"Obito, slow down!" I called to my friend, pushing against the tree branch with my legs, boosting myself forward about ten feet as Obito leapt in front of me again.

My voice echoed around the dark forest, and I flinched slightly, my hand clenching even tighter around my kunai as I looked around the unfamiliar surroundings warily.

"Keep up, Ai! We don't know what they could be doing to her!" Obito shouted back, his voice cracking with panic as I stumbled on a branch, trying to propel myself forward even quicker.

"Obito, you've gotta calm down, ya know!" I scraped a clump of my snarled red hair off of my sweaty forehead, staring at my friend's back as he charged ahead. "Maybe we should go back and find Kakashi!" Obito's shoulders tensed, and he looked back at me, still jumping forward as his black eyes met my red ones.

"You heard what I said to him, Aiko! I meant it, too! If he's gonna go on with the mission and ditch Rin, then he's a bigger scumbag than I thought he was!" I bit my lip worriedly, knowing how serious he was about this situation as soon as I heard him say my full name. The last time he'd done that was when he'd fallen out of a tree and broken his arm during training.

"Obito, I think we'd find where they're keeping Rin a lot faster if we had Kakashi with us, ya know!" I tried to reason with him as my legs grew more and more tired from trying to keep up with his rapid pace.

"Since when've we needed Kakashi's help?! Just 'cuz he's a Jonin now doesn't mean he's any better than us!" Obito shot back, leaping a full twenty feet in one jump and leaving me in the dust.

A wave of frustration made me shove aside my tiredness and speed up a little, the small boost helping me catch up to where Obito had stopped and crouched down.

"He's the one in charge of this mission, Obito. I agree that he's a stuck up kid, but we're gonna need his help. Rin was taken by full grown men, Obi! Us charging ahead like this is not only putting her and ourselves in danger, but it's also jeopardizing the mission. Destroying the Kannabi bridge could turn the tides of this war, Obi. We could help our village win, ya know!" I began, squatting down next to him as he shot me a look out of the corner of his eye. "I'm not usually the cautious one, but I will be to keep you alive! What you're doing right now is reckless and bullheaded, and I know that's how we usually do things, but Rin's life is on the line! I get that you like her a lot, and I'd probably be acting the same way if you'd been captured, but you've gotta listen to me, ya know!" I exclaimed, my words bouncing over each other in a rushed jumble as I grabbed one of his hands tightly in my own.

"If you don't like what I'm doing, then why are you here, Ai?" He asked, a hint of venom in his tone.

"You know damn well why. You're my everything, Obito. I've lost everyone else in my life, and I'm not gonna lose you. Even if protecting you means going up against much stronger guys and jeopardizing an important mission and the life of our friend, I'd do it in a heartbeat." I answered breathlessly, squeezing his hand as he adjusted his goggles embarrassedly

"Aiko, you..." Obito began, obviously not knowing what to say in response. "Wait, shut up, Ai."

"Eh?! I wasn't saying anything, ya kn-" He slapped a hand over my mouth and nodded toward the ground.

Shooting him a venom filled glare, I looked down at what he'd gestured at and gasped against his warm, slightly sweaty hand. Coming out of the dome-shaped, cave-like building was a tall man with bright silver blades strapped to both of his arms with white bandages. He turned in a small circle as soon as he was outside, scrutinizing the trees with his eyes.

"Do you think he's alone?" Obito whispered, leaning forward on the branch, and I stuck my tongue out, licking the hand he still had pressed against my mouth.

With a stifled squawk, he tugged his arm away, wiping his hand against his navy blue jacket profusely. "Ai, that's disgusting!" He hissed at me, fiddling with his goggles again.    

"There's gotta be another one. They wouldn't just leave her unguarded, ya know." I tapped my chin thoughtfully as I watched the man take a few more steps, still scrutinizing the leaves as though he knew there was someone hiding in them.

"Of course there's another one." The monotone voice of our teammate came from behind us without warning, and I almost jumped out of my skin, my mouth opening to scream, only for another hand to clap against my face, stifling the noise. "You two've been so loud, I'd be shocked if they haven't already heard you. So of course they wouldn't just leave an important prisoner alone."

I muttered a muffled curse word against Kakashi's hand before he pulled it away and knelt between Obito and I, uncomfortably close to both of us.

"You came!" Obito whispered loudly, and Kakashi's lazy gaze turned toward him slowly as I kept my eyes trained on the enemy man.

"Yeah." He answered simply, his eyes slightly closing in one of his rare smiles.

"So Mr. Smartass, what're we gonna do? Tell me you've got a plan." I said sharply, secretly glad that someone else could take the stress of leadership away from me. A part of me was shocked that our usually rule-abiding teammate had decided to put aside the mission to help a teammate that he'd hardly ever shown any sort of affection towards. But another part of me had known he would do the right thing, and I shot my white haired teammate a small smile as he looked over at me.

"I doubt there's any chance for a sneak attack thanks to you two." He started, and I scoffed, scraping my kunai against the slightly damp bark of the branch with a pout. "And I doubt two Chunin and a Jonin could go up against two full grown Jonin. Especially since we're all kids." He added, and Obito and I leaned forward, sharing an annoyed look with Obito as he continued. "But we're gonna have to try. They've got our friend, and we're gonna get her back." A note of determination crept into his usually monotone voice, and my eyes widened slightly with surprise, looking over at Obito to find that he was staring at Kakashi with his usual bright smile.

I can't believe Obi could change Kakashi so much with just a few words. I thought, a smile rising to my lips. Obi's gonna make one hell of a Hokage. I grinned at my teammates, who were both smiling as well, and for the first time since we'd been put on a team together, I actually felt like we all fit together.

