A Skewer of Anticipated Dumplings

"If you'd been even one minute later, you would've died..."

Kakashi Hatake lay in bed, staring blankly at the empty white ceiling, lost in thought. Yet the first words he had heard upon waking still echoed in his ears.

"One minute..."

"It really was so long..."

Whenever he was alone, he always fell silent. He had already grown used to this silence within loneliness.

"Ding-ding-ding..." The hospital room's doorbell suddenly rang.

Like a boneless mass of rotten flesh, Kakashi heard the doorbell ringing incessantly. He tilted his head slightly and merely stared numbly toward the door without making the slightest move.

"Kakashi! Open the door!"

Obito Uchiha kept pounding on the hospital room door, a trace of anger on his face.

"I know you're in there. Rin and I came to see you!"

"Osamu came too!"

As though he had heard something worth caring about, Kakashi recovered slightly, slowly got out of bed, and opened the door.

Without looking at Obito or Rin, he merely glanced at Kato Osamu before silently returning to bed.

"Kakashi! It's already been a month! Isn't it about time you pulled yourself together?"

"You only nearly got killed! It's not like you haven't..."

Seeing Kakashi like this, Obito could not help shouting. Rin looked at Kakashi's still-pale face and tugged at Obito's arm. Obito gave a soft snort and turned his head away, refusing to look at Kakashi.

"Well, what a pity..."

"Someone has been lying in a hospital bed for so long that he definitely has no idea what the three of us have been through these past few days..."

No one responded to Obito's words. Kakashi recalled the news he had recently heard and glanced sideways at the seemingly harmless youth before him—the one faintly known as the Blue Asura, who had recently risen to fame and begun to be called a genius.

"Are you blaming me for saving you?"

Kato Osamu looked at the lifeless Kakashi and could not help sneering. He roughly understood Kakashi's state of mind. Understanding did not mean agreeing; in his view, this was nothing but avoidance.

He hated avoidance, and he hated people who ran away.

"Before I met you, someone once mentioned you to me—the son of Konoha's White Fang, the genius ninja Kakashi Hatake..."

The mention of White Fang seemed to displease Kakashi. His hands involuntarily clutched the white bedsheets tightly, and his gaze at Kato Osamu sharpened.

"Don't mention that man's name!"

Kakashi stared at Kato Osamu, his eyes growing ever colder.

"Why not? A pathetic wretch just like you, who can only wait miserably to die in some corner..."

"Osamu! Stop it! You're going too far!"

Rin and Obito had not expected the two to clash so fiercely the moment they met. Even Kato Osamu, who was usually silent, had suddenly said such things.

They knew about White Fang as well, but Osamu's words made them both frown deeply.

"You're not allowed to insult him!"

Before Rin could stop Kato Osamu from continuing, Kakashi vanished from the hospital bed in an instant. His hand crackling with lightning suddenly appeared before Osamu, and a sharp roar thundered through the room.

Kato Osamu vanished, while the violent lightning-nature Chakra slammed into the wall behind him. Under the fierce thunderous impact, the sturdy wall formed by Earth Release collapsed with a crash.

"Do you know what a coward's greatest ability is?"

"They grovel before outsiders, then strike hard at those close to them..."

"Unable to face external hardship, they flee from difficult choices, only to unleash their anger and darkness upon those around them."

"Are you begging for other people's sympathy and pity? Are you standing there waiting to die, yet hoping someone else will come save you?"

"Aren't you just a coward?"

Having dodged Kakashi's Raikiri, Kato Osamu slowly appeared on the windowsill. His eyes were cold as he narrowed them slightly at Kakashi's lightning-wreathed hand.

"If it weren't for me, you'd be lying beneath the Memorial Stone alongside your father, Konoha's White Fang..."

Kakashi slowly withdrew the lightning from his hand and clenched his fist. His indifferent gaze carried an eternal, unchanging chill.

"I never needed you to save me, you scheming bastard..."

"Osamu, stop talking!"

Rin looked at Kato Osamu with faint anger. Osamu ignored her and snorted softly. He did not think there was anything wrong with what he had said.

