This chapter was a request from my awesome reviewer SunlitSky21. So, hi SunlitSky21! I hope you like it! I tried to keep Kakashi as OC as possible, but... Oh, well, you know me, right? I tried to cover everything you asked for, too (including the spell check, sorry if there are some grammar issues). Enough of this rambling. Here it is, I hope I didn't disappoint you, because my heart is acking for these two, my poor babies!

Next chapter: a request from my best reviewer and the one who keeps me on track and that doesn't let me stop writing: Mega M! You deserve it soooo much!

Thanks everyone and keep the requests coming!

Rain was pouring down, making the monument shine in the dim sunset light. The man stood there, shivering in the cold air.

Another mission, another assassination, another success… How can someone call it "a success"?

He turned around and walked away, whispering goodbye. On the way home, he looked at the park, sighing… His childhood was so long ago, a distant memory of happier days, easier days…

A sudden movement caught his eye. A little boy, no older than 4, was dancing in the middle of the park. He was too young and too little to be there, at that hour, without a jacket or an umbrella, all alone.

There was something mesmerizing in him. The man took a step closer and leaned on the fence, a small smile hidden under his mask.

The child continued dancing, oblivious to his presence. With open arms and closed eyes, head threw back to feel the rain in his face.

"Yo, kid! What are you doing?" Even him was surprised with himself, he didn't mean to talk to the kid, but there is something so beautiful, so pure, so innocent in that child.

A pair of bright blue eyes looked at him, a glimpse of fear shining in them. "Just… dancing… I guess…"

"Dancing? In the middle of the rain?" The kid nods. "Where are your parents?"

"Dead…"

"Oh… I'm sorry… And who takes care of you? You should be at home, you'll get a cold…"

"I live alone… Sometimes, the old man visits me..."

"The old man?"

"Yeah! The one in the mountain." The kid points to the Hokage's Monument.

"The Third?" The Hokage visits an orphan? That's weird… Unless… "What's your name kid?"

"Uzumaki Naruto!" The kid grins at him, blonde hair sticking to his face, blue eyes sparkling.

"Uzumaki…" His voice trails off.

"Mister… Are you okay? Did you see a ghost?" The child sounds concerned.

A sad chuckle escapes from his lips. The kid is worried with him… The kid that he should have raised, the kid who should be like a younger brother to him, the kid who should be his last hope…

"I'm… fine. Naruto, hun? Suits you…"

"And what's your name?"

"Hatake Kakashi. Come here, kid…"

Kakashi kneels on the grass. The boy runs to him, jumping in the puddles. "Yes, Kakashi-san?"

"No need to call me that, just Kakashi is fine. You are soaking wet, you must be freezing!"

"Nah, I'm used to the rain! It's good to be used to it, I'll be a ninja one day! I'll have to fight in the rain!"

"A ninja, hun?" Kakashi pulls his sleeping bag from his backpack and wraps it around the boy. He seems so little… "How old are you?"

"Four!" The kid puffs his chest and lifts four fingers. "I'm a big boy now!"

"Oh, I can see that! A soaking, freezing big boy!" Kakashi smiles. He doesn't remember the last time he smiled so many times and so genuinely.

"Yup, that's me!" A huge sneeze makes Naruto jump and shiver.

"Okay… Come here, big boy!" Kakashi picks him up and puts him on his shoulders.

"Oi, oi! Where are you taking me?"

"Do you like ramen, Naruto?"

"I love ramen! Ichiraku's ramen is the best food in the whole world!"

"I figure… So, let's pick some and then we'll go to your home! You need a shower and warm clothes. Okay?"

"And you'll have dinner with me?" Kakashi nods an agreement. "Why?"

"Why not? I liked you… And I'm alone, too… We could keep each other's company, what do you think?"

"Grown ups don't like me very much… They usually chase me away… Why are you being nice to me?"

"Like I said, I liked you. And you remember me of an old friend…"

"Really?"

"Hm, hm…" Kakashi looks up. "So, dinner with me?"

"Yes, Kakashi-nii-chan!"

Kakashi's eye wides in surprised at the endearment. He feels his heart clenching, regret and shame flooding his veins.

