#v. twin

[xhatake]

looks at expression art meme. what if one twin is #1 & the other is #15

they're just a couple of little guys

[xhatake]

Masaki had not had a fight that lasted this long in many months. usually, facing enemy shinobi was easy for him. His mask made him a weapon, removing him from the humanity that plagued him incessantly. He would slip it over his features & settle into his role as a killer, efficient & invaluable to Konoha. Killers didn't need to mourn or feel or face their demons, they needed only to become them. But things were not always so simple. He had been intercepted by a shinobi from Kirigakure. Which usually, wouldn't be too strange. Kiri had a long & complicated history with Konoha & their shinobi were often at odds with one another... regardless of any treaties.

But this man, his opponent, he was good. Too good. He seemed to know every move Masaki made before he made it, his intuition sharper than the razor-sharp blades they hurled at one another. Stranger yet, Masaki felt a familiarity in the way he moved. It was easy to tell where each lightning-fast attack would hit, stepping in & out of the other's range of attack. They exchanged the few blows they could drive to hit, each one more brutal than the last. Masaki was breathing hard, trying not to think of how familiar the other's hair was.

( ----- It reminded him of his brother, a face from a distant life. )

Masaki takes a deep breath, hurling himself in the air at his opponent. He digs his heel into the man's mask with a satisfying 'crack' & he launches himself back into the air. He begins weaving signs he had woven a hundred times before. Chidori sparks to life in the palm of his hand before his feet hit the ground & he starts running, trying to close the space between them once again. Pieces of the stranger's mask fall to the ground, one at a time & Masaki can hardly believe what he see's.

He stops, his jutsu dying in his hand only inches away from the other's face, not unlike his own. Kakashi. His brother, Kakashi, who was dead. Who had to be dead. Because if he wasn't dead, he would be trying to kill Masaki right now at the whim of enemy ninjas. His lungs begin to burn & he speaks to the man before him for the first time since their confrontation began. Masaki can count every rapid heartbeat in his chest & he feels like he might choke on his own voice," ... Kakashi?"

@chidoried !!!!

[xhatake]

( i said i was going to hit with the my muse is dead meme )

Dark hues land on the unmoving form of his twin and everything suddenly feels wrong in the world. Why isn't he breathing? why is there so much blood? why is it his twin and not someone else as mean as that sounds? Why Masaki?

He and Masaki had their ups and downs as siblings, they squabbled, they ignored one another, they said stuff they didn't mean but at the end of the day they were twins and would always be there for one another but ... that was not going to happen anymore, was it? He can't make sense of the noise that escapes him, it sounded like something of a wounded dog and a choked sob all mixed into one as he crouches down and pulls his brother to his chest. He tries to shock his heart into working again, something he's never actually tried but he'd try anything for his twin. His mind is fully of panic and his vision is blurry and he can't breathe.

Not Masaki .. please not my twin ... don't take my twin from me ... please ..

But his twin was already gone, someone had ended his life here on the battlefield and he felt ... he felt so alone .. he felt grief washing over him and most of all he felt angry, so angry. not at masaki, never at masaki but at the ones that dared to end his brothers life. Head snaps up and if looks could kill, every enemy would have fallen dead ( don't worry though he is getting to that part ). chakra becomes unstable, cloaking him, bijuu chakra covering him and his hands that hold masaki close are shaking as he gently sets him down for a moment, he would not leave him there, he just needs to take care of all this scum.

A roar is what comes from him next as he fully gives into the bijuu chakra, as he fully lets himself lose control and destroy everything in his path. the chakra does not stop cloaking him once he has destroyed everyone that dared to take his twin from him and he comes back into his own mind as best as he can given everything, instead it curls around him almost like the bijuu's chakra is comforting him.

