Just for you, Mac. ;-D
Title: Scar Tissue
Author: JBMcDragon
Genre: Drama
Status: COMPLETE, all posted 19/19
Rating: NC-17.
Warnings: Het, yaoi, violence, and terrible, terrible angst. Also, very, very long.
Summary: Set during the end of the time-jump.
They returned one teammate fewer. The loss of that teammate changed Kakashi in ways Obito surviving couldn't have. Kakashi remembers him fondly, speaks to him in dreams, and carries his ghost as a companion.
But his dreams and reality don't quite match up . . .
Scar Tissue
Part One
Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Part Two
Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen
"I hear you took on Itachi and won."
Obito laughed wryly, turning fully around to look at the new voice. His gaze swept over the hospital room he was sharing with a Chuunin in from a mission; the room was small and divided by a curtain, currently pulled open.
Anko stood in the doorway, a fresh bandage wound around her upper arm, but otherwise looking none the worse for her recent trip.
"I wouldn't put it quite like that," Obito said, his smile broadening when Kakashi appeared behind Anko, Obito's discharge papers in one hand.
"Nevertheless," she proclaimed firmly. "I bet business will double! We should go celebrate."
"Can't," Kakashi said blandly, leaning against the doorframe a breath behind her.
Anko turned, frowning. "What do you mean, can't?"
Obito frowned, too. Maybe something was wrong, after all. Maybe Itachi wasn't as gone as they thought he was. Maybe--
"I have to take Obito home and have wild and crazy sex with him," Kakashi said, and smiled pleasantly. Obito felt his face go red, embarrassment vying with annoyance. Damn it, Kakashi had frightened him for a second, there!
"Oh," Anko answered understandingly. "Especially since he'll be busy once business doubles."
"Exactly. You should go home and see to Kurenai. She missed you."
Anko's face softened. "She always misses me. I was home this morning."
"Hm," Kakashi said mildly. "I saw her at X-otic. She was buying toys."
Anko perked up. "I have to go home," she said to Obito, her grin nearly taking over her face. "I'll come by later. Maybe." Her grin turned downright wicked. "We'll see how things go," she added, and flounced down the hall.
"Hey," Obito said, smiling as Kakashi walked into the room.
"Hm." Kakashi leaned in, kissing him softly. "No bad dreams? Illusions? Things that don't seem quite right?"
Obito snorted good naturedly. "The doctors asked me all that earlier. I'm fine. Really. I didn't even look at his eyes." And with only one working eye, and that barely working, he doubted it would have mattered if he had.
"You didn't have trouble waking? No--"
"Kakashi," Obito said, exasperated. "I'm fine." He stared up into the uncovered dark eye, the Sharingan hidden by the hitai-ate. That single eye searched his face, a hand resting on his jaw to keep his head still. Obito waited, patient. He finally frowned. "I'm FINE."
Kakashi gave a wan smile and stepped away, nodding and pulling up his mask. "Of course. Sorry. Ready to go home?"
Obito shouldered the small duffle bag Kakashi had brought him the day before--a change of clothes, something to sleep in, toiletries and books--and followed the Copy Ninja out of the room, waving goodbye to the Chuunin.
It didn't take long before they were walking out the front doors, into the bright sunlight, only a small shaft of which penetrated Obito's visual gloom. Obito waited for the familiar anxiety to hit, the tension to creep into his shoulders as he expected a surprise from his blind spot. Kakashi was guarding the side without an eye, but that left a whole lot of black on the right.
Only this time, the anxiety didn't come. It had vanished with Itachi, Obito realized with a small smile. He'd faced the worst he was going to, and now… now all he had to do was move on with life.
"All right?" Kakashi asked quietly.
Obito smiled and nodded. "Yeah. All right."
**
"You look well fucked."
Obito blushed brightly, turning to glare at Genma across the bar. Raidou was with him, sitting shoulder to shoulder instead of cockeyed to give each other sprawling space like they normally did. Obito snorted. "You should talk. You two look positively cuddly."
Genma clamped his teeth down on his senbon, looking down at his drink and leaning away slightly. Raidou just laughed and settled more comfortably on his forearms, resting on the bar. "The barkeep knows all and sees all," he said, grinning.
