Present
Chapter Four: Encounter
Emi was at the front desk, grabbing a couple of files requested by Rin from the receptionist, when she heard a loud gasp. Her head whirled around sharply to see a silver haired man stumble through the lobby, slightly bent over, arm hovering around his left abdomen. He left behind a trail of blood with each step he took.
Most of the people in the vicinity were shocked still. It had taken Emi twenty seconds before she snapped out of her own stupor. Leaving the documents on the counter of the receptionist's desk, Emi ran over to the shinobi.
Her hand wrapped around his wrist, tugging him along to the medical room. She didn't know any medical ninjutsu herself, but she knew that Rin would be able to help him.
"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Emi questioned, eyes frantically roving over the man's stature. The man grunted, shaking his head.
"Hold on, I'm going to get help soon…"
Out of the corner of her eye, a flash of brown caught her attention. "Rin san!"
Rin turned her head in the direction of the voice, eyes honing in on the injured man next to Emi. She hurried over to the man, ushering him into the nearest empty medical ward. Lightly pushing him to sit on the bed, Rin bent down in front of him, lifting his shirt upward to examine the wound.
He leaned backwards, giving her a better view of the hastily bandaged job. Blood had completely soaked through all of the layers. Grabbing a pair of nearby scissors, Rin cut away the bandage, letting it fall off to the side. The man winced as Rin attempted to gently lift the pile of gauzes that had already begun to stick to the wound.
"Sorry," Rin murmured apologetically. Setting the wad of gauzes to the side, Rin's hands hovered over his wound, palms already growing green to stitch back the damaged muscles and blood vessels.
"You did a good job wrapping up your wound."
"Learned from the best," was the man's only reply. Rin couldn't tell if his response was legitimate or if he was just being sarcastic.
"Are you injured anywhere else?"
The man shook his head.
"Were you attacked?"
The man attempted to shrug, but regretted it the moment he felt pain shooting up his side. He gave a tight lipped smile. "Yes. A comrade had mistaken me to be the enemy…"
For the first time, Rin had a chance to properly glance at his features. Unruly white hair, definitely not a coloring belonging to the Uchiha clan. Black eyes, not the pale pupils of the Hyuga trademark. He didn't seem to belong to the Aburame or Inuzuka clan either.
Clanless like her?
The man cleared his throat, rather loudly. Heat flooded her cheeks as Rin averted her eyes, focusing back on stitching up the wound.
Awkward silence spanned between them as Rin attempted to keep her eyes riveted to the gash on his stomach, but found her eyes itching to wander elsewhere. It was such a strange feeling to not be able to multitask while she healed, even if it was something as simple as talking with the patient.
The man in front of her didn't seem a bit interested in chatting.
The healing itself took a lot longer than Rin had initially anticipated; the wound was deeper than it seemed, cutting through a lot of muscle tissue and even nicking a major artery, which had probably been why he had deemed it serious enough to even step foot into the hospital in the first place. Any deeper, the man would have bled to death while he attempted to fix his own wound.
Shinobis...they were all the same: too stubborn to admit themselves into the hospital.
The shinobi cleared his throat, leading Rin to jerk her head upwards. His dark eyes made contact with her brown ones. She shot him a questioning look.
The man tilted his head slightly to the side. "Ah, I was wondering if it was that bad since you seemed to be staring at it so intently."
"Could be worse," Rin told him. "It's nothing that I can't fix, so don't worry. Are you in any pain?"
The man half shrugged. "I've dealt with worse."
Rin was pressed to believe him, since he didn't seem that much older than her. However when her eyes slid down from his face and to his shoulder before finally landing on the black band on his upper arm, understanding dawned on her.
Commander status. Probably another war hardened shinobi plagued by the skirmishes throughout the years, perhaps even from the previous war.
Then something else dawned on her. "If you're a commander, how did you get ambushed? By a comrade nonetheless."
The edges of his eyes crinkled in amusement. "I suppose I was a little distracted."
Distracted? Rin wasn't sure she wanted to know the details.
Rin stepped away from the man, the chakra surrounding her palms flickering out of existence.
