Memories imprinted in stone Chapter 1: The one we all miss, a naruto fanfic

Hey hey, so I started on another new story, I'm waaay to impatient, sigh

This happens when team seven have turned 25, I'm not telling more than that, you'll have to read to find out.

Disclaimer: They're all mine, MUAHAHAHA scowls at flamers tihi, (if you didn't get that it was a joke you're stupid) (too bad for you)

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Ch 1: Heroes from our past.

You're sick of feeling numb

You're not the only one

I'll take you by the hand

And I'll show you a world that you can understand

This life is filled with hurt

When happiness doesn't work

Trust me and take my hand

When the lights go out you will understand

Three days grace – pain

Kakashi stood by the memorial stone; rain soaked his jounin vest as he dug his hands into his pockets.

"I think, you would have liked seeing Konoha for what it's like today." He mumbled lazily and bowed his head. His silvery wild hair, hung down and he looked much like a drowned cat.

"After he became Hokage much has improved. Not that Tsunade-sama was ever a bad leader. Ah…you know what I mean." He said and tilted his head to one side sighing heavily. Looking up, rain splattered on his mask covered face and he closed his one revealed eye.

Iruka sat at Ichirakus and ate that ever delicious ramen, remembering those times when he used to sit here together with his former yellow haired student, the one who almost every time made Iruka pay for the meal.

"Iruka, sitting here alone again?" The familiar voice of Jiraya broke into his mind and dug itself into his memories.

Jiraya was also the yellow haired shinobis' former teacher, and he had been a good one at that, even though he had been the one giving the boy all those perverted visions.

"Yeah, thinking." Iruka answered short, Jiraya nodded and sat down beside him.

"About him?" He asked.

"Who else would I be thinking about, sitting alone at Ichirakus?" Iruka asked, and knew that the older shinobi would know the obvious answer to that.

"Yeah, you've got a point there." Jiraya said and ordered his former students' favourite flavoured ramen.

"You too?" Iruka asked, and Jiraya looked at him questionably.

"His favourite flavour?" Iruka explained and pointed down at his bowl of ramen, he hadn't touched much of it.

"Yeah, I don't really like ramen really. The only reason I eat it is because that's the only way I can imagine Naruto sitting beside me." Jiraya said and sighed, staring down at the bowl placed beside him, he didn't even bother to take up his eating sticks.

They sighed in unison and imagined the yellow haired demon container sitting in between them.

Kakashi turned his gaze from the memorial stone as he heard footsteps come closer, his dark eye met green orbs that sparkled with tears, visible even though the rain hid them well.

She placed herself beside him bowing her head, as a greeting towards the stone with all the names written on it.

He heard her heartbreaking sobs and couldn't help but pity her. She still blamed herself for his death, he had died protecting her, and she wished him alive and herself dead.

She reached out her hand and touched the cold and wet surface with long slim fingers, stroking over the name written there. Her lip trembled and she bit down on it, to hide the motion, but Kakashi had noticed, it would be hard for her to hide something that obvious from him.

Sakura always wanted to prove herself strong, equal to her team members from team 7. They had been exceptional, one Uchiha, and one fox demon, it was always hard for her to compete against something like that.

The Uchiha had treated her like a burden when she had been so much in love with him, and Naruto, well he was oblivious towards her feelings, as he saw her as a super human after she had been trained by Tsunade.

"Kakashi-sensei, could you please, comfort me?" Her faint whisper got slammed to the ground by the heavy drops of water, but Kakashi had caught the words and wondered what had gotten into her. Sakura never asked for comfort, not from the person she tried to look strong in front of, the person she had looked up to since she was twelve.

Kakashi placed his arms around her shoulders and she gripped his jounin vest and cried bitter tears into his shoulder, holding him like he would vanish any second, and that she had to favour her last moments with him.

"I feel so helpless Kakashi." She choked out. Kakashi froze under the impact of those simple, yet harsh words. And he realised that it was the exact way he felt. Slowly he cupped her chin and made her look up at him with red puffy eyes and pale skin.

"You feel just as helpless as you make yourself, Sakura, he would not have wanted to see you like this." Kakashi murmured and her eyes widened.

"Kakashi…I…" She stopped and looked away, with his curious stare upon her. Blushing she stepped away from his embrace and bowed formally.

"I feel better now, Kakashi-sensei, thank you." And with those cold, unsympathetic words she walked of, leaving the copy nin more than confused.

He turned towards the stone and sighed.

"What am I to do about her?"

