Kakashi walks up the hill to the Konoha graveyard, wearing dark blue, blue, blue, the half-light of dusk caught in his silver hair. He might as well be a monochromatic pencil sketch if not for the burst of sunny yellow in his hand. As he draws near Rin's gravestone, his footsteps falter and slow to a stop, leaving him looking lost and out of place.
It's almost laughable, had Sakumo been in any mood to laugh. He's Sharingan no Kakashi, Copy-nin, Friend Killer. Elsewhere, Konoha genins - perhaps chuunins as well - are trying to frighten each other with tales of this Bingo book ranking prodigy and yet... Here he is, hesitating at the edge of the graveyard with drooping narcissuses in his hand.
Kakashi's grip almost crushes the stems in his fist before he catches himself and relaxes with a uneven exhale.
Holding up the sunny flowers, his visible eye curves in a deceptively cheerful smile. "I brought you flowers, Rin." He steps forward solemnly and bends down on a knee to carefully arrange half of them in the vases before her gravestone.
Rin crouches down as well, caressing the colourful petals with a finger and making the delicate flowers shift slightly to her touch. "They're beautiful, Kakashi." She looks up and smiles just as brightly as the flowers. "And the colour of sensei's hair."
"The others are for Obito," Kakashi continues in the same light tone, gesturing at the remaining blooms as he traces her etched name. "Can you imagine that? Flowers for Obito. Help me scold him if he complains about it being girly, okay?"
An unbidden huff of laughter escapes Rin and it drags a pained smile out of Sakumo too.
Kakashi seems to lose his words then, leaving the silence stretching on until his increasingly strained smile falters and fades. "I miss you, Rin." His eyes are glassy with unshed tears as he hangs his head. "I'm so sorry."
"Oh Kakashi," Rin murmurs, reaching out to touch his face, her hand hand hovering near the line of his jaw. "I'm right here."
He turns away, fumbling with a match to light the incense.
Sakumo isn't sure what triggered Rin's sudden breakdown – was it Kakashi's lack of response? Or the way he had stood up after a while with a shuttered expression and moved on to visit Obito's grave? Or perhaps because Obito isn't here, not like Rin, but Kakashi hadn't known enough to treat them differently?
But Rin is crying now, doubled over on the grass with big, heaving sobs, bawling her eyes out.
"Rin..." Sakumo sighs, going over to sit beside her. He hesitates for a mere second before pulling her into a hug. Practically collapsing onto him, she buries her face in the shoulder of his flak jacket, muffling the sounds of pain that seem to be ripped right out of her.
"I d-don't want to be d-d-dead," she stutters, hiding her face further. She's shaking like a leaf. It sends a sharp ache lancing through his heart to see her this way and Kakashi too, how he's pressing his forehead against the cenotaph in the distance, looking as though the weight of the world is crushing him.
Sakumo pats her on the back in a steady, comforting rhythm, the way Yoriko taught him to when Kakashi was an inconsolable, whimpering infant. "There, there..."
Slowly, slowly, Rin calms down until there are only hiccups and sniffles. "S-sorry," she mumbles, still clinging to him. Sakumo looks down at her chestnut-brown head of hair, unable to see her expression but recognising the shame saturating her voice. She had been taught, like all the others, that a Shinobi must never show their tears but–
"It's alright, Rin. We can't be strong all the time." He tightens his hold briefly and she relaxes against him again in boneless exhaustion. "It's alright."
A/N: I had to get into the mood to write this and I might have teared up a little :( Rin hadn't actually had a good cry yet, so she needed one pronto.