Chapter 36: Loss After Loss - Kakashi's Story

There he was: The White Fang of the Leaf, Sakumo Hatake, lying on the cold floor lifeless. His son, Kakashi Hatake, stood over his dead father's body in disbelief. It was a stormy and rainy night. The room would light up every few seconds whenever lightning struck the ground outside.

A tear slid down the young ninja's face.

'Father, why?' He thought to himself as he then got onto his knees. He placed his hands down on the wooden floor also and wept as he stared down at the man he had always looked up to, 'Why? Why would you throw your life away like this?!'

Each tear shed landed on Sakumo's cheeks. Kakashi then shook his father's body in the hopes that he would be able to somehow make the man come back to life, but of course... there was no bringing him back.

Once this realization had finally struck the white-haired boy fully, Kakashi lifted his father's head up and held him to his chest as he continued to sob for the rest of the night.

•••

Now, as a grown man, Kakashi now stood at the grave of his passed friend and comrade, Obito Uchiha, who had died during the third great ninja war.

'I came back again.' He said to himself as he replaced the flowers on his tomb with a more alive set of roses.

The wind blew as no one but Kakashi spent time in the graveyard. It seemed very long ago to him—Obito's and Rin's death. The copycat ninja had always blamed himself for their passing but also knew that they wouldn't want him to follow them in death until it was truly time for him to do so. Clearly, that time had not come, for Kakashi still had business left to take care of on Earth.

What he didn't know was that a ghost of Obito and Rin stood behind him.

"Don't ever pretend to grieve over us when you're the one who let us die." Obito spoke loud enough for his living old comrade to hear him.

Kakashi's eyes widened. Never before did he ever wanna turn around yet at the same time, stay still.

"He's right, Kakashi," Rin then spoke, "You killed me. You let Obito and I die... why didn't you protect us? You're a jonin, aren't you?"

Her voice was enough to get Kakashi to finally turn around. When he did, he saw the two looking the same fashion they did when they had died. Obito's right half of his body was completely destroyed beyond words and his left eye was gone as he gave Kakashi that eye while he was alive. Rin, on the other hand, had a hole in her chest and blood splattered around that area and blood running down her mouth. Her eyes lacked color and was dull.

"O-Obito... Ri-Rin..." Kakashi felt as though he was nauseous; he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Were these two real? Was he imagining things?!

His dream was being controlled by Hanshin after all. Kakashi had always felt guilty for his friend's deaths. There was absolutely nothing he could've done to protect them and Hanshin knew that and used this to his advantage.

"Kakashi... I'm so disappointed in you. Look at the type of ninja you've become. I should've never had you as my student."

"M-Minato-sensei..." Kakashi turned to his left to see the ghost version of his former teacher staring at him with contempt.

The three then approached the man with such horrific eyes. Kakashi jumped back but then realized as soon as he landed on his feet that he had been taken to a place that was surrounded by water. He stood on one of the few large rocks in the area.

He wondered where he was and observed his surroundings. When he looked down at the raging currents, a hand popped out of it and grabbed onto his ankle.

Rin slowly revealed herself out of the water.

"Why didn't you protect me, Kakashi? Why did you let me die?!" She demanded.

The ninja panicked and shook the girl's hand off him as he hopped onto another rocky surface.

"I... Rin... you... you ran into..."

Behind him, Obito was descending from the sky, preparing to kick his old friend into the body of water. Thankfully, Kakashi caught wind of this and dodged the boy's assault. Obito landed in front of the man with his back turned towards him.

"You let Rin die... even after I told you to protect her with your life." The child reminded Kakashi as he slowly turned his eyes to glare back at the jonin.

Kakashi was utterly speechless. His guilt was returning to him after trying so hard for years to stop blaming himself for his teammates deaths. Yet here they were, telling him it really was his fault... his fault why they ended up being buried at such a young age.

As his memory of their deaths filled his mind, Minato appeared behind the ninja and held a kunai to his student's neck.

"You've never even did anything to protect the Leaf from the Nine-Tails attack. You could've possibly been able to save me and my wife." The Yellow Flash of the Leaf spoke in such a harsh tone.

