Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Three kunai sank into the earth in a triangle, and a ninja's grave was complete.
The wind in Amegakure was colder than in Konoha. Kazan followed Konan up the mountain and buried Nagato there.
Yahiko's grave stood beside it, though his body had previously been made into the Deva Path and had never been buried.
Now Konan laid them both to rest here. Neither would be lonely on the road to the Underworld.
She had covered the ground beneath their bodies with white flowers, all made from her paper.
Uchiha Hikari stared, momentarily lost.
Though this was her first time seeing them and she had never known them, the grief of this place still made her heart ache.
Kazan disliked funerals. He stood with his hands in his pockets and watched in silence.
"The two leaders of Amegakure are buried here?"
"Yahiko was like Minato. Neither ever thought of using his abilities to build an empire. All they wanted was to make Amegakure a better place."
"The three of us met when we were little. We were all orphans, with no one to care for us. We relied on each other and survived by scavenging and stealing..."
Konan reached out and touched the earth, as if she could still feel their warmth beneath it.
She spoke of things the three of them had done together. She smiled as she talked, and that made it hurt all the more to watch.
"I never had dreams like Yahiko and Nagato. I only wanted them to be well, but in the end, it came to this."
The wind picked up. The pines on the mountaintop moaned, grieving with her.
There was nothing here but two graves. It looked desolate, hardly the resting place of two generations of village leaders.
But