Author's Note: Ok guys, time for another Kakashi Gaiden fic, which has been so lovingly crafted for you. Please share any praise you may have with the lovely snappa, who has so kindly beta'd and provided a good ending for this fic. :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
The day of Obito's funeral had been a rather sunny day, much to most of the guests' dismay. Here they were, sweating like pigs in their black clothing, standing around the tombstone of a boy that had arguably taken a little of Konoha's light with him when he'd left the world. Always smiling and cheerful to his friends yet determined and dangerous to his enemies, he was considered one of Konoha's young elites and everyone in the city seemed to mourn for his death. Everyone that is, except the main branch of his clan.
Arriving at the funeral, Inuzuka Rin could see a small crowd of people gathered around the tombstone, most of them Uchiha. To her soft brown eyes this was a confusing sight for they seemed to be standing separate from everyone else and the only two that were integrated with the citizens were his parents. Turning her gaze towards the sky, she noted how the weather was unusually sunny that day and that pleased her for it was something reminiscent of Obito's personality, a sign that in some way, he may still be with them. Upon spotting a head of blonde hair (which stuck out in the sea of black-haired Uchiha) she walked moderately to where her remaining two teammates were standing.
Her sensei had given her a small smile before reverting his attention to the tombstone in front of him and Kakashi had barely acknowledged her presence at all, giving only a brief nod while still staring dazedly, almost disbelievingly, at the name written on the stone and the bright orange goggles that were placed on the soil, atop Obito's final resting place.
The local religious figure said his piece about Obito being a good young man who was always helpful, etc. etc. but it seemed that none of the words reached the crowd of people; most were so in awe at the situation that they looked like zombies entranced by the pale grey of the gravestone. The service passed by rather quickly, only a few select citizens going up to speak their words of praise and remembrance, avoiding the glares they were receiving from the main branch of the clan. Rin listened to their words on and off, paying more attention to her rambling thoughts and replaying memories.
After an hour, most of the citizens had left and the only few that were still there were Team Yellow Flash, Obito's parents and some of his cousins in the main clan. Team Yellow Flash stood in the centre, all appearing to be lost in thought, to their right stood Obito's parents obviously devastated by their only son's death and to the left of Team Yellow Flash were those few select cousins.
Rin had heard them mildly snickering throughout the service and while she found it quite rude, she just decided to ignore it, thinking that they were just telling each other jokes or gossip to pass the time. She only became offended and angered when she realized that the group was snickering about Obito and confessing to each other what a loser they thought he had been and how much of a disgrace and a liability he'd been before dying. "He never fit in."
"He showed too much emotion."
"He was a little, disgraceful cry baby."
Those were just a few of the phrases she'd heard them uttering and threw them a look of disgust, hoping they'd catch the gist and stop with their insulting ramblings. They didn't. In fact, when they noticed Rin's gaze upon them, they made the comments even cruder and spoke even louder so that she could hear them more clearly than she liked.
Angered by what she was hearing, Rin clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to ignore the idiotic teenagers to her left. The atmosphere was for the most part peaceful, albeit a bit tense and Rin really didn't want to end up making a huge scene and cause commotion at her best friend's funeral; she found such a thing one of the highest levels of disrespect that could be shown and Obito deserved nothing less than her best behaviour. Still, to hear them talking about him in that way made her blood boil in ways she'd never thought possible. Finally, she was unable to endure it any longer and something inside her just snapped.
Marching menacingly over to the huddled group, Rin looked fiercely into what appeared to be the main instigator's eyes. She glared.
He smirked.
She slapped him, the sound reverberating in the air, snapping all the others attending out of their memorial trances and making them look towards her. "Don't you dare talk like that about Obito! You're the disgrace! He was much too good for your clan anyway!" Rin roared hysterically at the boy she'd just hit.
The young man just stared disbelievingly at her for a few moments, before his cold black eyes hardened and became tinted with violent anger. "Why you little bitch!" He made a move to hit her back, but found he could not and upon looking up, was met with another coal eye: the coal eye of Hatake Kakashi.
"Don't you dare touch her," he spoke slowly, seething at the Uchiha before him. Kakashi had promised to protect her and that promise included the destruction of anyone who would even think of harming her. On any normal day he would have had no qualms about knocking the Uchiha flat on his back, daring him to try something like that again, but this was no ordinary day. In respect for Obito, he let the incident slide, only telling the instigator and his buddies to leave the grounds.
