This has seen an extensive rewrite, and is also probably the last update/post you'll see from me in a while except for my new Naruto story 'Home', which I will update tonight. Please check it out (if you want). It's going to be a long one!

Now, about this one. Takes place before Sasuke leaves for the Sound, but after Tsunade has become Hokage. If there was even a time interval between those two things happening. I've seen a TON of fics when Kakashi hallucinates his old genin team when he's injured, but I can't recall to many when he mistakes Team Seven for them. And the plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone. No spoilers (for recent manga chapters, anyway). So… enjoy.

Prologue

It had all started out as a normal mission.

Naruto and Sasuke bickering, Kakashi slouching along after them with his nose buried in his book, and Sakura shaking her head at everyone involved but Sasuke. Naruto had been going on about how this new C-rank had better end up as interesting as their first had- and bluntly ignoring Kakashi when their sensei reminded him that they'd almost died on their first C-rank.

It was only after they'd taken the scroll that was their objective that things started to go wrong.

Because, really, every mission Team Seven was assigned always ended up more complicated than they had expected.

They'd been ambushed. Kakashi had sniffed once, twice, then warned them all to get ready; over a dozen enemies were approaching, and fast. He'd sniffed again and then raised his thumb to his mouth, biting through his mask, and with a flying drop of blood a pack of eight snarling dogs had appeared. And then up had went his headband to reveal a scarlet pupil, spinning spinning spinning, black tomoe rotating in a most fearsome fashion. Naruto and Sakura had shivered at the sight of it.

Kakashi had barely had time to explain to his dogs the situation before the ninjas had come. Chuunin or jounin, by the looks of them, from the Hidden Village of Grass with their eyes set on the scroll in Kakashi's backpack.

Kakashi's dogs snarled and growled, and Sasuke blew fire and Naruto multiplied and Sakura hit, and Kakashi's eye spun spun spun and gleamed blood red. One ninja took one look at the deadly jounin's eye and collapsed with a scream, and then Kakashi was breathing a little heavily and a hand was clutched over his eye in pain.

And then Sakura was crying out as a kunai buried itself in her shoulder and Naruto was diving in front of her, taking one meant for her in his chest. Sasuke blew out an inferno, incinerating the ninja who'd been preparing to throw yet another weapon at the injured pair.

The fight dragged on for far too long, and by its end, Team Seven looked no better than the dead bodies scattered on the ground around them. All four were covered blood, be it their own or the enemies, and the three genin were sporting injuries that would be fatal if not treated soon. Naruto's leg was broken in three places, and the open gash on his stomach remained a solid line of red, Kyuubi's Chakra not working fast enough. Sakura was coughing up blood and clutching at her chest, eyes squeezed tight in pain. Sasuke was leaning against a tree for support, a deep cut in the base of his shoulder- through the mass of bloody skin and muscle and tissue, one could see white bone.

Kakashi had ordered them to sit, and the look in his red eye had been dark and perhaps a little frightening, and so they had. He had treated their injuries as best as a jounin with only the required medical training could. He'd then informed them that the weapons had been poisoned- but only Kakashi had brought the antidote to standard poisons from the small Hidden Village of Grass, and he only had enough for three.

It was just their luck, really, that the Hidden Village of Grass was known for its poisons.

And Kakashi had given a one-eyed smile, spread out the antidote between his students, and promised that he was fine. Every jounin was put through rigorous training to make their bodies immune to most poisons.

If the genins noticed the look Pakkun gave Kakashi, they said nothing about it.

If they thought it was strange that Kakashi did not send his pack of dogs back, now that the fight was over with, they, again, said nothing.

Kakashi led his injured and severely weakened team through the night, Naruto in his arms as his broken leg prevented him from moving at his pace. Keep moving, he had commanded. Keep moving. He ignored their pained pleas for rest as the winter night air closed in and the first snowflakes began to fall. He ignored Sasuke's ashen complexion and Sakura's weak cries of agony as every step made her chest burn..

He could not ignore the impending blizzard.

And finally, settled in a cold cave for the night, a small fire lit by Kakashi's jutsu, his team tried to ignore how their sensei was sweating despite the cold. They tried to ignore it when he started coughing.

