Sense
The old Sandaime had never had a worse day at the office; which was certainly odd when you consider the many years (and wars) he'd led Konoha successfully through. Sarutobi literally felt a hollow inside him as he read off the names of the casualties caused by Kyuubi's unprovoked attack.
"One hundred and thirty nine fatalities; more than three hundred nine wounded ninjas of Konoha; fifteen wounded ninjas of allies; ninety critical-ranked cases; eighty six missing, presumed dead…"
"Your count is off by one. It's one hundred and forty." The male voice was soft and raw from behind the Third Hokage. The aged leader turned to see who the unheard visitor was. He was scarcely shocked when he beheld a tired and bloodied Hatake Kakashi. After all, the count of the fatalities was headed by the name of the boy's beloved sensei; and high of the list of missing was the name of his teammate Rin.
"What do you mean, son?" All Sarutobi could do for the teen was listen to him.
"You missed me. Your count should be one-hundred and forty dead, not one hundred thirty nine." Kakashi's voice was so convicted; Sarutobi had to remind himself that the boy couldn't be dead when he was speaking so civilly.
"Kakashi, you aren't the only one who lost people. It's important—now more than ever—that Konoha sticks together. Understand?"
The grey-haired boy met the elderly nin's gaze for the first time; and the substitute Hokage felt his breath catch.
The young ANBU looked horrible. The fabric of his dark facemask was torn and bloodied thanks to a long gash that begun at his ear and trailed to the corner of his mouth. The boy's silver hair was matted with blood—his own or others? The uniform arm guards were tattered and slashed, useless. Kakashi's weapons pouch was missing; a curiosity easily solved as the Third's eyes traced a familiar leg brace, now used to tourniquet the teenager's forearm, ripped open by an unidentified missile.
But it was the eyes…Kakashi's mismatched eyes that stunned the aged ninja. The right, Kakashi's natural optic, seemed as red as the Sharingan, bloodshot as it was. The desperate look Kakashi was giving his superior communicated one thing, and one thing only. This should have never happened.
"They must have overlooked me…" Kakashi's voice was emotionless, dull as he began to walk back and forth in front of the Hokage's makeshift desk. "You should amend that. It's important to have your documents accurate."
The Sandaime managed to recover himself, still slightly shocked by the ANBU's incoherent ramblings. "Kakashi-kun, if you were dead, you wouldn't be in my office pacing now would you?"
He stopped his frantic circles for long enough to look again into the wise man's eyes. His own held no enlightenment, even confusion as he seemed to take those words into account. "No, no that doesn't make any sense at all. She's gone; Rin's gone…so I must be too. Yes, that's the only thing that makes sense…sense…" Kakashi wasn't talking to the Hokage anymore.
Sarutobi stood from his seat and slowly walked towards the ANBU; for the slightest moment, he deliberated on his options. He made his choice and swallowed, unsure of if he was making the best decision for Kakashi or not.
SLAP!
The Hokage lowered his palm back to his side and stared down into the shocked, mismatched eyes. He felt the sternness in his own evaporate as he witnessed the absolute grief overwhelm Kakashi. Pity laced his expression as the young ninja sank to his knees.
"I just…I don't understand…I…I promised…" Sobs overtook the proud ninja as he struggled with himself, torn between the complete force of his emotions and the logic that was screaming in his head. Sarutobi watched as he had so many other times, himself crying inside at the fate of shinobi. "She can't be…be gone…she just can't…"
"Kakashi…-kun?"
The referred-to didn't even look up, it just wasn't possible. He'd finally lost his sanity, too much stress and too much pain.
"Kakashi-kun?!"
There was no denying that voice. It could only belong to one person. Maybe he'd spoken prophecy and died of blood loss after rambling to the Hokage. If that were the case, though, it wouldn't hurt to look at her at the very least.
Suddenly she was there, in front of him; the most beautiful thing in the entire universe, clad in a manner hinting at battle and chaos. He trusted neither his sharingan nor his natural eye to decipher whether she was an illusion. He didn't want to know.
Her eyes were brimming with tears as she looked down at him. Kakashi hardly knew what he was doing, but in the few second of his incredulity, his unconscious had made his decision for him. Before he realized it, the ANBU was sobbing once again, his strong, bruised and bleeding arms wrapped around her legs. He buried his face in her pants leg, gasping for air. Kakashi hardly dared think that she was real even as his every sense verified it.
He was only scantly aware of the warm droplets of water joining his on the floor as Rin allowed him to grasp her knees. She was just too happy that he was alive to even care that the Hokage was still there.
As for the old Hokage, he watched the scene with enveloping warmth spreading within him. His smile reached his eyes, they too wet with tears, as he retraced the path to his pathetic excuse for a desk.
He sat heavily into his seat and, for a while, stared at the two teenagers, still in their own world. Kakashi still with his face buried in Rin's thighs. Rin with her medically-adept hands entwined in Kakashi's silver mess of hair.
The great man sighed and looked back at his ledger. With a content sigh, he drew a line through one of the names and repeated the count to himself, perhaps with a little more hope. "Scratch that; only eighty-five missing..."
A/N: review?
thanks, chibi neko-dono, for your Beta!