One Step Too Late

"Ah!!"

Kakashi groaned in pain. As he staggered back, one hand covered his left eye, blood seeping through his fingers.

"K-Kakashi!!"

Obito's face went pale, his eyes widening in terror.

Kakashi tore a strip of bandage from his wrist and casually wrapped it around his left eye.

With his remaining eye, he looked at the broken White Fang in his hand, sorrow in his gaze.

White Fang had been his father's blade, yet it had broken in his hands.

"Impressive. So it's the White Fang Sword Technique! It seems your background isn't so simple, kid."

The speaker was the Elite Jonin who had severed White Fang.

Rather than finishing Kakashi off immediately, he watched him with great interest.

The weapon that had broken White Fang was a blade strapped to his right arm. Under the sunlight, it gleamed with a chilling white radiance.

"Obito, we're destined to die here today! But I won't surrender without a fight. What about you?"

Blood had dyed the bandage red, leaving his face splattered with blood.

Obito looked guilty.

"Kakashi, you... you still came in the end! You lost an eye to save me. If we make it out alive, I'll give you one of mine. I mean it."

Kakashi smiled.

But while he smiled, the Iwagakure around them wore a very different kind of smile.

"Kid! You're about to die, and you're still talking about the future? What an idiot." The Jonin with the blade strapped to his arm wiped a streak of blood from it with a finger and sneered.

Obito looked at the cave not far away, determination appearing on his face. "If I can't save Rin today, I'm willing to die here."

He charged forward first.

Kakashi had come to save someone, so naturally he had no intention of fleeing.