Obito laughed. "I'm just glad to see you two are--"
"We're not anything," Genma said quickly.
Raidou smiled slowly, knowingly, and shrugged. "What he said."
Obito rolled his eyes and gave them both drinks on the house.
**
He could feel Kakashi's arm heavy against his waist even before he truly woke. Obito snuggled against the chest pressed to his back, burrowing further under the covers. It had to be close to noon--most likely Kakashi had gone and done his morning exercises before returning. Obito slept in on a regular basis--after staying up until three a.m. tidying the bar, he was never in any shape to get up at six. Noon was more like it.
"Any news?" he mumbled sleepily, the same way he had for the last five mornings since returning home after Itachi's attack.
A hand rubbed up and down his arm. "They were spotted moving away. Toward Naruto."
"Poor kid," Obito said, secretly relieved. If they were going toward Naruto, they weren't coming toward him.
Kakashi kissed his ear. "No missions. All right? Lay low."
Obito laughed softly, amused at his lover's continued worry. "I don't think I'll be doing any missions, any time soon."
"No undercover work."
"Kakashi," Obito said with a smile, trying to pretend to still be sleeping even as it vanished, "I'm not a ninja."
"I'm serious."
"Me, too," Obito laughed.
"What if they ask?"
Obito found Kakashi's arm blindly, petted it. "I'll tell them my cry-baby lover won't let me."
Kakashi nuzzled the nape of his neck. "Good."
Obito smiled and dozed, wrapped up in blankets and body, the sunlight blocked by blackout curtains that Kakashi and Gai had draped over the window. Eventually, though, reality intruded. He had lessons with Ibiki later, and a meeting with a financial planner--budgeting wasn't his strong suit. He stretched and blinked his eye open. Then blinked again, when the darkness in the room seemed almost oppressive. The curtains were really effective.
It took him a moment to realize they shouldn't be that effective. Heart thumping, he lifted his hand and held it for a moment in front of his face, bringing it closer to his eye until he felt the heat of it against his nose. Nothing.
"Obito?" Kakashi asked, hand rubbing up and down his arm. "Something wrong?"
Obito put his hand down slowly. "I can't see."
"Turn the light on."
He laughed humorlessly. "No, I mean *I can't see.*"
There was a beat of silence. Kakashi rubbed his arm. "Have you tried using the Sharingan?" he asked quietly.
He was almost afraid to. Obito took a deep breath and summoned it, feeling chakra tingle through the pathways.
Darkness.
"It's not working," he whispered. He blinked exaggeratedly, as if that might help. It didn't. "Kakashi…" He didn't know what he was going to say. The word was more a plea.
His lover rolled, pulling him closer, almost under the long, slim body. "It's all right," he whispered, low and soothing. "It's okay. We'll get through this, too."
Obito turned into him--and stopped. "Wait. Wait. I can see--I can see your chakra." Not like he had before, where the world went red and gray and he could *see*, but streamers--chakra pathways snaking through Kakashi's body and a faint glow around them, what the man spent naturally. A chakra skeleton, surrounded by faint 'skin.'
In a world of darkness, it was something. He reached out tentatively, found Kakashi's face, traced it with his fingers, looking at his own chakra--duller, bright in spots, a shadow in others. He took a deep breath. It was something.
Trembling fingers brushed over Kakashi's lips, feeling them thin and slightly damp, warm. Those lips firmed, shaped, kissed his questing hands.
"It'll be okay," Kakashi said again, quietly.
Obito nodded slowly. He looked at the lines of chakra, and put Kakashi's face to them, pulling it from memory.
It was frightening. And… it was okay.
**
Epilogue
Obito paused in the doorway of the meeting hall, feeling Kakashi step close beside his elbow, opposite his Inuzuka dog.
"Two long tables to the right and the left," Kakashi murmured, his breath stopped by his mask. "A dais a hundred feet ahead of us. Buffet tables against the walls on this side. Chairs are mostly pushed in."
Obito nodded, fixing the image in his mind, seeing the chakra patterns of people milling around. Those helped; in a pinch, he just assumed that any blank spaces were inanimate objects--and when there weren't enough people to tell, or they were all sitting, he had Crimson.
