Last chapter:...not only was the Uchiha massacre looming ever closer, but I'd also realised, during one of my intermittent Kunoichi Classes, that for four year old Itachi to have been affected by the war, he'd actually have to be exposed to the war.
I have no clue how that happened, and I also have no idea how to stop it, or even if I should stop it, and it's been keeping me up at night because my Itachi-touto will see war. Shisui-chan's been picking up on my mood lately and, on one of our Sunset Watching trips, he questioned my sanity. Again.
"It's nothing."
"Is this one of those female things you told me about?" he asked, scrunching up his eyebrows. "The one where the words being spoken don't correspond to what is actually being said?"
"No Shisui-chan, for once could you just let it go? Honestly, even if I told you, you'd just wonder about my sanity."
"I always wonder about your sanity,' He said loyally. I felt like punching him very hard but I restrained myself. Kabuto has also noticed my worry, mainly because I snap at him more these days.
"Is everything alright?"
"No. Go. Away."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Oh…do you want to talk about it?"
"That's it! Sparring time four-eyes, you're going down!"
After which I proceeded to pummel him into the dust, feeling insanely happy and guilty at the same time. Abusing little peoples is bad, but it's Kabuto. I just can't seem to help it. For some reason though, no matter how much I 'spar' with him, snap at him or, on occasion, am just plain mean to him, he still sticks around. Always, like as if…actually, now that I think about it, aren't Shisui-chan and I like, his only friends?
What's that going to do to the plot line!?
And the worst of it is, since I absolutely reviled Kabuto, I never really cared much for his backstory. When did he join ROOT? Why did he join ROOT? When did he become a hebi-spy? Or a Sasori-spy? I know why he did, and what he did after the series started, but not a single clue as to what happened before that. What do I do?
The painful answer is: not much. I don't have enough backstory to work with and even if I did, Danzo is the slipperiest eel in the metaphorical ocean. The sheer amount of street cred he has is frightening. But…
Kabuto is my, gulp-grimace-twitch, friend. You go the distance for friends no matter how impossible it might seem. So, the things I can do to ensure he doesn't turn into, well, that is by—
Wait, I have absolutely no idea. Okay, think Akito, think! There's got to be something your puny prepubescent self can do that isn't overly suspicious and/or damaging to the reputation you've built up. (and I'm not being selfish, my entire clans' survival depends on the fact that, through me, they actually get positive representation in the public eye. Promise. Okaa-san said so.)
I could potentially lock him in the basement and shove food through a cat flap to keep him fed until the worst of it is over in, oh say, twenty years or so. I could join him in his ROOT-iness and bond with him using that. Both of these are long-winded approaches with a predicted success rate of about 10%. Maybe 20% if he's compliant in the beginning. Shove it up to 22% if he trusts me and isn't suspicious of any ulterior motives.
Yeah, and that isn't even factoring in all the inherent flaws of the two plans in the first place. The two most obvious being that I'm the clan head's daughter and claiming that I am so totally over the whole 'Hokage-sama is the master of the universe and I heart him xoxo' and want ROOT-ing to be my new way of life is definitely not a viable recruitment motif, and that Konoha doesn't have any cat flaps; the cats are all shinobi and do not require such plebeian things like easy-to-access entrances and exits. Then again, considering even locked doors aren't deterrents to really determined assassins / well-meaning but utterly insane friends, I doubt a cat flap is such a good idea.
There's got to be something really simple that I'm missing. Ockham's razor this problem Akito, it shouldn't be this difficult.
Simple plan #1: Kill him. Simple plan #2: Go back in time and kill him. Simple plan #3: Be his friend.
"I don't know about you, but I think plan number 3 sounds like the easiest, safest and most likely to work solution to this conundrum. I mean, it works for Naruto all the time, right? But then, he is the protagonist…" I mumble to myself.
"I think plan 3 sounds good."
"Yeah, that's what I thought but—"
Woah, woah, woah, woah, wait. I turn around and see Itachi-touto snuggled comfortably beside me as I sit in deep contemplation on my bed. I look at him questioningly, wondering what he was doing here.
"I couldn't sleep."
