Author's Note: Finally, after much anticipation on my behalf, I have managed to get the first of my four (approx.) sort of climatic chapters out! Whoot! (is filled with pride) Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Light up, Light up

As if you have a choice

Even if you cannot hear my voice,

I'll be right beside you dear.

- Run by Snow Patrol

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The next morning, Kakashi woke up to find Rin still asleep on the table. He glanced over at her, deciding whether to wake her or let her sleep. He sighed and opted for the latter, leaving a note telling her of his one-day mission. He hoped that she'd sleep as much as possible; she needed to live as little of this particular day as she could.

-

When Kakashi had come back home in the later hours of the afternoon, he'd cursed, realizing that in his haste to leave in the morning, he had forgotten to take his keys. He grimaced, remembering what had happened the last time he'd entered through the windows. Maybe today he could get away with it though. Maybe today Rin wouldn't notice. Maybe she's still asleep, he thought hopefully.

As he slid open the window carefully, perched himself precariously on the sill, and jumped down, he found that this was not the case. The moment he had set his feet on the hardwood flooring, Rin all but flew in his direction. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, staring up at him with hard eyes.

"I forgot my keys," he told her, smiling apologetically.

"Does that mean you can't use a door like normal people? Does that mean you can't knock? Are you trying to give me a heart attack? "

"I thought you were sleeping. I didn't want to wake you," he defended.

"Sleeping at six?" Rin scoffed. "Yeah, right." Rolling her eyes at him, she turned away and stalked off to the corner she'd previously been in.

"What bit you?" Kakashi asked, not in the greatest of moods either. He didn't wait for the response that he knew wouldn't come; he simply walked into the washroom and shut the door behind him. When he emerged minutes later, clean as a whistle, he found Rin still huddled in the northeast corner of the room. She sat with her knees drawn up to her chest, arms folded around her knees, staring blankly at the floor in front of her. She didn't even look up to acknowledge his presence; in fact, the only way he knew that she was still conscious of it was that she spoke to him.

"You know what day it is today," she said tonelessly. It was a statement, not a question.

He nodded and moved to sit beside her. "Yes."

The room was silent for a while, neither really wanting to relive the painful day their lives had been changed forever, the day they'd lost their best friend. "What did you do today?" Kakashi inquired out of mild curiosity and a desire to suppress the overwhelming memories that were flowing into the forefront of his thoughts.

"Worked, bought some groceries; nothing too special," she replied in that same toneless voice lightly coated in agony, the same toneless voice that scared him. "You?"

"I was on a mission," he matched the tone of her voice, concealing any worry.

"Did you go visit him yet?" When she spoke this time, her voice shook and her eyes were shut tightly.

"No, not yet. Did you?"

"No…I have a cake in the fridge…we should go together…I think he'd like that…"

Kakashi nodded absent-mindedly. "Ok."

"We're horrible people!" Rin suddenly cried out, startling Kakashi.

"No…no, we're not. You're not," Kakashi tried to assure her as soon as he'd recovered from the shock at her outburst, finding himself suddenly absorbed with hopelessness as he watched her put her face in her hands.

"We are! We are! He was our friend and we – we…how could we? It doesn't make sense! Friends don't do this to each other! We left him there, all by himself! He was dying, dying Kakashi, and we just left him!"

"We didn't have a choice…we would have been killed…" He tried to hide the shakiness of his own voice. The words he spoke came out sounding as more of an assurance to himself than to her. Selfish as it was, he didn't really want to relive the pain he'd felt when Obito gave his life in order to save them.

All the remaining members of the now broken Team Seven had just barely managed to heal, and now their wounds were callously torn open again, bleeding and raw for the world to see. Kakashi knew that it was right for him to feel pain; after all, he had caused the death of his comrade, his best friend. If he had only listened to Obito, maybe the entire team would still be alive, still going out on missions. Kakashi knew it was right for him to feel pain, but he didn't think it was right for her. She had done nothing, she'd been innocent throughout this entire process; it didn't seem fair that she too had to suffer. Chalk up the reason behind another one of her sufferings to his idiocy.

