Present

Chapter Five: An Unspoken Conversation

Like clockwork, Kakashi was up by the crack of dawn. Flinging the blanket off of his torso, his feet swung to touch the wooden floor. Kakashi folded the blanket, leaving it behind on the couch before he padded silently to the bathroom. The door shut with a soft click.

Kakashi rolled his shoulders, moved his head around, trying to work out the aches in muscles from sleeping on a couch that had been entirely too small for him. He stretched out his arms, stopping short when a stinging pain shot up his side. Lowering his arms slowly to the side, Kakashi inspected his wound in the mirror.

No blood. That was good news.

Retrieving his top that he had left out to dry the previous night, Kakashi quickly pulled it over his head, nose wrinkling as he caught a whiff of the musty smell. No matter, he would only need to deal with it until he went home.

Kakashi stepped out of the bathroom quietly, eyes flickering to the down the hall where he felt a faint chakra signature. After confirming that Rin was still asleep, he made his move to the front door.

His hand was wrapped around the metal handle, ready to push the door open, when he suddenly faltered. Turning away from the door, Kakashi scoured the living room before he spotted a small notepad jammed between two medical textbooks. Yanking out the notepad, Kakashi undid the cap of the pen and scribbled two words onto the paper. After ripping off the top sheet and capping the pen, Kakashi slid the notepad back in its original position.

The single sheet of paper was left on top of the blanket.

Kakashi darted across the rooftops on his way home, ignoring the slight ache on his side. The decrease in travel time was worth it; Kakashi's sensitive nose couldn't stand the smell on his clothes any longer.

Kenzou's girlfriend was probably long gone at this point, or maybe the two of them had moved to Kenzou's bedroom, but Kakashi didn't want to take any chances to walk in on them again, so he landed on the ledge of his window. Jamming the tip of a kunai in the crook of the window, Kakashi used the kunai as a leverage to force the window open. The window budged, creaking loudly as Kakashi pushed up the window. Landing in the comfort of his own room, Kakashi shut the window, making a mental note to fix the lock again.

Stripping as he walked to the bathroom, Kakashi tossed the bundle of clothes into the basket and grabbed the first items that he saw before entering into the bathroom. Kakashi was supposed to meet up with Obito soon, but no matter.

Obito would be late anyways, so Kakashi took the opportunity to take another shower.

Obito appeared at the training grounds an hour after their scheduled meeting time. In the midst of target practice, Kakashi held up his other hand, palm facing Obito.

"Save your excuse."

Obito huffed, rolling his eyes. "I have a legitimate excuse this time. Itachi wanted to meet me this morning. I swear both of you wake up at such ungodly hours."

Kakashi ceased his target practice, placing the kunai back in its holster.

"What about?"

"The war, what else?" Obito responded. "The situation isn't looking too good for us so he wanted to get my opinion on some things."

"You?" Kakashi raised a questioning eyebrow. "What tactical strategy could you possibly offer?"

Obito slapped the back of Kakashi's head lightly. "Oi, just because I'm not as smart as you when it comes to these kinds of things doesn't mean I don't know anything about it."

"So?" Kakashi prompted.

"I recommended Itachi to talk to you," Obito murmured.

"Ah, I'm sure there are plenty of other people that Itachi can speak with instead of me."

"Are you still on your inferiority complex? If Itachi cared about the fact that you aren't an Uchiha, he would have never promoted you to be second in command. Here, skills speak louder than your background."

Kakashi supposed that it was a good opportunity to gather information, but he would have to be careful. Itachi Uchiha wasn't as easy to fool as Obito was. A wrong move and Itachi would see right through his facade.

"When?"

Obito smiled.

It was oddly disconcerting to be at the heart of the Uchiha compound. It was only Kakashi's second time stepping foot into the Uchiha compound, but he was familiar enough to note that nothing had changed. The first had been over ten years ago, when he was being taken to see Fugaku after entering the village. At the time, the walk through the compound had been a show of superiority, as well as serving to be a warning.

