Author's Note: I'm trying to mix things up a little (and also make the chapters a bit longer), so this one contains everyone's POV. But a few things first, starting with Minato: I always wondered how on earth Minato could take the whole 'Kakashi-has-a-bloodline-limit-now' thing so calmly, so in my version it freaks him out just a bit to know that one of his former students is suddenly running around with a permanently activated kekkei genkei. Rin: She deliberately disobeyed a direct order from Kakashi to escape, and I think there is something to be said about that. Besides, I doubt that Rin understands what Kakashi thinks he promised Obito. Kakashi: He is the team leader and a jounin. The hard decisions are his to make, but he is still just a thirteen years old and utterly lost; I hope it shows. You see, I figure that shinobi are great at looking underneath the underneath of almost anything except for their own feelings. So to me it makes sense that Minato, Rin and Kakashi would talk without actually talking.

Chapter Nine

Duty

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It only takes a few short moments for the slightly dazed look on Kakashi's face to settle back into its usual guarded mask, but by then he has already seen it.

(The perfect droplets of jet-black on blood-red, slowly rotating round and round and round again.)

The Sharingan, thinks Minato grimly to himself and his thoughts wander to the kunai hidden in his sleeve. One of the Three Great Doujutsu.

(Heaven's Eye.)

As his most talented and perhaps most wayward student, the White Fang's son is especially precious to him, but Minato is no fool. Kakashi is still Kakashi and looks thoroughly disoriented, but even Minato doesn't know at this point, and that makes the whole difference. Because given Rin's testimony and Kakashi's tendency towards shinobi brilliance, chances are that Obito's gift is at least partially functional and that Kakashi already has managed to combine one or more of its secret properties with his own original technique.

(Kakashi's Sharingan has two tomoes, he notes. Fugaku supposedly has three. Minato wonders if this is somehow significant.)

So the kunai pressed against the inside of his arm is a just precaution. After all, the Uchiha bloodline limit is responsible for some of the most powerful doujutsu known to the shinobi world and a lethal asset to any Hidden Village, but without the innate knowledge and extensive training that would normally accompany it, Kakashi is potentially extremely dangerous.

And Minato owes it to far too many people not to get this wrong; though, perhaps, most of all, he owes it to his former students.

(All of his former students. All three of them.)

He steals a furtive glance at Kakashi's left eye.

(Five seconds, he counts. Ten seconds. Fifteen.)

It doesn't deactivate. But there are no signs of anything else either, and Minato slowly releases the breath he didn't know he had been holding. "…Kakashi?" he prompts when the boy still hasn't moved.

But he is instantly made to regret it when Kakashi suddenly bolts upright, eyes almost as wild as his hair, and Minato can only hope to God that this won't trigger some kind of defensive reaction from the Sharingan.

"Sensei!" Kakashi exclaims a bit too loudly. "But… But how?!"

"This," explains Minato and with a simple flick to his wrist later, the kunai dangles from his index finger. "See these marks?"

Kakashi's gaze grows vaguely unfocused. "Jutsu," he concludes hesitantly.

"That's right," admits Minato quietly. "I use these kunai for my space-time ninjutsu."

"So those rock-nin…?"

Minato regards the boy seriously. Given the sheer amount of chakra Rin forced back into his body right after the fight, it's hardly surprising that Kakashi doesn't remember. "It has been dealt with," he replies simply, because even that is more than enough.

(A life for a life. Minato doesn't always approve, but that is the shinobi way.)

Kakashi seems to still be mulling over this when, suddenly, his whole body jerks.

Minato immediately tightens his grip around the kunai, prepared to—

"Rin."

Kakashi's voice is tinged with something that Minato cannot place.

"What about Rin—"

(Worry, thinks Minato, a little stunned. It's worry.)

"—what happened to Rin!"

And without taking his eyes off of the boy, Minato just points.

"…I'm sorry I didn't make it in time," he says at length, watching Kakashi watch Rin from the corner of his eye. "Rin told me everything."

Kakashi's shoulders sag.

.

It had already been dark when she finally woke up, older and warier than when she fell asleep.

(But that was just as well, she decides, because she has never appreciated silence more.)

Minato-sensei had still been watching over Kakashi, just like he promised, but when she stood up to neatly fold away the blanket around her shoulders, he had given her a single look:

Be careful. Don't go too far.

(It's only us three left now.)

But at least the stars don't change.

The wind has picked up, she notes, slowly closing her eyes to the night sky. And then she is home.

(Almost.)

"Rin."

She has been dreading this, but at the sound of her name, she immediately snaps to attention and turns around to face him. And just as expected, Kakashi looks like he has been to hell and back, and Rin silently admonishes sensei for not keeping better watch.

"Kakashi. You're awake." She bravely forces some cheer into her voice, but she can tell from the way his eyes narrow that it is a hollow effort. "How—"

"You disobeyed a direct order."

He doesn't shout. Kakashi never shouts. But he exudes steel and quiet disappointment, and Obito's eye flashes deep red.

"Rin."

She meets his gaze defiantly. She refuses to shrink away from her own teammate like a frightened animal. She has nothing to apologize for.

"Rin, I told you to leave."

Kakashi's voice is terse, but all she can thinks is, Obito is gone and Kakashi is angry at her?

"As the team's medic—"

She grows cold. Kakashi wouldn't dare to use her oath against her.

"—it is your duty to—"

(Enough.)

"First rule," she whispers into the dark, reciting the words she knows by heart, "no medical ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of his or her party members have come to an end."

Kakashi immediately opens his mouth to object to what they both know is a gross and deliberate misinterpretation.

"I couldn't leave you," she murmurs.

(Though what she really means is that she couldn't leave him, too.)

Kakashi suddenly looks unsure. "Rin, this—"

"Do you think he's up there?" she asks the night sky, because she would rather not hear what Kakashi might say next.

"Do I think who is where?"

His voice is weary.

"Obito." She nods to the little bright lights high above their heads. "Up there."

(She doesn't need to see him to know that Kakashi is watching her.)

"Come on," he says at last, sharply turning on his heel. "You'll catch a cold like this."

(He doesn't wait for her to catch up, but he doesn't leave her behind either.)

"Kakashi…?" she questions, because there is something not quite right.

"You told sensei," he says quietly, refusing to look at her.

She bites the inside of her cheek. "Minato-sensei has a right to know what happened. Obito is—"

Her tongue slips, Kakashi tenses and she secretly hates herself for it.

"—was his student, too."

.

It is not until he has made sure that Rin is fast asleep that he dares to approach sensei about their assignment.

"Our mission to Kannabi Bridge…" He trails off, uncertain of what he should be expecting, because sensei's face doesn't change. "The mission will still go ahead."

And as soon as the words leave his mouth, Kakashi hates.

(Hates how small and uncertain he feels. Hates how close they all came to dying. Hates how badly he needs Minato-sensei's approval in this.)

"As team leader, it's your call," replies sensei in a low voice and Kakashi almost feels like screaming.

(He doesn't, of course, because life was never fair.)

"Sensei," he ventures instead, reluctantly touching his left eyelid. "Obito…"

"What Obito gave you is a precious gift," says sensei gently, but his eyes are far away. "Don't waste it, Kakashi."