"Welcome home, we need your papers." Kotetsu cheered.
A 24 year old shinobi with spiky black man and white linen across his face, he sat at a desk. Dressed in a full-bodied blue jumpsuit, this attire was covered by a leaf green flak jacket.
"Here you are." Kakashi pulled four pages from his pouch.
"Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Na-" Trailing off, Kotetsu froze at the mention of Naruto's name.
"That's correct, returning from the Land of Waves." Kakashi spoke.
"It says here you left over 3 weeks ago, but your mission was only supposed to last a week." Kotetsu sighed.
Grabbing a nearby sheet of paper, Kotetsu pulled out a pen before scribbling in haste. Sprawling from paragraph to paragraph, information, proto calls, and codes were transcribed.
Still can't believe he graduated... Iruka, was he worth it? Pondering, Kotetsu watched as Team 7 walked away.
"WHERE IS MY SYRUP?!" Izumo screeched, stomping out from a wooden hut.
Adorned with the symbol of Konoha, Izumo wore a navy blue bandana, clinging to messy brown hair. Similar to his childhood friend, he wore a blue bodysuit with a green flak jacket.
"Chill out! You have to be professional in the entry way." Kotetsu plead, running for his life.
"I'll professionally kick your ass!" Izumo bellowed, chasing his friend.
"We've walked across the entire village!" Sakura screamed, flailing both arms.
"We're almost there." Kakashi replied, reading from his orange book.
Kakashi was leading team seven down a narrow dirt road on the outskirts of Konoha. Each of these shinobi had just finished a delicious amount of Ramen from Ichiraku's ramen stand.
During their visit, Sakura surprised everyone by ordering a healthy serving of BBQ pork ramen. Usually, Sakura would never eat such food, but her time with Haku dramatically changed her philosophy.
Sakura's diet was one of the many things that Haku managed to fiercely beat out of her. The days of vegetable ramen and diets were a thing of the past, for the first time in her life, Sakura was more concerned with being a kunoichi than being hot.
"We're here." Kakashi concluded as he snapped his orange book shut, garnishing the attention of his students.
"WHAT!?" Sakura once again shrieked after recognizing their location.
"Our training grounds? You have to be kidding me, why would your teammates hang out here?" While complaining, Sakura crossed both arms in front of her chest.
"Well... I may have extended the truth." Kakashi mumbled, casually walking towards a nearby memorial stone.
"I KNEW IT! YOU BIG FAT LIAR!" Sakura declared, dramatically pointing at Kakashi.
"Here we are." Kakashi exclaimed.
This declaration caused all three Genin to glance at a diamond-shaped memorial stone in front of Kakashi. This stone was engraved with hundreds of names, personally carved by past Hokage.
"Sensei... I think you lost your mind." Sakura muttered.
"This is your teammate? A rock?" After speaking, Sakura rolled her emerald eyes with disbelief.
At this moment, Kakashi pulled a bundle of flowers from his satchel, placing them in front of the memorial stone. This action shocked Sakura, surprised that Kakashi found enough time to pick flowers.
"Woah! When did you get that?" Sakura asked
"He got them while we we're eating." Naruto asked, earning various glances from his teammates.
"Correct." Kakashi mumbled with a carefree tone.
"Hmph" Sakura snorted in defeat.
How did Naruto notice, but I didn't? Sasuke asked himself, clenching both fists.
Is your path really that strong... Stronger than-...? While thinking these thoughts, the silhouette of Itachi brief floated through Sasuke's mind.
So are you doing this for a certain person? For your clan? Or for yourself? The memory of Haku's voice abruptly polluted Sasuke's thoughts.
You see... When a person has something precious they want to protect, then they become genuinely strong. These memories forced Sasuke to clench his fists even tighter.
Naruto... Is that your power? Is that your strength? Can the path of love really be so strong? Sasuke asked himself while glancing at his best friend.
