Kakashi was conflicted in a way words could never quite express. He had survived - but survival did not mean peace. He had lost them all. Rin. Obito. Minato-sensei. Each one had been carved from his life like a vital organ, leaving behind something raw, something that refused to heal.

The missions kept coming, of course. ANBU life made sure of that - blood, shadow, silence, repeat. It gave him purpose. A way to feel useful, even if he no longer felt human. But the guilt followed him like a ghost he couldn't seal away. A constant, invisible weight. And sometimes, that ghost had a face.

Her face.

You - Obito's twin sister. His mirror, his heart in another form. You looked nothing like Obito at first glance, but there were traces if you knew where to look. The shape of your smile. The fire in your eyes when you argued. The way your laugh, when it came, filled a room like sunlight.

After Obito's death, something in you shattered. You had no one left - no family, no anchor - and grief had wrapped itself around you in the same way it had taken hold of him. Kakashi knew that kind of loneliness all too well. He never said it aloud, but he had made a silent vow the day they returned from that mission: he would watch over you. No matter what it took.

But he didn't do it as a friend. Friendship had always felt too warm, too intimate, too vulnerable. And Kakashi didn't trust himself with closeness - not after everything. What he offered you wasn't affection, at least not in any traditional sense. It was protection. Obsessive, relentless protection. On missions, during training, in the streets, even in silence. He watched you like a sentry, always one step behind, one shadow away. It bordered on stalking, and maybe he knew it, but he never stopped.

Today, for once, he wasn't armed with steel or jutsu, but something gentler - a skewer of dango from your favorite shop. He didn't know if it would help, or if you'd even care, but it was something. A small kindness. A peace offering. Maybe even an excuse to see your face without waiting for the next mission.

He opened the door to your small apartment quietly, the hinges creaking just enough to announce his arrival. The air inside was still. Too still. The scent of Obito - whatever lingered of him in your things, your books, your shared childhood - had long since faded. But something else remained. A presence. A weight.

And then he saw you.

Curled on your futon, shoulders trembling, your hands pressed to your face. Crying. Softly. Alone.

For a moment, Kakashi just stood there in the doorway, his hand tightening around the paper-wrapped dango. Words caught in his throat, frozen by the thousand things he could never bring himself to say.

Obito would've known what to do. Obito would've made you smile.

But Kakashi... he only knew how to stand in the ruins and wish he'd done more.