Well, I am pretty dang proud of myself. It's been awhile since I have been able to sit down and write anything of substantial length. Here we go! This will be a multi chapter fic. It is an AU, in which Obito was not crushed by rocks in Iwa, but Kakashi still had to kill Rin. It is the slowest of slow burns. They are traumatized 13 years olds in the beginning, after all. I'm not putting romance in for a while. Let me know what you think of the characterization. I find Obito somewhat difficult to write, as I am chaging everything that made him the crazy plant dude we know and love.
It was raining.
It had been raining on the day she died (the day Kakashi killed her), as well. It angered Obito more than it really should. He felt like it was some kind of scene out of one of those crappy corner store novels, rain during a funeral. Would have gone with some kind of description of tears watering the earth, or something equally trite.
He felt tears begin to slide down his cheeks, the heat a stark contrast to the cold rain falling around him. Various black clad figures walked by him as the service ended, friends from the academy and jonin alike giving him small gestures of caring, a squeeze on the arm or pat on the head. He couldn't bring himself to respond, couldn't tear hiss eyes away from the freshly dug earth where Rin's body lay, deep in the ground.
Eventually Minato sensei and Kushina got him to leave the grave, brought him back to their apartment, despite his protests that he wanted to be alone. They filled him with tea and Kushina shoved bowlfuls of stew at him. He ate them, despite his knotted stomach and her less than amazing cooking skills. After a few attempts at small talk from Kushina (which ended in awkward silence), Minato spoke.
"Get any word from 'kashi?"
Obito stiffened, his jaw clenching.
"No." He answered, his voice tight. He heard Minato sigh deeply.
"I wonder where he is…."
Obito snorted, despite himself. "Who knows? Probably off killing something, he's so good at it."
"Obito!" Minato's voice rang across the table, sharp and angry. Obito didn't look at him, electing to pick bits of skin off of his finger, watching his cuticles bleed.
(Rin used to heal his hands for him.)
He didn't need to look up to know he was being glared at.
"You really think that Kakashi wanted this? You think he did this on purpose? He didn't want Rin hurt any more than you did. She made a choice. She chose to save this village. She gave her life for her people, and I will not let you shame her bravery." Minato said, his voice cold, the kind of tone he only ever used in battle or when threatening an enemy.
Obito stood from the table. He was, in all honesty, too tired to fight.
"Thank you for the food, Kushina-san. I'll be going now." He said, leaving the table.
He heard her call after him, but ignored it.
He just wanted to go home.
He made his way out of the apartment, down the winding streets of the village, and up the side of the mountain to where the compound lay.
He knew that the Hatake compound was on the other side, but he doubted Kakashi was there.
When he reached the gates, he walked undisturbed past the guards. The compound was mostly silent, everyone asleep and indoors, no one outside but a few on patrol. His house was west of the gate, where the other single person houses lay, full of widows and those too committed to their work to marry. And Obito.
He unlocked the door, fumbling in the rain. It was dry inside, and when he walked in he saw that someone (probably Mikoto) had left him a bowl of stew, and a plate of his favorite dumplings.
He walked right past them, and pulled his futon from the cupboard. Pulling off his funeral clothes, he collapsed right onto it, falling asleep immediately.
Obito was awoken the next morning by knocking at the door. He blinked at it blearily, before pulling himself upright and going to answer it. He was greeting by his sensei, looking exponentially less like a ray of sunshine than usual.
"Morning, Obito. He have a mission, we've run out of days off." He said, making an obvious attempt to sound cheerful. Obito appreciated the effort, as bad as it was.
"Right." He said, sounding noticeably groggy. "I'll be out in a minute, just let me change."
He closed the door, and went to go put on his new mission clothes. He had decided to just start wearing his chunin flak jacket, keeping only his orange goggles from his old outfit.
His obsession with bright colours seemed pretty stupid, now.
As he was strapping on his holster, and thought crossed his mind that made him freeze.
He had a mission.
A team mission.
A team mission that meant Kakashi was going to be there.
Well, shit. What was he supposed to do with that? What was he supposed to say to him? 'Hey, how's it going, stick your hand through any more chests recently?'
