Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

CHAPTER 3

Minato walked ahead. He stopped at the shrine of Sakumo and his wife, and paid his respect towards them solemnly.

The laughter and chatter was left behind. They stepped onto the second floor, opposite the stairs there was a narrow hallway, and Kakashi's bedroom was right at the end of it.

Kakashi knew Minato must have sensed the seals on the doors to the study and his parents' bedroom when they passed, but the blond said nothing.

They both walked into the bedroom. It might be the only room in the old house with few living traces before today; back to one month ago, it was the Memorial day of Kakashi's mother on September the 17th, and he had stayed here overnight then. The room was rather empty, most of the daily supplies had been removed, and there was only several pieces of large furniture left.

It had become dark outside. Moonlight flooded in through the window, lighting up the house indoors. Lamplight was not necessary to the two shinobi with outstanding night vision. Minato sat on the floor with his back to the window, placing the bottles of sake in front of him, and looked up to Kakashi.

Kakashi reached behind himself and shut the door. The sounds downstairs were instantly blocked out, and the room fell into silence. Mixed emotions rose up from the bottom of his chest - delighted and sorrowful, eager and hesitant, relieved and nervous at the same time.

He had been waiting for a conversation like this. He knew it would finally come.

He was his only student alive after all.

Kakashi sat down, face to face with Minato, and tugged down his mask. Neither of them spoke up; they just toasted each other silently and sipped their own sake.

Kakashi never drank unless on special occasions. He had been used to stay alert all the time, while alcohol could make his senses dull. And he was rational enough to know that drunkenness might numb his mind temporarily, but it could never really subside his agony.

Not to mention drinking with his sensei. He was even younger than Naruto when Minato passed away. If it was counted according to Tsunade's standard today ... Kakashi wasn't even sure whether he was qualified now.

Minato put his bottle onto the floor, and the sound broke through Kakashi's scattered thoughts.

"If I had known my death would come so early, I would never have allowed you to enter ANBU," he said suddenly.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi."

The sake in his month turned bitter in a moment. Kakashi almost crumbled the bottle.

He had come up with several words that Minato would probably say during the seconds walking from the doorway and sitting here. Such as "It's been a long time since we talked alone like this", or "If only Obito and Rin could be here as well", even the most conventional "How have you been doing these years."

But he had never expected Minato to begin with this.

It was...too straightforward.

He swallowed the sake hard and then spoke up, staring down at his own hand. "Sensei ... There's no need for you to apologize. No one can predict the future," he said. "You sacrificed yourself for the village, and you are the hero of Konoha, and you ..."

"Kakashi, look at me."

Hesitantly, Kakashi looked up and met Minato's eyes. The whites of his eyes were dark, and the clear blue pupils were full of sadness.

The Edo Tensei-ed body couldn't cry.

"I've never asked anyone about it, but I know... you had a really hard time then."

The fingers on his knees twitched involuntarily. Kakashi held back his urge to pull up the mask.

Yes, I had a hard time, a voice answered at the back of his head. I kept having nightmares every night, dreaming about father falling to the floor, Obito with half of his body crushed, Rin with a hole in her chest, and you and Kushina lying in a pool of blood, under Kyuubi's claws. Once I had killed someone, the process would be repeated in my dream that night, and the faces of the dead would be changed to yours.

It felt like my sanity had been split into two parts. A part of me was lying on the ground, scarred and broken, waiting to bleed to death, desiring to meet you all again; the other part of me was struggling, managing to stand up from the mud, carrying on everything you guys had left to me, gritting my teeth to live on. I always felt both disappointed and lucky when I thought I would die but instead found myself in the hospital when awake.

Even if I was once eager to become a tool, with no emotions or mind, to not feel fatigue or pain, I understood shinobi were human in the end.

"I ... I'm pretty good right now," he finally said after a while.

"Really, Kakashi? You didn't deny what I said."

Kakashi didn't answer.

"I'm really an awful teacher, aren't I?" Minato said, lowered his eyes. There was a bitter smile on his face. "Obito was right. I've always been too late when it's important. If I'd been faster, maybe Obito wouldn't have been crushed under the boulder. If I'd been faster, maybe Rin wouldn't have had to die by your hand. If I'd recognized it was Obito that time ... maybe many things would have turned out in a different way."

"I failed to protect my students. All of you."

The depression and frustration in the blond's voice made Kakashi's heart heavy and his throat tight. He didn't like that.

Konoha's Yellow Flash should always be undefeated and invincible, never lose his smile and confidence; back to teenage days Kakashi might never have admitted it, but it was indeed his true belief. After father's death, he had lived in the dark, and Namikaze Minato was his only bay of heart, his unique light.