He goes back to his twin, he will take him home, he deserves to be able to make it back home at least and he would make sure masaki would make it home again one more time.

and then he's alone, the last hatake. he'd never imagined a world where he would lose his twin brother. his own life was up in the air as a jinchuriki but not masaki, masaki was supposed to live on and have a long happy life. it wasn't supposed to be like this. He's alone in a place with too many memories of his twin brother holding that stupid ass cup that masaki had gotten him what feels like forever again, holding it like its a lifeline, tears flowing down his cheeks, broken sobs escaping him.

masaki ... i'm sorry i failed you too ..

My muse is dead. Tell me how yours is dealing with it.

[xhatake]

∗ 1oo﹕ sender  has  just  died ,  receiver  finds  out . / hey .... hey ..

This was a terribly sick joke. to be told through a letter, given to him by a nameless man behind a mask. It was difficult for Masaki to read the visceral words, sprawled down the letter he had been handed [ [ Kakashi Hatake was abducted by the Akatsuki. Unfortunately, he was killed before we were able to retrieve him. the whereabouts of his body are currently unknown. ]

There is a pressing helplessness that comes with the sinking realization that this was not, in fact, a prank. He's not sure when the man who brought him the letter leaves, nor how long he stands there with his eyes stuck on the terribly black ink. Each stroke emphasizes a specific string of words, a crushing reality that seems totally unreal. ' he was killed' Kakashi was killed. His brother, his twin, the single person in his life who had ever understood him, regardless of any imposed distance between them, Kakashi was the one person who was always supposed to be there.

Masaki had wondered, on many occasions, what would happen if he were to lose his brother. He had anticipated the rage, the fear, the sorrow... he thought it would be explosive, in every sense of the word. But the strange thing is... he feels empty. There is a well of feelings somewhere in his body, but they are transcendent of the capability of his understanding. Though Masaki was well-acquainted with grief, this was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

Masaki had known about the Akatsuki being after Jinchuriki. He had been focused on protecting Naruto, on keeping him out of harm's way. So much faith had been wrapped up in Naruto that Masaki had always assumed his brother would survive. he had to, he always had up until this point. It seemed impossible that he was gone, just like that. His mind begins to race, raking through every funeral he had been to before, searching for some way to deal with the emptiness that was now beginning to burn. Every funeral he's been to, every grave he's ever lamented over.

The grave, the body. There would be no body & somehow this, is worse. He wondered where his brother is, if he was honored with a proper burial... or if he had been left out in the sun, to rot, a thousand miles from home. He crushes the letter in his scarred hand, the one that had begun to shake. He walks through the door of his home, slamming the door behind him.

Maybe he screams as he puts his fist through the wall, though he's not entirely sure. It's like he's observing the display of despair from outside of his body, far from the overwhelming emotions that make it difficult to breathe, to think. This was a false reality, it had to be. there was no world he could ever think to be alone in, it was never supposed to be in his cards. He kicks over a vase as he makes his way to the kitchen, digging in his cabinets. He throws many dishes on the floor as he searches desperately for one specific cup. It's a tiny, terrible, awful turtle cup that belongs... belonged, to Kakashi.

He holds it close to his chest as his knees finally give out. There would be no body, but he had this cup. he had this memory of his brother's scrunched-up nose beneath his mask when it was presented. he has this cup. Masaki knew this death could not go unanswered. The pit in his chest fills with righteous fury & he begins to pack supplies & weapons & the terrible turtle cup. Time passes strangely while his emotions run free, at last.

He ignores a knock on his door, a banging. It's Gai, he knows it's Gai, of course, Gai would be one of the first to know. But he can't bear to look anyone else in the eye, to betray the despair that was now dictating every racing thought. He's not sure what his friend says when he calls out to Masaki, but the voice is strangely grounding. he doesn't want to be grounded. he wants to feel this vengeful wrath that was beginning to take root in his lungs, threatening every breath. Masaki didn't want to be comforted, he wanted to get even. So instead, he calls out a terrible " Go away " & continues to pack. He will have Kakashi's body back if it's the last thing he does. He will have retribution.

[xhatake]

“were they really sad for me?”