Should he say anything at all? He would have to at some point, unless one of them died within the next few hours. Which, Obito thought, was not entirely unlikely, and may not be entirely unpleasant.
With a sigh, he went back outside, and followed Minato out of the compound, all the way down to the village gates. A familiar shock of silver hair was waiting for them, and Obito felt his gut tighten.
Kakashi looked different. His old blue headband was gone, replaced by a black one with extra fabric to be tilted down over his right eye (what was left of it, anyhow.) His old metal armguards were gone, replaced by new ones that came in one piece rather than separate rectangles of metal. Of course his old chakra blade was gone, courtesy of the same Iwagakure shinobi who claimed his eye.
Obito didn't feel guilty about the eye, anymore.
"Are we leaving?" Kakashi said, his voice as blank as ever, with that same vague undertone of annoyance.
Obito grit his teeth. It angered him just to hear Kakashi talk.
"Yeah, I'll brief you two on the way, it's nothing complicated. No front line work today." Minato said, leading them out of the gate. Obito walked behind Kakashi, glaring at his back.
Minato explained the mission as they walked, and Obito tried to pay attention. They were going towards the north border of fire country, to have a "discussion" (which would probably end in violence because Obito's life sucked) with a small time war lord about some trades. Minato was going to debate, Obito and Kakashi were there as backup in case things went sour.
It was going to be a two or three day mission, but they would only be travelling for about six hours each way. Which, in Obito's opinion, was twelve hours longer then he wanted to spend on the road with Kakashi anyway.
They walked for about three hours before stopping to eat. For once it wasn't crappy field rations, as Kushina had packed them some onigiri and fried tofu. Definitely better than the instant field rations they usually had on missions (and which were, as far as he could tell, the only thing Kakashi ate when left to his own devices.)
They ate quickly, and kept walking. They made it to the manor of the lord about an hour before nightfall, and Obito still hadn't spoken to Kakashi, Kakashi hadn't spoken at all, and Minato had given up on trying to make any form of conversation with the two of them.
The house was huge, and they were given a large guest room with three thick futons already laid out on the ground, and assurance that food was being brought to them. After laying down his things in the room, Minato left to begin speaking with the lord of the house, and giving Kakashi and Obito leave for the rest of the evening. Meaning that they were left alone in the large room, which was slowly being permeated by the most awkward silence Obito had ever experienced.
"I'll take the first watch." Kakashi eventually said, after meticulously laying out and repacking his weapons and supplies.
"No." Obito said, quickly. Too quickly. He saw Kakashi's visible silver eyebrow raise.
"Fine. You take it then. Don't fall asleep again." Kakashi said, his voice blank.
Obito was suddenly very uncomfortable. "No, I- I'm sleeping outside. Need air."
He really, really didn't want to be asleep at the same time as Kakashi. Or in the same room. Or be vulnerable in any way around Kakashi. Not while the image of his team mate sticking his hand through Rin's chest was still fresh in his mind. Obito grabbed his back and sleeping roll, and quickly made his way out of the sliding door, slamming it behind him.
Obito breathed in the cool night air, glad to be out of the room.
God, what was he supposed to do? How could he be on a team with Kakashi? It might be easier, he supposed, if the guy showed anything approaching emotion. If he was in some kind of distress over the fact that he had killed his supposed friend. It seemed like he didn't care, and Obito didn't know how he was supposed to deal with that.
He eventually settled down on the balcony outside the room, spreading his bedroll out on the floor. It pained him to abandon the luxurious futons that the manor had provided, but at least he could spread his bed roll on even ground.
Obito slept fitfully that night, awaking several times. If Kakashi had stuck to his plan of keeping watch, he never woke Obito up. Maybe the guy didn't sleep? Who knew any more.
He awoke the next morning sore and stiff. Stretching and yawning, Obito gathered up his things and stood outside the door to the room. With a deep breath, he opened the door and stepped in.
Kakashi was seated on the bed, shirtless and wrapping combat bandages around one wrist.
"Have a comfortable night?" Kakashi says, not turning around. Obito takes satisfaction in the fact that the gash across his shoulder blade from the Kiri mission hasn't entirely healed.