They could not ignore his patented eye smile as he grinned at them all, and said, "You three, take care of my body for the night, will you? Because there's a reason Bulk's not here, and I'll probably die before he comes back with the healers."

It didn't make any sense, but when he passed out, it made a little.

It made even more sense when Pakkun explained.

"He was poisoned, too. He just gave the antidotes to you instead of himself."

Because, really, that was exactly the type of thing he would do.

Chapter 1: Rin's Apology

"He's really, really hot, Sakura-chan. Do we think we should do something? Or maybe a-"

"We can't do anything, Naruto!" Sakura bit out, frustrated. "We're stuck here! None of us knows how to treat the poison!"

Kakashi's eyes flickered open, one grey, one red, both unfocused and blurry.

"Oh, now look what you did!" Sakura exclaimed in an exaggerated whisper. "You woke him up, Naruto!"

"Me?! I-"

"Stop bickering and close his Sharingan. He can't afford to waste Chakra in this state."

Effectively chagrined, Naruto and Sakura shrunk back, silent, while Sasuke moved forward and did as Pakkun ordered. Kakashi didn't resist; he just rolled lazily onto his side, his eye staring sightlessly at the wall of the cave as his breaths came weak in wet gasps. The sweat on his forehead stood out in the flickering light and what little of his cheeks they could see were red from fever.

Sakura flinched when Kakashi's unsteady gaze jumped from the fire to her. His eye widened in slight surprise, as if he hadn't expected to see her there, and he reached out weakly as if trying to touch her.

The kunoichi froze, staring down at him for a long second before she cautiously reached out and lowered his hand to the hard ground. "R-Relax, Kakashi-sensei," she said softly, her voice uncertain. "It's, um… it's okay."

Kakashi just blinked up at her, staring at her hand on his as it was some kind of anomaly. Then his eyes overflowed with water, and Sakura watched, confused, as they trailed down his cheeks and soaked into his mask. His one grey eye was filled with so much emotion it almost overwhelmed her.

It took her several seconds to realize he was crying.

She stared, horrified.

Kakashi didn't cry. Kakashi was… Kakashi.

And then he spoke.

"Rin. Hello."

Sakura's eyes widened in shock, and Naruto actually peered behind her and looked around as if there was someone else Kakashi could be talking to. "Huh? What's going on? Who's Kakashi-sensei-"

"Naruto, he's hallucinating. Fever. Didn't you ever pay attention in the Academy?"

Naruto glared at Sasuke, even as Sakura nodded firmly in agreement as if she had known this all along, too. "Yeah, Naruto. Listen to Sasuke-kun."

Kakashi paid their whispered discussion no heed. He just kept staring at her in amazement until he spoke once more. "It's... good to see you again."

As Kakashi was still clearly talking at Sakura, the girl hesitated, biting her lip, then nodded. "Um... it's good to see you too?" She had absolutely no idea what to say to her delusional teacher, but he just smiled happily and descended further into the hallucination.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Rin?"

The brunette medic nodded with a smile. She crossed her legs on the rocky cave floor and leaned forward, watching as Kakashi sat upright and pushed the blankets away. "Yes. What trouble did you get yourself into this time?"

He shrugged. "Maa... can't remember. But, whatever it is, I can promise I've had worse. I'll be fine."

"Honestly, Kakashi, you are a medic's worst nightmare."

He smiled. "Thank you, I try. But, this cave- the atmosphere is so depressing. Do you think you could...?"

"The usual place?"

"Mmmhmm."

Rin smiled warmly and then, in the time it took Kakashi to blink, the cave had disappeared. In its place was an old, deserted training ground in Konoha. It was comfortably warm, a light breeze blowing through and rustling the pale leaves- it was summer, Kakashi noted. Rin's favorite season. There was little distinctive about the training ground; it looked much like the others, a soft covering of short grass, a few trees with sunlight filtering down through them, most bearing marks of stray shuriken or jutsu. The only thing that marked this field apart from the others were three lonely logs bored into the earth.

Kakashi sighed in contentment and moved to sit in front of one of the logs. Rin followed. "Nothing like our old training grounds, hmm?" he mumbled, and his teammate nodded. "So, Rin. You going to tell me this time?"

"Tell you what?"

