Work Text:
Kakashi loved the Leaf.
Even if it was the reason why there was blood trickling along the pretty white tiles of the bathroom floor and spattered on the walls and the sink and the ceiling.
His voice had barely been a whisper when he'd asked him who. Father’s dazed eyes had met his then, a startled chuckle escaping his lips. It had rapidly descended into hysterical laughter so different from the sound Kakashi was used to that he’d recoiled in fear.
“Who?” Father had repeated slowly, shifting to reveal the hilt of his prized tanto. In him. It was in his stomach. Why was it buried in his stomach? “I did it my little Shi-kun,” he’d rasped, voice raw, “and yet Konoha forced my hand.”
Something had changed in him when he’d mentioned their village, a wild spark entering his dimming eyes. He’d looked so fragile but he’d held Kakashi’s shoulders in a bruising grip.
“Don’t let them do to you what they did to me,” he’d spat.
When Kakashi hadn’t replied immediately, the man had shaken him, his face a mask of despair. “Don’t let Konoha be the death of you as it has been the death of me!” he’d shouted, blood flowing from his mouth and Kakashi had never been more scared.
He’d nodded, terror in his eyes and static in his head.
Father had died with a smile.
Kakashi loved the Leaf.
Even though the icy glares shattered his heart and the whispers that followed him made him want to cry, he loved Konoha, he loved it so much.
He loved it even though the scuff marks on his clothes came from his former classmates making his bones ache and ache.
“You could kill them all,” Father murmured then.
He loved it even though his Hokage had ordered him out onto the front line less than a week after Father…
“He is weak and he is senile,” Father drawled coldly.
He loved Konoha for the rare people in it like Minato and Kushina, Minato and Kushina who never looked at him with those eyes.
When he'd been unable to wield his father's tanto because of his demons, it'd been Kushina who had sent said demons to hell and given him the courage to pick it up.
When he’d been at his worst, Father influencing him more and more, Minato had realised something was wrong. Minato’s wise words and pleading eyes had woken him up from the violent daze he’d been on the verge of falling deep into.
At eight, Minato and Kushina had asked to adopt him and he couldn’t decline. He was the happiest he’d been in two years even if the shadowy figure of his father still haunted the darkest crevices of his mind.
Kakashi loved the Leaf.
He loved it even though it was tearing him apart, even though it made him want to scream and scream and scream.
His team had become family and they’d ripped it apart because all Konoha was good for was destruction. All Konoha could do was rip and smash and kill and-
Obito had been under the rock — crushed. Only a slither of wretched crimson had dribbled down his lips but Kakashi had been able to smell the amount under the boulder.
Nausea and panic and agony. He gave him a gift a gift a gift-
See the world. Record it all, let us watch through your eyes.
The mission had been way above their clearance level. Before they’d even set out from the office he’d been suspicious. Father had sung mockingly in his head the whole time but he’d ignored him.
A mistake.
You were a fool not to listen. You killed me. You’ll kill everyone! They’ll all die because of you!
This could’ve all been avoided if they weren’t against us from the start, Shi-kun. If you aren’t careful they will kill you just as they killed me.
Their whisperings were getting harder to ignore.
“There were reinforcements, you know.” Father had said one day while he had been sparring with Mom.
He’d stopped completely in favour of arguing back. ‘There couldn't have been, I would've noticed. They would've helped-'
“Anbu. That's why you didn't pick up on their presence. All three of you could've lived... A shame their captain made the decision not to interfere but I can understand. After all, who would want to save my son? A traitor in the making, a monster?" Father murmured. "Who would want to save scum lowly enough to associate with him?"
The words made no sense and yet they were the most logical things he’d ever heard. Kakashi couldn't understand and yet it added up perfectly in his mind. Konoha had only ever been cruel to him, why would they help him when he was in need? Why would they save them?
”You don’t have to roll over and let them throw you aside when they’re done,” Obito whispered. “You could make the first move, kill them before they ever have the chance to hurt you again.”
‘I am strong. I could strike first, I could-’
He shook his head violently to get rid of that train of thought. He was not Konoha, he was not a force of destruction. He was better than them even if the voices urging him to burn and destroy and hurt were getting louder.
Kakashi ignored the concerned looks that his parents kept sending him, he didn’t need their pity. He still had them, he still had Rin.
That was all that mattered.
Kakashi loved the Leaf.
He loved it. He loved it. He loved it.
