Archive of Our Own ^beta

He couldn't stop shaking. The tremors wracked his body uncontrollably, as though unseen forces were trying to tear him in a thousand different directions. Fifteen feet away—though it might as well have been miles—an Iwa ninja crouched with an angry smirk slashed across his face and a kunai in his hand. His eyes were fathomless and dark, filled to the brim with nothing but vast emptiness. A weapon's eyes. A ninja's eyes. And they pierced Obito down to his very soul.

But none of those were the cause of his shakes. It was the figure clutched in the man's grasp. The ninja's free hand was tangled in silver hair, holding the head of his captive in place, while his kunai hovered centimeters over an obsidian eye stretched wide with unabashed terror. The other eye was milky and damaged, bisected by an almost neat vertical line that hadn't been allowed to heal as it should have been, leaving it a deep, angry red.

It was into those mismatched eyes that Obito stared with open horror while the question the man had just posed hung heavy in the fifteen feet separating him from Kakashi. The silence stretched on, only punctured by their heavy breathing and the faint rustle of fingers tugging harshly on strands of hair. Kakashi winced and the tip of the kunai touched his clammy forehead. Just barely, but enough to send Obito teetering toward the edge of his control.

"Well?" the ninja snarled, tired of the silence. He pushed the kunai a little closer, and Obito's eyes fixed with morbid fascination on the thin trail of red that trickled almost lazily down the side of Kakashi's face.

He knew he needed to answer, but the words were lodged in his throat. Desperately, he shook his head, feeling the familiar push of tears against the backs of his eyes.

The ninja arched an eyebrow. "C'mon, kid, I'll let him go if you tell me where Konoha's troops are based in Grass Country."

Obito screwed his eyes shut, lost in the feel of his shoulders wracking with suppressed sobs. Just one sentence. Not even that—two words. Two words and Kakashi would be fine. Two words and Konoha might lose the war. He could feel the two sides of him pulling mercilessly. Duty and love, how could he ever choose between the two? Didn't duty stem from love? Or was it the other way around?

He opened his eyes and looked into Kakashi's. His teammate (_best friend) _seemed calmer now, and when Obito looked past the cold ninja shield and the fear, he saw a willingness to sacrifice that was like a blow to the chest. Did Kakashi know what he would be giving up?

It was a stupid, stupid question and Obito mentally slapped himself for it. Of _course, _Kakashi knew. He knew better than anyone. But he was willing to throw away everything he had worked so hard for simply because duty demanded it. Or was it love?

He saw what Kakashi wanted him to choose, he just didn't know if he could.

"Well?" The ninja asked, and they were back at square one. Or maybe they had never left it. Because Obito was too weak to open his mouth and kill his friend's (life) ninja career.

But he had to. He had to.

With a shuddering gulp of air that sounded more like a sob, the Uchiha lowered his head, finding himself unable to look at Kakashi any longer. "No." It was a whisper, a breath of air, and Obito wasn't even sure if he was refusing the offer or pleading for Kakashi's salvation. It didn't really matter anymore.

"No?" The ninja repeated, sounding a little surprised. Obito drew a small amount of grim satisfaction from that, but beyond it there was nothing but endless pain. "What are you saying no to, brat? You have to be a little more specific. Either you tell me the information I want or you give me the order to take this eye. It has to be one of the two. Or I'll just kill him and be done with it."

There was no mocking taint to the words. The man spoke them as if he was commenting that the sky was blue, or it was going to rain. The unfeeling tone plunged like ice into Obito's heart, causing him to shiver.

Another sob tried to claw itself free, but Obito was stronger now, and no longer a child, so he was able to keep it from escaping. He wanted to tell Kakashi how sorry he was for the choice he was going to make—the choice that had never really been a choice but felt like one—but his next words either had to condemn his village to Hell or his teammate (best friend).

There was too much weight on his shoulders. He felt as though he was suffocating, like the fate of the world was dependent on this single moment. And maybe it was. Maybe what he said next had the power to change everything. The thought was terrifying and too big, because he was weak, and a mess, and too young to make this decision.

But he had to. Because of duty. Because of love.

The next words were the hardest he'd ever uttered. "N-no. I … won't t-t-tell you." A quiet sob. He bowed his head so low his forehead was almost touching the dirt floor beneath him. "B-blind … him." The minute he spoke the words, he wanted to wrench them out of the air and shove them back in his mouth. In his chest he could feel his heart cracking and shattering like glass, and he knew it would never be whole again. It might break so badly he wouldn't even be able to find all the pieces.

"Watch," the ninja commanded. "Or I'll kill the little girl you two both love so much."

Obito flinched as though he'd been struck, and desperately wished the ground would swallow him, or a bolt of lightning would streak down from the sky and strike him dead. Anything to avoid watching his teammate (best friend) pay the consequences for his choices. The logical part of his brain that rarely functioned properly, but had grown stronger over the past months as emotion had been shoved aside, told him that this was just another way to break him.

Obito wanted to tell the Iwa nin to stop wasting his time.

He was already broken beyond repair.

Sobbing openly now and no longer caring, Obito pulled his head up from the floor and forced his resisting eyes open. For Rin, he told himself, and tried to believe that it was enough.

Kakashi looked so small and fragile in the man's grip. His one working eye remained pinned on Obito, and for a second the distraught Uchiha thought he saw forgiveness there.

Then the kunai came down in one violent motion.

Obito cried at the sound of Kakashi's pained scream. Blood gushed from the slash, and Obito watched helplessly through a blur of tears as Kakashi's back arched then the jounin threw himself forward as though trying to flee from the pain. All this did was pull roughly on his hair, still gripped tightly by the Iwa nin, and he cried out again on reflex—voice ragged with tears and agony. Finally stilling, he trembled in the enemy's hold as the man gazed down at him without a drop of empathy.

Obito wanted to die. "Kakashi…." he hiccupped, unable to give a voice to the emotions and thoughts crashing through him with enough force to leave him breathless. There were no words for this. Not even tears were enough.

The ninja pulled Kakashi up by his hair, refusing to grant him any relief, and dragged him across the fifteen-foot gap to where Obito sat huddled against the wall. Obito flinched as the Iwa nin shoved Kakashi's face inches from his own, forcing him to face the damage he had wrought with his refusal. This close he could smell the blood. It made him sick, but he held himself back. If he threw up now it would hit Kakashi.

"Look," the Iwa ordered in that ice-coated voice. "See what you've done to him?"

Obito looked, and the nausea swelled again. Kakashi's face was coated in blood that still flowed from his eye. The slash was more ragged than the first and bigger, crawling in a crooked line from Kakashi's eyebrow across his eye to end almost in the middle of his cheek, stretching across his skin toward his ear. The other eye was an almost perfect circle and overflowing with panic, darting back and forth as it tried to see things it no longer could. The silver-haired jounin still shook like a leaf in the wind, and the soft, pained noises spilling past his lips were gut-wrenching.

Obito's heart shattered.

He broke down sobbing again and reached with trembling hands for his injured friend, wanting to comfort, apologize, beg Kakashi to let him die—he wasn't sure which. The Iwa nin snorted and let go, allowing Kakashi to fall into Obito's arms. Obito pulled Kakashi as close to him as possible, unconsciously attempting to shield him from the enemy.

The Iwa nin stared down at them for a moment with impassive eyes, then turned with another snort and left the room. Obito watched him go in shock, disconcerted by the small spark of humanity the man was suddenly showing.

But he was soon forgotten as Kakashi moaned softly, instinctively burying his face in Obito's neck as he sought relief from the pain. Obito wrapped his arms tighter around Kakashi—secretly glad he no longer had to look at that horrible, jagged line across the jounin's face and hating himself for it.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered hoarsely. There was nothing else to say but that.

To his shock, Kakashi lifted a quivering hand and bopped Obito weakly on the back of the head. "Moron," he coughed out. The word sounded like wagon wheels against gravel, course and broken.

Obito shook his head, weeping hot tears into Kakashi's hair. "Th-this i-is all my fault. I-if I h-hadn't—"

"S-stop," Kakashi cut him off. "Just … s-stop. I … d-don't blame you … b-baka."

Obito just continued to weep, overwhelmed by Kakashi's instant forgiveness. Slowly, Kakashi pulled back, still shaking but stronger than he had been. The wound was no longer bleeding, but Obito felt sick for the third time when Kakashi slowly blinked his injured eye open, hissing in pain.

