Past

Chapter Eight: Foreigner

He was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. For the shinobis that have been tasked with tracking down the runaway boy, they received affirmatives from various villages that they had seen a young boy with silver hair pass through. Village after village, spanning from ones that neighbored the Senju territory to those located in neutral territory.

Yet over the course of two years, they had always been one step behind, always left behind to follow the nonexistent traces.

Minato didn't want to give up; Kakashi was practically like family to him but he didn't know how much longer he could withstand the pressure from the council.

A waste of resources, they told him. Though no one said it out loud, Minato knew what they were thinking in their hearts.

Why are you wasting so much effort for the son of a disgrace? It's better off if the boy never comes back.

Good thing Kakashi never had any intentions of returning.

Long ago, Kakashi had lost count of how many villages he had gone through. All he knew was that he had to keep moving, especially after receiving word that there were shinobis looking for him. No doubt his sensei's work, but Kakashi didn't want to be found. He didn't want to be persuaded into returning to the wretched place that caused his father's downfall. He didn't want to have to face Minato's disappointed look.

So Kakashi kept moving. His knowledge as a tracker helped him to cover up his tracks decently; the remnants would be washed away by nature and time. There had been one point when the shinobis had been too close to his tail for his liking that Kakashi had resorted to planting false trails to throw them off of his path.

It hadn't been too hard. They weren't trying too hard to locate him. Deep down in their hearts, they didn't want Kakashi back, just as much as he didn't want to return.

It was better that way.

Spending his life on the run wasn't ideal, especially not when most of his days were spent out in the wilderness than not, but Kakashi quickly grew accustomed to this lifestyle. Fishing, hunting, learning how to identify edible plants from not, performing odd jobs in various villages, blending into civilian life, all of those skills were quickly acquired.

It had been painfully obvious to Kakashi that he wasn't cut out for civilian life when he first left, when he stuck out so painfully like a sore thumb in a neighboring village. His movements were too graceful, his paranoia levels were impossible to fathom, his lack of knowledge of even the simplest things had earned him some odd looks.

But Kakashi was a shinobi. He learned to adapt.

Yet as he sat at the booth of a ramen stand, Kakashi's mind was in overdrive. He had taken the rightmost seat in the stand, leaving two seats empty between himself and the next person over. What he hadn't expected was for two young people, one male and the other female, to occupy the seats next to him right as he received his bowl of ramen. Kakashi instinctively shifted further away from them, angling his face towards the wall before pulling down his mask and quickly shovelling food into his mouth.

Not that anyone was looking. The couple had been so enraptured amongst each other, they hardly spared a glance at anyone else. Their joyful laughter had drawn Kakashi's attention; he snuck a couple of quick peeks at the duo.

Both wore genuine smiles that didn't seem to fade away any time soon.

Kakashi jerked his eyes away from them, staring intently at the broth and the pieces of noodles and toppings that floated in the soup.

Will he ever be able to be happy again?

Happiness...he once associated that with his father coming home after weeks or months out on the battlefield or when Minato sensei complimented his skills or when he spent his days lying under the sun with Asuma basking in each other's presence, but all of that was gone now. His father was gone, tormented and betrayed by the same village that he had dedicated his life to serving.

Kakashi's fingers gripped the edge of the counter with enough force that the tips of his fingers turned bright red. His nails dug into the wood, leaving their mark as Kakashi's thoughts continued to spiral down that path.

His father gave his life to protect the villagers. His father worked tirelessly, often being sent out onto the battlefield as one of the Senju's most prized soldiers. His father sacrificed time with his family, with his friends in order to protect the village. On the battlefield, he had saved countless lives. His father was the perfect shinobi: dedicated and talented. The village's safety had always been his top priority.

Kakashi knew it was dangerous to go down this train of thought, but he couldn't help himself.

All of that and for what? A single mistake and the entire village, one that he once called home, turns their back on him. The one time that he needed their support, they betrayed him.

Betrayed him.

Kakashi hated them.

The notion of revenge has crossed his mind a couple of times throughout the years, but what was the point? Revenge wouldn't make him feel any better. Revenge wouldn't bring his father back.

No, he would do the same thing that they have done to him.

Betray them.

For the fifth time that day, Obito snuck a glance at the mysterious silver haired boy. The boy had been the replacement for one of the guys who had dropped out a week into Sora Uchiha's brutal training.

