#Team Minato Week 2022

[wind-becomes-lightning]

What the f- is an Isekai..?

This day is THE DAY. I'm so excited to share this overly long stupid fun crossover fic with you guys! It was so much fun to write and I really really hope someone else can get as much pleasure out of reading it.

for @kirpyee & @enevera, who always mix nart and jjk on my timeline (which I love) (also vera read this story before anyone else and was very supportive when I had my doubts.)

Naruto (Shippuuden) x Jujutsu Kaisen Crossover

Hatake Kakashi / Uchiha Obito & Gojo Satoru / Geto Suguru

8075 words

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 3: Crossovers.

Nobody can really explain how it happened, but somehow Hatake Kakashi and Gojo Satoru, both in the middle of important battles, switch bodies.

The last thing he remembered was Obito gripping him tight and pulling him into the kamui dimension where he had fallen hard on his head. He had expected kamui to look barren and empty, nothing but blocks of grey, but when Kakashi opened his eyes he found himself in a vibrant city. High rise buildings and neon lights. He did not know how he got there or where he was.

He shook his head out to get rid of the headache and then pulled himself onto his legs and realised that he was no longer wearing his usual comfy sweats that he had gone to war with. Instead he was wearing soft black pants that looked like they belonged to a suit. When Kakashi took a closer look he realised his legs were also less muscular as they had been and now long and thin. He turned his head to the side and found a building with big windows in which he could see himself: He was in a completely different body.

Genjutsu, he thought immediately. Obito had done something that had put Kakashi under a powerful genjutsu that made him imagine he was… whoever he was now. The man in the mirror was tall and wore full black, a sort of uniform. His hair was whiter than Kakashi’s usual hair was and even though the windows were a step or two away it was clear that the eyes were crystal blue. Kakashi had never seen anything like it before.

Around him a battle was taking place. Several people swirled and ran from him and jumped over top of him. The things being fought were big and scary looking, but not in animal form like the Bijuu. They were deformed, loud, babbling creatures, crawling all over the high rise buildings of the city in front of him. Kakashi had never seen such a bright city before and only ever laid eyes on high rise buildings in the dead city of Amegakure. He wondered silently how much imagination Obito must have had to make such a place up to trap him in.

Before he had another moment to contemplate his situation, a dark figure attacked him directly, throwing one of the misshapen creatures at him. Kakashi saw it coming instantly even though he had not been looking in that direction and on instinct dodged the thing flying towards him. He felt that his tall, lanky body was a little harder to navigate, but whoever the person was who’s body he was inhabiting was very skilled anyway.

Laughter echoed through the street and Kakashi looked up to see another man standing not far from him. His hair was hanging down in black strands over his shoulders and for some reason he was wearing the outfit of a monk. At least he knew it was the outfit of a monk, Kakashi realised with relief, so not all things in this world were different from his own world. 

“What’s that? Have you forgotten your own abilities?” the guy’s voice roared over to Kakashi. “You know you don’t have to dodge things for them not to hit you.” 

Kakashi in fact, did not know that he didn’t have to dodge things. He put his back up straight and looked down to the long, slender fingers of the guy whose body he was now. All he knew was that these eyes, the piercing blue’s that he’d seen in the window, were even sharper than the sharingan was and opted him to react quicker to whatever was happening in the corner of his eye.

“I do not know how this ability works in fact,” Kakashi said out loud. “I don’t even know which ability this person is supposed to have.” He wiggled his hands.

The monk raised a brow. He seemed as irritated as Kakashi felt. This was an overall bizarre situation he had suddenly fallen into and he didn't quite understand how to fix it again. He knew he needed to get back to his own dimension, fight and defeat Obito to make sure the next generation could grow up safe and peaceful, but he didn’t know how he had gotten here and so he didn’t know how he could go back.

And his head hurt. His eyes radiated a power and pain that he had never felt from the sharingan eye. It was like his chakra was being drained by the second, only that he did not have chakra. What Kakashi could feel flowing through his veins was a very different power, much stronger and it seemed connected to the eyes. In wonder he touched the man’s chest and hair and in his jacket pocket he found a blindfold. Made sense, Kakashi thought. With eyes draining you like this you needed them to be covered up most times.

“What the fuck are you doing?” The monk bellowed in amusement. “Have you also forgotten how you look, Satoru?” 

Satoru, huh? That must be the name of the guy in whose body he was stuck in. There was no way out but go forward, try to get this situation resolved so he could get back to Obito. So he decided to just be honest: “My name is not Satoru.” The voice that came out his mouth sounded not as deep as his usual one, but the tone somehow sounded arrogant. He continued: “My name is Hatake Kakashi, I am a shinobi from Konohagakure.”

The monk’s mouth fell open and he stood there frozen for a moment. “What?!”

– –

This was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him and he was bouncing on his feet just looking up and down his own body. Somehow, just a moment ago, he had still been in Tokyo, but now just a blink later, he was here. It had taken Satoru literally 10.2 seconds to figure which story he’d been isekai’ed into. When they’d been younger Suguru had talked about nothing but “the big three” and Naruto in particular and as such Satoru had a vast knowledge of the world and its characters.

The green vests, the gloves, the freaky hair, everything. How interesting! This was Kakashi! The copy ninja! And he was in his kamui dimension, real, with blocks and everything, just like in the anime! Satoru just about could stop himself from clapping his hands together in excitement. It all was so real. Who would have thought something like that was actually possible? 

When he looked up and found the man standing opposite of him, a grim look and black hair wild all around his face, Satoru’s heart took a little leap. “Uchiha Obito!” he exclaimed. “In the flesh!” Which led the other man to open his eyes in surprise and take a step back, like he was suddenly creeped out.

Obito looked exactly like he had in the manga. Satoru fumbled for his pocket, but could not find his desired smartphone in it. These large, puffy, Jounin vests had nothing that could be useful in its thousands of pockets, just scrolls and shuriken. He cut himself immediately on one of the sharp objects because he was not used to being without his cursed technique.

He clapped his hands together and walked from side to side: “I mean that is cool. It is like an isekai in here!” Obito raised a brow and Satoru could read the confusion in his face. Well, the characters in the isekai never knew they were characters in the story, only the character who had been inserted into the story knew. This was Satoru’s responsibility. 

“I’m Hatake Kakashi!” he said out loud, to explain himself. “Renowned copy ninja from.. That place with the little leaf on the metal band!” He tapped to his head and took the hitai-ate off just to realise there was no tiny leaf on it this time. Right, there was something about the war that he had forgotten.

To Obito it must have seemed like Kakashi had lost his marbles, because he spoke very quietly when he replied: “Yes… that- .. yes you are Kakashi…” 

Incredible! Satoru’s eyes lit up with the realisation that Obito had the same voice as the voice actor in the anime! It was like his assigned voice! Amazing! Outstanding! He thought of what he could ask Obito about, but got distracted by the way his left eye felt. He was very much used to an eye that drained its user, Satoru had two of them all his life, but this eye had something special about it. When he concentrated it spun away over him and it seemed like his opponent’s movements were a little slower. Very practical.

“Wow, this eye drains you huh?” He said out loud and closed his left eyelid. “Very cool, but not surprising that Kakashi keeps it covered most of the time.” 

Obito replied with a “Huh?” to that assessment.

When he focused hard enough, Satoru could also feel the flow of chakra in his veins. Clearly Kakashi knew what he was doing and his body was working on autopilot. He wondered if he still remembered any of the symbols that you needed to sign to get a jutsu to happen. After all Suguru, nerd extraordinaire, had shown them all to him.

Now thinking of Suguru, he could feel a sting in his heart when he remembered how he had left the situation. Tokyo and more importantly, his students were in grave danger and needed his help. He had waited long enough to take care of the Suguru problem, because he had let his own feelings get in the way, but it was finally time to get rid of it. And while being in an isekai was fun and exciting, especially in the world of ninja, he had to return to finish his own tasks.

“Hey, hey, hey Uchiha”, he said and snipped his fingers towards Obito, who still seemed utterly baffled by the sudden change in Kakashi's behaviour. “ Can you tell me which part of the story we are in?”

Obito’s eyes flashed like a threat: “What do you mean with that?”

Satoru sighed and put a hand into his hip. There was no way around it, he had to explain who he was. “You know, Obito, in my world “Naruto” is a popular manga. All the young people my age have read it. I personally have not, because I am more of a fan of the classics like Sailor Moon or Digimon or anything that is about romance, but my best friend-”

“Nothing you are saying makes sense,” Obito spat back,“Kakashi, are you under genjutsu?”

Genjutsu? Right, that was a thing that existed in this world. Well, it would be hard to convince Obito of the fact that he was nothing more than a fictional character the goth girls liked very much. But something told Satoru that he would be able to get out of this situation if only he knew at which point in the story he was. Maybe he needed to fix something to be released, if that was the case he needed to fix it quickly to get back to Suguru. 

“Did he take your heart seal yet?” Satoru started and waved with a hand. “I mean, Kakashi. Did he take that seal yet?” 

Obito blinked. His face had suddenly turned very white: “I- How do you know I wanted him to do that?”

“Because I read it in the manga, stupid,” Satoru laughed. Well technically he had not read the manga, but he had heard enough about it to know it well enough. Plus he had by chance seen the episodes that took place in kamui, mostly because Suguru was always saying that “this was the best part” of the entire show. Then and now Satoru had just assumed it was because Suguru liked both Kakashi and Obito and would have loved for them to make out a little. Not that this would ever happen on television.

Honestly, Suguru had a point in a way. Those two characters were clearly in love with each other, but parted before either of them could say something about it. “Seriously man,” he said and sighed a little again. “Now that I’m here you should totally listen to my advice and just confess your feelings…” He stopped moving his feet up and down and let his eyes fall to the sandals.

“If you don’t do it soon, it might be too late and you don’t want it to be too late, because that’s not very good.” He almost added on “I speak from experience”, but the words wouldn’t quite come out. Instead he watched his own toes in the sandals under him. How impractical must these shoes be while fighting? How had Kakashi not lost a toe yet? Why had nobody pointed out how ugly and unfashionable they were?

Obito growled. The voice came deep out of his throat and the anger in it got Satoru excited. “I don’t know what you mean with ‘confessing’” Obito said calmly, but clearly enraged. Oh, if only he had his own powers, Satoru thought, fighting a real Uchiha would have probably been a treat.

– –

“You are Hatake Kakashi?” The guy laughed. “The Anime character? Very funny, Satoru.”

Kakashi did not know what an anime was and how he was supposed to be a character from it, but clearly this guy knew him from somewhere. This Satoru guy was apparently aware who Kakashi was too. Maybe they had switched bodies? Maybe Satoru was now with Obito in Kamui while Kakashi was here. Was that a mangekyou ability he didn’t know of? It seemed unlikely, but then again Kakashi didn’t know everything about his eye.

Instead of asking one of the many questions in his head he just repeated himself: “Yes, that is my name. Apparently that seems funny to you.”

Now the monk stopped his laughter and instead frowned. “Don’t be ridiculous”, he said. “What kind of animal summons does Kakashi have, huh, tell me.” He was testing Kakashi now, but at the same time he was also moving closer inch by inch.

“I have dog summons”, Kakashi said. “I have the scroll to call them right here...” He touched his right chest and realised that he wasn’t wearing his normal vest. He was in a uniform. His scroll wasn’t there.

The monk didn’t seem convinced. He approached closer and let out a laugh again: “That wasn’t a very hard question. Additionally you could have just quickly google’d it. Satoru, I know you have that expensive phone in your pocket.”

Phones were something Kakashi knew about, though he had never seen one in a pocket, but what the hell was google supposed to be. “One of them can talk”, Kakashi tried to offer as information but the guy waved it away: “Everybody knows that.” 

Apparently Kakashi was well known in this part of the world that he had never seen.

He was now very close to Kakashi, taking small steps forward as if he was expecting Kakashi to jump on him the moment he came too close. At the same time he seemed like he was really interested to be closer, so he kept going forward. Finally he was an arms reach away and used his right hand to move it ever so slightly towards Kakashi’s body. Kakashi thought he might hurt him, but instead he just lightly touched Kakashi’s sleeves and then immediately shot back

“You let me touch you,” the monk murmured. Kakashi nodded in confusion. What was so bad about touching someone else on the sleeve? This prompted the guy to look away to talk to himself about something that sounded like “Innate cursed ability” whatever that was supposed to be.

He then looked up directly into Kakashi’s double eyes and grinned wide. “Right,” he started. “You are Hatake Kakashi from the shonen manga “Naruto”, okey. I’m Geto Suguru” 

Naruto? Manga? Kakashi had heard the word manga before, it was a kind of comic book young people nowadays read in Konoha, but “shonen” was a new genre to him. “What does Naruto have to do with that?” He asked more to himself than Suguru.

His opposite laughed a little and shook his hair out of his head. It seemed like he had finally started believing what Kakashi was saying. Geto shrugged his shoulders and said: “I guess Isekai do exist, huh.” 

Kakashi didn’t know what an Isekai was, but it didn’t sound like it was a very good thing to experience.

“Tell me”, Geto said and Kakashi noticed how much he tried to sound as if that was a very casual question and not one he had been pondering for years, “which one of the dudes you are frequently paired up with are you actually into? The - uh- green one, the teacher one, the ANBU sweetheart or the murderous one?”

It took him a minute to realise what the question was about and most of all whom the question was about. It had been easy to identify Gai and Iruka, but to figure out who his ANBU sweetheart was supposed to be… He’s had much too many when he was younger. 

The murderous one though, he turned the idea over in his mind. “I am not into Obito”, he said and didn’t sound as convincing as he had wanted to sound.

The monk laughed again: “So the murderous one. Good choice. I was always a big fan of the two of you.” How could he have been, Kakashi wondered, but then again Geto had previously mentioned a manga called “Naruto” which he apparently read as a kid, plus he had known Kakashi and Obito just by name alone. This all seemed very odd.

“Well you better hurry to tell him your feelings because..- well that depends.. Where did you see him last?” Geto asked with a grin.

Kakashi wanted to test his idea even further: “He dragged me into Kamui to separate me from my comrades.” He narrowed his eyes and watched his opponent's reaction. Just as he expected Suguru nodded knowingly: “Well you really should hurry then.”

“Hurry for what?” Kakashi asked and felt a little shiver when the other man started laughing and waving his hand.

“You’ll see.”

Kakashi put himself up to full height, which was very tall, now that he could measure himself against another person. He tried to look menacing enough to stop Geto from laughing, but he didn’t know how to look menacing when in the body of a guy who was thin and not muscular. “Say, Geto-san” he began overly friendly, “Am I a character in a book in this world?”

– –

“So you are saying I am a character out of a comic book?” Obito put the facts together slowly. His eyes were widened in horror at the realisation and Satoru couldn’t blame him. Being nothing more than a narrative foil to a main character must be hard. Not that Satoru knew what that felt like as he was always any story's main character.

He decided to give Obito a little space and started walking around the Kamui dimension, taking everything in that he could. It was so similar to how it had looked like in the anime, which made sense, but was almost scary. He found a surface that mirrored a little and looked at his face. With a whistle he said: “Woo, I’m handsome.” He touched the scar on his left eye and then went with his hand through his hair.

Kakashi was injured at the front and Satoru could feel the pain, though he didn’t seem to mind so much. He wasn’t used to pain in his normal life, so feeling it a little now was actually exhilarating. He felt the pouch at the side of his leg and opened it up. Kunai were neatly stacked inside, ready to be pulled out and used at his convenience. He took one out and swung it around his finger. “Wow, you actually use these! Amazing! Just like in the show!” 

Obito grunted not far from him and so he turned his attention to the Uchiha. His hands folded over his head, Obito breathed heavily as if he was having some kind of panic attack. Satoru felt for him and snapped with his fingers in a vain attempt to diffuse the tension: “Oi, can you do that thing… with the wood? And I don’t mean that wood, I mean the one in your arms.”

The Uchiha looked up and the anger was written all over his eyes, while a large wooden spike that Satoru had completely missed was hanging out of the palm of his hands. It seemed like something behind Obito’s eyes was turning and he readied himself to kill this person that had taken over Kakashi’s body any second now. Satoru couldn’t help but smile and realise how weird that was with the mask on. Many people wanted to murder him after they met him first, it was his style.

He sighed and went with his hand through his hair again. As fun as all of this was, winding Uchiha Obito up and to see him boil in his own emotions, Satoru needed to get back. His own narrative foil was waiting back in the real world for him and his students needed him. He didn’t know how much time had passed since he made it into Kamui, he did not know how Isekai rules worked in the first place. Shouldn’t this only get triggered when he was run over by a giant truck?

“Right, ok, we need to figure this out”, he said out loud, a finger tapping against his chin around the seams of the mask. “I’ve never seen an isekai to the end, so I don’t know how one gets out of it.” Obito squinted at him. “You know.. Isekai? Well it is a story genre in which the main character gets reincarnated in their favourite game or show or book or media of choice. They are awfully popular among the younger students who didn’t get raised on the classics and according to my best friend they are a crime to humanity.”

Obito looked at him as if he was the weirdest person he had ever encountered. Maybe he really was. “What the fuck is Ise-”

“And they are awfully formulaic, you know? The main character is always so overpowered and has all the girls and I don’t care, because I already have that back home you know? I don’t need that. So I’m mostly bored when they are on and don’t pay attention. I’m more of a shoujo kind of person, you know? I need that sweet hand holding romance and “Oh my god will he give me his Line number” conversations. I know you get that.” Satoru snapped his finger at Obito again, who had his mouth hanging open as if he was going to lose his mind any second now.

Clearly, Obito was not going to be of help in this situation, mostly because he still needed to digest that none of his “deliberate choices” in life had been quite as deliberate as he thought they were. Satoru had to fix it himself, as much was clear. He tapped his finger against his nose and tried to remember as much as she could from the story of Naruto. Suguru had been a huge fan and talked about it constantly, though it sometimes felt like he was more angry at it than praising it.

Satoru thought back to the afternoons in the Jujutsu School when they would be laying side by side on his bed and Suguru was talking endlessly about his favourite manga and the magazine they all were published in. Just bathing in the memory made Satoru feel warm on the inside, a warm feeling of nostalgia and pain that he was all too familiar with. Even after all these years it was still hard to understand why these innocent days had to end and now he had been put into this difficult decision to end the life of the only person he wanted to save above anyone else.

“Well at least Kakashi and I have that in common”, Satoru mumbled and bit his lower lip. “We both have to kill someone we love.”

Obito lifted his head: “Who does Kakashi love?”

– –

It was like someone had just stabbed him even though nobody had touched him. Kakashi felt like his head was spinning. This was all a little much to take in for one evening. “So, Obito will die?” Kakashi could not explain why the confirmation of that made him feel so sick, when not so long ago he was still very determined to be the one to kill his old friend.

Suguru put his head to the side and threw Kakashi a look that couldn’t be read as anything else but pity. “Yes”, he said with a grin. One of the creatures crawled along his shoulders and he summoned a sort of ball out of thin air which he threw in the air and caught again.

“If you love him you should probably tell him as soon as you can.” Geto’s voice had changed into something less excited and more arrogant. He clearly now felt like he was being superior to Kakashi, who to him was nothing but a fictional character with no own choices. 

Kakashi on the other hand felt rather peaceful at the realisation that nothing he had ever done had been preventable, that it had been all written out for him. He just needed to go along with the story in which he wasn’t even the main character and eventually he would reach the end. He just wished that Obito didn’t have to die for that.

“I also would very much like for you to return my best friend to me”, the monk said with a grin. “We have unfinished business here.”

In the corner of his eye Kakashi could see all the windows of a high building scatter. He looked back to Geto and his lopsided grin. “Why are you doing this?” Kakashi waved with his hand around. “Causing all this destruction in this world.”

The smile on the monk’s face froze in place and then it turned into a frown. His eyes darkened. “Because there is so much here that needs fixing and it could do with a complete new start. So we’re tearing it down to correctly build it up”, he explained, brows furrowed.

“Ah,” Kakashi said with a grin and found that grinning came easy with this body, “You remind me a lot of Obito. You once were a naive kid that the world didn’t treat kindly and now you want to destroy it.” 

By the way Geto’s eyes widened, Kakashi could tell that this was not something he had wanted to hear. For him, Obito must be nothing but a villain in someone else's story and to be compared to that surely wasn’t a pleasant experience. Kakashi knew he was pushing, but to figure out how to get back he needed to know more: “Are you close with me? I mean, the person I am? Satoru…?”

This made his opposite visibly uncomfortable. Geto squirmed a little, but then frowned. It was pretty obvious that he prefered not to talk about it, even though he had brought up the unfinished business not even 10 minutes ago. 

“You and Obito”, Kakashi said now to push just a little more, “are very similar. What you want is to improve the world that you suffered in, that others suffered in, but your methods of doing so are very misguided.”

It looked like he was stretching a rubber band very thin. Geto’s eyes darkened a little more. “What do you know? You are a fictional character. You are not real, nothing you do is real”, he spat back.

Kakashi waved the answer away unbothered. “Does this Satoru, who is your best friend as you say, see it as his task to make sure you can not reach your goal?” he asked, even though he could already read the answer on the other person’s face. 

“I guess he would like to believe so.” Geto now sounded as if he was pressing his teeth together in an attempt not to snap and attack Kakashi again. 

Getting an opponent riled up so that they would spill information was one of the easiest tactics of an ANBU operative, it surprised Kakashi that Geto didn’t know that from the narrative he had read. Or maybe his temperament was already so heated up that he had forgotten everything about it.

“So the guy I'm stuck with and me, we have more in common than just the odd hair colour and the powerful eyes,” Kakashi said with a shrug. Dramatic shrugs also seemed easy in this specific body. “But what do I know, I’m just a fictional character.”

He could see that this was the boiling point. Anger was written all over the monk’s face. “If you are so similar”, he spat out, “then I would suggest telling Obito your feelings instead of just letting him walk away.”

– –

Satoru gave Obito a heartedly pat on the shoulder, which the other man let happen without as much as an angry glance. “I think you already know the answer to the question.” 