"Kakashi … d-don't…" He trailed off when he saw the eye—milky and sightless.

Blind. Kakashi was blind.

"I … I … can't … s-see…." Kakashi's damaged eyes widened with horror as comprehension hit him with brutal force. Panic swiftly set in after the shock when he realized that this crushing darkness would be his world forever. His last image of Obito was a face twisted in terror and wet with tears. His last image of Rin was her frightened eyes as she was dragged away by a Rock nin. The last thing he would ever see was the sharp glint of a kunai descending and the enemy's cruel gaze.

He was blind.

A harsh sob slipped past his lips—the first he had ever uttered—and he could feel himself finally breaking. This was too much. The darkness was endless, pressing in from all sides, and he couldn't breathe, he couldn't …

A part of Kakashi knew he was hyperventilating, that the choked gasps grating against his ears were his own, but the rest of him was too consumed with panic to care. He felt as though he was floating in an endless black sea, disconnected from reality and unable to grasp anything solid as an anchor.

Toomuchtoodarktoodarkcan'tbreathecan't…

A hand landed on his arm, and the weight dragged him back down to earth. Gasping, he found the arm attached to the hand and held on with all his strength.

"Kakashi…" Obito's voice drifted across the sea. Kakashi focused on it, used it to calm himself, and after a few painful seconds his lungs let air flow freely again.

Obito shifted his weight, and Kakashi nearly panicked again, digging his fingers into the Uchiha's arm. "D-don't g-go…"

Obito sounded like he was crying, which was no surprise. For once, Kakashi didn't mind. Obito could cry for both of them. "I won't. I promise," his teammate rasped.

Kakashi didn't acknowledge his words, merely bent over slowly, clutching Obito's arm against his chest. He was tired. He was hurting. He was scared.

Obito stared blankly at his teammate (_best friend). _He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or say. Nothing could make this better. Kakashi's fingernails were digging bloody crescents into his arm through his sleeve, but the pain hardly mattered. He deserved it. He thought about apologizing again, but what would be the point? Still, he felt that he should at least say _something. _Talking was what he was supposed to be good at, and Kakashi seemed to take comfort from his voice. But the one time he needed words, they deserted him.

"I'm scared," he whispered at last. It was a little more honest than he had meant to be, but reassuring words simply wouldn't come. Kakashi had closed his eyes again—the pain was probably too much—and the jagged cuts stood out harshly against his pale skin.

"I know," Kakashi panted, still holding his arm like a lifeline. "I am, too."

Before this whole mess Kakashi never would have admitted that. It was a testament to how far they'd come. Or maybe it was how far they'd _fallen. _There were no barriers between them anymore. Pride had long since been trampled, along with ideology and any past differences. In this dark world of endless pain and suffering, the only comfort they had lay in each other.

"Do you think we'll live through this?" Obito shifted and reached out to place his other hand on his friend's heaving shoulder, hoping it would provide a little more security.

"I doubt it." Kakashi finally dropped Obito's arm and hugged himself tightly, seeking some way to channel the pain still coursing through his eye. "T-they can't … a-afford to let us live."

Obito was saved from having to formulate a reply by the door opening slowly. The two boys stiffened, and Obito hurried to pull Kakashi behind him, ready to protect him from anything the enemy might have planned. Instead of an attack, Rin was pushed into their dim cell. She landed hard on her hands and knees, but didn't cry out. She'd gotten stronger, too.

"Rin!" Obito cried, relieved that she was still alive. It was never a certainty here.

The medic-nin looked up, and her eyes brightened slightly at the sight of him. She staggered to her feet and hurried towards him as quickly as her injured leg would allow. As she approached, Obito mentally took stock of her injuries. Her leg was worse and she was hugging her right arm close to her side, but beyond that there was nothing but the almost-normal cuts and bruises.

It was more than a little sad that they had grown accustomed to a world where cuts and bruises were considered normal.

"Is she okay?" Kakashi whispered behind him, fingers curling in the back of his tattered shirt.

Obito nodded automatically. It took him nearly a full five seconds to realize that Kakashi couldn't see the gesture anymore. Kicking himself, he turned a little and spoke. "Yeah. She seems okay."

"Obito…" Rin stopped in front of him and he watched silently as she examined him in the same manner he had done her. When her eyes found his face, she froze, taking in the drying tears on his skin. Automatically, her brown eyes whipped to Kakashi. A horrified cry escaped her when she saw the new line across his face.

"Kakashi!" She ran to his side and hit the dirt hard, reaching for him before her knees even touched solid ground. Gasping, she ran her fingers gently over the ragged gash. Kakashi flinched slightly, but bore her touch, needing it now more than ever before.

"W-what happened?" the medic choked out.

Obito winced, feeling the answer already tangling up in his throat. How could he tell her? She would never forgive him. But she deserved the truth. To give her anything less was unacceptable. He licked his chapped lips, and opened his mouth to pour out the painful story.

"We refused … to give them important information. So they b-blinded … me." Obito started as Kakashi spoke for him, blinking at his comrade in surprise.

Rin covered her mouth with her hand, eyes reflecting her dismay. "No…" she breathed because somehow this was more than any of them had expected—more lasting, more permanent. Broken bones, burns, lacerations, and mind games could all be handled. But this? This was beyond them. This wouldn't heal with time. This was irreversible.

She still reached for Kakashi, though. She would never forgive herself if she didn't try. But his hand came up and grabbed her wrist when she rested her fingers over his damaged eye. "Don't." His tone left no room for argument. "You'll end up … killing yourself."

Rin swallowed back her tears, knowing that he was right. She had no chakra to speak of thanks to numerous injections that kept her reserves constantly depleted. If she tried to perform any kind of ninjutsu she would die in minutes.

Beside her, Obito wiped away fresh tears with his grimy sleeve. "Th-this is all m-my fault."

"No it isn't." Strength was returning to Kakashi's voice. "Don't you dare … blame yourself, Obito."

"I told him to do it!" Obito all but screamed. Rin gasped, glancing back and forth between her two teammates and wondering how such a thing could possibly be true. But there was no lie in Obito's eyes … or Kakashi's. Her silver-haired teammate just looked pained and saddened while Obito's black eyes were overflowing with despair and self-hatred.

"I told him to blind you." Obito's voice dropped back to a normal level as tears stirred in his eyes again.

Kakashi sighed. "And saved Konoha. I would have made the same choice. You … did the right thing."

"But—"

"Enough!" Rin cried, throwing herself between them. "Stop it, both of you. It doesn't matter, you hear me? It doesn't matter." And it didn't. Blame wouldn't change anything. It was finished, and there was nothing they could do but accept it and move on, holding fast to each other.

Choking on her sobs, Rin wrapped one arm around Kakashi and the other Obito, dragging them both close to her. They stiffened for an instant then Obito relaxed, followed closely by Kakashi. Two sets of arms wound their way around her, returning her two-sided embrace. Kakashi buried his face in her shoulder while Obito rested his chin on top of her bent head.

They stayed like that for a long time, drawing strength from each other.

* * *

The first thing Obito saw when he opened his eyes in the hospital was Kakashi lying pale and still in the bed next to him. For a moment, he paused to marvel that he was still alive, and that Kakashi's chest was rising and falling ever so slightly, in spite of the oxygen mask fixed securely over his face. Then his attention was drawn to the thick bandages covering both of Kakashi's eyes. They seemed to be layered heavily, wrapped all the way down past his ear and nearly covering his entire right cheek.

He looked like a zombie.

The Obito from Before would have died laughing from that mental image. But that was Before. Now, Obito only wanted to cry. There was absolutely nothing funny about this anyway. Unable to look at Kakashi anymore, the Uchiha focused on his own condition. His left leg was encased in a cast all the way up to his hip, preventing any movement, and his right arm was in a similar state. He could feel bandages wrapped tightly around his torso, binding the lacerations in the back, burns in the front, and broken ribs under the skin. They wound like white snakes all the way down his left arm, covering numerous burns and cuts made by kunai and senbon needles.

He looked like a zombie, too.

Sighing, Obito lay his head back against the pillows and tried to let everything sink in. They were back in Konoha—safe and sound and alive. By some miracle, they were going to live through this.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

The door opened with a bang and heels clacked loudly across tile, lacking any concern or respect for the two weary patients. Obito flinched instinctively at the approaching footsteps—half expecting this to be a genjutsu, or a dream, and with a blink he would back in the dingy prison facing the merciless eyes of the enemy. Instead, a face he hadn't seen since he was a child loomed over him—beautiful features contorted by a concentrated frown.

