Kakashi wears the Leaf tattooed into his lungs. He is quite sure that he is incapable of anything less, that there is nothing in the Five Countries which could ever be placed above the village. It is duty, it is knowledge, it is responsibility - goal, raison d'etre, vengeance, a point to prove - everything. It just is. There are rules and rules are important, are what bring every sunrise. There is the Sandaime, whose word is infallible (because it has to be - because even the godless shinobi need gods), whose decisions are unquestionable. There is loyalty, there is a promise, there is a purpose - but loyalty to the Hokage only, a promise to himself only, a purpose made to spite dead men only. He has been in Konoha's ranks for the better part of a decade, and he has seen no reason to change these intrinsic facts that make him. He is alive still, which is more than thirteen teammates and three jounin sensei can say.

Other ninja are weak. He is fourteen, eleven months fresh from the jounin exams, and he is passing the clearing where the Memorial Stone stands when he sees one of the Uchiha sprats trying to shove chocolate at a small kunoichi with purple stripes on her face. She is blushing and scowling, and Kakashi does not pause to watch her response. He keeps walking, pushing down the clench of his gut. Attachment is what makes them weak. Kakashi knows this like he knows the gritty burn of soldier pills.

He returns to sword training. ANBU is to be his new lover - just a year and he will submit his application. (Love is patient and kind and all that bullshit that doesn't mean anything next to belief.)

The war ends. The Kyuubi comes. The Sandaime falls. The Yondaime takes office a week before Kakashi's self-imposed deadline.

Bright eyes, bright hair - and Kakashi has never seen this man, never been blinded like this: serene power and a goddamned smile that tells anyone who looks that he knows life is missing something, is going to do something about it.

- Do you believe you're ready for ANBU, Hatake-kun?

- I'll save your life. Statement of fact, a new goal born in a glance.

- ...Sadistic. You'd be responsible for me, hm?

- Masochistic, Hokage-sama.

- That too.

They don't speak again.