Chapter 15: A Snapped String... (Part Two)
December 21st. Hatake Sakumo brought the undercurrent that had been running through the village to an end with his own hands.
The White Fang of Konoha ended his own life. The Third Hokage and the ANBU sealed off the news immediately.
Inside the Hokage Tower, Sarutobi Hiruzen's brow was deeply furrowed. He looked again at the ANBU in front of him to confirm:
"Confirmed as suicide?"
"Based on the preliminary investigation and Hatake Kakashi's own account, Sakumo-sama's death is confirmed as suicide."
The ANBU operative, fox mask in place, knelt on one knee and answered quietly. A moment of silence passed. Then, as though unable to fully accept it:
"Hokage-sama, shall we continue the investigation?"
"If it's already confirmed, leave it there. The ANBU have plenty of other work."
Sarutobi Hiruzen gave the instruction and watched his ANBU vanish. The moment they were gone, the grief settled openly on his face.
The smell of war was getting stronger. As Hokage, he needed everyone unified, and so even knowing the Root had been making its small moves, he had ultimately looked the other way.
In the view of those at the top, no amount of argument or accusation could shake a true elite jonin. The major clans had never taken a side.
"Hiruzen, we should go and see Hatake Kakashi now."
"If this sends the boy toward a darker path and Danzo gets his hooks into him, we will have lost something the village cannot afford to lose."
"His talent belongs to the village."
Koharu Utatane spoke up with narrowed eyes. Homura Mitokado beside her shook his head slightly, as if he saw it differently, and added:
"The Root also inherits the Will of Fire. But Hatake Kakashi's talent genuinely should not be used in the shadows."
Sarutobi Hiruzen put on his Hokage hat without answering directly. He took two long draws on his pipe, then said in a low voice:
"Osamu should already be at Kakashi's side. That boy has earned Tsunade's recognition. He will help Kakashi through this."
"Let's go. Sakumo will be remembered as a hero at the end of his ninja career."
* * *
Yesterday afternoon he had been guiding the two of them through kenjutsu. This morning, he was gone from them forever.
The blood-stained chakra blade was what told Furukawa Osamu this was all real. Kakashi, like a puppet with its strings cut, knelt beside Hatake Sakumo and didn't move.
Jonin who had heard the news came quietly to pay their respects. Nara Shikaku, Akimichi Choza, and Yamanaka Inoichi bowed in turn. Furukawa Osamu returned each bow.
"I didn't expect Sakumo-sama to leave us so suddenly. Perhaps I should have seen it sooner..."
"Shikaku."
Yamanaka Inoichi, brown hair, expression grave, cut his colleague short. The major clans survived by keeping their footing on both sides. That way there was always a winner among them.
"Perhaps Sakumo-sensei was simply exhausted. I'm deeply grateful to all three of you for everything you've done."
Furukawa Osamu bowed his head in thanks. As Tsunade's student, he had built decent ties with the Hokage-aligned clans, and all three captains had given him guidance on missions.
"Osamu, if you need anything at all, come to us."
Akimichi Choza's broad face was heavy with grief as he spoke quietly. Furukawa Osamu nodded again in acknowledgment. When the Third Hokage arrived, the weight in the air deepened further.
...
Kakashi didn't know who came or what any of them said.
When he had brought Sakumo breakfast and found his father lying in a pool of blood, his mind had gone blank. It wasn't until Furukawa Osamu arrived that the silence finally broke, and Kakashi wept.
Night fell again. The gentle voice of Hatake Sakumo would never fill this house again.
In the hallway, Kakashi stared at the black sky with hollow eyes, his voice scraped raw:
"...Which matters more, the mission or your teammates?"
"Why would the teammates he saved turn around and blame him?"
"Because the mission failed?"
"Why did Father choose to die? He was a hero, and he ended his life with that blade..."
"What is the Will of Fire, really?"
Seven years in this world, and Furukawa Osamu still couldn't offer a clean answer. He had never lived through what Hatake Sakumo had:
"In my view, the teammates you're close to matter more. That was Sensei's choice too."
"He left us this way, and all we can do is respect that. As for the rest of your questions, I have no right to lecture you."
"Kakashi, carry those questions with you. Look at the world through them and find your own answers."
"As long as you keep living, the answers will come."
"This world has chakra, a miraculous kind of energy. Life shouldn't end like this..."
By the last words, Furukawa Osamu's voice had faded to almost nothing. Kakashi heard every word, but the questions in him remained, and all he could breathe out was:
"Keep living..."
Late that night, Furukawa Osamu came and stood before Hatake Sakumo one more time. He looked at the man who had given him so much, placed his right hand over his chest, and thought quietly:
Sakumo-sensei, perhaps you can give me answers.
"..."
A sphere of white energy that no ordinary person could see gathered in Furukawa Osamu's palm. As it was drawn into the body, exhaustion came swiftly.
* * *
Unlike the blood-drenched nightmares of the years before, what Furukawa Osamu saw now was only bodies, piled beyond counting.
From genin to chunin, from chunin to elite jonin, Hatake Sakumo lost companions at every stage of his life.
When he lacked the strength to protect them, they died. When he finally had that strength, the missions forced him to abandon some in order to save more.
A blade radiating white light cut down enemy ninja without end. The dead came from every nation. Every face that fell into the blood below wore the same expression, twisted, suffocated, trapped.
"For the mission, for the village, anyone can be killed..."
Cracked earth. A young body broken beneath falling rubble. Three figures on their knees in the middle of a field of corpses, crying out. Hatake Sakumo moved among them, searching for survivors, his head bowed, his face full of pain.
"The wrong decision?"
Expectation, accusation, contempt, the Hokage's reassurances, the leadership's indifference to the dead. The weight built and built, until the blade that had shone white was stained red.
"I'm sorry, Kakashi. I was never the hero you believed in."
"..."
Furukawa Osamu woke with a splitting headache. The sky was still dark. The spiritual shock had left a wave of grief and guilt that took a long time to fade.
He gathered his thoughts, and a wry smile crossed his face. Perhaps he had never truly thought of himself as a ninja, not in the way that made full empathy possible:
"Guilt? This is the world's fault. Sensei, death is the end of everything."
He drew the short blade beside him and closed his eyes, reaching for the physical instinct that Gathering had left in his body. As wind-natured chakra flowed slowly through it, a white light appeared along the edge of the White Fang's blade:
Wind-nature transformation.
When he moved the blade, it felt like an extension of his own arm. The kenjutsu refined across years of training merged with his body in that moment.
When daylight came, more jonin arrived quietly to pay their respects. Kakashi stood beside Osamu and bowed with him. Ninja had to face death with composure.
As the Third Hokage's ANBU began taking over the remaining arrangements, Osamu watched Kakashi's face go blank as he tossed his short blade aside. Osamu picked it up and hung it back across Kakashi's shoulders:
"Take it with you. Use it to find your answers. Sakumo-sensei will be watching over you from the Pure Land."
****
ok 15 chapters in, and...it leaves you kinda unsatisfied? or is it just me? It feels like the OG author wanted this to be a "realism" Naruto FIC, but failed to do so.