Although technically they were Uchiha and pretty much owned the grave, none of them really wanted to mess with an angry Hatake Kakashi so they did as they were commanded, and left the service, glaring at all those that remained.
As they disappeared out of sight, Kakashi turned back to Rin. "What the hell was that?" he furiously inquired.
"I-I'm sorry," she replied guiltily, "but the way they were talking about Obito, as if he was nothing; I couldn't just let it slide Kakashi. It's not ok for them to do that."
"You should have just ignored them," he told her, more coldly than he'd intended.
Her eyes flashed dangerously at his statement and it quickly became obvious that he'd said something to upset her. "Well I'm sorry we can't all be unfeeling bastards like you!" She yelled at him, tears falling as she looked remorsefully back at Obito's grave. "Sorry," she whispered to the deceased boy before running off.
Kakashi looked as if he was about to tear all his hair out, and the others at the gravesite all took it as a sign to leave. His sensei, Konoha's Yellow Flash, paid his last respects to Obito along with the boy's parents and escorted them away from the site. By this time the once blue sky had turned dark grey, clouds of gloom and anger and fury hanging overhead.
Once everyone had gone out of sight, Kakashi let out a long, frustrated scream. How could it be like this? Obito's funeral was supposed to be perfect: quiet, calm, and depressing: a memorial fit for a hero. It wasn't supposed to be angry, with fighting and yelling and blatant insults. How could they have done this!? These people, who claimed to be his friends and family, had screwed everything up! Well, everything was screwed up to begin with, Kakashi decided. Obito wasn't supposed to be dead. Parents shouldn't be burying their children; it was all so wrong. And that's what irked him most about this whole situation: that it was so wrong. Nothing like this should have ever happened. Why did it happen? Because he hadn't agreed with Obito, because he'd been stupid.
All at once, the corrupting complexity and deafening depression over took him, sending his mind reeling and his head spinning. Violent scenes replayed themselves before his eyes, ruthlessly attacking his conscience. The sheer force of the imagery and the sound of Rin's pained shrieks calling to Obito resounding in his ears were enough to knock him on his knees and leave him breathless.
He leaned with his back on the side of the grave, the stone cooling his heated body. Putting his head in his hands, he let his fingers rub furiously at his right eye, which was tearing up almost as much as his left eye –the Sharingan eye- was. When both eyes managed to finally stop crying, he glanced around the memorial site and saw that there was still no one near him. He took this opportunity to talk to Obito, tell him all the things he'd been meaning to and apologize for the screwups. He didn't know if the boy could hear him but he had a feeling that wherever Obito was, he was listening. Thus, he began.
"I'm sorry. If I would have just listened to you, this never would have happened. You'd still be here if it weren't for me…oh man, you really taught me some things you know that? I used to think shinobi were just tools used by Konoha, not people, and that there was never anything more important than completing the mission. Did I ever have my ideals wrong or what? Huh, I was always yelling at you for being so stupid but I couldn't even see that it was me who was the stupid one. People always called me the genius. What does that even mean? I don't know and I don't even care anymore. It's not important to me. My team is important and protecting my friends is important; I am so sorry your life was taken in order for me to finally understand that.
You should be here, not me. I'm not good for anything; I'm the one who should be in that grave. You always brought people happiness Obito, and I can't compete with that. I have nothing of the sort to offer. Hell, I can't even keep my teammates satisfied. I know that if you were here right now you'd probably be yelling at me-"
He stopped speaking abruptly as he heard another voice enter the conversation. 'Yelling at you, Kakashi? For what? What did you do?'
Kakashi's eye widened as he realized whose voice it was. "Obito?" he began to look around frantically for any sign of where the voice was coming from. The boy in question gave a sigh. 'I'm in your head, Kakashi.'
Now that was a frightening thought. "What are you doing in my head?" he questioned, and if anyone had looked in on the scene, they would have concluded that Hatake Kakashi had finally cracked under the pressure.
'I don't know; I think I have replaced your conscience… But what did you do that I'm going to be yelling at you for?'
"I-I upset Rin again."
'You what?! Kakashi, you jerk! You better go find her and apologize right now!'
"She slapped one of your cousins. They were making fun of you and she slapped them. It disturbed the whole atmosphere of the funeral and I yelled at her for it. She got upset and left."
'She slapped them?' the dead boy's voice asked incredulously.
"Yeah."