"So we're doing a head-on charge?" I asked him excitedly, stretching my arms over my head to loosen the muscles as Kakashi nodded.

"On one condition. If I say we pull back, we pull back." He looked first at me, then at Obito, his black eyes piercing into our skin. "I'm the Jonin here, and you're both gonna have to trust my judgment." Obito and I sighed at the same time, and I shot him a glance, knowing that he would ignore Kakashi's orders if it meant they would have to leave Rin. And since he wouldn't leave, I sure as hell wouldn't either.

"Fine." I muttered, and Obito nodded in agreement as he tugged his orange-tinted goggles down over his eyes.

"Let's do this then." Kakashi said firmly, pulling his sword out of its sheath as Obito and I smiled fiercely, holding our kunai loosely in our hands.

"Yeah." We answered in unison, all three of us standing up in the same motion and shooting down to where the man was standing, launching our kunai in his direction.

I was frozen in place. My muscles were clenched so tightly that I trembled, my whole body shaking like a leaf as I just stared down at what was in front of me.

"Shit..." Kakashi whispered, his voice a stunned hiss, and I turned towards him numbly, noticing for the first time that he'd pulled Rin away from where we'd found her and untied the ropes from around her wrists.

Everything was spinning. Even Kakashi was just a distorted image, crouching on the ground with one hand pressed over the wound that crossed over his eye, his other eye wide with horror and shock.

Numb. I was numb. It was like someone had stuffed me full of cotton. My thoughts were so slow, almost as though someone had removed my brain and replaced it with a dense cloud.

Whose blood is that...? I looked down at my hands lethargically, pressing my wet fingers together and watching the thick, red liquid stick them together. Oh. I pressed one of my stained hands to my chest, surprised to feel warm flesh under it, when it felt like someone had torn my heart out and left a ragged hole through me.

My eyes slid back to what was in front of me, and I was suddenly aware of the tears streaming down my cheeks.

"O...bito..." I whispered hoarsely, my throat feeling like someone had scraped a cheese grater over it, leaving it shredded and mangled. "Oh my god." My lips kept moving, mouthing those words over and over again as reality came crashing down on me.

A scream tore itself from my mouth, echoing off of the boulder pinning my best friend to the ground, its hundreds of pounds crushing his body under it. My knees buckled under my own weight, and I collapsed forward, not even flinching as the stone floor rushed towards me.

Before I could hit the ground, Kakashi's hands wrapped around my arms, tugging me back to my feet gently.

"Aiko." He said in my ear, his voice not registering to me as I stared at the half of Obito that was visible.

"Ai." Obito whispered, and my body tensed again, my fists clenching at my sides as I stumbled over to him, pulling myself away from Kakashi and falling to my knees next to him. "Please don't cry, Ai. I can't even feel anymore, I promise." He looked up at me with a tiny smile, his breaths gurgling in his chest as a line of blood dripped down the side of his face from the corner of his mouth.

"Don't leave me, Obi." I whispered hoarsely, hardly noticing the warm blood soaking through my pants as I grabbed his limp hand and clutched it tightly to my chest.

"I'm sorry, Ai. None of this really went as planned, did it?" He joked weakly, his laugh coming out as a wheezing choke as tears filled my eyes, blurring his blood streaked face.

"Why wasn't it me? It should have been me." I choked out over and over again, barely noticing what I was saying as I tried to swallow the lump that was making it hard to speak, my lips trembling.

"Knock it off, Ai. I need you guys to do some stuff for me once I'm gone." He rasped, his voice even fainter than before as his black eye started to grow more  and more unfocused. "Kakashi... I hate to die after we've finally started to get along. But I need you to watch Aiko and Rin for me. Don't let anything happen to either of them, 'kay?" My shoulders shook with suppressed sobs as he spoke, and I could hear Rin crying from behind me.

"Yeah." Kakashi answered hoarsely, obviously trying to keep from crying.

"And Aiko... don't do anything too stupid, alright? Don't come chasing after me either. You've got Kakashi and Rin here for you now. And Minato-Sensei and Kushina-San. You're not alone anymore, so don't even try to think you are." He coughed weakly, a gob of blood spurting from his mouth and hitting me in the cheek, spattering across my face as I sat frozen in shock, too horrified to even wipe it away. "One more thing..." He added, not even seeming to notice that his blood was dripping down my cheeks, landing on his face and mingling with my tears that'd already fallen onto him. "Rin... I never got to tell you how I felt, although it was probably pretty obvious." He laughed dryly, his voice barely more than a breath. "I wish I could have had more time with you... but now all I can do is ask you to do something for me." His chest heaved with every laboring breath, and I wiped at his cheek with my sleeve, cleaning the blood and tears from the skin as he closed his eye wearily. "My eye. Give it to Kakashi, please. And if you can find the other one, I'd love Ai to have it." I choked back a sob as Rin nodded behind me, rubbing her eyes furiously.

He opened his eye again and looked up at me, his black pupil vaguely wandering over my face as tears streamed down my face, splattering onto his cheeks.

"Aiko, we've gotta go." Kakashi whispered from behind me, at some point having walked up to me without me noticing it, and his hand fell onto my shoulder, gently trying to tug me away from him. "He's gone, Aiko. We've gotta get out of here."

I looked up at Kakashi, seeing a similar pain in his eyes as what I was feeling as Rin hurried over to us, her brown eyes filled with determination. When I glanced back down at Obito, his eye had shut forever, a tiny smile pulling the corner of his lips up.

Agony tore through my body, and I whimpered quietly, leaning down until my face was barely a centimeter from his.

"I love you, Obito Uchiha. I always will." I choked out, pressing a chaste kiss against his cheek before Kakashi picked me up bridal style and walked me away from his body as Rin got to work on extracting his eye.