Roaring filled the cavern as jagged stones tumbled from the ceiling. Kakashi's stomach leapt into his throat when he gave the command to run. Rin and Obito rushed ahead, half dazed by the events of the past few hours. Kakashi chased behind them, keeping his companions within sight. His injured eye throbbed in time with the pounding of his heart. Larger rocks tumbled into the path of their racing feet while allowing shafts of light to pierce the semi-darkness.

Judging distance became difficult. Kakashi stumbled over rocks that he thought he'd already avoided. A third ripped his feet from under him. Kakashi fell, air exploding from his lungs as he slammed onto the ground. Rin's scream echoed in his ears, then Obito turned, eyes flicking upward. Kakashi followed the Uchiha's gaze toward the collapsing roof. He wouldn't make it in time.

Kakashi grunted in surprise when Obito grabbed a handful of his shirt. The boy hauled him to his feet, then flung Kakashi out of the way. Bouncing across the ground, he collided with the wall as Obito disappeared beneath the rubble. The world slammed to a halt, adrenaline and purpose replaced by shamewww. Obito shouldn't have come back for him. Kakashi should have given his life to protect the chunin. This was wrong.

The thundering collapse dissipated within seconds, and Kakashi tore to his feet in a desperate scramble to reach the place where Obito vanished. Rin stood there already, frozen as tears streamed down her cheeks. She held one of Obito's hands in both of hers while Kakashi knelt, calculating the best course of action. The Uchiha managed a smile despite the crushing weight of stone covering half of his body.

Agony welled in Kakashi's chest as he shoved against the boulder, willing it to move. He slammed a fist against the unforgiving stone, trying to summon anger. Rage could be controlled easier than the overwhelming anguish that he saw mirrored in Rin's eyes. Shinobi don't cry. Kakashi held the pain close and knelt beside his teammates.

The cavern shifted around Kakashi, swirling into an open sky and inky darkness instead of stone. Nearby, the sea whispered a haunting lullaby against stone cliffs. Physical exhaustion nearly drove Kakashi to his knees despite the adrenaline coursing through his body. He and Rin were surrounded and alone, too far from back-up. Hidden Mist shinobi advanced, drawing weapons with bloodlust shining in their eyes.

After gaining Obito's sharingan, Kakashi had improved his skill with chidori. But even he couldn't take on this many enemies. Rin stood next to him, twining a strand of brown hair around one finger the way she did when lost in thought. Uncharacteristic determination filled her eyes when she reached toward her weapons pouch. The sight triggered something in the back of Kakashi's mind, but he didn't have time to figure out what it was. He'd sworn to protect Rin with his life. If his debt to Obito had finally come due, he'd face it squarely.

Summoning chidori, Kakashi lunged toward the closest enemy. The lightning ripped through the man's chest as easily as the scarecrows he'd practiced on. A second enemy fell heartbeats later, then he sprinted toward the third.

Kakashi's sharingan registered movement, but he couldn't stop. Horror splintered through Kakashi when he realized that Rin stood between him and the enemy. Searing blue light reflected off of her face as his hand slammed into her chest with irrevocable force. Air exploded from Kakashi's lungs as he stared into Rin's eyes, inches from his own. The trust that he saw there shattered his heart.

The memory of Rin asking Kakashi to kill her forced itself to the forefront of his mind. He hadn't entertained the request, even after she revealed the details around her captivity. Hypocritical as it might be, Kakashi refused to let Rin sacrifice herself for the village. He'd already lost too much. While he didn't know the answer, someone else would. Both Kushina and Minato were far more knowledgeable in sealing jutsu than him. Rin had smiled and nodded when he presented the argument, but he should have realized-

"Kakashi." With her dying breath, Rin whispered his name. Blood filled her mouth, running down her chin in crimson rivulets as the light faded from her eyes. Agony ripped through Kakashi's chest when he couldn't summon anger quickly enough. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks before the darkness dragged him down.

