[Closed] I've had all I can take.

[scarecrowboy]

Who: Kakashi Hatake & Yamato. (Once the fight is over anyone can jump in and feel free to see them/witness the carnage or whatever. I'll make a separate comment thread when that comes about, probably.)
When: September 16.
Where: Konoha, outside Hokage Tower and then to a training ground after they've finished lowering everyone's opinion of 'capable' shinobi.
What: Kakashi has been brooding for a while now, and it's all coming to a head.



It had been the first time in his life he'd ever asked for a vacation, for a break, for a pat on the shoulder and a 'don't worry about it, Kakashi, take as long as you need'. He didn't ask for much, though he supposed a break after a few weeks of little to no mission-action was a bit of a strange ask, but since it was his first request for time off in all his years of being a shinobi, he didn't think there would be much of a problem. He probably deserved it after only ever being forced into medical leave in the past.

He'd trailed all the way up to the Hokage's Office with his paperwork that he'd avoided handing in for the past few weeks, and his excuses laid out straight and clear - a harmless visit to Uzushio to check up with his secret student and her newly acquired ninken. Obito just had to stamp and sign a goddamn scroll and everything would have been fine, but no. Upon entering the room his friend had greeted him, but when Kakashi's question aired the man had looked up at him, wilted horribly and told him that he'd only just got back from spending a month there, did he really want to go back already?

God damn it.

He could see the man was visibly crushed, could see the hesitance and the sadness in his eyes, like a kicked puppy.

Kakashi's heart had ached seeing that, and had left on a whip crack reflex, body flickering out of the tower in a puff of smoke.

The more he thought about it though, the more he couldn't stand the idea that Obito had used his weakness against him, and as he descended the stairs from the levels of the tower toward the ground floor... he only got angrier.

Comments

[mokutonno]

He rolled away, hopped out of strike range and landing amongst the uneven ground.

"That you were happy village side, that it was healing you, helping you in ways that I- that ANBU couldn't."
Yamato spat the words, long buried memories, suddenly fresh and raw in his mind again and unable to mask how it had affected him any longer.

"But nothing's changed! Five years and you still can't talk to him and I'm still the whipping boy for the anger you're too cowardly to take out on him in the first place!"

[scarecrowboy]

Yamato's words struck a chord somewhere deep inside him, and for a moment he found himself caught at a stand still, jarred and confused. Obito had thought he was happy? Happy enough to tell Tenzou as much?... It wasn't true. His days in the village after his resignation from ANBU were some of the hardest he'd ever had to endure; knowing he was a failure, seeing it confirmed in the looks people gave him, seeing his friends elated to find him pliant and talkative after spending so long shutting them out and the guilt that came with that..... Kakashi had never been obvious with his feelings, but that much he was sure even Obito had picked up on the fact that he definitely wasn't happy. The only thing that made him happy about those days was to know that those closest to him hadn't given up even when he'd shut them out... Even if he'd lost Tenzou to the walls he built around his heart.

It broke him a little, right there and then on the training ground... It wasn't anything drastic, but a tiny crack splintered in once mended wounds, and the feeling was raw and painful.

The sharp, clean pain soon turned to white hot fury, however, when Yamato spoke again. He charged forward before he could think, his quick speed acting on his side as he jarred the brunt of his heel straight into Yamato's chest.

"I am not afraid of him."

[mokutonno]

He slammed back into the dirt, unable to keep his footing and coughed wetly, something had definitely cracked under that strike. It didn't stop him though and Yamato recovered, eyes burning with menace as he stumbled to his feet.

"Oh? So you haven't made yourself into a walking security risk with the two people closest to you? And that definitely hasn't happened because you're so guilt ridden you'll agree to anything to keep them happy, despite your own feelings?!"

Yamato tore at his hair, remembering just how uncomfortable Kakashi had been the night before, how drunk he'd been, in public no less and threw it all back in the other man's face.