Technically Satoru did not know who Kakashi was in love with, in the other world, there were quite some contenders for this title, but he wanted to get this isekai situation cleared up and somehow he felt like this was the way to go. Maybe it was some fairy tail “they-need-to-admit-their-feelings” thing that one found in romance novels.

He was definitely right about Obito, as much was clear. Obito’s cheeks had visibly flushed and his hands were shaking. When he saw Satoru’s face and the grin in his eyes, he growled deep in his throat and let a mokuton spike grow out of his palm to hold it against the other man's throat. The gesture drew blood and Satoru whistled a little. Uh, this was much more fun than it should be.

“I don’t care what Kakashi feels”, Obito said through gritted teeth. “I don’t care for him.”

Satoru laughed and waved with his right hand. “Sure you don’t. So when I do this..,” he curled a finger under the seams of his mask and pulled it down over his chin..”and lean close..” he did as he said, “and whisper quiet words into your ear, it will garner absolutely no reaction.” Obito mumbled something, a little distracted by Kakashi’s sudden unmasked face right in front of him, so he did not notice until Satoru was right at his ear.

“I love you”, he breathed and Obito fell over his feet backward.

This was just too much fun, if only he could record all of this with his phone camera to show it to Suguru when… well, some time when they could share things with each other again.

Obito put his hands into fists: “I don’t want you to say things like that out of his mouth!”

He sighed deeply. “Well maybe Kakashi does not actually love you,” Satoru shrugged his shoulders, “He has tons of admirers as far as I am aware. But you clearly love him and since I’m stuck here with you and I don’t know what else to do and your insecurity is kind of amusing, I will let you in on a secret.” He leaned forward, made a “psst” sound and then whispered: “You will die, soon actually, so if you don’t tell him he will never know.”

Clearly, these were not the news Obito wanted to hear. He breathed in heavily and stared at Satoru, but he did not attack him again or say anything.

“So there are your options,” Satoru yawned a little, the mask still hanging under his chin, “You can tell the person you love that you love them or you can go to the grave bitter and alone and without ever being honest with yourself.” He heard his own mouth speaking the words to Obito and knew he was talking to himself. It was something he’d never been good with and he had realised that way too late. 

He walked up to Obito again: “And believe me, not being honest with him or yourself won’t make either of you happy. It will just make the inevitable end so much worse.” Satoru thought of Suguru and how long he had put off killing him. Maybe it had been fear or regret or shame over not having been open with him from the beginning. Maybe if he’d been able to express what he felt to Suguru when they were younger, if he’d been able to explain how important their time alone together had been to him…

“I’m not in love with him!” Obito spat out.

Satoru shook the memories away and found the grin again: “Right, right, sure. Tell me, how many years have you been watching him? Like, I’m just saying, this is a friend to enemies to lovers thing, rivals and all - of course you are in love. It is kind of required in this situation to be in love a little at least. I can tell you that, I speak from experience.”

Obito shook his head. He needed more convincing, Satoru thought. He put one arm around Obito’s shoulder and drew him in, just like he sometimes did with Nanami to annoy him. It was a little harder in this body, as Kakashi was not quite as tall as Satoru was used to, but the move was still very effective. Obito’s ears were clearly red. 

“Great. If you are not in love with him, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind at all if I just came up to you like this and kissed you?”

– –

“So that is what makes you so mad that you have to destroy this city? The fact that he wasn’t honest with you?” Kakashi thought this comment would push Geto over the edge, but instead it just made him pause for a second, as if he couldn’t believe what the other person had just said to him.

Kakashi could understand that it was something that Suguru saw as important. Being dishonest about feelings never got anyone anywhere, this was easily shown by the way Sasuke had taken in recent months. But was Kakashi dishonest with himself? Because if there were unspoken things between him and Obito then yes, it would probably be wise to address them, especially if their fate had already been decided. He could feel the sting burn when thinking about Obito potentially being dead again, so close after he had just returned to life.

He weighed his head: “Maybe you are right and there are unexplained things between Obito and me. Maybe we should absolutely address these things, especially if he were to, as you claim, die soon. Because taking these feelings to your grave only leads to resentment and resenting the person you care for the most clearly only leads to..” He made a general gesture to Suguru and the destroyed city around him. “..this.”

It did not seem like Geto really liked hearing a lecture from Kakashi, especially not out of his former friend’s mouth. He was breathing heavily by now, nostrils flared. Kakashi wondered how he would feel if his favourite Icha-Icha character would come to life in Obito’s body and tell him something about the importance of romance and affection. The image in front of his eyes did amuse him, with Obito acting all femine and pouting just like Yuri-san did in the novel, but then ultimately Kakashi settled on that it wouldn’t feel very good to meet a character you loved that way.

Love and affection, huh? It’s not like he didn’t  want those things and it was not like he couldn't imagine finding them with Obito. It was just that they had been apart for so many years and would need to build a new life together, if even. And now it seemed like Obito was not long for this world, so would they even get the chance?

“I don’t know if I could tell Obito that I love him, as you advise me too, because I don’t know if I do, “Kakashi finished his trail of thought. “I hardly know him now. Back then, when we were children and around each other a lot, maybe I had a crush on him back then. Because he was a person, a version of himself, that I envied and adored to equal measure. But now? How do I know who he is now?”

He took a step forward closer to Geto, who was still frozen in place. “I wonder if that is the same for this Satoru person. That he couldn’t tell you his feelings earlier for some hang up or another and now he can’t tell you anymore either, because the version of you that you are now is not the version of you that he fell in love with.”

“I don’t-” Geto stopped himself in the middle of the sentence, as if his tongue couldn’t catch up with his thoughts fast enough. The frown on his face was loosening a little and he seemed to genuinely consider what was said. Kakashi took the opportunity to take another step forward closer to him.

“And I’m not saying that both of you could not love that new version of each other, or that Obito and I could not learn to love this version of ourselves. But I assume that probably takes a lot of work and especially time, time which Obito and I just don’t have. At least according to what you told me. You on the other hand could talk to Satoru about this, clear the air, and then move forward from this point on '' Kakashi's eyes were involuntarily dragged down to see Geto’s slightly shaking hands. He didn’t have time to analyse why he could see something so small so well.

“To get all of that, though, you first have to be open and tell this Satoru that this is what you want and no amount of destruction or death can stop that need of yours. You’ll always be bitter about it until you face it head on. The hole in your life will not be filled if you fight pain with more pain.”

Obito was similar, Kakashi thought. He too obviously felt betrayed and hurt by what had happened to him, to Rin and the world in general. He’d been a naive kid, which Kakashi had always liked about him when they were younger. Kakashi was scarred and tired of doing anything but the biggest duty and Obito had been hopeful and excited for his future, as a kid ought to be. This was why his fall had been so much deeper, his derealisation so much more destructive.

It was not like Kakashi couldn’t understand this need of Obito’s or Suguru’s to make the world right with violence. There was so much going wrong that needed fixing in his own world and maybe in this one too, but it was just not right to do it by inflicting pain on others. Pain would never be rectified with more pain. Revenge was just a breeding ground for more revenge.

“You have to find a middle ground”, Kakashi said and meant Geto and Satoru as well as Obito and himself, “There has to be one between the two of you. If he is like me then he probably doesn’t think you are wrong in all regards, but he just doesn’t approve of the methods you are using to fix it. Maybe this world has done him wrong like it has done you wrong and he just wants to set it right in a different way.”

Suguru laughed: “Ha! Satoru has always been perfect. He was literally born the perfect person. Nothing bad ever happened to him. He would not know how I feel.” A light crossed his eyes and then they darkened again.

“Well if you know my story, then you would know that I know a thing or two about people who are seen as perfect,” Kakashi was now also quietly laughing. Not loud and boastful like Geto had before, but more to himself. He shook his head then: “And I can tell you they rarely really are perfect.”

Kakashi was now very close to Geto, his head towering over the other man’s. He was not used to being so tall, while Obito was a little taller than him as far as he could gather, Tenzo and most of his other friends were smaller. But some of his students had lately reached his height and if they were still growing they would soon outgrow him. 

He looked down on the man in front of him, who was shaking his head in disbelief: “This world would not be better suddenly just because Satoru would hold me and tell me how he feels.” Geto was spitting on the ground next to them. “Literally nothing would change. Nothing would improve.”

“Maybe”, Kakashi laughed a little again. It seemed rather easy in this body, without a mask, to laugh to yourself. “Yes, maybe it would change nothing, but it could help you resolve your own narrative foil, would it not? Maybe that would change something anyway.”

He didn’t know what he was doing, but before he could think about it too much he had already pulled Suguru closer, wrapped his long arms around his shoulders and dragged him in. The other man did not resist or say something and so Kakashi let his head, Satoru’s head, fall forward on Suguru’s hair and pressed a kiss against it. 

Suguru’s breath hitched.

– –

Obito didn’t resist at all, in fact, he just stayed frozen in place. Satoru curled his finger under Obito’s chin and pulled it upwards to draw himself closer. It wasn’t as elegant as he was used to as Kakashi’s fingers were much thicker than his own, but he could make it work. He couldn’t believe how easy it was, how easily the Uchiha let himself get led like that.

Wow, Satoru thought. Obito actually let him do this. He wouldn’t have expected that. He couldn’t help but wonder what Obito might taste like if they actually kissed. After all, he had kissed many people in his life, from different places and different countries and origins, sexualities and genders, but he had never kissed a fictional character before, so what would that be like? Would Obito taste like paper and ink? Would it be the “real” thing?

Finally, when Satoru was only millimetres away from his face Obito finally snapped out of whatever trance he had been in. “Stop!” he screamed and “Don’t-!” Though he was clearly panicking about all of this, he stayed close to Satoru and did not wriggle himself out of the arm that was still slung around his shoulder.

“How long have you been in love with him, huh?” Satoru couldn’t help but revel in his success. He had reached his goal of melting whatever ice block had engulfed Obito for many years and gotten a very clear reaction out of him. Maybe that was after all the way to get this isekai curse lifted. True love’s kiss or something like that.

Obito was clearly scrambling to find the words, maybe even the thoughts, to explain what was happening to him. His face was now bright red, from cheeks to ears, but he still kept the embrace up. “I don’t know,” Satoru could hear him mumble and many other words that seemed to make no sense. “Watching.” “Grave.” “Amegakure.” “So much lightning.” Finally he seemed to find his voice again and with it his face moved back into its usual frown: “Not that it matters who I love or whom he loves. The world is about to be reborn. We don’t need to be together now, we can be together in the dream - forever.”

“Ah~” Satoru sang a little and patted Obito on the back again, “No, my friend, you won't make it that far. As far as I remember Kakashi is also not in the dream - for some reason that is not related to you - or maybe it is? I don’t remember - anyway. You will die. So I would suggest kissing the hot ninja man now before that happens, because you won’t have a chance afterwards.”

Obito blinked and bit his lower lip in thought. He reminded Satoru of Suguru in this way. Suguru had been good at pouting when they were younger, especially when he talked about one of his favourite manga storylines not going the way he wished. It was funny to think of that now that Satoru was trapped in such a storyline.

How many times had Satoru let an opportunity to kiss Suguru go by? All these times in which they’d been close to each other, hands slung into one another, laughing or talking or fighting about this and that. He had wanted to do it many times. What had made him so scared to take the leap? Maybe if he had been more brave things would be different now, maybe Suguru could still be by his side. Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill him.

No, Obito should not regret something that Satoru regretted. Not if there was still hope. “Who knows,” Satoru said with a smile, “Maybe you can change the narrative. After all I wasn’t here to chat you up in the original Naruto manga was I? We might have created an alternative timeline, you know? If you just tell him how you feel, if you guys - I don’t know - smooch a little, maybe the future will be brighter?” He paused for a second and then added: “I can only repeat myself in saying that you shouldn’t let such a situation slip by.”

There was a light in Obito’s eyes now and as Satoru looked down he could see the red of the sharingan turn into the black of his normal eye colour. He’d rarely seen anyone that had eyes as dark, but that wasn’t surprising when a person was created with ink mostly. Obito was now heavily breathing as if he was reaching a conclusion. 

“I have the seal on me still. The one Madara placed on me,” Obito said and stared forward. 

Satoru waved the concern away with a flick of his hand: “I’m sure both of you will find a way to remove that safely. I think, honestly, that both of you could do anything you wanted together, even learn how to forgive, how to change the world, as long as you are open with one another and most of all, as long as you do it together.” He realised that he had spoken about Suguru himself more than Obito and Kakashi, but the argument was solid anyway.

Obito nodded and Satoru wanted to exclaim some triumphant sentences to celebrate his continued success, but when he saw the look in the other person’s eyes his throat dried up. Obito was staring at him, right into the face, but he wasn’t really staring at him. Instead he was looking at Kakashi’s face, every tiny corner of it, as if he was trying to map it out in his mind. Satoru was weirdly embarrassed by the intimacy of it.

They were almost the same height, and Satoru realised it again now. Kakashi and Obito could bounce their foreheads against each other if they wanted and from there all they needed was a little gravity and a little bravery to fully find each other. Maybe there was something Satoru could do to help them along the way, he thought. So he closed his eyes slowly as a provocation to Obito and kept them closed. He could only hope that Obito would get the hint and just do it already.  Don’t be a coward, Satoru thought.

Obito wasn’t. He closed the distance between them just a heartbeat after Satoru had closed his eyes. Their lips touched, soft and wet and Obito, to Satoru’s surprise and delight, did not taste like paper and ink. He tasted like the real thing.

– –

Four pairs of eyes opened and blinked into the face that was staring at them. They all recognised one another at the first glance.

[eyeles-writing]

Otters Are An Endangered Species

| read also on ao3

⭐︎Word Count:  3328⭐︎

⭐︎Pairings: Hatake Kakashi/ Might Guy/Umino Iruka, Nohara Rin/Uchiha Obito⭐︎

⭐︎Content: Found family, confrontations, and some domestic fluff.⭐︎

⭐︎Description: There's something up with Kakashi, Rin, Obito, Guy, and Iruka. They're a little too close for Minato's understanding, and the man is more than determined to figure out what exactly is going on.

This post is made for Team Minato Week 2022 (@teamminatoweek) and follows Day 4′s prompt of queerplatonic relationships. Thank you so much to the people behind Team Minato Week 2022 for organizing this!! I hope you all enjoy <3

Otters are an endangered species.

Sea otters, despite being community animals, spend a large part of their days alone - they forage for food alone, they plunge under the water alone, and they escape predators alone.

Shinobi, similarly, are an endangered species.

From the moment a ninja enters the academy, they are presented with nothing but the cold truth: At any given moment, you must be prepared to die for your village. In the event of a natural disaster, you need to bring children to safety and shield civilians from falling chunks of volcanic ash. During an attack on the village, you take aim and fight. You put yourself between your people and the enemy - you die for your village, or you live to be a traitor.

Sea otters gather into groups together during the evening to rest. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this happens - is it because it’s easier to spot predators when they’re together? Do they groom each other and provide aid to one another in dire situations?

The sea otters are just lonely, perhaps.

The sea otters gather because they spend 12 hours of their day in constant vigilance, never taking their eyes off the enemy. The animal dives into the water and drags itself along the ocean floor, eyes darting across the sand in hunt of its next meal. It finds a clam, or an octopus, or a snail, and it wastes no time. The otter aims, takes its shot, and fires - whether or not that otter gets a meal is completely dependent on its ability to hunt. To kill.

When the battle ends, the shinobi often don’t have homes to return to. Sure, they have leased apartments and estates and campsites to rest at, but there is no home involved. There’s no meal cooked with love, with appreciation. They don’t come home to a warm smile and a house decorated with years of memories. Oftentimes, a shinobi enters their home to a weary smile and a “thank god, you’re alive.”

The shinobi gets lonely.

At night, the shinobi gather at Ichiraku Ramen. After a rigorous battle, another day of convulsing and meaningless brawls, the ninja gather in the one spot where they feel a community has grown. They share sad smiles together and rarely discuss their missions - not because of confidentiality, but because the last thing they want to remind themselves of is the horror that they witnessed mere hours before.

Ichiraku Ramen is one of few locations where a group of shinobi can call home. There are no shaky breaths and teary-eyed children. Packed bags don’t lay at their feet with a heartbroken soulmate at the door when a shinobi is at Ichiraku Ramen. There is no fighting, no bloodshed, and no tears.

There is, however, a home.

The warm meal is pleasant after a long mission containing only food pills and malnourishment. Surviving on the bare minimum for a week, only to come home to a giant bowl of the most delicious ramen you could imagine, is one of the few horrendous joys in a ninja’s life. There’s nothing like it.

Minato Namikaze first suspected something when he found his students, accompanied by a variety of classmates, sitting on the concrete outside of Ichiraku Ramen for the fourth night in a row.

“We’re just hanging out,” Kakashi had said, “there’s nothing weird about it.”

“Yeah, don’t go makin’ it weird, Minato-Sensei!” Obito interrupted, pointing at his teacher in a huff. His goggles, as they always did, slipped off his head during his movement and fell to the floor. They’d been well-worn over the years and no longer stretched to fit Obito’s head, a sign of the boy’s aging.

“I’m not making anything weird,” Minato laughed, “I just don’t get what’s going on with you all lately.”

“A couple friends hanging out is nothing weird,” Iruka butted in. He glanced over at Kakashi and Might Guy, who were leaning on each other against the building behind them. He used his foot to playfully tap his friends feet.

“Ah, maybe I’m just getting old, then.” Minato smiled at the children - who couldn’t even be called children anymore, having come of age and were no longer under the teachings of their former superior. Well, if Minato wasn’t Hokage, that is.

When Minato had left, the group had burst into laughter.

“Minato-Sensei is totally going to freak out once he knows!” Rin giggled, leaning into her boyfriend’s shoulder as Minato had turned the corner a few blocks down. Obito smiled and leaned into her, still finding the sensation to be hauntingly calming even after dating for three years now.

“You think so?” Guy questioned. Kakashi shrugged, and Obito nodded enthusiastically.

“Minato-Sensei freaked out when he found out that Rin and I were dating, remember?” He said.

Minato had launched into a major lecture about dating while being a shinobi - Rin interjected to remind Minato about his very relevant wife that he started dating during his Junin years. He continued on and made the two lovers promise that they would use “an appropriate amount of protection and preventative measures” during any time of intimacy. The lecture lasted a total of 47 minutes and, in summary, one of the most awkward experiences of Obito’s life.

Rin remembers the look on Minato's face after she had told him that they dated for six months before telling him. The look of betrayal, surprise, and confusion fighting for dominance on his face was nothing short of hilarious. “Let’s pray that kid of yours doesn’t inherit your aloofness!” Rin laughed, brought to tears in amusement.

Kakashi scoffed. “He only freaked out because he thought you were going to get pregnant and end up with a baby at 17.”

The group laughed, and the night continued on. They stayed there until the shop had finally closed, and then they all parted ways - Kakashi, Guy, and Iruka went to do some late-night grocery shopping together, while Obito and Rin headed back to their shared apartment space for the evening.

Two weeks later, Minato spotted his favorite youths laying in the grass together at the training grounds. He was doing his morning walk around the village and spotted the familiar strikingly-silver hair peeking up out of the grass. He instantly headed over to find Obito, Rin, Kakashi, Guy, and Iruka in the most interesting pile he’d ever seen.

Kakashi was laying in the grass with his arms behind his head with his entire lower body covered by the body of Might Guy. His body stretched across Kakashi and Iruka, who was laying parallel to the ninja. Guy’s face was buried in his right arm, while his left gently clasped Iruka’s own right hand. About two feet to Kakashi’s right laid Obito, who was laying on his spread jacket and had his left arm over his face, shielding his eyes from the incoming sunlight. Rin was at his side, taking up the majority of the jacket space, with her face buried in the side of her boyfriend. Obito was making a gentle snoring sound, while Guy made a noise that could only be described as sixteen motorcycles exploding in weird intervals. His snoring was loud, obnoxious, and somehow being slept through by all 4 of his companions.

“You lot sure look busy,” Minato said. Obito snorted awake, which disturbed Rin and caused her to groan as she shifted away from him. Kakashi simply shrugged and responded as if he was expecting his ex-teacher to show up.

“We just trained for three hours, we’re taking a nap break to regain energy.”

Minato scoffed. “Is there a reason that you all had to nap on each other?”

Guy rolled over, groaned, and gave Minato a thumbs up. “A teammate who sleeps alone is a teammate who is destined to a life of solitude and sadness! Group napping activities not only increase team bonding and motivation, but it also provides an assurance of safety in case of an oncoming threat!”

A smile formed on Minatos face, glad to see that Guy’s mood had, as always, not been dampered.

“We were just getting to sleep,” Rin complained, “I wish you didn’t interrupt us like that!”

Obito yawned and sat up. A rush of dizziness caused him to hold his head in his hands for a moment as he craved stability. “Yeah,” he said, “I was just getting to the good part in my dream!”

Kakashi scoffed faintly as he sat up to match Obito. “What, were you and Rin finally trying out that position-”

“ANYWAY,” Iruka cut in, “thank you for waking us, Lord Fourth. It was about time we got back to training, anway.”

The man hummed in confusion and parted ways with the group, grumbling to himself about how they were most certainly up to something.

Minato had spent the rest of the day digging into the lives of his former students and their associates - he looked through school records, family records, social media posts, and even their taxes to figure out what exactly those kids were up to. It was when he found a lease agreement for all five of them that he pieced it together.

“Can you just tell us already?” Kakashi asked. He quickly became tired of the game that Minato was playing - the man was determined for the kids to tell him up front, but they all knew much better than that.

Kakashi had years of training in the ANBU. He was out now, sure, but the ideals drilled into him surely never left. There was no way he was going to break.

Rin was one of the strongest ninja in the group - she had plenty of experience in interrogation and knew exactly what strategy Minato was using. She was going in the direction of being a medical ninja for the interrogative teams, it was no surprise that she was not the first to break.

