Chapter Twelve: Familial Feelings
"It's not fair," Izumi ranted to an amused Rin. "He started bawling when I picked him up, but immediately stopped when he returned to Itachi kun's arms. He's clearly biased."
"Cut Sasuke some slack," Rin responded. "He's only a baby. He probably only recognizes his brother and parents at this point. Maybe you should start reading up on human's development of the mind."
Upon hearing Rin's suggestion, Izumi visibly paled. "Ah, I think I'm alright." Izumi let out a nervous chuckle as she plucked blades of grass to occupy her attention.
Izumi had the determination and chakra control, although a bit shaky at times, needed for a medical ninja, but it quickly became clear that Izumi didn't have the patience nor brain capacity for the overload of information. Rin felt like she had gone through a battle and back just to get Izumi to understand human anatomy. When she introduced the idea of memorizing the location of the chakra network, nerves, and major arteries and blood vessels, Izumi had collapsed on site.
And finally almost two years later, Izumi was a decent medic, but wouldn't be more than chunin level as she refused to learn anymore.
Knowing how to keep someone from dying until they could get to the hospital was good enough, Izumi had reasoned. At the hospital, there would be medics who could do a much better job of healing her injured comrade rather than her crude, on the field healing. Well, Rin couldn't fault her for that since even the most skilled medics only had enough time and chakra to heal someone to ensure that they didn't die. Often times, their crude methods of healing left many side effects, including damaged chakra networks and scars.
After their last mission in Iwa, Minato had given Team Ro a month off of active duty, partly because the other three hadn't gotten a break since the team formed but also because Minato knew that Itachi wanted to spend time with his little brother.
Rin kept herself busy with the numerous requests she received, asking for her medical expertise. Kakashi volunteered to join her on many of those missions, even if they were only classified as C ranked, stating that being in the village for so long would drive him crazy out of sheer boredom.
After all, there was only so much training Kakashi could do by himself.
In between Rin's many short term missions, Team Ro often met up for training. Kakashi managed to finally perfect his control over wind change in chakra nature, the only element that he seemed to struggle with. With his newly acquired wind jutsus, he was now able to combine with the Uchiha's fire techniques, as well with Itachi's water style.
As for Rin, Kakashi was adamant that he helped her perfect her ninjutsu, at least one chakra nature, even if most jonins were supposed to be proficient at two. She just never imagined Kakashi to use such sadistic teaching methods, often launching fire jutsus her way and forcing her to summon a water jutsu to save her life.
At least being put in a life or death situation was effective. In a little under a month, Rin learned all twenty something water jutsus that Kakashi had copied from various opponents over the years.
From there, Kakashi often sought out Shisui to continue to work on his kenjutsu skills. After having mastered wielding almost every type of weapon that was known to the shinobi world, Kakashi wanted to challenge himself to become a dual sword wielder, then training his non-dominant hand to work just as well as his left. Shisui happily obliged in his requests to spar, having also learned a lot during their spars.
As for Itachi, he often worked on his genjutsu with Rin, still unable to work out a genjutsu that she was unable to break out of.
"Ne, Shisui mentioned that you have the Tsukuyomi. What is that?"
"It's a power that I have as part of the Mangekyo Sharingan. I have only used it once." Only once on Shisui, figuring that it would be safe since Shisui had his own Mangekyo activated. Itachi hadn't expected to knock Shisui out for the entire day from using his Mangekyo for five seconds in real time.
"Have you perfected it?"
"No," Itachi admitted. "It's a very dangerous technique, especially since I have no control over it."
"You won't ever have control over it if you don't practice using it."
"But I can't practice on anyone. Last time I tried on Shisui, he was out for the entire day."
"Try it on me."
"What? You're not an Uchiha. The effects will be more detrimental."
"But I am a medic," Rin argued. "And I am resistant to genjutsu. Just explain to me how the technique is supposed to work and I'll take necessary precautions to prevent any damage to my mind."
Itachi was skeptical of her claims, but did as she asked anyways. He explained that Tsukuyomi had the power to draw the victim into a vastless dimension, where the victim will be powerless to fight back. Although he wasn't exactly sure, Itachi figured he had the power to manipulate the dimension however he wanted. That was what he still needed to figure out. He went on to recount Shisui's tale of being inside the dimension; all he felt was excruciating physical pain as he was forced to relive his biggest fears.
