Chapter Text
“How did you know it was me?”
The question hangs in the air, and Kakashi isn’t sure how to answer. Obito is glaring at him, chest heaving, eyes wide and wild.
What can he say? Oh, I knew it was you because when you pretended to be Tobi you wore an orange mask, and I can only see orange because you’re my soulmate, and I wasn’t able to see orange after you died so of course I knew, of course I knew, I saw orange again.
Yeah, that won’t really work.
“Not going to answer, Kakashi?” Obito sounds angry - no, he sounds fucking livid. Years and years of planning and scheming, to no avail because somehow Kakashi knew. “No one else realized. It’s not like I was obvious, either...I didn’t use kamui, didn’t use my sharingan with you around at all.” His smile is crazed, his head tilted - Kakashi’s eyes narrow. He has to approach this carefully. Something is there, though - something of the boy he used to know.
“I just knew,” Kakashi replies, stepping closer and gripping at his wrist. He is preparing for Chidori, but Obito has seen this before. He is ready.
“...Impossible. Someone must have told you, or-”
“No, Obito. I just knew,” Kakashi grits his teeth. He is prepared to watch him die again, prepared to see orange fade away in front of his eyes all over again. To save the world, he’ll kill Obito Uchiha, the man who lets him see orange, that stupid, ugly color.
“Rin? Kakashi? Are you okay?”
Kakashi stares down at Obito, a lump in his throat. The orange on the idiot’s jacket is already starting to fade - just a bit of it is visible, the rest under the boulder. “Why did you do that?” he asks, feeling like he should be crying but no tears will come. He’s never been anything but but unkind to him, and yet...he laid down his life without second thought.
Rin is crying, but he cannot.
Obito was able to see red because of Rin, not him. Maybe that’s why he isn’t crying. They were doomed from the start. Even now, he can’t tell him that he’s the reason he can see orange. Not when he’s already dying. That would be cruel.
Rin is staring down at Obito as well, unable to tell Obito that she is not actually his. “Obito,” she whispers, taking his hand in hers. “We’ll get you out of here,” she says, though she knows the words are empty. She glances up at Kakashi, her expression knowing, sympathetic , because he’d told her the truth in an attempt to spurn her advances. Kakashi shakes his head, almost imperceptible. She understands, more tears spilling down her cheeks, but she says nothing.
Obito looks at her, sharingan still active. He offers a strained smile, says something, but Kakashi hardly processes it. He stares at the orange on Obito’s jacket, watching the life fade out of him in the form of washed out grey. His gaze meets that of the dying boy in front of him one last time, and he has to turn away, because some things just hurt too much.
Obito glares at Kakashi heatedly, lips curling in a sneer. “Right, because you’re so smart, aren’t you? You’ve always been so much smarter than me.” He steps closer, kunai in hand, trembling with raw rage. “Even now you’re trying to rub that in my face?”
Kakashi bites back a groan, instead rolling his eyes. “You’ve never been good at getting the point, Obito,” he comments. Does he want him to realize, though? He’s not sure anymore. Maybe it would be for the best for Obito to never connect the dots, to think that his soulmate is long dead and definitely not the man trying to kill him.
“Shut up!” He charges forward, taking Kakashi slightly off guard, but the other man is able to dodge out of the way fairly easily, landing on his feet. Obito hisses in frustration, “I hate you,” he says, though there is little venom behind the words. He isn’t sure himself if he really means it.
“Do you?” Kakashi looks almost bored - bastard . “You’re not trying very hard to kill me.”
“Yeah, well-” Obito grits his teeth. “It’s because-” he stops himself. It’s a good point - why isn’t he trying harder? Something is staying his hand, stopping him from even wanting to kill Kakashi. It’s ridiculous. This is what he has been waiting for for so long, an opportunity to kill the bastard who failed to protect Rin. This is the moment of vengeance for his long-dead soul mate.
The thoughts feel facile at this point. Is this really what he wants?
“Eloquent as ever,” Kakashi says, visible eye narrowing as Obito comes closer.
Obito does not respond, gritting his teeth as he charges forward once more, kunai between clenched fingers. To his surprise, he connects - Kakashi let this happen, he thinks vaguely, but he is quickly distracted by the blood on his hand, gushing out of the stab wound and getting on his sleeve.
