Kakashi met up with Minato-Sensei, and Rin the training grounds with one person absent. Minato-Sensei was about to say something but paused as Kakashi stood still, his arms crossed. Kakashi was waiting for Obito. After all, he was always late, right? He was just being tardy again. Obito would show up in a hurry at any minute.
“When is Obito going to come, he’s late again.” Kakashi drawled, was Obito going to make stupid excuses about how he helped an old lady cross the street again? Typical.
Minato-Sensei and Rin gave him pitying looks, his female teammate barely suppressing a sob. Why was she sad? There was nothing to be sad about. Everything was fine. He didn’t need pity or sympathy, he just felt irritation from Obito being late, again.
Minato-Sensei looked guilty and rubbed the back of his neck. “I think I should call this meeting off. It was inappropriate of me to call us here just whe-”
“Obito’s still not here, Sensei. We have to wait for him or else he’ll just show up to an empty training field and think that we ditched him.” Kakashi said earnestly, his voice wavering.
Minato-Sensei’s face crumpled as he looked down at the ground in despair. Rin, who had been holding back tears, burst into them, hiding her face in her hands.
Kakashi’s uncovered eye had an almost desperate gleam to it, his voice shaky. “Why are you crying, Rin? Obito will punch me in the face if he sees that I made you cry..”
Rin took a sharp intake of air, the cool air stinging her lungs. “K-Kakashi… Obito.. He’s-”
Kakashi’s voice became slightly louder, to drown out what Rin was about to say. “He’s just late, you shouldn’t make excuses for him, Rin.”
“I’ll go and check up on him and drag him out here.” All Minato-Sensei and Rin could do was helplessly watch as Kakashi’s figure disappeared into the distance.
…
Kakashi looked at the memorial stone, eyeing it over to see a familiar name he knew. Uchiha Obito. His hero. The silver-haired boy traced the name of his late friend in melancholy. He lifted his headband, showing an eye the color of blood, like the blood of the comrade that gave that eye to him.
He picked at the healing flesh of the wound across his eye, it couldn’t disappear. Kakashi wouldn’t let it, it had to be permanent. It was one of the reasons why Obito gave him his eye.
He knew that he was waiting for someone who’d never come back. He curled into himself, wrapping his arms around his knees. He stayed at the memorial stone, not even caring that the sun had started to set.
The air had begun to chill, and even as Kakashi began to shiver, he stayed right there, cold and alone. Kakashi chuckled self-deprecatingly, the sound so close to becoming a sob in the silence. He was kind of like a mangy mutt waiting for its owner to come back home.
Kakashi waited there, when his eyes began to become heavy he drifted off to sleep. He slept there, next to the memorial stone. Not knowing that the very person he was waiting for was eagerly wanting to come back to Konoha, desperately trying to speed up his recovery process so he could see his teammates, to see him.