A/N: Hi all, I've FINALLY got time to edit this. I have to admit, this is one of my proudest works- no where near many of the legendary stories on this site but far more structured and emotional than all my previous stories.
I've also altered many canon ages to the demands of the plot so please don't ask me any unnecessary questions about that, this is AU after all.
Konoha is a fictional town, it was initially going to be Tokyo except I find fictional places easier to write, this way I won't have to worry much about geographical consistencies.
Pairings: ObiRinKaka, KakaAnko (those are the only ones that are of any significance)
That being said, enjoy the story!
Chapter 1.
Setting: Present day, Konoha
The clouds were thinning, shards of sunlight pierced through the horizon. It seemed like a regular day, in fact, it was a regular day, and people went about their regular businesses, as unconcerned as ever, an insouciant attitude clogged the air, along with the suffocating stench of pollution from the traffic.
One man, however, was baffled by the unpredictability of how events turned out, his mind was a tempest of emotions: he felt betrayed by himself, yet somehow felt a surreptitious tinge of pride, he was sure he had done the right thing, it was the most satisfying denouement out of the sea of misery he had to chose from.
"I must say, I would never have guessed you were behind his escape and the fraud of his death, Kakashi Hatake, after all, you were always one of our best inspectors," remarked Shisui Uchiha, who was placed in charge of this interrogation session. "Though you must realize that he is the shady figure behind one of the most dangerous mafia organizations—"
"Well, thanks for stating the obvious—" Kakashi interjected abruptly.
" I recall that you two were childhood friends right?" Shisui chose to ignore the man's interruption.
Kakashi momentarily contemplated on this choice of selection, after all, he had expected someone like Ibiki, or heck, even his intimidating ex, Anko—they were what you would call, typical interrogators, but Shisui, well, speculation had it that he specified more on the psychological aspect of the matter. He didn't know whether to be grateful about it or not.
"You have indeed, committed an act of treason, since the Police Force could not afford to loose you… Well… how do I begin…"
"Would you like to hear the full story, about, you know, Obito?"
"Ahh yes, that would be most considerate of you, please begin…"
...
Around 13 years ago, that was when they first met each other, in Konoha High, one of the most prestigious boarding schools you could think of. It was during orientation, Kakashi—15 years old at that time— had, due to his early pedantic habits, arrived 20 minutes early before everybody else, he didn't make much of it, seeing as he was what one might call a genius, a prodigy, he liked to be before everybody else.
Whilst Obito, well, to be frank, was 2 hours late, he had gushed into class, with his signature goggles, claiming that he was helping an old lady carry her groceries. Afterwards laughter, mockery, erupted across the room, the boy had hung his head in shame. Then there was Rin, calm, gentle, caring Rin, who had handed him his papers and told him to ignore everyone's teasings.
Kakashi had always been, what most would call aloof, he topped his class exam after exam, shook off praise like it was nothing. All the girls secretly fawned over him; he had, as Obito would later call, his own personal fan club. Of course, he didn't give a damn.
They were all annoying, a hindrance, they talked too much. Prodigies like him shouldn't mingle in unintelligent company, he reminds himself.
At the beginning, he didn't have friends, no, put it this way, he didn't want friends, all he ever wanted was to excel at everything, go to one of the top universities and get a good job. At that time, he had always believed that friends were the chief source of distraction to success, he couldn't afford that. Hence he crammed his free periods with studying and tutoring. Often, in his dorm, he would stay up well past midnight.
This irritated Obito, who had been his roommate and viewed Kakashi's habits as aloof and contemptible ("an asshole", he'd say), causing early hostilities to spawn between the two teenagers. Unlike him, Obito had heaps of times to goof around and always, always managed to be late. And gosh he was loud. Kakashi, smiled, remembering the time when his friend was so carefree and easygoing.
"But I was helping the cleaning lady sweep the floor!"
"The cat was stuck in the tree!"
"I needed to help the librarian with cataloguing the books!"
"No, I could not bear see an old lady cross the street alone!"
The classes were incessantly bombarded with his ridiculous excuses, which managed to irritate Kakashi the whole time. Obito's tardiness, to him, symbolizes laziness, sloth, the very thing he despised the most.
It wasn't until the end of term group project before Christmas that the boys and Rin had began to bond.
Their homeroom teacher, Minato Namikaze, had announced that they needed to write a short-script to submit to an international competition, it was titled Dreams.
Rin, Obito and Kakashi were placed in the same group.
