Silence (kakanaru)

Chapter 7

Peace is a futile ideal. Strong men give way to peace. Peace gives way to weak men. Weak men lead to war. Such is the world we wander.

Shinku usually savoured silence. Hisato lived in silence, and... Shinku should too.

But there was a darker side to it. Other than the comfort of being away from the pain.

It was being in the pain. The thoughts that scurried around in a constant buzz, undeterred by any background noise, anything that was remotely real. His buried self lived in silence, but... he had always been afraid of it.

Silence was lonely. Infinitely lonely; endless. He couldn't comprehend how he had spent a lifetime in it, surrounded by the abyss, so deep in there was no way out. So deep in that he couldn't feel the comfort of the outside. He would try to reach out, walk forward, only to be drowned in more quiet.

It had become too suffocating in that place. Shinku found himself wishing for a way out... for noise. He wished for noise to overcome the silence. He wished for light, too. Something not so dark.

He clawed, desperate to escape the void, to climb the endless precipices and see the sun out again. Shinku scrambled with all his might, every fall leaving no dent in his resolve.

He was not the only one searching for noise. From within himself he felt it; his long buried self wakening. Hisato wanted back. And Hisato always got what he wanted.

...........................................

Kakashi was incredibly selfish and cowardly. But he wanted to get away, he wanted to vent.

He couldn't get that with Hisato right now. How could you vent about your frustrations directly to the source? That made no sense- at least to him.

A week out of Konoha to simply relax and calm down.

And to worry.

And to fret.

Because Hisato wasn't Hisato, and that meant anything could happen.

Someone might die, even Hisato himself. Something disastrous was inevitable when the redhead was left to his own devices for too long.

The week came and went too quickly, despite his thoughts. His mind was entirely occupied by Hisato and his frustrations had only grown. He was forced to cease his efforts. The best way forward was to help Hisato.

He didn't expect that, on the way back to Konoha, thoroughly exhausted but refreshed at the same time... he didn't expect that...

Kakashi crashed to a halt, blinded by the sight before him to land without a stumble.

Mist rose, thick and heavy. In any other circumstance, the Hatake would pin it on a Kiri shinobi. What his Sharingan saw begged to differ.

A glint of red, demonic red, shone through him. Two beams, their source a person. With a familiar bony frame, familiar long hair waving out behind him. Hisato.

The air reverberated with a growl, no pitch and no sound to it. Just a vibration that Kakashi felt everywhere. As part of the earth, part of the figure, the mist, himself. The killer intent grabbed his voice and he couldn't even breathe.

The moment that followed would have been far more terrifying if Hisato possessed a voice. He could imagine a laugh- warped and mad- escaping those thin, colourless lips. He could imagine a taunting voice- deep and insane- mocking him.

What's really there though...

Hisato- Shinku- became clear through the thinning mist. Kakashi unwillingly shrank in on himself. He felt fear for the first time in years.