Please check Author's note at the end ;)

Thank you, Lohis, for helping me to correct this!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Voices I thought I would never hear again

That night Hatake Kakashi met Uchiha Obito again. At first, he wasn't so surprised. He did saw him quite often after all.

It had started a few weeks after his teammate's early death on the Kannabi Bridge mission when he and the remaining members of his team had already returned home. He had been walking out of the weapons shop, having bought some brand new shuriken, when he had caught a glimpse of a dark-haired boy with a flash of orange from the ever-present goggles on the other side of the crowded street. He had immediately rushed after him, the shuriken laying dropped and forgotten on the ground. But no matter how much he had searched, no matter how much he had called after Obito, he hadn't found a single trace of the boy.

People had been giving him pity-filled glances, but for once he hadn't cared. All that had mattered was that he'd seen Obito, seen his late teammate walking in the bright sunlight down the streets of their home village. It had taken a while for him to admit that his eyes (eye, to be precise, since his other eye, the one Obito had given him right before his demise, was safely covered under his tilted hitai-ate) had just been playing tricks on him. Obito was dead, dead. The cheerful boy's crushed remains were lying under tons of rocks and rubble in the Grass Country. There was no way anyone could survive that. Not even the stubborn Uchiha.

He had stood in the middle of the crowded street for a while before starting off towards the Memorial Stone, where he had stayed until the nightfall.

He had seen Obito quite a few times after that, but he had quickly begun to hide his reaction whenever he saw – or thought he'd seen – Obito somewhere. Sometimes he saw him in the crowd, for awhile catching a glimpse of spiky coal-colored hair. Or when he passed the Academy and glanced at the classroom windows, he would, for a second, see him sitting at a school desk, wearing a black coat with the Uchiha symbol on the back and orange goggles over his eyes. But then he would blink his eye or look again, and the boy would be gone. The crowd would be filled with people having spiky hair or raven-black hair but none of them would be Obito. The classroom would be full of kids but the desk where he'd seen Obito would be empty or used by some completely unfamiliar child.

He had never told anyone about the hallucinations (because that was what they were, he reminded himself). They didn't appear during missions when it was crucial for one to fully concentrate. Even though he had been seeing his late teammate slightly more frequently after his own team's disbanding, he had reasoned that there was no point in worrying others about something that didn't really affect his work as a shinobi. The other reason was that he didn't want to see the pity in their eyes if he could avoid it.

So he had kept quiet about his little visions, though he never really got used to seeing Obito every now and then like the kid would still be alive. Especially when he knew it was just his eyes seeing what his mind wanted them to see. Especially when he knew it was his fault that the boy hadn't lived to see the war coming to its end or how their teacher had become Hokage. Though his indifferent gaze remained unchanged, there would always be a nasty, guilty feeling in his stomach when he thought he had once again seen his dead teammate.

Now he was slowly walking down the streets of Konoha, too tired to think about anything but having a hot shower and a good night's sleep. The solo mission had been agonizingly long and tiring, and he hadn't seen his beloved home village for months. He was so glad he was back and could actually sleep tonight in a warm bed and have a decent meal tomorrow, or take a shower so long that the hot water would be all but gone. Small things, but at the same time so luxurious things.

He hadn't been hurt (badly anyway), but he was tired, oh so tired. It would be nice to finally get all the dirt off his skin and change the worn clothes he'd been wearing for far too long. Kakashi absently scratched the mask covering the lower half of his face. He couldn't wait to get the sweaty and at the moment quite uncomfortable thing off. But even if there currently was no soul in sight it didn't mean there would be no prying eyes around here somewhere. This was a ninja village after all, and most of the inhabitants were awfully curious about everything, especially about what his face looked like. He sighed and slowly ran his gloved hand through his silver hair and glanced at the darkening evening sky. He could already see the first stars' dim glow appearing.

