Hey! Sorry about the wait, exams and such took over. Also, guess who completely skipped over Minato being announced as Hokage? That's right. Me. I did. Who needs consistent plot, anyway.

A quick shout out to A Lurker, my first reviewer! I really appreciated your review. I am glad you think the characterization is going well!

Minato's inauguration came and went, and Obito didn't see Kakashi after the ceremony.

He wasn't sure what to do.

He was pretty sure he was right on the mark about why Kakashi was acting so strangely, but he was conflicted. He was still angry at Kakashi. God, he was so, so angry. He could still see the image of Kakashi's arm going through Rin's chest, how that ball of lightening slid through her like butter, he could remember the smell of charred flesh. It had seemed stronger then, maybe because he cared so much more about Rin then about the others he had seen Kakashi kill with the jutsu.

Even so, a new thought was lingering in the back of his head. He had never seen Kakashi react to something so strongly before, not even right after Rin died.

Was this Kakashi reacting? Was this his weird, messed up way of showing emotion?

If Obito thought logically about it, it wasn't like Kakashi was a robot. He had come back and saved Obito in Rock, sacrificing his eye in the process. He wasn't as indifferent as he led on; if he was, then he would have let Obito die a long time ago.

The thoughts would not leave his head, and that night he left the compound, making his way to Kakashi's apartment. He had only been there a handful of times, and only in the company of Rin or sensei, when one of them had news about training or a mission. Whenever the team gathered it was either at Ichiraku's or at Minato's. When Obito found the door with Kakashi's number on it, he stood outside for a few minutes, deciding what he should do. He felt sort of stupid being here. Kakashi was a jonin, he could take care of himself, and it wasn't like Obito was all that close to him anyway.

But then if something was wrong, his guilty conscious would end up eating at him, no matter how angry he was at Kakashi. With a sigh, he knocked on the door.

No answer.

That was strange. Kakashi never went out, and it was dark out, so he probably wasn't training. Obito was about to knock again when he heard a huge crash inside.

He seriously doubted it was a broken glass.

Mustering up some chakra, he forced the door open and rushed inside. There was nothing amiss in the dining and living area, and he could see the door to Kakashi's bedroom was open and no one was in there. That left the bathroom. Obito ran down the short hallway that led to the bathroom and study, and saw that there was steam pouring out of the bathroom. He edged around the door.

"Kakashi?" he called out. Again, no reply. "Okay, I'm coming in, please don't be naked."

Kakashi was standing over the sink. Water was rushing full force out of the tap, hot enough to make steam. Kakashi appeared to be…. Washing his hands?

"Hey, Kakashi, what the hell are you doing?"

Kakashi just continued to wash his hands. Obito reached forwards and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him away. When Kakashi faced him, Obito's eyes widened.

Kakashi's silver hair was matted and damp, and his eye was bloodshot, the other one uncovered so that Obito could see the scar that sliced through his eyelid, eyebrow, and split the milky white eye. Kakashi was trembling.

"What's going on? You look like shit, what happened?"
Kakashi blinked once, then replied in a trembling whisper.

"It won't come out."

Now Obito was really confused.

"What? What won't come out?"

"The blood." Kakashi held up his hands. They were red and raw, like they had been soaked and scrubbed dozens of times.

"There isn't any blood, Kakashi. You barely have any skin left on there." Obito said, tearing his eyes away from Kakashi's hands.

"I can see it. I can see….."

"See what? What could you possibly see?"

"The blood. Her blood. Rin's, I- I can't get it off. I can't get it off, Obito, I can see it, and I can smell it, I….." Kakashi trailed off, and started to turn back to the sink.

Obito realized with a sinking feeling that he had been right. It was Rin who Kakashi had seen on the mission. Obito, not having really witnessed any psychological breakdowns firsthand before, wasn't entirely sure what to do. The only one he thought with any certainty could help would be Minato, who when not on mission was swamped in the hokage's office.

Obito could only hope he would have time to talk to his student.

No, scratch that. He had to have time. Kakashi was seriously losing it. Obito tried to remember anything he knew about calming hysterical people.

"Okay. Okay, Kakashi. Tell you what. Why don't you go lay down. I'll…." He would what? What could he do? "I'll bring you some fresh bandages." Even if that wouldn't fix anything, Kakashi's hands were cracked and blistered, and Obito didn't think bringing him to a medic was a good idea right then.

"I should stay…." Kakashi began, then seemingly trailed off into nowhere.