"Relive his biggest fears?" Rin questioned. "Then you must have dove into his mind to retrieve the memories. If that's the case, a strong chakra block should prevent you from entering the mind. There's also a possibility that you used a fear inducing genjutsu within the dimension to elicit the response. Combined with his inability to break out of the dimension…
"And where does the physical pain come in?"
"According to Shisui, there are many phantom versions of myself, constantly stabbing him."
"Alright, I think I understand," Rin said. "Go on. We need to figure out your jutsu so you can perfect it."
"But-"
"What's the worst that can happen? I get knocked out for the day? It's not like I have any missions tomorrow."
Itachi finally relented, activating his Sharingan, three tomoes spinning. In preparation of facing his genjutsu, Rin circulated healing chakra all throughout her body, in hopes that it would ease some of the phantom pain. When her eyes met Itachi's Mangekyo, Rin was immediately drawn into the dimension.
All around her, she could only see shades of black, save for the bloody red sky above her. Within it, dark clouds hovered, moving at a jarring speed. It slowed down, before it sped back up and repeated the process all over again.
At the first disturbance to her chakra network, Rin immediately snapped out of it, jerking her gaze away from the clouds. Hypnosis.
Her body was chained to a cross. Rin could feel her chakra, but for some reason, there felt like there was a block preventing her from accessing it. Phantoms of Itachi appeared all throughout the dimension, with a blade in each of his right hands.
Rin supposed that this was the part where she would feel the physical pain, but the slight twitching of phantom Itachi's hands indicated that he was working on maintaining control. His control didn't last long as the phantom versions of Itachi surged towards her, piercing his blade through her torso.
Ruthlessly, Itachi yanked out the sword before stabbing it once more. The process continued, with the other Itachi's joining. It felt like days on end.
When Itachi finally broke the Tsukuyomi, Rin collapsed to the ground, clutching her abdomen as her healing chakra worked to erase the phantom pain. It wasn't real, but it certainly felt real after being stabbed in the same spot relentlessly for seventy two hours straight.
Itachi's eyes widened, immediately deactivating his Sharingan as he knelt on the ground next to Rin, wondering if there was anything he could do for her. Should he bring her to the hospital?
"Ow, that hurt," Rin commented, struggling to push herself into an upright position. Itachi aided her, letting her body rest against his left arm.
"You're still conscious," Itachi noted.
"Yeah well, you didn't get a chance to mess with my mind," Rin responded in choppy bits. "I don't know if you are aware, but the clouds are the ones casting the genjutsu."
"The clouds?" If that was the case, Itachi needed to figure out how he could manipulate the clouds in his favor. As well as his phantom selves to only attack when he wanted to them too.
"Yeah, you better grateful, Uchiha-"
Rin promptly passed out.
Itachi panicked. Well, Itachi panicked as much as a Uchiha could. Immediately summoning a clone, Itachi ordered his clone to go find Shisui and Kakashi, who he knew were currently training at one of the training grounds. His level headed cousin and taichou would know what to do, or at least calm Itachi down.
Lifting Rin carefully, who was surprisingly light for a sixteen year old girl, Itachi took off towards the rooftops, darting across the tops of it before landing right in front of the hospital.
A medic landing herself in the hospital was never a good sign, as evident from the other medic's faces who took Rin's unconscious form away from Itachi's hands.
Not too long after, Shisui and Kakashi showed up at the hospital.
"What is this I am hearing about you using Tsukuyomi on Rin? Tell me your clone was joking," Shisui demanded.
Too bad Itachi never joked around.
"That was foolish," Isobu criticized as Rin sat calmly on the still waters. He was eyeing her, no doubt judging her. But Rin wasn't even phased.
"I was just helping a comrade out," Rin insisted. "Besides, I'm only unconscious because you decided to knock me out. Thanks for that, by the way."
"Well someone has to tell you how idiotic your actions were," Isobu retorted. "You do realize your resilience towards genjutsu is mostly because of me, right?"
"Buuut," Rin drawled. "I have the ability to detect it. You're just a failsafe in case something happens to slip by. Still after training with Shisui, I can detect most genjutsus now."
"Yet you have nothing to counter the physical pain from that boy's jutsu," Isobu huffed. "You may be able to avoid the mental torture of that jutsu, but it's still dangerous. It will still take a toll on your body. If you weren't a medic, I daresay you would be in a coma right now."
"Now, now," Rin tried to placate Isobu. "Since I'm here, why don't we talk about something else? After all, it's been a while."
