The air's filled with coarse dust, and Kakashi's ears are still ringing from the crashing of falling boulders. He's on all fours, frantically clambering over rocks that cut his hands and press painfully into the soles of his feet.
"Obito! Rin!" he gasps, coughing as acrid smoke and bitter dust fill his mouth.
"Kakashi?" a voice calls, and Rin stumbles into view. She's caked with white dust as well, bleeding from a cut on her head, but—
She's alive. That's all that matters. Rin throws her arms around him, wrapping him up in an embrace, and he lets her hold him.
"Where's Obito?" she asks, face pressed into his shoulder. Kakashi sighs.
"I can't smell through everything in the air," he says, looking around. "We have to find him before they come back."
Rin nods, already turning to search through the rubble of the collapsed cave. Kakashi starts to search around a cluster of jagged black stones, fighting to stay calm. Panic won't help in a time like this.
He still can't see out of his left eye. The gash over the left side of his face hurts like a bitch, and he can't see out of his eye anymore, and—
"K-Kakashi?" Rin says from behind him, her voice breaking. Just hearing that tone of voice is enough to send a chill through his heart. He's running to her side, tripping over protruding shards of rock, his pulse racing.
"Did you find-?" he starts to say, and then he can't speak at all.
Only half of Obito's body is visible, and the rest is covered by the boulder crushing his body. Rin looks up from where she's crouching next to the boy, her eyes shining with tears.
"I-I can't help…" she says, biting her lip. And Kakashi can't move. He can't move, he can't breathe, he can't even think. Because, well—
"Obito?" he whispers, falling to his knees. "Oh, Obito…"
"Hey, Kakashi," the boy says weakly. "I guess this is it, huh?"
"Don't say that," Kakashi says, fists clenching so hard his knuckles turn white. "Don't say things like that!"
"You aren't gonna yell at me now, are you?" Obito asks, a little smile lifting the corner of his mouth. "You're always scolding me for something."
"You always say dumb things," Kakashi replies, feeling a lump grow in his throat. Obito's next words just make it worse.
"Take my eye, Kakashi. Rin can implant it to replace the one you lost," the dark-haired boy breathes out.
"No! I can't, Obito, I can't," Kakashi babbles, squeezing Obito's fingers between his own. "How could you ask me that?"
"Because this way, there will always be a part of me with you," Obito says, and Kakashi's full-on sobbing now.
"We can still save you, there's time-" he starts to say.
"No, Kakashi," Obito says softly, his voice a little strained. "We're too old to pretend."
They're Kakashi's own words from a lifetime ago, thrown back at him at him, and he can't—
This isn't—
This isn't right. It isn't fair. And Obito laughs, a breathless, bitter, quiet chuckle.
"I wanted to grow old with you," he says to Kakashi. "I know it's silly, but I wanted to spend my whole life around you. Even if you kinda hate me."
"I couldn't hate you!" Kakashi protests, his voice hoarse. "I-never. I never did. You're a dumbass, you're an idiot, but you're my dumbass. You're my idiot."
"This is the whole story, Kakashi," Obito tells him. "This is all the time we get."
And Kakashi presses his forehead against Obito's battered torso, feeling the ragged breathing, and he howls. He screams and howls, because Obito is right. Their story ends now.
"That's why I want to give you my eye," Obito says, breaking through Kakashi's haze of grief. "If you have my eye, then it's like I'll be there with you for the rest of your life."
"Kakashi," Rin says, tugging at his arm. "If we're gonna do the transplant, I have to start it now."
"Please, Kakashi," Obito says, his voice nothing more than a coarse whisper. "It's my final request."
"Obito… I—
"And-and… promise me you'll protect Rin?" Obito says. Kakashi nods. He nods over and over, and he can't stop nodding, because he needs Obito to know that it's alright.
"Thank you," Obito mumbles. There's a couple lazy tears dripping out from the boy's eyes now, and his hand trembles in Kakashi's grasp. "I'm scared, Kakashi. I'm scared of dying."
"I love you," Kakashi finally manages to say. He tugs down his mask and presses his chapped lips to Obito's feverish forehead, tasting the sweat and blood. "Don't leave, thinking I hated you. I don't hate you. I could never hate you-"
"Your face is the last thing I want to see," Obito says quietly, and Kakashi nods.
The world spins.
They stumble away, crying and limping and gasping, as the cave collapses entirely. Now they're out in the sunshine, and Kakashi lays prone on the floor as Rin hovers over him, her fingers shining with medical ninjutsu.
Rin whispers to him during the entire procedure, telling him it's alright. It's okay, it's fine, she says, because the people we love never really die. They live on in your heart forever, and there's no need to grieve.
