Konoha, six days later.

The morgue was never a place Tsunade enjoyed visiting. It had nothing to do with the memories of identifying her brother's corpse so many years before (although that certainly didn't help much). It was the fact that a morgue was a place where a doctor was forced to place their failures. A display case where another could look and figure out just where you had gone wrong.

Tsunade did not enjoy being here. Especially now when it was just her and the dead. She had just dismissed Shizune and Tenzo. The autopsy results had been briefed, as well as a short description of the events leading up to the moment of the enemy's termination. She would have to wait for more complete details; that would be once the ANBU had fully debriefed Tenten, and Neji, Lee, and Naruto were released from intensive care.

Of all the ninja we lost, we could only bring back you huh? she cursed angrily. The cadavear ignored her. There had been no sign of Danzo's stooge, Tenzo suspected that he had been killed by falling debris and buried somewhere in the forest. The teams had been in desperate need of further medical support (Sakura's weakened condition had only allowed her to do so much) and there was no time to search for his remains as well.

One thing was certain, the daimyos in the Land of Grass were sure to have there fair share of questions when they found the Leaf headband on that body. We'll have to have some missing-nin story fabricated when they come asking.

Tsunade wanted to curse again. The shear amount of devastation to that region was going to raise a lot bigger questions as well. Hopefully none of the other Five find out soon. If they suspect were employing a jinchuriki as an offensive weapon, or testing it somehow… She knew the other kages wouldn't believe the truth even if she was stupid enough to tell it to them.

She stopped worrying about the political fallout for a moment. She looked down at the corpse one more time. She really had not needed Shizune to tell her the cause of death, "Right and left coronary arteries punctured, cause of death: shock and massive blood loss." She recited merely what she saw as any good first year medical student would. The funny thing was, they'd probably learn more from him in this condition then if they had taken him alive. Compounds in cells would tell them what he'd eaten, they could trace that back to the plants and animals in the region. Exotic drugs had unique compounds. Those could be traced as well. "You'll talk yet Yakushi, don't think you got away." Tsunade hated lying to herself.

She let the sheet drop back over him, hiding his empty eyes and slightly open mouth again from view. You weren't worth the wager you bastard! The Hokage killed the overhead lamp and left the dead to themselves. The living had too many things to worry about. Like how Sakura had survived for example. Or what they were going to tell Naruto about what had happened. Or how to handle Might Gai's funeral arrangements... The Hokage let her face drop in the hallway.Alone, and with only the dead nearby she cursed again. She had always been a terrible gambler.

Six hours later

"Lady Tsunade, they've-!" the Hokage looked up from the manifest she had been flipping through for the last hour and not really reading. "Left, I know Shizune don't worry."

"But if they run into Orochi-"

"They won't, he'll have left the area by now. Knowing him, he's far too paranoid about being uncovered while not at the top of his game." Tsunade felt a frown emerge and quickly checked it before it spread. Just thinking about her former teammate made her want to wretch.

She could see the concern in Shizune's eyes, she really is a great doctor, always trying to protect others, keep them from harm.

"They won't be gone long anyway," the Hokage let her gaze return to the parchment. "Remember who they trained under. And anyway, I sent a chaperone."

Two days later, Land of Grass

Kakashi had no idea what he was doing here at the edge of a massive crater, in a foreign country, nearly out of breath, in the dead of night. Gai, I suppose this is revenge for all those competitions you lost. To tell the truth, dodging the Grass-nin had been fairly easy. It seemed they had either quickly conducted their investigation, or it simply had yet to begin. After all, if they suspect Orochimaru's involvement, they might not want to ask too many questions. That was fine by Kakashi, it meant one less international incident to deal with.

In truth, Kakashi did have a reason for volunteering to go with them. They had been fairly decent at dodging their security details in the hospital, but Kakashi had caught wind of their little plan in passing while he was being released. And he had had a feeling… At the very least, I've given them an official purpose to come back. Tsunade had caught the four of them at the gate. When she had asked, Kakashi had very simply stated they were going to go determine how the Hidden Grass where responding to the intrusion. Never mind that they were the least appropriate team to make that kind of investigation.

The hokage had seemed surprisingly okay with the violation, only telling them to hurry up and hurry back. For some reason that had made his new wards smile nostalgically and Kakashi had gotten the sinking feeling that he should have been spending more time running and less time in intensive care.

So here he was again, out of breath, standing at the foot of the crater where a man who had once called him rival had ceased growing old. Gai's students had actually raced out here. No one had even said 'go'; they had just started speeding up. Kakashi's polite request for sanity had been generally ignored, and suddenly he was chasing three very fast, giggling children into a foreign nation. Well, at least Tenten was giggling. He supposed that Lee was legitimately laughing in between gasps for air, and he could physically hear the silent chuckle spread across the Hyugga's face.

Kakashi Hatake gazed down into the crater. How many friends am I going to lose in this goddamn country?

Lee glanced around the crater and tried to visualize his idol's last moments. Lee found that he simply couldn't. The concept that Might Gai could actually die was so foreign that even now after the fact, it simply did not seem possible. Neji stood somewhat close by, the respectable distance two friends gave each other when they mourned in the same place. Tenten had moved a few meters off, was seemingly looking for something. There black garbs were supposedly to aid in the infiltration. That statement would have fooled anyone until they were told who the team was.

Lee cried at silly things. He cried in the presence of friends, when he saw sunrises, and when he thought of ideals. He had cried whenever Gai-sensei had as well, probably because he could feel the raw emotion come flying off his mentor like solar radiation. He had never felt stupid or embarrassed because of it either. Humans cried. If he was a little more human than most, why should it bother him? Yet at this moment, in the place where his hero had breathed his last, Lee did not feel like crying.

"The legends said it was supposedly unbreakable," whispered Lee with a grin as he turned toward where Tenten had wandered away.

"Remind me to update the legends," Neji whispered back.

Kakashi watched the three silently in crater. The moonlight reflected off the shards of and slivers of a once unbreakable blade, making it look as if the children stood amidst a sea of stars. Kakashi thought of the monument back home, and the name that would be carved on its cold stone face. Just another name to remember. Except here, at this monument, he still seemed more than a name. Here he seemed to have transcended the barrier of stone and earth, and still Might Gai smiled. The crater sparkled in the moonbeams like bleached white teeth, and Kakashi Hatake looked away. Damn light is making my eye water, the shinobi coolly lied. The tears from his covered eye soaked into his canted headband.