"T-Tsunade-sama," he stuttered in amazement. His throat felt like someone had scraped it raw, and his voice hardly sounded like his own.

The Slug Princess shook her head at him. "Don't try to talk just yet, baka."

She needn't have worried. Obito wasn't capable of more than staring with captivated awe. He had only seen the legendary Tsunade once, years ago on one of her rare trips to the village. Jiraiya and Sensei had spoken to her, mostly. But she had acknowledged him with a brief nod.

Rin hadn't stopped talking about the meeting for weeks.

Tsunade's warm fingers curled around his wrist, checking his pulse. "You're lucky," she remarked without any definable emotion. "Your injuries were severe and a lot of them were infected. Shizune lost you twice during surgery, and almost had to amputate your leg. You won't be walking on it for awhile, but it's healing fine now."

Obito paid little attention to her words—almost dying was really no surprise. "Kakashi … and Rin…"

Her fingers flicked his forehead absently. "What did I tell you about talking?"

He opened his mouth to apologize but promptly closed it when she glared at him. "Anyway, your friends will be fine. The girl—Rin?—almost lost an arm, and had a horrible fever for awhile, but she's through the worst of it. The Hatake boy on the other hand …" Here she hesitated, and Obito felt his building hope plummet to the bottom of his stomach like lead.

No.

"W-what?" He ignored the no talking rule, desperate to know the fate of the friend he'd failed.

Tsunade sighed, and sympathy flared briefly in her cynical eyes. It made Obito's blood run cold. "We did everything we could, but we couldn't get his sight back. The cuts were bad, and infected. We barely managed to salvage the eyes themselves." She glanced at Kakashi and Obito followed her gaze, feeling his heart wrench at how weak and pale Kakashi looked against the white bed sheets.

Not a zombie, Obito realized, a ghost.

"We'll do a few more healing sessions, and we'll probably be able to reduce the scarring. But the blindness is permanent. Sorry, kid."

Obito listened to the words with detached calm. Normally, he would have been sobbing, but he thought that his tears might have finally run out. His eyes were dry and aching.

"Oh," he whispered, and couldn't bring himself to say anything more than that.

Tsunade sighed and reached up to fiddle with his IV. "Get some sleep, kid. The pain medicine I have you on should help."

"W-wait," Obito whispered as she turned toward the door. When her eyes fell on him, he continued hurriedly, wanting to make the request before the pain medicine sent him under again. "C-could you … move m-me closer … t-to K-Kakashi?"

It felt strange not being able to reach out and touch his teammate. For months he, Kakashi, and Rin had huddled together when they weren't chained, drifting off to sleep in each other's arms. When Kakashi was blinded, Rin and Obito's touch became his anchor. He had seemed to feel more safe when he could sense his comrades close to him, keeping a little of the darkness at bay. Obito had grown accustomed to falling asleep with Kakashi's head on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around Rin. Without that warmth, he felt empty.

He just hoped Tsunade could understand this.

Fortunately, the Slug Princess's eyes softened slightly, and she nodded. "Fine."

To his shock, she merely slid his bed across the floor with one foot as though it weighed nothing, stopping when it was only about a foot from Kakashi's. She chuckled when he gaped up at her. "Don't look so surprised, kid."

He blushed and looked away toward Kakashi's still form as the renowned medic readjusted his IV. The silver-haired jounin hadn't so much as twitched during the whole noisy chaos of moving his bed. If it hadn't been for the steady rise and fall of his chest, and his breath fogging up the oxygen mask, Obito would have thought he was looking at a corpse.

"There you go. Shizune will be in to check on you eventually. And Minato. He's been climbing the walls." Her heels clacked against the tile again, followed shortly by the click of the door closing. Obito was glad she hadn't waited for a response. He didn't have one to give.

Sighing wearily and half-wishing he was dead, Obito reached out and placed his hand on Kakashi's arm, so his friend would know he wasn't alone when he woke up.

And he was going to wake up.

* * *

Tsunade's hands were warm against his face, channeling hot chakra into his skin. He wanted to tell her to stop. So what if he had scars? It didn't change the fact that his eyes were still broken. The Sannin was just wasting her time.

"You're just wasting your time."

Tsunade's hand paused at his callous words. "Oh, so you want to look like Frankenstein?" She didn't miss a beat, and her tone had enough bite to match his.

Kakashi shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

Tsunade's scoff punched through the air harshly around him. "Don't be an idiot. Just shut up and let me work. You're lucky that I happened to be close by and I owed that Minato brat money or I wouldn't even be here, and they would have had to take your eyes right out of your skull."

He mimicked her scoff. "What would it matter? They're damaged anyway. I'm not going to be using them anymore."

No reply from Tsunade this time, though he thought he could feel the air moving as she shook her head at him. Her hand resumed its back and forth motion, coating the cuts over his eyes with chakra. He sighed inwardly and bore her ministrations, knowing his team would be disappointed if he didn't. After a few more minutes, she finished and rewound the bandages around his eyes.

"Another week or so and they'll take these off. You'll still have scarring, but it won't be nearly as bad as before. I'm leaving today, kid, so this is goodbye. You're out of danger, and I've more than paid off my debt." She patted him on the shoulder, and he somehow managed to hold back the instinctive flinch.

Touch was a strange thing these days. When he was without it, he felt lost and adrift in the darkness. Even sound and smell couldn't ground him like touch. But at the same time, touch reminded him of cruel fists, fire against his skin, fingers knotted in his hair, and a kunai dragging a hot line of agony across his face. He both wanted to run from it and embrace it, and the conflicting desires often left him confused and frustrated.

Tsunade's footsteps were like thunder as she left without waiting for his reply. He heard her talking to someone, probably Sensei, and then she was gone. She'd saved his life and he hadn't even thanked her. He couldn't really decide if he was grateful or not. More thunder, another hand, another flinch, then Sensei's voice—grim and tired, but hopeful, like always. "Tsunade-sama says the cuts are healing well."

"Yeah," Kakashi replied without emotion.

Sensei's long exhalation stirred the warm air. "Another few days and you should be released. The rest of your injuries are almost healed." Sensei sounded hopeful, but Kakashi couldn't bring himself to share the sentiment. So he would be released from the hospital, and set free in an apartment to fend for himself. The only change would be the lack of nurses poking and prodding him.

"Yeah."

Another exhalation, sharper than the first. Sensei was frustrated, but still patient, always so patient. "I thought once you guys were released I would take you to lunch. Wherever you want to go."

"Okay." Still no emotion. He didn't think he was capable of feeling anything but this vast emptiness anymore.

Sensei retreated, knowing he was fighting a losing battle. "Well, rest up, Kakashi. I'll say hi to Obito and Rin for you." Obito had been moved to a different room shortly after Kakashi awoke, much to the Uchiha's protest. Kakashi hadn't spent much time with him since. He had come to visit once or twice, pushing himself along in a wheelchair, but it had mostly been awkward silences and half-hearted conversation. Rin's visits were no better.

"Okay." Sensei left, closing the door behind him.

Kakashi lay back in bed, stared up into the endless darkness, and wished he was dead.

* * *

"What are you doing, baka?"

Obito remained unfazed by Kakashi's gruff tone, dropping his bags around his feet on the doorstep. It still hurt too much to carry them for an extended period of time. Kakashi jumped slightly at the loud 'thud' but covered it up with a dark scowl in his direction. It would have been intimidating if it wasn't aimed about two feet to his left.

"What do you think?" the Uchiha responded with a huff of annoyance, crossing his arms. "I'm moving in with you."

Kakashi's eyebrows made an impressive jump for his hairline. "What?"

"I'm moving in with you," Obito repeated more slowly, knowing he was being condescending and not really caring.

"Why?" Kakashi gripped the doorframe tightly, looking more off-balance than Obito had seen him in a while. He felt a little bad for not telling Kakashi about this beforehand, but he knew the stubborn Hatake would just decline his offer and refuse to budge once he had. So a bit of spontaneity was necessary.

"Because you need someone." Kakashi's eyes darkened with anger, and the Uchiha hurried to explain himself further before he got yelled at and the door slammed in his face. "And I need someone."

Kakashi's eyebrows somehow climbed even higher. "But … what about your family?"

"My parents … died during our captivity." He managed to say it without too much fuss. Fugaku had been shocked when he hadn't broken down at the news. But months of torture changed people, and dried up tears.

