Out Like a Man

Of course... that would break his record of being the number one loud and unpredictable ninja of Konoha. So perhaps he should have expected that anything he expected was going to be wrong.

Sasuke looked to his left. Sakura was weeping loudly with Ino and Hinata was clutching onto Kiba with tear racing down her cheeks. Konohamaru had a pained look to his face, as did a throng of other adults in the group. They all had come to grow strong under the gentle and strong hands of a fox carrier. It was... ironic.

Sasuke looked back at the coffin that laid open, and the dead body that lay there without a thought about anything or anyone. Just laid there. Dead.

"...dobe... ...figures you would go out like that." he said. Voice gravelly. Not from tears. There were none to be had. Naruto wouldn't have cried over his dead body either. Not if he'd died the same way. No, Naruto would probably have said something about it being fitting. Sasuke's gaze flicked towards the Hokage as he began to speak. He would be a good leader, Sasuke thought randomly, he was trained by one of the best Hokages Konoha had had after all.

"We are all gathered here today to ..."

Sasuke didn't really care what the Hokage said about the corpse. Naruto would have rolled his eyes. Naruto didn't like boring ceremonies. It was pointless and annoying. Hell, when Naruto had become the Rokudaime, he had refused to go through the whole formal thing. He said he didn't want -in his own words- 'jack shit' done about his coming into the position.

"... he lead us with the wisdom and strength that ..."

He had wanted to just sit behind the desk and take the reigns. No party, no drinking. Just the change. Sasuke had understood. Naruto didn't want to make a deal out of it. It shouldn't have mattered. That's what Naruto had thought. He was Hokage, not Rokudaime, not Kyuubi, not even Uzumaki Naruto. He was Hokage. Sasuke had just nodded, told the Dobe it was about time. Then never said a thing about it again. Naruto had smirked at that. They understood each other like that.

"... although it pains us all that he never married, nor had children. He called and took us all in as his children. He feed us, and healed us, he was the balm to our souls when we broke and thought we could take no more..."

He had to agree with that statement. He was the one who fed and healed the village. Fed it laughter and life, healed the hearts that suffered under the tolls of war and missions. He was the balm that cared about each and every shinobi and villager alike. Not even the kind old Sandaime had been able to keep his eyes and ears so tuned to each person. Naruto always knew.

"... we all fought for him and the village, and had we been able would have fought with him so this great sorrow could have not come to pass..."

Naruto always knew when someone needed him. Or just needed someone. He often never sat in the Hokage chair. He was always outside, somewhere in the village. Healing souls. Bringing laughter. He would appear when a small village child fell and scraped their knee and no mommies or daddies were there to kiss it better. He would. He'd peck the poor knee, and offer a brotherly smile. Take that tiny hand and tell stories. His voice, like a sirens call, would bring other small bodies to hear. Then he would start a game for tiny hearts, and drift out and away without a sad face to be seen. Off to help the next needy.

"...in his time as Hokage he had done and accomplished many great deeds..."

He would always find his way to the Academy, watching young genin-hopefuls train. His warmth and hands guiding a child who was maybe unable to grasp the lesson. His hand gently petting the head of child geniuses who would get a smile that said they really, not just because it was expected, but really, did a good job. His eyes would glitter with humor as pranks were pulled on poor teachers, or on himself. Enjoying everything that came with the small and still untainted life of genin-hopefuls.

"...he remade the clan laws so that all, not just the best, were equal..."

He gave these tiny children his encouragement and gentle guidance. His acknowledgment of their skills, and of just them. Yet it wasn't the only stop he made. He would come along when young genin teams were training with their senseis and watch with warmth. Ask about their missions so far. help them learn chakra control, maybe teach a jutsu to them. He would chuckle with the jonin sensei when the poor man or woman bemoaned having so many D rank missions. Listen to fears about upcoming exams for the kids.

"... he brought peace to many villages, not only our own..."

Then Naruto would come along chunin and jonin who would be mission tired, and maybe pained from loss or hurt in injury. He would listen, with warm smiles to happiness, and soulful, and emotion filled eyes about death and pain and blood. He would listen and care. Then strong arms would hold and a shoulder would carry the weight of tears. His lips would utter soft words, and allow for even the most hard of hearts to open up and let themselves bleed out. Then he would use two hands, and mend the holes, and stitch together the gaping wounds of hearts. Put them together, and always be aware of those scars. He would carefully touch each scar and heart, giving all the warmth and love he could to each. He held those poor hearts and took in all that pain to allow them to walk on, and love even though shinobi were just 'tools'.

"...as a Hokage, he was fare and just. He came from a childhood where this may have been the only two things never applied to him..."

But where Naruto's strongest moments were... was when he appeared in the missions room. When, with no words to comfort. No way to begin. He would come up and wrap caring, loving, and just simple understanding arms around a wrath figure called ANBU. He would hold them close and hum softly under his breath. Arms holding tightly, a hand softly rubbing the backs upon which the village placed the most gory and terror filled missions. Sasuke was always humbled by that. Seeing the stoic mask of an animal, held close by the Hokage. Seeing the blood stained white figure, go from standing so ridged and proud and deadly. To turning into the embrace and curling into that comfort. Seeing arms shake as they slipped up around the shoulders and neck of their Hokage. Seeing the figure shake and hear soft keens and whines that made no real words, nor very loudly done, come out from that cold mask. And Naruto would just hold on tight, rock slowly back and forth with that wrath clinging to him. He'd soothe this human, who just did deeds that should not have had to have been asked of it. He didn't try to make it better with words. Didn't try to explain it out. He simply held them tight. He wrapped those arms around them, and kept the world away. The ANBU would just shake and keen and whine. They didn't have words to explain the pain. And Naruto didn't have words to soothe it. So they just held on tight.

