Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto still.
It was nearly ten o'clock that night when Rin finished watching Sakura. The young woman was just being shooed out of the house politely by the young child's mother who'd seen the dark purple circles underneath her eyes; Sakura's father was ready to walk her home despite whatever she said. Pulling on her coat quickly, Rin grabbed her scarf, mittens, and hat before moving out with the older man onto the dark streets of Konoha, never bothering to put her accessories on because she didn't want to be rude.
She almost bumped into the man because he stopped on the porch as if seeing an Earth nin. "Can I help you, sir?"
"I'm sorry to bother you, Haruno-san." She heard Kakashi's voice. "I thought it'd be best if I walked her home when she was ready."
"Don't worry about it at all, son." Sakura's father stepped aside so that both young Shinobi could see each other. "I believe I'm leaving you in good hands, Rin-san. Thank you for watching Sakura-chan tonight, and I apologize for our late return."
"Please don't let it bother you, Haruno-san." Rin gave a smile as she pulled Kaka-chan closer to her to keep her pet warm. "And thank you for allowing me to bring Kaka-chan with me."
The man nodded before bidding good-night to Rin and Kakashi one last time before closing the door, leaving the two alone on the streets. Saying nothing, Kakashi turned and began to walk away; when Rin realized he was heading towards their apartment, she followed after him and soon reached his side. For what seemed like hours, Rin watched Kaka-chan sniff in her scent and chew on the zipper of her purple coat.
Kakashi unnoticeably watched her with interest. "You sure have grown attached to that panda."
She felt her cheeks grow hot as Kaka-chan's eyes darted from her to Kakashi and so on. "W-Well I..."
"About today..."
She blinked, seeing that he was moving onto a different topic. "Yes, what about it?"
"When I said that I just some how knew you saw my father's corpse..."
She could tell that he was having difficulty talking to her, but she only guessed it was because it wasn't something he liked to open up about. Immediately, she knew he was going to lecture her about not listening to him clearly - but she just wasn't sure how much more of that she could hold up on her shoulders. At first it seemed like nothing, but after Obito's death it just seemed to pile up and stick in her head, the hurtful words repeating themselves over and over again. "I know, I was careless again. I'm probably not even worth considering being a ninja--"
"Rin, I'm not criticizing you..."
"Y-You're not?"
She saw his visible eye close slowly. "You're not weak, you've just been around people who are considered geniuses you whole life. Your problem is that you give up so easily - when something tough comes your way, you see everyone else doing it like you should know the basics and give up." He suddenly grasped her shoulders and opened his natural eye back open. "Rin...you're not weak, you're just...failing to do everything because you don't believe in yourself."
She looked down at her feet. He was right - their sensei was a genius, Kakashi was a genius himself and related to a genius, and Obito was a genius and surrounded by other geniuses as well. She was nothing compared to them, just some ninja wannabe.
"You've had it in you all along, Rin." Kakashi forced her to look him in the eye. "You would've become a Chunin sooner then you did if you had believed in yourself, and pushed away all of the insults your opponent threw at you. You knew she was only saying those things because of jealousy - she was mad because you were paired up with Obito instead of her, and she thought she could show off to Obito by weakening you."
She felt her lips curl up into a half smile. "...You really think so?"
"No." Her face fell until he spoke again. "I know, and Obito does too."
"Obito?"
Kakashi pointed at Obito's eye. "Obito wasn't joking when he said that he'd be able to see the future - but he's moping about only seeing cloth right now."
She smiled softly, realizing that Obito hadn't been lying when he said his last words. A sudden urge of asking Kakashi to see Obito's eye washed over her, but she kept quiet - Kakashi wasn't going to want to waste his chakra showing her an eye that he probably believed was as empty as his. Yet both eyes seemed different - one that was lost, and the other one seemed to have the look that Obito had.
She was pulled out her thoughts when she saw Obito's eye kindly starring into her eyes. Shock evident on her face, she looked down to see that Kakashi was holding her hand, his chakra entering her body to read her thoughts.
