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The blood of the bird runs warm over Kakashi’s wrists as he brings his hands together. Magic sparks in his chest, settling into his lungs, and weighs heavy on his shoulders. The shadows in the corners of the room grow darker, seeping through the cracks in the light, heading towards the circle in the middle where-
“Stop!”
Kakashi pauses and the magic pauses with him. The shadows resettle back in their corners, hissing in annoyance.
“Necromancy is illegal!”
Obito wears his normal goggles, oversized and glaring, Then, he pauses, glancing around and realises that the ritual he so daringly interrupted might not actually be what he thought it was.
“Yes,” Kakashi agrees dryly. He considers the ritual and the heavy feeling of magic fizzling against his tongue. It’s too late to complete the original ritual, but he definitely needs to do something before it all blows up in his face.
Thankfully, Obito being here means that he can probably actually do something if any fire dares flare up. The other might not have the grasp over magic that Kakashi has, but his ability with fire magic is like no other Kakashi has ever met.
In between talking the shadows down and convincing them to return to where they came, and trying to mop up the blood that’s dripped over the floor, Kakashi and Obito manage to have a somewhat clear discussion over what had happened—and hadn’t happened.
By the end of it, Obito is frowning in thought. “So you’re telling me that you weren’t going to resurrect your long-lost dog from childhood who you’d been mourning since they died and their ghost has been haunting you?”
Kakashi frowns back. “I honestly don’t even know where you got that from.”
Laughing somewhat awkwardly, Obito scratches the back of his head. “I didn’t either,” he says.
They exchange a glance and come to the only conclusion they could. Rin was responsible for this.
Rin lives down the road, so it’s a short walk to hers. The garden is, abnormally, a tangled mess that seems to be full of weeds more than anything else. Thornbushes curl around the house, snarling their way up towards the roof.
Kakashi nudges the gate open with his shoe. White paint flakes off and land before him. He grimaces. “How… long has it been since you were here?”
The gate creaks open, and they enter together. Obito picks his steps cautiously between the plants and weeds, failing to find the stepping stones that had once been there. Fire flicks between his hands and swirls around his ankles; the plants recoil from it.
“I haven’t been here in a while,” Obito says. A frown crosses his face. “The magic here though… You feel that, right?”
Kakashi doesn’t have to ask what he’s talking about. It’s clear—the magic here is oppressing. Not like what he’d done for the ritual, but like someone had come here with the intent to harm. It sends lightning racing up and down Kakashi’s spine, has his hair standing on end. This place says that no one should be here, that no one should have come.
Rin’s home shouldn’t be like this. Even when Rin loses track of time, spending more time than she should away from home and in the hospital, the garden doesn’t turn to this- this oppressive thing. The magic here should be kind, gentle; soothing.
It’s not. It really, really isn’t.
“Something is wrong,” Obito says when they reach the porch. The lights aren’t on, nor is the door locked. Instead, it bumps against the door frame, thumping constantly, consistently.
The shadows are dark here, and far from friendly.
“Yeah,” Kakashi agrees, and shivers. “You’re right.”
They enter the house. The hall light remains off even after Obito flicks the switch multiple times. “Bulb must have blown out,” he says, waving a hand and sending a stream of sparks up to the ceiling where they hover, providing enough light that Obito and Kakashi can walk through the hallway without worrying about knocking any furniture.
There’s tar on Kakashi’s tongue. Or, well, he knows there isn’t, but it feels like there is. It wraps around his limbs, black and dark and awful, slowing his movements. The air is frigid and, when he breathes out, it turns to white mist in front of him.
Ahead, Obito’s teeth are chattering. Kakashi isn’t the only one feeling the chill.
This house is Not Right and its sets his teeth on edge.
They reach the living room. It looks like it normally does, completely normal, photo frames in the same position as always. And yet, it’s unmistakeably off. There are no words Kakashi can use to describe it, but he knows it’s off, knows it in a way he can’t describe, the same way he knows when there has been heavy magic used.
And heavy magic has been used here.
“Hey,” Obito says, voice low and barely more than a whisper, “on the floorboards. You seeing it?”
Kakashi drops his gaze from the walls to the floor, and blinks in surprise upon seeing scorch marks there—scorch marks that spell out words. The words aren’t in any human language, and it takes Kakashi a handful of minutes to understand them. In the end, they send a shiver down his spine: The sacrifice has been found.
