Teaser/Quote
Added 2020-08-06 23:07:01 +0000 UTCLater, when Naruto is asleep again and the house is quiet once more, Kakashi kneels on the back porch beneath the stars, looking out over the garden.
The sealing key and the Raijuu scroll lay before him, one a weapon, one a freedom. Both come with a choice Kakashi swore he’d never make, an action he swore he’d never take. To chance, to risk, to do more.
He is done running. He is done hiding. He is done pretending.
He is not his father. He will not clip his claws or calm his storm so people won't be afraid. What he has is too precious to be given anything less than everything.
His kids deserve more from him than a hollow shell given in to loss. They deserve more than the echoes of the determination and fire that tragedy and circumstance put out. They deserve more than the man he is, or even the man he never was– they deserve everything he can be, with all that he is, with all he has left.
He owes it to himself, to the people he loved and lost, to the people he still loves now, to be more. He knows now, after a little over a year teaching his team 7, that it is possible, that being a shinobi does not mean you can’t still be human, that you can’t still have heart.
Naruto is proof that you don’t need to know compassion to be kind, that you don’t need to be loved to bring out love in others, and that true strength is not selfish. Sasuke is proof that hate and grief can be beaten, and that tragedy and fear only define who you are if you give them the power to do so. Sakura is proof that it doesn’t matter where you come from or where you started, you always have the power to change things for the better, and the one thing you can always change is yourself.
They’re not there yet. They’re strong, yes, but Kakashi knows that there are still forces in this world that are infinitely stronger, and while their potential is devastating they still need time. Time to grow, time to learn, time to become the forces of nature he knows they can be, to surmount the challenges and dangers he knows they’ll face.
Until then, he will be their shield.
Because it was never a matter of if he could.
I Regret Nothing
~SableScribe
