POST MIDNIGHT, PRESENT DAY

Kakashi and Yamato were both sound asleep in their cabin when they heard a knock at the door. Yamato, having been asleep on the couch, woke with a start at the sound. In the bedroom, Kakashi turned over to look at the time on the clock. It was three A.M.

As Kakashi slunk out of the bed and dragged his feet out into the living room, Yamato had already opened the door. It was Itachi.

"I hope I didn't wake you."

"What else would we be doing at three in the morning?" Kakashi popped off with sass.

Itachi brushed off the smart remark.

"Sorry...anyway, something has developed."

"Please, come in." Yamato invited through a yawn, covering his mouth in an attempt to not be rude. "Tea?"

"Please."

Yamato sludged off to the kitchen to boil some water. Kakashi and Itachi both sat down in the chairs in the main room.

"Kakashi..." Itachi paused for a moment, gathering his words. "Do you remember that incident a couple of years ago?"

"Yes." Kakashi began to feel as if he knew where this was going. Why else would Itachi wake them up at three in the morning to bring up something from the past? Yamato walked back towards the main room and leaned against the wall next to the kitchen, crossing his arms and listening closely.

"It would appear that two criminals have escaped from the prison. I got the call around midnight and decided to look into it a little more." He paused, trying to figure out how he was going to say the next part.

"I believe these two were assisted in their escape."

"What do you mean?" Yamato asked. "You mean one of our people let them out?"

"No." Itachi tried again to find the best way to put it. "I think that the prison was most likely infiltrated, and that these two were given an opportunity to join a certain group of criminals in order to get out of their sentence. Given their criminal history, it would only make sense that these two were targeted by who I think."

"But who would do that?" Yamato began to get frustrated. Kakashi glanced over at Yamato. He's still young and inexperienced. He doesn't know half of the world of people out there, Kakashi thought to himself.

"A couple of years ago, there was a group of people who-" the tea pot on the stove began to whistle, cutting Itachi off.

"Oh, sorry." Yamato went back into the kitchen and prepared three cups of tea. Itachi waited to continue until he came back to the living room, placing a tray of three cups and the kettle of water on the living room table. He offered both Itachi and Kakashi a cup. Kakashi politely declined. Then Yamato sat down.

Itachi took a sip of his tea before continuing.

"There was a group of people I was investigating a while back. They started out as a group of five, however two of them committed suicide after being capture by some members of the force." He sipped again, and then cleared his throat. His lowered his deep voice. "The five of them broke into homes at first. Then, people began to go missing. To this day, none of the missing people have been found." He sighed heavily. "To me, it didn't make sense. What was the connection between robbing houses and people going missing? Two completely different types of crimes shouldn't have been connected. However," Itachi paused, taking another sip, "after further investigation, I found out that these people weren't simply robbing houses. They were gathering information about all the families that they had robbed. I believe they were doing this to decipher who they would kidnap, or kill."

Yamato and Kakashi both looked at each other uneasily. Itachi shifted his position.

"There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern on who went missing. They were all abducted at random times and days, and all at different places throughout town. Either, they have no reason, or they were being very careful not to be traced back to anything."

"In other words, you don't know their true motive," Kakashi summed up.

"Correct." Itachi confirmed. "Only..." he hesitated.

Yamato leaned forward slightly in anticipation.

"These two who escaped... they were brought in for murder."

A COUPLE HOURS LATER

"Yamato..."

"Yeah?"

Kakashi walked out of his room and back into the dark living room. He could see Yamato's silhouette laying on the couch.

"Still awake, huh?"

"Yep."

"Mind if I sit?"

Kakashi heard Yamato's movements as he sat upright and turned on the lamp that was on the stand next to the couch. The light was dim, but it was enough.

"Are you okay, senpai?"

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?"

"Sorry. I've looked up to you for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid, you always excelled at everything you did. You were a legend back in school." Yamato paused for a second, and then smiled sheepishly. "If I had known you were an ass, I probably wouldn't have sought to follow in your footsteps."

Kakashi let out a small chuckle.

"Listen, about the other night-"

"You're still on that?" Yamato cut him off, almost in annoyance. Kakashi's eyes widened in shock at his assertion, but only for a split second. Yamato didn't miss it, however.

"Kakashi," Yamato started, "do you even remember what happened that night?"

Kakashi looked down, subconsciously beginning to rub at his hands again. "Not entirely. I remember bits and pieces, but... it's the same every time." He looked away. Suddenly he felt a firm grip around his wrists. He looked down.

"Did you even realize you were doing that just now?" Yamato stared Kakashi dead in the eyes.

"Doing what?" Kakashi asked, almost in bewilderment.

"Exactly," concluded Yamato. "That night, you were screaming about something not coming off your hands. You had started scratching and rubbing at your own flesh until you literally scratched yourself raw." Yamato hardened his grip on Kakashi's wrists. "I had to clean and treat your hands. You weren't mentally here for hours."

Kakashi's eyes started to water, and he lowered his head in shame. Yamato slowly let go of his wrists, and Kakashi placed them neatly back into his own lap.

"I'm sorry I put you through so much trouble," Kakashi spoke quietly.

