Chapter Fourteen:
The heavy clouds that had weighed over Konoha all morning were slowly beginning to disperse and Minato watched pale patches of blue breaking through the dark sky from the Hokage's office. He was still wearing his black mourning attire from the mass funeral that had taken place at noon. Across the room from him, the Hokage sat at his desk and watched Minato from behind steepled fingers.
"Konoha needs a strong leader, now more than ever, to lead the Village to peace," Hiruzen said quietly. "It's time for your generation to take over."
Minato drew his gaze back from the windows and briefly met the Sandaime's eyes. "I feel honored to be given the offer," he said slowly, unable to push back the hesitation in his mind.
When he fell silent, the Hokage sighed softly. "But…?"
Minato dropped his eyes. "I feel I should be with my students. The circumstances surrounding Midori's death are…" He searched for the right words, not quite understanding the ominous feeling himself, but recognizing the hunch for what it was. He thought back to that morning when he had visited Kakashi and Obito at the hospital.
(Flashback)
Minato saw a medic walk out of his students' room and recognized her as the one he had asked to drug them into dreamless sleep the night before. She looked up from her clipboard as he approached.
"Are they awake?" Minato asked.
"Yes. Their wounds have also been stabilized. It's just…" She hesitated. "Did they lose someone yesterday?"
Minato nodded heavily. "Their teammate."
"I see," she murmured quietly. "That explains it. They didn't speak a word. I'm so sorry for your loss."
Minato thanked her and then rolled open the door to the room. Kakashi's left arm was held in a sling and a pair of crutches leaned against Obito's bed. When they saw him, they immediately sat up but Minato raised a hand.
"At ease. Stay where you are." He pulled up a chair between their beds and sat down before meeting each of their eyes. Despite the night's rest, their faces were drawn and pale. For a second, he considered putting it off, but saw no point in dragging out their misery. "What happened?"
Slowly, in voices barren of emotion, they began to report their mission. Minato listened without saying a word, only noting the places where their eyes hardened and their jaws tensed.
Iku, a rogue ninja with a split personality disorder from Kumogakure. The boys had no idea how he had been found and brought to the battle – only that he had killed Midori and they had killed him.
"I was the one who told Kakashi to let him go," Obito said, the first signs of emotion showing on his face as he cast down his eyes and dug his fingers into the linen. "It's my fault –"
"Obito," Minato cut in. "Let's not get hung up on whose fault it was. Everything that happens is the result of a complex web of causes and effects. No one can say for sure what actions caused which effects."
Obito shook his head. "Even so, if I had only –"
"You told me not to kill him," Kakashi said, looking sidelong at Obito. "But I was team leader, if only in name. I was under no obligation to follow your words. I chose not to kill him. When I went to hide him, I made the decision myself." He turned to face Minato and the emotionless eyes made something in his gut churn in foreboding. "I'll never make the same mistake again."
Minato hardened his expression and leaned forward. "Listen to me, both of you. Suspecting people and killing them is easy. Trusting others is the hardest challenge, but nothing can be achieved without it. No matter what happens, you must never lose the heart to trust people. Promise me that. It's what makes us human."
Kakashi and Obito fell silent and eventually nodded, but Minato knew it hadn't been enough. Obito's expression was still conflicted with guilt and pain. Kakashi had put up a blank mask, much like the five year old he had first met at Sakumo's memorial.
He couldn't blame them. It was still too early, their wounds still too fresh. He drew a silent breath and stood, then helped them prepare for the funeral.
(End Flashback)
Minato looked at the Hokage now and lowered his head in entreaty. "Please, give me some more time with them, Sandaime." He knew that if he accepted the title as Konoha's leader, he would no longer be able to prioritize his students above his other duties. Even if it was just for another few months, he wanted to stay by their sides and provide them with what little support he could.
The Hokage sighed deeply again, but eventually nodded. "I understand. It must be hard on you too. Forgive me."
Minato shook his head. "Nothing compares to your pain, Hokage-sama." He knew that every life lost was weighing heavily on Hiruzen's shoulders. The deep lines etched on his face spoke volumes. He respected the older man all the more for having the strength to still stand tall and face the many portraits of the dead, thanking them for their lifetime of courage and duty.
A knock disturbed the quiet office. Before the Hokage could respond, the door swung open and Orochimaru swept into the room.
"Sarutobi-sensei." He breezed past Minato and then paused, as if noticing him for the first time. "Oh I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" he asked.
Minato bowed respectfully. "We were just finished Orochimaru-sama."