This seemed to take a stab at Kakashi's heart. He thought back to that day when Konoha was attacked nearly seventeen years ago: He was there. He was there but he was busy protecting the defenseless and escorting them to safety. However, when he had finally went to battle the tailed beast along with his fellow jonin, Minato had already been pierced right through his body with the Nine-Tails nail and Kushina had fallen victim to it also.

There was nothing he could do to save them at that point.

That day and the days leading up to his acceptance of team seven was nothing but emptiness for the male. He had lost every one of his old teammates at that point—Minato being the last to go.

Putting his kunai down, Minato instead kicked Kakashi into the strong current below. The guilt-stricken ninja was now being washed away and didn't even bother to struggle for he knew that there was no point in doing so as he had lost his willpower to even fight for his life. What was happening was too much for him. He was completely at a loss.

When he began sinking, all Kakashi could think about was the good ol' days where his teammates were alive and they had their differences but were still getting by perfectly fine.

"I'm sorry... everyone. I failed you..."

•••

Kakashi, like Neji, was next to have blood slowly slide down his face. Hanshin smirked upon seeing this and looked to Sakura, Naruto, and Nia, who had all fallen victim to his genjutsu as well.

Sakura had already been shedding bloody tears longer than anyone else as she was the one to be caught up in the genjutsu first.

'Her pain is great...' The long-haired man concluded as he once more took a peak into Sakura's dream.

And all because of a boy... pitiful...

He then turned his attention to Naruto and frowned.

This boy... Not only is he the strongest physically out of my victims, but he's also the strongest mentally... it'll take a while for me to break his mind... if at all...

Hanshin then too took a peek at Naruto's dream for a brief second.

"I was... always alone..."

Those words said by Naruto in his dream ran through Hanshin's mind. Immediately, the guy became relieved at knowing that Naruto was slowly succumbing to his own suffering as a child. He was glad cause it strengthened him further. As long as his despair was becoming deeper, the man wasn't concerned about the genin.

In fact, he took his eye off the boy and walked over to the person who could've became a threat if only they weren't so quick to believe lies.

"Foolish girl..." He lifted Nia's chin up with his index finger, "Because you believed me, you're mind will be crushed and I'm certain you'll die now. After all, you have the weakest, most vulnerable heart out of this group... and you aren't even the one who suffered the most..."

He then pulled his finger back and placed his fist on a hip.

"If I were to have told you what he really thought of you... it would've touched you so deeply, you would've been immune to this genjutsu."

Hanshin glanced at Naruto and remembered exactly how his attitude really was like towards the kunoichi as he read his heart back when Nia was still conscious.

***
'She never looks at her reflection...' Naruto watched as Nia kept avoiding looking at the water as they sat by a stream, 'She's convinced that she looks like a monster... but... to me, she looks human. Maybe not as pretty as someone like Sakura, but still human.'

'Doesn't Curly Brow ever smile? She's always so serious... Hmm... I'll just crack a joke or pull a prank on her! Maybe then she'll loosen up and laugh or something for once.' Naruto thought as he looked to his right to see Nia with a grave expression as the group headed to the Cloud.

'Maybe I was a bit selfish for trying to get everyone to go to Ichiraku instead of somewhere she wanted to go to celebrate her promotion to chuunin; I should apologize.' The genin was talking to Sakura but his thoughts had went into thinking about the argument he had with his other friend. However, when he looked back at her, she glared at him and he frowned, 'Like hell I'll apologize! Ichiraku it is!'

'Curly Brow is so vulnerable... I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on her as much as I do everyone else then...' The genin made a decision after seeing the girl crying silently to herself while they were locked up in Konoha.

'Thank you...' The young man placed a cold cloth on Nia's forehead as she was still recovering from the wounds she received from him in his four-tails state. Naruto then remembered hearing the girl say that she chased after him when the petal jutsu lady kidnapped the boy in his sleep, 'You really saved my butt back there, ya know?'

***

"If only you did know..." Hanshin chuckled as he knew Nia was far too negative to believe anyone could actually care for her in any way.

Oh well... it's not like there's anything I can do for you now... your mind is nearly broken.

Again, he switched his attention back to Naruto.

Your mind needs special attention. You're too full of will power... I'll focus on getting you to suffer horribly next in your dream since the girl is already doomed...

---
A/N- Finalllly I'm done with this chapter lmao. Idk why it took me so long to write this 😅 At least it's written. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this! Please comment and vote and y'all already know: Have a great day lovelies ❤️