#I don’t think Obito expected Kakashi to figure it out

[butter--peanut]

I love your fics so much, ty for writing!! But I have a question: in Kamui Blues why did Obito send Kakashi a note in the first place? Surely he knew that their dimension is connected via their Mangekyo and if he let Kakashi know someone else could use it the only logical conclusion would be someone has Obito's eye. Wouldn't he, as a mass murderer who's given everything for his plan, have been worried that Kakashi would figure it out?

Let me answer this question in 3081 words, because I’ve been wanting an excuse to write Ch1 of Kamui Blues from Obito’s PoV :)

Going to count this as Kamui Blues prompt request #13 (previous requests), t rated for swears.

Obito lay on his back, dazed, concussed, covered in leaves and dust. To his left lay a tree. It had landed with a heavy thump on his head from above, then toppled to the side, just as Obito himself had toppled backwards, momentarily blacking out from the force of impact.

He hadn’t seen it in time.

One might think that a tree-sized object would be a bit noticeable, but on the other hand, this had never happened to him before. Not in the fifteen plus years that Obito had been inhabiting this place formed by his eye. Random shit didn’t just show up in his dimension without him bringing it there in the first place.

As his hardworking Zetsu cells went into overdrive and the concussion began to ease, Obito tried to think through how this ridiculously improbable event could have happened.

Had he subconsciously brought the tree here?

Surely not. When the tree swirled through, he’d been thinking about the dream he wanted his future world to become. There were no trees that played a particularly prominent role in his dream. Just Rin and Kakashi, and the conundrum that Obito had to work through to make sure that his dream was realistic enough to be believable…

And there was no way for anyone else to access this space. This dimension was formed by his Mangekyo Sharingan, so could only be accessed via Mangekyo.

Although...

Well. There was, technically, one other person who had access to it.

Had Kakashi, after fifteen years, discovered his Mangekyo Sharingan?

He searched for Kakashi, wanting to see if his prediction was correct, and after growing steadily more annoyed at being unable to find him in his regular spots around Konoha, Obito eventually located him on a stretcher, being carried to the hospital, his pink-haired student walking beside his unconscious body looking concerned.

Chakra exhaustion, he heard Sakura say to one of the other accompanying medi-nins, watching through a sliver of a gap between his dimension and the Earth.

Chakra exhaustion.

Obito snorted, closing the portal.

It seemed Kakashi had, indeed, learnt that he had access to Mangekyo. And because he had laughable chakra reserves, the attempt to use it had caused him to pass out like a fresh pre-genin moulding chakra for the first time. What a weakling. Hardly the prodigy he used to be.

Well, that at least cleared one thing up. If this was what happened when Kakashi tried to use Mangekyo, his old teammate was hardly likely to try again. Obito once more had his dimension to himself.

Which was a good thing. He didn’t need the worthless version of Kakashi interrupting him while he spent his few hours of downtime trying to plan for the reunion with Rin and the non-worthless version of Kakashi.

Obito sat back down against the block, and closed his eye, and tried to continue his mental exercise.

Somehow, he couldn’t seem to stop opening his eye and glaring at the tree. Even half-dead and lying in the hospital bed, Kakashi was an annoyance.

Obito touched the tree and sent it far, far away, to some desolate rocky outcrop he remembered from the Land of Iron.

There. No more distraction.

He settled down again in his usual spot. Without the tree, his dimension felt oddly larger than normal. More cavernous, more empty.

-----

One month later, an acorn landed on Obito’s head.

Obito picked the tiny acorn off the floor and stared at it as though it held all the roots of this meaningless existence. Then he went again to find Kakashi.

He started from the location where he had found him on a stretcher last time and followed the lone path past patchy forest to just beyond the edge of Konoha. There he found Kakashi lying on his back in a training ground. His hitai-ate was up, but his Sharingan eye was shut tight. His other eye was open, staring up at the sky. He was very pale and breathing heavily.

After several minutes, Kakashi pushed himself up from the ground with shaking limbs and stumbled back in the direction of his apartment.

He’d tried to use Mangekyo again. He’d succeeded. And this time, he looked capable of making his way home in a fashion that wasn’t via the hospital on a stretcher.

Obito followed him to make sure, and yes. Kakashi reached his apartment building without collapsing. Kakashi looked up to his window, as though considering jumping up there, then shook his head at himself and used the front door.

Obito had underestimated him. Despite almost dying, Kakashi hadn’t given up. He’d persisted, and he’d improved his control of the jutsu.

Obito hated him and his stupid skill and perseverance so fucking much.

Would he try again? Now that he could also surely notice his improvement?

Obito had a bad feeling about this.

-----

A month and a half later, when Obito had just about given up on Kakashi trying to use the pinwheels of his Sharingan once more, he returned from Amegakure to find the ruins of a training ground waiting for him.

“Kakashi,” he said, appalled, staring at the upturned targets, the wooden logs used to construct obstacle courses, stray kunai, a handful of trees and shrubs, tape used to mark off the area. Chaos and carnage in his dimension.

How the ever-loving, ever-fucking Sage had Kakashi used his meagre resources to transport all this garbage?

He swirled to the training ground. Kakashi was there, on his knees. He did look exhausted, but mostly he just looked embarrassed.

There was nothing in front of him or behind him. The training field was empty. He’d literally sent Obito the whole training ground with his jutsu.

It made no sense. There was no way Kakashi could have had the reserves to touch each object and send it away.

Unless…

Unless his eye accessed the dimension differently than Obito’s. That did happen often with Mangekyo, one eye different from the other. Maybe Kakashi could send groups of objects at once. Maybe he didn’t need to touch them.

Whatever the reason, now that this had happened a third time, Obito knew it was going to happen again, and again, and again. The bastard was dogged in his persistence when an idea truly struck.

Obito stood back in his dimension, crossed his arms to assess the crap in front of him.

It was obvious that Kakashi was gaining greater control over the jutsu.

Which was fine, theoretically.

There were many valid reasons for Obito to hate Kakashi, but using the eye which Obito had given to him wasn’t one of them. Giving Kakashi his eye had been Obito’s last action in a world that he didn’t feel was worthless, and his final intention still meant something to him. He had wanted Kakashi to use the Sharingan: to develop himself, to see the world with his eyes, and to protect Rin after Obito had gone.

Ah. And now to one of the many valid reasons to hate Kakashi.

In any case, Kakashi improving his control of the Sharingan wasn’t a problem in itself. And with his chakra reserves as they were, Kakashi would surely never develop true skill over this jutsu. He wasn’t a threat to the plan.

He was just a pain in the ass.

Like a shitty party guest, Kakashi had trashed the apartment and hadn’t bothered to clean up.

And he was very difficult to forget about when his junk was taking up so much space.

Obito didn’t want to think about him. There was no point wasting his mental energy on the version of Kakashi who was a disgusting failure. He’d spent years stalking him in the beginning, hating him actively, crowing at Kakashi’s depression and anxiety that became so obvious when he spoke to “Obito” by the memorial stone. For his betrayal, Kakashi deserved to be lost and broken.

At one point, though, Obito had realised that the stalking was pointless. Kakashi was beneath him. He was so far beneath him that Obito hadn’t even bothered to kill him after what he had done to Rin. He shouldn’t endlessly follow people around who didn’t matter.

He’d refocused his attention on his memories of the version of Kakashi who hadn’t killed Rin; who wasn’t trash. And he’d got on with his life.

That had been a good decision. He had barely thought of the flesh and blood Kakashi for the last few years, outside of planning how he could be accounted for and manipulated to gain the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, given his role as Naruto’s Sensei.   

But now thinking about Kakashi seemed to be unavoidable.

-----

The straw that broke the camel’s back was a mission report, sent one month after Obito had tried and failed to exist in his dimension without thinking of Kakashi. Impossible, when he sat amongst Kakashi’s garbage. Futile, when he wondered when the next sharp or blunt object would careen in his direction. Before he knew it, he had started checking in on Kakashi like a tick, seeing if he was in Konoha or a mission, because if he was on a mission then the dimension should be safe, but if he was in Konoha then who the fuck knew.

The mission report was lying on Obito’s block when he swirled in. Obito hadn’t been here for several days, so he had no clue when it had arrived. He hadn’t been here because he’d been dealing with the utter clusterfuck that was Kiri. The hunter Ao discovering him with his Byakugan. Calling Madara out. Cancelling Obito’s genjutsu on Yagura and somehow killing the fourth Mizukage in the process. The Sanbi escaping.

Chaos, carnage. Much like what he saw in front of him now, in his dimension.

The report was mundane, messy, omitting key details, and Obito had to look down to the bottom before he could see Kakashi’s henohenomoheji signature and realise that he had written it.

He remembered Kakashi’s handwriting from when they did missions together, and it had always been perfect. Obito had tried and failed to emulate it. Now Kakashi wrote like a lazy, scrawling child.

And now Kakashi had sent him a random note, not even addressed to him. It felt — well, obviously, Kakashi had no idea that he was sending his shit through to someone on the other end, but somehow this action still stung of Kakashi’s old disregard. He’d never given Obito the time of day, and now he didn’t even bother to personally address his messages.

The failure in Kiri made Obito furious. He wanted keenly to kill someone. One person in particular: he wanted to go and pick apart the hunter piece by piece. The only reason he hadn’t was because he wanted his influence in Kiri to stay under the radar, and so far they had no definite evidence that “Madara” was the person who had set the Genjutsu on Yagura.

And he wanted to get Kakashi out of his thoughts and his dimension. Kakashi was stopping Obito’s focus on the future. With Kisame in the Akatsuki now instead of helping in Kiri, Obito had needed to be more cautious and aware of things than normal. But he had failed because stupid Kakashi wouldn’t leave his head.

Well. He couldn’t do anything to Ao. But maybe there was something he could do to stop Kakashi bothering him. Kakashi didn’t know what was happening to the objects he sent away. Maybe if he did, he’d be a little more fucking considerate.

He crumpled the mission report in his hand, and he grabbed his notebook that he sometimes used to work through complicated ideas about his future plans.

A message for a message.

On a free page he wrote,

Stop dropping your shit in my dimension, idiot.

He waited for Kakashi to return to his apartment, and then opened the portal just large enough to let his hand through, fling the note at him, and give him the middle finger. Then he swirled back away again.

He assessed the piles of crap in his dimension, drew on all the anger that made him want to rend Ao and half of Kiri in two, and he used that anger to call forth his Mokuton. Let his arms become branches, thrusting all the chaotic garbage that Kakashi had left him into a far corner of the dimension.

He looked around him. Finally, the space was free of Kakashi’s visible influence.

For precisely three seconds, he felt triumphant.

Then his anger started to dissipate, and with it some measure of rationality returned.

He groaned, sliding down against the block behind him.

That had been extremely stupid. He knew his former teammate well, and Kakashi wasn’t going to let something like a note stop him from achieving his goals.

He’d probably encouraged him.

-----

And indeed, several weeks later, Kakashi sent a book through. It would have struck his head, but Obito saw it out of the corner of his eye and flung his head back so the edge of the book hit his nose before slapping against the ground.

“What have you brought me this time, Bakashi?” he said, longsuffering, rubbing the bump on his nose.

He picked up the book and opened it on a random page.

Her plump breasts, desirous as any Sea Siren, heralded only the sweetest of pillows for Captain—

Obito slammed the book closed, feeling his face heating up.

Kakashi had responded to his complaint by sending him a romance novel?

He turned to look at the cover, feeling his eyebrows rise sky-high. Icha Icha Paradise, by the Sannin Jiraiya.

He flicked through the novel with it at arm’s length. It was trash, plain and simple. The book spent barely two paragraphs describing the main protagonist, and what descriptions were there were terrible (he had a manly strut, calf-high boots, biceps near-breaking his tunic). It quickly devolved into various sexual encounters between the Sea Captain and pirates or mermaids that he met on his voyage. They were described fairly explicitly, but also badly.

This was too much.

Kakashi knew that someone was in the dimension now, and he had chosen to send porn through?

Was he teasing him?

Because Obito wasn’t currently emotionally compromised by the strong desire kill someone, he more self-control than before. He left the book there and went about his business, glaring at it every now and then.

Until, one day, he returned from Amegakure grinding his teeth together at the slow progress toward his goal, just wanting to let off some steam. All around him were idiots who didn’t share his ideals (Nagato, Konan) or a creep who he hated who he happened to agree with (Zetsu). He’d been pursuing a single ambition for so many years, alone, and it was frustrating beyond measure that he couldn’t complain to anyone about it, or even relax here in his dimension anymore…

His eyes landed on the porn book, and he flushed a tiny bit, and then he scowled at it. Kakashi wasn’t going to make him feel embarrassed in his own dimension, for Sage’s sake.

Before he could caution himself, he grabbed that pen and paper and wrote out another missive, then dropped it and the cursed book off to Kakashi again.

Why would I have any interest in your porn, you moron?

If you’re going to drop crap all over here at least clean it up. This place is becoming a fucking pigsty.

Afterwards, wondered what sort of lunacy had overcome him that he would hint at an invitation to the dimension.

-----

One hour later, scribbling ideas to expedite his plans, Obito felt a light object settle on his head.

He snatched the single piece of paper, and started to read, and his eyes flew out wide.  

Thanks for returning the book, Hand-san!

Sorry about the mess.

I can clean up if you tell me how to get to the Kamui dimension.

If you don’t like fine adult literature, what do you like? I’m practicing, so I need to send objects through.

Obito stared at the note, processing it, for several minutes.

Several factors struggled for simultaneous dominance in his mind.

Kakashi thought he was a disembodied hand. Just how idiotic was he?

Kakashi had asked him what he liked. Kakashi would — send him things that he liked? Not just trees to knock him unconscious?

Kakashi was offering to come to the dimension. He’d picked up on Obito’s definitely-not-invitation.

Kakashi was communicating with him. For the first time in the second half of Obito’s life, he was having a conversation — albeit on text — with someone, not as Madara, or as any other character he’d played over the years, but as himself.

And Kakashi’s handwriting was still dreadful.

-----

But also — what the fuck was the Kamui dimension?

-----

Kamui was a nice word for their dimension, Obito would admit, in the wake of Kakashi’s next letter, holding the now-empty box of dango that Kakashi had sent to him.

Their dimension, yes. Well, Obito could hardly call it his dimension anymore. Not now that Kakashi had access to Kamui. Not when his shit was taking up the space physically and he himself was taking up the space mentally.

It was a bad idea to keep communicating with him; Obito did know this. So he stopped: wrote something curt and dismissive, and decided it would be his last letter.

He didn’t write to Kakashi for many months.

But Kakashi still wrote to Obito. He wrote stories about his life. He drew pictures for Obito. And he sent him gifts. Stupid things that Obito definitely hated, because Kakashi was blatantly trying to manipulate him into learning more about his ability, and the fact that Obito had never been given gifts by anyone since his own gift to Kakashi didn’t matter, didn’t matter at all.

This was the status quo. Obito spending some of his time in Amegakure or swirling to different parts of the Elemental Nations, checking on the Akatsuki and his plans. But now that he didn’t have to be the Mizukage in Kiri, he filled most of those hours in Kamui, waiting for Kakashi’s next correspondence; or in Konoha, watching Kakashi go about his days, aware he’d fallen back into the habits of his youth but not quite able to bring himself to do something else with his time.

Until finally, Kakashi went back to his own bad behaviour and dropped a forest on Obito.

#bp shortfic #bp answers #kb prompts #kamui blues #obkk #kkob #kakaobi #oh and to answer the last bit of your question which I didn’t directly answer in the story #I don’t think Obito expected Kakashi to figure it out #At least not in the beginning #Mangekyo abilities are mysterious and there could have been many different explanations for a random nin being in kamui #and he didn’t know Kakashi had seen his eye after all #which would of course have been the biggest hint

[ladykissingfish]

*18-year old Naruto going to Sasuke’s house for dinner*

Sasuke: Such a long walk out here … but I guess it helps us build an appetite for dinner, eh?

Naruto: True.

Sasuke: Mom’s really excited that you’re coming, you haven’t been able to come in so long. Her and Itachi have been in the kitchen all —

*Naruto abruptly lets go of Sasuke’s hand as they come within view of the house*

Sasuke: Hey … why’d you do that?

Naruto: Don’t want him to see …

Sasuke: Him? Oh, you mean Madara?

Naruto: Yeah. I’m pretty sure your grandpa hates me, dattebayo.

Sasuke: He’s not my — he doesn’t —- well okay you’re probably right. But to be fair he hates pretty much everyone.

Naruto: He doesn’t hate you …

Sasuke: No, and I can’t really figure that out. But Itachi thinks that maybe it’s because I remind him of his brother Izuna.

Naruto: Whatever the case, I know he thinks I’m not good enough for you, Sasuke. Last time you left us alone he called me “an inferior carrier of the Uzumaki genes” and insulted Kurama so bad I almost lost control of him!

Sasuke: You think that’s bad? Obito brought Kakashi over two nights ago because Kakashi wanted his permission to “court” Obito, right? He didn’t even get the words out before gramps tried to impale Kakashi with his cane. Took everyone in the house to hold him back from trying to take out Kakashi’s sharingan with his soup spoon.

Naruto: Wait … does he expect that? Like, should I have gone to him for permission to date you??

Sasuke: He expects a lot of things as the clan elder. But we’re already dating. Asking “permission” seems a bit unnecessary.

Naruto: It’s unnecessary but like you said, he’s your clan elder. It’s probably a respect thing to him, dattebayo. Okay! It’s too late for it tonight, but next week I’m going to come at him full-force. I’ll wear a kimono and bring gifts for everyone in your family, the biggest present of all will be his. I’ll kneel in front of him and formally ask his permission to marry you!

Sasuke:

Sasuke: M-marry?!

Naruto: Yeah! If he’s gonna try and kill me anyway, I may as well go all the way with it, right?

Naruto: Oooh I know, I’ll do it on Tuesday, my birthday! That way if he says Yes, it’ll be like I’ve gotten that one dream present I’ve always wanted; my Sasuke! *kisses Sasuke*

Sasuke, blushing: A-and if he says no?

Naruto: Then I can be one of those cool people who can say that their birthday and their death-day is the same day, dattebayo. Man, suddenly I’m super hungry. Let’s go! *runs ahead of him to the house*

Sasuke:

Sasuke: He goes from saying the sweetest thing imaginable to the dumbest shit possible. And the sad thing is I want to marry him more than anything.

#HAPPY BIRTHDAY NARUTO!!! #honestly saw this as being a several-parts comic but I can’t draw and I lack creativity to carry it further but 🤷🏽‍♀️ #including Kakashi showing up for support but terrified as hell #sns #sasunaru #narusasu #naruto x sasuke #obikaka #obito x kakashi #madara uchiha #mikoto uchiha #fugaku uchiha #itachi uchiha #sasuke uchiha #obito uchiha #kakashi hatake #Naruto #naruto uzumaki

[cool-thymus]

Team Minato Week 2023: Day 7: Inappropriate Use Of Ninja Techniques / Babysitting

I'm offering you a tiny story that fits both prompts for Day 7 (kinda :D) The illustration is done by my dear @maireyart <3 (thank you again!) The editing and missed-commas-recovery by @professor-of-naruto (i appreciate it sm)

***

Tap-tap.

Obito raised his head from the book. He glanced at the window first. No, nothing there.

Tap-tap.

The scratchy noises were coming from the hall. “He taught them to knock, huh? Clever,” he thought, remembering the last time Kakashi’s ninken appeared in their apartment unannounced; the havoc, the awkwardness. Grinning, he carefully got up from his chair and tiptoed out of the room, making sure that his teammate was still fast asleep. The dogs made him uncomfortable. He always expected some snarky comments or criticism, even though he personally didn’t wrong them in any way. When he slid the bedroom door back behind him, three ninja dogs were standing in the dark hall with Pakkun, who had a scroll attached to his back.

“Is Boss inside?” asked Pakkun. “Oh. Hey… you guys!” Obito whispered with a smile trying to be friendly. “Could you be quiet? He’s sleeping and…”

“We have a message for him. Let us in, Bito!” said the little grey one with a smirk.

“It’s Obito, Shiba,” rumbled the biggest of the pack.

“I know that! But I bet Bito here can’t even remember our …” 

Obito didn’t let him finish. “Shhhhh! Guys, please, keep it down! He was released from the hospital, like, yesterday. He needs rest.” The dogs stopped bickering and lowered their heads. With a little more confidence Obito addressed Pakkun: 

“What’s the message?” The pug let him take the scroll while glancing at the bedroom door, worried. Obito briefly studied the insides of the scroll and then exhaled with relief “Oh, that. We booked this mission a while ago, for extra cash, y’know. It’s a piece of cake, I can go alone.”

To that the dogs rolled their eyes and made it look like Obito said something ridiculous.

“Oh, great, genius! Go alone!” growled Urushi, turning to leave.

“Yeah, thanks for ruining our day off, Bito!” joined Shiba. “Whose turn is it this time?”

“I say Bull should go. He’s never on Bito-sitting duty, that oversized softy!” replied Urushi as the three ninken headed outside.

“I don’t mind. Obito is nice.”

Obito had expected mockery, but their reaction confused him completely. “Huh? What are you guys saying?” But the ninken had all already left the hall except for Pakkun, who was standing behind Obito with his paw softly pressed against the bedroom door. He took a moment to think things over.

“Come on, kid,” he said in a reassuring tone. “Never have you ever gone on a solo mission alone; since your very first one. But you didn’t hear it from me.” He winked at Obito and followed his pack outside.

Dumbstruck, Obito was left alone with the open scroll in his hands. It didn’t take him long to puzzle things out. The realization hurt his pride at first (what kind of shinobi was he, if he’d never noticed the dogs tailing him!) But quickly the hurt was replaced by a very tender feeling growing in his chest and spreading warmth up to his cheeks. He cracked the bedroom door open and looked at the figure on the bed. Kakashi was sleeping peacefully wrapped in blankets with his nose tucked between the pillows. A couple of moments passed before Obito finally slid the door close, a warm smile never leaving his face.

@teamminatoweek

#teamminatoweek2023 #Day 7: Inappropriate Use Of Ninja Techniques / Babysitting #mywriting #them *heartbreak emoji* #uchiha obito #hatake kakashi #ninken #pakkun #bito-sitting duty can be considered as inappropriate use of ninja techniques right? :p #soft #obkk #kkob #ty to all who participated in the event btw! this team deserves the world <3

[sleepysnk]

a/n: hey everyone! welcome back to the beach :). i know it’s been a while, but we’re back! this chapter is a bit lengthy, so i hope you all enjoy! thank you so much for your patience <3.

pairings: obito uchiha x fem!reader

warnings: modern au, suggestive content, arguing, physical violence (not towards reader), fighting, slut shaming, fluff, brief angst, some jealousy if you squint.

The Beach: Chapter Twenty-Six

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“..Kakashi?”

Your voice caused Kakashi’s thoughts to disappear almost automatically. He didn’t even realize that he had zoned out that hard. Those thoughts from that night practically consumed his head. He wasn’t expecting it to affect him that much, but he didn’t want to bring it up to you.

He had totally forgotten that you were in his arms. Your head, which was once on his chest, was now lifted upward so you had a better view to look at him. You honestly seemed a little concerned if he was being honest. He didn’t want you to start asking questions, so he figured he’d try to reassure you that everything was okay. The last thing he’d want is to worry you.

You already had enough going on, and he wasn’t going to make another issue for you to deal with.

Kakashi brushed his thumb against the swell of your cheek. “Yeah? Sorry, I was thinking about something, but I’m here. Do you need something?” he looked down at you with full attention.

You placed your hand against the shirt he was wearing. The fabric was soft beneath your fingertips. “Are you okay? You seem a little.. off, right now,” you cocked your head to the side in curiosity. You honestly weren’t sure what he was thinking about, but you wanted to know.

He smiled at you reassuringly. “I’m okay! Don’t worry about me,” he shook his head, “Trust me, you would know if I was feeling off,”

Your mouth parted open to speak, but you chose to not say anything. You figured that maybe he was right. Your brain hadn’t been working its best lately, so you honestly didn’t know what was okay and what wasn’t. Plus, you hadn’t known Kakashi well enough to know when he was feeling off or what that even looked like.

The one thought that crossed your mind was that you didn’t truly know Kakashi that well.

Sure, you knew of him for quite a while, but you didn’t know everything. That made you question why the hell he was here laying with you like this. The only time you two ever did much talking was that night.

That night.

You remember that night like it was the back of your hand.

The tears that slipped through your eyes that night seemed never ending. That had to be one of the lowest points of your entire life, and you couldn’t believe that you made it through that time period. You were certain the pain and agony you felt was going to be permanent. If nobody had come to you in that bathroom that evening, you didn’t know what you might have done to yourself that night. You’d probably drink until you couldn’t stand.

Then, he came.

Kakashi came and let you speak. He heard every single bitter detail of what you were going through, and he stayed through every waking moment. Besides Konan, nobody else listened to you. It was the same bullshit responses you’d get every single time.

“You’ll get over it!”

“Just think positive!”

It was hard enough dealing with it all, and everything they said would make it worse for you. You’d never tell them that, but you hoped that now they knew to never say things like that to someone who is going through something.

When you informed Konan of what you did, she was honestly baffled by your actions. You were in so much mental distress that you went out and did that? She wanted to lecture you about it, but, deep down, she knew that lecture would lead to an argument. As your best friend, she didn’t want to judge you for sleeping with Kakashi Hatake of all people. You hadn’t been yourself for so long, and, from what Konan had gathered, Kakashi had helped comfort a part of you that couldn’t feel anything.

Sometimes you still had questions about that eventful night. You wondered if Kakashi ever regrets it, or if he sees you completely differently.

You, personally, didn’t regret a single thing.

If anything, the intimacy he created with you that night made you feel something. He proved to you that you weren’t just some robot that had your feelings numb by some cheating jerk who couldn’t remain loyal to you. You were somewhat thankful that you two had sex. It opened your mind to many things, and you felt blessed that he didn’t walk away from you inside of that bathroom.

You and Kakashi never spoke about that night. Every time you saw one another, it was always very casual conversation. There was never anything brought up about sex or anything close to it. It was almost as if it didn’t even happen.

“Kakashi?” your eyes averted off of the carpeted floor to look at the boy before you. As soon as you spoke, his attention shifted towards you and his brows arched upward in curiosity.

“What’s up?” he twirled a piece of his smoke-colored hair around his index finger.

Part of you wondered if asking these questions would do you any good. You weren’t sure if he’d become uncomfortable or weirded out by your questions. Kakashi was a blank canvas to you. You honestly didn’t know his true colors, and you still felt like you didn’t have a single clue about him.

You chewed on your bottom lip nervously. “Do you.. have regrets about that night?” you swallowed thickly as the words came off your tongue. Your voice honestly sounded shaky and under confident.

Kakashi’s eyes widened once he understood what you were asking him. He felt like all of his words disappeared from his head. How the hell was he supposed to respond to that? He didn’t want to be an asshole and disregard it, but he knew that it was kind of hard to answer.

He didn’t want to give you the vibe that he was uncomfortable, because, truly, he wasn’t at all. It just took him by major surprise. He didn’t know that you still thought about that night. Kakashi honestly thought it was coincidental that you thought about it the same time he did. It was almost like you read his mind like a damn book to catch him in the act.

He cleared his throat to try and fix the awkward energy that was stirring around the room. “I mean.. no, I don’t really regret it. What happened between us happened, and I wouldn’t take it back whatsoever,” he replied, “Do you have regrets, (Y/N)?”

Honestly, that was a good question.

You honestly told yourself that you didn’t regret what you did with Kakashi. The only issue with that was that you were sleeping with his best friend. Obito had zero clue about it. Well, what does it matter now? He didn’t want anything to do with you anymore, so you didn’t need to hide it any longer.

You laughed softly, looking downward at the floor below you. “Honestly.. not really, that night you helped me a lot, so I don’t really have any regrets about it,” you tried your best to sound confident. You didn’t want to give off anything that sounded conflicting with your voice.

There was this sudden tension that filled the atmosphere around you.

You and Kakashi were so close to one another. His arms were still wrapped around your torso, and you were laying between his legs. The discussion of sex also filled the space around you, so that also created that tension. You could practically feel it when you breathed, and it caused your heart to start racing inside of your chest.

Kakashi leaned backwards onto the pillow that was behind his back. He did this so he could get a better view to look downward at you. There was a look inside of his eyes that was different than before. It almost looked like his once normal pupils were now dilated with desire filling the center of them.

“Do you.. ever think about that night sometimes?” he was staring at you quite intensely. It wasn’t enough to scare you or anything, but he seemed very determined to receive some kind of answer from you. He seemed almost pushy, but not pushy at the same time.

Your eyes didn’t leave his one bit. You just kept staring directly into them. “Y-Yes..” you swallowed thickly once again as the tension began to become thicker than it was before.

You could feel your body slowly heating up, and anticipation began to bubble inside of your belly. He was making you feel something. Something that felt similar to that night you had met him. Everything you were able to feel felt like deja vu all over again, and it was becoming hard to get away from him.

It was almost like Kakashi was a magnet, and you were the piece of metal that couldn’t pull away from him. No matter how hard you tried, you were being drawn to him.

Kakashi felt as if all of his emotions were being thrown all over the place. He could feel himself melting into you, and he didn’t want to reach away from you. He didn’t know if it was the smell of your daisy perfume, or it was how beautiful you looked down below him in his arms. He just couldn’t control himself.

He leaned close to your face. It was just enough so your lips were now inches apart from one another. You could smell the faint hint of mint that lingered on his breath.

“Do you ever wish.. we could recreate that night one more time..?”

All your brain could scream was yes. It was almost like the heat in your stomach was now bubbling over with how seductive he sounded. His voice was so smooth. It was practically driving you up the wall from how hot it was. You didn’t know, or rather care what happened after this.

You let out a shaky breath. “Yes.. yes, Kakashi,” your eyes flickered from his pretty lips to his eyes which were still watching you like a hawk.

The sound of Kakashi chuckling filled your ears. It wasn’t a laugh of mockery, no, but it was a laugh of seduction.

Before you even knew it, his hand grabbed your face. He then pressed his lips onto yours, causing a fiery kiss to erupt between the two of you. It was hot, and it was slightly rougher than what you were used to. It was addicting, you didn’t want to pull away from it. It was almost like the kiss ignited everything your brain forgot from that night, and it all flashed inside of your head like a camera taking pictures.

Your arms instinctively wrapped around his neck, and Kakashi took that as a sign to bring you on top of his lap.

Once on his lap, he placed his hands on your hips where he began to explore you. Occasionally, his hands squeezed at the plush of your ass, causing gasps to come from your mouth. He almost forgot how great your kisses were. The taste of your chapstick reminded him of that night. You were so delicious, he wanted to savor you so badly.

You whimpered once your clothed clit made contact with the bulge that formed underneath his shorts. Fuck, he was making you feel so fucking good. You were becoming so wet for him, and you wanted nothing more than to satisfy yourself.

Your fingers entangled themselves into the strands of his hair. You parted your lips slightly so Kakashi could dart his tongue into your warm mouth. This only made the two of you more desperate for one another. You couldn’t help but grind yourself against his aching cock. Your action earned a groan from Kakashi’s throat as he felt the friction.

He was growing more needy for you. The absolute desire to have you was taking over his body. He felt as if he couldn’t hold back on you. Kakashi craved nothing more than you. He thought about that night more often than he’d like to admit, but nobody else will know that except for him.

Smacking sounds came from your lips as your kisses grew sloppier. His hands wandered around your exposed skin, causing several small moans to come from your mouth. You had such a sweet voice. He always recognized it whenever he was out and about. It practically swam inside of his head when you were begging for him to let you cum that night when you were laying down before him in the sheets.

Things were growing more intense between the two of you. Kakashi’s hands were dipping lower and lower towards your wet core.

You were about to feel his touch when your brain suddenly saw him.

You weren’t exactly sure why you were seeing him inside of your head at a time like that. The image was foggy and almost hard to see, but he was there inside of your head. Everything you had done together played like memories on a film.

It wasn’t Kakashi, no, it wasn’t Itachi either.

It was Obito.

He was smiling inside of your head. That once adorable grin you loved to see everyday was present on his features. He seemed so happy to be with you. Every single detail was painted inside of the walls in your brain. It brought you such nostalgia. You honestly couldn’t believe it had been almost two or three weeks since the two of you last spoke. All of this time had passed by, but, yet, it felt like it happened yesterday.

Sometimes you wished you’d wake up with Obito lying right beside you. You hoped that this was some horrible nightmare that would eventually come to an end, but, unfortunately, that day never came. You still woke up every morning without him by your side.

You missed Obito, my god, you missed Obito more than anything else.

There was a side of you that wanted to believe Kakashi was Obito. You wanted to trick your brain into believing it, but, to no avail, your brain knew better than you did. Kakashi could never ever be like Obito. Nobody else could compare to the sweet boy you had been longing for. His lips weren’t like Obito’s, he didn’t kiss like he did, none of it was like him. None of it was the same, and, deep down, you knew that was a fact.

No, you couldn’t do this to yourself. You couldn’t do this again with Kakashi. He had already assisted you once before, and, sure, it benefited you in some ways, but it was temporary. All of your healing came from yourself, and you couldn’t use Kakashi to mend the pain inside of your chest. It wasn’t his responsibility, nor was it his obligation.

You came back into reality faster than the speed of light. You realized that you were still on top of Kakashi, and you were both still making out with one another.

Your hands went to place themselves onto his chest. You pulled yourself backward so the kiss was now broken. Kakashi kept trying to lean forward to catch your lips again, but you looked down at him to shake your head. You knew you couldn’t do this with him again. God knows what would happen if you two slept together again. What if this time Obito found out?

Kakashi seemed genuinely concerned, his once sly smirk turned into a worried expression within the snap of a finger.

His hands almost instantly removed themselves off of your body. “Are you.. alright..? Did I make you uncomfortable..?” he was searching your face to see what you were feeling. Kakashi had this bad feeling inside of his gut. He hoped he didn’t push you to the edge. Kakashi’s intentions were pure and they weren’t harmful one bit.

You let out air through your nose. You could feel your heart slamming against your rib cage. “No, no, you didn’t, Kakashi,” you finally looked into his eyes, “I just.. I don’t think we should do this. We don’t know what’ll happen,”

You saw his face soften from your words. Kakashi couldn’t force you into anything you didn’t want, and you had a point. You two had done this once before, and, even though neither of you spoke after that, it didn’t mean that something bad couldn’t form from doing it again. It was dangerous enough that you two already had sex once, but twice? You’d be digging your graves.

He could see how shameful you felt. In his opinion, there was nothing you had to be embarrassed about. You had every right to stop the situation, and he wasn’t going to judge you for that. Kakashi was there for you, and he was always going to be your friend.

He also knew how you felt about Obito.

Kakashi was angry with his best friend at the moment, but he couldn’t necessarily bring himself to try and change your feelings about Obito to bring you to have sex with him. Your dynamic was one that he had zero intention of messing with. Hell, if you two did have sex, that would only make things worse for you and Obito.

Rin would probably find out somehow too.

He placed his hand onto your shoulder, giving you a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry about it, I completely understand. I shouldn’t have said those things anyway, so I’m sorry for that,” his voice was very sincere, and you honestly hadn’t heard him sound that serious before. It honestly settled a lot of that anxiety you had about stopping the situation.

You gave him a small smile. “Thank you for understanding me, Kakashi, I just didn’t want you to get mad at me. I shouldn’t have talked about that night,” you rubbed your forehead as you spoke to him.

Kakashi laughed, “Don’t even worry about it. We all have questions and it’s okay that you asked them. You’re an amazing person, (Y/N), I’d never get upset with you over something like this. Don’t fret about it, I promise,”

All of those worries you had slowly began to disappear. You honestly needed that reassurance from Kakashi. Part of you was nervous that he’d possibly get upset over you practically cock blocking him, but you were relieved that he wasn’t. He was an understanding person, and you were glad he had that trait with him.

“I appreciate you, Kakashi,” you smiled at him with generosity.

Kakashi sat up so he was sitting straighter than he was before. “Anytime,” he tapped your shoulder once more, “I think I’m going to head out though, because I really want to play some basketball with the guys,”

You nodded your head, “Okay! Sounds good, thanks again for stopping by,”

He started to chuckle at you which made your eyebrows furrow. You wondered what he was laughing about. “Uh, you know, I can’t leave unless you’re not sitting on me like this,” he looked up at you with this cocky smirk like he usually did.

You quickly realized what he meant and your cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Oh! Right! Sorry..” you instantly began to maneuver yourself off of his lap. You honestly needed to learn how to read the room. All of the time you spent in your room really messed with your head.

Kakashi sat up, and a few of his joints cracked as a result of his movements. You stood beside him next to the couch as he rose from his spot on the cushions.

The two of you walked into the direction of the front door. You honestly were very happy Kakashi was there to help you. Things were slowly starting to become better for you, and it was almost as if you could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sure, you had a lot of healing to do, but you knew it was going to be easier with the friends you had around you. It didn’t feel like you were all alone like before.

Kakashi turned to face you as he opened the wooden door to your apartment. The air from the hallway began to seep in from his actions. “If you need me, you know where I’m at,” he pulled out his phone and nodded his head towards it.

You shook your head, understanding what he was trying to tell you. You were glad you had his support. It made this situation a lot easier to bear, and you had more confidence than you did prior.

“Of course, thank you again, Kakashi,” you felt a smile grow onto your cheeks. The grin you wore didn’t feel fake either, and it felt so genuine. You hadn’t felt that in the last couple of weeks, and you felt better knowing it wasn’t forced anymore.

He waved at you before stepping out into the hallway, leaving you by yourself inside of your apartment. The door shut with a final click, and silence enveloped all around you. You honestly didn’t know what you were going to do with yourself for the rest of the afternoon, but you felt really hungry.

You then remembered you had some McDonald’s waiting for you in the living room, so you figured you’d go and have a quick bite to eat.

You started smiling to yourself when you realized that maybe this nightmare would finally come to an end. For once, you felt like you were going to make it through this tough time. You honestly didn’t want to sulk anymore. You didn’t want to let this destroy you, and you wanted to do something about it. You desired to go back to your life, and you were over feeling bitter all of the time.

It was time for changes, and you were ready to bounce back.

-

Slamming the driver’s side door of his car, Kakashi ran his fingers through his hair. The air was still quite warm, but it wasn’t too hot for him to start complaining. The day was perfect and beautiful. The sun was high and bright in the baby blue sky, and there wasn’t a single cloud dancing around it.

It was a great afternoon for some basketball.

Taking in his surroundings, he noticed a majority of the frat guys were out of the house. This was for sure a fact because most of the cars were out of the driveway, but only one car remained and that irritated Kakashi knowing whose car it belonged to.

It was Obito’s car.

Kakashi wasn’t sure why he was still at the house. Usually, he was out and about during most of the day, but today he wasn’t. It was kind of irritating if he was being honest. He didn’t want to deal with the Uchiha and his unnecessary behavior. He had this habit of poking at Kakashi’s buttons whenever he had the chance, and it was beyond exhausting. The only time he actually shut his mouth was when the other guys were around.

Kakashi began to mentally prepare himself as he walked the concrete path that led to the entrance of the house. Once he was in front of the door, he placed his hand on the knob and slowly pushed the door open. He could feel the cool air from the air conditioner wrapping around his warm skin as he walked inside of the house.

The environment inside of the house was very quiet. Kakashi could almost hear a pin drop if he was silent enough, but that most likely meant that Obito was upstairs in his room. It was somewhat of a good thing, because that meant Kakashi didn’t have to interact with him. He just wanted to go inside and get right back out to play some basketball with his friends.

He removed his shoes, heading in the direction of the kitchen. All he needed was to grab some water and then he’d head out. Kakashi figured he’d just wear the clothes he had on now. Changing would take him too much time and he didn’t want to risk the possibility of seeing Obito, because, frankly, he took any chance to say stupid things to Kakashi.

Once in the kitchen, he walked to the fridge to grab the many water bottles that sat on the top shelf. He grabbed three of them and placed them on the counter beside the fridge. He was glad that Shisui restocked them before he came home. Otherwise, he’d have some gross room temperature water that wouldn’t refresh him at all.

As he shut the fridge, he heard the sound of fast footsteps coming down the staircase near the living room. Kakashi rolled his eyes once he realized who was coming. There goes the idea of him avoiding Obito completely. He’d just have to ignore the Uchiha the best he could, but he honestly didn’t think it would be possible. He had a habit of being really fucking annoying.

Obito turned the corner to see Kakashi standing in the kitchen. He honestly was surprised to see him there, but he wasn’t interested in what he was doing. Obito could care less what he did anymore. He just wanted to grab a quick snack and head back upstairs for the rest of the afternoon. He didn’t have much interest in talking with the other guys either. All of them pissed him off so easily. It was difficult to have normal conversations anymore without his mood being absolutely changed.