"There's my baby!" someone female yelled, and a big chakra presence, so bright it almost hurt to look at, flung out arms and raced forward.
Obito braced for impact, but he needn't have; at the last minute the woman dropped to her knees to hug the dog.
Right. Inuzuka. He appreciated the retired shinobi dog, its ninja partner dead, but he didn't appreciate the rest of the clan. The dogs were just better behaved (and sometimes he thought his Crimson was smarter) than the people.
"Why don't you leave him with me?" the woman cooed. "I brought his sister."
Obito frowned. "He's my seeing eye--"
"I'll send him back to you soon. You have that seeing eye dog." Chakra streamers lifted; the pathways down an arm, gesturing toward his other side.
Obito turned to look at Kakashi's pathways. "Hm," Kakashi said, and he sounded unimpressed.
Obito grinned broadly. "You're right. I do have this seeing eye dog."
"Amusing," Kakashi murmured blandly.
Obito's grin didn't diminish. "I thought so. Where are we headed?" He reached out, finding Kakashi's arm and sliding down firm muscle until he could link their fingers.
"We're seated over here," Kakashi said, stepping away, giving Obito time to follow.
Obito did, trusting his lover to guide him carefully. He saw little bits of chakra flaring toward him as peoples' attention focused on him--them--and he lifted his chin proudly.
Kakashi squeezed his fingers. "All right?"
Obito nodded.
"Good. Here." The man stopped and Obito heard the scrape of a chair across wood, then felt his hand guided to the back.
Obito stepped around and into the chair carefully, smiling at the glow of the person beside him. He had no way of knowing if they smiled back, of course, but the hard lines of their chakra softened a little.
"Thank you for coming with me," Kakashi murmured, leaning close.
Obito gave a little half laugh. Kakashi had been asking him to stupid diplomatic meetings for weeks. "You owe me."
"I know. Three days of pampering."
"Four," Obito demanded, and heard a chuckle from someone nearby.
"Four, then. Pushy pushy," Kakashi said mildly, but Obito could almost hear the smile in his voice. Without eyes to see Kakashi's bland expression, it was actually easier to tell what he was feeling. "Good thing I love you," Kakashi added.
Obito blushed hotly. "Yeah, well…" he mumbled, in lieu of having anything to say. Then he blushed brighter, his hands fiddling with each other on the tabletop. He could feel a heavy linen cloth, and heard the rattle of dishes. "I love you, too," he muttered, embarrassed.
Kakashi leaned in and put a kiss on his temple, which only made him flush brighter. "I know," the Copy Ninja said.
Obito smiled a little.
"My Eternal Rival and Most Brave Uchiha!" Gai bellowed from across the room.
Obito groaned, laughing.
"I found this book on gay sex and thought of you! The top model looks just like you, Most Esteemed Colleague!"
Laughter, shocked and amused, spilled through the room.
"He's *your* friend," Obito said darkly, burying his face in his arms.
"I think 'Most Esteemed Colleague' is you," Kakashi mumbled back.
"Oh, no. No. That's definitely you," Obito argued.
"And on page forty-three," Gai continued loudly, "It recommends using Most Hip Lubricant! Right here! So you don't receive anal fissures!"
"Oh, gods," Kakashi groaned, and Obito heard him slide his chair back. "I'll just take that away from him…"
"Good idea," Obito muttered, mortified. He propped his head in his hands, staring down at the darkness of no chakra and wishing the room were as empty as it looked right then.
"Don't worry, Obito," a wry voice said across from him. "We already knew you didn't have anal fissures."
"Fuck you, too, Ibiki," Obito said, laughing as he looked up.
"Thanks, but I hear you've got that handled," Ibiki answered dryly.
Obito groaned and buried his face again.
"Ready for a night of Konoha politics and sheer boredom?" Ibiki asked, darkly gleeful.
Obito smiled into his arms, not looking up. Faintly, he heard Kakashi and Gai speaking, voices muted. It sounded like they were leaving the building. Leaving him alone in a dark room with no way around.
It was all right. Kakashi would come back for him. "Honestly?" Obito asked, content. "I can't wait."
**********
END
**********
A/N: Well, there you have it. The only KakaObito I will ever write. ;-D
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idle_myrmidon made fanart! :)