Those Little Moments (Hatake Kakashi)

4

It was only a month later that everything went to complete hell for me. I had been on what was supposed to be a simple scouting mission, only to be ambushed by many jonin-level ninjas, none of whom seemed to belong to any of the hidden villages. 

Much to my dismay, I was knocked out quickly, and only woke up what I guessed was some days later in a prison cell. There I dwelt, with no one but a strange, terrifying old man who brought my meager meals.

"I had planned on using you to hold the Three-Tails, but it seems you have already been trained in the fuinjutsu of the Uzumaki clan. A shame. The other girl will do though, and she will be much less difficult to catch."

Every time he came near, I would scramble to the edge of the cell, as far away from his as I could. "Who are you? Let me out."

"See, that won't do. You may have some purpose yet."

He would say nothing else, and I was glad not to interact with him more than necessary. Based on my meal patterns, I assumed I had been there for over a year before I ever saw anyone else.

The old man's disciple's face was always hidden by a mask, but I swear, at one point, he had showed his face to me. For some reason, I could never remember what he looked like. All I knew was after the first time we met, I rarely saw him. He seemed to find me annoying, and every time I would ask about my friends left behind, whether they were alive or not, he would not be pleasant. Despite this, he somehow knew of my ability to share chakra and would force me to infuse chakra into crystals every so often. Though, the red crystals I required were quite rare and required an immense amount of chakra just to prepare to be able to hold chakra.

"Please." I begged, holding onto the bars of my cell to hold myself up after I filled another crystal, a small one which had taken me about a week. By this point I was a different person than the one who had been kidnapped and assumed, since I was a foot taller and had stopped growing, that many years had passed. "It's been years since I saw any of my friends. There was a war. I already lost one friend. I just wanna know they're alive. And my sister, and my brother-in-law. Are they okay? Who did the war take?" 

For the first time, the masked boy answered, coming close so his mask was inches away from my face. "All of them."

He said nothing else, just turned away and left, leaving me to crumple to the floor, still holding the bars as I cried. I had never cried since I had gotten kidnapped, but the pain in my chest was unbearable. It felt as though an elephant were sitting on me, choking my sobs, and despair took me until I passed out. Even in my sleep, I saw all of my friends and family, Kushina, Minato, Rin, Hatake, all just in my reach and walking away, towards a waiting Obito. I tried to chase after them, but they turned to air in my hands, and even in my dreams, I was spared no sorrow.

At this point was when I started having hallucinations. When the third meal of the day would come and my exhaustion would reach its peak, I would see my older sister sitting next to me. I could feel her arms hugging me, comforting me, and her voice whispered it would be alright. Sometimes, Minato would be there. He'd grin and give me a fist bump. 

Less often, Minato's whole team would be there too. Obito, Hatake, and Rin. Rin would tease me about Obito, and I would in turn make fun of her for liking Hatake, commenting on how monotone he was and how he always wore his stupid mask. With them, I would smile instead of cry.

"Hey, Obito, how come you're the only one who's grown up?" I asked. "I know you're all illusions, but Kakashi and Rin still look the same as when I left them."

The Fake-Obito shrugged grinning cheekily the way he did when he was a child. He had lost the goggles, but he was in every way other than age the same as he'd been when he was twelve. "Maybe because you had a crush on me. Maybe I'm the easiest to picture grown up."

I nodded, leaning my head back against the wall. "That makes sense, I guess. I don't think I could imagine Hatake or Rin grown up. I think I like them at the age they are too. I can pretend no time has passed."

I wasn't sure if anyone real was listening, but I had stopped caring not long after after the visions had started showing up.

"You know that's pathetic right?" The white-haired prodigy scoffed.

I rolled my eyes at him, laughing a little. "Jeez, thanks for the support, Hatake."

"But you know we're all dead."

"Stop being mean, Kakashi!" Rin said, for once disagreeing with him and moving to my side. I smiled thankfully at her.

"Thanks, Rin, but we all know he's right. I mean, I know he's right, you're all just figments of my imagination."

I heard footsteps. It was the masked boy again. 

"Do you talk to yourself every day?"

My face fell as my friends disappeared. I scowled at him, wishing his mask was off so I could glare at him more intimately, express how annoyed I was properly. "Yes, I find it's much more survivable to speak to my imaginary friends than acknowledge they're all dead and live in solitude."

"So you'd rather live in lies than in truth."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe, but it's hard to have a healthy mindset when you're locked alone in a cage. If you let me go, then I would choose to live in truth."

He scoffed. "I doubt it."