video | 002

[ura_no_ura]

[Action | Mid-afternoon]

[ Nothing to see here.

Just a man with silver hair darkened by rust-colored flecks walking through the middle of town from the underground tunnels in fatigues soaked through in some places with blood. He's got a dirty-looking bandage wrapped around his left arm, a slowly spreading red spot eating its way across the gauze surface. He walks like a man who hasn't slept in days -- shoulders slumped, each step weighted. But even despite the apparent exhaustion, he still attempts to make it look more like a lazy stroll than a tired march back to the apartment he'd claimed as his own in Building 1.

Assuming it's even still called Building 1, and his apartment hasn't been taken over by a new resident, anyway. He's been gone for a while, after all.

Two months is a long time to be on a combat mission, but not anything Kakashi isn't used to. Coming back to Luceti after a mission instead of Konoha, though -- that's new.

On the way back to Building 1 Flame Building, Kakashi stops by the Convenience Store for some more bandages, rubbing alcohol, antibiotic ointment, a needle and thread, some pain killers, and a few packages of instant ramen. ]

[ Video | Night ]

[ Kakashi's looking a little better than he did earlier in the day. First aid, food, a hot shower, a fresh change of clothes, and a nice, long nap does wonders. ]

Yo.

[ Have a two-finger wave. ]

I'm back. Did I miss anything exciting?

Comments

[sand_lost]

I am too. [Kakashi had been there when he told Naruto he didn't believe Sasuke could be saved after all, that he had been wrong...well, he was glad for it.]

I'm sure Naruto and Sasuke will be capable of finishing that particular battle. [Though he's still a little disappointed he hadn't been there in the end, sure there was some satisfaction to be felt in pulling the Ichibi out of the men that had stolen it to begin with.

He has more questions about the war, the small bits that he should know as the General Commander. But since Kakashi had been in a different dimension, he's sure there's not much else Kakashi knows that he does not.]

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi's certain that Naruto will triumph, as he always does, because he's Naruto, and he has all the hopes and dreams of shinobi, of his friends, to support him along the way. But what pride might come with that knowledge is tempered by the fact that the man they are fighting is Obito. By the fact that Kakashi is every bit as responsible for the events that had transgressed in such a terrible way as Obito himself, if only because he had failed Obito in the worst way possible. ]

There's something that I think you should know...

[ Kakashi says after a moment, taking a slow breath. ] Obito was once my teammate.

[sand_lost]

[There's silence for a moment as Gaara considers that.]

That darkness is a difficult thing to overcome.

[There's no accusation there. Only a brief moment of sympathy, the same given to Sasuke when Gaara realized he had succumbed to the darkness that he had first drawn him toward the Uchiha. And the same given to Naruto when he told him that there was no saving him.]

It must have been hard for you.

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi shakes his head no, because this isn't about him. As difficult as it is for him, this goes far beyond his own struggle and experience. This war has devastated entire countries, has laid flat villages. Has seen tens of thousands of lives lost, countless more injured or maimed.

He closes his eye, shoulders slumping. ]

My personal feelings don't matter in this.

[ He opens his eye and meets Gaara's gaze then. ]

What matters... is the fact that Obito has done terrible things to your people, and I am partially responsible for what he has become. For that... I am sincerely sorry.

[ Kakashi executes a formal bow then, bending at the waist, eye closing once more. He knows that if Minato were here, he would most likely be doing this instead, because he feels as responsible for Obito as Kakashi does. And because he is, and always will be, Hokage.]

[sand_lost]

[Gaara's features tense a bit at the apology, a slight shake of his head that he doubts Kakashi can see in his bowed position.]

No.

[And Kakashi gets a bit of a scowl to accent the word.]

And it is not because I do not understand the necessity of claiming the mistakes of those tied to you. As Kazekage, I must amend for the mistakes of my village, past and present.

But I am also someone who has walked in that darkness.

[ura_no_ura]

[ Walking in darkness and being the cause of so much death, the reason for so much suffering and loss, are two completely separate things. Kakashi wants to tell Gaara that he's wrong. That the magnitude, the sheer gravity of what Obito has done is so much worse than anything Gaara might've done himself when he was a child lost to something far darker than any rage. Gaara may have done things that were grievous, things that he regrets. But he's never started a war, or laid waste to his own village.


Kakashi knows better than to argue with a kage, especially one that is not his own. Even if Gaara is much younger than him, when it comes to diplomacy of this nature, regardless of how much Kakashi disagrees, he doesn't want to cross a line or misstep.