Father was amused and Obito stifled laughter whenever he repeated it to himself but Kakashi didn’t care. If he didn’t repeat it, it wouldn’t be true-
His hand was still around Rin’s heart when she’d fallen to the ground, chest mangled but a perpetual smile on her dead face.
Wretched crimson all over his arms-
”Give it back!” Obito had screeched, fury so hot it burned him. “Give me my eye, you traitor!”
His own body betrayed him, fingers grazing Obito’s his eye. It wasn’t him moving his hand, it was Obito, it had to be Obito and this hadn’t happened before what was he… how was he? He wasn’t stopping, pain striking Kakashi like lightning.
”Stop, I’m sorry Obito. I’m sorry please- I’ll watch everything, I won’t cover it anymore,” he’d screamed in agony. “I didn’t want to kill her. I promise I didn’t want to kill her. I would never ev- it hurts!” He had sobbed, bloody tears and hellfire behind his eyes.
Only Father’s sharp tone had saved him then.
The enemy had moved closer during his outburst. They were shinobi from Mist so he wondered why they wore the Leaf’s hitae-ate. He wondered why their eyes were filled with ice and why they whispered among themselves about finally having the opportunity to rid Konoha of the monster.
Kakashi wondered why he didn’t shut down the bitter voice that called for their blood.
"A massacre. Hatake Kakashi conducted a massacre. Utterly unforgivable."
“He’s a danger to Konoha, look what he did to his fellow Shinobi!”
“A cold-blooded killer, did you hear what he did to his own teammate?”
“An eye thief too, that poor Uchiha boy was unlucky he was assigned to the same team.”
”Look at him, he doesn’t even try to hide it. Since the incident he’s always had the cursed thing uncovered.”
The old coots on the council had yelled about him like he wasn’t there — maybe he should've been offended. Obito told him he should be but Rin couldn't be more bothered. Kakashi found himself tripping into despondency between their two reactions. He only snapped to attention when Mom grabbed his hand, squeezing it in reassurance.
“I would’ve hoped the rumors about you were false.” Sarutobi's grey eyes were full of that same ice when he finally addressed him.
“False, true… does it matter anymore? The truth is usually built over a mountain of lies anyway,” Kakashi hummed.
”That it may be, but I cannot allow you go free for such a crime. You have put me in a difficult place indeed, Kakashi.”
“Hatake or Uzumaki to you,” he’d replied airily, barely in the same world as them. His head felt wrong on his shoulders, so empty and yet so full of constant chatter and screaming and Rin was laughing in his ear over the Old Man’s face. It was quite funny pulled like that, wasn't it?
“The council has decided an appropriate punishment would be to retract your claim to the sharingan,” A bandaged man spat. Father didn’t like him. Father wanted him to slit the man’s throat.
Obito was staring at him with a wide eye. “They can’t, they’re not allowed to do that. They can’t separate us-”
"Separate us?" Kakashi's mouth was dry. Desperation clawed at his chest and then he was screaming and cursing them all out. How dare they even think they could take Obito away from him? He’d kill them for their stupidity, gouge their eyes out and make them choke on them. He’d put his hand through their chests, skin them alive-
Strong arms holding him back.
”Mini Fang, they didn’t mean permanently take it away, they just want you to cover it again. You’re constantly chakra exhausted – even the Uchiha don’t use it the way you do,” Mom said.
"They want to take him, Mom. I won't let them take him away from me. I won't let them, no they can't have him-"
"Kakashi!" He'd gripped her so tightly in his frenzy that he'd drawn blood. Crimson rivers trailed slowly down her arm. Her face was pale like she was afraid of him, of what he’d been about to do.
"Are you scared of me?" He asked, voice cracking.
”No," her mouth said. She had hesitated, why had she hesitated? "but you’re delirious most of the time now, kid. It’s not good for you… losing yourself the way you are.”
”She’s lying to you,” Rin whispered. “Didn’t you see the terror in her eyes? She knows you’re a monster.”
He turned to Dad, ignoring the ache in his chest. The man would have the right words. He could always fix any situation, always make things better-
He couldn’t even look Kakashi in the eyes.
Kakashi hadn’t meant to laugh.
In fact, when he’d seen how disturbed they were by him, they thought he was crazy, he scared them, he scared the people he loved he’d screamed and cried apologies. He’d begged them to forgive him, told them he’d do better. He’d do anything as long as they loved him, as long as they didn’t leave him too. They couldn’t leave him, he’d die. His heart would shatter beyond repair and he would die.
