the corners of his mouth lifted in what could've been a smile. "Burying a bird."

I frowned in some confusion. "A bird?"

Naruto's smile was more pronounced now. "Yeah," he said, and rose to his feet. He turned to look back at the tree he'd been sitting against. "A little bird I was trying to nurse back to health. It..." His eyes closed and his head tipped forward, his smile straining; as though he was remembering a joke, but lacked any will to laugh. "It felt out of a tree and broke it's wing. But it stopped eating after awhile. A lot of them do."

"A lot of them?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "How often do you find broken birds?"

Naruto glanced at me slowly. "Frequently," he admitted. "When I see one laying there, all hurt and abandoned, I can't help but help it...y'know?"

I could honestly say that, no, I've never felt any kind of urge to bring a wild animal home to tend to, be it bird, fox, badger, whatever. But I couldn't say that to him now, with him watching me so carefully. I settled for a noncommittal, "I guess so," which seemed to satisfy him because he turned from me to face the tree fully.

"We need to get going," I told him after a moment, trying to reign in some impatience. "Are you really that upset over a bird? The world isn't ending, you know."

Naruto's shoulders slumped, as though in some sort of defeat. "Maybe so," he said, and his voice was like a vocalized sigh. "But...It was alive. When you're alive, you mean something--to someone, somewhere. You do."

Who is he trying to convince?

And he was digging something out of his pocket; a small piece of wood, carved into the shape of a bird with wings outspread. It was rather crude-looking, but it must've taken some time. Naruto set it gently against the base of the tree, and then he turned to join me near the trees.

"Alright," he said, and the light-heartedness in his voice didn't sound right. "Let's go."

Something about his face then struck me; the smothered sorrow in his eyes, the grief, the regret--he had cradled a fluttering little life in his fingers, and now it was cold and still. I was compelled, by the muted pain in his expression, to glance at the tree again, at the packed earth around its base, at the wooden bird on the ground prepared to fly.

All of it meant something, I was sure. The stirrings of something in the back of my mind were telling me so, but as a light rain began to fall I thrust all such thoughts away.

It was just a bird. It didn't mean a thing.

I tipped my head to the side, irritated now at being wet and at the prospect of doing whatever Kakashi had planned for us in the current conditions, preparing to tell Naruto to suck it up and get moving--but his eyes were on me, bright blue against a dull gray. When he smiled, he looked more hurt by my expression than I'd ever seen him--but resigned, too.

And he said, "We should get moving. I know you hate the rain."

Later I was walking by Ichiraku's on my way home, and happened to glance in when I heard familiar voices. Naruto's arms were folded on the counter, his face buried out of sight, and our old academy teacher--Iruka?--had an arm around his shoulders.

"I can't save anything," Naruto was muttering, and the Chuunin's expression became a little more firm, his tone slightly scolding.

"That's not true," he told the Genin sternly. "And you know it's not true."

Naruto lifted his head out of his arms, just enough to peer out at Iruka with angry blue eyes. "If I can't keep a tiny little bird alive, how am I supposed to protect my friends?"

The man smiled now, and ruffled sunshine-blond hair. "Your friends are a bit tougher than baby birds, Naruto. When that time comes--if it comes--they won't be standing back to watch you fight for them, will they?"

I watched dawn in those bright eyes and a slow grin slide across his face. I left after that.

He'd left his friends behind one by one to come after me. For a moment--for just a second--I wondered how much that had to hurt someone like Naruto, who'd given more of himself away than it was safe to. And I could see the emotions raging behind his eyes--and then we clashed.

His eyes were dark now, but still sad. And as a bright light surrounded us both, those eyes slid closed.

And now the waves were rocking in the rain, and I was standing over him, falling to my knees, faces inches above his, willing his eyes to open, but--

No.

And then I was walking away--wondering why rain, which had always seemed to open my life to something new, was now drawing the curtains.

In one night, I lost everything. My friends, my team. Everything I worked so hard for. I had nothing left.

Alone again, but this time it's my fault. It's time to get stronger. I can't have anything getting in the way of my path.

You understand, right? Surely you understand.

End.

A/N: Ahh, it's over. There was a lot to this chapter, little things here and there that tied all three parts of the story together. ...Or maybe I'm the only one that sees them. I'm weird that way...

Anyway, thanks for reading, everyone! :D