Ch. 2 An Honorable Reunion
As Hinata ran out of the building crying as hard as ever. The good memories of Don overwhelmed her and she ran all the way back to Don's grave under the tree. When she arrived, she threw her socked body upon Don's gravestone and began to shout in agony and beg for him to come back, despite the fact she knew he would never come.
She continued to cry harder and harder until she felt a gentle hand touch her by the shoulder. She turned around to see Temari along with Baki-sama and Don's teammates; Gazu and Rain. "Hey Hinata, you came for Don too?" she asked.
Hinata wiped her face off and stood up. Temari walked up and held Hinata firmly. "I know, we miss him too. It's been too quiet around the village without him." Soon Naruto came running up and joined the fellow mourners. They all stood and stared at Don's gravestone for a while, thinking of how he had impacted their lives. They finally bowed in respect and then headed to the restaurant where Don had first taken his team.
They sat around and joked around and reminisced about the good times Don had brought them and the amazing feats he had achieved. Soon their food came and they all ate. Temari tasted her food and somehow, of all days, today, it didn't taste right. "God, this is horrible. I think I forgot what good food tasted like. Since Don died I've had to rely on Kankuro's cooking, and he isn't the best. How I haven't died of food poisoning or given up eating is beyond me."
Rain cracked a smile and Gazu made a small grunt of laughter and Hinata just turned red and made a grin. Suddenly everyone began to burst out laughing loudly at Temari's comment.
All of a sudden Tsunade came bursting through the door and looked around the room and spotted the group in the back of the restaurant. It was quite obvious by her expression on her face that she was horrendously drunk. "Lady Tsunade, are you ok?" one of the customers asked. She turned to them with a disgruntled face. "Oh shut up!" she yelled in a loud drunken voice.
"She must have been mourning over Don's death as well." Gazu said, "Over a warm bottle of sake." Tsunade came and sat with the group. All of a sudden, her drunken expression went serious. "Hinata, I have something very important to tell you. It's about Don."
Hinata and the group scooted closer to listen to what the drunken Hokage had to say. "You see, about that mission one year ago. There was more to it than we thought." She said.
"What do you mean?" Hinata asked. "You see, ever since that mission came to a close and all that….mournful paperwork was filed, something didn't add up so for the past year I have had some of our best ninja investigating on the matter from all sorts of possibilities. Now we have found something that is quite shocking and now it all makes since."
"What did y'all find?" Baki-sama asked. "Don's death was by at the same time no mere coincidence but at the same time a coincidence." She said. "What do you mean?" Rain asked in a highly confused tone.
"Kabuto was on his way to his village to seek power from a source of a long forgotten power. Apparently this long forgotten power came form a family long trusted by the Hokage as well as my own grandfather. It just so happens this family is Don's ancestors.
The scrolls his deceased family has locked within their home contains much power, enough to wipe out this village in one swoop, with very little resistance, even with our best ninja. I think Don may have been discovering the secrets of his family scrolls by the time he died. Kabuto had the plans to come into this village and take the scrolls for himself and kill the heir, the only one who had the power to actually control and stop this power."
"Don…" Hinata said sadly. "That's right Hinata." Tsunade said. "So bye no mere coincidence was Don killed but by coincidence I sent him into battle to lead the mission unknowing of the motive behind it. By cruel irony Don's death was somehow played by fate and by his own leader…me. I take responsibility for his death." She sighed.
"Lady Tsunade, you must not blame yourself. There was nothing we could do. Don was only protecting Hinata. He didn't die in vane." Gazu said.
"What worse is that our village has a high potential to be attacked now." Tsunade said. "What do you mean?" Rain asked. "It has been a whole year right? Since Kabuto wasn't killed, whether or not he was working alone, someone must have gotten a hint on what Kabuto was doing and may have found out about the scrolls."
Naruto, who had been silent this whole time finally spoke up, "So what can we do now? With out Don and shinobi on high demand around the country, how will we defend ourselves?"
"Well I think we can get some support from our allies though I can't guarantee anything." Tsunade said. "You can expect full support form us Tsunade." Temari said happily. Tsunade smiled. "Thank you Temari."
"Temari, you and the rest of Don's squad can stay in one of the hotels nearby. After all it is a long trip to here so you may stay here as long as you like, and when you leave, let us know so we can say goodbye." Tsunade said.
Everyone stood up and left money for their food on the table a departed their own way. Naruto walked with Hinata toward her house so he could escort her home. Temari and Don's squad headed to the same hotel they stayed in during the chunin exams. They even got the same room that overlooked Don's grave.
The rain still poured as it did one year ago.