Oh my God, what a week! 12:35 in the morning still counts as Friday, right? Right?

I just came back from the second run of my show, and what kept me going was your beautiful review, wideyedwander. Words cannot describe the thanks I could give you.

Now, everyone, enjoy this! And I will have another chapter up on Sunday, and the schedule will return to normal after that.

A sniffle caught his attention, and Sasuke walked in the soft, white sand for a few steps until he found the source of the sound. Around a bend, a blond young man, perhaps twenty or so, was sitting in the sand, wiping tears from his eyes. A sob of frustration escaped him as more took their place.

Then he finally noticed Sasuke's presence, and looked up. His tearstained face filled with dread as he recognized Sasuke, and Sasuke too felt a jolt of recognition.

The young man was Naruto.

The rush of salt water was the only thing heard as the pair stared at each other, one guilty, the other scared, and both shocked at the intrusion. Naruto clasped a hand over his mouth as if he could take back the sobs, but it was too late. Sasuke had already heard, and it was a sound that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Naruto-"

The ghost darted to his feet and started to run, but Sasuke was faster, grabbing his arm. "Don't run from me! Naruto!"

Slipping from Sasuke's grasp by making himself incorporeal, Naruto backpedaled further, staying just out of reach. "Stay away from me!"

"Hold up!" Sasuke stumbled in the sand while Naruto floated gracefully along the top of it.

"Isn't that what you wanted?" Naruto cried, fresh tears streaming down his face. "To not be around me? I'm just giving what you want!"

"Dammit!" Sasuke tripped inelegantly, sprawling in the sand. At least Naruto stopped running when there was no one to chase him. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? Oh, that's rich!" Naruto gave a tearstained cackle.

"I'm serious!" Pushing himself up, Sasuke made another grab for Naruto, but he danced out of reach. "You're not the same person who woke me up the other day, clothes strewn all around my room! What happened to you? Why didn't you ignore me like you did before?"

The final question popped out before Sasuke had even thought it through, but as soon as he said it, he realized the truth behind the statement. Earlier that day, he had secretly been hoping Naruto would ignore the request, that he would grab his arm and pull him somewhere else, or follow him and say inappropriate things during serious moments. Sasuke's life was a dull, emotionless existence, and Naruto had given him the first true freedom he had ever experienced, and as much as he hated it on the outside, he didn't want to give it up.

A sharp contact flung Sasuke's head to the side, even though Naruto never touched him, standing a few paces away with fists clenched. "What the hell! What happened to me? I trusted you, bastard! I told you!"

Confusion flitted across Sasuke's mind. "Told me what?"

"Jesus!" Naruto screamed. "Are you that blind? I told you about my family, my name! There's not a single other live human who knows who I am!"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he finally understood. Without knowing the importance of the confession to Naruto, Sasuke had pushed the ghost away right after he had bared a vulnerable piece of his soul. Naruto was feeling betrayed, an emotion Sasuke knew all too well, and his heart went out to the suffering phantom in front of him. But how could he fix this?

In the end, he said the only thing he could think of. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry!" The words exploded out of Naruto.

"Yes."

The frankness of the word must have shocked Naruto, because he sank to the ground passed a hand over his eyes. "I don't know what that changes."

"Neither do I." Sasuke moved to sit next to Naruto. This time, he stiffened, but didn't move away. "But I hope it changes something."

"Ha."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun as it set over the treeline. The water grew darker, as if it was keeping secrets from the outside world.

Finally, Naruto broke the silence. "What now?"

"I don't know," Sasuke admitted. "But something, I hope."

All of a sudden, a jolt of fear ran across Naruto's face. Worried that he might have caused it, Sasuke reached for him.

"Are you alright? Was it-?"

"Get up," Naruto cried with urgency. "We have to get out of here!"

"What?"

Be careful of the sand monster, Sakura had warned. How she had known, Sasuke didn't have a clue, but below their feet the sand began to shiver and shake. Naruto jumped up and floated above the surface of the shifting sand, but Sasuke left to fight for footing on the moving ground.

"Run!" Naruto screamed, panic blossoming on his face. "He's coming!"

A thrill of fear ran down Sasuke's spine. "Who?"

"Gaara, the sand ghost! He's one of the more dangerous ones! He's killed before!"