Kakashi's sightless eyes—Obito still couldn't get used to how clouded and unfocused they were—softened slightly in understanding. "Obito…"

"Fugaku offered to take me in, but I can't stay there. I can't handle the way they look at me. He thinks I'm weak for letting myself get captured. I can tell. So I can't stay there." He hesitated then decided he had nothing to lose by being honest. "I think here is where I'm supposed to be."

Silence hovered in the wake of his grand speech—which had sounded _so _much better in his head—and Obito held his breath, hoping Kakashi wouldn't turn him away, because he needed Kakashi now almost as much as he knew Kakashi needed him. Just when the silence began to turn awkward, Kakashi sighed and stepped to the side, gesturing for Obito to come in.

"I have a spare bedroom." That was all he said, but it was enough.

* * *

His first two weeks out of the hospital Kakashi broke three dishes, two cups, and knocked over numerous pieces of furniture. He couldn't even pour himself tea, or navigate from the living room area to the kitchen without crashing into something. It was frustrating and humiliating and seemed so much harder than it should have been.

Everything was different in the dark. And though his sharp mind easily memorized the layout of his apartment after a few haphazard trips through it, it wasn't enough. He still couldn't cook anything, or even put clothes on properly. Obito and Rin were constantly fixing the buttons or kindly informing him he'd put something on backwards or that the colors he was sporting were never meant to go together. It was a good thing almost everything he owned was black. It made things a little easier

He couldn't leave the apartment on his own, either. The first time he had tried, he'd fallen down the flight of stairs right outside his front door, and nearly given Rin a heart attack.

He was Hatake Kakashi, son of the White Fang, boy genius, jounin at thirteen, top of his class—of maybe even his generation—but now he was completely and utterly useless.

"You sulk too much." Kakashi raised his head and tried to pinpoint Obito's location from his spot at the table.

"You sulk, too," he grumbled in response, hating the fact that Obito's voice sounded like it was coming from a lot of places at once. But the Uchiha was definitely somewhere to his left, which probably put him in the doorway of the hall that led to the bedrooms.

"Not as much as you." The Uchiha's cheerful tone sounded fake even to Kakashi's overtaxed ears. He wanted to tell Obito to stop trying so hard. No matter how happy he made himself sound, it would never be real. He hadn't laughed in months, and Kakashi doubted he ever smiled anymore.

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop pretending." Kakashi could almost _feel _the mask crumble—pictured Obito slumping in the doorway, shoulders bent in defeat.

Floorboards creaked as Obito crossed the room, followed by the chair's groan of protest when he sank down into it, directly across from Kakashi. The Hatake took stock of all the noises, let them clang around in his head like bells, and tried to conjure up the images that should have accompanied them. They kept slipping away.

"Fine," the Uchiha huffed darkly. "Though the way I cope shouldn't matter to you."

Kakashi didn't have a response for that, so he occupied himself with tracing patterns into the old wood of the table. "I'm going to quit," he forced out after a long moment of silence, figuring it was better if Obito heard the news directly from him in spite of the explosion it was bound to create.

"What?"

"I'm not going back to the battlefield. I'm not going to be a ninja anymore." Even though the Third had offered him special training, even though Sensei had been nothing but encouraging, Kakashi knew the truth: he could never be a soldier again. He would only be a liability, and probably get people killed. Surely Sandaime and Sensei knew that—they were both just too kind for their own good.

"What?" Disbelief replaced confusion in Obito's voice.

"You heard me," Kakashi replied dully. "I'm done."

Obito's hands came down on the table like a clap of thunder, making Kakashi jump in his seat. "What are you talking about?! You can't just give up!"

And there was the explosion he'd been bracing himself more. Before, he would have felt anger and annoyance at his teammate's loud actions. But that was Before. Now, nothing could fill up the emptiness.

"Yes, I can. I'm blind, baka. Even if I go through the special training Hokage-sama offered I will never be ready in time to fight. Overcoming something like this takes years. I'll only be a liability. I'll end up getting you or Rin or Sensei killed." It all seemed so logical and precise, allowing Kakashi to believe that he was doing this for the good of his team and not because he just didn't have the will to fight anymore.

The table creaked as Obito leaned over it, and Kakashi could feel his angry breath. "That's a load of crap! You're just looking for excuses! You're a genius. You can figure out how to beat this!"

Kakashi lowered his head, and curled his fingers into lax fists against the tabletop. "I'm sure Hokage-sama will put someone else on your team soon."

He gasped involuntarily when Obito's hands suddenly fisted in the front of his shirt, hauling him up out of his seat, almost onto the table. "No. I can tell you right now that Rin and I don't want anyone else!" Kakashi's teeth knocked together painfully as Obito gave him a rough shake. The irony of this wasn't lost on him. Not too long ago they had stood in a forest in almost identical positions arguing about rescuing Rin.

Back then, Obito had said some incredibly inspiring things that had changed Kakashi's outlook on life dramatically. He was half-hoping that his unpredictable teammate would do it again, and take some of this emptiness away.

"You'll have to live with it," he said far more calmly than he felt. "We can't always get what we want."

Obito pulled harder on his shirt. "If you just give up without any fight at all, then I was wrong to respect you. If you just let go of everything you have worked so hard for because of a handicap, then you are not nearly the person I thought you were."

Kakashi's eyes widened and he wished more desperately than ever he could see Obito's face, just to know for certain if he meant this. If he meant that he respected Kakashi, thought highly of him, looked up to him.

"Obito…"

Obito's hands dropped from his shirt and wrapped around his shoulders instead. "You had better fight this, Kakashi. You can't leave me and Rin alone. We've got to beat this … together."

Frozen in Obito's embrace, Kakashi wasn't sure whether to cry or laugh hysterically. His idiot teammate had done it again—reached into him and pulled out a determination he hadn't even known he possessed. Even though he was tired and hurting and empty and still unsure if he even wanted to keep on breathing, he would fight.

For Obito and Rin, he would fight.

"All right, baka. You win."

* * *

Kakashi blinked in shock at his teammate from his hospital bed in Hidden Sun, trying to figure out if he had heard correctly. "W-what?"

He could feel Obito's gaze on him from his seat at the foot of the bed, and Kakashi imagined his how serious his dark eyes must look. "I want to give you one of my eyes."

"Obito … you … I…."

"Think about it!" The bed creaked as Obito leaned forward in excitement. "You would be able to see! At least a little. And you would have a Sharingan. Wouldn't that be awesome? Besides, I never got you a gift when you made jounin."

Kakashi closed his eyes against the unexpected push of tears. "You … would do that … for me?"

"In a heartbeat," Obito answered without any hesitation. "You're my best friend, Kakashi."

Kakashi swallowed, frantically wiping his eyes with his sleeve. Ever since their captivity, he had been more emotional than he'd thought himself capable of, and now was no exception. Still, he refused to cry like a girl in front of his friend (best friend, family, because even though he had never said it aloud, Obito was both those things to him, and had been for a long time.)

"No," he whispered, and shocked himself at how much he meant it. The offer was so enticing, but Kakashi would never take the Uchiha up on it. He couldn't take that much from Obito, even if it was offered to him. Besides, the Uchiha clan would be less than pleased if one of their own gave his precious Sharingan to a Hatake.

"No?" Obito repeated, sounding crushed.

Kakashi shook his head, hating the hurt in his friend's voice, and reached out searchingly. Obito grabbed his hand immediately. Kakashi squeezed it gently, trying to convey everything he was feeling through the simple gesture. "You don't understand. I don't need one of your eyes, moron. I've got you. You and Rin are my eyes now." He smiled and shocked himself again because it came easily, and it was warm and real. "I have two pairs, both better than I could have hoped for. No Sharingan can compete with that."

"Kakashi…" Obito sounded like he was choking up.

Kakashi rolled eyes. "You're such a crybaby."

Obito laughed and cried at the same time.

* * *

"Kakashi!"

Obito managed to latch onto his teammate's wrist seconds before the jounin plummeted to the earth a few dozen or so feet below them. Kakashi gasped as his arm was wrenched uncomfortably, but recovered quickly, going still in Obito's grasp. On the forest floor below, Rin looked up with open worry, ready to assist if Obito lost his grip.

"Swing me toward a tree," Kakashi ordered through gritted teeth, and Obito instantly complied. The minute Kakashi felt something solid beneath his feet, he channeled chakra and latched on, allowing Obito to let go.

