Starting over

#58 Sad Days

Naruto POV

I saw Temari and Gaara finishing up the last standing sound shinobi. I looked around and saw that almost everywhere the fights had stopped, most of the attackers had been captured. Luckily most of the civilians had been caught in the genjutsu that had been cast before the attack. They had slept through most of the fighting and were now starting to wake up, since Orochimaru, who was probably the caster of the Genjutsu, had left and thus had to cancel it. Temari and Gaara jumped down to me with a distressed look on their face. "Where was that explosion coming from?", Temari asked, looking around searching the arena for any signs of said explosion. "I think it came from the fight between Orochimaru and the Hokage.", I responded. We jumped onto the ranks and ran towards the place where we saw a giant crater in the middle of one of the training grounds. I saw on the faces of Tsunade and Shizune that something was wrong, even before we had arrived next to them. Jiraiya was kneeling next to something. When I came closer, it became clear, that he was kneeling in front of a burned body. I knew immediately, that this body could only belong to one person, since the third Hokage was nowhere to be seen. I went to Jiraiya, because I had to see the corpse for myself, before I wanted to believe what had happened. I knelt down beside him and saw that Hiruzen's face was mostly unharmed. I stood up and tried to keep my tears at bay, going back to Temari and Gaara. "When will the funeral be?", I asked with silent voice. "Probably within the next two weeks.", Tsunade said, tears streaming down her face. I nodded and turned around. I walked past Gaara and Temari, without saying a word, my face set in stone. The two looked at me with sad eyes, following me. I went straight to the training ground, that we had been using, ignoring the remarks of the civilians about my heritage and how I should come back to Konoha. They had yet to be informed about the death of their Hokage, so for them the biggest concern was to rebuild after the successful defence of Konoha. At the training ground I sat down, my back leaned against a tree and looked at my teammates. Temari had put an arm around me and leaned against me, while Gaara had sat down opposite to us. "The exams are over, we should be going home.... However, I can't go right now. I won't force you two to stay, but I will wait for the funeral. What I think, would be best is for you, Gaara to go back to Suna, relay what happened and maybe even set up a visit from Rasa in Konoha, maybe he can come to the funeral. I know he held a high opinion of Hiruzen. As I said I will stay here and I would be incredibly thankful if you, Temari, could stay with me so that I don't have to be alone.", I proposed with silent voice, still fighting to hold back my tears. "I will stay with you.", Temari whispered, leaning her head onto my shoulder. Gaara thought for a moment, before answering. "I will be back for the funeral, I can only imagine how much he meant to you, so I will at least be there for you and pay my respects for the Hokage. I will try to get Rasa and Baki to come with me, but I can't promise anything.", he said. I nodded with a small smile on my face.

At the evening Gaara had cleared out his room in the hotel and stood in front of the gates. Temari gave him a hug and wished him a good journey. "Thank you, for being there for me and for understanding. We'll see each other in two weeks.", I whispered as I hugged him. Gaara smiled and nodded, turning around and jumping away into the setting sun.

At the way back to the hotel, I heard a loud gong, ringing through the streets. Almost immediately the streets were filled with people, rushing towards the hokage tower. I looked at Temari and we both nodded, jumping onto the roof, taking off towards the hokage's office.

When we got there, we saw Tsunade and Jiraiya along with the two advisors of the Hokage standing on top of the hokage tower. The small square in front of the tower, was filled with civilians, while the rooftops around it were littered with shinobi of every age.

Then the gong was heard a second time and everyone went quiet.

"People of Konoha, today has been a day of great misery. This day will most likely be put in the history books as one of the saddest days in Konoha. Not only, have we been attacked by the sound village and their Kage Orochimaru and have lost a lot of good shinobi and kunoichi in the defense of this attack, but we also have lost a great leader, the third hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi was killed by Orochimaru, while defending Konoha. Because of that, we will cancel the chunin exams. In two weeks we will hold a public funeral for everyone that we have lost today. That is all.", Tsunade said with firm voice, although I could see that she still had tears streaming down her face. The audience was shocked and it took a while for them to realize that Tsunade and the others had already gone back into the hokage tower. Temari took my hand and smiled at me, while we went back towards the hotel.