"I fixed most of the damage," Rin informed him, while she turned around, rummaging in one of the drawers from the supplies she was looking for. While her back was still turned, she continued to inform the shinobi of instructions that she was sure that he had already heard ad nauseam.
"Change the bandages twice a day; once when you first wake up and again after you shower. Apply the ointment after you shower; it'll help prevent scarring and provide a bit of pain relief."
The shinobi wordlessly nodded as Rin pressed the ointment into the palm of his hands. Without being asked, he cooperated by lifting his arms upwards, allowing her to have better access to his torso and an easier time to have his wound wrapped.
An injury prone shinobi for sure.
"And you know the protocol, no strenuous activity for at least three days."
It had been such a faint and quick expression change that Rin would have missed it if she hadn't been staring at his face at that moment. Displeasure. Rin had a feeling that he wasn't planning on following her instructions. At all.
"Don't land yourself in the hospital again," she warned.
The shinobi hummed in agreement. "What's your name?"
"Rin Nohara. You can call me Rin."
An unreadable expression flickered across the man's face before he schooled it back into its former, impassive self. A faint, but forced smile stretched itself across his face, only noticeable by the shift in the fabric of his mask.
"I'll try not to, but in case I do, I'll make sure to ask for someone other than you." With that, the man got to his feet. Nodding his thanks, his shoulders brushed against hers as he headed straight for the door. It had only been when Rin heard the sound of the door opening did she finally snap out of her stupor.
"Shinobi san, make sure you fill out the forms at the front desk!" she hollered after him, but by that point, he was no longer in her line of sight. Scrambling out of the room, she glanced both ways down the hall.
Nowhere in sight. He was quick to leave.
Shaking her head, Rin motioned for one of the nurses to prep the room for the next patient while she made the trip down to the front desk. The receptionist stood up to greet her, but Rin waved her off, motioning for her to get back to work. The receptionist looked like she wanted to say something, perhaps offer her assistance, but she kept her mouth shut and sat back down.
Rin's fingers trailed over the smooth granite countertop while she tried to find the thing she was looking for. There, the clipboard at the very end of the counter. Reaching to pull the clipboard closer to her, her eyes scanned the list of names of people who had checked out of the hospital.
Her eyes landed on the last name on the sheet.
Kakashi Hatake.
For once, Kakashi did listen to the medic's order and went straight home after his departure from the hospital. Normally, he would have taken to the training grounds to brush up on his taijutsu or requested a spar if anyone he knew was available. Neither of those options appealed to him when a more pressing matter was on the forefront of his mind.
Rin Nohara. The medic who had healed him had been Rin, the girl he was supposed to take care of. And now that he had met the girl in person, Kakashi could understand Minato's reservations towards ordering an assasination on her.
Kakashi was no stranger to killing; he made so many kills that he had already lost count. Probably somewhere in the triple digits if Kakashi had to guess. Yet all of those had been out of self defense; it was either them or him. How was he supposed to kill a girl who wasn't trying to harm him, but helping him instead?
Hence Kakashi rushed home after leaving the hospital in an attempt to clear his mind. He had pictured being able to lay on his bed and stare up at the ceiling as he contemplated his next move. And redid all of his former plans now that he had actually met the girl in person.
And perhaps send a message to ask his sensei for advice…
All his plans were trashed the moment that Kakashi's nose picked up a trail of perfume, a floral scent, lingering at the front door of his apartment. His hand hovered on the doorknob, wondering if he should proceed to twist it open.
He angled his body so that he could press his ear against the wooden door. Hushed voices, so low that Kakashi couldn't make out anything but a guy and a female speaking.
Perhaps, Kakashi should enter through the window. Except, the voices were so low that it sounded like the pair was in his roommate's bedroom, so if he went through the front door, he wouldn't be intruding on their conversation.
Plus, with his injury, it was better to not maneuver himself through a window, lest he irritated the wound once more. With that resolve in mind, Kakashi twisted the doorknob open, pulled out the key and pocketed it. Absently, he flicked on the lightswitch by the door, while he bent down to pull off his sandals.
