Make my acquaintance, stranger
His vision was foggy, and his head throbbed with pain. Reaching up with a hand, he felt a wetness on his cheek. He could faintly make out a red blur. ‘Did he somehow overuse his sharingan?’
He turned his body, so he was laying on his back, staring into a blank nothingness. ‘That's not right’ he thought, holding back a sigh. He hoisted himself up despite the burn in doing so, surprised by the sight of familiar looking pillars surrounding his person.
Kamui? What was he doing here? He pondered, looking around.
Letting his chakra flow freely, he felt another signature, it felt familiar. But that wasn’t right, the only other person that should be able to reach Kamui was—
“Obito?”
“Hey Bakashi.”
The blank response made him freeze, how could he just say that like this was perfectly normal?! (It really wasn’t, by the way) He whipped around, taking in the scarred face. The same face he saw crack and turn to ash. The same face he confirmed himself that was supposed to be dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead.
He didn’t notice himself shaking until a hand rested on his shoulder. Unconsciously flinching at the touch, he felt the grip hesitate. Obito lifted his palm off his shoulder, instead sitting silently off to the corner to let him collect himself.
The act made Kakashi think about the contract between this Obito and the young Obito he remembered. He’d matured, greatly, from the pre-teen that would go around yelling about being hokage. And he had to admit he would be lying if he said he didn’t miss it. But this Obito was alive—not a figment of his messed up mind or a hallucination.
He turned away to face the present Obito. His eyes tracked over the scars that marred the face of his former best friend. Thinking back to the time of which he’d gotten it. He heard a muffled voice, slowly becoming clearer as he drifted back to reality.
“—don’t know what's going on in that mind of yours, Bakashi, but snap out of it.” He heard, at last, noticing it was Obito himself who was berating him. His eyes crinkled into narrow crescent’s , and he smiled behind the dark cloth mask despite himself.
“Maa, I was just thinking, bito.” He tried, ignoring the glare given his way. Bah, he became such a grump.
The two sat in silence for a while, staring at the ground with a grim looking expression. Obito was the one to speak.
“Do—do you remember?”
“Remember what?”
“The war.”
“…”
“Yeah.”
They continued sitting in silence. It was just the two of them. In this empty, dark place that they could only call theirs. What could they do now?
A part of him wanted to run, to use the small amount of chakra he had let refill his chakra pools to kamui out of there. Yet another part of him called him a coward. So he stayed. He’d still felt exhausted, a part of it being chakra exhaustion, another probably from a lack of sleep. Kakashi crawled over to a corner, letting his back rest against a pillar. He forced himself to ignore Obito who was across from him, letting his head lean back and drift off into a light sleep.
————-
He woke up to the smell of food, he had to squint, adjusting to the light as he took in the honest to god delicious scent drifting in the air. When he finally gets a good look, he's surprised to see Obito cooking over a messily made fire. Quick, but efficient.
Crawling over, he takes a whiff of the food, its pork, from what he could tell. Marinated in—in something. Glancing over, he takes a small piece and quickly stuffs it in his mouth. Then it hits.
Dear kami, it's spicy…
He coughed, trying to cover it up with his hand. His mouth burned and he doesn't know what Obito put on it but he put a lot. He could feel tears prickle in the corner of his eyes as he forces himself to chew through it and swallow. Ignoring the muffled snickers behind him, he dug through the bag he had when he fell into kamui, searching for a bottle of water he could’ve sworn he bought. He let out a sigh of relief when he found it, chugging it down with the remnants of the spices in his mouth.
He sweatdropped, “Maa, bito’, what did you put on that piece of meat?” Said man was eating it like it was nothing! Mid chew, he pointed to an empty container of spices, smirking. Kakashi walked over, grabbing it, he soon realized it was him himself that bought it. Turning it over, there were even written instructions.
*measurements: 2 tbsp to ¼ cup water, mix thoroughly, marinated meat and grill, enjoy!*
A dark shadow covered the top half of his face as he read. He looked inside the container once more, empty. It was a hefty sized thing too, if they actually listened to the instructions, they could probably get around 20 servings out of it. But it seemed that somehow, Obito used up all of it. He’s sure he didn't even mix it with water either…
He glanced at Obito over his shoulder, who was licking his lips as he finished off the skewer. He couldn’t stop the cringe even if he wanted to. Did he even wanna know? Watching as he grabbed another piece of meat from over the fire, he decided.
No, he really didn’t.
———
He decided to spend the next couple of days (weeks? He couldn’t keep track of time here)in kamui. A part by choice, the other by fear of accidentally killing himself with the misuse of kamui. It was also a good time to talk to Obito. He enjoyed his company, even if they were basically strangers to each other at this point, merely acquaintances…
He was planning on changing that.