All you need is love (Love Triangle)

Chapter 28

Tracking down the three escaped felons and bringing them to justice took a bit longer than Kakashi had expected. Half a day going, half a day coming back, a few hours of tracking and another hour to capture all three. In his younger days, it would've taken no more than twenty minutes to capture them, and with less tracking time. Maybe it was because he planned more than he used to. Maybe it was because after so many battles he was in no rush to fight. Maybe it was because his heart was just not into another mission so soon after a failed one.

He had gone over the past year over and over in his mind. Where did he go wrong? He knew from day one that Sasuke's one and only goal was to get strong enough to take vengeance on his brother. Didn't he do enough to show him the importance of his comrades? He had spent a month trainingwith him one-on-one. Didn't he listen to anything he said? What else could he have done? Should he have been like Iruka and taken Sasuke out for ramen every week as Iruka did with Naruto? After all, Naruto had developed bonds with his teammates and village - and he had had no one while growing up.

It was now dusk and the cold black stone, engraved with a multitude of names, shone ever so slightly in the dying light. Kakashi stopped by the shinobi memorial before he made his way home. Although the Obito voice was always with him, he knew his friend was long dead and all he was doing was talking to himself when the Obito voice answered. But here at the shinobi memorial, it seemed more real, that Obito was truly answering him from beyond the grave.

He fixed his gaze on Obito's name, and recalled his friend's funny face and whiny voice. "You know, I now have comrades that I'm responsible for, that are important to me. But like before, I'm still full of regret. I couldn't do anything. Even with this eye, I couldn't see what was going to happen. If you were alive, what would you say to me now, eh, Obito?" angsty Kakashi said to the cold black stone.

"I would say: 'You're pathetic!' Moping around for days. Are you just gonna give up on that poor excuse for a Uchiha? I can't believe my clan produced two such idiots. And you're not much better."

"Sasuke made his decision, despite my advice. We can't track him any further without entering enemy territory and Konoha has other problems."

"Excuses, excuses, since when did you have so many? That was my area of expertise. So you're just giving up?"

"No, there's still time. We have a couple of years. Time to prepare, and get stronger." That was his goal - train, get stronger so that he could bring back Sasuke, protect Konoha, protect his precious ones. Except, when you came down to it, there were no more precious ones to protect. Naruto would soon be leaving with Jiraiya. Sakura would be training with Tsunade. And he would be alone again.

But he was used to that. After all, it was years before he passed a genin team. And they were together for only one short year. What was that compared to all the time he spent alone? Still, he knew he was going to miss them, all three of them, very badly.

During this time, the sun had disappeared and the moon made its full appearance. Kakashi slowly sauntered home. There was no need to check on Naruto. Two days had already passed since he found Naruto. In all likelihood, the nine-tail fox demon's power had already healed him. Naruto would be fine. And Kakashi was not up to facing his genin, or the nurse who had such faith in him.

Upon his return to his small empty apartment, he removed his shinobi gear and stripped off his dirty shinobi uniform, haphazardly leaving it all on the floor. He quickly stepped into the hot shower with steam obscuring the soap and shampoo. He stood there a long time, allowing the water to wash away the dust from traveling and the blood from battle, before he soaped up and made the effort to scrub his body clean. The shampoo made his scalp tingle in a refreshing way. He stayed in the shower for an extra long time, enjoying the cleansing feeling.