Prologue

"No, it can't be true." a pink haired kunoichi gasped looking at the Hokage in horror. Lady Tsunade grabbed a bottle of sake from under her desk. "I'm sorry Sakura, but it is." Tsunade had tears streaming down her cheeks as she downed the sake. "Naruto is dead."

She declared to the assembled group. She had gathered the rookie nine, their senseis, Jiraya, and a few Anbu members. Each person had a different reaction to the hyperactive blond's death. Sakura and Hinata burst out in tears, Neji and Shino kept a blank face, only silent tears showed they cared, Lee and Gai were hugging and yelling something about youthfulness, Shikamaru was saying something about a troublesome guy, Choji was for once not eating but crying, and the rest all had sad faces on.

After everyone had settled down, Kakashi finally asked, "How?" Everyone looked up at the Hokage expectantly. " Sound nin," she replied. " He was delivering a scroll to a friend of mine in the Rice country, it was supposed to be a C rank mission, so I sent him and Jiraya. Apparently they stopped at a small town along the way and this pervert," she glared at Jiraya, " decided to do some research and left the knucklehead to train by himself." Tsunade burst into tears again so Jiraya finished the story. " I felt a large chakra blast from Naruto's training spot so I went to find out what was happening. When I got there, there was a huge crack in the Earth. There was blood everywhere and I came across two dead Sound nins and I fo-"

"That doesn't prove he's dead, there wasn't a body!" Sakura interrupted.

"You're right," Jiraya explained calmly, but what about this," he held out two objects and everyone in the room burst out in tears again or had shocked expressions on their faces. Jiraya shed silent tears as he held out a bloody forehead protector and the necklace that Naruto had won in the bet with Tsunade.

Five days later a funeral was held for Naruto. No more than thirty-five people showed up. When Tsunade saw this she punched the nearest tree to bits. "The people in this village are horrible, that boy was a hero not a demon." She yelled through tears. She felt strong arms wrap around her shoulders and she looked up to see Jiraya. She smiled gratefully at him.

Each person came up and said a few kind words about Naruto and then placed a flower on his grave. When it was Tsunade's turn, her announcement caused more tears and shock, "Naruto may have been an idiotic prankster, but he had a brave heart and unwavering loyalty to his comrades. His dream was to be the next Hokage and seeing how hard he worked and how much he cared about the village…I..I had chosen him to take up the title of Hokage after me."

Sakura cried softly in Sasuke's embrace (Yes Sasuke's back, Naruto beat the crap out of him and dragged his sorry ass back.) and Sasuke merely stood there with a blank face, he had cried the night before over his lost comrade.

After the speeches were done, everyone stood near Naruto for the last time. When the sunlight started fading, everyone started to drift away from the new grave. By nightfall everyone had gone home except for Sasuke and Sakura. They both silently held each other for comfort and stared at the grave marker, 'Here lies a trusted comrade and friend, who had a very special ability, he made everyone want to bet their hopes on him. He was going to be the next Hokage. Rest In Peace, Uzumaki, Naruto.'

" Naruto why did you have to leave us so soon."