04
The joyful day finally came to Konohagakure. Surprisingly, such a grand occasion that was the wedding of a Kage appeared to be somewhat modest this time, compared even to those of mere civilians. It was mostly for security purpose that they tried to make it as private and secretive as possible. Of course, friends and relatives were still present. And it was only proper to also invite the village elders and clan heads. All in all, it was still a very warm and lively occasion, something that they rarely experienced, considering their their tough professions.
The only thing that dampened the mood in that happy day was the young Hokage's insistent to wait for a certain student of his to come before starting the ceremony, even though it was nearly one hour past the scheduled time. His newly returned female student could guess the reason behind her teammate's lateness. Rin would've been happy to help him. But she didn't have the heart to refuse a certain someone's overdramatic begging to come here together.
"Maybe you shouldn't have challenge him to find a girl to come with him, Gai. Kakashi has never been late before..."
The bride disagreed.
"You think too highly of Kakashi, Rin. It's not only because of the stupid bet. I swear, that kid has somehow absorbed poor Obito's bad habits, dattebane!"
Right then, still clad in his usual Anbu uniform, the source of everyone's irritation coolly waltzed into the hall as if he owned the place.
"Yo."
At once, everyone glared at him, but he just shrugged innocently. They were lost for words, too irritated to speak up their minds. But not Maito Gai. The Green Beast had never felt so insulted as he watched his rival being trailed by his equally bored looking pug, instead of bringing a nice girl with him.
"My eternal rival! Not only have you tarnished this youthful occasion with your late arrival, you also didn't even bother to honor our latest challenge?!"
The weirdo's speech only fueled Kushina's annoyance further. Her face had gone nearly as red as her hair.
"Really, bushy eyebrows?! You're dumber than your look if you expect Kakashi to have enough charm to attract ladies instead of just perving on them. I bet he would never get married, unlike me and Minato!"
Unexpectedly, her careless provocation managed to hit a mark. Kakashi's bored look turned into a biter one as he reflected on his pathetic love life.
"Sorry, I'm late. I didn't have enough charm to ask a girl to guide me here."
"Hey! Just kidding, kid! In fact, if somehow you and Minato got age-swapped, I wouldn't mind marrying you, dattebane!"
The boy couldn't help but blush slightly. Hearing someone as pretty as the redhead claiming such a thing definitely felt pleasant. He decided to behave better then. Besides, he couldn't bear looking further at his sensei's sudden pitiful look at hearing his bride silly remark.
Since it was already past the schedule, the main ceremony that was intended to be simple needed to be made even simpler. Kakashi honestly felt pretty guilty about it, but on the other hand, he couldn't help but feel relieved that he didn't have to endure the boredom for too long. It also helped a big deal that his number one idol the legendary Jiraiya himself had forced him to sit next to him. The exciting stories of the man's research around the world for his masterpieces had never failed to awe him.
Somehow, the day had become much better for the pair of perverts as they enthusiastically talked about the Sanin's next project. Unfortunately, it was getting harder and harder for everyone else to not get distracted by their inappropriate talk. And the two didn't seem to care at all.
"But Jiraiya-sama, if you make the heroine's body that curvy, it would be dangerously obvious that you based her on Lady Tsunade!"
"Ah, you're too paranoid, boy! The hag is not that special, I tell you! Believe me. I've come across several young women with sizes bigger than hers during my previous journeys."
So absorbed in their 'serious' discussion, the two failed to notice that the woman in question could hear them clearly. It was only expected then that she would react violently. The scary lady menacingly approached the two perverts without further ado.
"Seeing how disgusting your behavior right now, I have no doubt that the two of you would be forever stuck in your pathetically lonely life. But here, let me end your miserable existence!" And her fists began to glow...
Everyone else was ready to witness a blood bath. That was until the brave Hokage, albeit nervously, stepped in between the Sanin and her two potential victims. Admittedly, he was anxious as hell, but he was the only one there that had a chance to save the pair of fools.
"Please Tsunade-sama, spare them! It's very important to me that they're here in my wedding day. They're my family..."
The enraged lady groaned loudly before turning away with a huff. It was like a miracle how the grown man's puppy dog eyes managed to save both his teacher and student's lives. And said teacher couldn't be prouder at that moment as he watched his former student carefully guiding his grumbling former teammate back to her seat.
"Look carefully, boy. That's one of Minato's greatest strength. His ridiculously innocent look could even tame the wrath of someone as scary as Tsunade."