I sigh quietly and smile at him. He sheepishly smiles back. His eyes are droopy and his cheeks are chubby, the beginnings of his defining tear-troughs barely visible in the light coming in from the moon. He looks at me expectantly and snuggles into my side closer, and I melt.
"Oh alright, come in then," I say, pulling the blankets out from underneath him and gesture for him to lie down. He does so, holding onto my sleeping hakama, and I gently tuck him into bed before snuggling next to him myself. I kiss him on the forehead, and he on my cheek and, still grabbing a fistful of my hakama, he drifts off to dreamland.
I love Itachi-touto.
I am privileged enough to know he loves me too.
So, game plan decided—befriend the ever-loving stuffing out of Kabuto to such an extent that he won't even think about joining the 'dark side'—and worry for Itachi-touto lessening as I realise that, hey, my Otouto may become more peace-loving and all-seeing at the price of his innocence, but he'll still be the little Otouto that snuggles into bed with me and listens to my wild and imaginative stories.
Lessening doesn't mean I've stopped worrying, but I have compartmentalised it so I won't be biting anyone's head off for the foreseeable future. Shisui-chan is very grateful.
"Thank the Great Dragon that you're back to normal Aki-senpai! You had us really worried there. I was half starting to think that this 'puberty' you keep referring to had come early!"
You see, there's this slight problem with mine and Shisui-chan's relationship in that, during our Sunset Watching and just general everyday stuff, he's the one I spend the second most amount of time with (Itachi-touto is number one) and unlike with Itachi-touto, I let my verbal guard down around him. Meaning, in short, that I crack jokes of the 'Where have the good old days gone whipper-snapper?' and 'puberty makes everyone just that bit less rational' and 'mid-life crisis' variety. Consequently, because he really is far too young to understand everything I say but he is a genius, he simply understands the concept and then quotes me to me.
It's absolutely hilarious, and he always blushes cutely when he makes me laugh. So adorable!
Speaking of adorable, I've seen Obito-kun and Rin-chan around Konoha hand-in-hand buying groceries and being fluffy, arguing about silly things and blushing.
It's like a fanfiction, especially considering it defies all logic that they're this happy considering there is a war going on, but I guess when you're in love disbelief must be suspended.
I've also seen Minato-sama around, usually with a dignified Kakashi trotting next to him like an uppity thoroughbred. I say hi and slam into him with a fierce hug every time I see him, and he always hugs me back and asks me how I've been, what Okaa-san's been up to, what new conundrum of the space-time continuum has caught Itachi-touto's interest and then politely enquires after my father's wellbeing and clan's prosperity, as is the proper thing to do. See, this is one of those subtle things that you'd blink and miss, but since I'm observant (meaning Otou-san extensively trained me to catch every detail or I'd 'really be sorry'), I know that it's impolite not to ask a clansman how their clan is, and rude to enquire about a clanless mans' family.
It's this subtle offending that sets the civilian-raised shinobi apart from the clan kids, and really, there isn't a manual out there that enumerates these little details because shinobi don't know why civilian-raised don't 'use proper etiquette' and don't bother to find out and care. Some civilian-raised that are clued in actually actively hinder other civilian-raised shinobi from figuring out the little details, like as if it's a 'right of ascension' sort of thing.
But back to the point, Shisui-chan is really glad I'm back to normal, so much so that he roped Itachi-touto and Kabuto into baking me a cake. It was a disaster and a half and they were seriously lucky Okaa-san found the combusted stove and batter-spattered linoleum amusing. On another note, this is yet another classic example of bad parenting.
I haven't seen Kushina-ba-chan lately and I'm starting to miss her perpetually positive insanity and ramen obsession. So when I got home from school to see Itachi-touto working on his yet to improve kanji (I know for a fact that 'jin' isn't supposed to look like an upside down goat with a back problem) and Okaa-san whacking him on the head with her decorative fan, I enquired after my favourite godmother.
'She's your only godmother Akito-chan. Itachi-chan, if you curve it that tightly, it will look more like lumpy shrimp than anything even remotely legible.'
