A/N: Hey, friends! I hope you've been loving the story so far! It would truly help me out if you could vote on some of your favorite chapters so far, I would love to know which parts of the story you like best! And a special thanks to those who have voted already!
~~~~~~~~~
Weapons clashed through the air in a seemingly endless cycle, the sound of metal grinding against metal, howls and yells coupled with the rugged pounding of tempest rain and thunder saturated your surroundings. Obito, Rin and Kakashi as well as numerous other Leaf ninja were summoned to rendezvous in an area between the Hidden Leaf Village and Hidden Cloud Village because of the alleged betrayal by Cloud ninja and attempted kidnapping of the Hyuga princess, Hinata.
You weren't expecting to accompany the mission, but a member of the Uchiha clan had stopped you with an urgent message from the Fourth Hokage to join the group immediately. It surprised you that the Hokage decided to send you of all people, especially since you had a prior appointment set up and were on your way to see Minato before receiving your new orders. Regardless, you found yourself well beyond village borders.
Tension was high between the Leaf and Cloud shinobi; both syndicates idled on standby near the frontlines in preparation for if negotiations fell through. The four of you were discussing a potential battle strategy in case things got serious when Obito began to lose focus; one hand clutched his goggles while he idly dug his pinky finger into his ear with a bored expression on his face, until a pointed object sticking out of the ground piqued his interest. Obito's voice clearly indicated fascination as he beckoned you over to check it out with him.
You moved from your spot to Obito's location when a sudden yell from a Cloud ninja on the other side followed by an unanticipated lightning blast struck a fellow Leaf shinobi directly behind where you stood, startling everyone. You stood there completely stunned at the blatant disregard for the peace treaty and you seriously considered the attack to be an accident, but you didn't have time to assess the situation very long as enraged Leaf ninja immediately charged to the other side in preparation for battle – with the intention to kill.
~~~
~~~
"Obito, we'll issue a direct attack on the enemy at 3 o'clock. Take the lead and I'll cover you," Kakashi ordered before turning to you. "(y/n), Rin, head for 9 o'clock and protect that group from the enemy and keep an eye on their lightning weapons. We'll meet back here once the fighting clears."
"Right!" you all said in unison, Kakashi's levelheaded composure supplying you with confidence to fight. The two pairs then split in opposite directions toward the battlefield.
Rin immediately tended to an already injured shinobi lying on the ground while you charged ahead to defend a nearby Leaf group. One Leaf nin was already struck down before you could even begin to form hand signs.
These Cloud ninjas are so fast!
You had always known that a strength of Hidden Cloud Ninja was their speed, but seeing it up close was an eye-opening experience as you assessed that your protective jutsu was much too slow to defend anyone from these weapons.
What... what can I do, then...?
You heard a threatening sound of a sword sliding out of its sheath as your head darted toward a Cloud shinobi about to strike down someone from the Abarame clan. Your legs worked faster before you could sensibly assess what to do, flagrantly disregarding the heavy wind and vicious rain cascading directly into your face and mudding your vision.
You naturally did what your instincts thought best: you ran in front of your comrade and blocked the attack directly with a simple kunai, the lightning emanating from the sword proceeded through the metal knife and struck your hand with a painful zap. You yelped in surprise and quickly jumped back, taking your teammate safely back with you. Not even a second after your feet touched the ground, the same Cloud shinobi appeared behind you, a cocky smirk broke out on his face as he roughly kicked your back, forcing your chest forward and sending you to the ground several meters away, separating you from your teammate.
"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad," you chanted to yourself as your body repeatedly rolled off the ground, fresh cuts and tears riddling your skin. You began forming hand signs desperately before you came to a complete stop in anticipation of the enemy charging with a finishing blow, and successfully formed a thick earth barrier around yourself. The barrier forced you to an abrupt stop once your shoulder slammed violently against its sturdy walls andonto your back, effectively rooting you inside the compact shell. The wailing and crashing from outside became muffled, the only clear noise coming from your pounding chest and your labored breathing as you struggled to recover from the sudden attacks.
After a few moments, your breathing began to steady. The air inside your barrier was stifling and it got eerily quiet around you.
You momentarily switched your breathing from your mouth to your nose in an attempt to listen closely to your surroundings...
"...."
