Author's Note: Thank you so much for reviewing: -SmilingArtist-, Metal Drops, and Inner Jashinist! It meant a lot and was largely the motivation for this chapter coming out at all. ^.^
Disclaimer: I don't own them...I swear, though it totally looks that way, what with me writing on a FANFICTION site and all.
Remembrance
The presiding Hokage of the village hidden between the leaves of Fire Country, walked woodenly back to his home. The streets were empty and quiet but for the squish of his boots and pat-pat-pat of the rain, serene and somber. Smiling, he though of her love of rain and her avid argument of it's importance.
"I hate the rain, it's stupid, ya know?"
"Naruuuto! Rain is the bonding for the economy of the village, if not for the rain our crops would wither, the hydro energy produced would be non-existent, and the water supply would run out in a matter of days. Sun only nurtures what the rain builds. There would be nothing without the luxury the rain affords us."
She was rosy with passion and breathing hard from her small rant, ending with a declaration and a flourish of gesticulations pointing towards the blond assailant of rain.
"You just like the way it smells, Sakura." Came the swift and exacting comment from Kakashi that made her flush and nod.
"That too."
There were no more blushes, nor perceptive comments from them. Sometimes you just have to remember the times that make you smile instead of the ones that make your heart ache indiscriminately. That is exactly what Naruto did, smiling through and through with the amiable laughs of his teammates ringing in his memory.
As he passed the houses of small wealth he noted the faces missing from within them; Ino and Choji place devoid of Chojis' buoyant laughter and Inos' shrill orders for her darling kids of two and four, now filled with silence of a nanny and sleeping children. His neighbors Lee and Tenten's house unoccupied by their joint compassion for each other. Kiba, Neji, and Shino's bachelor pad deserted and quiet. Already, two houses away, he could smell the feast his lovely wife had made for this anniversary of misery. Earlier today he had dropped off his children to be watched with Ino's children. War and the misery it leaves behind is not a thing to share with kids. It's an awful thing to destroy that which is innocent, for his part, Naruto was planning on having his children be children until it was strictly necessary to grow up. Which is a thing he fervently wished to be far in the future, very, very far. 'I have seen what the alternative is, I have seen what comes from shattering innocence. Too many have."
Naruto hesitated at the door of his home, knowing what was behind it, hearing the amiable conversation of the rookie nin. He hated ruining the moment by showing his face of misery on this day every year. He hated disappointing them, they wanted him to move on and stop thinking of her as a martyr, as a figurehead of grief. Didn't they understand that you can't erase those who are never gone? No, no they didn't. He wiped his eyes of unshed tears before taking a bracing breath, putting on a smile, opening the door he was met by seven downcast familiar faces and one not so familiar face.
"Hinata, I'm home!" He shouted as was his custom, knowing she was in the kitchen.
"Naruto!" Hinata screamed, coming out of the kitchen to hug her husband as was her custom.
Naruto grinned half-heartedly as he picked up his wife and spun her as he always did. He nodded to the rookie-nin and stared at the ninth person in the room who was shaking slightly and holding a scroll he was currently wringing over and over.
"Hokage, I have s-s-some b-bad news." The meek man said holding out the very used scroll.
Their was a collective mental groan as those words were said, everyone knew what day it was and by the stutter in the staffs voice so did he. There was never good news to be had on this day. Collectively this day was the highest in missteps, fumbles, foibles, and general mistakes in all the days of the year. It was something to be studied, for sure, the hospital always received more patients, the shops received more thieves, the Hokage's office received more paper work and bad news, and the worst of it all; Naruto had to handle it all personally.
"Alright, what is it. Speak." Naruto said, appearing to casually hang onto his wife but he was really clinging to her. Bad news is never received well, bad news on top of bad moods and bad memories was torture.
"Team 5 of the rookie n-nin went missing, as you know, last week. We tried and tried to look for them within the bounds of the country and found no sign-" he babbled nervously, having never been in the presence of his Hokage before.
"The bad news?" Naruto interrupted not unkindly.
"We found them, sir."
"How is that bad?" Naruto asked, dreading the answer.
"They were dead. We found them strung up around the trees near the village, we also found red cloth tied around there necks. The nin that found them reported that the cloth was…" Gulp, breath, shudder. "Holding their heads on…you know connecting it to the…um, body. ANBU Captain Genma already sent his team on a reconnaissance around the perimeter. Shortly after receiving his reports, we received intelligence from the surrounding village's who report the same thing. Guards tied up with red cloth on trees. We, I mean, they think it is a high possibility that the long dormant Akatsuki are looking for something again."
"Thank you for that. If that's all...?"
"Ah, yes. Sorry to disrupt your evening Hokage. It was an honor to meet you and your family…lovely home, really." The meek man twisted the abused scroll once more and left swiftly out the door, considerably relaxed at the idea of not being in the same room with the Hokage anymore. If he knew how stressful this job was going to be, he would have stayed at his father's fish shop regardless of the smell.
