Impossible to Forget

Chapter 15: The Coincidence

I was reading old news articles when Kakashi walked in without knocking. I didn't even have the energy to yell at him so I just sent him a disapproving look and went back to reading, flipping to the next page with a sigh.

"How was lunch?"

"How do you think that it went? It was awkward and uncomfortable, and I wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor. Thanks for reminding me."

I went back to reading my article. If Kakashi was there for actual work, he would say something, but if he wasn't, then I would just continue ignoring him.

However, he just stood there silently for several minutes until I could take it no longer.

"Kakashi, do you need something?"

He snapped his focus away from my window and scrunched his eyebrows together in concentration.

"Well, I just wondering, but then you'd have to leave Anzu for about a week. And I know that you don't trust anyone else to do your job as well as you do. But then again, there's no one who I trust more-"

I cut him off, "Kashi, you're rambling. Just spit it out already."

"So, as you know, the five Kage come together every six months for a summit. And each Kage can bring one representative with them."

"Doesn't your secretary always go with you?"

"Yes, but she had a family emergency and is going to be in the Wave Country for a while."

I didn't know her at all beyond the fact the she was the current Hokage's aide (I actually don't even know her name), but I pretended like I cared because that was the proper thing to do. "What happened?"

"I think her brother's sick."

"Bummer."

"Yep."

"But I still want to know what this has to do with me."

Kakashi scratched the back of his neck, "I was wondering if you would come to the summit instead. This one's in the Cloud Village, and all you'd have to do is just stand behind me and stuff. It's really not all that exciting, and I know that you have other work to do and that it's unfair for Anzu. But I was just wondering if you would be okay with going."

"Sure. When is it?"

His whole face brightened, "We leave in a week and the whole thing will last about eight days total, including travel."

This got me out of lunch with Sadao and Jukouro for one week.

"I'd be happy to come."

"Really? That's great."

"Yep, you know me, always helping my fellow man."

He raised one eyebrow at me skeptically, "No, that's not you. Tell me, why did you actually agree to come?"

"To get out of a lunch with my old teammates?"

He sighed, "I should have known that you'd have an ulterior motive."

I winked, "I am a tactician for a reason. Besides, you should feel flattered. I've determined that you're better company than Jukouro and Sadao."

He placed a hand on his chest, "Now that just warms my soul, knowing that you like me better than people that you hate."

"You're selling yourself short. I don't hate them; they annoy me immensely. There's a difference." I pointed to the article that I was reading from about fifty years ago; it was research on the whole thing with my mother, "My team could be worse. See, this team had their sensei die in the Land of Lightning during the war, and then the three first year genin had to fight their way back to the village alone. I can think of few things worse than that."

Kakashi nodded, "That does sound horrible. Does it say what team that was?"

I scanned the page, "No. It says that the details of the mission were classified so they couldn't release any names. The person who wrote it was protesting child soldiers. Apparently, the team was composed of all prodigies or something, but with no jounin sensei, they were hopelessly outclassed. Supposedly, it's a miracle that they came back alive."

Kakashi nodded, "Until fairly recently, we've been putting people out far too early. You could even argue that twelve is still too young."

He was speaking from experience. Like the genin in this article from fifty years ago, Kakashi had been a child prodigy sent out into the field far too young. And he still carries the scars: physical and psychological.

He narrowed his eyes as he leaned over my desk to take a look at the paper for himself, "Isn't that the year that your mother graduated ?"

I grabbed the paper and looked at the date on the top. He was right.

"You don't think that that mission was them, do you?"

Kakashi sighed, "It would be too much of a coincidence if it wasn't."

A/N: Hello from Florence! I typed this on the plane flight out. I don't know when more will be up.