"How much is this?"
"Ten ryo."
Overpriced, but sure. Sakumo fishes the coins out of his pocket and drops them in the outstretched palm of the retired nin manning the grocery store. His wrinkled hand snaps it up like a flytrap swallowing up its meal.
"Thank you," he says, but the old man only looks irritated.
With no basket to put it in, Sakumo holds onto the bundle of chives and begins jogging back towards the residential area. He's glad that he'd managed to find it. All the other ingredients for tonight's dinner are back at Kakashi's apartment, but miso soup won't taste the same without some chives.
Sakumo can't help the smile that comes to his face. After a long month in the correctional facility, Kakashi is finally coming home. He'd felt Kakashi's chakra signature at the gate and had run down to town, mentally checking over the recipe's ingredient list again and again. It's not as if he hadn't done this before, but this is a celebratory dinner he can't ruin. It had been so hard for all of them to send Kakashi off, even though they'd known that they'd be reunited soon.
Sakumo would have picked up Kakashi himself if not for the fact that Gai and Kinoe have already volunteered to escort him back from the correctional facility itself. What a trip that would have been, Sakumo thinks in amusement. After Kakashi reports to the T&I and all the admin details are settled, his son will be heading home soon enough.
"What right does he have to live freely like that?" hisses a woman as Sakumo passes by. Her sharp gaze looks him from head to toe as she tugs her husband along.
Smile faltering but resisting the urge to turn to glance at her, Sakumo keeps jogging forward. He knows well the particular look of disgust on her face; he doesn't need a reminder.
There are people who still resent him for the failed mission; and others who hate him for what he'd done as an Edo Tensei. A number of the latter refuse to believe that he'd been under Orochimaru's control. Sakumo doesn't blame them. Most of the people who were injured are recovering well, but there are also a number who have died. Sakumo bows a little lower and talks a little softer, but this time, he refuses to join them in punishing himself as well. He has done enough of that.
Danzou's forest, or as the others have been dramatically calling it—the Forest of the Undead, spills between the village centre and the rest of the village. The towering trees blot out the bold oranges of the sunset as Sakumo passes through its thick foliage, following the twisting path that had been hacked through it. Even with the rest of the village within sight not a hundred meters away and several other nin hurrying along the path, the atmosphere is eerie.
Sakumo looks into the forest and spots the hunched shape of several crumbled buildings, the old T&I building amongst them. A neat altar had been fashioned from the broad stump of a felled tree and piled with flowers. The scent of incense lingers.
Beside the ruins stands the massive tree that had eaten up Danzou, its trunk sturdy and smooth like any other. In hopes of finding the strange purple eye that Sakumo learnt was the legendary Rinnegan, Fugaku had instructed the Inuzuka's ninken to follow Danzou's scent. But ultimately it was futile, as it disappeared completely once it reached the tree, and a day later even that lingering scent was washed away. Some people believe that Danzou is there somewhere, haunting the forest, but Sakumo doesn't think so. The other ghosts are still visible to him but he hasn't seen Kagami since then.
Still, Sakumo is relieved to be out of the forest. It is a good thing that both Danzou and the Rinnegan have been lost.
"Sakumo-san! Hey!" He snaps out of his musing to find himself already standing before the hotchpotch apartment complex that Kakashi lives in. Rin is waving at him from steps at bottom, a wide grin on her face. "I got off my shift early."
Chuckling, Sakumo waves back. "Nohara-sensei!"
Rin glances about and shushes him. "Please don't call me that. I'm nowhere near "sensei" level yet."
"Of course you are!" Sakumo protests, taking her heavy satchel from her hands. "Oof. Did you borrow the whole library?"
"Only half," she jokes, stretching out her arms with a groan of relief. "There's so much to catch up on!"
"There's no rush," Sakumo says, smiling. "You're only thirteen."
Her face scrunches up and she elbows him lightly. It's good to see her buzzing with excitement, nearly tripping over herself in her eagerness to get back to living the life she'd dreamt of.