What's going on out th-
*SHING*
Your eyes slowly widened as you struggled to register the blinding light that had vertically pierced through your barrier. You stared at the flashing blade, your mind in a complete blank; the only perceivable sense was an intense heat seeping from your torso.
"Did I getcha?" a voice called out before your barrier shattered violently into shards of electricity to reveal the assailant – the same Cloud ninja you had just defended your teammate from.
"Don't'chu know that Earth Style is weak to Lightning Style? Are all Leaf shinobi that brainless?" He mocked before leisurely sliding his sword out of your rigid body, your pitiful squeal of pain never ceasing even after the blade no longer had any contact.
"Listen, it really is a shame that our villages can't get along. We weren't expecting an actual fight, but I'll show you mercy and take you out of your misery, sound like a plan?" he offered with a hint of sympathy in his voice.
Withtrembling breath, you lifted your gaze to peer up at the man as a thin line of blood trickled out your mouth, your mind still in complete shock when a tiny spot flying in front of his face caught his eye. In less than a moment, that one speck turned into hundreds, then thousands of tiny insects that invaded his vision and distracted him enough for your comrade of the Abarame clan to scoop you up and immediately flee the battlefield.
Smaller droplets of rain pattered softly against your face. Your damp, disheveled hair matted to your cheeks as you stared blankly at the sunless overcast while being carried; black spots began clouding your vision before your attention fell on the yelling of your name a short distance away. You somehow found the strength to turn your head to the source of the noise only to see your best friend racing toward you, his eyebrows furrowed in panic. You felt your eyelids drop slowly and you struggled to keep them open until they shut for what felt like only a second.
You gradually opened your eyes back up, but this time severe delirium from blood loss clouded your mind. There was a numbing sense of your body being jerked around from your teammates carrying you in a frenzied rush. You could barely make out muffled yelling.
"Obito, you can't lose any more blood –"
"I don't care, just keep her awake!"
Muffling.
"Why would they send (y/n) out there knowing she's weak to lightning?!"
"We know, Obito, just calm down and let Rin focus."
More muffling.
You blinked only for a moment again and found that a flimsy fabric had replaced your view of the miserably grey sky. You lazily tilted your head around the small tent while on your back and saw that your top had been cut down the middle where a deep, red, oozing mess now occupied. With the corners of your vision blurred, your attention then landed on Rin as she stared intently on your wound, the defined wrinkles on her forehead told of her precision focus and extreme distress.
Your head then shifted to the figure next to her; Obito was grasping at your hand tightly, one of his eyes was squeezed shut with his teeth clenched in what appeared to be immense pain as he looked down at you. Seeing that you were awake, his entire face softened with hope, but you managed to detect that his face was incredibly pale and even a little sunken. He tried calling for you but all you could hear was an intense ringing before you slipped back out of consciousness, but not before watching Obito's expression morph back into pain as he yelled out to you in clear, unrestricted desperation.
~~~
You heard the soothing sound of crickets outside as you slowly opened your eyes, determined to keep them open this time. You were confused to see nothing but pitch blackness around you and wondered if you somehow had gone blind before you finally established that it was simply dark outside. You then became thoroughly aware of an intense burning, throbbing, agonizing pain emanating from your chest as you clutched the bandaging and panted heavily – trying anything to ease the harrowing torture seizing your upper body.
Watching you stir roused the figure watching over you and they stood up to walk quietly towards the cot. As the mysterious shadow approached, you gasped and sat up abruptly only for that figure's hand to gesture you back down.
"Easy, (y/n)."
That voice...
"K-Kakashi...?" you murmured, fragility riddling your tone.
At that, Kakashi lit a candle next to your head, the warm glow brought comfort to your aching muscles.
"What... what are you doing in here?"
Kakashi looked down at you and smiled, you couldn't see his lips under the darkness of his mask, but you could see the indication through a warm gleam in his eyes.
"Just thought I'd check up on a friend," he stated simply as his eyes closed in casual delight.
Yourheart swelled at Kakashi's changed demeanor. After years of trying to get onhis good side, Kakashi finally accepted you as his friend. The sensation from the change in your heartrate was soon replaced by that intense dull throbbing as you let out an undignified groan from the pain. You weren't expecting a deep wound to still be present on your chest. On your first mission together, Rin was able to heal the gash in your abdomen with minimal issues, but this injury was different. It was close to your heart.