He hadn't missed the part in Kakashi and Obito's report about their encounter with this Sannin, but let none of it show in his face as he took his leave. As he closed the door behind him, he heard Orochimaru's irritated voice fill the room.
"I find it hard to believe you have the leisure to be calling us back just to go on a wild goose chase for Tsunade who –"
The door clicked shut and Minato made his way down the hall. He was surprised to hear the search for Tsunade had resumed and even more so that the Hokage was sending his former students. Then again, he could understand the risk. Even from an objective viewpoint, the war was taking too much of a toll on the Village.
He stepped out onto the roof of the adjacent building and found Jiraiya leaning his back against the rails and gazing at the clouds. As Minato approached, his former teacher looked down and grinned.
"I hope Orochimaru didn't disturb you," he said.
Minato shook his head. "Are you being sent on the mission as well?"
Jiraiya heaved a sigh and shrugged. "I suppose. The geezer thinks that as Tsunade's former teammates we'll be able to somehow track her down. Wishful thinking if you ask me." He looked at Minato for a moment and then asked, "Are you accepting the title of Hokage?"
Minato rested his arms on the cold railing and narrowed his eyes against the biting wind. "No," he replied. "At least not now. I love the Village and all of its people. I want to do whatever I can to protect them. But right now, my students need me. I don't even know what to say to them but I know I need to be with them."
"I saw the reports," Jiraiya said quietly. "Sorry to hear about the girl."
Despite spending most of the night mourning and being comforted by Kushina, a dull pain flared in his chest at the thought that he would never see Midori again. He thought again to his remaining two students and sighed heavily. "There's so much darkness in the children of this war. It's unlike anything I've seen in my generation. It terrifies me."
Jiraiya scoffed. "There's darkness in any generation. You just happened to repel it like the world's most obnoxious floodlight." He made a sour face. "Total inconvenience to us bathhouse peepers."
Minato looked up in surprise and then laughed softly. "Serves you right sensei."
Jiraiya huffed. "As annoying as your light can be, it's also been a guiding beacon for many others in the Village. Believe me. Keep it up and your brats will eventually find the way out of the dark."
"Somehow I don't feel like I'm being praised, but I hope you're right."
"Brat, I'm always right."
Minato laughed again.
Jiraiya sucked in a deep breath and tipped his head back up to the skies. "Temperatures are dropping. It's going to be a long, cold winter."
.-.-.-.
Obito sneezed.
"Why is it so damn cold," he complained. A violent shiver shook his hunched shoulders and he rubbed his arms vigorously.
"Because it's winter and it's going to snow," drawled the kunoichi walking beside him. She raised a brow as she looked down on him. "Did I need to teach you the four seasons at the Academy Obi-chan?"
Obito growled at Mitsuki, the Special Jounin who had been their Academy teacher. "It's only November," he grumbled. "It never snows in November."
"You haven't caught a cold have you?" Kurenai asked from Mitsuki's other side.
"If I did, I'd never hear the end of it from Kakashi," he replied, tugging the collars of his shirt closer around his neck.
The three were walking down the streets of a large port town in Fire Country on a routine patrol mission. The other half of their team included Kakashi and Kurenai's teammates, Asuma and Raidou.
Since the battle two months ago, the large-scale casualties on all sides had resulted in each of the Hidden Villages withdrawing to lick their wounds and recuperate. Minato had predicted the repose would continue throughout winter and Konoha was wasting no time planning strategies and training shinobi.
As such, Genin teams were being incorporated into border duties and patrols to the many towns and villages in the country. Despite their routine natures, they still involved significant levels of danger from infiltrating enemies, which had prompted mission planners to expand the size of the teams to include Chuunin and Jounin level shinobi as a safety measure. Obito and Kakashi were kept busy between such missions and training sessions with Minato.
Having finished their rounds, Obito and the two kunoichi made their way back to the rendezvous point on the outskirts of town. In Obito's opinion, they couldn't get there fast enough. He had put up with Mitsuki's ceaseless bullying all day and couldn't take much more.
"Do you pick on all your former students or is it just me?" he asked as he eyed the smirk that emerged every time she looked at him.
"Only the ones who spent every day at the Academy pranking and then insolently graduated like it was nothing."
"The second part isn't my fault."
"The insolence part."
"Oh." A pause. "Hey wait!"
Mitsuki and Kurenai fell into a giggling fit, but their amusement lasted only until they neared the road leading out of town. A voice rang out in anger, accompanied by a dull thud.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
The three exchanged looks and broke out into a run. Rounding the last corner, they saw Kakashi pinned to a tree by Asuma who had his fist tangled in Kakashi's shirt.