"I'll be back soon, okay? I'll even help you…. Clean up." Obito choked the words out, and then gently guided Kakashi out of the steamy bathroom, settling him on the couch. A part of him was tempted to sweep the place for weapons, but he knew that if Kakashi really wanted to hurt himself he would be able to do it whether or not there were kunai in the room.

Glancing behind him to make sure Kakashi was still in place on the sofa, his expression glazed over and empty, Obito began running towards the Hokage office.

He got there faster than he likely ever had, and did not wait to speak to the secretary outside before storming into the office.

"Sensei!" Obito shouted, startling Minato and the assortment of planning specialists gathered around him.

"Obito, what are you doing? I'm in the middle of a meeting."

"It's important. It's about Kakashi. I need you to come with me right now." Obito replied, frustration breaking through.

"Look, Obito, I'll be there as soon as I can but-"

"He's in trouble, and you're the only one I know who can talk him out of it!"

Minato frowned, before gesturing to the shinobi surrounding him. They all cleared the room immediately.

"Obito, what's going on?"

"Kakashi was acting strangely after our last mission, so I went to check on him. He was washing his hands-"

"Obito, I don't think that's really-"

"No, listen. He was washing them to the point where they were blistered and cracked. He was hurting himself. I made him stop, and he kept saying that there was blood on them, that he could still see Rin's blood on his hands, and I don't know how to help him." Obito said, leaning forward onto the desk.

Minato sighed, running a hand over his face. "I had worried it might be something like that."

"Well, what do we do?" Obito still had a great deal of negative emotion towards Kakashi, but now he knew that his team mate was not as cold and indifferent towards Rin's death as he had portrayed himself to be. Now Minato knew, so he would be able to help.

"I've been thinking about Kakashi a great deal of late. I have decided it would be best to place him in ANBU."

What? Did he hear that right?

"ANBU?" Obito repeated, confused.

"Yes. I think that would be best for him."

Confusion gave way to anger, and Obito hit the desk with his palm.

"Best for him? Are you joking?" He snarled, voice raising. "I just walked in on him hallucinating to the point of causing himself psychical harm, and you want him in ANBU? What he needs is an extended leave and psychoanalysis, not to be put under more stress and to spend more time killing!"

"Obito, it will give him an outlet. It can-"

"He doesn't need an outlet. He needs to be taken off the active duty roster for a while. Do you not understand that? Or do you just not care?"

"Obito, that isn't true and you know it-"

"Why don't you stop trying to tell me what I know and start paying attention to what is going on around you? I've wanted to wring Kakashi's pasty neck for years, and I'm the one who found out something was wrong with him." Obito replied his voice raising.

Minato's expression darkened. "Obito, I know Kakashi better then you do. This is best for him. Besides which, I think you are forgetting who exactly you are speaking to here. I am the hokage, and I have the final word on this decision. This isn't the good old days of the team anymore."

Obito straightened up, taking his fists off the desk. "Good old days? Do you think I'm stupid? We were fighting a war. A war Rin died because of. And something tells me what Kakashi is doing isn't new. I think that it wouldn't be too off the mark to say you've seen him like this before."

Minato sighed, running a hand over his face. "I've known Kakashi for a long time. He doesn't have a grasp on how to deal with emotions. His only way to deal is through acting out-"

"Killing people doesn't fall under the category of acting out, sensei."

"And focusing on missions. I'm doing what I can for him, but he isn't my only priority."

"It doesn't sound like he's a priority at all. Or that either of us are, for that matter. Does Kushina feel the same way you do? I somehow doubt it. I doubt she even knows." Obito backed away from the desk. "I'm telling you not to put Kakashi in ANBU, if you care about him at all. But I'm just the team idiot, right? Doesn't matter what I think."

He left before Minato could answer.

Obito wanted to try and find someone to help him, but he needed to get back to Kakashi. He wasn't sure what would happen if he was left alone for long. He made his way back to Kakashi's apartment. He found the door unlocked. He knocked softly, and then walked inside. From the door, he could see that Kakashi was still sitting on the sofa, staring at his hands.

"Hey, Kakashi." Obito called, keeping his voice soft. "Sorry I was gone for a while." He walked towards the sofa. Kakashi blinked his eye slowly, then looked up at Obito.

Obito waited for him so speak, but he didn't. Unsure what to do, Obito walked towards the kitchen island.

"Are you hungry? I'm hungry. I'll make some lunch, okay?"

He opened the cupboard. Inside there were two bowls, two plates, two chopstick holders, and two chopsticks. And field rations. Dozens of brown envelopes of dried food. A brief survey of the room showed that there wasn't a fridge to be seen, and no food on the counters.

