"Kakashi!" she exclaims with relief when his eye squints open.

"…Rin?" he mumbles in reply.

"Yeah," she tells him. Making sure he can see her hand, she lays it on his narrow shoulder and holds him down against his palate. "You're okay, by the way. You just overdid it a little bit," she explains. Looking around the dimly lit quasi-cave she found to shelter them in, she remarks, "Maybe we should have factored in giving you some time to adjust to the limits of your body before we left."

"Hmph," he grumbles before throwing an arm over his eyes. "Wouldn't have mattered."

Rin frowns. "Of course it would," she chides. "We wouldn't be hiding here waiting for you to regain consciousness."

He sighs and pulls his arm up to his forehead so he can peer at her. "Using the Sharingan like that always does this. It's a constant drain and it gets worse when I uncover it," he tells her. Frustration entering his voice, he says, "Years and years of training have barely touched the effects."

Rin feels horror overtake her. That's why he fainted in the middle of their battle? Not because he wasn't prepared for having less chakra to use at twelve compared to thirty? If it is such a threat to his well-being, why does Kakashi keep the eye?

She starts to voice the very question running through her head. "Then why—?"

"I am not going to give up Obito's gift to me," he bites, defensive. "He wants — wanted to see the future through me," he tells Rin, voice growing quieter at the end.

Rin hates the way he sounds so small. That's not Kakashi. "Ah," she whispers.

He pushes himself up in spite of her hand. "I think I'm okay, we can continue," he says as he tries to get out from under the blanket she covered him with.

"Oh no, nuh-huh," she refuses, holding the blanket in place over him. Meeting his gaze, she says, "Kakashi, you need to rest."

"I really don't," he argues. "I've traveled in worse conditions and been fine."

"Stay!" she orders, pushing him back down with more force than she really has to. "I don't care if you've been okay in the past, I'm not risking your well-being. Others will come looking for those we killed and when they find them…" she bites her lip. "I don't want to think about how badly a battle could go between them and us with you in this state."

Kakashi stares up at her, eye pleading. "That's why we need to move, Rin. The more distance we put between us and them, the safer we will be."

She shakes her head. "We're safe here. I've made sure of it," she assures him, thinking of the traps, the warnings she's surrounded this obscured rock outcropping with. No one is going to get the jump on them here. Then, she adds, "Plus, I already sent word to Obito we'll be staying in place here for the next twelve to eighteen hours."

He groans. "Rin…"

"Please rest?" she begs once again as she fixes the blanket around his shoulders.

Kakashi stares up at her for a moment. Then, he looks away. "Fine."

"Thank you," she says as she moves one of her hands to his hair. She begins to card her fingers through it in the way she does with Nika's when she's ill and stuck in bed.

"Mh," he mumbles as his visible eye slowly closes. As he falls asleep, Rin keeps up her ministrations. It's still a wonder to Rin Kakashi is alive. Being this close, being able to pet his hair, all remind her this is real.

She is living a dream come true.

-O-

Rin places a bite of rice in her mouth and considers the texture. It is soft just how she likes it. Scooping half into one bowl and then the rest into another, she turns to her pot of miso soup and divides it up into her last two empty bowls. Satisfied with the sight of them, she carries them away from the fire and towards where she'd set up Kakashi when she first hid them under this obscured rock overhang.

Kneeling beside Kakashi, she sets the food down and hisses into the sleeping boy's ear, "Hey, psst!" his face twitches at her words and she tells him, "I've made some miso and rice."

Kakashi cracks his eye open. "That's why I was dreaming of food," he says.

She laughs as the boy pulls himself into a sitting position. "Oh yeah?" she replies as she puts his bowl of soup in his hands. "Here you go. I thought some hot food would help you recover faster."

"Thanks," he says as he accepts the chopsticks she hands him. He pulls down his mask and drinks from his soup. When done, he puts the half-empty bowl aside and picks up his rice. As he begins to eat some of the rice she brought over for him, he asks, "How long did I sleep?"

"Six hours," she tells him. Kakashi's brows furrow at that, but otherwise, he doesn't react. Rin resists the urge to bite her lip. "I think we should hunker here a little longer," she says and Kakashi's head lifts at her words. Hurriedly, she explains, "If you don't mind, I'd like to lay down for an hour or two myself after we eat."

Kakashi returns his attention to his food. "Sure," he agrees.

She relaxes. Crisis averted. He's so much like the kid she knew, he never wants to slow down, he never wants to stop. When on a mission, Kakashi is like a dog with a bone. He doesn't let himself waver until he's completed.