"Can you imagine how scared he must have been?" Rin's horrified voice snapped Kakashi out of his thoughts. "Oh god…he must have been so terrified…he had to die all alone; he had to die without any comfort!" She reached towards Kakashi's face, in the direction of the Sharingan. She lay her fingers on top of the hitai-ate that now covered it, and stroked it preciously, as if she believed that that one eye was the only mark left of his existence, the only thing that still kept the connection between this world and the heavens her teammate was in. "I'm sorry Obito!" Rin called out in Kakashi's direction, her fingers still on the part of his hitai-ate that covered the Sharingan, her eyes glistening with unspoken sorrow.

Kakashi's right eye looked towards the ground, uncomfortable. He didn't want to move – he could feel that she needed to do this – but at the same time, her sorrow and blatant display of emotion brought him discomfort and a little bit of awkwardness because he wasn't sure what he could do to stop it.

He closed his eyes and let her do what she needed to while he thought of what he could do. To comfort someone had never really been a keen instinct of his and thus, whenever he needed to comfort or console, the words 'What Would Obito Do?' emblazoned themselves in his mind, resting in their place until he figured out an answer. Those were the words he now saw as his right eye closed. Obito had always been the one with more talent when it came to dealing with an apathetic or emotional Rin.

Doing the only thing he could think of, Kakashi lifted up his hitai-ate and revealed his Sharingan eye.

"Obito…" Rin's fingers recoiled for a moment, and Kakashi sighed in relief, but the relief was short lived as she moved her fingers down to the space under his eye.

He shivered at the coolness of her touch before realizing that she had called him by the wrong name. Kakashi sighed as he discovered that she'd most likely given in to a temporary moment of delusion and thought that he was now Obito. Again he let her do as she pleased, twitching only slightly when she shuffled closer and wrapped her arms around his neck. Kakashi stared to the side, trying to block out the background noise of her sobs of "Obito!…" and the feeling of her cold skin as her face nuzzled the space in between his shoulder and neck.

She must have realized that it was actually him she was hugging and not Obito for she gasped and pulled away rather quickly, her eyes wide with shock. Embarrassment and guilt catching up with the erratic beating of her heart, Rin looked down and muttered, "Sorry," before turning away and reassuming her position against the wall.

Kakashi, not having any words of comfort or assurance, or just words that would not make the situation more awkward for him than necessary, remained silent. The silence allowed their thoughts to consume them, and soon enough, both were near tears.

For Kakashi, the Sharingan was the only eye that ever cried. No matter how he tried, no matter what happened, he just could not bring his original eye to shed even one tear. Despite the guilt and sorrow he was feeling push down on his chest, the pressure collapsing his lungs and taking all air from him, his face remained impassive, as though it had just been some stranger he'd never really known that they were mourning. In truth, he hadn't really known Obito. He'd written the boy off, thinking him to be useless and incompetent. How wrong Kakashi had been; if only he'd realized that Obito was right all along, maybe then…There was no use thinking about it now, the past could not be changed.

Beside him, Rin sat, her eyes focused on the ground that was the furthest away from him. Small waves of guilt and self-hatred bubbled within her insides, making her feel sick to her stomach. There were only two days that did this to her: the day of Obito's actual death and the day of Obito's birthday. Both days brought an onslaught of terrifying memories to her and no matter how she would try, there was nothing that could quell the pain that seemed to bubble forth in her stomach and swell to fill her entire chest and abdomen area. Days like today made her feel guilty; guilty that she was living and Obito was not, guilty that she had a future, guilty that she still didn't love him, no matter how much she wanted to. "He loved me," she whispered to no one, her eyes widening as though she'd just comprehended this information for the first time.

"He loved me," Rin said it louder and with more urgency. "I can't believe it. He loved me and all I did was let him down. He loved me, and I couldn't even save him, I couldn't even give that much back in return."

She turned her head back towards Kakashi's face, her eyes lit up with wonder as though she'd just had the greatest epiphany. "He loved me," she whispered incredulously, "Did you know that Kakashi?" Mild confusion registered itself on her face, as though she couldn't even understand what she was saying, as though the words she spoke were foreign to her and had no coherent meaning.

"Yeah."