She could've sworn Kakashi's mask had curled up into a smirk. "You were spacing out, so I decided to check up on you."
He released his grip on her hand, stuffing his hands back into his pockets and closing his visible eye and leaving Obito's eye open as if trying to ignore Obito. It was a few minutes later when his eye opened again and he said softly, "Obito misses the feel of your skin."
She couldn't stop herself then. Her hand was suddenly beside Obito's eye, touching Kakashi's skin like Obito was suddenly in front of her and she was checking to see if it was really him or not - almost as soon as her fingers touched Kakashi's skin around the Sharingan, tears flowed out of Obito's eye. Rin smiled softly before she wiped away the excess tears before Kakashi could, whispering softly without being able to stop herself, "Obito-kun..."
Kakashi's hand was suddenly on top of hers, pushing her hand down before covering up Obito's eye to shield her pain. Looking at her straight in her eye, he murmured softly, "I still haven't forgotten my promise to Obito. I'll push myself to the end of what I can do to protect you - even if it means flooding myself with even more pain, and crawling using my broken feet because my hands and arms are broken, I'll still protect you until I'm no longer breathing."
"Kakashi..."
"You owe me nothing, what matters is what I owe you, Rin."
"...But what could you possibly owe me?"
"I owe more then I could possibly give, but I will pay you back with anything I can possibly give."
"Kakashi..." Rin paused for a moment, wiping away a tear that was slowly rolling down. "You don't owe me anything. What you're giving me already is more than I could ever ask for--"
"That's because you never ask for anything, Rin." Kakashi began to walk down the road again, forcing Rin to follow after him.
Realizing that she hadn't gotten to finish what she wanted to say, Rin grabbed his wrist gently. The Jounin stopped in his tracks, refusing to look at her - yet for some reason instead of brushing her off and telling her to leave him alone, he was still standing there and not pushing her away.
"...But thank you." Rin murmured softly before moving ahead and leaving him on the road.
She never heard the man mutter out, "It's my pleasure."
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The next morning both Kakashi and Rin found themselves in the Hokage's office, awaiting another mission patiently.
"Normally I'd refuse to allow Rin to go, but we need a medic nin and you two are most suitable for this mission. Just keep an eye on her, Kakashi."
Kakashi nodded. "I will."
"You might remember a man that went by the name 'Orochimaru'..."
"You mean the man that left the village after loosing his position as the Forth Hokage?" Kakashi asked curiously, earning a nod from Arashi in response.
"We think he's a part of an organization." The man added when Kakashi raised an eye brow at him, "It's most defiantly not for a tea party and to discuss old times - it's something else..."
"What?"
"No one knows for sure, but we think it has to do with a more powerful chakra - we have no clue what their intention is, though." Arashi answered the question he knew would come out of Kakashi soon, looking straight at Rin suddenly. "I know this is a Jounin-level mission, but I think Rin's capable of handling it if she's in the right hands."
"Sensei..." Kakashi murmured. The thought about pushing Rin out of the room, and putting up a fuss to keep her from going seemed so tempting - as much as he tried to convince himself that everything would be alright if he kept his eyes open, nothing seemed to go well when they went on missions anymore.
"Kakashi, it's Rin's decision." Their Sensei looked straight into Rin's eyes again. "Rin, do you want to step down?"
What was he thinking? He should've known that Rin wasn't going to step down - she wanted to prove herself worthy, and nothing was able to stop her when she was really serious. Why else had she almost killed herself the first time she went into the Chunin exams, fighting against someone who was above her skill after Obito gave her confidence?
'Say 'yes'...say 'yes'...just don't say 'no' ', Rin...' Kakashi pleaded mentally, awaiting her answer almost impatiently.
"No."
He shot his visible eye open in shock. Had she just said 'no' about backing down? Was she trying to kill herself - did she even realize how high above her level this mission was?
"I accept your decision, Rin. Just come back safe, alright?"
He glared at Arashi unlike Rin, who smiled with satisfaction.
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"We're here."