But that hadn’t mattered.
No, it never mattered in Konoha. The choice had never been theirs to make. The Anbu had taken him roughly by the arms before either of his parents could open their mouths.
”There’s only so much insubordination I can take, Hatake. Do you think time in T&I will help you reflect on your actions?” Sarutobi sneered and the bandaged man smirked like a predator who had successfully ripped apart a nuisance.
“Put my son down!” Mom had been foaming at the mouth, she was so angry.
Dad had been distraught, sobbing promises to him. “We’ll get you out, Kakashi. Please just wait for us, we’ll get you out.”
Despite everything he believed them, of course he did.
Liars.
Dark and cold and painful.
Had it been days or centuries?
It didn't matter, the gods smiled on him.
Kakashi smiled back.
0o0
"Who are you? Don’t you recognize me?"
"You have to have some semblance of humanity left in you. You have to remember."
0o0
He wanted to breathe easier but every breath rattled his ribs making him hack painful coughs which made his ribs ache more in a vicious cycle.
The faceless woman planned it that way — he knew she indulged in his suffering.
Obito was right, she did deserve to die. He wanted to rip her heart out, wanted to watch her beg for mercy as he put her through what she'd done to him he wanted-
0o0
"Do you need this pain to feel alive?"
"No, we feel alive when we are with you."
0o0
Unshackled him. They had unshackled him?
The knife was heavy- comforting? Familiar.
“You’re going to cut yourself for food, doesn’t that sound like a fun game?”
The weapon glittered dully in his trembling hands.
0o0
They hadn’t loved him.
He didn’t need them.
0o0
Sensei was kind cruel kind kind-
She taught him so much about himself like… like how suffering was an art!
Yes, that was a good lesson. He giggled quietly to himself.
Maybe... Maybe she would hurt him less if he had something interesting to say-
0o0
Father in a pool of blood, Obito crushed and Rin with an empty chest.
Memories. They were his memories, they were too vivid to be anything else, too different from the haze of his twisted imagination-
No that couldn’t be right, he’d been speaking to them earlier. Rin healed him and he’d hurt Obito and Father calmed him down.
That couldn't be right.
0o0
Sensei had cut into his skin today.
Cut him until he was a bloody mess.
She'd taken away the knife after that.
"You don't deserve something so beautiful."
0o0
He screamed and cried and begged her to let him go home-
He laughed and sang and crowed for her to kill him.
0o0
"We just want to help you. Let us save you, Kakashi."
Kakashi loathed the Leaf.
His parents had already been cold by the time he reached them, as cold as the eyes and the rain and all of the other bodies!
He wasn’t worried. He’d gotten back to them and that was all that mattered. He sat by Mom and threaded his fingers through her pretty red hair, gently pulling the strands into a braid that she’d praise him for when she woke up.
“You did well Mini Fang, it looks wicked!” She’d say with a grin across her face and Dad would say, “Well done son,” and ruffle his hair like he always did and they’d go home and carry on living happily for ever and ever. There’d be no more solitary confinement or pain or death and everything would be perfect.
When he pulled his hands away from Kushina, they came back an even darker red than her hair. He couldn’t help but admire the beautiful crimson that dripped down his skin. How could he have ever thought it was wretched? He loved it so much that he felt lightheaded.
Not far from them, a building collapsed and screams filled the air as people were crushed by the rubble. Flames ate away at the foundations of the village, illuminating the night. He smiled softly, drinking up the scene before he remembered he wasn’t alone anymore.
“You need to wake up now,” he murmured just loudly enough for them to hear him. They were shinobi, they definitely would.
Neither of them moved.
Maybe it would've been a funny joke but Kakashi just found himself irritated beyond reason. “I said you have to wake up, don’t ignore me!” He took Minato harshly by the shoulders and shook, only growing more agitated as his head lolled uselessly back and forth.
“Mom, your husband’s being dumb again,” he groaned, throwing Dad to the ground hard as retribution. When Mom didn’t respond either though, he felt his heart stop.
“What… is this?” He asked, his mouth awfully dry.
“They’re dead Kakashi,” Rin said gently.
“No they’re not,” Kakashi replied, staring blankly at his parents’ sleeping forms. “Mom promised that they wouldn’t die so they can’t be dead.”
“Well she was obviously wrong, you idiot.”
