Bang bang bang!
In front of a familiar door in a bachelor apartment building, Naruto hammered away with his fist.
"Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei!"
"Naruto?"
A surprised voice came from behind him.
Naruto froze and spun around—to find Kakashi already standing there, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Yo, Naruto." Kakashi lifted a lazy hand in greeting. "Need something?"
"Finally!" Naruto's gloom vanished at once. Then he puffed up his cheeks. "Where'd you go? I was knocking forever!"
Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and brushed it off. "Ahaha, I had something to do. Went out for a bit."
He waved toward the door. "Come in."
Naruto followed him inside.
The place was… tiny. One small bedroom with no entryway, no partition. A single bed took up most of the room. A low table beside it was stacked with magazines, and a plain wardrobe sat in the corner.
But it was spotless. Not a speck of dust. Everything neatly arranged. The guy was way more orderly than Naruto had expected.
"Whoa—Kakashi-sensei, your place is so small!" Naruto blurted, looking around unabashedly.
"Don't snoop," Kakashi said with a weary sigh.
Too late. Naruto was already spinning around like a top. He grabbed a small book off the bedside pile.
"Huh—Icha Icha Paradise?!" he exclaimed. "This is that book you're always reading!"
Kakashi's eye widened. In two strides he snatched it from Naruto and shoved it up high on a shelf.
"Cough. Kids can't read that."
Naruto pouted. "Cheapskate! It's just a book!"
Kakashi could only give a strained smile. Naruto really had zero sense of boundaries. Letting him in might've been a mistake.
He did have something important he wanted to investigate, but with Naruto here, he couldn't just kick him out.
"Anyway…" Kakashi cleared his throat and tried to steer the conversation back. "You said you had something to ask me?"
"Oh, right!" Naruto finally remembered, and opened his mouth to ask about Rasengan—
Then he froze.
"Eh?!"
A photo frame on Kakashi's bedside table caught his eye.
Naruto picked it up and stared.
Four people in the shot.
Three at the front: a black-haired boy with goggles grinning brightly, a white-haired boy wearing a cocky scowl, and a girl between them flashing a peace sign.
Behind them stood a blond man, hands resting on the boys' heads.
Naruto's eyes went huge.
"D-Dad?!" he shouted. "Kakashi-sensei, why do you have a picture of my dad?!"
Kakashi whipped around—and saw Naruto holding the old photo, staring at him in shock.
Naruto thrust the frame at him, finger jabbing the blond man's face.
"Look! This guy looks exactly like my dad! Well—my dream dad! I've been dreaming about him these past couple days—he's this guy! I thought I made him up, but he's real, and you know him?!"
The room fell silent.
Kakashi's mind blanked out.
How did I forget Naruto's seen Sensei in the dream…
Naruto barreled on, excited and certain.
"This blond uncle—same hair, same blue eyes, even the smile! It's totally him! And—haha—he kinda looks like me too!"
He scratched his head, grinning sheepishly.
But his eyes were bright with expectation.
Kakashi, meanwhile, stayed silent, stiff as stone. His visible eye didn't dare meet Naruto's.
What was he supposed to say?
"Yes, that's your father, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato"?
Was he really going to blurt out a secret the Third had kept locked away for over a decade?
But if he didn't say anything, Naruto would never let it go…
Kakashi was trapped. Cold sweat slid down his back.
Just as he forced himself to speak, Naruto's attention suddenly hopped somewhere else.
He stared at the white-haired boy in the photo, then burst out laughing.
"Kakashi-sensei, don't tell me this grumpy-looking kid is you!" Naruto cackled. "You look just like Sasuke—so smug!"
He waved dismissively, then pointed at the goggled boy with sparkling eyes.
"But this guy looks cool! Kinda like I used to be, huh?"
Kakashi quietly let out a breath.
Thank goodness. Naruto was incredibly easy to distract.
"That was… my old team," Kakashi said, taking the frame back. His voice was unusually low. "And my teacher. They're… not in this world anymore."
Naruto went still.
He didn't know what to say. He watched Kakashi wipe the photo, head lowered, face hidden.
So these people were all Kakashi-sensei's past…
Naruto suddenly realized something he'd never really thought about.
Kakashi might act like he didn't care about anything—but he was alone too. Just like Naruto.
No… he'd lost even more people than Naruto ever had.
Naruto's earlier excitement evaporated into a dull ache.
"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei," he mumbled, scratching his head. "I didn't know…"
-------
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