He stepped into the kitchen, giving Kakashi no type of acknowledgement. It didn’t seem like the gray-haired man wanted anything to do with him either, so it was mutual.

Kakashi stood by the counter for a few moments. He wanted to send a few messages to his friends to see if they were open to playing some basketball with him. Usually, it’d be Obito he would go and play with, but those days were over. The circumstances made it worse. He hoped that there would be someone he could play with, but he was fine if he had to play solo. It wasn’t that much of a bother.

Obito was kind of annoyed that Kakashi was still standing there. He absolutely despised the idea of having to walk past him. He didn’t like coming close to his best friend, because it honestly made Obito more irritated that he had to get close to some loser.

But, he didn’t have much choice. He was hungry, and he wasn’t going to wait there forever. Obito didn’t have much patience nowadays, and he wasn’t going to try and settle it by waiting for Kakashi to move over.

He then walked beside Kakashi, making sure to not accidentally touch or make contact with him. He successfully made it to the other side of the kitchen, so he decided to look for something inside of the cabinets to eat. He was going to honestly lose it if he couldn’t get some food. Obito usually had a big appetite, but he blamed it on the intense workout he did earlier that morning.

As Obito searched, something filled his nose. It was a familiar aroma. It brought him back to a time he could recall like it was yesterday. The smell made every cell in his body freeze, and it honestly alarmed him. He tried to shake away the smell as possibly it being his imagination, but it still remained there.

The scent of your perfume was filling his nose. It practically sent him back to the many times you two hung out with one another. Obito could see every precious memory inside of his brain. He couldn’t believe the scent was around. He thought he had pushed away those thoughts of you, but, to his surprise, they were glued to the walls inside of his mind.

Obito knew damn well you weren’t at the frat house, so where was it coming from? Did he possibly forget to wash the shirt he was wearing? It made him begin to question what was happening.

He then turned his body around. The sudden realization hit Obito like a ton of bricks, and he could feel his anger boiling inside of his body. He quickly found out where the aroma was coming from, and there was absolutely no mistake. He wasn’t imagining your scent. He wasn’t making it up. Your perfume was around, and it wasn’t coming from you. It was quite the opposite in fact.

The scent of your Marc Jacobs Daisy Love perfume was coming directly from Kakashi.

The absolute fury Obito felt was like no other. He swore to God he was seeing red in that moment. The idea of your perfume fuming off of Kakashi made him disgusted. His body was heating up, and he had so many things he wanted to say. He knew it was odd that Kakashi had been leaving the house frequently, but he never expected him to be spending time with you. What the fuck were the two of you doing?

He had a pretty great idea. Knowing your behavior with Kakashi in the past, you two were probably doing that. It wouldn’t shock him one bit, but the damn nerve Kakashi had was sending Obito over the edge.

He couldn’t control himself, there was no way he could.

“Where the fuck were you?”

Obito’s serious voice brought Kakashi’s attention away from his cellphone. He lifted his head to meet Obito who was staring directly at him. Though, his expression was not what he was expecting to see. It didn’t scare Kakashi, but it was very alarming. It didn’t seem right, he hadn’t seen a look like that on Obito before. He’s known him for a while and he’s seen his best friend pissed many times before, but he hadn’t seen him that infuriated before.

His eyes were dark, they seemed like an abyss you could get lost in. Kakashi could see his hand was clenched into a fist, and he was twitching. Obito’s face was extremely serious. He could also see his breathing becoming heavier. Kakashi was very confused, and he was extremely concerned by him. He didn’t know what was going on.

“What are you talking about? I was on campus? I had classes today, you should know this,” Kakashi clicked his phone off to focus on Obito. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to get at, but he was determined to figure that out.

Obito’s expression didn’t change, if anything, he seemed more angrier than he did at first. “No you weren’t, don’t fucking lie, Kakashi,” he sounded close to snapping. This was rubbing Kakashi the wrong way. He didn’t understand why Obito was acting the way he was.

He started to wonder if Obito somehow figured out that he was with you. He didn’t tell anyone where he was going, and he was on campus for a little while. Though, he wanted to stop by to check on you, but he never told anyone specifically where he was heading. He hadn’t even spoken to anyone that morning besides the other frat guys. Even so, he hadn’t mentioned a single thing.

Kakashi questioned if Rin somehow saw him with you, but he didn’t think it was possible. There was no possible way she knew where you lived. Hell, Rin barely knew a single damn thing about you except that you fucked Kakashi.

Unless Obito was accusing him of something completely different, Kakashi had no idea what the hell was going on. He had no intention of telling Obito that he was with you. He wouldn’t know what might happen if he revealed that fact. Seeing how he was acting before him now, he needed to get to the bottom of his anger.

Kakashi stood his ground, looking at Obito with a serious face. “What are you trying to get at? I was on campus, I literally just walked through the door a few minutes ago,” he crossed his arms, “I don’t know what the fuck your problem is, but cut it out. It’s not your business where I go anyway,”

“Did she slut herself out for you again?”

The color in Kakashi’s face drained almost instantly. Did Obito figure it out? There was no way! He never told anybody he was going out to see you. He had to be speaking about somebody else, because there was no way he was talking about you.

He could feel anger starting to flow through his veins. “What the fuck did you just say? Who the hell are you talking about?” he started walking towards his best friend. Kakashi was so over Obito and his stupid words. He wished he could do something about it, because it was getting ridiculous.

Obito scoffed, shaking his head in the process. He couldn’t believe the shit he was hearing. “Did I stutter? Stop acting so stupid, Kakashi, playing dumb won’t get you anywhere. You know damn well who I’m talking about,” his words were like venom, toxic.

Kakashi clenched his jaw, trying to hold in the emotions that threatened to fall out of his mouth. “You better not be talking about her. I swear to God, Obito, you know damn well you’re wrong,” he glared at him with dagger-like eyes.

A chuckle came from Obito’s throat. His serious expression turned into an almost evil looking smirk. “It doesn’t surprise me, Kakashi, (Y/N) did it once with you, and it isn’t shocking that she did it again. I should’ve known she was a fucking whore,” he rolled his eyes in complete annoyance at the thought of you.

Kakashi didn’t know what it was inside of him that made him move so quickly, but, before he knew it, he was standing directly in front of Obito. He peered at him with a dangerous look written all over his features. Obito was even slightly taken back from it all. He barely had any time to react to what he was doing.

He was at his breaking point, no, Kakashi was beyond angry. He became so infuriated with Obito. It was the first time in his entire life that he actually wanted to do something to him. It wasn’t good at all.

“You’re talking some really big stuff, little guy,” he clenched his fist, “You act like you weren’t a complete slut at one point. Do I have to name them, Obito? Yasmine? Or what about Cassie? Hailey? Or was it Harley? What about those two girls you had sex with in one night? Huh? What the fuck do you have to say about that? I find it ironic that you’re throwing a fit over me and (Y/N) as if you weren’t fucking around with others in the past,”

Silence suddenly filled the room, which made Kakashi laugh. He couldn’t believe that Obito didn’t have a single thing to say in response to his words. He wasn’t going to let Obito destroy you like that, and make you seem like a bad person. You truly weren’t, and, most of all, you weren’t a fucking slut.

He wasn’t going to stop there, oh no. Kakashi had plenty of things he wanted to say, because Obito needed a fucking reality check. He wanted to be the one to give it to him, because, being truthful, Kakashi was sick of his stupid bullshit he was pulling.

“You acted like she was yours or something. I’ll be the one to tell you the honest fucking truth that she was never yours, Obito. She didn’t belong to you, and she never will,” he stared at him intensely as he spoke to him. He wasn’t holding back anymore, and, frankly, he didn’t want to.

Obito felt everything inside of him snap. He was beyond angry, and he couldn’t stop himself anymore.

Kakashi’s eyes went wide when he felt Obito’s fist make contact with his cheek. He had punched him, and hard. It took him completely by surprise, and, to be honest, Kakashi could barely process what the hell happened. It all occurred so quickly.

Though, he wasn’t about to just sit there and take it.

Kakashi could feel the bruise forming against his skin, but he held back the pain to go after Obito. “So that’s what you want to do, huh?!” he could feel the rage soaring inside of him. It was making his body warm.

He walked forward to shove Obito backwards. This action only made him angrier, so he lunged towards Kakashi to try and grab at him. However, Kakashi was well prepared for that, and he was able to land a hard punch onto Obito’s nose. It was so hard that the nerves inside his hand started to pulsate and feel staticy. He’s never experienced that before, but he could care less.

The pressure against his nose caused Obito to reach up to touch his now sore nose. He could feel the warmth of liquid trickling down from his nose towards his mouth. The iron taste of blood filled his tongue, causing him to cringe.

Obito wiped the crimson liquid off of his lip before going towards Kakashi again. This time, he was able to sock him in the stomach. Kakashi coughed when the tight pain inside of his abdomen made itself known. It practically knocked the air out of him, and it hurt a lot. He wasn’t expecting that to happen.

“You’re a piece of shit! You know that?! What the hell do you gain from this?!” Kakashi held his hand over his stomach to try and ease the ache that was spreading throughout his stomach.

Obito scoffed, rolling his eyes. “You deserve to get your ass beat. All you’ve ever done is ruin things for me,” he looked down at his once best friend with rage-filled eyes. He didn’t see Kakashi as his friend anymore, not after this.

While hunched over, Kakashi took the opportunity to bring Obito down. He sprang forward to knock him onto the floor. Obito was caught off guard. His head instantly hit the hardwood floor, causing him to hiss in pain from the sudden contact.

Kakashi took all of the strength inside of him to lay punches onto Obito’s face. He landed only about two before he caught his wrist in his left hand. The constant force against his face was causing sharp pain to scatter along his cheeks, and bruises were slowly forming onto his once clean skin. His left eye was also becoming swollen from Kakashi’s assault on it.

Obito took the open opportunity to land his fist onto Kakashi’s mouth. It ultimately freed Obito, because the punch made Kakashi move backwards. It hurt, and it hurt bad. His teeth practically bit his bottom lip, and the inside of his mouth was filled with blood. A bitter and disgusting taste that made Kakashi want to vomit.

Since Kakashi was now knocked onto the floor, Obito grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. All he saw was red when his mind imagined the thought of him fucking you again. Your voice calling out to him, and not Obito. It enraged him, and he couldn’t wait to hit him again. He needed to feel the shit Kakashi had put him through.

“What the fuck?! What’s going on here?! Stop!”

Kakashi and Obito both paused to turn their heads towards the voice. They were met with Rin and her worried expression.

The girl seemed genuinely terrified of what the two boys were doing. She didn’t expect to come by and see that. It was true she hadn’t spoken to them in a while, but she didn’t think the things between them were that bad. Obito and Kakashi were best friends. Their friendship being turned sour made Rin feel terrible.

Obito let go of Kakashi, standing up straight so he could look at Rin more clearly. “What the hell are you doing here?” his tone was irritated, and he could care less about what she had to say. He wasn’t particularly interested in speaking to Rin anyway. Obito realized a lot while she was away, and he didn’t want to deal with her right now.

Rin’s eyes flickered from Kakashi to Obito. She had so many questions. “Why are you beating him up?! No, why are you two even fighting?! Guys, this isn’t like you at all!” she stepped towards them with caution. It seemed worse as she grew closer.

Their faces were turning all kinds of blues and purples. Blood clung to the bottom of Obito’s nose, and Kakashi’s lip was busted open. Blood pooled from the wound, and his bottom lip was slowly swelling up.

She never imagined the two could inflict those kinds of wounds on one another.

Kakashi flinched once his fingertip made contact with the bruise on his cheek. It was hot, and it was only growing more painful. He was also bothered by Rin’s presence. After all, she was the one who created this entire mess.

“Rin, just leave! We want nothing to do with you anymore, so get out. I don’t want to see you here ever again,” he shoved past her to head up to his room. He had to clean himself up, and he didn’t want anyone else to see him like this.

Rin turned and watched as Kakashi disappeared around the corner. She briefly heard the sound of him rushing up the stairs. She honestly felt an ache inside of her chest when Kakashi’s words processed through her mind. She never thought things would ever be like this.

She shifted her attention towards Obito. He was staring at her, but he said absolutely nothing as he walked past her. Rin flinched as the bathroom door slammed shut on the first floor.

Rin honestly felt helpless in this situation.

She cared for Obito and Kakashi more than anything in the world. She adored being friends with them, and she never imagined a world where she’d actually see the two beating the living shit out of one another. It honestly hurt her seeing the two like that. She couldn’t believe this was all happening.

It was almost as if she couldn’t recognize them anymore. They were completely different compared to before, and she had no idea if they’d ever rebuild their friendship again. It seemed almost impossible with the circumstances.

What angered her was the fact that you were to blame for this. You slept with Kakashi and Obito. You’re the reason why all of this fell apart, and Rin hated how you weren’t taking responsibility for a single thing. Hell, she hadn’t seen you on campus in weeks. Were you hiding from the truth? Because it sure felt like it. You were a fucking coward, and Rin wasn’t going to let you slip by like that.

Maybe Obito was right, maybe you were a fucking whore.

Rin was now determined to do something about this. She wasn’t going to let her friendship crumble apart because of you. There was no fucking way she’d let you get away with this. You needed to know what the hell you had done.

Once she saw you, she wasn’t going to hold back.

#summer speaks #the beach #naruto x reader #naruto x you #naruto x y/n #naruto fanfiction #naruto series #obito uchiha #obito uchiha x reader #obito x y/n #obito x you #obito x reader #anime fanfic #anime #naruto

[mixelation]

i feel like posting something, so here's one of those "everyone is impressed with sakura!!" scenes but it's from a wild AU

the AU is wild in that it's an AU of another AU. the "main" AU is one i've posted snippets of before (here and here), where Sakura is Kakashi's apprentice. The main gist is that Kizashi dies saving Kakashi's life and asks him on his death bed to watch out for Sakura, and things spiral out of control.

This is from an AU of that AU where Kakashi and Sakura transmigrate into a NEW AU where Minato lives. Yes yes, shut the fuck up, it was summer 2020 when I started this and my life was weird. The main points of this is AU are: Minato survived but Kushina didn't. The Uchiha coup didn't happen but ""someone"" massacred everyone but Itachi and Sasuke. Itachi is.... team 7's sensei 0:)

This scene is from a team lunch at the Namikaze house.

***

“Are you seriously talking about different types of soap?” Naruto asks, sounding offended. 

“What else would we talk about?” Minato asks, bemused. 

“Something cool,” Naruto replies. “What’s the point of you having cool ANBU guys over if you just talk about soap?”

The other genin seem similarly unimpressed with the conversation. 

“Maa, we can talk about something cool,” Kakashi tells him. “For example, I recently bought a cast-iron pan.”

The genin quickly excuse themselves off the back porch and into the yard. They start a game disguised as training, where Sakura and Naruto test Sasuke’s new sharingan with various ninjutsu, trying to get a hit in. It’s mostly Naruto trying to overwhelm Sasuke with clones while Sakura hangs back, occasionally substituting out with a clone to try and take a jab at Sasuke. 

Kakashi watches them out of the corner of his eye while Itachi describes some sort of misadventure with the mission office. That’s a pretty good formation for Sakura, Kakashi thinks, especially if he figures out a good finishing jutsu for her…

“Who did you say you talked to?” Minato asks, frowning. “New teams should be getting priority for D-ranks.”

“Tsk, tsk, Sensei,” Kakashi interrupts. “You said no work talk.”

Minato sighs, a grin tugging at his lips. “You’re right. I’m getting out the sake.”

“I don’t…” Itachi starts, but a drink is poured for him nonetheless. Naruto shrieks in dismay as his real body narrowly avoids being set on fire by Sasuke. Minato pauses for just a fraction of a second, glancing over at his child.

Itachi stares in dismay at his cup of sake while they chat. Kakashi is reminded almost painfully of his time on Team 7, before Minato was the Yellow Flash and when they had down time to just talk. It’s not the same, of course, because Itachi is nothing like Rin or Obito, but it’s still something that Kakashi had previously thought he’d never have again. He’d never appreciated it when he had it, and he wishes he could stretch this moment out forever. 

Minato is cut off mid-sentence when Naruto abruptly screams in actual pain. 

Here’s how it went down, as far as Kakashi can tell: Sakura, carefully pacing around the fray of Sasuke versus several Naruto clones, had determined which Naruto was the real one based on past patterns of behavior. When Naruto had charged in to take Sasuke on with his own body, Sakura had decided to give him a hand by substituting out with his hitai-ate, positioning herself on Naruto’s shoulders and therefore above Sasuke and angling to smack him in the face with the broad side of her sword. 

She hadn’t been expecting Naruto to suddenly yell and jerk in pain, though, and she slips. Sasuke is also distracted by Naruto’s yell and does nothing to dodge the sword, now coming blade-first at his shoulder. Sakura moves to correct herself, looking panicked, and she doesn’t get to find out if she was about to accidentally stab Sasuke or not because Kakashi flash-steps over and yanks her back. 

“What did I tell you about being reckless with a sword?” he asks her.

“Sorry, Sasuke-kun,” Sakura tells him sheepishly, dangling by her armpits from Kakashi’s hands. 

Itachi, on the scene as quickly as Kakashi, has not stopped his brother from falling over. He does, however, offer him a hand up. 

“What even happened?” Minato asks, perplexed. He’s squatted behind his son, also fallen on his ass, examining the back of his head. “You’re bleeding.”

“I don’t know!” Naruto replies. “Sakura, what the heck.”

“You need to tie your hitai-ate properly,” Minato scolds, gingerly touching the back of Naruto’s head. Naruto’s hitai-ate is in Minato’s other hand, because the Namikaze house is so littered with Hiraishin seals that Minato had been able to grab it out of the air before teleporting to his son’s aid, all before Kakashi had even gotten his hands around Sakura’s arm. “Another ninja can’t grab it with substitution if it’s secured--”

“Dad, I know,” Naruto cuts him off. “I know how to tie my hitai-ate, you know!”

Minato looks down at the hitai-ate in his hands. It’s indeed tied correctly, with several gold hairs sticking out of the knot. 

“Did you tie it into your hair?” Sakura asks, affronted. “How was I supposed to know--”

“Sakura,” Kakashi cuts her off. 

Sakura twitches but apologizes for ripping Naruto’s hair out. She seems unconcerned about hurting Naruto physically, but her apology does turn gravely, comically genuine about the hair. If Naruto had yanked out Sakura’s hair, Kakashi is not sure even Minato would be able to save him from her wrath. Hair is very serious business for her. 

“Am I bald?” Naruto asks, sounding horrified, and Sakura’s eyes widen in horror. Sasuke snorts. 

“It’s not like you can look any worse,” Sasuke tells him with a smirk. Naruto sticks his tongue out at him, and Sakura relaxes. 

Now that it’s clear no one has been seriously injured or emotionally scarred by hair-pulling, the genin collapse into juvenile name calling. Minato stands, turning his son’s hitai-ate over in his hands with an oddly curious look on his face. The hitai-ate is still knotted at the back, with several of Naruto’s golden hairs sticking out. 

“Did you not notice extra resistance?” Itachi asks Sakura with a tone of disapproval. “You shouldn’t rip things off your allies like that.”

“I thought…” Sakura waves her arms in a sort of helpless gesture. “I noticed it was on better than Kakashi’s, but Kakashi doesn’t tie his right.”

“Oi,” Kakashi objects at the same time Naruto squawks, “So you just ripped it off my head?!”

“Maybe that’s your finishing mood,” Sasuke says, crossing his arms and turning his mocking smirk to Sakura. “Just substitute yourself with someone’s hair--”

“Sakura,” Minato interrupts, and everyone goes quiet. “How did you do that?”

Sakura shifts nervously. “I’m not sure what you mean?” she says, voice carefully polite. “It’s just the substitution jutsu…”

“Most people can’t move something that well-attached,” Itachi tells her. He sounds dismissive, like he thinks this limitation is due to a lack of effort from other people. Maybe to a genius like Itachi, being able to push the limits of the substitution jutsu is just a matter of practicing it. Kakashi had, being a genius himself, been conceptualizing Sakura’s experimentation about the same way. 

...although, now that Kakashi thinks about it, he’s not actually sure he could dislodge someone’s properly attached hitai-ate with the substitution jutsu. At least, not on the first try. He forms the hand signs. 

“Sempai,” Itachi snaps, whipping his head around to frown at Kakashi when he tries to take Itachi’s hitai-ate.

“What’s her range?” Minato asks, even as he shoots Kakashi an annoyed look when Kakashi tries it on him next. 

Neither Kakashi nor Itachi answer, currently distracted by trying to substitute with various pieces of the other’s uniforms. Neither of them are successful. 

“What are you two doing?” Sasuke, sharingan still active and eyes darting between them, asks.

“Sakura,” Minato tries next, apparently fine with his shinobi trying to pull petty pranks on each other instead of listening to him under these circumstances. He shoots her his friendliest smile. “Can you substitute out with my hitai-ate?”

Sakura stiffens, and Kakashi drops his attempts to take Itachi’s shoes. 

“Respectfully, I’d rather not,” Sakura says flatly. Kakashi puts a hand on her shoulder, and Itachi yanks so hard at his weapon’s pouch that he has to shift his stance ever so slightly. 

“What’s going on?” Naruto asks, leaning his head back to blink up at his father. “Can I have my hitai-ate back?”

“I’ve just never heard of anyone using the substitution jutsu like that,” Minato says mildly, handing Naruto back his hitai-ate. 

“Yeah, Sakura-chan is really smart, you know!” Naruto agrees. 

Sakura’s face is pink. Kakashi is sure it’s more from the Hokage’s words than Naruto’s. 

Naruto picks at the knot of his hitai-ate, looking forlorn as hair falls from it. Minato very deliberately puts his hands together in a hand sign, and then suddenly Itachi is staggering back and Minato’s weight is on Kakashi’s shoulders. 

Kakashi’s eyes are bare, his hitai-ate now on the ground where Minato had been standing. Sakura has done this to him countless times, which is about the only reason he stays on his feet. It’s a close call though, as Minato is a full grown man and not a preteen girl, and he also did that so quickly Kakashi didn’t have time to brace himself. Kakashi does some embarrassing teetering, and Sakura yelps in surprise and jumps back. 

“Oh, interesting,” Minato says. “You really don’t tie your hitai-ate very well, Kakashi.”

“In my defense,” Kakashi replies, trying to keep his cool with the Hokage squatting on his shoulders, “I do have to take it on and off a lot.”

“Hokage-sama, please,” Itachi hisses. His hitai-ate has been jerked to the side slightly by a failed attempt from Minato, but it’s still in place. 

“Sakura, can you substitute out with Itachi’s hitai-ate?” Minato asks, leaning his elbow on the top of Kakashi’s head. “I can’t seem to get it.”

Sasuke’s eyes are darting furiously around the whole group, trying to demystify the Hokage’s interest. Even Naruto looks suspiciously around as he re-ties his hitai-ate. 

“Uh,” Sakura replies. “I’ve never… tried…?”

“Go on, then,” Minato prompts. Kakashi can practically hear the smile in his voice. “I promise you won’t get in trouble.”

Sakura only hesitates a few moments. Itachi crosses his arms as his student appears on his shoulders. Sakura looks less sure than the usually gleeful look of chaos she reserves for Kakashi, and Itachi levels Minato with an unimpressed look. 

Minato, however, is clearly entering whatever excited fugue he gets into when he’s developing new and horrible fuinjutsu experiments. 

“Alright, Sasuke,” Minato continues in his best sensei voice. He drums the top of Kakashi’s head with his fingers. “Can you tell me what Sakura is doing that I’m not?”

Or, perhaps, Minato is having flashbacks to being a jounin sensei himself, because he’s clearly now guiding Sasuke through analyzing the situation with his new doujutsu, instead of Kakashi who has his out and has had it for years. 

Sasuke looks taken aback for a moment. Then he straightens and says, “I’m not sure. I can’t… really see in that much detail yet.” He shoots his brother a look, as if asking if that’s normal. Itachi just tilts his head. “Sakura’s using a lot less chakra than you three, though.”

“Ah, so maybe us old folks are doing too much,” Minato says, and he shifts on Kakashi’s back. 

Sakura very awkwardly and gingerly slides off of Itachi's shoulders. 

“It’s not like moving a big object,” she says. “It’s like-- um. The difference between pulling the headband harder and undoing the knot.”

“Hmm,” Minato replies, like this metaphor makes perfect sense to him. 

“I don’t get it,” Naruto says loudly. “What’s so interesting about-- DAD!”

Minato is suddenly holding his son under one arm. Kakashi snatches Naruto’s hitai-ate out of the air. 

“This is some really impressive chakra work, Sakura,” Minato says, even as he grins cheekily down at his pouting son. 

Sakura doesn’t preen like she would if Kakashi complimented her. Instead, she looks more quietly pleased, her cheeks going pink and a smile tugging at her lips. 

#my writing #the adventures of beans and dog man and also itachi

[the-letter-horror-lover]

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 39: Innocence

Chapter Text

The idea of no one being innocent was an interesting philosophical point to the six of them that were gathered, but they clearly had something more on their minds than just the morality of their actions. Despite the fact that he was somewhat defending his teammate, it seemed the least impressed was Kakashi himself. The White Fang’s son raised an eyebrow and then sighed.

“Leave the pointless chore of figuring out who was right to the historians,” he said. “For the record, they always seem to favor the side that wins, and the side that wins is rarely the one the turns against itself. You know as well as I do that as far back as the clan wars, the Shinobi Rules forbade treason. Now you’ve betrayed the village.”

“Maybe we have,” he said after a moment. “If they don’t accept our explanation, then there’s nothing else we can do.”

“I’ll be writing a full report with exactly what happened.”

“I expect you will,” Obito responded after thinking about it, throwing up his hands. “I doubt I could persuade Rin to go along with me. What did you tell her, anyway?”

“If you had succeeded,” she started, looking down. “Wouldn’t it look as much like an accident as the death of Sosetsu? Wasn’t that what we were ordered to accomplish?”

“It might look that way, but we would know.”

As they moved as quietly as they could, erasing their tracks behind them, Rin revealed that while she was pretending to be Koyuki, she requested that her education in Konoha could be advanced. It was a perfectly believable thing for her to ask, and the servants were inclined to go along with it, especially when she promised that her health would improve enough that she could run around out in the snow.

That was clever. She knew that we’d be giving the real princess back with the shivers. She would be red-faced and probably still have frost in her hair, unless Kakashi got it out on the way. They reached the water by nightfall, but Obito hardly noticed. The trees had obstructed the coastline until the salty air hit his nostrils.

“We don’t have enough energy to cross,” he said.

“We can’t stay here,” Ryochu said. “I chose this path deliberately.”

Using an advanced wood transformation, he turned a few nearby trees into a skiff, passing out shortly after. Rin had managed to heal her own hand already, and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him; he just needed to rest. Wakoucha and Kakashi carried him onto the skiff that they pushed off into the water.

“That’s funny- where’s the ice shelf?” he asked.

“Ice shelf?” Jin asked.

“Yeah, when we came here, there was this massive, well, ice shelf all around the island.” It was a large island, and the land of snow was probably larger than some other countries, if not in terms of habitable land, but it was easy to forget that it was surrounded by water.

“There’s a chance that it’s a seasonal thing,” Rin said, using a water transformation with Wakoucha to push the skiff further. At the very least, they needed to get out to oceanic currents.

“Yeah; I’m just not sure. I can’t help but wonder that if it’s something like… something like the time we tried to get into Taki. It seemed like it was trying to stop us from getting there.”

“Why didn’t it do anything to Kakashi?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. I really don’t know.”

They said nothing more as the skiff moved in the dark. They could move with just basic chakra manipulations, and any of them could do it easily enough. It was curious that Rin had picked up water release, at least in some limited capacity, though he doubted that was her affinity. He occupied his time with catching fish rather than sleeping, finding it more challenging than expected without a net or anything like that, but Jin was willing to help. She smiled at him as she hit one with a senbon as he tricked it into coming up to the surface.

When they finally hit another shore, he was sure they were in Shimo, because the ground was covered in frost. They had taken awkward turns trying to sleep and recover chakra on the skiff, but it was not working for anyone; they needed an actual rest. Rin was seasick, and annoyed that she could not simply heal herself. They split up to set two tents up, deciding that they would not fit in one, as warm as it would be.

“You like that girl, don’t you?” the other kunoichi asked quietly.

“Uh, well, that’s behind us now,” he said. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Strange. From what I heard, you red eyes never denied yourselves.”

He rolled his eyes, which were not, at the moment, red. They were, however, tired.

“Well, she’s the one who denied me,” he said. “Looks like you get denied anyway sometimes.” They probably got their ideas about us from Madara and a few other clan officials who might have been out that way since then. Then again, I think Tekka had a mission that took him over there.

“Does she like the other one?”

“Kakashi? He’s not someone you like. He’s a machine.”

When the tents were set up, Ryochu seemed to think that the girls would be sleeping in one tent and the guys in the other, but Jin put her foot down about Rin, who was currently heaving her guts into the ocean.

���She has to sleep somewhere,” Wakoucha said. “She’ll freeze. We can’t afford to keep the fire burning. It’ll probably just be a few hours, just to get us all back in order.”

“I don’t see why that’s my- I’d like to minimize the problems that I have to deal with solely because I’m a girl.”

Both of her teammates looked back at her silently for a moment before asking what she suggested. It was obvious that Rin needed bodies to keep her warm, the more the better, and Ryochu revealed that Jin has a weakness for coughing and retching without wanting to go into too much detail about her condition. Obito volunteered to be one of the ones keeping warm, but apparently Wakoucha wanted to keep an eye on Kakashi and he ended up going in the other tent. In light of recent events, he was substantially less picky about sleeping order and location. The big tent would be watching the whole time, promising a good night of rest for him.

Huddling close to Jin for warmth, he allowed himself to notice her brown eyes and short brown hair as she removed her hitai-ate. Her hands did not seem satisfied with any one place on his back, and then their movements were unmistakably deliberate, but he hardly noticed with her lips meeting his own. It was like eating when he was starving; his body warmed up dramatically and he reciprocated, kissing her back and searching for a place to keep his cold hands, his lower body warming not just from the heat emanating from his heart, ticking like a time bomb.

He minded less than he thought he would as she moved some of their winter gear out of the way, their bellies meeting- hers felt like a furnace against his own, and he remembered that was where certain organs were located, and it was not a coincidence that his own equivalent was about as excited as it ever had been. It was strange; even as he realized what was happening, he wanted more- he hardly noticed anything except the rush after a long period of boredom and the warmth in the land of frost. Pulling away from her lips, he tried to go back to simply holding her, but she seemed to take it as a cue for her head to go down.

“We can’t…” he started, grabbing her. “It wouldn’t be…”

“Don’t tell me this is about that girl,” Jin muttered, repositioning herself. “I thought you were the type of guy who does what you want- don’t tell me you want her instead-“ How could he? How could he when he was trying to put her as far from his mind as he- “You know she’s probably still green in the gills, and she’s surrounded by other guys right now. She’s not even thinking about you.”

Obito generally liked to think of himself as more mature, especially since he started his long journey, but there were some things that he had liked to think of as beyond him still. If anyone asked if he wanted to be promoted to Jonin, he would most likely say that he had not been thinking of it, since he had only recently made Chunin, and he had heard of adults who never made it past the rank. Though he had started to have certain feelings toward Rin, he had focused them almost entirely on her and he was not quite capable of switching gears in a matter of days.

“We’re not even-“ he started again, holding her when he felt like he should be pushing her away, but he needed the warmth to live. “We’re barely-“

“Am I not good enough for you?” she asked, starting to make a hand sign, but he grabbed her hand. She pulled a small blade out of her clothes, but they were in an awkward position and it was easy enough for him to see it and grab her other hand, wrestling her to the ground before she frowned at him. “You know what this would look like if the others came in here, right?”

“I can’t hold you like this all night,” he said, letting go. “I’ll pass out. Get back in the other tent. I don’t care if I freeze.”

Her mask broke and she started crying. Even as he remembered Rin saying that they learned how to fake any emotion in kunoichi classes, he found himself unable to find it suspicious. She turned away from him and he was cold again. He found himself drifting in and out of consciousness, unbelievably tired and not really resting. It was all he could do to hope Jin was going to sleep as well.

At some indeterminable point in the dark she looked over at him again, and he stopped pretending to be asleep. Her expression was all hatred. He had never seen anything like it.

“Why are you so mad?” he muttered. It seemed unlikely he would get any more sleep just staring at her. “You had to do this, didn’t you?”

“I said I wanted to minimize the amount of problems I had to deal with just by virtue of being a girl, didn’t I?” she asked. “I know we’re old enough. Well, I know I am, but it seems like your balls aren’t dropped yet. They’re all the way up with your stupid heart.”

“I just said no,” he muttered back. “No need to get mad.” He honestly did not have the energy to deal with any back and forth, and he doubted that she had a lot more than he did, but she was committed. “If I can deal with it, you can.”

“Your stupid girlfriend didn’t reject you when you were naked, did she?”

“No, she rejected me for just trying to get closer to her. I didn’t jump on her and then get a knife out when it was going too far-“

“Okay, shut up,” she spat, still keeping her voice down. “Guys and girls are different. You would’ve been just fine with it if she started taking her clothes off with you. The only hesitation you might have had was feeling like it was too good to be true.” Obito was finding it difficult to deny. “That’s also why you don’t understand why I’m so pissed at you. I had to debase myself this much and you can’t even lie and say you don’t have balls or something to spare my feelings.”

“It’s not like you’re ugly or something,” he muttered after thinking a moment. “We’re just… we shouldn’t be doing this. Even if we’re Chunin, we’re still only-“

“I’m old enough. The minute I was old enough my teacher told me that the second I got a moment alone with someone with a decent kekkei genkai-“

“You’re under orders?” he asked.

“I’ll just lie about it in the report,” she muttered. “It doesn’t really matter. I’ve just known ever since I was a little girl that Konoha has as many bloodlines as there are stars in the sky, and it’s the women who bring babies back with them. No one ever had to order me to put it together.” She sighed. “They didn’t even know that you three would be in the land of snow with us.”

He thought for a moment about her situation, how many clues he had missed in his state of near exhaustion. There was the way her teammates responded to her subtle manipulations about the sleeping arrangements. Did they know? Were they okay with it? What could they have done, anyway?

“Just don’t say anything, then,” he said. “The others… I guess they can fudge the details in their reports-“

“You don’t have to worry about me not saying anything, red eyes. Even if it kills me, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell anyone that I couldn’t get a virgin Uchiha hot blooded enough to- it doesn’t matter. Being pregnant would have been a pain anyway.” She curled up into a ball. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Uh, I don’t know if this makes you feel any better, but it wasn’t because-“

“Spare me. Just shut up.”

The night passed in silence.

As he might have expected, the kunoichi was out of the tent even before he was, and he was grateful to find she had not done anything while she was asleep. When he got out, he saw that everyone was ready to go. Well, well, well-

“Jin said you didn’t sleep well,” Rin said, showing an impressive amount of concern for someone coming off of probably a combination of a cold and sea sickness. “She said you were having nightmares.”

“That’s tamer than I thought it would be,” he said, though he had not given much thought to whatever kind of tale she would invent to justify why they had not done anything. Perhaps the pain of rejection had worn off a little. “Let’s just get everything packed up and get moving.”

It was not long before they were back in allied territory, in Yu, and they all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as they parted ways with the other team, satisfied that none of them had killed anyone else. He thought about Kakashi’s position on following orders again, now that they were alone once more. When we signed up to be ninja, we were basically agreeing to follow all the orders we were ever given, without exception. We don’t even have the option to quit.

The way he understood it, if a shinobi wanted to exit the ranks, either as an act of protest or per the strikingly rare deterioration of old age, he or she would be monitored for at least a few years after. There were, inevitably, countless valuable secrets in the mind of any Chunin or Jonin that could not be lost to foreign countries, and retired ninja were sometimes held up as targets if they were particularly successful in war. Frequently, rather than explicitly quitting to go work on something else entirely, those who had managed to age would take on more administrative tasks and become part of the council of elders. When I think about it like that, it puts everything in a new light. The entire system is built around people who followed all the orders that they ever received. There’s no way I can be promoted if they interpret our actions as a direct violation.

“Do you want to share what exactly happened with Jin?” Rin asked when they stopped to prepare supper. “I couldn’t exactly sleep, so…” So, you heard something. It was probably nothing more than the murmur of indistinct conversation and maybe one or two sudden movements.

He told her everything. Perhaps he was still tired after not getting a lot of sleep, though at least his chakra felt like it was mostly replenished. Perhaps it simply did not feel necessary to spare the other girl’s feelings while she was not around.

“Well, you might have refused her for your clan, but it serves the ends of Konoha either way,” Kakashi said after a moment. “We can’t have the kekkei genkai getting out.”

“I mean, they’re our allies, so if it went anywhere, that’s not the worst place for it to go, but… yeah, I can see what you mean,” he said after a moment longer. “I don’t have parents to approve of any marriage, and… and my grandmother will probably be gone before that ever happens, but the clan reached out and offered some advice about that.”

“They did?” Rin asked. “You mentioned a guy named Dramada telling you about the clan’s history, but I didn’t think they’d bring that up this early.”

“Well, it’s kind of a combination of them wanting what’s best for me and what’s best for the clan. They didn’t explicitly forbid me from getting involved with girls outside of the clan, but they said that sooner or later I’ll come to realize that they’re the only ones who might understand me.”

“Oh,” she said, making a strange expression. It seemed like she did not know how to react. In fairness, he was the same way. “Well, I think it’s better that you didn’t… go along with what she was trying to do. Being pregnant at thirteen sounds unbearable.”

“She said the same thing, basically. They’re not explicitly making her do it, but she’s going to get her teammates to cover for her so that she doesn’t have to explain herself to her teacher. I don’t know who her teacher is. At the end she seemed to think it was just as well that I gave her an excuse not to have to go through with it.” He neglected to mention the crying.

“You said she tried to use a jutsu,” Kakashi said.

“I don’t know what exactly she was trying to do. Maybe she would have used a transformation technique or a genjutsu- some trick to persuade me to go along with it.”

“After that, she got out a blade from her clothes.”

“Yeah, that was probably to hold it to my neck or something. I can’t really see any other purpose to it; maybe she wanted to cut through my gear or something, but it wouldn’t have made things much easier. I’ve got a whole set of chainmail on; by definition it’s easier to get it off than cut through it.”

“You could have killed her.” He looked back. Rin was looking between both of them.

“I just needed to get her to see that I wasn’t going along with it,” he said.

“Obito, if she had been close enough to a tree, she might have been using a nature transformation, which would have trapped you,” she explained after a moment. “After that, she could have just killed you and said you forced yourself on her. We’re the black sheep team; anyone would have believed it.”

“Would you?” he asked after thinking, facing the ground in front of him. He was glad to be out of the snow, but there was still a chill in the air. “You weren’t there. I could tell she was forcing herself into it as much as she was trying to force me. It’s like when you know you have to do something somewhere, you see a puddle of mud in your path, and decide it can wait another day. A token resistance put her off the idea, and then she wasn’t in the mood to keep trying.”

They were silent again until they set off again, stopping only when they came to a strange set of tracks. Having been to Yu a few times before, and having lived there a total of three years, the three of them liked to think they were familiar with the fauna. This was unusual. It was like a five-toed reptile, massive from the depth of the prints. The earth beneath them suffered a tremor.

“What’s going on?” Rin asked, not that she expected either of them to know. The shaking felt like it was coming from far off, in the direction of the prints. “How has no one heard of this animal?”

“That’s a better question,” Kakashi muttered. “This is not the most trafficked area in the world, but if it’s close to the border of Yu and no one has noticed it, even just when it walks around, then either it’s been hibernating- or people have learned to avoid it.”

“It’s weird to even suggest this,” Obito started. “I’m sure there’s something else that’s more plausible… but is there any chance that’s a Bijuu?- a Tailed Beast? I can even feel the chakra in the air.”

“If it is, then it’s something we shouldn’t even approach, and if it’s not, well, a large animal, as strange as it is, wouldn’t be of any interest to the village. We shouldn’t allow it to hinder us from reporting back.”

“Okay, but if we see someone from Yugakure on the way, can we at least say that there’s a monster running around in a bamboo forest?” he asked. “I don’t think that would take too much time, and it’s the kind of thing that decent allies would do for each other.”

“Fine,” Kakashi muttered. “It’s pointless to tell any random person, though.”

On the way back to Konoha, they did not see any hot water ninjas, which they basically meant that they were all busy, most likely. Since they knew how to get to the village, Obito registered that they could go there, but his teammates denied his suggestion. Once they were back in their home country, it was decided that they would power through until they got back to the village, which would not be for another several hours.

They were exhausted when they arrived, and the elder, Utatane Koharu, insisted that they all go to bed before making a report. With a mission so important and so long, the debriefing would go on for hours, and they were no good to anyone if they were on their last legs the whole time. While Kakashi looked moderately put out, the other two immediately expressed their gratitude and left.