But he also won't raise his head just yet, leather crinkling as cold fingers curl into fists.

The frigid wind cuts his hair across his eye, cloak billowing.

He says nothing. ]

[sand_lost]

[His words haven't gotten through, and he didn't expect them too. He's given no true explanation, isn't quite sure he even knows how to properly put his thoughts into words.

Obito has hurt and killed many people. In the war and with Akatsuki. He's effectively threatened their entire world, and such transactions will not be forgiven nearly as easily as his own were, as Sasuke's will probably be. And to see all that murder caused by a friend, a teammate, as someone that was supposed to help keep that loneliness away, to stand as the shining light in the darkness so he could find their way out, it must be difficult to witness. And impossible not to feel guilt.

That, and its hard to argue when he knows he's missing details, the events that made Obito fall down this path and away from Kakashi's team. But even so...]

It was a test. [The words are quiet in the wind, but there, the first he's spoken to anyone about the conversation that passed between him and his father.] The day I fell to the darkness, welcomed it. My father had set up all the events that proceeded it, watched to see how I would react.

I could blame him for all of it...but, I had a choice. To overcome it or succumb to it. It was a test, and I chose wrong.

I'm sure, whatever it was that caused it, your teammate had a choice too. That's not something you could make for him.

[ura_no_ura]

[ You're wrong, Kakashi wants to say, because it's so much more complicated than just that. Choices are never black and white, especially when they're steeped in blood. ]

Perhaps that is the case, but I contributed to that poor choice, and for the consequences that followed.

[sand_lost]

I understand. And I accept.

[While its not something he entirely agrees with, he can appreciate what Kakashi is doing, the sincerity in which he does it with. And its out of respect rather than agreement that he accepts it and doesn't attempt to argue his point any more.]

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi doesn't really think he deserves forgiveness, but he accepts Gaara's acceptance of his apology, and straightens up once more. He'll let Gaara take the lead here with how he'd like this conversation to go. After all, even if Kakashi is older, Gaara still outranks him. And as far Kakashi goes, rank still matters in this world. ]

[sand_lost]

I appreciate the information you've shared with me today. While I understand their motive, I have to admit, I could not see the reason behind it. True peace can not come from an illusion.

Do you believe he's redeemable? [Redemption is not normally in his nature, he's never hesitated to kill those that caused a threat, but one thing he has learned speaking to those he had labeled very clearly as 'enemy', is that he is not the only one who's managed to change his path.]

[ura_no_ura]

[ There is a part of Kakashi, the desperate part, the part that doesn't want Obito to die again, that wants to believe Obito can be redeemed. That somehow, he can continue to live on and find a way to atone for the things he'd done. But that part is a tiny sliver of him, when Kakashi knows the truth: Obito will be defeated by the Allied Forces, and when that happens, he will most likely die. Without having ever been able to redeem himself. ]

I want to believe that.

[ Kakashi says honestly after a moment, his voice quiet. ]

But I don't know how likely it is.

[sand_lost]

While its true that many of us will not hesitate to destroy someone who has injured and killed so many... [And he was one of those, if someone was willing to hurt those he cared about, he felt no remorse in ending their life] there are others who will handle the situation differently.

Like Naruto.

Perhaps there is a chance for your old teammate yet if Naruto is his opponent.

[ura_no_ura]

Even if Naruto may be willing to forgive, others -- especially the kage -- will not be so generous. Obito's done unspeakable things, and most likely, the parties involved will want him to pay for it.

[ Kakashi isn't going to blindly reach for hope, when he knows there isn't any. ]

[sand_lost]

No. I don't imagine they have any intention of being generous at all. I certainly did not. And while I know the current Hokage well enough, I do not know the rest of the Hokage that are scattered amongst the battlefield to know what approach they will take against one of their own.

The only thing certain in this war is our determination to win.

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi nods.

The determination to win. That much he knows the Allied Forces have in great abundance. But mercy is another story entirely. He can't be certain the kage would be willing to exercise that at all, in the face of what Obito had wrought. ]

I suppose only time will tell.

[sand_lost]

Indeed.

[He isn't good with comfort, and realizes somewhat absently that Kakashi doesn't really seem to want any. Maybe the pain of thinking of a friend's death is a version of penitence that's beyond his understanding.]

I do appreciate the information. There were gaps I hadn't had time to be filled in on. [And while he can't do anything about the war here, he does feel better having those questions answered.

Now all that's left is to worry about this place.]