He looked away from his chalkboard in barely disguised childish disgust and then put the chalk down carefully before running to me and hugging me around my middle. I placed a hand on his back to squeeze him tightly and lift him off the ground. He giggled and wriggled, plopping to the floor like a graceful kitten.
"Welcome home, Aneki!"
"Tadaima, Itachi-touto," I grinned at him. Then I looked at Okaa-san and repeated my question. She sighed in exasperation and then muttered about irritating children and exactly what she'd like to do with them. I think being cooped up in the house while the rest of the village is preparing for Armageddon (or an invasion, whichever comes first) is starting to really get to her; she usually refrains from revealing her psychopathic tendencies to her youngest. I think, what with Itachi-touto actually acting like a kid and everything, she may subconsciously be responding to that innocence and trying to shield it.
Or, you know, the two hour lecture of a lifetime I gave my parents on the do's and don't's of child-rearing finally sunk in. They won't win Parent of the Year any time soon, but baby steps are better than nothing.
"She's currently on a mission, Akito-chan. You won't see her for a while."
So from that, I'm guessing that Kushina-ba-chan is either on a long term infiltration mission (unlikely given she's a jinchuuriki) or that Kushina-ba-chan has somehow alienated both Okaa-san and Minato-sama at the same time.
I really need to find her now…
School is going well and I'm rookie of the year. Trust me, that is nothing to be proud of. I mean, I dare you to be a twenty-four year old and not ace exams set for six year olds. Granted, the physical aspect was a bit difficult, and Shisui-chan and Kabuto both got a higher score than me on that front, but really, I was not only an Uchiha but I also had actual memory retention.
I don't think you understand how big this is for me. In my old life, I literally forgot everything two days after I learnt it, so cramming was the only way I actually managed to write my exams. Here, I could simply not study at all and still manage to get one of the top 5 scores.
The power of the Uchiha mind is unfathomable.
Now here we come to the crux of my issues. You see, once I've compartmentalised something, unless something triggers it, I instantly forget it exists. It doesn't hover in the back of my mind incessantly and nag me. So is it any wonder that when it happened, I was completely and utterly unprepared for it?
No really, I was halfway across the village and playing kick-the-can with Shisui-chan and Kabuto.
Meanwhile, my Otouto was bleeding on the tatami mats in our dining room and watching our Noeki-baa-san lose the light in her eyes, spread-eagled on the kotatsu with a kunai sticking out of her eye socket.
I didn't know this at the time of course. I was yelling childish abuses at Kabuto and shoving him into the sand pit for being nit-picky at inopportune moments while Shisui-chan grinned from ear to ear, egging me on and telling Kabuto to "hang in there Megane-chama!"
We got home around three hours later, and the house was quiet. Still and silent; dead.
I will never forget that moment, because it truly felt like my world had ended and that there truly was no hope left in my world. The light in the dining room and hall were still on and the smell of fish that had been left uncovered for too long permeated the house.
I've hated the smell of fish since.
No one was home and I called for them, and all that was going through my mind was "did I cause the massacre before Sasuke was even born?" and "Itachi-touto!"
Ink brushes littered the floor as I walked into the dining room and I saw my Noeki-baa-san as still as a statue, her eyes glazed over and her mouth open in a silent cry for mercy. The wrinkles around her eyes spread like a web across her face and the deep furrows between her eyes seemed deeper, more sinister and plastic. She seemed translucent somehow, like she wasn't really there.
And then there was the blood. It traced her cheeks lovingly, trailing down to her chin and splattering the table with rust coloured speckles, as if each spot was a little poppy, red and rich and deadly.
It was like a freeze frame, and I screamed like I'd never screamed in either one of my lives. This was my home and my family wasn't there and I had absolutely no idea what to do with the dead body lying on my table.
Footfalls sounded and multiple someones burst in through the door, reaching me and blocking her face from my view. Futile really, because I'd seen what I'd seen and that wasn't what was bothering me. I'd seen dead bodies before.
I'd just never seen murdered ones.
Otou-san wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up, whispering to me to calm down because everything would be okay.
"Where's Otouto?" I whispered. He seemed to still for a moment before bluntly telling me he didn't know but that he was definitely going to find out.
