The scene before her played out like nothing she had ever witnessed before. The way he talked was so open and honest with no barriers up. However everything that he said held a realm of sadness to it. A sadness that someone with loss could only experience and her heart ached from the mere sight of the whole situation. He spoke of many things, things that she wanted and didn’t want to hear and as he disappeared, she took a moment to herself to process what had happened.
Picking a nearby flower from the bundle, she approached the grave. She had heard of Rin but didn’t know much about her. Taking in a deep sigh she squatted down in front of the stone. “Hello Ms. Rin, my name is Airi Mae and I’m… I’m a friend of Kakashi’s. I… I understand that life isn’t easy on him, especially right now as he’s going through a lot but… please help him keep his hope. He has more to live for then he’s realizing and he needs to see that. He’s got his team, who are going to become his family soon enough and… well I don’t know where I weigh into all of this but I’d like him to be around he… he means… he means a lot to me.” She gently placed the flower on Rin’s grave laying opposite of Kakashi’s so they created an X. “Please protect him when I’m not around, he doesn’t deserve to die next.”
At that, she left.
------
Airi was preparing for the arrival of her new friend but had a sneaking suspicion he might be late or on a mission she wasn’t aware of. Besides it wasn’t like he had to report to her, she wasn’t his mother or his teacher… His sensei…
Her thoughts drifted back to less than a day ago, seeing Kakashi so… so off his guard and so relaxed but sad really stuck with her. She wanted to talk to him and it took every ounce of her being last night not to run to him and hug him. Reminding him everything would be okay would alright and that he wasn’t alone. Not only was he not alone but there were others, plenty of others that cared about him. He was just… a little blind to it.
The sight of her in her backyard was something not many people got to see. She was in very plain clothes they looked like they had seen better days, her hair was messy and up in a bun. In her hands was a basket filled with gardening supplies and tools to make the job easier, along with a two smaller buckets that can be used to discard weeds.
“Sorry I’m late!!” Naruto came sliding around the corner due to his speed as he nearly fell over as he attempted to put the brakes on.
A laugh left Airi as he pulled to a stop in front of her and she handed him a pad for his knees. “It happens, don’t worry about it. I thought maybe you had gone on a mission and didn’t have time to let me know but I’m glad you’re here.” Her honest statement and pleasant smile was returned by one of his.
The conversations were light and cheerful until Airi decided to take advantage of the moment. “You know.” She began as she cut off one of the cucumbers and placed it in the basket. “Kakashi covered a lot of things with you the day I came to watch your training. But there’s a few things he didn’t cover that I think you should know.” This caused Naturo’s attention to turn to her but she continued her own work as she spoke.
“One is that a ninja is nothing without a sense of purpose. It is highly important that you fight for something. It could as simple as protecting the village to fighting for someone you care about to fighting to protect yourself. A since of purpose is the true motivation to go on.”
“Number two; life is nothing without hope. Hope is the one thing that never dies. Hope is what drives the world to succeed, as a hope for a better future, a hope for life, a hope for love, a hope for help; any sort of hope will make anything better and provide you with more motivation to continue onward. Hope is that one thing people hang onto until the very end and you should never lose it, ever.”
“And third, never think that you’re not important.”
“I know I’m important! I’m going to be the next Hokage!” Naruto stated excitedly.
A heartfelt laugh left Airi as she tussled the hair of the young Genin, “Yes you are important and I’m sure you’ll be Hokage someday. But if you ever get to the point that you think you’re not important or you’re worthless or you just can’t carry on because no one believes in you. Remember that I believe in you, just like I believe in all the ninja in this village.”
“Like you believe in Kakashi-Sensei?”
“Maybe not like that with everyone but yes, I believe in Kakashi as well.”
“What kind of belief do you have with Kakashi-Sensei if it’s not like everyone else?” The blonde asked, his face pressed together in confusion which became even more noticable as her face turned red.
“That’s… way more complicated then I can go into detail about right now. Besides we’re all done and the sun’s going down. Here.” She handed him the basket which was filled with half their haul for the day.
“WOW THANKS!” He squealed with joy as he took the basket.
After saying their good byes, she watched him hurry off to make a meal of his own as her hand went to her stomach which growled loudly in protest to the lack of food from her busy day of work. “Alright, put stuff in the house than off to get food. Now just to load the bas…” SHIT! She gave the basket to Naruto to stop him from asking any more questions about Kakashi and now she was going to have to make multiple trips into her house. Sighing softly she rose her feet and collected the first few things she would carry in into her arms.
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