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Kakashi awakens to a sunset colored void. He can’t remember what had happened to him, nor how he’d ended up here. But something compels him to move forwards. To what, Kakashi’s not sure, but he doesn’t feel too worried about it either.
He continues walking, he doesn’t know how long, until finally he makes out two, no three, figures waiting for him in the distance. One of the figures waves at him and Kakashi blinks— and finds himself close enough to make out their features. He squints, and they… almost look like, but that can’t be—
“Hey Bakashi!” The one that looks like Obito yells, “What took you so long? You’re even later then I am! —Ouch!”
“Oh shush, you should be happy that he took so long.” And, it’s Rin cheerfully removing her fist from Obito’s head before turning a fierce look on Kakashi. “If you died even a moment sooner I would’ve brought you back to life to kill you again myself!”
“Now now,” Minato-Sensei, “I’m not sure Shinigami-sama would be happy with that—“
“Like I’d let that stop me!”
Minato-sensei’s face pales dramatically at the thought, mouth already open to try and dissuade his student when—
“Obito, Rin, Sensei… What, why are you all here?” Kakashi’s eyes were wide in shock, and maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising, if what Rin says is true and that he’d died, but he still can’t help the disbelief moving through his body.
“We were waiting for you, duh.” Obito says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. And he looks nothing like the man Kakashi had fought, nothing like the last time Kakashi had seen him. In fact, Obito looks just like he did on the day of their last mission together, before things went to hell and he’d been crushed by a boulder and then left to rot. Calmer somehow, more whole. It’s his eyes that give it away though, deep dark pits betraying the decades he’d lived through. The glint within something only gained through age and experience. Despite Obito’s current appearance, he’s still very much the same 30 something year old man who had once upon a time declared war on the world.
“Well, me and Obito. Minato-sensei’s here because Kushina-san threatened to castrate both him and Shinigami-sama if he didn’t show up for this.” Rin is smiling again, and there’s something distinctly disturbing in how gleeful it is.
“Ah…. yes haha. I would’ve come regardless you know.” A strange expression crosses on Minato-Sensei’s face before smoothing out into a teasing smile. “You’re still one of my precious students, even if you are all grown up now.”
Kakashi is still having a hard time processing this, and maybe Obito notices this because in the next moment his friend’s grabbed him by the arm and has started leading him away.
“C’mon, we should probably get going now. Not much point in just standing around here talking. We’ll have plenty of time to do that in the Pure World! Say, Sensei? What’s it like there? I asked Rin, but she didn’t know since she was busy watching over me, and we both ended up waiting for Kakashi first.”
“The Pure World huh?” A thoughtful look crossed Minato-sensei’s face before clouding over in slight confusion. “To be honest, I don’t remember much from it, just that I know it exists and that I’d been there a couple times… sorry,” a shrug, “it seems like being outside the Pure World makes you forget what you experienced while there. Even now all I remember are some vague impressions and being slightly terrified that Kushina was actually going to castrate Shinigami-sama.” He finishes with a slightly helpless look.
“Awww man! Guess we’re not getting any hints from that corner.” Obito shoots a quick glare on his sensei’s direction before turning towards the man he’d been leading along. “Well, how about you? What do you think is in the Pure World? I mean, you’ve already died once, right?”
“Obito!”
“What?! It’s just a question!”
“Yeah but…”
“Maa maa, it’s fine, really.” Kakashi cuts in before Rin could do much more then grab Obito’s ear. He doesn’t know why, but seeing them act like this, without a care in the world, was nice. It reminded him of how Team Minato had been, before they were torn apart and everything seemed to fall into ruin. “I don’t remember much either,” Obito’s mouth opens in protest, and Kakashi quickly continues, “but I think I found myself in a dark place next to a small campfire. My dad was there, and I think we talked. Don’t really remember much beyond that.”
They fall into silence after that, each lost in their own thoughts.
It’s not long before they reach the entrance. It’s rather inconspicuous, a small barely there ripple in space. And had they not been instinctively drawn towards it, it’s likely they would’ve all missed it.
Just as Kakashi takes a step forwards and through the gap, Rin reaches out and pulls him back. Kakashi opens his mouth, brows twisting in confusion, but Rin beats him to it.
“Hey guys? I know this is a little out of the blue but… in our next lives, do you think we can all meet up again?” Her voice is small, and hesitant and Kakashi has no idea what to think, because he’d never really thought of what happens beyond joining his lost friends and family, but…
“Of course Rin!” Obito exclaims, “It’s a promise.” Obito’s hand lifts up towards Rin’s, carefully hooking their pinky fingers together.
Together as one they turn towards Minato-Sensei, and it’s only a few moments of intense staring before he gives in with a small sigh.
“Well, I suppose you’ll need someone to keep an eye on you. Can’t leave you two alone now can I?” And he too locks pinkies with Rin and Obito.
“Kakashi?”
Kakashi soon finds himself under the expectant gazes of his old team, and he can’t help but notice the way Obito’s scowl is only barely masking laughter, how Rin’s eyes light up in mischief, and the fondness he sees in Minato-sensei’s face. He spares a thought to his own team seven, and wonders what’ll happen to them now that he’s gone. There’s a soft smile on his face as he thinks about everything they’d been through, survived, and Kakashi knows that they’ll be just fine.
“All right you three, you can stop looking at me like that.” It’s with a slightly exaggerated sigh that has Kakashi linking his own pinky between the three others, he’s smiling though and he can’t help but quip, “You better not be late this time, Obito.”
Obito splutters for a moment before recovering, “As if I’d be late to something as important as this! You should be the one worrying about being late. Wouldn’t want to be the youngest in the group again, would you?” But Obito’s smiling too, and when Rin makes a move towards the boy, it’s easy to see how happy she is.
Minato-Sensei sighs as the rest of the team falls into easy, nostalgic bickering. Hand freed from the pinky promise, Kakashi notices just a moment too late when the man stands behind the rest of them and places his hands behind their backs. Minato-sensei’s grin is decidedly impish when he pushes everyone and himself through the rift.
There’s the faint sensation of falling before the world disappears.
In the sunset dreamscape at the border between the mortal realm and the Pure World, a quiet shwip is heard before all is silent. The ripple in space that had swallowed the four was nowhere to be seen.