[scarecrowboy]

Kakashi didn't care that Yamato hadn't struck back. His hand lashed out, jutting up straight into Yamato's chin - goading, luring, encouraging the man to fight back, hit me, punch me, make me bleed. He couldn't see, couldn't breathe for his anger.. and if he'd been a little more conscientious he'd have realised that the anger he was feeling had flared because it wasn't directed at Yamato. It was directed at Obito, and at himself.

"My private life is nothing to do with you!" he hissed, but the words were empty. Their private life had been made the business of everyone in that bar, of everyone in the village through whatever means, and Kakashi hadn't dwelt on it before because he knew that it was probably partially - if not mostly - the fault of his weak will around their Hokage.

[mokutonno]

The blow clicked his teeth together, sending his head backwards and triggering his mokuton substitution. Yamato's wooden form clattered to the ground, even as he flickered behind Kakashi and slashed a strike across his back, kunai drawn.

"Private life? Don't make me laugh, Kakashi. The whole village knows! You couldn't have made this more obvious if you'd carved it into Hokage Mountain!"

Blood had spilt down his chin but Yamato ignored it, Kunai flickering between them as his anger pushed him forward to attack.
"But you've sure changed your tune. Guess my invitation to the Hatake inner circle has finally run out, huh?"

[scarecrowboy]

Kakashi stumbled with surprise as the wood clone fell to his feet, only to grit his teeth and stagger against the sharp pain at his back, cushioned by his flak but tearing the material into something more annoying than protective. ..So Yamato was using weapons now? Their fist fight had turned to sneaky blades, and Kakashi wasn't above drawing his own knife, spinning the ring in his hold and bearing it down on the other man as he span and dodged the second blow.

His kunai flickered in the sunlight as he returned the attack, meeting Yamato's kunai with a clink! of metal on metal.

The words only made him angrier, but he knew he was right. Yamato had every right to be upset, especially when what Kakashi was doing was so foolish. He hadn't been thinking; he'd blindly accepted something without working out all the kinks, without deliberating, without being honest and not only had it potentially ruined his relationship with his closest friends... but it might have cost him his reputation and put more them all in danger. It was stupid and he felt guilty and uncomfortable dwelling on it, so he didn't, and fought back against Yamato's accusations with a vicious snarl.

"Don't be so childish," Kakashi hissed nastily as his kunai came dangerously close to impaling Yamato's shoulder, acidity oozing from the last word with all the hatred he felt for those kind of actions. "You should know better."

[mokutonno]

"Says the man that responded to the only gesture I felt comfortable enough to offer, with asinine notes and doodles!"

The figures and notes he'd left every year, had taken no small amount of courage and they still gave Yamato pause, unsure if they were too much. At first, Kakashi's replies had given him hope, but now, in his anger, they felt as hollow as the comments inscribed on them and he lashed out fiercely.

He became reckless in his defence, uniform and skin splitting open as they clashed.

"I questioned everything after you left, even my captaincy! It took me years to feel like I deserved it, like I wasn't just the great 'Silver Fangs', shoddy replacement!"
It slipped out, easy and bitter as bile and Yamato struck, indiscriminately for Kakashi's throat and spat out the final barb that tore at him.

"Because no one could replace you and everyone knew it!"
The fact that he was no longer talking about ANBU, was beaten back by rage and ignored.

[scarecrowboy]

And now Yamato was picking on their old traditions?! Apparently nothing was sacred, and the idea that Yamato would throw that return back in his face made him furious.

Despite all that.. the words /hurt/. The way Yamato looked at him, implored with him, seethed at him - it was almost too much to take and where he would have usually felt a deep throng of sadness wrack his frame, this time Kakashi only felt anger. The last thing he needed right now was a constant and reliable friend like Yamato suddenly upending all their unspoken laws and habits. The rug was firmly tugged from under his feet, and his rage was all Kakashi had left to keep himself upright.

"Maybe you should stop depending on me so much!" Kakashi spat, jerking his leg forwards to push the other man away from him while he backed off to check on the nicks and cuts on his arms and hands. "If you had a little faith in yourself maybe you wouldn't need to rely on someone like me to hold you up! I'm not a good choice and I'm definitely not worth all that! I don't understand why you people keep leaning on me, expecting me to hold you up when I have no idea how to hold myself up!" It was unclear, not for the first time in their long history of fights, who exactly he was talking to, or about.

