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Thinking
Emphasis
Bijuu, etc. Speaking
Bijuu, etc. Thinking
Kakashi made his way through the pouring rain in his ANBU armor, not caring if his clothes got wet, or if he would even possibly get so sick that he died from the chill and weather. He didn't care anymore. There was nothing left to live for anyway. He had secretly begun taking ANBU missions after over ten years of absence from the suicidal ranks just for that reason if he were to be honest with himself. His heart ached in his chest with every step he took closer to his destination.
He was headed to the graveyard just outside of the village; he was going there to see Naruto, having switched his daily habits from visiting the Memorial Stone to simply visiting his former student weeks ago. He figured that since he hadn't paid enough attention to him in life, he should at least see to it that the young man wasn't lonely in death. Like everyone else that had cared so much about him, he visited every day he could, leaving flowers, candles, and even ramen as tributes to their lost light.
It had been almost two months since Naruto had died and in that time much had changed. Sakura had murdered Sasuke brutally, to avenge Naruto before turning the knife on herself. She hadn't died, thankfully, but she had come so frighteningly close. Lee had taken her in and finally given her a reason to live. The two had married almost immediately and had even found out that they were expecting their first child. Sakura was hoping for a boy to name after Naruto, wanting to honor the most important person she hadn't been able to save.
Sai had become more withdrawn and was slightly unstable. Tenzo smiled very little now and spoke even less than Sai.
Kiba and Hinata were dating - trying to give comfort to one another, but it was a hard thing. They both missed the blonde almost as much as Iruka and Konahomaru, who oftentimes slipped up and accidentally called someone else by Naruto's name before breaking down and crying. It was just so hard for them to believe that he was gone.
Neji, Shino, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Choji had joined ANBU. Choji had been very badly wounded during a mission a few weeks ago and had yet to be released from the hospital.
And Ino... she had defected from the village along with Tsunade, driving an even greater pain into their hearts, especially for Sai and her family. The Godaime Hokage had first killed every member on the civilian side of the council before walking out on the village and turning her back on them for the last time. She had lost so much of the former warmth that some saw her now as little more than a wild animal, always lashing out and drawing blood. She had taken out almost every shinobi that had gone to retrieve her so far, leaving the title of Hokage to fall to his shoulders.
Damn her hide. The title of Hokage would forever belong to one, and only one person in Kakashi's heart and that person was now dead. At least Kakashi himself had managed to get rid of that damn Karin woman that had led Sasuke to slaughter Naruto. And that meant that there were no more Uzumakis left. Whenever that reminder played so horrifically in his mind, he felt sick inside.
Kakashi stopped walking and cocked his head as he caught a whiff of something metallic and sweet and felt his heart stutter in his chest. His breathing hitched in fear as he took off jogging. Oh Kami: no, please don't let me find someone dead next to Naruto's grave. Please, the disguised Rokudaime silently begged as the smell of fresh blood mixed with earth lingered in his nose, making him shake his head and feel ill as he neared Naruto's grave and stopped.
He slowed as he approached. There is something seriously wrong with this picture. He didn't know what it was at first, but it was odd: scary even. The hair on the nape of his neck stood on end as he looked around for a second. There wasn't a body lying on the ground; no signs to indicate that someone had been there: not from this distance anyway. Though he could see that some of the dirt on the grave looked disturbed.
Had someone been messing with his Naruto's resting place? Perhaps one of the few people who still thought the young man was actually the demon fox? Kakashi ground his teeth together and quickly closed the distance between himself and the grave, stopping cold as an icy sliver of fear worked its way down his spine seeing the grave up close. It looked like something had dug its way out of the earth, leaving a human-sized hole of loose dirt in the mud. There were what looked like claw marks on the ground next to the hole, smudges, and footprints.
Smallish, shallow, footprints ... He frowned and followed the footprints, and dropped to his knees in the mud next to one puddle, and reached inside to fish out a strand of blond hair and a piece of a muddy white material. It was just like the yukata that Naruto had been wearing when he was buried. His heart hammered in his chest as rage bubbled up, overpowering his sense of grief. Someone has done something to Naruto's body! A low feral growl escaped his throat as he got to his feet and followed the footprints back towards the village, praying that he could reach Naruto's body before someone did something truly vile to it.