"He loved me, and I couldn't save him…I couldn't save him…Forgive me Obito…"

Kakashi snapped his head up to get a better look at her. Dishevelled was the word that would probably sum up her appearance. Dishevelled and distraught. To say that it didn't upset him to see her like that would be a lie, but he felt that Obito – who was most likely seeing what was going on through the Sharingan – was much more upset than he was, judging by the way his Sharingan eye stung with tears.

In an attempt to bring comfort to both Rin and Obito at the same time, Kakashi took his left hand and gently placed it over hers. Feeling the light pressure on her hand, Rin looked up and smiled uneasily at him, and slid her hand out from under his. "I know you're trying to make me feel better, but not today, ok Kakashi? I can't be close to you today," she shifted more to the left, away from him.

Kakashi nodded and moved his hand back to his side.

"I'm sorry, but it feels like I'm betraying him…"

"Betraying him? How?"

"It feels like I'm hurting Obito…because…"

"Because?" Kakashi prodded. He hadn't been all that interested until she mentioned that it had to do with Obito.

"Because," Rin's voice started out as a whisper and crescendoed to nearly a shout, "Because it makes me think I still li – " Her voice came back down. "Forget it. It doesn't matter."

Kakashi didn't want to just "forget it". He wanted to know, but curious as he was, even he knew when it was better to just let something go. He could always prod her about it later, but now – now she deserved a break. Her mind was probably working itself into overtime, consuming her with thoughts of Obito and his death.

"Sorry, I'll let it drop. You don't have to tell me," Kakashi said.

"That's nice of you, thank you."

A few moments of quiet passed until Kakashi got an idea. "Hey, you know something?"

"I know many things, but that's besides the point," she stared blankly up at him. "What is it?"

"We shouldn't spend so much of our time thinking about the bad memories with him. Maybe on the day he died…but Obito would have wanted us to think of him fondly, especially on his birthday."

"How would you know what he wanted?! You knew nothing about him!" Rin's sudden outburst surprised both him and herself. She watched as Kakashi's eyes hardened and his jaw clenched. Her face donned a look of shock and mild horrification, her hands placing themselves over her now open mouth. "I – I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Please, continue."

He paused, reluctant to voice his idea after hearing her outburst. "…Well, don't you have any good memories with Obito?" he questioned.

"Of course I do."

"Then maybe you should think of those – it won't make you feel any better that he's gone, but you shouldn't have to think only of bad things when you remember him."

"Well, there are a few," Rin's face held a ghost of a smile as she began to recall positive memories about her deceased best friend.

"Mhm," Kakashi murmured, and she took this as a sign to continue speaking out loud.

"Ever since we were little, I would always spend Valentine's with Obito. No matter what year, it always seemed that his birthday coincided with a mission or training, so Valentine's was sort of the make-up birthday for him. Of course, I never really figured out why he was so happy to keep this tradition…Either way, it was a day that we just spent together – as friends – and it was also a day to exchange gifts."

"Exchange? But I thought it was a make-up day for his birthday…?"

"It was, but he insisted that since it was Valentine's Day, that he give me something in return. When we were younger, and he was still chronically late, he'd usually just give me some flower he picked up on the way. Then, as he got older the gifts got a little more thoughtful and a little more extravagant. My favourite was last years' though…oh it was so sweet!" Rin told Kakashi, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks.

"How extravagant was it?" He raised an eyebrow sceptically.

"That's the beauty of it; it wasn't extravagant at all! It was so thoughtful and wonderful," she gushed, a wide smile making its way onto her face, "He started the process about two weeks before he actually gave me the gift. He'd randomly ask what songs I liked – really specific songs too. Then, after about a week of that, he kind of broke off all communication with me – the only time we really got a chance to talk was during training or missions and even then he'd make it a goal to minimize the conversation. Of course I noticed this change, and it bothered me a little, but I figured it would pass. It didn't. Needless to say, I was pretty upset and I was seriously considering not spending Valentine's with Obito, even though it was technically tradition. You can imagine my surprise when, come Valentine's, Obito showed up at my house with a gift. I just sort of stood there in the front door waiting for some sort of apology from him for his behaviour, and being Obito, he gave it to me, then handed me the gift and told me not to open it until the evening."

