Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters that lie in Kishimoto's domain.

This story is the byproduct of me reading a dozen overprotective post-Kakashi-Gaiden Kakashi-Rin relationships and thinking: I don't know how she stands him. I have mixed feelings for it though, because... well, I'm not actually going to say since I'd like you readers to be unbiased as you start this. :) I look forward to hearing what you think and/or how you like it.

Thin Line

R. Winters

She hated them.

Obito, Sensei, and Kakashi most of all.

"Are you okay?" Kakashi asked, his single dark eye narrowed with concern as he peered at her.

Her own expression was blank in return, and she nodded once. He frowned.

Forcing a smile that was fake—and he never seemed able to tell—she added, "I'm fine, Kakashi… just thinking."

The young man shifted awkwardly before nodding once and taking a step further down the road. "I'm going to visit them… do you want to come?"

She shook her head, smile remaining plastered in place. "No, you go ahead. I'll catch up with them later." He didn't seem to be able to hear the lie in her voice.

He smiled, uncovered eye curving slightly in a way she could tell was fake and forced. "Okay," he said, taking another step and raising his hand in farewell, "See you later… Rin."

She didn't reply, watching him leave silently, the smile slipping off her face like water. Like the tears that had leaked from her eyes as she watched each one of her precious people die. The tears she had shed for Obito, Sensei, and Kakashi most of all.

Her eyes darkened slightly, staring blankly into the air in front of her. The noise of the street didn't reach her, and the glaringly bright sun didn't register.

She hated them—every one of them.

She hated the promise Obito had forced his teammate to make—how he'd been selfish and greedy up to the end.

She hated how Sensei had never done anything—how he'd moved on with his life and ignored the way his remaining students had been slowly dying right in front of him.

Most of all, she hated that Kakashi lived for her—how he didn't seem to be able to see that she was her own person, a skilled kunoichi who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She hated that he lived for the dead. That he was dead even while his body still drew breath.

Her thoughts turned to the memorial stone and she almost couldn't stand it. She didn't know how Kakashi could go there, every day; she could hardly drag herself to it once a year.

"Rin!"

Her eyes flashed up, her thoughts interrupted, and she flashed a real smile when they landed on her dark-haired teammate.

"Toyo-kun," she acknowledged, muscles that had been tense since she met with Kakashi slowly relaxing.

"We've got a mission," he said soberly, nodding in the direction of someone behind her. Rin could feel their third teammate. "Meet at the gate to leave in ten."

Rin nodded. "I'll be there.

Fourteen hours later, with a scroll safely tucked against her side and blood soaked kunai protruding from her abdomen, Rin's legs finally gave out on her. She stumbled, falling to her knees on the forest floor.

Toyo's worried face was blurry in front of her eyes, and as she stares it morphs slowly into another. Obito.

She's a healer, but she couldn't stop the flow of blood from her own body.

"—Are you alright? Rin? Rin!" Toyo's concerned voice is warped as though from a distance, and as she listens it morphs slowly into another. Sensei.

She can't help but think of the memorial stone and the names of the precious people she's lost. They cared. Those idiots—her idiots.

Obito, Sensei, and Kakashi.

She hated them for overprotecting her.

She loved them for caring.

Her last breath left her and a tiny smile tugged at her lips.

She loved Kakashi, most of all.