Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.
Warm, brown eyes with a sharp razor of a smile.
(He knew who she was instantly.)
Rough, dark curls tumbled across a pale forehead.
(So different from his jagged blades of silver.)
She knelt and swayed slightly, as though overcome with emotion.
(He wondered what she was feeling—love? Grief?)
(Guilt?)
She parted her lips and began to sing.
(The eerily familiar notes struck a chord, left him feeling young and vulnerable.)
It seemed to last a lifetime, yet only moments, all at once.
(A thousand longings bloomed on his tongue.)
The lullaby choked off by silent coughing, as blood red roses fell through her fingers.
(The blood.)
(The blood...)
(The blood!)
Kakashi's eyes jerked open as he sucked in breath.
(Gasping was beneath him.)
Slowly taking measure of his surroundings, he soundlessly slipped out of the stifling tent.
(For fresh air. He would never admit to being shaken.)
He inhaled deeply, hoping the familiar wooded scent of Konoha would assuage his senses.
(Not quite Konoha, they were still a day's journey away.)
But the air he so craved wasn't at all soothing.
(It was woody all right, but mingled with the scent of nightmares and terror and bloodbloodblood.)
He froze, utterly paralyzed with no idea why. He was a chuunin, a seasoned shinobi; yet here he stood, overwhelmed by an irrational terror he hadn't felt in years.
(Not since his father, since an eternity spent staring at a corpse cooling in a pool of-)
But he couldn't think of that now, couldn't think of that ever. Must focus on the here and now; he had a reputation to uphold, didn't he? He was the son of the White Fang.
(And the woman with the rough dark curls.)
He gritted his teeth, wretched his mind away from memories and dreams splashed with crimson paint. Here was the forest north of Konoha. Now was his team resting from their two week C-Rank turned four week nearly A-Rank.
(A familiar pattern, he would come to learn; who the hell labeled these things?)
His thoughts churned sluggishly-Obito was still snoring inside the tent they shared, their sensei asleep by the fire. Rin would be on watch. Had she encountered trouble?
(His gut clenched painfully and he could've sworn his heart skipped a beat.)
Yet another breath had him dizzy.
(Where was this scent coming from?)
Nostrils flaring, he silently followed the traces of copper and salt a little ways north of the campsite, to a figure crouched beside a small stream. He clumsily felt for a kunai, but the motion alerted the figure to his presence.
(When had he lost his stealth?)
A shuriken whistled as his stunted reflexes kicked in; distantly he noticed a few silver strands set adrift, dancing in the breeze.
(He was literally going to pieces.)
"Kakashi-kun!" Rin cried from the riverbank, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
He grunted, not ready to let down his guard.
(This was the epicenter of the scent.)
He clutched his kunai, knuckles white and palms slick with sweat.
(For tonight he felt as if he was drowning, lost, dragged by a current with a slipping grasp on reality.)
"Care to explain what you're doing?" He asked coolly.
(If there was a tremor, it was blamed on the gust of wind that howled like his nin-ken.)
Rin flushed, shifting to hide something from his view.
(What would she want to hide from him?)
"N-none of your business. As you would recall, it is my shift for watch. Everything is fine, you m-may go back to sleep," she stammered, and turned, signaling 'conversation over'.
(But not before he glimpsed the pile of blood soaked bandages.)
What?
He knew she had gotten injured during the mission; they all had-Obito especially.
(Protecting her, no doubt.)
But she was their medic, and with her help all of their wounds had been healed days ago. So how had she gotten hurt…again…unless…
(Kami, he so didn't have time for this.)
(But it was his duty, right? For the good of the team?)
He groaned audibly and sheathed his kunai.
(Best to get the sharp things out of sight.)
"Rin…" He cleared his throat. "As a fellow shinobi and member of Team Minato, I find it my duty to inform you…to tell you…it doesn't have to be this way."
Rin stared at him uncomprehendingly.
(He was trying to help her, dammit! He had heard about this at his yearly pysch evaluation; apparently it was common among civilian girls wanting an outlet for their petty stresses.)
"What I mean is…war is terrible."
(She was a medic-nin, he should have known she'd take all the killing—all the bloodshed—hardest.)
"Everyone deals with stress in different ways. We-I…have noticed that you have been rather moody lately."
(And indeed she had. Crying over a lost kunai, snapping at Obito—all very uncharacteristic of the Rin they knew. But then again…who was he to talk? This night he could barely control his own emotions, let alone try and counsel someone else on theirs.)
"But this…what you're doing…isn't healthy. There are therapists and counselors back in the village that you can talk to, that can help you—"
"Kakashi!" Rin whisper-shrieked, finally catching on. "I-my-you-not what you think!" Her face practically glowed in the darkness. "Can't a girl get any privacy? When I say 'none of your business', I mean, none of your business! Now, GO! Sleep! Before I smother you!"
(What happened to 'Kakashi-kun'?)
Bewildered and overcome by a sudden wave of exhaustion, he stared into the rage-filled eyes that were so alien in his teammate's face before trudging back to the clearing.
(What a rant…But why?)
Numbly, he climbed into his and Obito's tent.
(It could wait till morning.)
He doubted he would sleep.
(Women.)
Rin buried her face in her hands and lamented the inadequacies of kunoichi training.
AN: Hope you enjoyed it! My first story. Any feedback (even just a simple "I liked it" or "this part sucked") would be greatly appreciated.
Also, let me know if I didn't make things clear enough: The woman in the dream (my interpretation of Kakashi's mother) is and isn't canon-by that I mean she existed but I don't recall any exact description of her, so I went with my own idea of what she would be like. And with Rin-hopefully everyone caught her problem and what Kakashi mistook it for!