A/N: This is yet another angsty chapter, but this time it'll focus on two background characters (that I swear I haven't forgotten the plot line for)!


Chapter 17: Solemn Dreams


The moon hung, still, in the sky, shining over the broken village.

As everyone slept, one woman tossed and turned in her bedroll.


"My love, words can't express how ecstatic I am that we're finally married," the brunette exclaimed, giggling happily in the arms of a taller man.

"I'm just so glad your parents accepted." The man laughed, gazing into the face of his bride with love in his coal eyes. "Now we can have the family we always dreamed of having."

"Yes, indeed," she sighed dreamily, resting her head on his broad chest. "Oh, we'll have three - no, four kids! And a cute two-story cottage by the river in Morino for the summer months."

"We'll finally be able to fill that house my uncle gifted us as a wedding present." He nodded in agreement, carrying her over the threshold of their front door. "Oh, I'm just so excited!"

She laughed once more, pressing a kiss to his cheek as he let her stand up. She looked around the house, her eyes wide with wonder. "When you mentioned that he'd given us our home, you never told me it was this expansive!"

"Well, I like to think I'm one of his more favored nephews," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

The couple walked upstairs, only to find four doors.

"Let's see..." The man squinted, pointing to the first door on the right. "That's a bedroom," he pointed next to the one on the left, "that's a bathroom," he pointed towards the door on the far right, "that's another bedroom, and finally," he pointed to the one on the far left with a blush, "that's the master bedroom."

"Well take me on a tour, hon," she winked playfully, linking her arm in his.

He took her to their new bedroom, only to find it already furnished with luxurious ebony furniture.

"Whoa, they went all out!" She gasped, racing over to the bed as fast as she could in her wedding gown and heels. "Look, look! It's bouncy!"

She plopped right onto it, the mattress making her bounce a couple of centimeters in the air. She giggled, bouncing a few more times. "The bed is bouncy! This is a dream come true!"

He rose one eyebrow, giving her a wolfish grin. "It's bouncy, you say?"

"Come and try it," she replied, her voice dropping an octave as she gave him an alluring stare.

He went over to the other side and jumped onto it, launching her at least a foot off of it.

She landed with a cry of surprise, right next to him, and the two just looked at each other, wide-eyed, for a moment, before bursting into laughter.

When the fit subsided, she wiped at her eye gingerly, trying not to smudge her makeup. She rolled onto her side, giving him a loving smile. "This is it, Obi, we're finally married."

"We are," he agreed, trailing a finger down her cheek, "and I intend to make you the happiest girl in this kingdom every step of the way."

She shivered when she felt his breath on her face. "I love you so much, Obito..."

"And I, you, Rin," he whispered in the second before he met her lips with his in a passionate kiss.


The woman startled awake with a sharp intake of air, trembling as she sat up in bed.

She breathed heavily, trying to smooth away the hair stuck to her sweaty face and neck. She glanced around in the dark at her companions.

Rin... the name brought back many memories, most of them good, but the heavy pain of losing him made it too much to bear.

Tears pooled in her eyes and she covered her face with her hands, trying not to make a sound. Her back shuddered with the silent sobs, and as she heard someone shift in the dark she decided to go up to get some fresh air.

She slowly made her way towards the ladder and pushed up the floorboards. As soon as she was up, she carefully lowered them again and made her way to the front door.

She paused in the empty doorway to stare up at the moon, the tears still dribbling down her cheeks.

She sighed aloud, kneeling beside the doorway on the dirt outside. "Oh, Obito... not a day goes by that I don't miss you more than I can bear.

"I never even got the chance to tell you that I was pregnant," she continued quietly, her back wracked with sobs. "My baby... our son... he looked so much like you I just couldn't- I couldn't do it, Obito. I couldn't raise him without you."