"Killed? How many?"

"At least five!" Naruto pulled on Sasuke's arm. "You have to run now!"

Real terror gripped Sasuke then. Draugrs rarely killed past their revenge, unless it was denied them. Then an angry draugr would kill, and kill as he pleased, and the more he killed, the madder he got, until he was beyond all reaches of reason. Sasuke started to backpedal toward the line of trees, but a hand made of sand reached up and grabbed his ankle, sending him tumbling to the ground.

The sand softened and opened up below Sasuke, and he fought against the grains rising up his arms, but that only served to sink him deeper into the sand trap.

"Sasuke!" Naruto was already past the treeline, but was looking back at Sasuke, struggling against the sand.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke cried as he tried to rip a hand free. "Get out of here!"

For a second, Naruto looked like he was considering it, then sand grabbed Sasuke's throat and forced his head down, and he lost sight of the ghost. Sasuke strained his muscles, desperately trying to keep the sand from entering his mouth, and squeezed his eyes shut to protect them from the errant grains.

His satchel, with its supply of life-saving devices, was achingly close this hand, but the immobilizing sand kept Sasuke from reaching into it. Panic fought the reason trying to think of a way out of the sitcoms, and son in his oxygen-starved brain, when spots of color started to swim across his vision, Sasuke realized that he might actually meet his end at the hands of this sandy beast, whom he had never even seen. The irony of being killed by something he, an Uchiha, couldn't see was not lost on him.

Sasuke didn't stop fighting when sand plugged his ears, but none could have told the difference, so tight was he held by the sand. It grated against his skin with sandpaper ferocity, rubbing the poor flesh raw. Gradually, Sasuke grew weaker, his strength becoming more and more feeble as he found a losing battle against both the sand and unconsciousness.

Sasuke's world grew dark and cold, and eerily silent, as he was dragged fully under the sand. In the rays of the setting sun, the sand closest to the surface was pleasantly warm, but deeper down it possessed a chilly damp that smelled faintly of blood. The heavy weight settled against his body, and Sasuke felt strangely comforted by the tightness, like he would in an embrace. Unwillingly, he felt his body relax, even as his mind went into a crazed, unreasoned spin.

Finally understanding that there was no escaping from this, that he was going to die, Sasuke was struck with the realization that he had few regrets, and little he was afraid of leaving behind. The only thing he regretted was not finding a way to truely make up with Naruto, not the uneasy truce they had achieve earlier, and that the vibrant ghost would never have those tears - the fault of Sasuke - wiped away by the same hand that caused them. The knowledge saddened Sasuke, that the one thing which held the most meaning to him in his dying moments was someone who was already dead.

Slowly, and with purpose, Sasuke stopped struggling.

At that exact moment, a blast exploded away the sand on Sasuke's back, and a pair of strong arms wrapped around his chest and hauled back, freeing his upper body from the loosening grip of the sand. When the sand drained from his ears, Sasuke heard a frantic voice calling out to him.

"Sasuke! Sasuke! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

Even though Sasuke had kept his mouth closed, a few grains of sand had made their way inside. Rubbing the grit from his eyes and spitting it out of his mouth, Sasuke opened his eyes to see the face of Naruto only a few inches away from his own.

"Naruto?" He croaked, throat sore from the earlier abuse sand grip. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he seized the collar of Naruto's shirt. "Why didn't you run? You were away, you could have gotten away-"

"Thank God!" Naruto cut Sasuke off by engulfing him in a sudden, violent hug, hands clutching desperately at the back of his shirt. "You're alive. I got you out in time. Oh, God, you're alive!"

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked uncertainly, feeling tears drip onto his collar and dampen it, a sign that Naruto was truly upset, enough to make his tears felt in Sasuke's dimension. "Are you alright?"

"No!" Naruto sobbed. "He had you…. He was dragging you down…."

Lips parting in surprise, Sasuke let his arms fold around Naruto. "You saved me. Why? All I did was hurt you, and yet…"

"All I could think about was you'd die thinking I was mad at you. I didn't even get a chance to forgive you!"

Shock froze Sasuke, and for a moment, it was only them locked in an embrace. The only thing he saw was the tufts of blond hair tickling his chin, and the only thing he felt was pressed up against his own. The forgiveness he craved - Naruto was willing, even eager, to give it?"

