"Sit down beside me, and I'll tell you a story of Fire and Ice..."
They were dead... All of them dead...
Even Sasuke, he made sure of that...
Kakashi almost broke down crying right there, but his body instead went into auto-pilot as he started to walk away, dripping in blood. His vision swayed in and out of perspective, his head fogging with shock and greif, and soon his limbs growing numb. And by then, he lost his balance and fell to the dirt, staring at the bodies that lay around him.
Yamato. Sai. Sakura. And Naruto... They were all killed by that raving psycopath, Sasuke. And then there were others. Other teams were killed in the on slaughter as well...
Everyone he knew... gone in the blink of an eye...
He felt pretty guilty for being the only one to have survived...
And with that first drop that struck the back of his hand, the rain started to come down in a heavy downpour. It masked the tears he started to shed. All of it, his fault. Completely his.
"I'm sorry... I've failed you all again..." Kakashi said with a choking sob. "I couldn't... I couldn't stop them..."
"Are you going to save them?"
He put a little too much effort in turning over to see a cloaked figure. Face hidden in shadows and clothes too bulky to give anything away. It seemed almost like he didn't have a face because of the darkness under his hood.
"Who... who are you?" He asked. "What do you mean by 'am I going to save them'? They're dead..."
Kakashi almost wanted to assume that this mysterious figure was smiling. "As I'd expect from you. But there is a way you can save them, all of them."
"And how can I do that?"
"You start over from the very beginning," the figure said. "I can do just that."
It seemed almost too good to be true. "What's the catch?"
"No catch," was the answer given, "provided you make things for the better. As you can also change things for the worse. And I also give you guidance, if you can solve my riddles."
"So there is a catch..." Kakashi corrected.
"Do you accept?"
Kakashi let his head hang back on his shoulders before looking back at the cloaked figure and nodding. "Yes. I accept."
"Then let it begin..."
The cloaked figure then vanished into thin air, and without warning, Kakashi felt his body freeze up, his skin burning up. He was cold and hot all at once. Pain and numb. And then there was darkness and light that flooded his vision. Finally there was absolutely nothing.
"...with a tale of fire and ice..."