He could tell she was growing nervous with each step they took that brought them closer to their destination. He could see it in her eyes - the fear of something happening, her footsteps growing so quiet and faint. But why? Did she doubt him?
It was almost thirty seconds after his announcement that she finally caught up to him. Turning to meet her gaze, he asked her softly, "Rin...are you sure you can handle this?"
"Y-Yes." She looked up at him, determination shining in her eyes. "I don't want to be a burden anymore."
"Stay close to me." He ordered before pulling her with him to the building in the middle of nowhere in the Grass Country. It was a large stone-faced building, and he could feel Rin's hand shaking in his; he squeezed her hand slightly, she stopped shaking.
"I can do this." He heard her whisper softly, confidence building up inside of her. He stood as still as a rock in his position for a second longer, giving her time to pull herself back together, before he moved into the building with Rin following after him.
The entrance was unguarded, much to his relief. The two began to stealth their way in, occasionally moving to the side into another hall when a random ninja crossed their path; he could feel Rin's hand shaking in his, and soon gave her hand a squeeze to tell her that everything was alright and he was here. It was nearly a half an hour later when they found the large doors of what their sensei had marked on the map as the place that Orochimaru's room was supposed to be in; carefully Kakashi rose up his hita'ate to search for any presence inside.
He saw nothing, and nodded Rin's way to tell her to open the door. She did so shaking, but followed his orders and stepped aside to let him lead her in; he grasped her hand in his as he passed by her, she shaking gave his hand a squeeze. He immediately knew that she was nervous, and wasn't sure if she was going to mess up, so instead of leaving her to search through a pile of papers on the other side of the room, he let her search through a pile of papers next to a random pile he claimed as his.
He looked up at her almost five minutes later, only to find her starring blankly at the wall in front of them, spacing out completely. Waving a hand in front of her face to snap her out of her thoughts, he got nothing in response. Softly he whispered, "Rin?"
She blinked, whispering back, "S-Sorry."
He knew something was up, but let it slide and decided to ask her about it later. No one had come inside, but it wouldn't be long before they would; both Shinobi already had a pile of papers to take back. They got almost a total of fifteen minutes inside of the room before the lock on the door began to jiggle, obviously someone had realized that the door had mysteriously locked; swiftly grabbing Rin and their pile of papers, he left everything else where it was and pulled Rin up into the vent inside and began to crawl on all fours, attempting to get away and find a safe exit.
Looking behind him, he sighed with relief when he saw that Rin seemed to feel more comfortable in their situation then she'd been before - he wasn't sure why, but it didn't matter to him.
He soon found a route that took them outside, and after he unlatched the hook and moved forward he realized that they were higher up then he thought. He fell a good four yards from the air into a wet pile of mud. Rin almost lost herself too, but managed to grab onto the sharp edge; she winced in pain as the sharp-cutted edges sunk into her skin, breaking through her skin.
"Rin! Hold on!" Kakashi called out softly, spitting out a mouthful of dirt afterwards. The Hatake pushed himself off of his feet and positioned himself directly below Rin. "Let yourself drop, Rin. I'll catch you."
The girl closed her eyes tightly. "I can't."
"How come?"
"...I'm afraid of heights."
He mentally slapped himself. How could he forget that she was afraid of heights? The first time on a mission that ended the same way as this, but higher up, their sensei had to climb up to rescue her because she was too afraid to let go! Was he really that stupid?
"Don't worry, Rin. Just let go, I'll catch you. I promise."
She squeezed her eyes shut tighter. "I'm sorry, but I can't."
"Rin, we have to get out of here."
"I'm sorry."
"Rin--" The Jounin was interrupted when she suddenly let go without warning, forcing unexpected weight into his arms which pulled him back down. In the end both Leaf nin ended up with their faces only inches away from each other, and Kakashi's arms wrapped tightly around his waist as her arms were around his upper back and her head buried in her chest. Rin was now on top of him, and he could see her cheeks flushing - he quickly looked away from her when he felt his turn a light shade of pink too.