She paused to try and breathe more evenly, her hands balled into fists in her lap. She touched the necklace that hung around her damp neck, the one she'd received from him as a wedding present. The chain had long since turned a rusty copper color, but the jewels were just as vibrant as they had been only seven years before. The amethyst and citrine stones on each side of the Uchiha fan were just as beautiful, just as clear, as if she'd received them yesterday.

She licked her lips and continued. "I often wonder what we would be doing now had you never been summoned. Would we have had more children, as we always dreamed of? Would you still be a soldier, or would you have retired on your family's money?"

She shook her head, her bark-brown hair wet from her tears. "I haven't gotten over it. I haven't been able to end my mourning period, because... because it's unfair.

"It's not fair that they took you away from me when we were just beginning our life together," she spoke harshly, her sorrow ebbing away to the righteous anger she'd carried. "It's not fair that they decided you were fit to leave your new family and destroy your life in one fell swoop. It's not fair that your child would have had to grow up without a loving father."

She shuddered through her sobs, wiping her eyes the best she could. "Obito... why did you have to leave me? Why did you have to die?"

She sat there, weeping, for what seemed like hours. The hole in her heart ached so badly she couldn't stop.

"I'm so pathetic, Obi," she sobbed. "I pray that you can forgive me for casting aside my name- for casting aside your family's godforsaken name... I just can't bear to go as an Uchiha when your own uncle is the one who sent you to die."

"How pathetic am I," she mused wryly, "that even hearing that name makes me revert back to that weak twenty-year-old again."

When she began to tire, and her tears had begun to dry, she heard a soft voice behind her. "Noh?"

She turned to see Tsunade standing at the door, a concerned frown on her face.

"Is everything okay?" She asked quietly, crouching beside her.

"No," Noh admitted, sniffling. "I- I had that dream again. The day we married."

Tsunade's chocolate eyes softened, and she sat down beside her, a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm so pathetic," she whimpered, trying to dry her eyes again. "Just hearing that name makes me weep like a heartbroken teenager."

"You were young and in love," Tsunade comforted, rubbing her back. "Not quite a teenager, but not quite a world-wisened woman. I would have been concerned had you not been grieving."

She shook her head, gazing at Tsunade with a deep sadness in her eyes. "It's been seven years, Tsunade. Seven years, and not a day goes by that I don't think about him."

The blonde stayed silent as she listened.

"The official mourning period has been over for so long, and yet... and yet I can't stop." Noh continued, her hands shaking. "What's the matter with me? Why is it so hard to let go?"

Finally, the older blonde woman sighed. "Have I ever told you about my boyfriend?"

Noh frowned. "You mean Jiraiya?"

"No, not him." Tsunade shook her head with a snort. "I don't think we've ever dated seriously. No, I'm talking about my first love.

"It was right after my brother had died," she recalled. "I was just a teenager back then, and Fire was still in its warring factions. My grandfather was still alive and still trying to show Madara Uchiha that we could both live in harmony.

"Well, after one battle, I met this boy." Her eyes began to water as she thought, but she wiped the tears away. "His name was Dan. He was one of the starry-eyed new recruits, and all he wanted was to bring both sides together and end the war peacefully."

"And then?"

"Well, for a while, we were friends." She chuckled. "He was helping me after my brother's death, and at some point, I guess it just... became love.

"One night, after a particularly nasty skirmish with the Uchihas, he pulled me aside and confessed his intention to take my grandfather's side and become the second Hokage and protect everyone. I was so moved, because... well, he reminded me so much of Nawaki, that I gave him my grandfather's necklace and I kissed him for good luck."

Once her face hardened, Noh swallowed the lump in her throat. "You mean he..."

"The next week, he was involved in a battle much bloodier than any other we'd seen." Tsunade replied, her voice flat. "No matter how hard I tried to save him, I... I couldn't. He died in my arms."

She rose her hands to stare at them in the moonlight. "For a very, very long time, I've had a phobia of blood. I can't stand it - it takes me back to that day. Before Madara created the Uchiha monarchy, before we were forced into rebellion, before- before things were so much more complicated."

