A/N: To write this chapter I googled everything from "what do you call the thing you put corpses in a morgue" to "eggplant vegetable?". (It's a fruit, haha!)
The short-haired woman in charge of the morgue leads Kakashi deeper into the complex, leaving behind the busy front desk and heading towards the highly secured cold chambers at the back. It's quieter here, the hubbub caused by the many mourners becoming muted as they make their way through long, white corridors.
"We're here," the woman says when they reach a nondescript white door that seems no different from the rest that they've passed. She fits her key into the lock and pushes the heavy metal door open. Cold air assaults them along with a heavy chemical scent.
The cold chambers reach from floor to ceiling, composed of square meter-sized cubicles. She consults her clipboard and makes her way to the corner of the room, bending at the waist to identify the appropriate cubicles.
"Do you not know where they are?" Kakashi asks with a frown.
She looks over her shoulder calmly. "Only you have been allowed to visit, Hatake-san, because the cremation will be carried out before the funeral."
They must have been badly injured.
Kakashi falls silent, his shoulders tight with tension as she unlocks the cubicles with a series of hand seals and pulls the drawers out halfway. The mechanism hisses as the covered bodies are revealed, one beside the other in adjoining cubicles. She does another series of hand seals which wrap her hands with a blue glow before reaching down folding back the linen shrouds.
Sakumo doesn't know what he was expecting, but it is at once better and worse.
It must have been a brutal battle, but save for the occasional scratch and the almost translucent paleness of their skin, they look whole and peaceful, as if they had simply closed their eyes after a grueling day. Any blood, sweat, or tears have been wiped away, and their hair has been arranged neatly. Kushina's hairclip is in the same place it always is.
But at the same time, it's all wrong. Minato always had an expressive face; a sunny smile to go with his sunshine hair despite the aura of power that clings to him. Kushina was a boisterous woman, loud and tactile, as ready to throw a punch as she would hug someone breathless.
Now, what had made Minato Minato and Kushina Kushina has simply... left them, leaving behind only silence and stillness.
And with the Shiki Fuujin, there isn't even the comfort of knowing that Minato is in the Pure Land.
Rin sits down by Kushina's waist, looking completely shattered as she glances between her sensei and his wife. Large globules of tears slip past her lashes with every blink, and when Sakumo smooths her hair in a consoling gesture, she leans into his touch with a shuddering exhale.
"If you need anything," the morgue worker says, "I'll be in the office right across." The sympathetic look she gives Kakashi goes unnoticed. "Please refrain from touching their bodies directly, or it'll disrupt the temperature maintenance jutsus we've placed over them."
Nodding jerkily, Kakashi steps closer to Minato's and Kushina's bodies, his gaze never leaving their faces. The tenseness of his jaw is evident even behind his mask. But it is only when the door closes and he is left alone that Kakashi finally allows himself to show weakness. Bracing a shaking arm against the cold metal wall of cubicles, he slumps against it as his fingers wind into his hair, clutching pale strands in a too-tight grip.
There are no howls of grief, no wails of sorrow. Just the minute tremble of Kakashi's hunched shoulders.
Sakumo bites the inside of his cheek. 'My poor children.' Watching them try so hard to hold themselves together, to stay composed and brave even when they're falling apart at the seams... oh, how he wishes he can bear their pain for them instead.
"Who did this to you?" Kakashi whispers, his countenance torn with anger and grief both. The hardness of his voice belies the brokenness written in his posture.
Hiruzen had told them plainly that the Kyuubi's escape wasn't because of Kushina's pregnancy. Minato and Kushina had been attacked in their home by someone pretending to be one of Minato's guard. The shock had caused a Kushina to go into labour early, and somehow, the intruder had been able to extract the Kyuubi from her. And against all odds, he had been able to control the tailed-beast. Few had witnessed the battle between Minato and the intruder, but there was evidence of Mokuton no jutsu sprouting all over the remains of the couple's house.
Destroyed. Gone. Even now, Sakumo can scarcely believe these words describe the vibrant couple. And their son, what will happen to their son?