It only took her half of a second to realize that she was on top of him before scrambling to get up before pulling him up as well. He could see the embarrassed look she had in her eyes; her cheeks were back to her normal skin tone as his were, and she was gently brushing the mud off of her now-stained skirt.
"We've gotten all of the information we could possibly get, so this mission is over." Kakashi announced aloud with his normal tone; Rin nodded in his direction before joining next to his side and following after him again, the duo heading back to Konoha.
Neither said anything about the events that had occurred not long ago, instead both young Shinobi walked side by side in silence. Rin's feet dragged behind her, and wouldn't move any faster when she fought to pick up speed; Kakashi didn't seem to notice and continued with his normal pace, leaving her behind. She was so focused on trying to move faster that she never saw Kakashi stop and bumped into his back, shoving the Jounin forward a few inches.
"You're distracted."
She blinked slightly. "...I'll be alright."
"We'll rest up here for the night." He turned his head back to look at her. "Can you make it up there where the road forks?"
She nodded and followed after the Jounin once more; once on their arrival, they both decided to travel off of the road and hide deep in the forest to prevent any ambushes against them from enemies. By the time they set up their sleeping bags side-by-side, the sun was already setting and the sky was darkening; the temperature had dropped from the upper-fifties to the mid-forties and both were forced to retreat into their sleeping bags with a fire in front of them.
She unconsciously watched Kakashi without noticing it. The Jounin's back was facing her, and he was lying on his side attempting to fall asleep since it was her responsibility to take first watch. Her backpack was propped up against a nearby tree with his sword laying flat on the ground next to it. Kakashi was now snoring softly, something he didn't do often; the Hatake was laying flat on his back, his chest rising up and down in a steady rhythm while letting out a soft snore each time his chest rose.
After a while, she lay back on her back and looked up at the stars. For the rest of her watch time she starred up at the stars until her thoughts shattered when Kakashi was saying her name and waving a hand in front of her face to catch her attention.
"It's my turn for watch, get some rest." He told her before wrapping a blanket around her shivering body, but she protested against it immediately when she saw him freezing afterwards.
"You'll get sick if you don't get warm." She pulled off the blanket, which he frowned at. "Keep yourself warm, I'm warmer in this outfit and sleeping bag than you are in that."
"I don't care about myself. Obito would kill me--"
She interrupted him gently as she handed him the blanket. "You made me take the warmer sleeping bag, therefore this time I'm making you take the blanket."
"I'm not letting you suffer all night, Rin."
"I'm not letting you freeze to death, Kakashi." She shot back. He seemed surprised by how persistent she was being; truth was, she didn't know what had snapped inside of her, but something had and now she was like this.
'Maybe I just need rest, something I've been lacking.' She told herself before realizing that Kakashi was moving her off of her sleeping bag and combining both his and hers together.
"What are you doing?" She asked him curiously.
"You won't take the blanket, and you're so persistent and over tired that you don't see how cold you are. So to make sure you don't freeze to death, I'm combining our sleeping bags."
She blinked. Was he doing something that Obito had once done with her - was he combining both his and her sleeping bags like Obito had done with her to make sure she was warm on a night when they had to sleep out in snow? "You don't have to, Kakashi--"
"If I don't, then you're going to get killed because you'd be traveling with only an hour of sleep again." He snapped softly, making no move to let her disrupt his work.
He did have a point, even if that time had only been because of a kiddy nightmare - if she remembered correctly, it had been that dream where she was falling off a cliff in front of Obito and Kakashi, who had been the ones to push her. Of course she knew that neither of them would dare do something like that, but it had seemed so real; she could still remember Obito's face after they'd woken her, and Kakashi's annoyed look although underneath his cold heartless eyes it seemed that he had been startled a bit.
Realizing how tired she really was, she gave up on trying telling Kakashi different from what he thought despite how uncomfortable it was going to be. Then again, if Kakashi wasn't bothered by it (if he was then he was hiding it incredibly well) then she shouldn't be either considering how he always tried to keep others away from him and out of his life.
Neither noticed the pairs of eyes that were watching them from above and around.