Rin was as positive, optimistic as ever, Kakashi had suspected that she had a minor crush on him but at least she didn't behave as abrasively as an average fangirl would.
Meanwhile Kakashi was disgruntled at the idea of co-operating with a meek, (in his opinion) uninteresting girl and Konoha High's renowned loudmouthed troublemaker.
Obito had been thrilled by the prospect of working with Rin, his crush on her had been relatively obvious, it wasn't really infatuation like how guys gushed at girls they found appealing, and he had genuinely bonded with her. She was unusually perceptive and considerate, there was this one time after gym class when Obito had accidently twisted his ankle.
"It's no big deal coach, I can still play—" The boy had rambunctiously declared, despite the undeniably swelling pain that was slowly overtaking him, he re-fastened his goggles and with a wide grin attempted to limp back into the game.
"YOSH MY YOUTHFUL COMRAD THAT'S THE SPIRIT!" Maito Gai. A fervid martial arts aficionado, he donned his hideous green spandex whenever he could, wherever he could. There were rumours that he would wake up at 4 in the morning and run 50 laps around the field just to retain his fitness.
"Hey Obito—" Rin couldn't help but interject, Obito is hurting himself, she wouldn't allow it.
"Yes Rin-chan?"
"You should go to the nurse, your ankle doesn't look well."
"But the game…"
"Obito, we'll go speak to the coach together right?"
He grinned, " Yea, you wanna ehh, go to the nurse with me?"
She chortled a little, Obito's clumsy manners were really endearing at times, " well you couldn't limp all the way across could you?"
That kid was what a lot of people would call a 'loser', a 'klutz', his grades weren't atrocious, though they weren't exceptional either. Coming from an Uchiha, it was a disappointment.
Right the Uchihas—
...
Shisui cut him abruptly, "yes I am well aware of my family's obstinate sense of pride, their insistence on excellence and all that crap."
Kakashi nodded in agreement, "Obito was, you know, naturally an outcast in your family… By the way, did you know him well before?"
"Not really, we weren't that closely related. Is this really how Obito was like? Wow, I personally expected more of a broody, emo kid who was traumatized by some sort of tragedy, he's nothing like that."
"Yeah, in fact, I was more like the kid who sat at the corner brooding, ruminating on how stupid my peers were," Kakashi chuckled.
"And now you're obsessed with porn," Shisui couldn't help but add, it was honestly pretty amusing, also this conversation needed to run as smoothly as possible, unbeknownst to Kakashi, Shisui's superiors wanted him to do more than interrogate the Hatake. Ever since Obito's supposed death, Kakashi had spasmodically plunged into fits of depression and pressure, apparently allowing him to retell his entire tale would relieve some of that and Shisui was a highly trained therapist as well as interrogator.
"How did you know that?"
"Anko."
"Oh, right."
...
They lacked inspiration for the project, dreams—it was difficult to conjecture anything out of this abstruse word. Kakashi had never been so angry with himself, he had studied really hard, too hard, some may say, the efforts were supposed to pay off, instead his mind felt like a blank canvas, he repetitively cursed at himself.
"Hey Bakashi!" Obito called
"Don't called me that," he was slightly more vexed.
"Right I was just thinking, maybe the idea of dreams could represent what we want to be in the future, so I was thinking we could sit around and talk about you know, our lives…" his voice trailed off.
"Yeah Kakashi, that's a good idea, we really need to co-operate and get to know each other," Rin added, blushing a little, just enough for him to notice.
"Bakashi, you are literally the most anti-social person I have ever met in my life and believe me that means a lot, my family is comprised of some of the world's worst sociopaths," he joked around.
Kakashi glared at him.
"Hey no offense, you don't have to take what I say so seriously…"
Realizing both of them could break out on a full argument anytime, Rin decided to start," My name is Rin Nohara, my dream is to go to university in America and study to become a doctor. Afterwards, I would like to cure illnesses and prevent as much deaths and heartbreaks as I can Um… who wants to go next?"
The room tensed a little, the awkwardness had been temporarily relieved when Rin spoke, only to return again when Kakashi continued to glare at Obito in exasperation; Obito at Kakashi slightly apologetically.
"I'll go next," snapped Kakashi out of annoyance. " I want to study well, become a lawyer or businessman and that way I won't have to worry much about falling into some financial crisis."
"Geez, that sounds fun…" Obito shook his head.
Kakashi rolled his eyes at him, how could someone as immature as Obito possibly understand? Dreams have to be realistic, attainable; they had to be achieved through hard work.
