Chapter 71

Kabuto abandoned us as soon as we reached the central tower. In front of the final riddle, I asked for the scrolls from Sakura and opened them, only to be greeted by Kakashi's listless eyes.

He raised a hand into the air. "Yo. Good job guys. I wasn't sure if you'd make it this far. It's nice to see you aren't dead. Follow me."

He took us into the tower and I caught a glimpse of some of the other that had made it. Raccoon-face and his siblings had made it. The hot Suna kunoichi sneered at me when she caught me staring at her a bit too long. Naruto, Hinata, and Shino were talking to Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji across the waiting room. Kabuto's Sound team was here too, sulking in the corner by themselves. I didn't recognize his teammates though.

Kakashi spoke, "Sasuke, Sakura, come with me. I need to talk to you about what happened in the forest. Haru, I'll be back for you later. Wait here and don't cause any trouble."

I was slightly offended. After all, I had only caused a small portion of the total trouble so far. "Understood, Kakashi-sensei," I acquiesced. Sakura looked worried and Sasuke looked annoyed but they followed Kakashi through a nearby doorway without arguing. Left alone, I decided to walk toward my friends.

"Hey, Haru! You passed! Awesome!" Naruto said, patting me on the back in congratulations. "Woah, what happened to you?" he asked, pointing out my various bandages that adorned most of my body.

"I got my ass kicked by a secret rival I never knew I had. What about you guys? How was your test?" I noted that Karin was nowhere to be seen as I sheepishly removed my hood.

Ino and Hinata looked worried when they saw the bandages on my neck and chest but I knew it was nothing to worry about. Between Sakura and Kabuto, the only thing they couldn't fix was probably decapitation. Luckily, Shino broke the silence. "The test was not particularly difficult. Other than a single encounter with a Kumo team wherein we obtained our scroll, it was uneventful."

"You guys were lucky. We had to go through three teams in order to find the scroll we needed," Choji added. "I thought we were going to run out of snacks before we were ever going to find an Earth Scroll."

"I don't think it's even possible to eat all the snacks you packed, Choji," Ino sniped. "Oh, that reminds me, thanks again for the storage scroll, Haru."

"Don't mention it. Storage seals are the only fuinjutsu I know how to do," I admitted.

"Where's Sakura? And I guess Sasuke too. Where did your jounin instructor take them?" Naruto asked. "Sakura's fine, right?"

"Yeah, they'll be fine." My mind raced for an excuse behind my placid smile. "Kakashi-sensei just had to talk to them about a special technique."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Then why aren't you with them, Haru?"

I scratched the back of my head, noting that I could use a shower to get rid of some blood and dirt that was deeply caked into my scalp. "Well, I don't have...um, I can't do it?"

Shikamaru seemed dissatisfied with the answer but thankfully he wasn't going to ruin the pleasant meeting by asking too many questions right now.

"Hey, Ino, I want to talk to you about something later, but I think I see Kakashi coming to get me." Sure enough, the rest of my team had come back to the waiting room and I waved goodbye to the small clique of genin. "Lead the way, Kakashi-sensei."

He lead me to a suspiciously small room with a single table and only two chairs. He sat in the far chair. "Please, sit down, Haru."

After failing to sense any unknown chakra or find any traps, I gingerly sat across from my masked superior and asked, "Did I do something wrong, Kakashi-sensei?"

I could only see his eyes and the outline of his jaw but he seemed weary. "I'm just having second thoughts about my hands-off teaching method."

"I don't really understand. I think Sasuke and especially Sakura have both gotten a lot stronger in the last few months."

"It's just that I didn't have anything to do with it," Kakashi noted.

"You seemed busy," I offered.

"That's not the point. Haru, I want you to be honest with me right now. Not because I'm your jounin instructor but because I ... your future might depend on it. Can you do that, Haru?" The white-haired man seemed completely sincere despite the momentary slip in his words, hinting at something else he could have said.

"That depends on you, Kakashi-sensei. You say you want the truth. Are you sure you can handle the truth? Are you sure that you can face the truth and not falter or blink but stand firm and resolute in front of the side of reality you would rather ignore forever? Because as you are, I don't think you have that strength right now."

Kakashi had a blank look in his eyes. "What are you talking about Haru?"

"Look inside yourself, Sensei. Ask yourself what you are running away from."

