"Hey, your mother's worried." A lazy voice drawled.
Inari turned around, scrutinizing the middle-aged jounin standing beside him. There were currently at the harbour, and it was night-time. Naruto had finished his guard duty, and immediately went off to, in his own words, explore the Wave. He still hadn't come back yet.
Kakashi looked back at the kid in front of him. His eyes glinted with defiance and some restrained anger. Personally, the gray-haired jounin did not like he saw, though it was understandable after the story that Tsunami had told.
"What do you care?"
"Well, I don't really. But your mother does, and you should respect your parents. She's worried about you, you know." Kakashi said, and sat down besides Inari. The young boy seemed surprised, but hid it skillfully.
"Are you here to bring me back?"
Kakashi pulled out his little orange book, and shrugged.
"Like I told you, I personally don't care. What you do is your choice. I'm not going to interfere."
They spent their time in silence. Kakashi read through Icha Icha, re-reading some of his more preferred chapters, and Inari just sat there tossing pebbles into the ocean. The younger one didn't know how long they sat there, though he had an inkling that the older one did. But he didn't care enough to ask.
"Why... does he hate me so much?" Inari muttered softly.
"He doesn't."
The black-haired boy started suddenly. He wasn't even aware that he had made the comment. It was a product of his own musing, and he hadn't meant for it to escape his mouth.
"He likes you."
Inari took on an expression of mixed anger, surprise, and confusion.
"What do you mean? Didn't you hear how he talked to me? He doesn't understand me or like me!"
"Au contraire... He talked that way to you because he likes you. He doesn't understand you, but he tries. He has a father, much like you did. Somebody that cares enough about him to fight for him. He's trying to understand how it feels to lose somebody that close to you."
"The way that he talks to me... It's like he doesn't respect me at all...!"
"He doesn't."
Inari stopped.
"You have to win his respect." Kakashi said, and stood up, turning around. "Oh yeah, one thing kid. You might want to go back soon. It's going to rain."
And with that said, the jounin walked off towards the direction of Inari's home, his steps hardly making any sound.
---
Soon, the rain came down. Lightning rumbled and cracked, and the heavens opened its eyes and cried. The rain made splattering noises all over the little town, and out there, on that wooden harbour stood a boy.
This boy was standing.
This boy was standing.
For he was confused, he didn't know what to do. His mind was a sea of calm, and his soul was a maelstrom of emotions and feelings. Dark sensations coursed through his veins, like the water of a raging river. Guilt so dark he felt polluted, anger so hot he was boiling over, muddle so confused like a cyclone over water. Yet something had changed within himself.
But there was something raging in his heart, something that somebody had awakened. The dam to a sea of holy water had suddenly been destroyed, and he didn't feel cold at all.
And on the face of the standing boy stood drops of white water, falling like rain.
Something had been awakened.