"Well I don't give a damn about the money! I want to change the world for the better; someday I'll travel around the world to offer a helping hand to those in need! Believe it, people will remember me as Obito of the Orange Goggles! I also want to make those people I really care about happy…" his voice trailed away as he stole a surreptitious glance at Rin, again Kakashi noticed. Considering his reclusive nature, he was actually pretty good at reading people, even the faintest nuances in temper, the most obscure evidences of disapproval—yes, it was something he took pride in.
"That was useful," Kakashi said (Obito of the Orange Goggles, how ridiculous…), " now what do we do?"
"Eh… I'm not so sure," Obito admitted.
"Idiot, it was your idea."
"Hey! You guys are supposed to help develop it too!"
Kakashi sighed, this is going to be difficult.
Meanwhile Minato Namikaze observed his students with interest, he had grown fond of Kakashi and Obito, both of them had hard times. One had to deal with the suicide of his mother at the age of 7 and a father with depression issues, which later led him to take his own life; afterwards the boy was consumed by bitterness. It was rather strange really, Minato had known Sakumo Hatake, who had been a fine businessman before depression took its toll, he doubted that the boy remembered him from the times when Sakumo and his wife bought along a sweet innocent toddler to Minato's house. The one with the cheery demeanor had been raised in a family with high expectations, members that excelled in many areas only to fall short on his parent's anticipations, Minato often suspected that the boy had, hidden beneath his usual self, an unquenchable yearning for acknowledgement.
He didn't tell anyone but this assignment was designed to make the students co-operate with people different to them, people they may not like. He had always believed that it was a pivotal skill.
As Minato reclined in his office, contemplating on those two boys, a knock sounded from the other side.
"Yes Kakashi come in."
The fragrance of warm, freshly made coffee drenched the air and the delightfully peculiar scent of ink and papers populated even the most obscure recesses of the room. Minato Namikaze occupied his desk central of the room, with a strenuous pile of ungraded papers lay at his left. Inhaling this redolence that made him remember his dad's cozy office— back before Sakumo's suicide; back before loneliness embittered him—Kakashi spoke up.
"Minato-sensei, I want to change groups, I can't work with them," his voice was curt, polite yet firm, betraying none of his wavering emotions.
"But Kakashi, the groups are already set, you are a genius, I'm sure you'd figure out a way to co-operate," Minato smiled at him. The boy… he's far to enclosed. I'll need to open him up a little.
"It's impossible." Kakashi looked stubbornly convinced.
Minato sighed, "Kakashi, when you grow up, you would need to work with people of all sorts and types, you could choose not to like them but you would always have to learn to collaborate, regardless. Isolating yourself from people who are trying to reach out to you isn't good." Your insecurities, your fears, just spit them out! He wanted to voice that out loud but eventually decided against this, after all, yelling such things and forcing the boy to yield to his sermons wouldn't do the kid much favour in the future. No, he should attempt to make Kakashi realize the importance of interacting with others as opposed to impel signs of communication.
"But Obito, he's never serious, he's always so immature and—"
"Kakashi! From what I've seen, aside from his usual lateness, there is nothing wrong with him. Before judging others, you should try improving yourself."
Silence.
"I know you had a rough childhood, suicides, drugs, depression… It shouldn't… Perhaps you need to move out of that apartment of yours, I'll help you rent a new one."
"Um…?"
"Kakashi, I knew your father, he was a great man irregardless of what people say about him. Understand? You can't control what had already happened but you are the one who decides on how you will react to it, your father wouldn't want you to be like this, your mother wouldn't either," he sighed," School isn't always about studying, try to make some friends."
"So…"
"You may not know but Obito also had a harsh time with his family, ever heard of the Uchihas?"
"The conglomerate firm Uchiha Corps? The benefactors of the Konoha Police Force, who hasn't?"
"Yeah, Obito wasn't a 'typical' Uchiha meaning stoic, prodigious and a little aloof," Minato chuckled a little, his girlfriend Kushina would probably scowl at him for talking 'ill' about her best friend Mikoto's family. "He fell short of their expectations, he was an outcast but he kept on being positive and you know how boisterous he acts. You should try looking on the bright side of things."
Really? Kakashi groaned inwardly, he dreaded where this conversation was going, he wasn't ready to reveal his feelings to anyone yet. But maybe what Minato said did make some sort of sense…
Ever since his father took his own life, Minato had been assigned as Kakashi's guardian, despite so, they've never really interacted much, the young genius had a sense of respect for the older man but that was it. In Konoha High, he had generally been eluding unnecessary, excess conversation, not only Minato—everyone.
