He came back from the last mission that Kodaime Hokage had assigned team 7, nothing hard though, just taking care of some random and normal stuff of the village. He had actually spent most of the day reading, which provoked Naruto and Sakura to call him a perverted lazy old sensei. He remembered their pissed faces and laughed at it, those kids where really great… ‘I actually feel happy when I’m with them’, he thought….
He used to think he was alone in the world, that he had lost everything and everyone he cared about, but now… He took of his ninja vest and placed it on a chair, then he took off his front band and the rest of his ninja package and laid everything on the table, ‘tomorrow is my birthday’, he thought as getting ready for bed, he sigh ‘like I could enjoy myself? Birthdays only remind me that I’m alive and they aren’t… that I couldn’t…’ , suddenly he found himself crying, just the memory of his late friends was something he couldn’t handle. ‘How can this affect me so badly after all this years?’ With sadness in his eyes, he looked out the window and dazed into the night, he couldn’t help remembering, he wanted to because he could only be with them in his memories, but he also hated it for it cut him deeply… he thought of his father, his sensei, Obito and Rin, who where all gone… ‘I’m sorry’, he whispered…
He finally went to bed not being able to pull away the disturbing images of his past.
They had been great times though, he shouldn’t forget that, and he should allow himself to feel free again, to feel happy again, to smile.
And without being aware of it, he was actually finding that strength again, thanks to three extraordinary kids, who had become so important to him.
He slowly felt into a deep, quiet, dreamless sleep.
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The sun was rising, a bright ray of light came through the window and landed on Naruto’s eyes, almost automatically this woke him up. He turn over on the bed in an attempt of continue to sleep. Suddenly, he opened his eyes very wide ‘no, I can’t go back to sleep, I must get up’, and so he did.
Not very far from there, a pink alarm clock was ringing, Sakura took one hand out of the covers and turned it off, then very slowly, she got up.
Sasuke was already dressed and having breakfast alone at his house. He finished eating and left the Uchiha residence. A couple of minutes later, he encounter Sakura and Naruto at the training field, ‘Hi Sasuke’ said Sakura with the sweetest voice, ‘Good Morning’, he answered, Naruto just nodded, he was obviously cranky for getting up so early. ‘So, shall we…’, Sasuke added in his cool voice, the other too nodded and then, all three of them starting walking away.
Soon they arrived to their sensei’s home. ‘So, what do we do now?’, said Sakura quietly and Naruto answered her very energetically ‘Well, surprise him, that’s why we decided to come this early didn’t we? To make sure he was sleeping’, ‘it seems you are back to your original self’, said Sasuke sarcastically and then added ‘the loser is right, let’s just get over with this’.
They climbed over the house until they were at the bedroom’s window, then they looked inside only to find a silver-haired man sleeping calmly…
Kakashi was calmly sleeping, not imagining what was about to happen. The sheets were gently covering his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. The soft sun light that came from the window behind the bed lit his silvery hair. He looked beautiful.
In fact, three kids were standing on his window. ‘He looks so calm’ whispered Sakura, ‘yeah, poor thing, he doesn’t know what’s about to happen’ Naruto whispered back. Sasuke though it was funny, but he would never admit it, he was holding Kakashi’s present and waiting for Naruto to make the first move, ‘come on’, he urged the other too.
Naruto then entered the room as silently as possible (for him that meant trying not to drop anything), he looked at Sakura waiting for her sign. She looked at Sasuke, who nodded and then looked back at Naruto, ‘are you ready, Naruto?’ ‘Yes’ he answered.
Then everything happened very fast: Sakura said now! And Naruto jumped on the bed while the three of them screamed Happy Birthday Kakashi Sensei!
Kakashi woke up quite harshly and found himself in a very odd situation: He had Naruto jumping on his bed, Sakura entering the room through the window with a cake in her hands and Sasuke sitting on the window holding a box that looked like a present. He (Kakashi) was actually speechless. He sat on the bed amused by the kids, he looked at his alarm clock… ‘you woke me up at 6:30 am?’ his voice was husky.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAKASHI SENSEI! Naruto screamed again, but now he had stopped jumping and was hugging Kakashi tightly. ‘what the…’ was all Kakashi could said, and before he knew it, Sakura had left the cake and was hugging him too, but what surprised him the most was the fact that Sasuke had also entered the room, and was now sitting at the bed too saying happy birthday, sensei.
He didn’t know what to think, he still felt dizzy for being just awake but also he was feeling… ‘what is this thing on my chest’ … he was feeling … ‘…I’m happy’ , he thought, yes, he was feeling happy. ‘I am very happy…’ and suddenly he found himself smiling beneath the mask, and he knew it was dew to this kids, this kids that he was sure he loved. ‘Thank you’, was all he managed to tell them.