"Why did you have to be the Hokage?" Kakashi's breath hitches with overflowing emotion and he has his hands pressed up against his face, muffling the soft sobs wracking his frame. The quaver in his voice feels like a lance through Sakumo's chest, and he longs to hold Kakashi like he had once been able to. His son collapses onto his knees, hands clamped over the edge of Kushina's pallet and face wet with tears. "Why did you have to be the jinchuuriki?"
They stay there for hours upon hours, until they've lost track of time in this cold, lifeless room. Kakashi slides the drawers back with a reluctant sense of finality, but not before using his Sharingan to memorise every detail of their faces. He doesn't leave, however, but stays huddled on the floor with his back against Minato's and Kushina's stainless steel cubicles, his unfocused gaze on the rows of opposite. Sakumo and Rin keep vigil with him.
Night has fallen by the time someone comes to check up on him. It's Snake, showered and changed into her own ANBU uniform instead of the clothes they had taken off dead ROOT agents. There's plastic bag of takeout dangling from her fingers. "Come on, Kakashi."
With red-rimmed eyes and a flashing Sharingan, Kakashi glares. "Go away."
With her mask secured over her face again, she seems like a different person than all her other Henges. "You need to wash up and rest. We've been awake for more than 24 hours."
"I can take care of myself."
"Evidently."
"Go away!" Kakashi snarls.
"I'm not going to ask again," Snake says, her tone abruptly turning sharp. "Stop throwing a tantrum and get up."
Closing his eyes, Kakashi turns his head and ignores her. When Snake opens the door, Sakumo thought she was going to leave, but she just sets the takeout outside and closes the solid metal door with a bang. A surprised yelp escapes Kakashi when she grabs him by the shoulder strap of his armour and drags him to his feet.
"Just leave him alone!" Rin shrieks when Snake kicks him against the door with a solid clank of metal against metal. With a growl at the back of his throat, Sakumo reaches for his tanto on instinct.
Groaning, Kakashi slides onto the floor with his hands braced against the wall, his breath having been knocked out of him. Rin is by his side in an instant, checking him over for injury. Despite a mounting sense of trepidation, Sakumo forces himself to relax. His head spins with doubt as to whether Snake's particular brand of therapy will do more harm than good.
"If you hadn't requested me for that mission, I could have been there for Minato-sensei and Kushina-san," Kakashi hisses, so full of venom that Rin looks taken aback.
"Your ego's getting blown out of proportion," Snake retorts with equal causticity, unmoved by Kakashi's accusations. "If Yondaime-sama and his jinchuuriki wife couldn't save themselves, what makes you think you can? If you hadn't been out of the village, you'd probably be dead."
"I'll be happier," Kakashi snaps, his gaze sliding almost longingly towards Minato's and Kushina's bodies. Sakumo chokes on his breath.
The muted echo of the slap is almost deafening in the confined space. Kakashi's harsh breathing stutters when Snake grabs him by the armour again, but he doesn't meet her furious glare. "How dare you," she says in a low growl. She throws her other arm back, pointing accusingly at the wall of cold chambers. "In front of them."
Kakashi flinches, a helpless noise caught in his throat, and a single tear slips off pale lashes to drip onto the scratched linoleum floor.
A boneless exhaustion seems to overcome Kakashi when Snake slowly unwinds her white-knuckled hold from his armour, leaving him crumpled against the door. They stay like that for a long while, with Snake standing rigidly over Kakashi with her arms crossed, while Kakashi struggles to put himself back together behind paper-thin eyelids. Sakumo loses count of the number of times Kakashi's chest rises and falls - barely moving, as if he's on the verge of crumbling into dust - but eventually, his right eye cracks open once more. The wild look that had been in his eyes has retreated.
He peers up at Snake tiredly. "I freaking hate tempura," he croaks.
The tense line of Snake's shoulders eases. "The tempura is for me, you stupid picky eater. I got you your disgusting purple vegetable."
The skin around Kakashi's eyes crinkles faintly, and a smile makes its way onto Rin's face, tentative and small.
And Sakumo's heart settles back into place.