Might Guy was, admittedly, a weak person. He didn’t enjoy lying to people, and he believed that friendship and teamwork was the key to winning any fight. The fight between his heart and mind, however, proved difficult the moment that he started sweating bullets after Minato confronted the group. However, Guy was also physically strong - he bit his lip during the entire discussion so he would be in far too much pain to speak, therefore destroying his ability to break.

Iruka was indifferent. He never took any active steps to hide the truth from Minato, or anyone for that matter - he lived his life the way he wanted to and, in any moment of confrontation, was usually the one to rip off the bandaid and call it good. Iruka had taken a glance at his companions, however, and saw the look of determination on their faces. He saw the blood pooling on the bottom of Guy’s lip and decided that he, too, would play the game. Iruka was not the one to break.

Obito Uchiha was a stellar ninja. After he developed his Sharingan, he learned indispensable information that trained him in becoming a better and more determined ninja. He stopped skipping class and began showing up early to his team meetings - he was motivated this time. He studied for hours to better his skills as a ninja, determined to one day become the village leader.

During those many hours of study contained no lessons on secrecy, unfortunately.

Obito broke thirty minutes into the confrontation.

Minato stared at the group and had been silent for twelve minutes at that point.

“I know that you are all hiding something from me, and I just want you to admit it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sensei.” Rin smiled innocently, an irritated twitch at her lip telling Minato that he was beginning to break her down. He smiled to himself.

His eyes turned to Obito, who was still sweating bullets. The boy hating lying and disappointing his sensei more than he wanted to keep a secret, it seemed. Minato took a step toward the ninja and leaned down to look at him at an equal level.

“Obito, if you tell me what it is, I won’t be mad.”

Kakashi had glanced to his left and saw the tears watering in Obitos eyes, desperate for a release. Quickly, Kakashi reached across Rin to push his hand over his teammates mouth.

“Obito, no-!” Kakashi cried out, but it was too late - Minato had seen Kakashi’s movement coming, and preemptively stuck his arm out to block it.

“ME AND RIN AND KAKASHI AND IRUKA AND GUY ALL GOT AN APARTMENT TOGETHER AND WE LIVE TOGETHER AND WE DIDN’T WANT TO TELL YOU BECAUSE WE THOUGHT YOU’D BE MAD-”

The group bursted into a series of groans at Obito’s confession, certainly disappointed that he broke after a mere thirty minutes.

Minato stood with his hands on his hips and smiled in satisfaction. “You admit it!” He exclaimed, and Guy instantly leapt to the floor to beg.

“Please forgive me,” Guy cried, “I didn’t want to hide the truth from you, but I-”

“I’m not mad!” Minato said, and both Guy and Obito went quiet. Rin furrowed her brow in confusion.

“You’re not…?” She asked, and Minato shrugged.

“You’re just living together! Look, I’ve grown up too, you know?” He flashed his de facto children a confident smile. “I get that you guys can’t stay kids forever. I trust you to make good decisions, okay?”

Iruka smirked. “Does this mean you’re okay with me and Guy dating Kakashi?” He asked, as if to poke the proverbial bear with a proverbial stick.

Minato’s eyes went wide, and he felt his heart drop into his stomach.

The next forty five minutes was spent in the Hokage’s office as the group struggled to stop Minato from pacing in circles around the room. He mumbled to himself before stopping to exclaim words at the group, only to then return to muttering in circles. Rin dragged him out of the pattern and had to yell at him in order to push him out of his thoughts.

“MINATO-SENSEI!” She yelled, and he stopped in his tracks. “Calm down!”

“How can I be calm?!” He asked. “Three of my students are dating and nobody bothered to tell me!”

“HEY,” Obito interjected, “I’d like to clarify that I am NOT dating Kakashi!”

“Yeah, it’s just a queerplatonic relationship.” Kakashi shrugged and watched as the look of confusion on Minato’s face only contort further.

“A- a h-wha?” He stuttered.

“A queerplatonic relationship,” Iruka repeated Kakashi’s words. “It’s when two or more people share an intimate relationship further than what most would consider friendship.”

“Like… Like leasing an apartment together?” Minato asked, puzzled. Guy nodded enthusiastically.

“EXACTLY!” He exclaimed. “Look at you, Lord Fourth! You learn something new every day, huh?”

“We’re basically all married to each other, to put simply,” Kakashi said. “In a way that isn’t romantic or sexual in nature.”

Minato contorted his face further. “Wait, so you’re getting married?”

Everyone in the room sighed.

It took another forty five minutes to explain to Minato what exactly a queerplatonic relationship was - he struggled to comprehend a level of intimacy beyond platonic and romantic, and every sentence spoken was accompanied by a series of questions from the man that lead to a rabbit-hole of discussion. Eventually, though, the group had decided that Minato had a basic enough understanding of a queerplatonic relationship to move on for the evening.

Minato had excused the five, but paused right before they were about to exit the office.

“I have just one more question for you,” he said, and each person looked back. He wore a small smile on his face and his voice was far softer than normal.

“I know it’s been years since I’ve been in charge of you all,” his eyes glanced over to his former students, who were looking at him with patient eyes, “and I want to thank you for letting me in on this. Even if it was… unintended.”

“What’s your question?” Rin asked, hands clasped and resting on her chest.

“When did this all… happen?”

The group glanced at each other. Kakashi made eye contact with Iruka and Guy, who were smiling fondly at a distant memory.

It was just after Guy had become a Jonin, Iruka remembered. He watched the two rivals argue in the distance over something trivial - likely fighting over who was in the lead for their little matches, or which one of them was going to pick the next challenge. Iruka leaned against the brick academy wall and sighed distantly, which caught the eye of Kakashi.

Kakashi glanced over at the glare in his vision - it turned out to be the headband of one of his best friends, Iruka. He beckoned the boy over and smiled at him gently, drowning out the still-arguing-Guy in the background.

“Do you guys want to go on a date with me?” Iruka blurted out, a blush creeping onto his face, and both Kakashi and Guy paused.

Minato watched as Rin and Obito glanced over at the three standing across from them in the doorway. Rin smiled fondly at the memory in her head, while Obito watched the sparkle in her eye.

A year ago, Rin and Obito had stumbled upon Kakashi laying in the grass with his two boyfriends - Iruka and Guy. What began as a midday nap turned into an evening of conversation that eventually molded into a discussion about the future.

“I dunno,” Rin sighed as she looked toward the sky, a setting sun in the distance casting a ray of purple across the clouds. “I’ve always envisioned myself living in like, a community, instead of just my husband.” Her grip on Obito’s hand tightened. “Like, with friends and family, you know?”

“That sounds like a queerplatonic relationship,” Iruka said, and Kakashi nodded. Obito hummed. A minute of silence followed as everyone let the words settle in. Queerplatonic.

“Well, aren’t we all kinda in one of those anyway?” Obito asked, puzzled.

Everyone, silently, thought about it for a moment.

“...Yeah,” Kakashi stated plainly after a few seconds of silence. “I think we are.”

“It’s true, we do everything together,” Guy agreed. Iruka nodded.

“And we were just talking about buying a farm together in the future,” Rin giggled. She looked over at Obito, who was giving her a goofy smile. She tilted her head at him, as if to say “Well? What do you think?”

“I mean, as long as I don’t lose you to that stuck-up loser, I guess I couldn’t care less what you call it!” He decided, throwing his arm around his girlfriend. Rin laughed and felt herself melt into his arm, heart fluttering in content as she realized what had just happened.

Minato felt a full-fledged grin come to his lips as he realized that all of his kids were now reliving the memory of their first realization.

“Nevermind,” He smiled, “save it for your wedding!”

Obito blushed, and Rin giggled.

“We’ll see you later then, Minato-Sensei!” She smiled, and Minato nodded.

“Goodnight everyone, get home safe, alright?”

The group slowly exited the room until only Kakashi and Minato remained. He turned to his former teacher for just a second. “Goodnight, Sensei,” he said. Minato smiled.

“Goodnight, Kakashi.”

Otters are an endangered species.

Sea otters, despite being community animals, spend a large part of their days alone - they forage for food alone, they plunge under the water alone, and they escape predators alone.

The sea otters are just lonely, perhaps.

Shinobi are a recovering species.

These ninja spend a large portion of their day either on the battlefield or in isolation - when they return from a days work of injury and hardship, though, they’re confronted with comrades. They find themselves lost in allyship and appreciation. An unbreakable bond is formed, and the ninja in question finds themselves spending more time ordering ramen at Ichiraku than dreading their next mission.

The shinobi will be okay.

[the-stoned-ranger]

Rating: Gen

Fandom:Naruto

Relationship: Hatake Kakashi & Nohara Rin & Uchiha Obito

Additional Tags: Puberty, Trans Kakashi, Friendship, Queerplatonic friendship - Freeform, Team Minato Week 2022

Summary: Kakashi keeps a lot of secrets. One summer evening, he lets one slip. Obito and Rin accept him as their bro.

[viatorix]

Smashed out nearly 3800 words of a Team Minato/ObiKaka Pokemon crossover to get something in for Team Minato week on the last day. 

[centralnart]

sneak peek at an au i'm writing for team minato week :)

[velvetgoldminecherry]

Kakashi Week day 7: Ink

Tintenherz

Kakashi would have laughed if someone had told him the value ink would have in his life.

It sounded ridiculous. Ink? From all the things he could consider valuable, something to full his heart with memories, he was attached to ink?

Kakashi would’ve tought so, but Kakashi had believed many things in life that he never though were posible, and the surprises he had were countless.

As he sat with a cup of tea, looking out over the koi pond at the renovated Hatake Complex illuminated by the rays of the afternoon sun, painting with red and gold, Kakashi found himself wondering how something like so simple like the ink had become so important in his life.

His first memory related to ink took him to the same place where he was currently sitting many years ago, where a silver-haired man gently guided his little son's hand, helping him with the traces of the parchment that, once was ready, he was taken to a special place in the garden, where a small circle of violets harmoniously decorated a small tomb.

-Honey, Kakashi has wrote you a letter -Sakumo had whispered, looking at his two-year old boy laughing and talking abour stuff only he understood.

Kakashi learned how to write quikly. When he arrived at the Academy, his handwriting was far superior to that of his peers, even many of his teachers.

Then he made his first mission report, the only D-rank mission he'd done in his entire life (at least before becoming Jounin sensei). Kakashi remembered the pride he felt when he presented his scroll to the Hokage, but he remembered with even more pride, the face moved to tears by his father, who had hung the scroll in the living room of his house, next to the family photos (for little Kakashi's dismay). For a week, Sakumo didn't talk about anything other than how his little boy had grown so fast.

The ink that ran down his hands and stained his fingers after writing his father's death certificate at the age of six, is ​​one of the many things that Kakashi has not been able to erase. It's one of the many things that still boggles his mind on bad days. Since then Kakashi only saw death and pain in the ink that ran through the white scrolls, ruining their purity. Because at that time he began to be sent on espionage missions, related to the war that was beginning to take shape. And when he became part of Team 7, Minato sensei made possible things that back then, Kakashi considered impossible. One of those things were erasing his trauma related to ink.

Minato knew that his younger student needed bigger challenges, so he and Kushina began teaching Kakashi the principles of Uzumaki Fuinjutsu. Although Kakashi never became a master, he got the necessary foundations to have an advantage in battle. But more importantly, all those hours spent watching the ink form beautiful and complex patterns on the paper stopped Kakashi from bleeding from his knuckles, trying to clean the ink stains from his clothes.

It was the ink that forced him to accept having lost Obito and murdered Rin, the one that impregnated his body forever, when he was marked to join the ANBU, the one that placed him in the Bingo book with the cruelest names ever. could imagine.

It was the ink staining Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke's hands after completing their first mission as a team that warmed his heart and made him turn back to get up. It was the ink that filled the bingo book with Sasuke's name, the one that made him swear to protect Naruto and Sakura to the end, the one that made him promise to pay off his debt to them and to Sasuke.

Sai's brush ink was what allowed him to establish a bond with the ROOT boy and begin to consider him part of his family, when Kakashi decided to pass on all the Fuinjutsu that Minato and Kushina had taught him.

The ink on each parchment was the one that constantly reminded him of the filthiest of the world he lived in, the one that made him aware that he was alive, with each mission report he wrote. But it was also the ink that showed him the most beautiful and passionate side of life with Jiraiya's books, of which very few knew the beautiful love story behind the dubious cover. It was the ink that built the cards he exchanged with Gai all his life, so they could always have each other if one of them died in battle.

And more importantly, thought Kakashi looking at the Koi pond, while he felt the warmth of a body sitting next to him and drawing his uncovered face to meet sweet and warm lips, it was the ink with which he chose that parchment that he jealously guarded in his nightstand drawer that made him and Gai partners for life.

Here, next to Gai, with the fulfilled promise of a world without wars, he thought that he had never felt like this, that if he had to pick up the pen to write "The End" in the story of his life, he would have done so with taste.

He was the happiest man in the world.

He was exactly were he wanted to be.

@kakashiweek

[narutoevents]

2023 EVENTS!

Open Interest Checks

SasoDei Week 2024

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List of Character Birthdays

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November 2023

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Akatsuki Gift Exchange - Gifts Posted ???

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Potential Events????

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October 2023

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2021 Archived

2022 TBA?

2024 >>

[mayadoesfandomstuff]

Considering the psychic damage my previous post on the protags' ages are, I've decided to compile ALL persona users' birthdays and list them according to date from earliest or oldest to latest or youngest. Enjoy!

Teddie (P4) - unknown, shadow so could be as old as time, maybe as teddy bears existed in humanity's collective unconscious memory, could be a month before he met the team, could be a week, could be last Thursday idk

Zenkichi Hasegawa (P5S) - unknown, in his 40s, probably late 1960s to mid 1970s

Baofu (P2:EP) - June 13, 1967

Tatsuya Sudou (P2:EP) - 1971

Katsuya Suou (P2:EP) - December 30, 1973

Ulala Serizawa (P2:EP) - November 30, 1974

Maya Amano (P2:IS) - July 4, 1976

Yukino Mayuzumi (P1) - April 9, 1979

Maki Sonomura (P1) - June 4, 1979

Masao Inaba (P1) - July 11, 1979

Reiji Kido (P1) - August 18, 1979

Eriko Kirishima (P1) - September 21, 1979

Kei Nanjo (P1) - October 2, 1979

Naoya Toudou (P1) - December 24, 1979

Hidehiko Uesagi (P1) - January 1, 1980

Yuka Ayase (P1) - March 3, 1980

Tatsuya Suou (P2:IS) - July 27, 1981 (EP), August 21, 1981 (IS)

Jun Kurosu (P2:IS) - February 14, 1982

Lisa Silverman (P2:IS) - May 4, 1982

Eikichi Mishina (P2:IS) - November 15, 1982

Tohru Adachi (P4) - February 1, 1984

Takuto Maruki (P5R) - unknown, possibly in his late 20s to mid 30s, probably mid-1980s to mid-1990s

Strega: Chidori Yoshino, Jin Shirato, Takaya Sakaki (P3) - unknown, late 80s - early 90s

Mitsuru Kirijo (P3) - May 8, 1991

Shinjiro Aragaki (P3) - August 11, 1991

Akihiko Sanada (P3) - September 22, 1991

Minato Arisato/Makoto Yuki (P3); Minako Arisato/Hamuko Arisato/Kotone Shiomi (P3P) - 1992/1993

Yukari Takeba (P3) - October 19, 1992

Fuuka Yamagishi (P3) - December 22, 1992

Junpei Iori (P3) - January 16, 1993

Koromaru (P3) - unknown, likely mid 1990s to early 2000s

Souji Seta/Yu Narukami (P4) - 1994/1995

Sho Minazuki (P4A) - unknown, possibly the same as P4 Protagonist, 1994/1995

Yosuke Hanamura (P4) - June 22, 1994

Chie Satonaka (P4) - July 30, 1994

Yukiko Amagi (P4) - December 8, 1994

Naoto Shirogane (P4) - April 27, 1995

Rise Kujikawa (P4) - June 1, 1995

Kanji Tatsumi (P4) - January 19, 1996

Makoto Nijima (P5) - April 23, 1998

Goro Akechi (P5) - June 2, 1998

Ken Amada (P3) - June 24, 1998

Haru Okumura (P5) - December 5, 1998

Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya (P5) - 1999/2000

Labrys (P4A) - April 20, 1999 (activation date)

Ryuji Sakamoto (P5) - July 3, 1999

Ann Takamaki (P5) - November 12, 1999

Yusuke Kitagawa (P5) - January 28, 2000

Aigis (P3) - February 2000 (manufacturing date), September 10, 2000 (activation date), May 1999 (Aigis First Mission),

Futaba Sakura (P5) - February 19, 2001

Sumire Yoshizawa (P5R) - March 25, 2001

Morgana (P5) - unknown, between Persona 4 Dancing All Night and Persona 5, 2010s

To give you some more perspective:

The oldest confirmed Persona user (Boafu) is 33 years and 9 months older than the youngest (Sumi).

Tohru Adachi is just two years the Persona 2: Innocent Sin cast's junior.

Katsuya Suou is turning 50 next year (2023).

The only confirmed S.E.E.S. members that are not yet in their 30s (this 2022) is Junpei, Ken, and maybe Koromaru [if he's still around which I hope so].

Sojiro Sakura might be the same generation as the Persona 2: Eternal Punishment cast.

Ryotaro Dojima (1970) is the same generation as the P2:EP cast and is three years younger than Boafu, and three years older than Katsuya.

Reiji Kido's child is probably the same age as Ken Amada and the Phantom Thieves.

Please send in any additions or corrections! I'll edit this the list if necessary.

[melodiaemfrp]

Hello, Attuned! Thank you for participating in Melodiae’s eighth Activity Check! Listed here are characters that did not pass the check (Seven (7) days of activity in-server) for the period from Thursday, September 8th, 2022 to Monday, November 7th, 2022.

If you believe your muse(s) are listed here by mistake, you may reach out to the Masterlist on or before Tuesday, November 15th, 2022. All characters that do not have activity accounted for by 11:59 PM EST on this date will be removed from the server by the next inbox run (Thursday, November 17th, 2022).

If you did not pass the check, you also have until Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 to reapp your muse(s) by sending an ask to the Masterlist indicating your intent to reapp the character. You DO NOT have to resubmit the whole application; simply provide your name, the character’s name & series, your OOC contact, and the date in an ask. Muses marked with an asterisk (*) have failed two consecutive checks, and are ineligible to be reapped this way unless they are an OC. These muses must wait one full week, and may resubmit their entire application on or after Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022.

Muses that are not reapped by 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, November 15th will be removed from the server by our inbox run on Thursday, November 17th, 2022.

Thank you for your continued interest in Melodiae!

- The Melodiae Team

13 SENTINELS: AEGIS RIM

Shu Amiguchi (Laur)

A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX

Misaka Worst (Maki)

AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES

NIRVANA INITIATIVE

Mizuki Date (Elyse)

ARKNIGHTS

Dusk (Hika)*

Ifrit (Azazel)*

BLEACH

Bambietta Basterbine (Maki)

BUNGOU STRAY DOGS

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Flora)

BEAST

Atsushi Nakajima (Juno)

CODE VEIN

Hyejin Kim (PC) (Nenphy)

CRASH FEVER

Einstein (Jay/Julian)

DC COMICS

BATMAN

Pamela Isley (Fae)

YOUNG JUSTICE

Conner Kent (Fae)

DELTARUNE

Spamton G. Spamton (Benito)

DRAGON BALL

Kaki (OC) (Ana)*

HEROES

Future Trunks Briefs (Xeno) (Hikari)

ELSWORD

Add (Dominator) (Vaal)

Ainchase Ishmael (Bluhen) (Jaden)

Ainchase Ishmael (Herrscher) (Jaden)

Aisha Landar (Metamorphy) (Riku)

Noah Ebalon (Celestia) (Jaden)

ENSEMBLE STARS!