Yet for all the similarities, he's changed too. When they were kids, he was always so begrudging and angry whenever she or Obito — sometimes even Minato-Sensei – showed any kind of weakness by asking to meet their needs before the mission. He values his teammates and their well-being so much now.

Rin adores the change as much as she grieves for it. He had to lose people (all of them in the end) to learn to care about them this way. Death is a fact of life, even when one isn't a shinobi, but she wishes Kakashi hadn't had to be drowned in it to learn the compassion he now has.

"Hey, Rin?" he calls.

Rin blinks. "Yeah?" she asks, turning her head to look at the boy.

Kakashi stares into his soup, which, at some point, he brought up to balance on his knees. "I've been wondering, why did you and Obito break up? He loved you so much in my universe and here…" he trails off briefly, looking at her out of the corner of his eye before returning his gaze to his soup. "I can tell he cares deeply for you. Nika too."

Rin feels an all too familiar stone start to roll around in her stomach. She puts down her rice and sighs. "I know," she replies.

A person would have to be well and truly blind to not see that Obito still burns for her. Rin at times has to stop herself from being lit by his fire. As much as she adored what they had, wishes it could still be, she knows it's impossible.

"It's nothing he did really," she explains. "It's just better if we aren't a couple. Us being together, having Nika… It caused a lot of problems."

Kakashi turns and looks at her fully for the first time since he asked his question. "What, why?"

Rin tilts her head. She knows that their two universes were nearly reflections of each other up until their fateful mission. For as similar as they had been, she knows there had been some small, minor differences. Kakashi had been miffed to see in some pictures they shared of their fellow jonin that Asuma was a brunet. She wonders if this will be another small discrepancy.

"Can I ask you a question?" she implores.

Kakashi shrugs. "Yeah," he answers.

"Was Obito a full Uchiha in your universe?" she asks.

He wrinkles his nose in a way that is too cute on his twelve-year-old face and finally settles for Rin why their Kakashi was so insistent on always wearing his mask. Who'd have taken him seriously when he can make faces like this?

"He's not here?" says Kakashi.

"No," she tells him. At Kakashi's lost expression, she decides he's going to need the story Rin knows almost as well as her own origin story. Putting on a smile, she tells Kakashi, "The short version is his grandmother fell in love with a civ-born shinobi and then became pregnant by him. There was gnashing of teeth from her Uchiha elders as you can probably guess and she moved out of the Uchiha Compound to be with her first husband. The baby they had was Obito's mother.

"A couple of years later, he died on a mission and she moved back to the Uchiha Compound because raising a kid on your own as a kunoichi is not easy. She met another guy, her second husband there, and married him and had Obito's uncle. He died too, but it was years later when Obito's mom and brother were teenagers. From everything I've heard, he was a decent guy. He didn't treat Obito's mother differently for being only half-Uchiha like a lot of people did.

"Anyway, years go by and a nice Uchiha boy falls for Obito's mother. There was some protesting from his family, of course, but they got married and had Obito. I think his history is otherwise similar to your Obito?"

Rin pauses and looks at the boy. Kakashi's face is still one of surprise, but it's starting to mix with uncertainty and she decides to recap Obito's childhood to Kakashi. Hopefully, she's right and it doesn't differ from the story of his Obito.

"His parents both died before he was three and he was taken in by his grandmother," she says and Kakashi nods slowly as she goes on, "he was raised mostly by her with some help from his uncle."

Rin sighs. This is the hard part to talk about, the part that always makes her ache for the little boy Obito once was. "Being three-quarters Uchiha, he got some sneers and stuff growing up, but I think that wasn't as much of an issue as his attitude was. You know Obito, he's very fiery.

"His grandmother used to say his passion reminded her of her first husband, Obito's grandfather, a lot. I know he liked hearing that and his fire is definitely one of my favorite traits about him, but it can be troublesome too…"

Kakashi speaks for the first time since she began her tale. There is a note of hesitation in his tone before he says, "Is that why you're not together?"

"No," she replies only to shake her head. "Yes," she corrects only to feel like she's wrong again. Neither answer is right. Finally, she tells Kakashi, "It's complicated. When Obito and I got together, there was some disapproval. We expected that. I'm not an Uchiha and you know how their clan is. It's when I had Nika things spiraled."

"How?" he presses.

Rin feels that familiar bitterness coat her tongue. Sneering, she mutters, "The Uchiha elders didn't want Obito to give her the Uchiha name."