It's a short few flights of steps to Kakashi's apartment on the fifth floor. It's a tiny apartment of ten tatami mat's space since Kakashi hardly needs the space when he's rarely even lives in it. But now, with both Rin and Sakumo and soon Kakashi to be cramped in here, they're going to have to figure something out.
"Oh you're all prepared!" Rin says approvingly when she spots the ingredients laid out on the counter, chopped and sliced into neat piles. She washes her hands and pokes at the defrosted fish. "I could have gone with you to the market though."
"It's quite alright," Sakumo assures, closing the door behind him and setting Rin's bag to the side. People tend to spare Sakumo the worst of their disdain when Rin is by his side, but even then Rin has seen enough to know what's going on. "The sunset was very nice."
Rin eyes him and nods. "Well, let's get started on this before Kakashi comes back," she chirps. "The chives?"
"I'll chop them," Sakumo says, squeezing into the small kitchen. He appreciates her concern, but her tact even more. He's going to be fine. He knows it.
But first, dinner for Kakashi.
The doorbell rings and both Sakumo and Rin shoot up onto their feet, hastily putting aside their books and hurrying for the door. "Coming!" Sakumo yells, nearly tripping over Rin as she darts in front of him and twists the doorknob open.
"Kakashi!" she shouts, bouncing on her feet with excitement.
He takes a step back in surprise, his eye darting between Sakumo's huge grin and Rin's outstretched arms. "Um, I'm back?" he chuckles.
Taking that as the cue for more hugs, Rin embraces him and drags him into the apartment. Blushing, Kakashi hugs back, and then Sakumo as well. "You made dinner," Kakashi says softly. The surprise in his voice makes Sakumo's heart squeeze. "Wow, it smells good."
"It's your favourite," Sakumo says, just as Rin declares proudly that it's saury. Sakumo pats his back and pulls back to take a good look at his son. To his relief, other than a pair of dark circles under his eyes, Kakashi looks none the worse for wear. "Why don't you go shower and we'll eat?"
"Sure." Kakashi's eye creases. "Tou-san."
By the time Kakashi comes back out with a towel slung over his shoulders, the small dining table is all set up: the salt-broiled saury as the centerpiece, accompanied by eggplant miso and side dishes of fried tofu and chilled salad. Kakashi stops and stares at it for a long minute, before meeting Sakumo's and Rin's expectant looks with an eye-smile. "Wow," he says again, sounding awed.
"Come sit," Sakumo says, waving Kakashi over as he takes his seat at the head of the table. "Before it gets cold."
"And before the salad gets warm," Rin adds.
Kakashi draws down his mask and sits down, smiling as he picks up his chopsticks. "Ittadakimasu."
"Ittadakimasu!" Rin and Sakumo reply, before they're all happily tucking in.
"This tastes just like before," Kakashi murmurs, popping another piece of fish in his mouth and chewing slowly. "With all the excessive salt," he adds, smiling wryly at amount of rice that Rin is consuming with each small piece of fish. "It seems like we have a similar palate, tou-san. Poor Rin."
Sakumo looks sheepish. "It's nice like this. Isn't it?"
"Of course." Kakashi helps himself to another piece of fish. "I always enjoy your cooking. Except, maybe, that time you burnt everything into charcoal."
Sakumo laughs. He'd been half asleep after a mission. That had been a disaster of a meal, he remembers.
Reaching for the water flask, Rin pours herself a cup and gulps it down. "Kakashi, I don't remember you making things so salty though," she says, shaking her head in amusement.
Kakashi's gaze grows a bit distant as he remembers the times when Team Minato used to gather here, but he doesn't linger in his memories for too long. "Well, I estimated your preferences from the other meals we'd had. None of them were quite as heavily seasoned and you all seemed to like them just fine."
"That's Kakashi for you," Sakumo chuckles.
"Tomorrow, I'll cook something for both of you," Kakashi promises, reaching for the eggplant miso. He sips at it with a blissful look on his face. "Although I may be a bit rusty."
Sakumo's heart feels full to the bursting just watching Kakashi eat. "I'm sure it will be delicious," he says, and Rin nods enthusiastically.
