Chapter 9: Recollections

It was strange how some distant memories could feel like only yesterday, but some more recent happenings could feel so long gone. That's exactly how it was when she stopped to think about how she first met Kakashi, though met may not have been the best word.

She wasn't trying to spy on him, and early on, she hadn't even known who he was; but he was there every day, in front of the memorial, silently reading or talking to the ghosts of the past. The shinobi memorial was on her way to the training grounds where Team 8 frequently met. It was the fastest and least crowded way for her to travel and in her most self-conscious days, that was preferred. She had caught a glimpse of the white-haired man around the second or third time she had taken this route. It was entirely possible that in ordinary circumstances, she would have paid him no mind, but at 5 A.M., it was an unusual sight.

'He must really miss whoever he lost.' She had imagined it to be a lover or close relation—a sibling or parent.

A few more times following this same path, she continued to see the man, very rarely was he absent despite her travel times having altered. Whoever he was and whoever he was mourning, they must have been close for she could only assume he was there for hours. His presence and the memorial had become one and he had become something sort of a landmark for her. Every time she passed by—whatever the time—she would look for him, if only in passing.

Once, more than three weeks had gone by where she hadn't seen him. Dejectedly, she had wondered if his name was now upon the memorial—a name she wouldn't even recognize. She had never spoken to him—she hadn't even slowed down as she ran and leapt to reach the training grounds. He was simply a man caught in her peripheral. But he was a constant that she had become accustomed to.

'Life is so fleeting.'

In the few missions that followed, her teammates and sensei had noticed the somberness that surrounded her and assumed her father had grown colder with her. They weren't as close then as they are now, but Hinata had always been loved by them.

"You can talk to us about anything, Hinata," Shino advised. "And why? Because we are teammates and friends, and we should always support each other." He had an odd way of speaking and appeared standoffish, but Shino was genuinely warm and caring.

"Yeah, what he said," Kiba concurred. "And if anyone is bother, just let me and Akamaru know, and we'll kick their ass!" Though less impulsive with age, Kiba still held the same protectiveness over Hinata.

It always made her smile to remember how accepting and encouraging they had been of her from the very start. Unfortunately, she wasn't as open with them, and looking back, even if she had been more talkative, she liked to think she still would have kept this one to herself.

Her joyful demeanor returned the next evening despite the horrible rain that lingered over Konoha. Though no training was formally scheduled, she had long since decided that she couldn't remain the weak link she was and had taken to furthering her practice alone. That night, she had been attempting to push her byakugan further and further to its limit. Stamina and physical prowess weren't her strongpoints, but with a team so apt for tracking, she hoped to at least be of greater use to them with a longer range of vision. Standing in the rain with her byakugan activated, she scanned as far as she could following her well-traveled path. It was then that she saw the familiar form of the white-haired shinobi.

'He's alive.'

Relief, like the pouring rain, had washed over her. It mattered not who this man was, but he had returned and that had made all the difference.

It was three days later that Hinata had finally learned the identity of the man. Team 7 was scouring the village in search of their abysmally late sensei and somehow, Naruto and Sasuke had made it into a fierce competition over who would find the missing jonin first.

Without context or preamble, Sasuke had approached Hinata. "Hyuuga," he called, not entirely certain of her first name. "Has Kakashi come this way?" he asked leaving Hinata utterly confused,

"A sc-scarecrow?" She was confused why Sasuke had jumped in front of her to ask her such a thing, but quickly realized there had been some sort of miscommunication when he narrowed his eyes and sighed.

"A white-haired jonin with a mask," he elaborated. "Have you seen him?"

She had seen him that morning as she made her way by the memorial, his face buried in an orange book. Lying had never come naturally to her, but in that instant, a lie had just flowed freely from her lips without thought.

"I-I haven't seen anyone like…like that." The words had startled her a bit. She didn't even know why she had said it, but it seemed that if Sasuke was searching for him, then he didn't want to be found.

Sasuke grunted, and before their conversation could go any further, the jonin in question had appeared.

"Ah, Sasuke," he greeted the irritated genin. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend. Sakura is going to be awfully disappointed," he lightly taunted.

"I-it's nothing like that!" Hinata defensively cried at a volume higher than she expected. "I'd never—" she trailed off flustered. Kakashi raised a brow and Sasuke subtly twitched.

'Did she just…reject me?' While it was all a misunderstanding and he was far from interested in the girl who couldn't answer a straight question, he'd never been rejected before.

Embarrassed by her outburst, Hinata quickly tried to escape their presence. "Uhh…Well…G'glad you found him, S-sasuke. I-I'll be going now" she stuttered, then bowed deeply toward the two and ran off.

Kakashi watched the raven-haired girl disappear. There was something about her appearance that felt oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

'A former student maybe?' That didn't seem quite right either, but he had failed so many students over the years that many of their faces had started to blur so he couldn't rule it out entirely. Choosing to let it go, he turned his attention to his student.

"So… even you get rejected, hm Sasuke?" Kakashi taunted.

Over time, Hinata had come to understand that Kakashi was perpetually late and reasoned that he was only late because he spent so much time lingering at the memorial. Though she never saw his entire face, his one exposed eye showed enough of a melancholic gaze for her to conclude that he was permanently marred by the loss of whoever it was he was mourning.

'The deepest scars are those we cannot see.'

When a few days later, Sakura stopped her in street to ask if she had seen Kakashi, she had once again denied it despite knowing exactly where he was.

"No…I haven't seen him," she lied with an apologetic smile. She would keep his secret.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Kakashi sat in bed mulling over Hinata's words. Had they met at the memorial? It was arguably possible—he spent an abundance of time there—but there wasn't a single time he could recollect that Hinata had also been there. Almost invariably, he was alone at the memorial. Most of the names carved into that memorial were of shinobi who died during the Third Great Shinobi War or Nine-Tails Attack, in neither of which did any of her generation participate. They were infants at the oldest—a thought that made him cringe uncomfortably. This made it even less likely for her to have a reason to be at the memorial. There were some Hyuuga clan members whose names were etched in the stone, but it was unlikely she had known any of them either. They would have been members of the branch house with minimal interactions with the then heiress, assuming she was even born.

'When is her birthday again?' came a second wonder. Kakashi scratched his head and began doing the mental calculations. She was born the same year as Naruto, that much was certain, and based on their ruse, he had proposed three months ago, just after her 18th birthday. That placed her birthday in December, but still left 31 days to narrow down. He sighed. 'Even a boyfriend would know his girlfriend's birthday and here we are due to be married.'

It struck him that perhaps this was part of the problem, and he decided that tomorrow, he would ask her on a date. Maybe then she could tell him about this encounter.

-End Chapter 9-