"Obito?"

"Hm?"

"I know that, for some reason, you won't come back. I don't understand, really, but that doesn't matter just… as long as we can see you… at least now and then. The thing is… could you just stop running from us? Why do you do it?"

"Because… you two are a link to a part of me that keeps me regretting. I told you, regrets are part of being trash. But I guess I'd rather have these regrets than the actual hurt."

"Regrets are not a downside unless you regret happiness and loyalty."

"Well, my kinds of regrets are that of a downside, I guess."

"Why?"

"Because I chose a path like this."

"Why?"

"You are too curious for such an unsafe world, Kakashi."

And, with that, he got up. "Here," he gave Rin back her cup, "Such a coincidence, that was my favourite," he pointed out.

"Yes, you showed it to me," she replied. So she did remember that. "Leaving already? You could stay the night with us. Is there any place you have to be soon at?" she tried keeping him into place.

"Don't worry. I'm never too far," was his only answer and it was clearly a 'no'.

"But you're not too close either," she muttered and was sure he heard it and smiled his usual bitter smile before fading away. "How does he do that?" she asked after, remembering Kakashi's presence.

"Seems to be very good teleportation." Kakashi sensed the change of subject, but went along with it. "Something like Minato-sensei's. Just that it looks better than what Sensei does," he mused.

"Better than Hiraishin?" Rin was genuinely surprised. At first, she asked only because she wanted to fill the silence. She was more interested in 'why he would leave' not 'how'. But what she heard was quite surprising. And if Kakashi said so, it was right. She knew well he only needed a onetime observation to figure something out.

"You see," he started explaining,"Sensei can project himself just a bit further. And so he does it repeatedly. That's why it looks as he's a moving lighting. This repeated teleportation, even though at a lower rate, also takes more chakra. In the meantime, it seems Obito teleports at a higher scale. But, well… I don't know how it functions yet. Maybe he could show us sometime," he stated, looking thoughtfully into the fire.

Rin found it strange how Kakashi said it. It was as if Obito was currently just a bit away to pick up wood for the fire, but he'd be right back and they would casually ask him to show them that new cool technique of his, now or maybe one of these days. Rin really wanted to see things that way, too. To think of this 'mission' of his as just 'left to pick up some wood for the fire' nd then just come back one day and everything be as it should. But she doubted things could be that easy. Yet, she did hope that was possible. Maybe one day…

Another year passed. Quite a strange year. Obito did visit from time to time. But he only came out of hiding when there were both Rin and Kakashi. If he did visit Kakashi only, Rin did not know. But he never visited her house again. That hurt for some reason.

And anytime he visited, none of them talked much. And the little talk they did always got to the reason for which he wouldn't come back. And, same as that first night, by the fire, he got up and left. And not come back for around a month. Sometimes, two. They never knew.

"Obito, I always wanted to ask you, how do you do the teleporting?"

"Huh?" He was surprised to hear such a question. The truth was that they usually spoke about the most random things when he was visiting. Since he could not continue visiting Rin after that last day, he started visiting Kakashi in order to keep himself sane. It could have sounded strange, but it became almost as easy-going, spending time with Kakashi, as it had been with Rin, juts that there wasn't that kind of pressure on his chest when it came to Kakashi. That mystery that had conveyed Kakashi was back again. Obito wanted to know what was actually on that guy's mind. This Kakashi was resembling the old one more and more, not the coward, but that guy he had wanted to be friends with. Just that he wasn't that stubborn and proud anymore. And he was slightly more open.

"It involves the Sharingan," Obito explained. "But don't get too excited. It won't work with a transplanted eye." They were lying on Kakashi's bedroom floor, leaning against the wall with the window, which was largely open. Cold air was invading the bedroom, which was truly welcome on a summer evening.

"Oh, I didn't even think of that. Copying jutsus is already exhausting enough. But, to tell you frankly, I've been trying to figure it for quite a while. Something that never happened to me before. You know how much it pisses me off you admit I don't know something," he smiled. Obito smiled, too.

"Kakashi?"

"Hm?"

"Can you ask me where I'm going when I leave from here and what I'm doing when I'm away?"

"Why?"

"Because it's getting late and leaving without that question would break tradition." Kakashi smirked and nonchalantly asked it. In response, Obito stood up, put his mask on and waved goodbye.

Watching him disappear, Kakashi admitted to himself that this was strange, maybe, but it did not matter. It was perfectly alright as it was.

Obito teleported himself just outside the Konoha gates. There was no use in consuming more chakra when he could have a healthy walk home. Home? Could he really call that place home? Surely not. He was rather at home here, in the woods he had known since he was a little boy, but no, not ever in Madara's cave.

"Hey."

He was truly surprised to hear her voice, all of a sudden, in that same place. Wasn't that tree towards which he was passing the same one he had been standing in, the night they first talked, when she had called him to come down?

