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Interlude — To my descendant

From the journal of Hatake Kazuki:

Year 896 A.N.
XX of November

To my descendent, whomever you may be—

There are many things I do not understand about this curs gift of mine. My father was no help; his father was even less so. Grandmother would swear by her forge that these abilities were those possessed by her own mother Nanoha, but we hold nothing substantial from that era of slaughter except for stale grief. Whether or not this gift is one our family cultivated in the past is yet to be seen. Knowing what I do, I would not be surprised if it were the case.

Either way, I write this with the hopes that you, should you inherit this gift, will be more prepared for the responsibilities it brings than I. The dead do not rest easily. I have found the reality of that statement to be a chilling, towering roadblock throughout my career as a shinobi. Perhaps you are wiser, and will not follow that same path— regardless, I have found joy in the knowledge that I, that we, can nudge them onwards in their journey towards the Pure Land. That such is what is expected of us, as the only ones capable of it in the first place.

I have included in this journal all that I have managed to learn about my gift, my great-grandmother Nanoha's supposed legacy. I rest easy knowing that only those who possess the necessary clan trait may access this journal at all; I die restlessly with the hope that the legacy carries on into the new generation, and that you might be the one to do so. That if you are not, you would at least pass this remnant down onto your own descendants, until it reaches the one for whom it was intended. Doubtlessly they are as eager to understand why the dead haunt their steps as I once was.

With faith—
Hatake Kazuki
11
th Head of the Hatake Clan


A/N: Posting a bit earlier in the day today; I'm ill and didn't want my medicine to knock me out before I had a chance to upload the chapter. It's short this time. Yesterday's is a bit of an outlier in that regard. This is still a drabble series.

There might not be another chapter until the day after tomorrow, depending on if my sickness persists.

Journal entries from Kazuki will crop up every so often. He isn't going to be showing up in person again — he has very much moved on to the Pure Land — but the information he left behind is vital if the Hatake want to reach any kind of understanding in regards to Kakashi's abilities. Most of what you can expect from these interludes is chakra theory and random philosophical tidbits. You can skip them, but you might find yourself confused by some technical jargon further down the line.