"... as he was young he was called, unfairly, the demon in which had been..."

Sasuke knew. He knew that there wasn't an ANBU or former ANBU who wouldn't have followed Naruto to the darkest depths of hell. They had a debt to him. He kept their souls, he held them like fragile glass, and tended to them like a tiny fire that needed a soft life giving breath of air. He kept the souls, until it was time for them to stop the gruesome work, and then he helped them learn to live again.

Sasuke let his eyes scan about. A smile slipped upon his face. There was probably not one ANBU not present at this. They lined along the roof tops, their cold faces looking on with grim silence. Yet, like cascading rain, tears slid out from behind every mask. Naruto had been the world to every ANBU, present and former. He always kept his arms open to all, but always made it a point to seek out the ANBU. Even after he had passed on his title of Hokage to his successor, he still was there. It would be... darker... without Naruto here. He was always such a bright flame, that made even the darkest of shadows stay away. Not that there would be a coming night to Konoha, but, it would never be as startlingly white and clean and pure and bright. As it had with Uzumaki Naruto there to light it up.

"And so let us remember, and honor the memory of our dearly beloved Rokudaime, Uzumaki Naruto." The Hokage finished, his voice thick with tears. Crying was heard among the crowd, the rooftops, Sasuke didn't think there was any place there was no tears.

Except for on his face, and Naruto's.

"...Uchiha-dono, will now say a few words, as well as give to last words spoken before the death of Uzumaki Naruto." the Hokage finally said after a moment. Sasuke wasn't surprised at how Sakura looked like she was angry for the lack of tears on his face. Sasuke didn't care. Naruto would know why.

"... I'm rather... surprised. A tad annoyed as well. It was so... so Naruto-ish of him to die like this." Sasuke started. He could see anger and confusion. They would kill any man who would dare foul mouth Naruto, he knew that, because he would have too.

"...I had thought about how exactly he would die a time or two. I always said it wouldn't happen... 'over MY dead body' I would think... but still... I know he wasn't going to live forever... so I always thought I knew how he would die... so of course, the last thing he does is piss me off by proving he still had it. Was still the number one ninja at surprising people by dying in a way I had never thought he would." there were a few watery chuckles at that. Naruto never lost that old habit of surprise. He called it his own personal ninjutsu.

"I had always thought... he would go down... fighting. His last deed taking out the enemy with him. A noble death. Or like the forth, giving his life for some huge impressive feat that should have been impossible." Sasuke stopped, thinking about all those impressive ways Naruto was going to die. "...or ... I had thought he would fall under the pressure. Thought he might take his own life. Or give up and take a suicide death after the team he was on mission with died... still... maybe from the loneliness or from an emotional loss." Sasuke let those ideas all sink in to the heads of everyone. Then he got a rueful smile.

"I never thought he'd just die of old age. Never thought he'd slip away without a sound, or wound, or some last great impressive thing to mark his own death. Hell, he wasn't even awake one minute, dead the next. He just... fell asleep for an afternoon nap, and fell away peacefully in his sleep. Not an illness, nor some failing of his body, simply his time was done. And off he went to sleep in heaven's embrace. I suppose Kami-sama was glad to finally have one of his best back." Sasuke said with a quirk of his lips. Sad smiles and teary eyes met that. Sasuke then looked up, around, then gave a soft snort of amusement.

"I had thought about the day he would be buried too... thought the sky would pour like the oceans dropped themselves. Or snow maybe. Then there would be the bright sunny day to remember him in. Yet... here it is. Just a day. Nothing special about it to nature... just another dead human." he could see people getting mad at the 'just another dead human part'. He would have to explain it he supposed. "...he'd have liked that." confusion looked back at him. He smiled.

"He would have liked this a lot. No big deal, just another man dead. Just one more human under the dirt. Not... not some demon to have the sky ablaze with fire, the body sealed under some rock or some great beast now tearing through the village... ...just a man dead. Nothing more, nothing less. He'd have liked that." Sasuke could see... could see them all finally understand. Naruto, died as a man. Not as a demon vessel. He'd have liked that.

Sasuke took a breath of spring/summer air. Again, nothing special about the time. And he finished his speech. "...he died in his sleep. At around two in the afternoon... he hadn't known he would die, nor had he dressed or changed or thought in any special way. He had gone to nap like he would have any other day for the past thirty years I've roomed with him. The last thing he had said, was, of course... 'I'm gonna go have a nap.'" Sasuke could see the sparkle of laughter, and happy sadness in the eyes of everyone. It wasn't that Naruto was so great to have known his own death was coming, nor did he make some vain attempt to keep people unaware. He had just simply died. Slipped away without a sound, and without some great marker.

"In like a demon, out like a man." was how Sasuke finished his speech. Then he turned, closed the lid to the coffin, patted it, then made his way home. His old legs carrying him, joints sore from age, hair a steel gray. His back was slumped slightly, but he still walked with the pride of an Uchiha. He wondered, as he finally made it into the house, if he too, would just... go out like a man.

He kinda had a feeling... that... that might just be what would happen. And... that wouldn't be a bad way to go.