This was not a time for irony.
It wasn't...but...
Rin used to tell Kurenai that Kakashi was the closest to her heart. As his hand burst out of her chest, Rin allowed a brief, hysterical moment to acknowledge that she was right; no one would ever be as close to her heart as Kakashi was, and no one ever would be again, judging by the way her vision had started to tunnel.
"Ka—kashi," she whispered, and immediately, her lungs rebelled, trying to expel the wrong in her chest. There was too much, a strange burning chakra running through her veins and something even worse that had been pressed snugly against her heart. At least it was gone. Her village would be safe.
She coughed weakly. She just wanted to say she was sorry.
In her mind's eye, she saw a turtle thrashing in bloodied water, screaming under rusted chains. In the world, she saw Hatake Kakashi cry for the first time, shedding a tear from Obito's eye. She wondered if Obito was watching from the Pure Lands.
Her lungs stuttered, stopped. The world faded to black.
Then, it exploded in pink.
She couldn't describe it well, but it was almost as if she had spent her life carrying multiple boulders on her back, and only at that moment did the weight on her shoulders fall off. For a moment, she feared that if she exhaled, she would fly through the skies like a popped balloon.
There wasn't anything here, just clouds and a sky on the cusp of sunrise. She gently stood and poked at her chest. There was nothing there either, simply the black shirt she was wearing, clean of blood and any holes.
She was...dead. She forced her breaths to stay even. That was okay. She is—was—a kunoichi, and she had always known she could die at any time. She had protected her village, and that was all that mattered.
A part of her she knew she didn't have before told her that if she chose to, she could let go of the small remaining weight she had and float, float until she could reunite with her tou-san and her imouto, float until she was surrounded by long lost relatives and Academy friends who died too soon in the war. They were waiting for her, she could tell.
All she had to do was let go.
But she couldn't. She couldn't, because...
She couldn't feel Obito.
Maybe he had gone on ahead, but something in her soul warred with that idea. Obito was late for everything, but in this, he would wait for her. He would be here. He was her best friend.
She could feel another gentle tug from her tou-san, her imouto, the faceless cousins, but not Obito. She ignored the rest.
She looked down, pensive. She had left Kannabi certain that Obito was dying. She had lived like Obito had died for months. But if he wasn't here…
The cloud beneath her split, and suddenly she could see.
"This is hell," someone whispered. "I'm in hell."
On one side, black hair, incredibly long and messy, skin way paler than it had been before, trembling hands cradling her broken body. Blood dripping down a sole red and black eye. A whispered promise to make a world where she was alive. Obito.
And so it began.
On the other side, a boy with silver hair shattering, over and over and over. A morning ritual of washing his hands 14 times before he left his apartment. Kakashi.
Her hands shook. She kept watching.
The village celebrated the tentative end of war. Minato-sensei became Hokage and sent Kakashi to the black ops.
A porcelain dog mask, deceptively solid through mission after bloody mission. New nicknames from Konoha: Cold-blooded Kakashi, Friend Killer Kakashi. Kakashi picked himself apart every morning.
(He. kept. using. Chidori. She saw how much it made him fall apart. She didn't know why he made it his signature move.)
Obito, alive and angry, wearing a swirled white mask of some sort, going towards Amegakure. He should have gone back to Konoha. He should have gone home.
He didn't. Kami, he didn't.
She kept watching. Obito pretended to be Uchiha Madara. Obito failed to convince an Ame trio to join his side. He watched impassively as one was killed, and manipulated the others.
She kept watching.
Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee had a child. A son. Obito...Obito nearly killed him, minutes after birth. Red of different shades shrouded the world as blood, chakra, and ash rained from the sky. The village was destroyed. Sensei and Kushina-nee laid in cold pools of blood. A blonde child cried for deaf ears.
Rin split her attention. She watched Obito, manipulating the Mizukage with genjutsu and drowning Kiri's reputation in blood. She watched Naruto grow, shunned and discarded by the village. She watched Kakashi sink into blood and chaos day after day.
She clenched her fists hard enough to bleed. Once the cuts opened, they immediately closed.
Her heart hurt. It wasn't the chidori wound.
Naruto grew. Obito came back to Konoha and Rin had hope, hope things could be better, hope Obito would go home and face the consequences of his actions.
She was wrong. She was so wrong.
She turned away from what could only be called a slaughter, from the 13-year-old Uchiha prodigy and Obito towards Kakashi, but Kakashi was rushing there with his ANBU team, and she didn't think she could throw up here but she didn't want to risk it.
(The sky darkened from pink to red)
She turned to Naruto instead, huddling in a corner while the other orphans also curled up on the floor. Guards came to watch the group, maintaining focus on Naruto.