"Um… I'd better be going." He finally decided to speak; this whole talk was starting to get awkward.
"If you ever need help, feel free to drop by. Remember Kakashi," Minato gazed at him, his eyes possessing a soft, almost benevolent quality. "Even if its just a little bit of talk, it's enough to sustain us and keep us upbeat in each phase of life. Without talk, our hearts would grow dark and serious. We're social creatures just like that."
"I know, thanks Minato," the boy returned him with a nod.
Ensuing this conversation, those three met up in the library after class, with a newfound determination, Kakashi was intent on all of Obito and Rin's suggestions. They brainstormed, he mainly outlined, drafted, developed those ideas. The Kakashi at that time would never admit it but he felt a slight sense of admiration on Obito, it must be difficult, being different from the people in your family and constantly striving for recognition.
"Hey Obito, Rin… I think I have a great idea."
He wasn't sure on where the influences were originated, nonetheless he told them about it.
The story started with a group of kids in a perilous war zone who each had their own ambitions and aspirations. Out of them were: singers, lawyers, dancers, travellers, writers, soldiers… They all started the same, all of them yearned for playtime, treats and mainly, peace. However 20 years later, after a pact they made, all of them were reunited in the remains of their secret hideout, only to realize that none of them were the same again. There were even people from opposing forces, working for rival leaders, at the beginning, all of them were ignorant of each other's identities as they reminisced about their past yet when it soon became clear, guns were drawn, poisons were placed in drinks. What ostensibly was a happy reunion transpired to be a bloody onslaught, why? Because people changed. Their dreams, their ambitions, drove them, motivated them and molded them.
"WOW Bakashi, that's really… dark…" Obito had been kind of unnerved, the story unsettled him a little, but the way Kakashi delivered it was bloody epic!
"Kakashi that's a great idea," Rin complimented, she smiled at him, "now let's start typing…"
Though it had initially been Kakashi's idea, he was surprised on how much the other contributed. Rin had added some more background on certain characters, making the story sound more realistic, furnishing a couple of character twists and the subtle nuances of people's emotions—that was her forte and Obito had conjured up some riveting ideas out of thin air whenever writers block struck either of them.
"Obito, it's all right if you don't know how to spell the word 'macabre', it is pretty difficult," Rin tried to comfort him after he committed numerous spelling errors whilst typing, she even tried to give him a hug.
"But I feel so dumb!" Obito pouted and folded his arms.
"That's 'cuz you are," Kakashi couldn't help but tease, "but don't worry, you'll learn how to spell properly someday…"
"Bakashi! Not everyone is a nerd like you!"
"Call me that one more time and you'll be named Dumbass, got it?"
...
"Man you must be one angsty teenager," Shisui commented, "wonder what changed that…"
"Minato Namikaze, my guardian, he really showed me you don't have to live in the burdens of the past, he was one of the most supportive people I ever came across and…Obito."
"It's kind of ironic isn't it? The story you came up with, it really reflected your lives, for a 15 year old that pretty philosophical."
"Well… I wouldn't put it that way, by the way ehh…this is a little off topic but how's Anko doing?"
"Being Anko, you know, actually she's been acting even more violent and sadistic. Hell, didn't you hear that she bought a pet snake, a boa constrictor?"
"She is pretty eccentric…"
"You want to get back together with her don't you?"
Do I? Kakashi tossed off the idea, upon hearing Kakashi's treason and witnessing a misguided scene between him and an old friend, Anko completely lashed out him, demolishing his—well, formerly their—entire room, the next day, she moved away. "You lied to me! You lied to all of us, don't ever approach me again jerk!" he felt those words resonate throughout his conscience. She wouldn't even feign an effort to take in his futile attempts of explaination. She felt utterly betrayed, he didn't blame her, she had every right to feel that way. After her outburst he didn't feel like talking to her anymore; their relationship began disintegrating from then on.
His treason... Why am I feeling what I did was right? The silver-haired man pondered.
"Just out of curiosity, how's Rin doing?"
"She disappeared along with Obito…" Kakashi glanced uneasily to his sides, hoping against hope that his eyes betrayed no clandestine matters that were better left unsaid.
"So the both of them…"
"I don't know, haven't heard a word from them for 5 months," he whispered, barely audible.