“She promised,” Kakashi chanted, hands over his ears like that would block out their voices. “She promised she promised she promised.” Mom had promised that they’d be safe, that they’d come back to him, that they’d never leave him alone again. She didn’t break her promises never ever ev-
“They’re dead Shi-kun!” Father roared, taking him by the shoulders and shaking him hard. Kakashi looked him in the eyes, searching for any hint of a lie. When he found nothing, he sank to his knees, unable to support his weight any longer. His bloody hands clutched at his hair staining the silvery strands as he yanked it in his rage.
Father had been warning him about this for a long time. He just hadn’t listened because he was such a stupid, idiotic, screw up of a son. He could’ve saved them if he’d just listened, if he’d escaped faster. If he hadn’t let Dad become Hokage, if, if, if-
The tears that scalded his cheeks were almost as hot as the fire.
“I told you Konoha would be the death of them,” Father’s voice was harsh and unforgiving. Disappointed. Kakashi only bawled harder. They were gone forever, for this worthless village. This village that wasn’t worth an iota of their time or energy had killed them both.
It needed to go.
Konoha needed to go.
The place was a living hell that only took and ravaged and destroyed. It only ever killed those that he loved, those nameless faces and icy eyes and harsh whisperers were left to their own devices day after day after day after-
He’d burn it to the ground, every last inch of this corrupt wasteland. It didn’t deserve to stand, all it did was stamp out people’s light, their brilliance was destroyed in the name of the greater good.
Will of fire? He’d will the whole place to burn.
The laughter that escaped his throat sounded like glass shattering. He didn’t do anything to smother it. He hadn’t wanted to scare his parents before, he’d held this side of himself back but now they were dead dead dead and nothing mattered anymore. He inhaled deeply, letting the smoke fill his lungs and resisting the urge to claw at his throat, indulging in his own suffering. He deserved to burn too after all – he didn't care if he did, so long as they all joined him. As long as they all suffered in eternal torment together. He doubled over at the idea, laughing and sobbing and too much and too little-
If it didn’t all burn to the ground that night, he’d do it himself. Burn and burn and burn until all of the ice was thawed, until they couldn’t look at him even if they wanted to, until there was only dust and ashes left.
Obito and Rin had their arms around him. He didn’t do anything to push them away. He could barely make out what they were saying though there was feverish delight in their voices. If they wanted his destruction too they could have it. He’d give himself to them until there was nothing left of him, until Hatake Kakashi was nothing more than a pretty blotch on the pages of history.
That’s what they wanted, right? Right! Right?
Ugly screaming cut through the haze in his mind like a sharpened knife.
Kakashi had been prepared to strangle the creature for disrupting his mourning, something morbidly animalistic screaming in his own head before he’d finally seen that the noise was coming from a bundle of gold that lay on the ground. Sunshine hair and eyes that were the sky itself. Diamond tears shimmered in those impossibly large eyes and everything fell silent as Kakashi slowly pulled him to his chest.
"Your brother," they hummed in unison.
"It's okay Naru, I've got you, I've got you and I'll never let anyone hurt you," he muttered brokenly. "You won't leave me, will you? You won't leave me like our parents. You won't leave me all alone will you?" His breathing became laboured at the idea, shivers wracking through him and his heart constricting like it would implode. "No, you won't will you? You wouldn't do that to your big brother..." he rambled.
Images flooded his mind. Naruto spattered in crimson, dead at the hands of the village. Naruto's startling blue eyes freezing over as he turned to look at him. Naruto turning his back on him and leaving him in the dark without light. Naruto walking away…
Naruto leaving him all alone.
"I won't let you," he whispered breathlessly, eyes wild. "I won't let you Naru-chan. I won't let you, I won't let you, I won't let you," he chanted hysterically. "I won't let you leave me too. But you wouldn't do that anyway, would you now? I'm just being silly, aren't I?" Kakashi looked to the child for an answer but shook his head once he realised he wasn’t going to get one. "Yes, I'm just being silly," he mumbled to himself. "I'm just being silly because that'll never ever happen will it Naru? And I won't let them hurt you, I won't let them touch you. If anyone even dares shift a hair on your head out of place, I'll kill them," he muttered darkly as he clutched the child tighter. Konoha wouldn't be the death of him, he wouldn't let it. He wouldn't let it take his last light, his sunshine away.
Kakashi loved his brother.