"So, what was it?"

"Hang on," she chided, "I'm getting there. As I was saying, he told me not to open it until the evening time and I complied. We spent the day together as per usual, doing various things from eating lunch at Ichiraku's to just walking around talking. When I finally got home that night, I opened my gift eagerly and found that it was a CD player. It was sort of weird, because I already had one, but it didn't really matter to me."

"How is that thoughtful?"

"I'm getting to it! It would not kill you to have a little patience, Kakashi!" Rin sighed and then continued on. "I pulled out one of my favourite CDs and was about to put it in my new CD player, when I noticed that there was a CD in there already. Obviously curious, I put my new headphones on and pressed play. What came out next was just…" She sighed again, but this time happily. "It still tugs at my heartstrings. It was Obito's voice singing ALL my favourite songs. There were about 24 tracks or something like that, and even though Obito wasn't a great singer – he wasn't bad, he was just ok – I stayed up listening to all of them. It was so sweet…I may not have been in love with Obito - " She paused as her breath hitched when she confessed that out loud, "- but that night, I was pretty close to it. Oh god…I don't think I'll ever forget that gift; I still have it somewhere." Finishing her story, Rin stood up and rummaged through her rucksack, heading back over as she found the object she was looking for.

Cradling it to her chest, she looked back between the player and Kakashi. Rin had always considered the gift a bit more of a personal one, and so she wasn't entirely sure if Kakashi should be privy to its contents, yet a part of her was keen on showing it to him. She had just spent the last five minutes gushing over the thoughtfulness of the gift and how she adored it; it would be very difficult for him to get over his curiosity and she was almost sure that if she wouldn't show it to him, then Kakashi would take matters into his own hands and hold her CD player hostage one afternoon while she worked at the hospital. Not wanting that to happen, Rin set the player on the floor, and handed Kakashi an ear bud. "Here, listen."

She stuck the right ear bud in her ear while Kakashi put the left in his. Rin hit play, and then a very Karaoke voice came through. Kakashi listened as Obito sang a few songs – ranging from love songs to happy songs to meaningful ones. Even though the voice was not great sounding, Kakashi had to admit – Obito could probably have made a living as a singer.

After the first five songs, Rin hit pause and looked up at Kakashi, her eyes shining happily. "Wasn't that great? Come on Kakashi, even you have to admit; that was pretty darn cute."

"I wouldn't choose cute as my first word, but it was thoughtful, yes."

"Ooh," Rin teased, "someone sounds jealous! Don't worry Kakashi; I'll make you a mix tape of me singing cheesy karaoke versions of your favourite songs," she grinned up at him, and for a moment he wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

He felt his body temperature slightly increase and he rubbed his hands down the sides of his pant legs, attempting to rid them of the sweat they'd acquired in the last few seconds. He pushed all thoughts about the strangeness of this occurrence to the back of his mind, and concentrated on keeping Rin with the same level of complacency she seemed to now have.

"Feel better?" he asked, smiling a little.

"Yeah, a lot better, thanks Kakashi," Rin smiled appreciatively up at him and caught him in a light yet firm hug.

Completely caught off guard at her new demeanour, Kakashi could do nothing but offer an awkward hug back – he wasn't used to giving them and therefore had no idea of how a proper hug should be. "Uh, no problem," he answered back.

Pulling away, Rin smiled briefly at him once more, and then began wiping at her eyes. Kakashi noticed this and unconsciously shifted back a little. "Are you crying?" he asked.

"Yes, it's quite pathetic isn't it?" She laughed lightly. "I cry when I'm sad, I cry when I'm happy. I think I'll have spent a quarter of my life crying."

"So which one is it this time?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are you happy or sad?"

"A bit of both actually. I'm happy that I was able to remember these good times, but sad because I still miss Obito."

"Don't cry because it's over…" Kakashi began telling her.

"…Smile because it happened." Rin finished the old saying, wiping the last of her tears away.

"I don't think it's really over though."

"What do you mean?" She asked, puzzled.

"I think he's still with us," Kakashi told her, "Right beside us every step of the way. Even though we can't hear him – well, I can sometimes – he's still there for us, both of us. I think he wants us to know that."

