Fallen Leaves

==Hidden Leaf Village, End of the Third World War==

Killer Bee slunk out of the village after giving Yugito the all clear, the small bundle in his arms snoring cutely. As he topped a nearby mountain an hour later, he smiled down at Hinata's slumbering form as he shifted the weight of the sack of scrolls he had stolen from the Hyuga Estate on his back and finally indulged in a quiet rap as he looked back at the Hidden Leaf, "Don't you worry little sweet heart, ya new life with Cloud is about to start. You won't be alone, you'll have me and Yugito to help ya skills hone! Ya gonna be great, totally first rate! You'll be such a knockout, a real exploding tag, you'll never not have a good reason for you to brag. You'll be learnin from me, the one an' only Killer Bee!" He bounded away into the night with a grin so wide it could only be matched by the vastness of the heavens as he chuckled at his success. By the time Yugito, Han, Roshi and Onoki began their assault, Bee was far enough away with Hinata that the Tailed Beast Ball's impacts were nothing but a sound of distant thunder and flashes on the far distant horizon.

==Hidden Leaf Village, Six Years Later, Spring==

Itachi sighed at Sasuke's still form and then at the corpses of his parents. He shook his head, trying to keep the disgust from his eyes, "Pathetic. All that big talk and one man wipes them all out in less than an hour." Then a thought struck him and he pried open his parents' dead eyes and then Sasuke's, "Well would you look at that," Itachi breathed with shocked excitement, "All three…" Fifteen minutes later Itachi fled the Hidden Leaf, leaving the eyeless corpses of his parents and little brother behind him amid the graveyard that had once been his home. The first horrified shouts didn't ring out until dawn almost seven hours later.

==Hidden Sand Village, Same Year, Summer==

Gaara glared at the body of his uncle as his sand writhed around him. He turned in surprise as a voice spoke from behind him, "Good job kid. I'd say that was well deserved." Gaara saw a man with shoulder length blonde hair in a dark cloak with a sheathed katana in hand, resting it easily on his shoulder. Next to him was a little girl, and they were both, smiling at him. "Who are you? Are you here to kill me too?" Gaara asked angrily. The man laughed and the little girl looked horrified at the thought, "I'll let my student answer that."

The little girl suddenly ran over, and completely heedless of the sand, enthusiastically shook Gaara's hand with a bright happy smile, "Hi! I'm Fuu! Will you be my friend? Mimasu-sensei thinks we'll have a lot in common!" Gaara stared in shock at the girl in front of him, "Friend?" "Yeah!" Fuu replied with a bright smile, "Come on! Let's go!" Gaara followed in a bit of a daze, and by dawn he was gone from Hidden Sand.

==The Land of Water, Same Year, Winter==

Haku stared after the pretty blue haired woman who had draped her coat around Haku's shoulders without a second thought despite the cold. The woman looked over her shoulder at Haku with a gentle smile, "Well? Aren't you coming?" Haku blinked and then nodded as a smile broke out over her face before running to catch up with Konan.

==Hidden Leaf Village, New Years Eve==

Minato sighed and poured a glass of the strongest sake that could be found in the ruin of what had once been the Hidden Leaf Village before passing the bottle around the table. All of Hidden Leaf's Jonin were present. All fifteen of them, sixteen if Minato was included. Only Kushina and Kurenai abstained in the interest of their pregnancies. Minato and Asuma drank theirs for them. When the bottle made it back to Minato, he raised his glass with a sad look in his eye, "To the new year." All drank and around went the bottle again, "To the Hidden Leaf." Another round, "To the Will of Fire." Once more and the bottle was emptied, "To those who have fallen." Not a single eye was dry as the sixteen leaders of the Fallen Leaf drank heavily.

"Damn Cloud and Stone," Yoshino Nara whispered as her husband's face flashed before her eyes. "Agreed," Inoichi muttered as the images of his family and best friends flashed before his. "Straight to hell," Iruka growled as tears poured in memory of his students.

==Meanwhile==

Naruto stood in front of the three memorial stones and glared at them. One was for those who had died the night of Hidden Cloud and Stone's triple Jinchuriki assault. The other was for those who had died in the wars prior to that. The third was the smallest, and it was engraved with the names of the all but two of Uchiha clan who had survived that catastrophic night save the one that had murdered them. An angry breath escaped through his nose, "We'll make this village great again." Behind him, Haku Yuki-Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuka, Shikamaru Nara, Yumiko Hyuga and Sakura Haruno, the only children left in Hidden Leaf other than Obito and Rin's infant daughter Izana, nodded in unison.

List of Characters still alive and loyal to Hidden Leaf:

Minato, Kushina and Naruto Namikaze

Kakashi Hatake

Obito, Rin and Izana Uchiha

Ibiki Morino

Anko Mitarashi and her adoptive daughters Sakura Haruno and Yumiko Hyuga

Yahiko and his adoptive son Kiba Inuzuka

Nagato and Konan Uzumaki and their adoptive daughter Haku Yuki-Uzumaki

Jiraiya

Yoshino and Shikamaru Nara

Inoichi Yamanaka

Asuma and Kurenai Sarutobi

Iruka Umino

Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku