"That's how you got the sharingan?" Sasuke murmured in wonder. "It was a gift from the kid you bullied." He sighed, shaking his head lightly. "How people change," he added under his breath.

"Oi, baka! That was very brave of both of them!" Naruto shouted, bonking Sasuke on the head with his fist. "People do change!"

Sakura grimaced at her teammates' argument and instead turned her attention to their sensei. Kakashi had crouched down on the ground and his hands were working hard to try to pull his hair out. Hesitantly, Sakura reached out to touch his shoulder. He winced at the initial contact, but his hands relaxed their tension a little.

"Tobi," Kakashi started, taking in a deep breath. "Tobi, the man working with Madara, was Obito. Apparently Madara saved him and he changed. For the worse."

Naruto and Sakura looked dumbfounded, Sasuke's mouth parted in brief surprise but then he nodded lightly.

"That's how your Mangekyo and his were connected." Sasuke surmised.

"Hai," Kakashi murmured. "Our eyes were the same."

There was so much Naruto wanted to say, Sakura wanted to add, and Sasuke wanted explained, but the scene was already changing in front of them again. They recognized Kakashi on his way to the Uchiha compound and decided this next memory was important to their understanding.

Minato followed through the trees as Kakashi pushed through the gates of the Uchiha compound. This was far from the boy's first time in the compound, but it was definitely the most meaningful. His month-long grace period was up and a meeting had been requested by the heads of the clan. Kakashi had insisted on going alone, but Minato really had no choice other than to follow. He had to watch out for his young apprentice, he was family to Minato, and had been for years.

"Hatake Kakashi," Uchiha Fugaku addressed the young silver haired teen as he pushed open the doors to the meeting room.

"Hai, Uchiha-san," Kakashi confirmed clearly, bowing politely to acknowledge his superior, before bowing in respect to the rest of the room.

"We have called you here to discuss Uchiha Obito's sharingan," Fugaku continued. "We have been watching your training and your behavior thoroughly during these last weeks; we have reached a decision regarding the sharingan. Is there anything you would like to say to our council?"

"Yes, if I may, Uchiha-san, I would like to appeal to the council in favor of my keeping Obito's eye. I made a promise to him before he died that I would always protect our teammate, Rin. I will be able to accomplish that if I have his eye watching out for her too. The sharingan is an extremely valuable asset to any shinobi who possesses one and I would like to use that asset to Konoha's fullest advantage," he paused for a moment to observe the council's reactions before continuing. "I have been able to perfect a jutsu I created thanks to Obito's eye. My chidori is one of the most powerful and deadly jutsu in existence, I can wield it efficiently, without allowing harm to come to myself, with the use of the sharingan. Although my body is not accustomed to the chakra necessities of the sharingan, I am superb at chakra control and am fully capable of learning how to channel it through the sharingan or direct it completely away from the eye. My current solution is keeping Obito's sharingan covered at all times when it is not in use."

"We Uchiha are well-known for being genius shinobi. You attained that title without a sharingan and that impresses us. As I have stated, we have watched your training very thoroughly and we see your genius as truth. We have also seen you often paying respects to our fallen clan member, the namesake of the sharingan in question. All of our deliberations have led to only one viable pathway."

The room quieted, Kakashi held his breath while Minato did the same on the rooftop.

"You may keep the sharingan," Fugaku stated, Kakashi's breath whooshed out as he opened his mouth to state his gratitude. Fugaku held up a hand. "However, even when you are able to control its chakra, you must keep it covered. There are those among our clan who do not agree with this decision and those in the village who will also view it as wrong. We also have agreed that the origin of your sharingan remain unknown to those not present in this room. We will not encourage it to be commonplace for our Uchiha to begin gifting their eyes to those who are not generally considered worthy. You may honor Obito's memory, but not in such a way that deliberately associates his name with that eye. We must protect our legacy."

Kakashi bowed deeply and accepted the terms.

"One last thing, before you leave," Fugaku added this last statement almost haphazardly, "We will not protect you as our own, and that sharingan will die with you. No matter what the circumstances."

"So?" Rin asked nervously as Kakashi and Minato approached the training grounds. Minato sighed as Kakashi fiddled with the eyepatch/bandaging over his still healing eye.

"I keep Oibto's sharingan," Kakashi said.

"Hurray!" Rin jumped for him.

"BUT, we can't talk about him and I can't ever show it around the village." Kakashi added grumbling. "How am I supposed to honor him if I can't ever talk about him?" He questioned up to Minato.

"We'll all figure out small gestures we can do. First though, we need a better solution for you than that eyepatch, it looks gruesome," Minato shuddered. Rin grimaced a little and Kakashi just rolled his visible eye.

"Fine," the silver-haired nin sighed dramatically. "What do you suggest?"

"I think just a little style change would be the way to go," Minato said, untying his forehead protector.