"Haru, I wanted to ask about you. I wanted to know what you life was like before the academy. How did you grow up? Who raised you?"

"You and I both know that the orphanage only produces chump ninja destined for the genin corps and people like Orochimaru. Why do you care so much? I raised myself and I put that past behind me. I am who I am. And as long as I am an effective ninja, I don't really see why it's your business."

"You raised yourself? What about the Yamanakas...?"

"I worked for the Yamanakas to pass the time. That's all. They aren't my family. I'm sure you know I don't have any."

Kakashi was silent for a long moment. I was growing annoyed at the conversation.

"But how did you raise yourself? Your file said you left the orphanage at four..."

"You know they call it a Kekkai Genkai. But it's not really. What it really is...is that I know a lot of things. I know a lot of things about Konoha, about Naruto, and about you. I know about your father, and your teammates...and I know that you aren't ready for the truth yet."

The man weighed his words carefully, considering both me and what he wanted to say with equal measure.

"Try me, Haru."

"You left Obito to die. You didn't even have the decency to end his life. You just left him under that rock..." It was then that Kakashi punched me in the face, knocking me out of my chair. On the floor, I wiped a spot of blood from my lip and retorted, "I knew you were not ready."

Once I was again seated in the chair, I waited for Kakashi to continue the conversation. It was a shame, but I didn't think he was ready to hear what Obito had become. One day, he would be. But not now.

"Tell me what you know about your parents," he said, as if he never attacked me.

"When a guy and a girl really like each other, sometimes they have a baby. Six months later, they got themselves killed by the Kyuubi. What more is there to know?" I still had no idea where Kakashi was going with this conversation. Sakura and Sasuke hadn't been gone nearly as long as I had been.

"Your mother and father died protecting the Hokage. I'm sure you probably know the Yondaime was Naruto's father, Minato Namikaze. And just as...Obito and Rin...were my...teammates...so were your mother and father the Yondaime's teammates."

"That's...interesting," was all I could come up with to say. This revelation just threw doubt on everything I thought I knew about the Kyuubi's attack and Naruto's birth. That bothered me more than learning I had some more irrelevant backstory that tied me to this world.

Kakashi still held the same seriousness he had started the conversation with, his mask of levity completely forgotten."Something you don't know? Hm. Anyways, before I go any further, I want to ask you something. Why exactly do you want to become a ninja, Haru?"

"Because it's the only option I have, Kakashi-sensei, if I want to survive. I have to do a lot of things I don't want to do in order to protect everyone. And a ninja is just the first of many things I have to become..." was what I said, omitting the final portion, "So that the heroes can win in the end."

Kakashi seemed to take in my answer for a moment.

"Haru, Minato was my Jounin Instructor when I was young which is why I knew your parents. And before your parents died, they asked me to take care of you if anything happened to them."

"What?" I asked, utterly confused.

"Haru, I'm your godfather," Kakashi intoned.

My brain stopped to process that statement. "Bullshit."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you were growing up. I couldn't...I was busy with...work for the Sandaime..."

"You're telling me that you left me to rot in an orphanage because you couldn't deal with being a godfather?"

"Maa, it's not like that."

"I'm pretty sure it's exactly like that, Hatake." I stood up and turned to leave.

"Haru, wait," the jounin said.

I surrounded myself in chakra that would bleed out from my person and cause anyone affected to see dark mists and shadows around me. It was just angry habit to wear a genjutsu. But it was only for show. It wasn't real power. I would have to wait a bit longer for that.

"I think we're done talking. I've lived my whole life without you or anyone else to help me. I think I'll continue to manage on my own. Thanks for nothing, Godfather." I knew I should have expected nothing less from Kakashi, the broken soul that he was, but for some reason I still took it personally. The feeling of being abandoned seethed in my chest.

I stormed out of the room.

Apparently everyone was staring at me, even the Suna siblings.

"What?!" I shouted. Then I realized I was still wreathed in genjutsu. I let go of the illusion and briskly walked away, desperate to be alone for a while. Any door would be fine.

Before I got far, Ino stepped in my way and said, "You wanted to talk to me, Haru?"

"Man, I swear she gets prettier every day."

"Not right now, Ino. Just leave me alone. Don't follow me." I put my hood up and continued around her to find solitude until the preliminaries. I looked forward to maiming the poor genin who got paired against me.