Ten Swords for Solace
A Xenocide Production
Enjoy and review…………please?
Summary: A keen blade can be as soothing as a mother's lullaby. Unsheathe me, child, and I will sing for you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Thank God.
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Sakumo had always stressed the importance of the mission to Kakashi.
"Above all else, above your own well-being, and even above your own comrades; the successful completion of the mission comes first." He would pause at this part of his daily lecture to his son and add forcefully, "Those who betray their village and their Kage are scum."
Several months after Kakashi turned 10, his father summoned him to the dojo without even bothering to change out of his field uniform upon returning from a disastrous intelligence in Ame no kuni.
Sakumo grapsed both of Kakashi's shoulders and calmly announced that he would be committing seppuku at dusk that evening. He gave no reason other than the fact that he had failed his mission and dishonored himself and his comrades in a most contemptible manner.
While seppuku was normally a samurai custom, as the ages had passed, it became acceptable an acceptable form of saving face in the shadow of dishonor.
There would be no formal witnesses and the Sandaime Hokage had agreed to act as Sakumo's second. He did not ask Kakashi to witness his death nor did Kakashi offer. The boy merely nodded solemnly. A flash of some undefinable emotion showed on his father's face at Kakashi's seeming indifference at his father's encroaching death but it vanished before he could decipher it.
The morning after, the Hokage presented Kakashi with his father's will, deeding White Fang and all of the Hatake family's possessions to his son. It was with mournful pride that the Hokage announced that Sakumo would be granted a place on the Hero's Monument.
Kakashi flatly refused this honor.
Bewildered, the Hokage asked why Kakashi was refusing his father the very least that he deserved.
The lanky man child replied simply, "My father told me that scum who failed and dishonored their village are not worthy of honor and respect."
He had forgotten his father's last words to him, as the cicada droned under the setting sun. "Those who betray their village are scum, but those who betray their comrades are worse than trash."
It would take some time before Kakashi acknowledged and understood his father's abrupt about face. It would take him even longer to forgive him for it.
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