"What's going on?" Mitsuki barked.
Raidou turned to them with a sigh. "We found a Mist spy and took him captive. Then Hatake killed him."
He nodded to the shadows of a tree where a body lay face down, eyes open in eternal disbelief, fresh blood still pooling around his neck. Kurenai blanched and looked away.
"He made a run and floored you both," Kakashi said, his eyes staring straight into Asuma's enraged face. "You're in no position to be complaining."
"You could have subdued him. You didn't have to kill him."
"You saw the sensitive information he had on Konoha. Risking him getting away wasn't an option."
Asuma glared and added pressure to his fist. Kakashi narrowed his eyes in warning.
"Stop it, both of you," Kurenai shouted as she came between them and pulled Asuma's arm.
Asuma let go with a look of disgust and turned to Obito. "Is this what you deal with every day? Why don't you talk some sense into him?"
Obito began to speak, then closed his mouth, his face darkening into a helpless expression as he looked away. "I can't," he said, his voice barely audible. "I'm sorry, I can't."
A strained silence fell over the group, which was broken by Mitsuki who clapped her hands like she was directing a group of Academy younglings. "What's done is done. There's no point arguing over a dead body. Did you confiscate his documents?"
Raidou nodded.
"Good. Obito, Kakashi, help me dispose of the Mist. The rest of you stay here."
When they returned, the team headed out. Kakashi travelled ahead of the group and Obito stared at his back with an uneasy frown for a while before he wordlessly leapt forward to be abreast with his teammate.
"Are you still mad?" Kurenai asked Asuma quietly.
"Of course I am. There was no reason to kill him. With Kakashi's strength he could have subdued him."
"He chose not to on purpose," Mitsuki said. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors. An enemy they let go killed Midori."
"Is it true?" Raidou asked.
"Unfortunately."
"I miss Midori," Kurenai murmured, her eyes drooping in sadness. She looked ahead to the two boys. "I can't imagine what it's like for them. Obito acts cheerful but it's like he sinks into darkness when he's alone with Kakashi."
"So it's Kakashi's fault," Asuma said.
Kurenai scowled at her childhood friend. "You're just sore that he saved your skin."
Asuma flushed. "As if."
"Nevertheless," Raidou said, "it's a problem."
Mitsuki sighed and put an end to the conversation. "There's nothing we can do. It's not something we can meddle in after all. I'll talk to Minato when we get back."
.-.-.-.
Someone was screaming.
Obito wanted to cover his ears to block out the horrible sound that seemed to echo from right within him. Stop, stop, stop, stop, he begged, clenching his eyes shut and curling in on himself. His throat hurt. He was out of breath. Someone was twisting something horribly painful in his chest and the screaming just wouldn't stop.
His hands were warm and slick with blood. He snapped his eyes open and found himself nose to nose with a skinless face, the muscles stretching and contracting with every move of his lips and naked eyeballs. Obito reared back with a cry and plunged his kunai into the face.
He was screaming.
Give her back! You ungrateful son of a bitch! Give her back to us!
Obito…
He froze, his kunai buried deep in a slender neck slashed wide. His hands shook. Midori stared up at him, the life fading from her eyes. Blood gurgled from her mouth and stained everything red. Everything.
Why, Obito…?
Obito bolted awake, gasping for breath and fighting to untangle himself from the blankets and the nauseous images of the dream. Throwing the futon covers aside, he doubled over and buried his face in his trembling hands, forcibly swallowing the bitter bile that rose in the back of his throat. Cold sweat soaked his shirt and plastered his hair to his forehead.
"Obito?"
He flinched and spun to the door of his room. He hadn't noticed someone opening it. The dim lights from the hallway silhouetted a slim figure and a taller, broader shadow behind her.
"Nayu-nee," he whispered hoarsely, his eyes finally adjusting to recognize his older sister dressed in her ANBU uniform.
"Are you okay? You were having a nightmare."
"I'm fine," he said, swallowing hard and straightening. A glance at the clock revealed it was well past midnight. He squinted against the light. "What's your captain doing here?"
"Nothing a pipsqueak like you needs to know," the man replied, his low voice revealing the grin he wore as he wrapped an arm around Nayu's waist.
Obito bristled, but before he could say anything, Nayu, in one lithe movement, gripped his hand, shifted her body and twisted the offending arm into an unnatural angle that had him yelping in surprise and pain.