'Wow, she's amazing,' his voice turned slightly dreamy.
"Obito, get a grip. You can't live inside my head if you're going to be like that. Either way, I'm sorry for yelling at her."
'You don't have a choice buddy! I've Sharingan'd you! I'll be in your head forever! And don't tell me that you're sorry! Tell her!'
"She ran off remember? I have no clue where she is."
'Well, then don't just sit here! Go look for her!'
"Yeah, yeah. Ok."
'And Kakashi?'
"Yeah?"
'I forgive you, my friend.'
Obito's voice left his head after that and Kakashi felt his breath hitch at the other boy's words. He forgave him? Just like that? It was impossible. Did the conversation with Obito even happen? Had Kakashi just fallen asleep and had a dream? Was the trauma of the situation finally getting to him?
Suddenly, he saw a figure walking up to the memorial stone and immediately recognized it as Rin. "Hey," she softly greeted upon reaching the grave and the place where Kakashi sat.
"Hi."
A few moments of silence passed, both looking regretfully down at the ground beneath them before they both looked up and spoke.
"I'm sorry," they had said at the same time, their voices combining.
"It's ok," the two spoke once again simultaneously.
Rin gave a light chuckle and a hint of a smile was visible behind Kakashi's mask. She then took a seat next to Kakashi, facing the tombstone of her friend and began to speak to him as well.
"I'm sorry Obito," were the first words out of her mouth. "I ruined your funeral. I know that you deserve the best of my behaviour and the most of my respect but the way that those people were talking about you; I just couldn't stand it. I almost made Kakashi break his promise to you as well, so I'm sorry for that too. Actually, I'm sorry for a lot of things. I'm sorry for not agreeing to hang out with you a few times, for ignoring you probably a little more than I should have; I'm sorry for making you worry about me and I'm sorry I got kidnapped and you and Kakashi had to come, risking your lives to save me. I wasn't worth it. But I guess what I am most sorry for is taking our friendship for granted. You were always there for me, always waiting to cheer me up and make me happy. I'm sorry I never realized how much you really meant to me and that I never really showed you that I appreciated all you did."
All the while she had been speaking, Kakashi had remained silent, wanting to make her feel that this was just a private conversation between her and Obito. Towards the end though, he felt his body give an involuntary jolt and his left hand moved up to shove the hitai-ate up and reveal his Sharingan, which was now profusely leaking tears. His stomach and throat gave a lurch, and for a few instances he gagged harshly.
"Kakashi," Rin cried, alarmed, "are you ok?"
His whole body shook violently and Rin became even more concerned. "Oh my god Kakashi! What's wrong?"
The shaking stopped. Kakashi, Sharingan eye revealed, gave her a smile behind his mask and in a voice that sounded nothing like his own and everything Obito's, he told her, "I'm fine. I just want you to know that I forgive you, Rin-chan."
Rin blinked several times, her expression betraying a mix of shock and bewilderment. "K-Kakashi?"
His body gave another violent jolt after which it seemed that Kakashi had regained possession of his body.
"Kakashi?" Rin asked, wanting an explanation to the oddity that just occurred.
Kakashi looked away to stare up at the sky, squinting through his tears to see the clouds. A smile on his face, he wiped his eyes with his right hand, placing his left on Rin's shoulder and told her, "It's okay now, Rin. He's forgiven us. We don't need to feel guilty anymore."
Rin, after staring intently at Kakashi, nodded her understanding and gazed towards the clouds with him. Obito was sitting next to them, laughing at a cloud that looked like their sensei. His laughter faded into clarity. Kakashi closed his eyes and let the air in his lungs leak out before opening his eyes with a huge breath. Rin elbowed him in the ribs.
"I think he wants us to move on."
"Mm. I don't want to forget him."
Rin picked up his hand that was on her shoulder and took it in her own, encouraging him to look at her. "No one said we have to forget him Kakashi. Besides, can you seriously imagine yourself forgetting someone like Obito?'
Kakashi smiled a little. "No, I guess not."
Author's Note: Well, that is the end! Hope you guys enjoyed it! As always, I encourage you to leave a glorious detailed review filled with lots of constructive crit. :) And again, please share any praise you may have with snappa, who has done an amazing job of beta-ing this fic and deserves just as much credit for this fic as I do Even if you just leave it in a review (your other option is to PM) please let snappa know how much you enjoyed this fic and take the time to acknowledge/appreciate all the effort that has been put in!