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Rin's eyes cracked open only to close again instantly when the sun's rays blared into her eyes. It felt strange, as if it were close to noon instead of six or seven in the morning; it defiantly couldn't be that late because Kakashi wasn't the type of person to let his comrades over sleep on an important mission like this. She couldn't help but wonder if it was nerve racking for him - she couldn't find herself to be so calm like he was if she were to be the White Fang's child; of course it'd be a great honor, considering that she'd been one of those kids who were picked on for finding the man to be one not at fault.
She opened her eyes again. It was defiantly passed ten o'clock at least, most likely it was near noon.
They'd over-slept.
She moved to get up to wake Kakashi up so they could get out of here, but found something holding her against something stiff yet soft. When she realized something was wrapped around her she looked down at her waist to see a pair of arms wrapped around her waist firmly and gently, holding her against them. It didn't seem right, the only person who was with her was Kakashi and he didn't believe in showing any emotion at any time.
She looked closer at the arms, the armor. It was defiantly Kakashi, but why? The Jounin was acting different during this mission than any other time they'd been together before, but what was effecting him so much?
"K-Kakashi...?" She murmured softly before she could hold the words back. She couldn't hold herself back anymore; it was impossible, it couldn't be him...
The Hatake said nothing in response, indicating that he was still asleep. She blinked when she realized that he had fallen asleep on the job. No, wait, it couldn't have been him - it had to have been her. She was the one who did that, not him or Sensei or even Obito. Lately Kakashi seemed distracted though, he was taking actions that only Obito would do; of course he wasn't coming late, but he seemed to be opening up more.
It was unbelievable, the position she was in that is. She was against his chest, his head nuzzled against the side of her neck while holding her tightly against him with both of his arms. It took her almost five minutes to free herself without disturbing Kakashi, and when she saw the black circles under Kakashi's visible eye she decided to let him sleep while packing up what she could without disturbing him.
He looked so peaceful in his sleep - eyes not closed so tightly as they used to be, snoring softly, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. When she was shaking him softly and whispering his name it hurt, she couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since he'd been asleep like this. When they were younger, she'd whimper when Obito rolled over and the two collided heads and he'd be up like he was up all night, an irritant look on his face and telling them to go to bed.
His eye opened, but there was no trace of coldness. "Rin...?"
"It's time to go." She said softly and moved to get back up when he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.
"I fell asleep on the job, didn't I?"
"No, I told you I'd take over the shift a few hours ago when you were half awake. Don't worry about it, I couldn't sleep last night." She half-lied. She hadn't been able to sleep at all last night, she up off and on.
"Because of me?"
"N-No. Of course not, Kakashi."
He looked at her seriously, the foreign look in his eye gone. "I fell asleep on the job, didn't I?"
She knew he already knew the answer, but was trying to get her to say it. "Kakashi, it's alright--"
"No it's not. I could've gotten you killed."
'Did he just say 'you', not 'us'?'
"Kakashi, we've all done the same thing before. I've done worse..."
"That wasn't your fault, you puked because Sensei didn't cook your fish fully."
"...I puked on you."
"I got over it in five minutes, and then I just tossed the shirt."
She blinked. He hadn't talked to her for a month! And now he was saying that he got over the incident in five minutes?
"Let's just get out of here, I don't have a pleasant feeling about this place..."
'Wasn't this where the area the White Fang saved his comrades in...?'
"It's not my father, it just feels like someone's watching us closely, but at a distance..." He murmured softly, already packing up the sleeping bags and other sleeping gear they'd used.
She looked up at the trees just as she heard them rustle. "Someone's here."
"They're Earth nin." Kakashi informed her, Obito's eye staring straight ahead and into the trees.
The enemy moved faster than her eyes could track. In an instant they were in front of Kakashi, kunai raised and ready to kill him before he could even batter an eye if she hadn't grabbed the nearest rock to her out of fear, pulled back and with all of the force she could muster into her arm, thrust it forward and released the rock shakily. The rock was a larger one than she thought it had been, and because of all of the force she'd put into her throw, it sailed towards the man with the kunai faster than she'd been able to stop herself.
