Title: Behind the mask
Rating: G, tragedy, angst
Pairing / Characters: Hatake Kakashi, team Arashi, team 7
Word Count: 476 words
Warnings: Spoilerish if you haven't read Kakashi Gaiden
Summary: Former ANBU captain, former student of the fourth. Who is Hatake Kakashi?
A/N: I'm obsessed with Kakashi. Is it that obvious?
Hatake Kakashi is not a large man.
At just six feet, the slender silver haired jounin's face is just as much of a mystery as his personal life is.
For as long as anyone can remember, Kakashi has kept his face hidden by a mask. The reasons are debatable – some say it is to prevent people from likening him to his father, Hatake Sakumo. Gai tells people it's to ward off the women.
None of these reasons are true.
At the heart of it Kakashi has always been a loner, a lackadaisical man with a somewhat cynical sense of humour that leaves many people wondering what he's thinking – after all, at any given time during any given day, Kakashi can usually be found with a porn novel in his hand.
Only Arashi knew the truth – Kakashi uses the mask to keep people away, for after the death of his father, he never really knew how to handle people, the best thing he can do is to keep them at arms length.
To date, Kakashi still doesn't know why it hasn't worked with his team.
Most of Kakashi's associates know that his father is dead, less than a handful know that he took his life, and only Gai knows that Kakashi never really saw Sakumo as his father. That special honor was – and still is – reserved for his former sensei and former Hokage.
Sometimes Kakashi can see Arashi's face clearly in Naruto's laughing eyes, or iron determination, and he grieves for the father he lost, and the man he knows Naruto will grow up to be.
Kakashi has often thought that Arashi is watching over him, and is determined not to let any harm come to his sensei's legacy.
Naruto is a gift; Kakashi understands this more clearly than many people do.
Once rootless, he finds solace in the presence of team 7, and in the memories of his childhood team. His daily visits to the monument are not so much to grieve for lost lives and lost souls, but to share his accomplishments, however meager, with Obito, with Rin, with his sensei.
A man who once believed himself to be unloved, now loves fiercely, and passionately, and lives his life in much the same way.
Hatake Kakashi is not a large man.
At just six feet, the silver haired jounin's eyes have seen more heartache and more tragedy than someone so young should ever have.
However, when his team depends upon him for their survival, when his friends and colleagues depend upon him to watch their backs, when he knows that he is all that stands between them and certain death, his heart swells with a nameless emotion that enables him to reach up and simply pluck the stars from the sky.
He may not be a large man in stature, but his spirit is boundless.