Rin let loose an audible sigh of relief as Kakashi walked up the tree. "Maybe we should take a break."

Kakashi crouched on a wide branch and shook his head adamantly. "No." It came out in a growl of frustration. "I have to get this right."

"There's plenty of time…"

"No there isn't," he cut Rin off. "There's still a war going on out there. Even though the mission to Hidden Sun helped turned it in our favor jounin are still needed on the battlefield. As I am, I'll never survive. It was a miracle I made it through our last mission."

"But that was my fault...."

"No, it wasn't." Kakashi frowned in Obito's direction. "Stop blaming yourself."

Obito sighed, but avoided further argument—if only for Rin's sake. "Fine. Let's go again."

Kakashi nodded and straightened, drawing chakra to his ears to help amplify the world around him. His eyes closed as his face tensed into a mask of concentration. "I'm ready."

"Be careful…" Rin whispered under her breath, wringing her medic skirt nervously.

Obito still wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but it was the only the one they had, and Kakashi was right, they needed to get this down. "Okay, follow me. We'll go slower this time."

The Uchiha began to leap from branch to branch, checking over his shoulder every few seconds as Kakashi mirrored his path through the tree tops. This time, the jounin made it a record of twenty branches before his foot slipped. Obito lunged for him but was half a second too late, and Kakashi fell through his grasp to the ground below. Somehow, the jounin landed on his feet, but collapsed to his knees as soon as he crashed into the ground, hissing in pain.

Rin was at his side in a blink.

"I'm fine," Kakashi muttered as Obito vaulted down from the trees to crouch on his other side. Their worry was palpable.

"No, you're not," Rin pushed him into a sitting position—her hand already glowing bright green. "I think you sprained your ankle."

Kakashi sighed, but let Rin heal him, trying not to take his frustration and self-hatred out on his teammates. Even after their successful mission to Hidden Sun, he still felt so weak.

"Hey," Obito's elbow dug gently into his side, "don't look so grumpy. We'll get this."

"By we you mean me."

"We," Obito repeated firmly.

"Yeah," Rin chimed in, and he felt her cool fingers on his face. "We do things together, remember?"

Kakashi shot them a wan smile that died quickly. "I just feel like we're moving at a snail's pace. Yes, I can fight someone in close combat. That isn't too hard. But, I can't even throw weapons yet. It's like being back in the Academy. I was a better ninja than this when I was five."

"We'll get there," Obito assured, sounding confident. "You'll see."

"Yeah, this is unexplored territory, remember? We're breaking new ground." Rin ruffled his hair, and his next smile was a little more genuine.

"Heh. We could write a book on it. 'Ninja Techniques for the Blind.' We'd make a fortune."

Kakashi snorted. "First we have to get the techniques right, baka."

"Then, let's go again. We get this down then we can move on to avoiding traps, throwing weapons, and all that great stuff." Obito insistently pulled Kakashi to his feet. Rin let them go, knowing that protesting was pointless.

They launched themselves into the trees, one after the other, and went again. And again. And again. And again—until Kakashi made it all the way across the forest.

* * *

He nearly died on his first solo mission.

It was supposed to be a simple assassination—low level, compared to what most ANBU took—but it had gone downhill quickly. His target had somehow known he was coming, and hired twice the predicted amount of guards to protect himself. Kakashi fought gallantly, with everything he had, including his ninken, who he had slowly been training as seeing-eye dogs. He managed to kill his target, but by then he was bleeding all over the muddy ground.

For a long moment he considered simply lying down and dying there, because Sensei and Kushina were gone, the village was in ruins, Rin had left them to train with the great Tsunade, and Obito was grieving so much he was practically suicidal.

He didn't give in to the urge. It would have made him far too much like his father. Instead, he turned and stumbled back toward home. His wounds ached, and the blood flow from several didn't stop even after he bound them the way Rin had shown him.

By the time he was about two miles from Konoha's gates, according to Pakkun, he lost his footing and crashed through the merciless tree branches to the forest floor. He tried to stand again, pushing himself off the ground with trembling arms, but his limbs gave out and he toppled back to the earth, panting harshly.

The last thing he felt before unconsciousness took him was cold rain against his back and Pakkun's warm paw on his face.

He woke up in a hospital bed with Rin's head on his chest. When she noticed he was awake she slapped him and promptly broke down in tears—all the while yelling about how much of an idiot he was. She begged him to leave the Black Ops, because it was killing him—and Obito, too—and she couldn't live without them.

He closed his eyes and didn't promise her anything, even though he wanted to. He couldn't quit now. His village needed him. His stubborn teammate with a death wish needed him. And, even though he would never admit it, he had a little bit of a death wish, too.

But he loved Rin too much to ever tell her that.

* * *

Kakashi had never seen Rin so excited.

The kunoichi had nearly broken down his door that morning, and when he didn't open it fast enough, she came through the window. He'd met her in the living room, shocked by her rampant enthusiasm—not to mention having her climb through his window after being gone for nearly three years. She'd practically thrown clothes onto him, even fixing his mask over his nose while he stood dumbly struggling to figure out where this new, assertive Rin had come from.

Tsunade's influence, probably.

So now she was hauling him through the village babbling about an "awesome technique that Tsunade-shisou taught me and it will really help!" He didn't understand but let her pull him along, drinking in her presence after such a long absence. He had seen her twice before this in the past four years, but both times he had been dying—at the beginning of his ANBU career, and the end—so that didn't really count.

He wondered what she looked like now. From what he could discern she came to about his shoulder, and her hair was shorter and more layered than before, but that didn't tell him much. She was probably still beautiful, and this new attitude fit her like a coat she was always meant to wear.

"You've changed," he commented absently when she planted him in the middle of a training field.

"Oh?" she asked, and her voice suggested arched eyebrows and maybe a bit of a blush.

Kakashi nodded solemnly. "Yeah. It's a good thing."

Now he was almost certain she was smiling. "Thank you."

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. There were so many things he wanted to ask her. How had she been? What kind of things had she seen on her travels? Was she home to stay? Could she punch people through walls like Tsunade? What actually came out of his mouth was: "So what is this jutsu you want to teach me?"

Instantly the world focused and all the awkwardness fell away as Rin stepped into "ninja mode." "Right." He smiled inwardly at the seriousness in her voice, which had deepened a little since he last saw her. "Okay, it's a fairly rare technique, and it requires a lot of concentration, but I think you can do it. If we pull this off, you should be attuned to people's chakra at very high levels—to the point where you can detect changes in an individual's chakra and tell chakra types apart. If you get good enough at it, you might even be able to tell what kind of elemental affinity a ninja has."

Kakashi fought the urge to gape. Such power was almost unimaginable. While it was commonplace for skilled ninja to be able to sense chakra to a certain degree, he had never heard of anyone being attuned to it at the level Rin was describing. It would almost be like having his eyes back.

"Show me," he breathed, feeling a little like an enraptured child.

Rin's laugh sounded musical, like soft bells. "Of course. Why do you think we're out here?" Her hands closed around his, moving them into the seal most often used to sense chakra. "The technique is called Kagura Shingan. It originated in a small village near the northeastern border of Fire Country that was mostly destroyed in the war. The survivors usually keep it to themselves, but Tsuande-shishou managed to get someone to tell her about it."

"Kagura Shingan," Kakashi repeated. "Interesting."

"Okay, now I need you to focus. Throw your senses out like a net. You're going to see with your mind instead of your other senses. This jutsu is designed to help propel your mind to a higher state of awareness. Open yourself up and let everything wash over you."

Following her instructions, Kakashi closed his eyes and threw open the doors to his mind and senses, allowing the world to wash over him like a tidal wave. "Kagura Shingan." He imagined his chakra like a net, or searching hands, and cast it outward, probing for Rin in the vast sea. He almost gasped when the net closed around her and in his mind he could see her like a brilliant beacon, glowing hot and bright. Her chakra was green and when he trailed his mental fingers along it, he could feel healing warmth wash over him in a gentle caress.

This was Rin—beautiful, captivating, powerful, but gentle and warm like the summer breeze.

It took his breath away.

Something caught his attention, entering the net of his senses. It was another beacon but, if possible, burning more brightly than Rin. Curious, he focused on it—once again stretching mental fingers toward this new enigma. When he bumped into it, it swept through him like a typhoon, nearly blowing him off his feet with its intensity. He almost pulled back, stunned, but then he was hit with a jolt of realization.

This was Obito.