Kakashi jerked upright in bed, throat clenched around the names of his dead teammates. The blanket clung to his body as he fought to drag himself back into consciousness. His chest heaved as the images flashed through his mind, like they'd done nearly every night since Obito and Rin's deaths. Even now, all these years later, it hadn't grown easier to live with his failures.

Sweat soaked the sheets, raising chill bumps on Kakashi's arms when he finally escaped the fabric. He felt like he'd been through one of Guy's infamous all-day training sessions. That would have been preferable to the reality of his nightmares.

"Kakashi?"

At the unfamiliar voice, Kakashi slid a hand beneath his pillow. He'd begun keeping a kunai there during his Anbu years. But, his questing fingertips found nothing. "'You okay?"

Sleep slurred the stranger's words, but Kakashi could hear them clearly enough. He racked his brain. The voice had a distinctly feminine cast, but it didn't belong to anyone that he knew. He wasn't in the habit of waking up beside strangers, especially in the absence of an aching hangover, so who was she?

With the panic of nightmares fading, reality eased back in. The bedroom was darker than it should have been, but a steady drumming of rain suggested that the moon hid behind clouds. The stranger's smell registered second. Not unpleasant, definitely female, and vaguely familiar in a way that Kakashi couldn't put a finger on. He turned when the woman beside him repeated his name, sounding alarmed by his silence.

Kakashi's eyes adjusted to the shadows, and the woman's face took on a more definite shape. As it did, bile rose hot in his throat. He scrambled out of bed, fell, clambered back to his feet, then continued backward until his shoulders hit the wall.

"What's wrong?" Concern creased the woman's brow and found its way into her voice. She rubbed the sleep from impossibly familiar eyes, sitting up.

Kakashi tried to speak around the lump in his throat but the words wouldn't come. He ran his tongue across suddenly dry lips and forced out the strangled question. "How are you here? Why?"

The woman tilted her head to the side with a laugh that made it impossible to breathe. Kakashi closed his eyes and counted to ten, wondering if that would dispel the illusion. It didn't. She remained on his bed, tucking a strand of long, brown hair behind one ear. Now that he had a face to match the voice, Kakashi recognized it. How could he not? "I'm pretty sure that most wives sleep next to their husbands."

Wife. Panic flooded Kakashi. While he had no memory of falling asleep, he was damn well certain that he'd remember getting married. Nausea pushed bile back into his throat, clenched tight around his stomach. For one horrifying moment, Kakashi thought he might throw up. He settled for collapsing, sliding down the wall in slow motion as she rushed forward.

The green glow of healing ninjutsu coated the woman's hands before she even reached Kakashi's side. The light brought her face into painful clarity, along with the swell of her stomach. Kakashi's mouth fell open. "You're pregnant."

"Okay, this isn't funny anymore." The healing nimbus disappeared as the woman stepped back. "You're scaring me."

"Sorry," Kakashi interrupted before she could say anything else. Dragging himself to his feet, he forced a smile. Then, he realized that his mask was missing as well. What the hell was happening? "I just need some air. I'm going for a walk, try to clear my head."

Kakashi could tell that she didn't believe his lie, but her face softened anyway. Before he could think to move away, the woman threw her arms around him. The ache that Kakashi had been ignoring flared brightly until only squeezing his eyes shut provided relief. How could something feel so familiar and foreign at the same time?

Soft words drew Kakashi from his thoughts. "Don't be long, okay?"

"I won't." Kakashi disentangled himself from her arms and turned away. As he walked through the apartment, he noticed the subtle differences of a feminine touch. Sheer curtains covered the usually bare windows, and a vase of pale flowers decorated the table. He'd never cared about those details when living alone.

Another change waited by the door: two pairs of sandals. Kakashi pulled his on, shaking his head at the absurdity of everything. He had fallen asleep in the standard issue jonin blues, which made it easy enough to blend into the darkness. His bare face presented a slight problem, but he wasn't likely to run into anyone at this time of night. Still, he pulled a rain cloak from the pegs by the door and threw on the hood. Better safe than sorry.

