Something Precious

Chapter Fourty Seven

Kakashi gasped as he was thrown mercilessly back into the conscious world were the memories of recent events hit him like a ton of bricks. He furiously blinked moisture from his eyes as it threatened to spill over in the form of traitorous tears.

"Glad to see your finally awake."

Kakashi spared a look at his sensei. The thundering sound of the rocks breaking apart and collapsing filled his ears in a deafening roar. The sharp flash of panic that ran him through as he laid eyes on his friend, dying under the rocks that should have crushed him, stabbed at his mind once more. Was that even real?

"Obito?" Kakashi inquired in a voice so quiet, it was barely heard, had he spoke any louder he was sure his voice would give. Yet he needed - though far from wanted - confirmation that those events weren't simply a figment of his imagination.

Minato hung his head in defeat, grief weighing on his frame causing his usually proud shoulders, to sag. "I. . . " the jounin was at a loss for words. Kakashi had never had a very imaginative mind anyways.

Obito. The idiot. He just had to be a hero, he just had to sacrifice himself; and for what? For him? Kakashi wasn't worth all that. Kakashi who was arrogant, Kakashi who was judgmental, mean and even outright cruel at times. He very well knew of his flaws and they became more apparent now more than ever as those flaws finally reaped consequences and demanded a price Kakashi wasn't ready to pay.

He held in a sob as he looked away to the scenery around him. His arms were bare but Kakashi didn't feel the night's cold air, he didn't hear it's silence. Instead, a hopeless grief consumed him.

Kakashi couldn't help but silently curse the land for looking so peaceful when it's soils held the blood of so many dead soldiers; and how dare the sky be alight with such bright stars and such a peaceful moon when it was a first hand witness to all the terrors this war, and all those before it, had brought upon the people who walked the earth.

For the first time he noticed Naruto sitting a ways away form them. The Uzumaki was watching the sky as well, his blue eyes set at a single fixed point as if it alone held all the secrets he could ever desire to know of. Somehow without having a weighted frame like Minato, or misty eyes like Kakashi, Naruto still managed to appear utterly distraught to put it lightly. He didn't speak, he didn't move, he didn't even blink. Yet just by looking at him one could see how he was filled with regret and loathing. Seeing him in such a state, suddenly Kakashi felt stupid; for weeks he had been watching the man though eyes narrowed with suspicion and accusation, convinced that the blonde had something to hide - and maybe he did, but he wasn't a bad person.

Kakashi was suddenly hit with the thought to reach out and comfort him, but after a moments worth of hesitation, he realized he wasn't quite sure how one would go about that. After a minute, Kakashi was startled to come to the conclusion that he had never cared enough to ever think of offering support or comfort to anyone in any situation.

With much uncertainty, he raised a slightly trembling hand, he let it hover in the air, frozen by hesitation. Come on, he said to himself. Just reach out for a moment, help him.

He couldn't. Finding some cowardice the rooted itself in him, Kakashi's had inevitably fell back into his lap. He scowled at it's graceful fingers as if it were they, not him, who were at fault for this failure.

This had not gone unnoticed. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine Little Man." Kakashi jumped at the gentle voice as it disturbed the silence, gaining - not only his, but Minato and a thought-to-be-sleeping Rin's - attention.