“Hey,” Rin said to him as they walked the darkened streets, about to split up. “There’s… a lot that happened on this mission, even though it failed.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m not looking forward to the whole debriefing process.”

“I just want you to know that no matter what happens after this, we’re still teammates.”

“Yeah, definitely. We should both go to bed. We’ve really been pushing ourselves…”

“See you later, then,” she said, walking off into the direction of the Nohara home.

“See you later.”

Obito could not pretend he was happy being teammates and nothing more than that, but he could at least be polite about it. Keeping the team together was worth at least that much, especially with the nightmare that he already knew was coming. He never really had a feel for divination, but he doubted anyone would consult a priest about what was waiting for them with the rising sun.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 40: A Sudden Change of Plans

Chapter Text

The three members of Team Minato assembled right outside the mission assignment room with their reports. As always, Rin’s was the densest, but Kakashi seemed to write everything in diagrams, which threw off the comparison. They had spent the better part of the morning just writing down everything that happened, aware that the accuracy and reliability of their reports would be factored into their standing within the ranks. It was really only the very top of the Chunin who got promoted to Jonin, not that any of them saw this in their near future. While they were writing, a masked messenger came to each of them and asked basic questions to take to the Hokage, who had an interest in the mission to say the least.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do now,” Obito said, opening the door. The three elders sitting across from them wore severe expressions. There was a distinct restlessness shared by all as they placed their reports on the desk.

“While you were on your way here, we made the preparations to remove the three of you from your ranks,” Koharu said, earning a gulp from him, though the other two stood firm. “Dereliction of duty pursuant to a personal judgement of the situation is not justifiable. There remains only one question to be answered.” She perused the three reports while the man sitting on Sandaime’s other side, Mitokado Homura, picked up where she left off.

“Nohara Rin. I understand that you were effectively not party to the decision not to carry out the assassination?”

“That’s correct, sir. I was gathering intelligence, protecting the heiress to the throne, and looking for convenient opportunities to kill the target without arousing suspicion.”

“In other words, you were doing exactly what you were supposed to be doing.”

“The White Fang’s son was held up by a team from Cha, and the Uchiha-“

“Effectively, he was the one who decided to go along with the suspicions of the other team,” Koharu supplied. He could not tell which of the reports she was reading, but at least as far as that went, they probably all said the same thing.

“That’s correct, madam,” Obito said. “I judged that the results of the investigation were most likely accurate, and the protection agreement we wrote for the former Daimyo was not violated. I wrote-“

“We’ll read the report,” Homura said. “I worked with one of your clan once, a contemporary named Kagami. He never suffered from doubt or hesitation, but from time to time he could be persuaded to a lax interpretation of our orders by appeals to the heart. Did you abstain from killing the target because you have difficulty killing people?”

“No, sir,” he said. “I have killed people before. Dotou was not someone I would have any difficulty killing.”

“You wrote that he was not likely to kill the daughter of the victim,” the Hokage said, looking at his report. “What was your reasoning for this?”

“Well, the servants made plans to send her here, sir,” he said. “If he wanted to send her away rather than killing her, he could keep her from coming back and claiming the throne without killing her.”

“Does this, in your view, raise questions about the motive for the original offense?”

“No, sir; it raises questions about the means he was willing to use,” he said. “Aware that Konoha was protecting Sosetsu, he would not have tried to kill his brother, who seemed more concerned with fixing the technology than anything else. He could have persuaded him to effectively step down in order to work on his project, while sending the princess away during her formative years.”

“This is your own judgement again,” Homura said.

“Yes,” Sandaime conceded. “Having spoken with the two of them on a previous mission, Uchiha Obito has a greater insight into the character of the Daimyo and his brother than we do.” His breathing hitched. Though he knew that the old man was respectful and fair, he had never heard of anyone ranking the perspective of a young Chunin above that of an elder. ”We are now going to review your reports.”

“Thank you,” Rin said, bowing. The other two followed suit and the three of them left the room.

“We’ve still got a chance,” he said as soon as they were in the stairwell. “It’s ridiculous that they were going to get you two as well.”

“They probably still are,” Kakashi said. “Nothing has been decided yet. The fact of the matter is, we were assigned the mission as a team, so how we delegated the responsibilities is up to us. Because I was caught in a powdered snow trap laid by the Cha team, we failed the mission. Rin left it up to the two of us to carry out the assassination if she could not, and there was nothing in the palace so convenient as a chandelier above the master bed.”

“Are you saying failure is- do the Shinobi Rules explicitly forbid failure?”

“Yeah, that’s rule No. 08,” Rin said. “A shinobi is not allowed to fail.”

They walked in silence for a moment. Despite their disagreements, none of them wanted the team to break up, especially not if it meant being relieved of duty entirely, though at that point they would be lucky not to be executed. He had never seen his teammates look so down, and he had never felt as bad himself, even at the end of the first Chunin exam.

“I’m really sorry I couldn’t go along with the orders, Kakashi,” he said after a moment. “I know I made a judgement call and I still stand by it, but I didn’t want it to reflect back on you. Either of you.”

Once again, he felt a desire to disappear. He wanted to don a mask and be gone. Then again, perhaps it was even simpler than that. We could just leave while they’re deliberating.

“I’m not worried about it,” his teammate said. “The village may never see it this way, but I never once failed to follow an order. If this is the end of my career or the end of my life, that’s fine.”

“I don’t want to stop,” Rin said. “I don’t- I don’t really care what I would have to do, but as long as I can keep being a ninja, I would be fine with it. Think about Minato and Kushina.”

“Hey, guys, I’ve got- well, it might be an idea, I just need to check. Don’t wait up.”

Running from his teammates to the Uchiha compound, he found Dramada exactly where he was expected, drinking tea with his grandmother. The two of them had become friends, with matching hacking coughs of late. Obito stood there with a look of concern.

“Don’t look so worried,” the old lady said. “Please, have some tea. I’m always happy whenever you come home.”

“I, uh, might not be so happy,” he said. “I need to know if there’s a way to get my team into the other village,” he said.

“Is your team in danger?”

“I can’t help but- I really think they might be. It’s my fault. Is there any way they could marry in or-“

“No,” Dramada said. “I should have denied you before you said anything. It would be one thing if one person who was entirely loyal to you wanted to marry you, and that would be when you were an adult, having been in confidence with this one person for years, but a team formed by the village is indebted to the village and serves its interests. Did you tell them already?

“No. I didn’t know if it would work, so I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

“I see. You said this event was your fault, though? Are they being blamed for something you did?”

“Yeah, basically.”

“Would your team not cease to exist if you disappeared?” he asked.

“Would that work?” He thought for a moment, head lowered in concentration. If he became a missing ninja, it would be easier for Rin and Kakashi to recover their reputations by blaming the mission failure on him, which would be consistent with what they already said. They could answer honestly that they had no idea where he was.

“Based on what I know at this point, I can only say that you would be giving yourself the best chance you could at evading penalty for your actions. At the same time, this is not a decision that you can make lightly. You may want to take a look around.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I’ll do just that, and… and if I decide that I need to leave, then I’ll meet you by the gates.” His grandmother looked concerned, but she also looked like her lucidity was waning. She smiled at him. She doesn’t skimp when it comes to love.

Obito ran outside of his own house again, and then out to the main streets. His stuff was still all packed up, and it would be trivial to put his money in there as well. He only wished he knew what he was trying to find now.

Jumping to a nearby rooftop, he apologized to a few businessmen making a deal beneath him on his way up, before turning and looking out over what of the village he could see. It had been observed before, more than once, that they only used the term ‘village’ anachronistically, and that realistically the place was more like a city, but he could still look over most of it from a reasonably high vantage point; it was dense like that.

He caught a glimpse of Guy and Ebisu hanging out, wherever Genma was. He felt a pang of loneliness as the thought of losing his friends, even though he had grown much closer with his own team. There was no way to spend three years on a mission with someone without growing close, for better or worse. He smiled in spite of everything. The mere sight of them made his decision easy; if he had trouble with leaving another team, he could never leave his own.

As he continued to look around, he started to think his own plan was ridiculous. Even if the Uchiha had a marriage exception, how could he ever arrange marriages for both of his teammates? One had already turned him down, but would she agree to nominally marry him if it meant the team would stay together? She did, after all, say that there were things she liked about him, even if a relationship like he wanted would not work. Then there was Kakashi- how would he have ever found a girl for him? Would Sagara find herself sympathetic to his perspective? Was there someone else he had not met before?

“Hey, did you hear the Hokage was going to make an official announcement?” someone asked from below him, probably talking to some unseen listener. It was just an overheard question, but it reminded him that he might not have much time before being called back. Did he not still have a reasonable chance of continuing as a ninja? I’ll see if- well, I’ll look around for a few more minutes, then I have to get back to Dramada to turn down his offer.

Deciding to check to see if something had gone on since he left, he found Kakashi and Rin sitting on a nearby rooftop. They were closer than was normal for them, at least that he had seen. Some strange catch in his throat kept him from calling out to them as the kunoichi turned to his other teammate, resting her hands gently on his shoulders. He pulled her closer and all of a sudden they were kissing. It was far tamer than his fearful vision had been, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was real.

Crying and running off as he left, hitting the chimney of a nearby shop when he failed to perform the time sensitive internal chakra manipulation, he picked himself up and kept running. There were a litany of emotions and when he tried not to focus on one, some other came up. First it was confusion, then when he told himself he would never know, it was loss, loneliness, both at the same time. For that, all he could do was keep moving.

“They don’t understand,” he said when he got back to his house. No one in it had moved in the short time that he had been out. It felt like a thousand years.

“Perhaps you are ready to go, then,” Dramada said. I don’t know why I expected him to say ‘I told you so’. It’s so childish- just like my reason for leaving.

“Yeah, I’m ready. They’re happy where they are,” he said by way of explanation. “It would be just perfect if I disappeared, actually.” His grandmother seemed to guess the most likely explanation for his statement, perhaps based on what little he had told her about his teammates.

“Then let us go before the village summons you again. It was not rare several years ago for them to deliberate for hours and hours, but more recently…”

“I know,” he said, the old lady hugging him. All of a sudden it occurred to him that she would miss him. At least the feeling’s mutual.

“I can’t keep you any longer, Obito,” she said, fighting back tears. “I would rather have you safe somewhere else than near me, though.”

“I’ll leave the money here; I don’t need it-“

“I forbid it,” his grandmother said. “If it would please you to leave me some of your gain from missions, I find myself more likely to hold onto it as a memento.”

Extricating himself, he ran to his room and threw a fair bit of gold into his pack, leaving a substantial amount behind. Would they think he had not gone far if he left so much money behind. A traitorous thought told him they would, they would never understand that he might leave it for her. Caring for family members above all else seemed like it was localized to his own clan.

Running back down, he joined Dramada on the way out of the city and to the trail leading to the village, hidden from the hidden village. He supposed that people had seen them leave, but there was a story that the clever older gentleman could easily invent if questioned. It would be simple to claim that he knew Obito was leaving and thought that by listening to him, he could get a clue as to where he was going, and even simpler to say that whether or not he was intentionally leaving a false trail, he muttered something about ‘Riwa’.

“What’s going to happen in the next few days?” he asked quietly as he followed his friend down the trail. “Is that Hazuki lady here today?”

“We may find her; we may have to wait. It’s not a problem either way. Sometimes she likes to gather mushrooms out here. After this, though, we can add you to the fuinjutsu.” He sighed. “There is only so much I can predict about the next few days without knowing more about your situation, but I can only assume you have a supremely good reason for desertion.”

“Well… we failed a mission. I caused us to fail the mission. I chose not to follow orders because the way I saw it, the orders didn’t apply. I can’t claim to know whether or not the village’s position will be worse because of my actions, but the Hokage and the elders were acting like I basically deserted already.”

“Only moments ago, you were concerned for your teammates,” Dramada reminded.

“Well, I was worried I might drag them down, and there’s a chance that by disappearing, they can just blame it on me.” He decided not to say anything about the kiss. If he could help it, he would not say anything about it for the rest of his life. “I can’t help but think you might have been right the whole time. My teammates… weren’t sympathetic about my decision to go against our orders.”

“Hmm… I heard from Tekka that disagreements are quite common until a leader emerges. Did you have a clear leader on your team?”

“No, not really. Kakashi thought he was the leader, and he was kind of the best at most things. Rin came up with good ideas and she was always level-headed. I kind of wanted to be the leader because… well, I wanted to be the Hokage. I wanted to change things for the better. I guess that’s why I chose not to kill that guy.”

“There is no shame in deciding these things for yourself, Obito,” the older gentleman said as Hazuki started walking in their direction from a distance. Sure enough, she was carrying a basket of mushrooms.

“I can think of a few people who would say the exact opposite.”

There was no response, perhaps because it was a pointless statement. There was no real reason to expect a response, and he did not get one. Maybe they’ll expect more maturity out of me. If I’m going to this village, I have to be serious about the clan.

“In the next few days, at the very latest, the Hokage and the elders will decide what to do with your teammates. Unfortunately, even if they are not punished, that will not mean that they would not have been, had you remained with them. There is most likely no path by which you may return.”

“I know, sir,” he said. “As long as I can keep being a ninja, I’m fine with never seeing them again. They don’t really need me anymore either; we already all made Chunin. The village was only sending us out on missions together because we worked well together.”

When they reached the buildings, they found around twenty people living there. He had expected that the village had not existed for too long a time; they would never have gotten away with it under Tobirama- the deal with Shodai had been clear in its limitations. As a result, he was being asked, essentially, to help build the village from the ground up. That could be something potentially really cool.

“I have only one final question,” Dramada said. “Are you willing to set aside your dream of being the Hokage?” Obito looked down.

“Yeah. I feel like that kind of got set aside for me.” He took a deep breath. “I know a bunch of losers probably say that.”

“Well, there are better and worse reasons to lose,” the older gentleman said. “With all due respect to the village and all it has achieved, getting kicked out due to sticking to your principles over your orders is not the worst of them.”

They said nothing as they found a housing arrangement for him; he was to live with Kagami’s son Shingo and his wife, who turned out to be Hazuki. Unable to have children together, they were considering their options when he came in. He gulped.

“Oh, sorry, we didn’t mean for you to hear this,” Shingo said, rubbing the back of his head. “Do you know about children and all that?”

“Yeah. They don’t cover it at the academy, but, well… you pick things up.” He was not sure exactly when he figured it out. There was no point where someone just handed it to him. The main thing, he remembered, was the fact that there had to be some point to a father; he knew that the baby came out of the mother, and it stood to reason that the father had to do something. At some point he heard some crass joked from young ninja either in the compound or other places in the village. It was like one of the pet theories he formed as a kid but never voiced, only it was one that turned out to be correct.

“Well, not to get into more detail than would be appropriate, but my wife and I have been trying to have a child for a few years now, and usually if a few years pass, you can assume that one of you, or possibly both of you, is unable to have kids.”

“Oh… isn’t there something you can do about that?” he asked. “Could you use a transformation jutsu? Are there any medical-“

“The development of ninjutsu has almost entirely focused on killing,” Hazuki said. “We know of very little that does not have an application in combat.” She sighed. “The village, as you know, is a killing machine.”

He thought for a moment that as secretive as they were, and as suspicious as he had been of some of the Uchiha clan for having a village known only to them, there was actually something to it. What if there were a group of ninja, bound together by blood, that was committed to some other goal than defending their country on pain of death? Would they not come up with different purposes for chakra control?

“I was thinking about something,” he said after a moment. “What if Konoha is in trouble? What if it’s really bad and three other countries are coming at us at once? Are we going to come out of hiding?”

“We’ve been concerned about that,” Shingo said. “We’ve been especially concerned recently, if I’m being honest with myself.” He tousled his own hair, if that was the right term for it. “I can’t really tell you what we would do, because I’m not the leader of the clan.”

“Is Dramada?”

“No,” Hazuki said after a moment. “The reason he has gained so much respect among the clan is because of all the work he puts into advancing the clan’s position. He may have mentioned he never had much talent for ninjutsu. I was a similar case. I could understand the fuinjutsu intellectually, but I never beat the other kunoichi in physical fights, and I had a hard time using techniques against people. There was a time I thought I would serve as a medical ninja, but I never liked Biwako, and I did not want to see patients dying.”

“This village that we formed,” her husband started, thinking. “-part of the point is to see what else we can do to help the clan. We couldn’t tell the other ninja about this if we wanted. The Daimyo wants the Hokage to have the whole village under an iron fist, and if they realize we can sustain higher numbers than we’ve been reporting, they’ll send us to war again.”

“That made me think about something else that’s been on my mind,” he said after a moment. “Can’t we just decide to ignore the fire lord? Even if they provide some benefit to us, they couldn’t do anything to us.”

“For the most part, we do ignore the Daimyo,” Shingo said. “It’s actually kind of funny. He has this whole palace and all the trappings of being in charge, but he’s not in charge of the most powerful place in the country. We don’t pay taxes, unlike much of the rest of the population. Instead, we receive an annual allowance we use to grow our economy. The fact that we protect the entire country is a deal that works out well for us.” He paused, his expression turning more serious. “People would go along with the lord declaring war for the same reason that we would go along with the Hokage declaring war. As far as I know… that’s the only time he would ever ask anything of us.”

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 41: A New Sort of Mission

Chapter Text

“So… we’re not opposed to the official government,” Obito said after a moment of thought on the subject of the village’s position, at least as his host family described it.

“We are also not opposed to the village,” Hazuki said, returning after getting a pile of clothes to fold. “We are, however, not interested in being forced to battlefields and wiped out in order to further expand the national borders. With the fuinjutsu we learned from an Uzumaki a long time ago, we have no need to destroy those who would control us.”

“I think I understand,” he said after a while. “I heard about how the Uzumaki clan was mostly wiped out with the destruction of their island. Were there some of them who lived in Konoha because they were allies?”

“We were closer than allies, in some cases,” Shingo said, smiling again, for a moment. “It’s strange to think about it, how it was not really that long ago. In short, they either married the Senju family or ours. It was rare that they had any interest in a family that was not one of the two. It was to strengthen the alliance, sure, but they were not without hearts… nor were they without ambition.”

“They were destroyed because people were afraid of what they might develop,” he said.

“Well, that and they were allied with Konoha,” he said. “Kiri wouldn’t have had a problem with them if they were developing something deadly for their purposes.” He looked out to the west. “The Daimyo, as you might have guessed, would not have a problem if we in this village were developing deadly dojutsu. It would give him something else to throw at our enemies.”

“Well…” Obito started back after thinking for a moment. “Aren’t some people going to be interested in something that can fix infertility? What if we manage to fix other things?”

“Like the disease that killed my father?” Shingo asked. “These things would be of great long term benefit to the land of fire, and, depending on the wisdom of our leaders, the entire world. The problem, or a large part of it, is that the Daimyo is part of an aristocratic family that easily makes enemies with other families, systems, religious sects, and everything else by solely focusing on advancing its own position.” He chuckled. “Perhaps, in a cruel way, it’s no worse than we deserve.”

“I guess the Uchiha clan can’t claim to be bad at making enemies or trying to advance its own position,” he said, agreeing in substance. “Do they have any secrets, though?”

“More than you realize. We don’t read them in the hidden village, but the common person is informed by a series of slightly different newspapers that all publish the same stories. As long as certain families control the seat of power, it’s worthwhile to promote a narrative that supports Konoha and whatever the country does. There is basically no point to reading the newspapers.”

“So, we have a secret village, but they’re dishonest outright.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

He thought for a moment. There was something else on his mind, but with all that had come up recently, he had lost one of his earlier trains of thought. There was something from even longer ago. It’s been on the back of my mind for a while.

“I had a feeling at one point that I was kind of living inside a bubble,” he said. “If you think about it, we’re not allowed to leave the village except on a mission, and we only have Chunin exams with our allies. They’d never send a Genin to an enemy nation. Not only is it just a huge objective risk, you’d be so much more likely to desert at that level of experience and commitment to the village.”

“So, you fear you might be no better off than the average person living outside of the hidden villages?”

“Well, it’s like… it’s a different way of not knowing things. It’s… when I realized how people had babies, a lot of things fell into place, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of it before. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think that the dad was responsible for the children existing. There was a good while that it didn’t cross my mind to think ‘what biological relationship do fathers have to their children?’ and I realized there could be a lot of obvious things that I was missing.” He sighed, looking down for a moment. “One thing I realized when I lived in Awa no Mura- I don’t know if you know about that- was how tightly controlled our lives were at the village. I realized we could take a day off training and no one would know, not that we ever did.”

“So, in essence, you realized that the information that you had available to you was just as tightly controlled. You started to wonder what a hidden village might keep hidden.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, though it’s not even- it’s doesn’t have to work how I thought it did where the information is written in a scroll and two guards are standing in front of it with crossed halberds or something. It could be just something that doesn’t commonly get published, and I wouldn’t just figure it out, even if I had some clues. That’s all I’ve got now, and I’ve been able to work out some things here and there- it’s actually an important ninja skill.” He took a long breath that was not really a sigh. It carried none of the standard acceptance of reality. “They just don’t really teach that at the academy.”

“The hour has drawn late,” Hazuki said. He noticed that she had a more formal, somewhat more serious form of expression than her husband, who seemed somewhat lighthearted, even when discussing heavy subjects. Maybe it’s because he already knew all this stuff, so he already accepted it.

Obito went to bed thinking about the next morning. He had the gold to pay for his space if they asked, since he knew space was limited and they were trying to have a kid. They might have been a little insulted if someone suggested that they take me in. More than anything else, though, he wondered what he was going to do from then on.

The next morning, he had his answer, or near enough. A blind boy only a few years older than himself came to get him and asked if he was dressed and geared up. He said he could be in a minute, and that was not even taking advantage of the boy’s evident blindness; he really did have it down to where he could wake up and gear himself up in a few minutes.

“Hey, so are you like… involved with handing out missions?” he asked as they walked.

“Not all the time. I really just do whatever they need me to do. I wash clothes, going by smell, I shingle roofs, ‘cause I still got the balance. It hurts my heart thinking I can’t be out there anymore, but… well, I can be here. I don’t mind, not when I’m helping.”

“Wow,” he said. “I really didn’t expect you to tell me all that. I usually think of myself as pretty straightforward, and even I usually keep my cards closer to my chest.”

“I’m not really an intellectual type,” he said. “Never was. That wasn’t what awakened the eyes. I was on a mission once and I… well, I started using the Mangekyo Sharingan. Bet your ass they put me on more missions after that. You wouldn’t believe what all wasn’t resolved after our skirmish with Suna.”

“You burned through your eyes.”

“People told me not to, but it was kind of a combination of not having much of a choice most of the time and me not listening to their advice. I wasn’t good at not getting into the kinds of situations when I’d have to use them. They just retired me when my eyes burned out. Didn’t really notice when I left, because they weren’t keeping tabs on me, or that’s what Dramada figures. He does a lot of the figuring around here, at least for me.”

They arrived at the central building of the small village and showed themselves inside. It was strange the way the door came right open, but it was not as if the door to the mission assignment room at the academy was heavy, or even regularly locked. What was the difference?

There was only one person facing him, and it was precisely the man he expected. He stood in front, standing ‘in the middle’ even though there was no one to the left or right of him, not now that the blind boy left to see to his duties. The older gentleman smiled.

“What’s his name?” he asked as soon as the door closed. “I feel like I should know.”

“Call him Uno. It was how he introduced himself to me. Anyway, I’m sure you gathered why you’re here.”

“You need me to perform a mission.”

“Precisely. We can’t promise an especially handsome reward, but I can assure you it is of great importance to the village and its growth. We need you to steal the book called Beyond Healing from a library in the palace of the Water Daimyo.”

“How do you know it’s there?” he asked. “If we don’t know the content of the book, how do we know it’ll tell us what we want to know?”

“There was a missing ninja we interrogated years ago. She revealed that she had read it before, and of what she understood, we were able to correct a man’s hearing after he lost it in an explosion. It was something we had never done before.”

“A rogue ninja was into medicine?”

“Her team fell apart after the Uzushiogakure incident. They were welcomed back like heroes, but they were never trusted. People wondered what kind of secrets about fuinjutsu they had looted from the wreckage, though there was never any truth to that. To end the controversy, the Mizukage sent them on a series of dangerous missions, proving their loyalty to the village and the doctrine of the Mind of Water. I don’t know if you have heard of that. Generally-“

“Minato told me. Don’t even try to give me a mission that would put me against him. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to-“

“I see. The mission should only take you about eight days to complete, including travel time. I am aware of how dangerous it is.” Well, at least you’re aware of it. I’m so glad for that.

“I guess it is kind of a one-man job,” he said after a moment of thinking. “I don’t think we would have anyone else we could send anyway.” I’ll have to rely on the tools I already have. I can’t just pop into the weapons shop and grab more equipment.

“I have a question. I noticed that you brought a scroll with you.”

“It’s the flying thunder god technique,” he said. “It’s Hiraishin no Jutsu.”

“Interesting. Kagami often made people think that he could appear and disappear, but it seems your teacher made the illusion into reality. Do you understand it?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve been trying to use it, but… well, I haven’t had a lot else to study lately. Even though it’s a really advanced technique, I’ve been looking over the scroll whenever I got a chance and I believe I understand the theory now.”

“It has nothing to do with the lightning release, then. Have you ever had an interest in Iryo-ninjutsu?”

“No, my teammate took care of that for me.” He had a sudden pang of loneliness when he thought about how she had promised to look after him, and he promised not to strain her too hard. She’s probably worrying about me even more now. Part of the reason they’re sending me on this mission is so that even if the Hokage knows about this place and sends someone here to look for me, there won’t be any trace I was here.

He left after restocking his water and provisions, mostly bananas and rice balls. I’ll have to hunt for anything else on the way. We can’t just manufacture efficient rations in a small village. It was strange changing gears, and the provisions was probably the least significant gear to change. As he ran through the woods, it occurred to him that he had not even thought about how he would sleep on a solo mission.

As he ran, he knew he could sleep under an illusion, and he would be replenishing chakra more quickly than he would be using it up, but he also knew he could see through them. There was a fair chance he would run across someone else who was just as good at seeing through deception. Would I be more likely to avoid detection if I slept during the day? No one would be expecting me to sleep when it’s light out.

To keep the light out of his eyes, he settled on a simple wooden mask that he cut out of a nearby piece of wood. Blackening it with a basic Katon, he threaded the cloth of his headband through it. I can pick up a black robe somewhere that will disguise me even more, but it’s not important right now. I need to go to sleep early tomorrow night so I can start shifting my schedule.

Time seemed to pass more quickly when he was traveling on his own. He burned through chakra quickly, trying to give himself more time in case there were complications on the actual mission. Resting at last, ensconced by an illusion, he felt like he at least had a chance at sleeping peacefully, given that his mission gave him no particular qualms. To be sure, he was stealing something, but he was quite certain he was stealing it for good reason, and the actual owner would not be too cheated, not when they probably had copies.

Most importantly, the book would be of incalculable benefit to the village, though he wondered if that was how all secrets were stolen. Ordinarily forbidden techniques, especially those created by Nidaime, were locked up, and hardly anyone knew about them in the first place. How did Kiri end up with secrets to steal?

When he reached the coast, he realized he would have to cross water again, and Dramada had left it up to him to figure out how exactly to infiltrate the village hidden by the mists. Most likely, the reason that the Water Daimyo lived there rather than any other country aligned with the doctrine of the mind of water, was because of how much safer it was to be there. They must be counting on my eyes. They must be thinking that I have the best chance of seeing through the mist. Also, I would have more experience than some of the others at infiltrating royal palaces.

To cross safely, he had to save his chakra; running across the water was not an option. He attempted to replicate the wood transformation jutsu he had seen Ryochu use, but he was pretty sure he had the hand signs out of order, and he had never practiced with it. The wood of the nearest trees twisted, but not into an appropriate shape, even when concentrating intently.

“Who the hell are you?”

Surprised, he turned to see a kid in a boat.

“This isn’t a harbor town,” he said, looking around.

“This isn’t a legal shipment,” the kid said. It was strange; the kid had long brown hair and wore a white haori over tan robes, all loose fitting and indistinct. It was hard to tell whether he was speaking to a boy or a girl. “You’re not going to rat me out, though, are you?”

“I don’t need to tell you that I’m not here officially.” He kept his voice even and disaffected. The mask muffled it. “You’re from Nami, aren’t you?”

“I don’t have a clue where I’m from. That’s where I was last, though.”

“What do you have on you?”

“I’ll tell me when you tell me who you really are, ANBU… that’s if you know.”

Obito was silent for a moment as the kid laughed. Most people outside the village probably only knew that the division wore masks and conducted secret missions. The fact that they had seen each other was not something either of them had any reason to reveal.

“I suppose I might as well. Call me Tobi,” he said, starting to say ‘Tobirama’ but abandoning it halfway through. He did not want people to realize he was an Uchiha, but could not say why the one time leader of the Senju clan was necessarily the best way of leading the listener in the wrong direction.

“Ha!” the kid exclaimed. “I never thought you had regular names.”

“What would it matter if we did or not?” he asked. “Even if I told you my real name, would that help you find me?”

The kid in the boat seemed to think about it for a moment as he moved the cargo out onto the shore. It was a dead drop point for contraband going into the land of fire, and when the transporter accidentally dropped a package, countless shriveled nuts spilled out. It’s a drug.

“I haven’t heard of this one,” he said, picking up a single nut.

“The Hokage must keep you all on a tight leash. This is Numbnut. It’s cheap to produce, and you can do anything with it, you can eat it raw- don’t do that- you can brew it into a tea, or you can grind it into a flour and then more purposes expand from there.”

“What are the effects?”

“Oh, it gives the user a pleasant feeling of comfort under all circumstances. People sleep on hard ground and don’t even notice their bedsores. Hot, cold, doesn’t matter- the drug does it all. It’s like you’re just waking up and you’re still lying in bed.”

“People use it as a pain reliever?”

“Of course. The best part is, it’s habit-forming. The buyers can’t seem to get enough of it.”

If I want to get in the way of this kid’s operation, I have to commit a murder and just destroy all the product. I can’t report him. Nothing I can do to stop him would tell me anything about what’s going on here, though. Right as he was considering it, however, the kid threw a punch at his neck and he sidestepped it without looking, grabbing at the wrist and punching from close range. It was hardly even conscious when he put chakra into it.

“I didn’t want to fight you,” he said, seeing his pained opponent sink to a kneel. “I’m willing to bet you aren’t as tough as you think you are.” He looked out over the sea, still aware he needed to get across it. I don’t really care if the kid gets his product to its destination or not. He was probably just going to leave it somewhere around here.

“What do you want?”

“I want to get to Kiri. I’ll need the boat.”

“It’s not as simple… as having a boat. Have you ever heard of Gatou?”

“No.”

“He’s the kingpin. He’s behind the entire drug trade through Nami. He’s got people in Kiri working for him.”

“Then I’m getting in with the shipment. I don’t care what you do with this; we’re going back with the revenue.”

“I don’t go there myself; I only go between here and Nami. I really don’t have a clue as to how you might get there.” Obito’s eyes narrowed, though behind the mask he doubted anyone could tell.

“I don’t believe you. You’re trying to get rid of me.”

“I can take you as far as where I live, but I can’t do anything else. I can’t get you into Kiri. None of the islands are open to people from the land of waves at all.”

“You’re supposed to be allied.”

“We are, technically. The bloody mist likes the money we generate, and we’re a home to missing ninjas from there and from Konoha, but if anyone gets there, I don’t know how they do it. The information is all tightly controlled.”

On the way to the island with the transporter, he was silent, lost in thought. The rogue ninjas who ended up in Nami probably thought that no one would come after them there, and they were probably right. As long as they kept their heads down and nothing was ever reported, no one would ever put pressure on their home countries to deal with them. Their actions might not get reported if they were part of a criminal organization, though.

The boat landed only a few hours after it left, and on the way, they had seen more boats. There’s a virtually constant stream of smugglers. If I hadn’t run into one, I would’ve run into one of the countless others. Getting out, he decided the best way of getting to Kiri was taking a ship that was bound there without letting anyone know.

Looking around, he had become a suspicious character in an entire harbor town of suspicious characters. The streets seemed to be full of cutpurses and the rooftops of some of the buildings had eyes peeking out from them. There was a temple sanctioned by the hidden mist, most likely, but the place was locked. They must not be assembling right now. It wouldn’t help anyway, though. Why would one of them be going back to the island?

It was not that there were no ships leaving, it was that there were too many. There were different boats and ships leaving from all over, and he had no idea where they were going. He doubted he could use the same trick Kakashi had in getting to the land of snow; no one was going to willingly take him there was as long as Kiri did not want visitors, so the only way he was getting there was if he took a ship that was already going that way, and they would have to fail to realize he was there.

His sights set on a man carrying something massive on his back. If it could be called a sword, it was the largest one he had ever seen. The man carrying it had long, green hair and a sickly look about him. At the same time, it seemed that everyone went around him rather than challenging him. The sword was wrapped in bandages except for the hilt.

“Are you looking at something, kid?” he asked, turning to look at Obito, who had not been showing him any particular sign of respect. “You want to challenge me for the sword like everyone else?”

“What does the sword get me?” he asked. “I don’t need a stupid sword.”

“This happens to be Hiramekarei. It’s one of the legendary swords of Kiri, making me one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. I happen to not like the way you talk about it.”

“I happen to not care what you think,” Obito said. He knew it was probably pretty stupid to challenge someone to a fight when he had no concept of the other guy’s abilities, but he had to get to someone who had a connection to the place where he was going, and as hard as it was going to be, he could only think that getting the sword would open some doors for him. This might be an unnecessary risk, but it might also be just what I need.

I just have to win a fight against an opponent who probably counters fire release.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 42: Found Ninjas

Chapter Text

The crowded street defied expectations by giving them both a wide berth. It was doubtful that anyone else wanted anything to do with their fight, and since they only had any idea what one of them could do, he had to be plenty capable. Maybe it’s just the sword. Unless it’s got its own chakra or something, the weapon can only be as strong as the wielder. Everyone’s used to respecting the sword, so they avoid it by default.

Creating three clones, he was surprised by his opponent’s speed in cutting them down as they approached. It was like he was totally ignoring his physical condition, and Obito was briefly worried that he had vastly underestimated the swordsman, dismissing him as being sickly until he had to take a breath after a few sword strokes. Going on the offensive, the strokes seemed to speed up and he actually found himself being forced back. He used a basic Katon, because it gave him the range without giving the enemy a way of blocking, but the enemy charged through it without hesitation, not getting burned at all.

I forgot that I’m at a huge disadvantage around here. With everyone having a water affinity- everyone who can manipulate chakra, anyway- my affinity is going to be useless. He knew for a fact that lightning release was good against water, but he had never learned so much as one technique making use of that affinity. Hiraishin had a name that made it sound like a lightning jutsu, but according to everything that he had read, did not involve zapping anything.

“Die!” the enemy shouted, his voice tired. It occurred to him that the swordsman might have just come back from killing someone else. His earlier words suggested that he had suffered other challengers. Splitting the one sword into two, he forced Obito into a backward retreat.

At the last moment, he used an illusion to disguise the placement of both of his arms, which made it look like he was still making hand signs right as the enemy was bringing the split swords down. Grabbing the long hilts with his real hands, he turned it into a contest of strength as he avoided a kick. The swordsman was refusing to lose, but could not get the swords to go into the young Uchiha.

“How-“ he started, seeing that his strength was being matched.

“The longer a sword is, the longer the hilt has to be for leverage,” he explained, his voice too low to be picked up by the spectators. “I noticed that when you split this one in two, the hilts didn’t get any shorter, but then, of course they wouldn’t. You end up with a more maneuverable weapon in close range, but one that’s just as easy for me to hold as you.”

“What do you want?”

“You realize that I don’t want the sword,” he said. “That’s good. I want to get to Kiri. Do I have to have the sword to get in?”

“No. No, it’s simple- if you’re that suicidal. There’s a ship that leaves from here once a day and it shows up in the mist on the same day, at the same time, every day, without exception. Because it arrives at precisely the right time, the mist ninjas know to ignore it. They know not to completely destroy it.”

“It’s not a passenger ship,” he inferred. “Look, you’re not going to keep those swords long if you don’t have some backup. Eventually you’re going to run into someone who really wants them, and you’re going to need someone to guard you while you heal.” The darkened eyes widened. “I’m saying I want to be your bodyguard.”

“The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist can’t have bodyguards,” he managed.

“They can’t get sick?” he asked. “They can’t get exhausted? They can’t die by a thousand cuts?” He shook his head. “If you like, I’ll be your apprentice. I’d actually like to avoid drawing attention to myself. Call me Tobi.”

“Garen. My name’s Garen. We need to talk in private.”

They broke their grip on the swords and bowed to each other. The crowd seemed to accept that as a possible conclusion to a duel, if an unusual one. They ducked into the nearest alleyway, which was wooden and propped up on posts. When he looked down, he saw water.

“There was a crack that formed due to a sinkhole not being taken care of- we’d have lost the better part of the island if it weren’t for some of the missing ninjas.”

“I’ve heard about them. You’re a local, though, aren’t you?”

“You got it in one,” Garen said, smiling for a moment. He seemed to appreciate the relative cleverness that Obito put on display. “People don’t know this, because they mostly keep to themselves, but the missing ninjas have been coming here for decades. There’s an underground school.”

“I never thought fleeing criminals would be the teaching type.”

“Neither did they. It wasn’t there idea. How old do you think I am?”

“I don’t know, maybe like fifteen? Are you saying you went to this underground school?”

“Again with the clever responses, Tobi- I was just an orphan working the docks looking to make a name for myself when I started under this old bastard named Hochui who seemed convinced he was the first Mizukage. Lost his mind. Paranoid delusions.”

“I get it. Those in charge around here persuaded him to work for the school, and they convinced him that if people saw him, they would recognize him as the first, and then they’d come after him as an impostor.”

“More or less,” Garen said, frowning. He came to a stop in the alley. “I’m reasonably good at water weapons and related jutsu. You’re from the land of fire?”

“Yeah. It’s not going to be a big deal if you tell people that I’m a fleeing criminal, is it?”

“Not if you’re my apprentice. As long as that’s the case, Gatou doesn’t have any reason to try to recruit you. That’s what he does with a lot of missing ninja, but if you’re part of the effort to increase the amount of shinobi here in the long term, he’ll let you do your job. None of the teachers I had were ever put under pressure to serve that part of the criminal underworld.”

“He’s in your corner, though,” Obito figured. “He wouldn’t let just anyone have a bodyguard. No, he’s happy that a local managed to get one of the seven swords, when before Kiri boasted that they had all of them.”

“There are going to be plenty of people trying to take the sword from me, especially in Kiri. That’s where I have to go, though. That’s where I can get in with the others.”

“You’ve got a plan in mind. I can sympathize. Do you intend to be trained by them?”

“The swords recognize masters. Don’t ask me how they do it, but a blade has to be rightfully won. There is no giving or buying.”

“So, they see you as the legitimate winner, even if they don’t like you, and they might help you protect yourself going forward. They have nothing to gain from killing you.”

“That’s correct. You can’t use two of these swords at once; they’re designed to be used with both hands, and no one person could ever master the use of each one. Samehada is alive; I highly doubt it would ever allow you to use it and any other sword.”

“I’d never heard of that. Well, when can we get going?”

“First light tomorrow. If that’s later than what you wanted, that’s unfortunate, but I’ll have to ask you to aid in the watch while we sleep.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.”

He followed the young man back to an apartment that appeared to belong to him. He had worked, probably for the mob boss Gatou, indirectly if not directly, and the result was that he was not living on the street. When he took off his mask after the exhausted young man practically fell in bed and went to sleep, he felt a pang of sympathy. Does he really trust me so much? I guess I could’ve killed him before.

Obito thought about his teammates, wondering what they were doing. It was easy to imagine them kissing; he doubted that the image would ever leave his mind. As angry as he had been with Kakashi at the time, he could not bring himself to hate his teammate for making Rin happy. He knew her too well to fear that she was being tricked, or that it was for some frivolous reason that they were kissing. Whatever turned out to be the explanation, he doubted it would satisfy him any more than the explanation as to why she turned him down.

In all that he felt, as hard as it was to isolate and identify, there was no sense of betrayal. The kunoichi for which he had harbored feelings could not have made it clearer that she did not share them, and perhaps that was at least a large part of why he did not hate her. I didn’t start feeling like I liked her just because I thought she might like me. That wasn’t even part of it; I just liked her. I don’t even know what I wanted, other than to be near her all the time.

When he eventually fell asleep, Garen had not woken up. He was not sure the young man would wake up on his own, and he knew he needed rest to recover from whatever illness he had, so he decided to sleep anyway, trusting the fact that at least they were in an apartment. Putting the mask back on, he had an idea that he could use chakra to effectively seal it to his face, at least to where trying to move it would wake him up.