"I'm so sorry," Noh said, reaching out to hug her.

"Don't be, I'm just telling you this story so that you can understand." Tsunade patted her on the back. "We've all experienced loss in some form or another in this group. You've lost your husband, I lost my brother, Sakura lost her cousin, Karin lost her mother, we've all lost something. No matter how hard you try to hide it, it will come through at some point."

She sighed, giving the girl a smile. "You're still young. You've still got hopes, dreams, inside you, I hope. Don't let this world kill them before they've even had a chance to take root... and if you have to mourn loss, then mourn. We all understand what you're going through, even if some of us have lost more than others."

Sleepiness was beginning to take hold on the woman's body, and she tried to smile tiredly at Tsunade. "Thank you... for everything."

"That's my job," the blonde chuckled, allowing her to pass out in her arms. "Now sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us."


He'd ran as fast as he could the moment he saw it. The letter hastily scribbled, left on the cold wooden dining table, teardrops dotting the paper. It had made his heart jump into his throat and his stomach to drop.

For a few minutes of blind panic, he just couldn't figure out where she'd gone. But then he read it over again, and he knew. Oh, he knew.

The only place he could think of with a cliff was at the edge of the village, near the waterfall that served as their prime source of clean water.

His chest heaved hard, his heartbeat fluttering as he finally skidded to a stop near the cliff, and he saw her standing right at the edge, gazing down into the rushing waters below.

Tears pricked his eyes, but he furiously wiped them away and shouted at her. "Rin, stop!"

She startled in that second at the volume and intensity of his voice, and instead of turning to face him, she slipped, falling, her shrieks piercing the air as she disappeared off of the cliff.

"RIN!" He screamed, racing to the edge. He watched her struggle underwater and he almost dove in after her, but at the last moment her hands slipped under and she was gone.

He let out an angry roar, punching the ground.

"Rin," he choked out, his eyes watering faster than he could wipe them away, "I... I didn't mean to... I- I'm sorry-!"


Kakashi sat up at the same moment his heart skipped a beat, cold sweat blanketing the back of his neck. He shivered in the cool of the night, massaging his forehead with his hands as he tried to get the dream out of his head.

"Rin," he whispered, clenching his eyes shut in pain.

Her death had been unfair. So unfair. First he loses his good friend Obito to the war with Riot, and then Minato and Kushina (the former of whom he considered his second father) in the explosion that took out the bridge, and then he was forced to watch as the girl whom he'd realized he loved fall to her watery death.

If he just hadn't shouted at her, if he'd instead been more tactful...

He allowed himself a couple of minutes to weep quietly at the memory, Obito's eye burning behind his headband.

Her beaming face filled his mind as he gazed up at the moon. It reminded him of the brightness in her eyes when they'd been growing up with Obito.

His lips went into a wry smile as Obito's pre-teenage voice came to mind. The boy had been so sensitive about his limited abilities that he always pulled reckless feats to try and impress their female friend. Guess it had worked in the end. He was the one she'd fallen in love with. Kakashi was forever trapped as her best friend.

"Rin," he breathed again, letting out a shuddery sigh, "oh how I wish you could be here. Perhaps... perhaps this war would have been over a long time ago. Perhaps you could've forgiven me for my crimes against you both."

"I promised him that I would protect her," he thought in despair, lying back down in his bag. "If I ever meet them in the afterlife, I hope Obito doesn't beat me too mercilessly for letting her die."


A/N: Yep! Just in case you haven't already guessed by the totally-unoriginal naming, Noh is just the first three letters of Rin's last name. Yep, she's Rin. And totally alive. And also aged down, because well, I can do that.

Also, Kakashi! He's a rather complicated character, but I adore him to pieces. Don't worry, their whole subplot is gonna be a big one towards the end. And yes, I'm pretty sure you know where that line is going.

Please tell me what you thought, feel free to speculate, and I'll see you guys next week!