She kept watching. Naruto stayed cheerful, Copy nin Kakashi stayed shrouded in grief. Obito—Tobi— led a terrorist organization.
Kakashi left ANBU and had a team, Sensei's son and a pink-haired girl and Uchiha Sasuke, the last loyal Uchiha. So much like their old team, yet so different.
Kakashi began smiling again. He hung out with Asuma and Kurenai and Gai. Kurenai was a genjutsu master, Gai had become a taijutsu monster, and Asuma carried a reputation with his blades. This, perhaps out of everything, was the highlight of what Rin saw.
The last Uchiha left Konoha. Kakashi submerged himself in ANBU once more. Kurenai had a baby girl, and the Akatsuki killed Asuma. Konoha was destroyed, again, by the Akatsuki. Naruto became a war hero. And finally, finally, Kakashi and Obito met on opposite sides of the next World War.
Obito said it was for her, and she felt sick.
(The sky darkened to black)
Her boys tried to kill each other in Obito's dimension, the real Madara came to life, wreaked havoc, died, and was replaced by an alien goddess. Naruto changed Obito's mind, and finally, finally there were all consuming ash bones heading towards Kakashi's team and Obito.
Rin clenched her fists. The world was going to end if Naruto and Sasuke died. She could see Obito and Kakashi running, but they wouldn't make it in time.
She screamed wordlessly, vaguely aware of the sky around her flickering through colors. Kami, she needed to do something. Rin looked towards the bones and her friends, and pulled at the remaining weight inside her, pleading with it to let her come between Obito and Kakashi and help, one more time, pleasepleasepleaseplease—
Suddenly, she blinked in the world, facing the progenitor of Chakra and her minion Zetsu. Everything about her body screamed that something was wrong, an old but familiar sensation of pain racing through her limbs. Rin didn't waste any time to pray or cry, grabbing Obito and Kakashi's wrists and tugging them into place.
Her stomach churned, and she hadn't eaten anything in decades, but she wanted to throw up. Her boys looked so thankful to die. She had managed to orchestrate not only her own death, but theirs too. What a great teammate she was.
It would have worked, Rin thought, if they had lined into place, and protected the next generation. She would hate herself for it forever, but at least the world had a chance to be saved.
But Obito…
Maybe he wasn't used to anyone reaching out to him, maybe he had traversed the world alone for so long, too long. Maybe the solitude and intangibility of Kamui had more of an effect than she thought. Maybe only coming in contact with others through the harsh contact of taijutsu left him bewildered in the presence of a guiding hand. Rin didn't know. She wasn't sure she ever wanted to know the answer.
In any case, she reached out for Obito and Kakashi, and while Kakashi was pulled into place, Obito stumbled.
She saw his eyes widen, as he recognized her form, her chakra. He tried to open Kamui in front of Kakashi, but his angle was off and his calm thrown. It was too slow and there was no time and the bone hit home. In Obito's panic, he momentarily forgot about the other projectile now sailing over his head.
A gasp. A wet cough. A hoarse cry of terror. Kakashi stood in front of Sasuke, heaving and fracturing but smiling because he believed he had transcended his perceived uselessness. And Obito…
Obito gaped at the golden glowing boy behind him, already starting to splinter, like a sun spun from glass. Naruto coughed and slumped to the side.
"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled. Sakura ran to his side, placing a trembling green glowing palm on his chest. But there was nothing she could do—not even being Kyuubi's jinchuuriki and Ashura's reincarnation could save him from Kaguya's technique. Kakashi's smile faded immediately, and Rin knew this was it—even if Kakashi could survive, nothing would be able to pull him back from this point. He slumped to his knees, suddenly ignorant of the pieces of his body beginning to litter the floor.
Rin blinked, and she was back in her small portion of purgatory, where the sky flickered ominously between obsidian and crimson. Her vision of the world contained cracks, as if made of porcelain. That weight that had held her down for so long was gone, but a pressure felt like it was warping the air, squeezing her into herself. Rin tried to breathe, but the action evaded her.
Was this how she would be for all eternity?
Her world had dwindled to fire and pain, and she looked down to see her skin was cracking as well. Rin had been so unused to pain in the years that passed that the sensation felt like she was drowning in fire.
Naruto's hands were cracking, but he still smiled at an openly sobbing Sakura, with a blank-faced Sasuke fixated on his form, leaking tears of blood. Kakashi began to drag himself towards his students.
They...failed. They couldn't seal Kaguya without Naruto, and he was dying. Zetsu grinned from underneath Kaguya's cloak.
Rin shut her eyes. She didn't want to see anymore, and the world was getting darker. The last thing she saw was Obito's trembling form, glancing between Kakashi and Naruto with unfettered grief.
"STOP!"
The world went white.