Warnings: Language, adult situations
Summary: Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Konoha and all the other ninja villages set about restoring the peace. Unfortunately, on a mission gone wrong, Kakashi and Yamato have to deal with issues that have roots in the distant past.
Comments: This is a Kakashi-Yamato friendship fic – but not yaoi. As such, I won't be writing any hard-core sex scenes in this fic. Sorry. :( Replies to reviews will be made at the end of each chapter.
Please review! Constructive criticism welcome!
Naruto Shippuuden:
Reverberations
Prologue
Do you hear it? That is the sound of wind chimes, their tinkling intertwines – overlaps – spreads outward in the wind – together – never separated. Green leaves pulled from the branches of the tree fly upward into the blue sky.
Do you hear it? It is surpasses time and space. It is the sound of hearts and souls reverberating together – fighting together as one – it is the Will of Fire.
-0-0-0-
Later, even through many years have passed, Yamato still insists it was never his fault. He wants no praise or blame laid at his door, dammit, for the events (fortuitous or not) which resulted from the whole affair. That way leads to madness.
It was all Kakashi's fault.
"After all," he still argues to this day, (with exactly the same words on the fated day of their return to Konoha after THAT mission of which he will not speak). "After all, Senpai was the designated team leader for the mission. It was his strategy that – that – well..."
Failed.
"Just say it," Kakashi would step in at this point, his dark eyes glinting.
That's when Yamato generally subsides. Going toe-to-toe with Kakashi of the Sharingan – no – the Rokudaime, right -
Sorry. Right.
Going toe-to-toe with the Rokudaime wouldn't be the best idea.
Actually, Yamato isn't a hundred percent correct. I mean, who can be in the ninja world? Really? A simple bump at the local vegetable market leading to a domino effect of toppling customers and local produce is never simple to sort out afterwards. The whole issue of "what happened?" is never that easy to attain. It's even more difficult to really see what's going on in a ninja battle with jutsu and kunai and shuriken and senbon and unfortunately placed buildings and vegetation flying about. Finger-pointing is rarely correct when all is said and done and the dust has settled.
Glancing through the report and reading between the lines, Shikamaru's opinion is probably the most correct interpretation of evidence re laying of blame. Broken down into a pie chart, it would more than likely go something like...
Genma's (and by association, Raidou's) fault – 6%. Note: Need to work out unresolved interpersonal conflicts before going on an S-Class mission.
ANBU's fault – 5%. Note: Double-check all intelligence for falsification.
Sai and Neji's fault – 10%. Note: More unresolved personal conflicts. Can't ninja's just leave their social issues at home?
Yamato and Kakashi's fault – 20%. Note: Evenly divided. Definite need to resolve unresolved... well... unresolved something before going on an S-Class mission.
Hana, Tenki and Mei Li's fault – 30%. Note: They are evil stooges after all and rather powerful.
Otochiyoku's fault – 30%. Note: Technically, he started it.
Or something like that.
Let us then turn back these pages to a time when life appeared less complicated and tumultuous. A few years after the Fourth Shinobi War, a time of restoration and progress. It may be a bit difficult to decipher the story (thanks to a certain team leader's inability to write legibly)... but it is a great story of teamwork and derring-do.
I can promise you that.
It began on a late spring day... just when everything seemed to be looking up.
Let me know what you think! I know that I've not been on for some time, thanks to work and other general Asian life craziness... But this fic is definitely going to get done (since I have gotten a bunch done already, as I did for "Time").
