Chapter 2

Kakashi's shoulder slammed into the ground and he mumbled a curse.

Obito hurried forward, offering his hand to Kakashi. "Thanks," Kakashi muttered.

Obito's one red eye widened and he stared at Kakashi's monotone onyx eye. After their original mangyeko run-in they had decided on letting Kakashi cover up his sharingan to conserve chakra and prevent the same accident from occurring. But Kakashi's eye gave no sign of his emotion, a blank slate just as the other three-quarters of his face.

An odd shiver ran up Obito's back. He still wasn't used to the silver-haired teen from actually saying thanks and sorry. It was like kicking a tree (something Obito did surprisingly often) and hearing it say 'ow' in response.

"Sorry I threw you hard," Obito spoke apologetically, holding out his hand. Kakashi took it and heaved himself up.

The chunin shook hair out of his face, "No it's alright. Go hard on me—I've been relaxing too much lately." Kakashi glanced around at the cavern. "Where did you say this was again?"

Obito looked around and recalled what Madara had said. "It's between Takigakure and Otogakure on the border of Konohagakure." Obito himself was surprised that he remembered it (nothing like having half of your body being crushed beyond repaired to improve memory).

The Uchiha noticed Kakashi stiffen at the name of their home. "Kakashi?" Concern laced his tone and Kakashi flinched at it.

"Nothing," Kakashi spoke abruptly, massaging his shoulder. "Let's continue."

No matter what had happened before, Kakashi still distanced himself. It didn't matter that Obito had saved his life multiple times, Kakashi would still hold him at arm's length. Obito sighed, some people just needed time. But a worm of worry curled inside of him—ever since Obito had hesitantly revealed Rin's death, Kakashi had just uttered a soft 'oh' and closed in on himself.

He still remembered the sharp sense of worry when Kakashi had glared at him that sunset-lit day at the park. Obito hadn't realized that Sakumo had just committed seppuku. He hadn't realized how much hurt that had been nestling inside his silver-haired teammate until it had been too late. His eyes had been like black ice.

Swallowing his doubts, Obito let his eyes drift away from the chunin. "Okay let's continue," Obito stood up and faced Kakashi. "Ready, start!" His muscles loosened and he shifted to a ready position.

They rushed to each other, grappling and aiming kicks and punches at each other. Despite Obito's former reputation, he was quite capable.

It was only in these sparring matches that Obito could see Kakashi opening up a little bit, coming out of his self-imposed shell. Not a lot, but Obito had finally learned some patience and he could wait. After all, Kakashi had waited a year.

Slap. Skin hitting together as punches flew from each side like angry bees darting from hives. Obito at first held back, unsure of how well Kakashi had recovered. But truly, the damage had been done inside his mind, not his body. This was why as soon as Obito felt the frustratingly close wisps of silver hair touch his knuckles with another missed punch; he threw caution out the window.

Kakashi dipped and weaved, dodging Obito's fists and kicks, almost making it look graceful.

Obito should have noticed. But just like all those times in the past, Obito remained painfully oblivious until the truth smacked him in the face.

Or rather, Kakashi's face.

The chunin's arms wavered once or twice after five minutes. Obito didn't notice and continued rushing aggressively forward with all the strength of a hyperactive fourteen year old. Obito was so intent on how Kakashi kept dodging his fists that he nearly didn't register the bone-snapping crunch as Obito's knuckles clashed with Kakashi's masked face.

Kakashi exhaled sharply as his back slammed into the dusty cave floor. His eyes were scrunched into an expression of pain.

"K-Kakashi!" Obito squeaked, voice going an octave higher. He looked down at his teammate anxiously. Obito recalled what he had been like when he first regained consciousness—he had ended up fainting multiple times from overexertion. It had only been two days since Kakashi had woken up (and his silver-haired teammate had always had rather horrid endurance—a fact that didn't help elevating Obito's relatively fragile state of mind as the 'nurse').

Obito peered over Kakashi, wondering what to do.

He felt his heart leap up his throat when Kakashi's hand darted out and poked his forehead. "What was that for?!" Obito demanded, more shocked than harmed.

Kakashi was giving him a sly grin, visible even through his mask. "I had you didn't I?" There was an undeniable feel of gloating attached to those words and Obito almost decided to bluff through it, and then chose otherwise.

Obito sighed in relief. "You did have me! That wasn't coo!" He groaned into his hand exaggeratedly. "Now if only Rin was here to side with me and tell you how stupid you . . . ." Obito's voice faded, joking light dimming from his eyes when he realized Kakashi wasn't smiling anymore.