Kaname Tojo (Sammy)

Keito Hasumi (Hyu)

Kuro Kiryu (Corvo)

Mika Kagehira (Sammy)

FATE

GRAND ORDER

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova (Caster) (Alice)

FINAL FANTASY

XIV

Little Coeurl (WOL WAR) (Noct)

Thancred Waters (Vaal)

XV

Prompto Argentum (Tom)*

FIRE EMBLEM

THREE HOUSES

Felix Hugo Fraldarius (Meki)

THREE HOPES

Shez (Grimm)

GENSHIN IMPACT

Itto Arataki (Lucien)

Kaedehara Kazuha (Capy)

Scaramouche (Riku)

Xiao (Noct)

Zhongli (Morax/Rex Lapis) (Lucien)

GUILD WARS 2

Bedveri (OC) (Birb)

Lightbringer RamJack “Jack” Silver (OC) (Kite)

Rhy’lua (OC) (Lavi)

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

Howl Jenkins Pendragon (Howell Jenkins) (Bram)

JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE

VENTO AUREO

Bruno Buccellati (Cyan)

Leone Abbacchio (Tom)*

JUJUTSU KAISEN

Suguru Geto (Kenjaku) (Bram)

KAMEN RIDER

Hitomi Hanamura (OC) (Bedi)

BUILD

Banjou Ryuuga (Lottie/ Vivi)*

Sento Kiryu (Jun)*

DRIVE

Gou Shijima (Isu)

KITAI SENTAI ZENKAIGER

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

Jinx (Powder) (Eris)

MEDAKA BOX

Kumagawa Misogi (Eve)

MEGA MAN 

Blues ( Protoman|Breakman ) (Zan)

X

Lumine (Mia)

ZERO

Zero (Hikari)*

NARUTO

Itachi Uchiha (Jun)

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Estelle VaRossa (Hikari)*

Grayson Grimm (Benito)

Jari (Oz)

Kendal Clarke (Thrall)

Lily (Jaden)

Meisarea Dannalar (Thrall)

Nakuri (D’mi)

Rovaniemi, Lapland (KB)*

Rue Gabriel (KB)

Sloane Thomas (Fae)

Tenoch de la Paz “TEN” (Benito)

The Calid Saint (KB)

Valentin Florescu (Thrall)

Winry Merchfyw (Bram)

PERSONA

3

Minato Arisato (Athiel)

5

Goro Akechi (Flora)*

Takuto Maruki (Bram)

POKEMON

BLACK/WHITE

Natural Harmonia Gropius (Birb)

PROJECT MOON WORKS

LIBRARY OF RUINA

Edelweiss Sturm (OC) (Fris)*

LOBOTOMY CORPORATION

Tiphereth B (Juno)

WONDERLAB

Taii (Fris)

PROJECT SEKAI

Emu Otori (Athiel)

Hatsune Miku (Mikey)

Shizuku Hinomori (Eris)

PROMISE OF WIZARD

Mithra (Corvo)

Murr Hart (Corbinian)

Oz (Athiel)

Rutile Flores (Jaden)

RAGING LOOP

Haruaki Fusaishi (Doc)

ROOT DOUBLE: BEFORE CRIME * AFTER DAYS

Watase Kasasagi (Doc)

SPLATOON

Shiver (Fris)

STREET FIGHTER

Ryu (Hikari)

SUPER SENTAI

KAITOU SENTAI LUPINRANGER VS KEISATSU SENTAI PATRANGER

Yano Kairi (Jun)

KITAI SENTAI ZENKAIGER

Stacey (Lottie/Vivi)*

TALES OF SERIES

SYMPHONIA

Zelos Wilder (Grimm)

THE GARDEN OF SINNERS

Ryougi Shiki (Eve)

THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU

Daisukenojo “Beat” Bito (Cecil)

NEO

Hazuki Mikagi (Cecil)

TOUKEN RANBU

Nikkari Aoe (Athiel)

TRIGUN

Nicholas D. Wolfwood (Kite)

TSUKIHIME

Aoko Aozaki (Texas)

TWISTED WONDERLAND

Cater Diamond (Raine)

WITCH HAT ATELIER

Qifrey (Avery)

YAKUZA/LIKE A DRAGON

Goro Majima (Eris)

JUDGEMENT

Takayuki Yagami (Hikari)

YU-GI-OH! DUEL MONSTERS

Yugi Mutou (Hikari)

ZAREGOTO

Ii (Eve)

[minato-division03]

Minato Division

Admin: @ Z_Willburn on Twitter

R.I.P Märchen (pronounced “rip”) is the Minato Division representative rap team, consisting of former idol Miku Shirazuki, SFX artist Reiaki Suzubayashi, and their leader, stage magician Queen Card. Their designated color is forest green.

All of the members have a sword symbol somewhere on their person. They can be found on Queen Card’s left earring, Reiaki’s tattoos on her left middle finger and left hand, and Miku’s pendant.

The sword symbolizes power, protection, authority, strength, and courage; metaphysically, it represents the penetrating power of the intellect.

Their hand sign resembles a crown on top of their hand by fanning out their fingers and positioning them at the crown of their heads.

Minato is home to many art galleries and museums. Minato features Roppongi, a lively entertainment district known for its lavish and vibrant nightlife, landmarks such as Tokyo Tower, and the famous Rainbow Bridge. 

Aside from Queen Card, whose home location is unknown, both Reiaki and Miku live in Roppongi.

They call their fans “ReadIng Pixies.”

Two of the members’ surnames contain a kanji associated with dark fantasy.

Suzubayashi contains the character for “woods/forest”.

Shirazuki contains the character for “moon”.

Masterlist:

♛ Queen Card ♛

Old Character Profile (2022)

New Character Profile (updated 13/06/2023)

Moodboard

Birthday 2022, 2023

♛ Reiaki Suzubayashi ♛

Old Character Profile (2022)

New Character Profile (updated 13/06/2023)

Moodboard

Birthday 2023

♛ Miku Shirazuki ♛

Old Character Profile (2022)

New Character Profile (updated 13/06/2023)

Moodboard

Birthday 2024

Idol Era Playlist

♛ Extra ♛

Character Inspirations

Before & After

List of Other Characters (updated 28/03/2024)

Fashion Lookbook 1

Voiceclaims

Miss Hypmic Pageant 2023

Halloween 2023

Mr. & Mrs. Hypmic Pageant 2024

The Team Members’ Homes

NSFW Week 2024

Day in the Life: Workplaces

Division Review Masterlist

♛ Albums (Songs & Drama Tracks) ♛

The Beginning of the End [03/12/22]

The Block Party [08/08/23]

Rise From Dead [06/10/23]

[wind-becomes-lightning]

Father & Son

Day 5, leggo. This was uh, a better idea then what I did with it! Someday some better author will take this and write something better with it, because .. im very not happy.

Kakashi & Sakumo

3732 words

mentions of suicide and suicidal thoughts (damn it sakumo!)

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 5: Resurrection

Hatake Sakumo gets the Edo-tensei treatment and Kakashi learns he has some things left to say.

As if the battle wouldn’t already be hard enough against Madara and his hordes of White Zetsu, the shinobi alliance is also faced with enemies that are reanimated loved ones or legendary ninja with special abilities. That this is done on purpose to rile up the hearts and minds of the alliance fighters is obvious, but doesn’t make it any less easy to deal with. Additionally, most of them are also very skilled fighters and their time in the grave apparently did not diminish their abilities.

So Kakashi is just done sending Zabuza and Haku back to their well earned rest, when a breathless and sweating shinobi of his squad, originally from Kumogakure, stops in front of him. “Kakashi-taichou”, he breathes heavily, putting his hand into his arms. “I ran here as fast as I could…” Kakashi almost drops the sword he is holding when the other man tells him the news.

It isn’t the greatest choice to abandon his current spot with his squad and run into the opposite direction, but Kakashi knows this specific reanimated person was his to deal with, they were animated to deal with him as well. Maybe their clash has always been coming. It doesn’t take Kakashi long to catch up with another group of shinobi fighting a mix of Zetsus and reanimated people that Kakashi all together does not know. He only knows one of them, or used to know him.

His hair is as long as it is in Kakashi’s memory, hanging in a ponytail over his left shoulder. The sleeve of his undershirt is swaying in the wind while his right hand is holding the tantou that should actually lay at home in Kakashi’s apartment. The eyes are as dark as the eyes of any other reanimated person so far, but Kakashi can still make out the light in them that he has missed so much over the years. His father is right in front of his eyes, Hatake Sakumo.

Kakashi stops for a second before jumping into the scene, something inside of him hesitates just a little to take the leap. Technically, his father and him had a good talk not that many months ago, in which they talked at length about their time together, their time apart and his mother. But here Sakumo is again, swirling and dancing around opponents by a force that is not his own.

Finally, he puts himself together. The leap comes easy once he has jumped and he lands right behind his dad, who swirls around to try and attack him with his tantou. Kakashi has the kunai out fast, spins it in his finger so he can defend himself and push his father back. They are a mess of legs and hands fighting each other before either of them says a word. Kakashi is convinced though that he can see a light cross his father’s eyes.

“You came”, Sakumo says when they separate long enough for him to talk. “I knew they wanted me to fight you specifically, but I thought you might be very busy.” Flattery, Kakashi thinks but he just lifts his eyes slightly: “You are my responsibility.”

Technically, Sakumo has always been Kakashi’s responsibility, at least most of Kakashi’s life. When he was small maybe his dad had been there to be the one who shouldered all the burdens of the family, but as soon as Sakumo took his life all of the family burdens had moved on to Kakashi where they still reside. 

Sakumo laughs: “Yes, I figured you would say that.” A pull to his body forces him forward, his fingers weaving signs to infuse a jutsu into the knife. Kakashi hasn’t really seen his father fight, at least not at full force, so he resorts to only dodging at first, who knew what the old man had in his sleeve.

“You’re great”, Sakumo notes with unmasked admiration. “You are strategizing how you can counter my chakra nature and you can do that even in your weakened state. You’ve really become such a great shinobi. I always knew you would be.” 

A shuriken passes by Kakashi’s ear and he turns around to let his eyes find Sai on stand-by with his scroll for sealing. Sakumo doesn’t seem like someone that can just easily be trapped via a shadow possession jutsu or mind transfer one either, this would need to be a decisive victory and it needed to be fast.

“Thank you. You’re not so bad either for someone who has had no training in 25 years”, Kakashi gives back with a wink and then quickly forms an earth wall to shield himself from an incoming white lightning. So his father also has the lighting nature, he thinks and realises he never knew. There is just so much about him that he didn’t know ever.

“Can’t you tell me what your abilities are, so that I could take you down?” Kakashi asks and he ignores how his heart feels when Sakumo smiles back at him. His father used to have this very proud way of looking at him, as if Kakashi was the most important thing that had happened to him. But if Kakashi had been the most important thing that had ever happened to Sakumo, why did he … The thought spiral was always the same.

His father has no issue defending his legs as they find him. “I think you should be able to figure this out yourself, Kakashi. This is a teaching moment! Something I never got to do for you” Sakumo smiles and lets Kakashi's ankles go.

Somehow, this innocent comment sends something in Kakashi’s mind off. “Well, you could have. You chose not to.” He notices his voice is colder than he expected it to be.

Father and son stare at each other for a moment, Kakashi takes the time to press his left eye close to save more chakra. Sakumo’s eyes darken a little, but when he talks again the smile on his face is lopsided and thin: “I’m sorry about that, son. You are right of course.”

Kakashi turns a kunai in his finger and presses out a: “It is okay, dad. It is in the past.” But he feels in his heart that the resentment is still there. Sakumo jumps forward again and their weapons meet in the air, loud noises echoing off the tree trunks around them. Once they are close to each other Sakumo says: “Is it really?” And Kakashi nods so quickly that he doesn’t even have time to consider it.

For years he has gotten so good at burying the feelings about his father deep down. At first he used to hate Sakumo for what he had done to himself and to kakashi. The resentment had driven him into the deepest hole of grief he had ever found himself in and in the end only his friendship with Obito and Rin had pulled him out. Then he had for years tried to forget his father. Not look into the mirror to see how similar his face was getting, how their eyes were the same.

Eventually, just a few years ago, he had settled on accepting that his father had troubles, that living had been hard for him and he hadn’t seen another way. That didn't make it better, but at least it gave Kakashi a possibility to turn the page, to finally leave the chapter Sakumo behind him. Then their fireside chat had happened and Kakashi found himself open to forgive.

Still, seeing him now here, laughing, chatting, fighting, praising his son, Kakashi can not help but feel that bitterness again that he felt as a child. If only Sakumo had been a little stronger, a little more resilient for his son, then they could have always been together like this, but instead Kakashi had to survive on his own for all of life.

“I don’t think it is fine,” Sakumo deduces from just watching Kakashi’s movements. It is basic knowledge that fighting another shinbi opens up more information about them and neither Sakumo nor Kakashi ever really could fight each other. “I think you are mad. You should be mad.” Sakumo throws a kunai infused with lightning and Kakashi defends it with his own.

He puts his hands in his pocket and slouches as he tends to do: “I’m not a child anymore. I was mad then, I am fine now. You did what you had to do.” It's wrong to say it that way, but he says it anyway.

“Don’t you think I was being unfair to you for leaving the way I did? I would not blame you if you were”, Sakumo mentions and Kakashi gets the feeling that his father intentionally tries to rile him up. Maybe they do have the same self destructive tendencies, well his father had killed himself after all.

But Kakashi is not in the mood to play games, what he needs to do is get his father in a chokehold so he can be sealed. The more he looks into his face, the more he misses their time together and the more memories flood back in. Kakashi is good without his father, he’s made it so far, he doesn’t need his childish feelings to come back now.

“I’m good. We should send you back to - mom though don’t you think.” Kakashi can’t help his voice dying before he mentions his mother, who he never got to meet. Sakumo too stops in his tracks at the word coming out of his son’s mouth. The edo tensei seems rather odd like that, it allows the reanimated person to regain complete consciousness over their body if they could get their own memories back. 

Sakumo shakes himself and for a moment it seems like he broke the seal, but then he goes back into an attacking stance. “I would love to go back there,” Sakumo says, “Tell her how great of a person, a leader, a hero, her son has become.” They clash once again. “How proud we are of him. He had to do so much on his own.”

It is bait. Kakashi can smell the bait. His father is fishing for an anger reaction. But Kakashi learned how to deal with these emotions long ago. He doesn’t need them anymore. On top of that he has trained himself not to get angry easily, so his father might try, but he would not get far by provoking him.

“I can’t imagine how hard it must have been, and you did it all so well, grown up so strong and -” Sakumo’s sentence was cut short by a galloping lion who had tried pinning him down. 

Kakashi looks over to Sai and shakes his head at him. No, they probably would not be able to seal Sakumo like they had others before him. Not only is he a much more skilled shinobi and hard to pin down, but also Kakashi doesn’t want to see him on the ground like this for some reason. The idea that his father would be held down by two big animals, even when drawn, just makes him feel uncomfortable.

But then again everything concerning his father makes him feel weird. Including the smile on his face, the hair in the wind, the way he speaks so casually. Until their talk by the fireside Kakashi had completely forgotten his fathers voice and while it was now from months back on his mind, it shook him nonetheless to hear it again now. And the words he was saying…

“Kakashi”, Sakumo says with a smile, “It is alright to be angry at me, you know. I’m angry at myself. I abandoned you. I was a coward.”

“You were a hero, the village shouldn’t have treated you the way they did” Kakashi replies and it feels like he is just repeating what he told himself for years before this. After all, it isn’t a lie at all. The village should have treated Sakumo, who objectively made a good choice that saved lives, better. But did that justify leaving a five year old behind? “You had it hard”, he adds quickly.

Sakumo steps forward, as if he is now in control of his own body, as if he is willing his own body to move when he shouldn’t be able to. He is just about an arms-length away from Kakashi when he stops and says softly: “But you had it hard too. I left all the problems I had accumulated up to you. It was a selfish move through and through.”

Kakashi looks up to his father for the first time for real. Before he can hold back he is already asking the question that's been on his mind for years: “Did you even think about me? Was I on your mind that… that day?” He feels like a child.

“Yes and no,” Sakumo replies. “I thought of you and assumed you would have a better future without me around. I thought of myself mostly though, how I just couldn’t take the stares anymore. I didn’t want to meet anyone or see anyone or talk to anyone anymore. I tried not to think of you too much, because it might have changed my mind.”

Kakashi breaths out sharply now, something deep inside him quivering as if he feels a little sick. His father continues: “I thought if you don’t have to see me anymore, if nobody has to see me anymore, then it would be alright. I thought you’d be relieved.” His voice is breaking as he says the last part of that sentence.

It’s that voice quiver that hits Kakashi the hardest. He can feel his heartbeat against his chest, the childish pain that he’s been burying coming up like lava through a hot volcano. When he speaks his voice is angry and shaking: “But it was not alright. Instead of you they stared at me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sakumo says and lifts a hand to put it on Kakashi’s shoulder. Kakashi doesn’t know where the sudden urge to be bratty comes from, but he pushes his fathers’ arm away and takes a step out of his range. HIs fingers are shaking now.

“You say you thought of me, but then you also say you thought of yourself first. That’s just not what parents should do. You left when I needed you and I had to be by myself. I was only 5! I was too young to understand why you did what you did and I needed a caretaker. You didn't even consider that because you were so held up in your own issues. And maybe you should have considered that, as you were my parent. My only parent.”

Sakumo’s arm slumps down, but the smile stays on his face. When Kakashi looks up his father was still looking at him. “You are right. I should have,” Sakumo says calmly.

They seem polar opposites. With Sakumo smiling calmly through the onslaught of accusations and Kakashi getting more and more angry the more he was saying. As if all the things he had held back as a kid and a teenager now broke out in one big storm.

“You know I had to organise the burial and the wake on my own. I had to stand and listen to others talk down on you day by day when I was young. It took me years to find myself again, maybe I never have until now.” He stops for a moment to bring his thoughts together. Then: “I always admired you like a god. My personal hero. And when you left me I think it was such a personal betrayal that it took me until meeting Obito to remember that.” 

His fathers mouth opens, but Kakashi answers the question before it can be asked. “Obito was my teammate. We were four. But now there is only me left. Do you understand that? I lost everything I had when I was 14 and you weren’t there. When Obito was crushed to death or Rin was impaled or the fox killed my teacher. You were not there and you should have been.”

Sakumo smiles and nods: “I agree with you. I’m sorry.”

“As- as if an apology can just set it right. I understand you know, Dad, I’m over it. I’m an adult and holding onto childish resentments is just making your life harder than it should be. That doesn’t mean that at the time it wasn’t incredibly hard. The way I took might have made me strong, but I would have endlessly prefered not to have to take it in the first place. Do you know they say I should be Hokage?”

Kakashi does not know why he tells his father this. Especially since the discussion about him being hokage tires him so much. He doesn’t see himself as a leader at all, even if they’d made him commander in this war. 

“Is that so?” Sakumo asks and steps forward towards Kakashi again. “I can see why. They all seem to listen to you and admire you very much.” He makes a gesture to the people around them. Kakashi looks around him to see people from his squad squaring off against Zetsu one one side and the sealing squad standing ready for him on the other. They all look as if they are awaiting his instruction with bated breath. Kakashi doesn't like when people stare. He looks away.

He’s being childish. As if his father’s appearance made him five years old again.

“I was in ANBU for ten years. It made me a person I hated, but for that time I didn’t want to be myself. My fave always reminded me of you and my eyes always reminded me of Obito and I wanted to be neither. I just didn’t want to be at all. Dad, in those times, I thought often of just following you.” Kakashi has never admitted that truth about himself out loud.

Sakumo steps forward and this time Kakashi lets him touch him. His father pulls at his sleeve and draws him in. It isn’t a hug, but they are very close to each other now. “But you did not”, Sakumo whispers in his ear. “Because you are a more noble, stronger, less selfish shinobi than I ever was.”

They are standing there together, body to body. Kakashi is taller than his father, he realises. “I wanted to be angry at you when we talked last time,” Kakashi says. “But I was just so happy to see you again.”

“Yes, I was also happy to see you again”, Sakumo replies and draws Kakashi a little closer still. “I am happy though that you were honest to me now. I think you can only forgive and move on if you face those feelings. Wouldn’t you agree? What would you tell the students you love so much?” 

Kakashi chuckles: “Yes, I would tell them exactly that.”

For a while they just remain like this, then Kakashi asks: “When did you break the seal that bound you to the shinobi that reanimated you?” For a while Sakumo’s body has done exactly what he wanted it to, no show of any unwanted attacks. “Oh, pretty early on. I just wanted to fight you a little. I thought that would be interesting”, Sakumo explains and tucks in a “Sorry.” He seems a little embarrassed.

“Your verdict?” Kakashi grins now too, just under his mask.

“Oh, you’re perfect. You’re everything. You’ve always been everything. I should have known that 25 years ago.” His father’s hand bumps lightly on Kakashi’s shoulder.

His words somehow make Kakashi choke up and he has to avert his eyes. He is in a war after all. This kind of emotional manipulation is exactly why Sakumo has been revived in the first place. 

“I think you should let them seal me,” Sakumo says as he finally draws back from their embrace. Kakashi looks up at him and squirms. Somehow the idea of his father disappearing again makes him uneasy, even if it is the right step. No, it is better this way. His father was dragged back to this world against his will and deserves some rest.

Kakashi looks up and smiles: “If you so wish.” 

Sakumo steps back and gives Kakashi the opportunity to call Sai in. The boy walks over slowly, looking from the older man to the younger version of him. It is then that Kakashi realises suddenly how similar they look. He is almost as old now as Sakumo was when he died, of course they look similar. 

“Kakashi-sensei?” Sai asks carefully and it is Sakumo who answers with a little laugh: “Would be very nice of you if you could send me back to my wife, I have kept her waiting long enough.” 

After nodding his head to Kakashi and getting the go ahead, Sai summons his sealing animals that jump forward to crawl on Sakumo. Kakashi doesn’t like the look, exactly like he expected he wouldn’t, but his father is smiling above it all. 

“I’m so glad we got to talk about this,” he says and sounds genuine. “I always felt like you deserved to yell at me a little. I’m glad you did. You’re such a good kid.”

Then, suddenly, as if a gush of wind had picked up, Sakumo’s hair started scattering in tiny pieces of paper. Sai noticed immediately and his jutsu dispelled into black ink that fell on the ground around him. Somehow Sakumo had been released by himself, maybe by the feeling of having closed a chapter that was still unresolved. 

Slowly paper was flying off, piece by piece. Kakashi stepped to his father again, so close that he could talk quietly to him only. “Please give my best to mom,” he said. “I can’t wait to see you again soon. Both of you.”

Sakumo, who’s lower half had all but disappeared at this point, bumped his head into Kakashi playfully again: “Don’t let it be too soon.” Then he looked up and added: “Oh there is something I should have told you back then that I couldn’t.”

“What is it?” Kakashi asked.

“I love you.”

With the next gush of wind, he was gone again.

“I love you too, Dad,” Kakashi said into the empty space in front of him.

[centralnart]

DAY 1: “Do not stand by my grave, and cry—I am not there, I did not die.”

first part of the AU i've written for team minato week 2022!! i'm really super excited about this, it's some of what i consider my best writing yet this year, hope you like it!! (and that it makes you as sad as it made me while i was writing it) (don't worry things will get better for these three)

(@teamminatoweek)

[wind-becomes-lightning]

Big Brother Obito

'Tis another themed week. Nisi can't resist themed weeks, especially when it is about my favourite team. This will be the only half OC fic this week I swear. The prompt was just too good not to use.

Uchiha Sayuri blah blah / @kanekolinkk once drew me a fanart of the two together. here

Uchiha Obito & OC

2067 words.

Rated G

for @teamminatoweek day 1: found family.

After training, Obito meets a little girl.

Obito practised throwing shuriken into a tree trunk not far from the Nakano shrine just outside of the village walls. Nobody paid enough attention to him to tell him that being so close to the shrine was bad luck, that he could anger the gods being worshipped there, because nobody ever paid attention to Obito in general. Well, except for the few grannies that helped raise him.

