Getting Lost on the Roads of Life - a KakaSaku Story [CONCLUDED]

Darkness

There was darkness - and there was darkness, a living, breathing menace out to end you the moment you let your guard down.

Every hair on Kakashi's body stood on end as they entered the pitch black catacombs underneath the caves of the Mountains' Graveyard.

He had been trained in such conditions as a recruit for Root. But whatever terror he had felt during those endless months, deep down, he had still known they wouldn't let him die too easily. He had realized what value he had for them, being young, strong, talented, reckless - to get out, he just needed to prove he could extinguish all emotions for the sake of getting any job done, that he could endure even the most extreme pressure to become a perfect weapon.

Here, the air was humming with a painfully dissonant energy whose only purpose seemed the merciless extinction of all life.

"Are we a little skittish?" Rin chuckled when Kakashi jumped as her fingers brushed against his by accident. "Just don't anger them, we'll be fine."

"Whom?" Kakashi whispered, his heart racing in his chest. Instead of an answer, her cold fingers grabbed and pressed his hand, but comfort didn't exist in this place, her touch just made him shiver violently.

He didn't remember ever being this scared.

Or maybe he did...

A memory surfaced from behind a mind door that was no longer locked. The latest war. The White Goddess. The Infinite Tsukuyomi happening around them. The hopelessness, the powerlessness he had felt, the certainty of having lived a miserable, pointless life.

"You feel them, don't you?" Rin whispered.

"What are you talking about, Rin?" Kakashi asked, hearing his voice shake. He was feeling things alright... utter despair for one. Mind-crushing fear. It felt exactly like being trapped in a Tsukuyomi only that this was real, which meant you couldn't wake up from it.

"Shhhh," she urged him, pulling him forward. They were not allowed to bring lights, she had insisted. She considered it some kind of taboo, it had sounded to him like a religious thing, not something he had a right to question.

If anything, he had expected a completely altered Rin, an enemy. Not someone whose gentle hands his body remembered like they had last sent their healing energy into him only yesterday.

But then, a faint smell hit his nostrils, familiar and terrifying.

"Rin," Kakashi said, his stomach revolting, "stop."

He managed to plant his heels into the ground and hold her back by the hand, which strangely cost him his entire willpower.

"Rin, is there a God Tree down here?"

It was impossible! But his nose was never wrong.

"A God Tree?" she echoed surprised. "What's that?"

"Were you here during the war, Rin, in these caves? You didn't meet Obito, I know that. But maybe you saw Madara? Did he talk to you?"

"Who?" Rin started to sound a bit angry. "Did you hit your head, Kakashi? I thought I cured your fever. No, I did not meet Obito, he's dead - and certainly not Madara, if you mean that Madara, he's even deader. Whatever madness you people from Konoha got involved in, it has nothing to do with me."

"Are you're sure he didn't talk to you? Maybe in disguise? He's a cunning, mean bastard."

"Kakashi, stop babbling," Rin said coldly, "the fumes must affect you too much. I thought you were stronger."

"No, listen to me!" he urged her. "Orochimaru and Kabuto brought many of the old ones back from the grave, but Madara used Obito, and he himself was just a tool of the Ōtsutsuki clan... they are in a different league, much too dangerous for us humans! Rin, whom have you talked to after you woke up down here?"