A father's duty - pt 2

"What do you think you're doing?" Sakumo heard a voice from the door, it didn't sound happy or sad, on the contrary, it was quite monotone. He immediately recognized that voice and froze.

"What are you doing here, Eiji? Didn't I tell you to go to sleep?" Sakumo asked as sternly as he could. After all, he didn't want Eiji to see him attempting suicide.

"For what? For you to kill yourself?" Questioning his father, Eiji continued with a voice devoid of emotion.

Sakumo tried to interject, but no words came out of his mouth; he truly felt ashamed of himself.

"You were going to kill yourself, weren't you? I saw what you were going to do. Go ahead, DO IT!" Eiji's voice exploded with barely contained anger.

Sakumo flinched at the tone. His throat was dry as breathing became a laborious task. He looked down at the floor, an intense pain running through him. He had failed the mission, his village, his friends, and now his son was openly berating him. He no longer wanted to live with this guilt and disgrace, and with this pressure, the White Fang of Konoha finally broke mentally.

But Eiji continued, not giving Sakumo a chance to recover, "You were going to kill yourself because of comments about your mission? Slander? Because your friends are talking behind your back?" Eiji bombarded him with several questions, each hitting him like red-hot iron.

"Or is it because of your wife?" For the first time, he looked into his father's eyes, and there seemed to be no emotion, as if he didn't even know him.

Sakumo closed his eyes. He couldn't have gotten over his wife; he still loved her with every fiber of his being, but she wasn't the only reason, she was just one of the reasons.

"You are pathetic, the great White Fang breaking under the pressure of some civilians, how laughable is that, and here I thought suicide was only for cowards, seems it'll put you among them," Eiji ruthlessly shattered him with his words.

Sakumo fell to his knees in shame. His son was right, he had broken and wanted to take his own life.

"You're not going to kill yourself? Have you thought about what will happen to me and Kakashi? Where are we going to live? In an orphanage? Maybe fall into the hands of some scum? To be used as breeding material? After all, we're the son of the famous White Fang!" He exclaimed ironically.

"What is a father's duty?" Eiji questioned the man in front of him.

The room fell silent for a few minutes until finally, Sakumo opened his mouth to speak, his throat even drier. "To take care of my children, protecting them from dangers, teaching them the values of life, of everyday life, of meals..."

"And what do you think a village is?" Eiji questioned the man again.

For the first time in his life, Sakumo was rendered speechless by that question.

Seeing this, Eiji answered the question, "The village is not a place, but the people who reside there. That means you ARE the village. Your death won't make anything easier in the village. You may be seen by them as a traitor because of your mistakes, but the real traitors are those who end up committing suicide because of it.

"The village is all well and good, but it's just a place; we can live anywhere and call it home. A father's duty is to die for his children, NEVER for the village. A house can be rebuilt, life cannot. You must be alive to take care of the people." Eiji finished speaking and looked at his father, expecting an answer.

Although Sakumo didn't agree with what his son said, he also didn't think he was wrong. An ounce of judgment descended upon Sakumo, and he thought, 'What was I going to do? How would my children grow up?' Eiji noticed a slight change in his father's expression, but he continued.

"Kakashi idolizes you from the depths of his being. You're irreplaceable to him, probably for his whole life. Imagine when he finds out that his own father took his life at home because he didn't follow the rules?

"He would probably shut himself off from everything and everyone, train like crazy to join the war as if his life were disposable, hoping to get an honorable death on the battlefield, that the rules are more important than the lives of his comrades, something entirely against what he wanted to be and what you represented to him." The more he listened, the more terrified he became.

"He wants to be like you, an incredible Shinobi, someone who risks their life to bring their friends back home, who has the courage to fail a mission just so their friends can return alive to their families."

After some time, Sakumo spoke, and there was nothing but sadness. "It's true. But I failed everyone, the village, my friends, the Hokage... I don't deserve to be a ninja anymore," he said.

"Do you know what I heard from some people?" Eiji finally smiled at his father.

"White Fang brought my father back home."

"Thanks to him, I can see my father again."

"White Fang is the best."

Sakumo couldn't believe what he heard from his son; no one had ever told him that.

"You are the greatest hero this village could have, father. You brought people back to their homes, they may not have spoken to you, but your children said they are grateful to you. You let them live with their parents a little longer, one more day, and here you are, taking your life."

'What was I going to do?' Sakumo no longer noticed his grip on the knife loosening, and it fell to the floor.

"Did you notice something strange? How did all these civilians know about a secret mission? Why did you think everyone in the village knew about it? Why didn't you think there could be someone pulling the strings in the shadows, not even the Hokage did anything about your situation?"

"That...?" Sakumo had never suspected that his son would tell him a lie. But he needed to confirm, anger grew within him; if what Eiji said was true, it must mean that someone, possibly Danzo, was the reason for all of this. And the Hokage really hadn't spoken up even once.

This...

"Every word of everything I said, you're an idiot," Eiji smiled.

Sakumo approached his son and hugged him; he regretted what he was going to do today, and some tears fell from his face.

'Danzo, you will pay with every fiber of your being' Sakumo was no fool, he knew where these dirty and sneaky games came from, and he almost made it, if not for his son.

and he almost succeeded if not for his son.

'As for the Hokage? Just wait...'

"Life is not about how strong you are, or how defeated you are, or how much you suffer; life is about how much you can endure without giving up and how many times you will stand up and try again. Life is about what you'll do after you stand up again," Eiji said, recalling a line from a certain movie.

"Hahaha, you're too young to say such things to me, kid," Sakumo wiped away the tears and smiled as he messed up his son's hair; he felt rejuvenated and needed something like this. Someone would pay for this, and that someone would be...

"Are you still going to kill yourself? I don't want to go to an orphanage, you know?" Eiji teased, he needed to make sure he wouldn't do it again behind their backs.

"I won't... I'm sorry, Eiji, please... don't tell Kakashi about this, I feel much better now, thank you." He wouldn't know what to do with Kakashi if he found out. He knows he feels much better now, as if a weight had been lifted off him.

"I'll sleep with you tonight, so you don't do anything stupid," Eiji said firmly.

"Okay." Sakumo complied.

Another figure with silver hair appeared in the middle of the room and curiously asked, "What are you doing here? Aren't we going to sleep?" Kakashi noticed a knife on the floor, but didn't think much of it.

It's not like someone was trying to take their own life, right?

"Kashi-ni, I was asking Daddy to sleep with us tonight, what do you think?"

"Do whatever you want, I don't care, baka." Kakashi crossed his arms and pouted.