Scarecrow in the Mist [Naruto Fan Fic]

Epilogue

Kyo and Yumiko had three children: two girls and one boy, named Satoshi.

After Yumiko dropped them all off at the Academy, she headed to the Shinobi cemetery. She sat cross-legged in front of her former teammate's grave.

"I guess I was wrong about no one naming a kid after you, huh, Satoshi?" Yumiko murmured. "His birthday is two months and five days after yours. He's so much like you..." Her voice cracked and she paused. It didn't get any easier, despite what she was told. "I use to wonder what things would have been like if it were us. How many kids would we have had? Would we be happy?" She allowed a pause. "Kyo makes me happy. I'm fine. Kyo is fine too, we just miss you. So much. I hope you're resting easy."

*

Their shoulders were touching and their fingers were interlocked. "This is okay," Kasumi murmured. "Yeah, it's kind of slow but it's peaceful." Kakashi agrees. "I hope those kids pass on the Will of Fire." Kakashi weakly nods. "Me too."

Kasumi turns her head a fraction of an inch towards Kakashi and he does the same. "Thank you for loving me. I love you so much." She whispers. Blood trickles from the corner of her mouth. "Even though you're late to everything and keep me up by reading with the light on." She continues. "I love you even though you hog all the covers and incessantly check on our daughter, even though she's nineteen." Kasumi rolls her eyes, but she's smiling.

"At least she got my straight hair." Kausmi jokes. "She also got your stubborness." Kakashi retorts. "Do you remember that time Risaki tried to be a ninja when she was five and she almost threw herself out of the window?"

They looked at each other before sharing a jubilant laugh and turning back towards the sky.

Kakashi passed on then, but he was smiling beneath his mask. Death took Kasumi mid-laugh, her eyes half-closed and her mouth stretched into a wide smile.

They were later found like that, the light streaming in from between the trees just right to shine upon them. The Genin and Chuunin had returned to Konoha to seek medical treatment and have back-up sent to the Hatake's.

Sakura was there, hopeful that they both would just need healing, but she knew. Naruto, the Hokage himself, came too, needing to see it for his own eyes. Neither cried, just smiled with watery eyes, seeing the outline of Kakashi's grin beneath his tight fitting mask and Kasumi's rare laugh.

Their names were inscribed on the KIA stone with their friends. Their former students went on to talk about their Senseis and comrades on the KIA stone, much like their teachers.

They each left a legacy: Kakashi as the Copy Cat Ninja and the first non-Uchiha to obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan, and Kasumi as Kasumi of the Red Snow, the first female to activate the Sharingan, and the first half-Uchiha.

Not only that, though. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Kyo, Satoshi, Yumiko, Kiyoshi, and of course their daughter, Risaki, and all the other live they had impacted were their legacies.

*

The service wasn't particularly sad or depressing. While their deaths weren't quick and painless, exactly, they were tranquil. They spent their final moments joyfully, as seen by their smiling faces. While everyone that knew them personally - and some who didn't - had holes in their hearts, they weren't necessarily upset. They sacrificed themselves for the future generations of ninja. A proper death for any Shinobi, especially ones such as themselves.

Everyone showed up for their funerals. People from the Mist came, even those who had never officially met either of the two. People from all countries involved in the war came, seeing the two in action and having gained respect for them as Shinobi.

Kiyoshi showed up with his own students. Kyo and Yumiko brought their children, who paid their respects to their godparents. Kurenai, along with her child, attended. Plus Guy and all the Genins they had trained who were left. Sasuke thanked Kasumi for continuing the Uchiha line. "I guess I won the final battle of rivalry, huh, Kakashi? I'll be youthful enough for the both of us." Guy said. They weren't buried, but Risaki and their former students wanted them to have a service. It was a sad kind of beautiful.

They were cremated and their ashes were mixed together in a single urn. Death wouldn't separate them.

The people closest to them each spread an pinch of their ashes around the Leaf Village. In the woods, on the training grounds, outside Icharaku's.

Their daughter spread the rest of their ashes in the ocean surrounding Kiri, when the mist was the thickest. As she dropped the last of the ashes into the water to be carried away, she felt her mother's presence. As she neared the shore, she faintly saw the outline of a scarecrow and she smiled.

She'd have to get Naruto to finally write that book he'd been wanting to. Maybe he could call it Scarecrow in the Mist.

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Two years later, it's finished. Thanks for sticking around.