Only to hear Kenzou hissing his name. "Oi, Kakashi. Get the hell out."
"What-" The "why" part of his response had been on the tip of his tongue, but Kakashi found that he didn't need an explanation when his eyes landed on Kenzou Inuzuka, his roommate, lying stomach first on the couch, presumably on top of a girl. Kakashi couldn't see the woman other than her mop of dark hair that dangled off the armrest of the couch. He was especially grateful that Kenzou had the foresight to pull a blanket over his body as Kakashi was in no mood to see his roommate stark naked, if the clothes strewn all over the living room floor was any indication.
Kakashi averted his eyes, fixating it on the dried blood stain on the wall from the time Kenzou had stumbled back into the apartment, completely drunk, and accidentally banged his head on the wall.
"I'm injured and you decide that it's the perfect time to shack it up with a girl?" Kakashi questioned incredulously. "Where the hell do you expect me to go?"
Kenzou let out a frustrated growl. "I don't care. Go to Obito's. Or the training ground. Or wherever you usually go. Just leave! You're totally killing the mood here."
Kakashi could hardly care less if he was ruining the mood or not. He shot Kenzou a glare. "You owe me one."
Kenzou nodded, hastily gesturing for him to leave. Sighing with exasperation, Kakashi left his own apartment, pulling the apartment door shut with more force than was necessarily. Then he leaned against the railings connected to the staircase, staring absently down at the dirt road.
A brief notion of sneaking in through the window came to mind, but Kakashi wasn't in the mood to third wheel the duo.
Obito's? In the event that Kakashi did track down Obito, he would pester him with so many questions that Kakashi wouldn't be able to get the peace and quiet that he yearned for.
His eyes flickered to the direction of the sun. At this time of the day, his favorite training grounds would most likely be occupied, so that wasn't an option either.
His favorite getaway spot then. It was a tree located far enough away from the center of town to avoid the bustling noises of everyday life, but close enough that he wasn't too far away from civilization. From his vantage point in the trees, Kakashi could spot the worn bench below him - don't ask him how many awkward confessions he had witnessed there - and the hospital slightly off in the distance. His favorite part about this particular tree was the leaves were dense enough to obscure him to the point that very few would spot him in passing, yet not thick enough to block his view or the stream of sunlight.
As he settled himself into his favorite spot, on that particular branch which was angled to where his back could rest comfortably against the trunk of the tree, Kakashi retrieved a small notebook from his back pocket and a pen. Stretching his feet out in front of him, Kakashi pried the book open, flipping to the next blank page and began to write.
The first consisted of points that Kakashi wanted to include in his report of the outpost. The report that he had been putting off simply not because he didn't know what to write, but simply because he was too lazy to write it. He still had until tomorrow afternoon anyways.
When he was done with that, Kakashi flipped back two pages and stared at his lazy scrawl of a potentially new jutsu. He hadn't worked out all of the kinks to it, but the premise had been promising...he was supposed to ask Sensei for his opinion on that trip, but had forgotten in the midst of all the war talk.
Kakashi was avoiding it, he knew. The planning of how to assassinate the girl. Even as Kakashi sat there for the next two hours contemplating, the page remained blank.
The Senjus would gain the upperhand if she's out of the way. No one else will be able to counter Tsunade sama's poisons as quickly and as effectively. Even the strongest men wouldn't be able to withstand the effects.
Isn't my life goal to strive for peace? To end the war? Perhaps I had been too late to make a difference in my own childhood, but at least I can make a difference for someone else.
Think of Naruto. Your dad wasn't around when you wanted him to be, but at least you can help him. Minato sensei could be home more permanently if the war ended.
And you don't want him to grow up in wartime, do you?
The answer was a resounding no, restoring some clarity in Kakashi's mind. A simple lapse of judgment on his part...his precious people were more important to him.
He wouldn't become his father. Kakashi didn't believe in making the same mistake twice.
His hand began to scribble on the page.
The soft patter of rain hitting the window pane faded into background noise as Rin became engrossed in trying to prolong one of her patient's life, while he waited for a transplant match. It wasn't to say that they had a shortage of organs, not when numerous shinobis died everyday, filling up the morgue room quicker than they could be buried.