"Right, Sasuke?" Sakura asked, pulling the young Uchiha back into reality.
"W-... What?" Sasuke stuttered.
"This stone, you're totally gonna be the second Uchiha on it right?" Sakura asked, garnishing Sasuke's attention.
At this moment Sasuke took several steps forward bypassing both Naruto and Sakura before brushing the latter aside. As she fell, Sakura attempted to be romantic and reach out towards Sasuke be he casually swatted her away.
"Hey!" Sakura complained after falling down.
"Obito Uchiha..." Sasuke mumbled to himself, reading the only Uchiha name that was on the memorial.
"That's right - I visit him everyday." Kakashi explained, creating a brief aura of depression.
For several moments the clearing grew slient as Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi and devoted their attention to Sasuke, whose hands trembled slighted and the sound of his teeth gritting could be heard.
"He's the one isn't he, Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke probed.
"He's the friend who gave his life to protect your own, he's the one that gave you the Sharingan." While speaking, Sasuke's clenched fists finally began to relax.
"Yep." Kakashi answered with a carefree tone.
"Why did you bring me here?" Sasuke asked.
"To see the mockery of my clan!? One lousy name? In the place of an entire clan-...?!" While shouting, Sasuke was completely stunned after Kakashi poked his forehead.
"Be careful there, Sasuke. You're starting to sound like Sakura." Kakashi spoke out with an eye wink.
Scoffing in response, Sasuke brushed Kakashi's hand aside before turning around. Sasuke strolled next to Naruto and Sakura.
"I guess there's a lesson to be learned here." Mumbling his words, Kakashi rubbed his chin with one hand.
"Don't forget where you came from." Kakashi eye winked while smiling underneath.
"Wai-... Wait! Genin squads consist of three members. You and Obito makes two, who's the third?" Sakura questioned.
Scratching the side of his silver hair, Kakashi released a dramatic sigh before rolling his visible eye. Enthralled by this response, Sakura tightly clenched both fists, holding them in front of her chest.
"I was actually just about to go visit her, let's all go together." Kakashi exclaimed.
"Yea, yea, whatever! Let's get this over with!" Sakura shouted.
Grabbing Sasuke and Kakashi by the hand, Sakura dragged these shinobi through the forest. Stranding Naruto alone with his thoughts, this blond-haired whiskered boy briefly hesitated before running out of sight..
One hour later.
"Sensei, why are we here?" Sakura asked, walking through the large graveyard of Konoha.
"Do you have any friends that aren't dead?" After Sakura spoke, Kakashi hummed in response.
"No, not really." Kakashi joked.
"We're here." As he spoke, Kakashi's tone took an abrupt shift.
Kakashi stood in front of a barren plague, no fancy carvings, phrases, or badges of honor none except the Konoha. Beside this was a name and date, inscribing the rest place of Rin Nohara.
"..."
A brief silence feeling the air between Kakashi and his students as Sakura waited for him to reply but he didn't, to preoccupied staring down upon the graveyard of his first love.
"Sensei..." Sakura was about to speak out, but her sentence trailing off as she raised her right hand to her chest, clasping it again her left that also laid there.
Once again a silence fell over the group, Naruto still looking at the sky and Sasuke as well as Kakashi holding there gaze downcast as Sakura waiting anxiously for any of her teammates to say something.
"Yes - its been a long time." Kakashi mumbled out as his right hand began to tremble, the memories of the hours he spent attempting to wash Rin's blood off his hand flashing throughout his mind in mere seconds.
The sound of leaves and fresh breezes of wind cutting across the top of the graveyard markers echoed loudly as the dampening silence surrounding team 7 became deafened under it.
"H-how did she die Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, her clenched hands still pushed against her chest.
"She was given a choice..." Kakashi stated, his sentence trailing off for a brief moment as silence filled the air between him and his team before he continued.
"Become a demon and killed all those she held dear or..."Kakashi asserted, once again his statement trailed off.