A loud groan from close by shocked Sasuke out of his thoughts, and jolted Naruto enough to so that he broke from Sasuke's arms, leaving him feeling slightly bereft. A mere ten paces from where they sat, a red headed ghost with a dark aura was coming to, and unrepresentative anger was rolling off him in waves. The strength of it gave Sasuke chills.

Naruto immediately jumped up, tugging Sasuke to his feet as well. "I managed to knock him out before, but I can't do it again! We need to run before he wakes up and attacks us again!"

"No." Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he stared at the waking sand ghost. "I've seen these types of draugrs before. Once they've attacked a human, they won't stop until whoever it is, is dead."

Naruto's eyes widened in fear. "How do we get away from him, then?"

"We don't." Rummaging through his sandy satchel, Sasuke pulled out a silver knife. Naruto flinched upon seeing it. "We fight him."

Gaara stood up, shaking disorientation from his head, and Sasuke and Naruto followed suit, the ghost hiding behind the human.

"Are you crazy?" Naruto hissed. "Using all my strength, I was barely able to knock him out for long enough to dig you out of the sand. I don't have enough energy left to even float, but now he's super pissed and stronger than ever! There's no way we could fight him off!"

Sasuke reached back into his satchel for a vial. "That's where my experience comes in. Were you a particularly religious person during your lifetime?"

"Of course I was; everyone was back then. Why?" He pointed to the vial in Sasuke's hand. "What's that?"

"Holy water," Sasuke answered, unscrewing the cover. "It only works on ghosts who were pious during life and still have a fear of God, but it's worth a shot. Since you were, you need to stay behind me and not touch the surf, whatever happens. Can you do that?"

Naruto nodded, but there wasn't time to say anything before Gaara spotted them and roared his anger.

"YOU WOULD DENY ME MY PREY? FOOLISH GHOST, I WILL END YOU AS WELL!"

Letting out a squeak, Naruto clung to Sasuke's arm, tipping the vial of holy water dangerously. "He's after me, too! We're going to die!"

"You're already dead," Sasuke remarked as he steadied the vial. "What could he do to you?"

"Make me a spiritual spirit!" Naruto wailed. "A ghost who haunts ghosts! The only thing worse than dying once is dying again!"

This was an idea Sasuke had heard of, but it had only been hypothesized by an ancestor of his. Hearing it from Naruto's scared ramblings confirmed it as true, and Sasuke was intrigued by the concept. However, he realized that now was not the time to ponder things as Gaara's eyes started glowing red and sand began to whip through the air on unnatural windy gusts. Sticking the knife through his belt loop, Sasuke grabbed the final thing he would need to fend off Gaara: a cross made entirely of silver.

Gaara made his advance slowly, which was, in some ways, more frightening than if he had run headlong into an attack. The sand condensed around him, forming a kind of shield. Only his eyes, burning that devilish hue, could be seen behind the wall of sand. At each step, the sand beneath their feet shivered as his power sent shockwaves rippling through the ground.

The target had to be at just the right distance for this to work. Too far, and it wouldn't work; too close, and Sasuke would be in danger. Sasuke stood his ground, holding his breath and waiting, waiting for the moment to strike. Finally, Gaara stepped close enough, a heart-stoppingly short distance that could have been made nonexistent if both Sasuke and the draugr had reached out a hand.

Brandishing the silver cross high in the air, Sasuke cried out, "Are you a God-fearing spirit?"

The effect was immediate: Gaara froze, the sand around him falling to the ground in damp clumps. Even Naruto, standing behind Sasuke, flinched at the unveiling of the relic. Keeping the cross high with one hand, Sasuke held the uncapped vial of holy water in the other and carefully poured it across the sand in a line that separated the draugr from him and Naruto.

The surf was reacting, pounding even more violently than normal in conjunction with Gaara's anger. Seething, it grew closer to the line of holy water with each crashing wave. Sasuke allowed a grin of triumph to slip onto his face; this was what he had been waiting for. "Naruto! You need to get off the ground right now!"

"I- I can't!" Naruto cried out fearfully. "I don't have enough energy!"

That was bad. If Naruto couldn't get off the ground, there was a chance that what Sasuke was about to do could permanently damage the phantom. Quickly thinking of another solution, he yelled, "Then jump on my back!"