"Huh?"

Rin said nothing, but raised her eyebrow.

Minato removed the eyepatch and adjusted the fabric of his forehead protector before tying it at a defined slant across Kakashi's head so that it lined up diagonally with the boy's mask, leaving only his right eye uncovered.

Rin giggled at the change, then moved forward to add her touch. She pulled the small chunck of hair that Kakashi usually managed to flatten between his eyes and pushed it up under the forehead protector.

"That's better," she said. Minato stepped back and pretended to contemplate the changes seriously before nodding in intelligent agreement. Kakashi just gave a slightly aggravated sigh.

"Can we get back to training now?"

"Hai, hai," Minato surrendered.

The next morning Minato kissed Kushina as he left half an hour early, as usual. He glanced in to Kakashi's apartment, unsurprised to find the boy gone, bed made, dishes washed. Minato expected to see him at the training field, using the sharingan or practicing his chidori. When he arrived at the training grounds, however, he couldn't find the silver-haired jounin at all.

"Kakashi?" He called questioningly into the empty space. He scratched his head, glanced up in a few trees. No trace at all of the boy. Odd. He could have worried himself about it, but this wasn't at all the same situation as when Sakumo had committed suicide. So, Minato contented himself with meditating next to a tree trunk until Rin approached.

"Where's Kakashi-kun?" She asked, sitting next to Minato. Minato sighed and uncrossed his legs.

"What time is it?"

"Almost 9 o'clock, but he's always here before me."

"Yeah, he's usually here before me too," Minato sighed. "Should we go look for him or give him some time to himself?"

"Maybe he had errands to run, he was putting them off while he knew the Uchiha were watching him." Rin wondered aloud.

"That's possible," agreed Minato, still confused by the young shinobi's lateness. Lateness had always been a pet peeve of that boy. "Let's give him an hour and then go search."

Rin nodded in agreement. "What should I practice then, Minato-sensei?" She asked.

"Well, how about you and I spar?" He asked. "You usually train in medicine, let's do some hands-on hard-care ninja practice." Rin tilted her head questioningly.

"You always spar with Kakashi, I don't think I could keep up with you," she replied cautiously.

"I used to spar with Kakashi when he was a genin. We had different rules though, he would always take away my flicker-technique kunai. And I couldn't do rasengan then either. So, take away those two things and do you want to try?" Minato asked, rubbing the back of his neck, looking at the sky as he spoke. Rin hesitated, but eventually accepted.

The two sparred for an hour, even with his handicaps and going easy on her, Rin had still only managed three direct hits. She was exhausted. Kakashi still hadn't showed up.

"You were great! We'll have to do this more often!" Minato cheered, slapping her fondly on her back as she leaned over her knees to pant. "Well, let's use chakra sensing to find Kakashi now, it's been over an hour and I'm starting to worry." Minato continued, sobering up from teasing Rin.

"Hai," she panted. "Just give me a minute, Sensei, and some water."

The two jumped quietly through the trees, out of the training grounds, over the rooftops of the village, around the Uchiha compound, and finally to the memorial stone, where they spotted the silver head of hair. Minato saw him first and held his fist out, telling Rin to slow down. They approached him slowly, not wanting to unintentionally scare him into thinking they were enemy nin. As they got closer, Minato realized that he was steaming very lightly, he looked at Rin and her puckered brows told him she noticed it too. He looked back and realized what it was.

"The dew is evaporating off of him," he whispered into her ear. "He's been here since before dawn." Rin nodded.

"Kakashi-kun?" She called softly to him. He shifted his stance ever so slightly, which she and Minato took as a signal that he'd heard them.

"You're never late Kashi, is everything alright?" Minato asked, bumping Kakashi's shoulder lightly with his arm.

"Just," he started hoarsely, then coughed to clear his throat before starting again. "Just wondering how I could best honor Obito. So, thinking really. I came really early, so I could be on time for training, but then it hit me. Why?"

"Why what?" Minato asked.

"Why be on time for training? Why shouldn't I stay here with Obito and show him he's worth my time. I always yelled at him for being late, I've always been early. So now he knows how much he means to me. I'm late for him." Kakashi said all this in short, matter of fact sentences. Rin giggled.

"Obito once said he'd pay good money to see you show up late for something. I think he'd appreciate it," she squeezed Kakashi's hand in a friendly gesture. Minato just smiled.

"Let's all stay here for a while, I have things to discuss with you guys about our team, then maybe we'll have a picnic lunch with Obito today," Minato suggested. His students nodded and all sat in a circle, including the memorial stone. Minato addressed the two shinobi, as well as the stone, as he told them how Gai would be temporarily be joining their team for their next few missions. Kakashi grumbled, but it wasn't nearly as heartfelt as his complaining had been before Kannabi Bridge.