The same eerie feeling crawled up Kakashi's spine as he registered at least five pairs of eyes on him. The air was suffocating; he took more frequent and deeper breaths to compensate. There seemed to be something looming over his head, bearing down on him, making every hair on his arm stand up. He couldn't describe the feeling; all that he knew was that it made him so on edge that every tiny movement increased his paranoia tenfold.

Nothing had changed since ten years ago.

Yet walking side by side with Obito, it was glaringly obvious what the problem was. While his posture was stiff and his movements were unnatural, Obito carried a lackadaisical feel in his steps. While his fingers hovered over the handle of a kunai, fingers brushing over the metal ever now and then for reassurance, Obito's hands swung lightly by his side. While his eyes were fixated on the path in front of them, Obito's eyes wandered all over the place. When Obito spotted a familiar person, he would stop to talk. While Obito conversed with ease, Kakashi felt restless.

Right as Obito wrapped up his conversation with an elderly, a group of kids suddenly ran out of the alleyway, darting across the street as they chased after the one in the lead. The sudden movement startled Kakashi, his reflexes kicking in, but his brain was quick enough to calm himself down before he drew a weapon.

Obito stared at him oddly. "Kakashi? Let's go."

Kakashi nodded, falling into step beside Obito. The laughter from the children grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared altogether, but was quickly replaced by the sound of a mother scolding her son at the front door.

There was life. There was laughter. There was normalcy.

In every single way, Kakashi didn't belong. If he had known that he would have to meet Itachi at the compound instead of at his office in the administrative building, Kakashi would have never agreed to come.

One time was enough.

Kakashi never thought he would feel a sense of relief when they finally arrived at the main house. While the heavy feeling was still present, the eyes were off of him.

He followed Obito's lead, taking off his shoes and aligning them neatly next to Obito. Then he stepped into the house, hanging behind while Obito went to find Itachi.

The man in question arrived right as Kakashi was occupied with scouring the many titles on the bookshelf. Itachi gestured for him to take a seat on the couch.

Kakashi obliged.

"Sorry about meeting here. My parents are busy so I have to watch over Sasuke today."

"Obito said you wanted to see me."

Itachi nodded. "I believe that your knowledge will be helpful. How much do you know about Minato Namikaze?"

"Any knowledge that I have about his abilities is from about fifteen years ago and I don't exchange hands with him much during the war, so I'm afraid that my information wouldn't be very useful to you at all."

Itachi shook his head. "I don't want to know about his abilities. Tell me what he is like as a person. Specifically, his attitude towards the war."

"He would rather have peace. During his inauguration, he promised to maintain peace for as long as he could. Even before he became the leaders for the Senjus, he worked tirelessly with Hiruzen to end the last war."

Itachi hummed in agreement. "It's as I thought."

Shifting through a stack of papers, Itachi pulled a packet out of the stack, tossing it over to Kakashi. Kakashi caught it, the title of the document catching his eye.

Peace treaty.

While Kakashi skimmed the contents of the treaty, Itachi unravelled a scroll, spreading it out over the length of the coffee table. A map, with the borders of the Uchiha and Senju borders marked in black. Red markings on the map denoted areas of dispute.

Kakashi set the treaty aside.

"They would never agree to these terms," Kakashi told him bluntly. "There is room to negotiate with Minato, but he would never concede to this degree."

"I know, but it is only with those terms that the Uchihas would be satisfied. Otherwise, it will end up like the last treaty. A ceasefire, war would inevitably break out again. Our spy wasn't able to get any information, so I was hoping you are able to enlighten me as to why the Senjus are adamant in fighting for this patch of land."

Kakashi's eyes followed to where Itachi's finger was pointed at. The Land of the Whirlpool, formerly neutral before the village formed an alliance with the Senjus, only to be occupied by the Uchihas in the last war. He was hardly surprised to see that this was the first territory that Sensei would try to take back.

"You know Minato Namikaze's wife is Kushina Uzumaki. The Land of the Whirlpool is home to the Uzumaki clan. Her homeland is important to her."

