"You know, I had a feeling I'd find you here."
He doesn't look back.
"You realise that you're late, right?"
His head tilts to the side, his bright silver spiky hairy temporarily shifting directions, before straightening up again.
"But you don't care, do you. You're the man who would be late to his own funeral."
I came to a stop next to him. He doesn't look up, his one visible eye fixed to the Memorial Stone.
"Do you mind if I ask 'why?', Kakashi?"
He doesn't respond.
But ever so slowly, his head tilts to the side again.
"You mourn them, I can see that." And I could.
Kakashi's heart was a mess. Darkened, ridden with guilt, long since burnt out anger, mourning, and dozens of other emotions.
Which was perfectly understandable. A shame, but understandable.
"They meant a lot to you, I can see that."
Even the very word 'they' invoked feelings and emotions from him. Hidden on the outside, but never on the inside, and as such, never hidden from me. Love, bitterness, hate, sadness. Just drops in a storm.
"Is there any point to this?" He asked. His voice was quite cold. I didn't blame him.
"I guess not."
I looked down at the Memorial Stone. My eyes traced over each name, and I wasn't surprised to note that I recognized very few of them.
I hadn't known them. Some, I recognized, but I hadn't known them.
They had been Kakashi's comrades. Kakashi's fellow ninja.
Not mine.
"Just me talking. Trying to help where it's unwelcome." I nodded. "It's what I try to do, you know? I see you- people like you, people who have experienced loss, people who have known pain, people who have known suffering," I looked at him. "And I try to help. Because it disgusts me, what I see when I see people in pain, people in suffering, people in loss."
His head cocked to the side again.
"And there I go again... Oh well." I turned around, facing away from the monument. "Either way, I'm not saying this just for your benefit, I'm saying this because you have three little brats waiting for you back at the academy. I won't tell you not to mourn them, Kakashi, but I will say that there are better ways to honor their memories."
He grunted.
Silently, I started walking away.
I was near the edge of the clearing when he spoke up.
"Before you go, I have a question."
I paused, looking back over my shoulder. "Yes?"
"What is it that you see?"
"This is what things look like to you?"
"Yes."
"It's weird."
"You would see it as such, yes."
He wore a patch over his eye, a patch formed entirely out of my own Darkness. A little trick that I had figured out a while ago, rather accidentally. Surprisingly complex, though, having one side function in the same way as my eyes did, and the other side change colour automatically. Hellaciously complex, but it was an interesting challenge.
Got to admit, it was kind of funny seeing the Jonin with a headband covering one eye and a patch covering the other.
We were outside the academy, Kakashi up in a tree, myself pressed into the shadows. Neither of us were noticed.
Hell, I'd have been surprised if either of us had been, considering that Kakashi was ex-ANBU, and I was... well, you know, a Heartless.
"They're coming."
The door to the courtyard slammed open, letting out three newly-Genin young brats.
Sasuke, surrounded by an almost tangible aura of anger and doom, all but stomped out, his teeth grinding together loudly enough that I could hear it even from here.
Naruto followed him shortly afterwards, gigantic brighter-than-the-sun smile and squinted eyes firmly in place. He seemed infinitely cheerful, naught but good humor and innocence present in his demeanour. If I didn't know any better, I might have even believed that he wasn't planning terrible, terrible things to enact on Kakashi's person.
But I knew better.
Sakura followed him, an oddly confused expression in place, which reflected her Heart. Aside from the tiny twitches and continuous spikes of rage, anyway.
Both of us remained still as the group of Genin stomped, walked and paced closer to us, all three completely oblivious to the fact that their late sensei was right in front of them.
"-going to kill him." Sasuke grumbled. "When I find him, I'm going to shove a sword up his ass. See if he's ever two hours late again."
"Isn't that a bit... extreme?" Sakura asked, hesitantly.
"Two hours." Sasuke hissed. "What kind of jackass doesn't show up for two hours?"
Sakura looked down. "Well, when you put it like that..."
"Great!" Naruto chirped. His cheerful tone sounded remarkably brittle. "Operation: Murder Jackass-Sensei is a go! Come on, Yugao-sensei will probably be able to tell us about him."
They moved on, passing under the very same tree their so-called 'jackass-sensei' was sitting in.
"Well, it looks like you're going to have an eventful day, Kakashi."
He hummed.
Kakashi stood still, unmoving, staring into the mirror.
"So tell me, Kakashi. Do you understand now?"
His Heart stormed, emotions flickering through it far too quickly for me to identify.
"Yes." His hand came up to his chest, as if trying to touch his own Heart. "And I don't blame you."
Naruto had a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
Sasuke wore an expression that was an odd cross of glaring, and a picture of schadenfreude.
Sakura held a small smile on her face, amusement intermixed with horror and fear.
Kakashi's expression couldn't be seen, not just because of the fact that 80% of his face was completely covered, but also because he was completely drenched, head to toe, in bright pink paint.
Oil-based paint, if the smell was any indication.
"My first of impression is... I hate you all."
And so it begins.
Up inside the trees, I let my head drop a little.
It doesn't get any easier from here on out.