Rin. Obito mentally chided his tactlessness. The dark stains still showed up on Kakashi's clothes—a painful reminder of what had happened (the visible stains were partially surprising because everything Kakashi wore was black, but then again, the boys were unexperienced in the arts of laundering).

"We need to go a village for supplies soon. I'll go out and try getting food." Kakashi called, strapping on his weapons pouch. "I'll be back later."

" Yeah. . . ." Obito replied softly to himself. There Kakashi went: back into his shell just like before. "What are we going to do Rin? . . . Madara?" Neither of them answered (even a snide comment like Kakashi would've been welcome).

The old man had acted so confident of his vision for the world and Obito knew he couldn't deny he wanted to see Rin again—preferably not as a corpse. But how was he going to do that, if he couldn't even talk casually with Kakashi? He could still remember the claims to Hokage he had made as a child.

"How can I become Hokage if I can't even beat that guy?" He had asked Rin.

Bile rose to his throat when he thought of her body rotting under the swamp, blood drying up into the earth as her body became a home for tunneling parasites and bugs that fed and dug through her decaying flesh until there were only bones. At least Obito had managed to give her a grave—he wouldn't be able to stand imagining Rin's body becoming a breeding ground for mosquitos as her body bloated up in the humid marsh sun, corpse becoming snacks for scavengers. Both options made him sick.

Obito stopped thinking about Rin because then his thoughts would grow to the foreshadowing image his sharingan had flashed to him: the cackling blue chakra sprouting from Kakashi's hand like a deadly flower, piercing Rin's chest. Because if his thought about that, he couldn't stop blinding feelings of rage and fear that bloomed inside of him: hate at Kakashi for killing Rin, hate at him for not being there in time, hate at Rin—because the last words she ever said were Kakashi's name. Hate at Rin because she had to go off dying. Hate at Rin because she had always chosen Kakashi and look where that had gotten her.

But most of all the everlasting fear—the fear of the burning cold rage that had nestled deep inside Obito's heart. Minato had always taught them of the importance of thinking and not giving into your emotions—especially to Obito. Naturally Kakashi had been excellent at throwing his feelings away. But Obito had never truly managed to master such self-control.

Even though Minato had let Rin die, there was a certain bond of warmth attached to Team Minato—something Madara had never given him. A bond, the Uchiha thought of Kakashi and Rin, he wasn't quite sure he was ready to sever.

Silence filled the cave, interrupted only by the crackling as fat oozed off the large grouse and hissed into the hot coals below. Wisps of steam curled off the red-hot coals, snowy-white ash blowing around in the heat.

Obito was half tempted to pretend to steal a bit of the grouse just to spark conversation, if not just to provoke an argument, but after seeing Kakashi's uninviting expression as he turned the grouse on the split, he decided against it.

Finally, as the last ember fizzled in the dying bed, Obito patted his stomach with satisfaction. "Not as good as Ichiraku's." He snipped in an imitation of Kakashi's expression (his stomach moaned at the thought of the hand-made noodles of the Ichiraku ramen).

"I'm going to bed." Kakashi stood up, kicking over the coals to make sure no stray sparks remained. "You can stay by if you want."

"Sure," Obito raised his hand for a high-five and put it down quickly as he got a whiff of his own body odor (not like it was his fault—the underground cave wasn't exactly a five star hotel): a rank stench covered with a piercing layer of soot from the fire having been made inside a cave with little ventilation. It wasn't like Kakashi would've actually high-fived back.

Using his finger and elongated and jagged fingernails (turned out kunai weren't the best nail clippers) he drew pictures in the dust until he was blinking ash out of his eyes with exhaustion. He yawned and rubbed ash out from under his yellow nail.

Careful to not wake his irritable roommate, Obito half stumbled, half crawled to the makeshift cots Obito and Kakashi had created for themselves using GuruGuru's leftover softened plant material.

"Keep an eye on things please Guru. . . ." Obito fell into unconsciousness as his bottom barely hit the 'bed'. The white swirl-decorated plant creature crawled down from the ceiling and stared at Obito's drawings. He gave a quiet chuckle, his stiffened face incapable of smiling.

When Obito woke, he saw Kakashi sitting down by the burnt out fire. The Uchiha first thought the silver-haired teen was meditating (a disturbingly common event in Kakashi's life to Obito) but instead he was looking at the drawings Obito had made: it was Kakashi, Obito, and in the middle—Rin.

Kakashi smiled sadly at Obito, "I didn't know you were an artist."

Obito protested, "N-not really! That was just—I-I was bored- um." He stopped when he realized Kakashi wasn't teasing him. Obito's stoic teammate single eye watered. "Kakashi?"

Kakashi rubbed his eye, tears darkening his mask.

But there was still humor in his voice, "Dust."