While he was going to go to school in a year, his skills were lacking behind the skills of other children his age, especially clan children, and he wanted to not look like an idiot once he finally would be in the academy. The only other person who was as little skilled as he was was called Rin, and as a Nohara she was naturally talented to be a healer. So it didn’t count, at least in Obito’s eyes, that she wasn’t as good with kunai and shuriken, because her healing skills already surpassed 10 year olds and she was only five like him.

So he had decided to go out and practise by himself, though he was too shy to enter one of the training grounds the other children usually trained at. Going to the forest close to Nakano at least ensured that the only people around would be Uchiha members, nobody else ever walked out here.

Night was already falling and Obito knew he was out way past appropriate for a child his age, but as nobody checked on him, there was nobody to scold him for it. The area around him was quiet, even the last visitors had left the shrine. That was when he heard the whining sound coming from one of the bushes just right ahead. He thought at first it must be a cat, cats liked the Nakano shrine for reasons he did not understand and seemed to be connected to the Uchiha in general, so it would not have been surprising. But the closer he got the more he recognised that it was in fact a tiny girl.

She was small, most likely a year or two younger than him. Her legs were pulled to her chest as if she was taking shelter between the thick leaves of the bushes. Obito recognised by the black hair on her head that she must be an Uchiha like him, nobody else had a colour quite like this and would be out here around the shrine.

“Hello” he said carefully, trying to pull his head under the branches. Her eyes jumped up at him and there was a fear in her eyes he could not quite understand. 

“Go away.”

Obito pulled his hand back just a little, but remained half in the bushes. She had spoken like a stray cat, hissing in her own defence. He knew that with scared cats you needed to be calm and patient and only approach them if they let you get closer. So he stayed where he was, at least for a moment.

“My name is Uchiha Obito”, he said and spoke as softly as he possibly could, trying not to alert her. “What is your name?”

This tactic seemed to work as she did not immediately hiss at him again. Instead she answered his question, her voice a little thin: “U-Uchiha Sayuri.” 

Sayuri, huh? He had never heard of her before, but that was not anything new since the clan was hugely branched off. Neither Obito nor her seemed to be the central members that were heading any kind of self administration or the police, so they had never met.

He decided to do another push forward and asked: “Why are you here?”

“I’m hiding”, she said and he stopped himself from replying “I can see that.”

Instead he inched closer to her, just a little. “Why are you hiding? It is pretty late. You should not be out here alone.” Obito himself shouldn’t be out here alone, so someone younger than him definitely shouldn’t.

Sayuri’s eyes shot open again and the fear flared up. “Don’t make me go home!” It sounded more like she was begging. Clearly, something at home was scaring her to hide here. Now that he thought about it, she must have been hiding in these bushes for hours at this point since he had never seen her sneak in. Obito inched a little forward again and stretched out his hand carefully.

“Why?” he asked. This time she let him touch her, let his hand hold on to her little one. She was very cold, shivering, so he confirmed to himself that she was out here for a long time. 

“My father will be mad at me.” There were braids on both sides of her head and leaves were hanging in it. Obito pressed her hand a little more. “He will be angry for running away and for not breathing fire”, she elaborated.

Obito blinked in confusion: “Breathing fire?”

She nodded and tears came back to her eyes. “Wind comes to me and water, but fire does not work and it is important to my father that fire works”, she said.

Obito realised that she was talking about chakra nature, something he just recently learned about from a conversation with Rin. Chakra was very important for healing jutsu that she already knew so much about, so she had explained to Obito that his chakra nature was Fire and that many Uchiha had that chakra nature. She must be one of the few exceptions.

“But that makes you special!” Obito exclaimed. “You are different from the rest of us.” He meant it, but Sayuri just sniffed and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

“Father says an Uchiha has to breathe fire. He says I am not a “real” member of his family until I can. He says that he is ashamed of me.”

He could feel the anger at his fingertips and stopped himself from pressing her little fingers too tightly. There had been quite a few moments in his short life in which he had wished he was an adult. He would have preferred to not inconvenience the older ladies in the Uchiha compound, he would have preferred to already know all the ninjutsu like adults did, like the legendary sannin that everybody admired so much, he would have preferred to be bigger than that stupid Hatake boy, who already could do everything and always was better at games than him.

But never had Obito wanted to be an adult more than at this very moment. If he were, he would have stormed off with this small girl on his back, had given her father a piece of his mind, obviously, he was a well known shinobi like that, and surely her father would have apologised for speaking so ill of his own child. Obito would have made sure of it.

“That guy is a massive idiot”, Obito said and refrained from using the stronger curse words people used on the playground sometimes. “He has no clue what he is talking about. You are an Uchiha by birth and you will one day inherit the sharingan just like I will, and that is more a signifier than any fireball could ever be.

Sayuri now pressed his hand back: “Can you do it? Breath fire?”

There weren’t many ninjutsu Obito could do well enough to brag about, but he nodded. At least he produced a relatively solid small ball of fire when he tried hard enough. Sayuri looked away from his face: “If you can do it you don’t understand.”

“Of course I understand!” Obito waved his hand around. “I know exactly how it is not to be wanted for something that is not your fault.” He thought of his mother and father, somewhere far away, dead most likely, and how nobody had wanted to take care of an orphan like him. “What matters is what you make out of it! And if you can already do water and wind at … What age are you?”

“Three”, she whispered.

“At age three! You will probably be an excellent kunoichi. Someone the Uchiha will be proud of! So who cares what that idiot father says about you, you are really awesome.” In truth, it did kind of make him jealous to know that a girl two years younger than him was already better than him at these things, but that was not important right now.

She put her head on her knees. “But if it makes you feel better, I could teach you,” Obito offered. 

“Could you?” She seemed excited at the prospect.

He shook his hand: “Of course I could! I will be the hokage someday, so of course I have to be a good teacher. I’ll make sure you can breathe as much fire as you want. I promise.”

She frowned a little: “You can’t promise that.” Sayuri was right of course, this was not something he could promise. More likely than not he would have to break the promise. From what he had heard from Rin, a chakra nature was an innate birth ability and if Sayuri didn’t have that, no type of training would really bring it out. But still, Obito wanted to try. He wanted to help. “I said: I promise.”

Her eyes shone in the darkness like little stars. Nobody had ever looked at Obito as if he was some sort of hero, not like this girl was now looking at him. His chest swelled. “We should go out of here, don’t you think?” he asked and looked up. It had gotten quite dark around them and they were still a bit away from the Uchiha compound at the shrine. With a father like hers every hour she would stay away would probably just make the punishment worse.

Sayuri shifted a little. She visibly bit her lower lip. “I’ll take you home, don’t be scared,” he said and pressed her fingers again. She looked up and then sighed a little. “Alright”, she said.

They climbed out from under the bushes Obito first, then he helped Sayuri get out. She was pretty dirty and there were leaves in her braided hair. He could now see the Uchiha symbol on the back of her shirt and she was wearing the usual high colour that most of them were wearing, especially in the inner family. It showed that her father really did care quite some to be seen as an Uchiha, the sort of type that Obito hated to interact with.

He thought again about how easy this would be if he were older. If he could magically paint a brush and make her pain all go away. Obito hated when he couldn’t help, when had to watch on the sidelines. Unfortunately he was still a child, but soon he would enter the academy and become a shinobi and then people would never forget his name.

“I’ll carry you so we will be faster,” Obito said and kneeled down in front of Sayuri. She hesitated for a second as if she’d never done a piggyback ride before (maybe she really hadn't, he thought), but then she carefully climbed onto his back. She was light, her head leaned against the back of his. He ran to the direction of the village gates as quickly as his feet could carry him.

It was nice having some to look after, and not be the one who was looked after. He loved his friendship with Rin because she was caring and sweet and talented, but he loved for once being the caretaker. 

Obito brought Sayuri right to the doorstep of her tiny family house. It was really right in the centre of the compound which meant they could not afford one of the bigger family homes at the forest side. After she jumped down she bowed to him, which embarrassed him a little. “I look forward to you teaching me”, she said with excitement in her voice. “You are so cool, Obito-niichan.” Then she jumped and hugged him.

Nobody had ever called him big brother before, Obito realised, not even the smaller children that often played with him. He hugged her closely and decided right then that he’d do anything to make sure he was worth that title. 

Whatever it took, from here on out, he would make sure Sayuri was the happiest she could ever be.

[wind-becomes-lightning]

Mirror Image

We have almost made it friends and foes alike! :) Uh, this one is once more one of those that I think are better on paper then what I did with it. I thought of the idea on my plane ride home from Vienna (hehe where I saw kris and henry, xoxo) which was over a month ago.

Half of this idea is thanks to @lemony-snickers who helped workshop this when I first came up with it.

Soulmate Au

Hatake Kakashi / Uchiha Obito

4004 words

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 6: Sharingan.

Or maybe, if Kakashi didn’t hate mirrors as much as he did, he would have saved himself a lot of trouble. The mark on his hand, the pinwheel he had no explanation for, would have eventually been visible on his face, in the eye that he refused to look at. 

But he did not. 

He did not know what it stood for, until it stared him right into the face.

Kakashi always hated mirrors. He avoided them at all opportunities.

When he was small he recognised quickly in the way his father looked and reacted to him, that the soft features on his cheeks and the smile, both things he had inherited from his mother, were painful to Sakumo. His father was not an unkind person, he did love his son very much, but sometimes looking into his eyes meant looking back into the eyes of the woman he had loved so much more and lost and that meant painful memories coming back.

Kakashi therefore didn’t like looking at himself either. It seemed that he did not share the rare immune disease that his mother had had and it meant that he was free to go maskless if he wanted to, but his sensitive nose and general dislike of his face made him keep wearing it anyway. His father never questioned this and let the boy be. 

Then his father took his own life and left Kakashi with nothing but a hole in his soul that seemed unable to be filled by anything. Now it was the hair on Kakashi’s head, long and wild and silver-grey just like his father’s had been, that forced his eyes away from any surface that reflected an image. A clear cut marker of his family allegiance, his father had been a famous shinobi after all. 

He briefly considered cutting it, or even colouring it differently, but that would require a level of commitment he wasn’t up to making. Now that he had graduated the academy he was running normal missions and at only six years old also had a household to run. He was scraping by, he was doing what was expected of him and he turned away from anything that mirrored his face as fast as he possibly could.

With his teammates and teacher around Kakashi got slowly but steadily better at appreciating himself for who he was. He cautiously used mirrors again to brush his hair, an activity he had for years done only by free hand, but then Obito died and left him with the sharingan, the blessing and the course now put up frontal in his face. The first day back in his apartment after that disaster mission Kakashi took down each mirror in his apartment and while he did eventually buy one to highlight his chin for shaving, when he was a little older and needed it, he never brought them back.

The sharingan was his punishment, it was borrowed and not his, he didn’t want to have to look Obito in the eye everyday and know he had failed him. Had failed to protect RIn like he had promised, or Kushina or Minato-sensei. That Obito had counted on Kakashi to lead all of his loved ones to a brighter future and that Kakashi had been an absolute disappointment and failure. Suddenly his dad’s hair or his mom’s smile didn’t matter anymore, it was all about the damned eye, staring at him, judging him.

Another thing he usually hid, under gloves or long sleeves, was the mark he had gotten from a young age already. In the palm of his right hand. A round tattoo-like stamp, with three long lines leading from the centre to the side, sort of like a pinwheel. Sakumo had mentioned that it was Kakashi’s soulmate mark and that his counterpart would have the exact same marking on the palm of their left hand. Sakumo then showed off his now empty left hand palm and explained that his sign, which had been two distorted lines corresponding to his mother’s facial lines, had disappeared once she had passed.

Kakashi was excited as a kid to find out who he was destined to be with, but his father had suggested to him he should keep it under a glove, at least for the time that he was young. Maybe Sakumo was worried for Kakashi to get hurt, maybe Sakumo was worried that his son would love and lose too early and then be burned for his whole life. Well, he certainly wasn’t wrong about that last one. So Kakashi put the marking away.

For years he wasn’t even looking at it, too wrapped up in thinking that somewhere out there there was someone who would be forced to spend their life with him. How unlucky it must be to have the counterpart to his wheel, he would think. He continued hiding it, only once showing it to Tenzo on an ANBU mission they ran together. Tenzo took his own long gloves off and showed off his right palm, which looked like a thin blooming vine. “We don’t match then, huh?” Tenzo said and the hint of disappointment did not go unnoticed by Kakashi.

That was the time he decided to research the sign a little closer. Surely it meant something more than just a spin. Kakashi would go to the library between missions and look it up and while there was research done on soulmate signs, there was nothing about this particular one, nothing close to it even. All he learned was that nobody could really explain where they were coming from and how they disappeared and that once the soulmates met, touched, an instant strong connection was being formed between them. He gave up his search and got back to pitying the poor person who had the other half of his mark.

So nobody knew his soulmate mark apart from Tenzo and several nurses in Konoha’s hospital. They were the most knowledgeable workers in town and could have written long novels and exposes on who was soulmate level matched with whom if they wanted to, but they were cordial and kept it to themselves. 

Maybe if  someone else had known they had told Kakashi. Maybe if Tenzo had remembered he would have given him a heads up. Or maybe, if Kakashi didn’t hate mirrors as much as he did, he would have saved himself a lot of trouble. The mark on his hand, the pinwheel he had no explanation for, would have eventually been visible on his face, in the eye that he refused to look at. 

But he did not. 

He did not know what it stood for, until it stared him right into the face.

-

It is only after Obito pulls him into the Kamui dimension that Kakashi can clearly see the form of his- of their- mangekyou sharingan. That they have the same ability is something he had figured out even before the mask broke, before the earth shattering revelation that the boy he had idolised for half his life not only had been alive, but also plotting to end the world they both knew all this time.

Finally standing close face to face with Kakashi’s left eye staring at Obito’s right, the pinwheel flashing back at him, just like it had for years in the palm of his hand, is almost a deeper shock than the reveal of the face behind the mask had been. Kakashi can feel his breath coming in hard, something hammering loud and hard at the back of his head. This is real. This has always been real.

“You knew” Kakashi presses out through his teeth, so much frustration and pent up anger inside of him. “You always knew.”

Obito shrugs his shoulders dismissively and rolls his eyes as if Kakashi is nothing but a tiny fly to him: “It wasn’t anything important.” Kakashi notices immediately that Obito doesn’t even pretend to not understand what he meant. 

Clearly, this is his punishment. Kakashi knows that. The universe is playing a long winded terrible trick on him. Soulmate marks are something people couldn’t quite grasp, what makes them appear seems to be impossible to figure out. Why are certain people delegated as soulmates? Who decided that based on which understanding?

Maybe Kakashi deserves this, he thinks. All these years that he lived on when most of his loved ones had passed away were unjustified. His soulmate, the one who would love him above anyone else is none other than a man he has to kill, soon too. How could he have ever hoped for it to be different? When was the world ever kind to him in his 30 years of being on it.

“You aren’t remotely interested as to why it is me?” Kakashi asks and doesn’t quite know why. How can Obito be so unbothered by this? He must have known, all these years, if not then at least in recent months, and it seems to have made no influence on him at all. Kakashi grinds his teeth together.

A kunai flies by his ear and explodes with a tag to his right. Obito doesn’t seem to want to talk about this thing that is clearly between them. “None of that matters,” Obito repeats and a wide grin forms on his face. “I always knew I’d have to take you out personally to get my dreams fulfilled.”

The thoughts in Kakashi’s head don’t slow down, even when they launch towards each other to begin the fight. His mind circling back to the mark on his hand, the many times he has looked at it and wondered who the other person is that carries it, wondered if they’d have a future life together and how it would be. All this time it was Obito, who was alive somewhere in the world.

It also stings a little, more than Kakashi wants to admit, that Obito is so unbothered by it. Wouldn't soulmates be drawn to each other? Sakumo had told Kakashi that his mother found him in a dark alleyway alone one day and that she had said that it was like an invisible force pulled her there. Was Obito immune to that? But then again Kakashi didn’t seek him out either.

Lighting and fire dance and light up the grey blocks of the Kamui dimension as the former friends exchange blows back and forth. Despite it all, despite their times apart, they are evenly matched as if all their training has led them to this very moment fighting each other. It is a bitter fight for many reasons and the marks on their wrists only add up to that.

“If you had contacted me about being alive, maybe I could have helped you, maybe I was meant to help you”, Kakashi tries to strike up the conversation again, not all hope lost that this is salvagable somehow, but Obito strikes it down by landing a punch to Kakashi’s lower jaw and forcing him to rebalance himself on his back foot.

The Uchiha still seems to be in an excellent mood, as if he has always itched to fight Kakashi and maybe he has. “It is not my fault that you don’t even look at yourself in a mirror.” Obito’s laugh echoes off the walls and rings in Kakashi’s ears. “It is not your responsibility to fix what is broken in this world that means nothing.”

It is true of course, Kakashi is at fault here, for everything. Kakashi let Obito “die” before both of them even got their soulmarks, he couldn’t save Rin or Minato or his village or his students, or anybody and he didn't know that the mark was his own eye, because he had never looked at himself closely enough.

 “I don’t understand why you try to stop me,” Obito says as he dodges Kakashi’s foot by just slightly moving his head. “This world has made you miserable and left you with nothing but emptiness. Why won’t you just live in the dream that I’m making for you.”

There is of course something enticing about Obito’s idea with the eternal genjutsu. It is not right, obviously, but who cares about that if there is the possibility of eternity in peace? Madara and him are wrong to think that the world could never stop pain and war if it wasn’t able to make any decisions, Kakashi believes in that deeply, but on the surface the idea seems like such a relief. With one swoop Kakashi would have all his sorrows wiped away.

Something else peaks his interest though. Kakashi stops himself and straightens his back out: “How do you know I am miserable?” He tries to sound as productive as possible. Technically, Obito hasn’t seen him in years and should from one look alone not be able to deduce Kakashi’s mental state. If he knows the truth, maybe he hasn’t been as absent as he claims he was. 

“I have good eyes”, snaps Obito as a reply. “I can see it with both of them.” The aggressive way Obito reacts shows Kakashi everything he needs to know. In his head he tried to figure out how to cohere it out of Obito. “How did you know Kushina-sensei was going to be having a child?” Kakashi asks. “Did you have spies in Konoha?”

This makes Obito visibly squirm. Kakashi takes a step closer to him and Obito does not take a step back, he just stays frozen in place. “I know how”, he explains. “I told you - your grave- back when it was happening. I told you the day and the time. I stood there and whispered it to the memorial stone, like I had whispered so many things before to it.”

The many times in which Kakashi reached Rin’s grave only to find the flowers he had left taken away or destroyed suddenly fall in place. Everything makes sense now. He takes another step forward. “You were watching me”, he concludes. 

Obito does not deny it, can’t deny it. His face turns into a frown: “I wanted to see you suffer and you were so willing to offer up all the information that I needed to know.”

“How often did you come to see me?” Kakashi can’t say why his heart is so excited to hear this news. By all accounts he should not be. He should be disgusted and angry at the fact that he was the one to sell Kushina out to Obito and Madara, but somehow right now, staring into Obito’s eye that mirrors his so well, he isn’t.

Instead of replying, Obito launches forward, arms and knees like a barrage of bullets around Kakashi’s body. He dodges all of it, counters it and repeats himself as soon as his old friend is close enough: “It did affect you didn’t it? The mark. It pulled you to see me.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about”, Obito spins a kick that hits Kakashi in the chest, but he seems less convincing then he seemed a few minutes before. Kakashi can see the lie on his opponent's face, and can see the way his cheeks flush just lightly in embarrassment. It reminds him of the old version of Obito, back when they were children, when every touch of Rin’s hand could leave him scrambling for words.

Their kunai’s meet in a loud clunk and one of Kakashi’s gloves drops after a deep cut opens it up too much to stay on his hand. The hand with the soulmate mark is exposed and Obito’s eyes flicker to it, but then he rips himself away to continue the fight.

Obito grabs both of Kakashi's arms to wrangle him backwards in an attempt to overpower him for one moveor another, but it is actually Kakashi who gets the upper hand. He pushes Obito backward, making him stumble over his own feet and with eyes wide open, both men tumble down with each other.

Kakashi towers over his old friend now, both hands still holding the wrists down by the side of Obito's face, while his middle is hovering over his middle. It is closer than they have been since they trained with each other as children, the first time their faces are close as adults. Kakashi’s heart is beating hard against his ribcage.

He is suddenly overcome by an urge to see it, the mark on Obito's left hand. Kakashi’s right hand fingers snail themselves under Obito’s thick black gloves, causing the other man to wiggle and squirm under his weight. “Stop!” Obito screams. “Let me go!”

But Kakashi can barely hear him, he is too transfixed on the mark that slowly starts showing the more he removes the glove. It is right there, the exact mirror of his own, in the palm of Obito’s hand. Finally he gets the clothing item off and their hands are flat on top of each other, Kakashi’s fingers winding around Obito’s as if they are puzzle pieces fitting into each other.

His skin is burning from the direct touch and his insides are no different. He can feel Obito’s breath heavy on his face. The light red flush from before has long since deepend on his face. “Let - Let me go”, Obito demands one more time, but his voice is shaky and nervous.

Soulmate marks dont make sense, Kakashi believed that. No higher power could ever know how you are destined to be with. It should not be decided who you get to love and who not, not by the Sage, by god's or by destiny. But now that he looks into Obito’s face, their hands holding each other as if they are the only thing holding them off from falling off a cliff.  

The pull comes in like gravity, their faces suddenly inching closer towards each other. Kakashi mechanically lets go of Obito's right hand so that he can lift it to tuck at the mask just far enough to expose the lips beneath it. It is all like a stage play, like a studied dance, like this outcome was alway meant to happen. Maybe it was.

For a moment, the war and the despair and the pain and the fight disappear and it’s just them kissing each other as if they are young lovers on a sunny day in some green field somewhere. Their hands curl into each other, while their free hands end up in each other's hair, just holding one another. It is magical and at the same time a little frightening how different it is to kiss Obito from anyone else Kakashi has kissed before.

