Hikari; The Forgotten Otsutsuki

Chapter 18

HIKARI'S POINT OF VIEW

"It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone."--John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent.

The two days until the memorial had been pouring in a tempest. It's as if even the village itself was metaphorically crying upon the loss of the village's longest leader on post; the late Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage. I was feeling better than before as I had understood that people die eventually and we as the living best go on with it. Hitori-san had prepared me a Mofuku to wear on that day. Oh, yes, that day was the day of the memorial of my late Sarutobi-Sensei. When I finished wearing clothes, Hitori-san hugged me tightly and sighed.

"Will you be okay?" she asked. I reached for her back and hugged her. I breathed a heavy sigh and kissed her soft blonde hair.

"Yes, of course. I can handle this," I breathed. We stood like that unmoving until a voice interrupted us.

"Geez, you guys need your own house as soon as possible," Hanabi called from outside of the room. "We're waiting for you guys and bring an umbrella or something. Hurry up, Oni-chan, Hitori-neetan."

With that, she ran away leaving us flushed at her words. I went to the Hokage Tower yesterday to cash-in my reward. As it turns out, even a normal S-Class would reward you substantially let alone the above S-Class ones. I was left with enough fortune to buy a house and stocked it with furniture and necessities for months to come. We did talk about it the day before but we didn't conclude just yet. We walked to the porch and found them ready to go with an umbrella in hand shielding themselves from the drizzle. What pleased me the most was Neji had finally buried the hatchet. I saw him talked with Hiashi-sama animatedly which I had never seen it before. Something must have happened during the exams.

"Well, this is a sight I never expected to see. What did I miss for the whole month?" I teased them. Neji just smiled and did not answer and much like Hiashi-sama himself.

"Let's go," Neji simply said, leading the way and we made our way to the village's florist before the memorial which was at the Hokage Tower.

There were a lot of ninjas that were present. Sarutobi-sensei was always the kind patriarchal figure to most of the people in the village especially the Genins. The rain masked our despair and tears as we recounted our days with him. I, myself remembered his kindness to me; an outsider. I couldn't help but noticed that Jiraiya-senpai was nowhere in sight. I figured that he didn't want to remember our sensei this way. Most of us present was still wrapped in bandages and even Kakashi-sensei surprisingly made an appearance. That was heartwarming because he was still in fatigue from the Sharingan use. I could hear a boy sobbing loudly a few people next to me and Iruka-sensei was there to comfort the boy. I presumed that the boy must have been Sarutobi-sensei's grandson because he had mentioned it before. Next to the boy, who other than Naruto. He noticed me and greeted me subtly. Then, people took turns placing flowers at the table. Some of us even talked for a moment to remember the late Hokage. I just stood there patiently waiting for my turn.

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto suddenly blurted out, "what are humans? Is life just that simple?"

Poor boy must have been devasted by this. He had told me before that Sarutobi-sensei was the one who was always there for him since the day he could remember. To him, sensei was his only family. I vowed that I would continue doing the same to Naruto.

"When a person dies, doesn't matter if it's the past, present or future --they will lose everything. He died fighting in a mission --death caught him unaware because life was that simple. It's like a dream, it's all the same even if you haven't reached your goal. But, everyone knows that the most important thing is to die for a cause," Iruka-sensei explained, "family, friends, lovers and all the other villagers--to me, those are the most important people.