Yamato looked at him sympathetically. "Senpa- er, Kakashi..." He corrected himself. He gently placed his hand on Kakashi's shoulder for reassurance. "You shouldn't hide the past. You are only damaging yourself." Kakashi looked up in wounded surprise to see Yamato smiling gently at him.

"How did you..." Kakashi trailed off.

"It's not hard to tell," Yamato explained. "The signs you exhibit are clear signs of trauma. You need to figure out how to deal with your demons, Kakashi. Bottling them up does you no good." He removed his hand from Kakashi's shoulder and leaned back slightly, getting more comfortable. "Would you like to talk about it?"

Kakashi had never before been confronted by someone so understanding and willing to listen. What are you, my therapist? Kakashi had to correct himself. No, he's right... I can't keep being bitter. He sighed heavily. "Alright..." he hesitated. "I suppose you have a right to know, since you're working with me anyways."

Kakashi took a deep breath, clenching his fists in his lap, and then relaxing.

"Years ago, as I'm sure you already know, I was involved in a small group of people who spied on neighboring villages and got information about military forces around the country."

Yamato nodded.

Kakashi sighed. "Back then, even though I was young, I was promoted to being the leader of a smaller squad. Shortly after, we were given a job to try to infiltrate and get information on an enemy village. We were misinformed to the situation, and my team ended up getting caught in... well, a shitty situation."

The memories began to flash through Kakashi's mind.

"Two of my closest friends..." his voice began to crack. He cleared his throat, apologized, and carried on. "Obito and Rin. I had no one else in the world, and I relied on them to help guide me through a hard time in my life. You see, my father had just killed himself... and I never spoke about it, but they knew I was struggling... and they still accepted me."

Kakashi clenched his fists again. "But this time... I couldn't help them." He gritted his teeth, unable to keep a tear from streaming down his face as he lowered his head once again. His hair began to fall in front of his face. Why am I admitting this to him, of all people? It doesn't matter, I can't make myself stop now. Kakashi began arguing with himself.

"Rin was taken. They used her as bait to lure us in. We had no idea what we were walking in to." Kakashi's voice was unsteady, and he breathed harder, attempting to control his voice better. Again he cleared his throat and continued.

"We found her tied up in a room. She was out of it, she had no idea what was going on or what happened. To this day I believe they tortured her the entire time she was being held hostage." He began clenching his fists so hard that he thought he was going to break his own skin. "Obito and I... we didn't stop to think it was strange that there was no one there guarding her. We just saw her and took the chance to recover her. We didn't notice.." he struggled through more tears. "We didn't notice anything wrong until it was too late." He paused for a moment, trying to organize his memories to where he didn't have to relive that moment again.

"We managed to carry her outside and what we thought was safely away, but by the time we had found her, it was already too late." His voice cracked, and he began to lose control. "Those bastards implanted a bomb in her. Obito and I had no idea what to do. And, Obito loved her... so much so that he was willing to hold her hand and die right there with her when it went off. I tried to pull him away, but he refused... so I ended up deciding to try to remove the bomb myself." He started shaking profusely, desperately trying to remain in control.

Yamato listened intently, now with his hand on Kakashi's arm as a way to keep him grounded while he continued.

"So I took my knife... and I cut open her stomach, where she said she felt the pain, and I saw the bomb. But they-they had implanted it in such a way that if I had taken it out, she would have died from blood loss. Obito was convinced we could bring her back in time, but I knew it was hopeless... but I couldn't risk all three of us dying. So I carried on anyways." Kakashi choked on a few tears, sniffling a few times, and clearing his throat. "I didn't know anything about medical ninjutsu, but I managed to remove the bomb, however I had no way of disabling it. And Rin was so pale- she lost so much blood..." Kakashi glanced down at his hands again, remembering everything clearly.

"Then, Obito suddenly threw himself over the bomb. He screamed at me to take Rin and run. I didn't even question it, I simply picked her up the best I could and made it maybe five feet before the blast knocked me down. By the time I had gotten back up..." Kakashi couldn't hold it in anymore.

Sobbing, Kakashi fell over into Yamato, wrapping his arms tightly around himself for comfort. The pit of despair he felt welling up was too much for him. "O-Obito was bleeding out too... His last words..." he choked again, his throat burning from the sobs. "He wanted me to save Rin... but when I looked back...she was already dead."

Yamato ran his fingers through Kakashi's hair, attempting to soothe him. "It's not your fault Kakashi."

"But it is," Kakashi wailed. "If I hadn't taken them there- if I had gone alone-" Yamato cut him off.

"Kakashi," Yamato cupped Kakashi's face in his hands and moved his face so that he had no choice but to face him. "Look at me."

Kakashi opened his eyes and forced himself to breath more deeply in an attempt to calm down. His throat burned more than ever.

"It's not your fault."

Kakashi's eyes watered again, this time with warm tears. He placed his own hands over Yamato's and stared back up at him, his feelings of despair beginning to mix with feelings of absolution as he sobbed hard, turning so that his face was against Yamato's torso, clutching onto him for support. Yamato continued to hold Kakashi and ran his fingers through his hair until he stopped crying, and even then continued until they both fell asleep.