"I'm sorry Captain, I refrain from sleeping with my superiors, much less a relative. I'd appreciate you not make silly jokes in front of my baby brother."
Obito and the captain retorted as one.
"Just who are you calling a baby?!"
"Just so you know… violence toward your superior is grounds for disciplinary action!"
Nayu looked down her nose at both of them and raised a brow. "Try me."
They both fell silent.
Obito sighed, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes but knowing sleep was far out of reach by now. "So what are you really doing here?" he asked his cousin.
"ANBU business. You know better than to ask."
"Fine, I'm going back to sleep." He flopped back onto his futon and pulled the covers over his head.
"Are you really okay?" Nayu asked hesitantly.
"I'm fine Nayu-nee. Thanks."
He eventually heard the door click shut and their footsteps fade down the hall. Then he got back up and changed, throwing a dark winter cloak over his shoulders. Soundlessly, he pulled on a pair of extra shoes and left his room through the window.
Shivering against the cold, he leapt lightly across the rooftops, soon leaving the Uchiha district and travelling over the quiet streets of Konoha. He had no destination in mind. He had only wanted to feel the wind on his skin to drive away the vestiges of the dream he saw almost every night.
Sometimes, he wanted to laugh. For the past two months he had been haunted by the same dream over and over and it still got to him every time. When would he learn not to panic? As if in answer, he suddenly saw Midori in his mind, standing over him with a victorious smirk, claiming she had learned to sleep right through nightmares long ago.
With no one in sight, Obito let himself crumble on a rooftop, gripping the railings and pressing his forehead hard against the cold metal.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he moaned under his breath, rocking back and forth as the guilt and helplessness and uncertainty convulsed in his chest.
He didn't even know who he was apologizing to – or for what. He had believed letting Iku go was the right thing to do, but now he couldn't trust himself to judge right from wrong anymore. He had stared at Kakashi like an idiot that day, seeing the facts but unable to grasp any of its significance. Kakashi had killed a spy. Was Asuma's anger justified? A part of him agreed. Kakashi was strong enough to have subdued him alive. But what if his judgement was wrong again? Who would die for his mistakes this time?
What would it do to Kakashi?
How much deeper would Kakashi wade into darkness, shouldering every mistake Obito made and growing more distant every day? It was like time had slipped back to the days after Sakumo's death, when Kakashi had shuttered himself to the world. Except this time, Obito no longer knew what he could do to draw out the light in his friend's eyes. It hurt to joke and banter these days, only working to accentuate the gaping holes in their conversations where Midori should have been. The only thing they shared now was silence and the reassurance of each other's presence.
Finding leverage by focusing on his teammate, Obito sucked in deep, shaky breaths and pulled himself up. If it eased some of his pain, then Kakashi must be feeling the same – otherwise, he would have pushed Obito far away by now.
Feeling marginally calmer, Obito looked around to find his bearings and then headed in the direction of Kakashi's apartment.
Deliberately refusing to think about the times he and Midori had snuck into their teammate's room in the past, Obito landed on the slanting roof of the building and swung down to grip the wall with chakra. Peering through the window into Kakashi's dark apartment, he found the bed crisply made and empty. His teammate was nowhere in sight and a quick search for his presence turned up nothing.
Wondering where Kakashi could have gone in the middle of the night, Obito let himself in through the broken lock his friend had never bothered to fix and looked around. The room was as neatly kept as always but it felt like the warmth of being lived in was sorely diminished since the last time he had visited.
With a sigh, Obito took off his shoes, then settled on the floor with his back against the bed and waited.
.-.-.-.
As the sky began to pale in the east, Kakashi looked down at Obito sitting in his room with his knees drawn up, face in his arms, asleep. It wasn't long before Kakashi's presence penetrated his sleep and he woke up with a start.
"I'm pretty sure there's a law against trespassing," Kakashi said.
Obito just blinked. He looked at Kakashi and then at the pre-dawn sky beyond the window and back to Kakashi. "…Morning," he mumbled.
Giving him a strange look, Kakashi sat down at the desk. "I knew you weren't sleeping but I didn't know breaking into people's houses was how you dealt with it."
"How did you know I wasn't sleeping?"
Kakashi tapped a finger against the skin under his own eye. "You look like a panda. And you're always cold. Lack of sleep."
"Says the guy who was gone all night. Where were you?"
Kakashi felt Obito's eyes on the mud stains around his ankles and his coarse hands, chapped and red from the cold. He slipped them into his pockets. "I had an itch to scratch."
