Loneliness' Child

Chapter 5 

For a long moment the two pairs of eyes regarded the other before him.  The blue was taking in any changes that had occurred within his former lover over the millennia of not seeing him. 

Meanwhile one grey and one red eye perused the blonde child’s as if he could latch on to the other’s essence.  His mind might not be entirely clear yet, what had transpired between him and the child.  His body and soul, however, knew this person and was dead set on absorbing everything he could to help his case.  Kakashi now knew exactly why he’d been so obsessed with the story of Loneliness’s child since he was one himself.

And that was that he had to remedy the mistake he had made so long ago.  Though his brain was a bit hazy, that was the one thing he knew for a fact.

At one point he had betrayed this person and he had to know why and he had to obtain Naruto’s forgiveness.  As that warm hand was jerked from his grip Kakashi was brought back to the present.

“How dare you!” the boy hissed vehemently.  “Don’t ever touch me again!”

Kakashi’s head tilted to the side, not unlike a dog when it encounters something that confuses it.

“Why shouldn’t I?  As far as I am concerned you are mine.”

Bad choice of words, the grey-haired man concluded as the blue eyes flared and crimson started to fill the depths.  A flash hit him as he realized that in some other life he had experienced this phenomenon before….and it hadn’t boded well—

 

“Yours?!  I haven’t been yours for thousands of years!  Maybe you should have thought of that before you decided to betray me!” Rage contorted Naruto’s features and the slashes on his face became distinctly more marked. 

Kakashi just sat there, feeling somewhat dumbfounded.  In all of his privileged little life no one had ever dared raise their voice to him, especially someone he was just meeting.  Or re-meeting, his brain quipped rather unhelpfully.  I’ll be damned if some kid is going to talk like that to me, he decided, especially not this kid.  I’ll just make it clear that I am the adult and am in charge.

 

“Look,” Kakashi began, “I don’t know who you’re talking ab---.”

“Enough!”

The roar of that one word reverberated throughout the house, cracking several windows and some of the more fragile figurines that Iruka had been given, or so he said. 

Naruto had never been so angry, he hasn’t changed at all!  If anything he is even more arrogant than he used to be, if that is even possible. 

Another thing that had him boiling was the fact that the bastard made him lose control over the tight leash he kept on his powers.  Proof of the broken items surrounding him was evidence of that.  I can’t let him win, he breathed deeply, otherwise I’ll be no better than I was then.  With that past image as a motivator he took deep breaths and forced his body to calm down until that cold, familiar void once again filled his chest.

“Look,” Naruto was finally able to say calmly, “I have no interest in belonging to you in any way, shape, or form.  You have no pull or right to claim me, am I clear?” 



His eyes were mostly blue once more, but there was still that hint of red in them that told him this so-called request was really more of a demand.  Damn if it didn’t rub Kakashi the wrong way.

“Wrong.” A one word counter was all Naruto was given.  Instead of getting angry again though, his face took on an air of sadness.

“You know if you had been like this in the past and hadn’t allowed those imbecilic mortals to corrupt your way of thinking we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, because my everything would belong to you.  But….as it stands you did allow it to happen and now I will never trust you again.”

Absorbing everything the boy had just said, Kakashi was speechless with amazement.  He continues to defy me!  I haven’t spent my entire life preparing for this moment for it to be taken away from me! 

“Nevertheless,” Kakashi waved his hand as if everything that had just been said was moot, “you are mine.  Think of this, if you would.  If I hadn’t had you summoned out of that hellhole you would have been trapped in there forever.”

That should show him, Kakashi mentally patted his own back, so stuck in his pretentious self preening that he didn’t notice the boy walking away.

“I didn’t release you!”

The figure froze as if weighing what had just been said, shrugged and continued on its way, but still left a parting shot.

“You know I used to put up with your arrogance because I loved you.  Now you’re just pathetic.  And as for you “rescuing me,” what a joke, my exile was self-inflicted so all you did was tear me out of the only warm and familiar place I have ever known.  So thanks really for all you’ve done.”

Kakashi sank deeper into the couch at these words. 

If anyone could see him now they certainly wouldn’t recognize him as Hatake, Kakashi, the powerful, yet eccentric man who could never be reasoned with or turned once he made up his mind to do something.  Women always flocked to his side, despite not being able to see his full face; men would give the shirt off their back to call themselves his friend.

For the first time in his life he felt ashamed.  And it was a slip of a boy who’d made him feel this way.  What should I do now? It’s like my entire life’s goal is suddenly gone…and now I don’t know what to do with myself. 

His head came up suddenly with something that just occurred to him.  Why had it been his life’s goal?  So many hours spent on this one endeavor, what had become of his life?  For what reason had he spent so much time trying to free someone who didn’t have a grateful bone in his body? 

For no reason, he concluded, I have wasted enough of my life on this pathetic pipe dream.  Child of Loneliness, pshhh, I don’t even care anymore.  Let Iruka take care of the brat then.

 

Standing up his hands came to ensure his mask was still in place.  After smoothing the wrinkles as best he could out of his rumpled suit Kakashi pulled his mobile out of his left breast pocket.

“Eliya come get me, I am at Umino’s residence.”  There was a pause.  “No, there won’t be anyone else, just me.”

As he opened the door to leave, he looked around one last time; it seemed instinctively he needed to spot something for closure.  When the moment didn’t come, he sighed, walked out the door and shut it behind him…missing the shock of gold hair watching his departure.

 

So he has abandoned me again, Naruto realized, tears filling his eyes without his knowledge. 

As the tears made their way down his face Naruto brought his hand to his wet cheeks.  Suddenly feeling weak he fell to his knees.

How can this be?!  After all this time I should hate him more than anything! 

 

Yet somehow great sobs made their way out of his thin body, shaking the figure, translating just how alone now he truly was.

Feeling a hand softly brush his hair, Naruto looked up, half expecting to see that bastard there.

When the face he saw was Iruka’s his head went back down and he continued crying.

 

Iruka carried the boy upstairs to his room and laid him in his bed.  After he’d covered him up, he ran his hands through the golden hair, angry when he saw sorrow and exhaustion evident on every line of his body.

Fucking Hatake!  How could you do this?!  First you rip him out of the place he’d at least felt safe in and then you abandon him? 

Guilt ate at Iruka as he realized that he too, was just as guilty.  Not for abandoning the boy, but for ripping him out of somewhere before knowing the full details. 

Rage at how Hatake had treated the boy, quickly replaced any guilty feelings he had.  Iruka was a man who strongly believed in learning from your past, but at the same time he didn’t believe in dwelling in it. 

The issue at hand now was what to do with this child.  He couldn’t just throw him out in the streets, especially with his powers.  Iruka knew what it was like to go through life with people looking at you as though you were some kind of monster.  He too had been looked at upon as some sort of blight upon the earth, and he merely had summoning abilities.

If he was right and Naruto’s abilities strongly outmatched his own then he would have to keep the boy safe.  Something like this should have gone to Hatake, but seeing as how the man had up and left, Iruka was left with little choice.

As he made a sort of rough plan in his head for the days to come he swore one thing with every fiber of his being.  Hatake would never again be allowed anywhere near the boy.  Ever.