Isobu took the bait. They veered away from topics concerning the Sharingan and onto what had been going on in Rin's life lately, even though Isobu could choose to peer into it if he wanted. Still, Isobu respected his host too much to pry on her personal life. Plus, it made it all the more interesting when Rin told him all about it, when he didn't know anything beforehand.
And well, he would only interfere if Rin ever did anything stupid.
Like today.
When Rin magically woke up less than an hour later, she startled the three shinobis that had been sitting by her bedside. With ease, Rin unhooked the needles from her arms, swinging out of the bed in a manner that suggested nothing was wrong with her.
And nothing was wrong.
There were a lot of questions dancing on the tip of all three of their tongues, but Rin silenced them by suggesting that they sneak out of the hospital first. The three readily agreed, each of them not liking hospitals as much as the next; Rin included. Hospitals were only tolerable when she wasn't the one lying on the bed...or when she actually needed it.
But there was nothing wrong.
After escaping from the hospital through a secret exit, making all three of them promise to never use it for their own escapes, the three of them grilled her on her health. Rin was fighting a losing battle; no matter what she said, they wouldn't believe her. Even if she was the medic. Even if it was her body and she knew it the best.
It was then that Rin decided perhaps it was time for her to reveal her secret to Itachi and Shisui. Kakashi was already aware of it, but he didn't know the extent of her abilities. In fact, they never even explicitly talked about it.
Aside from Kakashi, only Minato and Kushina knew. Minato had opted to not tell anyone else. Kushina being a jinchuuriki was considered highly classified information and Minato felt that way too many people knew about it. Even if they were all considered to be "trusted" individuals. Hence, Minato refrained from telling anyone other than Kushina, and told Rin to do the same.
But this was her team. She trusted them with her life.
"What do you know about the tailed beasts?"
Both Uchihas took the information in with stride, already having previous knowledge on tailed beasts and jinchuurikis. They were both aware of the existence of the nine tailed fox, from the tales passed through generations of Uchiha that Madara Uchiha had been able to control the nine tailed fox with his sharingan.
And they were vaguely aware that the nine tailed fox was still being kept in Konoha to this day, but as loyal Leaf shinobis, they wouldn't question it.
What the Uchiha cousins hadn't expected was for their own teammate to tell them that she hosted the third tails. Isobu.
That really didn't change their outlook of her, as Rin was still the same person they had grown to know, but it certainly explained a lot of things.
Like her rapid healing, which they had always chalked it up to her insanely talented medical ninjutsu. Turned out, Isobu had been there, helping her speed up the process.
Or how Rin was practically on her feet within an hour, despite being subjected to the effects of Tsukuyomi. Turned out, Isobu's presence helped curbed the effects of it, at least partially.
Or her insane amount of chakra reserves. That certainly explained how Rin held on for so long as Itachi's Mangekyo burned through her reserves when she tried to save him.
But nothing changed between them.
And nothing would ever get in the way of their friendship.
Or so they thought.
Hatake Kakashi was notorious for avoiding all things that involved socializing, including participating in his own birthday celebration. Rin tried dozens of tactics over the years when they had been on the same genin team, often with Minato sensei and Obito's help, but Kakashi saw right through their plans every time. It had taken her at least three years before she finally got Kakashi to at least accept their gifts. But she still hadn't successfully gotten him to relax on his birthday.
This year around, Rin had two more accomplices: fifteen year old Shisui and twelve year old Itachi. Between the three of them and a very bored Kushina, Rin was confident that she could finally drag the now seventeen year old Kakashi to spend the day with them. Training with them didn't count; Kakashi needed to actually let loose and have fun.
But if anyone asked Kakashi, his definition of a "fun" day was a day that Gai didn't pester him for a spar and having Minato sensei teach him another cool jutsu. That, or spending his day creating his own jutsu.
Still, Rin was adamant, even if Kakashi had told her to give it up many times. For the past few years, Rin hadn't bothered him about celebrating his birthday - as he happened to be on a mission in one year and Rin had been stuck in the hospital for the entire day another year. The first year, Obito's death was still fresh on their minds that Rin didn't want to plan a celebration without him. And Minato had just taken the hat and would be too busy to help her.
The day started off normally. Shisui met Kakashi at the training grounds to spar with him. At least, Kakashi would enjoy that part of his day. Meanwhile, Itachi had gone off to Kushina's house to help with preparations, along with Izumi. Rin suspected that Izumi simply volunteered so she could spend time with Itachi, as the girl hardly knew Kakashi, but who was Rin to complain about extra help?
