Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
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"N-Nothing," I reassured, unreassuringly. "Here. Let's back up a bit to when you first appear in the story."
"Why couldn't you just show me where I was in the last scene?" Kakashi's deep voice was low in this small space between our faces.
My eyes couldn't help flitting all about his handsome features, that familiar outline long-engraved on my soul. "If the Hidden Leaf was attacked, I'm sure I was there."
"You were!" I rushed to agree, a nervous laugh bubbling up my throat. You were dead for most of it, but you were there..."But, let's just go back here, okay?"
I clicked on the third episode, where Team 7 found its beginning. "I can just skip ahead to when you appear."
"Don't."
My brows rise. "D-Don't? Don't skip ahead? You want to watch it?"
Kakashi's eyes were riveted on the tiny screen that was covered in my finger swipes and was in dire need of a cleaning. "I want to ascertain the accuracy of my home being portrayed in this made-up story."
I clicked on the episode, unable to take my eyes off of Kakashi.
As all of the annoying voices of the Hidden Leaf brats yelled at each other on the screen, I watched Kakashi's eyes narrow each time he recognized something. A family crest, a stray glimpse of someone he knew, whatever. His silver brows funneled together then straightened back again in a dazzling show of emotion from the stoic Anbu.
When the opening theme kicked in, my heart raced with nostalgia. I saw the moment Kakashi saw himself appear within it, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly.
The episode continued, and a smile edged up on my mouth when Kakashi watched the eraser hit the head of the tiny version of himself on Netflix.
He turned to me, just once, with amused puzzlement. "I'm a teacher? Of genin?"
All I could do was nod. After a snort of derision, Anbu-era Kakashi turned back to watch his first encounter with the children who single-handedly brought him out of the darkness.
Kakashi Hatake hadn't lost everything. Not everything. When Kakashi's backstory was talked about in forums, songs, or by fans, they summarized his pain by saying he'd lost "everything."
That wasn't true. Kakashi still had his friends Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai, as well as his everlasting loyalty to the Hidden Leaf Village and the Third Hokage. He even had his Anbu team members. Yamato, most of all.
One could say the Third had a hand in keeping Kakashi stuck in a place where he could only confront the worst of himself in an endless cycle. A cycle that made him almost as cold as an efficient, robotic, killing machine and made it nearly impossible to move on from the Third Great Shinobi War and all that he had lost. However, one could also say that the Third, along with his former classmates, had strived to give Kakashi another way.
