Hey! Sorry for the late update. Again.
I know it's starting to seem habitual now, but I kinda had about three distinct minor health issues and a kinda major one to deal with over this one month. I swear I'll try to remain healthy and post more regularly from now on.
Anyways, here's your new chapter, and a hoping that you like it ;)
After returning from her sensie's place and finally hitting the pillow, Rin really wishes she wasn't alone with her thoughts right now, because there's a bundle of them floating around in her head, contradicting her well established plan and causing her to worry.
She very much intends to collectively apologise to everyone including Kakashi, and to express her gratitude to help fix the mess that she had turned into over the past month, but she can't help but think of the idea to be embarrassing.
To admit how she has wronged them would also mean finally moving on from being rejected, and she tends to think of it as humiliating. For everyone to know that she had feelings for Kakashi, got turned down on multiple occasions and finally ended up giving up after a total of twelve whole years of persuading appears to be quite disgraceful to her.
Even if she assures herself that his happiness is worth more than any discredit to come to her image or any pain that comes to her heart, she can't help but fear the prospect of what the outcome might be. Her heart sinks at the possibility that he might not forgive her, fumed after having to sacrifice his own love because of her insistence over the years. Frightening possibilities take over her mind.
What if he doesn't want to talk to me ever again? What if he says that we should separate ways because he doesn't want me interfering with his romance from now on? What if all my friends desert me to side with him?
All these notions just make her feel nauseous. Even the prospect of them happening is enough to make her tear up, and when when a drop of the salty liquid finally races down her rosy cheeks, she at last realises how much she has been overthinking and decides to shut her brain down and go to sleep.
This is easier said than done, but she eventually manages to drift of to a dreamless sleep, which turns out to a blessing for her considering all of her recent dreams have consisted of Kakashi and a mysterious person romancing each other while she stands as a helpless spectator.
The rest of the night goes by too quickly, the following day even quicker. Atleast that's what it seems like to Rin. She doesn't believe that she is ready to pull it off just right now, and her mind is already helping her supplying the second thoughts, but no matter how anxious she is, she doesn't act upon her beliefs ever.
So before she knows it, Rin is flopped down on one of the Namikaze's couches in the living room, uneasily shuffling her feet and fiddling with her fingers, both waiting for and dreading the moment the clock will finally hit 8.
Offcourse, she isn't alone. A certain little blondie is there with her, desperately trying to impress her with his antics while she graciously smiles at him. The five year old is Rin's only source of ease as of right now, with both his parents in the kitchen preparing for the guests' arrival.
Not far from the house, a group of nine is walking towards it, nervously chattering in itself.
"Are you sure that's it?" Obito asks for the nth time, causing everyone to groan in frustration.
"For the love of god, goggles. Stop asking that every ten seconds!" Anko bawls and pinches a fat mass of the boy's cheek, then gives a sadistic smile as he howls in pain.
Shizune rolls her eyes tiredly and replies "Yes, Obito, I'm sure that's it. I was there when this conversation happened."
"Give him a break." Genma scoffs from behind. "Poor boy's been so desperate to hear these words for years it ain't no surprise that he can't believe it.
Obito looks back at him and grins. "Like hell I can't! For Rin to finally move on from this idiot is a dream come true for me!"
"I'm pretty sure it's same for Kakashi." Anko joins, and both Tenzou and Kakashi sigh simultaneously, knowing what's coming. This response just adds to her glee as she adds, quickly and loudly "Because now he can pick Tenzou up bridal style and just elope!"
"Do invite us to the wedding when that happens." Kurenai jokes from behind.
"And please do have alcohol." Asuma supplies.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Kakashi recounts while running a hand over his weary face as they finally reach the required destination.
Once they are in facing the front door of the Hokage's house, the humour dies within seconds. All of them compose themselves, and after tensely looking around, Gai takes the initiative to press the doorbell.
The shrill noise causes Rin's heartbeat to go berserk, and various degrees of panic seep into her bones. The fact that the moment to own up to every trouble she has caused is not half as terrifying as the prospect of having her apology rejected.
"I'll get the door!" She hears Naruto announce, and briefly opens her mouth to tell him otherwise, catching her tongue just in time as he exits the room into the hallway.
She turns her head when a hand unexpectedly gets hold of shoulder, finding her sensie standing behind her with the most reassuring smile he can conjure.
He doesn't need to say anything for Rin to comprehend the meaning of the gesture. She just replies with a trepidatious smile of her own, and proceeds to take a deep breath as her ears pick up the sound of the door being unlocked, followed by the little boy's sqeauling and a few joyous greetings.
"Good evening, big brother Obito!" The blond leaps into the equally delighted Uchiha's arms to be locked into an embrace.
"Good evening, champ." He smiles. "How have you been?"