Besides, Rin secretly hoped the two of them would get together in the future. When they were both older, of course.
While preparations went on, Rin went around the village, trying to track down all of her old classmates. Kakashi didn't have many friends; Rin even wagered that Kakashi only thought of Team Ro as his only friends, but she knew her peers still cared. Even if the two of them had become distant from the rest of them, a few of them had approached her to make sure they were doing alright after Obito's death.
Genma and Raidou had moved on to become part of the Hokage's special platoon, so the two of them rarely hung out with the group anymore. Ebisu had never been well-liked, with his stuck up and arrogant attitude, so he wasn't missed. Still, Rin could always count on finding Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai together, usually at the dango shop.
As she thought, they were at the dango shop.
The three of them looked surprised to see Rin pop up in the dango shop, in her normal shinobi wear, consisting of a mesh shirt underneath her sleeveless light blue kimono style top. Around her waist was a white sash, along with her normal brown shorts that peeked out from where the kimono top ended, a bit above mid thigh. The flak jacket that Rin usually wore was notably missing.
Not to say that the three of them didn't welcome her there, but it was strange to see her around without her Anbu uniform. It was even stranger to see her without any of her teammates as company or the Uchiha girl that Rin had taken on as an apprentice.
Still, there were no hard feelings between them. It was common as shinobi to be overwhelmingly busy. In fact, Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai only hung out often simply because they often ended up on the same team, having a balanced expertise of taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu among the three of them. At least, Rin never outright ignored them, like Kakashi once did.
Then again, Kakashi had been severely depressed at the time. If Gai's accounts were to be believed, then Kakashi had gotten a lot better in recent years. Less depressed, less suicidal, with a stronger will to live. That was always a good sign.
Between Kurenai and Asuma, they suspected his change might have been due to his new team and his recent reacquaintance with Rin, after their team split when Minato became the Fourth.
Kurenai was the first to greet her. "Asuma told me you kicked ass in the exams. Congratulations."
Rin let out a chuckle. "He was probably exaggerating. Did he tell you the part where he came after me in the third stage?"
"I thought you had a scroll," Asuma grunted in his defense.
"I really didn't," Rin told him. "But it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"
From the stories that Asuma told her, he fared better as a jonin than Rin did. For one, Asuma was mostly in charge of leading a three man squad, often consisting of Kurenai and Gai. The few times that he led a different squad, it seemed that he commanded respect from the other shinobis. Rin supposed being the son of the Third Hokage would help with that.
Not to mention, Asuma had always been a standout among their class, along with Kakashi.
"We're working on becoming jonin as well," Kurenai informed Rin, gesturing between herself and Gai. At that, Gai began shouting out his daily training regime.
"If I fail to be promoted to jonin at the next exams, then I run two hundred laps around Konoha!" Gai announced. His declaration was loud enough to even garner the attention of some passerbyers. Asuma slapped his face out of embarrassment, while Kurenai began to apologize to the other patrons and shopkeeper on Gai's behalf.
"That would require you to pass the written exam first," Asuma responded wryly. "You better start brushing up on all your academy knowledge."
Gai visibly paled at the mention of a written exam. It was no secret that written exams weren't his strong suit, as he had graduated the second to lowest in the class, just barely above Obito. During the chunin exams, Gai had gotten lucky that it had been a test of resilience, not knowledge. If he had gotten the same exam that Asuma and Rin got, there was no doubt that Gai wouldn't have passed.
"Thank you for the advice. I will study hard!" With that, Gai did his classic pose and thumbs up at Asuma. Although Asuma had seen it many times, he still backed away from Gai.
"Oh, I just remembered, I have a request to ask of you," Rin began. "I'm planning a birthday celebration for Kakashi tonight, do you want to come?"
Gai was the first to agree, with a cheerful "of course!" Asuma and Kurenai also agreed, having nothing better to do. Rin gave them the location and time, instructing them to show up on time, before bounding off to search for a gift for Kakashi.
Kakashi was notoriously difficult to shop for. From the many years that Rin had been teammates with him, Rin knew that Kakashi liked practical things. In the previous years, Rin had always gotten him some variation of weapons, or replacing his stock of medical supply as a gift. She knew that Kakashi still carried her personalized med kit that she gave him as a jonin gift, at least that gift had been successful, but what did an older Kakashi want? At this point, Rin was certainly that Kakashi made a high enough wage that he could splurge on anything he wanted to. In fact, his wage was probably higher than hers.
