And overpowered by memory, both men gave way to grief.

Kakashi sat at the tip of a long, thin electrical pole in the heart of Konoha.

Well, to say he was sitting was never quite right. He was perched there, his knees bent and his feet tucked up under his thighs. He'd perfected the pose to such a degree over the years that it would be hours before his joints would ache or tingle from loss of sensation, and he did not twitch or otherwise budge an inch.

He listened closely, tuning out the droning buzz of evening insects and the chatter of civilians on the busier street nearby. Naruto's and Sasuke's chakra signatures were as known to Kakashi as his own, and he tracked them with ease as they stood in the kitchen of the house below him. There was a lingering smell in the air, pleasant but fading to any but a nose as keen as his, of a hearty dinner meal heavily seasoned and spiced. In response, his stomach twisted—it was only the first day of the week and night had not yet fallen, but he was drunk, and he was not the kind of drunk with whom food agreed.

It was his own fault, he mused idly. Just as Naruto and Sasuke had made it a habit to visit Sakura's parents once a week, Kakashi allowed himself a drink or two at the same frequency. Maybe, though, it was because of the boys' weekly ritual that he slunk off to his favorite pub. Rarely did he allow himself to get shitfaced, not since the first few months Sakura had left the village, but tonight he'd made an exception.

The boys shifted, and he watched as they crossed the home to announce they'd finished cleaning the dishes. Sakura's father stood and clasped the two of them by their shoulders to thank them for their company and their help, while her mother approached to pull them each into a hug. When the front door swung open, Kakashi could hear Naruto's voice as clearly as if he was standing right next to him.

"We might have a mission next week," he was saying, "so I'll come by to tell you if we do."

"I do hope you'll be careful," Mrs. Haruno fussed, hovering at the door.

"Always are!" Naruto held up his thumb confidently. "See you guys!"

"And give your regards to Hokage-sama," she called. "And Kakashi, too."

"We will, Auntie," Sasuke assured, not bothering to offer more than a small smile that barely qualified as one in the first place. "Goodnight."

Kakashi stared. Maybe it was the excess liquor running through his veins, but hearing something like that tugged at his heart. He'd been invited, years ago now, to their dinners with the Harunos, but he would never allow himself such a thing. Emotionally he worked best when solitary, and the last thing he needed was a weekly reminder that he'd let Sakura slip through his fingers. In a life punctuated by successes and failures of vastly varying degrees, his ignorance to Sakura's true feelings was a heavy contender for one of his greatest fuck-ups.

Absentmindedly, he reached his hand into his pocket and traced his thumb across her forehead protector. By now there was a small groove in the metal from this habit he'd formed—at first he'd worried she'd fuss at him when she saw it, but he'd closed his eyes in utter shame when he corrected himself to if she would ever see it.

He sat with these thoughts for some time, tracking the boys' chakra as they walked through the evening streets. The sun had just begun to descend beneath the horizon line, the sky streaked with orange and pink as tiny pinpoints of starry light poked through the encroaching darkness overhead.

"Cut it out, idiot," he heard Sasuke mutter, the whisper only perceptible for how closely Kakashi was monitoring them. "At least wait until we get home."

They'd made it a few blocks by then, and even without seeing them their ex-sensei knew that Naruto had pinned Sasuke against a back alley wall, his face in his hands. The nature of their relationship had always seemed...interesting, to say the least, but once when neither of them showed to their biweekly sparring session, Tsunade merely shrugged and said,

"They're cleaning the tower as punishment."

"And why is that?" he'd asked flatly, despite his growing curiosity.

"I caught them fooling around in the storage closet—not that I care where their preferences lie, but Naruto was supposed to be refining Sasuke's chakra control. You know I'm not to be disobeyed!"

It'd been a relief of sorts to have such a thing confirmed, but teenage boys were still teenage boys. They'd always been passionate even through their arguments and in leaping into battle to one-up or rescue the other, and not much of that had died down once their relationship became officially romantic. He was glad, even in spite of overhearing a few deeply private conversations on missions, that they'd found that happiness in each other, an experience not many shinobi lived to have, but he heaved a sigh as he stood from his perch and leapt down to the alley. It would be easier to interrupt them now than in one of their apartments doing God-knows-what.