Rin dragged a heavy hand over her face, letting out a drawn out sigh of frustration.
She hated the war.
But all of her worries and frustrations were quickly forgotten when Obito Uchiha showed up at her office at the hospital, with two bentos in his hands. It seemed he had an uncanny knack for knowing when she was in a bad mood.
Obito plopped down in the seat directly across from her desk. While he pulled out the bento boxes from the plastic bag, Rin cleared her desk, neatly stacking the once scattered papers in her hands before pulling out one of the drawers and stashing it away. He set a bento box down in front of her, chopsticks laid on diagonally on top of the box.
Thanking Obito for the food, Rin broke the chopsticks in half, lifted the lid and began to eat. Obito followed suit.
They caught up in between mouthfuls of food; at one point, Rin had to scold Obito to not speak while he was chewing when bits of food fell out of his mouth. Sheepishly, Obito grabbed a few tissues and cleaned up the mess on her desk.
Six months. That was how long since they had seen each other. They exchanged letters throughout the course of the six months, but Obito was always too busy at the outposts, resulting in fragmented communication over the course of the six months. Albeit it was lonely at times, Rin understood that they both had their own obligations to execute. Her, at the hospital and him, on the battlefield.
"Why were you there for six months? Isn't rotation every three months?" It was something that Rin had always wanted to ask, but had never gotten the chance to in her letters. Perhaps, she didn't feel like it had been appropriate to pry when Obito didn't offer an explanation tacked along with informing her that he wouldn't be able to come home.
"Ah well," Obito began, his eyes downcasted to stare absently at his food. "A couple months back, there was a Senju attack and we took a heavy loss. It's not well known, but our forces have been stretched thin lately. I know Itachi wanted the three month rotation so we don't go stir crazy out there, but we won't be able to keep it up any longer."
Rin knew. The amount of bodies that passed through the morgue room far exceeded the number of shinobis that graduated from the Academy. And there were still many more bodies unaccounted for on the battlefield.
"Six months?"
"Perhaps," Obito answered. "Either way, it won't be long until I get sent out again."
"How long do you have?"
Obito shrugged. "At the very least, two weeks, but I'm betting I'll be sent out before the month is over. The Senju have been getting more aggressive lately; did you hear that they even sent the Yellow Flash to attack our outpost?"
Rin frowned. "Isn't he their current leader? Why is he out on the battlefield?"
"Who knows," Obito admitted. "Perhaps he feels that his talents are more useful on the field. If that's the case, then we'll have to send Shisui out on the battlefield too."
Shisui Uchiha...Rin had met the man once or twice in passing. If the gossip at the hospital was to be believed, then he had as much of a legendary reputation as Itachi.
"Hey…"
The next hour was spent with Obito telling her all sorts of stories of incidents that happened at the outposts. In particular, Obito always rant about his second in command, and how he never failed to irritate Obito. In return, Rin told him of the happenings at the hospital. Nothing new.
"I've been avoiding him actually," Obito admitted. "I know he's pissed that I left him with Sora, but I didn't want to be there either."
Rin laughed. "Didn't you tell me that you would never leave a comrade behind? What happened to your resolve?"
"Hey, hey, this is completely different. Kakashi wasn't in any danger - well maybe - but even if he was, I believe he can totally kick Sora's ass. He did it once before, too bad I missed it."
"Kakashi?" Rin echoed.
Obito glanced at her inquisitively. "You know him? Gravity defying silver hair, that stupid mask on his face all the time, the scar above his left eye?"
Rin nodded. "He came by to the hospital earlier."
Obito's mouth fell open, forming a 'o' shape. "What was wrong with him? Kakashi never voluntarily comes to the hospital ever, so it must have been pretty bad."
"You know I can't tell you that. It's a violation of a patient's privacy."
Obito snorted, leaning across the desk so that he was directly in her face. "It's Kakashi. He will never tell me of his own accord. Besides, we're best friends so I don't think he will mind."
