A/N: I won't be able to update for a while. Anyway, enjoy awkward!Sakumo :) Yoriko is his wife, btw.
"J-jounin-san?"
Startled, Sakumo's falls instinctively into a defensive crouch, his hand reaching behind his head for a tantou that isn't there. But at the sight of Rin, his expression slackens in shock.
There's no hole in her heart and she seems to be in remarkably good health for all that just happened. Even the oppressive aura of the Sanbi is gone.
A ghost.
Sakumo swallows dryly around the lump in his throat, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.
She has her hands raised in a placating gesture, her wide doe-eyes filled with confusion and wariness as she takes in his jounin uniform, Konoha hitai-ate and long, silver hair. Then her gaze slips by him and her cheeks drain of all colour at the sight of her own battered corpse.
"Oh." Disbelief written on her face, she presses the flat of her palm against her unharmed chest. She looks down and inhales sharply, fingers digging in. "I'm..."
Alive? Whole?
Seeing her like this again is like a balm to the ragged edges of Sakumo's grief, but it seems wrong to be glad. If she had passed peacefully and without regrets, she wouldn't be tethered to this world like him, caught halfway between the living and the dead.
Sakumo stands slowly and her attention snaps back to him, her dazed incredulity falling away into urgency. "Where's Kakashi? And the Kiri-nin?"
"He escaped with his ninken," Sakumo replies, his voice still rough with emotion. "They gave chase."
He has to depend on Bull, now. He has to trust that the ninken will save Kakashi's life.
Rin relaxes slightly at the news and Sakumo has to hide a sad smile. She always so adamantly puts others before herself. "Forgive me, jounin-san," she says softly, polite as always. "I don't know who you are."
"Ah." Sakumo scratches at his head. "Well. I'm a ghost, like you." It's hard to look at her without the vivid memory of her death overlaying reality. He averts his eyes but only catches another glimpse of her cooling corpse.
How can there be so much blood in a body?
He closes his eyes against the gruesome sight and focuses back on Rin, who has an awkward half-smile hanging on her lips as she stares at him. "Well... I'm, er, Rin. Nohara Rin."
"... I know." Sakumo shifts uncomfortably on his feet. How do you explain that you've been practically stalking her team? That's arrestable levels of creepy. "I'm... Hatake Sakumo. Kakashi's father. I've been, uh, following Kakashi around since I died."
Suddenly remembering how she had found him, sitting in the dirt with his head in his hands, Sakumo resists the urge to hit himself. Hard. How pathetic can he be? Granted the circumstances had been harrowing for sure but...
"Ahahah... I can see the family resemblance," Rin chuckles nervously.
"Yes..." Sakumo struggles to come up with some appropriate small talk. What do you even say?
How's death? No no no.
Can I adopt you? No no creepy. They just met.
Kiri-nin are bastards, aren't they? Hmm... But didn't Yoriko once say that shared animosity isn't a healthy foundation for relationships?
He must have hesitated for too long because Rin drops into a deep bow. "I'm so sorry," she whimpers. "I-I've hurt Kakashi so much—"
"What? No," Sakumo exclaims, forgetting his conundrum. Crossing the few steps between them, he takes her by the shoulder and eases her upright. At the sight of her tear-filled eyes, his apprehension melts into sympathy. "You have nothing to apologise for."
Rin presses her hand to her mouth, gulping back a thick sob.
Sakumo squeezes her shoulder gently, his tone softening further. "Kakashi won't be angry. I'm not angry either. We both know you didn't have a choice."
Nodding jerkily, she composes herself once more with remarkable effort and scrubs away the tear tracks on her face. "Thank you," she says with a quavering voice, bowing again. Rin doesn't apologise again, but Sakumo can read it in her dull eyes and her contrite posture. Like this, she doesn't look like the vivacious girl he knows.
A heaviness settles in his chest and he sighs. She is his responsibility now — he can't leave her alone like this. "Come on," he murmurs. "Let's go find Kakashi."