Soldier On || Part 2 ||-•-Yamato-🍃-Kakashi-• ||

Chapter 9: 1 Day to the Wedding: Introspection

With a deep breath, he leaned back on his Hokage chair, spinning it around to look out the window at the village below. He clearly had a lot in his mind and that was such bad timing. Thinking so much about himself when there was a lot depending on him. The day had just started, it was going to be a busy one and he was already tired. Tomorrow, Naruto would be starting a new life though, something good amidst years of turmoil. Who'd have thought a ninja wedding of that scale could ever happen?

Naruto — the one who saved the world. He sighed, proud. It was Iruka-sensei who Naruto saw as a father figure, but Kakashi felt a little bit like that too — maybe a bit of a failed father, but still. Naruto was a big part of his life, a part he got to share with Tenzō too. Because of all their combined efforts, Naruto managed to survive, save them all while never giving up on his passion and what be believed in. He accomplished all his goals and was about to walk a new path.

Kakashi couldn't help but feeling that the following day would marked the end. The end of something, of a journey, a very long one that started decades ago. For him, it did when his father took his life and left him alone in the world. So much had changed. Now, he sat on that chair with responsibilities he never wanted, after decades of darkness inside him that still lingered. He fought against it, wasted time wishing to be free from the burdens life enforced onto him, the more he did the tighter he clung and fed into it instead. It was time to let go, as scary as it was. It was time for something new, he just had no idea how to go on about it, how to do it right this time.

As his mind continued to wander, his tired eyelids got heavier and his eyes closed. He saw Tenzō saying he loved him, so matter-of-factly like everything he said. Kakashi smiled under the mask. That moment,... he knew now, that's where he wanted to be.

*****

There was a knock on the door that seemed to follow right after Kakashi closed his eyes. He opened them again, but when he looked out the window, the sun was way too low for it to still be morning. He must have fallen asleep, but for how long?

"Come in," he said, rubbed his eyes and tried to look as awake as possible as he spun the chair around to watch the the 5th storm towards him. "Tsunade-sama."

"Did you set me up, Kakashi?" She slammed a fist so hard on the desk that the towers of paperwork shook wildly. "You didn't show up for the meeting with the Elders?"

"It's past 3 already?" He locked his jaw to kill the yawn he felt coming.

"It's half past!" she yelled. "I had to put up with them by myself, do you know how troublesome that is? I made no excuses for your absence, so good luck with them later." She took a deep breath and straightened up. "Also, you have a bunch of boxes outside. They probably got delivered while you...?"

"While I lost track of time...?" Kakashi said with a pan face. Having that attitude with Tsunade was a bit dangerous, she could snap his head off his neck with one hand, but he had just woken up, tact failed him. "What did they want, the Elders?"

"Ugh, nothing too important. Bitching about one thing or another, then said they're worried about all the ninjas being on a day off during the wedding."

"Did they say all?"

Tsunade nodded and headed to the small table behind the sofa to get herself some tea.

"It's cold.... the tea," Kakashi said. If he had slept for that many hours then no one came in to replace it.

"Anything will do, my mouth is dry after so much talking... on your behalf."

Kakashi decided to make no excuses and move along. "So, did it work?"

"Well," Tsunade said, filling up a cup before walking back to the sofa and dropping heavily on it. It looked like she needed something way stronger than tea. "Who knows. I told them we had enough people to keep the village safe, and that they had to just swallow it since they aren't in charge of you and you know what you're doing. But, honestly Kakashi, I'm an advisor, in well deserved retirement, they should have heard all of this from you. Avoid his them won't help you the slightest."