You know, Kakashi, you have a lot of admirable qualities. You're strong and caring and self sacrificial. While those traits were not always there, you've grown into them despite all the other paths you could have taken and I really look up to you in an odd sort of way. You're just really strong, but not just as a fighter and your will to defend the things you care about is something I really adore.
The praise was a shock, one that quickly drew him from his wandering throughts and the absent tracing of his novel's familiar text. He would read, and read, and read without absorbing--without immersion. Kakashi was always distant and always thinking of their smiling faces; fixed on a faded photograph that was far beyond his reach.
The copy ninja fixed his lone stare upon the faceless voice, and absorbed their praise with a faint smile.
"Ah, you're so quick to praise me, I'm not as fantastic as you make me out to be, anon." the chuckle was half-hearted, yet the smile loomed upon his hidden lips, easily shielding his lone gray eye beneath his pale lashes with the creasing of his flesh.
"..But thank you."