He was dragging his feet towards his apartment at the edge of the village, when he suddenly felt a presence right next to him. He was instantly alert, but the fact that he was inside the walls of the village prevented him from snatching a kunai right away and lunging at the stranger. The presence also felt oddly familiar…

His lone gray eye quickly glanced at his right and he almost tripped over (Seriously, tripped over, he was Kakashi of the Sharingan damn it. Luckily there was nobody in sight or he would have never heard the end of it.). But there, right next to him, a boy with messy hair as black as night and screaming orange goggles over his coal-black eyes was walking with his hands in his pockets.

Uchiha Obito looked at him and grinned widely.

Kakashi blinked, and blinked again. Then he turned his gaze back forward and sighed. His little hallucinations had apparently taken an unwanted step forwards and become a lot more unsettling, since they had never been so precise. Maybe the mission had been worse for him that he had first thought. And he was very tired…

He continued making his way towards his apartment and his dead teammate followed him, walking right beside him. The evening was quiet, so very quiet. Where had all the people gone? It wasn't very late after all. For the incredibly tired Kakashi it almost felt unreal. Maybe he had passed out in the woods from pure exhaustion, and this was just a lively and very strange dream.

"So, how have you been?"

Oh my, it talks, was the first thought that drifted into the Copy Nin's weary mind. It was quickly followed with a 'Wait, what – '. But Obito – or the illusion-Obito – was talking again with an extremely loud voice that echoed in the empty streets, so he didn't get a chance to finish his thoughts.

"Well, of course I actually know a bit of how you're doing, 'cause Tsunade-sama already told me some stuff, but I guess I still had to ask 'cause it's been a long time and no see, well for you anyways. For me it was only a few weeks ago when you were complaining me for being late again and – "

Kakashi blinked again, his lone dark-gray eye still indifferent and mind blank. Okay, his analytical side said, there are currently two explanations for this: either this is some really nasty genjutsu or the last mission totally broke you and you've finally lost it. He stared at the black-haired boy, who was still rambling about their training together and how annoying Kakashi had been back then or something. Right now, he couldn't really concentrate on his teammate's words.

The silver-haired man noticed that he had actually halted and was now standing in the middle of the deserted street. The young Uchiha had also stopped walking and now stood facing him. He looked exactly like Kakashi remembered, spiky midnight-colored hair looking like it could never be tamed, big bright onyx eyes fixed on him and a wide smile on his face. Though, something in Kakashi's mind decided to remind him, back then when you two were in the same team he was usually crying or yelling at you because you just had to be the greatest idiot in whole Konoha – Kakashi forcefully brought himself back to the present. He could dwell on guilt later.

He focused on the Uchiha again and sighed mentally. It really was time to end this. There could be some enemy ninja messing with him, and that was quite a worrying thought since he was within the Fire Country's borders and inside the walls of Konoha Village itself. He should have gotten rid of the illusion right away, but he couldn't deny the fact that he had wanted to hear his late friend's voice for just a little longer, even if it was just a genjutsu or a twisted image created by his own mind.

The Copy-Nin brought one hand in front of his face and formed the right handsign while muttering "Kai" to dispel the truly confusing illusion. Then he could go home, take a long hot shower, sleep till noon and forget this whole little episode.

Nothing happened.

Obito actually laughed right at his face.

"This is no genjutsu, you silly, it's really me! Even though I don't really blame you, this is kind of weird, isn't it? I thought Tsunade-sama was going to throw a fit when she saw me. For a second I really thought they were going to hand me in to the Torture and Interrogation department or something, I'm so glad she actually believed me. She even called Jiraya-sama to meet us so they could find out what had happened to me…"

Kakashi wasn't actually listening. He just kept staring at the black-haired boy who kept talking and talking like there would be no end for it. The Copy-Nin closed his uncovered eye. That was it. He had finally gone mad. It wasn't a genjutsu, so the only option was that the remains of his sanity had finally slipped away. Great, just great. Maybe he should just turn around and head straight for the hospital, where they could find a nice little cushioned room for him.

"Hey hey, are you even listening to me?"