But those words don't mean shit to Kakashi, because Obito is gone. He's gone, and he's never going to come back again.
The world spins again.
And now all Kakashi can hear is the chittering crackle of his Chidori, all he can see is blue-white lightning sparking around him, and all he can feel is his hand pushing deep into something warm.
Because Rin just jumped in front of him, and Kakashi's arm is buried her torso to the elbow.
Kakashi only has one friend left in the world, and he can feel the life slowly leaving her body. Rin is slumping against his chest, he's covered in her blood, and her sightless eyes bore into him.
The last thing Obito had asked was that he protect her. Kakashi hadn't protected her. She's dead. She's dead, and Kakashi is the one who killed her.
No, no, no, no!
There's a voice in his head screaming, keening, and his Sharingan flares into ripping agony. Black spots begin to dance across his vision, and he's falling to his knees. And Kakashi remembers what Rin told him once—
The people we love never really die. They live on in your heart forever, and there's no need to grieve. Kakashi repeats it like a mantra, seeking solace and relief within the words.
But he doesn't feel better. The words aren't working. They hadn't worked when Obito died, and they sure as hell don't work now. Because they're both dead. Kakashi is alone. He's alone.
He's fucking alone.
When Kakashi wakes up, hands fisting in the cheap sheets of his bed in the ANBU barracks, Tenzo is watching him with a concerned expression.
"Is it the dream again?" the man asks him, and Kakashi lets out a shaky breath.
"I-yes. I thought it was getting better, but I just-" Kakashi says, burying his face in his hands. "Tenzo, they're dead, gods, they're dead…"
Tenzo's crossing the narrow barracks room, sitting down on Kakashi's bunk and wrapping his arms around the silver-haired man. Kakashi just leans into him, not bothering to hide the tears sliding down his face.
Tenzo doesn't tell him it'll be alright. He doesn't try to make Kakashi talk about it. He just sits there and holds him, making sure Kakashi's not alone.
"I'm sorry," Kakashi mumbles after a while, straightening. "Didn't mean to lose it the night before a mission."
"You don't owe me an apology," Tenzo replies smoothly. "It's not really the night before, anyway. It's five in the morning, and we should be getting ready for the escort mission."
"Fuck," Kakashi says, looking at the clock, and then down at his sweat-drenched, bare chest. "I gotta shower."
"You have time," Tenzo says. He gestures at the two empty bunks in Team Ro's room. "Where are Itachi and Shisui?"
"Shisui insisted that they sleep in their own beds at home. Some good-luck thing they do before a big mission," Kakashi says, getting up and stretching.
"If anyone needs good luck, it's the two of us," Tenzo says with a snort. "We're the ones who have to deal with them."
"I'm so hungry," Shisui whines, stretching out over the roof tiles and sighing melodramatically. The four members of Team Ro are on a roof overlooking Konoha's main gate, waiting for the signal to move out. Dawn is fast approaching, an orange-pink haze visible on the horizon.
"Didn't you eat breakfast?" Tenzo asks, and Shisui shakes his head.
"No!" he says, propping himself up on his elbows. "Itachi didn't wake me up in time to eat."
"I live on the other side of the Uchiha district," Itachi says mildly, raising his eyebrows. "Why am I your alarm clock?"
"I'm your responsibility. You're the future head of the Uchiha clan, after all," Shisui replies, smiling. Itachi's face remains impassive, but he pulls out a ration bar and chucks it at Shisui's head.
"Aw, you do care!" Shisui says in a sing-song voice, and Itachi groans.
"Shisui, please, please shut up," Itachi grumbles, and Tenzo tries and fails to suppress a snicker.
"Alright you two. That's enough," Kakashi says, pointing. "Lord Danzo's here."
"Alone?" Tenzo asks, brow furrowed in confusion. "I thought there'd be some diplomats and attendants coming with us…"
"Did you read the mission briefing?" Itachi asks, and Tenzo flips him off.
"They've been sent ahead," Kakashi recalls from the briefing. "It's just going to be Lord Danzo and the four of us, moving as fast as we can. This way, we minimize the time that we're on the road and away from a proper guard contingent."
"He's kinda old," Shisui says doubtfully. "Will he be able to keep up if we start going fast?"
"I will be able to keep up. I can hear you, you know," an artificially-amplified voice calls out. The four of them stiffen with surprise, looking down at the street. Danzo is looking up at them, head tilted to the side.
"Let's move out," Kakashi says, doing his very best not to laugh as Shisui pulls his ANBU mask over his bright-red face.