Disclaimer: Ha Ha! Chapter one.
Sauru Tsukiyumi Sanbi's Faeble: (Long name is long.) D'awww, why thank you for the complements! And with the whole ObitoxRin… Good that you feel that way, since the writer feels the same way.
–innocent whistle-
It quickly became a custom to drag the boys to eat out every time Rin got her paycheck. Perhaps that seemed more like squandering money at first, but she was getting a nice, hefty sum from her work at the clinic so that not even Kakashi could complain about the indulgence. Of course, this new ritual wasn't quickly learned; the three of them still fought and bickered, even at the tables, and it would take more than one try often to get Obito and Kakashi to dress properly. But it was nice to get out of the minka sometimes, and to eat food made by others even while Obito was a good cook himself.
Things were looking better than the patchy uncertainty from after Kakashi quit his job to a more stable household again. Obito's job remained steady, Rin's work at the clinic certainly proved to be much of the same, and Kakashi had finally gotten to the point of actually starting his business (granted, he didn't exactly have an office or employees yet, but at this rate, it wouldn't be long). As autumn trudged further, it came closer to Rin's yearly trip out of town.
Rin had left the town every year ever since she'd moved here as a child, so it wasn't something that Obito or Kakashi questioned. It was family matters, she'd explained when she was younger, and again after her father died when they asked why she still had to go. But this year's trip would be special, since some of her coworkers were coming with her. Sure, her rant before had shaken out most of the boys' prejudices, but she sincerely doubted they'd like the idea of her traveling with them, especially if they found out where she was going… She had to tell them. Should she tell them now, during this expensive dinner?
A sigh. No, Rin learned better than to bring these things up at dinner, anymore. Especially at a fancy restaurant. Bringing things up meant more potential for an argument, and more potential for embarrassment. Besides, she had tried seeing if they would react better by having sudden things sprung onto them if it was done in a restaurant before. She once told them that she was going to start dating one of her coworkers, and they both reacted uniquely but still badly. Well, the initial reaction wasn't at all unique, since they both bit clear through their wooden chopsticks, but Kakashi quietly pulled out the broken tips from his mouth with the most bewildered expression of mortification while Obito shrieked about splinters in his tongue. And then the both of them ragged on her for the rest of the night for playing a joke on them.
She decided talking about her trip could wait until the walk back.
.-.-.-.-.
"Is that all?" Kakashi said matter-of-factly, looking more interested in the darkened road they were walking on than the conversation.
Rin looked at them both in surprise. They were taking this better than she'd thought. "You don't mind?"
Kakashi shrugged. "I figured it was about time for your yearly trip, anyway, and you'll be traveling with ninja instead of alone, so it sounds better to me."
"You don't even mind that I'll be stopping in Konoha during the trip?" she pressed, "What about you Obito?"
Obito was still grinning and patting his stomach in satisfaction, but when he found he was being addressed, his smile fell a bit and he answered, "I'm not completely okay with it, but Kakashi's right. You're probably in better hands now than you had been for traveling since your father died, right?"
Rin relapsed into silence, watching the two of them in consideration. The sun was setting sooner and rising later. The autumnal equinox had been past for a month or so, and it was getting cooler outside. The leaves were turning and dropping, looking almost like large sakura petals in the streetlights. She looked up to the sky, dark and cloudy. It was going to rain tomorrow.
A few thoughts floated through her mind as the leaves drooped down. There was no way that Kakashi and Obito already got over her being associated with ninja. They never had any real interaction until that day Kakashi met Zenisoku-kun with ninja they were aware of (he might not have even been aware then if Zenisoku-kun didn't approach himself). Before, the only time they had seen ninja hitai-ate in person was during the war, and that was not a pleasant experience for either of them. Obito's mother had died, Kakashi's caregiver was bedridden and unable to support him from that point on, and they'd had many close calls during the attack from hostile ninja from the enemy nation of rock.
Now, they both would occasionally spar with some of the curious shinobi that worked in her clinic, but there was still a hesitance, and they almost did it out of trying not to draw attention to their uneasiness around them.
"I hope the weather clears up before the trip," Rin said wistfully, now approaching the minka. The sudden sound of her own voice in a silence that held only footsteps on a road startled her a bit, and she just then realized that all three had been silent as they walked.
.-.-.-.-.
There were lots to do before she left. She complained to herself that she really should get these things together before the last minute like she did every year, and she made this complaint every year in attempt to quell herself in the annoyance she rightfully deserved from her procrastination. She had papers to find, reports to write, family documents to sift through, scrolls and books to glance over, heirlooms and awards to consider bringing, and nevermind about clothing.