"Yeah, that'd be nice. I think I feel him too sometimes – makes me wonder what I ever did to deserve such a good friend." Rin paused, furrowed her brows and realized what was wrong with what she had just said. "Correction: It makes me wonder what I ever did to deserve such good friends." She placed her hand on his arm as an appreciative gesture.

He looked down at it, then back up at her and snorted in disbelief. "Wonder what you did to deserve such good friends? If anyone should be wondering that, it's me!"

Rin was about to retort to his comment, when a loud pop! was heard and an ANBU operative materialized in the room.

"Hatake-san," the ANBU's eyes scanned the small bedroom, looking for Kakashi.

"Yes?" Kakashi responded, and the ANBU's eyes fell on him.

The operative was surprised, to say the least, when he discovered Kakashi beside a young female who apparently had been crying prior to his arrival. "Hope I am not interrupting anything," the operative said, his eyes calculating the close distance between the female and Kakashi. "I can come back in a few minutes, if you'd like." Boy, was it ever awkward to be the junior messenger.

"It's fine," Kakashi told the young man, straightening up and taking on a new formal tone of voice. "What do you need?"

"Your presence is requested for a mission."

"Very well. When and where?"

"I really should not tell you until she leaves," the operative tilted his head towards Rin.

"It's perfectly alright if she hears. Now tell me."

"You are to meet at the gates in two hours."

"Very well," Kakashi nodded, and glanced at Rin as he felt her apply more pressure to his forearm.

She glanced up at him briefly as well, before releasing his arm and turning to speak to the operative. "Next time, please have the courtesy to materialize yourself outside the door and knock before you enter. Thank you," she smiled lightly up at him.

The ANBU, not used to being addressed by those outside of the organization and definitely not this politely, nodded stiffly at Rin before disappearing.

Once the operative was gone, Rin turned back to Kakashi. "Are you really going?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"You just came back from a mission today though and you haven't even slept."

"It is my duty."

"The only duty you have is to keep yourself healthy and alive," Rin retorted.

"You know I have to go. There is no point in arguing, it is futile."

Rin sighed heavily. How much worse could this day get? It had been going fairly well for about half an hour before the declaration of a new mission was given. It seemed wrong and dangerous for him to not only leave without having slept, but also on this particular day. She tried to hide the dread as she helped him gather his stuff and stick it into his rucksack, but the feeling did not leave even after Kakashi did.

After he walked out the door, she lingered in the doorway for a few moments, recalling the chat they'd had tonight. He had surprised her quite a bit by being so profound and calm about the whole thing, and she knew that he was quite possibly right about Obito watching over them. "If you are there with him Obito," she called to the heavens pleadingly, "please keep him safe. Sensei and Kushina too, keep all of them safe. I can't stand to lose another one."

Still, the dread did not pass; she was almost certain that something bad was going to happen, and there was nothing she could really do but hope that she was wrong and trust that Obito would protect them.

Author's Note: So there it was, a little angst, a little happiness, a little bit of everything! Hope that satisfied everyone, because I was most definitely pleased with this chapter! Parts of it may be arguable to some, but then again, everything is. I guess it was a little easier to write about death and whatnot because there's been a recent death in my family. Thank you to chapter 13's reviewers: chibirain94, Sakra-chan, Fiat Justitia, rileyonline, ninbunny alchemist, Piccylo, Girl Wonder 2005, Frog Lady, JoiZ. D, and catgirl9696!

Chapterly Challenge: Alright, not many of you got the last chapterly challenge, but the answer was 'I will either find a road or make one.'

Standings:

Chibirain94 – 10

Catgirl9696 – 10

Sakra-chan – 11

Snappa – 19

Hikari Minamoto – 15

EndDragon – 5

Piccylo – 10

JoiZ. D – 10

Sachie-chan11 – 2

Fiat Justitia- 5

Rileyonline – 10

As for this week's challenge, we're going back to English! The temperature of the aqueous content of an unremittingly ogled saucepan does not reach 212 degrees Fahrenheit. It's a well-known saying; so let me know which saying it is! Remember; use any resource except the Internet!