Shizune walked behind the former Hokage, who limped on only one leg. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail and the green kimono she used was switched with a longer, more formal dark blue kimono. In her hand she held a bouquet of flowers.

Shizune had never understood her superior and friend, but she always knew when she was upset. This was one of those days when Tsunade had awoken feeling guilty again, and limping off towards the Konoha memorial stone, where all the names of the warriors fallen protecting Konoha was written.

There she would place a bouquet of flowers, for her dead lover, and her newly dead friend. One of her most promising ninjas.

The fool had ran straight into the army of sound ninjas when they arrived outside Konoha. Tsunade had been so angry with him, but after a while, when no one heard anything from him, she got more and more nervous that something had happened to him. Some of the Konoha ANBU had seen him in an intense battle against Orochimaru, a loosing battle of course. The strange thing though, was that they had found the dead body of Orochimaru after the battle was won, but there had been no sign of him.

Tsunade lost her left leg during those five days battling in the depths of Konohas forest, but she used to say it was a small prize to pay to protect the village she lived for. And Shizune had heard the words hidden underneath that statement, she always, until now, regretted not dying with the hundred ninjas that died in that gruesome battle.

They arrived at the clearing in the forest, where in the middle there stood a large black stone with thousands of names written on it.

Tsunade fell to the ground, all her feelings overwhelming her, she couldn't help letting the tears stream down her cheeks.

"This should never have happened." She murmured and gripped the grass under her palms tightly.

Suddenly Shizune saw a movement in the shadows and got into a fighting stance, but Tsunade stayed motionless.

"Kakashi, you sure hang around here a lot, don't you?" Tsunade said and her eyes pierced the shadows, directing her gaze right at Kakashis hidden face. He smiled grimly and stepped forward.

"You're sharp as always, fifth Hokage. It has been a while." Kakashi said, bowing to the older woman. She smiled stiffly, but said nothing, because she knew that the copy cat knew she hated that he called her Hokage, when she wasn't.

Kakashi had never liked that she had ran from her duty towards the village after the rough impact with the sound, he had refused looking at her after it even.

"Cowardice should not walk so proud." Kakashi muttered and stared into her eyes with his one stone cold black eye.

Tsunade felt her anger rise inside of her and her fists tightened, if Kakashi took one blow from her, he would be done for, and they both knew that quite well.

"I know you hate me for what I did, but what good could I have done the village in my current situation, Copy-Cat?" She asked calmly and Kakashi tilted his head to one side.

"I don't hate you, what you did was weak and cowardly, just because you knew you could no longer fight, but at least you should have led the village until your dying day, like the other Hokages did. Still I can't make myself hate you for letting him die…" Kakashi threw a quick glance at the stone, and Tsunade knew who he meant.

"When I meet up with him again, I'll kick his ass for leaving us behind." Kakashi finished and sighed.

Shizune saw that he must have been standing by the stone since early that morning, because his clothes were soaked from the early morning rain.

"I'm not sure if…I mean…Kakashi you…" Tsunade started, but she could not finish the sentence, she tried to say something comforting, but the words would not leave her lips, and she gave up frustrated. Kakashi smiled under the mask she noted, so her effort had been noticed after all and she reattributed the smile gladly, knowing that someone understood.

The sixth Hokage sat in his office, drowned in paperwork, staring out the window with a drowsing expression, his eyes scanned Konoha, memorizing everything. Every building, every loose nail, every sleeping cat and every leaf blowing trough the empty streets, everything became a wicked picture in his mind.

He remembered all the happy memories in his past, the bad ones he had suppressed and didn't want to unlock them at this moment.

He remembered the days with team 7, the days they had just goofed around doing nothing. Talking, laughing, planning how to reveal Kakashis masked face, sharing almost everything, and yes, of course he had enjoyed it. It had been the happiest days in his life.

Nothing he experienced back then would he have done differently if he had gotten the chance.

Suddenly he noticed the two jounins standing before him, he had forgotten about them the moment they had walked in his door.

"Are you sure?" He asked in a tone that could make a lying man break down into a shivering heap. The two jounins nodded in unison and the sixth was pleased.

"It couldn't have been anyone else?" He wondered and leant forward on his elbows. The two jounins had pupil less eyes and long black hair, one woman, one man. The woman stepped forward with a confident expression on her face and the Hokage smiled assuring towards her, urging her to continue.

"It could have been no other, Hokage-sama, the missing-nin, Uchiha Itachi was seen just outside town. He did not wear his Akatsuki clothing, only his old ANBU outfit." She said and bowed.