"Yeah. Minato-sensei is perfect. He also has such a perfect life with Kushina-nee by his side. Jiraiya-sama, don't you think what Lady Tsunade said earlier feels somewhat true? Maybe not for you who has accomplished grand things, but for me..." Kakashi couldn't help but once again reflect on his failures.
"Minato is indeed very lucky to have Kushina in his life. But no need to worry, boy! I've seen you without your mask on before. I also still remember well how your parents looked. They were ones of the most beautiful persons I've ever seen. You'll grow up to be as good-looking as them, and hopefully have a much better luck than me in relationships."
"Still, as a shinobi, I suppose it would be wiser to give up on the things that could make us vulnerable such as love if it seemed to end up nowhere... Don't you think so, Jiraiya-sama?"
In actuality, Jiraiya had already been suspicious that the boy was having some kind of romantic problem. Then he was certain about it as took a moment to take a better look at him. Admittedly, Jiraiya found it ridiculous that the boy turned to someone like him for advice about relationships. But he didn't have the heart to disappoint his number one fan.
"Sooner or later, you've got to tell me about your mysterious lady, boy! But now, listen to me. One of the most important lessons I've learned in life is to never betray your heart, Kakashi. Regardless the odds, if you follow your heart, if you fight for what it says is right, there would be no regret. And no matter how it turned out, at the end of your days, as you gaze at the sunset, you would know that you have lived your life at its fullest."
Kakashi was amazed. His already unparalleled admiration for the Sanin reached a new height. Still, there was one thing about the man that unsettled him.
"But if that is true... why don't you keep trying to win Lady Tsunade?"
"Bah! Who said I've ever fancied that old hag?! Listen, boy. All these years, I have truly experienced the ultimate pleasures in life with hotter and definitely much younger women than her!"
"Wow. That's hard to believe. To me Lady Tsunade's figure is like the pinnacle of perfection, just like the one that only appears in my wildest fantasy."
Alas not only had the conversation started to turn stupid again, the two also once again forgot to keep their voices down. Even Minato could do nothing more to excuse their stupid behavior. In the end, he could only sighed tiredly as he watched the furious lady once again got up from her seat.
"Go ahead, Tsunade-sama. Do what you please with them. At least, I still have their pictures if someday I miss them."
"MINATO, YOU TRAITOR!" That was the last thing that could be heard from the legendary Jiraiya before he got dragged to his certain doom along with his number one fan.
/
Months passed by quickly in Konohagakure. Fortunately, everything had been going relatively well.
Lady Tsunade's two victims surprisingly managed to survive her wrath, but not without numerous broken bones and plenty other injuries. Jiraiya had left the village to do more research as soon as he recovered. As for Kakashi, he didn't forget the main objective of his temporary return.
His ANBU membership allowed him more freedom to move in the shadows. And with cunning and patient the result was more than satisfactory. Not only had he learned most of Konoha's top secrets, he had also managed to form remarkable influences with clan leaders and other political figures. He did everything so flawlessly that none of them ever suspected him as anything more than a reliable young Shinobi who often times offered them good advice and assistants.
All in all, the plan had been going well so far. But there were still other important things to do in his busy schedule. One of them was of course his training. This one was quite tricky since he needed to be extra cautious to not let anyone find out about his borrowed eye. Most of his serious training so far had been done only during solo missions far away from the village.
The training itself was difficult even for a genius like him, and the few basic pointers he had already learned didn't help that much. But then he remembered a certain blue-haired lady who had put her trust in him. He refused to fail. He gave his all until he managed to master up to advanced-level techniques of the legendary dojutsu. Hopefully, it would be good enough for the time being.
He was just so busy.
What little free time he got was mostly used to train his precious teammate. It wasn't a bad thing, though. He always enjoyed spending time with the girl. And this early morning was no exception. It was just the two of them in the village's most secluded training ground. Standing quietly in the grassy field, he felt himself smiling proudly as he watched her outstretched arm still faintly sparkling with bluish lightning chakra.
"And that's how you perform Chidori. Well done, Rin! Sorry though, I couldn't find you a nicer gift for your promotion than just a jutsu."
"Thank you, Kakashi! I couldn't ask for a better gift from you. And wow... I still can't believe I really did it. I've never even thought that I might have a good enough lightning affinity." She was panting but so happy.
"Keep in mind, though. This technique is very dangerous, something that I didn't even realize the first time I discovered it. So promise me, Rin. You will only use it if you're completely sure of your surrounding or... as a last resort." Though he really wished there would never come a time for that.
