At first, all that was he saw was black. Then there was a white flash and he jolted back to conciousness. As his pale blue eyes focused, he made out the figure of a woman kneeling over him, her hands, radiating chakra, moving over his bloody chest, which began again to move up and down as his breathing returned to normal..

What happened?

Then he remembered as he looked into the dark sky and saw the twinkling stars surrounding the glowing moon.

Nine tails, each causing death and destruction, whipping around. Many ninja jumping to attack, falling, dieing.

"AAAAAUGH!" the man screamed as he felt a rib puncture his chest.

He heard voices, screaming voices, ones that yelled that he was going into shock, that his wound was causing him to lose blood, that he was close to death.

And suddenly, he remembered.

He was Dakeyoi Mokinto, a Jonin of Konoha. His mission: hold back the chakra demon, the Nine Tailed Fox.

I... I'm on the verge of death.

He saw a white object poking out of his flesh.

My bone.

He felt pain and terror, but at the same time he felt happy and sad.

The Fourth Hokage had defeated the Nine Tailed Fox. But he had died doing this amazingly difficult task. The horrible demon was sealed in a young child, the Fourth Hokage's son.

Naruto.

Mokinto couldn't remember exactly how he knew the name, but yet he was sure that it was the baby's name.

A glowing red tail lashing out at him, knocking him into the cold air.

He had fallen and hit the ground, hard.

He knew already, even though he had two medics hovering over him, trying their best to save him, that he was going to die. He didn't know whether to be sad or happy. Konoha was safe.

But I am dieing.

He chided himself, as he believed and knew that it was a ninja's job to risk his life to save those he loved.

He recalled the smiling face of his wife and his child. The memory warmed him inside. An involuntary reaction to the chakra being pumped into his body caused his back muscles to make him jerk into a sitting position, making him cry out in pain and startle the medics working on him. His messy black hair was in front of one of his eyes as the medics helped him to lay back down as they continued to work.

He would be alright.

Then Mokinto heard the medic say to her partner in a startled voice that his internal organs were slowly shutting down and that his heart would probably shut down in a matter of minutes.

He was dieing.... But that did not stop him from being happy that his wife and child were safe along with the rest of Konoha.

He heard the medic ask him if he wanted her to continue to work on him or take him off of her support.

"Just try to save other lives," he told her, "I'm going to die anyway. But before I die, please turn me around so that I may see my home one last time."

After she turned him body around he surveyed Konoha for several minutes. He saw his home, the Hokage's office, the faces carved into the side of the mountain. And memories. Many, many memories. He didn't want to die, but then again, he didn't have a choice.

I guess the Third might become Hokage again.

He turned his head sideways and coughed into the wet grass beside him and wasn't surprised to see blood.

As his arms and legs began to numb he closed his eyes for a moment and thought of all of his friends, dead and alive. But the faces that stood out the most were those of his wife and child. His wife's beautiful and smooth face, her long black hair falling to her shoulders with her beautiful green eyes looking at him while his son clung to her leg, his eternally tousled black hair hanging around his ears with tears in his blue eyes.

He sighed and opened his eyes.

Slowly, his vision began to dim like it was being eaten away from the sides of his eyes and he knew he was about to die.

As he died, he smiled, and that smile lingered on his face forever.