Well this is it. The last part. It's pretty short and then it's followed by lots of author's notes. Sorry about that, but there's stuff I just feel like I need to say. But first I just really want to thank everyone who's made it this far and especially those who've been nice enough to leave a review. You're awesome. I've always known that this wouldn't be a particularly popular story, because this is one odd crossover, so each review it's gotten feels pretty damn special. Thank you. And I hope the ending won't leave people too disappointed.

On the Road Again,

As it always was

Sam is driving. He's not really sure why, because Sam driving the car is still kind of a big deal. He gets to drive the Impala nowadays, at least sometimes, but it's rare enough that he can still name each occasion that he's been behind the wheel.

He has no idea where they're going. When he'd woken up Dean had been all set to leave. He'd almost seemed anxious to get going and Sam only offered up a token argument. The only thing Dean had really said to that was to ask Sam if he was good to drive. That wasn't really like Dean at all, but okay, yesterday had been bad in so many ways that Sam didn't say anything about it. Not when his head still felt addled with sleep and the lingering traces of a headache.

Really, Sam didn't mind leaving, he wasn't exactly fond of the town after everything. Besides being offered to drive the car was still a novelty and made his gut clench a bit because he knew that it was Dean's way of saying all the things he'd never put into words. Sam takes what he can get when it comes to Dean. So he'd told Dean that he was fine to drive. After all, all he really had to show from the whole experience was a few bruises.

So Sam drives. There's no destination, no new hunt waiting for them at the end. There's no word of their still missing dad, no place at all they need to go and all they're doing is driving away. But it's not the first time they're doing that, because sometimes you just need to get away. And sooner or later something will come up, until then just going somewhere is good enough.

He looks over at Dean and his brother still looks like he hasn't slept all night. Sam's pretty sure he hasn't and that's a whole lot less okay. Right now Dean is sitting in the all too quiet car and staring out the side window. Sam can't see the expression on his brother's face, but then that's probably the point.

Sam hasn't stopped thinking about yesterday, because he damn well wants to know what the hell all of that was. He'd want to know anyway, but right now he sort of really wants to know because none of it seems to add up to Dean acting like this.

"So, who were the kids?" Sam asks.

Because that's the thing that doesn't fit. The crazy would be demon worshipers that didn't seem to know the first thing about summoning demons, weren't really that far from the Winchester version of normal. Sam being in danger is usual enough and people dying isn't that out of the ordinary either, not really, even if he wishes it was. Maybe Dean is feeling guilty about it, but Sam doesn't think so because Dean would hide that better.

"They didn't exactly look like hunters." Sam has never really met all that many hunters. As a kid he'd seen a few others when their dad had some business with them, but he has a good enough idea what hunters are usually like.

Hunters are definitely not blond kids with bright smiles and too much energy. They're not monochromatic teenagers with dead eyes who move faster than Sam can see.

"No, they were ninjas," his brother says, sarcasm dripping from the words. "What do you think they were, Sammy?"

Then Dean turns the music on, as loud as he can. After that conversation is pretty much impossible.

He stands in the middle of the small clearing in the forest. The sunlight reflecting of the slightly scratched metal of the hitai-ate clutched in his hands blinds him for a moment. Slowly he raises it to his forehead and ties it into place.

After so many years without it, the feel of cloth against his forehead feels strange. Out of place.

He looks up, slow and reluctant. Like the hitai-ate had added too much weight for his movements to be easy.

There's a dark form standing in the shadows at the edge of the clearing.

Their eyes meet, sky blue and dark, dark gray.

It's too far away to bee completely sure, but he thinks an ever so slight smile lurks at the edges of the other's lips. The distance doesn't stop him from seeing when red blooms in those dark eyes. Maybe he was looking for it.

His own eyes close briefly. When he opens them he's alone.

He takes a deep breath, turns around and takes off into the branches and heads towards home. Hopefully he hasn't been away too long.

A deep, satisfied, blood tinged laugh rumbles inside his mind.

THE END

I know that there's a lot of questions left unanswered, but the point of the story was always to let people draw their own conclusions about what really happened. I guess that's part of the slightly lame name for this whole thing. Read between the lines? ^^;

So obviously when it comes to the relationships between the characters I was being purposefully ambiguous. This is written as a gen fic, obviously the thing about Jess is a bit tricky, but as long as I'm just implying things, well… people can still figure out an answer that they'll be most comfortable with. There's no right answers to any of it. I'm really not trying to imply anything here, but personally I tend to have a slight preference to slash, a thing for threesomes and polyamory, open relationships seem completely reasonable, I kind of like crossdressing and don't really mind gender bending and don't find long relationships without any sex all that believable. So if it seems like I'm hinting at something, well I might be and it might also be completely accidental.

I'm being annoyingly vague about the Naruto timeline, but the truth of it is that just don't know enough to place this anywhere in specific and since this doesn't take place in that world I can be vague about it. But, yeah I've no clue. Also, I'm firmly of the opinion that travelling between worlds… yeah time doesn't necessarily align perfectly between them or who's to say that when you're skipping from one world to another, why couldn't you do it through time too? So, I'm not saying anything at all about how long Naruto and Sasuke were gone from their world.

I really tried not to contradict cannon (if I did, that's because I don't know the cannon well enough), the idea being that after this both series go on to happen exactly like they do. So this was always how the story had to end, it couldn't have a happy ending and the ninjas certainly couldn't stay. It's not a story that's meant to change anything, it's kind of meant to be about finding whatever happiness you can even when things are completely fucked, even when you know it won't last. Something like that.

If the story hadn't had to end like this, there's so many things I might have liked to explore. I was asked if the fact that Sam loved Jess means that he would/could fall in love with Naruto, seeing as in this story Naruto is Jess (that's one story I'd like to read). But I don't know the answer and it would have been interesting to find out. Just like I kind of would have liked to find out what Dean tells Sam about all of this or what would happen if Sam found out the truth. But it just wasn't possible in this story.

So, thanks to everyone who's been reading. Again. I hope you enjoyed the story (and if you didn't I think it's really weird that you're reading this). For my part it's been an interesting experience and at least I had fun. :)