[43] Hatake Kakashi {Dream}
The room is dark, only the light of the moon and flashes of lightning illuminating the room through the old-fashioned paper doors leading outside. The sound of rain pounding on the roof and the ragged, dry sobs of a child are all that can be heard. Pressed up against the wall is the source of the breathing, Kakashi at eight years old, sans mask, his eyes locked on a lump on the floor. Blood is seeping onto the mat and the air reeks with it, making him cover up his nose to try to keep out the sheer overpowering smell.
But it's no use, the smell chokes him and he collapses, his hands covering eyes that are dry, perfectly dry. Because he is a fully-trained shinobi, a chuunin, and shinobi do not show their tears.
The scene shifts to another dark dreary place but this time Kakashi looks more familiar. Everything about it seems less foggy, less faded. Now the quiet sobs are Rin's, not his, the ragged breathing is Obito's, not his. The smell of blood is still strong, but it's muted, not enough to choke him.
In a panic, Kakashi rushes at the stone crushing Obito, trying to lift it. It's hopeless and he knows it but he has to try because he's the one who should be trapped there, not Obito.
Rin murmurs something. Obito lets out a pained cough, blood spraying from his mouth and Kakashi collapses to the ground, fist pounding the earth below him. "Dammit! I... From the beginning, if I'd gone along with what you'd said and went with you to rescue Rin... something like this wouldn't have happened! What kind of jounin... What kind of shinobi..."
Obito smiles. "Hey, no... Forget it." His tone is too happy, too casual for this. "Hey, I'm the only one who didn't get you a present for your jounin promotion, right? Kakashi?" Kakashi can't speak, can't move.
"What would be a good present? I was thinking... and I finally thought of something! Don't worry, it's not... useless baggage." He's dying right there and Kakashi can't do a thing about it, but he still sounds so much like Obito that if his voice wasn't so pain-filled, so raspy and breathy, Kakashi could close his eye and pretend Obito wasn't trapped under a boulder.
"It's... this sharingan... of mine." Kakashi looks into that blood-red eye, shocked. Still unable to speak. The world has somehow shrunk to only contain Obito's voice and his eye, staring up at Kakashi. "...the people in the village... they must have been saying... that you're... a great jounin. That's how I feel... Please accept it..." Kakashi is numb, still unable to speak. Unable to refuse. Obito asks Rin to transplant the eye, right into Kakashi's now-useless one. Rin is stronger than him, she snaps out of her shock at the request, but Kakashi is still frightened, still uncertain, still frozen.
Obito once again spurs him into motion with his words. "I can become your eye..."
His own eye is dryer than all of Suna, but Obito's is crying.
Again the view changes to a completely ravished battlefield. It's clearer than the cave was, every detail burned into Kakashi's memory through Obito's eye. Obito's eye which is again crying because Rin is dead but Kakashi doesn't have time to wipe away the tears, just like he didn't have time to save her. To keep his promise. He's charging through the village to get to his teacher and Hokage, a very small but very important bundle in his arms. He can hear the Kyuubi raging but just focuses on delivering the parcel. The infant sobs and hiccups softly and Kakashi is panting as he runs. The stench of blood is sweeping over him from the battlefield but he presses on, ignoring the pain in his side. It wasn't a life-threatening injury. It would be dealt with later.
When he hands the infant to the man that had been like a father to him, he can't help but feel a little betrayed. Minato is the only one left on the very short list of people he allows himself to care about and he is aware of what his sensei is going to do. Kakashi has just hand-delivered the means of his sensei's death to him. Once the Hokage has turned his back to him, Kakashi allows himself to wipe at Obito's tears.
Again the dream shifts places and times, but instead of becoming clearer things have gone fuzzy once again. The white of the Facility is predominant and the only thing that's clear. There is a shock of red blood against the floor and the smell overpowers him like when he was eight. And he's just as helpless to change the situation.
The body on the floor seems to change shape, shift into different people. Shikamaru, Sakura, Tsunade, Yamato, Milla, Obito, Sakumo and back again. It's making his eyes hurt to look at it but he can't look away. He can hear that sobbing and ragged panting again and it takes him several detached seconds to realize it's coming from him. He is both in his own body and watching himself from across the room, and it makes absolutely no sense but it still is. The kunai he hadn't realized he'd been clutching falls to the ground and he knows, knows he's the reason for the death of whoever. Of them all. And their eyes are locked on his.
