Hearing a sudden noise in the middle of the night, I jumped out of bed in fear, as any ordinary person would, reflexively turning my head toward the source of the sound.
I was so shocked by what I saw that I remained frozen for several seconds.
"It's been a while, Kakashi?"
A magnificent ninja like Kakashi had fallen flat on his face, his foot tangled in the ropes I had haphazardly placed. Upon hearing my voice, he quickly untangled himself from the ropes and stood up, tidying himself up.
Despite the dimly lit room, I could clearly see Kakashi's face turning red through the gaps left by his mask.
"Last time I saw you, you weren't the kind of ninja who would fall into such a simple trap. Won't you talk?"
Kakashi finally managed to snap out of his daze and began scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. He kept his head turned away, avoiding looking at me, which was very strange.
Even though I sleep in my underwear at night, I'm three years older than him, and we're both boys. I pushed Kakashi's suspicious embarrassment into the back of my mind and calmly stared at him, waiting for him to speak.
First, he got up from the ground, freed himself from the rope that had gotten tangled around his foot, coughed twice to shake off his embarrassment, and then began to speak.
"Of course, as an Anbu captain, I'm not one to fall into such a simple trap, but this house is a place I used to frequent, and I didn't expect a non-ninja's house to be set up, so I got stuck. And, you know, I was quite distracted by the cat I saw on the way there. Hahaha, ahah, ahaha..."
I sighed and changed the subject to spare him the embarrassment.
"I mean, I'm serious. We haven't spoken since Kushina and Minato left. Back then, at least once a month, Kushina would invite us over for dinner, and we'd sit down and eat together. Now, you don't even come to my store unless Jiraya-sama release a new book... Hahaha, look at your face. Kushina's cooking wasn't exactly top-notch, but our time together was fun."
Kakashi involuntarily frowned when I mentioned Kushina's cooking.
I don't know why Kakashi was here right now, but I completely meant what I just said.
If Kushina didn't see me as a little brother and didn't frequently invite me over to spend time with the others, this world would probably still be a "Naruto anime and the characters in it" in my eyes.
Thanks to Kushina, I've become very close to Kakashi and Minato in the past, but the one who still holds the biggest place in my heart is Kushina herself. She's practically a real sister to me.
Back then, I dreamed of having a system almost every day, so I could comfortably inform those around me about future disasters.
Sometimes I even wanted to risk everything, warn Kushina, and not think about the rest, but what if my warning had led to the destruction of the entire ninja world? And worse, what if, right after I saved Kushina's life, she had died of some random other reason, and all the risk I'd taken had been for nothing?
As I looked at Kakashi's face, I was reminded once again of the immense freedom it felt to have a system, or rather, to have the potential to change things.
"Why are you crying? Is everything okay, Eren? I didn't think you'd miss me this much."
Hearing Kakashi's expression of surprise, I felt a tear roll down my cheek and quickly composed myself.
"Hahaha, shut up! You sound like I'm gay."
And at that moment, I received a notification from the system that my template similarity had decreased by 10%.
[A tip from Trader Rekt: in a world this dangerous, no man should reveal his weak heart]
"Damn you, Rekt!"
"Who is Rekt?"
I forgot Kakashi was here for a moment.
"An old traveler who told me his life story this morning. Seeing you suddenly brought tears to my eyes. The damned man's life was so miserable."
"Oh, that makes more sense."
"Soooo? Kakashi. Can't you figure out why you're here anymore? If you just need a place to stay, you can go sleep in any room you like."
Kakashi leaned against the window seat and stared at me for a moment, then spoke as if he'd made a decision.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I think it's okay. Because of your behavior and sudden change in personality since this morning, Hokage-sama asked me to check on you. There are plenty of records of you speaking rudely to people, even among Anbu. But I don't see anything unusual when I look, so it's okay."
After Kakashi finished speaking, he was about to jump out the window again when I stopped him.
"Do your job properly, Kakashi. Whatever checkup you're ordered to do is fine. But after you're done and report in, be sure to stop by my house before four. I'll make breakfast for two."
Kakashi hesitated for a moment before agreeing. While the time I'd called him to breakfast seemed a bit surprising, there were no objections. He was probably planning to train for the Anbu all night.
"Hokage-sama asked me to use my Sharingan to check if you were affected by a mental jutsu. Besides that, I was supposed to check your chakra flow, but I've already done that."
"No problem."
After staring at Kakashi's Sharingan eye for a moment, Kakashi declared he'd completed the checkup and left my house. I checked my alarm and went back to sleep.