She had been aiming for the side of his forehead, but she had been shaking so much that it sailed towards the man's eye; before the Earth nin could react, the rock slammed right against his eye.
"My eye!"
His comrade was in front of her in an instant, and without even trying he roughly pulled her up by her shirt collar. "You'd better hope you didn't damage him, after all you're coming with us."
"What do you want with her?" Kakashi asked the man with an annoyed tone, reaching for a kunai.
"You're Hayata Rin no doubt." The man raised her up onto her feet, still holding onto her shirt collar. "We'll let your friend go if you give us the book."
"What...book...?" She struggled out; the man's grip on her shirt made it hard to breathe, but it was better than being grabbed by the throat at least.
"Orochimaru-sama has found an interest in one of your techniques."
'Orochimaru'? Why did the name seem so familiar...as if she'd heard it lots of times before, but why?
The memories came pouring back into her head. An S-class criminal wanted her - the very man who'd hated their sensei's guts after he lost to him for the place as the Forth Hokage. The very man who'd given her that dirty look for unknown reasons to her a few weeks before his 'departure', he wanted her for something.
"Because of what you are capable of doing, Rin, many S-class criminals could come after you if they were to find out about this."
Her eyes widened in fear. Her technique doesn't require a sacrifice like Orochimaru's, instead it took a lot of time and effort to be able to do such a thing; it was better than his though, and he wanted her to do what he'd always dreamed of doing.
The weather was bitter that night when she was walking home alone after their late session of training. Because her house was on the opposite side as everyone else's, Kakashi had gone another way with Sensei and she was left alone because Obito was gone; without the young Uchiha there to walk her home and make sure she got home safely, nothing seemed to matter anymore. Instead when Kakashi punched her in the stomach, it hurt, but it hurt more than it should've; then again, lately all she'd been seeing when she looked at Kakashi was Obito.
Life was hopeless without Obito. There wasn't someone to talk to anymore - Kakashi was too quiet, and although she liked to talk to him because it meant that he wasn't alone, but when she talked to him it felt that she was just talking to herself like she often did so many years ago on the swings in front of the academy, waiting for her mother to come pick her up but was so busy with work herself that she often forgot. Sometimes she was able to talk to their sensei, but she often didn't bother because he was going to become Hokage and she didn't want him to miss important events because of her.
The streets were growing vacant as always, giving her an uneasy feeling as she walked through the place. On the other side of the street, she saw a tall skinny figure standing against a tree, looking straight at her; his face was unreadable, but it almost seemed as if he was thinking of how to approach her without a commotion. She began to walk faster, seeing that if she got out of the area and back into the safety of her home then he'd be out of sight, out of mind. Looking behind her, she saw that he was slowly following her; but suddenly he disappeared from view and seconds later she bumped into someone.
Fear rose inside of her when she saw it was the man, and that it was none other than the man who specialized with snakes: Orochimaru.
"Little girl, non other than the Hayata Rin I presume?" He smiled with satisfaction afterwards.
"Y-Yes, Sir. Can I help you with something...?"
"Well actually, yes there is." He smiled again before looking around them for a brief second. "...Let's go somewhere more...warm--"
Before the man could finish his sentence, Arashi was in front of Rin in a swirl of leaves with an arm held out in front of her as if to create a barrier between both of them.
For the first time, her sensei's face was unreadable, but he seemed slightly irritated and more protective than he normally was back at the village. His eyes were fixed upon the man for a long time, and without a greeting said almost unemotionally, hatefully, "...Orochimaru."
Orochimaru said nothing as he continued to stare at her sensei, his face emotionless now.
"It's late Rin, your mother's going to be worried if you don't return home."
She could tell that he was using it as an excuse, but his tone told her not to question him and to go home. Quietly and quickly she bided him 'good-bye' before running home, too afraid to look behind her.
It would be three days after that Orochimaru would leave the village.
Author's Note: I was finally able to do a much longer chapter with fluff. Hopefully that'll continue to happen. xD