Obito grabs him behind the neck and rolls both of them to the sides, so that their faces are now right next to one another. He seems to function mechanically too, pulling Kakashi’s body in closer to his as if any little space between them is too much space, as if he has been waiting to do that all his life.

Kakashi’s heart is pounding loud, his breath is going hard, he feels like he’s never taken a breath before until he took it through Obito’s mouth, that he never felt sweetness before until he tasted Obito’s tonge and that he never felt desire before the way he feels now.  Soulmates, this is what being meant to be feels like.

By the time the war is back on Kakashi’s mind his skin is already prickling like Obito’s fingers tracing over it left little fires behind. They stare at each other for a moment, sharingan to sharingan, and just breathe in each other’s sphere. Then it is Obito who talks: “I did follow you around because I wanted to see you.” Kakashi can’t help but grin with vindication.

“What’s next?” Kakashi asks and means not only the war situation, but everything. What are they both going to do next with this? Love, marriage, retirement? It just doesn’t seem like something that was going to be for them.

Obito takes Kakashi’s hand and puts it on his chest. “Madara placed a seal on me to do his bidding. He did it a long time ago.” He pauses and then continues: “I planned on you to take it off me with your Lightning Blade.”

Ah, sure, Obito had after all seen Rin’s death. Kakashi’s stomach feels queasy at the idea of piercing another one of his friends, his beloved, with his chidori and he tries to take the hand away from Obito’s chest. The other man, however, holds it there. 

“I want you to do it,” Obito insists. “I want you to take it off me, Kakashi.” He seems serious about it. “I can’t do anything if it is not removed from me.” Quikly he adds: “He implemented Hashirama cells into me when I was a child. I can’t die from that. I promise.”

Slowly, because he is still not completely convinced, Kakashi nods. “Close your eyes,” Obito says softly and Kakashi follows his demand. In the dark he can feel Obito’s nose against his, kisses on his cheeks and lips. Then a soft brush of Kakashi’s fingers. He knows what he has to do now. His second hand comes in to form the signs that he’s been weaving so many times before, lightning sizzles warm between his fingers. 

Obito continues kissing his face as his hand wraps around Kakashi’s wrist to push it forward, one quick scoop through the centre of him and though Kakashi knows it won’t kill him, the sound of it makes him bite his tongue bleeding. He pulls his hand back and tries to ignore the blood dripping from it.

When he opens his eyes again, Obito’s mirror sharingan shines with a light. “I’m free now,” Obito states. “Whatever comes next we can do together.”

– –

They left Kamui together, reentered the fight together, side by side just like they had years before. It filled Kakashi with a hope he hadn’t felt in many years, a kind of optimism he had thought lost to time and whenever their sharingan eyes met Obito’s were full of light too, he seemed almost like the boy that was crushed by a rock 15 years ago.

Of course neither of them had believed that ending the war and defending Madara would come easy, especially now that Obito’s betrayal was obvious, but that it would take such a toll on them both came as quite a shock. Not only was Madara just another pin in someone else’s plan, but also their reunion, their soulmate match and connection was broken again as fast as it had been formed.

In desperation Kakashi had to watch his other half save him one more time from certain death, take the blunt of an attack that was meant for the both of them and then disappear in front of his eyes. He had lost the sharingan in his eye that matched Obito’s by that point and though he had gained a completely new, healed eye, he was now no longer matching Obito.

And then Obito was also completely leaving, his body disintegrating right before Kakashi’s eyes as if they were bubbles that were bursting when you tried to touch them. No room for questioning this time, no reunion in 15 years or so. It felt like part of Kakashi’s soul was ripped out with Obito and maybe it really was, since both of them had been bound to each other by destiny anyway.

Kakashi returned back from the war worn out and empty and while he was happy for the kids to be back together, the grief sat deep in his heart. He watched the soulmate mark disappear on his palm just like the sharingan in his eye had disappeared not too long before that. The lifelong connection to Obito had deepend and then been taken from him. Secretly he wished they had never met again at all.

One might think that the fact that Obito’s eye was no longer staring at him would help him learn to like his mirror image again, but one would be wrong. Kakashi now hated looking at himself even more than he had before, because the only opposite, the only mirrored image of himself he wanted to see was Obito’s face and that was something that was impossible.

So Kakashi continued avoiding mirrors as much as he could. He hated nothing more than looking into one.

[wind-becomes-lightning]

When we are older

Day 4 :) Angst again just for you guys. This got... very very very long.. oops! I had the idea while ago when I listened to a lot of Bastille, so its all based on their song "Laughter Lines"

Team Minato Gen Fic ahah

10358 words (oops!)

warning for all canon compliant events.

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 4: (Platonic) Soulmates

“Don’t worry,” Rin said and a self assured smile painted her face, “There is nothing we can’t do as long as we are all three together.”

_

You took me to your favourite place on earth,

To see the tree they cut down ten years from your birth.

_

It was a warm and sunny day, wind lightly blowing in their faces from the east as Team Minato decided to take a rest under a big acorn tree on their way back to the village. Their last mission had just ended successfully and neither of them had been injured majorly, which always delighted Rin and when Rin was happy, all the others were also uplifted from her good mood alone. They were now half way back home and as long as the sun continued to shine like this the rest would be equally as pleasant as the journey so far.

The three children sat down and leaned against the large tree, all of them sitting side by side so close together that they could have almost held hands. Kakashi still shied away a little from physical touch, but his aversion to it had already improved quite some since he had become their teammate. Rin sat in the middle, otherwise the boys would have never agreed to sit so close together, though they both still enjoyed it.

Minato-sensei sat not far from them in the shadows, cleaning out his special kunai. He enjoyed having them fast and at hand, for him every second counted. He didn’t get his nickname for nothing. The Yellow Flash really was the fastest shinobi around. Kakashi had wondered if there was even anybody out there who could ever match him. It seemed unbelievable to him that Minato would ever be late to anything, which was partly the reason why Kakashi couldn’t understand why sensei would allow someone like Obito to delay travel plans all the time by coming in late.

“I’m just so happy”, Rin said out of the blue and into the silence, a big smile on her face “With you guys, you know? With us.” Kakashi kept his eyes closed, but he silently agreed when Obito let out a confused: “Where is this coming from?”

Rin shifted a little so that she could pull both boys into a closer hug. Kakashi’s head bumped into Obito’s and he opened his eyes to glare at the other boy for a moment before Rin spoke again: “I just think we are well matched, you know? I don’t think any mission with the three of us together could ever go wrong. It hasn’t in the past and I’m positive it won’t in the future!”

Both boys started their usual rebellious murmuring, too embarrassed to admit that what she said was true to some extent. Kakashi was always annoyed by Obito’s constant questioning and lateness and general loudmouth, but the loud mouth and questioning had gained them intel more times than he cared to admit. Plus, he knew Obito admired Kakashi’s skill and they worked well together when they were fighting in sync. They had trained with each other so often that it had become second nature.

“With him?” Obito said loudly and turned his head away. “Never! I wish we could have someone our age in the team, not such a baby.”

“Pah,” Kakashi spat back instantly, “If there is a baby here it is you. At least I don’t need glasses to not cry all the time.”

“I have sensitive eyes, alright?” Obito waved the hand that was not pressed against Rin around and frowned. 

Kakashi rolled his dark eyes: “Always the same excuses. You can’t even own up to-”

“Guys!”

Rin for some reason was never annoyed at them bickering, in fact, it seemed to just make her laugh when they did. It was magical, they could fight about the smallest things when they were alone, spit and bite and scratch each other, but as soon as Rin turned up they buried every argument instantly. So instead of scolding them she just laughed heartily and said: “You guys can never slow down, can’t you? That is why I like being in the middle of both of you. Somehow you get along better when Minato-sensei and I are around.”

Kakashi couldn’t argue with that, as much as he wanted to throw another slight at Obito. Instead he enjoyed listening to Rins laugh. “I just think it is a one in a million chance” the girl continued, “A Team like this, you know? I know they match us up according to relative skill, but others didn’t find together as easy as us” Nice of her to ignore every issue Kakashi and Obito continued to have with each other, Kakashi thought.

“Minato-sensei is also such an excellent shinobi, heralded as a hokage candidate by many. I got so lucky, we got so lucky. It is almost like it was destiny. Like we are soulmates, you know?” Rin pressed both boys against her side again.

Kakashi and Obito exchanged a look, the older boy grumbled: “D-Don’t be sappy, Rin.” He had a slight blush on his cheeks. Kakashi almost agreed, but held back not only because agreeing with anything Obito said was against his nature, but also because Rin seemed happy and when she was happy all of them were happy. Maybe she really believed in what she said and if she really did, Kakashi felt like taking it away from her just wasn’t right.

Instead Kakashi let his eyes wander over the field in front of him, the grass moving by the wind. They found Minato-sensei still working on his kunai, a content smile on his face. The way he seemed so at peace with himself reminded Kakashi suddenly of his father in a way he couldn’t quite explain. He closed his eyes and thought of Sakumo and though the pain still stung a little it felt far away now. 

He didn’t notice how relaxed he felt here with Rin and Obito by his side until he fell asleep.

_

Our fingers traced in circles round its history,

We brushed our hands right back in time through centuries.

_

They moved on a few hours after that, Kakashi didn’t know how long it was exactly, but the sun had moved over the sky to the west slowly. Minato woke all three of them with a kind smile, explaining to them that if they left now they would all make it back to Konoha before dark. So they packed their stuff together and left the safety of their shady, comfortable acorn tree.

Obito was in a good mood now too, chatting away about whatever his mind could latch onto. Today’s topic seemed to be his personal growth as a shinobi since he had taken the chunin exams a few months ago. He neglected to mention that he had failed the first time around and just barely made it the second time too. “I’m going to be the greatest Hokage”, Obito said, banging a fist against his chest, “Everybody will know my name, they will fear me.”

Kakashi rolled his eyes and cleared his throat audibly. Obito put up a finger at him: “What do you want, bakashi?” Kakashi theatrically shrugged his shoulders like he always did when Obito started getting aggressive at him. It was sort of like a routine they were going through for the fun of it.

“You won’t ever be Hokage,” Kakashi yawned, “You’re never going to be strong enough for that, no matter how much you train.” He paused to watch the effect his words had on Obito, who’s face moved into a frown, with his finger still raised in the air. Kakashi looked away to prepare for the final blow: “You don’t even have the sharingan yet.”

That was something of an open wound for Obito. Other Uchiha had developed this innate ability already as children, but he was entering his teenage years without having it yet. Kakashi had seen him stare intensely at his own mirror image to somehow cohere the sharingan out of hiding, but to no avail. Obito took a step forward at Kakashi now, both hands pulled together in fists. “I’ll show you how strong I am, damned scarecrow”, he said.

Before he could land a punch Rin had already stepped in between them, one of her hands grabbing Obitos lifted arm and the other grabbing Kakashi’s wrist. “Guys,” she said sternly looking with furrowed brows from one boy to the other, “Enough.” 

Her voice was clear and there was no room left for arguments, just the way she always talked when Obito and Kakashi were close to using their fists to settle their arguments, but Kakashi could clearly see the corner of her mouth was raised just a little. Rin somehow got endless pleasure out of the four of them doing anything together, even if it was arguing. 

“Apologise for what you said Kakashi,” she said and pulled on Kakashi’s sleeve. He really didn’t want to. “What I said is the truth”, he murmured instead of the asked for apology. Obito’s reply came immediately: “Ha!”

“Apologise!” Rin repeated, a little more sternly this time and Kakashi gave up his fake resistance. “Sorry Obito,” he said and didn’t even try to sound sincere. “I’m sure you’ll get your sharingan someday between now and your deathbed, which, when you consider all your “skills” probably is soon.”

Obito waved the hand around in a fist that was not held down by Rin and started throwing out a tirade of reply insults, but Kakashi wasn’t listening. Rin shook her head dramatically and sighed. “Minato-sensei”, she called for him and the teacher turned around to look at all of them. “Do you think the two of them will always be like that?” 

Minato laughed at the question, a sound that always was good coming from him. He had such a sunny face that was at its best when it was either focusing on a target or smiling, or both. Kakashi admired his teacher secretly, which went all the way back to him appearing right after the funeral of Kakashi’s father. “I think the two of them will still bicker with each other when they are old and long retired,” Minato laughed and waved with his hand. “And you, Rin, will always have to be there to get them to stop.”

Rin sighed deeply at that reply, but then she grabbed both boys’ arms a little tighter still: “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Once again Kakashi felt it impossible to disagree with her statement. Too long after Sakumo’s death had he felt nothing but emptiness inside, but since he was with this team on mission he suddenly could feel things again. He wouldn’t mind keeping this forever.

– 

As you held me down, you said:

– 

Minato-sensei pulled them all in a big hug once they had safely made it back home. He looked with a wide grin from one to the next and back. “I’m so proud of our work together,” he said and sounded like he meant it. Kakashi usually hated these public displays of affection his teacher forced on him, but today he was in a good mood. On the way home Rin had continued having her arms linked to him and Obito, dragging them along to force them to no longer fight. It felt homely.

“When Kakashi finally becomes Jounin and I can’t lead you guys anymore I will miss you so much,” Minato continued and let go of them to give them a moment to breathe. There had been rumours for a while now that Kakashi would be promoted quite soon, the council just wasn’t sure if they should allow a 12 year old to take the tests that were required for it. They weren’t worried about his skill, but more of how emotionally ready he was for the task.

Obito groaned and threw his hands behind his head. “Why does Bakashi, who is by the way younger than me, get promoted before me? I think that’s not fair.” He mentioned this everytime the topic of Kakashi’s promotion came up.

“You took two times to become Chuunin, what makes you think you could pass this exam easily,” Kakashi bantered back and raised a brow provocatively. “While I did it on my first try and I was only 9!” He would have probably done it earlier than that if he’d been allowed to take the exam right after his graduation, but the council had decided in this case that he needed to wait a few years.

It was once again Rin who stepped in between them, taking both their hands and making Obito blush in the process. “Minato-sensei”, she said with a smile to their teacher, “We will also miss working with you.” She pressed both boy’s hands to indicate that she was not allowing any disagreement to her words.

Minato smiled and put his hand over the top of her head: “You will have to look after yourselves.”

“Don’t worry,” Rin said and a self assured smile painted her face, “There is nothing we can’t do as long as we are all three together.”

And though Kakashi hated this public display of affection he could not deny that what she was saying was true. They worked together better than any machine. Minato-sensei was a big part of that machine, but he wasn’t all that was needed. The three of them could always get out of any situation, as long as they stuck together and relied on each other. 

Yes, Kakashi thought a little bitterly, that also included the idiot Obito.

_

“I’ll see you in the future when we’re older

And we are full of stories to be told.

_

There was so much dust everywhere. A big cloud hung low over him, and he coughed to free his lungs from it. Kakashi’s ears were ringing still from the sudden, loud noise that had encompassed him just seconds before and his head was hurting as if it was split apart. Clearly, the wound around his eye had opened up again, he could feel the blood flow out even with the bandages on. He would need to ask Rin to drape it new once he came back to his senses.

Slowly, very slowly, as if every little movement hurt more than the last, he finally opened his functioning eye and through the blur that was still laying over it he could see Rin right in front of him. That meant she had made it out in time, which was good. He scanned the crater behind her and couldn't see an enemy. Maybe they had gotten rid of them. Sounds slowly returned to his ears and he could hear shallow breathing not far from him.

What he saw was so hard to believe that he blinked two more times to take it in. Obito laid next to him, half of his body crushed under a large boulder. There was blood right under him and dripping out of his mouth. Kakashi froze as he saw this, his heartbeat loud and steady in his ear. This was not real, he thought. It had to be a genjutsu.

He jumped forward quickly and reached out to Obito’s free hand and pressed it. “Obito, no-” he whispered and pulled on the other boy, but no matter how much he did, the body would not move. This couldn’t be. Kakashi could feel hot tears in his eyes and shook them away. He was the leader of this mission! He had a responsibility to bring his entire team back home.

Just like Minato-sensei had predicted, he had been promoted to Jounin not long after their last mission. It was war time and as such young soldiers were always needed and Kakashi was seen as mature for his age so he had been given this privilege. But this mission, his first mission as leader, had gone horribly wrong as soon as Rin had been kidnapped. Obito and Kakashi had argued, gone separate ways and then found each other again anyway. But his indecision had cost Kakshi one of his eyes.

Rin had always said they were at their best when they were together and maybe she had been right and it had been Kakashi’s mistake from the beginning to break that up, maybe he deserved failing his first mission as a Jounin so hard that he lost one of his eyes in the process. But Obito did not deserve to die here, not to save Kakashi, when Kakashi had been so bad at taking care of him.

Somehow Obito seemed completely calm in his current position. He let Kakashi hold his hand without as much as a word and watched him from below. Once more Kakashi felt like his polar opposite. In his head the chaos reigned. He was going through all the jutsu he had learned in his young years and wondered if there was one that could crush a boulder as large as this one. His chaka had been depleted a lot already though, he had overdone it in the fight to free Rin. 

“If only sensei were here,” Kakashi could feel the sobs coming in, the tears choking up his throat., “If only it wasn’t me who was leading this mission. I did everything wrong, I’m so sorry Obito, I’m so sorry.” He continued apologising a few more times until Obito weakly pressed his hand and shook his head so little that it was almost invisible.

Rin let out a wince. She was standing not too far from them and looked as if she was frozen in place, unable to come closer to look at the wreckage in front of her. “Don’t worry,” Obito said and his eyes went from her to Kakashi, “I don’t feel the other side anymore. I’m actually not in pain at all.”

Kakashi felt sick at seeing him so content. He wanted to turn around and throw up. His eyes were spinning violently and he could not help the images flooding in. His father, blood everywhere, laying on the floor to his feet. No warmth, no smile, no breath, nothing. Dead. The moment Kakashi had decided to become the perfect shinobi, to never make mistakes and now? Where had that gotten him? To just another corpse.

The pain filled him up and it felt like he was going to drown in it. Obito had said the White Fang was his hero, he had put Kakashi back into his place, and showed him what really was important. From The beginning he had been the better shinobi. Kakashi with his static keeping to the rules was nothing in comparison..

-

Cross my heart and hope to die,

I’ll see you with your laughter lines.”

-

Still, Obito kept the smile on his face through his friends' helpless sobs. Rin now took his hand away from Kakashi and held it, Obito gave her a loving look. “I had so much fun with both of you guys,” he said and coughed a little. The blood was still spilling from his mouth. “If you see Minato-sensei, please tell him that he was a good teacher and that I hope he will be Hokage as they say.”

Rin leaned forward and nodded against Obito’s cheek. The boy smiled over her shoulder at Kakashi, scanning his face as if he was trying to remember it for the future. “Oh, bakashi,” he started and Kakashi could feel his heart sting at the old nickname, “I didn’t give you a present for your Jounin promotion, do you remember?”

“You don’t need to. I’m terrible at this job anyway. They should demot-” Kakashi began but Obito cut him off with a laugh. “No no, I remember you holding out your hand to me and saying “Where is my gift”, well I have a gift for you.” He paused to give Kakashi time to come a bit closer. “You shall have my sharingan.”

Kakashi stared at him and needed a second to digest the news. “I can’t accept that”, he said out right. “I do not deserve something like that Obito, this is the sacred tradition of your clan.” 

Obito chuckled: “It is not like I can use it after this, you know.” 

It was Rin who stepped in for the two of them, pulling Kakashi by the sleeve just like she had done so many times. “Come here Kakashi”, she said sternly, “I will transplant the eye for you.” All the time they’d been a team together she’d always taken charge when Obito and him had not agreed on things and this was no exception. It was extraordinary when one thought about it hard enough, that Rin could perform a complete transplant at 13 years of age, but Kakashi only really realised that when he was older.

It took them about five minutes to get the procedure done, then Kakashi blinked and could see through his new eye. His vision was back, but sharper and more draining. The sharingan burned in its new socket as if it knew that Kakashi was not the rightful owner to carry it. Rin had put a cloth over Obito’s now empty eye as if he was already a dead person waiting for burial, but Obito did not complain - when did he ever complain about something Rin had done.

“I wish I could have stayed with you guys a little longer,” he started and pressed Rin’s hand again, “I really would have loved to see how we develop next to each other into adulthood. But now, Kakashi will have to be my eyes and show me the world through him. You will do that, won’t you Kakashi?” 

Kakashi almost choked on his spit because he tried to reply so fast: “Yes, of course Obito. I’ll record it all for you to watch later.” It was naive to assume something like the afterlife existed, but that was not the point at the moment. 

Around them the earth was shaking and more and more stones from the side were rolling in over them. “It is collapsing”, Rin stated and covered her face with an arm. Kakashi looked from her to the surroundings. “We should go”, he said and hated every word of it. Letting Obito choke to death all alone and blind under a large pile of rocks was not one of his favourite ideas. More and more sides caved in and he knew they didn’t have another choice.

“Go,” Obito said weakly, “I’m almost gone. Promise to take care of Rin for me.”

Kakashi reached out for Rin as the walls kept tumbling down. She cried and held onto Obitos’s hand. He could feel the tears on his cheeks now too, but he had a promise to uphold now. “Rin!” he exclaimed and then a little softer, more pleading: “Please.”

Finally, she seperated herself from Obito and took Kakashi’s hand out of the crater. It wasn’t a moment too late, because it all fully caved about ten seconds after they had made it out. Both now stood at the top of it, completely out of breath, tears streaming down their faces. Obito was gone. The reality of it didn’t sink in until much later.

Later, when they were standing side by side at a makeshift memorial they had put up for Obito, Rin would say that it felt like a part of her soul had died with him. She had mentioned before that their team felt like soulmates that were destined to be together. Always the three of them, from now until forever and that the fact that one was taken so early meant that the others would suffer all the rest of their lives.

Minato, who had arrived just after the cave had collapsed and taken both children home, was standing right next to them, pulling them both into his arms just like he’d always done with the three of them. From now on they would take care of each other, he said. They would stay close to one another. This was, after all, what Obito had wanted them to do.

