A/N: Please note that the days that they keep mentioning have an enormous impact on the story plotline itself. The timeline will be further explained in chapter 16.

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The people of Konoha shifted around nervously all the time. The evacuation was successful. The area was large and comfortable enough, but everyone was still afraid. Especially Tsunade. She kept pacing back and forth, refusing to eat many meals, saying that it would be better if it was saved for the villagers. She had kept careful track of the days that passed. Even in all the confusion, she knew how many days have passed.

Twenty days… she silently reminded herself at the next sunrise. Her hands were at her sides and her eyes were blank as she gazed at the rising sun.

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Kakashi's nin-dogs were able to find Sakura and Sai very quickly, since Sai's ink animals helped them quite a bit. With a bit of guessing and estimation, Kakashi reached the conclusion that he had sent the dogs out on the seventeenth day of their departure.

On the eighteenth day, the nin-dogs found them. They had to spend a day huddled away in one of Yamato's impromptu wooden buildings because of a freak blizzard. As quickly as it came, though, the blizzard left. On the nineteenth day, they began to search for Saskue and Naruto. They didn't have much hope, since the blizzard would have wiped away all signs of them.

However, the second they forced the door open the dogs could sense that something was wrong.

"Pakkun…" Kakashi said softly to the dog. All of them were shifting around uncertainly. The humans shielded their eyes from the brightness of the sun.

"There's a large disturbance somewhere. Everything is quiet, and it's not because of the previous blizzard… Naruto's scent is extremely strong right now… but…" Pakkun sniffed the air.

"Lead us to him…" Sakura whispered to him, her eyes hard. It was so difficult for her to keep back her worry right now.

It took them a day to reach the place where Naruto and Sasuke were. All of the nin-dogs halted some distance from where they were. They whimpered and trotted back to Kakashi apprehensively, but they didn't continue.

Kakashi dismissed them quickly. Yamato stayed back quietly and only watched with Kakashi as Sakura and Sai ran ahead of them.

"N… Naruto… Sa-Sasuke…" Sakura choked when she saw them. She fell to her knees and began to cry, her sobs were the only thing that could be heard. She didn't care that her knees would become frostbitten if she kneeled on the snow for so long.

Sai stared at the two dead bodies. This time, he knew which expression to use. He, too, began to cry silently. Kakshi and Yamato turned their heads away stiffly when they saw their condition.

Sasuke was still pinned up against the tree, ice crystals invading his once soft hair. The frozen tear and smile were still on his face. Not two feet away from his body, Naruto was curled up. There were places on his body where his skin refused to re-grow and tears were also frozen on his face. A small smile mirrored Saskue's.

It was the twentieth day of their mission. Had they completed it? Or did they fail? It no longer mattered to them anymore.

Yamato walked over to Sakura and pulled her up from the snow. Her shoulders shook violently as she bit her lip and tried to calm herself down. Sai's head was down as he clenched his fists tightly.

"We have to get back to Konoha…" Kakashi broke the quietness and walked over to Sasuke's body. He grabbed the kunai and pulled it out. A strange cracking sound was emitted as it was removed from the cold body. His visible eye closed as he stood there, the stiff body in his arms.

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For another seven days, Konoha waited. On the twenty seventh day since Team Kakashi left, Tsunade decided to return to the village. No matter what, she had to return there to see if any damage was done.

Many ANBU members accompanied her. She was thoroughly surprised when she saw that Konoha wasn't destroyed at all. It was just the same as they left it. They spent a few hours seeking traps or the like before deciding that Akatsuki hadn't attacked them at all.

It was the twenty eighth day. Tsunade and the ANBU members were getting ready to go back to the evacuation area to retrieve everyone else. They were stopped at the giant gates.

At the same moment they were about to exit the gates again, a group stopped them. Tsunade's eyes spilled over with tears when she saw them.

Kakashi and Yamato were holding Sasuke and Naruto's bodies. Sai and Sakura were trailing behind them numbly. All of them were lifeless. Their soul seemed to be drained from them as they looked up at the small group that greeted them.

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The village was back now. It has been thirty days. Exactly a month.

Everyone in Konoha was standing in front of two graves. They were all clad in black. Snow fell softly around them, no longer angry. A gently wind caressed them. Tsunade was standing in front.

Her voice was strong when she spoke, but it still broke off several times as she talked. There were people who were crying. Silently, they hurt, cried, remembered, regretted, longed, hoped, wished…

"Today… Today was supposed to be a joyous day. Today was supposed to be the wedding day of Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. But no… Now it is no longer a happy day. We are holding their funerals today…"

Tears glistened in the cold weather as the Hokage's voice rang through the giant courtyard.

"They were both brave. They both had dreams. They never truly finished them. Naruto's dream was to become Hokage. He didn't care that everyone in the village had spurned him and acted coldly toward him. He wanted to protect this village from harm. With his life. He succeeded in doing so. Sasuke's dream was to become strong and avenge his clan. He became traitor to us all because his views were skewed, but he learned that hate wasn't the right path to becoming strong. He was traitor, yes, but now he is hero. They are both heroes…"

The sky seemed to listen quietly to her speech as well. Her voice trailed off momentarily to let the words sink in.

"But they were more than that… They were lovers. They loved each other regardless of gender. Regardless of glares and whispers and discrimination. They broke all the barriers because they loved each other!" Her voice became stronger and louder as some anger seeped into her voice.

"Together, they proved that not only a man and a woman could love. They proved that 'love' is just a term. It holds no grudge against gender, race, or religion. It is only a word which describes a feeling… Many of you refused to see that truth. You became close minded, and even in their last days together, they suffered because of that!"

Her usually gentle voice held an edge to it now. Many people had lowered their head shamefully as they listened to her. Then it dropped so quickly that many people had to strain to catch her words.

"Naruto didn't care when everyone treated him as the fox demon. Not just the container. He was never the fox demon. He was Uzumaki Naruto. Sasuke didn't care when people only saw him as an 'Uchiha' and not as 'Uchiha Sasuke'. Everyone saw only the surface of these two, but they acknowledged each other. They looked beyond the skin and saw deeply in each other."

Sobs finally interrupted the speech as Tsunade cried. She didn't hide away her tears. She let everyone see that she cared for them.

"… Remember today as the day that Uchiha-Uzumaki Sasuke and Naruto died for the village of Konohagakure…"

A/N: This isn't the end yet. There's still chapter 15. Chapter 16 will be a list of extras that I wholeheartedly wish that everyone will take a moment to look at.