To Be Lost On The Road Of Life (Continuation)

Chapter 20 - Illusion Shattered

Chapter 20 - Illusion Shattered

Kakashi awoke to the sound of rustling.

He automatically froze, worried about the sound and reaching out with his senses to investigate, knowing full-well that they were not in the safety of Konoha-but relaxed immediately upon realizing it was just his sensei.

He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, turning to see what the man was doing with a sigh. Kakashi raised an eyebrow when the noise caused the blonde to stiffen. "... Minato-sensei? What are you doing?" His eyes drifted to the bag belonging to his Uchiha teammate-who was oddly absent-that was held in his sensei's hand.

The blonde looked between the bag and towards the forest a few times-Kakashi inwardly wondered why he was doing that-before releasing his own sigh, dropping the bag and going over to a tree to sit.

Kakashi wasn't sure what had happened. He hadn't seen his sensei look so... So defeated, before. There was clear worry, which he had seen before, but it was accompanied by fear, sorrow, like someone had died-

"Where's Obito?" The silver-haired Chūnin asked with wide-eyes, quietly so as to not wake up Rin, but with barely concealed nervousness.

To his fear, worry-confusion?-Minato's demeanor went cold at the mention, his face quietly taciturn as his eyes darted to the forest. Again. Kakashi looked in the same direction, struggling through his sleeping bag to stand up. "Did something happen to him? Why didn't you wake us up? We have to go back-"

Kakashi abruptly cut off when a hand landed on his shoulder and he was forced to sit back down. He looked up at his sensei with confusion.

"Obito is fine," Minato stated cooly, with a smile that the Chūnin couldn't read through the darkness. He felt more than saw his sensei turn away from him. "... I'm surprised that you are so worried about your teammate, Kakashi."

The Hatake froze at the words, not having noticed the slightly proud yet oddly rueful tone his sensei had taken. What he said... It was true. Why was Kakashi acting like this? He... They, their team, they were Shinobi. Obito knew how to defend himself, that much was obvious by the way he handled himself earlier...

Kakashi swallowed as he recalled the event, his mouth feeling like parchment.

Earlier... Kakashi had been single-minded, his eyes trained on his sensei. He knew that the chances of Minato pulling through and winning were high, but there was still a chance-that minuscule, but frightening all the while, chance-that the man would be bested. Because what if one of the enemies had snuck up on him? He had been battling three Jōnin and two Chūnin; even Namikaze Minato might slip up and...

That didn't matter, the point was that Kakashi was... He was worried. So, he had reacted, and in hindsight, he realized that it was foolish of him. The prudent thing to do would have been to remain with his teammates, who were wide-open and viable prey for a third party, for a hiding enemy.

And that was exactly what had happened, wasn't it? He had gone after Minato, against what Obito had warned him about, hadn't even sensed the sixth Kumo Shinobi... And from there, he didn't know what to think.

His worry from Minato had been abruptly halted when that horrifying, terrified scream tore through the air. Kakashi had turned around, surprised that Rin was near him as well, but his eyes were riveted to the crumpled form on the ground.