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-Mist

My @kakaobiweek prompt for today, Cyberpunk

Eyes Toward the Future

Read it on Ao3 here

There were sparks. He was hurt. Blinding flashes had erased all trace of the neon green lights surrounding the warehouse. Gunshots blasted in a deafening cacophony.

This is all Kakashi remembers as he opens his eyes.

His lashes flicker, creating black striations in his vision before the red glow of the room comes into view. Everything is basked in this light, though no form triggers a memory. Machines appearing to be long retired from use surround him with a layer of dust coating them in the mysterious red haze. Kakashi coughs, realizes his ribs are bruised, and tries to rub the aggravated spot.

He can’t move.

As his head lolls on his shoulders, Kakashi gasps. His senses heighten in an instant, brought on by the programming implanted in him. The rank smell of a wet atmosphere and metallic scent of blood fills his nose. Shrouded silhouettes in the distance come into focus, moving toward him. His programming which should’ve allowed this level of clarity before now must’ve been disabled when this all happened.

When this...all happened.

[[MORE]]

His eyes go wide as his gaze sweeps the floor. Bodies litter the cement, shrouded in shadows, but still recognizable in their distinct markings and masks. Kakashi’s team. All of Team Ro accounted for, and their captain suspended by wires, held in a warehouse, accompanied by the hollow laughter of the approaching figures.

He remembers the mission.

To hunt and capture or possibly disable the rogue cyborg threatening Konoha and its infrastructure, along with the people who live here. The Third hadn’t expected them to find the Madara Uchiha himself in this location, or there would have been reinforcements. Kakashi’s team hadn't stood a chance.

“Kakashi Hatake.” The first dark figure emerges from the shadows and peels back his hood to reveal a face framed by a mass of dark disheveled hair, lined with rivets where his cybernetic parts intersect with the human skin with which he was born. His eyes swirl grey and glow as they scan and record Kakashi’s every movement. “I’m surprised your leaders managed to find us. And they sent you.”

Kakashi tries to raise his head to meet those threatening eyes, and then thinks better of it. “Madara...Uchiha.”

He groans as the muscles in his arms and back protest, strained by his current position. His grimace doesn’t go unnoticed, and there’s something like a considerate hum from Madara before the other figure steps forward, patting Kakashi’s cheek with a mockery of fondness.

“Stupid, loyal Kakashi.”

His voice runs through Kakashi like ice. Kakashi doesn’t need the enhancements to pinpoint it. It’s a voice he’s heard since he was a child, which has changed and molded into something ominous and so very different over the years. With its newly acquired robotic undertones, Kakashi only recognizes it now because of how intimately he used to know its owner.

As Obito lifts his hood to reveal a face even more augmented than the voice, Kakashi turns away. He is forced by a cold, metallic hand on his chin to face Obito again. Obito, who once was a child just like him, a child of Konoha and the closest thing Kakashi ever had to a friend, now a cyborg with a grudge, an enemy of the state. His facial structure is relatively unchanged, but his eyes blaze red and swirl as they lock with Kakashi’s. Like his hand, his arm is a metallic structure that looks like it had never been human. Kakashi suspects there is more alteration beneath the clothing, but he’d rather not have his suspicions confirmed. Obito is with Madara. Kakashi doesn't need to know anything more about him.

“You still think they’re right,” Obito says with a sneer before releasing Kakashi’s chin so suddenly he feels his neck jerk and spring back.

Kakashi coughs as his body quivers under the strain. “You won’t get away with what you’re doing forever.”

Madara laughs. “And what does Konoha think we’re doing?”

Obito raises his hand to Madara and gives him a look that begs permission. Madara doesn’t say a word, but Kakashi knows they’re communicating. They have to be linked. The Third had discovered long ago that this was how Madara and his people remained undetected for so long. Any other form of communication, and the ANBU would have had them monitored and found.

After a long moment, Madara raises a brow and looks Kakashi over. “If you think this is wise…”

“Wise?” Obito says with a shrug, approaching Kakashi until they are eye to distinctly red and terrifying eye. “Do I do anything because it’s wise?”

Kakashi recoils from him, unable to extend the gap between them. “If you’re going to kill me, Obito, get it over with.”

Obito snorts. “I’m not killing you, Kakashi. Where would be the fun in that?”