Obito was silent for a long moment. "Don't tell me you've been scratching that itch every night."
"Of course not."
"Liar."
Sometimes Kakashi hated how perceptive Obito was. As much as he was certain there was a law against trespassing, he was also sure there was a silent consensus among shinobi against diluting soldier's pills to avoid sleep and keep functioning like a cyborg without suffering the physical breakdown at the end of three days. At the very least, he knew Minato would be after his head if he found out.
Nevertheless, he didn't have the leisure to be indulging in sleep. Between missions and training, he needed time to learn new techniques and refine the ones he already knew. He was beset by a sense of urgency and impatience. He needed to grow stronger. His weakness had already cost Midori her life and caused irreparable pain to countless people.
Unbidden, memories of the funeral rose to his mind. They had met Midori's family before her new grave, two identical women embracing each other as they knelt on the ground, quietly weeping. Rin had stood beside an elderly woman who had never once looked their way. Two men stood solemnly behind them, their faces pale and strained. Midori's mother had turned to them, her eyes swollen and red, tears staining her face.
Her lips had quivered as she spoke. Why… Why Midori? Why couldn't you save her? Weren't you close by? Weren't you a team?
They were the irrational words of a broken mother half crazed after losing her only child. Kakashi knew this. He hadn't needed Midori's father to apologize for his wife's behavior. He understood. Yet the words had been carved in his heart and sank deeper with every passing day.
Kakashi was pulled from his thoughts when Obito rose to his feet and stretched with a loud groan. He would never know what his teammate had thought of his silence. The Uchiha straightened and only gave him a look that said whatever it was, he understood.
Sometimes, he hated how perceptive Obito was – and sometimes he was eternally grateful for it.
"Let's go get breakfast," Obito said with a tired smile. "I'm starving."
Kakashi looked away from the shadow of his friend's former joviality. He hated how helpless he was. "As long as it's not Ramen," he muttered.
Obito looked surprised and a small laugh shook his shoulders as they left the apartment. "Was that a joke?"
Kakashi shrugged.
The sunrise briefly lightened the sky over Konoha before it was swallowed by heavy snow clouds. Kakashi and Obito walked in silence down the streets, looking for any stores that were open and eventually settling on steaming pork buns being sold on the streets for shinobi returning from long missions or setting off at the crack of dawn.
Obito pointedly kept his eyes on his food as they ate. They strolled aimlessly down the empty streets long after they had finished and thrown away the oilpaper wrappings.
"Kakashi," Obito said at long last, his eyes on the ground. "About yesterday's –"
He broke off abruptly just before they turned a corner and ran into four Genin. Rin looked up at them with wide eyes and Gai nearly stumbled over her. Genma and Ebisu stopped behind the two and the six of them stared at each other.
"Good… morning," Rin said after a pause, her hesitant smile faltering when the two Chuunin slid their eyes away from her.
"Morning," Obito mumbled, looking at the other boys. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Night combat training," Genma replied. "You?"
Before Obito had a chance to respond, Gai leapt back with a challenging whoop and fell into a fighting stance. "Kakashi my Eternal Rival! Fight me and behold –"
"I refuse," Kakashi interrupted, but it went unnoticed.
" – my latest mastery of the Eight Celestial Gates! Releasing the First Gate of Opening!"
"Idiot!" Genma made a wild grab for his teammate but Gai shot out from under his fingers.
Kakashi and Obito jumped back a second before Gai's kick crashed into the wall beside them, sending a splintering crack across the concrete. They landed tensely, their muscles clenched and expressions frozen. Facing the aura of one unlocking their physical limits was all it took to thrust them back into the battlefield.
Fighting the Rocks.
Watching Midori die.
Being powerless to save her.
Without thought, Kakashi reached blindly for a kunai and leapt forward. Someone was shouting. He didn't care. He could feel Obito beside him – could see Midori dying.
Never. Never again.
An explosion rocked the cold morning air with a loud bang and a cloud of smoke. Kakashi came up short, blinking against the dust and taking a hesitant step back. He looked up to see Minato standing between him and Gai. His teacher's face was set in a stern mask, brows pulled into a rare frown. Kushina stood behind him in her Jounin attire, wearing an expression of concern.
"Kakashi, Obito," Minato said. He fixed his students with a look that left no room for objection. "Meet me in the training fields. You have three minutes."
To readers: If there are any scenes or situations you want to see, let me know. I'm open to hearing ideas and adding small inserts between bigger plot points.
.LinSetsu.