It’s red.
“Ka...kashi…?” Obito stares at him, eyes wide and absolutely mortified, because this was supposed to avenge his soulmate, Rin, who made him see red. But she is dead, and here is Kakashi, and he is most definitely seeing that color once again.
Kakashi grits his teeth, trying to ignore the pain because he knows he won’t get another opportunity where Obito is so very distracted (it hits him that rather than the joy he expected to see on his face, there is something akin to horror, but he doesn’t linger on it for now). He places a hand on his wrist, kunai in hand, and rather than respond properly he cries “chidori,” plunging that hand through the Uchiha’s chest. Blood stains his sleeve as well, and Obito stares at him with wide eyes, coughing up a mouthful of red. There is so much red, red everywhere, it is inescapable.
Kakashi’s hand trembles and he drops the kunai, slowly withdrawing. He’s been here before (it’s always chidori), and all he can do is stare. Obito hardly moves, transfixed on something. “Obito, I’m-”
“I can see red,” Obito says, voice muted. All signs of rage from before have faded. “I shouldn’t be able to see red, if…” he trails off. Kakashi raises his headband at last, showing his own sharingan. Their eyes meet, and Obito sees the red of his own eye staring back. “If...Rin was my soul mate….You-” Obito’s expression scrunches into anger again, but he sinks to knees, blood dripping to the floor as he drops his own kunai. “Bakashi,” he whispers, shaking his head. “All this time…” he holds a hand over his mouth, red blood spilling between his fingers. “You knew? All this time I thought you hated me...”
“If I had told you, you probably wouldn’t have believed me anyways. Besides, I was nine,” Kakashi kneels down in front of him, taking one of his hands. His wound is not as serious, practically superficial - he had to let Obito connect at least, to distract him. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, though, and he can’t hold back a grimace. “I recognized you because you wore an orange mask as Tobi, and...I couldn’t see orange until I met you.”
Obito coughs again, his eyelids drooping a little as he stares at their hands. “Why didn’t you say something while I was in the mask?” he asks, voice quiet. He knows the question is a stupid one, but he has to ask it anyways. It’s not as if he hasn’t already been played a fucking fool.
“Right, I’m sure saying ‘hi Obito, you’re my soulmate and I know it’s you because I can see orange again,’ would’ve gone over very well.”
“When you put it like that…” Obito squeezes his hand tightly. “Could’ve fucking explained yourself before stabbing me,” he grits out. “Unless you still want me to die?”
“I thought your soulmate was Rin,” Kakashi says simply, though this isn’t the whole truth. He is met with a scoff.
“Fuck you,” he spits, though once again there is no venom. He is too tired. “...why did you stab me?” he leans forward, resting his forehead on Kakashi’s shoulder, because he’s just so fucking exhausted now. “If we are soulmates…”
“I figured I wasn’t enough to make you betray Madara.”
“Bakashi,” Obito hisses. He could punch him, really, for this level of stupidity. “I hate you.”
“Do you?” Kakashi asks again, and Obito manages a weak chuckle.
“No,” he says, “because if I did, I would try to bring you down with me, or I’d kamui us to Madara right now.”
“...I’ll call for a medic,” he shakes his head and he trails bloody fingers through Obito’s hair. This isn’t how he had imagined it (because of course he had imagined a world where his soulmate was still alive and he could pet his hair), but it’s still nice. His hair is soft, even if they’re both sitting here bleeding out (it’s almost laughable, really).
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure a konoha medical nin is going to save the fucking war criminal,” Obito mutters, his eyes sliding shut as he relaxes under Kakashi’s touch. He’s getting blood all over him, but he can’t bring himself to care anymore. “Idiot,” he adds, “there’s no way.”
“They don’t have to know.”
Obito laughs again. “I’m not exactly...subtle,” he points out. The scars make it impossible to hide unless he’s under a mask, not to mention he’s definitely wearing the Uchiha crest and, oh, he has a fucking sharingan and a rinnegan, whoopsie .
“Maa, most didn’t know the man under the mask. I just happened to know since he was my long-dead-soulmate-turned-criminal-mastermind,” Kakashi squeezes Obito’s hand again. “Besides, I need healed too. It’ll be fine.”
