Sakumo's Suicide Part 1
Sakumo's Suicide – Minato's reaction
Minato is 18; Kakashi is 8 and has been on Minato's Genin team for 3 years.
(~MINATO)
"Sakumo-san! Sakumo-san!" Minato called excitedly as he raced up to the Hatake's house. "The idea worked! I think I figured out the jutsu!" Minato pushed open the front door, oblivious to the ominous silence settled over the house. He zipped down the familiar hallway, sliding to a stop in front of the door to the man's bedroom. "Sakumo-san, can you come and make sure it'll work?" Minato knocked once on the door before sliding it open. The scene inside slapped the excitement off his face. A man lay on the floor facing away from the door. The Uzumaki symbol gleamed on the back of his vest.
At first Minato frowned, Kakashi stood on the other side of the man staring down in disbelief, unresponsive as the light from the hall filled the dark room. Minato stepped inside and approached slowly, noticing the old bloodstained tantō in the man's hand, a section of the blade wrapped in cloth and the man's hand still locked around it. Minato saw the front of his vest unzipped, the shadows hiding the gaping wound in his abdomen Minato knew existed. The pieces began to fall into place.
The failed mission.
The tension.
The insults.
The slander.
The abuse.
The depression.
The solitude.
The stress.
The tantō.
The wound.
Minato fell to his knees beside Kakashi, hands clamped over his ears, forehead pressed to the ground, tears dripping from his eyes. He wanted to scream for the man to come back, to ask why, but the only thing he heard was a little voice blaming him. How could he not notice? How could he let this happen? Why did he refrain from doing anything? The man took care of him for years, how could he not return the favor?
Beside him, Kakashi started to fall. Reflexively, Minato caught him and Kakashi wrapped his thin arms around Minato's neck, burying his face in the collar of the man's Chuunin vest, trembling violently. Minato returned the embrace to disguise his own spasms, unable to move and unaware of the time passing as he sank deeper into grief, staring at the note he pulled from Sakumo's front vest pocket. Hours later, someone called Sakumo's name, jeering outside the house. Minato choked, scrubbing his eyes dry of the tears he never noticed falling.
He stood up and staggered towards the door, laying the shell-shocked Kakashi on the couch in the main room before storming out the front door to face the accusers.
"You bastards!" Minato screamed at them, his emotions wildly out of control. He recognized the foremost of the aggressors as the teammates Sakumo saved. "He saved your life at the risk of his own, he forfeited his reputation and rank for you and this is how you repay him?" Minato's wild eyes darted across each of their faces. The aggressors stepped back. Even though they outranked the younger man, they feared his wrath. "He's dead now because of you! Do you think you were doing the village a favor, tormenting him? Do you have any idea how much your actions will be responsible for? His mission was to gather information to keep Konoha out of the war. The mission failed, but the effect the mission was meant to have did not fail! He saved you; he made the other countries think twice about attacking us because we protect our own! With the other countries, he was the symbol of our strength, the reason for them not to attack us, the reason we could've stayed out of the war. He was the man standing between us and the other countries." Minato's screams lowered into a scarier murmur. "Yet you slandered him, you shredded his reputation to nothing and turned him into an enemy, a disgrace. Do you want to live through war? Do you want to spend every waking second fighting for years on end? Do you want to live unable to sleep safely, even in your own home?" Minato took two slow steps towards them, fists held rigidly as his sides, a meter away from the accusers standing accused.
"That's not true!" one spluttered out, Minato's attention focused on him.
Minato opened his mouth to retort but a painful grip on his arm stopped him. "That's enough, Minato-kun," the Hokage said.
"What do you know, Sarutobi?" Minato shouted in his face, righteous anger only growing in the face of those attempting to calm him. "You're as guilty as them for turning a blind eye to everything!"
The Hokage studied the young man carefully, waiting for him to finish.
"You knew exactly what role he played. If only for that, you should have at least said something. You swore to protect the village. The people include your shinobi. Did you even stop to think of the consequences of you inaction? Not only did you, Sarutobi Hiruzen, fail Hatake Sakumo, but you failed his son, Kakashi, too. It doesn't matter if he's a Chuunin, he's eight years old. Are you determined to ruin the lives of every Hatake in the village? The only person that boy had left was his father and for all your blustering about protecting the children, you're doing a damn good job of leaving them to their own devices. If that's not enough for you, this village is headed back to war." Minato jerked his arm free of the Hokage's grip, finishing in a low, accusatory growl, "And you're the one who could've stopped it." Minato formed a sharp hand seal. A flash from the window of the house marked Kakashi's departure and a second blinding flash sent everyone reeling away from the spot Minato vacated.
"Go back to your positions," the Hokage ordered before vanishing.