Today was the funeral.
Naruto stood in front the mirror. He saw a boy with blonde hair who was wearing black robes. He also saw a ninja who was too weak to save his comrades. Naruto turned away with a sigh. He opened the door and walked out. The sky was cloudy today, and it looked like it was about to rain.
Naruto spotted Sasuke and Sakura and walked over to them. None of them said a word to each other as they walked together to the funeral. The funeral was located near the memorial stone, and Naruto could see that it was about to start. There was way more people than Naruto expected. He could see the Rookie Nine and their senseis, Gai's team, some jounins, and there were even some ANBU.
It started to rain as Tsunade stepped in front of the memorial stone. All eyes turned to her as they waited for her to speak.
"Today, we honor a shinobi of the Leaf, who served the village with all his heart, and died serving it. He was one of the strongest ninjas in the village, and was respected by many." Tsunade paused here, and lifted her head to look at everyone in the eye.
"However, not only was he a great ninja, but he was an even greater person. He vowed to never abandon his comrades, and he never once did. He died as he lived, sacrificing his life for his teammates, and bringing the Akatsuki leader down with him."
Tsunade looked at Naruto when she said the last part, and Naruto couldn't meet her eyes.
"Today we honor Kakashi Hatake."
It was raining harder now. People started to walk up to Kakashi's portrait, and they each placed a white flower in front of it. Occasionally, they would say a word of thanks and farewell.
Asuma and Kurenai walked up and placed the flower down.
"You're a great friend, Kakashi. You've saved our lives more than we could count. Thank you."
Gai was next. Tears were streaming down his face. His knuckles were still bleeding and split open from the training he did since Kakashi died.
"My ETERNAL RIVAL! I shall NEVER forget you! You were a GREAT rival, but more importantly, you were a just and loyal FRIEND! I, Maito Gai, THANK YOU with all my heart!"
Team Eight, Team Ten, and Gai's team went up, each one carrying a flower.
"You were a great ninja. We all respected and looked up to you. May you rest in peace, Kakashi-sensei."
A team of ANBU walked up to the portrait. Naruto wondered how they knew Kakashi. He soon got his answer, however, when one of the ANBU spoke.
"You were a great captain and senpai. You risked your life to save us when anyone else would have left us behind. You didn't deserve to die."
Naruto saw a jounin go up next.
"Thank you for saving my life, Kakashi-san. If it wasn't for you, I would have died, and I wouldn't have seen my family again."
Yamato went after the jounin.
"Kakashi-senpai, you taught me a lot of things. Without you, I would not be the shinobi today. Thank you."
It was Sakura's turn now. Sakura walked up to the portrait. She could almost feel Kakashi's presence behind, his hand ruffling her hair. But when she turned around, there was no one. Sakura blinked water out of her eyes and laid a flower in front of her teacher's picture.
"Thank you...Kakashi-sensei...so much. You were the best teacher I could ever ask for. I just wish...so much...that you were still here for us...that tomorrow we'll wait for you again, and then you'll appear with a really bad excuse...I wish what happened was a dream...I didn't want you to die." Sakura choked back sobs. She took one last look at Kakashi's smiling face, and walked back to her teammates. Naruto allowed Sakura to cry into his shoulder as he tried to comfort her.
Sasuke was up next. As he places his flower next to Sakura's, he remembers the time when Kakashi told him that all his precious people were dead.
"Now I know what you mean, Kakashi-sensei. I just wish that I had listened to you, then maybe this wouldn't have happened. I'm so sorry. When I decided to come back to Konoha, I didn't know whether you, Naruto, and Sakura would still welcome me, but I wanted to see Team 7 reunited. I guess now that can never happen. I was too late. Thank you for teaching me, Kakashi-sensei. You've trusted me with Chidori, I swear, that I will use it to protect my comrades from now on." Sasuke felt water trickle down his cheek, but it was too warm to be rain. So he must be...crying? Sasuke hadn't cried since...since Itachi died. He bowed to his teacher's portrait, an act of respect he had never shown to Kakashi before, and left.
Finally, it was Naruto's turn. Naruto walked towards Kakashi's portrait. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jiraiya, who was leaning against one of the wooden poles. Naruto briefly wondered why he wasn't wearing black before he stood in front of his teacher's portrait. Naruto put his flower down with his teammates' and stared at Kakashi's picture. The rain suddenly got bigger, so that all Naruto could see was a hazy outline of the picture. It might have just been the rain, but Naruto could see in front of his eyes when team 7 had first met. The scene then shifted to the first mission they had gone on, then during the mission where they went to the Land of Waves...all of the happy moments when team 7 had still been whole. Now, Naruto knew that team 7 could never be whole again.
"Kakashi-sensei, I...I think you were the best sensei ever. You taught us to never abandon your comrades, and that's a lesson that I'll never forget. But...why did you just have to die? Can't you see that so many people care about you? That Sasuke, Sakura, and I care a lot about you? The Three Sannin may have been our masters, but you were always our sensei. And you always will be." Naruto felt like crying all over again. Kakashi had always been there for them, even when they didn't notice it. He turned around and went back to his teammates as Tsunade stepped back up.
"As you all know, any ninja who was killed in action has there name carved onto the memorial stone. Now, a new name will be added to the stone. May we all remember Kakashi Hatake." Tsunade motioned for the carver to come up. As the carver touched the tip of the carving tool to the stone, Naruto could hear a person's footsteps coming towards them, but he dismissed it as someone who was late to the funeral. 'Wait, that sounds familiar…' Suddenly, everyone turned around in shock as a familiar voice rang out:
"Sorry I'm late. I'm afraid I got stabbed and fell off a cliff. Luckily the Sand Village found me and saved my life, but I still had to walk all the way back." Kakashi was standing behind them. He had some bandages that were soaked with blood around his stomach, but otherwise he looked the same as always. Naruto started running towards him, and he could feel Sakura and even Sasuke doing the same. They all launched themselves at Kakashi, and Kakashi found himself being strangled by his three very happy and crying students. Kakashi smiled.
"I'm back. Did you miss me?"
The End
Thanks for everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. All the reviews were really encouraging and enjoyable to read. I might rewrite this in the future, I won't change the story's plot or remove large parts of the story but I will add some parts.
