Author's note: Okay, so there was this dilemma: clearly, Rin couldn't work her healing magic without first removing some of Kakashi's clothing, but to just unmask him like that? Never. So I'm pretending that Kakashi's mask somehow isn't connected to his shirt—oh the joys of creative licence!
Minato's POV again, and this chapter is especially for you, Prescripto13.
Chapter Six
Sharingan
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He watches her hands move speedily and expertly over the boy's torso, calloused fingers hovering over a particularly nasty cut to more fully examine the damage. A small, inelegant crease has appeared across her forehead, her mouth is a thin, taut line, and Minato silently breaks a little for all of Konoha's children, because at this moment it is painfully obvious that at only twelve winters, Rin is already old.
(What that makes him, already a seasoned twice-war veteran, Minato doesn't know. He decides that he rather doesn't think of it either, since he suspects that he wouldn't like the answer.)
He watches her unbuckle and somehow slip off Kakashi's heavy weapons harness, which is quickly followed by his belt, his forehead protector, his enforced arm protectors and his shirt, and then her hands are everywhere in a soothing glow of chakra: probing, pushing and pulling, closing wounds and putting things right the best that they can.
(They tell him that his team is lucky that she's so talented and unbroken. He tells them that they're lucky that she's Rin – just as they are lucky that Kakashi is Kakashi and Obito is Obito – and he sees it in their eyes that the Council doesn't understand.)
Her hands ghost over Kakashi's mask, close but never touching, in an almost-caress; and he suddenly finds himself missing Kushina more than ever.
(This was needs to end, he thinks. Preferably before they all go mad, not after.)
"That'll have to do," she mutters at last, adjusting the bandage around Kakashi's right shoulder one last time before sinking back on her heels, hands resting on her lap. "He'll be sore when he wakes up, but other than that…"
(He's alive.)
Yes. Minato agrees wholeheartedly. Alive is good.
"Rin?" he ventures, once Kakashi is back in his clothes.
(What happened?)
She clears her throat. "We were ambushed," she explains with a slight tremble, and already he knows that she is holding something back. "Kakashi got hit by a falling rock. Obito didn't make it out."
"Was he injured?" he asks, a little stunned at the thought of something so simple. Iwagakure's mastery of earth release techniques to one side, an Uchiha did not succumb to a few falling rocks – and Obito, whom Minato has taught nearly all he knows, certainly didn't.
Rin shakes her head. "No. But Kakashi was—"
A small, sad smile stains her lips.
"—and Obito saved his life."
(Obito saved his life. The words ring in his ears: Obito. Saved. His. Life.)
Minato is too old, too experienced and has far too much on his conscience not to know better, but as he lets the news wash over him, he feels a muted, bittersweet sense of pride. He has always known that Rin would sooner die than letting her team down, but for Obito, who lived for his clan's approval, to have sacrificed himself to save Kakashi and for Kakashi, who is locked in constant conflict with everyone (though mostly himself), to have fought for something other than the success of a mission, is a revelation of unprecedented proportions; and in spite of everything – or perhaps because of it – Minato has never felt prouder of his too-young, too-dysfunctional team.
Still, that doesn't quite explain what he supposes happened next.
"Kakashi is extremely talented," Minato points out mildly. "But six rock-nin?"
(Six grown rock-nin, he is tempted to add, whereof two were incapacitated before Minato even got there. Kakashi's potential as a shinobi was truly terrifying, but even he shouldn't have survived that battle with so few, so non-life-threatening injuries. In fact, and as much as it pains him as Kakashi's jounin-sensei to admit it, it is debatable whether or not he should have survived at all.)
Rin fidgets nervously. "Kakashi used his new jutsu."
"But it's an incomplete technique..." He frowns. "I told him not to use it again."
She opens her mouth as if to say something, but instead she reaches forward to gently peel back Kakashi's left eyelid, briefly revealing something red, black and spinning before it rolls back into the boy's head.
Minato grows cold. Much feared and greatly envied by ninja in all the Five Great Shinobi Nations, there is no mistaking what this is, but how? Obito claimed that it only manifested in some clan members, not all – and it is plain as day for anyone to see that Hatake Kakashi is no Uchiha – so it shouldn't be possible for—
"Obito finally made it, sensei."
He looks at her sharply. Because as much as this was expected in its own unexpected way (it was always just a matter of time before Obito would), and as much as Minato is glad and sad and proud and heartbroken all at once to hear it, "Why does Kakashi have the Sharingan?"
"Kakashi lost his eye." She quiets until her voice is barely audible, "Obito wanted him to have it."
"—so Obito gave his Sharingan to Kakashi," Minato summarizes duly, still not quite comprehending.
Rin nods.
"But that's unheard of…!" He tactfully stops just short of accusing his own student of lying, but this is absurd. "Obito gave Kakashi the Uchiha bloodline limit how?"
She looks down at her hands, but her voice is loud and clear when she says it.
"It was me. I did it."