One Last Goodbye (Kakanaru)

1. Bad News

The sleepy-headed ninja opened his bleary eyes to bright sunlight. He wanted very badly to close his eyes and fall back asleep, but he knew from past experience that it wouldn't sit well with his fellow comrades. Except maybe his ex-sensei, who was always late, blaming it on getting lost on the 'path of life'.

He sighed deeply and forced himself to get out of the comfort of his bed. He dragged his feet along the floor as he went to his wardrobe to pick out an orange jumpsuit. Half the time he couldn't be bothered to wash his clothes, so he had lots of the same thing meaning he wouldn't have to.

When he'd picked one up, he went to the bathroom to shower. He undressed, but when he got in and turned on the water, he realised too late that he'd forgotten to turn the hot water on. Jets of freezing cold water hit his body and he shrieked, fumbling for the dial to turn it off. Eventually, after a painful thirty seconds of coldness, he managed to grasp the dial and turn it off. He stood there shivering for a few seconds, still in shock, before getting a towel. As he dried himself off, he wished that he had just stayed in bed. The morning was seriously not going well for him.

Well at least he had seeing Sakura to look forward to. She had been so busy in the hospital that they hadn't been on a mission together in what seemed like forever. Oh and Sai. He'd grown to quite like his fellow teammate, even though he was kinda weird. And of course he'd missed Kakashi. His ex-sensei had also been busy, and when he wasn't no one knew where he was. Probably to have some quiet time to himself. No one else seemed worried, so Naruto had put it to the back of his mind until then. He decided to ask Kakashi himself while they were on the mission.

He found an unopened carton of milk in the fridge and drank it, making sure that it hadn't gone off first. He didn't have much time so he picked up an energy bar and ran out the door. The good thing about being a ninja is that it takes little to no time to get places. He got to the meeting place in just over half a minute.

'NEW RECORD YES BEAT THAT HAHA!' he yelled, fist pumping the air. But then he realised there was no one there to witness his awesomeness. 'Damn it...' he mumbled, 'They must've gone without me!'

He ran to the Hokage's office to find Sakura and Sai. They were both sitting on a chair in the corner, Sakura looked like she was trying not to cry, and Sai was just staring at one of the walls. Tsunade looked up at him gravely.

'Naruto, I need to tell you something. Please sit down.' She motioned at an empty chair opposite her. The young ninja slowly walked closer to the Sixth Hokage, more than a bit worried. What was so bad that Sakura would be crying? Was it Sasuke? Oh god, please let it not be Sasuke, he thought.

'Is it about Sasuke?' he asked, this time aloud. Tsunade shook her head and again motioned for him to sit down. He obliged but only because he wanted to know what was going on.

'Naruto......Kakashi went on a mission late last night.' She paused momentarily then started again, 'It was originally a B-rank mission, which would've been no problem. But things got ugly pretty quickly. He was assigned to guard the daughter of one of the Feudal Lords, just while she collected some particular plants. She wasn't in any particular danger, or so we thought. The party was attacked by a group of highly skilled ninja that even Kakashi's sharingan couldn't compete with. They kidnapped the Feudal Lord's daughter, and according to Pakkun...'

'What is it, Granny?' Naruto asked. When she didn't react to him calling her 'Granny', he knew it was not good.

'Naruto. They killed him. They killed Hatake Kakashi.'