Chapter 1
Kakashi opened his one eye, a pounding sensation throbbing behind his eyes. A soft groan escaped his mouth involuntarily. It was at that moment, the silver-haired teen realized that his face was cold and uncovered.
Running his fingers over his uncovered face, Kakashi looked around the area. Upon glancing down at his hand, Kakashi could see dark, crusted blood under his fingernails. Someone had scrubbed off the majority of it away, but it dug into his nail's beds relentlessly, bothering him to no end.
The room (if the cave-like room could be called a proper room) was dark and lit by small lamps. The air had a musty and damp quality to it, and Kakashi could feel the dust invading his nose without the mask protecting him. Some medical supplies were packed to the side of the room, on a shabby little table of sorts. Little over-the-counter pills were there, as well as chakra pills and blood replenishers.
Feeling the coarse material of the black shirt Kakashi was wearing, he realized that it wasn't his shirt. Not his one with the mask stitched in—this one reminded him of civilians' shirts. He snorted in disgust and stood up, only to sit back down hard as a fiery pain engulfed his leg as Kakashi tried putting weight onto it.
"Hey, Kakashi, don't walk around okay? I couldn't really find a medic, so the whole thing was kinda icky. I think you may have pulled a muscle in your leg," A voice from the shadows called. As a shinobi, Kakashi's mind screamed to be cautious, but the human part of Kakashi told him to respond.
So he did.
"Did you help me?" Kakashi asked, unsure of what to say. As the burning in his leg lessened, he decided it was okay to continue. "Hey, what happened? Um, you see—I think some shinobi from my village would come. . . . and Rin, she's a good medic. . . . We could get her to come heal me. . . ." His voice trailed off as the voice made to speak again.
The small voice in the back of Kakashi's head was screaming he was being way too open to someone as a shinobi, but another thing in his mind said it was alright. Something about the voice just reminded him about his long peaceful chats at the memorial stone. It was almost . . . nice.
"You don't remember do you?" It asked quietly.
"Remember what? What do you mean? Why hasn't Konoha shinobi tried to find me? What about Rin?!" Kakashi felt himself growing more and more agitated, uncontrollable emotions swelling up. He felt unusually exhausted, and that left no energy for suppressing the waves of panic his brain was sending to him.
"Kakashi—"
"Show me your face! How am I supposed to believe your words if I can't see yo—" Kakashi's voice died into a squeak as the voice's owner complied with his wishes. "O-Obito?" His voice cracked in shock. The eye resting in his left eye socket started to itch, and he couldn't help but double check his vision.
Yet, it had to be. Despite the wrinkled and marred right half of the teen's face, it was definitely Obito, or at least an Uchiha, if the sharingan in the boy's right eye was anything to go by. And the voice was something like the one Kakashi would conjure up when he was talking to the memorial stone. Him and Obito. Like old times (though that really long hair cut would have to go, Kakashi decided).
"Baka-shi. Yo." Obito smiled, and his face split in a smile. That stupid, irritating smile that used to piss Kakashi off to no end (of course he'd never admitted it). Yes—it had to be Obito.
"Hey Obito, do you mind if I take this arm?" A voice asked innocently from the shadows.
Kakashi's relaxed form stiffened up again, tensed muscles releasing more pain from his leg. Biting down a whimper, he squinted towards the voice's source. "What was that?"
"Hmm? Oh, that? That was GuruGuru—come out Guru! Also, yeah, I don't need that arm, feel free to have it," Obito nodded nonchalantly, as if he was just lending a ryo to a friend, not a human body part (was it even? Kakashi peered at the mangled limb suspiciously).
A strange humanoid figure walked up, white pasty skin covering in a swirl pattern. Yellow lamp-like eyes stared down at Kakashi. "Hi-yah!" He chirped, which would've been an amazing start to Kakashi and GuruGuru's friendship, except for the bloodied hand in his hand. Following Kakashi's uncertain gaze, GuruGuru lifted the hand easily. "This, you see Mister, is very rich in fiber and nutrients, and is very good for plants."
"Plants? But you're a—"
Obito elbowed him, "He gets a bit sensitive about being part-plant. Don't push it."
