"Talking"

"Flashback Speech"

Reading

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 25: Torture, Pain, Guilt, Regret

Yuugao cursed herself. She should have known it was him who was going to enter her room. She hadn't known that he had returned and thus assumed it was someone else. That was so foolish of her. She should have been paying more attention. Why hadn't she thought to pay more attention?

She stormed past Wolf-taichou. He called out to her, but her stride never halted. She needed to fix this. It had been over a day since he had seen it and had questioned her harshly on why Hayate was dead. It still stung to think that she hadn't been there for her fiancé's last moments, but it stung even more to see the way Naruto stormed away. She could have sworn he pulled out a scroll as he did too, although she did not know why.

The kunoichi quickened her pace as she entered the underground department of T&I. Her hypothesis that this was where Naruto had gone off to would soon be confirmed. When she turned the hall towards the interrogation rooms, she noticed two chuunin standing outside of Room C. Yuugao tried to politely get their attention, but it seemed to startle them instead.

"A-A-ANBU-san, how m-may we help y-you?" The poor T&I recruit seemed frightened out of his mind, yet it wasn't because of her presence.

"I'm looking for my colleague Kodanuki. Do you know where I might find him?" Both of their eyes grew wide, and they immediately pointed to the door behind them. "Thank you." She nodded and began towards the door.

"W-wait!" Yuugao turned and glared at them. "I a-apologize, but h-h-he asked to n-not be disturbed." Fear flickered in his orbs. Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to calm himself. His voice suddenly sounded much smaller. "He's been in there for a day. We just got here, and were going to prep the room, but the guys on the last shift told us not to disturb him. He's insane!" She could tell that thinking about Naruto sent shivers down the chuunin's spine. "Apparently, he hasn't taken a break and has been in there with the same person the whole time." That whisper caught Yuugao's attention.

It was much worse than she had suspected. Yuugao need to get him out of there right away. She turned around and opened the door to the cell, and the scent of burnt flesh and blood wafted towards her. Looking in, she saw Naruto standing next to what looked to be a man. Most of his clothes were torn to shreds. There were large welts on his head where his hair used to be. A hot metal rod that the boy was holding in his hand seemed to be the cause. If she wasn't a trained ANBU with years of carnage under her belt, she may have vomited on the spot. However, she calmly walked towards him, the prisoner not even acknowledging that she was there, and grabbed his wrist before he could stab the rod into what defined the poor man as, well, a man.

Violet eyes turned to her and glared. "Why are you stopping me?" Hatred burned in those slit pupils behind the blood-stained mask.

"I'm sure whatever this man did, he did not deserve this," she tried to explain. However, those words seemed to fire the boy up even more.

"No, his punishment is not yet complete. He was the one who killed Gecko. He deserves to be torn piece by piece until he is erased from existence," the fox mask snarled back at her.

That made anger boil in her stomach. This was all about revenge. Her little brother was taking revenge for Hayate, and she hated that. A slap echoed in the room, and a clatter followed as the mask fell to the floor. Naruto's head was turned to the side, surprised widening his violet orbs.

Tears that pooled in her eyes began to fall. "You think that you need to avenge him! Do you think that would make him happy? Do you think he would be proud of you, the swordsman he raised, that you are doing this here and now?" His eyes turned to look at her. "He would be so disappointed in you right at this moment." Her breaths came out as rough pants. "Clean up this mess and meet me outside in five minutes. No excuses."

Yuugao left the bloody cell and stood out in the hall. She couldn't believe that her brother had fallen so far as to need revenge. Revenge was death; it would have consumed him until he knew no more. Why hadn't she sought him out sooner. She just wanted to give him space, and this had to happen instead. She knew that when he was angry, sometimes he resorted to torturing others. It was something she did not like about who he had become. Yet, she had not thought that he may have captured the spy who Hayate had been tailing. She had not thought that he would torture the traitor to that state. That was not torture; that was execution.

With only a few seconds before five minutes left to spare, a bloody Naruto stepped out of the room. She gave him no warning as she threw a black cloak at him. The boy caught it and wrapped it around his body. He did not seem aware of his actions, and his muscles were doing all the work as she basically dragged him to the surface. They exited T&I as the sun rose.

The Hokage's words echoed in his mind. "I regret to inform you that Uzumaki Naruto has resigned from the shinobi force."

Kakashi did not understand, could not understand, how this could have happened. The boy who had been so full of life, so enthusiastic about being a ninja, had quit. He needed to stop thinking about it, and the best place to do that was where other thoughts would fill his head instead.

