Hayate's funeral.

A bunch of his former shinobi colleagues were present like Kakashi, Anko, and his former teammates Ibiki and Tokara.

Kotaro and Arina, who was treated successfully, were also there.

They only knew him for a short time, but he was everything they could ask for as a sensei.

Of course, Hiruzen was present as well, but overall the funeral was pretty short since Konoha was on high alert right now and didn't want to waste precious manpower.

So after this short funeral, everyone left except for one.

It was Eiji.

Back then he searched the whole village, but couldn't find any trace of Kabuto.

He couldn't quell his desire for revenge, so he was sitting at his sensei's grave with feelings full of sadness, rage, and regret.

But he wasn't the type to wail when losing someone dear, instead, he would keep all his emotions silently to himself.

After hours passed, while he sat there by himself, he started to think about where it all went wrong.

Was it his fault?

Did he change things too much, so that a butterfly effect appeared?

After thinking for some time, he realized that he relied too much on his future knowledge and didn't think of the possibility of him dying at another time in another way.

He sighed and looked at Hayate's sword lying on the grave.

'Looks like not everyone gets an emotional death scene where they can say goodbye to their loved ones..' - Eiji thought with a sarcastic smile.

But then tears finally started to flow down.

No matter how tough he tried to act or how much he tried to ignore his feelings, in the end, he was human.

He just sat there silently with his thoughts for hours, when he could feel the presence of someone from afar.

He could feel the gaze of this person, so he called out: "You being an Anbu, I wouldn't be able to feel your presence if you wanted, so why don't you just come out, instead of letting me notice you?"

Hearing that, a female Anbu with straight purple hair and a cat mask was walking slowly towards Hayate's grave until she stopped right in front of his grave.

Through the whole process, she didn't look at Eiji for even a second, but after gazing silently for a moment at Hayate's sword, she finally said some words: "Before leaving for my mission, I had a bad feeling. But I decided to ignore it and focus on the mission. When I returned and got the news I rushed straight over here, but I even missed his funeral..."

Eiji looked at her but didn't know how to reply, so he just kept silent.

She also didn't say anything for a while, so they were just looking silently at his grave.

After some time, she picked Hayate's sword up and drew it out of the sheath.

She looked at it and finally broke the silence with a voice full of hatred:" Who was it?"

Eiji replied emotionless without looking at her: "The village believes, that it was a henchman of Orochimaru. Kakashi told that the probability was high, that it was a guy he thought not long after sensei's death, called Kabuto."

"So the village isn't sure and has only guesses?"

"The Anbu's corpses, which were killed by this Kabuto guy at Kakashi's side, showed similarities in the way sensei was cut."

"So it's probably this Kabuto guy....and I suppose the village wasn't able to capture him, or else we would already know for sure..."

Again a long silence.

She was the one breaking it again: "Tell me, how was the funeral?"

"The old man held a speech, but other than that, nothing noteworthy happened..."

Because of her mask, Eiji couldn't tell if she was crying or not, but she started to grip his sensei's sword tighter.

She also didn't say anything else, so silence descended again.

After some time she decided to leave while taking Hayate's sword with her, but then she stopped and turned towards Eiji: "He talked a lot about you...make sure not to die..."

Eiji didn't respond and continued to sit there.

He didn't know how much time passed, but his parents and Tenten came at some point, but he just told them he wanted to stay here for a bit longer.

They thought it would be best to let him be by himself for the time being, so after leaving something to eat and drink, they left.

Eiji didn't touch the food and continued to be immersed in his own thoughts.

He dedicated so much time and effort trying to save Hayate, but in the end, it was all for nothing.

What was he supposed to do now?

Get revenge?

Just forget it and live normally?

At some point, he fell asleep but was woken up by the presence of someone.

It was Hiruzen.