Ch. 10 The Funeral Ends

Temari woke up early the next morning and looked out the window at Don's grave. For some reason, she felt different. She got up and left the room and stood out in front of his grave and stared at it. Soon she heard a voice call behind her. "Temari, what are you doing here?" Rain called to her. "Nothing, I just all of a sudden had the urge to come here, that's all."

"You too?" Rain replied. "I don't know why but I felt like someone was calling me here." Temari said. "Yeah, me too." Rain said. They stood there and reminisced about their time spent with Don a little over a year ago. Then an unexpected voice made Rain and Temari turn. "Hey guys, you feel it too?"

"Gazu? What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?" Rain asked in amazement. "Well, since you guys have been gone and not nagging me about stuff, I have had time to tinker with my puppets and I recently made chariot based puppet for quick traveling. I got the feeling late last night and have been traveling ever since, so I saved a lot of time getting here."

"What about Dan?" Rain asked sadly. "That guy? He doesn't even know I left." Rain ran up to him and cried a bit into his shoulder. "It's so despicable. To think of what has happened to you and me over this course of time. What Don has done and how he has affected us. It's not right that he has a replacement, he was the heart of our squad, it's not right to replace something as sacred as that Gazu, it's just not fair."

Gazu hugged his crying teammate. "I know Rain; I don't like it either, though we will have to deal with this guy for now." Rain punched Gazu in the stomach hard making Gazu grunt in pain. "I'm sorry, I'm just so mad." "It's no problem, seeing how hard that punch is, I can only imagine how much pain you feel. However I think we all feel it too. Look." Gazu said and pointed into the distance.

First what was only Naruto and Hinata in front turned out to be many more people from the village. Every person that Don knew was coming their way. Out of nowhere, Gaara, Kankuro and Baki-sama joined the three. "What is this?" Gazu asked.

"It seems that all of us had a calling to come here." Gaara said. Soon the area was filled with everyone that Gazu had ever known in the village. They all gathered around the grave site and began to chat amongst one another. For some reason it was like a delayed procession of Don's funeral. Temari, Rain and Gazu looked in awe as they watched the friends of Don laughing and sharing stories with each other about their experiences with Don.

Sure they were sad with his death however despite that feeling somewhere in their hearts, the atmosphere, however, was a pleasant one, a one of joy as if Don was there with them to share in the good times and the laughs from all the multiple stories that were told.

It was as though all the pain had been finally swept away. The three of them joined the crowd and participated in storytelling, the laughing and the joy that everyone else was enjoying so much.

Atop of squad seven's apartment, a dark figure stood, watching them crowd of people, making an uproar from the story telling and laughing. Soon the sky became dark and it began to rain lightly. They all headed to the Hyuga residence to continue their enjoyment.

The funeral had finally ended.