This story wrote itself. I'm still a bit emotional from writing it, so I'll just let you read it. Please review, I really do appreciate them. The next chapter of Coming Home should be up in a couple of days.

For context: This story is after the war, after Kakashi becomes Hokage. He's passed on the title to Naruto now, but is still on active duty. Everything that happened in Coming Home happened before this story, so it's still relevant and connected. Ok, now, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"I'm sorry."

Lina felt her body freeze as she sat on their matrimonial bed staring at Kakashi's back. He kept his eyes away from her even in the reflection in the mirror that stood above the dresser he was rummaging through. He couldn't believe he'd actually said it, after all this time.

"What?" Lina whispered in a soft voice, and the pure confusion tugged at his heart. He hated what he was doing, but he couldn't just let things be. Not when he knew he wanted more.

"I said I want a divorce."

Lina's shoulders dropped and she felt her body turn to jelly. They'd been through fights and arguments as any couple had, but nothing that warranted this. Divorce. How did they get here?

"Why?" The question hung in the air after she spoke it, suspended in the murkiness of the situation. Finally, Kakashi turned back to her, his eyes pitying.

"Because I don't love you anymore."

And there it was. The words that Lina had secretly been waiting to hear, even after all these years. Even after the war, after everything they'd been through, after getting married, some small part of her had unconsciously been waiting to here those words, as if they were the last shoe to drop. And he'd finally said them. How funny, that she didn't feel as much pain as she'd thought she would. Just a simple 'aha' moment, and a stinging in her heart. Nothing overly dramatic or drawn out.

Lina looked down at her lap to bring herself back to the present before she looked back at him with a blank face. "Ah. I see." She stood up and surveyed the dresser in front of her, even looking in the mirror's reflection to see Kakashi's back. "Is there someone else?"

"No. Yes. I don't know." Kakashi hedged, and Lina pursed her lip.

"What's her name?"

"It doesn't matter-"

"What's her name, Kakashi?" Suddenly Lina's voice was ice cold and deathly quiet. Kakashi turned to her and looked at her, judging her mentality based on how she looked. Finally, he said the name.

"It's Yuki."

"...Ah." Lina turned around and began to walk to her own closet, and took out a small duffel bag. She started to grab her things, clothes, jewelry, weapons, anything that was hers, and put them in.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi asked, and Lina spoke without looking at him.

"I'm packing. This house is on your land, so it's your property. Since we're getting a divorce, I can't stay anymore. I'll be done soon, but um…" She paused for a moment and drew in a breath as the pain in her chest grew. "Could you leave for a bit? I just...I'd like some time to pack without you here."

The fake tone in her voice was back, the one that told him she was holding herself back. The half-octave higher pitch, the fake-cheerfulness, he knew it well. Kakashi nodded without bothering to care if she could see and sidled out of the room. It had been easier that he'd thought. But perhaps it was because they were already so broken that it had been that easy.

Lina waited for Kakashi to walk out of their house that Yamato had helped make after the war, that sat on the land that Kakashi had inherited from his father. She felt his chakra leave the house, and began to pack again. Her movement slowed after a few more clothes were folded into the duffel bag, and finally she stopped.

"I don't love you anymore." That's what he'd said. The words echoed in her mind, slowly stinging more and more and the meaning sunk in. She walked backwards to the bed again and sat down. She found herself staring at the ring he'd given her on their wedding day. A simple band with an embedded diamond. Simple but beautiful, just like she was, he'd said. She remembered their vows.

xxx

"I will love you, treasure you, be faithful to you, and protect you, until the day I die." Kakashi near-whispered to Lina, his eyes bright as his hands held hers in a firm grip. Lina looked up at him with tears in her own eyes and spoke her own vows to him.

"I will love you, care for you, be loyal to you, and most of all, try in every way to be worthy of your love, until the day I die." Lina whispered back in a choked voice and Kakashi's grip tightened around her fingers. Naruto sniffled loudly as he watched them and quickly continued with the ceremony.

xxx

Lina felt tears begin to build up as another memory flashed in her mind's eye.

xxx

"I love you." Kakashi whispered. They laid in bed for the first time as man and wife, and Lina could see nothing but love. She reached up to his face and brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes.

"Always." She whispered back, and they kissed softly.

xxx

Flashback after flashback of everything they'd been through raced through her mind until Lina could feel nothing but the pain in her chest. She clutched her hand to the source, her heart, and suddenly couldn't stop herself from flinging everything within reach into her bag. She had to get out of here, she had to leave.

XXX - A week later

Lina sat in their home for the first time in a week, since she'd moved out. A stack of papers sat in front of her, Kakashi on the other side of them. Her eyes stayed on the pages, words leaping out of the pages like attacks on her soul. "Irreconcilable differences" That word screamed at her. What did that even mean?

"Well?" Kakashi asked impatiently, but Lina didn't speak. After a moment he sighed.

"Look, if you need more time-"

"Wait. Just, wait." Lina said softly.

"I was hoping we could do this quickly."

"Is it wrong that I want to hold onto the image of us for a little while longer?" Lina finally looked up at her husband, and the pain and anger in her voice and eyes pricked at his heart. He didn't like hurting her, of course not. She was important to him, and always would be. He just...didn't love her anymore.

"Just sign it." Kakashi said not unfeelingly, and Lina looked back down at the pages. After a moment, she brought the pen down and scrawled out her name. Hatake Lina. It would be the last time she used that name.