It was his third day here and he still hadn't uttered a single word unless he was addressed. He took all of Sora's training wordlessly, didn't even protest when he was subjected to additional laps around the training ground than others. He was Sora's latest victim, but his lack of reaction left Sora extremely irritated. Obito wagered it wouldn't be long until Sora gave up and picked a different victim.

But who else was there? Half of them came from the Uchiha clan while the other half came from clans allied with the Uchihas. The boy was the perfect target: clanless, new, and not to mention, Obito had heard the rumors.

Kakashi Hatake was the son of the famed White Fang, a known powerhouse of the Senju force. Someone formerly affiliated with the Senjus...more of a reason for Sora to pick on him since they were technically in the middle of a ceasefire.

And no one, not even a war hawk like Sora, would want to incur the wrath of Fugaku Uchiha just to fight some Senjus.

Targeting Kakashi seemed like the next best thing.

It was always the minor things, like extra laps around the training field, constantly criticizing his stance when there was nothing wrong with it, giving him defective equipment - Obito had to watch in horror as a paper bomb blew up, luckily Kakashi's reflexes were insanely good, requesting Kakashi to spar with Sora just as guise so that he could beat him up, and so on.

Others noticed it too; Obito knew that they weren't stupid. Everyone else was just turning a blind eye to it.

Across the training ground, Obito spotted Sora leaning casually against the trunk of a tree. His eyes swept the field, flickering briefly on each one of them, before they finally landed on Kakashi. A smirk formed on Sora's face as his eyes remained glued onto the silver haired boy. Obito's eyes widened when he noticed Sora's fingers moving to execute a series of hand signs; was he seriously going to use a jutsu on Kakashi?

Obito's heart clenched at the prospect of the other boy getting hurt, but he was conflicted. The only way he would be able to warn Kakashi was by shouting, but that would mean he was going to draw attention to himself. Was becoming Sora's next victim worth saving the foreign boy from his fate?

Screw it. Regardless of what his background is, Kakashi is still a comrade!

With his mind made up, Obito opened his mouth to holler Kakashi's name, but his name remained lodged at the back of his throat as he watched the land suddenly split in front of Kakashi. There hadn't been enough time for Kakashi to react, the front of his foot caught the edge of the split, knocking him off balance. Just as Obito thought Kakashi was going to faceplant, Kakashi caught his fall with both of his hands. Swinging the lower half of his body into the air, Kakashi successfully executed a front flip, landing neatly on his two feet.

And then he continued running, like nothing had ever happened.

The sour look on Sora's face was a sight to see. Obito ducked his head slightly off to the side, stifling his laughter. As he passed by Sora on his way around the training field, Obito schooled his features to remain impassive, but the moment he was out of sight, Obito broke out in a grin.

The sky was already dark when Sora finally let them off of training. Most of the group quickly scattered, eager to finally be able to rest. Kakashi left the training field at a leisure pace, giving Obito the impression that he didn't really have anywhere to be. With that in mind, Obito hurried to catch up to the boy, calling out his name.

Kakashi didn't turn around.

Frowning, Obito quickly crossed the remaining distance between the two of them, grabbing Kakashi by the shoulder. Kakashi halted, shrugging Obito's hand off of his shoulder before he spun around to face him.

"Are you deaf? I've been calling your name."

"What do you want?"

"What's with the attitude?" Obito fired back, completely irritated at Kakashi's attitude. He had originally thought that they would have gotten along, hell, Obito even sympathized with him, but he guessed it was completely wasted. "I was going to congratulate you for being able to avoid Sora's tricks, but I guess with your attitude, maybe his targeting is well deserved."

Kakashi stared at him coldly. "Is that all?"

Without waiting for an answer, Kakashi turned back around, already moving to leave.

"Hey! Wait a second!"

Kakashi paused for a second time, but this time, he didn't bother to turn around. Obito moved to stand in front of Kakashi, who didn't glance up to meet his eyes.

"Why are you acting like this? At this rate, you're never going to make any friends."

"I don't need friends."

Obito was completely appalled that anyone had that thought. "I know as an outsider, it's going to be difficult to make friends, but keep that attitude up and you'll be completely miserable here."

"So what?" Kakashi had finally glanced up to make eye contact with him, subjecting Obito to the emotionless and cold pair of black eyes. "Now leave me alone. Just because you want to be friends doesn't mean I want to."

