spoilers for 635

[ura_no_ura]

I'm ready.

It's finally time.

Comments

[slugly]

['I'

Alone. Even if she understands, intimately, what it's like to want to take on the burden of stopping a wayward teammate and being on the receiving end of a blow. But she couldn't save him.

She's sick of this. First Naruto and now Kakashi? Teeth audibly click shut and the shimmering in her eyes hardens.]

There's no reason for you to shoulder this all on your own.

We're a team...right, sensei?

1/2

[ura_no_ura]

[ Ah, but then, Kakashi's had more than one team.

And Obito was -- no, is -- perhaps the one teammate who meant everything. Even if Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Sai hold a large piece of his heart, and he would do anything to save them, no one quite compares to who and what Obito means to Kakashi. And that is not something he would expect anyone to understand.

Except, perhaps, Obito.

Kakashi knows he won't regret this, because it means saving them all. His own life is small and inconsequential compared to all the lives out there, outside of Kamui, outside of the only left that he and Obito still share. His life does not mean very much in comparison with what's at stake. He should not even really be alive, anyway. He's lived on borrowed time since the moment that rock fell, and all the while Obito was trying to find a way back to Rin. To undo what Kakashi did with Rin's heart in his hand. ]

[ura_no_ura]

[ He smiles.

Smiling is what Kakashi does best, after all. Smiling, when there is nothing to smile about, but perhaps it's just what Sakura needs to see right now. Kakashi's smile that says everything will be alright, even when things are so very wrong. ]

This is teamwork, Sakura.

[ Says very gently. ]

In time, you'll come to understand.

[slugly]

[She isn't young and romantic anymore -- she doesn't cling to hopes. She's a veteran of heartache. Smiles don't make everything better and they never did.]

...No, this is stopping someone before they become more of a monster.

[Understanding, accepting, helping, and loving within forgiveness is Sakura's strength.]

So you should understand how I feel too.

[ura_no_ura]

[ When Kakashi looks at Obito, he doesn't see someone without humanity. He sees too much of it. Humanity, in its ugliest, most tragic of forms. Obito is broken. And Kakashi can't think of any other way to fix him.

Obito is his responsibility.

And this is his penance for failing him. For failing Rin. For not being able to protect what mattered most. ]

This is something only I can do.

[ Not only as a shinobi of Konoha, or as a former member of Team Minato, but as a man who lives only because of Obito's sacrifice in the first place. ]

[slugly]

[Her tongue is sharp, the low smoldering flames of her impatience tempering it.]

Of course only you can do it because you're the only one stuck in that dimension with him and you won't allow anyone to--!

[A hiss of a breath and her bones creak as she clenches a fist.]

I thought that too, you know.

[ura_no_ura]

[ Kakashi smiles again. Sakura thinks this is like her attempt to kill Sasuke. As though it could even be compared, when it can't at all. When the only resemblance it bears is that it involves two teammates. ]

Mm, I'm sure you did. But this is different.

[slugly]

[And Uchiha.]

How?

[ura_no_ura]

Well, I suppose you can say the only reason why I'm even alive right now is because of him.

[slugly]

...He saved your life?

[ura_no_ura]

Mm~ And you know, I wasn't born with a Sharingan.

[slugly]

[Like a puzzle, a few pieces click into place.]

He-- Why would he...? The Sharingan is the pride of the Uchiha clan.

[ura_no_ura]

[ This is something he never talks about.

Ever.

But maybe he'll make an exception, this time. ]

It was... a long time ago. During the Third Great Ninja War.

Back then... he was different. A lot like Naruto, actually. He was my teammate... and my best friend, or the closest thing I had to one at the time. We were on a mission, on our teammate was kidnapped... While saving her, I lost left eye and my depth perception, so I didn't notice that a rock was falling, and he sacrificed himself to save me by taking the hit instead. [ Kakashi is quiet as he explains, recounting a past he's lived with for far too long. ] The rock was too heavy for me to move, and the entire right side of his body was crushed. We knew we couldn't save him. But...before we lost him -- [ he doesn't say before he died because Obito didn't die, after all ] he gave me his eye as a gift.

He said he wanted to live on to see the future through me.

[slugly]

[Kakashi has never talked this much.

She doesn't know how to respond to that other that other than the offhand remark of how generous a gift that was. She's sure that won't help anything and it's sort of pointless to say anyway.

So she says nothing for a long time.]



What was the gift for?

[ura_no_ura]

[ It takes Kakashi a moment before he actually manages to respond. ]

It was my first day as a jounin.

[ The words are as heavy as they are quiet. ]