Kakashi looked at him in disbelief, "Fine. . . ." Shaking his head again, Kakashi sighed and looked at Obito, surprise still ringing in his ears. "Wait, so tell me what happened? You said Rin—"
Obito immediately sobered up, and even GuruGuru shuffled back into the shadows (to do whatever plant thing he did with human limbs) to give them privacy. Obito stared at Kakashi with a mixed expression. "I don't really know how to explain it. Even . . . I can't explain it. . . I don't want to be able to explain it. . . ."
"Then don't. Tell me later." Kakashi shook his head tiredly. "Tell me about how you survived then."
"What? Oh, me . . . ." Obito paused, unsure of how to explain ("Oh yes, this crazy old man who claimed to Madara Uchiha just happened to find my body and revived me somehow, and he was powering his life with a super-powerful statue, and now he passed his plans onto me and I'm going to destroy the world to make a better one where Rin is still alive—oh yes, did I mention Rin's dead?—well, she is, and I was wondering if you'd like to help!").
"It's complicated," Obito said in a guarded tone.
"Well, thanks for . . . doing whatever you did," Kakashi said uncertainly, staring at the blood on his fingers. The grainy texture of the maroon blood was bothering him, itching on his skin. He was sure he remembered something. What had happened? Why couldn't he recall—
A small dark grayish spider crawled along the cave wall. As the fire's light gleamed off the spider's hairy body, a velvety purple shone out. Purple. Purple. Rin had purple patches on her cheeks. Purple. Rin.Purple. Rin. Purple. Rin. Rin. Rin.
"Argh!" Kakashi bent down, pain blasting through his nerve system, starting at his left eye—his sharingan. Hoping to relinquish the undeniable itch in his eye, Kakashi ripped off the homemade bandage over it and the eye forced itself open, blood red iris shining out at the world.
Obito grunted as his already open sharingan started sucking up large amounts of chakra. Sure the little thing had always taken more chakra than your average eye, but this was much more than usual. Obito staggered from the sudden depletion and Kakashi groaned again, shaking limbs trying to get ahold of something solid.
Looking into each other's faces, the two watched, mesmerized, as the three tomoe of the sharingan started to stretch and grow, until they spread into a spherical pattern that warped in on itself. Soon the transformation was finished, and their eyes shone, identical mangyeko sharingan patterns.
"What is this?" Kakashi asked breathlessly; sweat chilling him in the cold underground air. Hair hanging down damp, he stared intrigued at the glowing sharingan in Obito's right eye socket.
Obito stared so closely at Kakashi's eye that he couldn't help feeling a bit awkward. "I don't know. . . . I've never seen it before. Wait—" Obito sucked in sharply.
The Kiri-nin. Rin. Dead. Blood. Wood. Spike. Kill. Kill them all. Make them pay. Kakashi. On the ground. Bury Rin. Blood. Mud. Dirt. Ground. Flowers. Kill. Kiri-nin. Kill. Rin.
"The—back in the field," Obito gasped. "I remember now! The eye felt like how it is now. I think that was partially why civilian medics didn't want us—the eye kinda scared them."
"What do you mean?!" Kakashi growled, partially irritated, but mostly from the way Obito seemed to be hesitating to tell him the answer.
Obito stared at him, slightly in disbelief, "You seriously can't tell?"
Rolling his eyes, Kakashi could almost forget that they were in a slimy old cave with barely any light. He could almost ignore the dirt and grim grating against his skin under his clothes. He could almost feel like this was before Obito had 'died' and they were just two bickering children on Team Minato. Almost.
"Well, I'm sorry but I wasn't born surrounded by red-eyed weirdoes!" Kakashi snapped.
Obito groaned, "It's called the Mangyeko Sharingan. It's like a rarer more advanced version of the sharingan. I don't understand much about it." He pondered it quietly in his mind. Madara didn't mention it—or maybe I was just knocked out? I did tend to do quite a bit of that. . . .
"Well . . . should we give it a go?" Kakashi asked hesitantly.
Obito nearly did a double-take. This was Hatake Kakashi—the boy who was stiffer than a board at times, yet here he was, suggesting to do something more reckless than anything the boy had ever done before. Maybe Rin affected him more than he knows . . . Obito thought, a vine of guilt creeping up on him.
