Chapter 1

"Tssshhh... Tssshhh... Tssshhh..."

The footsteps made a noise like sandpaper as the sound echoed through the hollow cavern. Kakashi walked slowly, cautiously through the dark passageway. He recognized all of it... but it seemed from so long ago, and the darkness seemed to envelop everything. Sweat droplets trickled over the shiny metal of his headband plate adjusted over his forehead, which was odd considering it usually was tilted sideways to conceal his left eye...

"Heh..." a small laugh, muffled by the navy blue mask hiding his face, escaped his mouth as he thought that over again. "His" eye. The stalagmites and stalactites of the cave reflected an electric blue light that was emitted from Kakashi's right hand. He had found himself in darkness and quickly used a condensed version of Chidori (his signature move) to illuminate the cavern as best he could without wasting too much chakra. The light had proven not enough, forcing him to reveal the crimson iris from underneath his headband. It reflected the blue-tinged light, turning it an odd shade of deep purple...

The Sharingan...

He had laughed because it was not "his" eye at all... he was not born an Uchiha. He had acquired it in the worst of ways. Kakashi had lost an eye on a mission at the age of 13, but surprisingly that was not the worst part of it. His comrade, Obito Uchiha, had pushed him out of the way of impending death... sacrificing himself. As he lay dying on the damp brown rock of the cave he had given Kakashi a parting gift... with the help of Rin he had acquired the Sharingan...

Suddenly Kakashi's eyes went wide. A cave? THIS cave... that's where he had recognized it from! For the first time in 13 years, Kakashi felt fear. He had vowed never to come back to the cave again... it held so many bad memories... so much guilt... They had never been able to recover Obito's body. Although Kakashi visited the memorial that represented the Uchiha every day... he knew his body still lay rotting in the depths of the mountain...

"Kakashi... "

Kakashi jumped. A whisper, like the sound of dead leaves echoed through the cavern.

"I didn't hear that... I didn't hear that... I didn't hear that..." Kakashi tried to tell himself he was hearing things, the electric blue light going out as he covered his ears with his leather clad hands...

"Kakashi... "

The voice seemed louder this time. "How is that possible?!" he frantically asked himself. He removed his hand from his ears and tried to charge the Chidori again... but to no avail! His chakra felt as if it were being sapped... by his eye! He wasn't controlling it! Yet, he started to see better... an ominous deep blue light... coming from a smaller cavern to the right...

"Kakashi... "

He wanted nothing more than to run in the opposite direction, but his body no longer obeyed his wishes. It walked slowly, as if drawn, toward the deep cerulean glow... "Nooo!!!" He screamed feebly in his head trying to force himself to turn around! To escape! But to no avail, as his feet moved him robotically through the cavern entrance...

"Kakashi... give it baaaaccckk..."

The light illuminated the silhouette... a dark shadow of a figure... Kakashi's Sharingan which had now betrayed him began sucking more chakra from his body, causing him to be able to see the figure slowly approaching him...

"No...no... it can't be you! You're dead! It can't be..." Kakashi gave a frightened gasp as the figure came closer... as he stared into the rotting face... of Obito Uchiha.

His orange goggles tilted sideways, cracked, off of the loose green-tinged skin. Patches of white shown where his skin had been torn away on his forehead and cheekbones. Dark black hair, dry as straw, stuck out at the top of his head in patches as Kakashi stared at Obito's empty right socket...

Kakashi fell backward on to the cave floor, ripping the black leather of his gloves as he stared upward at his reanimated fallen comrade. He realized Obito's remaining eye was glowing a deep crimson and his own Sharingan could not look away from it. His body was completely immobile, as if he were hypnotized by a gigantic serpent. Sweat poured from his silver hair as his face took on a frightened look.

"Now... Kakashi... you will give it baaacck..."

An evil grimace crossed Obito's face as he pulled a rusty dented kunai from behind his back and leaned closer to Kakashi...