He blinks his eye. "Why?"

"She's less than half Uchiha. They felt it made her unworthy," she tells him, sneer darkening into a snarl as old anger flares inside of her.

Kakashi eyes her. "You and Obito had to have been furious."

"We were," she agrees. "Obito won that argument with them, and Nika is Uchiha Nika." Rin looks down and pokes at her food to distract herself. This is the hard part to talk about. The part she's really never talked to anybody else with in true depth, fearing they simply wouldn't understand.

Kakashi, she thinks he'll be different. He's experienced what it's like to grow up around people who see you as trash. He'll see she did what she thought was best to save her daughter's spirit.

"It was that incident when I realized we were going to have a lifetime of fighting ahead of us if we continued to live in the Uchiha Compound and as a part of their community," she explains. "Too many Uchiha look at her and don't see her family or as a part of their clan, they see an outsider and a lesser to look down on.

"The older she gets, the more they fight Obito when he tries to include her in anything to do with the clan. It doesn't matter if it's just celebrations or if it's Uchiha rituals. He's arguing right now to gain her the right to learn her clan techniques…"

Rin doesn't know if he'll win the battle. Or if it will even matter in the end. Nika might just pick up all on her own while watching Sasuke and Itachi train. Or perhaps Shisui and Itachi.

She takes a breath. "I don't know if they will ever come to accept her as one of their own even if she awakens the Sharingan," she admits.

Placing a hand on her chest, Rin tells Kakashi, "It hurts me to see them treat her that way. I knew this was coming and I tried to convince Obito it was better if we just raise her separately from his clan. We'd be our own little tribe, just the three of us… Except he didn't want that. He wants to be there, to fight, to demand acceptance for her and I get that."

Rin stops. She breathes in through her nose and waits for the prickling at her eyes to stop. When it does, she lifts her head and clenches her jaw. Kakashi's stare is steady, but there is no anger, hate, or judgment in his gaze. Simply patience and openness and Rin feels safe.

"I couldn't do that to Nika," she says. "I couldn't let myself watch her grow up thinking she has to prove herself to everyone who should be her family and clan every step of the way. So, I broke us up. Now, Nika lives with me mostly in the main part of the village."

Rin smiles, thinking of their home, the people who live around them, and how much she appreciates the camaraderie they share.

"She's growing up around people who smile at her when she says hello to them. Our neighbors and friends invite her to be a part of their birthdays, to come to parties to celebrate promotions they get. They show her how to cook steamed buns. Some shinobi in our apartment building will even help her when she's in our courtyard practicing taijutsu. She feels confident in herself, connected to the village, thanks to their acceptance," Rin tells Kakashi who gives a tiny nod of understanding.

Feeling buoyed by his reaction, she lets him know, "I do let her go visit Obito in the Uchiha Compound when she wants to — she even spends the night with him sometimes. She tells me she enjoys it there, but she'll come home to me quieter than she usually is or there will be this look in her eyes… I know it's hard for her. Even when she has her dad at her side, too many treat her coldly."

Rin shakes the image of her daughter, dejected and withdrawn from her head, and chuckles. "Thankfully, she inherited Obito's resilience. She bounces back from the visits and is herself again pretty quickly," she tells Kakashi.

His shoulders loosen and he curves his visible eye in a smile alongside his lips. "That's a relief."

Warmth fans through Rin. "It's a relief for me too," she confides in Kakashi. "The way she can be when she comes home to me also tells me I made the right decision too."

Kakashi hums a noise that sounds close to an agreement, but also contemplative. "It sucks you had to break up, though," he remarks.

Rin doesn't disagree. However, she is past letting herself wallow over the choice. It was necessary for them to separate. Nika is a stronger girl for it. "It was the best choice for all of us," she says. Picking up her now cold bowl of soup she downs it. Putting it back down, she heads over to where she had placed her own pallet near the fire. "I'm done eating, I'm going to lie down," she tells Kakashi.

He nods and picks up his chopsticks to start eating again. "Okay, I'll keep watch."

Before laying down, Rin stares at him, wishing she was closer. She wants to squeeze his shoulder, touch his hair. "Thank you," she whispers instead, hoping he hears her and still feels her appreciation through her voice.

-O-

"Obito!" Rin calls out when he appears as they are cleaning up their hiding place. Delighted he has finally reached them, she wraps herself around his neck and embraces him tightly.

He returns the embrace before letting her go and saying, "I caught up just in time it looks like!"