"What?"

"Trust me!"

For a few heart-pounding seconds, Sasuke felt Naruto hesitate behind him, and thought he wasn't going to follow the order, but then the weight of the ghost settled on his back. Naruto was light, but warm, both characteristics of a corporeal ghost, and his arms gently crossed Sasuke's chest to keep himself in place. A thrill went through Sasuke at the contact, courtesy of the slight breath against the back of his neck, and a new determination found him then. This was going to save them both.

The pounding surf rushed up the beach, past Gaara's legs and over the line of holy water, then pushing on Sasuke's legs, knocking him slightly off balance. He fought to not fall backwards, and Gaara grinned, thinking he had won. However, the grin soured into a dreadful grimace when the surf rushed back, taking with it the seawater that had been contaminated with the holy water.

The water, while diluted, was enough to burn his legs, and Gaara howled as he tried to whip the sand around himself as a protection, only to realize too late that it, too, had been contaminated by the holy seawater. With an inhuman scream of rage, Gaara launched himself at Sasuke, who was barely able to keep the draugr at bay with the gleaming aura of the silver cross.

Dropping the now-useless vial which had once held the holy water, Sasuke instead grabbed the silver knife from his belt loop and held it up in defense. Even when faced with two silver instruments, Gaara did not back down; instead, he cast aside his sand defense and launched himself at the puny human who had dared enter his territory and render his sand harmful to his being.

"DIE!"

Sasuke launched himself into a backward momentum to escape the draugr, and feeling Naruto start to slip, cried, "Hold on!"

In response, he felt Naruto shift into the countenance of a small boy, perhaps five, and the size made it much easier for Sasuke to balance his weight. Naruto also wrapped his tiny legs around his waist, securing himself, so there was little danger of him falling off. A wave a relief washed through Sasuke; if Naruto was able to shift his appearance, it meant that his exhaustion was starting to lift and his powers were returning.

Clawing with gnarled fingers, Gaara tried to grasp Sasuke, but he threw a hand out in front of him at the last second, and the draugr instead grabbed the silver cross. The sudden pressure tore it out of Sasuke's grasp, and Gaara looked triumphant for a moment before he realized exactly what was in his grip. He tried unsuccessfully to drop it, but his fingers curled around it, smoking at the contact. When he finally pried his fingers off the silver metal, he dropped it unceremonious on the ground, and a red imprint of the cross was left on his hand.

Anger dripping off his features, Gaara jumped for Sasuke again, fingers curled into claws and malice flaming in his eyes. Naruto clung tighter to Sasuke and buried his face in his neck. The action gave Sasuke the energy to thrust outward with his knife. It caught Gaara in the forehead, but only a glancing blow, leaving a red mark against his skin.

Screaming, Gaara backed off and disappeared into the sand with a spray of damp clumps. The ground stilled, and silence overtook the suspiciously still air.

"Is he gone?" Naruto asked, jumping down from Sasuke's back and landing on the dry sand untouched by the surf.

"I don't know. I don't like this," Sasuke muttered, not dropping his hand with the knife. "It's too quiet."

Something was wrong; Sasuke could feel it. There was something he wasn't thinking of, something he was missing. But what it was, he just couldn't put his finger on.

It hit Sasuke a second too late: The sand! He and Naruto were standing on the dry sand uncontaminated by the holy water, the sand which Gaara could easily traverse. A thick glove of sand abruptly rose up from the ground and engulfed both Naruto's and Sasuke's legs.

With a cry of terror, Naruto tried to become incorporeal to escape, but the sand still held him fast. The only thing Sasuke could think to do was plunge the knife into the ground between his feet. Immediately, the sand around both of their feet loosened, so he did it again, and again, until they could rip their legs free. Naruto, who by this time had recovered most of his powers, searched until he could feel the wrath of the sand draugr, then sent a powerful blast of energy into the sand, sending it flying, just as he had done before when Sasuke had been trapped. Gaara was exposed above the sand by the blast, which left a crater in the beach. Another blast from Naruto, although a less powerful one, sprayed the draugr with wet sand, and the holy water in it slapped across his face.