"Hinata-san, gather your old team, I want you to catch him together with the ANBU squad I back you up with. Be off." The sixth said and waved his hand, Hinata nodded and left.

"Neji-san, it's good to see you and Hinata have come to a truce. You two work well together, no?" The Hokage asked and looked at Neji with an eagle like expression, looking like he wanted to poke Nejis eyes out at any minute.

Neji nodded.

"She has improved." He said and bowed.

"Well, anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something completely different. It's about a, what should I call it… a monument?"

Shikamaru sighed staring hard at the academy class; one of the punks had painted the stone face of Tsunade with red paint. He walked among them, glancing bored at them.

Grabbing the collar of a young punk with black spiky hair and sparkling light green eyes. He never could hide any of his pranks well, not from Shikamaru anyway.

"Young Mr. Kashimo, what must I do with you, to make you understand to leave that damn wall alone?" The boy lifted his hands in a clueless manner and smiled cheekily. Shikamarus frown deepened and the boys smile disappeared.

"I think we'll have to speak to Tsunade-sama about this, don't you think?" Shikamaru said and started dragging him with him towards Tsunades new clinic downtown, the youngling fought against his teachers' strong grip, but to no wail.

"Not the Hokage, please sensei, don't bring me to the Hokage." Shikamarus student cried, this made Shikamaru stop and turn around, piercing the young boy with a oblivious stare.

"You know she's not the Hokage no longer right?" He asked. The kid nodded.

"My family never thought of the Sixth as a real Hokage, so they still praise Tsunade the title of Hokage, even though they know it's disrespectful. If not Tsunade, it should've been…" The student cut off his sentence before he said something stupid that would upset his teacher.

He knew how much that man had meant to his teacher, so they all avoided mentioning his name. Every man and woman knew of that special mans deeds under the battle with sound, how he had killed Orochimaru, the demon, and how, he, alone could have won the battle if he hadn't died. Stronger than any former ninja Konoha had seen, a titan sent to them, a hero for the coming nations, and the only one of his kind.

"Sensei, I'm sorry." The boy said apologetically and looked away. Shikamaru smiled and ruffled the boys' hair.

"Any human can be a hero if you just let them." Shikamaru said and walked back to his class, the younger boy stared after him for a second, and then headed downtown to Tsunades clinic, to apologise, and afterwards he planned on washing away the paint personally.

Shikamaru stared after the kid and smiled proudly.

Sakura sat in her bed, sulking. Pathetic, she thought and threw a pillow across the room.

"You're so idiotic Sakura!" She yelled and threw another pillow at the door, where Ino had suddenly appeared, just in time to receive the pillow straight in the face.

The pillow fell to the floor and Ino glared daggers at Sakura.

"Is that how you greet your friend, coming to see how you're doing?" Ino asked and placed her hands on her hips. Sakura only turned her head away from the voice coming from the door.

"It's been a year already, get over it." Ino yelled suddenly, making Sakura jump.

"You know just as well as I how it feels to loose one of your closest friends." Sakura growled and Inos eyes widened in shock.

"That has noting to do wit it, you should move on, you sulking on your bed is not going to bring him back, Sakura." Ino shouted and threw the pillow back at the pink head.

"Anyway, there's a GUY here waiting for you, outside." Ino said and smiled. This caught Sakuras attention and her eyes widened as what Ino had said sunk in.

"What have you done now?" She asked cranky and pushed herself off the bed. Ino lifted her hands in defence and only smiled cute.

Sakura made her way to the window and looked down, her eyes widened at the sight of the man standing there. How did he know that she was feeling down, and why didn't he come get her herself.

"You didn't force him to come here did you?" She asked and started dressing properly, in her chuunin outfit. Ino shook her head and grinned.

"Come on, hurry up, and don't let him wait now." She said, while pushing her friend out the door.

"Ah, Sakura-san, well, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out and eat somewhere?" He asked, cooking his head to one side, watching her fumble with the zipper on her vest.

"Yeah, sure, Kakashi….-san." She said hesitantly, not sure if she should address him in such a manner, but he didn't react to it, and he had addressed her that way, so she guessed it was okay.

He smiled down at her, and nodded.

"So what do you want to eat? My treat." He offered and she smiled happily.

"You decide, I can't choose, there's too many options." He laughed at her and then nodded, walking off down a random street.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Where fate brings us." He answered shortly, throwing a glance back at her and she blushed.

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So how'd ya like it. Feel free to ask if there's something you don't like, something you like but don't understand, something that's missing…etc… I won't bite your head of, I swear on my life.

Well see ya….I hope, hahahha.