#yamakaka with either yamato or kakashi having it. sasunaru with naruto having the illness and while kurama can heal it's not enough to

[person-behind-books]

kakashi has been choking on flowers for longer than his lungs have been without. the seet developed when a small boy kicked him into a tree and grinned visciously at the victory and a flower bloomed when said boy, now a bit taller, yelled at him that leaving comerades behind made you worse than trash. not even two hours later the boy was dead. the flower didn't die with him but also didn't continue growing. kakashi, unable to let the memories go, kept it. with time he got used to the pain and found ways to work with the lessened lung capacity. then on a battlefield many years in the future a mask cracks apart and to flower stirs for the first time. there is hope, obito is alive, and despair, obito is trying to kill everyone, and the flower neither whithered nor bloomed but simply stirred. her roots having made kakashi's flesh their home too long ago. when the war is over and his team and his friends and obito are all miraculously still alive, kakashi collapses. more so for his lack of breath than his chakra exhaustion or his injuries. obito, limbs shaking from the strain is the one to pick him up and follow sakura along as she makes her way to naruto and sasuke. sasuke and obito, after an uphill battle with only the support of the kazekage are given in the sole custody of konoha, to deal with and punish as they deem acceptable. their case, especially obito's, are difficult ones. sasuke because he betrayed his village, killed a council member, and attacked the five kage but also helped stop the war. obito, because he played a big a role in starting the war as he did in ending it. in the end sasuke is released on probation, to be accompanied by an anbu guard at all times for at least a year, at which point his case will be revisited and re-examined. obito, meanwhile, has a permanent home in the detention cells for at least the next five years. most people know this is only because obito accepted the verdict. with his sharinganhe could eseasly leave even the most secured cell and sealing a persons chakra for more than a month was considered too inhumane even by shinobi standarts. so kakashi is the new hokage and the uchiha are dealt with. life moves on. the flower in kakashi's chest isn't contend with that, however. it's roots start to bury deeper over the coming months and the flower begins shedding petals that kakashi coughts up in bloody puddles. it's a whole now agony, to have the roots move and extend after his lungs had spend almost two decades growing around and fusing to it. it'd even worse than when they had first pierced found their home in his lungs.

obito notices when kakashi's visits trickle down from twice a week to weekly to bi-weekly. how he looks worse and sicker each visit. he isn't told that there is anything wrong with the hkage but even someone who hadn't stalked kakashi for years, someone who wasn't as obsessed with the man as obito was would be able to tell somethign was wrong. then, one day kakashi stands in front of his cell, his breath coming in loud, wet rhasps and tiny conculsions making their way through his muscles. technically obito could activate his sharingan and the chakra blockers on every wall wouldn't be able to stop him form seeing the injury but it seems wrong. to look at him with his sharingan without kakashi's wish to do so. obito had taken so much from kakashi in his lifetime and he daren't take more. "i have hanahaki." kakashi talks in a voice so hoarse it can barely be heard but a tone steady and composed. "i'll die within the week either way so i was commanded," a wry chuckle "to try the last option. I'm alright with dying and this isn't anybodys fault. do you get that, obito?" obito is frozen in shock but he's been a shinobi for too long to let that hinder his actions so he hesitantly nods. if kakashi wants him to not enact revenge on whoever he loves for not loving him back obito will accept it and mourn kakashi like he failed to for rin. "i'm in love with you." becasue it's kakashi the words are spoken with a calculated moncholance that stops obito from understanding their meanings for a couple of seconds. then he activates kamui and vanishes from his cell. the guards aren't fast enough and kakashi to ill to stop obito from grabbing kakashi when he re-appears and taking him into kamui with him. he doesn't love kakashi. not like that. there's only ever been rin and even his obsession with kakashi isn't love. obito is fond of him and needs him to keep living but he's not in love and now that will be what kills kakashi after years of surviving whatever the world threw at him. obito can't accept that. he has trained for years to only send some parts of his body to kamui. he has precice control and an almost perfect understanding of his body. and kakshi also has a sharingan. his sharingan. they are connected in a way no other two people are. he tries but when his chakra flows along and inside kakashi's ribcage he understands that to cut the flower out now, to leave it behind in a bloody, wooden pile would be to leave half of kakashi's lungs open. he would drown in his own blood before even suffocating. still, he manages to leave some part of the flower behind. and goes to the second plan. it's disgusting how madara's influence still haunts him. how it shapes his actions and guides his thoughts but in this situation he's grateful for it. kakashi is too smart to fall for it if he hesitates for even a second.

obito moves just fast enough that kakashi can see him move but not interfere and before he can act they're in the kamui dimention. his breath, inexplicably comes a bit lighter but hsi lungs are still being torn apart by flowers. obito takes a step back from him. then another. the he turns around and just screams into the void for a good moment. kakashi has no idea what's going through his head. at one point obito's shoulders begin to shake, his voice breaking, and when he turns back around he looks so vulnerable. "you love me?" his voice is tiny, small and terrified in a way kakashi never heard from him before. he nods because he promised naruto to do it and by now it's too late to back out. "and you're dying?" another nod "because of me." kakashi shakes his head because this is no ones fault. not his for falling in love. not obito's for not returning the feelings. "i- i'm sorry." kakashi has seen obito cry a thousand times. this time it's no different. big blubbering tears and a snotty nose are running down his face. kakashi doesn't understand how but something in his chest stirs at that, his chest filling with warmth. obito is an ugly crier, always has been, but to kakashi - for some reason - he is still beautiful. "i didn't know. i didn't know. if i knew i wouldn't have. i didn't know." he's still standing out of touching distance but everything in his body language is screaming a yearning to reach out. "i'm sorry. i love you, i'm sorry. i'm sorry. please stay. please don't leave don't die. i'm sorry. i love you i love you i'm in love with out. i didn't know i'm sorry. i would have told you. im sorry." obito is flinching further into himself with every word and pulling himself away, without moving a muscle. the flower in kakashi's lungs grows smaller, leaving chakra in it's wake that heals but not vanishing completely. kakashi believes obito when he tells him he loves him but he knows the rest is bullshit. obito isn't in love with him. it's obvious. still, it feels so good to have the pain vanish kakashi is floating. if obito want's to lie he'll accept it. he'll help him. they'll both just lie. it's enough for now. kakashi reaches out with his left hand. his right having entered too many ribcages between them to be considered neutral and at the brush against his arm obito collapses forward and his arms snare around him. this is fine. for now it's enough.

he'll keep lying as long as he needs to. as long as the other needs it. as long as the other accepts it. for the rest of his life if he needs to. to be able to keep the other's warm bodie in his arms. maybe they'll one day be in love maybe they'll die as liers. it doesn't matter as long he stays for now.