Obito didn't want to bother, especially with his attitude, but he had a philosophy in life that he would never abandon a comrade. And Obito wasn't the type to break his promises.

"No way! I'm not going to give up on my comrade!"

An exasperated look formed on Kakashi's face. "That's foolish. If you associate yourself with me, you'll be Sora's target too."

As soon as the words left Kakashi's mouth, a surprised expression flickered over his features before Kakashi quickly masked it with nonchalance.

"Whatever, it's your suffering."

This time, Kakashi teleported out of sight before Obito could shout at Kakashi for being so stubborn. Sighing, Obito began to make his way home. A small smile formed on Obito's lips as he recalled Kakashi's words.

Kakashi cared. While the mention of Sora had seemed like a threat to keep Obito away, Kakashi's reaction told a completely different story. It seemed like the words had accidentally slipped out of his mouth.

He cared.

That stupid grin remained on Obito's face for the rest of the way home.

Obito had made it his personal mission to become Kakashi's friend. When he noticed that Kakashi's lunch consisted of a piece of plain bread and water, Obito insisted on sharing some of his food with Kakashi. Kakashi adamantly refused, even going at lengths to avoid him by hiding in obscure places.

It pained Obito to admit that it had taken him three days to find Kakashi's new hiding spot, sitting on the branch of a tree near their training grounds, but the end result was the same. Obito had tracked him down.

And Kakashi fled again.

The pattern persisted three more times: Obito would eventually find Kakashi and consequently, Kakashi would move to a new hiding spot. The next time Obito found Kakashi, he tried a different approach; instead of shouting for him to stop running away, Obito left a bundle of fruit wrapped in a tablecloth right in Kakashi's line of sight.

Then Obito left.

The tablecloth was returned to him after training that day, quickly muttering his gratitude before Kakashi shunshined out of sight.

During training, Obito would always find a way to train near Kakashi. Not too close to him for Kakashi to be bothered and also not close enough for Sora to start picking on him too. Yet Obito hated feeling utterly useless everytime he had to watch Sora torment Kakashi.

After punishing Kakashi to fifty extra push ups for sloppy form, Sora caught Obito staring. He tried to avert his eyes and pretend that they had been riveted on the wooden post the entire time, but it was too late.

"Uchiha, what were you staring at?" Sora shouted, loud enough for those all the way on the other side of the training field to hear as well. The others had stopped what they had been doing, briefly before resuming their practice, not wanting to be subjected to the same fate as Obito.

Obito had stopped, his mind racing to come up with a decent excuse as he turned around to face Sora. Only for Sora to turn his attention off of him and back onto Kakashi. Faster than Obito's eyes could follow, a kunai landed in the grass right next to Kakashi. A trickle of blood dripped from Kakashi's arm and onto the grass.

"Arms ninety degrees!" Sora barked, hand waving around another kunai menacingly in the air. "Start over from the beginning!"

Kakashi took the punishment wordlessly. By the time Sora was done berating the other boy, he had long forgotten about Obito and moved on to the others.

Obito felt guilty.

Like everyday after training, Kakashi was always in a hurry to leave before Obito caught up with him, but Obito was determined to not let him go today. Sprinting across the training field, Obito caught up with Kakashi, hand reaching out to latch on to his arm when Kakashi sidestepped, twisting his body to the side. With nothing to hold onto, Obito's momentum sent him tripping over an uneven patch on the ground.

He landed face first onto the dirt.

With as much dignity he could muster, Obito picked himself off of the ground, brushing off the dirt that clung to the fabric of his clothes. Kakashi had his arms crossed over his chest while he simply stared at him.

"What do you want?"

"Oi! You could have at least asked if I was alright!" Obito exclaimed.

The deadpan look remained on Kakashi's face. "Only idiots trip over a flat patch of land."

That had sparked another round of an indignated response from Obito. By the time he had settled down, Obito finally remembered why he had sought out Kakashi in the first place.

"Thanks for earlier," Obito grudgingly muttered. He immediately jerked his head off of the side, refusing to acknowledge the smug look that he knew Kakashi would have.

"A weakling like you wouldn't have been able to handle the punishment anyways."