Evidence of Kakashi's smile began to fade as he watched you tense in agony. "That really was a close call. Too close. You wouldn't believe how much effort it took to calm Obito down so Rin could work on you. You're not in immediate danger of bleeding out anymore, at least..." Kakashi trailed off as if he were holding something back from you.
You were surprised that you awoke to Kakashi and not Obito, rather disappointed that your best friend wasn't here with you, more so than you would ever let on. At least another one of your friends was here to comfort you, you thought to yourself. Still, you worried about Obito and his whereabouts. Something just didn't feel right.
"Kakashi, where's Obito? It's not like him to-" Your words halted as you watched Kakashi's expression morph from neutral to grim, his foreboding expression emphasized by the dim candlelight.
"How do I say this..." Kakashi's eyes went downcast. "By all accounts, you weren't supposed to have survived that injury, (y/n). You lost too much blood for any healing to work on you. Now Obito. When he saw your condition, he immediately ordered Rin to transfer his own blood to you. Other nin told him that any blood he gave you would immediately bleed out of your wound. They thought that you were a lost cause so nobody offered their own blood, but Obito refused to give up on you."
Kakashi paused, allowing you to soak in everything he was telling you.
"We got lucky. Obito's blood happened to be in the O category so there was a greater chance that your body would accept his blood. Mine's O, too, but I had a bit of a scuffle myself and wasn't able to get back here in time," he said while grazing his hand over the bandages on his side.
"Rin was taking blood directly from Obito and transmitting it to you the entire way they were carrying you back to the site. You should've seen the blood trail they left behind, it's... how I was able to find my way back," Kakashi tried ending humorously as his arm reached to scratch the back of his head with a nervous expression on his face.
He was met with silence.
"Well, anyway. Obito's blood was able to sustain you long enough for Rin to mend your injury."
You quietly peered down at the bandaged gash on your chest.
"...It was much worse. Trust me."
"Where is he?"
No response.
"Kakashi?"
"He's... resting nearby."
Kakashi's attempts at eluding your questions gave away his blaring reluctance to what he had to tell you, causing a smothering rigidity in the air between the two of you. It was becoming increasingly difficult for either one of you to keep a collected composure.
Exasperation overtook you as you abruptly stood up from your cot to face Kakashi, blatantly ignoring the severe dizziness and fatigue in doing so.
"Kakashi." Sternness pierced your trembling voice. "How much blood did Obito lose..."
"Enough."
"Enough for what.
"Enough for you to lie back down and not worry about him." Kakashi gently raised his hand in front of you as a gesture for you to repose. "Obito would want you to rest."
"What do you mean he would want?"
Kakashi didn't respond.
"You're not saying he...?"
"We don't know, (y/n)," Kakashi finally blurted out, unable to avoid the truth anymore. His face was just as devastated as yours was.
"...We don't know if he can recover from this."
The entire world seemed to come crashing down on you, the stinging pang in your chest grew exponentially worse. Without another word, you shifted your focus to the tent flap as you struggled to walk to the exit, only for Kakashi to step in your way. It took a few years, but he had finally gained enough height to loom over you.
"You can't go. You'll reopen your wound, and then Obito's sacrifice would have been for nothing," he asserted sympathetically.
You paused to look at him for only a moment before you struggled to leave again.
"(y/n)," Kakashi said with commanding insistence in his tone, one that made you halt in surprise.
Kakashi stood behind you as he watched your head lower and shoulders start to tremble.
"Kakashi..." you muttered between shallow breaths. "Please. This is because of me. Obito wouldn't be like this if I wasn't so careless. I should've known better... I need to see him. I need... to tell him..." you trailed off and slowly stumbled forward again as Kakashi looked on silently, his head averted to the ground with a conflicting expression on his face.
Your hand broke through the thin fabric of the tent and struggled to grasp a nearby beam to steady yourself and catch your breath. You had far too little blood to be going anywhere. Not long after, you tensed as you felt a pair of hands gently lift you: one held a strong grip under your knees and the other firmly supported your back. You looked up in surprise to see Kakashi holding you as he began to walk steadily through the stillness of the night. Kakashi caught your baffled stare before returning his gaze to a tent in the distance.
"Well, if you insist on going then I might as well make things easier for you," he tried saying in a casual tone in an attempt to hide the fact that he is actually contented in helping you in any way he can.