-

Changes on our hands and on our faces,

Memories are mapped out by the lines we’ll trace

-

When he was 13 his voice cracked for the first time when he spoke and Rin mentioned off handedly that he was outgrowing her easily now. Kakashi couldn’t really see it, mostly because he did not like looking at mirrors and if he did always saw either his father or Obito staring back at him and so he wasn’t used to his own image. He didn’t realise that he was changing until his voice cracked all the time. 

Rin was changing too, he could see that change much more clearly. Her hair grew out a little and her facial features became more refined, sharper in a way. The lines on her cheeks grew longer as her face grew and she started being more aware of the way she moved and the way she spoke. Teenage girls, Gai told Kakashi, were always self conscious, even though they need not be. But nobody ever needed to be self conscious if Gai were making the rules.

It was now only a matter of time until Minato-sensei would be named Hokage. The possibility had been in the air for many years, but now it seemed like the actual date would approach within the next year. Rin and Kakashi were excited to hear that and Kakashi especially knew that Minato would be a good choice. The war was still going on outside of village bounds and Kakashi had gone back to leading missions that were no failures, though the memory of that first mission laid heavy on him.

The three of them visited Obito’s grave a lot. There still wasn’t an actual, full scale grave for him. His body had not been found after Minato had returned to the cave, so he couldn’t be burned according to Uchiha rituals. The higher ups in the village promised that they would build a memorial stone with the names of all the fallen once the war was winding down, but it seemed like that would still take some time, so the team kept their makeshift shrine up.

They would always talk to Obito about their missions. Kakashi knew rationally that talking to a dead person was useless, as evident from the many conversations he had had with his father at that grave, but Rin was at ease and smiling just like she had before when she was around Obito’s grave and so he indulged her. Keeping her safe and happy was Kakashi’s only responsibility now and he took it very seriously. Obito was not to worry.

Gai joined their three man squad on missions together and that was great, because Gai had an endless amount of energy to keep them both up to spirits. Kakashi noticed that Rin always smiled a little more genuine when Gai was around to compliment her skills and her soft spoken nature and Rin noticed that Kakashi could not shut out Gai’s aggressive advances for spars or other challenges. He was good for both of them and that showed when they went on missions together. 

With Kakashi a Jounin that could technically lead the squad, Minato was often assigned more dangerous missions that he did on his own. Still, he did sometimes find time to train each of them individually. Kakashi needed more training to adapt to one of his eyes being covered and needed instruction in how the sharingan worked. Not that Minato knew this very well on his own, but books helped out. He also sometimes dropped by at the house of the clan leader of the Uchiha’s, Fugaku, whom he was friends with. This might also be the reason that Kakashi could keep his eye in the first place. Kakashi figured as much at least.

In her freetime Rin hung out with Shizune a lot, a girl her age, who never really liked talking to Kakashi much. Both of them were very fascinated by Shizune’s aunt, the legendary Sannin Tsunade and were dreaming of being taught in advanced medical ninjutsu from her. Kakashi remembered the Sannin from when he was young and connected it with his father being alive, so he really didn’t want to think of them too much. The last thing he needed was someone asking him how he was doing with pity in their eyes.

-

As you held me down you said:

-

Soon after Rin’s 14th birthday Kakashi and her found themselves back to back surrounded by enemies, while Gai was held by one of them. One of the attackers reached forward and grabbed Rin, faster than Kakashi could react. “Let’s see how well you can handle this,” he snickered and infused Rin’s arm with his own chakra. Chakra mixing wasn’t easy to take, especially to an untrained person, but Rin was unbothered. In fact, she could convert the foreign chakra to her own.

It was a gift, a skill she had been born with. Healers needed perfect chakra control to find and close injuries even in the depths of the human’s body, so it was not completely surprising that she had that gift, but it was something to be celebrated nonetheless. Eventually they fought their way out of the situation, with the opponent shinobi unfortunately being able to flee the scene, but as long as Rin was safe, that was all that mattered to Kakashi.

Now that Rin had this new speciality, so many options opened up for her, especially in the area of medical ninjutsu. Kakashi and her talked endlessly about it to Obito’s grave and discussed what the future might bring. It would now be undeniably of opportunity if she could train under Tsunade, since there was nobody out there with as much expertise. 

“Let me try!” Kakashi said one day and offered his hands to Rin. He was really curious about how foreign chakra on his own felt. 

Rin frowned a little and lifted a finger like a warning: “I don’t think that is a good idea. Normal people would just faint.”

Kakashi was adamant. He slowly had regained the confidence in his own skills both as a friend and as a leader. So Rin infused her chakra into his hands.

 He fainted.

Once Minato invited them both over for dinner and his girlfriend Kushina-sensei was also present. Kakashi liked to see them both together as their positive energy was hard not to rub off on others. It was no secret that Kushina adored Obito above the others in the team, but she doted on all of them.

“You should open a hospital when you are older, y’know,” she said, waving a lentil around that made the others duck. “Give relief to the Konoha hospital which is already so full and overworked.” With war going on there just wasn’t enough capacity for all of the patients that needed treatment. Eventually, if peace time came around, it should all go back to normal. Kakashi was hoping that it was soon. Right now the hospital was very ineffective.

Minato scratched his head and then put his hand in Rin’s hair: “Whatever you will do, you will be excellent at it.” He smiled fatherly down on his two remaining students. “This new skill you have gained is going to change the future for all of us, I really believe that.

Rin beamed from the praise. Too used to being cast aside as “only” a healer and not a “real” fighter. Only a few people knew that medical ninjutsu actually was more draining to the body than most other jutsu types. The world just prefered a flashy hero who could hit shuriken into 10 different goals without looking. People just liked Kakashi’s arrogant way of fighting more than Rin’s selfless healing.

“I think Kushina should teach you from now on,” Minato said once they had all finished their food. Rin looked up and over to Kushina-sensei and found her as surprised as she was. “Kushina has knowledge about large amounts of chakra. I’m sure she can help you better than I ever could.” For some reason he winked at Kushina after saying that. 

Kakashi hadn’t known that Kushina-sensei had large storages of chakra, but she had never directly trained him, so how could he have known. Kushina at least seemed excited at the prospect, as her three students had already moved on to other projects. 

“I’ll make you as strong as the other girls!” she exclaimed. “Nobody will call you weak anymore, because that is just wrong, y’know!” Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, but frowned immediately again when he noticed Minato was looking at him.

Their teacher laughed a little to himself at the sudden change in Kakashi’s demeanour. Instead of calling him out, he filled everybody’s glas with sweet soda again. They had added a chair to the table, for Obito, Rin had said and so Minato had also filled a glass for him. If Obito was here, he would surely be proud of their ability to slowly move on from his death.

Minato lifted his glas: “To Rin’s bright future!” He smiled.

“To the future,” they all said in unison.

-

“I’ll see you in the future when we’re older

When we are full of stories to be told

-

There was so much blood everywhere.

“Ka-kashi,” Rin could barely get a word out.

He couldn't feel his hand. It was like it was a foreign object that was currently attached to his arm. The dangerous and heavy hand that was now pierced full through Rin’s chest and heart, leaving blood all over his harness and face. Everything had happened so quickly that he hadn’t even gotten a chance to realise what had been going on. 

Rin stared at him, her eyes dead and far away as if she was looking at something in the distance. But Kakashi knew she wasn’t looking anywhere, because after the last coughed out words the last life that had been in her had left. She was only a corpse hanging on this foreign hand that was somehow attached to him. 

She had cried before she died, tears still wet on her cheeks and visible. And then there was the blood. There was so much of it coming out of the hole that was now her lower body half, running and running, as if her body had not yet caught up with the fact that her heart had stopped beating. As if her body was still trying to keep the system working that was already broken beyond repair.

After their recent string of successful missions, Kakashi had thought he was safe from death. The war was clearly dying down, slowly, but surely and soon they’d have full peace. This should have never happened. Someone, somehow, had known that Rin had better chakra control than other kunoichi her age and abducted her on the way to her usual training session with Kushina-sensei. Kakashi was sent to chase her, get her back and though Kushina had insisted she’d join, Kakashi had set out on his own.

Maybe he had been wrong to do that, but Kushina was not as fast as he was because she was taller and heavier and so he had counted his chances higher if he just went alone. After all, his skills over the passing year had improved quite a lot. On top of that, Kakashi knew that Minato-sensei was in the area not far from here and could probably jump in the second he heard about their issues.

But Rin had been easy to find, maybe a little too easy. She was under genjutsu and needed quite a while to regain her memories. She had mentioned that there was something wrong with her, but she could not explain exactly what it was and it seemed that she could not fully remember. That was when they were suddenly attacked by opponents.

He had led the way forward into the forests of Fire country from Water country, crossing the border with ease and without much issues, just holding the opponents off. But Rin had slowed down and distrubed his fighting with a pulls to his sleeve more than once. There was something she had wanted to say, Kakashi realised now, but he didn’t have the mental capacity or time to let her speak. 

Somehow, Rin seemed like she was hindering their return to Konoha, as if she didn’t want to return. Kakashi didn’t have time to ask and clarify, there were enemies in pursuit that needed defeating and while the look in her eyes was very similar to the look she usual carried when she was being stern and close to scolding him, he just didn’t have the time to listen to it right in this moment.

They reached a clearing together, out of the forest and into the open. It was worse for fighting but better for the chidori, as he could take on two or three enemies at once. Kakashi made sure through glances over his shoulder that Rin was still safe and unharmed where he had left her. Her eyes were on him whenever he looked for her and her hands were fists.

-

Cross my heart and hope to die

I’ll see you with your laughter lines.”

-

There had been so many enemies at once, it felt like they were circling him from all sides. Kakashi was jumping from one to the other, knocking them out because he couldn’t quite get the deathblow off, but they kept coming. There was dust in the air from constant movement and while he stayed in Rin’s general area, he at some point lost orientation to where he was exactly. Had he killed most of them already and new shinobi were coming in or had he missed the killing move and still the same people were fighting?

His chidori was fast and deadly, that was what he always used it for, why he liked using it so much, and he had not seen her, hadn’t noticed her body jumping in the air until his fake hand impaled her right through it, put her on a spike right in front of him. Rin must have jumped on her own somehow, there was no way he strayed from his path so much to accidentally hit her like this. No, it must have been deliberate. But, why?

Kakashi pulled his arm out of the dead girl. His head was spinning violently and he could feel his stomach turn. He felt suddenly so very tired, as if someone had completely knocked him out. He staggered backwards and held one hand to his head, smearing blood all through his silver hair, and one hand to the stomach to prevent himself from throwing up on Rin’s body. 

Rin lay still in front of him. She had fallen on her face to his feet. Kakashi looked at her through watering eyes and blurring vision. This was his fault, he thought. Another friend that he let die. He had done this - again. The pain crawled up his throat like a poison filling his mouth with a taste of iron and bitterness. He had thought they’d be safe. He had thought as long as they were together nothing bad could ever happen to them. Pain, so much pain, so much pain. 

That was when his last reserves of power left him and he fell backwards, losing consciousness immediately.

Once he woke up, he was drowning in a sea of blood. It took Kakashi a moment to realise where he was, for the memory of Rin’s death to get back into his mind, but then he sat up, kunai in his hand like he was ready to continue fighting for his life. He didn’t know how long he’d been out.

Around him was a mountain of dead bodies. Face down in the water, bled out against the rocks, or impaled into something that looked like wooden spikes in the sky. Kakashi was full of blood from top to bottom. Who had killed all of these people? He looked around in a panic, but it took him just a quick scan to realise that he was completely alone.

“Who did this?!” he said out loud, as if there was a person hiding in the nearby forest who could hear him. “Who killed all these people?” There was no reaction from the dark trees ahead or the stone cliff behind. 

Kakashi pulled himself up to his still shaking knees and took a step forward. Rin’s body was still there, though she was turned on her back now. Whoever had killed all the people here had closed her eyes and touched her face - and he had kept Kakashi alive by choice. It must have been a friend of Konoha, otherwise Kakashi could not explain it.

Rin was still when he picked her up to hold her in his arms. Her hair was stained and dirty and Kakashi went with his fingers through it to clean it out. Once she’d said that she loved him, but who could love someone like him who allowed soulmates like her to die and promises to be broken. The pain gribbed at Kakashi again and he screamed into the night.

That was when Minato arrived. Like a flash of sunlight on a rainy day he appeared in the clearing, his blue eyes wide in horror at the scene that unfolded in front of him. When he saw Kakashi with Rin’s body he took a leap towards him. “Sensei, I-” Kakashi started but Minato made “shh” and took the boy into his arms.

Minato led them back to Konoha after Rin had been sealed in a body scroll. It would take him days to get out of Kakashi what had happened that night and even more days to finally hear the truth that Rin had deliberately jumped in front of Kakashi’s lightning to kill herself. The second suicide of one of Kakashi’s loved ones. Minato remembered very well the little boy with the silver hair that had worked himself to exhaustion after his father had taken his life. The boy that had wanted no support from the village or his friends or someone like Minato and just soldiered through.

Back then Minato had decided not to force himself on the young boy. That Kakashi needed grieving time alone. But this time Minato knew he would not let that happen again. This was his last surviving student and he would protect that one all his life. This last child of his team would remain close, Minato would make sure Kakashi would no longer be sent on solo- missions. After all, they did say he’d be hokage soon.

-

Ashen faces in cold breeze

All the stories you will leave

-

After the ceremony that officially made Minato-sensei Hokage, he summoned Kakashi to the new office he had moved into. Since Rin’s death he had not been assigned any mission and was told to stay back to heal the bruises on his soul, as if a few months off really helped that. Instead it got the boy itching for something to do, left him alone with his thoughts one too many times. Kushina-sensei could only so often look after him, she had her own duties and Minato was busy getting ready for the transition in power.

“I want you to join my ANBU squad” Minato said and got no reaction from Kakashi. “You will be in the division that directly works under me and does tasks exclusively for me.” Some of ANBU worked directly for the Hokage, but most also did tasks decided by the council or elders of the village. Being an operative directly working with the Hokage had a higher kind of status. Kakashi knew he should have been grateful for the promotion, but he felt nothing. Instead he just nodded his head and left.

The ANBU compound was dark and closed off and they gave him his uniform without much question. The greys looked exactly like he felt and when he put the mask on his face he couldn’t help but feel relieved by it. He was Hound now and nothing else. Hound was nothing but one in a group of many operatives. Hatake Kakashi was no more.

He didn’t know what Minato-sensei had expected once Kakashi started going on ANBU missions, maybe he had hoped it would help him somehow to learn to rely on his strengths again, but Kakashi’s first few missions in his new squad turned out to be a disaster. It seemed like his body was functioning on auto-pilot, killing everything that was in his sight and an opponent. He had lost his rationality, one of his teammates whispered to another behind his back.

That was not the only thing he had lost. The lightning between his fingers now gave him severe panic attacks to the point that he could not control or use it anymore and even if he did, he was haunted by dreams of Rin’s dying body hanging on his arm at night. Sleep never let him rest. He walked around constantly exhausted. In those times, not even Gai could help him out of the slumb. Kakashi cut himself off from everyone.

They had finally put up a memorial stone for the people who died in the Third War. Kakashi alternated between it, to let his fingers run over Obito’s name, and Rin’s grave that was in the general graveyard. He would spend hours standing with his eyes looking at her name engraved in the white stone without saying much other than updating her on what was going on in his life. It was useless, of course, he still didn’t believe people in the afterlife could hear him, but Rin had been so happy to do this for Obito, so he needed to continue the tradition.

Sometimes when he visited her grave in the morning and returned in the evening the flowers he had left there were gone. He assumed that one of the other Noharas that wasn’t happy with the way her life had ended were taking them away after he placed them. That was only fair, after all, they did call him “Friend-Killer Kakashi” and they weren’t wrong.

“I will assign you a new task”, Minato said one day after calling Kakashi into the Hokage office again. The boy knew his ANBU squad had complained about him, about how uncooperative he apparently was, and they reminded him of the first team he had had way back when he graduated from the academy - before he was assigned to Team Minato. 

“Kushina is pregnant,” Minato smiled and put his head to the side. This got the first genuine reaction out of Kakashi since Rin had died. “Really?” the boy replied in surprise.

Minato nodded slowly, his blond hair shining in the afternoon sun streaming in from the window: “I want you to be her personal guard for the time of pregnancy. Who knows who could want to harm the mother of the hokage’s child.”  Secretly Minato hoped that Kakashi’s proximity to Kushina, her ever so warm and excited spirit, might help Kakashi find his humanity again.

The plan seemed to work for the most part. Kakashi eased into his new guardian role very quickly, enjoying the time he was spending in the sunlight of spring and then summer sitting on the window sill of their apartment. He could watch the two teachers spend time together, enjoy and celebrate every movement of their growing child and sometimes Kushina-sensei would pull him inside for a meal or so. He could get his mind off the past for a little bit.

Their child would have great parents, Kakashi thought one morning in autumn. It was almost time for the baby to come and Minato had mentioned that it would be a boy. With parents like them leading the next generation, the world would eventually become a better place. The war had ended over a year ago at this point and there had been no more fighting, even if pessimistic people had predicted so.

Kakashi calmed down, the wind in his hair did him well and soothed his soul. Maybe the future wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe.

-

I’ll see you in the future when we’re older

And we are full of stories to be told

-

The roar in the air was so loud that it made the earth beneath Kakashi’s feet shake. Gai and him were running side by side in a vain attempt to figure out what was happening. All around them people were running and screaming, a chaos of shinobi and civilians panicking as far as the eye could see. Whatever was tormenting the village was big and dangerous, the killing intent chilled Kakashi to the core.

They bumped head first into Asuma, who had been running from a different direction with Kurenai following on his trail. Asuma was the son of the former Hokage and often knew things that were going on in the village. He was breathing hard as he pulled Kakashi back onto his feet. “We need to leave the village”, he said and his voice sounded urget. “Orders from my Dad.”

“What is going on?” Kakashi asked as they started running towards the grand gates. Asuma threw a look over his shoulder as he pressed on forward. “The Kyuubi. It has somehow escaped from where it was sealed.” Another roar echoed over the rooftops of the village as if to confirm what Asuma was saying.

Kakashi suddenly remembered something and his feet slowed down on his own. “What are you doing, rival?” Gai asked in a little panic, pulling him by the arm.

“Sensei’s child will be born today - was born today. I need to make sure he and Kushina are safe”, he felt his fingers shake, his head spinning. Someone needed to do something. He turned on his heels ready to get back into the village when Asuma pulled him by the sleeve. “You can’t go”, he said and furrowed a brow. “We are not allowed to assist in the fighting. That is the order.”

Kakashi had not met Asuma as someone who would be sticking up for the rules so this change in attitude shocked him a little. Was it really that serious? He looked the other boy into the dark eyes: “Why? Why can’t I, a Jounin mind you, go back and assist in the fighting?”

It was another shinobi who replied. An older Yamanaka that Kakashi recognised as Inochi: “Because young people like you are the future of this village and we have lost too many of you in the war. Now go and make sure to evacuate all the civilians you can find that need assistance. This is not your fight.”

Asuma pulled him by the arm on one side and Gai pulled him on the other and so Kakashi turned around and left the village with them. He thought about whether it was worth it to break the rules here and go back to help out. There was so much chaos around them that it wouldn’t even be too hard to slip away and even if he would be punished later as long as he made sure everyone was safe now, then it wasn’t too bad to be yelled at the next day.

“Rival,” Gai said next to him and looked at him as if he had seen right through Kakashi’s trail of thoughts. “Don’t go back, Rival. I’m sure Lord Fourth is taking care of it. He is a strong shinobi who will protect himself and his family.” A pause, then: “I don’t want you to go on any more suicide missions.” 

Kakashi remembered now that Gai had seen him during the early days with his ANBU squad, that he had reported to the Hokage that Kakashi had trouble still with the trauma he had lived through. Gai had meant well then and meant well now, but Kakashi could not help the resentment anyway. If he were to die by saving Kushina or Minato-sensei, it would be all worth it.

Still, Gai kept pulling him, just like he always had back when Rin was still alive and so Kakashi let himself get lead out of the village with all the other shinobi under 16 and all he could do was hope that what he had said was true, that Minato was handling the situation well on his own. 

“You’re the only one left”, he thought like a pleading young child, “Please..” 

-

Cross my heart and hope to die

I’ll see you with your laughter lines.

-

It took hours before they were allowed to return to the village. Hours in which they heard nothing but screamed curses, the roar of the beast and collapsing houses. Kakashi was nervous, but Gai was the one pacing up and down in front of him. He was talking nonstop which made it impossible for Kakashi to form a cohesive thought. Maybe that was Gai’s goal in the first place, Kakashi thought much later.

As soon as they had the opportunity to return, Kakashi ran forward as fast as his feet could carry him. Sometime the Kyuubi had disappeared from the centre of the village and his roars had suddenly been audible from another place outside of it. Minato must have taken it somewhere, Kakashi deduced. Blindly he followed the destruction in the direction he thought the beast must have gone and when more and more older shinobi and ANBU also went that way he realised he was going the right way.

He knew something had gone wrong when he approached the scene more closely. There were so many people standing in a circle around three people on the ground. Kakashi slipped through bushes unseen and got to have a closer look. He saw the baby first. A blond boy, laying on his back on a little bed, was crying. Kakashi felt relief washing over him knowing that their son was safe and breathing.

Then his eyes moved over to the left because another head of blond hair caught his eye. There was Minato-sensei, laying on his back and thought Kakashi at first thought he could see him moving, he realised quickly that Minato’s body had been torn up through the middle, as if he had been impaled. Kakashi could feel his head spin and he needed to force himself to look away to not throw up. Rin appeared in front of his eyes as she hung dead and empty on his hand.

Almost inaudible, Kakashi could hear Kushina whisper to the shinobi that were around her. Lord Third was there talking and listening to her. Kakashi could not make out the words that were being exchanged but he knew that she wasn’t going to survive for much longer. He wished he hadn’t skipped all his medical ninjutsu classes, he wished Rin was here or Obito or anyone that could fix it all. Kushina’s head slumped forward and he knew that she too was gone.

