Atonement

Chapter 13

~Time skip 1 year~

"No," Sakumo stated coldly, his body in a defiant state. 

Minato next to him looked just as determined, his blue eyes wide in shock by what he had heard.

"Sakumo, I know it is hard to understand but..."

"He's my son!" shouted Sakumo angrily.

Hiruzen sighed tiredly and took a drag from his  pipe. He should have known Sakumo wouldn't accept it that easily. But there was nothing he could do. 

"And he is my shinobi," replied Hiruzen calmly.

"Lord Third, please. My team can fight at the end of the war but not in the heart of the conflict. They are mere children! Please let me take his place!" pleaded Minato and looked at the white-haired Sannin for help.

Jiraya, Tsunade and Orochimaru stood next to the Hokage and were just as worried and angry as Minato and Sakumo, well at least two of them.

"It won't be your entire team, only Kakashi," said Hiruzen firmly.

"Sensei, I don't think Kakashi..."

"Tsunade, enough," ordered Hiruzen sternly.

"I don't like it anymore than you to send the child into the war, but Kakashi himself wished for it and someone promised me that he was indeed ready for war. I can't do anything against it, Kakashi already is a Chunnin and has to be treated like any other shinobi of his rank."

Quickly Sakumo shouted: "Then let me join the first platoon! Let me fight side by side with my son!"

Hiruzen wished he could allow Sakumo's wish, it would make him feel better and the guilt that was eating him away would maybe diminish. However, Orochimaru had made him promise that Sakumo would not be a part of the first platoon, no matter what. He still couldn't believe that his own student wanted to send a child into the war, especially one that had been mentally unstable a couple of years ago. 

"I'm sorry but I can't," he said helplessly.

"You're the Hokage, of course you can!" shouted Sakumo angrily.

Before the situation could go out of hand any further, Orochimaru stepped forward. His snake-like eyes stared right into Sakumo's when he said: "Sensei honestly can't do anything about it. It was Kakashi's wish that you wouldn't be on the first platoon."

The people in the office gasped in shock. None of them could understand why a child wouldn't  want his father next to them when they went to war. 

"You..." Sakumo stepped forward, looking closer at the Snake Sannin, "You are the person that said my son was ready for this war. Aren't you?!" he snarled. 

When Orochimaru didn't say anything and only stared passively at the Hatake, Sakumo lost his cool and punched the Sannin. 

"Are you?" he hissed furiously.

Orochimaru didn't even flinch when Sakumos fist met his face, he could understand where the man was coming from, and instead answered calmly: "Yes."

However, his answer had a devastating effect. 

Hiruzen looked powerless at the unfolding events and asked himself once more, how he could have agreed to his student's plan. On the one side, the Hokage could understand where his student's request was coming from. Kakashi was a prodigy and if what Orochimaru said was true, he was a one in a century prodigy and Konoha needed any manpower it could get. But on the other hand, it went against his morals. The boy was still a child, only 10 years old and way too young to take another's life.