[mokutonno]

Yamato was struck dumb by the accusation, eyes wide and guard lax. Is that what Kakashi had thought of him? That Yamato had depended on him?

The rage that had been burning through him, hit it's last boiling point and he snarled back as his hands flashed through signs.

"You self defeatist ass. I never depended on you! I was in ROOT for seven years before I met you for godsake! I trusted you, Kakashi. You were important to me and I thought I at least meant enough to you to warrant a goodbye, but you ran. You ran away then, just like you are now, like the barefaced coward you are!"

The last words rolled out around a sob and Yamato threw himself forward; mokuton spear already forming round his right arm and eyes burning with a killing intent that he'd never levelled at a comrade before, least of all Kakashi.

[scarecrowboy]

He didn't hear anything Yamato said around that word....

Coward.

He'd used it once before to Kakashi's face, years ago when the two barely knew each other and it triggered a similarly spontaneous reaction then... but the rage was nothing compared to the forest fire that engulfed Kakashi's heart, smouldering his reasoning and his logical thinking in mere seconds, leaving him with nothing but a desperate need to /hurt/.

To cause hurt and to be hurt in return.

He wasn't even aware his hands were moving. It was like he was asleep, or in a dream... His sharingan pinwheeled in its socket, his palm pressing against his arm as he wrenched electric chakra into it's screaming form once more, chidori flickering and morphing into something ugly and loud and lethal... and Kakashi couldn't do anything to stop himself from thrusting raikiri forwards as he lunged, aiming right for Yamato's heart.

[mokutonno]

Yamato didn't divert from his course or even flinch, intent on eliminating the source of the ache burning through him.

He wanted Kakashi to hurt, to know exactly what this felt like and inflict as much damage as possible with actions as well as words.
Neither of them gave ground and it was with not an ounce of fear that Yamato realised he was facing death head on; that they would kill each other here, hating each other completely, with everything between them destroyed.

He came to his senses at the last possible second; gaze locked with Kakashi's and the heat and sound of the Raikiri blistering along his left arm and on track to obliterate his heart. Yamato's own attack would gut the Jounin in return and they would..

Yamato flung his arm wide, face white with horror and just barely transformed a killing blow, into one that gouged Kakashi's side; flesh giving way to the last of the mokuton he couldn't release in time.

[scarecrowboy]

He saw Yamato's hardened glare meet his own dead on, knew that they were both in this to the end, to fight to survive or die together and-

Kakashi's attack veered at the last second, the surge in his hand fizzling to a pathetic and dim quiet.. but not before he'd made contact, the jutsu rippling across Yamato's skin to leave trails of scorch marks behind.

He didn't even notice the pain in his side for a moment, distracted by the ache of chakra exhaustion and the intense and concentrated pain in his temples. His head was so /busy/ that it was hard to focus on anything but the heavy cloud of regret and guilt seeping in to quench his anger, making him lethargic and tired and souring his black mood to something apathetic and weak..

[mokutonno]

Yamato grit his teeth against the pain, close to yelling but too exhausted and drain to commit to the response. Instead, he collided with Kakashi, collapsing to his knees and dragging the Jounin with him. Blood slicked his right hand and he pressed it against the wound, breath leaving him in a sob at the almost lethal damage he'd inflicted.

The smell of burnt flesh and cloth was strong around him and Yamato noted with some surprise that it was coming from him, his uniform almost completely destroyed down his left side, but it was secondary to the worrying dead weight of Kakashi's form against his front.

"S-senpai?" It came out in a hoarse whisper, voice thick with emotion and regret.

[scarecrowboy]

Kakashi's vision was swimming, the wound in his side gradually starting to actually feel painful as he inhaled heavy breaths, disturbing the flesh enough for oozes of thick, hot blood to gush down over his hip.

He swallowed, blinked hard, his knees barely supporting his weight as he swayed from either side.

Yamato's words seemed far away, distant, like he was underwater...

And then his head hit the ground.

His body gave in to the all too tempting lure of a black out, chakra drain and trauma proving too much.