A Hole in One's Heart [Kakashi Hatake]

Chapter 64: Danzo Shimura

We have a new longest chapter. This one is about 5,600 words, holy cow. A ton happens in this update, and I apologize if there are more grammatical errors than usual because this was a lot to proof read. Enjoy!

---------------------------

     I was picking through the rubble of my old home. It was depressing to see my life crushed up in a pile on the edge of a giant crater. My refrigerator was about twenty feet to my left and half-crushed, and there were chunks of my sky blue walls strewn around and glowing out of the brown rubble like beacons. The most depressing part was all of the scattered and torn paper: my art. Frustration built up at all of the hours and hours of lost work as I picked up the soiled pieces that I had once dedicated hours to. My easel was in at least five different pieces and there were pencils of every color strewn throughout the entire giant pile of rubble. I picked through the debris, looking for anything that could be salvaged. I wasn't alone; there were lots of other people all around looking for keepsakes that they didn't have time to grab before the evacuation call went out. Since just over a week had passed since the attack, tomorrow the earth style users were going to start clearing away the massive ring of debris that now surrounded where the village once was so that reconstruction could begin. I found a portfolio with only a single bent corner and almost cried tears of joy that not all of my work was lost. The large, black folder of cardstock had the words "Jounin Night" written in my mildly sloppy handwriting across the top, and I stuck it under my arm as I continued to pull apart the rubble that was my apartment. Next, I found a broken picture frame from the apartment next-door. The glass front was shattered and gone, but other than that it was in good shape. There were four people in the picture: a kind man with spiky yellow hair, a boy with black hair wearing orange goggles, a girl with a large smile and brown hair, and young boy with a mask, silver hair, and a bored expression. It was Team Minato, Kakashi's team. I stuck the frame under my arm along with the portfolio; I would get the picture back to him later. After hours of searching and flipping through destroyed paper, I was able to find only two more pieces of art that had survived: the portrait of my parents that I had drawn within weeks of arriving in this world and the drawing of a young Team 7 that Kakashi had really liked. After looking through well over a hundred destroyed pieces, I was amazed that these two made it without so much as a bent corner. I opened up the portfolio and stuck them inside as well. It would be a shame if they survived the Almighty Push, but were damaged because I didn't take proper care of them.

     I walked down into the crater where Yamato had just finished making a line of four new houses with his wood style.

     "They look very nice, Yamato." I smiled at him.

     He, however, did not smile but instead breathed heavily and looked as if he had just run back-to-back marathons. "Th... anks..." He panted out.

     I laughed, "You know, if you kill yourself or give yourself chakra drain by trying to rebuild the village too quickly then the building process will ultimately end up going slower." I reached into my weapons pouch and pulled out one of the rice balls that I had packed for my day of rummaging around the rubble. "Here, you can have it."

     He shoved the whole thing into his mouth in two giant bites and after he finally managed to swallow without choking to death, he smiled, "Thanks, Ana, that was just what I needed."

     "Of course." That's when I had brilliant idea, "Hey, Yamato, would you mind helping me with something? With your skill, it shouldn't take you more than a minute."

      "Sure. What is it?"

      I took the portfolio out of under my arm and untied the strings so that I could pull out the drawing of Team 7, "Would you mind making a frame for this? I know that nobody has walls to hang stuff up on anymore, but I found this in the rubble and Kakashi always really liked it so I was thinking that I'd give it him."