The dream very abruptly ends.
But it's no use, the smell chokes him and he collapses, his hands covering eyes that are dry, perfectly dry. Because he is a fully-trained shinobi, a chuunin, and shinobi do not show their tears.
The scene shifts to another dark dreary place but this time Kakashi looks more familiar. Everything about it seems less foggy, less faded. Now the quiet sobs are Rin's, not his, the ragged breathing is Obito's, not his. The smell of blood is still strong, but it's muted, not enough to choke him.
In a panic, Kakashi rushes at the stone crushing Obito, trying to lift it. It's hopeless and he knows it but he has to try because he's the one who should be trapped there, not Obito.
Rin murmurs something. Obito lets out a pained cough, blood spraying from his mouth and Kakashi collapses to the ground, fist pounding the earth below him. "Dammit! I... From the beginning, if I'd gone along with what you'd said and went with you to rescue Rin... something like this wouldn't have happened! What kind of jounin... What kind of shinobi..."
Obito smiles. "Hey, no... Forget it." His tone is too happy, too casual for this. "Hey, I'm the only one who didn't get you a present for your jounin promotion, right? Kakashi?" Kakashi can't speak, can't move.
"What would be a good present? I was thinking... and I finally thought of something! Don't worry, it's not... useless baggage." He's dying right there and Kakashi can't do a thing about it, but he still sounds so much like Obito that if his voice wasn't so pain-filled, so raspy and breathy, Kakashi could close his eye and pretend Obito wasn't trapped under a boulder.
"It's... this sharingan... of mine." Kakashi looks into that blood-red eye, shocked. Still unable to speak. The world has somehow shrunk to only contain Obito's voice and his eye, staring up at Kakashi. "...the people in the village... they must have been saying... that you're... a great jounin. That's how I feel... Please accept it..." Kakashi is numb, still unable to speak. Unable to refuse. Obito asks Rin to transplant the eye, right into Kakashi's now-useless one. Rin is stronger than him, she snaps out of her shock at the request, but Kakashi is still frightened, still uncertain, still frozen.
Obito once again spurs him into motion with his words. "I can become your eye..."
His own eye is dryer than all of Suna, but Obito's is crying.
Again the view changes to a completely ravished battlefield. It's clearer than the cave was, every detail burned into Kakashi's memory through Obito's eye. Obito's eye which is again crying because Rin is dead but Kakashi doesn't have time to wipe away the tears, just like he didn't have time to save her. To keep his promise. He's charging through the village to get to his teacher and Hokage, a very small but very important bundle in his arms. He can hear the Kyuubi raging but just focuses on delivering the parcel. The infant sobs and hiccups softly and Kakashi is panting as he runs. The stench of blood is sweeping over him from the battlefield but he presses on, ignoring the pain in his side. It wasn't a life-threatening injury. It would be dealt with later.
When he hands the infant to the man that had been like a father to him, he can't help but feel a little betrayed. Minato is the only one left on the very short list of people he allows himself to care about and he is aware of what his sensei is going to do. Kakashi has just hand-delivered the means of his sensei's death to him. Once the Hokage has turned his back to him, Kakashi allows himself to wipe at Obito's tears.
Again the dream shifts places and times, but instead of becoming clearer things have gone fuzzy once again. The white of the Facility is predominant and the only thing that's clear. There is a shock of red blood against the floor and the smell overpowers him like when he was eight. And he's just as helpless to change the situation.
The body on the floor seems to change shape, shift into different people. Shikamaru, Sakura, Tsunade, Yamato, Milla, Obito, Sakumo and back again. It's making his eyes hurt to look at it but he can't look away. He can hear that sobbing and ragged panting again and it takes him several detached seconds to realize it's coming from him. He is both in his own body and watching himself from across the room, and it makes absolutely no sense but it still is. The kunai he hadn't realized he'd been clutching falls to the ground and he knows, knows he's the reason for the death of whoever. Of them all. And their eyes are locked on his.
The dream very abruptly ends.