"I understand. I know that even you need the Sharingan to perform it safely. Speaking of it, I noticed you never use yours during our training... or even show it at all, now that I think about it." She couldn't help being worried that he still felt guilty.
"Ah, it's just that, you know, I'm trying to not be too dependent on it. That is all. You don't need to worry."
"Well, I guess it works. You have become very strong, Kakashi. If not for your support and help with my training, I wouldn't have managed to become a Jounin like you now. By the way, you really can't join our small gathering this evening to celebrate it?"
She understood that his Anbu career had made him very busy, but she still wished things could be like the old days when they spent most of their times together as a team. But his upcoming solo mission had really come at a bad time. Unbeknownst to her, the required time for him to leave for the mission was an hour past the the gathering time. Kakashi wouldn't be able to come because he also happened to have a meeting with a certain idiot that evening.
"Once again I'm sorry, Rin." He smiled sheepishly.
"It's okay. Just please, be careful. I'll see you again once you come back. I need to see Kushina-nee now. Later, Kakashi!"
"Good bye, Rin... I am sorry." Because he knew that after he coordinated the next move with Obito, he would soon cross the point of no return.
/
Before he left his small apartment for the last time, Kakashi took a moment to gaze upon his reflection on his headband that he hadn't worn in a long time. He couldn't help chuckling lightly as he realized that unknowingly, he had been following Obito's advice to let his hair down. Honestly, he did it simply because his bangs were rather convenient to cover his left eye. The idiot might've been right though. He had noticed a good increase of women paying more attention to him. He suspected that even Lady Tsunade found his look appealing, considering that she didn't harm his head at all as she beat him up months ago.
After a moment, he put the headband away without another glance, ready to leave. In a sense, he felt that he had lost the right to wear it the moment he lost his loyalty to Konoha. It was better this way as hard as it was to accept.
Soon later, Kakashi found his friend standing on top of a building across the street from the cafe where Rin's small gathering was taking place. How predictable. Surely, Obito already noticed his presence. But the idiot didn't seem to find it worth his time to look at him even just for a second. He was too busy watching their female teammate happily celebrating with the others.
"Hey, Bakashi. You're late! Your mean lady said hi, by the way. She misses you." Well, not really.
This time, Obito took a side glance at his friend for a second to see his reaction. And he grinned as he saw the lovesick boy looked away in embarrassment.
"Late? That's definitely something coming from you. Anyway, Rin has progressed a lot, Obito. She's bound to notice sooner or later if you keep ogling at her like that, you know. Unless your genjutsu could completely conceal our presence here?"
"No worries." He then let out a sigh. "Oh, God. Rin is really there... And she... she looks so pretty..."
"Indeed. Totally hot too. Seeing how well her figure has been developing so far, Jiraiya-sama even dared to claim that she has the potential to one day rival Lady Tsunade." It was true though, lately he had threatened to kill plenty of losers for daring to look at her inappropriately.
"What the fuck?! Seriously? Oh well, I guess I can't blame him. You must be blind or maybe gay if you're not aware of how attractive she is." Another sigh. "Now, I can't help wondering if she already has a boyfriend..."
Obito knew he was just being silly, but the thought of his beloved Rin with someone else just hurt. Too bad for him, he just unknowingly gave Kakashi a chance to mess up with him. Well, it was just about time really for his turn to come.
"Now that you mention it... Recently, I heard she's going out with Gai." Here we go...
"What the hell is WRONG with this world?! How could you let your taste drop so low, Rin?" He then glared at the familiar green figure. "And you! Take this, you green blob of shit!"
Immediately, the Mangenkyo Sharingan activated, followed by a brief appearance of Amaterasu that burned the Green Beast's glorious eyebrows until there was nothing left of them. And soon, Maito Gai's booming cry shook the whole Konoha as he mourned his tragic loss.
"OH, MY TWIN SYMBOLS OF YOUTH!" And it was followed by waterfalls of tears.
Unsurprisingly, the overly caring Rin quickly reached over her friend's face to inspect for any injury. And the sight of their closeness made Obito's blood boil. If she was actually going out with someone near Kakashi's level of coolness, Obito wouldn't have been this mad, but this... This was like a nightmare!
"That's it! Just forget the plan, Kakashi! I'll burn this blasted village to the ground now!"
