"It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone."--John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent.

The two days until the memorial had been pouring in a tempest. It's as if even the village itself was metaphorically crying upon the loss of the village's longest leader on post; the late Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage. I was feeling better than before as I had understood that people die eventually and we as the living best go on with it. Hitori-san had prepared me a Mof.u.ku to wear on that day. Oh, yes, that day was the day of the memorial of my late Sarutobi-Sensei. When I finished wearing clothes, Hitori-san hugged me tightly and sighed.

"Will you be okay?" she asked. I reached for her back and hugged her. I breathed a heavy sigh and kissed her soft blonde hair.

"Yes, of course. I can handle this," I breathed. We stood like that unmoving until a voice interrupted us.

"Geez, you guys need your own house as soon as possible," Hanabi called from outside of the room. "We're waiting for you guys and bring an umbrella or something. Hurry up, Oni-chan, Hitori-neetan."

With that, she ran away leaving us flushed at her words. I went to the Hokage Tower yesterday to cash-in my reward. As it turns out, even a normal S-Cla.s.s would reward you substantially let alone the above S-Cla.s.s ones. I was left with enough fortune to buy a house and stocked it with furniture and necessities for months to come. We did talk about it the day before but we didn't conclude just yet. We walked to the porch and found them ready to go with an umbrella in hand s.h.i.+elding themselves from the drizzle. What pleased me the most was Neji had finally buried the hatchet. I saw him talked with Hias.h.i.+-sama animatedly which I had never seen it before. Something must have happened during the exams.

"Well, this is a sight I never expected to see. What did I miss for the whole month?" I teased them. Neji just smiled and did not answer and much like Hias.h.i.+-sama himself.

"Let's go," Neji simply said, leading the way and we made our way to the village's florist before the memorial which was at the Hokage Tower.

There were a lot of ninjas that were present. Sarutobi-sensei was always the kind patriarchal figure to most of the people in the village especially the Genins. The rain masked our despair and tears as we recounted our days with him. I, myself remembered his kindness to me; an outsider. I couldn't help but noticed that Jiraiysenpai was nowhere in sight. I figured that he didn't want to remember our sensei this way. Most of us present was still wrapped in bandages and even Kakas.h.i.+-sensei surprisingly made an appearance. That was heartwarming because he was still in fatigue from the Sharingan use. I could hear a boy sobbing loudly a few people next to me and Iruksensei was there to comfort the boy. I presumed that the boy must have been Sarutobi-sensei's grandson because he had mentioned it before. Next to the boy, who other than Naruto. He noticed me and greeted me subtly. Then, people took turns placing flowers at the table. Some of us even talked for a moment to remember the late Hokage. I just stood there patiently waiting for my turn.

"Iruksensei," Naruto suddenly blurted out, "what are humans? Is life just that simple?"

Poor boy must have been devasted by this. He had told me before that Sarutobi-sensei was the one who was always there for him since the day he could remember. To him, sensei was his only family. I vowed that I would continue doing the same to Naruto.

"When a person dies, doesn't matter if it's the past, present or future --they will lose everything. He died fighting in a mission --death caught him unaware because life was that simple. It's like a dream, it's all the same even if you haven't reached your goal. But, everyone knows that the most important thing is to die for a cause," Iruksensei explained, "family, friends, lovers and all the other villagers--to me, those are the most important people.

"We trust each other, help each other from the day we're born to the day we die, we start to feel that love is the most important and that kind of relations.h.i.+p takes time to develop and trust. Anyone with this headband on know because it's very important."

"Yeah, I know that as well but death is still painful," Naruto replied.

"The Hokage wouldn't think it's painful, because we both agree that people should not be hurt for no reason," Kakas.h.i.+-sensei suddenly interrupted, "but, it's no use even if you do understand."

"Right! But not knowing is better than knowing." Naruto determinedly said. That brought a smile on my face. Suddenly someone nudged me to go forward. I had almost forgotten that Hitori was accompanying me. She was very beautiful in her black kimono. It seemed she had somehow hidden her glow to help to blend to the surrounding more.

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"You should say something," she said. I nodded and walked forward to place a bouquet of lilies on the table. I cleared my throat and began my speech.

