Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
You know, it's really hard to sleep when you understand you could be killed at any moment. I figured I'd at least be able to sleep a little bit until I returned, but instead, we get ambushed not even a day out of the Hidden Leaf.
Got to give that jounin credit though. He's definitely worth every penny, especially if what that Zabuza guy was talking about was true.
His kids, on the other hand, are not.
What the Hell was the Hokage thinking, giving these snotty brats the job of protecting me? They're damn useless!
That girl looks like you could make her cry in a snap. That black haired kid is alright, but he's a bit too damn lone wolfish, and still just a kid. And that blonde one...
My God, he's annoying. Always yelling about being Hokage. What kind of Hokage runs around yelling and boasting?
The Hokage are legends. Their Yondaime became the most infamous ninja among the five countries, thanks to the Leaf-Rock war. The Sandaime is considered to be the genius among geniuses.
And this blonde kid thinks he's got what it takes?
Blech. Sake always tastes bitter if their's something wrong with you.
It swirls a bit, and I let it reflect on the firelight. Sake hasn't tasted any good to me since... since Gato came.
Since my family fell apart and I couldn't do anything to stop it.
Inari...
To Hell with this sake. I don't want it, and it tastes like crap anyway. It makes a low crunch as the cup breaks against the bark of the tree, errant leaves scattering around it as the sake spilled across the ground.
"You know, sake is only bitter when the person drinking it has a problem."
Damn that jounin. He's craftier than I thought.
I won't dignify that with a response though. Otherwise, I could come out sounding like an idiotic, superstitious old man.
"You ought to sleep. You're safe. We're protecting you, remember?" he reminds me, raising a single eyebrow, keeping his voice low so as to not wake his students.
The firelight is like a barrier between us, dancing back and forth, flickering and fading like hope.
"Feh. You should be more concerned with your students. That blonde kid did stab himself in the hand." My voice comes out harsher day by day. Tsunami's noticed, but so far, she hasn't said anything.
"Naruto'll be fine. There's a lot more to him than meets the eye." He replies, and I can tell, just barely, that there's a lot more to that sentence that I heard.
My trade is with building bridges, and its given me a sort of insight into how people connect with each other, as though I also know how they make a bridge to connect their hearts. It might be old age, or my profession, but I can read into how relationships work.
This guy... Kakashi... he's burnt a lot of his bridges, intentionally or not. As a ninja, he's obviously had to have lost at least a few of his buddies in a war... maybe even the Leaf-Rock war, if he's as old as I think he is.
Right now, that sentence is telling me that Naruto is the last bridge connecting him to someone, or something from his past. An event, a person, a friend, a lover, I don't know. But this guy knows something about the kid, and connects with him.
"He's tougher than he looks, I'll give him that." Anyone willing to stab themselves just to keep a mission going has got guts, I've gotta admit. "But damn if he's not a loud, obnoxious brat."
"Naruto just wants to prove himself." Kakashi responded easily, his eye glinting in the firelight like reflecting steel. "He doesn't have parents, or family. In fact, he barely even has any friends."
His words hit me in the gut rather hard, and my thoughts, as they always seem to do, drift to Inari and my own family.
The Hell if I'm going to admit it though.
"He lose his parents in some war? Or was it the Kyubi attack?" now I'm a bit curious. Maybe this guy knew the kid's parents, and that's why he seems to always be watching the kid, out of the corner of his eye.
Kakashi's good. He's very, very good at hiding how he feels. But I'm old and I'll say it again, I'm damn good at reading people's relationships.
He knows something about that kid's parents. Right now, he's probably wondering just how much he should tell me.
"The Kyubi took his father... his mother died giving birth to him." He finally admits, and I can tell that he's being vague on purpose. His eye betrays nothing, dull and empty as a gray cloud, and that's how I know. He's hiding what he feels on purpose.
But from the way he looks right now, as though he's remembering something, its probably best to let this dog continue sleeping.
Ever so slightly, he slips up and his eye drifts towards the kid. In his eyes, the world has probably faded away and become the world of his memories.
I take a long, hard look at the kid myself. He doesn't really look all that much different from the first time I saw him- loud and disrespectful, energetic and as predictable and controllable as the wind.
He's holding onto his forehead protector for dear life, like it'll keep him safe throughout the night. Without it, his blonde hair is spilling out across his face in gentle strands.
Damn... why is it that I'm thinking of Inari right now? This kid's nothing like Inari- Inari is quiet and subdued, this kid is loud and obnoxious.
But they both lacked something, or someone to look up to, didn't they?
I could never care for Inari as well as I wanted, having to work to keep our family going. Tsunami did her best, but a boy needs a father figure, someone to look up to- an example to strive for, to surpass.
Kaiza filled that role as best he could, teaching Inari what I never found the time to and what Tsunami couldn't. Strength. A belief system.
And all that was taken away from him in an instant.
Did Naruto have his own Kaiza? Was that father figure, that man who taught the boy what he needed to know, still out there?
"He's strong... just like his father." Kakashi's words aren't meant for me, or for this world. They're for the dead friends and comrades he left behind and I won't say a word.
Kakashi has at least one more bridge, in this boy. He's placing hopes and ideals on this boy.
The kid- no, Naruto, snores slightly, and Kakashi and I share one little laugh.
I grin, and pass him a cup. "You want some sake?"
Kakashi looks at me, and then at Naruto. There's a tiny light in his eyes. "Just a little." He replies in good humor.
We share a smile, lift our cups, and toast silently. Kakashi to what he's lost, I to my family.
The sake isn't as good as it was before, but it's certainly a little better, at least.
Author's Notes
I took the sake idea from Rurouni Kenshin, and for the most part, this scene is inspired by that. The focus here is less on Naruto and more on Kakashi, I feel, but that's just how it played out.
There was slight Naruto-bashing, but that's just how Tazuna took him for a while.
Next chapter- Inari, and the different kinds of tears.
