Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Curative Career of Kaori the Ninja Nurse ❯ Fate and Destiny ( Chapter 30 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Note: This is basically a review of what happens in the manga/anime.

Fate and Destiny

Fate and destiny are strange, nearly undefinable and incomprehensible concepts. There are people who claim you can change fate with your own two hands. But wouldn't that be your destiny, to be able to change fate?

Was it fate for Uchiha Itachi to kill his entire clan? Then wasn't it Sasuke's destiny to become an avenger and Naruto's destiny to stop him?

And Kakashi's destiny to be futile in the face of tragedy.

-…-…-…-

“What?! What did you say? You sent only rookies to pursue Sasuke?” exclaimed Kakashi, uncharacteristically rattled. He was aghast at Tsunade's incompetence - sending a bunch of inexperienced rookies against Orochimaru's cursed seal team was more than stupid, it was irresponsible. He had just heard, upon his return from escorting the traveling museum exhibit, that Sasuke had left the village.

Tsunade replied defensively, ”I had no choice with the state of the village as it is, but I made necessary arrangements.” She did not bother to explain to her subordinate that she had sent the sand genin team as reinforcements. After all, who was he to question the hokage's decisions? He didn't understand how she had to walk a tightrope between balancing internal and external affairs. Couldn't he see all the paperwork on her desk and all the scrolls piled up on the floor?

But none of that was Kakashi's concern. His concern was his genin. To hell with his next mission, he had to make sure those kids were all right. Kakashi turned away defiantly and was about to leave when Tsunade ordered, ”Your next mission has already been selected.” She held up a sheet of paper with a map, pictures of three wanted ninja, and "S class" at the top.

“I'll finish my business and come right back. Don't worry,” Kakashi said coolly, blatantly ignoring Tsunade's orders. That mission could wait. Those felons were not important, not right now.

Tsunade knew she could not stop him. In her heart, she empathized with Kakashi. She really wanted to go out herself and drag Uchiha Sasuke back by his ear and give him a good public spanking lesson.

Once outside, Kakashi's remaining genin called out frantically to him. “Kakashi sensei, it's already been two days since Sasuke left the village, but Naruto and the rest who are pursuing him haven't returned!” Sakura's voice wavered with worry. She had been waiting impatiently for her sensei's return since Sasuke left, hoping that he could do something.

Kakashi could see the desperation in the girl's blue-green eyes, which currently looked red and wet. “Yeah, I know roughly what's going on,” he said calmly, as if the situation hardly merited any attention.

“I…trust Naruto. I trust him, but if anything were to happen between those two…” she said, on the brink of tears again. What if one killed the other? What if neither one of them returned? Here she was, unable to do anything, just pathetically waiting for the outcome.

Her sensei placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiled through his mask. “Don't worry, leave the rest to me,” Kakashi said with feigned confidence. He casually walked to the main gates of Konoha where he cut his hand with a kunai and performed the summoning seals. His loyal pack of eight nin dogs appeared before him in a great puff of white smoke. “I need you to scatter and track down Naruto's and Sasuke's scent,” their master ordered.

“Naruto and Sasuke? What happened to those two?” asked Pakkun. The little pug was the smallest, but oldest and wisest of the pack.

“I'll explain later. It's an emergency right now. Once you've caught their scent, call me right away. I'll run right over. Okay, split!”

The dogs quickly ran off in all directions. Unlike his genin, the nin dogs never questioned orders, and after all their years of working together, they knew instinctively what was required.

Sakura had followed her sensei and secretly watched from behind a building, but Kakashi knew she was there. He also knew it was useless telling her not to worry when she had borne witness to the fight on top of the hospital, and the destruction it wrought. He did not bother to speak to her again.

Instead, Kakashi thought back to what happened after the fight. He had tracked down and tied up Sasuke, and gave him a lecture condemning vengeance, trying to make him see its futility, trying to get him to appreciate what he had in the present, not the past. But now Kakashi realized how he was the one who was too naïve. It really was possible for his two genin to kill each other.