~~~
The light of the moon pierced its way into the darkened tent as Kakashi set you down gently onto the cold, rigid dirt floor and stood up in search of a candle.
"Why is it so dark in here? Shouldn't there be medical ninja watching Obito?"
Come to think of it, it was completely dark in my tent, too. I was lucky that Kakashi was watching over me, but why wasn't anyone else?
"Rin's the only medical ninja in our squad, (y/n). This was only supposed to be a peaceful standoff. Nobody was expecting that we would end up engaging in combat, so they didn't think to send more medics."
"Are you... serious?"
Kakashi successfully found and lit a candle before passing you a solemn nod. "Medical nin aren't a common class of shinobi. The village is short-staffed as is. Rin isn't completely done with her rehabilitation, either. We're lucky that we were sent any at all."
Kakashi made his way to Obito's cot, carefully placing the candle to where the light won't disturb him. Your eyes followed the candle before finally landing on Obito's motionless body. A thick, reddened bandage covered his chest from where Rin sapped blood directly from his heart with impossible precision. He looked... so drained.
"If you two have the same blood type... then why haven't you transferred some of yours to him?"
"You say that as if I haven't done that already," Kakashi stated calmly, the wrapping around his chest taking your notice. "We just don't know if it was too late. Obito had already gone into shock by the time I got to him."
Your hand enveloped your mouth, choking back a weep as tears collected in the corner of your eyes.
This is all my fault. I let him get this way. I should have tried to... I... I could have done more... Why couldn't I...?
Kakashi's eyes softened with empathy as he watched you deep in thought before turning his attention to Obito.
You better get through this, Obito. If not for yourself, then for her.
"Kakashi," an unfamiliar voice called from outside before a Leaf nin stuck his upper body into the tent. "Another casualty. We could use your help carrying this one," he stated in an unsettlingly neutral tone.
Kakashi sighed and turned to leave the two of you, but not before planting a firm hand on your shoulder with a reassuring grip before leaving.
You watched over Obito for what felt like hours. Your entire body grew numb from the uncushioned ground, bits of rubble and dirt dug into your skin each time you shifted. But you refused to get up. You only moved from that spot occasionally to check on Obito's pulse, which was alarmingly faint.
As you exhaled deeply, your mind wandered to the night Obito opened up about his feelings for you, but you had to cut the meeting short to go on an emergency mission. The two of you weren't able to get closure, and you were petrified that now, you never will.
"Obito..." you murmured while clutching his lukewarm hand. "Y-you can get through this. I can't lose you... remember?"
~~~~
Sleep didn't find you that night. The searing, unique pain in your chest combined with the sheer anxiousness about Obito's condition kept you thoroughly restless and on edge. You stayed in that spot for the entirety of the next day and well into the next night; and Obito's condition had not improved. It took every ounce of mental strength for you to not panic, but you needed to stay strong, for him. You were so lost in thought that you didn't notice the arm reaching into the tent to pull away its folds. Kakashi trekked in shortly after and stood over you, hushed for a moment.
"...We'll be heading out in the morning," he announced bluntly but with a particular gentleness in his voice.
"Obito and I will catch up with you."
"I can't leave you here; we're still on enemy territory. The last thing we need is for you to get captured and lose you along with Obi-"
"He's not going to die, Kakashi!" you snapped and aggressively tilted your head in his general direction. Moments scraped by before you realized just how hostile you sounded.
"P-please forgive me, Kakashi. I'm just... it's so hard... to be the reason why he's suffering," you choked out as your vision clouded with tears.
Kakashi placed his hand on the top of your head fondly as he stood over you, his gaze never leaving Obito. "You have to remember. Obito wanted this more than anything. He values your life over his. Please try to understand that."
You understood that feeling all too well.
"Again," Kakashi turned with his back facing yours. "We leave in the morning."
He slowly trudged ahead and paused when he was midway out of the tent. His weary eyes dropped over the odds of Obito's survival.
"I'm sorry," Kakashi said in a whisper, trying to conceal the hurt in his voice as he internally struggled with his own feelings of dismay for his teammate's condition. Even after finally revoking his previous frigid view on his teammates, Kakashi still hadn't found an appropriate opportunity to truly reconcile with Obito about the way he treated him all these years; he may have lost that chance forever. Kakashi's mental stability only deteriorated further over pondering such a notion. He needed time. He needed to recuperate.
Without another word, he was gone.