“Who-“

It was an indistinct voice early in the morning. Should he pay attention to it? He was tired, even after resting. He felt certain he had been shortchanged, even though he had no concept of how much time had passed. When he felt pressure on his mask, he tried to twist out of the way, finding that he was in chains.

“He’s awake. What’s with the mask?”

“I don’t know, Waraji, look- I was going to take him straight to the docks in the morning; I just had to gain his trust by passing out right in front of him.”

“Way I heard it, you lost against him. You couldn’t have taken him anywhere.”

“That’s correct. Calling for backup would have been stupid, though. He would have instantly recognized what was going on and gotten out of there. The only way any of us had to capture him was to wait for him to fall asleep, and that’s what I did.”

“So, here we are.”

Tobi had arranged himself so that he was face up and could see through his burned wooden mask. His host was joined by a young man with a long sword at his waist. It’s someone else working his way up the ranks with Gatou. Did he just come here in the morning because he felt like it or did Garen call him here?

“What matters is where we’re going,” the swordsman said. “The boss wants to know about every rogue ninja that comes through this way-“

“I’m still thinking about how this guy beat you,” Waraji said. “Frankly, I think it’s about time. A sword like that should be in the hands of a real samurai, and you’ve had it for long enough. I’d be within my rights to kill both of you and take it.”

“The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist are shinobi,” Garen spat back. “It’s always been that way.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. You also just said they were ‘of the Mist’. Should I tell the boss that you’re defecting to Kiri?”

“You can if you want to die.”

In the middle of the tension heightening, Tobi got his feet through a chain going around his back and twisted out of a metal glove that kept his fingers from moving on one hand. He was still handcuffed, but it was better to have some range of movement. The swordsmen had ignored him, drawing.

“See, you’ve been threatening and threatening and frankly I don’t care anymore, even if you are strong- you’re not strong enough to kill me.” Infusing the blade at his waist with chakra, he pulled it out into a powerful diagonal strike that Garen had to block with both swords. “We samurai are plenty good at chakra control. Don’t tell me you thought that shinobi were the only ones-“

“It doesn’t matter. We’re the ones who are going to win.” The swords clashed in the air once more. “Suiton: Suiben!”

Right as a whip of water wrapped around the enemy’s sword and the masked ninja got an idea of how Garen must have won the sword in the first place, the enemy charged forward and kicked hard, sending his opponent into the wall. Turning to him, he started to bring down his sword, but not before Tobi could use a basic Katon, which hurt him substantially more than it had hurt Garen, extricating himself from the severely damaged wall. Charging forward, the masked ninja planted several punches on the enemy, but his resilience was beyond the pale. He rolled out of the way of a deadly sword stroke right as Garen got him from behind, stabbing him in the heart with one of his swords.

The two survivors stared at each other a moment.

“I’m sure you’re about to tell me that putting me in chains while I slept was his idea.”

“It was. The fact that it’s convenient for me doesn’t make it not true.”

“Then you recognize that it’s convenient for me. You know that even in handcuffs, I could kill you.” Garen sighed upon hearing this. “What? Are you tired of being vulnerable? Why not just wake me up when someone was knocking on the door?”

“He didn’t knock. I knew he was coming. He saw us yesterday, and I knew that I was going to have to do something so that you weren’t taken captive and dragged off to do something else. I decided to act like I had everything under control.” He scowled. “The reason he didn’t believe me is probably because he knew that you beat me in the first place.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” Tobi asked. “Whose weakness did I exploit? Who challenged me to a fight in the first place?”

“That’s how things work around here,” Garen evaded. “I didn’t have much of a choice but to challenge you to a fight. I’ve been winning, but some of the challengers went after me where there weren’t any witnesses. Some people believed I was winning fights, some people didn’t.”

“Tragic,” he said. “If you were serious about how we were going to go to Kiri together, what’s the plan? How does this factor into it?”

“It’s become clear they wouldn’t believe that you were an assistant or anything like that. Instead, we’re sticking with the prisoner story. I’ll just say that you’re Uni, who’s wanted by the Water Daimyo.”

“If that works, that’s perfect,” Tobi said after a moment. “He’s some wanted shinobi?”

“No one knows what he looks like, so it wouldn’t really help if I could take off the mask. We know he used fire release, though, so there’s that.” Figures that there would be some that get away from Konoha.

The two of them went out of the apartment, leaving the body behind. Garen was chuckling to himself as they walked through another alley, with Tobi in handcuffs, having put the metal glove back on. He looked backward.

“What?”

“I almost didn’t want to say anything, because I’m sure you could still get out if you tried, but I really can’t believe my luck. I’m… happy you started fighting on my side when Waraji attacked me.”

“Well, he’d have killed me too. He could have just claimed I was attacking him.” He thought for a moment. “I didn’t think you were betraying me. It didn’t feel like that.”

Did I just want to believe that I wasn’t betrayed? Have I ever really been betrayed? Was I the one who betrayed my team?

For people who liked to sneak around in the dark and stab people in the back, shinobi had a lot to say about loyalty. The Uchiha in general seemed to believe that some obligations were higher than others, and that an individual’s obligation to his family was the highest of them all. For Kakashi, it was based on agreement. He tossed the thought around. Really, there were a fair few people who agreed with him, and early on in his life he was probably just parroting what they had to say about his father. He had never asked Rin how she defined treason, but it was hard to imagine her betraying anyone.

Was that why I forgave her so easily? Is it just because I’m so attached to her that I think she can do no wrong? In all the time he had been on a team with her, though, even when he did not really have feelings for her, he never had a problem with her. He never had a moral objection with anything she did.

“You’re quiet today,” Garen said as they walked. There was a warehouse by some of the docks where they saw another samurai hanging around outside, about the same age as the one who kindly came to wake them up.

“I thought it would be the best disguise if I didn’t say anything.”

“Maybe.” The samurai came up to them, not drawing, but making a face. He wore his gray hair long and a black cap on top of that. “Zori. Your partner tried to take my sword this morning.”

“I expect you want me to apologize?”

“No. I just want someone to come and clean up the body. I can’t have it stinking up my apartment.”

“I saw it,” Tobi said. “You shouldn’t underestimate him.”

“He’s my prisoner,” Garen said by way of explanation. “I’m extraditing him to Kiri.”

“I didn’t think you were one for doing things the legal way.”

“There’s a reward and I was going there anyway.”

“Tch,” Zori spat. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in you lying about Waraji lying dead in your apartment when I could get the cleaners to go and check that. At the same time, I don’t believe you beat him; he was on the top of his game; and everyone knows you’re sick after you picked up chakra poisoning.”

“Chakra poisoning?” Tobi asked. “I wasn’t under the impression he was sick.”

“It’s a little gift from the former owner of this sword,” Garen said. “I’m not worried about it. I’m already on the mend.” The two of them brusquely walked past the samurai and through the warehouse. The masked ninja would have gone around, but he decided to trust the reasoning of his fellow shinobi.

He had heard of the condition from which his supposed captor was apparently suffering, but it seemed more likely he was sick with something else, at least from what little he knew about Iryo-ninjutsu. There was never a time when people were supposed to cough with chakra poisoning. Maybe he wants to think it’s something that can be fixed easily. Or, well, maybe he wants to think it’s something that would kill anyone else. I wouldn’t really know.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my old sword.” It was the voice of a man perhaps in his late twenties or early thirties. He wore a suit just like the businessmen of the land of waves, something that seemed to be more common the further away from shinobi one found himself. “Where are you going?”

“I did the jobs you asked and got paid for it like I wanted. If you want me to do another job, it’ll be another payday. Don’t pretend it’s not a thin season for you.”

Tobi thought for a moment that it might have been better to act more respectful, but the other shinobi would know more than he did on the subject. Perhaps if they tried to wave past the checkpoint, the experienced crime boss would be able to tell the last thing they wanted was delay, and then he could hold that over them. His eyes narrowed from behind the mask, not that anyone could pick up a detail as small as that.

“If you have time, sir, I would just love to stay and chat,” he said.

“Well, what you want doesn’t matter. Gatou doesn’t have time for the likes of you. I can only get him another sword if I get you to Kiri.”

The dealer might have been driven by a desire for wealth and power, but he was not an idiot. He knew how to wait, he could walk away from a deal, and by all accounts, he could discern when he was being shortchanged.

“You’re turning that ninja in for a reward, aren’t you?” he asked, getting something out of his pocket. It was a Bingo Book.

“The Daimyo’s court will be able to identify him. At the moment, I’m not worried about it. Chances are, they’ll give me the reward as long as I act like I’m in a hurry. They wouldn’t want to insult one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.”

No one said anything for a moment. What went without saying, at least with most people, was that the swordsmen were already insulted, or at least Kiri was, and that was an insult still unresolved. If a wave ninja, which was evidently a thing now, were to report to the rest of them, it would only spell his demise.

“Sending you there is an unnecessary risk,” Gatou said after a moment.

“I know what you’re thinking. They always honor the results of duels. None of them have any reason to want another sword.”

“None of that matters. They could easily have someone else on standby waiting for the next sword. If they know how your condition, it wouldn’t surprise me if they already promised it to someone. Each one is said to be of incalculable value.” His eyes narrowed. “You know I don’t use that turn of phrase lightly.”

Tobi silently inferred that the crime boss was rather adept at calculating value. What made things difficult was not high numbers, but the lack of information on the subject. If there were no standing offers for one of the swords, then there was no way to tell what the highest one was. Most likely, buyers would be hesitant to offer large sums of money for the sword, sight unseen, either because they would need time to verify it was the real thing, or because they would make themselves targets. If a commercial entity possessed the sword, it would probably be trying to resell it, and it would be advised to turn it around as quickly and quietly as possible, or else someone would simply steal it.

“I’m there on official business of the Daimyo’s court, and he’s a real authority, not like ours. As long as I’m there, I’m there under his protection.” He sighed. “It would not be safe for me to remain here, not when Kiri could mobilize any number of shinobi to an allied nation. If they want the sword back, and they overwhelm me with numbers, they’ll get the sword back. I’m surprised a man as shrewd as yourself wants this to happen in his own neighborhood.”

The room was quiet for the moment, as large as it was, and as many interested parties as it could hold. Warehouses were perfect for interested parties, at least in the land of waves. No one was bringing up the practical difficulty of selling the blade.

Whether or not someone would remained to be seen.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 43: Different Plans Part One

Chapter Text

“There are vendors that have for years offered several million ryo for comparable swords,” Gatou said at great length. “Every time one of those cursed weapons changes hands, it’s a field day. I happen to remember every advertised price.”

“No purveyor of steel is going to want to hold onto such a weapon for long,” someone else said. Tobi looked, and it was an older ninja, at least from the way he was dressed. Was he coming out of retirement? Had he simply been on the run for a long time? “They only offer such absurd quantities of gold to obtain the sword, the first step to selling it again. Only if they have another buyer can they finalize the transaction, and I guarantee you that buyer will be in Kiri.”

No one was contradicting his assessment of the situation. What surprised the masked ninja was that everyone seemed to be so patriotic as to not want the blade to leave their shores, even if they were rewarded with more gold than was probably circulating on the entire island. What’s he really saying, and why is it convincing everyone?

“As always, your wisdom is appreciated,” Garen said. “Turning over the sword for a paltry sum is exactly what the bloody mist expects of us. It’s a sign of weakness, and that’s what they think of us. It’s admitting that one of ours got a lucky strike against one of theirs. It’s admitting that we couldn’t hold it.” He scowled. “It’s also admitting that we’re so poor we’d turn over such a valuable blade for a bit of gold.”

It was not a bit of gold by any means, nor was it a paltry sum, nor was it an insult. One of the primary reasons that a shinobi might offer so much money for the sword, though, was because of how much it might make him. The value of the blade was not entirely in history.

“The cleaners are under the impression you killed Waraji,” Gatou said after careful consideration.

“I’ll kill any single fighter you send after me. If you send more than one, there’s no point. It won’t prove they were better than I was, and they’ll have to kill each other to get the sword again. In the ninja academy on Kiri, very few of the passing shinobi survive. Recently, there was one kid who killed his entire graduating class. I’m sure there are some who are intimidated by the way they can waste lives for the conceit of an especially deadly result, but the conceit is no more than that. Our island has always been wiser, and the most practical course of action is to hold onto the sword, and for me to be recognized as one of the Seven Swordsmen.”

He had shifted from a romantic argument to one of cold practicality, but no one was calling him out on it. While it was not true that he had defeated a skilled samurai on his own, it was true that if he did, he could deplete the combat potential of the company substantially, and then selling the sword would only deplete it more. The forces Gatou commanded could be reduced so much that even the legitimate government of Nami could pose a threat.

With the next brief period of concentration, Tobi realized that Garen was making himself out to be bold and bound by honor, while expecting with his argument the company to care only about what benefits it most. While it was true that the entity was practical, and the only interest that united those who had a stake in it was gold, the leader might well be sensitive to conceits, and might well see himself as someone who could afford them. Bold move; we’ll see how it plays out for him.

“The boy should be suffered to cross the sea as long as he has with him a guard,” the old shinobi said again. “If he leads that prisoner around, everyone would believe that he has just emerged victorious in a duel, or at least he could make the case. That gives him a right to refuse to duel for the sword, and if an able guard is with him, dueling will be the only way of obtaining it.”

As had become the tradition, there was another pause. Gatou broke it, which was not a surprise.

“Take as many with you as you think is appropriate,” he said, glaring at the swordsman across him. “You had better make sure that this trip is worthwhile.”

On the way to the docks after the long delay, the masked ninja learned that the other shinobi’s name was Hokka, and he wore a Konoha hitai-ate at his belt, though the insignia was all scratched up. The fact that he’s going to Kiri almost certainly means that he’s not wanted either by their government, or the Mizukage.

The ship was loaded up with goods, legal and otherwise, and it set sail without delay. Tobi wondered why the authorities were allowing a ship to sell contraband in their country, but it was entirely possible that the only reason the goods were banned was to maintain a monopoly for the Gatou Company. It was entirely possible that the governments who would have been enforcing the regulations had no interest in reducing consumption of the drugs, but saw some advantage in forcing labor out of the consumers on pain of death.

“What do you want out of Kiri?” Garen asked him when they were alone on the upper deck of the ship. The men did not see him as a flight risk, not in the middle of the water. “Don’t tell me you actually have legal bullshit to resolve there.”

“I need to get into the Daimyo’s palace,” he said. He was not sure why exactly he was being so straightforward. “I won’t have any trouble getting past the guards.”

“Once you do, you’ll abandon me to my fate?” Tobi looked over at him. “Relax. I don’t need you looking out for me forever. You helped me get to Kiri just as much as I helped you.”

“That’s a good way of looking at it.” He thought for a moment. “What’s your long term?”

“A swordsman doesn’t always have a long term,” he said. “I need to recover from this illness, but sooner or later I’m going to die either way.” His grip tightened on the ship’s railing. “What’s important is that I become one of the well-known holders of the sword. I can’t accomplish that by hiding, even just in the short term.”

“What if you get better at kenjutsu before you challenge anyone?” he asked.

“This is how you get good at the blade,” Garen said after a moment. “Past a certain point, the only techniques left to learn are incorporated into the styles of your enemies. What’s written down in books is basically functional, but you’ll never beat anyone good. Teachers are a little better, but what they know, and what they can teach you, is already old news by the time they’ll say you’ve mastered it. Maybe the average person is most likely to succeed by learning like that, but the very best were taught by their enemies.”

They said nothing as the ship proceeded. If the island where they were going was protected by a genjutsu, he needed to hide his own eyes as they approached, or else his identity would be revealed. Even if I can’t turn it on whenever I want, I should at least be able to turn it off. Maybe I would understand it better.

The crew and passengers spent the night on the ship. It was moving at a decent clip, but was expected in the morning, and there was no way around that. They left early just so that they could hedge out the chance of a storm delaying them. There was too much water in the air to sleep on the upper deck, which took them all down, and the sleeping accommodations separated him from Garen. I hope I can get it done quickly when I get there. The only reason that Dramada would give me a soft time limit is if he needed the book quickly.

When the sun rose, they submitted themselves to the customs of Kiri. In all his travels, there was probably not a country anywhere in the world that was harder to enter illegally; he would have to be a high-level Jonin and even then there were probably a ton of equivalent shinobi waiting there. Even the entire country of Konoha would probably have a difficult time waging war against the mist; to his knowledge, there had never been a successful invasion.

“We’re moving. You’ll have to get out of the courthouse yourself.”

“The courthouse?” he asked, his eyes closed. He had learned to recognize the feeling of using the Sharingan; he no longer needed anyone to point it out to him. That said, he was not able to shut it off as the ship was moving through the mist.

“It’s in the palace, so you’ll be in the right building,” Garen assured. “I’m betting that’s not where you’re going, though.”

“They won’t be able to identify me as Uni,” he said. “There’s a good chance you don’t get your reward.”

“The others won’t see it.” He looked around. “I wasn’t going to get any reward from the beginning. Even though the average person doesn’t know what you’re supposed to look like, they wouldn’t be able to offer a reward unless they had some way of identifying him. As far as I’m concerned, if you help me get what I want, I’ll have my reward.”

“You’ve got a deal.”

Tobi had never worked with criminals before, not as long as fellow shinobi did not count, for whatever reason. The more he thought about it, the more Gatou seemed like he had earned his position as the head of the government of Nami, at least as much as anyone else had. He could not pretend that Konoha had not been established by force. What am I trying to do with the other village, then? Do I want to become the head of the clan?

They docked and started unloading the goods, while a high-ranking official they all seemed to know came to look things over. It did not escape anyone’s notice that he was not looking all that closely. What escaped the masked ninja was how everyone did not sigh. What’s the point of even sending an official here to act like they’re checking for contraband? Does not everyone know the company imports it? Do they just want to tell everyone that they know and don’t care? There have to be cheaper ways of doing that.

“I know you’re trying to furtively scamper off on your own,” Hokka said as they went down the short unloading ramp. Both turned around. “You would not be half so interested in talking in private if you were just prisoner and captor. The two of you have something planned, and partners is closer to the truth.”

“My prisoner will keep quiet if he knows what’s good for him. I wouldn’t call us partners. He tapped his foot in a clearly feigned look of concentration. “Come to think of it, I wouldn’t call us partners either.”

“Only did you have your little excursion authorized with my intervention. I care nothing for your plans; suffer only that I accompany you to the Daimyo’s palace. The others have no interest but unloading the supply and finding vendors.”

“Fine,” Garen said. “Fine. I have no interest in your plans as long as you have no interest in mine.”

Without saying anything, the older shinobi seemed to accept the arrangement, and by consequence followed them into the harbor town. Tobi had never set foot in Kiri before, but even what he had heard of it did not do the place justice. There was a temple every block, or that was what it seemed like. There was a line of people waiting outside, and they all looked restless.

“Charity is not one of the tenants that is practiced here,” the swordsman explained. “That said, there is always work too be done for the faith, and the workers will always be rewarded.”

“Fitting,” he said, deciding not to act interested. It was not as if anyone knew that Uchiha Obito had picked up an interest in Ninshuu, but it was in his interest to build a completely different persona. Consistently, what he had learned as far back as the academy was that when pretending to be someone else, the best thing to do was to form a character and remain taciturn. Revealing anything was dangerous, and revealing more falsehoods, as tempting as it was to someone who had been caught off-guard, would not cover up the truth.

The Daimyo’s palace did not take long to find, and it was in town, so Garen cleverly proposed that the three of them survey the building separately, looking for ways in and out. It put to death any idea that he was a prisoner, but the old shinobi probably realized that already and it would make them more suspicious to anyone who could see them. That included, apparently, a series of boys in black cloaks, whom he suspected were on some sacred mission, not that he wanted anything to do with it.

Tobi found himself being followed by one of the acolytes, or that was what he presumed the boy was. He looked around the massive palace as casually as he could, finding it was constructed in a completely different style than those he had seen before, but he supposed that was to be expected. Allowing the kid to follow him as he turned into an alley nearby, he turned a corner, ducking onto a covered step. He struck the kid on the back of the head and took his cloak, removing his own mask and seeking ingress through the front door.

“Excuse me?” a guard asked. “Are you here for the reading of the prayers?”

“No, sir, I was only here to see about a book in the library. If you like, I can have my master-“

“Clever,” he said. “I haven’t seen you around here, and I thought I would ask you about something that wasn’t on the schedule at all. Is your appearance arranged?”

“No,” he admitted, looking down for a moment. “My master said that I had to go and get a book. I’ve never been in such a palace before… I didn’t know that anyone would stop me.”

“Tell me about your master.”

What followed was a pure fiction, but it would have been a challenge to falsify. Obito had removed the mask because none of the boys had worn one, and because it was his chance to lose Hokka and Garen as well. Fortunately, it was incredibly unlikely that anyone would recognize him.

“Lieutenant,” another guard said, coming out from within the palace. “There’s been a disturbance on an upper floor. “Is this kid supposed to be a distraction?”

“A distraction from what?” he asked. “If something happened on an upper floor, what do I have to do with it? My master-“

“What do you mean by disturbance?” the first guard asked.

“It might be an intruder; we don’t know. I was asked to get down here and tell everyone at the front that-“

“We can’t admit anyone when we’re dealing with a possible situation,” he said, turning back to Obito. Damn. Whoever’s doing this might even think they’re helping me, but not really. I’ll have to find another way in. The grand door closed after a few of the guards went in. Let’s hope the library is on a lower floor.

He could have used henge to take the form of an acolyte, or even a guard, and he knew that no one else had the Sharingan to see through illusions, but he was taught that burning chakra for a disguise was a bad idea, and when he took the exact form of a specific person, someone could notice cracks in the transformation. Though he had passed the guard’s test, and he doubted he looked all that suspicious, just unusual, procedure dictated that they deal with one security risk at a time.

It’s interesting that they have regular guys guarding the place. They might still have shinobi somewhere around, but in a country where everyone knows a lot of shinobi exists, it’s strange that so few of them would be employed in the protection of the Daimyo. Is he not considered to be that important? Are they just protecting important stuff elsewhere?

Seeking out a window, he decided that since unlike with the last palace into which he gained unauthorized entry, he only had to get in, find something, and get out, a ‘louder’ entrance was serviceable. He found a glass window on a lower floor with a guard next to it. Even if we’re doing things quickly, it’s still advised to take as much care as possible.

Distracting the guard with a clone transformed into a lady he had seen in town, he got the target to move away while he approached the window, peering through it to see two patrols inside, but no one else. Cutting a circular hole in the window with a kunai, he opened it when neither were looking in his direction and used a transformation jutsu to take on the appearance of a guard as he darted across the hall into a bathroom. Long hallways were easy to guard, but even if he had not observed that they had a rotation of directions that they looked, he could have used another clone to distract them.

“What are you doing here?” a servant asked as he looked around in the bathroom. It was not a public bathroom, but that made sense because he was not in a public place.

“A man can’t take a leak when he has to go?”

“The guard has a latrine outdoors.”

“Oh, come on, it’s my first day. No one wants me to piss myself.”

“What’s your duty?”

“I’m supposed to be guarding the library, and if you don’t snitch-“

“The library’s on the second floor on the other side of the building. How’d you end up over here?” she asked, cocking her head in genuine confusion.

“Well, like I said, it’s my first day, so I didn’t know where the bathroom was. I asked a nearby servant where the bathroom was, and I guess she didn’t understand the question. Look, I just have to go, and then I’ll be out of your way. There really isn’t a lot of time left.”

He was aware that he could knock the woman out and leave her in there until someone found her, but he liked to only resort to something like that if absolutely necessary. The servant walked out of the one-person restroom and left him to his business, but she came back in less than a minute later, at which point he knocked her out just for being rude. Taking out a steel cable from his ninja gear, he tied her by the wrist to a pipe and took her form, walking out. The two guards were standing by the window.

“Did you see this when you went in?” one asked, pointing at the circular hole in the glass.

“I didn’t notice it,” he lied. “I’m not on windows at the moment, so I wasn’t looking.”

“We’re just trying to establish when it might have happened.”

“When did you last look at the window?”

“A few hours ago, but I can’t swear there wasn’t a small hole in it at the time. If I checked for holes in each pane of each window all the time, I’d go mad. We only noticed it now because we heard something that might have been coming from outside.”

He joined them in looking out the window, but there was, as expected, nothing of interest going on out there, just the guard talking to a lady who was now walking off.

“That bastard-“ one of the guards inside muttered. “I’m going to have a talk with him. You stay here and watch the window. You-“

“I’m a servant,” he said.

“I know, get back to work. If you see anything, tell us.”

“Of course.”

He had transformed into a woman’s form before, but it was still strange. Without a way to explain where he was going, he wanted to try to minimize the amount of time he spent as her. What I really need is a guy, who can go wherever he wants, and doesn’t have to answer anyone’s questions. Too bad I’ve never seen the prince here, if there is one.

“Did you hear about what was happening in Konoha?” an official was asking another as they walked through the halls. As much as he would like to listen in on their conversation, he only used the henge to transform as soon as they passed. It was not part of his instruction, but it seemed like a good idea to keep changing rather than sticking as one person, because word could get out about a servant walking around not cleaning anything. He also felt like he was better off as an old man than a woman, even if she was closer to his age and status, at least in a sense.

Finding the library was easy enough once he was on the second floor; he was grateful he could read even fancy calligraphy just fine, because that was how all the signs were written; there were no symbols anywhere. In the academy, which had the only library to which he had ever been, there was a symbol of an open book on signs and suddenly it confused him. What use is a library to someone who can’t read?

Assuming it was a simple matter of needing to know where to find the place for purposes other than reading, or knowing which room it was to eliminate it, he tried to disregard the truly irrelevant thought as he came to the door. In the large room, there were a few shinobi, kids, sitting around and reading. They must have gotten special permission to come here.

Even if they were young, he doubted he could get anything past them, so he looked for a registry of books quietly. The four of them were not talking to each other, nor were they sitting anywhere near each other, so it was entirely possible they did not even know each other. Well, there’s no point getting to know everyone in your class when some of them are going to die.

“Excuse me, sir, can I help you with something?” a girl in a blue haori asked. How is she carrying a sword in a library? When we were in the academy, we weren’t ever allowed to bring weapons inside.

“I’m looking for a book on healing,” he said. “It’s actually called Beyond Healing. Forgive me; I’m not in the library very often.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble. The nonfiction books are ordered by publication date, and then by subject matter.” Must be a way of trying to find the most recent work on something. She might be tricking me like the guard outside, though. “Do you know the author’s name?”

“I’m afraid not. The office of the Mizukage sent for the book and I admit I did not think to ask too many questions about it.”

“Oh, well, if the elders want it, then there must be something serious going on.”

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say why they want it.”

“I was just worried,” the girl said, channeling her chakra for a rather magnificent jump to the third level of the library before coming back down. “It’s in a locked glass case. Did they send you with a key?” Damn. I should have expected that a book so significant would be under guard in some way. The glass case wouldn’t be hard to break, though- the point is to keep it from getting lost; whoever lost it had to have been given the key to open the case.

Well, that certainly makes things difficult.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 44: Obstacles and Setbacks

Chapter Text

“I don’t know how to respond to that,” he lied after a few different options ran through his head. If they really had a tradition of keeping it under lock and key, he doubted that they would have just forgotten. Simultaneously, he would have known that he was looking for a locked case if they had mentioned anything about it. I should have just refused her help and looked around myself. She’ll catch me in a lie if I’m not careful.

Reminding himself that when he was in the academy, really even when he was a Genin, most of the students did not know the names of all the elders, and that he was somewhat rare in that regard, he followed the young kunoichi to the class case on the third floor, taking the stairs with unbearable anticipation. It was only a slight mercy that she probably did not expect to know who he was, though. When she asked him about the key again, because she was sure he had to have a key, he said that it was possible that whoever wrote the message for him did not know one was required.

“I’m starting to get suspicious of this message you received, sir,” the girl said. “If someone wants a restricted book, he or she should know that you would need a key to retrieve it. Someone might be forging a signature to get you to do their dirty work.”

“I don’t intend to let the book out of my sight, dear,” he said as they reached the third floor. “My duties are to the Daimyo, not to the Mizukage, so if one requests a book from the other, I know how my loyalties are meant to work.”

“I see. It is not meet for a man to serve masters two, nay, not able is he,” she said. An instant later than he would have liked, he realized she was quoting some kind of proverb. They should also be teaching the Shinobi Rules in their academy, so a request from the leader of their village or someone in his office would have to be treated seriously.

“I’m glad you know your doctrine,” he commented as they reached the glass case, built into one of the bookshelves. It was quite possibly the worst bit of hard luck he had in the last few hours. Settling on an idea, he looked around for a related book, voicing his theory. “I feel I might learn something about the requested book if I read something similar,” he said. “It’s a longstanding scholarly tradition for authors to reference other works.”

“Oh, I get it,” the kunoichi said. “I’ve read books with entire pages copied from other books. Do you know what you’re looking for?”

“I’m not authorized to say, but I’ve become somewhat uncertain about the note requesting the book in the first place.” He sighed. “I know virtually nothing about the content of the book.”

“Neither do I.”

“Well, have you thought about why there is only one copy?”

“It’s to control the information, most likely,” she said. “If there were more than one, one could be lost and end up in the hands of our enemies. I can only assume that as with Fuinjutsu, the only reason advanced techniques are even written in books rather than being passed down from parent to child is because they’re too complicated to be explained in a lecture, and careful study is required for any understanding.”

“Well, what if the reason is because it’s dangerous and experimental?” he asked. “What if we would prefer that the information ends up with an enemy, than with one of our own children? To me, that would make this a different matter. If I gain a better idea of the content of the book, then I can determine why it’s being requested. I know better than to be tricked by a sense of urgency.”

“That’s clever, sir. I had not thought of it that way.”

“Well, you’re still learning,” he said. “When I was your age, I sometimes thought I knew most everything I needed to know, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

She started to go downstairs, leaving him to his boring journey through the references and allowing herself to get back to her research, when the main door to the library came open. Obito sent up a silent prayer of thanks that on the third level, he was not in direct view. Looking out briefly, he saw a man with a massive sword on his back addressing the young ninja.

“The fuinjutsu protecting the palace has been tampered with. Procedure dictates that we capture the first suspicious character. This room contains knowledge of incalculable value.” There’s that word again.

“Excuse me,” one of the young shinobi said. “When did someone tamper with it?”

“Only a matter of thirty minutes ago. There was a rock thrown through a window on an upper floor, but we figured that was a false distraction.” A false dist- aren’t all distractions false? “Someone most likely invaded one of the first two floors.”

“The first floor is where the courthouse is,” the girl obviated. “The intruder could be trying to kill someone in authority or free a prisoner.”

“That’s correct. Simultaneously, we can’t rule out the second floor.”

Hiding behind a bookshelf while the swordsman looked around, starting with the ground floor, Obito figured out most of what had happened. The old man, Hokka, deduced that Garen was going here. It must be that the seven were supposed to be having a meeting here. He must have figured I was some other guy up to no good, and so he messed around with the outer symbols right before I would’ve gone in- the point was to create an opening, and get me to take the fall for it.

#naruto fanfiction

[kakaxhi]

Kakashi Hatake | Scared, But True

Pairing: Kakashi Hatake x F!Reader Warnings: language, slight angst Word Count: 1.3k

You didn't know everything Kakashi had been through. He told how he lost people - his father included - most of them at a young age. It was one of the reasons he kept you at arms length once he realized his feelings towards you. After a long talk, he confessed, and the two of you have been happily together since.

The past few months with Kakashi have been your favorite. He was everything you could have wanted. When he wasn't busy going on missions or training Team 7, almost all of his free time was spent with you. He planned the most fantastic dates - sometimes taking inspiration from Icha Icha. Even if you weren't a fan of the series, you appreciated how much he tried.

Some of your favorite moments with him were spent in his bed, limbs tangled together as his lips molded perfectly with yours. His forehead pressed against yours once you pulled away to catch your breath.

"You always know how to take my breath away, 'Kashi."

You always found the pink tinting his cheeks was one of the cutest things.

It was a little after your forth month with Kakashi you noticed he was starting to get distance. He always brushed you off when you tried to express your concern. Kakashi hated the hurt look on your face, but his nerves always got the better of him.

When he and the kids returned from a mission, he was surprised to see you weren't there waiting for him. He frowned, knowing if he didn't talk to you soon, he'd end up losing you forever.

After turning in his report, he made his way to your home. He wanted to walk right in, hold you in his arms but knew with how he was treating you lately it wasn't a good idea. He waited for you to answer after knocking. A smile tugged on his lips when you opened the door.

"Yo."

"Kakashi, when did you get back?"

"A little while ago." He placed a hand on your shoulder. "I uh, I'm sorry for how I've been acting. Can I take you on a date so I can explain myself?"

"I don't know, Kakashi. I'm kind of busy."

There was that look on your face again. The one so full of hurt that Kakashi hate that he out there. He fingers trailed down your arm, taking your hand in his gently.

"Please? Let me make things up to you, [Y/N]."

You nodded, feeling his hand squeeze yours softly. As upset as you were, you could see he was trying.

"Yeah, okay. When do you want to go?"

"I have to pick up a few things but I'll come get you around six. Is that a good time for you?"

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll be ready."

Kakashi nodded, turning away. He only stopped when you reached out, grabbing onto his arm. His eyes widened as you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug.

"I'm glad you returned safe."

Kakashi didn't say anything, just held you tightly in his arms.

-

You were just starting to get ready when Kakashi opened your front door. He called out to you, surprised to see you rushing down the hall in a towel. You peaked your head around the corner, a bashful smile pulled at your lips.

"I'm sorry, 'Kashi. I took a quick nap but it ended up being longer then it should have. I'll be ready in a few minutes."

"Take your time."

Your eyes roamed his figure quickly as you smiled to yourself. Kakashi in his regular clothes was quite a sight. Once ready, you made your way over to him. Kakashi smiled as he looked over you.

"You always manage to look so gorgeous."

"So don't you, Kakashi."

Kakashi chuckled, pulling you in for a quick kiss before leading you out the door.

Your walk took you to the top of the Hokage Monument. Kakashi had set up a small picnic, a blanket laid out on the ground with a small meal waiting to be eaten.

"Kakashi, what's all this?"

"I wanted to cook for you, but I also wanted to do something romantic. I figured sitting in the moonlight was good enough for both. Here, have a seat."

Kakashi sat beside you, serving up the food. You thanked him, eating quickly. You always enjoyed when Kakashi cooked for you. It always tasted better when it came from him.

After you finished, Kakashi placed everything away before turning toward you. His hands gently placed over yours. He sighed, playing with your fingers.

"I'm sorry, I know I've been hurting you. You know that's the last thing I want to do."

"I just want you to talk to me. If I did something to upset you, I want you to tell me."

Kakashi sat up, slightly panicked, "No, what? Baby, you didn't do anything. I swear."

"Then what's going on, Kakashi? Because honestly it feels like you're trying to push me away. Do you want to be with me anymore?"

His eyes widened, "What? Of course I do! Is that really how you've been feeling?"

You nodded, "I understand you've had some problems in the past, Kakashi, but every time I try to talk to you, you end up pushing me away. What am I supposed to think?"

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean- I never want you to feel that way. Fuck, I'm an idiot. Listen, this is what I wanted to tell you."

He went into full detail about his childhood, his time with Rin, Obito, and Minato. How he watched Rin die by his hand.

"I cared for Rin deeply. I mean, you've been there when I've had my nightmares, you know how bad they can get. You should've seen how horrible it was when I was a kid." He cleared his throat, "How I feel about you - it scares me. I never expected to have someone so close again. To feel like this. I'm not good at this, and I guess that's why I've been keeping you at arms length."

Tears stung your eyes, hearing him being so open about his past. The vulnerability in his voice was something you haven't heard before.

"Kakashi, I- I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

Kakashi smiled, even if it was a little forced, "I thought I was the one apologizing here."

"Still, no one should have to go through that."

He nodded, "We're getting off track here. There's a reason I brought you out here."

"And what would that be?"

Kakashi held you close, your hand resting against his chest as he kissed you. You were sure your knees would buckle beneath you if you were standing.

"I brought you out here to tell you I love you."

"You what?"

Kakashi laughed, "You heard me; I love you. I guess I was keeping you at a distance because I was scared. I haven't felt like this for a long time, and the feelings just hit me so fast I didn't know what to do. But now that it's out in the open, I want to tell you every chance I can."

Tears fell at his confession, "I love you, too, Kakashi. With every ounce of my being."

Kakashi just smiled, pulling you in for another kiss, "Say it again, please."

You did; words spilling from your lips as you spoke of all the things you loved about him. The smile never leaving your lips as he did the same.

#kakashi hatake #kakashi hatake x reader #kakashi hatake imagine #kakashi x reader #naruto #naruto x reader #naruto imagine

[panharmonium]

[@dreamersscape​ I started a new thread because our old post was getting so long - link to the previous post is here, just to keep this conversation coherent!]

“raw love and affection” > That’s it exactly.  The perfect descriptor.  Untempered, unqualified, unconditional, unrestrained - Naruto’s love is just like his jutsu, a giant explosion that you can’t dodge or block, and the wielder is shouting and running straight at you the whole time he throws it right at your face XD  You just can’t escape him.  He’s gonna love you no matter who you are or what you’ve done or how fast you run away from him, which poor Sasuke has been figuring out for years (to his everlasting irritation, I’m sure).  Kakashi needs people like that – like Gai, actually, who’s a little bit similar in the sense that he’s determined to be Kakashi’s friend no matter how much Kakashi resists.  And I do love the fact that Naruto and Kakashi will be able to connect about Naruto’s parents now that the secret is out – it wasn’t possible before, and they’ve all been running a million miles an hour since Naruto found out, but eventually, once things calm down, it will such a good thing for both of them to complete that circuit.  That’s the way things are supposed to be – the connections between generations are supposed to be maintained and strengthened by the people left behind, like Iruka says in the early days of the show -   

When someone passes away, it’s the end.  His past and future, all the dreams he once had - they disappear along with him.  This is true even if he dies honorably in battle, as so many have...all the ties that bind him to the living are severed.  All but one, the most important of all: people.  Parents, siblings, friends, lovers - the people who were important to him.  And these people, the ones left behind, are joined together in a great circle by their shared memories of him.  A circle of friendship, trust, and sacrifice that grows larger and stronger as time passes. 

It’s so good that Naruto and Kakashi are soon going to be in a space where they will be able to re-forge the links that were disrupted by a malicious system that wasn’t serving either of them.

Well, I don’t want to build it up like the show makes A Big Deal out of it 

Oh, don’t worry.  I was already expecting it to be the tiniest crumb they could possibly give us.  But even crumbs will make me very happy, for these two! XD

But I think he might have doubts that Yamato would want/choose him as a source of help, given the circumstances of Yamato’s capture and torture?

THAT.  Yamato getting captured taking care of Kakashi’s kids would have been complicated enough to navigate enough on its own, but the fact that the person who orchestrated all of it was Obito makes it a truly labyrinthine mess.  The number of layers of guilt that Kakashi feels - not all of them rational or accurate, obviously, but in his mind they’re real - given all those things, of course he’s uncertain that Yamato would want his help.  Kakashi’s internal blame calculator right now is like -

GUILTY [was weak.  wanted companionship too much.  let you share my burdens.] GUILTY [took advantage of your loyalty] GUILTY [put you in harm’s way] GUILTY [abandoned you to die] GUILTY [created the person who hurt you (by being the reason obito ‘died,’ by failing to save rin)] GUILTY [still love the person who hurt you] GUILTY [still grieving for the person who hurt you]

It’s complicated enough just handling the “i put you in this position and then didn’t even come to save you” level of things, but adding in the “my personal hero/most sacred, precious source of inspiration is the one who did this to you” level makes it practically impossible to manage, especially when Kakashi is actively experiencing (natural and out of his control) feelings of grief for the person who caused Yamato’s entire ordeal.  Kakashi doesn’t condone or excuse anything Obito did - he fully understands that Obito caused unforgivable harm to untold numbers of people (himself included) - but he still feels things for him, and he can’t do anything about that, and even if he’s accepted that fact on a private level, I still don’t think he’s entirely comfortable feeling those things in the context of Yamato’s situation.  

It’s like what you said about him “wanting to be very careful not to ‘force’ his company on Yamato” - I think he feels like Yamato has every right to reassess or step back from their relationship, given everything that’s happened.  Kakashi may recognize on some level that he can’t control his own feelings about the Obito situation, but he also doesn’t think Yamato should have to be understanding of that.  Kakashi has never considered himself an appropriate recipient of anyone’s respect or devotion to begin with (“you should find someone more suitable”/“then drop the ‘senpai’”), but with Yamato, especially, I think Kakashi feels now that he’s lost whatever scrap of credibility/worthiness he ever had of being looked up to, and he would be very careful not to put Yamato in a position where Yamato feels pressure to accommodate or defer to Kakashi for any reason, whether it be because of the difference in their ranks or the potential lingering feelings of gratitude/debt that Yamato might still associate with the things Kakashi has done for him in the past.  (But of course, like you said, Yamato would probably interpret this as “reticence,” or deliberate distancing, and obviously that would heighten his pre-existing anxieties, which would just complicate things further.)