Obito couldn't help himself; he turned his head back to face Kakashi, with insults at the tip of his tongue when he realized that there wasn't a smug expression on Kakashi's face. No, it was still the same impassive expression that Kakashi always wore, but with a hint of fondness?

Obito blinked twice to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"That's why you shouldn't associate yourself with me. You wouldn't be able to handle the punishment anyways."

"No way! I'm not as weak as you think; I can handle it. Friends are in this together; I'm not going to let you deal with it by yourself."

From the look that Kakashi gave him, Obito knew the other boy thought he was crazy and stupid for willingly putting himself in the spotlight just to become friends with him.

But Obito valued their friendship that much.

Sometime during the span of their unorthodox friendship, Obito found out where Kakashi lived. He made an effort to get out of bed fifteen minutes earlier, much to his grandmother's surprise. Earlier than ever, Obito was out of the door and waiting across the street from the apartment complex where Kakashi lived.

Ten minutes before training was supposed to begin and Kakashi still hadn't appeared. Obito feared that Kakashi overslept, but he didn't know exactly which complex Kakashi lived in. Conflicted, Obito practically ran to the training grounds, arriving a minute before he would have been deemed late.

Only to find that Kakashi was already there.

When he confronted Kakashi about it later, Kakashi merely scoffed.

"I leave before seven every morning."

Obito's eyes practically bulged out of his sockets. That was an entire hour earlier than they were supposed to meet! Suffice to say, Obito never made the effort to wake up early again. Instead, he managed to coerce Kakashi into agreeing that they would at least walk back to town together after training.

Progress.

Kakashi Hatake was a genius, a prodigy, surpassing all of his peers at such incredible speed. In just under six months, he received his first promotion. While everyone knew that Kakashi, genius or not, would never make it to the top of the ranks due to his heritage, he still escaped from Sora's control. So did Obito albeit much later than Kakashi had.

They had escaped, until they were assigned to a squad, underneath Sora's command. An informant had brought back the news that a growing number of Senju shinobis were sighted in Chusei, a small village located right outside the Uchiha territory. Although the town was generally considered to be neutral territory, it was still too close for comfort.

As expected, Sora was the first to jump at the opportunity, itching for the chance to fight the Senjus again.

No one else in their age group had been chosen except for them. Kakashi suspected it was a combination of Sora's dislike towards them and a test of Kakashi's loyalty. After all, even three years later, Sora still didn't trust him.

It was Obito's first time on the battlefield. In the previous war, Obito had only been a shinobi for a little over a year before the war ended, so he had been deemed too inexperienced to be on the battlefield. For Kakashi, the anxiety and anticipation of a real first war experience wasn't what was getting to him: it was the prospect of meeting former comrades on the battlefield.

It was highly unlikely that would be the case, but Kakashi didn't know how he would react if he spotted a familiar face. Luckily, Obito's worries were there to distract him.

"Oi Bakakashi...what is war like?"

How could he even begin to explain that to him? War was something that they all learned in the Academy, but no one really understood it until they experienced it completely. All along the way, Obito pestered Kakashi with an infinite amount of questions, some related to war, others not.

Kakashi was grateful for the distraction.

One moment Kakashi had been explaining the concept of a tactical retreat to Obito and in the next, a wave of killing intent washed over them before a barrage of kunai rained down on them. Kakashi was quick to react, a kunai in hand to deflect the ones that he couldn't dodge.

The first enemy emerged, firing a giant fireball jutsu in their direction. Grabbing onto the collar of Obito's shirt, Kakashi yanked him along as the two of them ducked to the side. Landing on his side, Kakashi rolled, getting back onto his feet in less than three seconds only to find himself face to face with an enemy donning a white mask with an animal-like pattern.

Anbu?

Kakashi leaped out of the way when the Anbu swung his sword in a wide arc, saving his head from getting severed. He ducked, sliding underneath the arc to close the distance between them. His foot swung to knock the Anbu off of his feet, but the Anbu had jammed the sword into the ground and used it as a flip out of Kakashi's reach.

A barrage of shurikens and kunai were thrown in the Anbu's direction as he landed, but the Anbu easily deflected all of the projectiles with his sword. Spinning around, the Anbu sword rammed straight through Clone Kakashi's stomach, poofing out of existence.

"Tsk just a brat not worth my time," the Anbu murmured.

