Disclaimer: I own none of the orginial characters. I am starting to introduce OC's.

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K-K-Kashi…

K...Kashi…

KAKASHI

I shot up; eyes wide open drenched in sweat from head to toe.

It had been the same dream since Obito died. I hadn't gotten a single full night sleep without nightmares plaguing my mind. It had been almost 3 years and so much has changed, but not that part. Our team had split up about 6 months after the incident, Rin needed a change in her life, she couldn't handle the missions anymore. Minato-Sensei had spoken to Lord Hokage and had gotten her a position in the medical ninja training program, one day she was going to be a brilliant medical shinobi, she has potential to be one of the best.

Minato-Sensei took some time off from missions to help in the defense of the Konoha. We have been getting more threats than usual from enemy forces and we needed to have a certain number of high- level shinobi to protect the citizens and the area surrounding the village, the war wasn't waging out in neutral territories anymore, it had calmed down some, but villages were still being targeted. He had volunteered of course and took on the occasional higher-profile mission if it were needed, but most of the time he was home taking care of everyone here.

I asked the Hokage for the same and he agreed, saying that after what I had gone through, I deserved some down time. I think he felt bad for what happened and was taking pity on me. We all had told him about what happened on that mission, about the man that appeared and ambushed us…About his eye and the power that it seemed to hold. Nobody had ever heard of such a thing, so we were on the defense with that as well.

Honestly, I just didn't want to be on a new team, it didn't feel right to be without Minato-Sensei and Rin. I still took missions and would team up with another shinobi on one or two on occasions, but they weren't the same type of missions that I would have gotten before. I almost always led the team and was the only Jonin, since most of our military power was those who were Jonin, I was always one of the few in the village, the others were constantly on missions or being used to fight when it was needed. The small missions were distracting enough, but I never made friends with any of my temporary teammates, we only were paired for a single mission, not worth getting to know anyone.

I was shut down otherwise, not caring at all for anything. I didn't spend much time with my old classmates unless for sparing or learning new Jutsu. I was interested in getting stronger, and with the Sharingan that Obito entrusted to me, I was able to learn things much easier, I even was worked on perfecting my Chidori, it was pretty flawless, but I still was working on transforming it into the lightning cutter technique or lightning blade. Much more powerful and lethal, but also difficult to master, something that I couldn't do without the use of my new visual abilities.

I can't believe it has already been 3 years…Minato-Sensei was even about to take on the position as the Fourth Hokage…

So much has changed Obito…I wish you were here to see it.

The thought was constant, he missed out on so many things. I couldn't help but wonder what things would have been like if he hadn't died. Would the team still be together? Would him and I still be fighting?

Rin…I wonder how they would have played out.

I got up out of bed and splashed some water on my face, trying to get the dream out of my head for the millionth time. The black bags under my eyes were more and more difficult to hide, not that it mattered all that much anyway, nobody was paying that much attention to my face. I hid most of it under my mask and headband now a days. I wasn't ashamed of my left eye, I liked having it for several reasons, but the biggest one was the feeling that Obito was still with me. I don't know what it was, but I felt like he could see what I was seeing, that I didn't have to miss him as much because he was a part of me. I just wish that Rin could handle looking at me.

Things were fine for quite some time between the two of us, especially after that night at my apartment. We spent a lot of time together, nothing more than just friends, but we were comfortable enough to feel safe. Our team went out on a few low-profile missions after the Hokage gave us some time to recover from the failed mission, we were all beat up and needed to heal up before we were sent away again. That's when things started to go south with Rin and I. She didn't want to admit that she was afraid of me, but after all the time we spent together I didn't expect it when she finally told me that she was.

Our team was out on a mission a little over two years ago. We had to deliver food and supplies to nearby outposts that sent in a request to Konoha. The furthest one took about a day to get to, but it was a pretty straight shot from the village. Everything was going smoothly, and we made the deliveries quickly, and planned on staying the night at an outpost that acted as a halfway point for our travel home.

As we got close to the outpost something felt odd. The forest was almost dead silent, not even the sounds of small animals that we were used to hearing.

"Stop." Minato-Sensei whispered; he had put his fist up to signal us.

We followed him behind a patch of bushes where we all sat down, backs facing each other in a triangle and spoke in whispers.

"I don't think that anyone has noticed us yet." Rin said confidently. We could always count on her sensory skills to help in these situations.

"Right, we need to be careful moving forward. I don't know if they have reached the outpost, who they are, or if they are even enemy shinobi." Minato-Sensei had his kunai blade drawn, ready in case of an ambush while we were discussing battle plans.

