Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and never will


Chapter 08 – The Time to Leave

The hospital reeked of disinfectant.

He didn't actually hate hospitals, nor did he love it. He'd been in it more times than all of his fingers and toes put together, but that didn't mean that he grew fond of the place. The narrow white hallway would always be so depressing for him; as if there would only be death waiting at the end of it. A white bed in a white-coloured room; the colour that he always thought symbolizes hope, and how just ironic for him that the presence of windows in those rooms on the other hand would only make him feel helplessly barred and trapped; like a wingless bird in a cage. There was no use seeing the outside world if you knew you couldn't be in it.

Thank goodness he wasn't that bird this time.

He entered with a calm, detached demeanour, but with a slight superiority of a free man. The lobby was averagely crowded as usual, and he went straight for the stairs to look for her – without hesitation.

He had been there long enough to know every inch of the place.


She closed the door of the patient's room as quietly as she could, and scribbled some notes on the pieces of paper clipped in the file that she was holding. Walking down the hallway, she just couldn't help hearing a conversation between two young female medics nin coming from one of the rooms (the nurse's lounge to be exact) that she passed through;

"Rin-senpai?" the first one asked, excitement filled the young medic nin's voice.

"Yup, I heard they are finally together!!!" the second one exclaimed, a giggle on the way.

"With Kakashi-senpai? But Rin-senpai didn't say anything when I asked…"

"Oh of course she won't say, but don't you think she's different now?"

The first one paused, and held her chin between her thumb and index finger, "Well, when you put it that way, she does look happier… and her face did look like it was glowing"

The second on snapped her fingers, "The sign of true love!!!"

Both of them began screaming at a high pitch, the 'kyaaa!!!!' from them almost echoed through the whole hallway.

She froze; a single drop of sweat fell at the side of her head as she tittered at the conversation.

She managed to slip by them unnoticed (she just couldn't afford to be seen by them now), and as she descended the stairs did her mind wandered to the gossip she just heard.

She wouldn't call her and Kakashi as being together.

Maybe he had had lunches and dinners at her place more times than usual, and he had more than once slept there, but she wouldn't consider that as being together – not that soon anyway. Yes, she admitted that she liked the idea of him being there; it was a great thing for Sakumo but she didn't think by doing all that could already be said as being together.

Although some part of her surely hopes so.

Yet again, did her face really glow??

She let out a nervous laugh at the thought.

"Ah, Rin…"

She realized that she had been staring at the floor all the way down the stairs, with a file tucked between her arms and her chest. And when she raised her head to meet the voice, she was face-to-face with the other contributor of the gossip.

"Kakashi?" for some reason she was blushing – a little.

He smiled; didn't quite notice the red flush at her face. "Look, I need –" he stopped halfway; his one eye caught on something that made his train of thoughts stopped. "What happened to your blouse?" he asked, pointing on a stain near the left part of her shoulder. The brown-ish wet stain was quite hidden by the file she was holding, but somehow it didn't escape his eye.

She looked down at her blouse, "No, it's nothing" she tried wiping it away, "Just a patient spilling her food just now –"

His eye narrowed and he held up a hand. "Stop it. If some patient spilled something, it would likely hit the lower part of the blouse"

She took a deep breath, a brief pause before she spoke. She opened her mouth slightly to say something but closed it back, the action repeated several times; "Her son was one of Orochimaru's test subjects" she finally said.

He stared at her, the pupil in his eye slightly enlarged. "She thought you were involved in that?"

She forced a smile. "Its okay, Kakashi" she hugged the file tighter.

He let out a deep sigh. It was not okay. It was all a lie to cover up the truth; and the sole purpose of her doing that was him. It annoyed him that he wasn't able to do anything at that time, no one could exactly think straight during the war. "We need to clear this matter up, Rin. You can't walk around the hospital being thrown with food"

"It doesn't happen all the time, Kakashi"

"You mean it had happened before?"

She paused. "Kakashi, it's nothing…"

"What about the staffs? Do they treat you the same way?"

She gently put a hand on his chest, pressing soft against his Jounin vest, "Kakashi, we'll stop the interrogation here." The feeling of her touch on him did the trick – for a while. "Now, why are you here?" she quickly change the subject. They had stopped at the hallway next to the stairs.

A sigh came from him again. He'll let this slide for the meantime. "I'll be going again"

"To Iwagakure?"

He nodded.

Her eyebrows twisted into a small frown. For some reason, she felt something was very wrong.

"Look, don't worry; this could be the last time. We're attacking the source of the rebellion this time, the war there could finally end"

She forced a smile.


"Why isn't dad picking me up?" Sakumo looked up at his mother as they were walking out from the Academy, with his little hand in hers.

Rin smiled hesitantly, "He said sorry honey; a mission came up."

The little one unconsciously nodded, and turned his sight back at the road before another question came up, "When will dad come back?"

Rin looked down to her son, "Why?"

Sakumo looked back up, "Dad promised to train me!" he smiled widely, his voice filled of excitement. "Dad said I could even be learning chidori!!" he grasped his free hand and twirled it around.

Rin doubted it, but somehow she managed to smile, this time more willingly. "I'm sure he will, honey" She laughed hearing her son laugh.


"Where's Sakumo?" the blonde asked with his cheerful grin.

"I think he's inside. It's nice that you came, I think he's a bit upset that Kakashi's not back yet." Rin served her sensei's son a drink. She looked at Naruto with her soft smile, and thought how much Naruto looked just like his father.

And just how Sakumo looked so much like Kakashi.

"It has been a week hasn't it?"

Rin nodded. It seemed Naruto realized how worry she was.

"I'm sure Kakashi-sensei's fine, Rin-san." Naruto took a sip of his drink. Rin again only managed to smile.

Small footsteps were heard and Naruto wore another of his usual grin "Ah, Sakumo!!!" he exclaimed when he saw the 4 year old came into the kitchen.

"Naruto-sensei"

Rin raised an eyebrow. "Naruto-sensei??"

One of Naruto's hand landed behind his head. "I guess I want to continue the student-teacher line" his answer was short and simple, much to his surprise.

The brown-haired woman smiled; understandingly. "I think that's a great idea indeed."


The area was quiet, except for the occasional cricket songs. The sun barely reached the ground they were on; the forest's canopies were too thick. Three figures were seen hiding in the bushes on the ground, all of them trying to produce less noise as possible.

"Come on senpai, breathe!!!" Yamato almost screamed. His hands were pushing against the deep gash, trying to force more blood from gushing out. He turned to his other comrade, "Yuuta, you need to snap out of it!!"

The newly appointed chuunin Yamato was referring to were sitting in front of the two figures, both hands dug inside his hair and his body froze to the ground. "Its.. its my… its my fault"

Yamato growled. The situation was really not helping him. He turned his attention back down to the person lying in front of him, as the person coughed out more blood. Yamato cursed.

"The blood just won't stop!!" Yamato gasped. "Yuuta!!! You need to give me a hand, dammit!!"

Yuuta still couldn't move. His brown eyes were fixed on the pooling red blood, drenching the silver strands of hair belonged to the person that just saved him, the head protector was nowhere to be seen, and Yuuta's eyes widened as he gaze into those mismatched eyes of his superior.

The sharingan was fading away.


AUTHOR'S NOTE.

There, a cliffhanger. lol.