Though he had been too old to be naive, and had already understood that nobody was immortal, still, he could not stand seeing Minato so depressed, admitting his own failure.

"No!"

Crush!

His voice was so loud that it even startled himself. The porcelain bottle was crumbed, and the scent of sake started to fill the air. A fragment cut his finger, he stared at the bleeding wound, but had no desire to wrap it up.

"It's not your fault, sensei." He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down. "It's ... mine."

If I'd returned earlier to help Obito, maybe we could have rescued Rin more successfully, and he wouldn't have been crushed under the boulder. If I'd been able to protect Rin, maybe she wouldn't have been captured by Mist, and wouldn't have been compelled to commit suicide by my hand, and Obito who had witnessed it wouldn't have become disappointed with the world and fallen into the darkness. Then he wouldn't have manipulated Kyuubi to attack the village, you and Kushina wouldn't have died, and Naruto wouldn't have had such a miserable childhood.

If only I could have understood the significance of teamwork, and realized how important you all were to me earlier, everything might have turned out differently.

I failed to take care of Naruto after you and Kushina's death as well. For secrecy and security, the Third had forbidden anyone relevant to you to approach him before his graduation from Academy. With this command, I felt justified to block him out of my mind. I even crossed out my name from the roster of ANBU who took turns to monitor him in secret. I buried myself in my own sorrow, and turned a blind eye to his hard situation. I was afraid to see him, which would remind me of you, Kushina, and Obito. I was a coward.

If only I could have accompanied him when he felt lonely, comforted him when he felt sad, given him a hand when he felt helpless; even if just a tiny bit of time, and with the ANBU mask on my face, he would have never known that it'd been me and maybe his past wouldn't have been full of pain like it was.

You was always by my side when I was in my most desperate period, but when your son faced the same situation, I did nothing for him.

I'm not only an awful teacher, but also an awful student.

"But you were only a kid yourself then, Kakashi."

A hand gently held his bleeding hand. Kakashi gazed up blankly, and met Minato's mild eyes. It was only now he realized that he had been saying those words aloud.

"What's more, even though you've grown up, taller and older than I was, to me, you are still a kid."

A feeling that Kakashi hadn't felt for years rose up from his chest, forming a lump in his throat, making him feel his tear ducts burning.

How strange, he thought. I've lost Obito's eye.

Minato squeezed his hand as a silent urge. Without words, Kakashi drew out a first aid bandage from the pouch and handed it over. Minato took it and tore open the wrapper.

Kakashi didn't move. He just sat there, watching his sensei binding up the wound and tie a crappy knot with his clumsy fingers.

For a moment, it was as if he had been back to the days before attending Academy. They had been practicing throwing kunais in the backyard of the house, and he had cut himself by accident; Minato of that time had bandaged him awkwardly, taking care not to hurt him, just like what he was doing right now.

It'd been a long gone memory that he thought he had forgotten already, but emerged from the bottom of his mind at this point, and appeared to be so clear and vivid.

"I'm not worried about Naruto." After dealing with the wound, Minato didn't let go of Kakashi's hand, but covered it with his other hand instead. "He will carry through his ninja way, striding forward unswervingly; he will make his dream come true, and become the greatest Hokage ever. He has long since surpassed me. You and Jiraiya-sensei have taught him well."

"He will certainly face dilemmas, and feel dejected and bewildered sometimes; but he has his friends, and you. You are the sempai, the sensei, the elder brother he respect. You will help him, support him, and guide him. You will become his prop that he can rely on. So I feel relieved with him."

"The one whom I'm worried about is you, Kakashi."

"I ... " I'm a man in my thirties, there is no need to be worried about me. I've survived no matter how hard the time had been in the past. Kakashi would like to answer like this, but he just choked up and couldn't utter a word.

Naruto have become the world's savior, but still a kid in his eyes; presumably it was just the same as him in Minato-sensei's eyes.

"After what happened in the Fourth War, will you be able to put down everything in your heart, and bid a good farewell to the past? Who can help you when you face dilemmas? Who can support you when you are dejected? Who can guide you when you are bewildered? Who can become the prop that you can rely on?"

"Can you make me a promise, that you will live a good life?"

Minato's hands on his hand gradually tightened up, and it almost felt painful. But the blond was unaware; he was just keeping a close watch on him, with anxieties and concerns written across his face, eager to get an answer from him.

For a while Kakashi even had an illusion: his reply was so important, that the dead in front of him still hovered in the world of living, refusing to leave and rest in peace, was all because he wanted his promise.

"I ... I'll put it down," he said quietly after a long silence. "Maybe not now, maybe not very soon, but one day, I'll let it all go. I met Obito and you again, Minato-sensei, and fought together with you one more time. I was satisfied. I was happy."

