Photograph
Kakashi keeps an impersonal apartment. It's obviously a place to sleep and keep his gear, little else. There are a few personal items dotted here and there, instant food packets, a small bookshelf stuffed with books and scrolls. Odds and ends on the floor, the table, and any other surface dominate the apartment. Kunai there, a shuriken here, a torn bit of white cloth from somewhere, a few rather unhealthily placed caltrops near the closet, and an unkept futon is placed in the corner nearest the window for the best escape path. But for the most part, it could be a hotel room. It looks lived in, but little about it gives the sense of a home, for all that it's occupant has been there for over ten years.
Out of place with the picture of the aloof bachelor are two photographs, kept with obvious care. Gazing from the photo were two sets of children and two somewhat bemused adults.
Kakashi kept the first to never forget what he lost. Even in the years his most personal possessions were cast to the wayside to help him forget.
He would at times find himself gazing into space, the memory of those faces playing through his head for hours, Obito, grinning, those silly, meaningless goggles on his face, Rin, smiling, looking at him, himself, serious and not realizing how special that moment captured on flimsy paper was. Minato loomed behind the trio of too-young kids, smiling.
Kakashi rarely looked at the photo but when he did, in moments like this, it brought back many memories.
The second photo was one of a set of four.
Team 7, with Naruto grinning fit to split his face, Sakura smiling, but looking at Sasuke, and Sasuke looking too cool to smile.
In moments like these, moments heavy with regret, he would pick up the other picture and compare it to the newer picture. Himself and Sasuke aloof and distant from their team mates, Sakura and Rin, unable to see what was right in front of them, and Naruto and Obito, grinning and dreaming big dreams of their futures.
He would never compare the two Senseis in the pictures, not allowing himself to take that step, but the six youngsters? He's drawn the parallels more times than he can count. Sometimes fondly, sometimes with fear, and sometime exasperated with the three Gennin he calls his.
He puts down the older picture and picks up Team 7.
Sasuke has gone.
He's failed.
The second picture of the set was kept in a room full of childhood memories, an old rag doll sat next to it, keeping the four preserved in the photo company.
Sakura often took it down, so it was free of the dust it's three fellows sometimes experienced. The four faces looked over a child's room.
Sakura loved the picture for the fact that Sasuke was in it.
It wasn't until much later in her career that she came to value the picture not just for one of it's occupants, but for a feeling she would never capture again. That sense of innocence that her teammates sought so badly to keep. But that was far in the future. Sakura hasn't crossed that bridge yet.
Right now, Sakura stares at the picture full of hope. Naruto will bring Sasuke back. She knows he will, Naruto won't break a promise.
So even as Kakashi gazes at the picture of the team and loses hope, Sakura traces the faces of her two teammates and believes in them
She believes Sasuke will return and everything will be alright again.
She believes in Naruto, because he has never failed her.
She believes in Team 7.
Sakura has never lost anyone before, so she keeps her hope for just awhile longer.
The third Photo sits in a tiny, lonely apartment. Kept company by a nightcap and old Raman containers. The bed is messy, the apartment obviously lived in, but also obviously with no adult supervision to keep it clean.
There are no happy childhood memories here.
The photo has been placed carefully next to the bed, one of the few spaces not covered with old Raman cups.
It's a little dusty, and the frame more than a little battered, but it is obviously treasure in an apartment where no other photos show their pristine faces.
One might think such a photo would be lonely in such a place, with not even an attempt made to soften the fact that the apartment's occupant is alone. But Naruto obviously values the picture, even in it's somewhat tattered second hand frame. It was his first feeling of belonging, and he remembers that every time he looks at the photo, typically right before he falls asleep.
This photo, if not as well cared for as Sakura's, is just as well loved.
The apartment is typically filled with noise, but right now it is silent. The Ninja gear is gone from it's place, it seems as though a whirlwind has gone through recently. Even the things that are typically in place are out of place, the one chair at the lonely table has been overturned.
It's owner obviously left in some hurry.
Naruto has a promise to keep.
The fourth and final photo is typically kept on a tall shelf. It is dusted weekly, but mostly left to it's own devices.
The photo was kept next to an old family photo, equally well cared for, but with it's face turned from the room
Sasuke doesn't like the memories.
The other photo is treated almost like a trophy by the young man. Carefully kept, but seldom thought about.
There had been moments when Sasuke gave into the temptation to take the photo from it's high shelf and gaze into the eyes of his teammates...and if he allowed himself the weakness, he would think about his friends.
There had been a few smiles of warmth directed at the photo, after a good days training, or a long, but fruitful mission.
Lately, there has been little warmth.
Whenever the photo's owner has been home, he's been training. He wants so badly to be strong that he can't see his own strength.
But that far away shelf is of little consequence to the photo right now.
Currently, the almost pristine frame is packed carefully in the backpack of the young runaway. It sit's next to it's shelf-mate, for once face to face.
It is no small oddity that the teenage photo Sasuke faces the photo Itachi.
But though his first thought was to take the photo with him, the backpack is soon discarded for speed.
It won't be retrieved for some weeks.
By then, the young Uchiha will be far away, at the side of his new master.