FicWad

{Three Months Later}

“Kakashi please.”
“No!” The silver-haired jonin shook his head as he closed his ears, the star crystal swaying with his motion.
“No…I-I don’t want to hear this.”
“Kakashi please. I need you to do this for me.”
“No you don’t. What makes you sure that things are going to end up like that?!” Munenori sighs as he rubbed his forehead gently. What the man was asking of him, Kakashi could not agree to…he just couldn’t.
“I am positive that I will not make it back from this mission. I don’t…I don’t trust anyone else to take care of her like I trust you.” Kakashi spreads his arms in question.
“What about your parents and Katsumi? You don’t trust your family? Why lay this responsibility on me when you know how I feel about having to look after others…I am not good at it!?”
“I trust my father with my life….I just…my parents…I just don’t think that they will be able to take care of her like she needs in my absence." Kakashi looks at him in anger.
"Your absence?! This isn't a simple absence Munenori; this is a permanent situation here! You aren't just going on some freaking trip!" Ignoring the other's banter, Munenori continues.
"My parents aren’t good with deaths in the family so they will be too depressed to even give her the help she needs and Katsumi…she is well aware of her chances of making it out of this mission as well. She knows she isn’t going to live it out either. You are the only person Akira feels close to other than myself.” Munenori’s face twists into something between pain and guilt before his mask full of sureness returns.
“Then don’t go! If you know you’ll die just don’t go.”
“I must.” Kakashi growls in frustration as he grabs the man’s shoulders and shakes him.
“Why?!”
“Because it is my time! I wouldn’t expect you to understand it but I know that my time in life is up.”Kakashi blinks before looking at him in confusion. What did he mean his time was up?
“A-Are you sick or something?” Munenori sighs before nodding.
“Somewhat…it is more of a curse. When I was thirteen, I went on a mission that completely changed my life. Among other awful events that took placed that day; there was a curse seal placed against me, marking my time. The closer I get to it, he sicker I get. I am supposed to be put through agonizing pain and will look unrecognizably horrid by the time the deed is done. I don’t want Akira to see me like that. I can’t do that to her.” Kakashi releases the man’s shoulders before dropping down in his seat.
“And Katsumi, why will she not make it?”
“When she was sixteen she found out that she was born with a condition that make her lungs weak and the more she over exerts herself, the worse her condition gets. She could retire as a ninja and stay safely at home but she wants to die a death of honor in battle instead of hiding away like a coward. I wouldn’t ask this of you if there wasn’t any other way Kakashi.”
“What of Akira? You think that this is any better than staying alive?”
“It will hurt her more to watch me die and be able to do nothing of it than to just know that I died protecting those I care for. Could you ask such a thing of her Kakashi? Could you really ask Akira to watch me die? To watch her sister and brother go through such misery?” Kakashi looks away before shaking his head.
“No.”
“Exactly. I would rather her remember us as we are now…we both do.”
“When do you both leave?”
“Tomorrow.” Kakashi looks over at him in disbelief before looking away with a sigh, shoving away his grief. He wasn’t particularly close to either Munenori nor Katsumi, but he had become close friends with Akira over the years and just thinking of the pain she will have to endure when they receive the news was unbearable.
“Fine…I will…I will look after her.” Munenori rests a hand on his shoulder before giving him a sad smile.
“Then I leave her in your care. Thank you.” Kakashi could only imagine how tough it was for the other to deal with all of this. In the moonlit room, they sat quietly, Kakashi still absorbing the information as he allowed the older male prepare for his death and his trip. He would never forget the sight of the man’s tear streamed face full of guilt and grief in the glow of the moonlight.