Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Left Behind
After the Yondaime's death, the remnants of his team falls apart. The initial causes are simple enough—Konoha is ruined, and there is work to be done. Kakashi goes off to ANBU, to shoulder the grim, never-ending missions that bring in the money and future missions which feed and clothe the village for months to come. Rin stays behind to heal and rebuild, and raise a baby boy with a seal on his belly and sunshine in his smile. Kakashi's grieving in his own way, but she'll wait for him. She's always been the one to pick up the pieces, after all.
It's only when she and Naruto visit him in the hospital and he stares at them with cold, numb eyes that have nothing to do with the bandages around his chest does she begin to understand that his soul's in too many pieces to fix.
She tries anyway.
Years go by, and they see each other less and less. Kakashi takes Obito's eye and makes a name for himself that has nothing to do with the ghosts of his clan, and Rin begins to find peace in the world. She is, at heart, a kind and gentle girl, and life is much more rewarding when she can heal without killing and no longer has to force her smiles .
Naruto looks more like his father every day.
Rin wonders if this is why Kakashi never visits.
At seventeen, Kakashi is already a legend. Rin is in love. Not with Kakashi—she's always loved him, but by now she's old enough to understand that Kakashi lives for his ghosts, and she made peace with hers a long time ago. Life is too short to waste on waiting. Sarutobi Kazoku has quiet eyes and kind hands, and when he smiles, her world stands still. It's not the best reason to marry someone, but it's enough for her.
Kakashi doesn't come to their wedding. He's in another country, washing the blood of enemy jounin off his fists and wishing the sharingan didn't give him perfect memories of Rin's smile.
Two years later, Rin and Kazoku are on a diplomatic mission to Stone, when everything that could possibly go wrong does, and they are pressed back to back against unyielding stone with only death before them. Kazoku has a fistful of kunai in each hand—the last of his emergency supply, and most of the blood on his clothing is his own. Despite her lack of weapons there are just as many dead ninja at Rin's feet as at her husband's; at heart she is a kind and gentle girl, but her soul is kunoichi.
They have nowhere to run, and in the darkness, the enemy is lurking. There's no hope of rescue either; only them and three days' of hard running to the closest border.
Besides, neither of them have a habit of running away from their ghosts.
Kazoku smiles at her around the kunai clenched between his teeth, and Rin when smiles back, it's enough. They turn to face death together, without hesitation. For ninja, theirs is a love story.
Kakashi arrives too late. Kazoku is already dead, and Rin's nearly joined him. He crouches behind her and holds her hand, because she's too far gone to see him. She has enough time to squeeze back and smile before she dies, and Kakashi thinks it might be the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Obito's eye promises to remember—but it's Kakashi's own eye that supplies the tears.
Three days, later, he resigns as Captain and leaves ANBU altogether.
Kakashi is a man who lives for his ghosts, and his newest one made peace with hers a long time ago.
Life is too short to waste on waiting.