Obito rummaged around in the cupboard for a little, until he finally came out with two envelopes of dried miso soup, and some bottled barley tea from the very back. He switched on the kettle, and found himself staring into the slowly forming steam patterns on the metal, changing shape as the steam built up and whistled out of the spout. Obito shook the light brown powder out of the envelopes and into the bowls. God, he didn't even have any soy sauce around. Did Kakashi really live on this stuff?

Obito carried the bowls out into the living room. Kakashi had moved to the window, and was staring out. Obito didn't think he was really looking at anything. He had removed his mask, and the window was open a crack, a slight breeze lifting silver strands of hair away from his eyes. Obito's stomach still dropped a little every time he saw the scar that crossed the remains of his eye. Obito knew it wasn't his fault. In fact he had spent the last month or so blaming Kakashi for everything that had gone wrong, for Rin's death, blaming Kakashi for his own injuries.

Of course, Obito thought, there was always plenty of blame to go around.

Apparently waking from his stupor, Kakashi slowly walked towards the sofa, and sat down on the edge. Obito placed the bowl in front of him, and the tea next to it.

"There isn't anything but dried rations in our apartment, dude. You need to work on your grocery shopping habits."

Kakashi glanced at him, then back to the soup, but still did not speak. The two of them ate in silence, the only sound the clinking of their spoons against the side of their bowls. The silence was starting to grate on Obito, but he didn't know what to do about it. He had spent most of his time with Kakashi trying to avoid conversation. He had no idea how to talk to his own team mate.

"You went to see sensei." Kakashi's voice, quiet and rough, startled Obito.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"Because you think I'm crazy and don't want to deal with it, and you think sensei can deal with it so you don't have to." Kakashi paused. "Also you smell like those annoying candles in the office."

Part of Obito was impressed, but he was mostly offended.

"Okay, you might be partially right, you are acting crazy. And yes, I do smell like those candles, they're awful. But…." Obito paused. "I'm not letting sensei deal with it, because I don't think he can. You're still my team mate, no matter how annoying you are. Besides, I don't think that" Obito swallowed, and took a death breath "I don't think Rin would want us fighting even more than before. She always wanted us to get along."

The room was quiet again, with nothing but the sounds of their breathing and distant voices from outside. Obito looked over at Kakashi. His eyes were still red rimmed, and he was shaking slightly.

"When you said you didn't think sensei could help…. What did he say to you?" Kakashi said, his voice soft.

Obito frowned, and reached down to take another sip of his tea. "He wants you to join ANBU, and I'm not sure he's giving you a choice."

Kakashi's eyes snapped up to stare at him. "ANBU? Are you sure?"

Obito nodded. "He told me himself."

Kakashi looked back down. His mask was still off, and he was gnawing on his lower lip. If the scabs on it were anything to go by, he did so a lot.

As Obito contemplated the mounting evidence of his team mates bad habits, Kakashi stood up.

"I guess I will, then."

"What?"

"I'll join."

"Are you stupid?" Obito snapped, standing up. "Do you not understand the state you're in? How I just found you?"

Kakashi stood up on still shaking knees. "I am not a child. I am not stupid. I can make my own decision. Besides, since when do you even care?"

"Since I'm the one of us who isn't cold bastard, that's why! I happen to care about the mental stability of others!" Obito replied, voice raised.

"Well don't. I don't need you to care."

Obito groaned, running a hand across his face. "God, will you stop with that stoic bullshit? It's okay to need people once and a while." Obito tried to reach out and grab Kakashi's shoulder, but he pulled away from his grip.

"Kakashi-"

"You can leave."

"I just want to-"

"Leave."

Obito frowned, and had a brief internal debate about saying something else. In the end, he decided to leave.

It was dark by the time Obito returned to his small house in the Uchiha compound. Sighing, he flopped down onto his bed. It seemed that interactions with Kakashi always ended in him doing so. He had though he was helping his team mate, but it was obvious Kakashi didn't want help. Not the he would know emotional support if it bit him in his pale, mask wearing face.

Still, Obito couldn't let Minato put Kakashi in ANBU. It seemed like sensei, in his brief time in office, had forgotten that his students still needed him.

If Minato wouldn't change his mind, though….

Obito didn't know what he would do.

I thought hard about how to handle this chapter. I didn't know if I should have Kakashi stay out of ANBU, and I was unsure how to handle this confrontation between him and Obito. I feel like Obito wants to help him, but doesn't know how.