The baby screamed when Lord Third picked him up and Kakashi also felt like screaming. They had told him and the other young shinobi that they had to stay out of the fighting to become the village’s future, but what future? If a baby like him, who had been so wanted and so loved before he was even born, had so much injustice happen to him on his first day in this world, what kind of world was this supposed to be? Why should a future for this world be necessary?

His head felt like it was splitting in half and he turned around to throw up.

-

I’ll see you in the future when we’re old.

-

For a long time, Kakashi did not go see the graves of all of them. After the funeral he decided to move into the shinobi apartments near the ANBU headquarters and away from his family home in the woods. He dedicated himself to the work he had to do and tried his hardest to keep away from everything else. In those times, he hardly spoke with most of his school friends or even squad colleagues. He was mostly just on his own.

It was already deep winter, snow laying in high layers over the entire village, when he finally went to see the memorial, Rin’s grave and the grave of Minato sensei. It was already dark and the streets were completely deserted. His steps left footprints behind in the fresh snow as he walked over the graveyard to see all of them. He left a single flower for Rin, another for Obito and then made his way to where Minato was buried. 

The memorial stone was larger than others and had his and Kushina’s name engraved next to the leaf and uzumaki symbol. It was tasteful and beautifully crafted and Kakashi commended whoever made that decision. He ran his fingers over Minato’s name and bit his shaking lip. It was the first time in a long time he allowed himself to feel the pain he had been harbouring since october.

Kakashi’s knees suddenly gave in and he fell forward in the snow, his hands in fists punching around him. He couldn’t stop the tears from falling down, not like he had for weeks on end now and so he just sat there and cried for hours waiting for the tears to stop, but they just kept coming. 

“How am I supposed to do this alone?” he sobbed, hands grabbing fists full of cold snow, “Sensei, I need your guidance.” But he had always known that talking to a gravestone meant nothing, that it changed nothing, and so his teacher did not reply to his pleas.

At some point he just repeated himself, his mind spinning. “We were supposed to be together. We were supposed to always always be together. We were soulmates.”  Why was the world so cruel to all of them? What made Kakashi so special that he was the only one who still had to live on?

The cries suddenly came to a stop when he was suddenly aware that there was someone not far from him, watching. He was sure he could hear someone breathing deeply and when Kakashi turned his head, someone turned a corner. He was embarrassed to have been watched this way, even when he had come in the dead of night. So he got up and pushed the snow off his clothes and went to his new home. He didn’t cry for years after that.

For a long while he only exited his apartment with his ANBU mask on, trying to disappear behind the anonymity of it. To him, Hatake Kakashi had fully ceased to exist the night Namikaze Minato died. He was dead and buried next to all of his other teammates. They were together in the world that came after death - if such a thing existed.

-

I’ll see you in the future when we’re old.

-

“I’m sorry, I’m too busy to come see you as often now,” Kakashi said apologetically and slouched with his hands in his sweats. “The kids need all the attention that I can muster and then I also need some sleep. Minato-sensei, were we also this exhausting? I can’t seem to recall.”

Kakashi was older now, he stood tall at his full grown body height (when he wasn’t crouching like he was now). The voice that had given him trouble for a few years had fully lost an octave or two and settled on a nice, dark vibrant sound that others complimented when they heard it. Eventually he had accepted Hatake Kakashi back into his consciousness and took off the mask and then eventually he had also given up the ANBU greys to let colour into his life again.

He had never stopped updating his teammates at their grave stones, though. This habit that had essentially been started by Rin now was an integral part of his daily and weekly activity. When he found some free time he would go over to the graveyard to speak to them. It was soothing. Maybe that was why Rin had liked it so much. Over ten years had passed since Minato’s death.

Lately Kakashi had gotten his own genin team. Three young shinobi who seemed to be difficult troublemakers that he had to set straight. He wasn’t sure if he was ever that bad, though he could remember arguing with Obito a lot. He liked the kids, they kept him on his toes and their carefree, naive ways made him feel carefree and naive again sometimes. At least when they weren’t accidentally stumbling into missions above their rank.

“I will make sure that they can stay by each other’s side forever,” Kakashi said and meant it. He wasn’t going to let any of his closed ones die anymore. “I’ll give them the time together that we should have gotten.”

It seemed like an easy promise to give. Since the Kyuubi attack there had been no major danger to the village. The war was long gone and the peace treaties seemed to hold up. The villages got along surprisingly well and would soon host the Chunin exams together as a joint effort too. The children nowadays were growing up in unparalleled peace time and that was a gift Kakashi was very happy they had.

“Part of you is always with me”, he said, putting his hand on the blue of the memorial stone. He could count the scars on his own fingers as he moved them over the cold material of the stone. Closing his eyes for a second he heard his heart beating against his chest, felt the air moving in his hair and the sun shine onto his neck. He felt how alive he was. “I think that is what Rin meant when she called us soulmates all those years ago.”

He took the hand off the stone and opened his eyes to put a smile into them: “I can’t wait to see you again when I am older and tell you all about it.”

[wind-becomes-lightning]

Jinchuuriki

Day 2:) I hope you enjoyed Day 1 cuteness, because I'm bringing the Angst. *dances*

Nohara Rin centred (Kakashi makes an appearance, he has an important role, who'd have thought.)

3863 words.

warning for canon typical violence, suicidal thoughts & suicide (canon compliant Rin death)

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 2: Jinchuuriki & Hiding/ Running from the Enemy

There was something wrong with Rin in a way that she could not articulate.

There was something wrong with her in a way that she could not articulate.

When she had tried to, Kakashi had ripped at her arm. “We have to go” he had said with panic in his voice and when she hadn’t reacted immediately: “Rin!” 

Kakashi hadn’t really taken notice of her in that moment, his mind was once again clogged off by thoughts about Obito more than they were thoughts about her. Rin could understand this, Kakashi had a promise to uphold, but she wished he’d let her talk for just a minute. Maybe she could have explained how she felt.

Rin didn’t know exactly what the Kiri soldiers had done to her while she was under genjutsu, but it strongly felt like her life had been forever altered in some way or other. There was a sizzling in her veins that hadn’t been there before, something divorced from her healing chakra that usually felt more pleasantly warm than scorching hot.

Maybe if Kakashi would slow down for a moment she could explain it to him, maybe his sharingan could see whatever was wrong with her, but her friend hurried ahead of her from tree to tree, throwing looks around himself to make sure nobody was following them and he did not give her the chance to speak up. Rin was too used to doing whatever he told her to do, he was a better shinobi by a large mile than her anyway, so she followed diligently.

The voice in her head almost threw her so off balance that she was close to falling from the next branch she stepped on.

“Young girl!”

Suddenly Rin was standing in a sea full of turquoise green fluid. The trees and Kakashi were no longer visible or audible and she wondered when she was teleported to this place. In front of her was a large blue gate, several of them actually, and they held down a monster of unmeasurable size. A monster the likes of which Rin had never seen before. She took a step back.

The thing opened its mouth: “What are you staring at me for, girl?”

It had been the voice in her head right from the beginning. Her heart was beating to her chest and from far away she could hear Kakashi yell: “Attackers incoming!” Her eyes shifted and suddenly there she was again on the treetops jumping from branch to branch, as if the monster had not happened, as if it had been an illusion.

She wondered about possible genjutsu, while Kakashi, once again gripping her arm without looking at her, pulled her behind a big tree trunk to give her shelter. “Kakashi”, she said breathless and tucking at his sleeve. “I just had this vision.. There was this… thing … and…”

“Rin please” Kakashi pulled his arm out of hers. “I have to concentrate, there are at least 10 of them and there is only me.. I mean.. Only us.” Rin frowned and in any situation she might have scolded him, but he was already jumping away from the tree, lightning screaming between his fingers.

“He is not ready to listen to you”, the thing said in her head. She was back in the water now, knee deep staring right at the giant monster in front of her. Clearly it could see what Rin was seeing.

She decided to take a step forward instead of backwards: “What are you?” That seemed to not be the right question. The creature roared in anger and pushed its body against the seals around it. 

“What AM I? You humans have no respect for us! You misuse and seal us and don’t think we are creatures worthy of any dignity!” It moved its three tails around as if they were big whips ready to strike. 

Rin waved her arms defensively: “Oh, no no no, no, no, I didn’t mean to… “ One of the tails crashed down next to her. “...didn’t mean to insult. Please, please tell me your name. Please, I’m Nohara Rin.”

The thing stopped its rampage and relaxed again, head laying down on its front legs. The voice echoed in Rin’s mind over and over again: “I am Isobu. Humans call me the Three Tailed Bijuu.”

“Out of the way, Rin!” 

Kakashi was at her side again, no, he was pushing her out of his way so he could get to the enemy behind them. They had made it to a clearing, full of rocks and stone, without her noticing. Apparently, when she spoke to Isobu in whatever in-between world they were meeting, her body continued moving on its own. She watched Kakashi take on one, two, then three enemies and she fiddled for her shuriken.

Isobu’s voice was in her ear: “I don’t think you have the strength to fight here.” 

Water again, back to staring at Isobu directly. “Why do you think so?” Rin asked provocatively. “You don’t know me.”

It looked like a giant turtle. A big shield was protecting its back from which the three tails shot out like poisoned darts. But when the creature laughed it laughed loud and all of the sound echohead in Rin’s mind and heart. She knew it must be powerful, maybe more powerful than anything she’d ever met before.

“I know you child”, Isobu laughed, “I know you better than you know yourself. I can see your memories, I can feel your chakra flow, I can hear your thoughts, I can sense your feelings. I am you and you are me.”

She paused, legs frozen in place. Suddenly there was the sizzling again, her veins alight with a fire she had never felt before. Something was wrong with her, they’d done something to her, she had known from the moment she had woken up. Rin looked up at Isobu, eyes widening with the realisation: “You are what they put into me.”

From afar she could hear Kakashi yell an ability name and Rin shook herself back to reality. There were the stones, the clearing, the forest not far. He was right by her side again, spinning a kunai in his hand that she recognised from their master. Maybe Kakashi was hoping MInato might show up soon and save the two of them.

“Kakashi”, she tried again, with a louder voice this time to convey her urgency. “These people, they sealed..”

He did not turn his head. Her words entered one ear and left the other without acknowledgement. Instead Kakashi turned the kunai again and jumped right back into battle. 

Roaring laughter from the monster. Rin found herself face to face with him again.

“So they sealed you inside of me”, she noted and Isobu looked like he was cracking a smile: “They did indeed.”

The three tails was one of the tailed beasts that had been spread out over the hidden villages to ensure peace. Rin knew that Konoha had the nine tails and that Suna had the one tail. These things were very important to the villages, strong assets to be used to defend their territory. So why had Kirigakure so willingly given up their asset? Why had they decided to let Konoha have two tailed beasts? This made no sense.

Rin scratched her facial markers like she always did when she was nervous. They were her family signifier and always made her calm down a little. She let the situation go through her head. She analysed how her chakra felt before she had been kidnapped and then how it felt now. 

“They wouldn’t just let me escape like this if they didn’t have a plan what to do with me,” she deduced out loud.

Isobu tapped his foot in the water: “Unlikely, yes.”

There was a catch. There just had to be. Their escape from Water country had been too easy and while they had a fair few opponents now, it still seems too good to be true.

No matter how much she tried to concentrate, she could not think of anything that happened during the sealing. The genjutsu they had put on her had been strong which was obvious since it had taken her several hours to find back to reality after getting released from it. It sucked, because her memories might have given some of their plans away. That's when she realised, she hadn’t been the only one present at the sealing.

“Isobu”, she asked softly, trying not to rile the creature up again, “When they sealed you… where you conscious?”

The turtle laughed and moved its tails into the water and out, pulling at the seals around it. “I could feel all of it,” it said angrily. “I can always feel all of it.” Right, Rin thought, this was not the first sealing. Over the last 100 years the bijuu had been continuously sealed in dedicated Jinchuuriki, so it was no surprise that Isobu was tired of that.

She really didn’t want him to be unhappy so she said quickly: “Yes, yes I’m sorry this happened to you.” She took a step forward: “I just… just want to know.. Why… Why me?”

“It is not you specifically, girl, but you already knew that”, Isobu said with what looked like a grin. “Sure, you have an easier time digesting me, other people your age would have died during the ceremony, but you are not special other than that. What is special about you is where you come from.”

Rin blinked. Just like she had thought this was some kind of set up. Kirigakure wasn’t going to hand over their bijuu for nothing. They had found most guards in her cell disabled when Kakashi had come to get her and they had made it to Fire country relatively easily. Sure Kakashi was ever so capable of leading them on paths that were hidden enough to not give them away, but even for him the way had been too smooth.

“This is a trap”, Rin said out loud. “But how is it a trap?” She bit her inner lip and scratched on her facial markings. Isobu’s laughter rang in the empty hall.

Suddenly her eyes shot up to see Kakashi’s raikiri fly by directly at her ear. He had just missed her by a few millimetres and was now on the offensive again. Rin’s fingers were hot at the tips from the heat in her veins. She felt under her shirt to the seal that was burning on her stomach like a tattoo. Not far from her a Kiri shinobi laughed almost as loud and hollow as Isobu had.

“You’ll get rid of that soon enough”, the shinobi laughed and motioned his hand over his stomach, “There will be a big party in Konoha for sure if you do.” She stared at him, her heartbeat the only thing in her ears. What he was saying made sense, everything suddenly clicked into place.

She looked up and Isobu was there, laying on his own front legs and watching her. “The seal is weak”, she said, “It will break.”

Isobu let one of his tails put waves into the water: “No, girl, the seal is strong -that is why it will break.”

In Konoha, she thought. They had sealed her in a way that it would contain the Bijuu until she made it to her village, then they would let it lose. With the general disdain Isobu seemed to have for the humans that constantly sealed him, this could spell disaster. So much death and destruction just through her. 

Rin swallowed. That also meant that her death was inevitable.

It was too loud around her with enemies dropping and getting back up, with Kakashi’s lightning noise and the boiling in her veins. She put her hands on her ears to shut it all out, to hear herself think for two seconds. She could go, Rin thought, run away. Tell Kakashi and live in the woods. She would be saved, Konoha would be saved. Maybe that would be better for everyone.

Rin felt Kakashi by her side, his presence next to her arm. She looked over to him and realised how much he had grown in the year since Obito had died. Kakashi used to be decidedly smaller than both of them and now he was going to outgrow her pretty soon. 

“Kakashi..” she said calmly. “I think.. I think I know what…” But his grey eyes, though looking at her, were not really looking at her. He took and pressed her hand: “Don’t think too much, Rin, okey? I can fix this.” 

“You can’t fix this!” she screamed after him, but he was already out of earshot.

It was a choice she could make. Run away, become a rogue nin. But as a jinchuuriki she’d be hunted again, no matter where she went. Plus she wasn’t sure her power would ever be strong enough to sustain Isobu inside of her. It was risky, it could have no benefits at all. And on top of it all, she would need to say goodbye to everything she’d loved forever. Her family, her cousins, Kakashi and Gai, Kushina and Minato. The places she knew, that she’d grown up in. Obito’s grave. She could never see any of them ever again.

“Isobu”, she asked, now sitting deep in the green water with her legs pulled up against her chest. “What happens to you if I die with you sealed into me?”

The turtle lifted its head. For the first time since Rin had started talking to him he seemed impressed with her. It was as if he had read her mind from this sentence alone, or maybe he just had access to her every emotion just like he claimed. 

“I would be free”, he said and his voice sounded so hopeful that Rin almost started crying then and there. “I would be reborn to roam the lands until they find me eventually to seal me again. But maybe, maybe I'll be free forever.”

She thought about it. How it must feel to be bound to another person for your entire lifespan, when all you want is to be free to go wherever you want. This would be the future for both of them if Rin decided to keep herself alive. If she ran away so that the seal could not break she would never again be able to do what she wanted to do all her life. Separated from friends and family and everything she loved. Plus, she would condemn Isobu to another lifetime of being chained to somebody else’s will. Was that fair?

On the other hand, going back to Konoha spelled disaster. The creature going rampage on revenge to shinobi would be out of the question. No, Rin knew she would not be returning to Konoha. Either way it was going, she was not going to see the great gates of the village again. Not see her mother and her little cousin and Gai and Obito’s grave. No matter the decision, Nohara Rin, like she had been, would stop existing. Maybe she had already stopped existing when they made her a jinchuuriki.

There was no other way. She was stuck.

“I’m going to die”, she said and saying it out loud was like a dagger to her own soul. The turtle did not laugh at that, his old knowing eyes on her like a watchdog. “That would be a very brave decision, young girl”, he judged. She put her head to her knees. “You know, you would do me a huge favour, girl”, Isobu added quickly.

Her eyes opened to the darkness of the clearing, the stones only lit up by Kakashi’s chidori flying from one side to the next. She fiddled in her pouch for a kunai and then turned it in her hand. She would have to do it fast or the Kiri shinobi might be able to stop her from doing it. She watched Kakashi’s hair in the wind and suppressed the urge to call for him. There were things to be done.

She put the kunai up to her throat, holding it against the soft skin there until it drew blood. It hurt, not above a sting, but it hurt and she could feel the tears spring to her eyes. She didn’t want to die here. Rin thought of the training that was waiting for her back home, all the healing techniques she knew she could learn from Senju Tsunade when she came back to the village. She thought of Shizune, with whom she had trained in the hospital together and who had admired her skill so much. What did it matter that you were a talented healer, when bad people could just take you away, ruin your life and you could not defend yourself.

But such was war, she supposed.

The kunai pressed deeper into her throat when suddenly a shuriken hit her hand and she let it go. “Ouch” she exclaimed and looked up. An enemy had her in her sights. He slowly shook his head and she could see him mouth the words “Don’t you dare” and then jump away. 

“Well, what are you going to do now, young girl?” The voice said in her head. “They won’t let you die the way you want to.”

RIn wanted to cry out loud, fall to her knees and sob her heart out, but there was no time. She was the ticking time bomb that needed to be stopped. She was the reason Kakashi was here fighting to the bone. She was the reason the Kiri-nin were still fighting too. If she wasn’t around anymore, all of this would end. Everybody could wake up from the nightmare, including her.

It had to be fast, she knew that. The other shinobi were apparently looking out for her and wouldn’t hurt her or let her hurt herself. Maybe that was why nobody had attacked her even if she had not moved from one spot for a good amount of time. So it needed to be fast and it needed to kill instantly and leave no room for healing from anyone. A clean cut to the afterlife.

Isobu rumoured on her inside: “His lightning blade can do that.” Isobu guided Rin’s eyes to the light around Kakashi’s hand. Yes, she had seen this ability kill more times than she could count. It was fast and deadly and on top of that, it was predictable. Kakashi used it in a steady pattern of zigzagging among the enemies. If Rin would calculate where he’d jump next she could…

“I can’t do that”, she said out loud even though Isobu could very much hear her thoughts. “He will be scarred. He is already too scarred.” She thought of how he'd been after Obito had died. How long it had taken him to go by his normal routines again and how fixated he had been on making sure she was fine. His promise to Obito was his most important goal in life now.

Rin didn’t want to ruin that progress for him. She didn’t want him to go back to square one. He would have to grieve both of them from now on and that was already unfair enough. If she put such a high burden on him in addition to that, could she even call herself his friend? Could she even say that she loved him if she treated him like that? 

Isobu looked at her sitting at his feet and hummed a little: “Young girl, I wish I could tell you there are other options for us to choose…” Us. Rin noticed the phrase immediately. “.. but I fear there is none. This lightning could release both of us quicker than we’d notice.”  She looked up at Isobu, the tears hot in the corners of her eyes. She knew he was correct in his assessment, but didn’t want to let the realisation sink in just yet. 

The battle returned to her eye, Kakashi’s well known movement right in front of her. In a moment he would be right in front of her, right there, she could envision the spot. The tears dried in her eyes, her hands became fists. Just a jump, it would be nothing but a short jump. Kakashi wouldn’t know it was happening, that meant that the other shinobi wouldn’t either. It would be fast and painless. Or maybe it would be a little painful, but in comparison to what could possibly happen after it was nothing.

Kakashi appeared in front of her eyes, his silver hair was visible in the moonlight. It was now or never. Rin shook the concerns and fears away, she shook away memories of her family and her home and her village, her friends and her team. She didn’t look at the forest, the rustling of the trees, the moonshine over the county. She just looked at Kakashi right in front of her and jumped. Before her feet touched the ground she could hear Isobu’s voice in her head: “You are a brave young girl, girl. And I am in your debt eternally.”

It was like a weird squishy sound. As if you’d accidentally clogged the toilet by putting too much paper in it and now needed to get it out. Kakashi’s hand went right through her middle, as if butter was cut with a knife. Rin could feel the pain and not feel it at the same time. Her body went numb almost instantly. The taste of blood on her heavy tongue, eyes wide and locked on Kakashi’s wide eyes.

He looked horrified at her and then at himself and Rin wanted to say something. She wanted to tell him. “K-Kakash…i”, she said, but the rest would not come out. Not the explanation, not the apology, not the wish for him to not blame himself. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, him and Obito and their time together, that they’d both watch over him now. She wanted to tell him that he was an outstanding shinobi, that she was thankful he had come to save her.

It’s not your fault, she thought over and over. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. But her tongue could not move, there was so much blood. 

“Girl”, the voice said in her head. “You can let go now.” Isobu, she thought, but could not even muster the strength to visit him in their in-between world again. Instead she let her eyes close slowly as they felt heavy and spent. 

“I think from all Jinchuuriki I’ve ever had, you were my favourite one so far”, the voice said from far away and Rin felt at ease suddenly, floating away from all the pain and noise and heartbreak, from Kakashi’s horrified look and the bloody taste in her mouth. 

As she faded away she could see over Kakashi’s shoulder through a crack in her eyes that there was someone there, not far, at the edges of the forest, staring at them. Even now she recognised that figure and facial shape and hair colour immediately.

Obito, she thought. Thank sage, he was still alive.

Then she was gone.