The search lasted less than half an hour, and I went all over Konoha trying to look for him, knowing it was futile. I knew he would see the war and there was no war within these strong, isolating walls. I didn't tell Otou-san because I kind of knew he knew that and just let me look because he knew I needed something to do. He didn't call one of my friends.
I was grateful. I would've broken their craniums if they'd bothered me in the half-panicked, half-blatantly angry with myself state I was in.
I knew it needed to happen. Or rather, it had happened without my intervention so I shouldn't feel guilty about causing it. When it comes to Itachi-touto though, my brain thinks logical thinking is for lesser mortals and promptly treats it like a particularly annoying cousin with the high-pitched nasally voice that no one really likes. Kind of like how Orochimaru treats his moral compass.
One of my several cousins, this one being short for the average male and sporting bunny teeth, walked briskly towards me and informed me as I smashed my fist against the log repeatedly that my Otouto had been located and was safely making his way to the Clan Head's house.
"Details, Fushi-san."
He looked at me uncomfortably, avoiding my eye. "I'm not at liberty to disclose that information, Akito-hime."
"Fushi-san."
He broke down and told me that they'd found him three miles outside of Konoha surrounded by severed limbs and heads in the heavy and cold dead arms of a Konoha-nin, lying perfectly still with his eyes glowing a Sharingan red, watching every little flicker of movement with cautious suspicion.
"Fugaku-sama retrieved him from the sight and followed protocol for the disposal of the bodies and then told me to go get you. That's all I know!" He looked relieved when I nodded and smiled at him slightly before walking past him toward my not-so-little abode, wondering at the fact that it still felt safe even though someone had attacked my Otouto in it.
He followed me at a steady pace as I marched down the streets and alleys, not stopping to greet anyone on the way, not daring to slow down until I saw with my own eyes that Itachi-touto was okay. Even though I knew logically that he would be.
I stepped into the house and instinctively went upstairs to my room, where I knew he would be.
And sure enough there he was, snuggled in my fluffy blanket and staring at the ceiling with the blank look of a warrior that had seen too much to bear.
"Itachi-touto," I said calmly, the tension leaving my body in a wave.
He startled and his eyes flicked to me before they just stayed there, watching my every move and expression as though he needed to see something, to prove to himself that nothing had changed and I would treat him the way I always had, that I wouldn't push him to do anything he didn't want to do.
It's sad that he came to me for this and not to our parents, but I guess that's understandable. I'm more his parent than they ever were.
I walked to him the way I usually do before hugging him tightly and gently humming a lullaby into his ear, rubbing his back as he stilled in my arms.
And then he let go, sniffling and hiccupping into my kimono with the abandon only a four year old can manage, but only a war veteran can feel unembarrassed about. My Otouto, no matter what the psyche evaluator said, was both.
"It was s-so s-scary…" he mumbled softly.
"I know Otouto, I know. It'll be okay."
"Promise?" he whispered.
"Promise."
"I heard about Itachi-chama."
"So you have."
Shisui-chan and I were sitting in the academy playground and watching the younger kids play shinobi tag from up a tree, our bento boxes in our laps and legs locked around the branch. Kabuto was running late because he was to stay back for making it to the academy late. He has yet to tell us why.
"What happened Aki-senpai?"
"I thought you already knew."
"You always know more. You glare people into submission and eternal servitude, so they always give you details," he said teasingly.
I smiled slightly at this and then stuffed a prawn into my mouth with as much grace and poise as a landed trout. He turned to me as a little boy shrieked loudly and tripped a girl, his eyes silently asking me to spill my guts.
"Otouto's fine. He still has nightmares and sometimes his Sharingan activates when he doesn't mean it to, but he's doing amazingly for a five year old that should by all accounts have become a psychotic vegetable."
Shisui-chan hummed in contemplation before shovelling the rice from the box directly into his awaiting mouth. Absolutely disgusting, but really, we've known each other practically our whole lives and decorum was one of the first things we forewent.
"How're you?" he asked after partially swallowing.
"I'm fine, Shisui-chan."