Holding his hands over his burning face, Gaara screamed, loud and long, a terrible sound filled with unrelenting anger. When he removed them, his eyes were again red, but for a very different reason. Face twisted in a horrible mockery of a grimacing smile, he backpedaled furiously to escape the bite of the silver knife, only to scramble across the wet ground, hands smoking as they came in contact with the sand contaminated with holy water.

Without a second thought, Sasuke jumped after him brandishing the knife, the cross having been lost during the struggle. A feeling of power rushed through his limbs; he has brought this creature to his knees, he had defeated this beast! A kind of bloodlust took over his vision, and he saw nothing but the draugr before him as he prepared to plunge the blade into his already dead heart.

"No!" Suddenly Naruto was there, blocking Sasuke's view of Gaara and grabbing the hand that held the knife, even though his fingertips brushed against the gleaming metal and began to blister. "Don't!"

"Why?" Sasuke shouted angrily, struggling to break free of Naruto's grip. "He hurt you, he tried to kill me - why shouldn't he get what he deserves?"

"Because no one deserves that!"

That brought Sasuke back to his senses. The five-year-old face of Naruto was close to his own, sincere and slightly in pain.

"Please," Naruto begged. "Being a ghost is hard enough! No one sees you, so life passes you by, but at least we have the other ghosts! To be unseen, even by the unseen - that's a fate no one deserves."

Clarity descended back over Sasuke's vision, and he slowly lowered the knife. Naruto blinked several times, relief blanketing his features. Wincing, he let go of Sasuke's hand and curled the burned fingers into a fist.

Sasuke flinched uptown seeing the injury. "I'm sorry. I- I don't know what came over me." He reached out and took Naruto's hand, brushing the tender flesh with his own pale skin. Naruto flushed slightly at tech contact.

"Y-you don't have to do that," he muttered, trying to tug his fingers back, but Sasuke wouldn't let go.

"And yet another hurt heaped upon you by me," he murmured.

Naruto's flush deepened. "You don't… I mean…"

"I am sorry. I really mean it." Sasuke brushed a hand down Naruto's cheek, where tears had rolled not long ago. The ghost stared deep into Sasuke's eyes, and Sasuke stared back, feeling something blossoming inside him, but not knowing quite what it was. Lips parting slightly, he felt like he was about to say something, but he didn't know what it would be until it came out.

Before he could say it, Naruto's eyes went wide with pain, and he let a cry part his lips. His own eyes breaking free of the phantom's, Sasuke saw that Gaara, while Naruto had kept his back to the draugr, had used the opportunity to take a fistful of contaminated sand, and, even though it burned his own skin, had plastered it against Naruto's leg.

Red entered Sasuke's vision, and he grabbed the five-year-old form of Naruto and held it against his body, and stabbed at Gaara with the silver knife. At the last second, though, remembering Naruto's earlier plea, he avoided any fatal spots and instead sunk the blade into the meat of Gaara's shoulder. Gaara swung his arms about wildly, and Sasuke had to jump to avoid a dangerous claw. With careful timing, he waited, then thrust downward, sinking the knife straight through Gaara's hand to the hilt and pinning it to the sand.

The draugr tried to escape, but the silver made it impossible for him to become incorporeal and slip away. Taking advantage of the moment, Sasuke turned and picked Naruto up, settling the form of the ghost against his hip like a mother would carry a small child, then retrieved his cross and holy water vial and placed them in his satchel.

With conviction, he turned back to Gaara. The draugr slinked back slightly, knowing he had been beaten, but he still glared up at Sasuke with hate filled eyes.

"Just kill me already," he snarled. "I've lost. Take your victory."

His eyes closed, preparing for the blow. They popped open again when instead, Sasuke removed the knife from the draugrs hand, stowing it in his satchel and turning away.

"Wait!"

Sasuke turned back in annoyance. "What do you want?"

Gaara stood with mouth agape, taken aback by the first sign of mercy showed to him in his whole life, dead or otherwise. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"Believe me, if it had been up to me, I would have." Sasuke looked at Naruto, who was clutching his shirt with tiny fingers. "But he asked me not to. So I suggest you take this as a second chance and learn from it." He fixed the draugr with a glare before turning and striding away.

Gaara didn't follow.

When Sasuke made it off the beach and past the first bend of the trail, he collapsed on the first bench he saw. "Holy shit, that actually worked."