People died every day in the Shinobi World, but White Fang was the only top-tier powerhouse who had committed suicide.

Perhaps it had been because of some so-called choice, perhaps because his faith had collapsed—because the Konoha he had protected all his life was so dark—but for a strong man to have such a fragile heart was truly laughable.

Without the courage to crawl humbly through darkness in search of light, what right did he have to be called a warrior worthy of respect?

He was merely a coward blessed with great talent who had become famous by chance.

There were only strong warriors who died in battle, never heroes who killed themselves!

Kato Osamu glanced lightly at Kakashi. Seeing his lifeless appearance, he roughly understood that the wound White Fang had left in Kakashi's heart was likely more painful than letting him live.

Even if White Fang had defected from Konoha, caused a huge uproar, or laid low while waiting for his chance, any choice would have been better than making Kakashi suffer like this and become so gloomy.

Only this so-called suicide to prove one's resolve was true stupidity. It played directly into Danzo's hands. Enemies would only trample over your corpse, fool your son, and even laugh out loud.

He knew this had all been Danzo's scheme. What so-called choice? It was nothing more than a trick manipulated by the higher-ups. But Kakashi as he was now was merely a rebellious hothead. If he learned the truth, he would probably charge into Root in a fury to avenge his father.

In the end, all people would know was that some rogue ninja named Kakashi had been killed on the spot for some made-up reason, like stealing classified information.

"Maybe... he can still be useful..."

Kato Osamu thought silently and said no more.

Obito, standing in front of Kakashi, wore an incredulous expression. The collapsed wall was covered in charred black marks, and the impact of the lightning had even caused the whole room to begin cracking.

His gaze slowly rose from the rubble on the ground. He looked at Kakashi with unfamiliar shock—if Kato Osamu had not dodged in time, Chidori would have killed him!

"Kakashi... were you... trying to kill Osamu?"

Obito's voice was heavy, instantly making the atmosphere in the hospital room seem to freeze. Rin's gaze also settled on Kakashi.

"Hmph..."

Kakashi did not want to explain anything to Obito. No expression could be seen beneath his mask, but his indifferent gaze made Obito understand his answer.

"Kakashi..."

"Osamu did go too far. Even I want to punch him in the face a few times... but he's our teammate now, and he saved your life!"

Seeing Kakashi still looking grim and utterly unconcerned, all the anger Obito had been suppressing these days suddenly erupted.

"Kakashi, you bastard, you're always like this..."

"Do you know... when Rin and I were in the hospital room, we looked forward to seeing you every day, only to be disappointed every day... When we learned you still hadn't been discharged, do you know how worried Rin and I were..."

"Ever since before... I can't even remember when it started.

The thing we looked forward to most every day, the thing we wished for most...

Was for you to appear before us with a smile on your face, carrying even just a skewer of dumplings, and softly say, 'Obito, Rin, good morning!'

Then we could be happy for the whole day..."

"But... never. Never..."

"You've always been like this, so cold, like a block of ice that can never melt! Even a stone should warm up eventually!

But... Rin's heart and mine are nearly frozen through... do you understand?!"

Obito let out a long breath. His voice slowly dropped, carrying a sorrowful tremor as he rambled on.

"We all understand that you're hurting. Your father died, and it dealt you a heavy blow..."

"But are we any better?"

"Rin is an orphan too. Her parents also died during a mission..."

"I've never even seen my parents..."

Obito lowered his head. A tear fell onto the floor. The ever-sunny and passionate Obito seemed to be speaking in such sorrow for the first time, and a trace of complexity flashed through Kakashi's eyes.

"You're a genius. You're outstanding. Everyone likes you..."

"But why... why do we have to endure our own pain and still cater to you like this..."

"Kakashi! Have you ever cared even a little about Rin and me?"

Obito said nothing more, as if he had unleashed all his emotions in a single instant. Rin silently looked at Obito, wanting to say something, yet she too fell silent.

The wind blowing through the cracks and holes in the shattered room was still icy cold. It brushed across the faces of all four of them. The last few remnants of snow drifted with the wind and landed on Obito's face, the cold piercing through his skin and into his bones, aching without end...