"Yes." Obito replies, indignant. "Are we meeting sensei this morning?"
Kakashi nodded, and pulled his shirt on. "If this morning's discussions go well then we leave tonight."
Obito didn't, electing to leave the room in search of Minato. After wandering around for a while, he made his way to the great hall of the manor, where sensei and the lard of the house appeared to be talking and eating breakfast.
"Ah, Obito! Lord Fujian and I were just preparing to wrap up our discussions from yesterday. We should be on the road by this afternoon." Minato said, as he noticed Obito enter. Before he could respond, Obito was pulled forward by a girl in a decorative kimono, and led to the table, were a tray of food was put in front of him.
"Um, thanks? He said, as the girl smiled and bowed, before leaving the hall. He turned to Minato. "So we go home today?"
Minato nodded. "Yeah, this afternoon. Mind telling Kakashi?"
Obito sighed. He should have known Minato would find some reason for Obito to have to talk to Kakashi, and he knew there was no way to get out of it without being rude in front of the Lord.
"Yeah. Fine." Obito said. He then focused on devouring his breakfast, therefore halting any further conversation directed at him. A few minutes later, Kakashi entered the Hall.
"Ah, good morning, 'Kashi! I was just going to ask Obito to go get you. Since you're here, I can tell you, we are leaving this afternoon.
"I see." Kakashi replied, not chastising Minato for using his nickname on a mission, like he usually would.
Obito glowered at the polished oak table as Kakashi sat down in front of him.
"You two should stay for the rest of the talks." Minato said, after their trays had been cleared off. "It will be good for you both to get a taste of how real politics work."
Obito refrained from mentioning how the actual likelihood of either he or Kakashi needing that knowledge any time soon was incredibly slim, given the fact that their generation had the highest mortality rate of any since the Uchiha-Senju wars. That comment would only be met with a disappointed sigh, which he didn't want.
He resigned himself to talks of trade for the next few hours.
As promised, the talks finished by early afternoon, and they were packed up and on the road shortly after. The trip back to the village was uneventful; Minato attempted small talk, Obito ignored Kakashi, Kakashi walked ahead and ignored everything. Same as most trips were, really, except-
Without Rin.
Obito wondered when her absence would stop hitting him like a punch to the gut multiple times daily. When every little thing would stop reminding him of her. Gods, he hoped it would be soon.
It was getting dark when they finally made it back into the village.
"Hey, you two want to grab some ramen with me? I bet Ichiraku's is still open." Minato said after they left the security check at the gates. Without reply, Kakashi walked away.
Deciding to not be that much of a jerk, Obito turned to his sensei.
"Actually, Minato sensei, I think I'm just going to turn in early tonight. I'm pretty tired." Obito replied.
"Oh. Well, next time then." Minato said, smiling.
Obito gave what he hoped was a convincing smile back, and turned around, heading in the direction of the Uchiha compound.
If nothing else, he wouldn't have to sleep outside.
Obito didn't see Kakashi again for the next few days. Apparently he had been taken off of combat duty for the next week, until he got used to fighting with one eye.
Obito, for his part, had spent the time training. He knew that they would be back on active duty as soon as Kakashi was deemed remotely capable of aiming accurately. He had found a good training partner in Hayate, who was also off duty until Raidou's leg healed.
The two of them had always gotten along in the academy, neither of them ever considered particularly gifted. Obito liked hanging out with Hayate. His dry sense of humor took getting used to, but once you did his sarcastic comments were hilarious.
Plus, he didn't look at Obito sadly or try to be sympathetic, which was refreshing.
It was on one of his days heading to a training field with Genma, five days into team seven's suspension, that he saw Kakashi again. He was in the field that Obito and Hayate had been using for the past while, throwing kunai at a target with accuracy that someone with one eye really shouldn't have.
Hayate made a small huffing sound and prepared to leave, but Obito grabbed his arm.
"C'mon, this is our field. We've been using it all week." He said, tugging on his friend's arm.
"It doesn't matter, there are lots of fields. Side's, isn't he training to deal with his injury? We shouldn't interrupt." Hayate replied, sounding mildly confused as to why Obito wanted to stop Kakashi.