" We were all sad for you, Kakashi. " Masaki swallows the lump in his throat as he stands before his brother. It was surreal to meet his stare, not unlike his own. It was a gaze he thought he would never see again, " Losing you was--- it seemed incomprehensible. "

Kakashi had been taken away by the Akatsuki only a few months prior to Pain's attack on Konoha & Kakashi still felt his absence with each passing day. Masaki kept telling himself that it would get easier, that the gaping wound of Kakashi's absence would heal if he could just force it together... But it just seemed to fester, seeping with infected grief. There were a thousand goodbyes he wished he had told Kakashi before he died, life was so empty without him. There was already so much that had passed since he had parted from this world, so many things he wanted to tell him... But this was war. Kakashi was his enemy, whether he was a willing participant or not. A shaky breath passes through his lungs.

" I saw dad. I forgave him. Told him you would too, when you caught him on the other side. " his words are hesitant as he watches for any sign of attack. there was too much to say, too little time - he wouldn't throw the first blow, regardless of the implications.

There had been a moment upon Masaki's resurrection that he had wished he had stayed dead. That he could go with their father & greet Kakashi in the afterlife. Another part of him knew better, the part of him that was aware that It was his responsibility to carry Kakashi's memory with him. Masaki would care for their students, their village, live the life Kakashi had been robbed of. He had never thought they would see another again, not until he was finished with this life. He was sorrily mistaken. Kakashi was not the only dead man fighting for the enemy. Masaki's voice is tight as he forces the next question from his lips, " Did he make it? Did you make it? "

Perhaps it is foolish. Masaki was trying to make peace with a dead man, controlled by the enemy. But this was his brother. His twin. They had shared a life, a childhood, a womb. They had come into this world together & Masaki now wondered if they would leave it the same way. He almost hoped so, though he knew he couldn't give up so easily. Every nation stood together for the first time in history, defiant of their end.

" I wish --- I wish we could meet again on better terms. " his throat is tight, impossibly so. Shallow breaths are carefully tempered. They would fight soon & one way or another, this would end.

@chidoried || pink floyd!

[xhatake]

❛  i  don’t  know  what  to  do  .  i  just  don’t  .  ❜ hands u my kakashi for twin au || @jinchuus

Both of them were prone to nightmares. There were many nights when one would wake up, lungs begging for air. Masaki often lay in his bed, gaze trained on the ceiling as he listened to his brother sob in the kitchen. he imagined Kakashi did the same when Masaki threw himself out of bed. It was hopeless. Masaki often felt as if he were to reach out, if he were to check on his brother, it would only make things worse. After all, this is what they were bred to do; fight & kill & live with the consequences. But as twins, they were never meant to do it alone.

But tonight was not so easy as inflicting denial; Masaki had dragged himself out of bed for the aforementioned reason, washing his hands. Scrubbing. It felt as though they would never be free of the gore of the past. He wasn't sure when he had started crying, but he must have been. These were the hands that had nearly killed his brother. He often dreamed of what would have been without RIn's heroism; without her sacrifice, Kakashi would be dead.

It was surreal when he twisted on his heel to meet teary eyes not unlike his own. Kakashi had left his room & Masaki could only assume why from how his hands shook. Tempered breaths leant to a thick tension in the space across from one another. Masaki felt terribly exposed to his brother, the mutual display of emotion disclosing more of the reality of the situation than either was prepared to do.

Kakashi's words strike Masaki to his core, making him feel ill. He feels something compel him to cross the room & taking Kakashi in his arms, holding his twin in a desperate embrace. It had been a long time since they had hugged one another; they must have been children. He supposed they still were.

" Maybe we can pretend that things are okay?" Masaki's words are careful, though he feels like they might get caught in his throat. Masaki takes a quick breath that threatens to become unruly. He knows it's not so easy to forget everything that happened between them. They may never be okay. But how desperately he wished they could be. He tries to keep his tone cool, but he cannot hide the crack in his voice, " Just for tonight. Until the sun comes up. "