Madara folds his arms across his chest in a grand gesture. “You’ll be our messenger.”

Kakashi struggles with his restraints, deciding whatever they have planned, it can’t be good. His system has had its chance to recharge by now, at least enough to afford him the strength he needs to break free. And he does. The cables around his wrists snap before he drops to the cement floor, his ankles buckling at the impact. He doesn’t take a second to revel in the pain, but scrambles to get away. Obito and Madara both will be nearly impossible to escape, but he has to try.

He runs, throwing busted machines behind him to slow his pursuers, who don’t make nearly as much noise as he expects them to. His eye catches sight of a vertical sliver of sunlight - a doorway. When he reaches for it, everything goes black. Gravity pulls him down and a soft shroud closes tightly around his face until it is near suffocating.

“Soon you’ll see this world as I do,” Obito’s voice rings through his ears before something hits him at the base of the skull.

And then darkness.

———

When Kakashi wakes, he recognizes the familiar comfort of his own bed. He opens his eyes to see the utilitarian room with more clarity and crisp edges than ever before. The cracks along his plastered ceiling, the metallic sheen of his chrome headboard, the blades of the ceiling fan spinning above all vividly clear. When his TV comes on across the room, attuned to his consciousness, the sound is familiar, but the multicolored lights bouncing off the screen are more vivid and with a wider spectrum than Kakashi has ever seen.

Kakashi sits up as a weather man announces Konoha’s weather for the day and signs off for a word from their sponsor, and instantly plops back down. He feels weak, more drained than ever, in spite of apparently waking from sleep. He tries to remember how he got here, but all he can remember is Obito’s altered voice in his ear.

He surges his power, willing himself out of bed with the reserves he has in store. He feels like shit as he pads barefoot across the creaking floorboards, walking like a zombie. Maybe he is a zombie, he thinks briefly as he turns the corner for his bathroom. That would send a message to Konoha.

When he braces two hands on his bathroom sink, glad he’s made it here, Kakashi breathes out and wills his stomach to stop churning. He can’t remember feeling so awful in his life, and he’s had plenty of close calls as one of the Third’s most active ANBU. He raises heavy eyes to the mirror and falters. His knees give out from under him and he drops as he processes what he saw during the momentary glimpse of his reflection. His razor clinks to the floor, batted off the sink’s edge by his arm in the fall. Toilet paper rolls across the bathroom floor, a banner of white across the peeling green linoleum. Kakashi’s hands are shaking as he latches onto the sink’s edges again, determined to face himself in the mirror and confront whatever he sees, whether it was real or not.

As he rises, he takes a deep breath and absorbs what he sees with a stoic expression. His left eye has changed. It matches Obito’s, a whirl of red in complete contrast to Kakashi’s dark grey on the right. And this explains the clarity, the wider spectrum of color, the way he recalls the recent visual of the flashing television lights with a kind of precision he’s never had before. Madara wanted to send a message to Konoha. Kakashi leans forward, pulls his lower lid down with his fingertip to expose the organic inner lining around new inorganic material, inspects it closer, and wonders what message this will send.

“Captain.”

Tenzo’s voice comes from the speaker beside his mirror. Kakashi is thankful he doesn’t have the camera turned on. He doesn’t want to explain this just yet. If he had any choice, he wouldn’t explain this at all. It’s bad enough he has to explain what became of his team and his mission. He’ll have to face Tenzo, the one member on his team who hadn’t been sent into that slaughter, and admit to him how he’s failed all of them.

Kakashi bows his head and curses under his breath.

“Are you there?”

“What, Tenzo?” Kakashi says into his sink, his strained voice echoing off the porcelain.

“Right. Uh. How was…” He pauses. “Never mind. You’re late for your report to Lord Third.” Another pause. “Captain.”

Kakashi sighs. “I heard you. I’m coming.”

His eyes look back at him from the mirror. One composed of his genetic material, the other fashioned by illegal cybertech, gifted to him by Obito Uchiha. He doesn’t know what Madara and Obito are planning with this. He’s hesitant to enter the Tower with this eye. Obito said Kakashi would soon see this world as he does. Whatever Obito sees, Kakashi isn’t letting him see behind the walls of Konoha’s leadership. He reaches into the bureau drawer slotted open outside of his bathroom and pulls from it a leather strap.

