If the morning light represents a vibrant beginning, full of kinetic energy and ambition, then the setting sun is an inevitable end, tinged with a heavy, bruised melancholy. But today, the joyous, echoing laughter overflowing within the decaying walls of the orphanage completely masked that ambient sadness.
Except for Kakashi.
Sitting on the low stone wall, Kakashi watched Kei playing in the dirt with the orphans. The happier and more carefree the children appeared in the fading light, the more violently it contrasted with the haunted, defensive terror they had projected when the two shinobi had first crossed the threshold.
This stark behavioral contrast made Kakashi's thoughts spiral even deeper into chaos. A suffocating, persistent sense of unease settled into his bones.
The sun finally dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in violent shades of orange and purple. It was time to say goodbye.
Kei tapped his cane against the dirt and smoothly pulled Kakashi into the center of the courtyard to bid farewell to the children and Acting Matron Reina.
Feeling the children's almost overwhelming, desperate reluctance to see them leave, Kakashi finally snapped out of his paralyzing daze. He forced a warm, albeit clumsy, smile beneath his mask and waved goodbye.
As they walked toward the rusting iron gates, surrounded by a swarm of clinging toddlers, Kakashi's mind was still reeling. This single afternoon had inflicted a series of profound, paradigm-shattering emotional impacts he had never experienced in a decade of black-ops deployments.
Kakashi felt his fundamental understanding of the village being violently challenged. Looking down at the tearful, smiling faces of these impoverished children—children slated for abduction and brainwashing by his own commanding officers—he felt an entirely alien, crushing sense of shame.
Logically, his ANBU conditioning told him that nothing occurring within this civilian orphanage was his direct operational fault. Yet, he felt an agonizing weight pressing against his ribs. Had his absolute, blind tolerance of the village's 'stability' indirectly subsidized this atrocity? he wondered frantically. Does my silence make me an accomplice? Am I a criminal too?
Just as they reached the gate, a little girl with dirt-smudged cheeks pushed her way to the front of the crowd. She was clutching something tightly to her chest.
Sensing the shift in the crowd's dynamics, Kei 'glanced' toward Kakashi, a microscopic flicker of calculated anticipation crossing his bandaged face.
The little girl's eyes were brimming with a heartbreaking mixture of immense gratitude and terrified apprehension. "Doctor Brother... Kakashi Brother," she stammered, her voice tiny. "These... these are gifts everyone made for you. We hope you will accept them."
She held out her small hands, trembling slightly as she bravely offered the objects forward.
Resting in her palms were two small, deeply flawed clay figurines. They were fashioned from the ordinary mud of the courtyard, completely unpolished, lumpy, and currently drying in the cool evening air. By any metric of civilian commerce or artistic merit, the gifts were entirely worthless.
If they had possessed even a fraction of a ryo, or the physical freedom to leave the compound, the orphans certainly wouldn't have chosen to offer their saviors literal mud.
Clearly, the little girl and the anxious children huddled behind her understood their profound poverty. That was exactly why their eyes were wide with terror; they were deeply afraid the wealthy doctor and the elite shinobi would reject their pathetic offering.
Kei immediately dropped to one knee, bringing himself down to the little girl's eye level. He 'looked' directly at her with his dead eyes, his smile blooming with absolute, unfeigned gentleness.
"Thank you all so very much for these gifts," Kei said, his voice thick with genuine emotion. He carefully reached out and accepted one of the figurines. "I will treasure it forever."
"But, may I ask... who exactly did you sculpt?"
In truth, Kei's empathic perception had already mapped the objects perfectly. Despite being incredibly crude, each lumpy figurine held a tiny, distinctively shaped stick. A blind man's cane.
The little girl, seeing the doctor earnestly accept the mud, beamed with relief. "It is you, Doctor Brother! And Kakashi Brother! We... we actually wanted to buy you much better gifts, but we don't have any money for nice things. We are so sorry..."
"You are absolutely not the ones who should be apologizing," Kei interrupted softly, gently shaking his head. "The people who should be apologizing are the ones who failed to provide you with a safe, happy life."
Kei reached out and gently patted the little girl's messy hair. "This is the single greatest gift I have ever received in my entire life. Thank you."
Standing up, Kei turned his sightless face toward the paralyzed ANBU captain. "Kakashi. What do you think?"
