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

When the Cats Play, Mice Best Stay Away

It was a high dose, so high it was dangerous, in more than one sense.

"I'm so sorry," Kakashi repeated, dropping the used syringe on the floor like it has singed his hand. Rin's dumbstruck face, her huge, questioning eyes...quickly, he looked away.

But no...

Not her eyes. They were stolen, just like his were. Eyes that should not be in a living person's head but rest in peace with the dead. What a hypocrite he was. Had he not just lectured Micha's father about disturbing the balance the Shinobi system rested on? Was hoarding and using those powerful eyes any better? For a truly peaceful future, they would have to destroy all stolen Uchiha eyes so that nobody could profit from their power ever again.

And he... he would have to give back the eyes that were not his and become... nothing special.

Rin's body in his arms trembled and then began to shake. Violently. He tightened his grip on her, his deep regret forming a heavy lump in his throat.

Nobody in the room moved. The Noharas' faces were completely emotionless, like they didn't care in the least that he held something vulnerable and utterly precious to them in his arms.

Kakashi's fingers shook as he grabbed three pills from the pouch at his belt. He swallowed the first, its bitter taste filling his mouth like a warning. Painful heat surged in his belly and he stifled a groan. This was going to hurt.

He swallowed the second and when nothing more happened, the third. Sakura's serum had made it hard to access the remaining Uchiha blood in his system, he needed an exceptionally high dose himself. A fourth?

"Sealing Technique: Release!" he whispered, successfully unsealing his eyes.

The world turned red, so bright and so fast it was almost blinding. He could look Rin in the eyes again, now immune to the Genjutsu she was able to wield. She was still convulsing in his arms, obviously in pain, and he wanted to hug her tight and hide her face away so that he didn't have to witness what he had done to her.

"I am so sorry," he repeated, his own voice barely audible over the blood roaring in his ears. Those words were pointless and hollow because what use was an apology when he deliberately forced her hand like this?

Reveal your true self. Reveal your ambitions. Let's end this.

It happened. Triggered by the serum, the Uchiha blood in her system reacted just like his. Fast spreading ornaments appeared on her face, her neck, her hands, and the little horns of her tribe formed on her forehead. Eerie, beautiful and terrifying.

The Rin in his arms activated her own Mangekyo Sharingan and shook his arm off.

"You," she hissed, "how dare you."

All pretense was gone. Cold fury flashed from her eyes. This... this was the Rin from the cave, the Rin who had fought him, had urged him to remember his promises.

Kakashi moved back from her in haste. There was no good and no bad Rin. There was one Rin in two bodies and the only thing that had made them different was the ingestion of a berry from the God Tree and a bolt of lightning that he suspected had to contain orders, memories, a purpose.

"Switch it on!" she said with a growl, crouching low.

He remembered the key this time.

A word to fully open the Curse Seal, lodged deep inside his brain, previously hidden in the muddle of his imperfect memories - memories that had been hidden, altered, erased, recovered so many times over the years that he couldn't distinguish which ones were real and which ones were not.