Kiba was the first to break the silence that had descended upon the room after the mans stuttering departure, "Well that sucks…"
"Eloquent, Kiba. That really puts the tragedy into perspective." Ino sneered.
"It is a tragedy, it's not only disheartening for those soldiers and their families but for the implication of what there deaths mean." Neji said, interrupting what would surely be a fight between the two stubborn adults. "We have a serious problem on our hands and it must be dealt with, the Akatsuki are no longer biding there time, they are taking action and we, in turn, must as well."
The wind whistled against the house as they all contemplated the options they had available and the repercussions those options would reap for all involved. If they sent out a contingent of ninja's to again search out the hideout of the Akatsuki they ran the risk of providing them with exactly what they wanted, or with more victims. Reinforcing the villages' guards would detract from the threat of infiltration but give them a push to move on, forcing a new village and country to deal with the threat. If it were indeed the truth of the matter, and they were trying to find something like they were back then why would it be around the village? Surely they had to have a motive for such manslaughter. Senseless violence was never a Akatsuki thing to do, murder for a cause, for an end goal. At this point the only thing they could do safely was sent out secular spies and fractionally increase the border security. Taking all this in was a matter of choice on this of all nights, whether or not the discussion would range into the night was chiefly on Naruto's shoulders; the man who cared about this night more than the rest, got more out of the revelry of her memory.
"I think we should dramatically increase the--"
"No, Lee." Naruto interrupted in a forceful voice, commanding the attention of the room. "Tonight is not the night for strategic planning, nor the night for worrying about the state of the village. Tonight the village is safe and all it's people are warm in bed. This gathering is not for them, it's for us, for her. This night of all nights is just for remembering, for those who have left us and for those who remain behind for them. We dishonor them if we cannot for one night put aside everything to talk and share in each others company, something they can no longer do."
"Well said, Naruto-kun." Hinata whispered in his ear before pecking him on the temple lovingly and reassuringly. "Now, I have dinner on the table. Who's hungry?"
The party of nine adult ninja's moved into the dining room and left the bad feelings and strategies behind them as the smell of Hinata's cooking intoxicated them. The gathering of the rookie nin each year had started off on a very rocky premise, some never came, others refused to join in the merriment, and others weren't allowed to come. It would always include idle chit chat of what happened in there lives over the year they had last gathered--Ino's hair cut, Shino's new sunglasses, Kiba's new dog shampoo that smelled like lavender, Neji's new love interest, Hinata's newest child, Naruto's latest trick to get out of paper work, Shikamaru's strategy for getting Temari to marry him, Lee's new method of training, Tenten's latest bomb, and all of their small achievements. After cataloging all the information, Naruto alone would go back to the stone and share all he had learned, and most importantly he would leave something with her.
This little gathering had started under the smallest of gestures and the most needed of hugs:
"WHY?!"
He screamed it into the sky as if the answer would be hurled back at him, Naruto dropped to his knees in front of the grave and shouted once more. The shouting seemed to release the feelings inside of him, but not as quickly as he need them gone; tears slid down his face as he clung to the grass and pounded the earth. 'Why had she done it? What had happened that made her snap like that?' The questions burned in his throat as he tried to make sense of the senseless. His two best friends were gone, lost to each other. He couldn't save them, that fact alone kept him there; if he couldn't save them, he couldn't save anyone. Kneeling before Sakura's grave gave no solace, knowing that a turn of his head would give him a glimpse of Sasuke's grave gave his no comfort; tears, screams, and violence seemed to be the only thing he could offer them now.
"It's not you know," A soft voice said behind him, accompanied by a soft hand on his shoulder.
Not realizing he was repeating his guilt out loud, he shook himself and whispered hoarsely, "How?"
"You couldn't have known what was going to happen." Hinata sighed. "You did what any friend would do, Naruto, you cared! It was more than the village did for them, and it was more than I did. What was happening with them will never be known, but what you can take with you from it is that you did everything in your power as Hokage and as Uzumaki Naruto to save them."
A touch turned into an embrace and an embrace turned into a clinging to life, to a thing which could not be expressed. Something happens when you cling to someone in a time of tears, it happens without your knowledge and without your consent; you fall and you allow that person to pick you up. It's unconscious at first but as you clutch their shirt and murmur your guilt into there breast, they know and you know that you have given them a gift which can never be taken back.
They stayed there like that; Hinata rocking him, and stroking his arm comfortingly, Naruto sobbing opening, and the rookie nin watching soberly from a few graves away. The group could have, and would have if not for the 'poof' and smoke surrounding the small area in front of the grave. Shock, awe, gasps. The rookie nin stepped forward to see what the smoke had brought; a letter with two words upon it.
HARUNO SAKURA