Don't Forget to Remember

Iorekbyrnison

The sky was blue, impossibly blue. On a day like this Konoha was at peace. On a day like this Shinobi loyal to the village hidden in the leaves ambled through the streets, milled around the training grounds, or met with comrades. On a day like this, when they looked up, the particular shade of impossible blue reminded them of a pair of smiling eyes and hair that was only a bit dimmer than the sun.

"I'm going to be Hokage one day!"

And even though it hurt a bit, they couldn't bear to look away.

The night was bleak, damp, and chilly. If he were any less of a man he would have shivered against the cold, but the last member of an influential, powerful clan such as his had learned a long time ago not to show any weaknesses.

Ebony eyes scanned the landscape, half paying attention because nobody but him entered this place anymore. This part of Konoha still held too many terrible memories, too many ghosts even for him. These days his goals were far less violent than those of his childhood. He came here to this abandonment. He came here and sat in the dark, in the cold, because he had a new goal, one that could not be dispelled by anything less than his death. He would not abandon this bit of hope.

Hands grasped onto the hilt of his sword and he stepped through the slits of moonlight flitting through the trees. In that house there was a room in which the same moonlight touched, but he dare not go that far yet. He knew what he would see. He'd always known that, but tonight was not the night to visit those two gritty patches on the study room floor.

He stood with wide eyes, watching the blood drip onto the floor. That's when his heart broke in two. That's when the past and present collided. That's when his future as an Avenger began.

He'd come here, agreed to stay here, gave in to his idiot of a friend, because he wanted to conquer the past, but Uchiha Sasuke was not quite ready for those ghosts yet.

Promises were things to be kept. It was the nindo she'd lived by since her genin days when she was stupid and too naïve to truly understand the life of a shinobi. Back then her team surpassed her in every way possible. Back then she'd felt the pull of loneliness too strong to bury, too heavy to let go. Promises were things to be kept, but promises were also sacred.

As the tree splintered and exploded against her fist, the kunoichi knew she was the weakest of them, but she couldn't bear the thought of giving up.

One day she visited the memorial stone, because she believes that is where broken promises reside. Honestly, she knew few of the names etched on the stone, but she still felt the power of those markings, she still felt the sacrifice. The names upon the monument, the shinobi who'd passed before her were a testament to the life she'd wanted to ignore as a kid when she was heart sore and oh so utterly foolish.

"Bring him back." That's what she made him promise. "Bring him back." She left no room for his doubts. She left no room in her head for the possibility of death. Despite her brains she was an idiot. The promise she should have forced upon him in that moment was, "Come back safe."

She hadn't of course and that was her fault, but here she stood today in front of the stone her teacher had visited a thousand times over and smiled. Despite the foolish promises, despite the lives that had been lost since then, and despite the lives that now could be lost, she smiled. She was a lucky one. Konoha was a lucky village.

As the wind caressed Haruno Sakura's body she smiled for the names that were not on the stone, because those promises had not been broken.

He was probably a horrible teacher. He would probably be the first to state that fact. His team back then reminded him too much of faces he'd long ago memorized as carvings upon a stone. Their dynamics reminded him too much of his first team. The blonde reminded him too much of his teacher. Though he was characterized by his obsession with the past the Jounin ran away from his three little genin to escape the memories.

The stone was cold as he brushed his fingers across the names. Always, he stopped at a particular cluster, but these days there were new sorrows to contemplate, new griefs engraved upon a monument for heroes.

He was a bad teacher, but his students didn't seem to mind. Even after everything broke apart and was glued back together again his students looked for him in the training grounds. They still staged elaborate schemes to get a look under his mask. They still laughed at him, yelled at him for being late, and had the utmost faith in him.

Most of the time, he thought he didn't deserve to teach those particular members of the next generation. Give him a Nara, or maybe a Hyuuga and he would have taught them the basics just fine. Give him Sarutobi's grandson and he might have wiped the snot clear out of the brats head in skill. Give him anyone but them and maybe the past wouldn't have hindered him so.

And one day, maybe after he realized that living in the past was wasteful, he saw his team for who they actually were. Sakura lay unconscious on the pavement, powerless to stop her teammate. Sasuke walked away from his life, from his friend, from his team, all for power because he couldn't see himself as anything other than an avenger. And Naruto lay there in the pouring rain with a hole in his chest from a technique the Jounin himself had taught his broody student. Naruto lay there facing the consequences of other people's actions and his own inability to give up on his precious people.

He was a bad teacher, but right then he vowed to be a better one. He vowed to piece together the tattered remains of team seven.

Only years later did his students look him up again. And even then the war took them further apart. After it all he met them again as teacher, albeit to students much older and more experienced.

On that day the strangest thing happened. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura grinned at him. Together they spoke. "Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash." He looked at his team's smiling faces and then nonchalantly pulled out a familiar orange book. His mask hid most of the smile, but the grin crinkled up a little around his eyes.

'Maybe', Hatake Kakashi thought, he hadn't been such a bad teacher after all.

The path to Hokage was treacherous, but rewarding, he thought as he looked out over the village. The spot atop the Hokage monument was his favorite. It offered the best view and though it made Konoha's people look a little like ants, he valued how his home moved and flowed. He wasn't quite there yet. He wasn't quite ready to take over the mantle, to fulfill his greatest dream, but he thought more and more these days that maybe he was finally getting close.

There were no more glares. There were very few doubts. After war had darkened Konoha's doorstep and Akatsuki had all perished his life was filled with laughter and it was precious to him because he remembered all too well his life from before when nobody was his friend and nobody but the Sandaime and the Ramen shop owner cared about his well-being. He'd come a long way from being a lonely demon child however, and most of Konoha trusted him to lead them in to a new future. Most of the people believed like he once did as a young boy.

The breeze was light and he took a moment to recollect. Uzumaki Naruto stood atop the village monument and he was happy with what he saw.

-AN: Hope you guys liked this. This fic was originally supposed to be a chapter in the Everything That Rises must converge series, but I felt it could stand alone as a Team 7 fic. Hope you guys liked it.

Until Next Time!