"Do you even know how to work it?" Obito leaned against the wall. "And if anyone's doing it, I am. Your chakra still isn't very stable." Flashing a glance at the Hatake again with his sharingan, Obito confirmed that the weakly pulsing blue tracks in Kakashi's body were his chakra coils.
"Oi! I can do it—" Kakashi bit down a curse as a wave of pain rolled in from his muscles as he tried to stand up.
Obito lifted an eyebrow at him and after wiping off a layer of sweat Kakashi reluctantly nodded. "Fine," He growled, a slight pout turning down the corner of his mouth.
Mouth. Pout. Mouth.
Obito froze and relooked over Kakashi's face. Kakashi's face. Kakashi looked at him oddly as Obito ogled his face in shock.
After all this time without him showing us his face, you'd think he'd actually have an ugly one. Obito was suddenly very happy that he got rid of all of the shirts Kakashi had had that had a mask attached to them (sure, before it was because they were all drenched in blood, but now the decision was all the more sweeter). Now if only Rin could see. . . . Obito's inner cackling instantly ceased. Rin.
"What? Obito?" The confusion on Kakashi's face was so shockingly obvious with having a whole face to look at. The silver-haired teen awkwardly slapped aside Obito's hands that were trying to touch his face as if to see if it was really there. "Stop it!"
"Your . . . face . . . .?" Obito said as if that cleared up everything.
Kakashi rolled his eyes, "And . . . what? Did you think I had a void where my mouth was or something?" He acted like it was such an ordinary thing Obito felt like an idiot (making Obito feel like such seemed to be Kakashi's talent). But still: Kakashi's face! Screw the Mangyeko Sharingan for later, right in front of him was Kakashi's face.
"Possibly. . . . But why'd you never show you face to us?" Obito demanded.
Looking to the side hesitantly, Kakashi stared at the wall, "Did anyone ever tell you about my father?"
Obito exhaled slowly, "White Fang?" Taking Kakashi's sharp intake of breath as a yes, he continued. "Yeah. . . . Minato-sensei told me. . . ."
Kakashi's fists clenched, hurt laced in his voice. "He told you? Why? He knew how much that meant to me . . . ."
"Kakashi, it's okay—I don't judge you—"
"Shut up!" Obito was shocked to see the faintest glimmer of tears in Kakashi's mismatched eyes. "You don't understand. . . ." His voiced faded in the end, because both he and Obito knew that Obito didunderstand.
Obito had always been teased by his family members since he hadn't "met their expectations" as an Uchiha.
He was almost disowned by the clan chief Fugaku a rather horrifying mistake Obito had done.
People had thought of him as a nuisance, only a prank-causing rat that would easily be exterminated and not missed.
"It's all right—" Obito started, only stopping when real tears started pouring down Kakashi's face. What is this? I've never seen him laugh before, much less cry.
"No it's not. Obito . . . do you know what I said to him?" Kakashi's chin quivered. "I told him I hated him. That night he commited seppeku." He spoke quietly.
Slamming his bandaged fist to the stone ground Kakashi screamed out a curse. "He didn't deserve that! Obito, he didn't earn that from the others or his own son! What sort of person am I? I treated him awful—I was his son and I treated him like trash!"
Obito shivered, how do you comfort people? Helping old people with groceries was so much easier. Rin would know what to do . . . .
Obito spoke hesitantly. "I- um, Kakashi. . . . It was okay, I didn't treat you all too nicely either, did I?"
"At least you treated your comrades well! 'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum' right? I left you and Rin back then, and then you 'died' for it. I don't care if it was for real or not. You died a hero, Obito. If I had died that day, I would have died scum."
Obito shivered and suddenly realized why this conversation was rattling him so much: he had just learned a little more in this conversation that Hatake Kakashi was human too.
Finally, after Kakashi collapsed from exhaustion, Obito while reflecting upon the day realized that Kakashi had never told him why he wore his mask, and Obito had never told Kakashi about how Rin was dead.
Obito was so not looking forward to telling Kakashi about it.