The word demon causing Naruto's stomach to churn and rumble making the young blond grip his stomach with his right hand as he continued to stare up into the sky.
"Or die by the hand of the one she loved." Kakashi spoke, tilting his head upwards and staring into the sky in a very similar fashion to Naruto, the only exception being Kakashi's hand were in his pockets while Naruto's weren't.
"Oh..." Sakura mumbled out as she downcast her head, feeling bad for bringing up the subject, her sentence being the last word spoken for several moments.
A strong gust of wind blew in from the North, forcing leaves to join in its powerful gust as they danced, floated and twirled throughout the graveyard and its surroundings, truly the village hidden in the leaves.
Having grown so used to the sound of waves crashing against distant shores, aswell as the constant singing of seagulls hovering above the island of waves the three genin of team 7 we're awed by the strength of the wind.
They had spent 3 full weeks in the land of waves, 2 weeks longer than scheduled, not even mentioning to 2 days it took to return.
This caused all three of the genin to remain silent, listening to the strong gusts of wind that continued to pour in and engulf the graveyard, all of them enjoying being back home.
"Which path did she choose Sensei?" Naruto asked, curious to know more about Kakashi's teammates, including their deaths.
"Well..." Kakashi sighed off, still staring off up into the sky, debating his next choice of words.
However before anymore words escaped his mouth a solitary brown feathered fire hawk with a spot of white feathers covering the main joint of each of his two wings giving him the appearance of eyes.
Upon noticing the silver haired jounin the fire hawk quickly broke out into a fit of shrieks and screeching appearing to somehow communicate with the experienced jonin, who continued to stare up at the hawk.
"Alright guys, lets call it a day." Kakashi sighed out before disappearing in a blur of leaves.
Kakashi knew the message from the hawk had been from the Hokage and he was eager to deliver his own message as well as turning in the full report for the land of waves mission, a C- ranked mission turned A+ rank.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" Sakura screamed as she clenched her right fist and raised it to her jawline in rage.
"I can't believe he drags us all the way out here then just leaves us without he teaching us anything." Sakura huffed out as she crossed her arms and tilted her head to the left to face her two teammates.
"Yea let's get out of him and do some more training." Sasuke barked out before quickly turning around and walking off the way he came, Sakura walking behind him and checking out his figure.
Naruto finally lowered his gaze from the sky and positioned it towards the gravestone of Rin, understanding what his two teammates hadn't, understanding that Kakashi had been the one to kill Rin.
A demon... Naruto thought to himself, the churning in his stomach returning with the thought.
One of Nine... Naruto told himself as he remembered what the ancient scrolls written during the reign of the 1st Hokage had informed him of
Rin...this Shinobi world killed you, didn't it? Naruto asked aloud in his mind, knowing full well Rin wouldn't and couldn't respond.
Just like it killed Iruka-Sensei... Naruto thought to himself, his hands hanging like deadweight by his sides.
Why...why is the world like this? Naruto asked himself, his gaze piercing through his bangs and focusing intently on Rin's name inscribed upon the tombstone.
13 years old...barely older than me...barely younger than Haku... Naruto's thoughts asserted.
Demon... Naruto thought to himself, raising and placing his right hand against his stomach to settle the churning that erupted from it.
Naruto knew through experience that when the villagers said demon, even Kakashi, they meant one specific thing.
Or in this case...Nine... Naruto told himself.
Do you think - if we knew each other, back then...that we could have been friends? Naruto asked aloud in his mind, his right hand tighten slightly to settle the churning feeling he felt in his stomach.
"Naruto! Are you coming?" Sasuke asked, breaking Naruto from his train of thought as the blond dropped his hand from his stomach and turned around, staring at the fading light of his two teammates far off in the distance.
"U-uh yeah! My bad everyone!" Naruto stuttered out as he quickly took off running towards his teammates in a hurry.