"Rin, Obito liked you. He loved you. He died for you and because of that, I'll protect you with my life."
The chidori flared in the young prodigy's right hand, screeching out into the bleak forest. This was it; this was how his story was going to end. If only he had kept the group together instead of belittling his precious teammates, then all three of them might have escaped the vicious battlefield together, mission accomplished with all limbs still attached. Everyone would have a future to live and share their experiences in. Everyone could find a moment to detach themselves from the blood filled ninja world and happily gloat about their accomplishments. Everyone could live for the moment and die for the tomorrow that would never come until old age. An uncharacteristically glorious, jubilant ending.
But for a shinobi, that was only a false fantasy.
Rin bit her lip as she struggled with her inner turmoil. Obito had literally just been buried under piles of rubble and now Kakashi was nonchalantly attempting to nobly sacrifice his own life for her own. Why did the two boys have to go so far to protect her? After all, she was the medic that should have been saving them. How ridiculous.
"Then, Kakashi!" Rin cried as she prepared herself for a confession worse than death. "My feelings for you-"
"I... I was once the kind of trash that would abandon you."
I don't deserve your love.
The medic had always been expecting a nonreciprocal answer, but this had been uncalled for. Kakashi's reply revealed more than she wanted to know. In his eyes, before Obito's death, she had been disposable, an excessive piece of baggage once she failed to carry her own weight. She may have provided medical assistance, but aside from applying bandages and healing minor wounds, she had proven herself useless on this mission, the one that had counted the most. A medic's sole duty to her team was to keep her comrades alive. She had failed, as simple as that.
Yet, now Kakashi wanted nothing more than to protect her, give up his own life to save her own. This was something Rin had always dreamed of.
But why wasn't it like a dream? Why was this like a-
Nightmare.
The Iwa ninja sprang from their positions and leaped towards the two exhausted teenagers. The chidori screamed at the advancing enemies, failing to faze the heartless attackers. Kakashi raised his encrypted kunai as Obito's sharingan spun wildly.
"Rin, run!" he cried, as his teammate shakily rose to her feet.
Unable to conceal his anxiety, Kakashi's mismatched eyes fiercely glared at the medic, urgently telling her to move faster and out run Death. But his attention was immediately grabbed by the three approaching Iwa ninja.
His sharingan eye detected the subtle movement of his enemies' formation pattern. As he deflected the barrage of kunai, Kakashi nimbly dodged a blow from behind. Seeing an opening from his attacker, he dug his chidori into one of the Iwa ninja, immediately cutting down their numbers by one. The remaining fizzling lightning chakra slowly faded away as Kakashi forcefully jerked his arm out of the man's chest. Wasting no time, Kakashi quickly placed a few paper bombs on the corpse and shoved it at the other two.
Reacting faster than the two fazed Iwa ninja, Kakashi grabbed Rin by her hand and pulled her away from the explosion. However, because he knew that he was reaching his limits and would not be able to completely avoid the blow, Kakashi covered his teammate's body with his own as he allowed the backfire to provide some distance between him and the enemies.
Kakashi gasped from the sudden impact of the hard floor with his back. The two tumbled into the raw dirt, mud collecting on every possible area of their bodies. Breathing heavily from near chakra exhaustion, Kakashi shakily pushed himself up, once again showing his back to Rin, ready to give up his life a thousand times to keep her alive.
Rin's eyes gazed sorrowfully at her crush's darkened, blood stained shirt.
"Kakashi, please stop! No more! I don't want anyone else dying for me!" she cried as streams of tears dripped down her face. Through her blurred vision, she could see the Iwa ninja slowly surrounding them, carefully planning out their next move to avoid more unnecessary injuries. She was unable to hold back the sob that escaped her lips.
Rin was not quite sure if she was scared to die. Maybe her tears beckoned Death to come, yearned for it to grasp her hand so that all this suffering and pain would vanish along with her existence.
"Sorry, Rin," Kakashi said as he tilted his head to the side, showing her a closed scarred eye, indicating a small, broken smile. "Those in the ninja world who break the rules are trash. But those that abandon their comrades are even worse trash. I'm not going to revert back to being scum."
"Why?" she asked. It was the only word she could manage to whisper in her raspy voice. "Why do you have to do this?"
"Because I made a promise. Although I've made so many inadequate mistakes with my misguided attitude, I still remain as a shinobi, and as a shinobi, I will never break my promise." Kakashi wearily turned his head back, his burning sharingan eye once again facing his sneering enemies. Obito's gift was definitely draining his chakra much faster than he would have liked it to. At this rate, I won't last much longer.