...it wouldn’t be about the name itself, it’d be Yamato trying to find a way to express that he doesn’t want Kakashi to keep seeing him as the “Tenzo” he’s always known...as his subordinate “Tenzo” that he has to “take care of”...

THIS.  I totally agree with you - I can definitely see Yamato getting frustrated at being (unintentionally) put into a box by Kakashi, because even though Kakashi absolutely does not mean it this way, the fact of the matter is that Kakashi taking on all of the responsibility/guilt/blame about this situation disregards the active choices and sacrifices Yamato made.  It’s almost...disrespectful.  Dismissive of Yamato’s agency.  And of course we as the audience know that it isn’t intended that way at all - Kakashi respects Yamato more than anyone in the world, and his reaction comes from a very real place where he legitimately feels that he’s been taking advantage of unearned/undeserved loyalty and devotion - but I absolutely can see Yamato getting snappy about being treated like what happened to him was the result of something Kakashi “made” him do, like all the work he’s been doing for the last year was just him following orders and not something he also had a personal stake in. 

The whole point of Yamato escaping the Foundation (and even the ANBU) was that he wouldn’t have to be anybody’s lapdog anymore.  It wasn’t about him trading one master for another.  He doesn’t follow Kakashi because he’s obligated to do so; he does it because he believes Kakashi is worthy of being followed.  It’s not that Yamato doesn’t feel a debt of gratitude to Kakashi; he does, and he probably always will, but Yamato also believes in the same mission as Kakashi, cares about the same children, wants to protect the same future.  Maybe, when he accepted that first substitute assignment from Tsunade, he did so in the spirit or following orders or doing Kakashi a favor, but at this point, Yamato is just as invested in the struggle as everyone else.  He cares about the kids just as much, and he’s just as committed to saving the world.  He ended up getting captured because he was willing to give his life for the cause, and he deserves to have that decision honored as the true sacrifice it is, instead of having it minimized as an artificial choice that he was compelled or deceived into making.  

I think, deep down, it’s hard for Kakashi to conceive of the idea that someone would choose to follow him for valid reasons.  He feels like everyone who loves and respects him does so because they’re laboring under a false impression of his goodness.  But for Yamato, hearing this is essentially tantamount to being told that he’s still someone else’s thrall.  Like he isn’t making his own informed decisions about who to follow or who to serve, like he’s still being led around by the nose by someone who can make him do anything they want, like someone else (however benevolent) still has him under their thumb.  I’m sure he knows Kakashi doesn’t mean it that way, but I also can imagine, in a moment of upset, that he would react poorly to being portrayed like that - at the implication, however unintentional, that he isn’t truly free.  

It’s like you said - Yamato doesn’t want Kakashi to keep thinking of him as a prisoner who needs to be rescued.  He doesn’t want to be limited to being a tool in someone else’s hands (especially not a tool for Kakashi’s continued self-flagellation), and he doesn’t want his friendship with Kakashi to be limited to what it was back when Yamato was an enslaved child.  He needs Kakashi to give him credit for his own decisions, which means he needs Kakashi to let go of the guilt and absorb the message ‘i have not been coerced into caring about you!’  Tenzo, in his capacity as Kakashi’s comrade, has never been confused about what kind of person Kakashi is.  He hasn’t been taken advantage of or manipulated into doing something he didn’t want to do.  He has never been a tool for Kakashi to use; he has always been Kakashi’s willing partner.  His loyalty to Kakashi is not unquestioning obedience or obligatory repayment of a debt; it’s justified respect, genuine admiration, and more-than-earned affection.  All Yamato did during the war was take the same risks that Kakashi himself has taken on Yamato’s behalf countless times, and if Kakashi can’t accept the fact that Yamato took those risks willingly - if Tenzo can only be “Tenzo, Kakashi’s charge” instead of “Tenzo, a true equal” - then maybe it’s time to leave that old identity behind entirely.

I do think they’ll eventually figure this all out and it will be okay.  But I 100% understand why we might see Yamato chafing at being addressed in a certain way prior to all these knots being untangled.

He doesn’t need to be “Yamato” to Kakashi, but he might be unconsciously seeking reassurance Kakashi still wants “Yamato” around.

Ohh, this...I’m... 😭😭😭

#naruto #pan watches naruto #a true equal #i know you said you weren't sure you were articulating your thoughts in a 'comprehensible' way #but i think you're hitting the nail exactly on the head #yamato's worst fear is that things are going to go back to the way they used to be #he'll go home and go back to the anbu #he'll put the mask back on and disappear #the kids will remember him vaguely #like a teacher they once had in high school #every few years he and kakashi will run into each other #and kakashi will be casually friendly #but that's all it will ever be: two acquaintances who don't really know each other anymore #because yamato is back to being 'tenzo' now; and kakashi has never tried to stay in touch with 'tenzo' before #'yamato' had something essential to offer #and now that the mission he was assigned is over #'yamato' doesn't exist anymore #'yamato' was just a code name. it was a pretend identity. #this entire year with team 7 was a temporary assignment #and yamato knew that #but what he didn't know was how desperately he wouldn't want it to end #living outside the anbu was like a dream; and yamato doesn't want to wake up #we know that. we SAW that. canonically - what he wants most in the world is to stay right where he is #his tsukuyomi dream is to hear kakashi say 'this is where you truly belong' #and it makes sense that yamato isn't sure if 'tenzo' can achieve that #because kakashi always let 'tenzo' drift away before #and of course that had everything to do with kakashi's own personal issues and nothing to do with yamato #but how is yamato supposed to know that? #i just think...yamato is more afraid of going home than of anything that ever happened to him during the war #because nothing can possibly be worse that being that alone again

[cooliogirl101]

From a very young age, Obito's grandmother had cautioned him to guard his heart.

"There is nothing more dangerous than an Uchiha in love," she warned him. "If you're not careful, caring too deeply will destroy you, drive you to madness."

For a five-year-old Obito, all it took to fall in love were three words, coming from a girl with sparkling brown eyes and the brightest smile he'd ever seen.

"Hey, nice goggles!"

~~

Obito, as a general rule, tried to avoid thinking too much about Hatake Kakashi. As far as he was concerned, stupid Bakashi already had too many people thinking about him. It felt like Obito couldn't go five minutes without hearing the whispers of "prodigy" and "genius" and "future-Hokage" trailing Kakashi everywhere he went (and what really stung was that they probably weren't wrong-- what Obito worked at for hours upon hours to accomplish, Kakashi managed in minutes without breaking a sweat).

Obito thought he'd been doing a pretty good job of ignoring Kakashi all things considered, despite the other boy's annoying attitude and annoying hair and annoying voice and annoying mask and annoying everything. He didn't even care (much) about Kakashi's annoyingly large number of fangirls-- up until he noticed that Rin had also started watching him.

He lasted three days before he confronted her about it.

"Why're you watching Kakashi?" Obito blurted out. He'd considered straight up asking her if she had a crush on him-- like half the girls in their class, he thought bitterly-- but had chickened out at the last moment. He wasn't sure what he'd do if the answer was yes--probably something that would land him in detention again.

"He's walking home alone again," Rin said quietly, gaze still fixated on Kakashi's departing figure. "It's been weeks now."

"So?" Obito asked. "He walks home by himself all the time."

Rin shook her head.

"Only when his father's on a mission. Which he might be, I don't know, but given what happened--" Her voice trailed off. Obito didn't need her to complete the sentence, anyway. Everyone in the village knew what had happened on Hatake Sakumo's disastrous mission.

"We're going to follow him," Rin decided. That got Obito's attention.

"What? Why?" He wasn't whining. He wasn't.

"Because something's not right here. And until we figure out what it is, I'd feel better watching over him to make sure he's safe." She glanced at him and grinned. "Besides, this will allow you to practice your stealth skills. And my Henge skills. Think I can make a convincing bush?"

~~

Through some miracle, because Rin did not make a convincing bush-- bushes didn't move for one thing, nor did they have legs-- they managed to follow Kakashi back to the Hatake Compound undetected. The moment the compound came into sight, Rin jolted, her henge dropping away completely.

"Oh," she whispered, eyes widening. Obito swallowed, feeling rather sick to the stomach himself.

The wall of the compound was completely covered by graffiti. Obito clenched his fists, mouth going dry-- there were words on there that would make Obito's grandmother scrub his mouth with soap if he even thought of saying them but worse than that were the words scattered between the cursing and insults:

Failure

Disgrace

Weak

Monster

Shameful

Your fault

Your fault

Your fault

"Obito." Rin's voice was strangely calm.

"Y-Yeah?" Obito cleared his throat, tearing his gaze away from the Hatake Compound. Kakashi didn't deserve that, he found himself thinking. His dad didn't deserve it either. No one deserved that.

Rin glanced at him, eyes hard.

"Do you think your grandmother would be okay with you sleeping over at my house tonight?"

Obito blinked, then slowly began to smile.

"I think I can convince her."

"Great." Rin folded her arms across her chest. "How are your painting skills?"

~~

Of all the things Sakumo expected to find outside his house in the middle of the night, two kids wearing badly-made face masks painting his wall was not one of them.

"What are you guys doing?" Kakashi demanded, looking like he wasn't sure whether to be angry or confused.

"What does it look like we're doing, Bakashi?" The kid in the orange eye-mask retorted. "Everyone calls you a genius, figure it out."

This night was getting weirder and weirder, Sakumo thought bemusedly to himself.

"You're...vandalizing my house. At two in the morning," Kakashi replied. It looked like the confusion was winning out over the anger.

"It's not vandalism if it's done with good intentions," the girl in the purple eye mask said primly. Sakumo resisted the urge to rub at his eyes.

"Friends of yours, Kakashi?" Sakumo asked, and received an immediate flurry of responses.

"No, I hardly even know them, they're just some kids from my class--"

"Friends with Bakashi? No way, I--"

"Not yet at least."

Sakumo let them talk over each other, gaze drifting back over to the half-completed paint job. They'd...done a surprisingly good job, actually. He could barely see the words underneath anymore.

He held up a hand, causing all three kids to go quiet.

"Why?" He asked finally, addressing the two kids who apparently weren't friends with Kakashi and yet had gone to the trouble to do all...this.

"Why not?" the boy said defiantly, jutting his chin up. "We felt like it and your wall is messed up, so we're painting it to look better."

The girl remained silent for a beat longer, before turning to look him in the eye.

"Because you deserve better," she said. Sakumo's mouth twisted.

"I'm not sure I do," he murmured, almost inaudibly. He blinked as the girl suddenly narrowed her eyes, brandishing her paintbrush at him like a kunai.

"Don't say that," she hissed, glaring fiercely at him "Don't you dare say that! The first thing they teach us in the Academy is that your teammates always, always come first. You acted according to that and the fact that people are treating you like a monster for it is wrong."

"It's not that simple--"

"It's not your fault that Konoha is on the brink of war,” she interrupted sharply. "If you didn't trigger it, someone else would have. You don't teach five year olds wartime tactics if you're not expecting...if you're not preparing for a war. People don't want to admit that, so they look for someone to blame-- but that's their problem, not yours."

She turned around, re-coating her brush with paint.

"I can't make you believe me, Hatake-san. But what I can do is cover up this wall of yours. At the very least, Kakashi-kun doesn't deserve to look at this every day."

At that, Kakashi straightened up, scowling at her. If his glare seemed rather halfhearted, no one pointed it out.

"I don't need you to do it, I can do it myself," he grumbled.

"Great," the girl said without missing a beat. "While you're here, you can settle a debate between me and Obito-- hypothetically speaking, would you prefer snakes painted on the wall or dragons?"

"C'mon Rin, dragons are so much cooler, what kind of person would prefer snakes--"

"Obito, neither of us can even draw a dragon and besides, they summon snakes--"

"What? No we don't! We summon dogs!"

"Oh. Really? But your dad is called the White Fang. That wasn't a reference to snake fangs?"

"No!"

"Huh. Who summons snakes then? Someone summons snakes."

"Forget the snakes, is there a dragon contract I can sign?"

"They'd take one look at you and eat you, dead last."

"Shut up, Bakashi!"

Sakumo felt his lips twitch. He turned around to walk back inside, feeling lighter than he had in weeks.

And to think, he'd been worried about Kakashi making friends.

#wtl!au #danger noodle au

[phoenixyfriend]

More "de-aged Taka and T7 end up in the Warring Clans Era as Founders' wards" AU

“That’s a thing?” you ask. The answer is yes.

Uh. Kind of. Deaging Team Seven for the sake of tossing them back in time for a Founder to adopt is pretty common, but I’m trash for Taka so this AU started with me brainstorming the asshole team.

I am falling more and more in love with the idea of Tobirama ending up with custody of Team Taka somehow. He’s a science dad, but like. Marginally more ethical than Orochimaru.

Everyone around them is like "This is a terrible idea and it's all going to end horribly" and he's just like "Ah, these are now my children."

I've read so many "Team Seven time-travels and is de-aged, get adopted by the Founders" or "a Founder time-travels forward and adopts Naruto, subsequently picking up the others" and they're good but I now want the same plot with an even more dysfunctional collection of... eldritch mishaps? The AO3 feel of "I want this fic I just read, again, but a step to the left so it feels fresh and new"

I'm considering the tent of tranquility idea (courtesy of @sloaners​) and I've come to the decision that Tobirama's... probably going to end up with Several Holes in it, and burns, and cuts, because Karin and Suigetsu never stop fighting, and if they're fighting, they're not paying attention to how soon Juugo's going to lose his grip on control.

"Hm. Tobirama?" "Anija." "Where did you get children?" "They showed up." "One of them looks like an Uchiha." "He does." "Two of them are trying to kill each other." "That's normal." "Are the Uchiha going to accuse us of stealing a clan child?" "Probably." "...Tobirama, did you steal these children?" "No."

(It's not kidnapping if they show up and break into your house first.)

(Also none of them are particularly pressed to ditch the Senju and find their clans. Maybe eventually. Not now.)

They’re assholes but Karin is, even at Supposedly Age Three, babbling at Tobirama about proper lab protocol and chemical reactions and isn’t that just the most adorable thing?

Very few people find Karin as adorable as Tobirama does, because Karin knows more ways to kill a person than most adult shinobi, because most adult shinobi don’t know about things like flesh-eating diseases and specialty poisons from the other side of the continent that can only be refined via chemical processes that won’t exist for another three decades.

Juugo is a sweetheart. Best child. Then he loses his mind but it’s okay, Sasuke is there. Do the Senju trust the clearly-Uchiha child to control the much larger five-year-old? No. But they don’t have any better ideas right now, so.

Tobirama: Hm, we should do something about that. Karin: Here’s a list of ideas and things that have already been tried. Tobirama: Thank you, small child. Where did you get this? Karin: ... Tobirama: Fair enough, let’s see what we can do.

Suigetsu is a little terror because not only is he a Massive Jerk but he also has better control over water than most adults. Mostly because he is water. It’s very hard to find him when he’s avoiding chores.

Karin clings to Mito sometimes because Family! and then Hashirama tries to tease Tobirama about being upset that one of his students/children has ditched him. Hashirama ends up moping in a corner because Tobirama snaps at him, unsurprisingly.

IDK if we have like any canon for Touka beyond skill with genjutsu, but going off of the fanon that she used a naginata, I’m going to say that Suigetsu keeps trying to challenge her to Blade Fights and she’s just like Neat, A Tiny Murder Machine.

Sasuke is very quiet for the most part and Dramatically Broods On Rooftops And In Trees and Hashirama is just like YES YOU REMIND ME OF MY BROTHER AND ALSO MY BEST FRIEND and Sasuke hides.

Sasuke does not need another Naruto, thank you.

Sasuke ends up hanging out with Mito, I think? Like yeah, sure, she’s an Uzumaki, but she’s chill and refined and calm and she has really good tea in stock. Sure he has to learn fuuinjutsu to have an excuse to hang out with her, but that’s fine. It’s interesting. Karin does it too, sometimes.

tbh that probably leaves Hashirama to hang out with Juugo? Juugo isn’t great at Excite but he is great at nature so I feel like Hashirama would be stars-in-eyes about Juugo talking to birds the way Hashirama talks to trees, and Hashirama just gets him a chicken coop like HERE. FRIENDS.

But back to the suspected child theft.

Hashirama is like “That is... clearly an Uchiha. They are going to find out, Tobirama! Someone is going to figure out we have--” “Sasuke, show him your other eye. Yeah, the one you cover.” “...” “Okay, go back to playing.” “...Tobirama.” “Yeah?” “That was a Rinnegan.” “You know those rumors that the only way to get a Rinnegan is to mix the Uchiha and Senju bloodlines?” “It’s true?” “No idea, Sasuke won’t tell me anything about his parents other than their names, and he’s three, but even the chance of it being true means we have an arguable claim.” “...that’s not going to be enough to convince the Uchiha.” “The theory is but one weapon of many in the upcoming battle of wits.” “Tobirama--” “Now if you’ll excuse me, Anija, I need to go make sure Suigetsu doesn’t flood the training grounds again.”

tbh I can’t remember who made the original comment in canon about the Rinnegan being achieved via Senju/Uchiha babies but it’s funny to use here so I’ll pretend it’s a common rumor that nobody actually believes

MEANWHILE WITH THE UCHIHA Madara found and took custody of Team Seven and company, mostly because they’re like... jounin-level despite being less than three feet tall.

It involves a lot of Madara going "I want My New Children to love me!" and being sorely disappointed by half of them. Poor fucker got stuck with Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, Yamato, and Obito.

(KakaYamaObito are deaged by the time-travel to 10-13ish. The kids are deaged to 3-4. Everyone has memories to just after the fourth war or so.)

Karin sensed T7 and tagalong pretty much the second they popped out of Kamui, and told Sasuke, but he correctly guessed that Naruto would hunt him down eventually, and said they should enjoy the peace and quiet while they had it.

Sai pulls emotionless creepy smiles in an attempt to freak out Madara but since Madara's whole thing initially was "less children in war," he's... mostly just sad. Izuna wants to know who made his brother cry.

Madara makes a vaguely misogynistic comment that's typical for the period and Sakura just. Breaks his tibia.

Naruto is genuinely trying to treat Madara with the kind of respect a caretaker that Attempts To Care And Do Good By Them deserves, because Naruto is a good egg, but he's... three again. Which means he's a Hellion.

The literal toddlers (Naruto and Sakura are three-ish, Sai is four-ish) are, in fact, toddlers, so nobody really expects them to be able to do anything. Nobody bothers to test them beyond the basics of like. Can walk? Can talk? Can maybe hold knife? Like don’t get me wrong, they’re very competent toddlers, but their hands can barely wrap around a kunai. Their bodies are tiny. Their bones only just stopped being soft!

That said, the “tweens” (re: adults who got deaged but Less) have to get tested for their skills. Kakashi downplays himself to what he imagines a semi-competent eleven-year-old to be capable of. He thinks of, like, Neji maybe? Good, but not suspiciously good.

Obito enters an intangible state and refuses to participate. He has a Mangekyo. His body is half-Zetsu. Stop bothering him. He doesn’t want to do anything. They assign him babysitting duty for Team Seven since he can obviously defend pretty well, and Kakashi vouches for his abilities as a fighter.

Yamato decides to try to be just a little worse than Kakashi but at one point he panics and does Mokuton on instinct and now the entire Uchiha compound is screeching because did they just steal a Main Family Senju kid by accident?

Yamato: Should I tell them I was a science experiment? Kakashi: No.

Pranks galore! None of the other time-travelers even try to stop Naruto, except maybe Yamato.

Obito at the Uchiha compound is mostly "I don't want to participate" and then just uses Kamui to be intangible until people leave him alone. If it's not another time-traveler or Madara, he's not interested. He doesn't even care that much about Sai or Yamato, actually, so if it's not an original T7 member, he doesn't care, and if it's Madara, he's just here to make things Difficult.

The Kyuubi wanders up to the Uchiha compound one day and everyone's preparing for a battle, even Madara isn't confident that he can-- [BANG] "KURAMA!" [delighted squealing]

Naruto now has a pet. The entire clan is terrified. Kurama pokes his nose at Naruto's stomach and disappears into the memory of a seal.

Madara, frantically writing a letter to Hashirama "What do I do if my toddler is possessed?!?"

Hashirama: You have a toddler?!?!?! OMG you should organize playdates with Tobirama's kids! Madara: I'M GOING TO QUESTION THAT LATER, PLEASE HELP WITH THE POSSESSION THING

Kurama hunts down Naruto, and the Jinchuuriki situation is very much in the realm of "Dis Mine" Also a bit of "If I'm in the brat, there's at least one Mangekyo user in hearing distance who can and will risk his life to prevent brainwashing. (Kakashi. It’s Kakashi.)

Naruto: Kurama's one of my best friends! Every time traveler: Yeah, that tracks. Madara: [teakettle screeching]

Per @firebirdeternal​: I'm just loving the visual of Giant Nightmare Terror Kurama kneeling down and pressing his nose to Naruto's Smol Chubby Toddler self and closing his eyes while Naruto pets him and giggles and every single battle-ready Uchiha is just. "wat"

Everybody else: Cool so Madara adopted a witch Uchiha Elders: We need to be careful of this horrible creature The younger generation of Uchiha: Okay that was weirdly serene and adorable and frankly the brat is really likeable when he's not being adhd as hell I think this is actually pretty dope.

Madara really wants to be a Good Dad but he has no idea how he ended up being "a dad" in the first place. He just! He cares a lot about this random assortment of kids! Some of them are from prominent clans and there should be search parties for the Senju kid with the Mokuton, or the Hatake brat, or the Uzumaki that doesn't look Uzumaki but definitely feels Uzumaki.... and SURE the only Uchiha of the bunch is a stranger who hates him for no reason Madara can come up with, but! He wants to be a good authority figure!

At least the Uzumaki appreciates that he's trying.

Seriously, though, there are clan kids and nobody’s looking for them, what’s up with that?

Kakashi still has a prize copy of Icha Icha and nobody in the Uchiha compound does a thorough check of his reading material until like three months in.

He is blamed for Naruto developing the Oiroke, because where ELSE would a toddler get such ideas? (Yamato and Obito both tell him he brought this on himself.)

Naruto waits until a Big Important Meeting lets out, something about tithes or a merchant contract, and just pulls a Harem no Jutsu in front of the entire group of Elders And Main Family. First he does a Mass Shadow Clone, which makes everyone turn on Sharingan because Fancy New Techniques to steal! Sure, they were late on the shadow clones, but the kid is clearly gearing up for something! The something is Oiroke.

Anime Nosebleeds everywhere. Most of the elders were hit. Izuna was hit. Madara is not bleeding from the nose, but he is very upset about having semi-accidentally sharingan-memorized his weird adoptee’s Sexy Older Female Alter Ego. There is yelling.

Naruto’s like “Oh, I missed some!” and decides to try again with Reverse Harem no Jutsu because there are old ladies among the Elders, and maybe some straight women representing a guild, and maybe some gay guys he missed! Madara is still not bleeding. (He’s very demi and tbh Naruto only would have succeeded if he’d tried to use Hashirama’s face. Naruto does not know this. He just figures Madara is ace like Sasuke and that no variant is going to work.)

Izuna gets another nosebleed and is just like “Well, this is not how I planned on coming out as bi, but--” “Izuna, I literally do not care about you being bi as long as one of us has an heir at some point, I’m more upset about the fact that my child has been corrupted!”

Back in the Senju compound, there is... a lot of screaming, honestly, but every time Karin and Suigetsu start trying to kill each other again, Tobirama just shrugs and tells them not to break anything.

Very easy-going caretaker, really. He's got some very deadly toddlers in hand, but they're still just toddlers.

Sasuke: Yeah, I might want to go see my clan at some point. Suigetsu: Yeah, I might want to go see my clan at some point. Karin, clinging to Mito: Yeah, I want to go see my clan at some point. Juugo: Please never, ever take me to my clan. Ever. Please. I'll stay with Sasuke, thank you.

Naruto breaks out of the Uchiha compound the first time he enters Sage Mode, several months in (it took a while to get the privacy) because he feels Sasuke and lbr if Naruto knows where Sasuke is, nothing will stop him.

The Uchiha clansmen cannot catch the errant toddler. They fail to inform Madara until Naruto is already in Senju territory because nobody wanted to admit the toddler outmaneuvered them.

Naruto wasn’t sure how to get into the Senju Compound safely so he just goes full Kyuubi, bounds over the wall screaming SASUKEEEEE at the top of his lungs, and then shrinks back down to Tiny Brat size so he could hug his Bestest Friend Ever and cling like a limpet while Sasuke just sighs and stares at the wall.

Sakura ran after him.

Sai painted a bird and Yamato dragged Kakashi onto it to chase Naruto, because Kakashi is at a point of zen regarding Naruto's bullshit and fully trusts the kid to not die.

Obito refuses to look up from whatever he's doing and asks people why they think he cares.

“We told you to look after the toddlers!” “Why would you do that? Seems like poor planning on your part.”

Disappears when nobody's looking. Waits until the Ruckus at the Senju compound (where T7 has crashed in to tackle-hug Sasuke and Madara followed in and proceeded to get shouty, and nobody's dead or battling because they're too confused and also it's a comedy) has started to calm down, and then teleports in and demonstrates Mokuton just to make Madara's life harder when the Senju Elders start demanding answers.

His energy is very "I am here to make Madara's life harder" and Madara still doesn't know what he did wrong.

Madara: That brat has a Sharingan! Tobirama: Well THAT one has Mokuton! Obito: Yamato has it too. [angry teakettle noises]

Madara's first response to seeing Sasuke is to turn to Izuna and point aggressively at the toddler while making a tea-kettle noise "He looks just like you!" "He's four, he barely looks like anything!"

Naruto, tugging at Madara's hakama: You need to make a village with Hashirama so I can see Sasuke more often, cuz I don't wanna ditch you guys, but I gotta see Sasuke! He's my best friend! Madara, who is aware that he could fight this child but really doesn't want to, and also knows that a tantrum thrown by Naruto or Sasuke is capable of leveling mountains: Right, yes, we'll get right on that.

tbh Madara wants the village anyway but "The bijuu-whisperer said he wants it to happen" is a great way to push things forward.

#Team Taka #Team Seven #Uzumaki Karin #Hozuki Suigetsu #Uchiha Sasuke #Juugo #Uzumaki Naruto #Haruno Sakura #Hatake Kakashi #Sai #Yamato #Naruto #Naruto Oldies #Senju Tobirama #Senju Hashirama #Uzumaki Mito #Kurama #Uchiha Madara #Uchiha Izuna #Senju Touka #Phoenix Posts

[candyopala]

Stuck in his ways, Chapter 6

Chapter summary:  Obito follows Kakashi’s advice and tries to find out more about Y/N. When things don’t go his way, he finds himself lost and on Y/N’s house in the middle of the night.

Words: 2.3k

AO3

Please like or reblog if you enjoy, check my rules for requests too!

It’s almost time for work and Obito hasn’t slept yet. Despite the weird act, Kakashi gave some actually useful advice to him. He said that he manages to get team seven to work harder by playing with their goals, using their objectives as something to incentivize them through a tough mission or a hard exercise. Especially with Naruto, who can get a little lazy sometimes, bringing up his objective to be Hokage as his father seems to always work like a charm.

The thing is: Obito knows virtually nothing about Y/N. Besides what he has on her personal file, he knows nothing about her personal life and objectives. He spent too much time acting like an asshole to the girl instead of trying to get to know her. He keeps on going through her files maniacally while his mind gets lost in thought.

Don’t get him wrong, Obito hasn’t put any effort to meet new people since his accident. In addition to his insecurities with his appearance, his social skills get worse by the day. Okay, Kakashi does make him go in blind dates from time to time, but those always end up in failure, since he refuses to actually give any girl a chance. He tends to get lost in his thoughts while they talk and he usually ends up straight up ignoring them, which would make anyone reasonably mad.

His face still hurts when he remembers about that time that Yamanaka lady slapped him right on the face after he yawned while she talked. Or that time Kakashi ended up going home with both girls and he had to help take Gai into the hospital, after the fool hurt himself in a bet with their friend. Not to mention that time Kakashi tried to hook him up with a lady fifty years his senior. He would have been actually okay with it if she had not called him “grandson” twice. Obito shivers at the thought. Truth is, Obito actually has not given a chance to himself since the accident and Rin’s passing. Obito shakes his head to make the thought go away once his mind mentions his former teammate’s name.

Give me a break for once brain, right?

He finally gives up on the files and goes to lay in his bed, only to be instantly scared by the alarm clock, letting him know he should be waking up. He goes through with his morning routine on autopilot, putting on the jonin vest and heading out to meet Y/N on the training field. For the first time in ages, he arrives on time. He was so into his head that he did not get distracted on the way. He needs to learn more about Y/N today, one way or the other, so that he can get this whole deal to end soon.

Y/N arrives shortly after, looking sleepy and grumpy.

“You’re on time; did you die and get replaced for someone responsible?”

“Ha, funny. Why the grumpy look?”

“I had a little trouble sleeping tonight”

Come on Obito, what’s the best way of trying to connect to someone and to learn about them? Right, through empathy, being relatable!

“Ugh, me too, totally. What’s on your mind?”

“Lunch and dinner. Come on, let’s start.”

“Ouch”

Fuck, alright, this is bound to be tough.

Obito starts today’s training with some blade technique. Y/N is admittedly really good with hers, but she could use some refinement if she is going to be a shinobi now. He corrects her stance first, also focusing on not letting her leave her defense open.

“Raise your arm like this” He shows to her the things he learned from his family during his childhood.

Their treatment of him at that time was… harsh. Being a direct descendant of Madara made everyone treat him like a potential fuckup, and his abilities before the accident corroborated that. They only opened up more to him and begun to treat him with respect after he became one of Konoha’s finest jonins and one of the few ones to awaken the mangekyo in the whole family. Remembering this makes Obito feel a little cramped on the inside, making him want to go back to his current objective with Y/N.

“Right”

“So… when did you learn to use your sword?”

“On the road”

“And?”

“And I think it’s cool”

“Nice… I guess…”

Fuck fuck fuck.

They both go on for the rest of the morning with Obito not being able to make any progress. His difficulty with social situations is making an already hard situation get even tougher. Y/N refuses to respond to any prodding, only talking back to crack jokes at his expense and to cut him off.

“Want to go get some barbecue for lunch?” He asks hoping for her to accept, as a last desperate attempt to approach her somehow.

“Can’t do Uchiha, I have a reunion with the Hokage, later”

She leaves him in the field alone, a sense of hopelessness eating him up by the second. Then comes the explosive frustration of not getting what he wants. He just needs to make this end quicker; he needs to go back to relevant missions to make his objectives come true. He cannot be left behind, he has to make his promise to her come true, he needs to change it all and he can only do that by becoming the next Hokage.

Tears prickle up at his eye, hurting his heart more than his pride. He gets angry at this completely ridiculous situation he put himself in, he had lost focus lately, he got lazy. He had lost the fire that once burned inside him, only leaving him a pile of sadness and old regrets.

It all explodes within him, driving him to start training in a maniacal way, trying to create something new with kamui and kunais at all costs. He has been trying to develop a new jutsu for a while, but he always ends up stumped. The thought of failure is the last straw, he starts to attack the training posts with all he has, not noticing the pain consuming his arms as the hundreds of knifes coming out of his other dimension go through them in a whirlpool of time and space.

It’s the middle of the night when his body achieves its limit, he spent the whole day training and rampaging on the field. Obito falls down on the dirt face first as exhaustion and blood loss finally hits him. Still filled with adrenaline, his last thought is to head to Y/N’s house to get that information, one way or the other.

 ~”~

 A rushed couple of knocks wake Y/N from her slumber. Confused, she looks around the small apartment in search of the noise’s origin. She hears them again, coming from her front door. She looks over to the clock on the kitchenette; it shows that it is around two in the morning. She knows virtually no one in the village still, who could it be?

She grabs her trusty sword at the entrance area and heads to the door, expecting it to be some scammer or maniac. Without turning the lights on, she opens it only to find a tall figure, with broad shoulders and that forlorn look on his face… Obito.

What is he even doing here?

Upon further inspection, she notices that his figure seems a little bit off, worn out even. She finally turns on the lights, only to be met with a grizzly sight: he is covered in dirt and his arms are all bloodied, his shoulders are slumped and his signature messy hair is even unrulier. This image brings her an awful distant memory.

“Want to go for that barbecue?”

“Obito, what happened?”

“Don’t worry about it; we can talk it out on the way” The man speaks in a catatonic way, fully running on his impulses and on the verge of exhaustion.

Those unwanted memories rush back into her mind: a bloodied hand touching her face delicately, a catatonic smile, foggy eyes, a goodbye that came too soon. Her head rushes with rage, rage at her own mind for reminding her of that, anger at him for leaving so soon, anger at Obito for doing whatever he did to do this to himself.

Before she can even think, she pushes the man into her house with force, guiding his almost limp body to her tight bathroom, sitting him on the rim of her bathtub. He does not respond, his eye is directed at nothing, he just lets out a small wave of breath when he sits down. She grabs her first aid kit from under the sink, kneeling down to face him as best as she can in the small space.

“What happened?”

“…”

“Obito!”

She snaps her fingers in front of his face, taking him out of his trance. He gets startled, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.

“Sorry, I’ll be going, okay?”

He tried to get up again, only to be swatted by Y/N and forced to sit back down on the tub.

“We have to tend to your wounds; you look like you lost a lot of blood already. It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me what happened, but I’m not letting you go like this”

“I’ll just go to the hospital”

“The hospital is on the other side of the village, dumbass”

He flinches and tries weakly to tear his arm away from her grasp, once her hand touches an exposed bit of his bicep. Y/N does her best to rip away the ripped fabric that covers the wounds, trying not to pull the parts that are stuck together with the cuts. She rips his sleeves away, exposing a mass of cuts in all directions all over the length of his arm.

Y/N bites her lips at the sight, her brain working against her again. Tears threaten to well up on her eyes, so she tries to make go away as best as she can.

They stay silent as she cleans his wounds, still having to hold him in place from time to time. He manages to be stubborn even in times like this, incredible. Once she finishes up bandaging him up, she just sits by his side on the tub.

“Obito…”

“Thank you”

“Is there something going on?”

“A lot”

“… I get it”

They cross looks quickly, Y/N immediately cutting the contact away as soon as it happens.

“I promise I won’t ask anything else… just… did you do this intentionally?”

“No”

“Alright”

A couple of extra minutes passes, only the sound of their breaths filling in the room. Obito looks up again and faces Y/N’s direction. She looks back at him, completely lost in all that is happening. First, he seems to loathe her, treat her like a chore, and now he appears at her door in the middle of the night like this…

Obito opens a small smile in her direction, a genuine one. It’s the first time she sees wrinkles around his eye sockets. He still has that sad look deep down, but he seems to be trying to honestly lighten the mood and say that everything is okay. Y/N lets out a little bit of her tension go away, letting her shoulders relax a little bit more, but not completely.

“Did some granny stab you Obito?”

“Yup, they stole all my money and dignity also”

“Maybe I’m the one who’s babysitting someone huh? Seems like I’ll have to be around to look for you”

Cracking jokes is Y/N’s way of trying to lighten the mood, but it does not seem to work. Obito suddenly gets that really sad look back up on his eye again, looking back down. Y/N can just make out a single tear rolling out of his right eye.

Did I say something wrong?

“Obi-“

He interrupts her by starting to break down, crying loudly and closing his fists with force on his thighs. Y/N instinctively grabs his hand and forces it open, holding his hand with her own with some degree of strength, to try to calm him down. She feels the heavy texture of his palm on hers, a sign of closeness she missed a lot for the past couple of years, something she refused to admit she… longed for. She comforts him like this for the next couple of minutes until his cries diminish to some uneven breathing.

“Thank you, Y/N. I guess having you around… is… uhm… forget it”

Despite the weirdness of his words, she eventually convinces him to go to the hospital to get his wounds healed, letting his warm hand go and realizing she might have done something wrong. She accompanies him to the door, thoughts flooding her mind while they both must up the courage to say something.

You should not be getting this close; you know what happens when you do that. Why did you do that?

“Promise me you go straight to the hospital?”

“Sure…”

“Obito…”

“What, Y/N?

Despite all that, she feels the urge to give him a hug. She is conflicted, she feels that he needs it badly, but she also feels like getting this close is far too dangerous. She should not be opening up like this to someone she barely knows, to someone that might not even like her as person. There is something that drives her to him, something she does not understand. He seems hurt, he seems like he needs a friend, someone by his side.

No, shut up. I didn’t come here for this, I can’t live all that again.

All she can muster up is a weak goodbye before rushing back in.

What the hell even was all of this?

#Obito #obito uchiha #obito x reader #obito x you #obito x y/n #uchiha obito

[alyssaallyrion]

A boring game. (Iruka x Kakashi)

Rating: T

Summary: In which Kakashi thinks spin the bottle is a very boring game...until the bottle lands on Iruka. 

A/N: Written for KakaIru Month ( @kakairu-fest ) Day 18 Prompt: Games

ao3 link 

“So,” Anko exclaims, victoriously holding up an empty bottle of sake, “Who wants to play spin the bottle.”

Her suggestion is met with excited cheers, making Kakashi frown – he’s never heard of this game before.

“What’s spin the bottle?” he asks.

Obito, sitting next to him on the couch, scoffs, “Of course you wouldn’t know.”

“It’s a kissing game,” Asuma interjects amicably, taking a sip of his beer.

“A kissing game?” Kakashi lifts his eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“It goes like this – one person spins the bottle and then has to kiss whoever it lands on,” Asuma explains, as Obito lets out a deep sigh, “And then the process repeats, only now the person it landed on does the spinning.”

Kakashi looks at Asuma, confused – games are supposed to be exciting and fun, and what Asuma has just described sounds so…boring.

Why would anyone want to play that?

Kakashi had no intention of going to the party at Anko’s apartment that evening – his only plans included a training session followed by a very long nap – until he ran into Iruka at the training grounds.

“Kakashi,” Iruka smiled at him, warm and bright, “Are you going to Anko’s apartment tonight?”

Kakashi vaguely remembered Rin mentioning something about Anko throwing a party.

“I don’t think so,” he shrugged, “I was hoping to catch up on some sleep.”

“Oh, come on,” Iruka insisted, “It’ll be fun.”

Kakashi wanted to refuse – but the hopeful look in Iruka’s eyes and his bright smile stopped him. Kakashi could never say “no” to Iruka when he looked at him like that - and, if he were honest with himself, it was becoming a problem. It was a miracle that other ANBU haven’t caught up on how Iruka managed to get away with his pranks any time Kakashi was on duty.

“I just can’t seem to say “no” to the kid,” Kakashi complained to Rin once, hoping that she’ll help him understand what was going on with him – Rin was good with things like that – but she just chuckled pointedly.

“Are you going to play?” Asuma’s voice distracts Kakashi from his thoughts.

“Huh?” Kakashi replies, startled, “Ah, no – you go ahead and have fun.”

Asuma and Obito get up from the couch to join a circle of people sitting on the living room floor. Kakashi’s not surprised – it was hardly a secret that Asuma was utterly smitten with Kurenai and Obito with Rin, and both of them are already in the circle.

Asuma doesn’t need this silly game, Kakashi smirks, watching his friends sit down, Kurenai would probably kiss him if he asked. But Obito – Obito needs all the help he can get.

An unfamiliar, cold feeling uncoils in his chest when he sees Iruka join the players. Iruka glances around, then lifts his head and meets Kakashi’s gaze. There’s a question in his eyes, and Kakashi knows that if he looks too long, he might give in – but the game is stupid and boring and not something he would ever play - so Kakashi forces himself to look away.

Kakashi’s not the only one who isn’t playing. Shisui and Itachi Uchiha remain seated on the windowsill they’ve claimed earlier that evening, and Kakashi’s hardly surprised. The relationship between them has been an open secret for a while, and, given how deep the feelings ran, Kakashi fully expected the two to elope as soon as Itachi turned sixteen. Which, according to Obito, would inevitably lead to all kinds of scandals and drama within the clan, but Kakashi has long understood that any matter involving an Uchiha had no chance of staying drama-free.  

Ibiki and Aoba abstain as well. The two haven’t moved from their places on the other couch, and it’s evident to Kakashi that they have decided that their time’s better spent drinking than playing silly games.

A wise decision, Kakashi thinks, looking back to the people sitting on the floor.

The game starts – and it’s as dull as Kakashi had expected.

He watches Anko kiss Hayate, who kisses Raido, who gets to kiss Rin.

How unfortunate for Obito, Kakashi thinks distantly.

Rin spins the bottle, and it lands on Asuma, who gives her a quick peck on the lips before spinning the bottle himself – it lands on Shizune.

Kakashi can barely suppress a yawn. Iruka was right, the party was fun – at least until everyone started playing this stupid game – but now exhaustion is catching up with him. He cannot help but feel utterly bored…

…Until Genma spins the bottle and it lands on Iruka.

