Chapter Text
The street seemed emptier than normal as Kakashi walked quietly towards the academy. He couldn’t help but feel himself drifting from his surroundings; days prior, his father was patiently walking with him – telling him stories of his missions – laughing at the birds that cawed in the beautifully bright sky. Today, the birds were quiet – the sky littered with dark and uneven clouds.
He hadn’t quite realized the moment he arrived at the academy – nor did he remember how he got into the classroom. As he started realizing all these things he couldn’t help but feel the dozens of eyes that were laid on him. Pity. They were all trying to give him pity, but he wanted nothing of the sort. Kakashi was well aware that everyone, even Lord Third, had told him to stay at home – to not worry about coming to class – but, he felt that he had to prove himself still worthy of becoming a ninja, becoming something that Sakumo would’ve been proud of.
“Kakashi!” a loud-eccentric voice carried through the classroom; Kakashi didn’t even have to turn his glance to know whose voice it was.
“My rival,” he smacked the back of Kakashi’s chair, “are you coming to get lunch?”
Kakashi finally allowed himself to look upwards, meeting Gai’s eyes – filled with warmth and joy; lacking the one thing that Kakashi had seen all day. Pity.
He kept silent but began to stand and push his chair in; Gai continued talking – rambling about how he was going to do x-amount of push-ups after class. Kakashi was pretty sure he had asked him if he wanted to join him, but he kept his silence – just following in behind him as they walked to get food.
The children around them were allowing hushed whispers of Sakumo’s death. Kakashi wasn’t deaf and he was certain Gai wasn’t either; so, even if Gai didn’t know before, he had to have known by now. But, Kakashi turned to look at him, his expression staying the same as it was earlier in the day.
Something was comforting about the way Gai was completely ignoring the topic; even if his ramblings tended to get under Kakashi’s skin – he thought to himself that maybe he would happily endure his ramblings if it would continue to drown out the sound of pity from those surrounding them.
Kakashi was happy to have met Gai; he would never admit it out loud though.
Instead of going home and crying that night, Kakashi sat up and contemplated if he was too old to ask Gai to play at the park with him.