The way he loved him was obsessive and twisted and dangerous but he loved him regardless, it was the only way he knew. Being around him was an addiction, one that he knew he wouldn’t shake in his lifetime but that was ok. He could cope, he would always keep him close, never let him out of his sight… yeah… yeah that would work.
Except on missions where they would howl for him to return quickly. Hours, days, weeks passed where he couldn’t check on him. It made him nauseous; it made him dangerous.
So much emptiness the second he was away-
Cold, unforgiving fury whenever they tried to touch him.
He’d heard the animals whimpering again recently. “He’s gotten worse,” they squawked, “he’s grown more dangerous.” And maybe he had. He couldn’t help the fact his habits had gotten more frequent or that he indulged himself more in his hobby. He couldn't help the fact needed to know where Naruto was every second of every day or that he had hurt people for the disgusting way they’d treated his sunshine.
Well maybe hurt… was an understatement. Even as a member of the black ops they didn’t give him anywhere near enough missions to satiate his unhealthy obsession with torture. Seeing those below him break irreversibly under his hands made him feel so unbelievably good. In his defence they deserved what they got, they were all disgusting animals. He was justified, his sunshine would love him more if he knew what he was doing for him. Right? Hewouldhewouldhewouldhehadto
Hiruzen Sarutobi — he was not his Hokage — had threatened to throw him back in a cell with T&I after he’d finally caught on and the child in him had screamed and screamed and refused to shut up. Then he had screamed and raged and terrified Naruto after he tore their apartment apart because unresolved trauma is a bitch.
(He’d bought so many toys afterwards, guilt paralysing him as he’d broken down at his sunshine’s feet, desperately begging for forgiveness, for him not to leave too.)
Naruto was the centre of his world: his lifeline, his salvation, his everything.
Kakashi couldn’t afford to lose him, not the child with Dad’s smile and Mom’s humour. When he was around the boy, the ruckus in his head faded away to almost nothing and he could act like the cool, responsible older brother he was supposed to be because around Naruto he was, without a doubt, his most stable.
The academy’s recent fire certainly didn’t have anything to do with his brother getting too close to the villains inside it. How could he make friends in that place? How could he even think that he needed people that weren’t him?
“If you love me, you won’t talk to any of them anymore,” he’d said, pain burning a hole through his chest as he spoke severely.
“But-”
“They’re all monsters!” Kakashi had yelled, slamming his fist down so hard on the kitchen table that the wood had splintered. “Don’t you see how they look at us?"
“Some of them are different Kakashi, they’re kind-”
“They’re all the same!” He had panicked as he’d seen the disgusted curl of Dad’s lips, heard Mom whispering to keep Naru far away from those demons. “They’re all the same and they’ll kill you. They’ll rip you to shreds and tear you away from me and ruin everything because that’s what Konoha does,” he snapped bitterly, yanking at his hair to keep himself grounded. Kakashi couldn’t have them influencing him further around his sunshine, he couldn’t and yet…
When he blinked, the room was in shambles and his world was cowering in fear. The ocean eyes that had been brimming with vitality moments earlier were dull as they levelled him with a blank stare.
“Naruto-”
“I won’t talk to them anymore,” he murmured robotically. “I won’t talk to them or acknowledge them or even look at them. They’re below us.”
“Naru, I’m sorry-”
“All Konoha’s good for is ripping and smashing and killing,” he continued in that same dead voice. Kakashi agreed but he knew that Naruto didn’t. From his mouth, those words sounded so unnatural and wrong.
Whathadhedonewhathadhedone?
“That’s what I think but… maybe it would be alright for you to branch out?”
Branching out would only bring pain and suffering and keep your mouth shut you idiot-
“You’ll kill him,” Father snarled from just behind Naruto as Kakashi plastered a smile onto his face to reassure him that he didn’t mind. He purposely didn’t look any of them in the eyes, he’d change his mind if he did. If Naruto wanted… friends he could have them, all the friends in the world if it made him happy.
Anything in the world if it made him happy. Kakashi would give him the world itself as a gift if he so pleased. Everything. Everything for him.
He received dead eyes and a puzzled expression for his efforts.
“Why would I need to when I have you? I only need you, I’ll only ever need you.”
A tiny part of him cried in despair. This was not what he wanted, this was unfair and forced and broken and- that part of him was completely overshadowed by the part of him that heard those words and crooned contentedly, so terribly pleased to hear exactly what he’d always wanted, needed to hear.