He watches as Genma places his hand on Iruka’s cheek, then slowly leans closer, and, suddenly, Kakashi feels a lump in his throat. He doesn’t want to see this, and yet he cannot look away. Genma kisses Iruka then – slowly, eagerly, burying his fingers in his hair to pull him closer. Just the way Kakashi always wanted to kiss Iruka.

The thought feels like a jolt of electricity, sending a shiver down his spine, and his head spins. What’s wrong with him, why is he thinking about Iruka that way?

It’s Iruka’s turn to spin the bottle now, and Kakashi’s breath hitches in his throat as his heart skips a beat. He doesn’t want to see Iruka kissing someone else.

The bottle lands on Tenzo, who – Kakashi can swear – quickly glances back at him over his shoulder before giving Iruka the briefest and the most chaste kiss that Kakashi has seen that evening. Kakashi sighs, overcome with a feeling of relief, and, as the game carries on, prays that the bottle never lands on Iruka again.

It must have been his lucky day – mercifully, the game dies down after a few rounds.

Kakashi gets up from the couch – he realizes he needs to talk to Iruka. He doesn’t know what he will say, and he’s scared, but the feeling bubbling in his chest makes it clear that if he stays quiet any longer, he might just explode. However, before he can reach Iruka, Guy appears in his path and attempts to rope Kakashi into a drinking contest. Drinking more could give him the necessary courage, Kakashi reasons and agrees.

In hindsight, he should have realized that a drinking contest with Guy wasn’t the smartest idea. By the time he loses – with an embarrassing point difference – Kakashi is so dizzy, he can hardly walk straight. Still, there’s only one thought in his mind – he needs to talk to Iruka, but he cannot see him as he looks around the room.

Where is he? Kakashi thinks, frantically, Has he left?

By the apartment door, Kakashi runs into Rin.

“He left a few minutes ago,” somehow, Rin seems to know who he’s looking for without even asking, “You should go now – you can still catch him.”

Kakashi does just that. As he rushes down the stairs into a small alley, he sees Iruka rounding the corner to another street.

“Iruka,” Kakashi calls out.

Iruka stops, then turns around, letting Kakashi catch up to him.

“I’m sorry, Kakashi,” Iruka offers with an apologetic smile, “I didn’t know you were leaving as well, else I would have waited for you. But you seemed so engrossed into your drinking contest with Guy, so I figured you’ll stay for longer.”

“That contest was definitely more than I could handle,” Kakashi laughs awkwardly, and Iruka nods but doesn’t respond.

As they walk side by side towards Iruka’s house, the silence stretches, and Kakashi desperately tries to come up with something to say. Usually, the silence between them was comfortable, but now Kakashi feels something heavy hanging in the air.  

“Thank you for convincing me to go to the party,” he starts, “It was rather fun.”

“It was,” Iruka readily agrees, “I knew you’d enjoy it – you should come out more often.”

“And that game you played looked rather interesting,” the alcohol is working its miracles because the words escape Kakashi’s lips before he can stop himself.

“Spin the bottle?” Iruka glances at him, puzzled, “It’s ok. But if you thought it was interesting, why didn’t you play?”

Kakashi looks into Iruka’s wondering eyes and feels his heart race. Since there is so much that cannot be said, he simply states, “Too many people.”

“Oh?” there is an unmistakable glint of amusement in Iruka’s eyes, “Well then, enlighten me, how many people isn’t “too many” for spin the bottle.”

“Two,” Kakashi shrugs nonchalantly, even though his own heartbeat threatens to drown him.

“Two?” Iruka laughs, “But then they won’t have anyone to kiss but each other.”

“Exactly,” Kakashi nods, then reaches out and grasps Iruka’s arm. Surprised, Iruka stops in his tracks and turns to Kakashi.

“For example, right now,” Kakashi continues, trying to hide the desperate flutter of his heart behind confident demeanor, “I think there’s a perfect number of people for a game like that.”

Heat rises in Kakashi’s cheeks as Iruka takes a step towards him.

“Oh my,” he chuckles, eyes not leaving Kakashi’s face, “What if I told you that I wouldn’t mind skipping the game part?”

Kakashi stares at him, confused until the realization dawns upon him.

Oh.

His gaze darts to Iruka’s almost indecently beautiful lips, then back to his eyes. Oh.

“Very well,” Kakashi leans closer to Iruka as one of his hands comes up to his mask.

“Do you want me to close my eyes?” Iruka asks, and Kakashi shakes his head.

“No,” Kakashi replies – he wants Iruka to see him.

Kakashi’s breath hitches in his throat as he slowly pulls down his mask, but as he sees the look on Iruka’s face, his heart soars – Iruka’s eyes are bright and full of wonder, and there’s so much indescribable tenderness in his gaze that it almost hurts.

“You are very handsome,” Iruka breathes out, closing the distance between them, “But I already knew that.”

Kakashi doesn’t remember leaning in – only the moment his lips touch Iruka’s. Though soft and featherlight at first, the kiss makes Kakashi completely dizzy, and he wraps his arms around Iruka’s waist, pulling him closer. Heat rises in Kakashi’s chest and spreads through his body as Iruka deepens the kiss, tangling his fingers in Kakashi’s hair. Iruka’s lips are so eager against his, so full of ardent hunger, and Kakashi lets himself get lost in the sensations.

If this was the last thing that happened to him, he knows he’d die a happy man.

To Kakashi’s chagrin, the kiss ends far too soon, but, as they pull away, flushed and breathless, he cannot help but smile – Iruka’s quite the sight with deep blush blooming on his cheeks, his hair tousled, and his lips swollen from their kisses.

“That was…” Kakashi breathes out, lost for words.  

“Yeah,” Iruka chuckles, pressing his forehead into Kakashi’s shoulder.  

Kakashi wraps his arms around Iruka, holding him tight.

“You know,” Iruka says, pulling away slightly, “I think you’ve convinced me – playing this game when it’s just the two of us is significantly more fun.”

Iruka’s smile – bright and warm – makes happiness bubble in Kakashi’s chest.

“Then how about we always play when it’s just the two of us?” Kakashi murmurs, leaning closer.

“I think that could be arranged,” Iruka laughs, then pulls him in for another kiss.

#kakashi hakate #iruka umino #kakairu #kakairu month 2021 #kkir

[cafeinthemoon]

Madara meeting his Uzumaki granddaughter during the War - Part IV (FINAL)

So, we’ve reached the final part... I hope you like this one as much as I liked to work on it, and beware of Madara’s Katon 😜

Title: ...

Genre: Fanfiction

Pairing: Madara Uchiha x Uzumaki!reader (family; no romantic)

Rating: teen | up

Word count: 2138

Chapter (s): 4/4

Warnings: canon divergences and some existential crisis, vapor blinding everyone, savage Tobirama waking reader up and Sasuke in the background like what is he even doing in this story lmao

Symbols: ✔ | ➕ | ▶▶

Read the previous parts here: Part I, Part II, Part III

Those were the first words that came from Madara’s mouth directly to you. You saw his smile widening. What was going on?

- Well done – he continued, his tone unchanged – This technique of yours is really impressive.

You held your breath, your hands shaking, unable to maintain the seal’s position. A muffled laugh was heard.

- You must be confused, child. I do not blame you. As you said, I am a man out of his time. So it is not a surprise that you cannot understand what you have in front of you. And this is why you believed such technique would work on me.

You stepped back, but it was the farthest you could go from him. Something in his chakra started to change, to grow, forcing you to gravitate toward him. Slowly, you felt your own chakra vanishing, escaping your control, and the signs of your jutsu – the chains and the golden seal around his head – started to disappear. The stakes’ size diminished, and they turned back to what they were before, simple hair pins. Without your chakra running through them, they fell to the floor.

When everything was gone, Madara stared at you, and you saw that his eyes were changed: instead of the red pattern of the Sharingan, there were lilac waves that you’ve only knew from pictures and which existence you doubt once: the Rinnegan.

- Now that we finished with this child’s play, we can talk properly – Madara said – Let me explain. This dojutsu you are seeing is known as the Rinnegan. It can absorb all ninjutsu, including sealing techniques. As you see, the problem is not with the technique itself. It is just that it wouldn’t work on me. So do not take it personally.

You were still quiet, still not believing it. The work of your entire life, your father’s heirloom, was contained and dismissed as nothing. How?

When you looked at your grandfather again, you noticed a new expression on his face, something between acknowledgment and nostalgia. He uncrossed his arms and started walking toward you. Yet you couldn’t move. You were so frustrated, so ashamed… It was when a sudden anger took over your senses, something that you thought to be from your Uchiha side, and you ran toward Madara. To attack him or to die, it didn’t matter.

In your way, you grabbed two of your pins and used your chakra to turn them into stakes again. With a scream, you jumped in front of him and started striking him with the stakes, combining them with every taijutsu move you were capable of remember. However, none of them could’ve hit him: he wasn’t even defending himself; he was just deflecting them with no difficulty. At some point, he grabbed one of the stakes and broke it as a dead branch; then he held your wrist and made you drop the second stake.

- This chakra of yours, child… – he said, looking into your eyes – Soaked in all this pride and anger… It is not an Uzumaki thing. It is from the Uchiha, though you have no dojutsu. Still, it’s so blatant you couldn’t expect to hide it from me.

- What...? – you mumbled.

Madara smiled with what you’d call softness in any other person.

- So, my son had his own child, and as I can see, he raised her well. Combining a sealing technique with dojutsu’s counteraction… It is so like him.

- But.. how do you…?

- Why the surprise? – he laughed – Of course I would recognize something created by my son. Even more the reminiscence of his chakra on his offspring... my granddaughter.

You weren’t sure of how to feel about this, being acknowledged by Madara as part of his family. But he didn’t give you time to think.

- Yes. I figured it out once I put my eyes on you – he explained.

Still holding you by the wrist, he made you approach.

- As it used to happen with your father, there’s something in you that reminds me of Izuna, my little brother. Maybe it is the way you are looking at me now, or anything else – then the nostalgic trait came back to his face – A child who has Uchiha and Uzumaki blood running in her veins. If only I have found you before… I would not waste my time with Nagato and Obito. I would have left my Rinnegan with you, and you would have prepared everything for my return.

With his free hand, Madara touched your chin and made you look directly into his eyes. You didn’t even consider closing yours; you have no time to react.

- Still, it is not too late. Listen. I am now offering you an opportunity, child. I am creating something that will save the people of this world from all their misery, and you can join me in this. Join your family, and help me to help your friends. Think of what is best for them. A wise person would do so.

You started to drown in his words and his eyes. There, you saw something. You saw everything. His childhood; his father; his brother, Izuna, who was really like your father. You saw Hashirama as a child, and he and Madara playing together. You saw your grandfather’s life, the battles he fought, his passion and his dreams. You also saw his loss, his rage and his fear. You felt his suffering as your own. You mourned and cried with him. There were so much that you didn’t know, that your father didn’t tell you, that Kakashi and the others could never imagine, never understand. And Madara survived all of this, and managed to come back. All of this must have served for something. Maybe this was indeed a chance to save people from suffering the same as him. Maybe he was right, maybe…

A sudden scream cut the air and came to you as if you were coming out of a nightmare. It was the Yondaime’s voice.

- Y/n-san! Do not listen to him!

Then the Nidaime’s voice joined his.

- Y/n-san, do not be a fool!

And finally, the Shodai’s.

- This is not what your father would want, y/n-san!

Somehow, their advice interfered in the jutsu and gave you the strength you needed to look into Madara’s eyes and stand your ground.

- Do not take it personally, grandpa, but I think you should really go back to the other side – you smirked – I’m not joining you, not now, not in a million years. Besides, I don’t like being called a child!

You tried to release your wrist and step back to join the Hokages and think of a new plan, but you soon found out you couldn’t move. You started to choke, and your feet no longer felt the ground under them. With his right hand, Madara was now grabbing your throat.

- If you do not like to be called a child, you should not behave like one – his tone changed to something impossible to describe but as monstrous – I gave you a chance, but you wasted it. Since this is the choice you’ve made, be ready to pay price for it.

Shaking your feet and trying to take his hands off you was useless. You could wait for Minato or Tobirama to use their seals and take you away, but you didn’t have much time. What were you going to do? You needed to think, and quick…

So you didn’t exactly think of it. It just happened. You realized that if you could put all your weight in Madara’s grip, you’d gain a second of distraction from him. So you did it, and when he seemed to wonder what you were trying to do, you pressed your right foot on his chest to get some support; then you wrapped his right arm with your left leg and turned around yourself to release your throat from his hand and hit him with your right ankle. The pain was unbearable and your lungs burned without air, but it worked. Madara released you and defended himself from your strike with his arm.

You fell on the floor and stood there, lying on your back and coughing. The last thing you saw was the hand seal he made to perform a Katon technique. You covered your eyes and felt the air burn as it entered your nostrils; you thought your skin was about to melt. You were about to die…

The sound of a flow invaded the space around you. When you were able to open your eyes, you saw a water wall in front of you, stopping the fire’s spread: Tobirama was beside you, using his Suiton. A second later and your vision was all blurry, for the collision between the two opposite Releases created a dense, yellowish vapor. You tried to stand up, but someone took you in their arms and you were moved.

When you looked around, you saw it was Minato.

- Yondaime…! – you tried to speak, but the hot air entered your throat and you coughed again.

- Please, do not speak now, y/n-san – you heard him saying – Let’s find a place out of this vapor wall.

He used his Hiraishin again and the change in the air was so sudden that you startled. You were now on a higher place; you blinked a few times until the burning sensation disappeared from your eyes, and you could see clearly again: the night seemed darker than you remembered, or it was just the vapor’s effect. The air you were breathing now was freezing.

Minato put you down once you reached that place, but stood by your side, holding your shoulders. You were shaking. You raised your eyes to him, and started crying even before you noticed.

- Yondaime… I failed – it was the only thing you were capable to say.

But it wasn’t deception nor desperation what you saw in his face. His first response to your words was to smile.

- Take some rest, y/n-san – he asked – You did an impressive job, but it might have drained your energy.

Sakura, the girl from Kakashi’s team, approached you and stretched her hands to examine your throat.

- It’s not too serious. I can quickly heal it.

- Thank you, Sakura-san – you replied as she used her medical ninjutsu in you.

Right behind her, Naruto Uzumaki had his eyes wide open to you.

- That final strike you used against Madara was incredible, y/n-san! – he stated – I bet even he was impressed.

Kakashi was there too, and so was Sasuke.

- It seems that Madara had more information that we first imagined – Kakashi deliberated, looking down at the valley from where you just escaped – This can be a problem as big as his power as a shinobi.

For a moment, no one seemed to have a response for this. You looked down, feeling your hope vanishing. Sakura finished her work, and your pain was gone. You noticed that she had a serious look, but even her was finding hard to maintain any positivity. Everyone’s chakra was growing colder, drowning in frustration, and yours was no exception.

It was when you sensed a change in Minato’s chakra, close to you. He held your shoulders more firmly and looked at each of you. You thought that, more than ever, he was looking like the Hokage he must have been in the past.

First, he looked at you and Sakura.

- Giving up right now would be disrespectful to the long way we’ve traveled to get where we are.

Then to his son and Sasuke.

- The Shodai, the Nidaime, the Sandaime, the other Kages and every shinobi that came to fight are doing their best right now. We cannot stay behind.

Finally, he turned to Kakashi.

- I’m sure the Nidaime is forming a new plan at this moment, and the Shodai is using all his strength to stand between Madara and us. They are counting on us.

Minato just said the his last word, and someone teleported to your side. It was Tobirama’s clone. As he soon informed, he came to state the new strategy he created with his brother and to say that they were going to need all the help you could offer. All of you nodded in agreement, and then the clone explained the plan.

You sensed your chakra calming down at his words. The Yondaime was right. Not everything you did was a failure. It was information and the secret of the Rinnegan that put Madara one step ahead. Besides, you knew it was not going to be easy. But the war was far from its end.

And as long as you not gave up on it, there would be hope for you.

#naruto fanfiction #madara fanfiction #madara #madara x reader #hashirama #tobirama #minato #kakashi #naruto #sakura #sasuke

[rinneqan]

dancing (1/2); hatake kakashi

hatake kakashi x reader | 1.9k words

genre: fluff

summary: you and kakashi have stood beside each other for as long as anyone could remember. everyone one could see the chemistry between the two of you, yet the both of you were oblivious, until kakashi suddenly gets bold and asks you to dance.

a/n: this is my first piece of writing being published! i’ve been sitting on this idea for so long and it has finally come to fruition. inspired by dancing by mellow fellow :D

part 2 

masterlist ♥︎

You and Kakashi went way back. From dealing with Obito's antics and dealing with the loss of his team, you were always there beside him no matter how many times he pushed you away. Like a moth to a flame you were always fluttering beside him, unwavering. He would never admit it, but he grew fond of your presence and yearned for your company when you were away on missions. The way you seemed to fill his empty home with life and energy revitalized him and after dealing with an endless amount of loneliness, he didn't want to let go of you. Almost everyone around the two of you could see the chemistry, but you two were absolutely oblivious. The other jonin could see it and even Team Seven could see it.

You frequently tagged along to Team Seven's training sessions and Sakura adored your company.

"Hey, Y/N-sensei. Are you and Kakashi-sensei dating?" She asked with a coy smile on her face.

You choked on your water and Sakura began laughing at your expression. Your cheeks turned a light pink as the rest of Team Seven looked at your hunched over figure. Naruto overheard Sakura's question and soon a plan formed between the two genin. Naruto walked over to you and Sakura and continued to egg you on.

"We all see the way Kakashi-sensei looks at you Y/N!" The blonde was relentless with his teasing and even Sasuke became interested in the conversation. Your rush to instantly deny the accusations continued to deepen the blush upon your cheeks. Never in your life did you expect this from the innocent little Team Seven. Eventually, the silver haired ninja came to your rescue.

"Don't you think we should stop teasing Y/N?" He smiled with closed eyes and a copy of Icha-Icha Paradise in his hands. Sakura and Naruto whined while Sasuke kissed his teeth.

You laughed at the way the team groaned. "Don't whine so much what about going to Ichiraku's. Completely on me!"

Naruto's eyes sparkled as he tackled you into a hug. "You're the best Y/N! You should be our sensei instead!"

You laughed and ruffled Naruto's hair. Kakashi cleared his throat and he placed his book into his pocket. "You guys go ahead with Y/N. I have a few things I need to catch up on." and disappeared with a puff of white smoke.

---

Kakashi made his way down the dimmed paths of the village carefully avoiding all the places you could be at. These feelings have been brewing inside of him ever since he was in the academy. You made a home in his heart and continued to burrow deeper and deeper until you found his very core. It wasn't the first time he had to confront this inner turmoil. He once went out for drinks with Kurenai and Asuma and the pair would not stop talking about you and him.

"Wouldn't they be so cute together, Asuma?"

"We're all placing bets on when you get together Kakashi. Don't disappoint me!"

Even Tsunade was in on it and tried to pair you two for missions as much as possible. Her excuse was always "You two work great as a team!" He couldn't deny it. You two were amazing on the battlefield, but seeing you in danger always made him afraid. You were one of the most precious things to him and losing you was not an option. He enjoyed having you by his side, but it always hurt. He didn't like seeing people flirt with you at bars and absolutely hated seeing you heartbroken. The few times you ran to his house and cried in his arms were absolutely terrible. No one deserved to treat you like trash and he would not allow it. He was the one who picked up your pieces and fixed you up.

Kakashi let out a sigh as he walked into his home and flopped on his bed. Feelings were truly difficult and troublesome. He didn't understand your mind, but he hoped that you reciprocated his feelings.

---

A few days later Kakashi found you walking out from the grocery store. He tapped your shoulder and you turned your head around. You smiled at him and he walked beside you. He could see you struggle to carry your bags and he took one from your hands.

"Kakashi, you don't have to. I could've carried them myself." You spoke with a pout on your face.

He chuckled "Just let me carry this for now."

The walk back to your house was fairly silent. You could tell that something was on his mind and it bothered you. He was frequently known for bottling up his emotions and opinions and you wanted to change that. Before the two of you got to your front door, you turned to him.

"Kakashi, if there's something you need to get off your chest I'm always here to talk. You should know that by now."

He turned to you with eyes wide and sent praises to gods thanking them for his mask so you couldn't see the growing blush on his cheeks. He knew his time was running short and you were about to unlock your front door.

"W-would you like to go to the festival with me tonight?" He cursed himself for stuttering and prayed that you wouldn't tease him for it. His prayers went unnoticed as you let out a laugh. 

"Of course I'll go with you, silly. I don't know why you're embarrassed about it." You opened your door and placed the two bags inside.

"I'll see you later then, Kashi." You smiled at him and closed the door in his face. 

He stood shell shocked. Curse that damn nickname! Nothing had embarrassed him as much as this encounter. He walked away with his hands in his pockets, elated, yet also anxious for what was to come. 

Once you knew he had left the area, you yelled. Thoughts were racing. Of course you loved him. Who wouldn't? The friend zone was becoming way too comfortable for your liking yet you didn't want to jeopardize your friendship. People constantly told you that he liked you, but who would believe them. Hatake Kakashi, The Copy-cat Ninja, the son of the White Fang, liked you. Your brain blanked out and suddenly you found yourself in your bedroom preparing for tonight's festivities.  

The village was in full swing. Children running around from stall to stall holding sticks of dango and trays of takoyaki. The hazy glow of the lights strung on each stall put a filter over the village and almost made you forget that you were walking with Kakashi. You could hear the voices of Team Seven in your head along with Kurenai teasing you without fail. You zoned out and soon got lost in the crowd. You looked up and Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.

"Hold my hand, it would be a shame for you to get lost tonight." 

You blushed heavily and looked up at Kakashi. His hand was held out. You hesitated for a  bit before placing your hand in his.

"His hands feel so nice. They fit just right. Where else would they fit just r- NO!"  It seemed like your inner thoughts were betraying you tonight.

"When did I become so bold. Am I really gonna do this tonight? Oh god, what if she rejects me? She can't! Who could resist m- UGH!"  On the other hand, Kakashi was also dealing with his internal dialogue.

The both of you could imagine what would happen if their friends found you together holding hands. You'd never live this down and neither would Kakashi.

"Care to join me for a dance, Y/N?" Kakashi looked at you with a smile. 

"I don't mind at all." You smiled up at him.

He placed a hand on your waist and you two swayed to the music gently playing in the background. It all seemed like a dream and you never wanted to wake up. You kept your eyes glued to the ground until his hand found it's place under your chin.

"Eyes up Y/N, it makes you dance worse when you look at your feet."

You looked up at him with flared cheeks. "We're not even dancing properly! There's not much to mess up!" Your eyes made their way back to your feet.

"I know. I just like looking at your eyes." 

Even with your face down, he could probably tell you were blushing madly. Curse this man for making you feel like putty in his hands!  The two of you soon loosened up and enjoyed the festival to the fullest extent.

---

Kakashi offered to walk you back home but you wanted to hold on to the fleeting remnants of the night. You hummed a tune and took his hands in yours. 

"Indulge me in another dance, Kashi. I swear I'll make it worth your time." You flashed a smile at him and he spun you around. 

"Y'know Y/N, I've always dreamed of dancing with you, just like this." He pulled you in closer and you let a chorus of laughs slip out of your lips. 

"Oh really now? I'm glad your dreams managed to come true, Hatake." 

"There's still one thing I still need to ask you though" You both swayed down the village paths.

"I was always too embarrassed to ask you this. Hell, I'm practically shaking right now. I appreciate you for sticking by me through all of these years and I cherish those memories with you so much but I want to make more meaningful ones. I guess what I'm saying is that I love you Y/N. I've always loved you and I don't think I'll ever stop loving you. Even when you grow old and your skin gets all saggy, I'll still look at you like you put the stars in the sky." 

You stopped in your tracks and looked up at him. It seemed almost as if the world stopped. The insects quieted down in anticipation. The wind stopped blowing almost as if the world wanted to hear your response. Kakashi could hear his racing heartbeat and wanted nothing more in this moment but to disappear. He could feel the fear settling in and he wanted to run for the hills. Your eyes softened and you grinned from ear to ear. Kakashi closed his eyes. Rejection was something he absolutely feared. You could feel the tears pricking your eyes. You've dreamed of this moment ever since you were little. The amount of happiness that spread throughout your body was absolutely addicting. This was the man you wanted to spend 'forever' with. The one person in your life that truly understood your being as you did with him. 

You ran up to him, pulled his mask down, and kissed him. You didn't care if it hurt. You didn't care about anything. You wanted him to fully understand how much he meant to you and vice versa. You pulled away from the kiss and laughed. The shared gaze you two shared was truly electric and magnetic. You placed two shaky hands on the sides of his face and grinned.

"I love you too, Kakashi." 

And in this moment, it seemed as if the stars aligned. Two halves of the same whole becoming one again and the universe rejoiced. You two pulled away for air and Kakashi looked at you with nothing but adoration in his eyes. He placed his forehead on yours and embraced you. 

"I hope I can keep on dancing with you."

#kakashi x you #kakashi x y/n #kakashi x reader #naruto imagines #naruto #naruto shippuden #reader insert #hatake kakashi #kakashi hatake

[the-letter-horror-lover]

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 31: Levels Two, Three, and Four

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

As expected, they resumed the first level at the top of the next morning. Obito had slept hard and had to stretch to make sure he was limber enough to fight, and he was still rolling his shoulders as they called out the first matchup. Silently, he wondered how many other people had thought the first round was over the previous day.

“Morino Ibiki and Funeno Daikoku.”

The match went about the way he had expected, with the former defeating the latter, but it seemed the loser demonstrated a lot of different abilities in the process. It was nothing special or overly powerful, but all the techniques were well-executed.

“He looks like he’s been in these exams before,” Kakashi said. “Last time he got to the third round, I’m betting he didn’t get promoted because he fought too conservatively. Depending on how he placed last time, they might give it to him this time, who knows.”

No one had a response to that. They watched the next fighter, Nara Daen lined up and waited for his opponent to arrive. Gekko Hayate showed up, apologizing, but it seemed no one was overly bothered. Drawing a sword, he was restrained by the shadows coming from his opponent.

“He must have never gone up against an enemy like that before,” Rin said. “He’s a good swordsman, but all his abilities rely on getting up close.” She sighed. “Even when we were just looking at the scrolls, we knew that this matchup was going to be… I don’t know, unfair.”

“Maybe they wanted to show off the shadow ability,” Obito suggested. He had heard of it, but never seen it himself. “They must’ve figured he’d use it against a dude with a sword.” As he spoke, Daen got out a shuriken and prepared to throw it, prompting his opponent to surrender rather than taking a hit and having the match get called just like that.

“Shadow clones are useless against the Nara clan’s kekkei genkai,” Kakashi observed. “Even if you’re not touching the ground, it can still reach you.”

The next match saw Tokara going up against Minazuki Yuki, and it went much like the first match of the morning. As expected, the latter was older than the former, and had probably been in a previous exam, and Obito briefly checked through his memory to see if he could discern any consistency with the order in which the names were called out, but he shook his head after a moment. There had been so many matches, most of them on the previous day, that he had forgotten little details like that. Despite the fact that Tokara was younger, he managed to win with taijutsu and demonstrated mercy when it seemed like the other combatant was not about to make it a fight to the death. It was one of the refreshing matches, at least for the nerves of some of the spectators. The rest were disappointed.

The final match of the first level was Akimichi Shitou, who must have made it through along with Daen when Obito had not been watching, and Inuzuka Gaku, whose tattoos made him squint. He looked over at Rin.

“Is the Nohara family related to his family?”

“No, we were enemies once. During the clan wars, we were squared up against each other in this deadlock for a small valley, and the face tattoos were a way of telling us apart.” She sighed. “Since we come from the same place and look similar, or some of us do, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some affairs, but we’re not recorded anywhere as being family. It’s strange. We still do the tattoos, even though we’re not enemies anymore, and now people think we’re distant relatives.”

Gaku had brought with him a dog named Aomaru, to whom he called out right as the fight began. It seemed borderline unfair that they were allowed to bring in ninken, but he supposed that the Inuzuka clan had been there since the founding, and everyone else was allowed to use summons, which were almost the same thing. They seemed to be trying to save strength against the Akimichi until he used a rather bizarre technique to grow three times his original size.

“Ostentatious,” Genma observed from behind them. “If you guys go up against him, you’d better win it.”

“I don’t think that’s very likely,” Kakashi said right as Gaku used a fire technique on the wooden stage, reducing the amount of area available for both of them. Keeping out of the way, he only had to wait for the boards to crack for an opening, at which point he ran up his opponent’s body and punched him in the head a few times. The match was called and that was it for the first level of the bracket, and as the next matchups had probably already been chosen, the second level could go ahead and start.

“That ended pretty quickly,” Obito said. “I know it doesn’t depend on the matchup, but…”

“The length of a match is hard to control. Most of what determines it is their standard for a victory condition, but even then you can have people dragging out actually hitting each other properly like Kurenai and Kagero. The venue just has to be flexible around matches like that unless they want to impose a time limit, which has never been received well.”

“Why not?” Rin asked.

“Well, what usually happens is they spend the entire time demonstrating their techniques, even those that wouldn’t work in combat, and it becomes more like a competitive display than a fight,” Genma said. “Don’t worry about it, though. A lot of us have a good chance of becoming Chunin, given that we made it here at all.”

“I mean, I guess the last round was pretty hard,” he said, thinking on the Forest in which he narrowly avoided meeting with his own death.

“It’s even better for us if you do well, though, so my fate’s tied with yours, Kakashi. You’ve got to win it all.”

“We’ll see.”

The officials explained that all the combatants from the previous round were willing to continue for the next, and it would start immediately, with Oyashiro En and Iburi Gotta. Obito’s first thought was that they were trying to get rid of the one hot water guy that made it through, but he supposed it had been an impressive display against Tekka.

“They didn’t ask us if we were willing to continue,” Rin said. “I guess there’s no point, though.”

The two fighters took the stage, but it looked like there was someone they really should have asked. Despite Gotta’s ability that he had demonstrated in fighting and winning against Raidou, who was still the star of Asuma’s team, even if he did not entirely carry it, he looked frightened. No one could tell what they were saying, but the body language was like a lit sign in the dark.

“Are they working out some kind of deal?” Kakashi asked. “What’s the point of all this back and forth?” The spectators looked about as restless.

“Do they ever call the match just because two people have no wish to fight each other?” Obito asked.

“Maybe, but this looks pretty one-sided,” Genma said. “Hey, Ebisu, what did the officials say that one time?”

“They said they have nothing against pitting teammates against each other in the later stages. They must not be trying to hide that they decide the matchups at every level of the bracket.”

En was the only ninja on the stage in a matter of minutes, and the spectators deduced that his opponent had surrendered either out of fear or some agreement. They wore confused expressions, and were probably even more put out that they did not know what happened than the fact that they did not get to see a fight.

“Hatake Kakashi and Might Guy,” an examiner called out.

“I change my mind,” Genma said as soon as they left. “Guy can beat him if he wants.”

“This is obviously a grudge match,” Rin muttered. “I mean, there is no use at all in complaining about it, but it was around four years ago, I think, when they last fought. Do they really think that those two are rivals?”

“They are,” Obito said. “It’s just that they don’t really say it.”

The two fighters took the stage and did not disappoint the crowd. Based on what he had done in his previous match, it was easy, at least for him, to tell that Guy was taking it seriously and opening some of his gates right off the bat, and Kakashi surrounded him with shadow clones. Without access to the earth beneath the stage, he could not make use of his elemental manipulation, but he was still a bag of tricks that could surprise anyone.

Rolling into a catch when the taijutsu specialist threw a kick, the White Fang’s son stabbed his opponent hard in the leg with a kunai before making a clone behind him disappear, but if this had been a trick to get his opponent to think that he was a shadow clone himself, it did not work. Kakashi took a solid punch, though it hit his jaw rather than his head, probably due to a last-second shift.

“You’re lucky to get a second to dodge,” Obito observed. “Nothing to do but make the most of it.” Moments later, he attempted to disguise his presence among clones, but Guy was fast enough to make each of them disappear, and his opponent had said something at one point about having relatively low chakra reserves. The air crackled around his hand as he jumped out and attempted another attack, surprising everyone, but his opponent managed to open another gate and kick him square in the chest, knocking him against the stands. The crowd went wild, seeing the first exciting match of the day.

“Nohara Rin and Sarutobi Asuma,” an examiner called out.

It was a matchup that no one among them expected, least of all the actual competitors. The other team was watching from a different section of the seating area, and a few shrugs went up between them before Asuma took to the stage. It was clear enough that they had expected it to be Kurenai.

“Do your best,” Obito said, leaving out that Sandaime would probably be embarrassed if his son failed to make it past the second round, and against a medic type no less. Rin’s chakra control was superb and she could evidently hold her own in a fight, but basic fire release jutsu were not going to cut it. Their predictions were fulfilled almost immediately. Rather than using wind release that she could exploit, he charged forward with the knives and to his credit managed to identify the real opponent out of the smoke clones that she made. Forcing her into a backwards dodge of his blade, he kicked her hard in the head and the match was called.

From the stands, no one could quite determine if she lost consciousness, or for how long, but they were instantly murmuring that the Hokage’s son should have been more careful. Kakashi rejoined him while the medic ninjas were looking her over before moving her. At the very least, she was making things easy on them, anticipating their procedures.

“She should be okay,” he said. “She’s gotten back up from this before.” He looked back at his other teammate. “What was that jutsu you were trying to use against Guy?”

“It doesn’t matter now, does it?”

He had no answer for that, or not one that would make any difference. Rin was pronounced okay and allowed to return to the stands, while her opponent looked relieved. Obito had something on his mind.

“I hate to say it, but do you think they wanted him to win?” he asked. “We know she didn’t have any advantages that she could exploit. It’s not supposed to matter who wins, but…”

“It’s possible,” Kakashi said after a moment. “I don’t think we should mention it to her, though. She’s probably satisfied that she didn’t have to fight Kurenai.”

His black eyes narrowed. He had not specifically said it, but he highly doubted his teammate was interested in sparing Rin’s feelings, if that was what he was implying. The next pair of fighters was announced; Hoheto was going up against Jin, the Cha kunoichi with the bow.

“Oh, this one might be good. I really can’t say who is going to win this one.”

Rin rejoined them as the two competitors took to the stage, and they watched as the Hyuga used a mass shadow clone to practically fill the stage up. His opponent slashed out with an arrow to clear the area around her, but even as she drew and readied a shot, each of the copies of her opponent made the two hand signs for the shadow clone technique, and right as she appeared to single out the real one, Hoheto used a basic Katon and the match was called before he burned her to death. Immediately after, he passed out from chakra exhaustion.

“That was a bold strategy,” Obito observed as the examiners looked over the competitors. “He really pushed the envelope on that one.”

“Yeah, and if he doesn’t recover his chakra before the next match, he’s going to have a hard time with it. It’s probably going to be today, so he should really only have a few hours.”

It was his turn next, and the sinking feeling started right around then if he remembered correctly. He was going up against Shiin, from Oto, who was without a doubt more powerful than he was, and he felt like he had nothing up his sleeve. With another month, if he worked with the others, he felt certain that he could work out the secret of the technique of the scrolls Minato had given them to study, but he had been extremely busy to say the least.

“Maybe I should just focus on demonstrating techniques and not worry about winning. I’ll have to get close to keep him from using the flute. Can I get it out of his hands?”

Taking to the stage, he knew that making shadow clones was futile. The sound technique was going to work on all of them at once, and he doubted that drowning it out would work. The ninja from Oto had a smug expression as he took out the flute and Obito remembered in a flash that the other guy was only paralyzed after listening to a certain amount of the song, which itself had to be a series of musical seals.

Screaming, he charged forward and threw a series of punches. The enemy might have been capable in taijutsu, but he had trained against the especially slippery Rin and he had two of his hands occupied. While playing the flute, he summoned some monster that there was no time to properly observe, and Obito only just managed to avoid getting flattened. Against a wall, there was no point in conserving his chakra and he used the strongest fire technique he knew.

“Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu!” he screamed, creating a massive flame that the summon was forced to absorb himself rather than allow Shiin to get engulfed by it. Throwing three kunai with the last of his strength, he managed to get a lucky strike on his enemy’s shin at a low angle, hitting him from between the monster’s burning legs. Looking back on it, the only reason he had managed it was because the summon obscured his enemy’s vision. Running around, he jammed his fingers in his ears and kicked out with his feet, but his opponent had the height advantage. They traded blows once before Obito started to use another fire technique, sucking the air up, then aborted it right as the enemy missed a note. Launching himself forward, he grabbed the enemy and punched him hard in the face, wrapping his legs around his body to hold on and continuing with the relentless punching. Having thrown the three kunai he had on him at the time, his opponent’s search for a weapon on him did not produce results before he was knocked out.

The result was unexpected to just about everyone watching. The victor was exhausted and ignored the response of the crowd as he fell on his back and had to be carried back to the stands by a thankfully recovered Kakashi and Guy. It was with complete disbelief that he made it to the third level along with the taijutsu specialist who was congratulating him in his usual spirited manner, though he was not exactly listening. Rin was healing him from the few hits he had taken and he smiled and thanked her.

“The next two are Kurenai and Anko,” she said, looking up briefly. “You need to rest rather than watch this. We’ll fill you in if you miss anything.

He was grateful, to be sure, but he was already thinking about surrendering rather than fighting through the next match. Getting to the third round along with Guy, En, Asuma, Hoheto, and probably Anko was plenty impressive, and he would like to test himself further, but he knew there was something else going on and he would need to be strong enough for that. In a few minutes, his suspicions were confirmed.

“Is Kurenai all right?” he asked, still lying on the ground.

“She’ll be fine,” Kakashi said. “She called it before it could get that bad. I think she only wanted to burn the enemy’s chakra. There were a few impressive genjutsu.”

Obito could not have said what it was, but he went red when Rin looked over him again. He no longer remembered enough about what he might have been imagining or what it felt like, but he knew that it distracted him from hearing about the next matchup. He knew from asking later that it was Tokara against Daen. It seemed better to try to focus on recovering.

“That’s what the officials said?” Genma asked quietly. It seemed he was having his own conversation with Ebisu. “As long as they can’t do anything about it-“

“Cha and Yu have both been our allies for decades. We have no reason to suspect either of them. Oto, however-“

“Even if they’ve been working with us, they’ve been on the point of a knife for that long,” Genma said. “In the first world war, we were even on good terms with Suna. An alliance is just as suspect as neutrality. The only thing we can trust is that our enemies want to kill us.”

“Is this about Uzu-“

“There’s very little that can’t be made about them. They were all buddy-buddy with Rai once upon a time, and Kumogakure still acts like they mourn the loss of the Uzumaki. They still act like they took in refugees. It costs them nothing to-”

Both of them looked over at Obito, who was not trying to disguise the fact that he was watching. He frowned.

“It’s not as simple as we thought, then,” he said. “Do you think Cha is trying to set us up?”

“I still think we should suspect our actual enemies,” Ebisu said. “We should not underestimate their ability to infiltrate our Chunin exams. When all eyes are on the matches-“

“There’s security here,” Genma said. “We even sent our own exam team to watch the perimeter. Any threat is coming from the inside-“

Guy and Kakashi seemed to take notice of the conversation, at which point it was over. Obito had not thought about it, but looking back on it, he realized it should have been obvious that all the other teams were putting on a front just like his own. They acted like they were united, but really they were just keeping their problems hidden.

“The match is over. Tokara managed to win at the cost of taking several hits before his fire jutsu forced Daen to surrender.”

“That’s good to know.”

“I realize you and Ebisu are knocked out at this point, but it’s still a learning experience. The candidates here are putting powerful techniques on display at the risk of losing their secrets.”

Kakashi’s explanation made perfect sense, but it was obvious, even at the time, that he had something else in mind. Was he put off by the lack of trust that Genma was showing? Something that made the Shinobi Rules difficult to follow was the apparent contradiction between rule 10, which forbade trust, and rule 13, requiring that a ninja follow his commander’s orders. Were they meant to trust their commanders or not?

“Thanks,” Obito said. “With a little luck, they’ll put me against Tokara and give us both time to recover.” He was having a hard time imagining how the fight against Daen would have gone, but basically it stood to reason that someone who could counter close range attacks would have more trouble with mid to long range fire jutsu. “What’s left?”

“It’s just Ibiki and Gaku. They’re taking the stage now that the medic ninjas are looking over the other guy.” Getting up, he decided it would not take too much energy to watch them, especially if he had to fight one. Right as he got to the railing, the Inuzuka was using a transformation jutsu, joining with the dog to result in a bizarre bipedal beast. His opponent responded by summoning metal spikes.

“That’s definitely not a nature transformation,” he said, mostly to himself. “I haven’t heard of anyone who can use metal release anyway.”

