Kakashi's wallow

The boys come across an exhausted Kakashi who is not giving up and running toward a tree. Kakashi is so involved in that he didn't notice the kids coming toward him. Only when the kids came close did they notice dried blood on the ground and Kakashi's clothes and still blood dripping slowly from Kakashi's hands.

Seeing Kakashi still indulging in his self-torture that he calls training. Hiroto and Itachi stood by and called out "Kakashi-nii..". Kakashi turns his head to see Hiroto and Itachi with anger his eyes hoping for them to leave him alone.

Itachi and Hiroto saw Kakashi looking towards them with so much anger they flinched seeing his facial expressions and his eyes, especially the left one which is red indicating that it was the newly gained sharingan. Both the kids fidgeting slightly still stood their ground.

"Why don't you leave me alone? Do you want to donate for my other eye Itachi." roared Kakashi in indignation hoping the kids will leave him alone. The kids took a moment to reel in their senses and firmly looked at him and said "Whatever you say we won't leave you Kakashi-nee, not only me but mother, father, Itachi, Aunt, Uncle, Rin nee-chan. " Itachi also voiced out his support saying "No one blames you for Obito's sacrifice Kakashi-san you know he would the same again in a heartbeat. "

Kakashi seeing them firm in their support let tears fall from his eyes breaking his eyes. The younger boys showed their support by closing him with a tight hug. A few moments passed Kakashi got somewhat better and shared his experiences with Obito but seemingly holding back something.

Both the younger boys noticed this. Itachi knew Kakashi is closer to Hiroto and sees the latter as a younger brother because of their history. So Itachi made an excuse and took his leave. Hiroto understanding this gave a grateful nod to Itachi. Hiroto proposed "Let's have a meal at Ichiraku's." to Kakashi.

Soon both made their way toward Ichiraku's. Teuchi greeted his newly arrived customers and offered his condolences to Kakashi, after taking their order he went away to prepare them. After a few minutes, Ayame came towards them and placed their bowls and soon made her leave without bothering her crush Kakashi like her usual self.

Kakashi and Hiroto completed their meal in silence while paying Teuchi said it was on the house. Soon Hiroto made his leave towards the Konoha graveyard with Kakashi following absentmindedly. Once Hiroto came to a stop only then Kakashi came out of his stupor and noticed his surroundings and noticed the name on the tombstone Hatake Sakumo.

Seeing his father's name Kakashi muttered in a low house "Father what you do if you are in this situation." Kakashi with a neutral tone "Hiroto you know I don't know how my mother even looks. But my father made sure I get enough love, he brought me up without me ever noticing the lack of a mother in my life. But soon after I enrolled in the academy he left me. You know what they say about my father ?"

Without waiting for a response "A coward, failure. That's what they've said about my father. I started to hate my father after he left his mission to save his comrades. But only Gai, his father who is a friend of my father called out those rumors, not even the ones he saved stood by him, and your father stood by my side till his last breath." Kakashi said with a hitch in his voice and it became slightly coarse.

Kakashi with tears streaming down his face still "Your father Uzumaki Hiroko always spends half of his time with me whenever he is in Konoha and took me to introduce his family, your family, and slowly I became my cheerful self but soon he left me too." continued Kakashi in a low voice. Hiroto is in no better state than Kakashi but still kept listening without making a noise.

"After that, I took a ninja test and did risky missions without any care for my life. Your mother tried to reach out to me many times but I couldn't bring myself to face her. Hokage-sama knowing it inducted me to many genin teams but none lasted then came Team 7. That goofy idiot even when I am ignoring him and others slowly made their way into my heart. But the breaking point came with you." said Kakashi with a reminiscing look on his face.

"Obito on his last breath said something reminding me of my father 'In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.' That idiot could've saved himself but he died trying to protect me and all my arrogance, my talent which others have praised so much couldn't help me save him. Maybe I should've been better de.." before Kakashi finishes that he has been cut off by a tight hug.

Kakashi looked down to see two small hands holding him close. He felt his shirt wet so he turned back to see Hiroto holding him tightly with red eyes. Hiroto with some hiccups "Kak... Kakashi-nii Obito-nii didn't give up his life for you to wallow in self-pity. People give up their lives for their loved ones so live your life so that the people watching from above can be proud of it." said after composing himself.

Hearing this Kakashi looked at him and shock and said "Don't worry my otouto I will make them proud and you too to call me your nii-san." while rubbing the younger one's cheeks. A smile made its way onto their lips slowly and both spent a couple of hours in the graveyard. They noticed the sun has almost set so Kakashi followed Hiroto to drop him home.

"So Kakashi-nee what is that you're practicing." inquired Hiroto. "A new jutsu with some I am working on it's about halfway done," said Kakashi while ruffling the former's hair. "So can you teach me ?" asked a hopeful Hiroto. "You can but you need to be at least become chunin to learn it." said Kakashi but noticing the younger losing his smile he added, "But you can watch me while I train so it might be helpful when you learn it."

Smile quickly returned to Hiroto's face and quickly nodded like a pecking hen. Soon they made their way to the destination and Kakashi left off after dropping Hiroto, Kushina saw from the window and had tears of joy seeing the white-haired kid back like in his cheerful days.