A Thousand Words

"Even if you're willing to become another Obito, I will never become another Kakashi."

"Chika..."

"I'm not as strong as you. After facing so many deaths, I can't just keep going without a care. Honestly, Kakashi, I can't imagine how I would face a memorial stone engraved with your name. I'm so scared..."

"You fool. Aren't you afraid of dying?"

"Dying? Ever since I joined the Anbu, I've been prepared to die at any moment."

"When someone loses the reason to go on living, all that remains, even in life, is despair."

"I once told you that whether or not I was happy, as long as you were, I would have one less reason to be sad. And now, whether or not I'm happy, only the place where you are is home to me, only there can I find happiness."

[From childhood sweethearts to strangers,

what kind of picture will Kakashi and Chika's chance encounters and missed chances

eventually weave together?]

The thousand words I couldn't say,

I send to your distant back,

and turn them into wings.

The thousand words I couldn't say,

I draw close to your wounded back,

and hold you tight.

"Of all the words I could say, I have a thousand for you alone."

-----Preface