What We Have

The Epilogue:

"Aftermath"

The gathering for Kiba's funeral was alarmingly large for a ninja who was just a Genin. However, every one of the current Genin, as well as the Inuzuka, Aburame, Akimichi, and Nara clans were present for one last goodbye to the young ninja.

Such a number of tears were shed that Naruto could barely stand to be there. He doubted if anyone standing clad in black at the Memorial Stone could. Just about every time the Hokage would start to talk about the heroic efforts of Kiba Inuzuka, an awful sob could be heard from his mother and sister. No one said a word, and no one even tried to offer comfort at the time. The best thing would be to just…

Let them cry. Let them get it all out. Though no amount of sobbing could ever bring their son and brother back.

Akamaru sat with them; perfectly still as if a stone statue, as if- without Kiba –he couldn't function at all. He kept his gaze on the Memorial Stone throughout the entire ceremony.

Naruto stared at the Stone with dark bags under his eyes and dull eyes that had already shed so many tears he wasn't sure if he could cry anymore. Now he resorted to feeling a large lump swell its way up to his throat, making him want to let tears spill out, but not letting him.

Everyone got a white flower, each taking turns at placing them in front of the Memorial Stone as a way to honor Kiba's memory. Seeing each and every one of the distraught, sorrowful, and pained expression on everyone's faces, was enough to make Naruto let the heavy weight of guilt to land on him with enough force to push the air out of his lungs. He barely realized when it was his own turn to place his flower by the Memorial Stone.

After the funeral, Naruto and the Inuzukas were the last to leave. The rest of Squad 8 had stayed behind to comfort Hana and her mother and be with them in their time of mourning. Naruto saw the tear streaks that had raced down Kurenai and Hinata's faces, and even noticed that Shino had just one tear drip off his chin before he narrowed his gaze to keep from crying even more. Even he wasn't able to suppress a little bit of grief though; Naruto knew that.

Seeing Naruto's absolutely lifeless face, Hinata walked up to him, rubbing tears out of her eyes before she spoke to her crush in little more than a whisper:

"Naruto…" Her usually mousey voice was only a shadow of its former self, "N-Nobody… B-Blames you…" Fresh tears started to fall down her face. Naruto looked back at her, his face contorting as if he was trying to bring all of her pain onto himself. He suddenly looked away.

"… It's still my fault…" He whispered hoarsely.

Hinata almost looked surprised, though there was so much sorrow on her face it was hard to tell, "N-Naruto…" The Hyuga suddenly started to sob heavily, sinking to her knees and shoving her face in her hands, "I-I…" She choked out, "I d-don't… Know what… T-To say to t-them…!!"

Naruto looked surprised at first, and then his expression clouded back over with sadness. He knelt down by her after looking back up at the suffering Inuzukas, "I… I don't know either Hinata…" He replied croakily, "I really don't…" He looked back up at the Memorial Stone and the mound of flowers in front of it, gulping back tears he thought he had already cried. His vision climbed up to the stone itself, finding a newly carved name engraved in it:

"Kiba Inuzuka".

The tears were let loose in a flood.

Author's Note:

Hey guys! Sure has been a while, huh? Sorry about that…. But the ending was really mean of me, and I wanted something else to kind of say what happened afterwards… So I knew this was going to be a TOTALLY angsty epilogue- which it really was. But don't worry:

I'M PLANNING A SEQUEL!!

Yes, that's right, a sequel! I probably won't start on it, though, until I finish some other projects like "Cursed" and "Lyrics of Life." So, yeah… Hope you liked this short little angst festival!