Rin rolled her eyes, flicking Obito's nose. Obito backed away, rubbing his nose while a pout formed on his face. "If he won't voluntarily tell you, that means he minds. So no, best friends or not, I can't and won't tell you."
"Fine, fine." Obito glanced at the clock on the wall. "I gotta meet with Itachi soon. Are you leaving too? I can walk you home."
Rin stood up, gathering the trash from their dinner and tossing it into the bin. "I am, but we live on opposite sides of the village. You'll be late."
Obito rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey, at least I'll have a legitimate excuse this time."
Rin shot him an unimpressed look as she tossed her medical coat on the back of her chair. Grabbing the umbrella leaning by the door, she ushered Obito out of her office, shutting off the lights before closing and locking the door.
She nudged him towards the front entrance. "Nope, I'm not giving you an excuse to be late."
"Are you sure?" Obito asked once more when they had reached the front entrance of the hospital. "It's pretty late."
Rin nodded. "I'll be fine. Besides, I'm not completely defenseless. Now go and meet your cousin; I'm sure he doesn't appreciate your tardiness."
With a defeated sigh, Obito nodded, waving her goodbye before pulling the hood of his raincoat over his head. Scaling the wall of the hospital, Obito took towards darting across the rooftops in the direction of the Uchiha compound.
Opening her umbrella, she swung it over her head before she stepped out into the pouring rain.
The streets were empty, but that was to be expected. The lamppost at the corner of the street flickered on and off and by the time she reached the end of the street, it sputtered out for good, basking her in darkness. Her eyes latched on to the next source of light and used it to guide her down the street.
Two blocks away from the hospital, Rin trudged through a particular street, a back road of sorts. Darkness surrounded her from all sides; the lone source of light coming from the lamppost next to the worn bench was dim.
A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, revealing a streak of silver. Rin blinked twice, making sure that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Crossing the distance in a couple of steps, her wet sandals making a squelching noise, Rin stopped right by the bench, angling her head upward to look at the tree.
The man from earlier, Kakashi, leaning against the tree with his head cocked to the side. He held a small notebook in his hand, closed with his pen jammed in the middle of it. The leaves shielded him from the brunt of the rain, but his clothes were still completely soaked through. His hair was matted, sticking to his forehead and the side of his face.
He had fallen asleep.
"Kakashi?" She hadn't been particularly loud; she didn't want to alarm the man, but did so anyways as he jerked away, eyes searching frantically for the source of the sound while his hands pulled out a kunai.
His eyes landed on her two seconds later. He tucked the kunai back in its holster and picked up his soggy notebook and frowned. A hand moved to brush his hair back.
"You shouldn't be out in the rain, especially not with your wound," Rin said, when it became clear that he wasn't going to say anything first. His dark eyes slid to hers, but he still didn't say anything.
He tucked the notebook in his weapons pouch and began to wring out his clothes wherever he could.
"You're still going to get rained on if you stay out here," Rin continued, growing frustrated by his lack of response. "You should go home."
"I don't have a home to go to," Kakashi drawled, not bothering to make eye contact as he squeezed the water out of his hair. He shook his head, mussing up his locks to its unkemped self. "Roommate kicked me out so he could have his privacy, so here I am."
"Come stay with me then." The offer came out of her mouth before Rin had the chance to even properly think over exactly what she was offering. Kakashi simply stared at her, an unreadable expression in his eyes.
Well it was too late for her to backtrack now. "At least until the rain stops. And you can take a warm shower so you don't get sick. Besides, you need to change your bandages; it'll get infected if you don't."
Kakashi still didn't say anything, but could tell he was contemplating her offer.
"My roommate left for the outposts, so she won't be around. You can stay the night if you need to." When those words left her mouth, Rin really wanted to put her foot in her mouth. Why did it come out sounding so wrong? Why did she have to mention that Akiara wasn't going to be there?
Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"No, no that's not what I meant," Rin began to backtrack. "I just meant that I have an extra bed if you really need to stay. If you don't want to, that's okay too, I mean-"
Rin cut herself off. She was rambling. She needed to stop before she said something else that she regretted.