"Yeah, well, I like this field." He said, and before Hayate could reply, Obito strode out.
"Oi, Kakashi! Me and Hayate are using this field, so you have to leave!" Obito called, making his way towards Kakashi.
The silver haired boy stopped tossing kunai, and turned towards Obito.
"I was here first." He said, his voice blank, as usual.
"Yeah, well, we've been using this field all week. Go get a new one." Obito said, his tone becoming more aggressive, as he stepped closer.
"No. I'm staying here." Kakashi replied, his tone remaining even.
"I said get a new fucking field, you bastard!" Obito yelled, his annoyance beginning to broil over. He didn't even know why he was so mad. He felt like all the anger he had felt towards Kakashi in the past two weeks was spilling over into this trivial thing.
"And if I don't?" Kakashi replied, his eye narrowing. "What will you do?"
Now, Obito had always been more prone to action then to words. So, faced with this adversity, he took what he felt was the most appropriate option, and punched Kakashi across the face as hard as he could.
Obito held the bag of ice to his face, and slumped into his chair. Hayate had pulled him off of Kakashi, but not before Obito and Kakashi had a black eye each. Now, Obito was back home, most definitely not sulking while Shisui made a pot of tea.
Obito had run into Shisui on his way home, and his cousin's mother hen instincts had kicked in. Obito wanted to point out that he was four years older than his cousin, but refrained from doing so. At least Shisui hadn't dragged Itachi along. Getting doted on by a three year old was nothing short of humiliating.
"So, why did you punch Kakashi?" Shisui asked, walking into the room with two cups of tea.
"I told you, he took my field." Obito replied, his voice sullen.
"Yeah, but you didn't punch him because of that." Shisui said, sounding unimpressed.
After a minute or so of Shisui staring at him disapprovingly from across the table, Obito scowled. "Look, you know what? I'm not going to let you lecture me. He pissed me off, I hit him. It's not something you need to pick apart."
Shisui's eyebrow quirked up. God, his mother hen streak was irritating.
"Fine. I have to get home. Try not to get into more fights, okay?" Shisui said, standing up from the table.
"Yes mom." Obito grumbled. He listed to Shisui leave, the stood up himself.
His face hurt.
He considered heading to the bath house, but decided against it. He opted to just get changed and go to bed, rather than get questioned by anyone at the bathhouse, and inevitably getting a speech about representing the clan, and he just couldn't handle that.
Just as Obito was about to climb into bed, there was a knock on the door. With a sigh, he went to answer it, only to find Kakashi on the other side.
"The hell do you want?" Obito said. He didn't exactly feel like being polite, even if Kakashi's good eye was now somewhat swollen.
"We have a mission." Kakashi replied. If he was pissed at Obito, he was hiding it well.
"Aren't you on leave?"
"Taken off. They're short on teams, and we got called. We need to be at the hokage tower in forty- five minutes." Kakashi replied. "I'll meet you there."
He left before Obito could reply.
Man, he had really just wanted to sleep.
Obito arrived at the tower only ten minutes late, which he considered to be pretty good, all things considered.
"Obito. Nice of you to join us." The hokage said, his sarcasm obvious. "Now that you are both here, I will brief you on the mission." He pulled out a file from his desk, and pushed it forward.
"Two days ago, three chunin were deployed to the northern border, where they were meant to retrieve a scroll from the ANBU team manning the border. However, they did not return last night, which was when they were expected to return. You two are being sent to the border to check for anything amiss. If you do not return within the next two days, a search party will be sent out. " Sarutobi finished.
"Understood." Kakashi replied, flipping through the mission parameters and maps before handing them off to Obito, who quickly activated his Sharingan to record the maps.
"Okay." Obito said, his Sharingan fading out. "Let's go, then."
Predictably, they weren't too far into the mission when things went wrong.
A kunai came flying towards Obito's left side, which he quickly deflected with his own.
"Shit, already?" He muttered, cursing under his breath.
"Looks like Hidden Stone craftsmanship, said Kakashi, picking up the blade.
"Yeah, well, that's why we're here." Obito replied, as three more kunai came at him from the bushes. "Rock fuckers….. Get out here!"
