Author: HeartofSword26
E-mail: heartofsword@boardermail.com
Title: A Father's Hand
Fandom: Naruto
Rating: PG-13
Category: Romance/Angst
Summery: Gai found out something about Kakashi when they were 16.
Something nobody was supposed to know. Pre-Gai x Kakashi
Warning(s): Swearing, physical abuse
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
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A Father's Hand
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"Why didn't you say anything?!" Gai yells.
"I didn't want you to find out—I didn't want anybody to find out!" Kakashi yells back.
Gai grits his teeth and stares at his rival. Kakashi glares defiantly at him for a moment before looking away.
"I...didn't want you to get hurt," the albino whispers. He groans and puts his head in his hands. "You'd try to...I don't know, you'd try to do something—something stupid, like you always do, and I didn't want you to get hurt...."
"That's not much of an excuse," Gai replies icily. Then the sixteen-year old explodes.
"GODDAMMIT KAKASHI, IT WAS YOUR FATHER! YOUR OWN DAMN FATHER!"
"What would you have done?!" Kakashi snaps, unfazed by Gai's shouts. "What would you have done, Gai?"
"I," Gai snarls, "Would have gone for some help! For the love of Rikagi Kakashi, it was your father."
"Yes," Kakashi says, his voice as cold as Gai's had been moments before. "Evoke the name of the food Goddess, to remark on something we had already established. Yes, Gai, it was my father. What of it?"
Gai stares at him, unable to believe that Kakashi is pretending to be so ignorant after the truth has been exposed.
"What of it?! WHAT OF IT??!!!!"
Kakashi has the grace to flinch at the volume of Gai's voice.
Gai regains control of himself, and continues his voice just above a whisper.
"Let me run this by you Kakashi, since the last eleven years seem to have gone blank. Your father, Kakashi—not some idiot ANBU member that Obito hasn't been able to skin, not some uppity jounin that Asuma hasn't been able to stop—your father has been getting drunk off his ass, and beating the shit out of you ever since you were five. Is that clear enough? Or, am I going to have to go through the list of nurses who swore not to tell at your insistence?"
Kakashi says nothing.
Gai remembers the horror that he had felt, as he had listened at the door of the Hatake residence, listening to what was happening. He had listened to Kakashi's cries, the sound of the albino's frame hitting the stone floor—and the sounds of Kakashi's sobs, the sound of his fragile body being kicked, and beaten by the man that dared to call himself the head of the Hatake family. Gai had bolted, after Kakashi's blood had started splattering on the floor, had bolted and run to the Hokage.
Sandaime had wasted no time. Kakashi's father had been a former member of the ANBU squad, but had been ejected from the force for the attempted murder of a teammate. That had been when Kakashi was four. Then, a year later, his father had begun taking his frustrations out on his son.
Kakashi's father is being held and questioned right now.
Kakashi is in the hospital with five cracked ribs, seven kunai wounds, and a sprained wrist. He will be released as soon as tomorrow night, but where he will go no one knows.
Gai is sitting with him now; Asuma and his girlfriend Kurenai are in their beds, unaware of what has taken place; Obito is on a mission with his ANBU squad, and will not be back for three days. Gai wishes that Obito was here now. Kakashi needs Obito more than anybody else. But he is stuck with his rival, which, Gai reflects bitterly, is probably the worst thing of all.
Gai takes a deep breath and tells himself to focus on the here and now.
"You'll be staying with my mother and me," he says calmly. "That way, an eye can be kept on you."
Kakashi nods mutely. He cannot speak; there is a lump in his throat that won't go away.
His good hand squeezes the sheets of the bed he is lying on.
He can still remember how his father had beat him, and tormented him, the smell of sake floating in the air, mixing with the scent of his own blood as it had stained the floor.
He can still feel the pain as his father's kicks and stabs with a kunai had hit their targets with the utmost precision, as white starbursts of agony blinded him.
He hadn't told anybody, hadn't done anything unless he needed to. There were only three people that he had told; those were the nurses that had treated his wounds at this same hospital.
He hadn't said anything at all, because he had believed that it would stop one day, that his father would realize that Kakashi still loved him. That Kakashi would forgive him.
But it could never be.
The taste of bitter disappointment fills his mouth. Tears sting his eyes, and he tries desperately to resist the howl of misery that is welling up inside of him.
And now Gai is being so...kind.
Kakashi lets out a wail, throws his arms around Gai's neck, and weeps.
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Inspired by, "My Immortal" by Evanescence, "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas, "The Emperor's New Groove," and Kakashi's lack of background and my desire to fill that lack.
I was watching "The Emperor's New Groove" when the idea of Kakashi being abused as a child suddenly hit me broadside. The songs inspired the actual dialogue and text. ^_^
I'm not sure if I should continue this or not....
Please read and review!!!