"You really did," she says as Kakashi appears at her side with their rucksacks. "We're heading out now that Kakashi is rested," she tells Obito, patting the boy's head in thanks before taking her bag from him.

Obito gasps in feigned shock. "What? You were the one who needed the break!" he says while staring down at Kakashi. He laughs and pokes him in the forehead. "Starting to lose your touch are you, old man?"

Kakashi rubs his forehead and glares up at Obito in incredulity and irritation. "Old man?" he grits.

He puts a hand on his hip and waves another at Kakashi. "Weren't you the one who told us you had a couple of years on us?"

Kakashi glares at Obito, unimpressed. "I'm not old," he grumbles.

Obito's smile turns into an awful grin before he attacks Kakashi, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Tell that to your gray hairs!" he crows as Kakashi gets away from him and retaliates by kicking him down into the dirt.

As Obito squawks and flails, Kakashi makes quick work of pinning him to the ground. Rin can't help herself. She starts to laugh. This is all too familiar and different at the same time. When they used to fight, there had been very little that was playful about it. This, though, it is clear both are having fun and just teasing each other. Now sitting on Obito, Kakashi complains, "You and your stupid humor."

Obito twitches under Kakashi as if he caused a true injury. "Ouch!" he bewails. "You should have just stabbed me with a kunai, it would have hurt less."

Rin doubles over. It's all just too much. Kakashi huffs and rolls his eyes. "He's not that funny Rin," he grumbles.

"Your reactions are," she says between giggles. "This is fun, unlike watching you two squabble when we were kids."

"…Right," mumbles Kakashi before he rises to his feet. Grabbing his rucksack from where he abandoned it, he puts it on. "We're wasting time," he declares. "Let's go."

"Wait!" yells Obito, hopping to his feet.

Kakashi makes a noise of exasperation. "What?"

Obito adjusts his own pack so it is on his front instead of his back. When done, he turns his back to Kakashi and crouches low, arms behind him. "Hop on," he urges the boy.

The boy stares and then looks back at Rin who's covered her mouth to hide her surprise. "You're kidding," scoffs Kakashi, crossing his arms and turning half away from the man.

Obito looks over his shoulder at Kakashi and proclaims, "You're still tired, I know it."

"Am not," argues Kakashi in a tone that is almost petulant.

Rin watches the two, wondering if she shouldn't intervene. Even now Obito doesn't always know when to stop pushing things. It's a problem. "You are too," Obito says with a roll of his eyes. "You're slouching way harder than you had been when we were in the village."

He's right and Kakashi seems to know it just as well as they do. So, he huffs and complains, "When did you get so observant?"

"When I had a kid," answer Obito without missing a beat. Stamping his feet a bit, Obito tries once again to urge Kakashi onto his back. The boy ignores him. So, he sighs and demands, "What did you do to yourself?" He looks over at her when Kakashi does not so much as twitch at his concern. "Rin?"

"He just used too much Chakra in a short amount of time," she says. Which is true. Obito doesn't need to know he lost the chakra because of the Sharingan. She's not sure it will help right now if he knows another version's gift is why Kakashi is in this state. Rin looks at Kakashi who nods. "Kakashi will recover just fine."

Obito hums. "Small mercies I guess," he says. He wriggles his fingers at the boy. "So, let's go, Kakashi."

"No," refuses Kakashi once again, more derisive than before.

Finally, Obito straightens himself out. Except it's not to accept Kakashi's refusal. Instead, he spins around and crowds the boy. Eyes fevered, he grabs Kakashi's arm and growls, "Listen here Bakasahi, you're our mastermind behind this all! We need you to be at your best. I'm trying to compromise with you. I would prefer we rest here until you're actually fit again. I know that's not something you want, though. So ride on my back and get as close as you can to your best state while we continue to cover ground."

Kakashi is still during the tirade. When it ends, he yanks his arm back and stares at where Obito's hand clenched his wrist. There are no marks (not that Rin expected any), but he looks at it like it's been broken for the first time. Finally, he raises his gaze and remarks, "I'd have never thought you'd grow up to be so stern."

Obito chortles. "Becoming a dad and Sensei teaches you when to be a hard-ass," he jokes.

The boy laughs, eye curving with amusement. "I can tell," he says. Then, shocking both Rin and Obito, he clambers onto Obito's back without further fuss. Tucking his face against Obito's shoulder, he mumbles, "Okay, let's move."

He looks at Rin. She smiles and nods. She'll take the lead for them. Waving an arm, she says, "You heard him, Obito, let's go."

Thank you all a million for reading and let me know your thoughts with a review