And I was. My anger had melted away sometime last night when Okaa-san finally came back from her mission and announced that, due to the 'incident', she was permanently leaving the Jounin Corps so she could spend more time with us. Otou-san had absolutely no idea how to deal with Itachi-touto, who wasn't showing any of the classic signs of normal post-traumatic behaviour, and between school and preventing inevitable mass genocide by keeping up with the three thousand or so people I see on a weekly basis (not counting extended family of course) I just didn't have as much time as I would've liked to spend with Itachi-touto.
But he doesn't seem to mind. He has become exceptionally clingy in the least obtrusive and annoying way possible, following me around just like he used to do when he was a year old, silently watching me interact with people, coming to the academy to pick me up when I stayed too late, clutching my kimono with a tiny fist that really is too small for a mass murderer that he became in another life. He seems to feel as though someone will jump out of the shadows and swallow him, just like they presumably had when he'd been kidnapped.
He no longer bothers with the pretence of going to his room to sleep. He now just crawls into my bed without preamble, sometimes before I even make it upstairs myself. With Okaa-san here though, he seems less on edge when I'm not around, less cautious. Otou-san is brilliant, but he doesn't seem to get that Itachi-touto just doesn't want to continue with his training at the moment. I try to negate as much tension as possible because I understand where my little Otouto is coming from, something Otou-san just inherently doesn't get no matter how many times it's explained to him.
My Otouto doesn't want to be a murderer.
"Aneki?"
"Hmmm?"
"Are we the bad guys?"
"How do you mean?"
He rolls over and his dark eyes shine in the moonlight. "We kill innocent people for a living."
I slowly processed this. "No, Otouto. We kill because they will kill us and our innocents if we don't kill theirs. It isn't pretty, it isn't nice or right, but it's the only thing we can do to make sure those we love stay alive."
I kiss his little forehead. "Maybe one day there will be another way. But not today."
He closed his eyes and I thought he'd fallen asleep. "Someday though, right?"
"Yes, Otouto, someday."
He'll come around, I know he will because Itachi-touto is too talented for Konoha to allow him not to be a shinobi.
Kabuto finally escaped the clutches of Bunko-sensei and we shimmied up the branch to allow him room.
"What's on your mind, Megane-chama?' Shisui-chan swallowed the rest of his mouthful, content with my answer and not pressing for more. He's awesome like that.
Kabuto pushed his round glasses up his nose before going a little pink in the face and attempting to melt into the bark. A valiant attempt to be sure, but it didn't quite work, what with him being decidedly human and everything.
"My foster mother has asked me to invite you to the fundraiser at the orphanage in four days' time."
He then looked at our expressions (mine contemplating and Shisui-chan's like a drugged zebra) and hastily added, "but you don't have to come! It's totally optional! It's just that Nonou-san wants to meet you two because…"
"Because what, Kabuto?"
He blushed a brighter shade of pink and then mumbled, "because you're my first friends."
I was going through all sorts of feels at that moment.
"Of course we'll come."
"Sure, sounds like fun!"
He visibly relaxed and stopped trembling, his smile threatening to split his face in half. "I'm looking forward to it."
Shisui-chan and I exchanged a glance that transferred a million and one thoughts to the other. Then, simultaneously, we bit into our shrimps and began munching on them like the six year olds we were.
Kabuto just sighed in fond exasperation and then opened his own bento.
We ate perched on the oak tree on the grounds of the academy, where a swing would be attached someday and Naruto would sit on it and act like an emo punk for uninspired plot advancement. For now though, we just sat in comfortable silence, watching loud boy yell at timid girl and spunky girl bite shy boy on the arm and the sensei trying to control the Inuzuka bratlings trying to get their dogs to eat the cardboard bones they'd spent most of lunchtime making.
The joys of being idiotic five year olds with no direction in life…I miss it already.
It was just any other day when a hawk landed on the kitchen window sill. Otou-san and I were having a brilliant discussion on the proper definition of chakra and whether nature transformations could be manipulated equally easily by non-specialists if their Will to accomplish it was strong enough, considering the fact that chakra was currently defined as a mixture of physical and spiritual.
Itachi-touto was listening with rapt attention as we went back and forth on this debate, getting increasingly passionate and excited the longer we went on.