As the Iwa ninja formation approached the two, Kakashi ignited the chidori again. The ninja in the front line drew out his kunai, aiming it precisely at the young boy's head. Saved by the sharingan twice in counting, Kakashi nimbly slid under the assault and slashed the man with his encrypted kunai. Once the body descended to the ground, the jounin found the other two Iwa ninja inches away from his left and right sides with a kunai in one hand and a hand sign in the other. Kakashi's haggard body disobeyed his immediate command to evade the attack, allowing the two men an opening.
Kakashi winced as a blow landed on his right side. Clumsily attempting to make a counter move, he swiped his chidori at the man, who managed to leap away, leaving Kakashi behind with the other's comrade.
Doton: Doryuusou! (Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears)
Crap, I fell for the diversion! Kakashi bit his lip in annoyance as the condensed mud lurched out of the ground. With the help of the mirror wheel eye, Kakashi predicted where the spikes would rise and cautiously danced around the technique until he reached the jutsu's performer, escaping the move with only a few grazes. The jounin plunged his arm at the horror stricken face, ready to feel raw flesh. But the chidori's bare cry abruptly vanished, leaving Kakashi powerless to kill. The Iwa ninja gaped in shock as Kakashi realized that his technique had been unwillingly terminated. Using the sharingan was too taxing; his chakra pool had been completely depleted.
Kakashi's sluggish body gave his enemy enough time to grasp his hand with their own. Refusing to lose, Kakashi stubbornly maneuvered his body until the Iwa ninja lost his foot placement. Skillfully using his enemy's weight against him, Kakashi flipped the man onto his back. The kunai in his hand glistened in the shadowy forest as he adjusted his grip onto the tool.
His trail of thought came to a halt when he heard Rin's sudden gasp. Turning his gaze to the medic, a low growl formulated in his throat as Kakashi watched his teammate successfully dodge a kick from another Iwa ninja. Redirecting his aim, Kakashi forcefully threw his kunai at the ignoramus, who had dared to attack his comrade. His weapon landed with a thunk on a tree, centimeters away from the assaulter's nose. Just as Minato had stated, the irregular shape of the tool had made it slightly awkward to handle.
"Face the facts, kid. You've reached your limits."
Kakashi blinked as he felt the Iwa ninja slam his elbow into his chest. Before the pain registered into his blurred mind, the young jounin was roughly pushed to the hard, dirt floor. As he realized that the man on top of him had grasped his right hand, Kakashi awkwardly struggled to reach his back pouch with his free arm. Noticing his feeble efforts, the Iwa ninja scoffed and stomped his foot on the boy's hand, effectively halting it's movements.
Kakashi grunted as he attempted to twist his arms free from his captor. But within seconds, the jounin found two more Iwa ninja holding him down, one pushing his face to the floor while the other restrained his legs.
Frustration built inside of the boy. They could have obviously killed him at this moment, but instead, they were constraining his movements, no doubt saving him as a liable information source for later. But at the moment, Kakashi could care less. He was not concerned about his own safety, only about a certain medic's. After all, he'd prefer not to break his promise that had been made only ten minutes ago.
His sharingan eye spun wildly as he fruitlessly fought against the three Iwa ninja. He could hear shuffling, struggling, gasps. Weapons clashing, flesh tearing.
And his own heart pounding against his chest.
Rin, why isn't she running? Why does it sound like she's fighting? Why is she still here?
"Damn it," Kakashi whispered under his breath. Summoning the last drops of his chakra, sparks began to fly out of his right hand.
But the stimulation only made his captors secure their grasps even more rigidly.
For the first time since his father's death, he felt panic surge through his entire body, numbing every other stimuli. His breath grew sharper, his pupils became dilated. The sharingan began to still; his limbs felt frail.
I have to protect her. I can't let her die. His mind began to fog as his vision wavered. The sound of blood rushing to his ears was the only noise he could distinguish from his surroundings.
He could feel it slipping.
Everything plunging into a dark abyss.
xxxxxxx
Am I dead?
His sharingan softly opened and met the star filled night sky. Why was hell so beautiful?
"You're awake," Kakashi heard as he weakly turned his head to face his teacher. Minato's warm smile greeted his sluggish student, who slowly realized that he was still very much alive.
"Sensei?!" Kakashi shot up from the rock and gaped at his teacher, confusion written all over his face. "But, how?"