"Obito... no... please... why?" Tears rolled down his cheek from his own eye, as the Sharingan remained inactive.

Obito's only response was the grimace as he leaned the tip of the kunai toward the bottom of Kakashi's eye socket and the world was enveloped in black...

(Wednesday, 6:58 A.M.)

"GAAAAHHH!!!"

Kakashi sat up quickly, disturbing the tranquil silence of his apartment. Deep gasps escaped his mouth, causing his chest to grow and shrink from the lung activity. His normally light silver hair was a deep gray as it was dripping with sweat...

"Dammit..." he cursed, tossing a pillow across the room knocking over a picture frame set by the window. It fell making a soft thud on the tan carpet. He buried his face in his hands, rubbing his forehead, trying to force the nightmare from his mind. Would he never get a good night's rest again?

He had had the same dream 7 nights in a row now... a whole week... and it was always the same. Tsunade had said it was a result of stress and guilt over his fallen comrade. He had denied any guilt, telling her it must all be stress induced, but he had a feeling she knew better. She had seen him visit Obito's memorial with a single white lily, once a week, every week since she had arrived in Konoha. He did feel guilt. Why had Obito pushed him out of the way... the fool... he was the one who should have lived... and now today had come. The 13th anniversary of Obito's death...

Kakashi gave a deep sigh, falling back on his remaining pillow and staring up at the ceiling. The room was slowly being filtered with morning light causing his creamy white ceiling to become a light shade of blue. Kakashi closed his eyes for a second, cringing at the hue, raising his right hand up to eyes rubbing them with his thumb and index finger. A small chuckle escaped his lips. Here he was, an elite jounin of Konoha, 26 years old... becoming frightened of a COLOR from a NIGHTMARE...

He sat up quickly, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, clad only in a pair of orange boxers (a rare pair he had acquired from Jiraiya, commemorating the "Icha Icha" series). He scratched his chest letting out a slow yawn, stood up walking still with jelly-legs from his narcoleptic state and stalked toward the bathroom. He looked sideways into the mirror and Obito's eye stared back, almost accusingly. "It wasn't my fault..." he muttered to no one, as he tossed his boxers to the corner and turned the left faucet of his shower clockwise. He tested the water a few times with his hand to make sure he wouldn't burn or freeze his ass off before he slowly stepped in letting the warm water soothe his aching shoulders.

He rose both of his muscular arms scrubbing the sweat out of his silver hair with some strawberry-scented shampoo, as he tried to distract his thoughts from the bad dream and focus on the tasks of the oncoming day. Tsunade had instructed that each team had to be trained in wilderness survival to get used to their surroundings and become better shinobi. She had ordered Team 8 (Kurenai Yuuhi, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga), Team 10 (Asuma Sarutobi, Ino Yamanaka, Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara) and Team 7 (Himself, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno) along with a few Special Jounin on a mission to the mountains for a couple of days. Away from the safeties of the village each team would learn how to, as Tsunade had coined the phrase, "rough it".

Kakashi smiled a bit as he thought over the day to come, scrubbing a bit more before letting the water pour over his head, flooding the bathtub floor with the white lather. He didn't want to be in Konoha today anyway... it was too painful. Luckily they were headed in the OPPOSITE direction of the cavernous hell from his dreams...

"Ohhh OW! Ahhh..."

Kakashi cried out in pain as his left eye emitted a sharp pain. He quickly rubbed it with his left knuckle, supporting himself by leaning with his other hand against the tile wall. Red dots blurred his vision as he tried to rub the pain out, the shower water propelling off his back, spattering against the walls as he leaned over in agony. He cringed for a moment more... and then the pain was gone. As quickly as it had come.