As Kakashi walked through the sleepy village, he tried to make sense of the world he'd woken up in. The same stone faces gazed down from the mountainside; the same houses spread their shadows across the street. But, somehow, everything was different. He couldn't possibly be married, much less about to become a father; a person didn't forget something like that. Even if he had managed to forget those monumental details, how could he ever have forgotten her? Kakashi tried to reconcile the woman from tonight with the girl he remembered, but shied away from the comparison. It hurt too much.

With a sigh, Kakashi leapt to the rooftops and crouched in one of his favorite spots. How could the village remain identical when everything had changed? Dreams were sometimes strong enough to mimic reality, his nightmares were proof of that, but this felt different. The night terrors forced Kakashi to relive the moments that he wanted to forget the most: Rin's death, Obito's, finding his father's body, the nine-tails attack, and Minato and Kushina's funeral. His worst memories replayed in vivid detail.

This felt like a new form of torture. Kakashi had never imagined a happy scenario in the same clarity as his nightmares. This couldn't be real. Sighing, he pinched the inside of his forearm. When that did nothing but produce a dull ache, Kakashi cleared his mind and focused on the calm inside, then drew chakra. If this wasn't a nightmare, it had to be genjutsu; there were no other options. As Kakashi formed the hand sign and prepared the surge of chakra that would awaken him, reluctance made him pause. What if he stayed just a little-no. Reminding himself that this reality couldn't exist, he closed his eyes and whispered the release command.

Kakashi reopened his eyes. Everything looked identical to the moment he'd closed them. Either this genjutsu was exceptionally powerful or it centered around his apartment. Though he'd considered it, he hadn't attempted to release the jutsu while there. Cowardly, maybe, but Kakashi couldn't bear the idea of watching her disappear.

Out of options, Kakashi sighed. If he couldn't force himself to wake through pain or chakra disruption, he'd have to continue on as things were. There was a slim chance that if he went to sleep in this world, he'd wake up in the real one. If not, he could worry about the problem more tomorrow once his mind settled.

When Kakashi arrived back at his apartment, he shook the water from his cloak, then opened the door. A faint floral scent perfumed the air, indicating that he hadn't imagined that at least. Exhaling, Kakashi removed his sandals and walked down the hallway, gathering his courage. He half feared that everything had been an illusion, and he'd open the door to an empty bed, as always.

Darkness cloaked the room, but her scent permeated the space. How had Kakashi missed that when he first woke? The familiar mixture of sweet and spicy had been complicated by layers that he didn't recognize, but her appearance and scent were perfect, now. No genjutsu could replicate that. The familiar fingers of agony squeezed around Kakashi's heart, constricting his air until he almost collapsed.

She slept on her side, hair obscuring features that had haunted Kakashi for years. One hand reached toward the empty space that he should have filled. He watched the steady rise and fall of her chest, blissfully unaware of his indecisiveness. Would it be more of a betrayal to climb into bed beside her or to sleep on the couch?

She'd be furious if she found Kakashi on the couch in the morning after he'd promised to come back to bed. He didn't know how he knew that, but he did. And, if she were just the wild hallucination of an exhausted mind, this would be the only chance he ever had to hold her.

Kakashi whispered a silent prayer for forgiveness, then crept across the room. Easing beneath the sheets, he willed his heartbeat to settle into a semi-normal pace. Kakashi had almost regained control when a hand brushed his side, then slid over his stomach. She snuggled closer to rest her head on his shoulder. A soft sigh of half sleep left her lips, a sound he'd heard on dozens of missions.

"Missed you," she mumbled, fingers curling against Kakashi's side.

Her touch broke through Kakashi's façade of strength. He wrapped one arm around her back, marveling at the soft warmth. Logic warned him not to give into the illusion, that he'd only hurt himself by accepting it, but his heart teetered on the razor edge between despair and hope. Kakashi's voice cracked as he surrendered. "I've missed you too, Rin."