Rin found herself wandering into the weapons shop once more. She considered buying him a sword due to his recent interest in kenjutsu, but Minato sensei had beaten her to it, secretly showing her his gift for Kakashi. A special blade made out of a special metal that would make channelling chakra into it very easy.
Kushina settled for gifting Kakashi a book on fuinjutsu, claiming that he was also one of Minato's brat, so therefore he needed to continue the tradition of learning fuinjutsu so he could pass it down to his own students. Rin refrained from telling her it was highly unlikely that Kakashi would ever take on a group of genin students.
The Uchiha cousins had been tight lipped on their joint present, but repeatedly assured Rin wouldn't give the same thing that they were.
Perhaps it was better that she didn't know, as that would just further limit her options.
She did consider a better med kit, but she only wanted to give it as a last resort. It was only when Rin wandered into a clothing shop, one designed for shinobis, did she finally see something of interest.
It was perfect.
It didn't even cross Kakashi's mind what day it was. Having been preoccupied with training with Shisui in the morning, finally perfecting their combo attack, then grabbing lunch at one of the food stalls in Konoha - Kakashi refused to eat lunch at the Uchiha compound, not when half of them were out for his blood - then running into Itachi. Itachi informed the pair that Rin was busy with some things at the hospital, before accepting an invitation to join them for training instead.
Behind Kakashi's back, Shisui and Itachi exchanged high fives. So far so good, Kakashi didn't suspect a thing.
Between the two of them, it was entirely too easy to keep Kakashi preoccupied. In fact they had been so engrossed in the mission that Rin entrusted them with that they hadn't noticed the time. If it wasn't for the Anbu summon showing up at the training grounds, requesting Kakashi's presence at the Hokage's office, Itachi and Shisui wouldn't have noticed the sun was already setting.
Once Kakashi was whisked away by the Anbu, Shisui and Itachi headed towards the Fourth's house, which Kushina had graciously offered for them to use for the surprise. Once inside, the two of them found Kushina putting the last touches on the cake.
At the Hokage's office, Minato was feeding some bullshit to Kakashi, convincing him to come over for "dinner." Under his sensei's relentless pleading, Kakashi eventually caved and sullenly trailed behind his sensei as he led the way home.
And here Kakashi had been hoping for a new mission, since he was bored out of his mind staying in the village all the time. Going on the C ranked missions with Rin curbed his boredom somewhat, but there was no excitement. Besides, it was boring when all Kakashi could do was watch Rin work her magic on the ailing patients.
Minato's request struck him as odd, but Kakashi simply chalked it up to his nerves and excitement that he was going to become a father soon.
"Do I really have to do this?" Kakashi drawled upon seeing his sensei's house in sight. Minato cocked his head, barely having to look down to see his student.
Kakashi has grown, Minato mused. Yet those words sounded like it would come out a ten year old Kakashi's mouth.
"I'm happy for you sensei, really," Kakashi continued. "But I had a long day of training, so I just want to go home and rest."
"But we're already here," Minato argued, not wanting to see his other student's hard work go down the drain. "Just for five minutes. Kushina misses you."
Suspicion was written all over Kakashi's face. If the Fourth had a weakness, it was his inability to lie. "Really? You and I both know I was Kushina's least favorite from Team Minato." At this, Kakashi's lone eye stared into Minato's.
"What are you up to, sensei?"
"You'll find out if you go in," Minato coaxed, lightly pushing Kakashi to the door. Kakashi sighed and conceded to Minato's request, hand ready to twist the doorknob.
The moment Kakashi pushed open the door, he was met with a chorus of "Happy Birthday!" Front and center was a pregnant Kushina, with a cake in hand. The icing spelled out his name, in navy blue, his favorite color. He spotted a few of his peers, Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai, who had set off the streamers.
He instantly knew what this was about and wished he had never come.
"Sensei, you know I don't do celebrations," Kakashi said, gesturing his hand in the general direction of the living room. "This is a waste of my time."
The house fell silent. Everyone could hear the sound of multiple plates smashing to the ground, right after the words left his mouth. Itachi and Shisui enter the living room, with a stack of plates and utensils in their hands, worry etched in their eyes. Maybe Kakashi felt slightly guilty for dissing the celebration, if his two teammates had been involved in the planning.
The intensified when Kakashi saw Rin emerge from the kitchen, empty handed, save for the small box in her hands. Tears gathered at the rim of her eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment.