Powerful and almost bursting, like the sun. He was orange and yellow, everything colorful. Where Rin was calm and soothing, Obito was a hurricane—always in motion, always overflowing.

But they both felt like life.

Kakashi's eyes flew open, but the warmth didn't retreat. A hand was resting on his arm, fingers curving around his bicep, and he knew instantly it was Rin. He could still feel her in the back of his mind—a soothing presence he never wanted to let go of.

"Kakashi?" She sounded concerned, probably because he was breathing so hard and trembling a little. He couldn't help it. He had just thrown open the door to a brand new world and it was more than a little overwhelming.

"Obito's coming," he murmured, trying to deflect some of her worry.

He jolted when the warm presence in his mind flared briefly. Was Rin … surprised? "Really? You can sense him?"

"Rin!" Kakashi turned at the loud shout, and smiled at the sound of grass crunching beneath sandals. The air stirred around him violently as Obito barreled past, sweeping their female teammate up into his arms.

Definitely a hurricane.

"Rin! When did you get back? Why didn't you stop by? How was your trip? Are you staying for good this time? I've missed you. Why didn't you write more often?" The grass continued crunching and the air felt a bit like a miniature tornado—above it all echoed the sound of Rin's laughter.

Kakashi could only guess that Obito was spinning her in a circle. Both of the points of warmth in his mind were going haywire, jumping all over the place. Kakashi wondered if this was happening because his teammates were so overjoyed. So … he could pick up on their emotions?

Interesting.

"Obito, put me down! One question at a time!" Obito chuckled sheepishly and carefully set Rin on her feet, earning himself a slap on the chest for his antics. Even though it was light, the slap still pushed him back a full step.

"Wow," he murmured—awed by the strength bottled up in the single move. What had happened to shy, sweet, fragile Rin?

She smiled at him, and her beauty took the air right of his lungs. Kakashi was regarding them with an odd look on the visible portion of his face, and again Obito wondered why they had come out here without telling him.

"I just got back," Rin said. "I'm sorry I didn't wake you up. I had a technique I was dying to show Kakashi."

"Oh?" Obito arched an eyebrow. "Is that why he looks like he just found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?"

Rin giggled. "Most likely."

"I can sense you," Kakashi chimed in suddenly, walking up to them. "Both of you. Your chakra. It's so … vibrant." He reached out hesitantly and laid a hand on both their shoulders. "It's almost like … I can see you."

Obito's eyes widened. "Incredible."

Rin beamed at the awed silver-haired jounin. "I told you."

Kakashi nodded. "Thank you. It's … beautiful."

And it was. Incredibly beautiful. The sun and the summer breeze. The hurricane and the gentle river. Obito and Rin.

His world, painted in bright chakra-tainted colors.

* * *

Obito hated the way they all looked at Kakashi, the things they said when they thought he was out of earshot.

They were all the same: arrogant, childish, stupid—unable to see how truly amazing Kakashi was, unable to look past the scars over his eyes. They stared down their noses at him, crossed their arms and brought down judgment without a second thought. Nobles they escorted demanded different ninja the second they saw Kakashi's cloudy, unfocused eyes bisected by ragged scars. The council snubbed him, dropped hints all the time that he shouldn't be in the ninja ranks. That he was a liability.  Their fellow ninja remained tense and awkward around him, like they were always afraid of insulting him or never quite sure how to treat him.

Disgust. Confusion. Condescension. Surprise. Uncertainty. Nervousness. Disbelief.

He saw them all in the eyes of nearly everyone meeting Kakashi for the first time, but never acceptance, never the respect the silver-haired jounin, once ANBU captain, deserved. It made his blood boil hot in his veins and pound in his ears like a drum. He wanted to make them see; force them to understand how hard Kakashi struggled every day to overcome his handicap. How many hours he had spent beating himself black and blue to get where he was today, to gain a shred of respect from the village he had given all of himself for.

It went on for years, even as their reputation grew and people began to whisper their names beside those of the Sannin and the Yondaime Hokage. For years, Obito ground his teeth and bore it, mimicking Kakashi's stoic stance and unmoving expression, forcing the words to slide off him like water over rocks. Except they didn't flow away. They built within him, like a volcano with steadily rising lava, until one day he finally exploded.

The Daimyo of the Land of Flowers had beady eyes and supposedly regal features accented by a narrow jaw line and a long nose. He was currently staring down said nose at Kakashi.

"Absolutely not. I asked Konoha to send me some competent ninja to protect me during the ceremonies, and instead they insult me by giving me one who is blind?" He didn't bother to mask his contempt.

Obito saw red—which either meant he was furious, or he had just activated the Sharingan, or both. Rin clenched her hands into trembling fists and gave the man a glare so black and fierce it should have put him six feet underground instantly. But Kakashi merely curved his eyes in that familiar smiling expression and appeared completely unruffled.

"Well, they also sent an Uchiha and the best medic in the village. That should make up for me, right?"

The Daimyo sniffed, and the sound was pure and utter disdain. "Well, I will take them, then. You can go back. I must reach the village in time for the ceremonies and you will only slow us down. I refuse to be burdened by blind cripples playing ninja."

Kakashi stiffened. Rin spat fire from her eyes. And Obito … Obito exploded with stunning force and fanfare.

"How dare you?!" The infuriated Uchiha yelled, and punched the Daimyo straight in that ridiculously long nose.

Three hours later, Team Yellow Flash stood rigidly in front of their very disappointed Hokage. "Do you realize that you three might have just single-handedly started a war?" He glared at them from behind his desk with enough power to make them feel like insects pinned to a wall by senbon needles. "The Daimyo is raving about how the Konoha ninja hired to protect him assaulted him and then furthered injured him instead of healing him like they promised."

They flinched, and Kakashi hurriedly stepped forward. "It was my fault, Hokage-sama. I—"

Obito pulled him back by his shirt. "It was my fault, Hokage-sama. I was the one who punched him. If you're going to punish anyone, punish me. Kakashi had nothing to do with it."

"Ah, but he did have something to with his, didn't he? After all, you punched the Daimyo because of him."

Rin practically jumped forward. "It was my fault also, Hokage-sama. He asked me to heal him and I …" a soft cough, "…accidentally made it worse. Like Obito said, none of this was Kakashi's fault."

"If anything, he was asking for it," Obito grumbled, and earned a slap upside the head from a rather irate Kakashi.

"Moron! Why couldn't you have just let it go? People have been saying similar things for nearly six years, and you've never reacted like this before. How many times do I have to tell you words don't matter? Sticks and stones, Obito." Kakashi crossed his arms and let loose a sigh sharp with irritation.

Sarutobi tried hard to hide his grin, even though there really wasn't much to laugh at. It was painful, the things people said to Kakashi, and he admired the jounin's grace in dealing with them. And how fiercely Obito and Rin stuck up for him was endearing, but a little saddening. Every time he looked at them, he saw how his own team should have been.

"I would like to speak to Kakashi alone."

"But Hokage-sama…." Rin and Obito protested simultaneously.

"Go," Kakashi ordered, waving in the direction of the door. "I'll be fine."

They left, but hesitantly, and as soon as the door clicked behind them, Sarutobi fixed Kakashi with a level stare. "Does it matter?" He didn't elaborate on the question, knowing Kakashi would understand.

Kakashi's shoulders slumped minutely. "Sometimes. Not as much anymore. They say time heals wounds." He shrugged, looking calm and aloof, but there were shadows in his eyes that whispered of years of pain, of disdainful glances, of being looked down on for something that had never been his fault. The shadows were only there for an instant, but it was enough.

"I should punish your teammates."

"They were only defending me. I am the team leader. If you must punish anyone, punish me."

"They acted rashly."

"Well, with all due respect Hokage-sama, he was asking for it." Kakashi paused, and his murky eyes glinted with an amused light. "And the sound he made when Obito punched him was kind of hilarious."

The Sandaime lost the battle by laughing at the mental image, but he still saw everything Kakashi tried to hide, even from Obito and Rin. Sticks and stones could break bones, but words …

Words had the power to break a heart.

* * *

"Where are they?"

Rin watched Obito pace back and forth on the threshold of the village gates, and tried to put a damper on her own mounting anxiety. Yes, it wasn't like Kakashi to be late. Or at least, not four hours late—that was a record even for Obito. Still, she was sure that everything was absolutely fine. Kakashi was twenty-years-old now, and had numerous solo missions under his belt. This was merely a training exercise, and he wasn't alone. He would be absolutely fine.