Itachi stared at him. "You seem to know a lot more than the average person. You were close to Minato?"

He was testing him.

Kakashi didn't falter. "Of course. My father was good friends with Minato."

Itachi abruptly changed the topic. "I'm sure you already heard from Obito that the situation doesn't look too good for us. It's confirmed that the Yellow Flash is out on the battlefield once more, so I already sent Shisui out. We've experienced heavy losses recently so I'm afraid that I will need to send you out earlier than you have anticipated."

"That's fine." It wasn't like Kakashi had anything to stay in the village for.

The thought of his mission floated to the forefront of his mind. He would need to finish his mission before he was sent out again.

Then Itachi asked him to give his report on the last six months at the outpost, which left Kakashi to wonder exactly what Itachi wanted him here for. All of this information was already written in the report that he would submit later today and he was certain that Obito already went over the details once already. Besides, as second in command, Kakashi never reported directly to Itachi.

And everything that he asked, he could easily get answers from someone else. In fact, Kakashi wouldn't be surprised if Itachi already knew the answers to those questions.

Why him?

Two answers came to mind. Neither were desirable.

Kakashi went along with his charade. Although Itachi was discreet, Kakashi's eyes didn't miss the fleeting glances that Itachi shot his way. Each time, Itachi's eyes narrowed before he smoothed out his expression once Kakashi made eye contact with him.

Itachi was studying him, that much was for sure.

"One more thing, I need you to go on a mission tomorrow. Our supplies are waiting for us in Oto. The scroll has all of the details that you need."

Itachi tossed him a scroll. Kakashi caught it one handed, fingers pinched to untie the string around the scroll. Unraveling the scroll, Kakashi briefly skimmed over the mission details: who he was supposed to meet, what items he was supposed to retrieve.

One item caught his eye.

"I have a partner?"

"About half of the supplies are medical items so a medic will go with you to make sure that they have everything they need. You will be responsible for the other things."

"I see. May I be dismissed?"

Itachi nodded. "Report directly to me when you get back."

"How are you feeling today?"

Toshiro responded with an affirmative. Rin continued to fire off questions regarding his previous symptoms. While he spoke, her pen scratched lightly against the paper attached to a clipboard, jotting down all of his answers.

The antidote seemed to have worked, enabling Toshiro a quick recovery.

"You can be discharged tomorrow morning. I want to monitor your condition for another night, just in case. After all, we were caught off guard once; don't want that to happen again."

Toshiro nodded. "Thank you. How is everyone else?"

"You were the first to exhibit symptoms, so we were able to administer the antidote for everyone else before their conditions became worse."

Even through the thick door, Rin could hear Obito's voice floating into the room from outside. As he approached the room, his voice became clearer, to the point where Rin could make out the conversation between him and someone else.

"Obito is here. I'll leave you to it."

The door clicked open right as Rin stepped away from Toshiro's bedside. She stood off to the side while Obito walked into the room first, followed by Kakashi. Rin made eye contact with Kakashi, the latter tipping his head slightly as a way of greeting.

"Rin!" She tore her eyes away from Kakashi.

Seeing Obito and Kakashi reminded her of something. Turning back to face Toshiro, Rin ordered him to not partake in any strenuous activities.

"That includes training," Rin emphasized, even though she knew the majority of the shinobis don't follow her orders. She especially shot a stern look at Obito. "As commander, you should look out for the wellbeing of your people."

"Hai, hai," Obito lazily replied as he rounded to the other side of the bed. Retrieving the stool tucked in the corner of the room, Obito placed it right next to the bed before plopping down into the seat. "I promise, no training."

Rin took his word for it. Bidding Obito a goodbye and promising to come by to check up on Toshiro's condition before she got off of her shift tonight, Rin exited the room. Flagging down a receptionist, Rin handed the clipboard off to her, instructing her to get the discharge papers ready before tomorrow. The woman nodded before scurrying off.

Kakashi exited the room, approaching her from her left side.