XXX - 10 Years later

Kakashi walked to the KIA stone in the early morning and traced a practiced finger over the letters of the ones he'd lost, as many as they were. Hatake Sakumo, Uchiha Obito, Nohara Rin, Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Kushina, Sarutobi Asuma, Shiranui Genma, and finally...Sasaki Lina. His finger lingered on her first name the longest, and a lone tear fell from his eye. How stupid he'd been, in the height of his mid-life crisis, ruining the most perfect relationship he would ever have. He'd run to Yuki in a fit of boredom and had destroyed the most precious thing in his life. He could still see the look on her face when he told her. The pain in her voice had only been the tip of the iceberg, he knew. She'd veiled it in front of him even when he was the source. That was how much she'd loved him. Hearing him say Yuki's name had cut her deeply, and yet she didn't show it, though she had every right to.

And then she'd died. Freak ambush on a C-ranked mission. Her team of genin had been ambushed not 5 kilometers away from the village border and there had been no time. She'd shielded them and bought them time to get to the village, at the cost of her own life. The recovery team had found her dying and swiftly brought her back, but there had been nothing left of many of her vital organs. Sakura had tried, but in the end, Lina had slipped away. The last words she'd spoken had been to a nurse, who relayed the message to Kakashi.

"I'm glad he's happy. He deserves happiness. Yuki is a good woman. She suits him." In the height of her delirium, Lina had confessed her feelings to a passing nurse. It hadn't been a message to him, and the nurse hadn't known who the dying girl was, or who the 'he' she was referring to was, but she'd found out through gossip. Days after Lina's funeral, Kakashi had come home from a mission himself and found a note tacked to his door. He'd found the nurse and spoken to her. He and Yuki had broken up years ago, when Kakashi had realized his mistake, but Lina had refused to take him back.

xxx - 7 years previously, 3 years from the divorce

Kakashi knocked on an apartment door with butterflies in his stomach. He'd heard that she lived here now. He could hear a commotion coming from inside, and waited.

"Ah, stop!" Lina giggled and opened the door. The smile on her face faded as she saw who it was. "Kakashi…"

"I was wrong, Lina. I'm sorry." Kakashi felt like his tongue was too large for his mouth, or that there wasn't enough oxygen in the air, and he fumbled with his fingers in his pocket as he waited for her to respond.

"Kakashi, I-" Lina stepped into the hallway, glancing back into the apartment as if to check if the person inside with her was nearby, but Kakashi cut her off.

"Lina, please. I was so stupid, and selfish. I know that now." His eyes were baleful, and if it had been 3 years, even 2 years ago, Lina would have been swayed. But now…

"Hey, who is it?" A hand snaked out of the open doorway and Hatori walked out to pull Lina's body to his naked chest, his lower body dressed in shinobi pants. He stilled as he noticed who it was. "Kakashi."

"Hatori." Kakashi acknowledged the man, but only had eyes for Lina. She felt Tori's arm leave her, and it brought her back to reality.

"I'll leave you guys alone" Hatori said and walked back into the apartment. Lina watched him go before turning back to Kakashi.

"No."

Kakashi felt his difficulty breathing increase tenfold. "What?"

"I'm sorry, Kakashi. Not this time." Lina turned away, and Kakashi quickly reached out to grab her hand.

"Lina!"

Lina looked down at his grip on her. "Let go of me."

Kakashi let go as if he'd been stung, and Lina walked back into the apartment. He'd lost his chance.

xxx

She'd forgotten that he'd broken up with Yuki, it seemed, and it shattered him to know that in her last moments, she'd thought he didn't want her. Kakashi stared down at the KIA stone one last time and made his way to his favorite place in the whole village. The cherry blossom tree with the circle of lilies on the plot of land that his father had given him. Lina had made this little spot her own, planting the tree and the lilies surrounding it. It was a fruit of their love, she'd said with a smile after the day of work. Kakashi had grinned down at her and wiped the dirt off her nose before giving her a kiss.

He could still see the smile on her face that day when he looked at the scene. She had given him happiness beyond compare. She had loved him above all else, cared for him when he came home instead of went to the hospital for treatment of his injuries. She was loyal to no one but him, but never held back her own opinion when she thought he was wrong. And most of all, and the thing that killed him, was that she had spent her life trying to make up for some abstract non-existent inadequacy because she thought that she wasn't worthy of his love.

"It was me, Lina. I wasn't worthy of your love." Kakashi whispered for the thousandth time. He kneeled in front of her favorite spot, afraid that if he entered into it that he would ruin the pureness it held. He didn't deserve to be near it. She had kept every single one of her vows. And he had broken every last one of his.

The pain in his chest mounted as he was consumed with grief, and he reached into his pocket to take out the pill he'd been saving. Like father, like son. He wouldn't perform seppuku, because he did not deserve that honor. The only luxury he would afford himself was the one of a quick death. He would make it painful, but allowed it to be quick to spare Lina. Was he foolish? Was she even watching him? He looked up at the sky before he pushed the pill into his mouth.

"I'll be with you soon, my love." Kakashi whispered before he bit down. A sickly sweet taste filled his mouth, and Hatake Kakashi died.

- the end

Author's note: Ahhh, this was so sad! I cried so much writing this. I don't really have a lot to say, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Please do review and let me know what you thought! The next chapter of Coming Home should be up soon.

Hina