"That's it! I'm going after them." Obito marched toward the main road, but Rin lunged forward and yanked him back by his jounin vest. He yelped as he landed in an undignified heap on the ground.

Rin put her hands on her hips and glared down at her suddenly nervous teammate. "No! You can't go after them. Kakashi would kill you. Let him do this. He's fine."

Obito waved his arms in a bizarre attempt to placate her. "Fine, fine."

"Besides," Rin sighed, glancing out at the tranquil forest beyond the gate, "Kakashi isn't the one I'm worried about."

"Yeah. I don't get why Hokage-sama thought this would be a good idea. I think the old man's going senile." He began to brush away the dust coating his dark blue pants, but froze suddenly, a frown crawling across his features. "Do you feel that?"

It started off quietly, and almost gently—a low rumble and the ground shaking subtly beneath her sandals. Glancing down, the medic nin blinked in surprise. An earthquake? But they didn't get those in Konoha. The shaking increased, almost throwing her off balance, and the rumble rose into an animal-like crescendo.

"What the…" Obito gaped at a dust cloud on the horizon that was rapidly growing into a miniature storm.

"I think we should move," Rin commented, as the roar finally gained a discernable, decidedly human voice.

Unfortunately for the two members of the Team Yellow Flash, the cloud/earthquake/storm/person was much faster than anticipated. They barely managed to scramble madly out of the way as he/she/it came barreling past them with a forceful rush of air. Coughing, Rin waved dust away from her face, struggling to see through watering eyes.

Was this an invasion?

"Yosh! What did I tell you? We made it back in no time!" A strangely familiar voice rose through the billowing dust, but Rin couldn't clear the dust from her throat well enough to yell a greeting.

"Oh, enough of this!" Obito's voice rose above the din, layered sporadically with coughs. "Fūton: Kamikaze no jutsu!"

Rin dropped to a crouch and anchored herself with chakra, gasping as a violent gust of wind blew through the gate, clearing the lingering clouds of dust away and buffeting her in numerous directions. Once the chaos died down, Rin—swearing she would butcher her teammate for pulling such a move without warning her first—staggered to her feet and opened her eyes.

Maito Gai was standing, looking proud but a little confused, in the middle of the street, and on his back was Kakashi. Rin's jaw hit the floor, and if her eyes got any bigger she was fairly certain they would fall from her sockets. The image before her was so wildly unexpected that her brain scrambled to come up with a logical reason for it, but found only one: Kakashi must be hurt. He would never let anyone, not even her or Obito, carry him unless he was a) was too injured to walk, b) unconscious and unable to protest, or c) really, really, really close to dying.

"Kakashi!" Rin cried, breezing past an equally stunned Obito—who couldn't seem to remember how to walk, or move, or do anything but stare, really—and hurrying to Kakashi and Gai.

Gai seemed oblivious to her presence, spinning in an exuberant circle. "See, Rival Kakashi! We returned to Konoha safe and sound, with plenty of time to report to the Hokage. No need to thank me! You should relax, Kakashi. Worrying so much dampens your youthful spirit!

His overzealous tone or antics weren't what made Rin freeze again. No, it was Kakash's voice—low and deadlier than she had ever heard it. "Put. Me. Down."

Rin gaped again. Kakashi was conscious? And coherent? Then why on Earth was the jounin letting Gai carry him? Even if it didn't seem to be all that willingly, if the animosity surrounding Kakashi like a storm cloud was anything to judge by.

Gai also seemed oblivious to the killing intent rolling off Kakashi in waves. In Rin hadn't seen him fight once or twice, she would have thought he perpetually lived in this state of obliviousness. "Of course not, Kakashi. We must take you to the hospital immediately!"

Kakashi twitched rather violently while the mention of a hospital seemed to kick Obito's brain back into working gear.

"Hospital?" The Uchiha cried, planting himself in front of Gai with a dark expression. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing, I assure you, Obito-kun. Kakashi was merely wounded during our youthful and spirited battle with trespassing vagabonds!"

Obito and Rin shared identical looks of confusion, while Kakashi looked ready to cause bodily harm, at the very least. "I only got hurt because you startled me. And I can walk just fine. The worst of my wounds in on my arm."

"Nonsense, rival! If I had not carried you we never would have made it back in time for our report. It was also excellent training! You should understand this. After all, you are the most determined and hip of us all, striving to overcome such oppressive handicaps. You are an inspiration to all your fellow ninja, Kakashi! It is my aim to be as hard-working as you!" Gai shifted Kakashi slightly in preparation for more travel. The jounin hissed in protest and reached for his weapons pouch, probably with the intent of murdering Gai in violent fashion right then and there.

Obito had been knocked back into flabbergasted silence, so Rin figured it was up to her to put an end to the madness.

"Gai-san, wait. I'm a medic, so I'll take Kakashi to the hospital. You can go on ahead and report to the Hokage." She reached for Kakashi tentatively, half-expecting Gai to barrel off shouting something about a race, competition, and the "Springtime of Youth."

Instead, Gai nodded sagely. "A wise course of action, Rin-san."

He allowed Kakashi to slide from his back, and the silver-haired jounin hopped away from him as though he was on fire, pausing only when he was safe and secure slightly behind Obito. Rin rolled her eyes at his unimpressive display of maturity—though she probably would react in a similar manner if she was carried by Gai for an extended period of time, or even five minutes.

Gai, still oblivious, snapped a sharp salute in Kakashi's direction. "It was wonderful to finally work with you, Rival Kakashi! Like I said, your perseverance and determination is incredible. I shall strive to challenge myself in the same manner you have. If I cannot learn to use taijutsu without the aid of my eyes, I shall walk around Konoha a thousand times on my hands!"

Kakashi looked vaguely green and ducked behind a still-too-stunned-to-speak Obito, while Rin rolled her eyes again and shoed Gai off in the direction of the Hokage Tower. After another small earthquake and a not-so-small dust storm, silence fell on the gates.

Obito finally found his voice, or some of it. "What …?"

Kakashi sighed irritably. "Don't ask. Please, just … don't ask."

Rin's mind was on more pressing matters. "You're injured." It was obvious from the way he was favoring his left leg and hugging his arm close to his side. "How did you get so badly injured on a training mission?"

"Some bandits wandered into our camp and we ended up fighting them. Or rather, _Gai _fought them and I got turned into a pincushion," Kakashi deadpanned as he started limping in the direction of his apartment. "I think the Hokage's gone senile. Sure, the idea of working with other jounins so they would get used to me was a good idea, but pairing me with Gai? What was he thinking?"

"I have no idea," Obito muttered, trailing behind Kakashi.

"Hey!" Rin snagged his good arm, stopping his slow trek down the street. "The hospital's the other way, remember?"

"Rin," Kakashi came as close to whining as she had ever heard, dragging out her name just enough to be mildly annoying. "No hospitals. Just heal me back at the apartment. Please. Otherwise, he might find me again."

"Fine," Rin huffed, deciding to be sympathetic because he looked genuinely terrified at the prospect of facing Gai again. "But I'm not letting you limp there all by yourself. Obito, take an arm."

Obito hurried forward and slung Kakashi's good arm over his shoulder, in spite of the jounin's adamant protests. "I could carry you, if you want?" the Uchiha smirked.

"Try that and you die," Kakashi replied in a tone that suggested not only would Obito die, he would die slowly and in agony.

Obito gulped.

Slowly, the three teammates made their way toward Kakashi and Obito's apartment. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Obito voiced a question he'd been mulling over since Gai first opened his mouth. "Why was he calling you 'Rival Kakashi'?"

Kakashi sighed, slumping a little in the Uchiha's grip. "He's declared us Eternal Rivals. Apparently he thinks I'm 'cool' and 'hip' and 'youthful' because of how hard I worked to overcome my blindness. Even though he didn't let me do anything…"

Obito laughed. "Eternal Rivals! Oh, that's rich."

Kakashi glowered at him. "Shove it, Uchiha."

And for once, Obito decided it would be wise to comply.

* * *

Some people thought the world was noisy.

He knew better. It was a symphony. The trees, the rivers, the wind, the thunder, the animals, even the people were all part of a grand orchestra. Most couldn't hear the song. They simply didn't take the time to listen. But he heard, and he understood. The world wasn't that difficult to figure out if you knew its melody.

"Doton: Doryūkatsu no jutsu!"