It’ll suffice.

——-

When Kakashi crosses through the security checkpoint of the Tower, the alarms, unsurprisingly, blare. The eye has set it off. Unsanctioned cybertech is forbidden in their leader’s headquarters, but Lord Third does want to see Kakashi. Judging by the last urgent message, Kakashi will be drowning in heaps of paperwork for not showing sooner. The eye and him are inseparable at this point though, so he proceeds forward until another ANBU in uniform puts his hand on Kakashi’s chest. Kakashi looks first at the hand, then sends the rookie a glare.

The ANBU behind the machine speaks first. “What do you have there, Captain Hatake?”

Kakashi pats the pack on his hip the woman is eyeing. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“We can’t let-“

“Let him pass,” Tenzo calls from the lighted hallway. When Kakashi looks ahead, Tenzo is jogging toward them. “He’s beyond late for this meeting. Lord Third will have my head if I don’t get my Captain in his office.”

“But-“ the rookie reluctantly backs off as Tenzo pushes his way forward and ushers Kakashi through with a gentle but insistent shove.

“He’s a Captain, Rookie,” the woman says, her voice fading as they acquire some distance. “Leave it alone.”

“Kakashi,” Tenzo says, “what happened?” He squints, frowning as he leans in closer. “And what’s with the-“

Kakashi slaps his hand away before Tenzo can touch the strap angled across his new eye. “Madara happened,” he says, because he knows the name is enough to keep Tenzo’s questions at bay, at least long enough to get them into Hiruzen Sarutobi’s office.

Tenzo gasps and falls into silence, though he broadcasts his anxiety and setting-in despondency loudly enough. When they reach the door, Kakashi feels dizzy. Here he will have to relive the devastation of that mission, not because he is required to report, but because Tenzo deserves to know what happened to his teammates. Konoha needs to know the whereabouts of a criminal like Madara...and Obito. Kakashi’s leadership deserves to know about his new eye and the liability he could be for the ANBU.

“Come in,” Lord Third calls from the other side of the door.

Tenzo meets Kakashi’s gaze before reaching for the handle and pushing the door open. Inside, Lord Third sits on a pillow, his feet tucked beneath him, a kimono wrapped around his person. Smoke pours from the pipe pressed between his cracked lips, clouding the flickering security screens on the ceiling in a milky haze. Two ANBU stand in the shadows at the corner of the room, as if trying to make themselves invisible.

“Ah, Tenzo,” Lord Third says, sending Tenzo a smile before raising a brow at Kakashi. “You finally found him.”

Tenzo huffs a laugh. “Yes, Lord Third.”

“Lord Third,” Kakashi says with a nod and a stilted bow. “Sorry I’m late. You see-“

“The only explanation I want to hear,” Lord Third says abruptly, waving his pipe in a wide circle in the air, “is the one regarding that failed raid. Am I correct in assuming it failed?”

“Yes.”

“And how did that-“

“It was Madara Uchiha,” Tenzo says before Kakashi gets a word in. “He was there.”

The Third’s wrinkled eyes go wide as they turn on Kakashi. “Is this true, Kakashi?”

Kakashi closes his eyes. “He killed them all. Team Ro is gone.”

He waits for the reaction, the scolding, the admonishments. When that doesn’t come, he opens his eyes to see Tenzo gazing at him with concern and Lord Third thoughtfully gnawing on his pipe.

Finally, Lord Third removes his pipe and licks his lips. “All? Except you appear to have escaped Madara unscathed, Kakashi. What aren’t you telling me?”

Kakashi flicks a glance at the ANBU to Lord Third’s right, then the one to his left. “Not quite unscathed.”

Kakashi’s hands are clasped at his front, but he unclasps them to swipe a hand across the pack at his hip. Tenzo perks a brow and meets Kakashi’s eye while Lord Third nods and hums.

“Very well,” Lord Third says before setting his pipe aside and raising both hands. “Leave us.”

“Lord Third!” The ANBU to the right gasps.

“If Captain Hatake, the man I’ve kept by my side for years, suddenly becomes a source of danger to me,” Lord Third says with a hint of mockery in his voice, “I’m sure Tenzo will come to my defense in your absence.”