Minato lifted his signature three pronged kunai. "The design on the kunai allows me to use my body flicker technique. It's the mark I place to utilize my jutsu."
"Then the enemy?" Kakashi asked, as if he didn't know the answer.
"I defeated them all," Minato replied.
Kakashi's eyes softened; he had survived. But then...
"Rin! What about Rin?" The panic he had experienced a few moments earlier resurfaced.
Minato quietly pointed out into the open field, where the medic silently stood, staring at the broad, star lit sky. "I'm sorry that I wasn't in time, Kakashi. I heard everything from Rin."
Kakashi's body stiffened.
She's over there. She's standing out there. Then... she's... The young jounin sighed, slightly relieved that his female teammate was in one piece.
"Sensei, I'm sorry." Minato's eyes stilled, already knowing what his student was about to say. "Not only did I fail the mission, but I let Obito die. I miscalculated multiple times and placed my teammates' lives in jeopardy. I'll take full responsibility for the failure of the mission."
It's all my fault anyways.
"The mission isn't over." Kakashi met his teacher's lighthearted grin, sharingan peering meekly at the Yellow Flash. "Obito might be gone, but we can still finish the mission. Since my assignment on the front has been accomplished, I can accompany the two of you into enemy territory."
Minato's hand found itself gently ruffling Kakashi's silver hair. "We'll finish what you and Obito started."
The young jounin replied with a slight nod and rubbed his scarred eye. He'd be damned if he let Obito's sacrifice go to waste.
Placing his gaze back on Rin, Kakashi lithely pushed his teacher's hand aside and wearily stood on his feet. "I'm going to talk to her."
Minato felt a light smile tug at the edge of his mouth as he watched his young commander stumble towards the female medic ninja. In the past, Kakashi would apathetically disregard his teammates, believing that they were failed ninja tools. But now...
He's grown.
Kakashi stood a few feet away from Rin. His left eye itched with anxiety as he determined the right words to use. He had never comforted a person in his life. How was he suppose to help his teammate cope with their friend's death? After all, he also found it hard to believe that Obito was gone.
"Rin," Kakashi murmured, hoping that the medic had heard. Sure enough, he found his female teammate turning towards his direction. She appeared to fumble with her actions as she realized that Kakashi was standing directly behind her.
"Kakashi!" Rin cried as she threw her arms around the jounin. After recovering from the sudden body contact, the teenage boy inelegantly returned the embrace.
"You're reckless, just like Obito. You could have died if you kept fighting," Rin whispered.
"I had to," was Kakashi's simple answer as he gently nudged Rin out of the hug. "If I hadn't fought, we both might not even be here."
Rin bit her lip and gazed at the wallowing grass below them.
"Kakashi, I'm sorry." The jounin raised an eyebrow at the statement.
"I'm sorry. If I had realized that he was behind me, if I hadn't been captured by them, Obito might still be here," Rin said. She brought her quivering arms to her chest, cradling them against her body. "I should have been able to heal him. I should have been able to save him."
She could remember Obito's blood covered body smashed under the large boulder. If only she had tried harder, maybe she could have saved him. No, it wasn't impossible. Of course it wasn't...
"... not your fault," Rin felt Kakashi's hands pry her own away from her tightened chest. "It's not your fault. You're not a miracle worker. Not even the skillful Tsunade-sama could have saved Obito."
"You don't know that," Rin quietly muttered, weakly fighting back the tears that beckoned to fall from her tired eyes.
"Yeah, I don't really know. I don't know if I'm really qualified to be a jounin commander. I don't know if I'm strong enough to protect you. I don't even know if I'll live to see tomorrow. But there are a few things that I do know." Kakashi gently tilted Rin's face upward, making sure that she was listening.
"I know that I'm alive; that you're alive. I know that your medical gift pack saved me from immediate death when I lost my eye. I know that you're an amazing medical ninja that implanted a part of Obito inside of me. I know that your hands saved me from near death time and time again. I even know that you love me." Kakashi's eyes softened as he watched the tears trail down the medic ninja's cheeks.
"And I definitely know that it's not your fault."
Rin stifled a sob as she buried her flooded eyes into Kakashi's black shirt. She felt his arms awkwardly encircle her body, pulling her closer to his body.
Kakashi wanted to apologize. He wanted to say that it was his fault, take all the blame because he knew that he was the real culprit for Obito's death. But instead, he guiltily held Rin in his arms and gazed at the sparkling sky.
"The stars are so beautiful tonight, right?"
And some how, he felt rain falling from the clear sky onto his left eye.