"That probably won't help." Kakashi said, sending a kunai towards the bush, where it landed with a thunk and a yelp.
"Yeah well, you aren't improving things much!" Obito replied, as two Stone ninja came out of the foliage behind them, and three from in front.
Obito bit his lip, as Kakashi sighed audibly.
"Well, let's get it done then." He said.
Obit moves first, partly because the man in front of him started twitching forwards, and partly because he wanted to move before Kakashi did
One of the shinobi in front of Obito darted forward, unsheathing a tanto from his back, thrashing it forwards. Judging by his oddly clean vest and slightly sloppy swordsmanship, he's a new chunin. Obito flicks two shuriken forwards, and one finds a home in the chunin's shoulder. Taking advantage of his opponent's distraction, Obito sends several needles of fire (something Hayate and Asuma helped him work out) into his forehead. The other Kumon-nin immediately starts towards him. Based on what's happening in the corner of Obito's eye, Kakashi got the actually challenge, while Obito got the factory rejects.
Activating his Sharingan, Obito makes quick work of his opponent, who has practically the same moves as her squad mate.
Before Obito has a chance to turn around, he hears a yell from Kakashi, and a shuriken is suddenly in his shoulder. Hissing in pain, Obito turned to face another shinobi, who seemed to have taken advantage of Kakashi's momentary focus on his other team mate to go after Obito. His plan didn't exactly work out, however, as Kakashi sent a kunai into his head with a wet sounding crunch.
With a scream, the final kunoichi on the team ran towards Kakashi. Obito heard the all too familiar crackle of the chidori firing up.
Assuming that the situation was all but taken care of, Obito headed over to check the packs of the dead shinobi for scrolls. Before he could check the packs, he heard the sounds of a body thumping to the ground. Kakashi stood over the girl's body, his arm bloody and fingers still sparking. He seemed to be breathing unusually heavily, and shaking. Weird.
Obito turned his attention back to the packs. After searching around for a short period, he fished them out.
"Wow, these idiots actually carried classified information around with them." Obito mumbled, continuing to rifle through the pack.
There was nothing else of interest in the bags, so Obito got up and turned around, only to find Kakashi still standing over the body, staring at it unblinkingly.
"Uh, Kakashi? We need to go. Remember, trying to locate prisoners? The chunin?" Obito said. When he received no response, he got up and grabbed Kakashi's shoulder, shaking it.
"Hey, assface, are you deaf? We need to go."
Kakashi seemed to twitch back to life, turning around, his expression strange. Then he blinked, and was back to his usual blank self.
"Let's go." He said, walking away.
"I just said that, jerk…." Obito mumbled.
It took a few hours of searching with his Sharingan, Obito traced the chakra signatures of their attackers back to their camp, where the three Konoha chunin were most certainly not alive, if the charred corpses and strung up, bloody hitae-ate were anything to go by.
"No other chakra signatures around here. Didn't sense anything when we were moving around, either." Obito sighed. "I guess they're dead."
Kakashi didn't respond, just turned and began to walk in the direction of home.
Obito watched him go for a brief time, his thoughts clouding in his head, before moving to follow.
Kakashi didn't speak the entire journey home.
He didn't speak when they walked through the gates, and left without a word, leaving Obito to complete the mission report, which he never let Obito do. Ever.
Kakashi didn't show up when Minato called practice the next day, and came late the day after. He seemed…. Off. Distracted, jumpy. He spoke even less then was usual. When they were kneeling by the river to wash the dirt from the taijutsu exercises sensei had given them off of their faces, Obito saw that the skin on Kakashi's hands was red and raw.
He didn't come to training the next day.
"Hey, any idea what's going on with 'Kashi?" Minato asked Obito that day, over lunch.
Obito shook his head, saying he didn't know. He thought about it for the rest of the day, though.
It was only when he was lying in bed that night that he realized. Kakashi started acting strange after he killed the girl from Stone. Obito thought about it, tried to remember anything out of the ordinary. It had been a typical mission, and it wasn't exactly the first time either of them had killed.
Then it hit him. The girl.
Slender build, olive skin. Medium length brown hair. Medic pack. If he were to see her only briefly, she could be mistaken for…..
Rin.