"Whoa, easy there, buddy! You should've known better, seriously. Rin has been too busy with work and study to even bother thinking about dating. Gai is innocent here. I'm glad those horrid eyebrows are gone now, though."
"You were just messing up with me then?! Kakashi you bastard! Let's see how you'd react if I told you that your blue haired lady had been having an affair with a random dude!"
To be honest, that sounded beyond unlikely and downright ridiculous even to Obito's ears. He was really a bad liar. But somehow, the nonsense managed to affect his friend. The always cool boy looked so stupidly melancholic all of sudden.
"I'd be happy for her... as long as she could smile again." Of course it would've hurt, but he was being honest.
"Damn... You got it bad, buddy. I shudder to think what the road ahead of you might be like."
The two friends fell into silence for a moment. Their minds were filled with the thought of their pathetic love lives. Really, it was beyond stupid, not to mention unproductive. Kakashi cringed as he realized that.
"Enough with the nonsense. I still have a stupid mission to complete after this. Now, listen. It's clear that Konoha has become too strong. At this rate, they might very well be the hard counter to our plan if we don't interfere soon."
"Huh? Wait a sec. I mean, the last time we had a contact, you sounded so sure of your progress here. You even mock me for being too slow in dealing with Kiri!" To be fair though, he had really been kind of slacking each time Rin came to his mind.
"That's exactly why I can be so sure about this now. Just listen. They obviously have powers, more than enough to crush anyone. And they have loyalty, no matter how twisted some of those senses of loyalty are. But they also have ideals, various strict ideals that often clash with each other. We're going to exploit that. I've set it up so that by the time we make our move, their radical factions such as Danzo or Orochimaru would be more interested in gaining stronger footings to further their ambitions, instead of working together with the main faction."
It was somewhat ironic that Konoha, despite always promoting teamwork, was actually really lacking in that subject. And they both knew that if things had gone differently, without all the tragedies, they would've remained oblivious about this, and followed everything blindly. So perhaps in a sense, they could consider themselves lucky. Obito smiled bitterly at this as he shook his head.
"So what's the plan, Kakashi?"
"The Kyubi. The strongest Biju, Konoha's trump card in every war. It would be a fatal blow to them if not only the Kyubi is no longer under their control, but it's also being turned against them. And with the help of your fully evolved Sharingan, I'm sure we'll have no problem in manipulating the beast."
"Wait... You know that Kyubi's Jinchuriki is Kushina-nee, right? Do you also know the risk of extracting a Biju from its host?" Really, Obito was worried that he had accidentally turned his friend into a cold killing machine.
"You don't know how much I hate myself for even considering this plan. Nevertheless, I've seen how hard the life of a Jinchuriki is. I've observed Kushina-nee well enough to notice that under her cheery persona, she's hiding a deep sadness that could only be caused by the burden as a Jinchuriki. There's no room for failure this time, Obito. We're going to save her from her unjust fate. You know how strong her life force is. She would survive this for sure."
"You're right... I understand. Still, there is a problem. I'm not sure with my current skill I could deal with a seal of that level."
"Now, you might consider me as the most twisted person, but let's hear it. I've told you that she and Minato-sensei are going to have a baby, right? It's been estimated that she would give birth tomorrow, most likely in the evening. And I've learned that during the process, the seal would weaken. That's our chance, and it all will depend on you, Obito. Also, I must warn you that Minato-sensei will be there, along with Rin as one of the medics."
The possibility of Obito losing focus as he finally met Rin might very well turn their plan into a disaster. And they both knew it.
"Don't worry. I know what I'm getting myself into. As usual, I believe in your plan. But so far, you've only mentioned my part in it. What about yours, Kakashi? Don't tell me you're just going to cozily watch from atop of Hokage monument while reading Icha-Icha!" The assumption was absolutely ridiculous, but he could never be so sure dealing with his lazy buddy.
"Hmm interesting, I might consider doing just that. Yeah right. Don't be silly. You're correct that I'm going to watch over everything from there. But it would be impossible for me to not break a sweat. It will be my responsibility to prevent anyone from interfering with your work, especially the Sandaime."
This one also had the potential to ruin their plan if he made even a single wrong move in dealing with the Third. And it worried Obito. He would admit that his friend was real a prodigy with a brain that matched his talent, but even with the Rinnegan, would it be enough?
"You sure, Kakashi? Yeah, he's old and all, but he is still the man who has been called the God of Shinobi."
"It'd be interesting, don't you think? Seriously, though. I've prepared everything. It should be enough to bring him down, at least temporarily."