Moon Devourer

When History Repeats

"Hatake Kakashi?" The messenger, barely fourteen yet still cowed at the face of a child only half her age, stuttered out.

"Yes?" Kakashi gestured for an invisible message, staring right up at the nervous teenager.

"Sorry, uh- the Hokage summons Gennin Hatake Kakashi to the Hokage Tower for a- arrangements of a temporary apprenticeship with an- an unnamed Jounnin," the messenger reiterated word by word, fidgeting around, unable to stand still as her feet shifted on the stone tiles.

He stared right into her hazel brown eyes, and gave a slow nod.

And he watched as she scampered away like mice which had been caught eating from a kitchen table.

Well, he never quite knew how to deal with others that were that skittish. Or shy.

He stared at the compound, then at the distant, looming figure of the tower, sprinkled with red roofing and shingles as bone white masks darted about on the rooftops, patrolling or heading for missions beyond Konohagakure's borders.

He turned back towards the Hatake Compound, and slid the gates close.

Footsteps a light huff on the ground and well worn stones, he returned to the empty Hatake compound, eyes flashing by the usual scenes of the table, low hanging paper lanterns and aged tatami mats laying plainly on the floor.

It was welcoming before. It still felt empty, even now. Like just something was missing, something shaped exactly like Sakumo, a hole never to be filled.

A week, he breathed out, and then in, the rush of air silently loud, adding to the haunted feeling he got entering the compound.

He slid open the door to a spare room, where all his findings, be it from a shadow clone or himself, were left in an alphabetically catalogued manner on the convenient shelving of the room.

He gave a nod to the doppleganger of himself, and it dispelled, sending him hours worth of information into his head before he finally locked onto the one he needed.

One that he searched for specifically.

With nimble fingers that weren't scarred with battles and age, he slipped the scroll out from a storage container, and shut the door silently.

Perhaps, when something would change that eerie emptiness, he would come to appreciate the compound again.

The henge of a sapphire eyed girl slipped on again, and he scampered off towards the Hokage Tower, scroll slipped within the folds of his coat.

Sorry, Minato-sensei.

------------------------------------

Hiruzen Sarutobi waited as the last Hatake opened the door silently, and closed it, taking a stiff bow, too young to execute what normal shinobi would do with gusto and near worship.

It reminded him of Orochimaru, his slightly wayward student who wasn't as liked as he was.

How he wished he could turn back time to fix his mistakes.

But regardless, the pressing concern was the last of the Hatake standing right in front of him, mask and all, with a stare miles away aimed towards the window.

Kakashi wasn't even looking at him, but he couldn't find the reason to get frustrated at that, because Hatake Sakumo had been announced Killed In Action, and it was because of his inaction, did the rumors spur the Hatake to take the escort mission anyways.

"Kakashi-san." He pushed the folders he had the secretary prepare for this moment, "I believe you have heard the full message?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama." The Hatake bowed clumsily, as if unused to doing the action.