"I was just telling elder sister Rin about my shuriken practice." He chirps, then exclaims "Hey, you know I hit three out of four on target today!"
"That's awesome, Naruto." Kakashi replies from Obito's left, eyes crinkling. "But we'll hear about it later, okay? Can you take us to your older sister first?"
The boy nods, and points towards living room down the hallway. The group of friends share a look, and Obito leads the procession inside, carrying the boy in his arms.
As they enter the room, Rin inspects the group while holding her breath, both her heartrate and sights coming to stop as she finally sees him after all this time.
As his eyes come to meet her own, something inside her changes.
Suddenly, all her inhibitions are as good as gone. She couldn't care less about her fears or getting mocked. All Rin cares about is how terribly she missed seeing him or being with him.
"Kakashi." Minato calmly begins, his words being tuned out by the girl beneath him.
"Sensie." The Kakashi bows down respectfully. Minato turns to face his son with a sweet expression, and politely requests him to go help his mother, to which the boy replies with an enthusiastic nod and jumping away from Obito, running for the kitchen soon after.
"I assume you know why you are here. I expect things to go calmly fro—"
He finds himself unable to finish the sentence as he feels Rin emerge from his grasp, and looking down, he's taken aback by the sight of the girl mechanically moving forward towards the flummoxed group.
She stops right in front of Kakashi, who stares at her placetely yet cautiously. Looking at him right in the grey eyes of his, she finds herself aching for him even more. Not as a friend or a lover, but just him.
Kakashi, meanwhile, has his own fears troubling him. He dreads the idea of her telling him to give her a chance yet again, which seems like a possibility given her reaction to being around him, but unlike Rin, he manages to keep his apprehensions hidden behind the mask.
"Kakashi..." she trails off even before properly beginning, her eyes getting watery yet again. Screw everything else, she just wants whatever they had back. She wants her Kakashi back.
Without as much as another thought, she bows deeply in front of him, a few drops of tears falling down. Kurenai and Tenzou can be heard gasping, along with Obito giving a faint call to her, subtle panic lacing his voice.
"I-I'm so sorry, Kakashi." She sniffles. "I'm sorry for everything I've done to you and everyone here. Please forgive me!"
Kakashi feels himself letting go of the breath he had been holding. Thankfully, it has turned out to be exactly how he had expected, sans the tears. He hates watching her cry, even more so when he's the reason for it. And if everything goes as planned, this will be the last time he witnesses them from his side.
Cautiously, he produces an index finger, which he then uses to lift her face up, causing her downcast eyes to meet his softened ones.
"It's okay." He cheerily replies with a tilt of his head and a joyful eye crinkle. "We're all friends, right?"
Rin feels a tremendous weight to have been lifted from her shoulders. Relief washes over her at the realisation that he isn't going anywhere, and that he still thinks of her as a friend even after all this.
Next thing she knows, she has pulled him into an embrace, which he fully returns.
"I'm sorry." She sobs. "I'm sorry, everyone. Please don't hate me."
"Don't be silly." Hatake chides, looking down at the girl. "We can never hate you."
"Some of us aren't even capable of thinking about that." Asuma remarks while giving a sideway glance at the Uchiha.
Minato looks onto the scene with an approving smile, then in order to grant the group some privacy, he quitely leaves for the kitchen. There, he is greeted by the sight of his son picking out cutlery from the stand while his wife leans against the wall adjoining the living room, clearly eavesdropping, a sight that makes him chuckle and shake his head.
"Isn't this heartwarming?" Anko quitely says, gazing at the two with most satisfied smile.
"You have a heart?" All of her friends save Rin question simultaneously.
—
Rin spends the majority of the dinner chattering with her friends, truly happy for the first time in weeks.
What follows the dinner and bidding farewell to the Namikazes is the tavern, where she gets to booze and enjoy watching her friend's antics as they chug alcohol down their systems and lose more consciousness.
To be able to hear a sober Tenzou complain about Anko and get beaten up, Kurenai desperately flirting to get through Asuma's thick head, or witnessing Obito and Kakashi's mindless drunk bickering fills her heart with happiness. It's unbelievably nice to see the Uchiha try to one up the Hatake, and proceed to fail miserably.
She grazes at both of them via her bloodshot eyes. Kakashi and Obito. Her two teammates. The apples of her eyes. The two who would do anything for her, as they have managed to prove over the years.
As she continues staring at the ravenet, her lips part in an audible sigh.
It's true that Kakashi has underwent a lot of trouble, but again, so did Obito. He has been undergoing the same pain as her all these years, she knows it. She is well aware that he, too, is still in love with her. Unlike her, he has had the gentility to not bring it up ever again after being turned down once, and Rin can't imagine how much it must've hurt him, to look at her face for the next eight years and no that he can never have her.