He quickly turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wiping the condensation off the mirror in order to get a good look at his eye. "AAAHH!" Blood! He closed his eyes quickly and looked again. No. No blood... it must have been a trick of the light. Obito's eye stared back at him through the scarred socket. He laughed nervously as he wrapped himself in a yellow terry-cloth towel to remove the moisture from his body. He was obviously spooked! Scaring himself! First the pain... it had probably been caused by the shampoo... although he'd never remembered shampoo hurting so much. He'd have to buy a different brand. Then the reflection... trick of the light. He nodded and stared at his reflection, which was becoming blurry once again from the remaining condensation in the air. "Stop scaring yourself..." he told it. Then he walked out of the room to get dressed.

The bathroom door opened and steam rolled into the room like a descending cloud. Kakashi stepped out in the buff and pulled on another pair of boxers (red this time) and headed toward the chair he threw his clothes on when he went to bed. The sun had risen more, causing the room to take on a more yellow hue as he stared out the window.

"Thunk!"

He stubbed his toe on something and looked down. It was the picture he had knocked down earlier... he groaned as he picked it up staring at the glass. It was the photo of him and his team, Naruto and Sasuke casting glares at each other as Sakura looked eager to just be there and himself in the background putting his hands in Sasuke and Naruto's hair looking as if he were trying to make sure they wouldn't pounce and attack each other. He scowled as he looked at the newfound crack in the glass across the frame. Sasuke's face had a big crack across it. He sighed... he'd have to purchase a new one when he came back. How had it cracked anyway? It was hit with a pillow and he had heard no sound as it had fallen dully on the carpet. Weak glass? Ehh... he didn't have time for that this morning though. Everyone was meeting at the gates in an hour...

He set the picture back on the window sill, the rising sun glinting off the silver frame, as he pulled on his navy blue pants and shirt. He stared out the window as he pulled on his olive-green vest and thought of Obito... 13 years ago today... he let out a long sigh as he pulled his black leather gloves on. When he was fully dressed from the neck down he pulled on his mask, hiding his face from the world once more. Tying his head band tightly, the knot nestled in the back of his now dry silver hair, he stared in the mirror at Obito's eye again. Glaring at it a bit, he pulled the headband down to conceal it again. To hide his guilt. He then pulled on a tan backpack full of survival necessities, snatched a familiar orange novel from his bedside table and left his usual unconventional way by flinging the window open and hopping out into the warm morning air. He turned around slamming it shut and locking it with a chakra seal and then hopped over the rooftops for a quick stop before he set out... (Wednesday, 7:42 A.M.)

(Wednesday, 9:26 A.M.)

"Kakashi-Sensei! You're late again!!!"

Sakura's voice shrilled across the bridge as Kakashi landed softly on the wooden planks. He stared sheepishly at the whole of Team 7: Sakura fuming at his tardiness, her cheeks turning a shade of red. Naruto, looking just as angry and hyperactive to leave. Sasuke, slouching against the railing thinking of better things to do...

He sighed, placing his right hand behind his head and uttered another phrase he had come to say over the past year. "I'm sorry Sakura... I realized my shoe was untied halfway here and ended up buying new laces..."

"YOU DON'T EVEN WEAR SHOELACES!!!" She yelled. "Kakashi, they expected us at the gates 27 minutes ago! We've got to move!"

Naruto looked up at this and grinned, all anger leaving his face. "Finally! We can leave! I've been itching for some action, dattebayo!"

Sasuke shrugged and started walking slowly toward the gate, indifferent to the world.

Kakashi watched the three make their different ways toward the entrance as he took on a slow pace. His fellow jounin would expect his tardiness, after all, they'd grown with him. He knew they'd forgive him on this day of all days so he was in no rush. Time was his anyway as far as he was concerned. He sighed looking up at the sky as a few birds rushed from the trees overhead from Naruto hopping through the limbs. He looked wearily ahead at the group awaiting him and hiked up his pack on his shoulders. He was alive today. Obito had given that gift to him and it would be selfish to not live life to the fullest. No matter what he would make this day one of the best he had ever lived, even if it killed him!