Hearing the prompt, every single orphan turned their gaze toward Kakashi. The tension in the air spiked drastically. They were terrified the lethal, masked ninja would say 'no.'
Kakashi's throat tightened painfully. He swallowed hard, quickly dropping to one knee to match Kei's posture. He reached out with trembling, gloved hands and accepted the second lumpy figurine with absolute, desperate reverence.
"Yes," Kakashi rasped, his voice cracking slightly. "This is the best gift I have ever received."
With their pathetic offerings validated, the little girl and the rest of the orphans erupted into joyous cheers, waving frantically as the two men finally stepped through the gates and began the long walk back to the central village.
The physical dirt road leading back to the commercial district was identical to the one they had walked that morning. What was fundamentally different was the agonizing weight of Kakashi's footsteps. That morning, he had walked with the numb, detached stride of a broken soldier. Now, he walked at a glacial pace, his visible eye glued to the drying mud figurine resting in his palm.
After walking in heavy silence for several blocks, Kei suddenly stopped under the flickering light of a streetlamp.
"Tell me, Kakashi," Kei asked, his voice cutting through the quiet night like a scalpel. "Is this the 'status quo' you are willing to die to protect?"
Kakashi froze. He stared down at the crude, fragile clay in his hand.
The kinder the orphans had been to him, the stronger the violent, suffocating wave of self-reproach grew in his chest. These beautiful, innocent children only required a fraction of basic human decency to live happily. So why was the leadership of Konoha actively bleeding them dry?
Was the Hokage completely unaware of Danzo's black-site recruitment? Or had the orphanage simply failed to file the proper bureaucratic paperwork?
Or perhaps... Kakashi's mind supplied the horrifying, logical conclusion. Perhaps they are entirely aware of the atrocity. And exactly as Kei stated... they simply do not care.
If that was the absolute truth... then exactly what kind of monstrous machine had he spent his entire life killing to protect?
Terrified of the abyss opening up beneath him, Kakashi took a desperate step backward. "I am... I am fatigued. If there are no further operational requirements, I will return to my quarters."
Kakashi wanted to flee. He wanted to activate his Shunshin and run until his lungs burned.
"You may doubt my clinical intentions, Kakashi," Kei said, his voice dropping into a register of cold, absolute judgment. "You may question my political motives. You may even profoundly despise me."
"But I strongly advise you not to betray the weight of the gift those children just placed in your hands."
"At the very least, their sincerity was absolute. There was zero calculation in their offering. They gave you a gift forged from pure love, utilizing the absolute limit of their resources."
Kei took a slow step toward the retreating shinobi. "But what about you, Captain? Do you intend to keep running away? Do you intend to retreat to your apartment and quietly watch as more tragedies are orchestrated in the dark?"
Kakashi's boots felt as though they were cemented to the cobblestones. He couldn't take another step backward.
"Hatake Kakashi," Kei pronounced, his tone shifting from clinical observation to a furious, righteous condemnation. "You proudly claim to be a disciple of the Will of Fire! But in reality, your silence makes you an active accomplice to executioners! You have failed this village!"
(T/N - Remind me of the Arrow TV Series)
"You were once a child," Kei relentlessly drove the psychological blade deeper. "You experienced absolute, world-shattering agony during your youth. You know exactly how the trauma a child endures permanently scars their soul."
"Now that you possess the physical lethality of an elite adult, your absolute priority should be acting as a shield for the innocent! You should be preventing the next generation from experiencing the exact same hell!"
"Yet, what is your operational record?" Kei demanded, striking the cobblestones with his cane. "Even now, armed with the undeniable truth, you are preparing to turn your back and allow innocent children to be fed to the wolves!"
Kei shook his head, a look of profound, withering disgust crossing his face. He turned and began walking down the street, leaving the ANBU behind.
Before he vanished into the shadows, Kei threw one final, devastating remark over his shoulder.
"The mud in your hand is crude and pathetic, Kakashi. But I calculate that you are entirely unworthy of holding it."
"Tell me... are you worthy?"
Kakashi's heart seized violently in his chest. His fingers clamped convulsively around the lumpy clay figurine, but the crushing, psychological pressure Kei had inflicted made his hands tremble so violently he nearly dropped it.