His sunshine had only become brighter as he got older – he was going to be better than him someday and that fact excited him. Their parents’ sealing work came to both of them like breathing though Naru was exceptional, already capable of writing his own. He picked up ninjutsu like a sponge and was amazing to have around in general, a beautiful soul and a grounding presence.
He was perfect in every way.
Kakashi’s hatred had become Naruto’s as the years had passed. Gone was the child that looked at the people of Konoha and saw good. Kakashi had seen the disgust in his eyes as he’d finally seen Konoha’s true colours.
Everything was perfect.
They understood each other on a spiritual level. Nobody would ever know Kakashi’s rotted soul as well as Naruto did and vice versa. Kakashi knew everything about him…
Perfect perfect perfect perfect perfect.
"Why is Naru lying on the ground like that?" Kakashi asked, sharingan spinning lazily, taking in all of the pretty red.
"Sensei-" Sakura looked at him through glassy eyes in terror? disbelief? He didn't know but she was crimson too and now they matched! Blood in his eyes and staining his heart and another corpse among the many that decorated the field, Lichtenburg figures branded into their cooling flesh. This was the fate of a liar. This was what they all deserved.
"Was she lying, or can you not cope with the truth?" Rin whistled, swinging her legs from where she sat atop a throne of bodies, appreciating his chaos with childish wonder. Father clicked his fingers and everything broke. Memories assaulting him and mysteries unravelling and-
It was for Sasuke? Sasuke. He did it for Sasuke. Because of Sasuke.
“I hate Uchiha Sasuke above all else,” Naru had repeated over the years, disregarding every rise the other held up to him, ignoring him completely like he was nothing but filth.
So why?
The world was quiet and dark and then it was red and he couldn’t breathe because Naru was cold and still and dead with beautiful wretched wretched WRETCHED crimson flowing out of his chest and there were enemies still alive and how dare they continue living? how dare they how dare they how dare-
Screaming and more screaming and more screaming. Was it him or was it them? It didn’t matter it didn’t matter. He needed to hear them sing for him until he ripped out their vocal cords. He needed to watch them all snap like broken puppets. He needed them to dance with his lightning until they died. He needed to feel their hearts falter in his palm-
“You need to snap Sasuke’s neck,” Mom hummed but he could taste her rage on his tongue. Kakashi relished it, lost in too many emotions and too many voices. Naru would want this, right? Of course he would. He hated Sasuke and Naru always had his reasons. Kakashi chuckled darkly to himself as it all clicked into place.
Sasuke must’ve pushed him, manipulated his sunshine when he wasn’t looking. That must’ve been it, Naru would never do something like that, he couldn’t, he’d been tricked of course! The council had fought so hard to put Sasuke on their team, they must’ve been planning this from the start because of course they were. They were always doing something, Sage-forsaken Konoha had always wanted them dead.
Were they happy now?
Sasuke’s sobs were too loud in his ears, so irritatingly loud. He was the one that had set this up and now he had the audacity to act as if he was upset? Kakashi turned to him with wild eyes, a powerful lightning jutsu already at his fingertips.
“You’ll make him suffer for me, Kakashi.” Naruto’s voice left no room for argument, not that he ever would, never against his sunshine.
“Anything for you,” Kakashi breathed in response.
Might Guy knew Kakashi well, better than anyone else in the village and consequently, he knew a lot about him.
He knew he was kind and courageous, and that he was loyal and compassionate. He knew that he was strong, so incredibly strong — Guy wouldn’t have chosen him as his rival otherwise — but despite his insane strength and what he’d managed to lead so many to believe, above all else Guy knew Kakashi was fragile.
Fragile like an ethereal mirror.
Someone as fragile as Kakashi was never meant to weather a storm as destructive as the life he’d been cursed with. In the face of such hardship the beautifully fragile were bound to break, leaving behind only bad luck and pretty shards to cut everyone else.
As the years had passed, Guy had watched the cracks form in his friend. He’d helplessly observed as those cracks had become fissions which grew larger and larger with each new day.
And so when Kakashi had finally looked at him with cold new eyes, void of anything but burning madness, he had been angry, mournful, terrified even, but not surprised.
How could he be?
He knew it was coming. He’d known it since they’d been children and he’d heard Kakashi arguing with people long dead, fighting so hard to keep himself from falling apart.
In this village though, he’d never stood a chance.
Guy knew that it was Konoha’s fault that Kakashi had shattered.