This Man No Longer Exists. [fic]
This man no longer exists.
“You know,” a familiar voice drawled from the entrance of the cave.
A figure, hunched over a fire, grunted in response. His long hair was tousled and in his eyes as he half-heartedly poked the fire with a stick. Stepping into the dark, but somewhat lit cave the other man sighed.
“Someone walked up to me with a picture, today…” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a crumpled photo, splattered with questionable substances. The brown-haired man looked up and groaned.
“You’re never going to leave me alone, are you?” he asked through grit teeth.
“They asked me if I’d seen this man,” he continued, and amused chuckle in his voice as he stared at the photo, running his hands through spikey silver hair.
“Another ‘no’ for my list…”
“I really could only laugh at the photo, respond with a no, and walk away.” He paused, sighing, his fingers trembling slightly. “But he started to follow me.” Another pause and an uncomfortable laugh.
“Finally I told him that the teacher in the photo was no longer with us.” The man continued, stepping closer to the fire. Slanted brown eyes twitched at the calling of ‘teacher’ and the stick dropped in the fire, trembling.
“’I’ve been told you knew him then..’ the man continued to me. Even had the heart to say ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ and begin walking away. I-I..” one coal eye hesitated, the other, hidden beneath the forehead protector, welled up with tears.
“I did what I do best, you know? It was so fast, I couldn’t hesitate. Bastard died instantly…” The once calm figure, slumped to the ground, hands shaking with the photo.
The fire flickered uncomfortably between the two men. One stared at the back of the bloodied, and mud-covered photo, the other at the front.
“He didn’t do anything wrong, you know? Just apologized.” Pale hands held the photo out over the fire, sighing deeply as a small tear emerged from under the headband, and melted into his mask.
“K-Kakashi, I-“
“But I couldn’t handle it. Couldn’t tell him that the sensei in the photo wasn’t dead. At least, not physically. I couldn’t bear to tell him that the happy chuunin-sensei, Umino Iruka didn’t exist like that anymore.” He hissed as flames began to lick at the photo and his hands. The paper caught immediately and started smoldering at the edges.
Protectively, the normally stoic jounin pulled his hands back with the photo, blowing out the fire, leaving charred corners.
“It was too much to say that Iruka-sensei was rotting in a cave.” He spat at the brown haired man, who’s crestfallen face dropped into a frown.
“So he’s dead now.” Kakashi finished, standing up quickly, with a grace only he could manage. The silver-haired nin dropped the photo, watching it flutter into the fire and catch flames again. His visible eye slanted into an emotion that could only be defined as pure hatred as he kicked dirt into the fire, leaving the logs and photo to smolder.
“You’re both dead to me now.” He finished, stalking out of the cave, leaving the grime-covered ex-sensei staring at the photo. The darkness around his eyes softened, if only a little, as he stared at the smoldering photo.
It’s edges were burning, slowly eating up the face, of a tan man, grinning widely, arms wrapped around a just as excited blond boy. A few sparks sputtered out, landing on the pony-tailed face in the photo.
A single tear dropped lightly onto the photo, but it wasn’t enough to stop the larger flames from emerging, licking up at the picture and air greedily. The man sitting in the cave stared blankly at the photo, before gathering his courage to finally do something.
That was, nothing. He just stared at the burning photo, till it was gone, before his tired eyes dragged him to lean against the cold cave wall and dream of better teams. Four words left him as he drifted off, four simple words.
“It’s for the best.”
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Notes: Normally I don’t write that much, but this idea came to me, and wouldn’t leave me alone. So I wrote it down..Figured some of you might enjoy it. First Kaka/Iru fic >< Actually, first fanfic ever written -shrugs- Like I said, hope some of you enjoy it..