Tenzo nods, and the pair of ANBU slink out behind them with wary eyes locked on Kakashi. Kakashi heaves a sigh when they’re gone. They may be right to be wary. Kakashi has to be careful here. He raises his hand to the strap covering his eye, but it trembles and lowers against his will. Swallowing his resolve, he tries again, acutely aware of the two sets of eyes intently locked on his face. When he pulls the strap free, he doesn’t immediately open the new eye along with his own. It is not because he is hesitant to reveal it, but he is hesitant of what it can do. He still doesn’t know the extent of its uses, of why Obito gave it to him, why Madara allowed it.

“Kakashi,” Lord Third says, his voice intense and hoarse. “Open your eye.”

He obliges against his better judgement, because his training to follow orders is that engrained at this point in his career. As he takes in the new details of the world around him, the visual cues molding the room into fine precision, he barely has to glance at the others to recognize their shock.

“Captain,” Tenzo breathes.

“A gift,” Kakashi says, tapping his eyelid as he closes the eye, “from Obito.”

“Obito Uchiha,” Lord Third says. “So he was there, too.”

Kakashi hums his agreement.

“Why?” Tenzo blurts. Kakashi shoots him a one-eyed, questioning glance. “Why would he give you...is that...his?”

Kakashi presses his lips into a hard line as Tenzo’s question sinks in, confirming what Kakashi hasn’t even acknowledged to himself that he suspected. And though he hasn’t taken the time to think about it before now, he knows the answer instantly. Flashes of images from places he has never been. Madara Uchiha’s smile looking almost fond. His own eyes, looking back at him from a face full of judgement. These are all in his head, loaded from the memory contained in the eye.

It is his.

Kakashi shrugs and releases a sigh. “He said, soon you’ll see this world as I do.”

“And Madara agreed to this?” Lord Third says.

Kakashi hardens his gaze and meets the old man’s eyes. “I think he plans to use me to infiltrate the ANBU. Lord Third-“

Tenzo gasps and rushes forward. “If he can penetrate our defenses, Konoha will be lost! We can’t-“

“You should remove me from duty,” Kakashi says with regret, shying away from Lord Third’s penetrating gaze. “At least for now.”

“On the contrary,” Lord Third says, making Kakashi snap his gaze back to the old man with both eyes open, “I think we can use this to our advantage.”

Kakashi balks. “Lord Third.”

“Think of the tech, what it can do for Konoha.”

Kakashi closes his eyes, retiring his argument. There is no doubt cybertech can aid Konoha in its battles, and Kakashi will figure out how to manipulate it in no time, as he masters everything else rapidly. It goes against Konoha’s principles, though. This cybertech is part of the very illegal technology they’re fighting against. It dehumanizes its user. It comes with as many flaws and disadvantages as it has advantages. It is dangerous and reckless. But apparently, Kakashi will be using it.

He sighs. “Yes, Lord Third.”

“But the security!” Tenzo interjects.

“I’ll leave that in the ANBU’s hands,” Lord Third says with a proud smile as he reaches for his pipe. “Kakashi, I can’t have you reporting here anymore with that eye. You won’t make it through security and-“

“I’d rather not give Madara the chance to record anything,” Kakashi finishes.

Lord Third nods. “Right. Tenzo will be the go-between. He will contact you with your next mission. And Kakashi. Tenzo.” His voice is solemn as he looks up to meet their eyes. “I’m sorry about your team. Those men and women served Konoha well.”

Kakashi inhales. His chest feels like it’s laced with barbed wire. “Thank you.”

He bows his head as he leaves the office with a solemn Tenzo, who has no words for what’s transpired. Kakashi is relieved about that. He would rather not talk about this. He has cybertech to master. He has new missions to pursue. He will use the illegal implant in his head for the good of Konoha.

——-

The fight against illegal technology wages on in the months to follow. Kakashi is constantly drained by the power of the Sharingan, the tech he now is known far and wide to have mastered. It eats away at his reserves with every use, yet has carried him through close calls more times than he can count. It aids him in the assassinations of conspirators and their families. It aids him time and time again when his teammates fall. Some days, he doesn’t know how he considers himself to be in the right. Yet Konoha continues to make use of his skills and his illicit gift, expecting him to serve. Lord Third frequently requests Sharingan Kakashi’s assistance on the most heinous of missions. He is needed. He is valuable. He is not to step foot in the Tower, because then he would be a liability. The more he is used, the more he understands what Obito must’ve been feeling when he decided to leave Konoha. With the passage of time, Kakashi finds himself growing disillusioned with his state, his government, his leadership.

