Chapter Text
In retrospect, maybe he should’ve thought things out before he came here.
Obito, young and bright and the embodiment of sunshine, gives him the biggest grin he’s ever seen.
Kakashi chokes and freezes up.
The boy is waving him over.
“Kakashi! Get over here! We’re gonna be playing kick the can again!”
Ah. This was after their first game of kick the can they’d played together, and before Obito began to rightfully show disdain towards him.
He began staggering over and Rin (RinRinRinRinRinRinRinRin) gives him a strange look (she’s alive, she’s alive). Kakashi looks all over for the hole in her chest, the blood, her glazed eyes, but she just gives him a smile and maybe he’s just going to fall over and lie in the dirt and let the earth reclaim his body.
His eyes are unfocusing on his own and he feels Obito dragging him over to the others (when did he run over to Kakashi?).
In his daze he notes that Asuma’s in the group, too. He’s alive, too.
Kakashi grips Obito’s hand a bit tighter, and if the boy notices, he doesn’t say anything.
The hand isn’t cold or limp and Kakashi’s not sure where that train of thought was going but what matters is that they’re alive.
Kids are chattering and goofing around, and suddenly he’s standing next to Rin, who’s taller than him (most of the kids here are taller than him). Obito’s off elsewhere.
“Rin,” he croaks, unable to stop himself. “You’re real, right?” He’s looking at the sky. Even if this wasn't real, Kakashi could handle it, he thinks.
“...Yeah.”
The response is automatic, completely unsurprised, and his head turns sharply to look at her in the face for real. Rin’s eyes are tired and her smile is weary.
She offers her hand to him and he takes it without a second thought. It’s warm. It’s shaking.
“Do you remember?” Kakashi can’t stop his voice from trembling just a little bit, from showing the tiniest bit of hope. He really does sound like a child.
“A bit. Sometimes I don’t remember anything at all, but there’s pieces that come back before I forget about them entirely again.”
“I- what about Obito?” Static and fuzz filled his ears.
Rin’s shaking her head. “He’s been acting a bit strange, but he doesn’t remember anything. Maybe he’s trying to figure out what’s going on in his head. Maybe his memory’s blocked?”
Kakashi remembers his scarred face, marred with bitterness and hatred for the world.
“It’s better that way.”
It remains unspoken, but the look they share says it all.
Obito deserves another chance to be a kid again, to live without the entire fuckfest he’d had to go through. Kakashi can’t imagine having to wake up as a kid again but with Obito’s load of trauma rather than his.
To say he’d gone through a lot was an understatement, but now, he can be a boy again.
Kakashi looks at Obito, chattering nonstop to another kid. The kid seems content ignoring him but Obito, he’s grinning ear to ear as he talks. It’s enough sunshine to blind Kakashi.
Rin’s hand squeezes his own a bit tighter and the two of them resolve to protect Obito like Obito had wanted to protect them all those years ago.
Something’s bubbling up in his chest, and maybe it’s happiness that he doesn’t have to deal with this alone. Maybe it’s despair over the fact that Rin couldn’t be spared from remembering her first fate. She deserves to live happily, too. It feels like vines are tightening around his ribs.
The two of them join the rest of the kids in kick the can, and this time Obito wins, because Kakashi’s still getting used to his short limbs and doesn’t remember a damn thing about how to play.
“After you died, what do you remember after?”
Rin snorts, taking a bite out of the dango stick in her hand. The sun is low in the sky, turning it a fiery orange, and the few coins Kakashi has left jingles in his pocket.
“Both you and Obito turned into idiots, more so than before. Maybe if I was still there I could’ve done something.”
“It’s not your job to keep us mentally stable. It never was.”
She looks like she’s disagreeing in the back of her mind, but chose to say nothing more. Kakashi logs this away as something to fix alongside the rest of the entire world and it’s current crash towards another war.
“...I’m sorry.”
Kakashi feels incredulous.
“For what?!” His question is stated a lot louder than he planned, but seriously, what did Rin of all people have to apologize for? If anything, he should be groveling right now. Kakashi’s entire stick up his ass as a kid was the entire reason why the rift between Obito and him became existent.
“Jumping in front of you? Using you for my suicide ?” The bitterness and anger in her voice is completely out of place.
“Rin, none of that was your fault. You were thinking about Konoha. You didn’t stuff Isobu into your body yourself.”
“I traumatized you!” She’s shaking and Kakashi won’t have any of that.
“I was already traumatized, and so were you. You aren’t at fault for my issues and that’s that. We were both kids -”
The conversation is cut short when Obito catches up with them, a little bit out of breath, and he starts rambling. Kakashi finds he can’t hear a damn thing, and everything sounds like he’s underwater.
He kind of hates this, he decides. An ugly feeling is gnarled in his stomach.
Rin shouldn’t have to remember any of that, not like Kakashi does. But she remembers, and his previous relief is washed away and all that’s left is rocks and glass shards on the shore of his mind. He’s angry .
Anger won’t do anything to help his situation (their, it’s their situation), so instead he just yanks down his scarf and mask and chews on his dango.
It takes a second to notice that Obito and Rin are staring at him.
“You- You pulled down your mask!” Obito’s jaw has comically dropped, and Rin looks just as surprised, but she just starts to laugh in response to Obito’s shock instead, covering her mouth with her hand.
She looks happy, like their conversation had been forgotten. Maybe she had really forgotten; Rin had said earlier there were issues with her memories. Kakashi exhales in relief before smirking at Obito with his mouth still full of dumpling. It tastes good, surprisingly, the sweetness not bothering him at all, and he wants more.
“What, did you think I wore it all the time, even when I ate?” He’s smiling now, and his face feels bare.
“You do wear it all the time! Even when you eat at lunch!” Obito’s laughing, and the sound fills him with so much relief that it hurts.
Kakashi just takes another bite out of his dango (god, it’s good) and the three of them walk back to each others’ houses.
Rin is dropped off first, both of her moms thanking the two of them for walking her home, and Obito and Kakashi are left to walk their separate ways, homes on the opposite sides of the village.
“Have a good night, Obito.”
Obito pauses for a second, as if he hadn’t expected that. A small smile appears on his face, and he shifts his goggles using his right hand. His eyes look older and wiser than his years.
“...G’night, Bakakashi.”