How long did it take him to realize his own folly? And yet he had expected Sasuke to immediately take his words to heart. After Obito's death, guilt and revenge were the only things that drove him. With Obito's eye, he learned jutsu after justu, killed enemy after enemy, but that did not bring Obito back. That did not help against the Kyuubi when his sensei, his friend, his surrogate father, sacrificed himself. There was no one to take revenge against for his death; he could not blame the infant housing the demon fox. And when Rin died in battle, killed by some nameless, faceless enemy, Kakashi finally realized how futile it all was. Revenge, war, death, an endless cycle.

From a distance, the veteran shinobi heard a howl. He ran at full speed in its direction, pleading desperately to fate and the heavens, "Please, let me make it on time." But fate had never been kind to Hatake Kakashi.

He quickly caught up with Pakkun and the two continued to track Naruto's and Sasuke's trail through the deep woods. Pakkun also detected the scents of the other Konoha team members, four unknown scents (presumably of the enemy) and the scent of blood. Some scents had broken off from the others until only two remained, the only two of interest for him and his master.

After running for hours, the trail led them near a deep valley on the border of Konoha where Kakashi suddenly got a very bad feeling. Immense chakra, two different ones, even from this distance they made his blood run cold. And to make things worse, it started to rain. It was one of those rare sudden storms that came out of nowhere. One minute the sky was blue; the next minute the heavily rain had drenched the two pursuers from head to toe, or paw in Pakkun's case. Although the shinobi uniform was water resistant, it was not waterproof, and soon Kakashi felt the uncomfortable dampness on his skin.

“Damn, why now? The rain will wash away the scent,” Kakashi complained, wondering if the strange chakra had anything to do with the sudden change in weather.

“We're close, this way,” his little comrade replied. Undaunted, the two doubled their efforts. They ran toward the cliffs, where a waterfall rushed down into the lush green valley below.

First they saw nothing, as if the trail had ended with the targets disappearing in thin air. Then Kakashi saw something orange down in the valley. It appeared to be Naruto's broken body. Kakashi and Pakkun leaped down the cliff face toward the solitary figure lying by the waterfall's riverbank.

“We're too late,” Kakashi said when he saw the prostrate form. His first desperate thought was that Naruto was dead. The rain washed rivulets of blood from the body. The clothes were torn all over. Yet upon closer inspection, he didn't see any obvious external injuries and realized to his relief that the nine tail fox demon's power had probably saved Naruto yet again.

Pakkun sniffed Sasuke's headband which lay on the ground nearby, trying to pick up his trail, but Kakashi had given up on Sasuke. He picked up the abandoned Konoha headband with the scratched forehead plate and placed it on top of Naruto's chest. "I'm sorry…I didn't make it in time," he said quietly to the unconscious boy. He then hoisted Naruto onto his back. This burden was not as heavy as the blame he placed upon himself.

Kakashi and Pakkun climbed back up the cliffs. They stopped to look down upon the valley below them and at the two towering statues carved from the cliffs themselves. The heavy rain continued pouring into the waterfall and the river below, as if the heavens were crying for the two orphaned boys, as if the heavens were trying to wash away all bonds to the earthly world.

"The Valley of the End…for Naruto and Sasuke to fight in a place like this…it's ironic,” noted Pakkun.

Kakashi shook his head sadly. “When I watch this river flow, it's as if I'm seeing a battle that will carry on for eternity, never stopping. Like the fate of the two represented by these statues, who founded the village of Konoha. Naruto and Sasuke, your lives are like theirs," he said pensively, as if to himself.

Fate, destiny, coming full circle, and Kakashi had failed his comrades again.

The rain stopped just as suddenly as it had started. The sun's golden rays pierced the clouds, but did nothing to warm his heart.

“We can't follow his scent anymore. Besides, before we go after Sasuke, we should tend to Naruto,” suggested Pakkun. Kakashi silently agreed and they headed back toward Konoha at a less frantic pace.

Naruto, despite his injuries, had a weak but steady heartbeat and his wounds were already healing. But the jarring of his body, as it was carried on his sensei's back, rouse him from his healing slumber for a moment. He spoke in a tired, quiet voice that Kakashi had never heard before. “Kakashi sensei, where's Sasuke?” he asked.

Kakashi didn't answer. The words “I'm sorry. He's gone. I failed. It's my fault.” choked in his throat.

-…-…-…-