Naruto was sitting next to him, regarding him with a strange expression on his face.

"What?" Sasuke asked, a little disconcerted.

"Now it's my turn to ask the question," Naruto quipped with the hint of a sad smile. "What happened to you? This isn't the same person who told me to leave you alone this morning."

Hunching his shoulders, Sasuke ignored the question. Instead, he stood up from the bench and kneeled in front of Naruto, asking, "Does it hurt?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the change of subject, but didn't protest. "A little. It mostly just took me by surprise."

Raising an eyebrow, Sasuke rolled up Naruto's pant leg to reveal an angry red mark. When he touched it, the ghost winced, hissing in a breath. "Only a little? The holy water was dilute, but it still should have burned you."

"I'm fine," Naruto insisted, looking anywhere but at the human tending his wound.

Sasuke felt himself tremble inside. Naruto wasn't looking at him, was pulling away from him, just when he thought that had bonded over the shared experience of fighting Gaara. With a surge of panic, Sasuke realized that if he didn't do something fast, he was going to lose Naruto. The phantom would leave as soon as he could walk on his own, and the chances of Sasuke ever seeing him again were slimmer than a railroad tie.

It was that fear of losing the first true friend he had ever found which pried Sasuke's mouth open. "A confession for a confession," he muttered, his grip tightening on Naruto's pant leg.

"What?"

Drawing a deep breath, Sasuke admitted, "My older brother was driven insane by his ability to see ghosts."

Naruto's gaze suddenly clashed with his own, and, unable to stop once he had begun, the whole tale spilled out, from Itachi's blindness to his parents' obsession with the elder Uchiha brother to the strain his own gift had placed upon him. He finished with, "Because of this, I've grown to hate my gift. I've stopped looking at ghosts as something that was once human, and started seeing them almost as animals, something I can categorize without paying much attention to. But you were different, Naruto. I saw you as an individual, and it scared me. I ran, and it hurt you, and I truly am sorry for it."

Throughout Sasuke's speech, Naruto had kept eye contact, his wide-eyed gaze never faltering. He brushed Sasuke's cheek as he smiled softly. "I'm glad I was able to bring some closure to your life."

"I don't want it to end here," Sasuke admitted, unable to stop the words from tumbling from his lips. "This morning, I wanted you to ignore what I said and follow me anyway. I wanted you to drag me more places and make me meet more ghosts, both friend and foe. I- I still want that."

"And when we fought Gaara together, a part of me wanted to save you, and a part of me wanted you to save me," Naruto replied, a wide grin breaking over his face. "You fulfilled two of my wishes, so I don't see why I can't fulfill one of yours."

Sasuke's eyes grew wide. "You really mean it?"

"Yes, of course!" Naruto pulled him in for a hug, and Sasuke felt his own arms wrap around the phantom, feeling the thrill of real, loving contact.

A certain wistfulness entered Naruto's voice. "I've waited for someone like you for so long."

"As have I," Sasuke replied, his cheek brushing Naruto's shoulder. "As have I."

It was understood then, without either of them having to say it out loud, that they would be a part of the other from then on, that they would be each other's best friend and rival, brother and comfort, and a shoulder to cry on. The knowledge filled Sasuke with a sudden, unexpected joy; the one thing he hadn't known he had needed was there, right before him, and he grasped hold of it with both hands and swore to never let go.

After a while the sky started turning dark, so Sasuke picked up Naruto and settled him on his back, then carried him back to the Hokage. The two went to Sasuke's room and shut the door, and Sasuke fell into bed, exhausted from the fight and his confession, and Naruto, being an unsleeping ghost, sat up and watched him all night.

In the kitchen, Sakura was washing dishes when Kakashi walked in.

"Did you get him to agree to come to the event tomorrow?"

"Yeah, he's coming," Sakura replied. "But I don't see why it matters. It's just an old legend they're pres nation, right?"

"There's a grain of truth in every lesson," Kakashi admonished. "Besides, did you see how he walked back in here, like he was carrying something invisible on his back? Mark my words, that Uchiha can sense the spirits in unrest here."

Sakura's hands shook. "But why won't he admit it? He knows, so why hide it?"

"I don't know." Kakashi looked off into the distance. "All we can to is put our faith in him, and hope."