He shrugged, keeping his mismatched gaze on her. "Are you real? Or did my screwed up head just pick you to be my hallucination?"

"Technically, if I were a spirit from the dead, because you're unconscious and imagining all of this, I wouldn't be 'real'."

He sighed. "You give me that answer every time."

"Does it really matter?"

"...No."

Rin paused, then smiled at him and reached over to rest one hand firmly in his hair. "Besides, your head isn't that screwed up."

Kakashi shot her a look, but it was through a smile of his own. "I hallucinate someone who's been dead for thirteen years so often that we have a favorite place to come and talk." He gestured around Minato's old training grounds before looking back to her. "Sounds like I'm ready for the nuthouse, doesn't it?"

"Okay, so, maybe your head is that screwed up. Doesn't matter. It's still your head, so we still love it."

"We? Am I the only one going insane here, or are you now speaking for the voices in your head, too?"

Rin sighed and lowered her hand, rolling her eyes and leaning back against her own log. "Team Minato, silly. I'm the only one here right now, but I'm sure the other two are on their way. Minato-sensei probably just got lost, and Obito- he's going to be late."

"When is he not? Maa... we always used to hate it when he'd show up here hours late for practice."

Rin giggled. "I know. You would tell him off and Sensei would tell both of you off. ...And now, you do the same thing. You're hours late to every single appointment you make. Obito loves it. Sensei isn't too thrilled about it, but you seem to like ticking everyone off by showing your face hours after you were supposed to, and so he always says 'as long as Kashi-kun's happy..."

Kakashi rolled his eyes as he lay back in the dirt, letting an arm flop above his head. "I hate that nickname."

"No, you act like you hate it," she corrected. "Sensei and I knew you secretly liked it."

Kakashi kept his eyes on Rin, because his time with her was short, watching as she let a pale hand fall to the earth and slowly begin playing with strands of his hair. "See," he murmured. "There's my proof that you're not real. The real Rin was always too nervous to do this."

"Ah, but if that's true, and you're just imagining me, then you must have secret, subconscious desires for me to play with your hair. Well? What about it? Do you have secret, subconscious desires for me to play with your hair?"

"Well!" he exclaimed defensively. "If I let Obito do it, then I'd probably end up with purple hair. And Minato-sensei... I don't trust him near my hair, either. He practically tried to rip my it out of my skull that time he was trying to cut it for an undercover mission."

"You are very particular about your hair."

"I have good reason to be. Do you know how hard it was to grow it like this? It's for my image, you know. Hair that defies gravity is crucial for my reputation."

Rin giggled again. "Ah, yes, of course. Sharingan no Kakashi, the Copy Ninja, son of the White Fang, Wolf- and grey hair that defies gravity. How could I forget?"

"It's not grey. It's silver."

Rin rolled her eyes and continued to smile. "Sorry. I didn't realize there was such a great difference. But, honestly, Kakashi- you're so lazy you barely get out of bed in the morning. Are you telling me you actually bothered to invest any effort at all into the state of your hair? Sorry, but I'm not buying it."

Kakashi sighed. "And I thought you really understood me, Rin."

The two teammates fell into silence, Rin occasionally running her fingers through coarse silver hair but they mostly just sat there in their old training grounds, taking what time they had together and enjoying it. Finally, Kakashi glanced up at the medic and smiled slightly. "Don't suppose you can just stay here forever?"

"I don't think you can, Kakashi."

"True enough." He sighed, then, and let his relaxed gaze drift around the training grounds. "Maa... I've still missed you."

Rin shrugged slightly. "What else is new? ...We miss you too, you know. Just waiting for you to join us. And then, Team Minato will finally be together again- just like the old days, yeah?"

"Yeah. ...Kind of ironic, that the one ninja who was more people in the next life than this one doesn't seem to be able to die. And I've killed so many others, too. I guess this is life's punishment for a murderer." He smiled slightly, but it was pained, and Rin looked down at him in worry.

"Kakashi, it's one thing to miss people; it's another to want to die to see them again."

"I want to die?" Kakashi looked up at her with one lazy, half-lidded eye. "When did I say that?"

Rin frowned. "Only every time we've met like this. ...What changed? What happened to the ANBU who was just waiting for the mission that would do him in?"