She stood in front of the Memorial Stone, staring blankly ahead, her body shaking from weakness and the cold, her stomach cramping from hunger. Where the hell am I? She had absolutely no idea. She didn't even know how she had gotten here, or even why she was here at all! Honestly, she didn't even know who she was. This made no sense! The area looked a little familiar to her - maybe - like something that she had seen in a dream, but she couldn't grasp what that dream had been about.
Was there a reason why she had been buried alive? It had to be some sort of punishment, right? She didn't know. But she wanted to find out, even if it hurt her. Even if the reason she was put there killed her for real this time. "Why am I here?" she tried to ask, reaching out to brush her fingers across one of the names etched into the cold stone in front of her. She stopped when she saw her hand and frowned.
When had her hand gotten so pale and skeletal looking? Just how long had she been buried? She looked down at herself curiously, unsure of what to think of her current condition. It all seemed so surreal.
She was about to study herself a bit more when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her up into the air. She opened her mouth to scream in alarm but the arms tightened around her body painfully, pushing all the air from her lungs as she was slammed into something on her back. She lay there trying to gasp for air when a large hand wrapped around her throat and she heard someone shout something at her.
Kakashi had attacked without thinking when he had found the one who had done something to Naruto's body. He had been only mildly surprised to find out that the culprit was a woman, but that didn't matter. He had never seen her in the village before and had identified her as the enemy. Enemies sucked, so he had seized the chance to grab her and started strangling her before she could do anything else that he deemed suspicious and snapped at her. "What did you do? What did you do to Naruto?"
She gasped for air and everything just seemed to freeze in Kakashi's mind. The way she had just gasped...it sounded like Naruto. The red haze that had taken over his mind slowly faded as he looked at her. She had his face, he realized as he loosened his grip a bit and stared at the strange female. She had the same facial features as Naruto, her face was more feminine, her skin paler, but it was still his face. And then there was the fact that something human-sized had clawed its way out of Naruto's grave... He used his free hand to grab one of her small delicate hands and studied the torn, ripped, and bloody fingertips of the female he was holding and froze.
It couldn't be, could it? It just wasn't possible. The dead don't rise!
His heart thudded in his chest as he stared at the girl, she looked much too much like him to be his daughter or his sister, (and was too old to be his daughter.) He also knew for a fact that Naruto didn't even have a sister. The girl looked more like Naruto back when he used his sexy jutsu, although right now she was a mess. The long hair, the curves, and slender build... "Naruto? Are you Naruto?" he asked in a broken voice as he quickly shifted his hands from her skin to the front of her white cotton yukata and yanked the lapels apart so that he could see her chest.
There was a faint white mark over the pale skin covering her heart. He laid a shaky hand against it and closed his eyes and sighed as he counted the heartbeats under his palm. She laid there like a doll staring up at him wide-eyed, unsure of what was going on, or what was going to happen next. He asked her something, but she couldn't speak to answer him. Her voice had given out long ago when she had woken up in the box and had started screaming for help, not knowing that help would never come.
Kakashi reached out to frame her face in his hands and nearly cried: he could feel the faint warmth of her skin under his hands. He could almost hear the ebb and flow of the blood pulsing through her veins. "Are you Naruto? Please answer me if you are..."
"...on't know," she said in a weak, scratchy voice that he had to strain to hear, even as he leaned down with his ear so close to her lips. She didn't speak after that, it seemed to be all she was capable of saying. She then slipped into unconsciousness.
Moving off of her, he lifted the girl up in his arms and couldn't help but cry out in anguish. Please don't let this be a dream or some cruel joke. Please! Kakashi had already taken off running through the dark wet village streets towards the hospital. Sakura could surely check for the Kyubi's chakra and also do a blood test to determine who the young woman was. They would find out whether or not someone was playing a very sick joke on them.