Gaku managed to avoid the spikes after the initial shock, but moved with a limp as he raced around, jumping at his opponent with a series of animal attacks that proved just as difficult to avoid. Even the spectators could tell the fight was going to end bloody, and they were cheering. Obito scowled. Why was the general public even invited?

“Hey, Genma,” he asked as the ninja and ninken were forced to separate. “I know you said that the people of Cha want to preserve their own culture. Does that mean they hate us?”

“If you’re wondering why they’re cheering when they see two of ours tear each other apart, they’ve been doing that for almost all of the matches.” He seemed to think for a moment. “No, I don’t think they really hate people from Konoha, exactly, but they might hate us if we make a mess of things.”

Ibiki grabbed the dog, ignoring it when the animal pissed on him, and was about to bring him down on the spikes when the owner surrendered. It was a move that probably would have made him exceedingly unpopular among the spectators, as he gathered from the hush that seemed to have fallen.

“What?” Obito asked. “Seriously? If he tried to kill a dog, then-“

“They also got like this when I stabbed that kunoichi from Yu in the butt,” Rin said. “Oh, it’s fine when we’re killing each other, but when something happens to an animal, or a girl’s butt, then it’s serious. It’s not all fun and games anymore.”

It was a day earlier, but he could perfectly recall her standing there with blood on her face, and he realized that part of what set her off was looking around at the stands. By her own admission, Miku had been trying to kill her, and that might not have excited the crowd. It was doubtful they wanted to see Rin’s organs, had she not managed to avoid a downward sword stroke, calculating that the blade would get stuck in the wooden stage for a moment. The crowd had to have been aware that the alternative to victory was death, so what was the problem?

“I don’t get using ninken,” Guy said after a moment. “Are they able to protect themselves as well as human partners?”

“No, but your damage output is substantially higher,” Kakashi said. “There are all sorts of other uses for them, like tracking and diagnosing seals. The only problem is if you’re not capable of sacrificing them.”

There it was; the difference between the shinobi and everyone else, yet again made evident. In the village, there were those who insisted that normal people and their normal ways were getting in the way of teaching kids the Shinobi Rules. Kids were growing up with this unspoken understanding, for example, that their emotions were morally relevant.

“I mean… sure, they have to be able to sacrifice the dogs in a war, but who’d sacrifice them just for the Chunin exams?” Obito asked after a moment. “That’s probably why some of the people watching were so shocked- Ibiki was about to kill the dog just to win the exam. I’m not going to get onto him for that; Gaku obviously brought him here, but I think a lot of the spectators don’t realize how serious the fights are.” He sighed. “I don’t think a lot of them are aware that kids and teenagers are trying to kill each other.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. Is it only necessary in war, though?” Kakashi asked. “They don’t have to be able to sacrifice the ninken for a B or C-Rank mission?”

“I don’t know, but they’re the owners of the dogs, so there’s nothing to do but trust their judgement. If they seriously think the dog is worth more than the contract reward, then you can’t say they’re not being rational.”

“There’s more to it than that,” his teammate continued. “The Hokage recently gave us missions that entrusted us with the peace of the known world. Our commanders need to be able to trust us to follow the Shinobi rules, and that’s not just when the mess is already made-“

Their conversation was interrupted when an examiner announced that everyone who made it to the third round was invited to a complementary lunch during the midday break between the rounds. Quietly, he supposed it was a way of raising the anticipation, and quite possibly giving everyone outside the time to realize that the tournament was heating up.

“We’ll see you when you get back,” Rin said. “Stick close to Guy; I don’t like your odds against some of those jerks by yourself.”

“Yeah,” he said, thinking of En. If Tekka had so much trouble in the first round, he knew he had no chance. “Can you find out what happened to people who got knocked out while we’re gone?”

“Sure,” she said, not seeming concerned with his reasoning. She had her own, as it would turn out.

He walked with Guy and they kept pace with Anko as soon as they saw her, keeping an eye out for her teammates. Having half-expected his eccentric friend to sprint all the way to the restaurant, he was surprised at his restraint, and then a little annoyed at himself. Of course he could save his strength when it was time; he had only just opened some of his gates against Kakashi.

“Hey, have you ever had any problem obeying the Shinobi Rules?” he asked. “That might be a weird question.”

“No,” Guy said after a moment. “That does not mean that I never shall, though.”

“I guess it’s the same for me,” he said. “I guess I’m already thinking about having a conflict with the rules and what I’m going to do when I get there.”

They knew that the rules were developed during the clan wars, so after Ninshuu had already effectively fallen apart. What surprised him somewhat was that people as far away as Kiri would know about the rules, when he could have sworn that Madara had come up with a few of them himself. It was also strange that they knew the rules when they claimed to be the true practitioners of the religion, even if they called the Mind of Water.

Obito walked along the clean streets and admired the old wooden constructions of all the houses and other buildings, assuming there was some code that prohibited any other material and style. It was starting to sound like a real pain to set up in the land of tea, but he supposed as long as the locals thought all the red tape was worth it, then it was. Ibiki was waiting at the door when they arrived just behind Anko, and silently he was thankful that he could probably count on him to side with Guy and himself if things suddenly turned violent for some reason. A voice in the back of his mind asked him how he was so certain, if he doubted that the Morino had any moral character, and at least by that night, he would admit to himself that it was because the young man had unflagging loyalty to Konoha and always obeyed the rules.

“Table for eight,” En said as soon as he showed up. “I’m sure there’s already a reservation.”

“There is,” the older waitress said, squinting at Tokara, who must have been held up by the medical ninjas. “We were just making sure all eight of you recognized each other. I can’t tell you how many times one of you sneaky little bastards have tried to use some trick to get out of paying.”

To his moderate shame, he had never done it himself, but Obito could think of several different ways he could effectively disappear from a restaurant. It was a way of passing the time whenever he was waiting for his food to show up, and it was an exercise, in a sense, much like how Kakashi would test himself with traps and getting out of them. He was silent as they were led to a private room, and one of the white-robed elders joined them, but with only eight seats, he supposed it was just to make an announcement.

“That’s why they called us here, then,” he muttered to himself as Tokara apologized for being late. “They wanted to make sure we heard this, and they thought they’d get us feeling indebted while they were at it.”

“Chunin candidates, I would like to congratulate all eight of you for making it so far into the bracket,” the elder said. “To have made it this far, you really have to be among the best.” A few eyes flitted toward Obito and Guy. “For this reason, all of you have effectively made rank already.”

“Interesting,” En said. “There’s no reason to kill anyone.” He looked around. “Well, I suppose I can’t disagree. I’ve seen a lot of Chunin and I would say everyone in this room is at least that competent.”

“There were a few who got eliminated who were plenty competent,” Tokara said. “Is there any word on whether or not they make rank?”

“It is not my decision, and it has not been decided. The other officials like some of the other candidates, but they asked me to inform you that we shall not judge them based on their teammates. Nothing you do from here onward will determine the promotion of anyone to a higher rank.”

“I hope the spectators don’t feel cheated,” En said, taking a long drink as soon as the tea arrived. “A string of quick surrenders when they wanted a high-stakes quarter final might be something of a disappointment.” Anko raised a cup as if it were a mug of beer. Asuma was sitting next to Obito, and was the only person in the room with no reaction at all.

“Feel free to put on a show for them,” the official said. “The fact of the matter, though, is that you’re all too valuable to burn for the price of admission to the tournament. We would know; we are investing the money we make off this back into the ninja academy and the stipend we provide to our Jonin trainers. I know not whether or not you would have heard about this, but a few years ago, we actually had some more experienced ninja hanging around Chunin level to avoid getting promoted and facing greater risks for too little in the way of a reward.”

“Your friend may be interested to hear about this,” someone said quietly; he missed who it was as the food came out; it was a selection of sushi.

“Thank you for telling us this, sir,” Obito said after a moment. “Also, thank you for treating us.”

“Think nothing of it, other than to tell no one.”

As he ate, he thought about the competition and how it looked from the outside looking in. He had been absent in the years leading up to it, but it had probably been advertised far and wide as the biggest Chunin exam in the world, and in the sense that there were a ton of candidates, that promise was fulfilled. It stood to reason that many of the spectators would be from Konoha; it was easy to get into an allied nation, even with all the restrictions on tourism that Cha liked to impose, and that was where a lot of the money for contracts originated. Not only did the land of fire boast the strongest hidden village in the world, but because there was more territory that they could defend, there were more cities paying for mission contracts.

“So, is there anything riding on this?” En asked.

“My master said that he’s put ten thousand ryo on my making it to the semifinals,” Anko said. Obito realized they were talking about bets; the initial question was a bit ambigious. Ibiki and his teammate had been silent since the food came out, carefully evaluating those around them, but it seemed like the two who were speaking were confident in their ability to put on a show.

“The main family’s reputation is on the line,” Hoheto said, adjusting the ponytail he wore out of the top. “I suppose the battle’s mostly over, though. Perhaps I should thank you for taking care of that little traitor, Tokara,” he said, glancing over.

“I’m interested; what did he do?”

“It’s nothing I would like to discuss while eating.”

That more or less settled it. Obito had no doubt that everyone in the room had something of an iron stomach, especially Ibiki, who had not stopped eating since the food came out. It was therefore most likely that bringing up the exact nature of Iroha’s offence was simply impolite, and the Hyuga were proud of their dominion over their tongues.

“Do you know Tekka?” Tokara asked him.

“Oh, yeah, he lives in the compound with everyone else,” he said. “He’s a few years older, and he knows I don’t have a lot of family, so he answers questions for me sometimes.”

“That’s really nice, actually. How about you?” he asked Guy.

“I have my father.” He was still using his inside voice, which was nice.

“That’s good. I’ve heard it said that you always need someone in your family who understands your passion for ninjutsu.”

“I wouldn’t say so,” Guy said, beating Obito to the punch.

“Not everyone agrees,” Hoheto conceded, saying nothing more after that. When the rest of the food came out, the competitors fell silent again, eating quietly the blackened fish over rice, which was good. He supposed that was how Cha restaurants worked. You could like it or you could not like it, but when you came, you would have whatever they were serving, which itself was probably what was grown or caught locally. He hoped they were happy with it.

“Do we know how the matchups are going to go?” Anko asked after a while. If no one else minds, I’d prefer to go up against one of these shrimps who doesn’t want any more to do with the competition.” Silently, he swore that if he went up against her, he would fight her rather than surrendering right away, if for no other reason than to make it hard on her. When he thought about it, though, he had a reasonable chance against at least three of them, and she was one. To be sure, he had Rin and Kakashi, but she had Ha and Iroha, so their abilities at full strength were at least at the same level.

“They don’t have any more cute kunoichi to feed to you,” En said after swallowing. It seemed someone else had noticed a series of decreasingly likely coincidences. He had come, however, to a completely different conclusion.

“I’m younger than you realize,” she said. “The examiners and the related officials would be aware of it.”

Obito squinted. She was right, of course; she had only been out of the academy just recently and if he remembered correctly, she started after he left. It was just that looking at her, at least at the time, he thought she had to be at least thirteen. Perhaps he had taken accelerated aging for granted at some point.

“I’m sure you’ve already done your teacher proud,” Hoheto said. “That makes me wonder, though, who is your teacher? I don’t believe I heard of your team forming.”

“You would not have; this was all under the strictest confidence.” There it was, the standard excuse for anything that anyone felt like concealing. “Once I become Chunin, though, I won’t need a teacher anymore.”

That was more or less correct; a team was no longer required to be monitored or trained by a Jonin after passing the exam, but if only one made it through, the team would probably be kept together unless some compelling reason existed for reorganizing teams. It sounded more like Anko was trying to deflect the conversation away from the identity of her teacher by dismissing it as irrelevant. Her strangely focused eyes turned to him.

“I wish I could have fought your teammate, but it looks like she ran into someone who got up on the wrong side of the bed.” He gripped his chopsticks. It was not as if he really needed to defend Asuma for just trying to win, but she was implying that Rin only lost because someone failed to go easy on her. “She was certainly a cute one-“

“Yeah, well your teammate’s a doornail,” he fired back. There was a limit to the amount of ‘witty banter’ he was willing to endure; he thought of himself as clever, as he was sure most ninja did, but those who flaunted their cleverness were almost always unbearable to have to accompany, even if they were clever and not just mean. He got up, and Guy got up with him.

“Oh, does someone not have a taste for our little game?” En asked. “I suppose you and I might meet in the next round. I hardly need you in my collection, though.”

“I don’t have a clue what your deal is- either of you- and if you threaten me or my team again, then these traditional idiots will learn why it’s a terrible idea to build every single thing out of wood.”

Storming out with Guy following silently behind, he had hardly intended to turn his anger on the people of Cha, but they were doing a good job of annoying him lately. That was how it worked, he supposed. As long as he was angry enough, he had a tendency to lash out at minor annoyances. When he actually thought about the land of tea, the town was beautiful, even if it was not his exact preference, and their food was good, even if his favorite was probably still his grandmother’s, and their obsession with tradition was something that could just as easily be turned back on his clan. Despite his vexation with how the tournament had been run so far, granting everyone in the top eight the rank no questions asked was both wise and fair.

“That was probably pretty dumb,” he said on the way back.

“Perhaps, but I respect you.”

“You know, Guy, you and I aren’t really subtle for Chunin. We can sneak through a lit room loaded with witnesses, but we can’t keep anything back.”

“Being earnest is not a bad thing.”

“Is that why your teammates sometimes… I don’t even know what’s going on. Do they think you’re too earnest?”

“Perhaps. I have also noticed the way that you and Rin and Kakashi seem to have a strange relationship.”

“I’m sure you know what’s going on there if you’ve listened to us. I don’t even know why we try to hide it; it’s not like anyone back home would hate us any more.” He shook his head. “It just doesn’t matter. Let’s get back to everyone else before they start the next round. I want to at least try to digest the food before it gets kicked out of me.”

“Obito! Guy!” Rin exclaimed when she saw them. “You’re back. Where’s everyone else?”

“We left early,” he said. Perhaps he was not the best at subtlety, but he was not going to explain that he threatened to burn people to death. He also had no intention of explaining that he could not simply surrender in the next round, especially if he went up against someone he explicitly threatened. They had to see that he had teeth.

“Spectators from around the world, the third round will begin shortly,” an official called out. They had microphones, but it seemed some people liked doing things the old fashioned way.

“That’s when everyone returns, I’ll bet,” he said. “I’d better just get down there.” As he walked, he looked back at Guy. “Hey, how did you open the gates? I know a bit about the chakra pathways, but I still don’t know about the gates.”

“The gates must be opened in order, and to open the first gate, you must push yourself to beyond your ordinary limits. I am sure you have heard about the limits that keep us from damaging ourselves-“

“Wait, is the first gate just adrenaline?”

“No, but it is a good analogy, I suppose. If the first gate were adrenaline, the second would be hysterical strength.” He knew what that was, and the village had seen examples of it. He had trained himself to the point of exhaustion several times, but since he had never been trying to open the gates, he had no confidence in his ability to do so. There was also hardly any reason if he was only fighting in an exam.

“The first match will be between Uchiha Obito and Tokara,” the examiner said to them once they were all assembled. “The rest of the matches will follow in quick succession, so except for medical necessity, we would prefer that the eight of you remain around here.” That hardly seemed like an issue. When he got eliminated, he could go back and tell his friends that Guy would be a minute longer or so.

“Better get to the stage,” he muttered to himself and left from the quarter finalists’ area. He wished he had something against Tokara, or rather, that he was fighting against a personal enemy, because he would have to fight through a skilled competitor just to get to one of his enemies, and then he would be tired again; he had every expectation he would be on his last legs.

“Looks like I’ll have to take this one seriously,” his opponent said, bringing his hands together as a white powder filtered out of the gourd on his back and circled around him. Obito smelled the air.

“Flour. You’re like Asuma in that you can release both wind and fire, then.”

“Yeah. Because of the high surface area of the flammable grain, I can create a dust explosion with the smallest amount of flame. Add in the fact that there’s rushing wind and my range of attack expands significantly. If there’s any ninja out there who can use chakra to shield against my abilities, I haven’t met him.”

It was a justifiable confidence. He could only respond with the other variety of confidence. It was futile to simply respond with a fire technique, because the wind would be against him, so it was hard to see how he would get a hit on his opponent. Doing the only thing he could think of, he made three shadow clones and they all charged forward.

Tokara was skilled in evasion; it was not as simple as getting in close to cancel out the chance of an explosion; to make matters worse he was skilled in taijutsu- without even looking he deflected all four attacks, making each of the clones disappear. Facing him again after he repositioned himself, they were both faced with the same choice. Obito had probably only heard the details of his ability as a way of convincing him to bow out, but now that he knew, he could close the distance again. This time, however, he threw a senbon at the gourd, having to pull it out with a clone and taking a decent hit to the chest as a result. Tokara repositioned himself again, and all he needed was a spark. Using a basic katon, he hit the trailing flour and without a wind current to move it in the opposite direction, the combustion followed back to the source while his opponent was in the middle of a more ambitious technique he had to abort as soon as he noticed the trail. Removing the gourd from his back, he tossed it off the stage, where it exploded.

“I’ve got no desire to kill you, Uchiha,” the somewhat older ninja said. “That’s why I didn’t toss the gourd at you. Without it, though, I don’t like my odds in the next round.”

“You’re a decent guy,” he said. “I almost feel like I should’ve bowed out instead of burning chakra.”

“Eh, don’t bother. If you want to fight, then I want to see what happens.”

“It depends,” Obito said, getting to his feet again. “But yeah, I still want to fight.”

The match was called in his favor when Tokara walked off, effectively surrendering without saying anything. He would have to make a new gourd, but that would probably not take him too long, all things considered. It seemed like an idea that he borrowed from a handful of sand ninjas that liked to bring a taste of home with them on the road. There were probably others that did the same thing, though, especially in the water countries.

“Mitarashi Anko and Oyashiro En,” the examiner called out. They looked at each other before going to the stage, where no one knew what to expect.

“They had to have been watching us,” Asuma said from behind. “That was another reason they invited us to that restaurant.”

“They invited us so they could get us in one place for that announcement, and then keep us together so that they don’t lose track of us and can keep the matches going.”

“Yeah,” the Hokage’s son said. “That was one of the reasons. The thing about having a good reason is that most people don’t think there might be another one.”

Obito could see the wisdom in it, he supposed, even if he did not agree with the conclusion. The two fighters seemed to talk for a moment, though no one could hear what they were saying, even though they were closer to the stage than the spectators, including their friends. When they both walked off, amid disappointment from the audience, it seemed that Anko technically won, but there was no doubt that she had agreed to something in exchange.

“Come to think of it, they probably hate that En guy,” he said to Asuma as soon as Guy was called up to fight Hoheto. A good show of taijutsu was promised, but he felt like he knew how it was going to go. “He cheated them out of a fight last round when that Gotta guy went up against him.”

“We need to figure out what’s going on with them. This might actually be important to the village.”

“Yeah, like you making Chunin,” he said, though he could not have said why he was so interested in getting a reaction. Sandaime’s son had already denied any involvement with his own injury that doubtlessly saved him in the preliminaries.

On the stage, Guy was already opening the gates, but his opponent was ready for his massive increase in strength and aggression, impressed as he was with his eyes. They traded a fury of blows, ferocious on one side and calm on the other. Silently, Obito thought there was a chance that the Hyuga would be particularly good at opening the gates if they were not so serene and controlled. It was like they thought it was unacceptable to sweat.

“I get the idea that you didn’t always get along with them,” Asuma said as Hoheto seemed to be waiting for guy to run out of energy, using more elaborate moves and forcing him to dodge rather than simply block with his own skill. “Weren’t you guys next to each other in the clan wars?”

“No one was all that far from anyone else,” he said. “We had a mountain village and the biggest threat around was the Senju, but we could never get past the Hyuga on the other side. Their dojutsu was basically successful in countering ours, and we decided we might be able to puncture through one of the other clans around the mountain.”

“And get where?” The Sarutobi clan had not been right next to the Uchiha clan.

“We didn’t know.” He shook his head. “There was never an end to the war. We knew there were probably more enemies beyond the Senju, but we had to try to push through anyway. We were trapped and there was no other way to expand than to take land from those who were already holding it. If and when we beat one of the other clans, we would have more people to fight, and more land to defend, but we’d have to succeed. Every single victory brought greater risk and more people targeting us as a threat to their very existence, but they were better than defeats. If we lost once or twice more than we did, we’d have gone the way of the Eiga, the Namiki, and everyone else that we destroyed at the first sign of weakness.”

Obito had not been sure why Dramada had told him so much about the clan wars. He already knew to be grateful they were no longer fighting them, even as terrible as things got sometimes- even a world war was better than a world of war. As he watched the fight end, though, he decided he understood. The brutality of the clan wars was the basic nature of humanity, and he had seen glimpses of the very same in the Chunin exams. Why was he not still angry that Miku of the lost clan was trying to kill Rin? Why, when that would mean he and Kakashi would have to carry her body back and explain what happened to her parents?

“Sarutobi Asuma and Morino Ibiki,” the examiner called out. He was hardly listening. With his answer in mind, he resolved to keep fighting. The two competitors took the stage and started fighting almost immediately. The younger guy tried to rush forward with the trench knives, but almost immediately, he was encased with a summon. An iron maiden came up out of the floor and surrounded him, slamming shut and causing him to scream in pain.

It was possibly the best way for the match to end in terms of saving face. It would have been one thing if he had been worn out by Rin in the previous round, or injured, but that would have probably made him look worse overall. This way, he could demonstrate a rather heroic amount of pain tolerance, though all the audience could tell was that he was burning chakra as he was trying to get out. Because his life was in no danger, the match was not called, even though he could do nothing against his opponent, and it would be the simplest thing for Ibiki to just kick the iron maiden off the stage and there was no way that the Hokage’s son would not be riddled with holes.

That was not, however, what happened, not the way he remembered it.

“Let no one question the loyalty of the Morino family to Konoha,” Obito muttered to no one as the torture device opened and a thoroughly punctured Asuma charged out, nearly flying as he put his remaining chakra into a wind technique that probably took the rest of it out of him, and Ibiki took it full force, throwing him off as the match was called due to blood loss.

There was never a way for it to look like he won; no one would have believed it if they had choreographed it. The best way for it to end was for him to have fought as hard as he could endured the pain, and then for the fight to be over quickly and mercifully. Perhaps there was greater wisdom in surrendering, but as long as Asuma was going to see the medic ninjas on his own two feet, he could claim that he still could have fought, and he still had some way of winning.

“Well, I wish him the best of luck,” Hoheto said, drawing Obito’s attention. “It seems your eyes are good enough to tell what’s going on here.”

“What if they are?”

“I think you know. You and I both want Ibiki to win the whole thing. Let’s work together.”

He had been on reasonably good terms with the somewhat older Hyuga since before the third round, and as for the clan in general, there was no doubt that they wanted what was best for Konoha.

“Let’s put the past behind us, then,” he said, extending a hand. “We’ll work together. It all just depends on how they line us up for these next three matches.”

There was no way that Anko could not see their arrangement taking place, but her annoyed expression indicated she realized where she stood. She had to beat two other competitors to win, and if one of them was Ibiki, and the other two were working for him, it was not going to be easy. She turned to the examiner, who said that she and Obito would be fighting first while an announcer was giving a recap of the first and second round for new arrivals.

The two fighters took the stage after a dramatized account of their path in the Chunin exams. He really hoped that some people would not get the mistaken idea that he was better than Kakashi just because he lasted longer, but there was probably no way that he could beat Guy, or Hoheto, who was also considered something of a child prodigy. Was he actually older, or did he just give off that impression, being in a team with Aoba?

“You’re going down, fire release,” the kunoichi said as soon as they took a fighting stance. “Threatening me-“

“I don’t have to win,” he said. “I don’t even have to give the audience a show.”

Angered, Anko turned her arms into snakes after using a summon. It was obvious that his fire jutsu would not be effective against them, but he had more tricks than that. Creating a single shadow clone, he knew that both his opponent and her summon would anticipate and counter it. Burning the stage beneath them, he jumped out and grabbed the conjured snake, thicker around than he was, and held onto its back. Reptiles were not exactly slippery, despite what people thought, and summons had a mind of their own, so even if the ninjutsu was water release, there was still a good chance that it would panic at the sight of the stage being on fire.

Responding by throwing a few senbon in his direction, Anko was not pleased when he threw his shadow clone in their path and started on another summon before having to move because of the flames. The snake tried to throw him off, but he dug his fingers into the animal’s flesh under its scales, which sent it into a frenzy. While holding on, he was not able to use more jutsu, but he was trying to save as much chakra as he could. His opponent used some technique he did not recognize and by sheer luck the burning stage cracked and he dropped under it. Angrier yet, she started on another summon and sent a smaller snake after him, but as a cold-blooded animal, it was not going to have any better luck on a wooden stage set ablaze. The one he was riding was panicking, trying to roll around with him on its back, but on an unsteady surface, it was having a hard time throwing its weight into anything.

Anko attempted a genjutsu to counter his ability to strategize, which was all he had at the moment, and then canceled her summons wisely. Because Obito had thought she might resort to illusion, he thought nothing of it when he heard his friends screaming. Charging forward by jumping from one cracked, burning board to the next, he tackled his opponent and brought her down into the flames. Her skin started turning black, but he knew that was not related to being burned.

“You’ve done it now,” she muttered, throwing him off and screaming, black spots all over her. Quietly reminding himself it was not as if he knew what her deal was before, he surrendered before she could kill him with whatever jutsu she was about to use. It was not the bravest of moves, but it lined up with what he was saying earlier, which he reiterated, in case she forgot.

“I don’t have to beat you,” he said. “I just have to use up as much of your chakra as I can.”

It would be time for Ibiki and Hoheto to fight after the stage was repaired, but he was going to see his friends, practically dragging himself there. The fights had gone well, all things considered. He had been worried that he would go up against Anko or En at the wrong time and not have the strength to defeat them, and even though he ended up having to back out rather than get killed, the examiners would probably see it as a wise decision, and his teammates did not know about his threats.

“Are you okay?” Rin asked the second or third time. It occurred to him, he remembered, that he could worry her less if he took greater care. Did he want to do that? What if she liked him more if he took risks? Did he want her to like him?

“Yeah,” he said. “I should be fine, I just need a breather.”

Without realizing it, he had taken some hits from the snake and there was a senbon stuck in his shin, but it either fell out or someone removed it. He knew that on the stage, Ibiki and Hoheto were fighting as soon as it was repaired, and that was technically going to be the final battle, since either one of them would win the final, unless they forgot themselves and fought each other at full strength. Most likely, out of respect, they would agree to a point where they would call it. Perhaps forming such alliances was not in the spirit of fair competition, but they were shinobi.

Lying on his back again, he wondered if it was going to be a regular thing for him. He lacked the will to shake his head at the thought. It was really the fact that he had gotten beaten up multiple times, and wore himself out, without having any time to heal, but there was nothing he could do about that at the moment. Kakashi waved down to him.

“Did you see what happened to Anko?” he asked.

“No… I wasn’t looking. I just walked off.” He thought for a second. “Do you have any idea what that jutsu was?”

“I’ve never seen it with my own eyes. I suspect it’s a specialized juinjutsu.”

“Did you see where she went?”

“No. She practically disappeared.”

The fight was presumably impressive from the sounds that the spectators were making, but he had seen both of them fight enough to know what their abilities and tactics were. It was over quickly, as predicted. The confusion came after that.

Suffice to say, Kakashi was not the only one who lost track of Anko. No one knew where she was. The officials could not find her still-living teammate Iroha, nor could they find any of her personal affects. To most people, it was pretty simple; she left rather than face the winner, and for no reason other than to throw everything into chaos, but Obito just knew it was more complicated than that. There was simply no way that they knew everything.

“The officials have decided to take the disappearance of one of the finalists as a violation of the rules. For that reason, we have undone her victory in the previous round. If Uchiha Obito is in any condition to take the stage-“

His teammates looked at him, probably concerned as he got to his feet.

“Just so you know, we don’t expect you to win against Ibiki,” Rin said.

“Yeah, I figured he’d win,” he muttered. “Hoheto’s been in a bunch of hard fights since the beginning; he’s just been hiding it. He didn’t want anyone to realize he’s worn out.”

“Please, tell me you’re just going to call it.”

“They’ve gotta have a final round, don’t they?” he supposed, not really looking as he made his way down. “It makes sense that they wouldn’t bother to get En, even though he’s probably still in good shape. They figured he’d ruin it again.”

There were other things he was figuring out on the way, but the time to reveal them was in front of relevant parties, not in front of everyone. Ibiki, he knew, could make his defeat look dignified, just like he did for Asuma, but that was not the reason he was taking the stage. His old clan leader Madara had worked hard to arrange an alliance with both Cha and Yu, one that had lasted for generations, but even that, even to go along with their desire to put on a show in the final round, did not motivate him to go. It was time to face the truth.

The Shinobi Rules, after all, said that it was his duty to see through deception.

Obito was not having a hard time standing up to his opponent, though the crowd was not sure how to feel about the matchup. Everyone was probably wondering where Anko was, but it was doubtful that anyone thought she had been killed and disappeared to prevent her from winning. Ibiki met his determined frown with one of his own.

“They told us that the guy who hit Asuma with a shuriken was from Cha, but they didn’t say how long he’d been there. They said he was eliminated already, but they didn’t say when. I don’t have any proof of this, and I don’t have any way to make you answer, but they can’t hear us from here.” If it was possible, his opponent’s expression straightened further. “It was your brother, wasn’t it?”

“What made you think of him?”

“I’ll admit, there are still some questions I couldn’t answer. It was a series of suspicious circumstances that made me think you were involved. Did his father put you up to it?” Even from the stage, it seemed irresponsible to say anything that pointed to the Hokage.

“No, he never would have had to give me an explicit order like that. I think you know that the world is perched in a dangerous balance. As strong as Konoha is, there are those who believe they can fight us if they work together. When the skirmish between Kiri and Rai ends, and it will soon, the focus will turn to us. The amount of strength we can present will determine our very survival.”

“I didn’t say this to you, but you probably figured it out,” Obito said, closing his eyes and then opening them again. Looking back, he wondered if anyone saw red for a moment. “Hoheto and I agreed that you have to win this. We can’t fake it, not in front of everyone, so I’m talking to you now to try to get as much of my strength back as I can get.”

Ibiki smirked for a moment, and then it disappeared.

“The people around us are actually getting excited, if you’re worried about the show. They have no idea what we’re saying, but they can see the dramatic tension. Maybe they think we’re enemies- or rivals.”

“We’re shinobi,” he said, creating three shadow clones. “It’s probably stupid, but I think I’ll have to trust you not to kill me.”

He moved as quickly as he could with the strange empty feeling in his body cavity, rolling under a series of spikes that convincingly lodged themselves in a clone. A common mistake that kids made when exhausted and coming off injuries was thinking less about their chakra control, but that was precisely when a ninja could not afford to make a mistake, and he had exhausted himself countless times. Slinging a shuriken at his opponent in a rare opening, he allowed himself a strange hope that his worry only a little while ago, that the rest of his life was going to be spent recovering after near death experiences, was actually a sign of strength.

Ibiki not only avoided the shuriken with a nail clone, or that was what he thought it was, but took the chance to grab Obito from behind and heave him into a summoned cage. It was probably the wrong time to be thinking about anything else as he found himself chained up within the cage, but he realized that Anko had probably figured out their plan, and decided that she would leave at the last moment to ruin the show.

“Well, you’ve got your show now,” he muttered, trying to twist out of the way as a nail came through the bars. Retrospectively, the only reason that the Sharingan did not awaken at the time was because he believed, despite everything that was going on, that he was still in no actual danger. He had to admit it would have been convenient, though, to use a dojutsu when his arms and legs were bound with chains.

Bleeding from the nail stuck in his arm, he could only think of the old ritual sacrifice that was common in religions that were commonly practiced before and alongside Ninshu. Of what little was remembered, it was relatively certain that animals were nailed in place, helpless, bleeding, and presumably panicking, but he had to keep up the act of a ninja who refused to give up, and he took another nail before Ibiki came into the cage himself, and Obito silently realized something he could do in his current position, right as his opponent came charging, but he reminded himself that he was still trusting the other shinobi with his life.

Beaten within an inch of death, the match was called only once it was inarguable that he would survive it no longer. The spectators were roaring with excitement, and as he lost consciousness he decided it was likely enough that the other young man had been right, and they thought it was a totally genuine fight. He could vaguely hear cries for a reward for the victor, and silently he wondered why he had never thought about that.

His eyes opened again as he was being treated by Rin. There were medical types around, but she knew him, she knew his strength and chakra, healing him plenty of times already to gain a unique familiarity. She was frustrated, partially with him, but his recklessness was not something that normally made her cry. Managing to look around, he saw that they were alone.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“They were all cheering… I was so worried about you and they were…”

“They don’t know anything,” he said, smiling a little. “They never know anything. Ibiki and I weren’t really… mad at each other, but… we didn’t have any other way of making the fight look real.”

“What were you saying to him?” she asked. “It looked like… well, it looked to me like you were accusing him of something, and the reason you insisted on fighting him was because… well, it’s the Chunin exams. If you used a powerful enough technique, you’d have an excuse to kill him.”

He almost laughed, but his lungs hurt. There was nothing that Rin had been thinking that was strictly stupid or irrational, but it was a whole yarn spun out of very little evidence. It was the product of worry, fear, and that made him feel bad for finding it funny, but perhaps there was some sympathy in there as well; he knew how wrong he had been before; he knew how it felt to stare back with the confused expression she was currently making.

“We weren’t trying to kill each other,” he said. “I’ll tell you what all we said to each other later… did you hear that I made Chunin?”

“Kakashi stayed for all the announcements,” she said. “He came back here a few minutes ago and told me that a lot of us made rank, me included. It was hard to be happy in light of the circumstances…”

“Thank you so much for caring about me,” he said after thinking a moment about how to respond. “Thank you for worrying about me.” He had said words like that before. “I just… I just want you to stop worrying about me as soon as you heal me. You always do a good job. Every times I get hurt, you always heal me, and then I’m better. I’m stronger than before.”

“It’s not like I didn’t have confidence in my skills, it’s just… what if I’m not there one time, and you’re not careful because I always… I can’t monopolize caring about you.”

“I know,” he said. “I’m not suicidal. I’m not a crazy risk taker either. I trusted Ibiki to be skilled enough to convincingly beat me without killing me, and I trusted you to bring me back from that. No matter how much I trust you, I’m not going to expect you to heal me if you’re not there.”

Lying on his back, he provided no way for her to throw her arms around him, but she solved that by picking him up a little and hugging him by the shoulders. Groaning, he was grateful for her chakra control. Kakashi walked in and she turned around, going red somewhat.

“Is he recovering?”

“He’s on the mend, yes. He’s even conscious now.”

“Good. I spoke to some of the others and there’s updates that he-“

“Tell me later,” Obito said. “I’ll tell you both what really happened with Asuma getting pushed to a different fight in the preliminaries. Some of it’s technically still just what I think, but Ibiki basically confirmed the rest of it.”

It was obvious that there were important discussions to be had, and they were going to have to have them soon, but for the moment he only wanted to recover. Because it was the first time he ever detected that Rin might have feelings for him, the moment had a way of standing out in his memory. Though he was sure in retrospect that some things must have happened in between that and the start of the mission into the land of earth, it was all a blur. He had a look of concern, concern reserved for him, and that was enough for that moment.

Notes:

I wrote the rest of the Chunin exams into a single chapter because there was not an easy place to cut it anywhere. If you were enjoying the consistent chapter lengths, then I'm sorry, because this one is triple the length, but I'm sure someone out there is excited over it. As you might expect, this is the end of Obito's reverie, so we're returning to the present after this. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the 'how did we get here' arc.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 32: Signs of the Times

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

When Team Minato returned from the land of earth, there was no fanfare, not that any was expected, because it was a complete secret that they left. They split up almost immediately, with Kakashi saying he had to make a full report, and Rin saying her family was probably worried sick about her, and both were probably right. Obito went back to the compound, where he ran into Dramada.

“It’s been a while,” he said. “How is everything going, sir?”

“It really has been a while,” the older man said. “I think I saw you shortly after you made Chunin, but not since then.” He blinked once or twice.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. You did see me. We went over a few things that happened during the clan wars and… I think there was something about how the clan leadership works.”

“That’s correct. I should mention, in case you were worried, that there is not going to be any test on anything I have told you; there is no expectation that you would remember everything precisely. We know you have your own things to attend as a lively young man. How are your teammates?”

He gave a quick explanation of how they were as he walked, surprised somewhat that Dramada would care about them. Before, it seemed he and Fugaku were not impressed with the way Kakashi responded to the legacy of his father, and they probably had nothing against Rin, but would have preferred that he direct his feelings toward someone in his own clan. Perhaps, though, he was older and the ship was sailed, so they were taking his attachments more seriously.

“I thought about you when I was talking to Sagara a week ago, and I realized I might have given you a false impression. We don’t have any intention to arrange a marriage for you at this age, but if we could put you in the vicinity of someone who might understand you, someone who might be good for you, then we would have no reason not to. You would still be free to listen to your own heart.”

Perhaps it would have been strange to hear it out of any other man in his forties or fifties, but the Uchiha were known for their passions, and what would have been stranger was for either of them to be an exception. It made perfect sense, therefore, that Dramada would respond to his attachment to his team the way he did. They had walked out of the village together and took a path in the woods.

“Hey, don’t- um, take this the wrong way or anything, but are there a lot of Uchiha girls who don’t have any interest in the ninja arts?” he asked. Sagara was the only one he knew who did, and there had to be at least as many girls as boys.

“There are. The Hyuga and the Nara clan are the same in this regard, though no one keeps to the way it was in the clan wars.”

“I got the impression there were no kunoichi at the time,” he said. “I know they’re… well…”

“In those days, we forced girls to get married as early as made any sense and have as many children as they could. It was a necessity for our war effort, which itself was necessary for our survival. If our numbers faltered, our enemies would have destroyed us.” He shook his head. “Nowhere in the animal kingdom does it take as long as nine months to produce a single child. It’s because of the brain.”

“The brain?”

“Whether a blessing or a curse, our brains are much larger and more complex than those of any other animal. When a newborn comes out of the womb, the head is as small as it can afford to be for an animal destined to be as brilliant as a human. We’re more helpless than kittens, and we stay that way for years- any other animal would look at a human infant and think it was born prematurely.”

“You couldn’t let it get any larger, though,” Obito said. “My grandmother was a midwife for years and she said the head is always the hardest. There were even new mothers who died giving birth until certain healing jutsus were developed.”

“That doesn’t even do it justice,” Dramada said, shaking his head again. “It was a frightful experience, and then the mothers were chiefly responsible for looking after those children in a world with enemies all around us. Shortly after they gave birth, they were pregnant again; there was no other way to maintain our birth rates. They had to hide in caves from enemy ninja; even from wild animals and disease. If you wanted to wipe out a clan, you went for the women, because if you killed forty or fifty percent of the men- you probably already know this, but the birth rate would not decrease very much, if at all. The reason we did not train them in the ninja arts was not because our enemies were gentleman, that they would be spared as long as they did not pick up kunai to defend themselves. They were in mortal peril at all times, and all they could do was trust us to fight for them.”

“That sounds terrible.”

“That was just life for them,” he said. “Things were not much better for boys. To have made it to your age, a boy would have had to kill eight or nine boys, or men, because of how many battles he would have had to survive. It shames me to say this, but there were even internal conflicts. As critical as having good leadership was, you can imagine why there were those who believed they had no other way of making sure the clan was run properly, even when they drew more hatred, and ambitious eyes to themselves in the process.”

“Yeah, you’re right, that’s also terrible.”

“I was not finished. Think about what kind of shape you would almost certainly be in if you survived eight or nine fights to the death, Obito. We had next to no medical ninjutsu, we did not even have antibiotics. I would say that cemeteries around the world are full to the bursting of broken men who lived out the rest of their lives with debilitating injuries from broken bones, dangling fingers, crushed testicles, gouged out eyes- I would say this, but the truth was that death was not so rare an occasion that it could be commemorated with a ceremony and a special place in the ground. The concept of a graveyard did not exist; land that we could defend was too valuable and bodies too many.”

“I really can’t say whether it’d be better to be a boy or a girl back then,” he said after a while.

“Neither can I. To be honest, I do not know that they could. I sincerely doubt they thought in such petty terms. It was not with envy that they mourned when a company of ninja returned alive and certain husbands and fathers were not among them. Our hearts broke for each other, and perhaps that was why the Uchiha survived as long as we did, long enough for the great Madara to be born. When we killed the Eiga clan, we killed countless men, though some of them might have escaped with injuries; we had no way of knowing.” He took a breath. “It is one of our greatest shames as a clan that a few of the children who were young enough to not remember the deaths of all their mothers and fathers, we took in as our own, replenishing our numbers after a lone ninja, probably from the Senju clan, made it through our defenses and managed to kill several of our children before being driven off.”