Kakashi smiled slightly. "I'm not in ANBU anymore, Rin. I'm a sensei now. Well, they call me sensei. I'm not sure I teach too much. Certainly nothing worth learning."

"What's your team like?"

He thought about how to describe them. About a hyperactive blond with an unbreakable spirit and an undying smile. About a brooding, stoic youth who kept to himself and trained until he couldn't stand, a jaded look about him that came from experiencing too much hurt while he was still far too young. About a girl with amazing potential, but he'd wish she'd focus on her own worth instead of her fantasy, because he really did like her and it was sad to see her waste everything on a schoolgirl's crush that never would be.

And as he thought of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, he could think of only way to describe them.

"Like us."

Rin smiled at him again. Her eyes danced with happiness as she reached out and lightly touched his cheek, warm eyes boring into his own. "And you don't want to die and leave them behind, do you?"

He shrugged slightly. "Maa, I'm sure they'd manage."

"Kakashi, I don't want you to die, either. You seem… happy, about those three. Happier than you ever were when I was still there. ...I'm glad you finally have someone."

"Rin, I-"

"Promise me you won't die, Kakashi. Promise me you don't want to die. There's still so much you can do. You deserve to be happy. Obito and Sensei wouldn't want you to die either; so you need to promise me right now that you will do everything you can to stay alive and be happy with those three that make you smile."

Kakashi starred, horrified. Rin was actually crying. How had this happened? How had they gone from a happy, calm discussion to- this? Her eyes were filling with tears and she was gripping his hand even harder now, staring desperately at him as she begged him, pleaded with him to promise he wouldn't-

Wouldn't what? Kill himself?

He reached out and grabbed her other hand on impulse; anything to get her to calm down, anything to stop her from crying, because it made Obito's eye water to see her like this. "I don't want to die, Rin," he promised, trying to get her to understand. "I don't want to die."

Rin stared at him for a moment longer, tearful eyes wide and disbelieving. Then, slowly, every so slowly, she began to smile. A tear brimmed over and slipped down her cheek. She nodded weakly, as if pleased. "Good-"

"You're not going to die, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Huh?" Kakashi blinked, confused. The words had come out of Rin's mouth; it had been her voice- but it didn't make any sense.

"I promise, you're not going to die. Help's coming; just hang on."

"Rin? Why are you calling me Sensei?"

Silence for one long moment. Rin looked at him oddly, then moved forward to whisper in his ear. "It's time for me to go, Kakashi."

"What? No, Rin, wait-"

Sakura stared in horror as her sensei reached out blindly for the woman he'd been speaking with for the past hour. She caught his hand and lowered it to the ground again as Kakashi's fingers scrabbled against her skin, frighteningly hot, holding on tight as if he was terrified she might disappear.

"Rin," he cried out, and his voice broke. "Rin, wait, before you go! Listen! I'm sorry you can't stay, you know that, right? I'm so sorry you can't be happy, too... Rin, please... forgive me for that."

Her eyes grew wide and she found herself looking to her teammates for help. Naruto looked just as lost as she was, and even Sasuke seemed a little thrown off balance. When she glanced at Pakkun, the small dog nodded encouragingly, a pained look in his eye, as if prodding her forward.

"Forgive me for that."

She looked back at Kakashi. His fever was higher than ever, his black eye staring sightlessly up through her in desperation, and she couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like a tear had slipped out of his closed Sharingan and rolled into his mask.

Kakashi wasn't supposed to cry. Kakashi was her sensei, her unflappable, mysterious, indifferent sensei. He wasn't supposed to cry. Whoever this Rin person was, she couldn't be enough to make him cry.

"Rin!" he begged in between wet, worrisome sounding gasps. "Rin, please!"

And Sakura swallowed the lump in her throat and spoke.

"Okay, Kakashi-sens- um, Kakashi. I… forgive you."

The words clearly had a powerful effect on the man. The pain and horror on his face faded away, leaving nothing but a feverish bliss. His sweaty grip on her hand relaxed as his head rolled over to stare blankly at the roof of the cave. She wasn't sure, but she thought she heard a weak, faint 'thank you' before he shut his eye and fell back into unconsciousness.