Kakashi skipped backward as the earth tore itself apart in front of him, skidding to a safe distance. His breath echoed loud in his ears, beneath the drumming beat of his heart, but for once he welcomed the thunder. Adrenalin poured through his veins, setting every nerve it touched on fire. It was the most incredible feeling in the world. Here, now, he felt alive.

"Is that all you've got?" He taunted, indulging himself just this once. With this opponent it wasn't about striking a killing blow, ending it as quickly as possible. It was about enjoying the battle.

"Ha! You haven't seen anything yet!" Uchiha Obito yelled from across the wide expanse that used to be a field, but now probably looked like a crash site.

"I can't see, moron."

A rush of air, the wind shifting and moving to propel this new intruder forward. Kakashi listened and dodged a strike from his left, ducking low to the earth as he lashed out with his foot, aiming for his opponent's chest. His advance was blocked by a forearm, and Obito shoved him off-balance. He did a small flip to put a little distance between them.

"Doton: Arijigoku no Jutsu!"

That one was new. Kakashi heard a rumble that swiftly reached a thundering crescendo, and jumped straight up as the ground opened up beneath his feet. Pivoting in the air, he flew through seals rapidly. "Raiton: Jibashi!"

There was a mighty roar as the lightning melted straight through the rock, but he could feel the air swirling around him and judging by the movement of the currents, his opponent was coming from …

Above.

Kunai clashed sharply, and Kakashi let himself fall, plummeting back toward the devastated forest. He crashed through the treetops and landed in a crouch on a large branch halfway to the ground. Obito landed a second later, two branches over.

"You have to stop using Earth techinques," Kakashi panted, adjusting his grip on his kunai. "I can hear them coming a mile away."

"Hey, I can't help it that I picked up a lot of them during the war. You know, fighitng Iwa nin and all."

"Just saying," Kakashi replied with a casual shrug.

Obito snorted. "Fine, how about this then? Katon: Karyū Endan!"

Kakashi cursed and lunged to side, feeling hot air rush across his back, nearly scorching his skin through his clothing. "Suiton: Hahonryū no jutsu!" The fire crackled as it was assaulted by the violent river of water and fought valiantly, but was swiftly forced to surrender, simmering away to harmless vapor.

Kakashi kept moving, sensing Obito's bright chakra signature right behind him, closing in. He needed to get out of the forest. Obito had the advantage there. After a few minutes of moving at breakneck speed, the forest gave way to a towering cliff. Beyond the cliff a chasm yawned, deep and wide. Kakashi kept going, throwing himself from the edge and tumbling down, down, down. His feet smashed into the water with enough force to drive him up to him ankles. A wave rose up from the impact, doubling in size when Obito hit the water next to him. The two jounins clashed before the wave finished its crest, letting it wash over them harmlessly.

Obito was fast, ridculously fast. Nearly eight and a half years of pratice with the Sharingan had honed the once loser's skills to deadly precision. But the symphony gave him away. All Kakashi had to do was listen. Sound traveled further and faster than the eyes could see. And so, perhaps for the first time in history, the Hatake had the advangtage over the Uchiha.

Obito flipped backward several times to avoid Kakashi strikes, skidding along the surface of the wide river. Kakashi followed him, refusing to give him time to recover. A feint to his left, followed by a jab at his feet had the Uchiha skipping backwards again. The silver-haired jounin dodged the counterattack then came down at Obito from above, slashing with his kunai at the back of his neck.

Obito twisted and kicked his arm, throwing the strike off target. Kakashi still managed to graze his arm on the way down, but suffered a blow to his side for the trouble. He staggered, going down on one knee briefly. Obito saw the opening and took it, slashing downward with the kunai.

Kakashi heard the warning whistle and his hands moved through seals again. "Ikazuchi Haka no jutsu." The lightning crackled as it rushed along the surface of the water, streaking up to engulf Obito. The resulting cry of pain was rather satisfying, and the splash as the Sharingan wielder collapsed to his knees.

"Ow!" Obito coughed out. "That was … low."

Kakashi shrugged and aimed a kick at Obito's head. However, even in his dazed state, the other jounin was still skilled enough to roll out of the way, and Kakashi's foot was met with nothing but empty air.

Obito righted himself and shoved his goggles up on his forehead. Kakashi could hear tiny splashes as drops flew from the plastic visor back to the river. "You've gotten faster," the Uchiha commented casually.

"So have you," Kakashi replied, twirling his kunai idly on one finger.

"My aim is to outrun your ears."

Kakashi chuckled. "You'll never succeed. And even if you did, I could still find you with this." He tapped the side of his head.

"You know, even though it's saved our lives countless times, I think I hate that jutsu Rin taught you." Obito's chakra shifted a little. He was lying, and probably pouting. Kakashi snickered inwardly at the mental image. Sometimes it was hard to picture Obito as an adult taller and stronger than him when he sounded so much like a child.

"You're lying," Kakashi accused lightly, and flew at him again.

Obito was ready. Kunai met with a shrill clang and through the crossed weapons, the two men regarded each other—one with the swirling Sharingan, the other with his sharp ears and chakra sense. Though the methods were different, both saw the same thing: a rival, an opponent, a teammate, an equal, a friend, a brother.

They stood on equal footing with each other, though they could remember the days when Kakashi pounded Obito into the ground in minutes. Those days had faded away long ago, taking their bitterness with them.

"Bring it, Hatake," Obito taunted as though they hadn't just destroyed an entire field.

"You're on, Uchiha."

Yes, those two boys were gone and men stood in their place. One known for the power of his eyes, called the Copy Ninja throughout the great Shinobi Countries—he could see what few were able to. The other known for his ability to overcome amazing odds, called the most powerful chakra-sensing ninja in history—he heard what few were able to…

Obito twisted into the air and Kakashi swiftly joined the lethal dance, listening to the song of the currents around him.

… the world's symphony.

* * *

Sometimes he stares at the mirror and wonders what his reflection looks like.

Has he become handsome? Are his scars repulsive? Is his hair really as untameable as Rin claims? He can't answer any of those questions. His last memory of his face is from when he was thirteen years old and the shadow of a fallen genius haunted him day and night. Back then, he hated his reflection.

Now, he doesn't really care.

He can't remember what the sky looks like, either—even though Rin has described it to him—and he often wonders how much his teammates have changed. Their voices are deeper, and they're all taller, but what do they look like now? He knows Rin's hair is shorter and Obito's bangs have gotten longer. Rin still has purple stripes on her cheeks and Obito still wears his silly goggles. So, maybe they haven't changed at all. He still wishes he could tell, sometimes, even just once.

It's hard, more often than not. The belitting words and unbelief dig a lot deeper than he will ever tell his teammates, and he's doubted himself a lot over the years. He hates it when he can feel the stares boring into him—the voices whispering about something they can never understand. Do they know what it's like to sacrifice? He doesn't think so.

Nine years ago, he laid everything down for the village. He could have told the Iwa ninja about Grass Country just as easily as Obito. But he made his choice that day, just as his teammate did. He chose duty. He chose courage. And he doesn't regret it.

He doesn't regret it when he forgets which colors are which sometimes.

He doesn't regret it when he opens his eyes to endless darkness every morning.

He doesn't regret it when people gape at him like he's some clown in a circus, or drag him down with harsh words.

He doesn't regret it when his fellow jounin tiptoe around him like they're walking on eggshells.

He doesn't even regret it when he begins to forget what Obito and Rin looked like, all those years ago.

He is who he is, and he is what he is, and after all these years of pain and harship, he is proud of it. He can stand toe to toe with a Sharingan user. He can complete S-rank solo missions. He can do everything they can and more, even if it took hours of picking himself up out of the mud and trying _just one more time _to get to the lofty place he stands today.

But none of that really matters. That isn't why he's proud. He's proud that he can laugh now without any reservations. He's proud that he isn't afraid to look like a total moron from time to time. He's proud that he's relaxed enough to be late to certain things. He's proud that he turns into a blushing fool around Rin every once and awhile.

He's proud that he's human.

He gave up his eyes and gained the world.

He would relive that moment a thousand times over if he meant he got to live this life, got to stand with Obito and Rin by his side. He would trade his eyes, his ears, his mouth, anything if it meant being able to go to lunch with Obito and pay for his fifty odd bowls of ramen, if it meant lying out under the stars with Rin and listening to her soothing voice describing the constellations.

He'd rather be blind than alone.

Besides, being blind isn't that bad with Obito and Rin for eyes.