Kakashi heard himself make a soft sound, almost amused. “War: when suicide isn’t news.”

Now Ryouma looked extremely awkward. Kakashi brushed a hand through the air, waving censure away, and sat up to explain. “He commanded a mission that went wrong. His teammates were endangered. He abandoned the mission to save them, and the mission failed. A lot of people died.”

Two hundred and fourteen. Ryouma stayed silent.

“He was a hero before that mission. Afterward, he was hated. People would spit at him in the street. The teammates he saved wouldn’t speak to him. When he killed himself, it was to restore our family — it was for me. He could have left Konoha. I was still young. He could have taken me and my mother, and we could have— well, she might not have gone. But he didn’t. He stayed and died for Konoha, so we could continue to serve.” Kakashi propped a knee up, curled his arm over it, and folded forward to brace his chin on his elbow. “Or, if you look at it another way, he made a mistake and Konoha killed him for it.”

On a good day, Ryouma would never win a prize for his poker face. His mouth was parted on an indrawn breath. His eyes had darkened, anger flaring overtop something very young, and very sad.

It wasn't hard to look at his face and think of a younger, dark-haired boy, once again hurt that the world wasn't fair. I think the White Fang is a hero!

“For a long time,” Kakashi said softly, “I didn’t think that was wrong. People died; he deserved the consequences. I swore I would never make the same mistake. But..." He hadn't meant to tell this story too, he never told this story, but here it was. "My first jounin mission, I broke ranks. Rin was my teammate; she was taken. I was going to leave her to finish the mission, but our other teammate... did not agree. He punched me, told me that ninja who abandoned missions were trash, but people who abandoned their teammates were lower than trash, and went after her." His mouth pulled sideways. "I almost left him, too. He was an idiot — he threw himself against two jounin with a kunai and no plan. If I hadn’t— I stepped in. That’s how I lost my eye. And he got his Sharingan for the first time.”

Obito’s first and only battlefield kill.

“We rescued Rin. But… there was a cave in. I got hit, knocked out — would have been crushed, but Obito pushed me out of the way. When I came to, he was pinned. His whole right side. We couldn’t get him out.”

Kakashi looked down at his hand. The little white scars on his fingertips, where he’d ripped them open trying to lift a mountain.

“He knew he was dying. He said he'd become my eye, and see the future for me. He gave me his Sharingan."

Whatever the village may say, you're a great jounin, Kakashi. So please accept it.

“We finished the mission, destroyed Kannabi Bridge. After Minato-sensei became Hokage, he’s tried to change things. Make it so one mission doesn’t carry so many lives on it, that one failure won’t be a disaster. More teams, more back up, more support. Better Intel. He doesn’t ask for your life; he asks that you try again, and do it better. So, to answer your original question, yes, I would break ranks — but since then, I haven’t had to.”