"Kakashi." Rin said. "Are you ready?". I nodded; I was taking the lead. We had planned and had practiced a new attack formation back at the village for these situations. "Let's move out." I said before jumping into the tree in front of Minato-Sensei. I climbed my way as high as I could until I could see through the branches of the trees surrounding us. Both Minato-Sensei and Rin had disappeared into their positions scattered nearby. I uncovered my left eye and used my sharingan to do a sweep of the area, the visual enhancement was going to be very useful in these situations. As soon as I didn't see anything unusual, I motioned to move forward with my right hand. I had to trust that they were behind me because I couldn't see them while watching for the enemy.

Rin flickered to my left side. "Kakashi, I don't sense them anymore." She flickered away back into position. I didn't see anything either, not a movement, not the shadow of someone who possibly used a cloaking jutsu to cover themselves. Nothing but that eerie silence. They must have moved either further from us or past us. I began to motion for the others to stand down and regroup when I saw the slightest glint of light about 10 feet ahead between the trees.

A trap. That's why we can't find or sense them. They had left something in case they were being followed and moved forward, they weren't here anymore, but they were heading to the outpost. I signaled a regroup and both of my teammates appeared next to me on the tree branches.

"Do you see it Sensei?" I said.

He smirked at me. "Good looking Kakashi, I may not have even noticed from where I was." I turned to Rin; she was focusing ahead trying to feel out the enemy. "There" she whispered, pointing a bit to the left of where we were facing. "About 70 feet North-West from this spot. They've stopped." I scanned the ground below us counting the trip lines. "We have about 18 trips between the ground and surrounding trees. The only way that we can move without accidently tripping is North-East, away from the enemy…or up through the top of the trees…" I wasn't sure about that last part, it could be more dangerous to jump through the trees without coverage, but the other choice would put us away from the enemy and we wouldn't be able to assist the shinobi at the outpost.

"What would you suggest we do Kakashi?" Minato-Sensei was letting me take the entire lead on this.

"I think we should continue to find the enemy. We don't know anything about them, so I don't feel comfortable leaving them for our allies to try and fight." I paused. "There is strength in numbers."

Rin nodded and seemed content with that answer, she felt the same way about abandoning our allies, it could get bad and we didn't want that on our conscious. With that we headed upward until we could see over the trees. The forest was vast, there wasn't an end in sight no matter where you looked. "Rin have they moved at all." She was already focusing in the direction that she instructed before. "No, they are still there, they must be regrouping or resting."

"Alright, lets go get them." Minato-Sensei waited for me to head off toward the enemy, falling behind Rin as we went.

I could finally see them when we were about 30 feet away, they had stopped in a clearing and were talking. I couldn't make out much other than their bodies and the slight movements that they were making, there were three of them. They wore village headbands, so they were shinobi after all. One of the men looked in our direction and I could see his village symbol etched on his forehead.

"Sensei…They're blood mist ninja." I said surprised. I had never seen a hidden mist shinobi this close to Konoha, we were in no way an ally of theirs, so they had no business being on our land or laying traps, these guys were up to something. "Kakashi, are you ready?" Minato-Sensei had concern in his voice, but very serious none the less. "They have a ninjutsu that limits their enemies' sight. We're going to need your sharingan." He turned to Rin. "Keep an eye on their chakra too." He said before flickering out of sight. Rin and I looked at each other and nodded doing the same.

We surrounded the three men, only a few feet away in each direction. I could see both Minato-Sensei and Rin clearly, waiting for my signal to attack. I held my fist up, instructing them to hold while I listened to their conversation.

"I don't know if we should do this." The first man said, he had blue hair that seemed to not know which direction it wanted to go, a long thick sword on his back. That could be a challenge.

"Quit your whining, we have to finish this mission." This man had slicked back white hair that went well past his shoulders down the middle of his back. I couldn't see any significant weapons on him, but he wore a black cloak so there is no telling what was under it.

"Both of you shut up, someone could hear us." The third man had short red hair, neatly kept back in a small ponytail. He was holding a blade, leaving it resting on his shoulder.

They turned away to start walking, they were headed in the outpost direction.

I released my fist and Minato-Sensei flickered from the tree down to the ground behind the three men.

"Hey guys, where are you off to?" The man with the red hair turned to look at him. The other two following in suit.

"Nice to see you again Minato! It's been a few years hasn't it." The man laughed tapping himself on the shoulder with his blade.

Did sensei know these guys? Why didn't he say something before?

"Has it already been that long Kurokawa? It feels like just yesterday that I took those 2 fingers from your hand." Minato-Sensei was grinning. I couldn't tell if they were being friendly or if he was egging this man on to fight him.

Kurokawa's smile disappeared. "Ah yes, I still owe you for that." He was suddenly serious, flexing the three fingers on his left hand. "Now…"

"Why don't you tell your kids to come out and play with us."

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I hope you're enjoying! The next chapter is going to be quite action packed before we have to start filling the spaces again! Stay tuned, I already have half of it written!

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