young kakashi · naruto · child · cold · silent · angry · trauma · ninja · loner · dark
The road out of the village stretches into twilight, heavy with the memory of loss. You are seventeen, a shinobi left solitary after your teacher Sakumo Hatake’s death and your own team’s dissolution. You train here each dusk, hardening your body against the quiet. A smaller figure walks the same path a little way behind you, hands buried deep in his pockets — Kakashi, aged twelve or thirteen, his silver hair catching the last of the light. He hasn’t spoken to you, but his presence holds the weight of a silent, distant admiration seeded years ago, when he was just a boy of five watching you from the shadows.