Ever since his defeat at the hands of Hanabi at the chunnin exams, Konohamaru had felt bitter resentment towards Hanabi. He was hospitalized for a week as a result. It has been 4 years since that day. Now, at the ripe age of 16, he was still unable to get over his failures. Konohamaru had re-enlisted for the chunnin exams every opportunity, but as soon as he got to the third stage of the exams, he was constantly reminded of his humiliating defeat at the hands of the young Hyuuga heir, and therefore he would choke at the crucial stages and be defeated by opponents younger and less experienced than him. Like a film playing constantly at the back of his mind, the defeat would play over, and over, and over and over again every day and night keeping him awake most nights. His fellow teammates were already chunnins while he stayed stuck as a genin, much to his humiliation. He quickly became the village joke. As a decendent of the Sarutobi, he had the weight of the village on his shoulders to perform to the standards of the Sarutobi reputation, but the whole village including the hokage herself had lost faith in him. He was now nicknamed 'the Bastard offspring'.
Through all of it, Naruto had been a constant source of help whenever Konohamaru felt down. Naruto would have a pep talk on how to prepare even better for his next exams, he would always try teaching him new techniques as well as how to improve his existing ones, but most importantly, Naruto would always tell Konohamaru to keep improving himself by vigourous training. Konohamaru was tired; he was tired of training himself half to death to try to better himself as a ninja, but getting nowhere; he was tired of having to split up with his teammates and be paired up with newly recruited genins for all the C and D-Rank missions with low rewards; he was tired of failing to live up to par with the reputation of the ancient and revered Sarutobi lineage; he was tired of living below mediocrity... he was tired of living.
One frosty summers day, he woke up as per usual after a good 2 hours sleep. He slowly opened up the blinds in his apartment to let the warm ray of sunlight greet his pale face to give him a bit of warmth. Opening the windows of his apartment, he breathed in the cold morning air and he looked out to see Konoha without a cloud in the sky. "What a good day to die!" Konohamaru exhaled slowly. He decided that if he had to die, it would be on a day like this: a fine summers' day without a cloud in sight, yet chilly and mild - this was his favourite kind of day. Konohamaru put on his usual clothes, but with one crucial exception; he did not wear his shinobi headband. At the age of 11, he remembers wearing the leaf village's headband with gleaming pride everyday, hoping that he would become the next hokage of the Leaf Village just like his grandfather. Before wearing the headband, he remembers those goggles that he and his fellow teammates would wear as kids due to their deep respect for Naruto as a prankster and as a determined friend. Konohamaru discarded the Leaf's headband by trying to throw it into the bin only 10 feet away, but he narrowly missed. "How pitiful! To think that I had any chance of being like grandpa." Konohamaru stooped down and placed the headband into the bin.
Looking for an ink and brush, Konohamaru planned to write a 'goodbye' letter, a letter that they would find on his corpse. It wasn't actually a letter, more of a statement at best. He had spent an hour that morning coming up with something. He went over it again to see if there were any mistakes, anything he wanted to add or take out: 'Goodbye Naruto. I'm so sorry it had to be this way. I am a failure and the bastard of the Sarutobi. It is probably best if you had never known me at all. Forget about me and live your life. Thank you for everything that you have done for me, I will never forget all those times we had ramen together. Remember to place a bowl of ramen next to my grave so that in the afterlife, I may continue to enjoy ramen. I know that soon, you will become hokage and I wish you the very best. Keep fighting!'.The letter had only addressed Naruto, because everyone else had turned their backs on Konohamaru later in his miserable life. Even his two fellow teammates had abandoned him once they had become chunnins, and his sensei was simply ashamed of him. Sensei Ebisu tried ignoring Konohamaru as much as he could. Truth was that he hated being associated with Konohamaru due to his failure reflecting badly on Ebisu as a sensei.
Konohamaru was no longer himself. Gone were the days when he would pull pranks and say outrageous things just for shock value. From the day of his defeat, he no longer played any pranks. He was done playing around. He folded up the letter and put it in his pocket. From his inventory, he chose the sharpest kunai and then he ceremoniously sharpened it to a thin razor edge before heading off to his final destination. Going down the streets of Konoha, the people barely even recognized him without the Leaf's headband. Death had been on his mind, but still he felt a great sense of heaviness and darkness doing such a thing, but he convinced himself that death was the only solution to this eternal torment. Walking down without the one thing that gave him his identity, the villagers no longer whispered behind his back because they didn't recognize him.
"It's certainly a surprise to see you without that emblem of Leaf, Konohamaru." Kakashi said, hanging upside down reading his book casually, suspended from a tree branch. "Is it damaged? Should we send you another one Konohamaru?" Kakashi asked politely, "I wouldn't bother, everything will be fixed soon... Kakashi sensei..." Konohamaru replied encryptically. "Suit yourself, if you say so... oh, and where are you off to Konohamaru? Off to get some ramen with Naruto? He's over at Ichiraku's right now getting his fix." Kakashi said, not taking his eyes off his book. "I'm going home..." Konohamaru replied, "Home? But your apartment's the other way. Are you feeling okay Konohamaru." Kakashi was a bit taken back, "I have to go now Kakashi, goodbye." Konohamaru left without hesitation leaving Kakashi a bit stunned; it was not like him at all, then again since the last year, he has never been himself, just a depressed shell of his former self.
Walking down further, Konohamaru decided to go around Ichiraku to avoid meeting up with Naruto. On his way, he bumped into someone unexpected. Going around a quiet street corner he almost collided with none other than Hanabi Hyuuga, the girl who he attributed to have caused everything in his life to go crumbling down to ruin. At first, Konohamaru and Hanabi froze and said nothing, but Hanabi had the first say: "Uhh, hi... Konohamaru..." Hanabi greeted shyly, "... ... ..." Konohamaru stared at her intently with the 1000 yard stare. Hanabi felt a little awkward, "So it's been a long time since-" Konohamaru cut her off: "Since you hospitalized me and psychologically scarred me, yeah I know...". The tension that Konohamaru let off had created a dense atmosphere and Hanabi could feel that something was wrong, but before she could say anything else, Hanabi's father Hiashi had interrupted, "Come Hanabi, we must go! This weak bastard of the Sarutobi isn't even worthy enough to clean your shoes!" Hiashi snapped, tugging Hanabi by the hand leading her away from Konohamaru, who was clearly hurt by the comments. Hanabi looked back, seeing Konohamaru stare depressingly into the dirt pavement; she had felt deep sympathy for him and sensed something extremely out of place as if something terrible were about to conspire.
Konohamaru made it to the top of the mountain overlooking the entire village. There he sat on top of the 3rd hokage's, his grandfather's, head scupture. It was midday. The sun was in full view, shining its beams and providing a great warmth, but yet, the coolness of the air had negated any feeling to being burned by the sun; it was neither to hot, nor too cold - it was a good day to die. "I'm sorry, forgive me grandpa. The Sarutobi is now a joke because of me." Konohamaru drew out his razor sharp kunai, "Goodbye... Naruto..." Konohamaru sliced his left wrist open, the cold sharp pain of the kunai was caused him to scream for a while, blood gushed out covering Konohamaru and the ground he sat on. Dropping his bloody kunai, he laid there looking up at the sun waiting for his life to leave him slowly. He felt weaker and weaker, with each passing moment as the blood continue to pour out. His breathing became shorter and the warmth was leaving him quickly, the sun was touching his cheeks as if they knew and were comforting him and trying to make him warmer. But Konohamaru was losing consciousness and he uttered weakly: "Hanabi... I... I will haunt you... even... in... death..." Konohamaru faded, covered in his own blood.