"Thank you." He had said it so softly that Rin had almost missed it amongst the sound of raindrops pattering incessantly against her umbrella. Kakashi swung his feet off of the branch, hopping down. Rin instinctively reached out, wanting to scold him for irritating his wound, but she didn't want to scare him away.
He reached her side and she lifted her arm upwards, trying to cover him with the umbrella too. Kakashi saw her struggling and moved to take the umbrella from her, fingers brushing against her hand. She quickly removed her hand, letting him hold the umbrella over both of them, curling her hand into a fist and rigidly placing it by her side.
"Lead the way," Kakashi murmured.
She did, with him trailing slightly behind her, but close enough that she could feel his body heat radiating off of him. Though she tried to keep her eyes ahead and focused on the road, her eyes couldn't help but dart over to look at Kakashi every so often.
Mostly out of concern for his wound, she told herself.
But in the process, Rin learned of things she didn't know what to quite make of. Like how he held the umbrella so it covered her completely while his backside was completely subjected to the rain. Like how he tipped the umbrella backwards so the droplets slid and landed on his head rather than her. Like how he walked with a nonchalant attitude, slightly hunched over, free hand tucked in pocket, but immediately tensed when they had passed by another guy on the street who had been eyeing them...or rather her.
Rin almost wanted to let out a sigh of relief when she reached the front of her apartment. While she fumbled with the lock, Kakashi shook out the droplets that clung to the umbrella before retracting it. She swung the door open, flicking on the light and began to peel off her soaked sandals. Besides her, Kakashi did the same.
"You should go take a shower. The bathroom is that way, the first door on the left. I don't have any clothes that will fit you, but-"
"That's fine," Kakashi interjected, cutting her off. "Thank you."
He disappeared to the bathroom while Rin went to the kitchen, setting the kettle to boil. After going to her room to rummage in her closet - maybe Obito had left his clothes at some point - she confirmed she didn't have anything that would fit Kakashi.
Twenty minutes later, Rin left the tea to simmer in the living room while she went to the bathroom, knocking on the door lightly. Not even three seconds had passed when the door opened a crack, the steam filtering out. The mirror was foggy, but Rin was able to make out his silhouette.
She peered into the bathroom only to quickly avert her eyes when her brain registered that he only had a towel wrapped around his hips.
"I'm applying the ointment, don't worry," Kakashi drawled from inside the bathroom.
"Do you need help with bandaging?" Rin almost wanted to slap herself when that offer left her mouth.
"No, I got it," came Kakashi's reply. Thankfully because there was no way that she would be able to focus when he was practically naked.
"Uh, there's tea on the table in the living room. I'll be in my room so don't worry about walking out indecently." With that, Rin pulled the door shut once more and darted back to her own room. Flopping onto her bed, Rin smothered her face with her pillow as she rolled around in her bed while her mind recalled the entire encounter from beginning to end.
Why did she have to be so awkward?
He's just Obito's friend, Rin thought. He's the same guy that Obito arm wrestled with to get out doing chores. He's the same guy that always finds ways to get Obito back whenever Obito dumps all the responsibility onto him.
I mean, if he and Obito can get along, he can't be all that bad, right?
A/N: Hi again!
Sorry for the lackluster ending, I'm sure you expected more. I was going to write more but then I felt like it would have been just meaningless conversation between the two of them so I didn't want to bother with that. They'll meet more later on to make up for it.
This is my first time writing a non evil adult Obito, and surprisingly, he's pretty fun to write. I always imagined that he would be a more mature version of his younger self, but still with all of his quirks (like being late) so that's what I made him to be. I was originally going to make them meet through Obito, but then completely scrapped that idea. Still, I quite like developing their friendships separately: Obito and Kakashi, Obito and Rin. Any guesses on how they met/how they became friends? :)
The next 3 chapters will go back into the past and explore Rin's background. Personally, hers was the most interesting to write since it's completely non canon. While Kakashi and Itachi's were cool to write too, theirs erred more on the canon side so it's a bit less special. Plus, I think when you read her story, it's raise a lot of questions. :)
Thanks for the feedback (the theories were interesting!) and for reading. See you next week!
-MM