Ten Swords for Solace
A Xenocide Production

AN: My, my. It's been a long time, hasn't it, True Believers? I'm still alive and kicking. Currently searching for employment. Life is annoying like that.

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.


8. Have you ever heard of the Hedgehog's dilemma?

It states that a hedgehog, though it might desire to become closer to another hedgehog for warmth and comfort, cannot avoid both inflicting and receiving pain from the spiny quills that cover its back. That which protects the hedgehog also ends up hurting it. A hedgehog will never truly experience the intimacy and feeling of safety that comes with sharing a warm burrow with another hedgehog.

In this, humans are quite similar, though they have no physical protrusions or natural defenses that prevent them from becoming close to one another. Instead of tough skin, an imposing demeanor, or natural body armor, humans have to be wary of one another's emotions, words, and actions. The pain that can be inflicted on the physical self is as nothing compared to the savagery that humans inflict upon one another's soul, whether unintentionally or not.

For shinobi, this is something that they understand on an unconscious level. It is why shinobi rarely associate with anyone outside of their close circle of friends. Even then, it is rare for a shinobi to have close friends beyond the members of their cell and perhaps their family or clan.

They are quite aware of the risk they run to their minds and their souls when they venture out on a mission with a team, a friend, or worse, a lover. There is no mental preparation on Earth or in Heaven that can prepare a soldier for the loss of a beloved comrade. Years of training and conditioning can only soften the blow so much. It leads many shinobi to the conclusion that it is ultimately safer and less painful to simply have no friends at all. Even in Konoha, where the bonds between comrades are almost as strong as or stronger than that of any pair or trio of siblings, there are those who take solace in the solitary life.

Kakashi is one such shinobi.

He had already suffered a grievous blow to his psyche with the loss of both Obito and Rin. Even though he had become closer to them, more so than he'd ever thought it possible, there was still that sly whisper in the recesses of his mind that insisted that it was folly to let two people through the nigh impregnable defenses he'd been building ever since he was a child. Their deaths lent the whisper a mocking quality, chanting in time to Obito's rapidly fading pulse, I told you so, I told you so.

As with most shinobi who had suffered a loss so great, Kakashi was never quite right afterward. He became firmly convinced that human contact of any sort was a mistake that he'd never commit again.

Surprisingly, it wasn't Team Seven that helped Kakashi regain a semblance of his humanity and his sanity. It was Maito Gai.

Kakashi had been staring at two familiar names on the Memorial Stone when he was startled from his memories by approaching footsteps. A man roughly his own age came bearing a small bouquet of daisies and wearing a hideously green spandex suit. The bowl cut of his hair and his blindingly white smile did nothing to ingratiate himself to Kakashi. Like many of his peers, Kakashi immediately dismissed Gai as a fool.

Kakashi can't quite remember the words they exchanged as Gai carefully laid his flowers at the foot of the stone. He only knows that he blithely insulted Gai without really thinking about it and suddenly found himself on the ground with a ringing in his ears and a scowling Maito Gai towering over his prone form.

Kakakshi sat up, rubbed his jaw, and then proceeded to beat the everliving green out of Gai.

Their battle lasted approximately 3 hours and near the end, Kakashi found himself eying his opponent with something akin to respect even as Gai lay propped against the ruined form of a training post, lips split, one eye blackened, and one arm broken. Kakashi was in just as bad a shape as the other shinobi, but he'd never admit it.

He's not quite sure why he does so, but he limps over to Gai, favoring his broken ankle, and bends down, silently offering the man a hand up. Gai hesitates a moment, peering into Kakashi's one exposed eye for what seemed like an eternity. He grinned suddenly, as if satisfied by what he found in Kakashi's gaze. Gai took Kakashi's hand.

"I forgive you!" Gai proclaimed in his boisterous manner, beaming and happy only as a child who has made a new friend could be.

They both limped to town, Gai loudly proclaiming that Kakashi's Hip and Cool manner would never temper Gai's own Power of Youth.

Gai gained an Eternal Rival that day.

Kakashi regained what made all Konoha shinobi great: a friend.


Lend me your thoughts, guys. They make me happy.