Naruto © Kishimoto Masashi
This scene takes approximately 15 minutes
Last KissThe ninjas arrived back to Konoha. Shikamaru followed with Chouji and Rock Lee with Neji as the medics took them under their care. The three Sand nins looked depressed. Kiba carried his dog, trying to find his family members from the crowd. He saw Haruno Sakura struggling to get through. He also saw his team mate, Hyuga Hinata, and his old teacher, Iruka. Oh man, this wouldn't be nice to any of them. Sakura got through and ran to Kakashi. Kiba sighed and noticed Hinata was standing in front of him. "Hi, Kiba-kun." she said. "Hi, Hinata..." Kiba answered. "I heard you and others went for a difficult mission... and n-now... you're all back... I-I hope... Is everyone OK?" she managed to ask. Kiba's looks dimmed and he looked at the ground. He held his hand on his wound and flinched as the pain reminded him of itself. "Not... everyone is OK, Hinata..." "Oh... I see..." Hinata gulped. She didn't want to believe that any of her friends and team mates could be injured. "That bastard Sasuke. Fuck dammit!" Kiba cursed but shed a tear. He lifted his face so that Hinata saw him well. "THAT FUCKING BASTARD!" he yelled. "Because of him... because of him... me and Akamaru are injured and so is Shikamaru. Because of him a shinobi who just got out of the hospital came to help us and three foreign ninjas too..." Hinata got more and more scared as Kiba continued his speech - she had never before seen Kiba crying. Her heartbeat and breathing quickened as she got more nervous. "Neji and Chouji are almost dead because of that mother fucking little wise ass bastard!! And... and..." Now tears were running from Kiba's eyes. Hinata was so horrified that she could only stand and listen, her pale skin was even paler than usual. "And... oh my god why... we believed in him... we thought he could beat some sense into Sasuke's thick skull..." "D-don't tell m-me that..." Hinata was trembling, tears starting to run from her eyes too. Kiba dropped on to his knees. "Na... Na.. Naruto is ... is... he is... dead." Kiba said between his loud sobs.
Sakura approached her teacher. She could see that Kakashi was holding someone in his arms. Sakura dashed towards the two, the person in Kakashi's arms had to be Sasuke. "Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei! Oh, did you got Sasuke back! How is he?" But as she got near enough to see who it was in Kakashis' arms, she felt disappointed. When she looked at her teacher she noticed that he had been crying. His looks were more tired than ever, he looked so sad. "Sensei... what's wrong... with Naruto..?" Sakura asked, slowly nearing the lifeless form of her team mate. "Naruto, wake up! Wake up, dumbass!" Sakura poked Naruto. "Sakura, please don't." Kakashi said with quiet voice. "Naruto... isn't going to wake up anymore..." "Wh-what d-do you mean b-by that, sensei..?!" Sakura looked horrified, starting to tremble and cry as the reality cleared to her. "But, but... this can't be true. Wh-where's Sasuke? Na-Naruto promised to bring him back! Sensei!" Sakura looked at her teacher with an inquiring look. "Sakura... I don't know anything more except that Sasuke ran away... and that he... killed his team mate..." "No, no... no... This is not true! Naruto..! You dumbass! You promised! Promised! You can't die!" Sakura bursted into tears. "How could you..?! How could... Sasuke? How could he have done this to you?! My god, I loved Sasuke and he... he... killed you, Naruto." Sakura raised her hand and gently stroked Naruto's hair. "You know what, Naruto. Not a long time ago I... I finally acknowledged you. I finally thought you as my team mate, not as an annoying little punk anymore. I realized how hard you were trying. I realized that you were a good guy after all. I thought of you as my... friend. And now I am confessing these things in vain. You can't hear me anymore... it's too late. My team was taken away from me. You... were taken away from me... I'm s-so sorry, Naruto! F-forgive m-me, p-please!" Sakura was clutching Naruto's jacket and crying uncontrollably. When she lifted her face a bit she could see their old teacher Iruka coming closer. It was something that got Sakura up from crying over Naruto. She sniffed and wiped her tears in her sleeve and ran away. Kakashi sighed and faced Iruka. "I'm sorry, Iruka. I... couldn't do anything but bring him back home..." Kakashi saw how Iruka was trying to suppress his tears. "Oh god..." he managed to say before bursting into tears too. "Naruto, no, not you. You can't be dead, huh? C'mon buddy, open your eyes, will ya?" Naruto remained still, not a sign of life upon him. Iruka's sobs deepened. He remembered how Naruto saved him from Mizuki - and now Naruto was lying dead in Kakashi's arms. How did that happen? How could this first so clumsy and annoying, later amazing and skillful little ninja be now dead? His laughter, bright eyes, pranks and hyperactive being - silenced for ever. "Please, can I hold him..?" Iruka asked. "Yeah. I think Hokage-sama over there wants to talk with me, so please, you can hold him." Kakashi carefully placed Naruto's body into Iruka's arms. Iruka hugged the little body tight. Kakashi sighed and left Iruka alone with Naruto's body.
