If Promises Could Be Kept

Six

Just as a warning, this chapter is going to establish the bigger divergence from canon. It seems some threads were woven long before anyone realized the strings attached.

This will also introduce some OC's. I usually don't like them, and there won't be many, but the divergence from canon will need some characters not part of it.

"In war, the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one." –H.L. Mencken

The village was just as Kakashi remembered it. The stalls, the street vendors, the crowded market places, and the jubilant civilians fit perfectly like a picturesque photograph. All in all, it was absolutely, utterly unnerving.

The Konoha that he remembered was razed and smoking, the still burning fires melting plastics that let off noxious gasses that burned your eyes and coated your throat. The horrid stench of burning flesh and rotting corpses overwhelmed your senses and triggered your gag reflex. The Konoha that he remembered was nothing like this. Especially since everyone was celebrating, patting his father on the back like he was some war hero. Which, Kakashi thought idly, he is.

Either way, the looks Kakashi's father was receiving was the biggest shock. He could still remember some of the more creative insults that fellow shinobi had thrown his way after he'd failed his mission, and the reaction everyone had to this twist of events was almost enough to make him nauseated. Sakumo was showered with praise from ignorant civilians and rookie ninja alike that caused the man to grimace every time, not that anyone noticed. The only more subdued interactions occurred between the older Hatake and seasoned veterans. They understood, if no one else, exactly what Sakumo had given up on that mission.

Not that Kakashi didn't understand. In fact, the entire trip to the dango stall consisted of him trying to comfort his father with reassuring hand squeezes or even a hint of small talk to take his mind off recent events. The most concerning thing, however, was that Kakashi didn't think he'd ever seen his father so distraught.

It was different than the last time. Because the village had hated the White Fang, everyone was openly hostile, and it was easy to see how that affected the man's mental state. Anyone faced with that much hatred, especially if they were unused to it, would be driven to the brink. The difference with Kakashi's current events was that, while his father was being praised, he could tell that the man was taking it like praise for allowing his teammates to die. He'd experienced the same thing when someone congratulated him on the Kannabi Bridge mission years later, when he'd joined ANBU. Needless to say, the unsuspecting Monkey almost got a Chidori to the face.

"Dad?" Kakashi asked, once again pulling his father from his thoughts. Kakashi gestured to the dango stall. "We're here. What're you getting?"

He knew that it didn't matter, but he didn't really have anything else to say and he needed to get his father talking, even if only mindless drabble.

His father didn't reply, but headed into the stall with Kakashi at his heels.

In the future, this dango stall would become Anko Mitarashi's favorite past time where she could buy all the sake needed to get drunk and all the dango needed to get a sugar high. If he were honest with himself, Kakashi hadn't spent all that much time with any of his old friends, but even he knew it was highly amusing to see Anko in a perpetual state of either vomit-inducing drunkenness or Naruto-esque hyperactivity. She'd flip between the two at the drop of a pin, and he had to admit she was probably the funniest person he'd ever seen drunk. Well... almost...

Let's just say, he didn't count himself as someone he'd seen drunk.

The dango stall was the best in the village, just as Ichiraku's was the best ramen. It was small and a little huddled together, but because mostly ninja ate there, no one really minded that much. Almost everyone came with a family member or teammate, so the squashed tables and walkways didn't even cross anyone's mind. It became painfully obviously upon entering the establishment, however, that it didn't exactly smell pleasant.