A Hole in One's Heart [Kakashi Hatake]

Chapter 43: The Fake Itachi

So this is the longest chapter so far. It was actually going to be even longer, but I have decided to split this part up into two chapters. This just took much more to explain than I originally expected. There has been mostly Ana's POV recently so I decided to change things up a little. Enjoy!

---------------Kakashi's POV---------------

     We had left the desert behind us little while ago, and I was very impressed by how well the elderly Sand Ninja had kept up. I also felt a little bit of guilt considering that my father had killed her son. I knew that ninja killed each other all the time, but that did little to soothe my conscience.

     "Kakashi," Ana ran up to talk to me, "what did I miss when I was with Sakura making the antidote?"

     "Nothing too much, but we did receive a message from the Hokage. She has sent Team Guy to back us up. Pakkun is going to them now to guide them to the hideout." She nodded and turned to leave, but before she could, I stopped her, "Ana, are you sure that you are doing alright?"

     "For the love of god and all things holy, stop being a nag! I am flattered that you care, but it really has to stop."

     "I just can't help but wonder what would happen if you had a vision during a battle..."

     "That's already happened before, and I'm still here so stop worrying."

     "Wait, when was that?" My breath caught in my chest, how had this happened before? Had I just forgotten about it or was I not there?

     "When Jiraiya, Naruto, Shizune, Tsunade, and I all fought Orochimaru and Kabuto while you were in a coma. I was under a powerful paralysis jutsu, injured, and having a vision. Even so, I'm still alive today so stop your god-forsaken worrying. I trust my comrades, and no matter what happens, I'm sure that you'll keep me safe." I stared at her sadly, the years have only proven to me that I am less than capable of taking care of my comrades.

     I sighed, "How can you be so sure. You know my past..."

     Ana looked into my one exposed eye, "The past is the past, Kakashi. Don't let it cloud your future. You're a different person now, and I am sure that you'll never make those mistakes again." I would have hugged her, but we were running top speed through the trees while on a S-ranked mission that held the life of one of the Kage in the balance.

     Sakura began talking to Naruto about the Akatsuki, but I was too busy thinking about Ana to pay too much attention to my former students' conversation.

     But then Sakura said something that I couldn't ignore, "How long do you think the Akatsuki have been after you?" I remembered my battle with Itachi almost three years ago. I had underestimated his sharingan and was comatose for almost a month because of that.

     Naruto sighed, "I don't know."

     I decided to enter the conversation, "Two members of the Akatsuki came to the Leaf looking for Naruto once, but it's been three years since then and no sign of them. And now they're back."

     Sakura looked back at me, "But why do think they waited so long to make another move?"

     I pondered her question a little before answering, "It could be they wanted to act before this but for some reason they couldn't. Maybe because Master Jiraiya was around, and they didn't want to face him."

     Sakura nodded, but Lady Chiyo disagreed, "That's not it. From what I've learned, there was an entirely different reason why they had to wait this long."