"I never got the chance to properly thank you for giving me a place to stay," Kakashi murmured. "Thank you."

He did. The note that he left already expressed his gratitude, but Rin wasn't going to mention it.

"Don't worry about it. How is the wound healing up?"

"It's alright. Thank you for healing me."

Awkward silence spanned between them when Rin wasn't sure what to say to him after that. Both of them opened their mouths at the same time, their words jumbling together as they spoke on top of one another.

"You should go first."

"I'm going to head back in," Kakashi repeated. The words sounded so stiff coming from his mouth, so he tacked on, "I'll see you around."

Rin nodded. "Yeah, I still have some work to finish. See you around, Kakashi san."

Kakashi headed back into Toshiro's room, while Rin headed down the hall towards her office. Her mind was still spinning from the last conversation with Kakashi.

Third encounter. Still unbearably awkward. She wasn't sure what was wrong, even small talk with her other patients wasn't so painful.

Rin let out a sigh. How was Obito friends with him? They seemed to be the exact opposite in every single way.

Seeing Emi run down the hall straight towards her made Rin snap out of her thoughts. Her mouth opened, ready to scold Emi for running in the hospital when it was strictly prohibited, but she stopped short when Emi shoved a scroll into her hand. Emi was bent over, hands splayed on her thighs as she took a minute to catch her breath. Shooting Emi a questioning look, Rin unraveled the scroll.

A supply collection mission from Oto. Rin had heard of Oto, a small village located three hours from the borders of the Uchiha territory, who had chosen to ally themselves with the Uchiha. She was aware that every once in a while, a medic would be sent out to retrieve the medical supplies, but why was Emi giving this to her?

Emi raised her head, forcing out her words in between her breaths. "Rin san, you have to help me."

"What is wrong with it? This is a perfectly normal mission."

Emi shook her head. "I can't go. My sister is sick so I need to be home in the evening to take care of her."

"Oto isn't located too far from here. You should be back within the day."

"I really can't," Emi insisted. "And I couldn't really refuse Takahiro san when he gave me this mission, but…"

Rin let out a sigh; how could she refuse Emi's pleading look?

"Fine-"

"Thank you so much!" Emi gushed, cutting her off before she could even finish. Before Rin could get another word in, Emi had already rushed off, running back in the direction that she had come from. This time, Rin yelled after her to quit running in the hospital.

Emi slowed to a speed walk. With a sheepish look on her face as she turned around, Emi gave Rin a small wave as she continued down the hall. Rin wanted to tell Emi to watch where she was going, but she was too far and it was too late. The other medic had narrowly swerved the cart to avoid bumping into Emi completely, but the sharp edge had nicked her in the side.

Rin stared at the scroll in her hand.

If she was going to take the mission tomorrow, then she better get to work.

Minato sensei,

I think they know there is a spy in their midst and I am one of their suspects, so I don't know how long I will be able to continue. Itachi and I conversed earlier; I believe that he wanted me to pass something onto you.

He wants to seek peace and he is willing to give up their claim on the Land of the Whirlpool as one of the negotiation conditions.

He also mentioned a spy in your ranks, but I am unsure of the spy's identity.

After hearing that you were on the battlefield, they have sent Shisui Uchiha out onto the field as well.

I am being sent on a mission tomorrow to retrieve supplies from Oto. Perhaps you can consider cutting off their source for supplies. In the next day or two, I will send you a map of Oto.

Sensei, I want the war to end as soon as possible, but I don't know how I am going to complete my mission. The more that I meet her, the more reluctant I am to kill her.

I know that she has to die.

I just hate that I have to be the one to do it.

A/N: Hi again!

There is probably never going to be a story that I write where Kakashi and Itachi both exists as characters and they don't meet. I swear I'm just going to find some way to make them meet because I love this duo. Their conversation might seem like filler (felt like to me when I was writing it too), but I promise it has a purpose. Just have to read between the lines to figure out what Itachi's plan is. Or wait because it'll all be revealed later in the story.

Thanks for reading! Until next time.

-MM