Kage of the Graves:
Party for the Parted
He's not crying, but I am. A tragedy has struck Konoha, and even now I don't know what to think about it. A boy, no… I suppose we should call him a man, or even a hero - has died. Fallen to his own hand, the body of Uzumaki Naruto was discovered just yesterday, and what followed was chaos. My own students, though I am no longer their teacher in any real capacity, are still in shock, and they weren't even terribly close to Naruto until recent years.
Hinata… I'm so proud of her for how she's holding up - I know she held such affection for the blonde urchin - is trying her hardest to keep Kiba from collapse. They live together, those two, and neither will probably take missions for some time. Whereas Kiba seems unable to accept the fact that his bestial brother in arms would ever die, especially by his own hand. Shino seems the least affected, and though many would think it had not wounded him at all, I can look at him and understand just how shaken the young Aburame has become. He's withdrawn almost entirely and has demanded of the Hokage that he be allowed participation in some suicidal dangerous mission. I can see it in his mannerisms, how his faith and sense of purpose has become skewed, after all, when one lives their lives dependant upon fact and hypothesis, the purely emotional assault can pierce even the thickest of shields.
But we, all of us, we proud Jounin sensei's are truly at a loss, and it shows. A student, one of the best in fact, could see only one way out… and we can't believe we let it get that way. I've cried more tears than I could imagine having, and I hardly knew the boy. I wasn't the only one, either. Gai, poor Gai, who so valorously defended Naruto's 'Springtime of Youth' is so despondent that he's become more like Kakashi then the very same man I'm holding now. Kakashi can't stop shaking and mumbling his guilt over and over, he believes it's all his fault and nothing I say seems to convince him otherwise.
Even Anko, my beloved adopted sister, has been profoundly affected, she left and went to her apartment… where no one has seen light or sound from since. We were… celebrating when the news came to us. And this leads back to a former thought. I can still recall, with the kind of absolute clarity that leads me to believe it will always be as such, the exact positions we were in when the news reached us.
I was laughing, and it seems so ridiculous now that I could have ever felt god enough to do so, when the messenger came in with such a distraught face. Anko had just told some horribly perverse joke - crumbs of her treasured dango falling from her lips - while Asuma paused, snorting his derision as he tried to light up another of those awful cancer sticks. Kakashi was across from me, trying to look - without making it obvious - to see if I was drunk enough to let my silken wrappings slip to expose the fact that I wasn't wearing a bra, and Gai, sweet, naïve Gai, was admonishing him for doing so. Then those words, words I could never imagine hearing, came to us in a rush - "Uzumaki Naruto is dead!"
The party died, and I don't think it shall ever start again.
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Naruto couldn't believe his ears, what this spook was saying was simply impossible. He wasn't supposed to die yet? Granted, he was profoundly sorry that he was causing all the grief he was seeing, but still… If he wasn't supposed to have died yet, then how was he supposed to live? The specter was bringing him around to look and see the devastation he had caused, telling him over and over that it wasn't meant to be this way.
-"But no one showed me any of this! They left me by myself, and never said a word to me! I would have gladly thrown myself into a pit of fire just for a kind word!"-
-"Ah, but you see, Naruto, that's not how life always is. You don't always get love in obvious ways, but I assure you, if you hadn't been so fucking dense you would have seen it! Damn it, boy, you were meant for great things! Now this is all a colossal fuck up of a situation! You have to be here in a month and a half and you can't be because you're dead!"-
-"I don't believe you! Yes, they're sad I'm gone, I can see that, but none of them loved me, not how I wanted! I know that's selfish, but once - ! - Just Once! I wanted to feel arms around in a tender embrace, while lips pressed to mine and whispers reached my ears, proclaiming love! I never asked for a god damned thing! I worked my ass off for every inch of respect I ever got, but no girl gave me the time of day! So fuck you, and fuck them, alright? Just send me to the afterlife or whatever, If I can't be selfish in death, then when else can I be huh?"-
-"… … … … Fine. But before I send you on, and try to find some way to fix this so that Konoha can survive, allow me to prevail upon you for one last visitation… You said you wanted love, right? Then that's what I'll show you."-
And without another word, the two ghost's vanished from Yuuhi Kurenai's condo and moved towards another place, in another time entirely. The elder ghost, given permission to use the full extent of his powers as liaison to the world-between-worlds shifted time to a place several days in the future to bear witness to the a young woman's declaration of love.
(AN: What's this? Shall we discover which poor girl I've thrown in as Naruto's love interest in the next chapter? It would seem so. But... another little important bit.. 'So Konoha can survive' what's that all about,hmm? Want the answers to these questions? Well then, you know the drill.
