This was...
Black eyes shifted slightly, sweeping over this pitch-black world. Confused thoughts slowly drifted through Kakashi's heart.
"Kakashi..."
Just then, a familiar voice he dearly missed slowly sounded behind him, so gentle it was almost ethereal.
"Rin... Rin?"
Yet upon hearing that voice, Kakashi's heart suddenly lurched, his pupils contracting sharply. With disbelief, hope, and fear mingling within him, he slowly turned around, eager yet hesitant.
"Kakashi, don't give up!"
But just as he turned with anticipation, urgency, and hesitation, another soft, distant voice spoke behind him—the voice he knew better than any other.
"Ha—!"
Before Kakashi could fully turn around or say anything, a sudden, intense feeling of suffocation forced him upright. Water splashed as warm streams poured from the top of his head and down his cheeks.
Kakashi sat up from the bath barrel he had submerged himself in moments ago.
"Cough... cough..."
Then, amid the flowing heat, Kakashi coughed softly.
A dream... was it a dream? That was the thought in his heart.
"Are you practicing holding your breath?"
At that moment, amid the splashing water, a teasing voice abruptly sounded above his head.
"Doesn't look very successful."
Then, from the other side overhead, another rather serious voice followed.
"Chiba? Hirohiko?"
Hearing that, Kakashi abruptly raised his head and looked toward the small ventilation window above.
At this moment, the little window was completely occupied by two slightly upturned faces. Both had their chins resting on the sill, their nostrils pressed against the window frame and tilted upward. Yet their eyes were desperately looking down toward him, wide open.
Honestly, they looked a little scary at first glance.
Even though those two faces were somewhat distorted, it was still obvious that they belonged to Chiba and Hirohiko.
Kakashi could also imagine the two of them outside