At sunrise, he was already standing in front of the memorial stone, thinking about all the people he had failed, yet the thoughts of Naruto would not leave his mind. He had failed once again. Had the blond boy quit because he was a failure of a sensei? There was no doubt in his mind that he had been a terrible sensei to his team. Now there would be no way to mend his relationship with his blond student. He wallowed in the regret of not being there for his sensei's son. The boy was gone, and he had no clue where to find him.

Suddenly, he tensed up. He could tell that someone was coming.

He smelt them first. The scent of blood blew downwind towards Kakashi's location, and the metallic aroma was all the information he needed to hide further downwind. It wasn't like all of Konoha did not know he spent his mornings standing in front of the memorial stone. However, whoever was coming this way could be hostile. Better to be safe than sorry.

He heard the voices next. The high pitch voice of a female was chastising whomever her companion may be. Kakashi could pick out the bits and pieces: "You know better than to do that." and "Think of what he would say if he saw you now."

He saw them finally. A tall woman with flowing purple hair walked besides a shorter figure cloaked in black. Kakashi could see tendrils of black hair poking out beneath the hood. The figure hadn't spoken a word, but with their body language, he could tell they were feeling guilty.

The woman, who he identified as Yuugao, one of Konoha's ANBU who he remembered the ANBU recruiting as a girl from the orphanage, stopped in front of the memorial stone; her companion soon followed. The two silently prayed, most likely for Yuugao's late fiancé Hayate. Not a word was spoken between the two for many moments.

Finally, the silence was broken when Yuugao's companion spoke up. "I should've been here. If I was here, none of this would have ever happened. If I was here, he would still be alive." The last sentence came out more like a forced choke than anything. Kakashi's mind was working at breakneck speed. Somehow, the figure – a boy, Kakashi had deduced – felt responsible for Hayate's death. However, what was bothering him more was that he had heard that voice somewhere before. If only he could pinpoint where.

Yuugao spoke up next. "It's not your fault. We all know the risks of being a shinobi. While he was here doing his duty, you were there doing your duty, and the fact that you prevented war from happening would make him proud. I'm sure of it." That slightly stunned the cyclops. A boy that young somehow went away from Konoha to prevent war? That sounded quite fictional if he were to be honest.

More silence ensued for a little while longer, but Kakashi could hear the quiet sobs from the boy. "Thanks for taking me here. I would not have thought to visit this place."

"Of course. That's what big sisters are for." The purple-haired kunoichi wrapped her arm around the young boy's shoulder and drew him closer to her. After another round of silence, she finally asked, "Shall we go?"

"One moment." Out of nowhere, paper and pen appeared in the boy's hand. He quickly wrote something down and stuck it to the memorial stone. "Alright, let's go back." There was less guilt visible on the boy's body as the pair turned around and walked away. If only Kakashi could drop his guilt as quickly as that boy had.

Dropping out of his hiding place and approaching the stone to wallow in regret once again, Kakashi took notice of the paper the boy had left. A twinge of annoyance made itself known as he read the nice calligraphy that said To Dog.

Ripping the paper off of the stone and unfolding it, here's what he read:

Dog, are you so senile that you're eavesdropping on personal conversations now? No respect whatsoever. Looks like age is catching up to you.

His hands shook as his burned the paper to a crisp with a small raikiri. He knew exactly who had written the note, and now he knew exactly who that boy was. No wonder the boy's voice sounded so familiar.

At first, he respected Kodanuki, an accomplished ANBU at an age younger than when Kakashi had entered. However, every moment after that, the boy drove him mad. He seemed to show up everywhere Kakashi was. Perhaps Naruto would still be here if that ANBU hadn't intervened in his search only a month ago.

There was nothing that Kakashi liked about that ANBU. Yet, there was something mysterious about the boy whose ANBU history was classified. Now, he knew a bit more. Apparently, Yuugao was like an older sister to the boy. Apparently, Kodanuki had a strong connection to Hayate before his death.

If there was something Kakashi wanted to know, it was who that boy was. There was no way that he had done so many ANBU missions before and not been teamed up with the boy at least once. On the contrary, if Kodanuki specialized in something just as Kakashi specialized in tracking, then they may have never met. It had bothered him though that that ANBU seemed to know Kakashi's past well and was aware of who he was.

Deciding not to think of it anymore, Kakashi put his attention back onto the stone of regrets and sorrows. Nothing could bother him quite as much as his own failures. If he succeeded in finding Naruto, would he be forgiven for that sin which he had committed before even becoming the boy's sensei? If only he could wash the guilt away as easily as water washed away blood… yet the stains remain.

And in the back of his mind, an inkling grew stronger that there was more to that ANBU than he could imagine and that he had heard that voice not only from that ANBU's mouth.

Updated: 8/6/20