He shakes the thoughts out of his head and concentrates in the task in his hands. He picks some boxes of ramen at Ichiraku's, letting Naruto choose what he wants to eat and asks him where his home is.

The man can't believe that the poor kid leaves alone in this apartment. Clothes and empty food boxes litter the floor, the bed is a mess of blankets, the pipes are so old that the water is almost as cold as the rain.

The kid sneezes again and shivers against his leg.

"Okay, kid, you need to warm up. Do you have clean clothes?"

He puts a kettle in the stove, boiling water to bath the kid. He is filling the tub, when Naruto comes in, with an old pyjama in his hands.

"What are you doing?"

"Preparing your bath. Take of those wet clothes and jump in."

Naruto seems unsure, but does as he tells, trying the water with his hand before coming in. The water seems fine to him and he sinks in the tub, smiling and humming with pleasure.

"Warmer that the rain, right?" Kakashi sits on the toilet lid and watches the kid. He seems contempt, playing with the water, relishing in the warm feeling. He let him play for a while. "Okay, come on, it's time to get out. You're starting to look like an old man!"

"Ohhh, I'm fine here…" The boy whines.

"We have ramen waiting for us…" Kakashi thanks to his well-trained reflexes. Only a good ninja would be able to catch the kid and wrap him in a towel, when he jumped from the tub and tried to run away, completely naked. "Put some clothes first!"

"Oh, sorry…" Naruto grins and rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

During dinner, Kakashi realizes two things. One, the boy is the spitting image of his father, but he eats and talks just like his mother. Two, is that he didn't feel so happy and so alive in a long, long time…

He's so lost in his own thoughts that it took him a minute to realized that the kid is (finally) quiet. Looking across the table, he smiles. The boy fell asleep on the table, head resting in one arm, chopsticks still clutched in his hand.

He picks him and gently tucks the little child in bed. Naruto rolls in his sleep, laying on his back, his thumb sleeping to his mouth, a contempt sigh escaping his lips, his blonde hair spread in the pillow.

Kakashi sits on the floor and looks at the boy. For the first time in forever, a tear rolls down his cheek. And it's like a floodgate is open, at last.

All the pain, all the sorrow, all the mourning and all the regrets stream down his face. He lays his head on the side of the bed and cries.

He cries for his lost childhood, for his lost innocence. He cries for his father, for his best friend, for his sensei and for the love of his life. He cries for all the lives that he took, for all the mistakes, for all the comrades that he lost. And most of all, he cries for this boy…

The boy that he couldn't took in, the boy that he couldn't adopt. The Hokage told him that he was too young, that it was a responsibility to big to a 14-year-old, that he had too much to do, that there was too many political issues and secrets around the boy, that it was safer this way. And he pretended that was the truth. He lied to himself for 4 years. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind, he busied himself with missions after missions, he stayed away as much as possible.

But he knows the truth. He knows that the boy is alone in the world, despised and hated by everyone, because of something that wasn't his fault. And no one was there to take care of him, he wasn't there to take care of him.

And he knows that he can't do anything to change that. Kakashi knows that he is a blood cold killer, an assassin, a monster. He is the monster, not the boy. The demon sealed inside this child is better than the ones that live inside him.

He has too much pain and too much regret in his heart. His hands are stained with the blood of too many people. He can't take care of a child with this hands…

He can't touch such an innocent, pure, bright soul with his bloody, dirty, dark hands.

Kakashi knows that he'll have to live with this regret and shame for the rest of his life. That he'll have to find a way to cope, to find way to deal with it. He'll have to keep going, to live.

He looks at the sleeping boy and a sad smile lingers in his lips... He remembers how easy it was to talk with him, to hold him, to listen to him. The kid didn't run away, he didn't flinch or looked scared. He smiled and chatted and giggled without a care in the world.

Maybe, he isn't so dirty as he thinks, maybe the kid saw something that he can't see in himself. And he knows that he can't just take the boy home and pretend that nothing happened. HE knows that there are too many secrets, too many politics, too many risks to do that.

But he can keep an eye on the boy, took him to dinner sometime, make sure that he has food and clean clothes… He can take care of him from the distance, from the shadows…

And maybe, just maybe, he found a way to cope, a true reason to live…