Kakashi blinked again and tried to clear his thoughts. Obito suddenly had a worried look in his coal-colored eyes and the boy took a step towards him.

"You okay Kakashi?" Then his friend sheepishly scratched the back of his head and grinned. "Well, I guess that's really not your fault, I mean this is so weird. You must be quite surprised to see me again, right? But this is strange for me too, you know, to see you all grown up and so different and stuff. And Tsunade-sama told me they call you the Copy-Nin nowadays!" Obito suddenly frowned and his speech slowed down a little. "She told me a lot of things that had happened here…"

Sadness flashed in the coal-black eyes and Kakashi somehow knew the boy was thinking about Rin and Minato-sensei (or he would have been thinking about them if he was real). He felt a sharp sting of guilt in his heart when he noticed a few tears streaming down the boy's face behind the goggles. Obito, always the crybaby…

Obito quickly moved the goggles to his forehead for a while so he could wipe his eyes with his sleeve. When he pulled the bright-colored goggles back to their place the grief was gone and the over-cheerful look was back in his friend's eyes, like he was determined to keep this meeting happy.

"But she also said that you were a teacher! For real! At first I was like 'That Hatake Kakashi, a teacher? How can that annoying and arrogant brat be a teacher?' But Tsunade-sama and Jiraya-sama assured that you had really changed, so maybe you are okay for that kind of work," Obito ranted with a mischievous glint in his eyes and a wide grin on his face.

Kakashi had the feeling that if anyone else in any other situation had brought his disbanded team into the conversation, he would have excused himself quite quickly. He still wasn't too eager to discuss about his failure as a teacher. But he was a little confused right now, to say the least, and Obito, or his crazy mind's picture of Obito, seemed positively enthusiastic about him being a genin team's teacher so he really couldn't mind.

Kakashi snapped back to the present when Obito waved his hand in front of his face.

"Seriously Kakashi, get a grip, will you! You haven't even said anything yet! Though Tsunade-sama might have said you could react like this…" The boy frowned again and scratched his cheek. "She might have also warned me not to just jump to meet you, but I just wanted to see you again! Especially after they had told me all that stuff about you!" Obito was smiling again like he had no care in the world. The dark-haired boy suddenly grabbed his arm and started dragging him towards the Village center.

"Come on now, let's go grab something to eat! The Ichiraku's should still be open, so I can tell you everything while we're eating! It's a good story, really. Tsunade-sama and Jiraya-sama already explained me some things, they were talking something about separate timelines or things like that, I didn't really understand it all but still, you have to hear it!"

Obito continued talking while dragging Kakashi towards the Ichiraku ramen stand. The sound of the boy's rambling was so familiar, and Kakashi couldn't understand how he could have back then found Obito's chatter annoying. A death of a friend probably did that to you. Obito's non-stop rambling was something he had thought he would never hear again. He closed his uncovered eye and it curved happily, telling that he was smiling behind the ever-present mask. Maybe he'd drop by Tsunade tomorrow and find out if he was still right in the head. But regardless if this was true or not, he would just go along with it for now.

"Alright Obito. This one's on me then."

Reviews and feedback will be more than appreciated!

AN: Okay, so this is my first fan fiction story ever. If you had asked me a few months ago, I would have told you that I would never write fan fiction. It just felt kind of wrong to write a story about characters that weren't mine. But then I got an idea for a one-shot and it just wouldn't leave me alone. So here I am, and I must say I really enjoyed writing this! I've read much Naruto fan fiction lately and I like time travel fics a lot, so I wanted to write a little different time travel story. Or at least I haven't come across a story like this before. But I really hope you liked this story and thank you so much for reading this!

EDIT: Thank you for all the reviews and favorites! I'm really glad you liked the story. Well, I actually have a few ideas for a sequel, but it will probably be another one-shot. I still haven't ruled out the thought of writing a longer story with a similar idea, but I can't promise you anything. And I won't be writing a sequel right away as I'm concentrating on other stories at the moment, so be patient. ;)

If there are any mistakes or errors, please tell me ;)