With Eyes Wide Open

Summary: You ever just stare up at the ceiling some nights and bleed chakra? Kakashi does. XD
Author's Note: Maybe 'Feel', but in a homely setting. Take that, Reg! XD (I know, 'Le, it's utterly useless beating myself up here...lol.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but if someone were to give him to me, I would not refuse!
Genre: Mind-funk at one in the morning by the light of a dimming flashlight.
(Best kind there is... : )

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He lay there on his bed, staring up at the dim blank canvas that was his ceiling with eyes wide open. After a while, when the darkness sets in, he never sees much of anything. And even though he listens, he can never hear much of anything at night. The silence doesn't bother him, at least not like it used to. After a while, he got used to missing Rin knocking on his door at such a late hour as this, or the sound of summer running up and down his stairs twenty times, which was only sensei at sixty miles an hour at six in the morning wondering how long it took him just to wake up. Sensei merely called it exercise. They called it hyperactive.

Your heart rate slowly increases.

Sensei didn't mind it though. His eyes were always blue and clear and free of any real mischief. Remember that time back in Kusa when he carried you the rest of the way? It was a long day after a long night under a broad sky full of stars, much like the ones he can see if he looks too hard or not enough. He can never remember seeing a moon. He can't see it right now, either; but it was almost full tonight. He could always tell this, even by not looking. His window was never one for modesty concerning sunshine or moonlight. He never bothers closing the curtains, even if it is so bright. After a while, he got used to missing Rin's shadow there, on such a late night as this. She started out saying "hi" to Ukki-kun. Then she was either happy or sad or giving him her medical opinion.

You realize you're breathing.

But most of all, she was just there, with him; no questions asked. Her eyes were always soft and brown and beautiful like Obito said they were. After a while, he didn't mind her company. In fact, he came to look forward to it. He grew to know her knock, memorize her manner, and see her smiles. For a little while, he remembered feeling alive. It was such a painful word to accept, so he tried not to. She was worth living for, worth dying for, so that was good enough for him. He held her—or maybe she held him and the world. But it was funny; even on nights like these, he never remembered her going back down the stairs to leave. He got to thinking maybe he loved her.

Your hands are growing numb from behind your head—oh wait, that has nothing to do with Sharingan.

He lifted his head and shifted his hands. He's still looking up, watching the dimness and darkness pursuing with eyes wide open. Remember that time when you first moved in this place? He did it on his own since he didn't need anybody. There wasn't anybody, anyway; at least no one he would ask. He team photograph was one of the last things to be unpacked since he did not think it mattered. He remembered the first sound he ever heard waking up the next morning was, not his alarm, but of his landlady yelling at the postman. It continues to this day. After a while, he just grew to drown it out. After all, what can you expect from married couples…

You can feel your chakra bleeding out.

However, the bickering from the older woman was always less irritating than all the times a young Obito Uchiha would knock on his door and then run away. It never surprised him. Obito was always pulling that kind of crap on people. He was always breaking the rules as if they were meant to be broken. The rambunctious Uchiha merely said it was fun. And yet all he ever called it was juvenile.

You start feeling dizzy and the pain gets worse.

He smiled; Obito was always like that though. His eyes were always cool and black and never ever took "no" for an answer. After a while, he got used to his threats, his challenges, the name calling, his smart-ass comments; and after a while, he got used to living without them. Call it symmetry of the worst kind; he wouldn't know. Obito wouldn't know, either. He was always pretty clueless. Remember that time when Team Yellow Flash was escorting some big-rig diplomat across the border? After Obito verbally tried to kill the guy, he tried to prove his stuff to sensei and him only to wind up freezing in front of enemy ninja. He said it was a fluke and later redeemed himself. It was always like that though. And even though it always seemed to rain on Obito's parade, he continued forging on ahead with eyes wide open.

...Damn you, Kakashi, close your eyes, now!

He flinched at the memory.

Just do it, dammit!

…Seriously, you'll die if you don't! What the hell is the matter with you?!

He lay there on his bed, staring up at the dim blank canvas that was his ceiling with eyes wide open. And after a while, when the darkness sets in…

You don't see much of anything.

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-Caliko