I do not own Naruto. Nor will I ever. I wrote this off of an insomnia high and listening to Ballad of Mona Lisa.
The man stood at the foot of the bed, looking down at the body draped in white. Breathing in deeply, he caught the smell of formaldehyde, and under that burning hemlock. He smiled faintly at the irony of the plant being there. That one special cup of tea…
A pink-haired woman opened the door tentatively and looked in cautiously. Her eyes passed over the blonde man without even a spark of recognition or a quiver of hesitation. She smiles lightly, thinking the room is empty and steps inside. "Hello honey," she said sweetly, "it's almost time for the viewing." She was looking directly at the body as she said these honey words. "I know," the blonde rasped out. The woman didn't appear to have heard him.
A pair of men, one with gravity-defying silver hair and the other with hair like pitch, stepped into the room and looked at the bed. After a few moments of hesitation they looked up at the apparently grieving widow. The silver-haired man spoke first, addressing the corpse, "Kid, I'm sorry I wasn't here when you… left us." He grunted, showing his immense discomfort at losing another friend. The one like pitch addressed him next, "Baka, couldn't live to let me break our tie could you?" "No, I couldn't teme. Not like you could have beaten me anyways," the blonde said finally facing the fact he had departed. The blonde turned an icy glare onto the one with pink hair and stepped closer, hate and despair radiating off of him. While the men were speaking to the body, she had cast a longing gaze on the one with black hair and held for as long as she dared.
"I'm sorry for your loss," they said almost as one then stopped and looked at each other sheepishly before elder one continued, "We are sorry for your loss. If there's anything we can do to comfort you Sakura, just tell us." "It's okay Kakashi-sensei," she said addressing the elder man, then turning to the one with black hair, "Sasuke could I have a private word with you?" "Hn? Sure," he said nonchalantly as Kakashi stepped out of the room, leaving Sakura, Sasuke and the ghost alone. "Sasuke… Now that Naruto is…" here her voice cracked and the ghost sneered. "Now that Naruto is gone, I wanted to ask if you'd do his eu-eulogy." Her stutter was as forced as their relationship, Naruto spat, or would have if he'd had any substance or a corporeal form that he'd been attached to. The raven-haired man nodded, as if understanding. "Sure, Sakura. I'll do it. Could you leave the two of us alone, me and Naruto?" The pinkette nodded and left quietly, her mind racing with possibilities.
"So, blondie, you just had to go and die on me?" Sasuke said after she left. "We were so close in score. 51-50." He chuckled, hiding the catch in his voice. Naruto's sudden death while he out of the village on a mission hit him hard, harder than it would Kakashi, his sensei, who was like a father to the both of them, and maybe even to Sakura, his girlfriend. This was the man who had literally broken both his arms and left leg to get him back to the village, with a hole in his chest, but he'd carried the broken and battered Sasuke all the way back. Even after Kakashi had offered to carry him. He'd spoken on his behalf in front of Tsunade, and the ninja council, to keep him from getting his chakra sealed permanently. He'd gone off and killed Orochimaru to free him of the curse mark. Taught him the raikiri after he'd taken in apart by sight and adapted it to work with the Hiraishin. "Naruto…" he muttered again and stood. The ghost wrapped him in a hug before he moved, then dissipated into smoke when Sasuke walked through him, reforming as soon as he'd passed completely through.
The ghost walked over to the only desk in the room, and with an effort in concentration, dipped a semi-solid finger in the ink and wrote, "Sakura did it." Then picked up the piece of paper and carried it back to his body, placing it in his own mouth before collapsing in exhaustion beside his body. A moment later, a pair of women slipped into the room, followed closely by a young girl. All three had lavender eyes and indigo hair. "Hinata, Hanabi…" he sighed from the bed at the recognized two women. Hinata had clearly been crying, and Hanabi had been comforting her. The other Hyuuga, the girl, looked a lot like Hinata, but had Neji's stoic features. Those two had gotten together a year before he'd returned with Jiraiya, and produced a beautiful girl, whose name he'd never learned, nor had he been allowed around her. He'd always known of Hinata's feelings for him, but he'd either been too stupid or involved with Sakura. The girl's eyes seemed intent on the bed, on him rather than his body. He struggled to stand, and the girl's eyes followed him, to his great surprise. Raising a hand, he waved gently. She waved back tentatively. With the very last of his ethereal energy, he pointed to the corpse's mouth, then did it again and faded away.
The girl, realizing what the blonde had wanted, walked closer to the body and pried open it's mouth. Inside was the note, not written but a few minutes earlier. Pulling out the paper, she unrolled it and looked at it, then gasped in shock. She then showed the note to Hinata and Hanabi. One of them gasped in shock, but the other stopped crying and began to shake with rage. "That bitch," she hissed then stood and stormed out the room. Outside, the girl could see the wavering outline of a blonde man standing in the corner. "Haruno! I know what you did!" she screeched at her as her eyes activated. Sasuke was holding her gently and patting her back, trying to comfort her. "You killed Naruto-kun! You did it… you did it to get to Sasuke, didn't you?" Her accusation was met with gasps and looks of disturbed awe and looks of loathing at Sakura. The room was full of Naruto's old friends and those he called family. Tsunade, Iruka, Sasuke, Kakashi, Konohamaru Corps, all of the surviving rookie nine and Team Gai, not to mention Ayame and Teuchi, Ebisu, and finally, all of the Ne ninja were there. After Danzo died, Naruto had taken over Ne. It had blossomed under his guidance. Gone was Danzo's mind control, emotion killing training. Now they had Naruto's special, help everybody, always smile training. With smiling mask.
Back to Hinata, "You killed him, somehow, so that even your teacher couldn't detect foul play." Sakura looked scared for a second, and that was all it took to seal her fate. Sasuke jumped back, freeing himself from her arms just as a root ninja jumped forward and chopped her neck hard enough for a sick crack to be heard. "Sorry, I seem to have caused some damage to the vertebrate." A hollow voice said, betraying no emotion but his actions had spoken volumes of his rage. "Sakura… why?" Sasuke asked the nshook his head, the answer becoming apparent after a moment retrospection. With the way she'd been hanging on him all day, she'd been after him. "Sakura, you fool." And in the corner, the ghost smiled.