Author's Note: Based on the final chapter of Kakashi Gaiden and beyond, because not enough has been said about Nohara Rin. And how did they manage to take down that bridge, anyway?

Also, all reviewers and reviews can expect much cheer, just sayin'.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

UNABRIDGED

Chapter One

Letting Go

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He pulls away from her, somehow managing to swat feebly at her wrist as he does, and this last act of defiance shakes her to the core, because nothing about their loud, vibrant Obito was ever feeble or even remotely weak.

"It's alright," he wheezes, firmly but with borrowed breath as his remaining lung slowly collapses under the strain of simply being alive. "Go!"

His hand falls away from hers and hits the ground with all the grace of a dry, crumpled leaf, and Rin nearly cries when it just stays there.

Obito, she realizes – strangely belatedly – is really, truly dying, slowly and so painfully.

(And she can't do anything to save him.)

Suddenly, it doesn't matter that shinobi are trained in worst-case scenarios only; that medical-nin in particular are taught to let some go and move on; or that she always was such a good student, because this… this thing playing out right now in front of her isn't one of Minato-sensei's weird bonding exercises, or even a badly hurt patient at the hospital.

This is Obito.

(Obito.)

And she is Rin. She is the clever, kind and friendly Rin, who graduated from the Academy at the top of the class and with special commendation from the Third himself for her superb chakra control; she is the Rin who has yet to put as much as a scratch on Kakashi in hand-to-hand combat and who grasps maybe a quarter of the Kenton that Obito masters so easily, but who is a proud member of Team Minato all the same because not even sensei can do what she does best; she is the Rin who transplanted a damn Sharingan eye, mere moments ago, from one teammate to the other (probably making medical history while she was at it, go figure) with a hastily invented procedure that she probably won't remember come tomorrow, in the field without the proper tools or even an ounce of anaesthetic to offer either of them; she is that Rin. But even for all her past accomplishments, and despite never once having let her team down in their three years together, she is now failing one of her most important people in the worst way imaginable.

She stares at his hand, ghostly pale and so different from the strong, warm hand that helped her to her feet just minutes ago, stares and stares and stares. And even though she knows, she wills it to move, to twitch – to live again – and for the boy on the ground to jump to his feet and announce to the world that this was just some dumb joke but they totally fell for it hook, line and sinker: what, couldn't they tell that he was only pretending? Never mind Kakashi, who has always been mean like that, but did she really think that an Uchiha such as he – an Uchiha with an awakened Sharingan, no less! – would ever get killed off so easily? Then, after brushing himself off and working out a few kinks in his back (because Obito would, after all, really have fallen down earlier, though the rest was theatre, genjutsu and cheap tricks), he is supposed to cast a hurt look in her direction – one which she will make a point of ignoring outright, because didn't his mother teach him that it's just plain wrong to play on other people's fears like that? – before moving in for the kill by smirking knowingly and triumphantly at Kakashi, perhaps even mouthing the word 'crybaby' for good measure.

(And Kakashi would snap.)

Kakashi, who treats Obito like a burden at best, would lose his perennial cool and momentarily forget not only himself but the mission as well, in favour of closing in on their teammate – quick as lightning and with thrice the destructive power – to give him the beating of a lifetime. And Rin would let her boy be, just this once. She may be Team Minato's designated keeper of the peace, but such an outrageous prank practically begs for swift justice; not to mention that this unexpected eruption of a sentiment other than bored indifference is sure to haunt her for weeks to come, because doesn't it mean that Kakashi somewhere deep down actually cares about them? Still, ever the sensible one, she would take it upon herself to carefully scan the area for more hostile presences before eventually patching up whatever is left of Obito when Kakashi has rid himself of his most immediate fury.

(Yes. That sounds about right, she thinks.)

Not that any of this happens, of course. Nor will it, for that matter, because this is their goodbye forever. He can't stay for much longer, and neither can she: time is running out very quickly now – one of them has much too little left to give, while the other has much too little left to spare – and they both know this, just as they know that whatever reinforcements making their way towards their location won't be coming from home, that the fighting earlier has left even Kakashi's chakra reserves dangerously low, and that those who still can need to get out now before it's too late for everyone.

Assuming that it isn't too late already.

Although even if it were, there would be little any of them could do about it, because for all their mastery of chakra, ninja wield no power over time. Granted that a famous few are able to manipulate it for their own selfish purposes, but even Konoha's Yellow Flash controls mere moments at most – and moments are awfully fleeting, disjointed and pass so very quickly, whereas time in its entirety is unchanging and absolute. In the end, those who shroud themselves in a ninja's darkness and walk a ninja's path can only hope to cheat it for as long as they possibly can (which in his case ought to be always, because sensei is beautiful when he fights and watching him cut through the air still gives her goose bumps), but Obito would understand this better than most, wouldn't he? Because Obito is an Uchiha, born into the darkness at the very beginning of the path and brought up to follow it until the end.

But even then, by everything she ever cherished, it wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't. It—

"Rin!"

(Kakashi.)

She knows that he wouldn't call out to her unless it was important, but she pretends that she doesn't hear him over the silence. Something strange and unfamiliar has crept into his voice – something that she doesn't like – and part of her thinks that she would rather not find out what has her reluctant-but-mostly-loyal teammate (and mostly-maybe-friend) worried.

But then the rock around her roars to life and the ground under her feet bucks, and she immediately turns to him for answers. It was sensei who taught her all the things that the Academy wouldn't and the hospital couldn't, and it was sensei who led them for years and years, but sensei isn't here to ask anymore. Kakashi is team leader now, though that might very well be the next-best thing, because there is nothing Kakashi cannot do.

He is shouting something at her. She can see his lips move under the thin material of his mask quite clearly, but the sound is lost among the convulsions of rock and earth. It is fortunate, then, that Rin doesn't particularly need to hear Kakashi's instructions to know what it is that he wants her to do; not when he is hanging off the very edge of a boulder, nearly dislocating a shoulder in an effort to reach her, with a desperate plea in his mismatched eyes to please hurry the hell up and grab on already!

(What are you waiting for, dammit? Do you want to die?)

(...well? does she?)

She actually has to stop and think about that, and it isn't until someone distinctly not-Kakashi chokes out her name – and how she hears this over the screeching and rumbling when she does little else, she has no idea – that she realizes that she is crying again.

.

Hurry, Rin! Which is it? Hurry! Which will it be? Rin!

.

Rin is kunoichi, a medical-nin, a proud ninja of the Leaf. The darkness is her birth right, the path is hers by choice and she doesn't believe in happily-ever-afters almost by default. Still she prays that Obito one day forgives her, because with his name frozen on her lips, she fumbles for Kakashi's outstretched hand.

And she takes it.