A thousand pardons for me please as I may have shifted the ages and some of the details slightly askew to better fit the story. Now without further ado… my Kakashi/Sasuke story!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Naruto series.
The Art of Forgiveness-Part 1
"You can't be serious Kakashi!"
"I am," the jonin calmly answered, sipping a cup of hot tea, seeming bored with the entire situation.
"What do you expect me to do Hatake? I have three new graduates who need a sensei! You've been Team 7's leader for years and now you're just dropping out?"
"Yup. You know as well as I do that there are plenty of other more than qualified jonins willing to take my place."
Tsunade sighed, "Why now Kakashi? You're still so young, I didn't expect to get a letter of resignation until years from now, when I'm well into my nineties."
Kakashi shrugged, "Things don't always go the way we plan them too." The silver haired man stood up, slowly and seriously, "I think this meeting is done with. I'll be in the village for another week, but after that I'll be moving; you won't be hearing from me after that."
"Kakashi wait!" she yelled running after him. "Team 7 is Kakashi Hatake's team. No jonin, no matter how skilled, will ever be able to take your place. Team 7 is apart of you; it makes up who you are as a person, you can't just walk away from this!"
Kakashi smirked as he rounded another corner, "This was just a job 'hokage.'"
"Oh don't give me that bullshit! You would have trained those kids for free!"
"You think too highly of me."
"Or maybe not highly enough!" She grabbed Kakashi's arm tightly and got in front of him.
"Those kids love you, and you love them!" she leaned in towards him and looked into eyes. A smile crossed her still youthful features, "I can see it in your eyes."
"Eye," he corrected, looking away uncomfortably.
"I can see it when Sakura smiles, or when Naruto eats ten bowls of ramen and then makes you pay the bill."
For a brief moment Kakashi's eyes softened as their two faces crossed his mind, but less than a second later he shook his head and they were gone.
"The respect and care that they have for you is nothing short of amazing."
"They're 16 years old, I'm not their sensei anymore."
"Kakashi their your family, the only family you'll ever have. Why would you want to leave them?" Tsunade asked, almost in a whisper.
"That's my business," he simply answered, calmly removing her hands.
"Kakashi!" she cried out as he prepared to leave, "Does this have to do with Sasuke?"
Kakashi froze in his tracks, "What did you say?"
His voice was full of anger; Tsunade knew she should have stopped there but she didn't.
"I know you feel guilty over what happened to him, turning his back on this village and going to Orochimaru; but Kakashi, Sasuke's choices are his own..."
"Hold your tongue Lady Tsunade."
"And you are not to blame for them!"
"Hokage, you're crossing the line-"
"Sasuke just became so consumed with the his own power that he turned to Orochimaru."
His fists clenched angrily at his side
"There's no way anyone could have saved him, not even you."
"Shut up Tsunade."
"I know it's been hard for you Kakashi, but its been 2 ½ years. I think it's time for you to move on."
"Thats not your call to make," he whispered in a low dark voice.
"I know he forgot about you a long time ago Kakashi, it'll be hard but you need to do the same."
"I said shut up!"
In less than a second's time, Kakashi had shoved the fifth hokage against the wall; his hands violently gripped her upper arms. Tsunade winced; she could hear her bones start to crack under his pressure.
"You don't know a damn thing about me," he angrily whispered, "So don't you dare pretend like you do."
Never before, during any of her battles that she had fought over the years, had she been more afraid. Kakashi's eye was full of more hatred than she'd ever thought a human being could hold.
"K-Kakashi-"
"Lady Tsunade, there you are!"
The sound of another voice seemed to snap him out of it and Kakashi didn't waste time letting go of her and disappearing into the forest.
"Was that Kakashi? That dog! I didn't realize that he felt that way about our dear hokage!" one of her followers mentioned with a mischievous smile.
"Well apparently he does! Lady Hokage, are you sneaking off to kiss one of your jonin's? Tsk tsk tsk, this just won't do!" another teased.
'They think we're lovers, in an embrace, kissing. If only they'd seen the look in his eye… for those few seconds I didn't even recognize him,' she thought to herself, rubbing her sore arms, somewhat thankful that they hadn't snapped in half.
"Lady Tsunade are you ok? You're pale as a ghost and you look so shaken up!"
She looked down, debating what to say, "Yes I guess that's imaginable. Kakashi quit; he's going to another village and was just giving me a good bye kiss," she lied.
"Kakashi quitting? I never thought I'd see the day."
"Me neither, he really seemed to care about those kids."
'I thought so too, I guess I was wrong…'
The kettle screamed loudly as steam poured out of the top.
Kakashi boredly reached for the handle-
"Damnit!" he screamed dropping the kettle, spilling the kettle's hot water all over his small kitchen floor.
His hand was bright red and he knew it would welt up by the end of the hour; the 27 year old sighed as he ran luke warm water over it.
Kakashi knew that he should be packing, he should have invited Naruto and Sakura over to say his last goodbyes, and he definitely should have cleaned up the pool of water that still coated his floor, but he didn't. The way he looked at it, the water would eventually seep through the tiles and into the ground; his house was so small he didn't have much to pack so that could wait till tomorrow; and as far as Naruto and Sakura went…well he didn't really have an answer for that one.
Kakashi lazily drug himself to his dark bedroom, feeling around on the wall until-
"Fuck!"
His shins hit the night stand. He finally flipped the switch and sat on the edge of the bed, putting pressure on the open cuts with his good hand.
"Whoever thought it'd be a good idea to put a light switch on the other side of the room, instead of by the door, needs to be-"
Among the mess of papers, weapons, and books that'd hit the floor a small picture caught his eyes.
Kakashi limped the short distance over and stared down at it. It was the four members of Team 7.
The image seemed so familiar to him, Naruto's mischievous smile as he leaned in to kiss Sakura's cheek, Sakura's blissful unawareness of the lips nearing her, and Kakashi, although unseen through his mask, lightly smirking at the camera. A very good picture, but what made it Kakashi's favorite was the moody teenagers presence.
The exhaustion was clear on the genin's face as he lazily leaned on his sensei for support. Kakashi's hands shook as his eyes drifted upward and he noticed for the first time that the 12 year old's onyx eyes and the small smile that graced his perfect features weren't aimed towards the camera, but instead at his sensei.
"Sasuke just became so consumed with the his own power that he turned to Orochimaru. . . . there's no way anyone could have saved him, not even you."
Sasuke's smile in the picture almost seemed to turn evil.
"He forgot about you a long time ago Kakashi."
'You know I've forgotten about you Kakashi,' Sasuke's voice mocked.
Kakashi grabbed his head, trying to force the voice away.
'So then why have you kept that picture for so long?'
'I don't have to explain anything to a figment of my imagination.'
'Is it because you think I'm coming back?'
'Leave me alone,' he whined
'Oh wait I know what it is!'
"No you don't," Kakashi mumbled out loud.
'It's because you love m-'
"No I don't!" he shouted, so loudly that his tiny house shook and birds on nearby trees right outside his windows quickly flew away in a panic.
"Your nothing to me, and you never will be!" Kakashi breathed heavily. In a matter of seconds his favorite picture for 4 years was torn in two and thrown across the room. "You might as well be dead."
Sasuke's cold, laughing voice echoed in his head before finally fading into silent.
Ok kind of a ramble fest right now but hang in their Kakashi/Sasuke fans! Next chapter will be better!