The Lost Ninja (Naruto Fanfiction)

Entry 3

Kakashi Hatake.

The dust yard within the ninja academy gates was a place of many memories. It is now a building site, after the incident with Pain. I've tried my best to forget, but now I find that trying to remember is far less painful.

Hana had been blind for as long as I've known her. I wonder how she's gotten by all these years.

Roughly twenty years ago...
   The ninja academy is a huge group of large buildings near the centre of Konoha.
   I hide behind my father as we close in on the gates. I look up at him and he smiles down at me.
   "Go on, son." His dark eyes shine. "You're entire life awaits through those doors."
   "But faaaather..." I moan, gripping his trousers tightly. After several attempts to remove me from his leg, he parades me around for a minute or so. He then shakes his leg and I fall, just as a swarm of children noisily leave the school. I get trampled by their feet.
   Then, father steps in to save me. Or at least, I think it's father.
   Instead if being reprimanded for being too reckless, a man with short yellow hair stands before me, his hands on the shoulders of a small girl wearing a blindfold.
   I turn to father, who is talking to a younger yellow-haired man, laughing.
   Turning back, father says to me, "Kakashi, say hello to Hana."
   The girl waves, but getting no response, she stops.
   Turning away and receiving a hard thwack from father. I'm about to retaliate when the girl is behind me, tilting sideways and flipping me backwards over her hip.
   I fall face first into the dust. Trying to get up, I realise that she has a kunai to my throat and decide better of it.
   The men start laughing hautily, and the girl releases me. I quickly scrabble to my feet, my cheeks burning with embarrassment.
   She simply stands there, hand outstretched. I take it and we shake.
   "I am Hana Namikaze."
"My name is Kakashi Hatake."

That was the day I met Hana. It seems like so long ago. I wish we all were as innocent now as we were back then.

   Smiling, I shake my head and make my way down the dirt path away from the school yard.

   The other side of the village is where I'm headed. The destruction never reached this far. As I follow the trail, it begins to rain.

   The cemetery is at the very edge of the village, and is host to countless graves. I could walk through its calm, peaceful grounds for eternity and still never read all of the names. The whole reason they were here was to be recognised for their deeds in life. By how overgrown the grounds were, they weren't getting that recognition.

   I make my way slowly to the KIA stone, brushing my fingers against other gravestones on the way. Few of them have flowers, most of them were shrouded in weeds.

   The KIA stone is the cleanest stone in the cemetery. It's black granite surface dust-free, and the names upon it carved with extreme care.

   It takes me a couple of minutes to find the name that I know is there, though it shouldn't be. It is alongside the names of her teammates for that mission, and near enough to her parents.

   I place my hand upon the stone, searching for the names of every other person I had ever loved. They are not difficult to find. I pick a single wild flower from the grass, dropping it on the names of my own teammates and sensei before looking up at the sky. I pray that they would be the last that I lost, though I knew fate better than that.

   Blinking for a moment, I notice something hanging from the huge oak, whose bough towered over the KIA stone. I quietly step onto the branch to see that it was Hana. She had fallen asleep, one leg dangling precariously from the bough.

   I cannot shake the smile that took hold of my face. She could never be caught offguard.

   Unless she was asleep.

With the upmost caution, I slide my hands around her back and beneath her knees so that I could lift her. Leaving the tree, I carry her to my apartment, noting that she was considerably lighter than last time I carried her.