Queen of Air and Darkness

Epilogue

"Do you think the sword is gone forever?" Sakura asked, kicking a stray leaf with her foot. She looked up at Kakashi beside her. Although the days were growing longer, and slowly, so slowly, and the snow melted to give way to spring, he still wore a dark, heavy coat to ward away the chill.

He always had been weak to the cold.

"I don't know," Kakashi said. "I think, if we need it, we'll find it."

The Forest Flame had utterly disappeared. They had hunted for it for months now, conducting their search along the river. Part of Sakura hoped they never found it. But worse was the alternative. If the wrong person found the sword and claimed its power for their own it could drive another schism right through Konoha.

"Would it be so bad, to leave it at the bottom of a river somewhere," Kakashi asked, thinking out loud. "Perhaps it would be better for all of us to choose our own destiny. To let the people decide forever."

It had been three months since Naruto had "disappeared", Sasuke in tow. Neither had written, and Sakura and Kakashi had no idea of their whereabouts. But Naruto had never written, not when he had first left under Sir Jiriaya's tutelage. That was not who he was. Even when he had returned to Konoha, it had not felt as if he was fully there. Some part of him had always seemed conflicted, half possessed with thoughts of Sasuke. His all-consuming obsession.

"Perhaps it is better this way," Sakura murmured. "Konoha can pick a king that cares for it."

In their weeks of searching, all they had found was the final wreckages of the white monster's destruction. It churned Sakura's stomach, a reminder that this thing wasn't truly settled. They were too many threads left unresolved. Madara's monsters had been slaughtered in the battle, but in her gut, Sakura knew that there were still some that had gotten away.

And now they waited, somewhere in the wilderness.

Did they harbor a grudge for the destruction of their master? Or had they become nothing but monsters, roaming the forest as dangerous and feral as any beast? Sakura was not satisfied with the few answers available to her. Time spent researching in Konoha's library had not turned up any answers about the creatures' origins either. In his purges, King Hiruzen and Danzo had done great harm to Konoha. They had destroyed centuries of knowledge and history, and now it would not be so easily rebuilt.

But the monsters were not the only threat remaining. The Akatsuki were still out there. Konan had fought in their battle, had rallied their troops, but the rest of their number were still a great, terrifying unknown. Sakura had caught a glimpse of the black and red livery of the Akatsuki in the thick of the battle, but she did not fool herself: they were not allies now. Any assistance in the war had been a score to settle with Sasuke Uchiha. Nothing more.

Sakura scowled, thinking again of Naruto's choice of Sasuke. Of how, despite everything that the Uchiha had done, Naruto had still believed in him enough to throw everything away to chase him. As he had always done. In his own way, Naruto had also carved a path of destruction through Konoha.

As if sensing her thoughts, Kakashi said "Don't be so hard on Naruto." He pressed his lips to his forehead. "He wasn't meant for leadership."

Sakura chewed her lip. She hoped he was happy now, he and Sasuke off in some forgotten wasteland, fighting their private war. But they had all paid a high price for that happiness.

How strange, now, to think of the world they were building. Kakashi was to be king. It was not yet official, but he would be crowned tonight. It had taken weeks of building trust among the nobles who had not been on the battlefield that day. Sakura knew well the factions of support Kakashi had had to win over. Merchants, noble families that handled grain, food supply. She had listened to Tsunade complain about them all the time when she had been the former regent's squire.