The Anbu rushed towards him, hands forming the familiar sequence for a fireball jutsu. Kakashi responded with a water jutsu of his own, both jutsus clashing and ramming into each other at the same time. While enshrouded in the evaporation mist, Kakashi took the opportunity to slip underground, leaving a clone above ground.

Clone Kakashi lingered in the vicinity of where he was summoned, but the Anbu moved rapidly towards the clone.

A sensor type?

Kakashi inched closer to the Anbu as he closed in on his clone. Right as he felt his clone's chakra flare in response, Kakashi bursted out of the underground, registering that the Anbu had noticed his presence underground and had begun to swing his sword towards the ground…

Only for Kakashi to catch the blade of the sword with his bare hands. A kick in the stomach forced the Anbu to let go of the sword, stumbling back a few steps before recovering his balance. Flipping the sword so that he was now gripping the handle, he channelled lightning chakra to coat the entirety of the sword.

No longer having his prized weapon, the Anbu was forced to fight with kunai.

Metal clashed against metal, as boy and man tried to one up each other. Yet Kakashi knew that the Anbu was increasingly at a disadvantage the longer the fight went on as it was clear that kenjutsu was his primary form of offense. A few more fire jutsus were shown, but easily countered by his water jutsus or mud wall, low level genjutsus that did nothing to stop his momentum, and average taijutsu.

Kakashi needed to end the fight soon; he knew that the Anbu was leading him closer to his comrades and if that happened, the fight would be in the Anbu's favor once more.

A low level jutsu was enough to distract the Anbu enough to not notice Kakashi switch places with a shadow clone, where the real body once again disappeared underground. Tunnelling to the Anbu's approximate location, Kakashi bursted out of the ground, right behind the Anbu. The Anbu spun around at an alarmingly fast rate, driving a kunai into Kakashi's shoulder and twisting his body to avoid the lightning charged sword to be driven into a vital organ.

The Anbu grunted from the pain, knees buckling from beneath him. Kakashi yanked the sword out of the Anbu and jumped back as the Anbu fell to the ground from the immense pain and damage suffered. Even if the sword missed a vital organ, the lightning chakra had fried all of his nerves and blood vessels nearby.

He would die soon.

Yanking the kunai out of his shoulder, Kakashi tossed it to the ground before heading off to engage in the next enemy.

It was his first kill as a shinobi for the Uchiha.

Kakashi didn't know how he felt. Numbness had taken over his heart as he rejoined the next fight, spilling his former comrades' blood all over the battlefield.

The skirmish had ended in their victory, but it felt so hollow and utterly pointless. Sora shouted at them to get moving.

"If they're too weak to get back on their own, then they deserve to die!"

If Obito was here, Kakashi knew that he would have expressed his rage towards abandoning a comrade, giving the same speech that Kakashi had heard a thousand times.

Those who abandon a comrade are worse than scum!

Kakashi's eyes widened as the realization hit him.

Obito was missing.

A/N: Hi again!

Fun fact: I actually went back to write this chapter and inserted it in the past plot line. I actually finished writing the past plot line before I went back to work on the present, then I realized there was never a chapter addressing how Kakashi and Obito met. So here it is! Between Itachi/Shisui's friendship and Kakashi/Obito's friendship, I'm not sure which one I like more haha.

I guess I sort of skirted around the exact details of how Kakashi joined the Uchihas, but now you have the motive and the short scene from one of the present chapters. If you piece it together, basically the Uchihas don't really trust him, but he's talented so they took him anyways. The "apartment" complex that he lives in is basically where they put all of the orphans/no clan families and it is under watch.

The beginning of this chapter was not my best work and I debated deleting it a couple of times, but I guess I left it. I thought I made him seem a bit too Sasuke like, but then I tried to backtrack it. Basically, no matter what he tells himself, Kakashi doesn't want to be found and the only place where Minato won't look for him is at the Uchihas. :)

And yes! There is a backstory to how Obito and Rin met. :) You'll see.

A revolution...possibly. :) I will refrain from saying anything more because I don't want to spoil anything, but it'll be revealed soon enough.

Also I probably say this every chapter, but I am excited to share the next chapters with you guys. For real this time, I think you'll be on as much of an adrenaline high that I was on when I was writing from all of the suspense and intensity. From here on out, it's a race to the end!

Thanks for all of the feedback and for reading! Until next time.

-MM