Naruto had jumped back in surprise, but Sasuke barely even turned to look in Kakashi's direction.

"Kaka-sensei!" Naruto all but stammered, his face red in the quickly fading daylight. "Fancy seeing you here."

"You spend all that time with Tsunade learning about chakra," Sasuke started, "but you didn't even feel him approach?"

"I got caught up in the moment!" he answered sheepishly, then brought his hand to his stomach. "And I'm never alert after one of Mom's meals. Being so full makes me sleepy."

Kakashi just watched, taking in for a moment how the two of them had grown over the years. He was proud, fiercely so, but the picture was never complete without Sakura there. He wondered how she would react, to know her ex-teammates were dating, to know her ex-sensei was still beating himself up over her absence.

"You're drunk," Sasuke said then, finally turning to give him his full attention. "What is it?"

"An astute observation as always," he deadpanned. Not that he minded an Uchiha's bluntness, but it wasn't ever fun to have attention drawn to his less-than-healthy coping habits. He put his hands in his pockets, bracing himself against what he was about to say, for he had scarcely allowed himself time to process it, either.

"Kaka—"

"Jiraiya has been killed in combat."

It was still for one very long, drawn-out moment. Then he could feel as if standing next to an erupting volcano the violent flare of Naruto's chakra, and the characteristic shift in the air as Sasuke's Sharingan eyes swirled to activation as he prepared to subdue the other boy, if necessary.

"Naruto," Kakashi said quickly, "I understand your pain, but the streets of Konoha are no place for the Kyuubi's rage."

"I—" He was shaking, his breaths heaving out of his mouth. He took a step but stumbled, Sasuke's arms steadying him there. "That isn't possible...!"

Sasuke's mouth had pressed into a thin line. Jiraiya had been like a father to the both of them these last three years, and Kakashi knew there was no way to break the news to them that they would accept with much grace. He could feel his subordinate's chakra flare once, and then he balled his hand into a tight fist and struck it against the concrete wall, strips of old paint flaking off with the force of it.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice tight and strained.

"We don't yet know. A toad appeared before Tsunade-sama who has requested us as an audience. We should make for the tower at once."

Naruto staggered back, propping himself against the wall. His chakra had calmed, and Kakashi knew that it was thanks to Jiraiya's influence that he'd been able to control that anger within him. "He'd gone to look into the Akatsuki's leader, didn't he?"

But Kakashi glanced away. It was the truth, yes, and they hadn't kept neither his own nor the old sage's recent intel missions in Rain a secret. Ever since they'd seen Sakura there at their base during the extraction of the One-Tailed Beast from Gaara's body, Tsunade had been a lot less tight-lipped with the boys about what information to give them. Their reactions to her connections with the criminal organization had been mixed, for her being there in the first place and for her saving the life of a Kage, one who was an ally of the Leaf, at that.

Perhaps, then, it was time to divulge the latest twist they'd discovered.

"Indeed," he answered. "About the Akatsuki..."

"Was Itachi the one who killed him?" Sasuke blurted, as if the question threatened to burn a hole through his tongue if he didn't speak it. His face was flushed, his eyebrows furrowed only slightly.

"We do not suspect as much. But my ninken have reported that Sakura has left their ranks. Whatever feelings you may harbor for her, please do not associate her with such a turn of events."

The two of them stilled, taking it in. Naruto stared down at the ground while Sasuke's entire being bristled. They did not speak, and Kakashi felt as their chakra shifted while they processed. But Lady Fifth was expecting them almost an hour ago, and as much as he wished he could give them more time, he'd already been courteous enough by letting them finish their dinner with Sakura's parents.

"Come," he commanded. "Tsunade-sama is going through enough as it is; she'll be furious if we keep her waiting any longer."

With that, he leapt away into a sprint toward her office. Naruto and Sasuke, after just another pause, followed after.