It did not help that the attic was in perpetual state of suffocating dusty disarray, where most of her things were. In fact, most of what had taken residence in the attic of the minka belonged to her—or rather, her family. Before her father died, they lived in a house big enough for a large family, and though the two of them lived in it alone, it was completely furnished and decorated. Rin couldn't bring herself to get rid of everything after her father's death, and in fact found that familial obligation required her to keep a lot of things that she might otherwise rather not have around to trip over.
So, when she moved into the minka, up into the attic it went.
The attic was almost completely untouched, because the only person that had anything to do with most of its contents was Rin, and she rarely went in there save for the yearly trip and to run up every once in a while for a medical book or something like that. A few times, she's taken to staying up there while she read what she needed, but since she never got around to cleaning it, it was better for her health most often to just take her books and materials into her own room. But every time Rin entered that attic, she kept cursing at herself and swearing that she will clean it when she comes back, when she has the time, et cetera, if only because cleaning up the place might make it easier to do her last-minute preparations for her trip every year.
She nearly tripped over a box, succeeding in whirling up a lot of dust. She waved it from her face and continued searching for what she needed. Which box would have it? A box to the side that had a large kanji denominating its contents clicked through her peripheral vision, and she leapt over some more boxes towards it, trying to be careful to not land on something other than wooden floor. Sandal tracks weren't something she needed on anything up in this maze of mess, since most of it was important, if not just important to her.
Still cursing to herself, Rin finally came down into the top normal level of the house, wiping some sweat off her brow since the attic was stuffy and warmer than it should be with the season dropping farther down the thermometer. This action brushed a bit of dirty water onto the back of her hand, alerting to her how filthy she was, and all at once she felt itchy and grody and wanted desperately to take a bath. She glanced at the papers in her other hand, then shook them. Just as she thought, gray-brown dust flew out wildly, dulling the light in the air for a good while before drifting towards the floor that used to be clean. "Guh, wonderful." She marched to the nearest window, opened it, and flapped the papers back and forth outside like they were a dirty rug. The remainder was wiped off with a duster, and the papers were deposited into her room before she readied herself for a bath.
Her bath was midway interrupted when Obito burst in, screaming at the top of his lungs to whoever he was looking at outside the bathroom (Kakashi) about some chore that he didn't want to do. When he looked forward and faced the person already occupying the bathroom, naked and lounging in the tub, there was a slight, wide-eyed pause before Obito made a strangled yelp and sprung right back out of the room, leaving some cleaning products and an open door behind him.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the end of the story. Kakashi followed up with annoyed remarks about what could make Obito squeak like a little kid and run from the bathroom, and vocally made the assumption that there was a large spider within and that he was too much of an arachnophobic crybaby to do anything about it. He turned into the bathroom like he was just turning a corner in the house, with his hand on the handle by pure habit, obviously not expecting the sight that scared off Obito to be his naked female housemate. He stopped right in his tracks.
Kakashi's awkward, wide-eyed stare lasted longer than Obito's, if only because it took longer for the information to decode and process in his brain. Rin couldn't help him out with either speaking or covering herself up, still stunned from Obito. Lucky for him, he'd already had his hand on the handle, so when the situation finally dawn on him, he quickly pulled back into the hallway and took the door with him until it clicked shut.
And then they proceeded arguing, this time with new subject material.
"Why the hell didn't you say anything, Obito?!"
"You went in too fast to look, you pervert!"
"Pervert?!"
"That's right! Or was there another reason you stared for as long as you did?!"
"I was shocked! And it wasn't that long!"
"Yes it was! You were totally ogling her, Kakashi!"
"I was not! If I'd do such a thing, I wouldn't just waltz right in and stare at her! I do have a basic understanding of decorum and privacy, you know!"
"Oh, so it's okay to look at her without her knowing, then?! Do you do that often?!"
"Damnit, Obito! That is not what I meant!"
Rin at first tried sinking, humiliated, into the bathwater like normal girls would, but the argument turned physical quickly, noisily tumbling around in the hallway like it was a wrestling match. When a loud crash erupted from it, she sighed, putting aside her attempt at embarrassment, and got out of the tub. She took her time to dry off and put on a clean robe before opening the door and stepping out.
"A-hem!" Rin cleared her throat loudly to get their attention. "Maybe you guys can, you know, quit it?"
Their heads shot up from the floor-grapple they'd managed to get themselves in, then they immediately separated to their respective sides of the hall, still on their knees, and bowed apologetically. With the bow, they said, in unison, "Hai, Rin-san."
Rin was tempted to laugh in response to the sudden polite behavior towards her following their roughhousing, but she suppressed it into a smile. They always acted more than a little courteous towards her on the days before she had to leave.