And to think despite all that, he still cried when her heart broke. Instead of celebrating that her love was gone, he had genuine tears of empathy in his eyes. To think he cares about her so much, that from the moment all three of them met till the night she decided to get over him, he has been more constant in her one sided romance than Kakashi was. To think he has gone through all her month's hell for years and still cares about her.
Next thing Rin knows, she has closed the distance between herself and her two friends as she gets up and walks upto them, and placing a hand on the unsuspecting boy's shoulder, she practically gives him a heart attack by hugging him while he turns around.
"Rin!" Obito screams, arms flying outward so to avoid touching the obviously intoxicated girl. "What are you doing?! Are you okay?"
"Thank you, Obito." She hums. "Thank you, for everything. I could've never asked for a better friend than you."
By now, all of their friends, including half of the tavern are looking at them, and while the strangers hold their breath, the eight friends are bustling up on the inside, ready to explode as they witness their efforts beginning to show fruition.
Obito, meanwhile, finds himself to be on seventh heaven. This is the first time in years Rin has embraced him, and to feel her so close that he has the scent of her hair tickling his nostrils, that too so unexpectedly, it's evident that he finds it unbelievable.
In all honesty, he's mere seconds away from falling down with a nose bleed.
His face burning red, he somehow manages to bring his quivering arms and wrap them around her shoulders.
"Eh-heh." He stumbles, electricity coursing through his veins. "It's nothing, really."
The brunette decides to ignore this as she proceeds to ask, rather sweetly "Oh, how can I ever repay you for everything I've done?"
The gang shares excited looks, preparing themselves as they believe that the moment has finally arrived.
But offcourse, Obito has to be Obito. Now that fate is smiling at him, he's going to obliviously spit in its face.
"Don't be silly!" He instead says, effectively initiating bringing all their efforts to waste. "I don't care about you expecting any kind of repayment. I'm just doing it for you as a friend."
What follows are the sounds of Kurenai mumbling while pinching the bridge of her nose, Shizune clawing her fists in a genuine 'Why?' position and Kakashi trying to hold a growling Anko back as she very well prepares to break the boy.
"But I want to do something nice for you too." Rin protests, looking up into his eyes and practically causing his heart to leap out through his throat. "I want my friend to be happy as well."
"I'm telling you." He repeats. "There's nothing you caaaAAAARGHHHH—" his sentence remains incomplete as he gets smacked on the head at god speed, because of Kakashi having let go of Anko, deciding that Obito deserves whatever wrath he has coming his way.
As the Uchiha kneels and massages the back of his head, Mitarashi calls Rin out, getting the dizzy girl's attention.
"I can think of one thing that will make him really happy." She proposes, to which her friends half shut eyelid snap open in attention.
"What is it?" She questions with determination. "I'll do anything for Obito."
Anko finds herself smirking. Everything is coming together nicely.
"You should go out with him." She blatantly puts forward just in time as Obito gets up to hear it. "I'm sure he love it if you were to give him a second chance."
Rin merely blinks at the girl, her drowsy brain trying to process the words that have just been said.
Unlike Kakashi and everyone else, Anko isn't holding her breath. She's confident that the way she has worded it, Rin's drunk head won't be able to refuse. And sure enough, her brunette friend soon turns to face the Uchiha, who is busy quaking in his boots.
"Is it true, Obito?" She merely queries, her simple question sending a chill down his spine and causing a knot in his tongue. "Will it make you happy?"
"It will make him very happy." Genma supplies from over his shoulder.
After a second of silence, Nohara breaks into an enchanting smile, then with an eye crinkle, she proclaims, "I will go out with you, Obito."
Obito's eyes widen. He most certainly does not believe his ears."Y-you will?" He stutters, to which the brunette replies by locking him into another sloppy embrace, making him jump out of his skin.
"I will do anything for your happiness..." She decides faintly, then passes out right their in his arms.
The audience they had managed to gather breaks into an applause, and Gai proceeds to rock the shell shocked boy by his shoulders.
"Congratulations, my friend!" He wishes as Anko orders yet another round. "You have managed to get her to say yes."
The Uchiha snaps out of his daze.
"Oh, huh, yeah." He plainly says.
"You know, I'd expected you to be a little more excited about this all." Asuma curiosly remarks, finding the lack of expression on the boy's face to be unnerving.
Ignoring his question, he pushes Rin off of him and towards the Sarutobi.
"Can you hold her for a while?" He requests, and then proceeds towards the exit of the tavern. As his group watches on, he swings by the door frame and jumps to the building's roof.
Kakashi brings his hand forward, rolling up his glove to look at the watch.
"Three... Two... One..." He quitely says, and at the end of his countdown, an ear piercing "YAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!" is heard barging in from the outside, followed by barking of startled dogs, cries of an infant and yelling of the cranky Konoha villagers.
If you liked this chapter, plz review it. If you didn't, let me know your complains. I'll be back sooner this time, or so I hope.