Naruto's body was still so small though he almost managed to reach the age of fourteen. Sure he had grown and matured a lot but he was still just a little boy. A little boy who was taken to Heaven too early - none of his dreams actually came true. Iruka knew that Naruto's dream was to be acknowledged - that was the word he was always using while talking about his dream. Iruka also knew that Naruto had thought that his dream had started to come true; he had Iruka, Konohamaru and Jiraya as his friends and he had thought that his team was nice too. He had got more friends and had changed many people's minds. But one thing still missed. It wasn't that he didn't manage to become a Hokage. "To become a Hokage and to get everyone's acknowledgement", with those words Naruto tried to explain what exactly he was searching for. He hadn't experienced the thing he was searching for so how could he have described it? The little boy was looking for sincere love. Someone to love him as the person he was without the need to prove anything to that someone. Except Konohamaru and Jiraya, every single of Naruto's friends had accepted him only after he had tried his best to show them that he was a nice guy. But none of his few female friends of same age liked him that way. No one had ever loved him sincerely. "I'm so sorry for you, Naruto. You saved me. You saved the whole village... but I couldn't save you." Iruka thought in his mind, carefully holding Naruto in his arms. "You were such a good boy, you didn't deserve that kind of harsh treatment from everybody!" Iruka said in a voice slight above whisper. "You were so kind-hearted, why didn't you have anyone there to love you? Why didn't anyone notice you..?" Iruka felt sad for Naruto. He didn't know that Naruto had thought Sasuke as a substitute for a brother - and Iruka himself as a substitute for a father... But what he knew it had to be really tormenting to fight against Sasuke. Everything Naruto had believed in crushed in one day. To be betrayed and killed by his own friend.
Hinata was walking towards Iruka. Just a moment ago Sakura had run past her looking extremely sad. Though Kiba had said it to her and Sakura had looked so sad, Hinata did not want to believe that Naruto could be a goner. Now she could see Iruka's back. He had sat down on the ground and was embracing somebody wearing orange clothes. She could hear Iruka's cry. Hinata stood still. Horror grew inside her. She took a small step and stood still again. It was so difficult to go any closer. She wanted to see if Naruto still could be alive - and in other hand she wanted to see the boy one last time if he really was... dead. But she so hard wanted this all to be just a bad dream, she wanted to believe that she'd wake up any time now. But Iruka was still crying over the person he was holding in his lap and she herself was standing few meters away from them, almost forgetting to breath. She gathered all the willpower she had left and went close enough to see clearly if it really was Naruto. She slowly got nearer, seeing more and more of the clothes and personal details of the person in Iruka's lap. Maybe someone just happened to wear same kind of clothes as Naruto too? Yeah, that could be it. Finally she was in front of Iruka and saw the whole body of Naruto. She gasped in horror and her hand went to cover her mouth. Tears started to flow from her eyes. Sobbing loudly she kneeled beside Naruto. "No, no, no!! Iruka-sensei, tell me he isn't dead!" she cried. "Hinata?" Iruka snapped out of his mourn. He was genuinelly surprised that Hinata was so worried about Naruto. Hinata had always been so shy and quiet but now she was in front of him, openly crying for Naruto. Iruka loosed his grip so that Hinata could see better. "I'm.. I'm really sorry, Hinata. I can't tell you that." Iruka watched how Hinata stretched her hand out and caressed Naruto's cheek so softly. "Naruto-kun..." she whispered, moving her hand farther up along Naruto's features. She let her left thumb go lightly along Naruto's right eyebrow and her fingers went into his hair. Then she started stroking his hair, from hairline to the back of the head. So carefully, so tenderly. Tears were dropping from Hinata's eyes, her face was so grief-stricken. Iruka somehow understood and placed Naruto in Hinata's arms. "Oh, god, why... why... why" Hinata whispered through her tears and hugged Naruto so tightly pressing her face in his jacket, then bursting into violent tears, swaying back and forth. "Hinata..." Iruka tried to soothe his old student. He hadn't know that Hinata cared this much about Naruto. This was so heartrending to watch. There actually had been this somebody who loved Naruto as the person he was - but the possibility to these two to meet each other and to realize their feelings was taken away in the cruelest possible way. It was so unfair. Absolutely unfair. Iruka felt so depressed as he watched Hinata continuing her caresses and strokes. She fiddled with the string on Naruto's left shoulder, then she took his left hand into her right one. She squeezed Naruto's hand, her thumb going to-and-fro over his knuckles. "Naruto-kun... I.. I.. love you." Hinata placed a small kiss on Naruto's forehead.
End.