A/N: Double-update, hehehe :P

"But why?" Rin mumbles, forlornly watching Kakashi politely reject another captain that has approached him. "She hurt him."

The captain looks surprised – the uniform reaction of everyone that hears of Kakashi's decision to work under Snake. "She still has that silver tongue, I see," the captain chuckles, giving the teen a small smile. "My best wishes, then."

As the ANBU leaves, Kakashi starts on his next set of knuckle push-ups and Sakumo does the same, keeping up with the punishing pace his son had set for himself. The exercise does nothing – not even giving him the familiar ache in his muscles – but it is a familiar routine lets him feel halfway alive. Rin sighs, flopping backwards onto the grass, closing her eyes against the dull white-grey sky. A light gust of wind brushes through the flowering grass, carrying upon it the faint scent of ozone as it forewarns of rain.

Sakumo glances at Rin through the strands of hair that had fallen over his eyes. He had told her what Kagami had said and she had been upset, alarmed and indignant… a myriad of emotions that culminated in a single question: "If anything happened to Kakashi, would you regret not knowing how and why?"

Unlike many other things, Sakumo knows his answer to that.

How many hours, days, months, years had he spent pacing the morbid conjurations of his imagination, caught in nightmares of Yoriko dying again and again, alone and halfway across the world, in just as many ways as Sakumo has killed?

The Sandaime had come down to the Hatake compound himself, pressing a cold ring into Sakumo hand, regret written in the wrinkled corners of his eyes. "Sakumo..." The amused lilt of Yoriko's voice had replayed so clearly in his mind. Before his tear-blurred eyes, he could see his hand taking her's – her strong, sword-calloused kunoichi hand – to slide that thin band of gold over her finger. "I didn't know you were a man who admired these modern fancies."

And always that same whispered thought haunted him: if only he had been there. Maybe they would have both lived; maybe they would have both died. He'd promised, hadn't he? To be there for her, to be there for Kakashi.

He'd failed both times but if Rin is right about second chances, he might just be failing a third time.

Bringing his knees under him, Sakumo sits up in a seiza, watching the steady up-down of Kakashi's form as he trained. When had his son lost the gentle rounding his cheek and grown so tall and broad-shouldered? The years have slipped by like sand through his numb fingers.

"We stick close to Kakashi and protect him, won't we?" he muses aloud, believing just about half of his sentence. Rin's eyes snap open and she beams at him.

"I knew you wouldn't give up, Sakumo-san!" Rin's face is bright with happiness and he never wants to see that spark in her disappear. "No matter what happens, between the three of us, we'll manage to think of something that even Kagami-sama can't disagree with!" She's been through just as much but somehow, she has come through more whole than broken. Perhaps, she is stronger than either of them.

Smiling back, he reaches up to smooth his flyaway hair back. His hand brushes the plate of his hitai-ate, the coolness of the metal against his skin making him pause. He tries to remember what if felt to be foolhardy and young, his hitai-ate polished and unscratched, confident that nothing could stand in the way of the sword in his hand and the chakra in his veins.

He grasps at nothing but distant dredges and not for the first time, he feels old.

And perhaps... Kakashi feels the same already.