A short drabble based on the latest Naruto manga chapters, 597-598.
This has just been edited to match it's latest version, with a better flow and less grammatical mistakes.
Howls of the Dead
He stops.
He stops because there is a piece of iron tied to his heart, weighing it down, and he is unable to hold it in his hands and lift it up to where it doesn't hurt anymore. Because it's less painful to let it fall freely from his chest instead of carrying it around trying to pretend this isn't quite true, that he is imagining it all, that the person in front of him is not his long-lost friend, looking at him with eyes that reflect the pain he is feeling.
Broad shoulders stay limp, strong arms lingering at his sides, unmoving and thoroughly useless until he can come to his senses and realize the pain on his left elbow is far greater than what he had thought a few seconds after the attack.
The twin eye of the one resting on his own socket is emotionless. His mind is awake enough to tell him so. Lucid enough to tell him the expression isn't the right one, that that eye should be either dead or shedding tears for all the people Kakashi had failed to protect, in spite of everything he had once promised.
And suddenly it is not that terrible black hole in his chest, but the burning pressure of the dog tags—Breaking his neck, digging into his skin—what makes the man want to cry out in despair. In confusion. In utter bliss and terror and sadness and hope all at the same time.
But that other eye. That other eye is not what it should be. It should be a shell, full of childhood dreams ripped apart by the horrors of war. It should be the innocence brought to an end by an evil children should not live through.
And that is when Kakashi truly realizes. He is aware of the metal touching his chest, now ice cold and bringing him to the real world instead of a white hot of painful memories. Obito's name right there next to his and Rin's.
An image of his friend—his first friend, the one that taught him so much and was gone much too fast—smacks his back with an open hand, and the gray-haired man turns to find a determined, cheeky grin on a face that looks far more alike to the Uchiha's than he ever thought possible.
"Sensei, let's go!"
His dark eyes meet the enemy's face. Because it is his enemy, not theirs. his enemy because he went up against him. His enemy because he attacked his student. His enemy because he stole one of the things most precious to him.
Teeth clench underneath the mask he always wears, and briefly wonders if he should finally cease hiding his face. The words become a resolution in his mind. He will defeat this gravedigger, then start to truly live once again.
"I will teach you to never steal from my friends." A promise that he plans to fulfill, so that at least he can say he did one thing right.
With strength he didn't know his body still held, he launched himself forward into battle.
Owari