"I know you guys didn't mean to peek. No need to beat yourselves up over it. Or each other, for that matter."
They both turned red and looked down to their knees. Rin sighed and ran a hand through her wet hair.
"Why does it seem," she said, "like I'm always schooling you two? I don't even mean to half the time. We're all adults. I don't need to break up your fights all the time or tell you what to do or what not to do. I'm not even the oldest of us three, and I had next to zero confidence growing up. So why do you guys let me boss you around like this?"
"Kakashi's just acting guilty 'cause he was caught staring at your ra—ow!"
Kakashi didn't even look up when he punched Obito in the arm, although his frozen face was now several shades darker.
Rin shook her head. "Geez, it's like we just went through an obligatory, stereotype bath scene in a manga and you guys didn't get the script until the last minute. This wasn't even the first time you guys have accidentally walked in on me. Not to mention either of you stumble in the room while I'm getting dressed about once a week."
"But Rin," Obito tried to speak again, "You're going to be leaving for a few days, and I don't want you leaving with the image of him leering at you like a piece of—ow! Damnit Kakashi!"
"The point is that it's not about me being seen in the nude. You guys, the town I grew up in before my mother and grandmother died was old fashioned and had unisex bathhouses. I just want to know why you guys follow me like that."
That did make them shut up for a bit. But Obito still pressed, "But there's a difference between a kid in a public bath and a woman who could be taken advantage of by—ow! KAKASHI! I swear to the high heavens if you don't quit punching me in the arm—I didn't even mention you that time!"
Kakashi glared at Obito this time, but his own face was no longer just flushed; it was such a violent red that Rin wondered if he'd been holding his breath.
Rin knew that her point was not going to be considered today, and left them to their quarrel so she could get dressed. Better to go for a time that they're not going overboard with courtesy and strike at the weak point, right? She'll bring it up after she comes back from her trip. Maybe she'll start a fight with them herself and rile them up. That's something she'll amuse herself with thinking about on the road.
.-.-.-.-.
"Alright, you boys be careful while I'm gone."
"Hai, Rin-san."
"Remember, try to keep the fights small or outside. I won't be around to separate you and we don't need any more trouble with any bills."
"Hai, Rin-san."
"If you guys get hurt, just go down to the clinic and have them take care of your injuries. I won't be able to bind any wounds, of course, but they're very good at it and I'm sure they'll do it without a thought of compensation since you're getting on good terms with them."
"Hai, Rin-san."
"And if you kill any small children, make sure that you dispose of their bodies away from the playgrounds where the authorities would look first."
"Ha—"
"Hai, Rin-sa—"
Kakashi caught it first, but it didn't matter. Rin was now laughing at both of them for not paying attention to what they were agreeing to.
Obito pouted, standing beside an annoyed-looking Kakashi. "That was cruel, Rin."
"I know, it was." There was guilt in her giggle, but she was still obviously amused by how she caught them unawares like that. She readjusted the sack on her shoulder and glanced back at the ninja that were going to travel with them. They made a signal that told her they were ready to leave when she was.
His pout fell away to an earnest smile. "We'll miss you."
"I'll only be gone for a bit, you know."
"Yeah, but we still always miss you when you leave. Even Kakashi'll climb the up walls every time, you know."
Kakashi markedly ignored the remark. "Rin," he said in a low, sincere tone, "Be careful."
Rin's large, warm, peaceful smile came as a response. She silently beckoned them closer to her with her free hand, as if she was about to tell them a secret. The two looked at each other in question, then approached cautiously, their faces close to hers to hear a whisper. But they didn't get a whisper; they got a quick kiss on the cheek instead, on Kakashi's left and Obito's right since that's what was close from how they stood. They both drew back in surprise.
"I'll be careful as long as you guys are careful, too."
They nodded in stunned silence. She pulled away to meet the ninja waiting for her on the road and started off. Before they went out of sight, she turned around, still smiling, and waved at the two like she a schoolgirl waving at her playmates when she had to leave the playground.
She could see them eave back, Obito with wide swoops of his arms, and Kakashi with his arm high and straight.
Zenisoku-kun beside her made a chuckle. "Those two really look up to you."
"Yeah." She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, they do."
Yes, once again, a fast chapter. I know, I know. I guess possibility of Kakashi dying in the manga is the best inspiration ever. (If that spoiled plot for you… why did you not already know?)
By the way, for those who don't know, unisex sento and onsen (bathhouses and hot spring baths) in Japan are considered more old-fashioned than separate (rural areas still have unisex onsen in use).
(Also, the "killing small children" comment was worse before; it was going to be "raping little boys", but that was more my own demented humor than in character for Rin, so I changed it.)