"I'm going to do everything I can to help Naruto, and I'm sure he will do everything he can to help me. Despite being my student, he has saved me many times, more than just my life. I still have Sasuke, Sakura, Tenzou, Gai, and all my friends. I still have you guys. Even though I can no more see you, I know you are forever alive in my heart, watching me in the heaven. Everything you left have guided me forward in the past, and it's still and will be the same in the present and future."

"What I said was true. I'm indeed pretty good right now, and will be fine from now on. I will live a good life. I promise."

The anxious expression on Minato's face disappeared, and there was genuine and gratified smile instead.

"Really? Then I can finally put my mind at rest."

He reached out and put a hand on the top of Kakashi's head, ruffling his hair fondly.

Back to his boyhood, Kakashi would impatiently pat away Minato's hand before being touched; but now he only wished the hand on his head could stay longer, and longer.

His eyesight got blurred, and the figure in front of him became vague.

It must result from the odor of sake, he thought.

Then the dim figure spoke up.

"It's time for me to leave, Kakashi. I've finished what I want to do."

The hand on his head left. Minato stood up; out of the window, blinding white light burst out and immediately filled the whole room. And Minato was in the light, facing him, moving back step by step.

Kakashi's eyes widened. His vision suddenly become clear again, something warm and wet slid down from his cheeks, but he paid no attention to it. He tried to stand up and stop the blond from leaving, but his legs felt so weak, as if he the alcohol had stolen all his strength.

He could only sit there vainly, watching the distance between him and Minato increase little by little.

"Sensei -!" He shouted with anguish. His heart was grasped by fear; he reached out his arms, hoping to grab the hem of the man's vest.

But Minato has turned around and jumped onto the windowsill. Putting one hand onto the top of the window frame, the Yellow Flash looked back over his shoulder for the last time, beaming at Kakashi.

He opened his mouth.

The white light grew stronger.

Before losing his consciousness in the light, Kakashi succeeded in reading his sensei's lips despite the lack of Sharingan.

...

Kakashi opened his eyes slowly. His vision turned from dim to bright, and vague to clear. The first thing he saw was a pair of bright blue eyes.

"Sensei ..." he whispered. His damp breath formed steam on the inner side of the oxygen mask.

"Sensei," The owner of the blue eyes replied with the same word. There was relief and delight in his voice. "Finally you wake up!"

Kakashi blinked once, and twice.

His mind was like a rusty machine which started working again at last. He moved his gaze away from Naruto and looked around; he saw several familiar faces, and everyone looked tired and haggard.

He found himself lying in a sickbed, with a needle in his arm, nose and mouth covered by an oxygen mask.

I'm not with my own mask - Kakashi dully realized. His most and least important secret was revealed.

But nobody around him made any comments about his face.

"Sensei you idiot! When will you ever learn to take care of yourself?!" Sakura was standing at the left side of his bed. Seeing Kakashi's discomfort, his female student reached out her hands with glowing green, easing his painful joints. Despite her fierce tone, she got red eye rims and nose, and a chocking voice. "You suddenly collapsed on the way back to Konoha, and you have been in a coma for two weeks!"

Oh. Two weeks. That meant they've seen enough.

"Even Naruto and I have been released from the hospital." Sasuke snorted. He was standing at the end of the bed, and there were concerns in his eyes that were not very well hidden. "You are such a lame duck, Kakashi."

"Damn it. Did anyone remember that I was badly injured with a literally broken waist myself? And I had to bother healing you, brat! Can't you just give me one minute that I don't have to keep an eye on you?" There was the sound of high heels, and then Tsunade came along, jabbing her finger at Kakashi's forehead without actually touching him. "I almost thought I'd need to pick out another successor!"

"S ... sorry, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi stammered, looking at the finger which had the power to pierce through his skull, "I'm sorry to have troubled you."

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto came over again. He looked up at Tsunade, and then removed the oxygen mask carefully after her approval. "How are you feeling now?"

Kakashi looked into his eyes. The eyes that were exactly like Minato-sensei's. The owner of the eyes was looking at him, giving him the final blessing.

-You must be happy, Kakashi.

I will, sensei.

The corners of his lips lifted up. Kakashi curled his eyes into a smile.

"I'm fine," he answered. "I just had a good dream."

(THE END)

A/N: Thank Samsara, Prescripto 13 and Shadow. SSJ for leaving comments!

Prescripto 13 - I hope it's still there, too. Although Kakashi no longer lived there, it's his home and carries the memories of him with his father after all...

Samsara - Yeah he really kept his face as a top secret! And the kids were all dying to see it, but the adults who might had seen his face before, in this case, was always on his side! :P

Thank you all for reading! Reviews are appreciated.