He sits at his desk now, in the dark, coming down from the adrenaline of another long day of work. An empty bowl of ramen rests beside him with neon chopsticks pointing out his window. Multicolored flashes permeate his room as the computer screen before his eyes flashes an ad with a naked, bent-over woman moaning and screaming while the man behind her slaps his skin against hers again and again, until a bottle of lube spins over them and loudly announces its addition as a new product with dance music blasting in the background. Kakashi recognizes this ad playing before his eyes, but he isn’t fully looking at it. He’s looking more at the red light reflected in the dark corner of the screen, the familiar eye staring back at him. He hunches forward, bracing his elbows on the desk and refusing to meet the eyes of his intruder. He knew he would come eventually. He is resigned to accept whatever happens next. No matter what happens, he feels he deserves it - and worse.

“Sharingan Kakashi,” Obito says, his voice a whisper in the darkness.

Kakashi raises his gaze to the new ad playing on his screen, marking a bookstore’s grand opening. This ad doesn’t have the darkness to permit him a reflection. He can turn around, or he can wait here blindly. He doesn’t move.

“Do you see now?” Obito says, closer this time.

Kakashi hangs his head and tries for a long moment not to break. He fails. A sob racks his chest as his Sharingan eye replays visuals of children smiling and accepting handouts in the slums, runaway teens escaping pursuit as a door is opened for them from a dark alley, stray cats eating from the palm of his hand. But it’s not his hand. His hands are stained with the blood of innocents. It is Obito’s hands he sees, Obito’s memories. They’ve haunted Kakashi as he’s taken them along with him on every vile mission. They’ve made Kakashi see this world more clearly than he ever has.

“Yes,” he chokes. “I’m scum. The lowest of scum. Do your worst. I won’t stop you.”

A hand lands on his shoulder and Kakashi braces for the strike that is bound to come. After seconds have passed with nothing happening, he whips his head up. He whirls around to look over his shoulder and see Obito looking down on him with one eye to match his and another to match the grey whirling tech Kakashi had seen on Madara. His mismatched eyes manage to convey pity.

“You are scum,” Obito says, his words betrayed by the note of fondness in his voice. The hard clank of steel hitting wood alerts Kakashi of the dagger set by his side. “But he trusts you. Your Sharingan can get close.”

Kakashi turns his gaze from the dagger reflecting multicolored dancing lights to the smug look on Obito’s face. It is only by use of his Sharingan that he is able to determine the emotion he sees in Obito’s eyes - not triumph, but sadness. He is sad for Kakashi, even in sight of his win.

Obito squeezes Kakashi’s shoulder. “You know what you have to do.”

Kakashi turns his eyes to the hilt of the dagger and picks it up, turns it over until it reflects a beam of light across his tiny apartment. “You think it’ll make a difference?”

“Doing away with the leadership?” Obito says with a frown and a shrug. “It’s a start. Madara has a vision. I plan to fulfill that vision.”

Kakashi gives him a wry smile. “Too bad I won’t be there to see it come to fruition.”

“You do your part,” Obito says, lowering himself to meet Kakashi eye to eye, “and I’ll do mine.”

Kakashi seizes Obito by the wrist before he can rise again and walk out of his life forever. “Stay.”

Obito eyes Kakashi’s hand and then steadily meets his gaze. “Kakashi. Stupid, loyal Kakashi.”

He leans down and pulls Kakashi in for a kiss. It is tender and gentle, not like anything Kakashi would expect from a rogue criminal. And Kakashi needs more. He grabs a fistful of Obito’s shirt and tugs him forward until their kiss is hard and bruising. Obito’s hands explore Kakashi’s body as he rises from the chair and makes way for the bed.

Because tonight may be Kakashi’s last night in this world. He has seen it clearly now, just in time to leave it, hopefully in time to leave a mark that will overshadow all the violence he has inflicted on it. He can hope for Madara’s future to be a better tomorrow. He will entrust Obito with overseeing the change, because when he is gone, Obito will remain, showing Kakashi the future through his eyes.

#myrivalshipkakavege #kakaobi #kakashi #obito #2020 event reblog

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