Kakashi was suddenly violently ambushed by the ghosts of his own childhood. He remembered the suffocating, paralyzing agony he felt on the day he discovered his father's corpse. He remembered screaming internally, praying that someone, anyone, would step forward and stop the village from tearing his family apart. But no one had stepped out of the crowd. The village had simply watched the White Fang bleed.
And now? Was there truly any difference between the abandonment of the orphans and the execution of his father?
No. Kakashi realized with sickening clarity that the orphans' reality was vastly worse. Back then, Kakashi had possessed a brilliant sensei, loyal teammates, and a massive inheritance. These children possessed absolutely nothing. They were livestock waiting for the slaughter.
Yet, despite their absolute, crushing despair, they had still used their bare hands to sculpt him a gift. Simply because he had sat in the dirt and shared a skewer of cheap meat with them!
Staring down at the fragile mud in his hand, Kakashi recalled the desperate, adoring smiles the children had offered him. A violent wave of guilt and self-hatred finally shattered his remaining ANBU conditioning. Hot, unchecked tears blurred his vision.
He stood alone under the streetlamp for a long, agonizing time. Finally, Kakashi took a deep, shuddering breath. He wiped his visible eye, carefully, reverently tucked the clay figurine into the secure pouch of his flak jacket, and straightened his spine. His expression slowly hardened into absolute, lethal resolve.
Just as he solidified his choice, the rhythmic, familiar tap-tap-tap of a blind cane echoed from the shadows behind him.
"Well, Captain," Kei's calm, conversational voice drifted out of the dark. "Have you completed your thoughts?"
Kakashi instinctively dropped into a defensive stance, spinning around to face the doctor. "I thought you departed the perimeter!" he rasped, his voice rough.
"I have been waiting for you," Kei smiled warmly, stepping back into the light of the streetlamp. "Or rather... the children, and the future of this village, have been waiting for you."
Kakashi stared at the blind man for a long moment. He took a deep breath. "I will agree to your terms. For now."
"But," Kakashi added, his visible eye narrowing with lethal intent, "if I ever acquire proof that you are utilizing me to actively harm the innocent civilians of this village... I will execute you myself."
"You have my absolute guarantee, that day will never arrive," Kei agreed smoothly, entirely unbothered by the death threat.
Sensing that Kakashi's ideological defection was complete, Kei immediately pivoted to logistical exploitation. "Furthermore, since we are now formally allied, there is a specific operational matter I require your assistance with. I expect you will accept."
Kakashi frowned, instantly wary. "Outline the 'matter' of the operation first. I will confirm my participation afterward."
"It is quite simple," Kei began. "My intelligence network has recently isolated a medical protocol that possesses the potential to reverse my ocular blindness..."
After briefly detailing the intelligence regarding the rogue medical specialist, Shinno, Kei walked directly up to the ANBU captain.
"I require you to accompany me on a visit outside the village walls when the time comes to secure him."
"As you are aware, I am a blind, highly vulnerable civilian," Kei lied with flawless ease. "Therefore, I wish to officially commission you for an S-rank bodyguard detail. If we encounter hostile elements during the extraction, you will eliminate them."
Kakashi considered the request meticulously. "Are you absolutely certain your requirements are strictly limited to a bodyguard detail? There are no hidden assassination agendas?"
"It is exclusively a protective detail," Kei nodded firmly. "Your sole directive is to ensure my physical survival if negotiations turn violent."
"If those are the limits of the operation, I accept the commission," Kakashi agreed.
Kei's smile deepened into an expression of profound, chilling victory. "Thank you, Kakashi. You truly are a paragon of the Will of Fire."
"Do not attempt to psychoanalyze my motives," Kakashi warned coldly. "You successfully manipulated me out of my depression during our first visit. I am simply fulfilling the resulting life debt. Once this extraction is complete, the ledger between us is zeroed."
"Kakashi, my friend, we are allies now. Why must you be so ruthlessly transactional?" Kei chuckled, extending his right hand toward the assassin. "Besides... in the future, we will inevitably be forced to coordinate our operations if we intend to live up to the expectations of those children. Will we not?"
Kakashi stared at the offered hand, but did not reach out to take it.
Kei, perfectly aware of the rejection, simply smiled, lowered his hand, and began walking back toward the Hyuga compound. He had secured the loyalty of Konoha's most lethal blade. The board was perfectly set.