Even though they suck at parenting, my Otou-san and Okaa-san are brilliant people and they love us. We were dysfunctional as a family unit, but not as a family.
I finally understand that now.
Okaa-san took the message form the hawk and gracefully made her way to the table with it, placing it in front of Otou-san who was listening to me while eating his rice and egg.
He put the bowl down and motioned for me to hush as he saw that the message was urgent. He unsealed it and read it quickly, his eyes darting across the page.
He unsteadily furled the scroll and then looked at me with apprehension. Clearly the news was for me and he didn't know quite how to break it to a six year old without causing a potential melt down. Sweet gesture, but I think I am mentally older than him, so it was unnecessary.
I held out my hand with a look of expectation and, just like he had done when Okaa-san's water broke four years ago, he deferred to my judgement, better or otherwise.
The memory of the words inked on that page still cling to me, and I was so happy that I let out a whoop of joy.
My Otou-san looked at me with shock and barely suppressed confusion.
"What are you so happy about, Akito-chan?"
I grinned and held the scroll out to her, and as she read it she paled and looked at me like I had lost my mind and…
Oh Kami-sama, I really do look like I've lost my mind…
"One of your friends is in hospital suffering from suspected permanent paralysis, and you're…happy about this?" she asked uncertainly.
Itachi-touto looked on with no judgement in his eyes, knowing and believing without even the slightest trace of doubt that I had my reasons, and they were sound ones.
"You don't understand Okaa-san," I breathed happily, smiling brightly and laughing ecstatically. "Obito-kun didn't die!"
He'd been on the Kannabi bridge mission, and he was alive. Team Minato had made it home, if not in one piece, then at least with all members accounted for.
I had changed that.
I had changed everything. My mind suddenly stilled.
What?
Okaa-san and Otou-san seemed to stop worrying for my sanity, saw it my way and took it in stride, Otou-san even looking at me with approval over my mature outlook on it.
We went to the hospital to visit him, all five of us (we picked up Obito-kun's grandmother on the way) making our way to the building that still smelled like antiseptic and bleach, still had far too many injured lying on beds in the front lobby and just like last time Okaa-san forgot (or just plain didn't know) that little children weren't supposed to see gore on that level.
Even if Itachi-touto had already seen worse before. It still wasn't acceptable.
I walked between the moaning and bloodless faces, trying to stop him from seeing too much. His face was already paling, and considering our family has the complexion the shade of a penguins' belly, that's saying something. He unconsciously moved in closer to me, using me as a meat shield.
We climbed the stairs and I walked with confidence, knowing exactly where I was going because of the interminable number of times I'd happily wandered into this illustrious Centre of all things mutilating, infectious and Green Warmth-y, where dwelled the dying, recovering, happy, sad and, more often than not, psychotic. A hospital was a place where you became human, stripped down to the barest you with no way to hide what you'd been through and why your body had had enough.
We made it all the way to room 21 before a medic stopped us and questioned our presence. Security is terrible. It's absolutely no surprise that Gaara broke in with apparent ease to 'do the deed' with Lee, and by deed I mean murder, with absolutely no sexual implications whatsoever.
...Fanfiction has ruined my mind.
Obito-kun's grandmother pushed the door open with the decorum of an Uchiha, and then promptly engulfed her charge into a pythonesque hug, her knuckles going white with how tightly she was holding him.
He didn't, couldn't, hug her back but when I got a good look of his brutalised face, his right side basically a mishmash of white and red flesh and pink and pale skin, he looked happy.
He was fourteen years old.
He wasn't Madara's stooge, but I guess I hadn't stopped to think why that had changed, or what would happen if he wasn't.
"Alright there, Aki-hime?" he managed to say between his freshly sown lips. I could see the faint traces of the sutures.
He looked worried, like as if I'd let his horrendously disfigured face get in the way of my friendship with him, the Bringer of Sweets and my favourite babysitter.
Silly boy. Doesn't he know he's stuck with me for life?
"You're the one who needs to be asked that. But since you asked, I have yet to be eaten by the cookie monster, and Chicken Little is still keeping an eye on the sky for me and I haven't heard from him yet, so I think I'm stellar for this week. Got any plans?"