It was then did Kakashi realize exactly who he had offended with his comment. Sure, he had been sure to show his annoyance everytime Obito and Rin planned a celebration for him or if he was dragged into planning one for Obito, but he never said anything so blatantly rude to their face. To her face.
"Sorry for wasting your time. It won't happen again." Before Kakashi could register how sad and heartbroken Rin sounded, she was already pushing past him, heading out the door. On her way out, Rin shoved the small box into Kakashi's unsuspecting hands. Kakashi couldn't do anything more than watch her retreating back.
Hastily, Kakashi tore open the package, revealing a customized hitai-ate. The band of the cloth was the standard navy blue, but with slightly extra material on the left side. Not enough to be cumbersome when Kakashi needed to access his Sharingan in battle, but also enough to cover his left eye completely if he wore it slightly slanted.
She noticed, Kakashi thought, clutching the metal plate of the hitai-ate tightly. Turning on his heels, Kakashi rushed out in the streets of Konoha, leaving all of the occupants in the Fourth's house stunned at his sudden departure.
For all the claims that Rin was his teammate, it finally hit him that he knew almost nothing about her. Sure, he knew all of her abilities, her fighting style, her intelligence, but he didn't know anything about her. Like when her birthday was or where Rin went when she was sad or what her favorite food was. Yet she knew all of that information about him, without Kakashi needing to tell her.
Her apartment was the first place Kakashi looked, but it was too obvious if Rin didn't want to be found. And clearly she didn't. Kakashi highly doubted she was at the hospital, but he went there anyways, despite his hatred for the building. Not there.
A friend's house? Definitely not with Kurenai since Kurenai was still at the Fourth's house. Kakashi had seen her with a Uchiha girl a couple of times, but he didn't know her name, much less where she lived.
Kakashi searched every store that he had ever seen Rin go into, going from the dango house, to the market, to the ramen stand, to the BBQ place, to the weapons store, to the clothing shop, to the medical herbs shop. There wasn't a trace of her in all of those places, so Kakashi proceeded to head to all of the training grounds that she was known to use.
Empty. Empty. Empty.
He wanted to bang his head against the wall. If Obito was alive...he would know where Rin was, instantly. With that in mind, Kakashi headed towards the memorial stone, hoping that Obito would be able to give him some sort of guidance. He was sure that Obito was watching him in disappointment from above.
Never in a million years did Kakashi expect to find Rin at the memorial stone. It had been a few years since Kakashi ran into Rin at the memorial stone, while Obito's death was still fresh on their minds, but there hadn't been a trace of her since then. Of course she would seek comfort from Obito; he was the only one who really ever understood her.
"Kakashi actually got angry this time," Rin whispered so softly that Kakashi's ears strained to hear her. "Sorry I couldn't keep tradition, Obito. At least I forced him to accept the gift this time." Kakashi heard her let out a soft chuckle, but it sounded lifeless and full of pain.
And he was the cause of that.
"I think he's turning into a grumpy old man," Rin continued. "At least when he was younger, he would pretend to hate it, but I think he always secretly liked it. Now, I'm not so sure anymore."
"No, I still appreciate it," Kakashi cut in, revealing himself. Rin didn't seem to look a bit surprised; perhaps she had already sensed him in the area?
"I just-" Kakashi struggled to find the right words. "Not used to people doing things for me. Not after my father-"
The last time Kakashi had truly celebrated his birthday was with his father, when he was gifted with his summoning pack.
Despite his lack of words, Rin seemed to understand what he was trying to say.
"You know we're your family now, right? We might not be related by blood, but everyone will still always be there for you. Whether you want it or not, we'll always still worry about you, care about you, and want you to be happy."
Family...Kakashi liked the sound of that.
"Thank you."
Thank you for filling the emptiness in my heart.
A/N: Hi again!
This chapter was originally going to be something else, but I figured they needed a break. So a bit of angst (because they're still teenagers) and little bit of bonding between some characters before the plot picks up again. :)
So the gift: the anime was inconsistent when animating Kakashi's forehead protector, sometimes he has it super tilted, other times there's the extra cloth there, so we're going to pretend that prior to this, Kakashi just kept the eye shut, rather than covered (I mean most of the time he is wearing the Anbu mask anyways).
Next chapter, a new arc begins, which I am super excited to share with you. It's actually going to be longer than one chapter arc lol (I really could have made the previous chapter into a longer arc since there were other ideas that I had for it but oh well, maybe for a bonus arc). Anyways, next chapter is titled Angel of Death.
Thank you for reading; let me know what you think! Until next time! :)
-MM