"When I am first brought into the village, I was brought to meet Sarutobi-sensei at once. Scared, alone in a world that I knew nothing about and nervous about entering a stranger's village, I knew that he knew that at first glance, everything, even my pains. I knew that because it was due to his eyes was always kind when he looked at me and sometimes, the look was of hope. He had hoped for me to be one of the protectors of the village. He allowed me to train to be a ninja as I am today and even took me in as his student. Me, a stranger, an outsider who has no right at all. Once, I asked him; why, why the sympathy, why the hopeful look on a stranger. He said to me, such are Konoha's ninjas, we all have the will of fire; all of the people in this village have this spirit, all of us are part of the same family. Will of fire, what an apt way to describe the way of the people here. Such will had also burned into me as I found a new family here and I wanted to deserve to be worthy of such compa.s.sion to me. Thus, I swore to protect his people who now are my people, my family. Sarutobi-sensei, though you and I had known each other not long enough, I felt the deepest grat.i.tude towards you. Thanks for everything, I will cherish it forever. But for now, rest my old friend, leave the rest to us," I bowed at his tombstone. Tears once again flowed down my cheeks and luckily for me, it was still raining. All of our memories together went through my head and I sobbed to keep it deep inside my heart. When I was done and turned around, I found that all of the people that were present had bowed too. My heart was pounding with grief but when they rose, Naruto and Sakura was the first one that hugged me.

"Huuuuu Hikari, y...you are not a stranger. I know you. You're my friend," Naruto said while he cried. Suddenly, Sakura hit me in the head.

"Stop being so depressing, you are one of us, Baka!" she yelled angrily. I could only laugh heartily. One by one the people had dispersed and the rain had also stopped. All that was left there was my cla.s.smates, Neji's team. We talked together reminiscing our memories in the academy. Well, a short one for me though. They had a lot of memorable moments with the late Hokage.

"Hey, who is this girl that always next to you," Ino suddenly asked about Hitori-san and the other girls also couldn't help to ask me the same. I could sense the murderous intent oozed out of my fiancé. So, I quickly introduced her.

"Guys, meet my fiancé, Hitori. We're living together," I announced. As expected, all of them were exceptionally surprise. There were a lot of disappointments from the girls, Ino especially. There were compliments from the guys, s.h.i.+kamaru, and Choji in particular. I was also introduced to Hinata's teammate; s.h.i.+no and Kiba. Afterwards, those who were close with team 7 went for a bowl of ramen to celebrate my engagement. It's nice to see the girls are getting along. We, the boys were discussing the exams and the invasion. There was a lot of strong genin in the chuunin exam as it turned out. The Suna genin, Gaara was, particularly in the discussion. Naruto recounted how scary the boy was before the fight with Sasuke in the arena. He went on and on until the point where he defeated the Jinchuriki where he lamented his rough time growing up and how the late Sandaime was the closest thing to a family he got.

"You know, Naruto. As I said months ago outside the exam room. You are my siblings. I won't let you feel alone anymore," I said as I watched him gulping down his third bowl of ramen. Though not everyone paid attention to us I knew they were making the same mental promises like me. G.o.d knows what he had endured growing up.

"Naruto, where do you put all that?" Hitori suddenly asked. She was interested in how someone who isn't that fat could hold that much food. Naruto just grinned and laughed before he answered it.

"If its good food, there is always room for more! Right, Chouji?!" Naruto yelled. Chouji, obviously the largest of us just nodded as he was finis.h.i.+ng his fourth. Naruto didn't want to feel defeated, asked for extra. The whole night was filled with laughter despite the depressing morning we had. Perhaps that was how we best relief our stresses--hang out together. After we bid our goodbyes, we went home hurriedly as it was getting late. Hinata, Hitori-san and I were entering the compound when Hias.h.i.+ was drinking his tea.

"Hitori-san, why don't you go on ahead inside? I want to join Hias.h.i.+-sama for a while," I asked and she nodded before she made her way to my room. Hinata had already gone inside before us.

"Hikari-Ouji, welcome home. Still hungry for tea?" Hias.h.i.+ greeted me and poured a cup for me. I walked towards him and sat next to him.

"You know, with my recent mission reward, I was thinking of buying a house, I presumed that's how it was done today," I began.

"Eh, you want to move out already?" Hias.h.i.+ said surprised. I chuckled before answering him.

"Not now, maybe sooner than I thought though. I wanted to learn from you about being the head of a family. You know, responsibilities and such. I am engaged too early. So I must learn and thus I want to learn from the best," I said.

"Oh, Hikari-kun, you'll be fine as it is. After all, you are my most exceptional, mature and responsible son. I would help you out with anything, you need only ask," Hias.h.i.+ said. I, however, was overtaken by awe and joy by what he had said and naturally, tears fell yet again for the day.

"Thank you, I appreciate everything you had done to me. I hope I would never be of trouble to you," I said. No words exchanged between us but we bid ourselves goodnight when we were done with our tea.