"Strange. Usually, you were the one sneaking, eh?" she raised her arms, waving in the air, with a little smile as he turned and looked at her. "So you are really coming in Konoha without visiting me, too," stating as a matter of fact from the way she said it, but it showed on her face that it was clearly bigger than that.

"What are you doing here at night, Rin?"

"It's not night. It's just late evening," she said as if that was the best reasoning possible and there was no argument he could use now against her. As soon as she said it, with so much confidence, he burst into laughing. She felt like hiding somewhere. And right then, nostalgia hit both, recalling a time just like this, in her living room, with the story of a bouquet and drinking tea under the table. Had it been like… a year and a half ago, maybe? She missed hearing that laugh so badly! He had not laughed so sincerely since then… And that bouquet… That one bouquet. A bouquet that brought up another memory and the reason for which they no longer had that kind of meetings.

She walked to him, bound by an instinct. He did not step back. Just looked at her, approaching, thinking of how beautiful she looked right then. And every single day. Every time more beautiful than before. Her brown eyes were sparkling, lightening the dark night, and her smile looked just lovely. The damn pressure on his chest was back again.

"You rarely laugh these days, so it's kind of a miracle to hear it. So I'm glad there's an upside to making a fool of myself."

He took off his mask, showing his usual bitter smile, rather amused this one time, a silent agreement to what she had said.

"I do not hear the excuse for avoiding me, though," she added, still smiling, with her hand at her ear, like old persons do, trying to hear something better. She was saying it that way, smiling, with coquetry, a way of requesting that no man could decline, especially when coming from a beautiful, young lady – and it looked like she didn't even realize it. Nor the effect it could have and actually had. The pressure on his chest widened to his throat and stomach.

He ran his fingers through his hair nervously, feeling the awkward teenage-like way he'd never thought he'd ever feel again. Mentally, he should have been over thirty, but here he was, blank minded, a sixteen years old boy standing before a pretty girl his age, who didn't even had the least of idea of how charming she was.

"Rin, I am not avoiding you…" Yes, he was. They both knew that. But so seemed that pretty smile requiring for him to say. But that was just what he saw now. Rin acted just normal, just the way she did when they were twelve, actually. Smiling widely and talking nicely, sometimes playfully, not even thinking how stunningly, how charmingly ever single word escaped her lips.

And so it was. The girl saw him, in two, for the first time after finding out who he was. And there was nothing to shock or wonder about now. That was Obito and she couldn't act around him like anything else than she had ever done when there was only the two of them. Same, he couldn't not feel the same he had always felt every time she acted lovely like this.

"Sure, sure, I believe you," she waved a hand in the air which said 'yeah, right', but with no resentment and, after looking down for a moment, she looked back up at him, adding, in a more serious way, "Please stop avoiding me. Like, if you had given me that bouquet when we were young and… I did not know how to react at that moment, would you have run from me like this then, too?" She looked down as she asked that, playing with her foot. Well, someone had to bring that up of they wanted to move further. She knew he wouldn't, so it had to be her.

Hearing that, he swallowed hard, looking down at his feet, too. He did not know, really. He guessed that, when he had been a child, he had been naturally more hopeful. And when even that hope had faded, he had given up completely and thrown away the bouquet, so he'd never know such an answer. Now… what was he supposed to say? Fortunately, she did not wait for an answer for long, but continued speaking, "And… I guess you could say I had my time to think now…" His heart started racing. He lifted his head and looked down at her. She was still talking to the ground, playing with her foot in the dirt. "I... really don't know..." And she finally raised her head and looked up at him. His mind went dizzy.

And she suddenly had a thought. A moment. A feeling. "Would you let me try something that might ruin everything forever?" Taking his cheeks in her palms and elegantly sitting on her tips like a little ballerina, with eyes closed, she kissed him once, softly, on the lips. Then, opening her eyes, she looked him in the eye, waiting for his reaction, her cheeks reddened.

Catching her head gently, he kissed her, too. She deepened the kiss. Her hands ran up his face, her fingers caught in his hair. His slipped down her arms and around her waist. Ending the kiss, they stood like that for a while, looking at each other. What was going on, where this was going, it was not a matter of importance. Parting in the end, she took his hand and they wandered silently through the woods for a while, going nowhere. He was following her and she was following a feeling of restlessness. The night was getting cold, but when he broke that perfect silence, asking if she was cold, she swore she wasn't. Even though she did not fell the cold, her arms were frozen. He pointed that out, putting his arms around her to keep her warm.

"Surely that's the only reason," she replied to that, raising her eyebrows insinuatingly. He blushed to that, like any silly teenage boy putting his arms around the girl he liked for the first time, and he didn't even care about it. The surprised one was Rin, seeing him so carefree again, genuinely smiling, being truly happy, and his happiness made her happier.

Neither of them had the least of idea how they got there. It could have been just a moment. The next day, all could disappear like it had never been. Things could fall to pieces. But now there they were, in their moment. A moment to last, even it they wouldn't.