AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story was created previously and since then been revamped, it's a short beginning but I like it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters, or setting. The prose is mine, and some slightly bent plots are mine. Nothing more, nothing less.

BEREAVEMENT

The night was cold, desolate and wounded. On this night a man of twenty was staring at a slab on the ground. On this night the sky opened up, revealed the darkness within by spattering the ground with hard drops of moisture. The man came to rest in front of this particular spot on this particular night every year. It had become a part of his life, a part of his reality, to come and speak to the grave ritualistically as if the very fabric of his personality depended on renewing the conversation.

"Hi, it's not as sunny as it was last time, eh? I would have wanted light for the work I did today for the house but Hinata was just as happy to see it done at all, you know it took me ages to finally put up the wall that Saki punched through. She has quite a temper, it's usually only reserved for her brother, Hatsu. They are growing up, let me tell you…"

Babbling like this was what kept him from crying, which was his want to do the first few times he came here. Other friends would sometimes come, his wife would drop by if it got to late, but like always it was Naruto Uzumaki who would always stay with her; forever loyal.

"Sasuke has been seen again, though I assume you already know that" A laugh, a choke.

"Temari is marrying Shikamaru this fall, they're good for one another, trust me. Tenten is moving in with Lee, they still swear nothings happening but you know, as I told you last time, Lee looks at her like she makes his world and tidies it up for him. You know the look, I'm sure. It's gooey, you always hated the gooey look. You'll be glad and disheartened to know that Neji and Kiba haven't formed attachments to any girl, no love, but no love loss. The rest have remained the same; domestic and cutsie."

Naruto ended up rambling about town structures and new legislation instead of continuing on the vein he had tread, knowing she would get upset if she could hear it. Comfort is always reserved for the living, he reminded himself. As he plodded through his obligation of filling her in, he began to reminisce as he does often on how it once was. How lovely the academy life had been, sharing laughs with silly 'enemies' and having ramen with joyous friends. The genuine mirth of his teammates is what he missed the most; Kakashi's wrinkle, Sasuke's smirk, Sakura's blinding grin. All gone, what remained was a mockery of reality, a shadow of convenience; only brought out to scar and hurt, never to placate. No placation for the older, he though, have to take the rose colored kunai and smash them.

"I miss you…I wish it could have been different, I wish for a lot of things, but most of all I wish you could smile again. I'm sorry, thank you."

He ended with the sentence he had practiced in the dark and repeated over again whenever he had to do something very difficult. 'I'm sorry' he repeated for good measure. Turning his back on the grave had never been the easiest thing for him, always been the most practiced of his moves. On this night, this special night, it was the first time he didn't look back, the first time he didn't cry out any words of despair, and the first time he felt better after wards. On this night so many things went unchanged, unfettered, but few, very few, important things moved in the wind and rain of the memorial stone that read solemnly;

HARUNO SAKURA