"Mr. Malfoy, how is your wife?" "Dead," he replies with a smile whilst chewing a cookie. Hermione Malfoy smiles with slight pity at the unnerved intern. She, however, has more pity on herself - being the one that gets to slowly dance through the complex steps of Draco's mind on the fragile floor of their marriage.

Hiding behind fabricated faces, masking the loneliness with smiles, playing a role in the name of protection... will Kakashi be the one to look underneath the underneath and see Naruto for who he really is?

Kakashi died with the sky in his eyes. How very Kakashi-like of him to do so. Everything made a stupid amount of sense, except it didn't. And Naruto hadn't been there to catch him when he fell. —An alternative take on his death and the revival of Konoha.