He smiled, and it looked painful. I knew he smiled just for me.
Everyone else? They'd grown used to the fact that I made little to no sense. That didn't stop Obito-kun's grandmother from giving me a thoroughly weirded out look though, or Itachi-touto from smiling as if he knew exactly what I was talking about.
"Nothing. Just chilling in the hospital you know, watching paint dry and sleeping all day long," he tried to grin, and marginally succeeded. Obito-kun's grandmother choked on a sob and then all of Obito-kun's attention was focussed on her. Not that any of us minded, she had first dibs and my parents had only come for formality's sake more than anything else.
On a slightly unrelated note, I was fairly certain Itachi-touto had somehow figured out the entire English language just from me talking to him when he was a baby. I have yet to test this hypothesis, but it would explain how he knew the story of Hercules well enough to tell Koki the entire thing, complete with sound effects that were delivered in his solemn stoic way. Priceless to watch, but a bit worrying when thinking about the implications of that, considering I told him that particular story when he was barely two.
Well, my Otouto is a genius.
No, the pride I feel is completely justified. I'm allowed to brag about him to anyone I please.
I'm his big sister after all.
OMAKE
Namikaze Minato felt like a failure as he saw his rambunctious student gasping for breath through his damaged lips and squashed nostrils, lying on a hospital bed that made him seem a lot smaller than he was.
It was all his fault really. He'd split up from his team, going to aid the forces fighting at the Suna border while his three misfits traversed the dodgy terrain to reach Kannabi bridge and then destroy it. Kakashi had looked slightly homicidal at being put with his lovebird teammates (who he claimed were just as bird-brained as the aforementioned creatures), but had agreed because, whatever flaws they had as human beings (didn't you know they weren't following protocol at all with how emotional they were acting?), they were a strong duo and together they were a strong team.
He was slightly grateful that the two people he'd selected to round off his team were a lot less insecure and hormonal than he'd anticipated, their momentary lapses into silent soulful-gazing preventing them from noticing just how prickly Kakashi was, not that Obito hadn't noticed of course, and Rin had most definitely seen it but chosen not to comment on it. But the fact was that Kakashi thought they hadn't noticed and so he didn't push them away nearly as much as he would have had there been not only the rivalry between the two males (which there was plenty of to go around) but also an unbelievably awkward love triangle too, something Kakashi would never condone because he would have thought that those two things alone would never have been enough of a distraction for people not to notice his anti-social tendencies.
They hadn't completely warmed up to each other, but Kakashi knew how much Obito loved Rin and vice versa. He respected that, and Kakashi sort of twistedly understood it too, no matter how much he denied it.
So when Rin had been captured, Obito had made to follow them and Kakashi had only hesitated a split second before he followed his teammate (let's face it, his record would be tarnished permanently if he'd completed his first mission with a 100% casualty rate and besides, the job required a minimum of two people to accomplish anyway).
They'd saved Rin, Kakashi had lost an eye and Obito was most likely permanently crippled from the avalanche of falling rocks.
On the plus side, their teamwork was absolutely stellar. On the downside, with Obito out of commission and Kakashi hindered enough without an eye that he needed proper retraining, they wouldn't be Team Minato for long.
The sounds of approaching footsteps declared the imminent arrival of Obito's family, and so Minato tapped Rin on the shoulder as she tightly held Obito's hand and didn't say a word, signalling for Kakashi to leave and telling Rin that they would be back later.
She left him, and then Obito's grandmother burst through the door.
Namikaze Minato blamed himself. But he knew Kakashi blamed himself more. His silver-haired student was wondering whether he'd done the right thing, not continuing the mission and going after Obito. Maybe if he'd stopped Obito, his loud teammate wouldn't have been rushed into a surgery that lasted six hours. Then Obito wouldn't have been anywhere near that rockslide and would still have a shinobi career.
Ah the irony of what ifs.
Shorter than last chapter, and definitely a lot darker. Sorry about that...Please review and favourite! Thank you for the support so far! ^^ (Fixed some issues with the chapter.)
Edited 25/02/2017