“Won’t they ask what happened? Wonder how the fuck a Uchiha who isn’t Sasuke or Itachi is alive?” He doesn’t comment on the criminal-mastermind thing for now, though he must admit that it’s flattering to be thought of as a mastermind of anything.
“Madara Uchiha came and tried to kill us both,” Kakashi supplies, “but you heroically saved the day and sacrificed yourself for me, so they should totally save your stupid, self-sacrificial ass.”
“Don’t tempt fate, Kakashi,” Obito grumbles, but he manages a small smile. “I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“Really?”
“Well, if I still had a heart. Kinda feels like you ripped it out with Chidori right now.”
“You’re an idiot,” Kakashi says, a fond smile on his face underneath the mask.
“I think you blasted the curse mark off of my heart, at least,” Obito comments, snuggling a little closer. Who cares about dignity when you might die. Besides, Kakashi is warm, and he hasn’t felt real warmth for years. “Hate to break it to you, but I probably won’t die unless you slit my throat since I regenerate.”
“Maa, that’s a tempting proposition.” He files ‘curse mark’ away into the ‘things to keep Obito out of jail’ portion of his brain. He’ll ask about it again later. “But I think I’ll keep you alive for now.”
“Damn, I was almost hoping you wouldn’t. Talk to me when I’m in a Konoha jail cell and I’ll definitely wish you wouldn’t have,” Obito’s shoulders visibly slump and he disentangles their hands, wrapping his arms around Kakashi’s torso and practically clinging to him.
“I won’t let that happen.”
“...I don’t understand why,” is the sullen reply, but the Hatake doesn’t answer for now. He thinks, for a moment, that maybe Obito has a point, and maybe he does deserve to rot in a jail cell. But, well, no one has ever accused Kakashi of being an overly altruistic man, and he’s pretty sure he deserves to be selfish this time. He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure Obito can stay with him. He returns the embrace, giving him a comforting squeeze,
“I can’t lose you again,” he says at last. Obito tenses at first, but he relaxes a little.
“Sap,” he accuses, though his tone is light (at least, for someone who has a hole in his chest and might actually die).
When they’re finally found by a medical nin, Obito has fallen asleep in Kakashi’s arms.
She treats Kakashi first (her insistence), and asks him what on earth happened because there’s a man who has foreign cells grafted into him and a hole in his chest that is already starting to regenerate who is also probably a Uchiha, and this is kind of concerning.
“Maa, you worry too much,” Kakashi tries to comfort her, and he smiles as she heals the (mostly) superficial wound that Obito had given him. “You see, I heard rumors that an old friend of mine was here, fighting Madara Uchiha,” he starts. Her eyes dart to the Uchiha crest on Obito’s coat and Kakashi laughs awkwardly - whoops, can’t have her thinking he’s Madara . “He’s a different Uchiha! Turns out he was kind of being controlled by Madara - when the old bastard was about to kill me, though, he sacrificed himself for me.”
Her eyes narrow in suspicion. “Where is his body, then?” she asks. “I’m assuming you defeated him, considering that you’re both alive…?” She wants to ask more, but refrains for the time being.
“Well, he’s probably just lost in kamui,” Kakashi offers, figuring she probably wouldn’t believe him but not caring either. “He’s pretty hard to kill.”
“I really thought all the Uchiha but Sasuke were dead,” she comments idly, moving on to Obito once Kakashi is no longer bleeding and seems fine, which is probably better than the Uchiha at this point.
“So did I,” he replies, shrugging and offering a bemused chuckle. “But Madara was hiding under that tacky orange mask,” he says, stretching his arms.
“So who is this one?” she asks, staring at the hole in Obito’s chest which was trying to regenerate, but blood was definitely still pouring out and getting absolutely everywhere . Ugh.
“Someone I thought was dead for a long time,” he answers cryptically, making her cross her arms.
“I’m not going to heal him if I don’t even know his name.”
He sighs dramatically, raising his hands in surrender. “Maa, I think he’ll regenerate just fine on his own, but no matter. He is Obito.”
Her eyes drift to the scars in the Uchiha’s skin, and her expression softens a bit. “Well, as long as it’s not Sasuke or Madara,” she concedes, and she rests her hands above the gaping wound and beginning to exert chakra.