“That’s ominous,” Obito says and Kakashi swallows, wondering how Rin is, wondering whether she’s still alive.
Then again, it is Rin, so whatever force has taken her, they’re probably regretting it by now.
“Wait, if Rin’s been taken, then how did…”
With ease that comes from friendship beginning in childhood, Obito finishes Kakashi’s sentence, “Did she get a message to me? Great question. Dream walking isn’t one of Rin’s normal abilities, is it?”
Rin is… a weird case, to put it politely. She doesn’t have much magic and probably wouldn’t have bothered with it if not for the jinchūriki thing that went down. Her situation is unique in that she was forcefully bound to a bijū as a child and much of her magic results from that. It also means that her abilities are much more likely to change.
Hence, dream walking. And Rin.
“It wasn’t,” Kakashi says. He pauses, considering what they can do. Honestly, the best solution would be to try and pull Rin from wherever she is—which means cutting through space and time.
Before they can do that, however, Kakashi will need a scent to track. “Do you know if there’s anything here that will be holding Rin’s magic?”
Obito hums and leads the way to Rin’s bedroom, where a bracelet sits. It looks a normal leather bracelet, pieces twisted together, with various charms attached to it. To Kakashi’s senses, however, it’s soaked in Rin’s magic—the kind of thing he can use to track another person.
Kakashi picks it up, running his fingers over the charms, and hissing when some of it sparks against his fingers; crackling. “This will do,” he says, turning his gaze to Obito. If he closes his eyes, for a second, he can almost imagine that Rin’s in the same room as them, complaining about one thing or another.
“Alright,” Obito says and, despite the fact Rin is missing and possibly in trouble, he grins. “Let’s do this!” Magic begins to come to life, sparking around his fingers, but then Kakashi douses it with a flick of his fingers. “Hey!”
“We should do it in the bathroom,” Kakashi says. “If there’s any mess, it’ll be easier to clean up. Can you imagine what would happen if Rin comes through with blood or goo and makes a mess of the whole place? She’d make us clean it up.”
Theatrically, Obito shudders, and Kakashi nods in agreement. They’ve been in such a situation before, and he has no plans to land himself in another one. Once had really been more than enough.
They make their way to the bathroom, where they stand awkwardly, shoulders pressed together in the small space. Nevertheless, Kakashi reaches deep into his chest for his magic, feeling it begin to rise to his call. “You ready?” he asks Obito, despite knowing the answer already.
“Always,” Obito says, just like Kakashi had expected, and his magic comes to life like a forest fire.
Alone, they couldn’t manage anything like this. However, they’re not alone and, together, they’ve always been stronger.
Their magic twirls around, intertwining, and braiding itself together. Space-time becomes tangible and Kakashi turns his attention to Rin’s magic, letting Obito control the space-time that their magic tugs on.
“There.” The word is an exhale, but it’s accompanied by a crack—like lightning has hit the ground. Reaching forwards with Obito, Kakashi grabs hold of the space-time tear with ragged fingernails and yanks it open; Obito doing the same beside him.
The world tears itself into two and Rin comes tumbling out.
It takes a few more minutes of concentration to stitch the space-time split back up, smoothing the edges over with unused magic. When it’s done, Kakashi staggers in place, leaning heavily on Obito who is just as exhausted as he is.
From the bathtub, where she landed, Rin shoves wet bangs out of her eyes. She’s covered in something which could be tar, but is rather gross-looking and could be something else entirely. Still, she grins at them. “I knew you guys would find me! I was trying to get back alone but, well, there were a few more problems than I expected.”
“Well,” Kakashi says, and he inches back from Rin, eyeing her frame warily, “I’m glad you’re back. I can’t believe you made Obito think I was performing necromancy.”
“I had to get his attention somehow,” Rin protests. Then, her grin turns devilish, and Kakashi attempts to move faster as she opens up her arms. “I could use with a hug though, it’s been a while?”
“No way in hell!” Kakashi barks in reply, and scrambles towards the bathroom door. Unfortunately for him, however, Obito is between him and the door—and has no plans on moving out of the way.
Rin’s arms wrap around him and there is no escaping it as the black substance instantly soaks Kakashi’s clothing and gets in his hair. He grumpily resigns himself to his situation and, just maybe, hugs Rin back.
He’s missed her. Beside him, Obito is also trapped in the hug, though he looks to be enjoying it and…
Well, okay, Kakashi will admit it—he’s not entirely against the whole hug thing.
Just the weird substance part of it…