They resume eating for a while, the conversation easily segueing into Rin's work with the hospital and Sakumo's trips to the Hatake estate to manage the farming programme. Kakashi himself is due to report to the T&I again tomorrow to start his rehabilitation work with the ex-ROOT members.
"There's one more thing," Rin says, suddenly nervous as she glances at Sakumo. He nods, and Kakashi looks at them curiously. "The orphanage called. They want us to visit, to find out more about us and to let us see Naruto."
Kakashi straightens in his chair, his face blanking with shock. "Why? Did something happen?"
Clearing his throat, Sakumo gives Kakashi a reassuring nod. "Rin suggested some time ago that perhaps we can adopt Minato-san and Kushina-san's child. Since, well, we're all living together already. So I went to ask the orphanage. What do you think, Kakashi?"
"Are you serious? That's great!" Kakashi exclaims, practically vibrating at the thought. "That's amazing. I hadn't thought of it... but now that the Sandaime isn't Hokage anymore, maybe Fugaku will change his mind about the secrecy policy. And now that I'm out of ANBU, I will have more time to take care of Naruto too."
Sakumo chuckles. "We'll have to find a bigger place then. A room for each of us and one for Naruto too."
Glancing around the apartment, Kakashi shakes his head. "You're certainly right about that. Perhaps... with some renovations and such, we can move back into the Hatake estate. It's a waste to leave it as it is when there's more than enough space there."
"If you're alright with it, then so am I," Sakumo says lightly. "A renovation would be nice. What do you think, Rin?"
"M-Me? Oh, I shouldn't impose on you both so much," she says, looking embarrassed.
"You're not," Kakashi protests immediately. "If you want to, you can live with us for as long as you like. I mean, you'll be Naruto's big sister anyway, so you should be around…" His ears are red as he scratches his head. "Maa, it's up to you."
Rin's nods, blushing as well. "I would like to."
"Well then, that's decided," Sakumo chuckles. Oh, he is looking forward to this.
A/N: Woohoo! A big thank you to all of you who have read this story, lurkers and all! This is the first long fic I have completed and I couldn't have done it without the constant stream of love and encouragement from you all! :) This fic and all of you have been such a big part of my life for the past two years and four months. I treasure all our interactions. Even if we've never interacted before, feel free to drop by on my tumblr or in the comments to keep in touch! :)
Since this is the final chapter, I'll allow myself to ramble a little about Ghost as a whole XD While a lot of scenes were borne from my need for drama, there are some overarching themes I wanted to bring out too.
All the characters are flawed. They struggle with all kinds of feelings of inadequacy, guilt and loneliness. But at the same time, they are stronger than they know and they make each other stronger. Even though they falter and make mistakes and pile up loss after loss, they somehow find it in them to keep walking forward because they want to protect the ones they love.
The very first arc of the story is a retelling of canon. The second arc (the Ame arc with Snake) is where Kakashi realises he's capable of loving other people even after experiencing the pain of loss. The third arc (the ROOT arc) is where Kakashi suddenly gets thrown into the deep end and he's suddenly walking a path of his own, with people looking up to him for leadership and protection. But even then, there are people around him who are willing to help him.
I wanted Kakashi to have more agency. In canon, Kakashi realises that rules are not everything; here, Kakashi looked at the rotten system and used his own hands to change it. The same goes for Sakumo: he has a lot of regrets throughout the fic, but slowly he's looking at other things too- protecting Kakashi, taking care of Rin, and through those things, he slowly finds bits and pieces of himself again too. As for Rin, even though her role here and in canon is to be an exemplar of emotional strength, I wanted to show moments when she needed comfort from other people, too.
This fic is full of tragedy but not a tragedy itself, so I just couldn't let it end without a happy ending.
Finally, if you like my writing, please watch out for my future projects! I will be collaborating with TimetheHobo (who is an absolutely wonderful artist) on a long Kiri fic taking place in the Blood Mist Era. It will be all about revolution, duty and romance ;) It may be a while before anything gets published, but I hope to see you guys around! :)
Once again, thank you everyone! :')