“Definitely not either of them,” Kakashi says, amusement all too clear from his tone. She shoots him a glare, but supposes it’s a nice change of pace to see Kakashi Hatake genuinely happy for once. She doesn’t really believe the story, definitely doesn’t believe that Madara is currently lost in kamui (whatever that is), but she doesn’t care to probe further.
Let the higher-ups worry about that. For now, she’s just going to do her job.
Really, it’s unnecessary to continue keeping Obito in the hospital. He’s been here for a week now and they’ve been running test after test (because by all accounts he should definitely be fucking dead right now), and he’s getting really annoyed. Maybe they’re worried he’s going to kill the whole village or something, or maybe they’re concerned that he’s going to immediately jump off a cliff (he hasn’t exactly said that he wants to die blatantly, but the guilt is really eating up at him and he just doesn’t understand why he isn’t being punished and maybe they should just fucking execute him, so the thought of ending it is more than somewhat tempting).
His nurse comes in with a clipboard, a bored expression on his face. “Okay, Mr. Uchiha. You’ll be released tomorrow - we just need to run one more test.”
Yeah, like he hasn’t heard that one before. He glares, making the other man slightly uneasy, but he doesn’t protest too much. He’s not in the mood to be scary. “Do you actually mean it this time?”
“Someone has been, ah, quite insistent that you be released,” the nurse responds, the hint of a smile on his face.
“...Gee, I can’t imagine who,” Obito says sarcastically.
“Truly a mystery,” the nurse says, jotting something down on his clipboard passively. “Anyways, you have a visitor.”
“I wonder who it is,” Obito says, stretching and running a hand through his hair. “You can send them in, not like I’m doing anything.”
The nurse just snorts and walks out. To the Uchiha’s surprise, it is most definitely not Kakashi who enters his hospital room, but Tsunade. She is already examining him, eyes lingering on his scars, and he squirms uncomfortably. “Good afternoon, Obito Uchiha.” Her tone is cool - she is trying to gauge something, and he’s too tired for mind games.
“Hey,” he responds, meeting her eyes. She doesn’t seem unnerved by the sharingan-rinnegan duo, and he finds it refreshing. He was getting tired of the ‘terrifying villain’ act, honestly. “Are you here to tell me when I’m released, I’m going to jail?”
She snorts. “Not exactly,” she replies, sitting down in a chair next to his bed. “Besides...you heroically sacrificed yourself to stop Madara Uchiha from killing Kakashi Hatake, right?”
Obito stares at her for a moment. Kakashi actually went with that bullshit fucking story? “...er…” he rubs the back of his neck. “Well, you see, it’s more like I was going to kill Kakashi because he came to kill me, but then I stabbed him a little and there was blood and I realized oh fuck, Bakashi is my soulmate, and then he definitely stabbed me through the chest and removed the curse mark my grandpa put on me to keep me loyal to him.” The words just spill out, and he probably isn’t making much sense, but he really doesn’t feel like lying anymore. It’s been years and fucking years of lies. Maybe Kakashi is right about the whole self-sacrificial thing - this was definitely one his stupider moves. Judging from the glare on Tsunade’s face, he’s right about it being stupid.
She pinches the bridge of her nose. “...Madara Uchiha almost killed Kakashi Hatake, and you stepped in, willing to die for him. That’s why you’re not in jail, and you’re not even really in trouble,” she repeats, running a hand through her hair and sighing. “There is a catch, of course. More like a few.”
Obito stays quiet at first, digesting what she had said. It’s hard to believe that the hokage is accepting the bullshit story, but he has a feeling it doesn’t have much do with him, and in fact everything to do with Kakashi. Fuck. “I figured there would be a catch.”
“You’re going to have to live with Kakashi, and remain on your very best behavior. Maybe you’ll be sent on a few missions with him, eventually. Oh, and it would probably be in your interest to tell us, if, ahem…” she looks him in the eyes again, an amused smile on her lips, “if Madara Uchiha escapes from kamui.”
He blinks once, twice, a third time, not fully processing this information because there are several layers of what the actual fuck. Kakashi actually told people that Madara Uchiha is lost in kamui? What kind of moron would think that’s a reasonable lie?
The kind of moron that he’ll now be living with.
The kind of moron who is, actually, his soulmate.
Fuck.