“We adopted them?” he asked. They had come to a part of the wood where a lone woman was waiting for them, and without introduction, she took them down an unmarked path.

“That’s a kind way of looking at it. There was a part of us that was always sympathetic to our enemies; we were aware that they were only killing us for their own survival. The truth is that we used our dojutsu to effectively brainwash them into forgetting anything they might have remembered, and all of them were destined for the battlefield. I believe this was about ninety years before the birth of Madara.”

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“The reason I wanted to bring you out this way was to add your name to the seals, the fuinjutsu that secures this pathway. As part of the old agreement, these forests were for our hunting, and we can be reasonably confident that no one else would wander out here. At the same time, there is more than wild boars that they might find. Hazuki here is an expert on fuinjutsu and has taken it upon herself to secure the path.”

As they walked, he realized that he was not going to so simply find out what the big secret was, and it was something he would have to see for himself. Strangely, nothing seemed exactly nefarious so far. I guess if something does happen, I can just act like it’s all normal until I’m back in the village.

When he arrived, however, there was a village right in front of him.

It was small, much like Awa no Mura, the village of bubbles from years ago, but it was more concentrated, a truly hidden village. He looked around at the simple wooden buildings and decided it was a smaller version of a Cha town. Dramada commented on his look of surprise.

“Did you expect some kind of weapon?” he asked. “There’s nothing so nefarious here. We only wanted a way of concealing our true numbers from those not part of the clan. There are those who prefer this to city life, and this keeps those who have irreconcilable disagreements with the village from having to flee entirely.”

“The Hokage doesn’t know this place exists?”

“No. It has not come up yet, but in the event that we need to hide one of our people, then this is where we would hide him. I need you to understand that you truly can come to one of us with anything, Obito, even if you find yourself a wanted man, there is a place where you will always belong.”

“I mean… I guess this might make it easier for people to find a place to live,” he said after a moment. “The Uchiha compound in the village is probably already about as full as it can get, and we wouldn’t want everyone just spilling out to totally random places… I can think of a few people who’d cut their eyes out.”

“We are not meant to be on our own,” Dramada said. “That is the most fundamental reason that I started to reach out to you once you made Genin. Our secrets, our kekkei genkai, cannot be lost to us, and it is a sad thing whenever one of ours is lost. If we left our orphans like you to their own devices, then perhaps you would grow up without any understanding of the clan’s history and what it means to be a part of it.” He sighed. “Perhaps you would realize you were on a suicide mission at one point, and not realize you had another option than just dying.”

“Desertion,” he said, thinking and looking around. “That’s certainly a reason why someone would be wanted.”

“The Hokage has been wise. So far, we have not had to shelter a deserter here, and it is my earnest hope that we never will.”

Obito had gone in with the expectation that he would find something that they had every reason to keep secret, and it was easy to remember that he had decided to walk out after making it look like nothing in particular was amiss. Implementing the plan was more challenging, but he had an idea. Thanks, Kakashi.

“One of my teammates is actually pretty obsessed with the Shinobi Rules,” he said. “He’s always acting like we’re at war. Sometimes I think nothing’s changed for him since he lost his father. I don’t think that he’d let me get away with deserting as long as he was still breathing.”

“We all hope that you would never have to,” Hazuki said. She put her hand back in her sleeve strangely. “We have an idea, though, that you can keep things quiet.”

“Of course,” he said, not allowing any other thought to get into his mind. He could always think of something later, but while in a strange village that was apparently not on any maps, it made sense to watch more than his tongue. “I think I should go back before anyone notices that I’m gone. I wanted to meet Minato today.”

That was a total fabrication, but he could make himself believe it and after a moment, it seemed the same was true for the adults from his clan. It was not a total fabrication. Now I just have to actually go and meet him, but that shouldn’t be too hard.

As he went back up the path to the village, he found that it was easier to get back than it was to get there, but that was as he suspected. He did not think that Dramada or his friend could read his thoughts, exactly, but he got the idea that his expression was quite legible, and Rin always seemed to know what he was thinking. Though he still hated having to be subtle in conversations, from his experience with the Snow Daimyo’s brother, it was not as if there was no point to it.

“We are aware that what you have seen may be a lot to process. Talk with your grandmother; she should be able to provide wisdom in this regard.”

“I’ll talk to her when I get back,” he promised as he started walking off. It was strange that they would ask him to go to her for advice when they had not pre-screened her, unless they had without his knowledge. “Thanks for telling me everything.”

He really was grateful, even if he did not know how to respond to it yet. What crime even is this, exactly? Anti-Konoha ideation? Minato was probably the best person to tell, but he felt like it would be too obvious if he went straight over to his teacher and spilled about everything. It would make perfect sense for them to follow him with someone like Fugaku.

“What’s up, Obito,” he said as soon as they met. “You’ve met Kushina, right?”

“Uh, yeah, I think once or twice. Did Kakashi get to you?”

“I heard his report of the mission. I’m rather proud of you; you activated your kekkei genkai at a young age.”

“I still don’t know how I did it,” he said. “What he actually said was that my eyes flashed red while I was under a genjutsu, and then I just barely managed to wake up from it and help him drag Rin out of there. It was almost a total loss and I only pulled my weight toward the end-“

“I don’t know how much you know about your teammate,” Minato said, interrupting him. “Something you may have figured out is that he is not the most expressive in the world. He even hides part of his face, and I always thought that it was so that no one would see his expression.”

“Yeah?”

“While Kakashi might have downplayed how useful your dojutsu was toward the end of the last mission, I can almost guarantee that he was freaking out, and the way he sees it, you saved his life.” Kushina was nodding along with the explanation. She must’ve been there for the mission report. “What I find even more interesting is the fact that it seemed to happen unconsciously for you.”

“Is that not how it always happens?”

“You would know more about it than I would, because I don’t have any kekkei genkai, but from what I’ve heard, people manage to awaken them consciously and then learned to repeat the process. If you managed to do it without realizing, though, who is to say you never used it before?”

“Huh. I never thought about it like that before.”

After he picked up his payment for his mission, which was pretty substantial, he went to the compound again, paying his dues to the community. It was not something that anyone had explicitly told him to do, but he had seen Tekka do it, and he knew he lived off the benefits of it to some extent, back when he was too young to go out and do missions himself. Fortunately or otherwise, that was over quickly.

“Mikoto,” he said, finding the lady was no longer pregnant. Her son was already walking, and he was right next to her. “Have you seen Tekka anywhere?”

“Oh, no, I’ve had my hands full with little Itachi,” she said. “I think I can wait a while before having another kid.”

It was a stark contrast to what he had been discussing with Dramada earlier, but he supposed it made sense that things had changed. Did she know about the village? There was definitely no need to worry about having space for kids. With the community fund on top of that, it would be easier to have them, but the pride she shared with her husband would probably not allow that. More than anything else, though, it was personal preference. Why am I even asking myself why she’s not having another kid? Shouldn’t I just be grateful that the clan wars aren’t going on any longer?

“Oh, how did you decide on the name?” he asked. He never knew how his parents decided on his name.

“Oh, sometimes names don’t have any deep meaning,” she said. “A long time ago, other clans used to use our given names to determine our family names, because we had different tendencies with giving kids names.” He remembered that there was a rule against revealing family names, either in battle or in discussions with allies. “At some point, it became common to use random strings of characters as long as they had a nice sound to them. Sometimes, we would even name our children after our enemies.” She smiled. “There are low expectations on young mothers, most of the time, so it works out.”

“So… there’s probably no way to know how I was named?” he asked.

“Your parents were both role models for me and Fugaku,” Mikoto revealed. “We were on different teams, but they were known throughout the village. Your mother was something of a showoff with her eyes,” she said, making her own turn red. “In fairness, hers always looked beautiful. They were so red, and you could hardly see her pupils.”

“Was that a good thing?”

“I thought it was. I thought she looked like the perfect Uchiha kunoichi, and I wanted to be just like her.” He thought for a moment and decided she would have been pretty young when he was born, perhaps about his age. “You’re not much like my husband when he was your age,” she said, as if she could read his mind. “That’s fine, though, as long as you see the beauty in red eyes.”

Concentrating, he tried to make his own change as he had many times before, but nothing happened, so either his powers of observation remained the same, or they told him nothing more about the strange woman looking back at him. With her son still so young, it would be a while before she started taking up missions again, but everything he knew about her suggested she was capable. How much of her life had he seen now? It did not seem like long ago that she and Fugaku were still romancing each other.

“Um… this might be a weird question, but how do you know if someone likes you?”

“There’s a degree to which it’s the same for boys and girls,” she said after a moment of thought. “If you keep making a special effort to be around someone, you’ll give yourself away before long, but you’re a guy, so that’s fine. Actually, you should really expect the girl you like to figure out you like her before she gives you any sign. Most of the boys were not as subtle as they thought they were, but then there were a few that were really good at giving you nothing to work with, and for the most part, they were lonely. I don’t know if they were expecting to impress girls with how mysterious they were, or if they thought the girls would approach them and they wouldn’t have to put themselves on display at all, but that’s basically not how it works.”

“So… I’m just not going to know?” he asked after a moment. The sun was starting to set and he had talked with a fair few adults so far. It had been a lot to take in, and it seemed like there were unsatisfactory answers at every turn.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. If a girl likes you, she might try to make it more obvious, but everyone in this town is subtle,” she said, smiling again. Does she find all of this amusing? Don’t tell me my mother gave her this same advice at some point. “I suppose the silver lining there is that they usually let you down easy when you strike out with them. This Hyuga boy, Hizashi was his name, really liked me when we were on the same team, and when he asked me out, people stopped making fun of him after a day or so. No one regarded him as some hopeless idiot who never had a chance, because all his friends were going in just as blind. I think he’s getting married soon. I’m glad things worked out for him.”

“Oh, I get it,” he said. It means I need to just ask her out. We’ll see if we have a mission tomorrow, but even if we do, there should still be some time… “Thanks for telling me.”

“It’s the least I could do,” she waved as she walked off, leading her little son by the hand. “If Fugaku dies on a mission, I might have to ask you to teach Itachi how to shave or something.”

It’s a matter of Uchiha sticking together, then. He walked the relatively lonely road back to the house he had always known. The basic message seemed to be that he needed to just make it obvious that he liked Rin, because even if she did not already know, he would not be finding out more about her feelings before he revealed his own. It was something of a disappointment that there was not an easier way. He felt like it would be fair if they each had to provide one hint, but he supposed that was not what was expected.

Sighing a bit, he opened the door to his grandmother’s home and found that she was already sleeping. Since before he passed the Chunin exams, she had been sleeping earlier, but it was not always consistent. I hope it’s nothing serious. I wanted to talk with her at some point. Maybe tomorrow morning.

He looked around the quiet house, finding supper had been left out for him. Eating quickly, it seemed he had forgotten his hunger as easily as he had forgotten that Dramada or someone had probably told his grandmother that he had returned home. She knows that I usually have stuff to do when I get back, right?

Hoping she would not be too disappointed that she would have to wait for the morning to speak with him, he went to bed, all sorts of thoughts seeming to compete over which would determine his dreams for that night. Rin came up a few times, but more than enough it was another repeat of the genjutsu that he witnessed in Taki, and that made things difficult.

Notes:

Welcome back to the present. I can't guarantee that there aren't going to be any more flashbacks, but for a kid of Obito's age, it's a mathematical certainty that they won't be as long. I did think about breaking up the flashback or even skipping over some parts of it, like I did with the three year mission, but I decided there were worthwhile things to explore and otherwise answer the question of how we got to the present. At least for me, a completely chronological story, or a story with just one flashback, would be more pleasant to read than something that flips back and forth all the time, even if it's clear where the flashbacks begin and end.

People marvel at how cruel the Naruto universe is to the extent of calling it unrealistic, but if anything's unrealistic, it's how they went from a warring tribal society to an environment where people know what peace is in a matter of two generations. I can only assume that Kaguya's story basically explains that the clan wars were actually waged in a post apocalyptic world and that's how they have all the technology and relative degrees of stability; books were unearthed and progress was regained. I read the manga once when I was a kid, and then again just recently, and I can more confidently state that this is one of the primary things that I loved about the series; the world is fundamentally grounded in reality.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 33: Pride in Promotion

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Morning,” he said as soon as he found Kakashi, looking down on him from a nearby rooftop. “I spoke with Minato about my Sharingan awakening. He said it was really unusual and doesn’t know what to make of it.”

“Did you ask anyone in your clan?”

“Countless times, but not since it happened,” he said. “It really seems like they’ve never heard of it happening unconsciously either.” They caught sight of Rin ahead of them, almost to the academy already. “It’s worth checking if we have another mission,” he said.

“It’s worth it for some of us.”

“Oh, come on, do you think you’re going to get promoted to Jonin at your age?” he asked. “We’ve only done a handful of missions as Chunin, and we’re getting plenty of money for it.”

“Didn’t you want to be Hokage?”

“Yeah, someday,” he said. “I know that means getting a lot of accomplishments under our belts, and it’s not going to be easy, but it’s not like I could be fourth. They’ve almost certainly got someone picked out for the Yondaime.”

It was a weird thought to entertain, but in certain circles it was becoming apparent that Sarutobi Hiruzen was going to give up the job soon enough. He had served for a long time, for better or worse, and over that period his skills had gone to rot, as they did for all elders. His son was making waves from his recent Chunin mission, which took him to the land of frost, and had told some of his friends about what had gone on, and in short, he was concerned. Whoever took over as the next Hokage would have to be carefully groomed into the position, with the exceptionally difficult diplomatic situation.

When they caught up to Rin in the academy, they found her talking about it with Kurenai, who seemed to have mixed feelings. It made sense for her to share in Asuma’s concerns, and from what Obito overheard, she did, but the expression he got from her face as he and Kakashi walked by was relief. She’s tired of people assuming that he gets everything handed to him.

“They’re official now,” Rin said as she caught up to them, standing before the desk. Three elders were waiting for them, and it seemed their internal conversation was at an end. Everyone’s busy.

“We need an assassination conducted with the highest discretion,” one of them said after a moment, handing them a scroll. Kakashi took it without saying anything.

“Is there anything you need to tell us that isn’t written down?”

“Bring some warm clothes. We need this done quickly.”

Obito was caught between surprise and figuring that he should have known it would come to this. They had promised to protect Kazahana Sosetsu, the Snow Daimyo, from his brother, and that meant that they had to keep their word, even if the death was made to look like an accident. He had known that assassinations were a type of mission that was routinely assigned and could not imagine why he would not be given one.

“How is this a B-Rank?” Rin asked. “We reported that Dotou didn’t have training in chakra control.”

“Not that we knew,” Kakashi said. “The difficulty of this mission is the discretion itself. The target knows that we’re coming, and if he’s taken action against his brother, then he’s got something up his sleeve already.”

“If we’re killing him to punish him for taking the throne after we warned him, why not make it obvious?” he asked. “Isn’t a public execution the way to send a message?”

“Kazahana Dotou made his brother’s death look like an accident,” one of the elders said. As well as Obito knew the names of all the village’s old people, it was strange that he rarely paid attention to those in charge. Shouldn’t I know more about the village leaders if I want to be the Hokage? “We’re asking you to make his death look like an accident. If Sosetsu had been protected by the Fire Daimyo, it would have been different; we would have had to prove that it was not an accident, and then a public execution would be in order.”

Obito understood, and nodded before they went out to grab their stuff and get ready. It went without saying that they would have to be disguised, but they would also have to bring specific gear. The target is going to make it hard for us to get into the country, under our own names.

He really wished he could have protected the person they said they were going to protect, but this was basically what was meant the whole time; that there would be consequences if he died. He wanted to live in his own country, where he could keep doing the job, instead of with us, where we could protect him. Was there really anything we could have done?

Meeting with his teammates right outside the village gates, when he looked back on the place, it was kind of ridiculous that people called it a village; it was a city, and it was probably only still called that because of the term ‘hidden village’, which basically just meant that there were shinobi living there. The three of them set off without saying anything further, either to themselves or each other. When they reached a stopping place for the night, they exchanged some much needed words, though as always it started with his saying something normal.

“We’re going north again. Do you think they’ll ever send us to the south? We haven’t been that way in a while.”

“Maybe they’ll send us to different places when I make Jonin,” Kakashi said, still casually frustrated, and at a certain level Obito understood. The young Chunin showed incredible promise, and he had technically made rank several years earlier, even if the second exam he attended covered up his accomplishment. He remembered something Minato said, that maybe the three of them would make Jonin together.

“What if all we have to do is this one mission?” he supposed. “What if they were waiting for us to do an assassination and that was what they wanted?” He got out the scroll from Minato. “I think we should work on this in our spare time.”

“Well, we don’t have any right now. We have to get to our destination as quickly as possible.”

“No problem,” he said. “I’ll take the first watch.”

When the other two were asleep, he thought about the Sharingan. They allowed him to resist a genjutsu, which he supposed made sense with the powers of observation that the kekkei genkai was meant to engender with its awakening. Any illusion fell apart if examined closely enough, and that was only necessary when one lacked the mental strength to just reject anything that could not be real. To be sure, nature transformations and summons tested everyone’s understanding of what was possible, but genjutsu users still tried to stick to illusions that were possible, because they could control for the reaction. The giant rock that seemed to be falling on them as they entered the land of earth, for example, was intended to make the victim jump backward.

Seeing that it was about his turn, he woke Rin and whispered to her that he wanted a chance to talk with her at some point. He was really starting to hate the fact that as boring as travel was, they hardly ever had a chance to talk with each other. Even if he could talk to Kakashi, he felt like that would be good, because maybe they would understand each other better.

“Wake up, Obito; it’s a summon.”

“A summon?” he asked, getting out of the tent and looking around. “Where are we being summoned? Are they calling off the mission?”

“It’s not that kind of summon,” Rin said, tiredly pointing at a strange avian in the clearing in the woods. It was all in black and white, as if it had come from an illustration.

“Ink,” he said, remembering what he had heard. There was a class of jutsu that allowed the user a bit more creativity with the shape and function of the summon, but it was not technically space-time, not according to the scroll he had been reading. “Is it a missing ninja?”

“No. If it were, we would be under implicit orders to attack right away,” Kakashi said. “More likely, we’ve run across someone else on a mission, and they can’t identify us. It’s better to put distance between us and see if they chase us.”

“What if they do?”

“We’ll find out.”

It was not the most satisfactory answer, but they could hide from the summon well enough as long as they hid from its master. Suffice to say, it was not exactly a summon, because it was not a real animal that existed somewhere, it came off a page. The trick to avoiding it was in exploiting the fact that it had no intelligence of its own.

“I guess that’s what limits that kind of thing from being the best jutsu in the world,” Obito whispered as soon as he thought they were away from it. They would have to go back for their gear, but hopefully that would not present too much of a problem. Most likely, the other ninja wanted nothing to do with them.

“Yeah,” Kakashi whispered back, annoyed at the delay. “You could summon millions of them as easily as you could draw them, but then you’d gave to give each one their orders, and they wouldn’t stick around for that long. Ever heard of reanimation jutsu?”

“Didn’t Nidaime-“

“He perfected it. He got it to where it was actually working. Before that, there were people trying to use an incomplete version of the technique. They could get corpses to move around for a little while, but they were useless at long range. They were good for setting traps or hacking away at something, but not much else.”

“I see,” Rin whispered after a moment. “The illustration summons are kind of like that, then. They’re bodies without souls, but there’s more versatility to it.”

“Why don’t we use the technique to bring back our dead?” Obito asked as they were retrieving the gear. It seemed the avian summon had moved on from their position. “It’s gruesome, sure, but…”

“It’s a forbidden technique because of vulnerabilities for the user,” Kakashi explained curtly. It was the kind of thing he would say when he did not actually know something, in this case why it was forbidden. “If the village thought it was necessary, then we would use it. At the moment, we don’t want other shinobi out there to realize it’s possible. There’s bound to be someone as clever as Nidaime out there.”

That was the end of that particular discussion. She had been half-asleep when he said it, but he really hoped that Rin would remember that he wanted a word with her, ideally without anyone else listening. They made it across Yu and into Shimo by nightfall, hoping to don their costumes and take a ship on the following morning, ideally without having to run at all. It would not do to look like they were sweating in one of the coldest countries in the known world.

“Hey,” his other teammate whispered while Kakashi was taking a leak somewhere. He never announced it, he just disappeared. “Can it wait until we’re there?” she asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said. “I just don’t like it how we spend so much time together and we can barely talk about anything.” It was the coward’s way out, he supposed. It was saying that he wanted to spend more time with her without saying why. Perhaps it would accomplish something, though.

“I mean, you know I need these missions…”

“Did your family lend out more money again?”

“I don’t want to get into it,” she said, sighing. “We’ll find a time to talk when we get into Yuki.”

The land of snow waited for them across the sea. When the three of them were dressed in warm clothes, their skin entirely covered, they walked to a fish harbor in western Shimo, which had some dealings with their destination, but not as an ally. The way it had been explained to him, they were not on bad terms, but the land of frost was staying cold because they were under strict direction from Kiri.

All around them, they could see the effects of the skirmish in the harbor town. There was a kid begging with his eyes cut out. Had they looked too pale, and been mistaken for the Byakugan? As soon as they were extracted, were they as worthless to their takers as they were to the crying kid? He wanted to do something, but it was easy to tell himself that was the wrong place to start. The fishing had been delayed due to the waters being electrified, killing all the fish in the general area. Though the conflict was supposed to be a quick way of testing frost’s strength, the forces from Rai must have been using tactics more in line with long-term warfare. Well, they know one thing now. The land of frost is easy to starve, surprise, surprise.

“We’re looking for a way to get to Yuki.” It was Kakashi who spoke, not that anyone else could have known. The local man had most of his hair shaved off for some reason and he glared.

“Kids your age should be getting a job, not running off to some other country. You can’t afford to be going on adventures anymore. Are you tree rats or something?” He was most likely making reference to populations of independent forest dwellers. Resentment toward them existed in spite of the fact that they took care of themselves; that was not enough for the urbanites, apparently.

“Suppose there’s a job that takes us there,” Obito said. “How would we find it?”

“You think you could work on a fishing ship?”

In a matter of hours, the three of them were split up onto different fishing ships. The simplest solution to the aching demand for food in Shimo was to go further out for the fish, and that meant going into the open seas in boats that were not equipped for the class of storms out there. Carefully watching the seas and leaving at the first, or perhaps the second sign of danger was going to have to do it for them to bring home fish, not that the town would have much with which to pay them.

It took everything that he had in him not to propose an overly generous alliance with a bunch of random fishers who had no connection to their government, or whatever form of ninja village existed in the land of frost. It took everything else not to ask Rin if she was going to be all right, but even if they could tell she was a girl, she could take care of herself.

“What’s your name?” one of the fishers asked. He could maintain a henge, a transformation jutsu, for a decent amount of time, but he never knew when he needed his chakra, or how much of it he would need. The result was the seemingly strange practice of only using henge when he was in no danger, or when in extreme danger and there was no other choice.

“Ryu,” he lied. It as better to keep his responses short without being rude. Silently trying to sense the chakra of the fish from the boat, he cursed his luck for not specializing in that. It was yet another reminder of the gap between him and a Tokubetsu Jonin.

“Ever caught fish before, Ryu?”

“No, but I’ll give it a shot.”

“I think you should leave the fishing to us. Worry about the winds and the waves and the ship.”

Silently, he carried out the tasks he was assigned, grateful his voice was deep enough that he would not be mistaken for a girl. It was not that he thought there was anything wrong with them, as he planned to point out if asked, but Jonin hardly thought there was anything wrong with Genin. I really hope that Rin’s not having any trouble.

“There’s some fish in the area, but they’re deep under the waves,” someone said. The water was surprisingly clear, but he was still impressed as to how the man could pick them out from the ship. “It’s cold and they’re staying low.”

“We know that,” someone else said, sighing. It must be more challenging to catch them.

He used a hot water technique that he had picked up in the Chunin exams, having seen it enough times, and started to warm the water beneath him. It was hard to know that it would make the fish behave differently, and it was easy to think that the men would be suspicious of him, but he was at the limits of his ability not to intervene on their behalf. Trying to keep it to a slight effect over a wide area, rather than creating anything that would be dangerous or upsetting for the cold-blooded fish, he watched as one jumped out of the water next to him. No one particularly noticed he seemed to be taking a break on the floorboards.

“Net them,” the leader ordered. “Net as many as you can.”

Hauling multiple full loads into the boat, it would be a challenge to get them all back, but it was worth the risk. Obito switched to scanning the horizon and caught sight of unusual activity, which he pointed out to a more experienced member of the crew. It was a strange color with which the sun set.

“That’s a storm, all right, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Better just get back to land.”

They were moving as quickly as possible, but he wished he had Asuma’s skill with wind techniques. He knew, however, that changes in temperature could result in changes in pressure, and moving from a high pressure environment to a low pressure environment was much faster than a ship that traveled through environments of the same pressure. If anyone on it wondered why it picked up speed after getting a full load of fish, no one questioned it out loud. It was the kind of superstition that was not in any way justified, but still widely practiced, that as soon as someone brought up a wind of fortune, it would be snatched away.

“Thanks for the ‘good luck’, girlie,” someone said as soon as they arrived back at shore.

“Girlie?” he asked. Perhaps it was more important that someone seemed to guess he was using nature transformations, even without the words for such a thing. “Never mind; you didn’t see me here.”

He started wondering if Rin saw him as being manly enough for her. What did she want? Had she ever said anything? There’s no point in this. I just have to ask her out.

Even as he thought as much, though, it was no easier to approach the problem. What would he say to her? He had made things somewhat easier by implying that he enjoyed her company. Was there something else he could say first, so it would be less of a surprise? Would it be better or worse if he gave her a chance to think about the possibility of them together?

When a boat returned, his heart leaped with anticipation. For better or worse, Rin was back first and he had a chance to talk with her. She looked distressed.

“Where’s Kakashi? Did he come back already?”

“I haven’t seen him. I haven’t seen his boat.”

“Isn’t it getting kind of late?” She turned back out over the sea. “Why hasn’t he come back yet?” Why are you only asking about him?

“I wouldn’t worry about him,” Obito said after a moment. “I don’t think he likes spending time with us.”

“What if he took command of the boat to get across the water?”

“Then we’ll find out when he sends us a letter, I guess. We can try to ask one of the other fishers what was happening with the other ship. They should know each other.” He looked around. “Before that, though… I think you’re really cool.”

There it was. He had come up with it on the fly, but it was something he could say that gave her an idea of how he thought of her, if nothing else. It took more out of him than he expected.

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s a lot of things,” he answered while looking around. “I think it’s really cool that you look up to Sarutobi Biwako-“

“Because she’s the head medical ninja at the hospital?” Rin asked. She cocked her head. “Or is it because she’s the Hokage’s wife?”

“Both of those are important jobs,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even. Somehow, she had hit the nail precisely on the head. “I don’t know how she does it all.”

“Yeah. I feel like even if they pick a successor for Sandaime soon, he’s still going to have a lot to do. They’re still going to call on him as an advisor and the elders might insist that he keeps the job for a year while the successor shadows him.”

“It’s not going to be another old guy, so yeah. They’re going to want someone in his prime, and someone who’s pretty close to sage level, so he’s not going to know anything about the administrative side of things.” He thought for a moment. “Do you think Minato’s got a shot?”

“He’s got a shot, yeah,” she said. “I’ve been reading the scroll during my watch at night. There are parts of it that are starting to make sense to me.”

“Do you think you could show me what you mean at some point?” he asked. It was not just a way of spending time with her, or at least he did not think it was. “It’s really going over my head. The only thing I’m getting out of it is how ridiculous our sensei is.”

Rin looked over the sea and shook her head.

“He’s been gone too long. Even if they caught a ton of fish, everyone else on the boat would have insisted on coming back before now.”

“What do you think happened?”

“It either sank or he commandeered it and he’s trying to get all the way across.”

“There’s no way that would work,” Obito said. “Even if it were land all the way there, it would be a day’s run and he can’t go that quickly in a boat. He’ll just starve himself or run himself out of energy on the way there.”

“I don’t know,” Rin said. “When I think about it, the land of snow might be surrounded by an ice shelf. There’s no way that the small ship can break through the ice, but I’ll bet rather than breaking it, he’ll just get on the ice and run the rest of the way, cracking it behind him. It’s a specific plan, but it’s probably the fastest way of getting to Yuki from here.”

“He wouldn’t just not tell us he was going… or would he?” The more he thought about it, the better the idea seemed. Kakashi would want to make rank, and he would stand a better chance of that if he distinguished himself from his teammates. There was also a chance that he did not trust them to get the job done, though they had both killed people already. “How would we even catch up to him, though?”

“We could get a fishing ship to carry us out a good ways and then-“ She shook her head. “There’s nothing for it. We’d have to run across the water.”

Obito groaned. It was only a few hours into the morning and he had already used a fair amount of his chakra. At the same time, it was a chance to spend time with Rin, as laden with suffering as he expected it to be.

Notes:

Another chapter, another mission- these three never get a break. Fortunately, there's an opportunity for them to demonstrate their discretion. Will it mean Jonin is on the table for Kakashi?

Tagging

I have tagged most of the non-character tags that I intend to tag. This is not a hyper AU that makes you wonder if you're even reading the same universe, and if you've read this far, you should have an idea of what the story's like, so let me know if I've neglected to tag something if you feel like it. With regards to tagging characters, I really only do that if they have appeared more than once already or if I intend to make them reappear.

The Shinobi Rules

Silirt

Chapter 34: Ninja Swarm

Chapter Text

Both of them could easily walk across the surface of still water, and running across it was just a matter of putting in more energy. It took exponentially more, and substantially greater chakra control, to run across moving water. He sighed and tried to think of something else, perhaps just to check the box, and decided that there was still a chance that his teammate was in danger.

They were running again, and focusing even more than they were the previous day. It was the worst time they had ever traveled a long distance together, at least according to him. There was no sign of a ship or Kakashi, but there was nothing to do but keep moving. They could not hear each other even if they were to scream, not with the sound of the waves and wind. Obito’s bones were chattering and his entire body was protesting as he burned chakra launching himself across the water. They came to what looked like an island, or a floating mass of ice, and they landed on it without having to agree to anything.

“Do you… think Kakashi might’ve landed here?”

“He would have been an idiot to go the whole way… without taking a break,” Rin said, her chest heaving. She had pretty good chakra reserves, and even better control, but she was as tired as he was. “He wouldn’t have left any clues for us to follow, though. Either we go across by ourselves or we’re not good enough for him to care. I could see him saying something like that.”

It was not relevant to what they were trying to do at the moment, but he appreciated the fact that his teammate did not, apparently, appreciate the personality of his other teammate. Combined with the fact that he had already told her that he liked spending time with her and thought she was cool, things were just getting better and better. Was he getting ahead of himself?

“Well, we need to get there ourselves,” he said after a moment. “If we can’t find him out here, and he’s fine, then he’ll do the same thing before long, but if he’s gone and crossed already…” He cut himself off. There was no point in reiterating.

After a few hours of sitting around and waking each other up to make sure they didn’t fall asleep out on the frozen rock, or whatever it was, he was even more annoyed at the intense concentration he had to put into doing nothing than he had been at racing across the waves at blinding speed. It was even more frustrating that he was spending time with Rin, but neither of them could be said to be in the mood for conversation. Was she going to think he was boring? Obviously, it would be unfair of her to base her idea of him on the difficulty of the mission, but people were not always fair. Maybe I could tell myself that she was bad for me if she rejected me for the wrong reason, but…

He told himself he was getting ahead of himself again, as pointless as it was. It was supposed to be girls worrying about weird love things anyway, not boys; he was meant to be focused on the mission and doing cool things. Would she think he was a puppet of his heart if he confessed his feelings to her? Why was he even so worried in the first place? As long as Kakashi had no interest in her…

“We’re going,” he said, rising to full height. “If he’s been this way, we’ll see the cracks in the ice shelf soon. If not, he’ll see ours when he follows after us.” He could lament about the fact that they split up in the first place, but that was behind them now.

“You’re probably right. We’re not recovering much of our chakra out here,” Rin said, looking around. “The only way we survive the next twelve hours or so is if we get to a place where we can really recover, and it might as well be where we’re supposed to be going.”

They were running across the water again. He was not talking to her, not figuring out what she liked, how she felt, or relating anything to her, but at least they were making progress, so it was a welcome change. If I wanted to spend time with her, then I should just ask her out- then I wouldn’t need an excuse. No wonder Kakashi thinks I’m not focused on the missions enough.

The ice shelf was broken, like they thought, but they did not know whether or not to be relieved. Not only did it mean that running across would be harder for them, it meant that their teammate was already ahead of them with no thought to inform them. Obito was sure that when they caught up with him, their annoyance would be met with a simple shrug and he would say that they should have realized it was always part of the plan to take advantage of the fishers and get out as far as they could before running the rest of the way.

“He better-“ he started, muttering under his breath as he ran. “There better be a hotel on the other side of this.” When he glanced behind him, however, he realized he would have taken most anything on the other side of the sea, because a wave was coming. “WAVE! RUN!”

They were already running, but they could both move even faster if they pushed themselves. Hopping between the floating pieces of ice, the sea beneath them swelled disturbingly as they ran, like the world was turning. He saw only a panicked look in Rin’s eyes as they both realized the wave was going to hit them one way or another and he tackled her through it the moment he saw a path to a sizeable chunk of ice. The wave passed and they rose shakily to their feet, drenched, but at least with footing. He had never been so grateful for the ability to push off something.

What was truly confusing was that as they continued their mad rush for the shore, the ice got thicker to where it seemed like Kakashi’s feet had not broken it, but the wave was breaking it just fine. Perhaps it was meant to be humbling that the forces of nature were still more powerful than they were, but there was something about what he was seeing that fundamentally did not make sense, like a puzzle with a piece just jammed in there.

When they reached the thicker ice, they could propel themselves more quickly, but they were both almost out of chakra. Unfortunately, it seemed no harbor town was ahead of them. Even as Obito had only just been thinking that he would be happy with anything other than the waves, it seemed what awaited them was certain death.

“There!” Rin shrieked, pointing ahead of them. He had not been focusing on details of the shore, but when he looked, he saw that a tent had been set up. Well, it’s better than nothing.

He had little enough time to celebrate the small victory of finding their teammate before another wave came up from behind them. They were almost entirely out of energy and in desperation it almost made sense to try to hold onto a piece of ice in hopes it would carry them forward. Grabbing each other’s hands, he had never felt so frightened for his teammate, not in Awa no Mura, not in the Chunin exams, not in the land of earth- never had her hand felt so close to death, cold as the grave.

She was right there and there was nothing he could do.

The wave crashed and everything went black. Obito was in complete disbelief about the fact that he had only just been worried about his future with a kunoichi who was dying right next to him. It was all he could do to hold onto her as he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he was next to a roaring fire. Soaked to his skin as he was, he stripped off his clothes without hardly thinking about it, looking over to see Kakashi and Rin, one conscious, the other still asleep.

“Why’d you run off without telling us?” he asked.

“I thought it was obvious.”

In a way, he had predicted just that, and yet he found he did not care.

“You took all our stuff here,” he said, looking around. He and Rin had not taken anything other than the disguises they had been wearing. “How’d you get the fishers to let you take it onto the ship?”

“I made them a simple deal and they were wise enough, or perhaps desperate enough, to take it. I offered a sum of gold as collateral in case my plan did not work.” That’s right; when we went to get our stuff before the mission, he must’ve grabbed some of the ryo we got from the last mission.

“You used a technique to get them a load of fish. I thought we were supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

“They would never admit that some child helped them do their job,” he said. “It was easy to persuade them to keep it confidential when they already had a reason. What I needed of them was for them to take me to the ice shelf, so that I could move my supplies to the ice, and then I promised to get them the fish they wanted, and I did. I used an earth technique on the seabed-“

“Well, why’d you do all this without telling us?”

“I thought it was obvious.”

“We had no idea where you were. We thought the ship you were in might have sunk, or maybe you ran into another ninja-“

“If I had, I would have run across the water to complete the mission,” he said. “I would have thought that before now, I’d impressed upon you that completing the mission is my priority, generally.”

“Fine,” Obito said. “Is Rin okay?”

“She should wake up soon. Dry your clothes out before then; she’ll want a chance to do the same when we’re not around.”

“Yeah,” he said, not having anything else. It was remarkably considerate of his teammate to think of something like that, and he should really be thanked for saving both of their lives, but perhaps still blamed for making things so difficult. Would it have been that hard to tell them that he had a plan to get their gear across the water? How were he and Rin meant to respond to that exact plan, if they were meant to simultaneously guess that he had come up with it?

“It’s a good thing you had a death grip on her hand,” Kakashi said after a moment. “I would have had a harder time carrying you both back to shore if you had been separate.” He would have liked to pretend that he had thought of that, but somehow it seemed pointless.

When he had his clothes mostly dried out, he joined his teammate in scouting the place out, making sure that no one had seen them. Yukigakure might well exist, but was probably not staffed well enough to defend the entire country, at least not passively. It was doubtful that any sensor types had picked up on their arrival, but it was the procedure to check, and check they would.

“You know, I still don’t agree with the way you went ahead without coordinating with us,” he said. “It’s one thing to trust us to figure out something obvious, but if you’d come back to the shore, you could’ve told us about that island.

“Island?”

“There was this frozen rock in the middle of the sea,” he said. “It was pretty low to the surface of the water, so it’d be hard to see it from a distance, I guess, but it helped Rin and me when we were going across as a halfway point. Also, what was with those waves?”

“At first I thought it was the tide coming in,” Kakashi said after a moment. “The thing about that is, there’s no way you’d have an ice shelf freezing over that thick once every twelve hours. That was permafrost.”

“If they were getting waves like that every day, the ice never would have been able to form into a shelf like that,” he reasoned, agreeing. “I don’t know how we lived through that, but I think someone- or something- spotted us.”

“It wasn’t something that wanted to reveal its own presence,” his teammate said, looking around. “That much we know. We’re not the only ones interested in the land of snow, showing up uninvited.”

They went back to find their teammate to see if she had woken up yet, and it appeared that rather than undressing, she switched into a spare change of clothes after drying herself off. Guess she didn’t know when we’d be back. Filling in the gaps for her was simple enough.

“We have to be on the lookout for basically every other ninja in the world,” she said at length. “Everyone else probably knows that Konoha has an interest in being here because of our situation, Rai doesn’t have any other allies, Kiri is going to try to take advantage of the water release connection- I wouldn’t be surprised if someone from the land of iron showed up.”

“They tend to stay out of the affairs of shinobi,” Kakashi said. “They’re rarely even covered in the academy.”

“What if that’s what the Daimyo wants, though?” Obito asked. “What if he wants someone who isn’t caught up in a spiderweb of alliances already?”

“Are you suggesting we might have to deal with samurai protecting our target?” he asked, sighing. “We might as well account for the chance that Sunagakure will send someone here.”

“We still need to rest,” Rin said. “I just regained consciousness and you’re probably tired after dragging us out of the water. We need to get to sleep.” She looked over at the fire. “As much as I don’t like it, we need to stop sending smoke signals all across the country.”

It was clear enough, as they got ready to sleep, that Kakashi had not had any reason to suspect that there would be other ninja getting in the way of their assignment, but it hardly mattered. Had he not built a fire, his two teammates probably would have died. It’s funny, though. I’m usually the one who starts the fire because I can get anything lit with a basic Katon. Did he figure it was going to take a while for us to get here?

When they went to bed, he remembered that early in his survival training, it came up that to help someone who was dying of hypothermia, the trick was to get out of the wet clothes, dry off, and then get in bed together, and stay like that until the other person started responding. The human body was an absolute furnace and when one was put directly up against another, the heat had nowhere to go. Wearing clothes or throwing blankets over oneself had a way of slowing down the loss of temperature, but consistently there was nothing that could beat the body heat of another person.

Taking the first watch, as always, he told himself that this time his jealousy was at least relatively reasonable. No one wanted to be the only one outside while the other two were warming each other up inside the tent, and yet, with the heightened danger of the mission, they could not afford not to have someone watching at night. His mind drifted to how they had returned home after deciding Takigakure was impassible for some reason.

It was obvious that they had to go through Kusa again, but after they had said that they would avoid it, and they lacked the paperwork to show anyone, the only thing to do was sneak back through slowly and carefully. They were not explicitly losing points by anyone’s account for the fact that they did not return from the mission quickly, but generally the Hokage liked to be informed as soon as possible whenever the mission was complete.

When at last it was his turn to sleep, he held the sleeping Rin and tried not to think too much about how they could have died a matter of hours ago. He tried not to let the excitement get to him. Though he did not know her feelings, he could suspect that the last thing she wanted was for him to lack any self control, or for him to lack respect for her boundaries. At the same time, one shiver was all he needed to put his weight on her. It was a unique feeling in his exhausted state of semi-consciousness; he had every reason to think that his dreams would be about protecting her from a frost ninja, and perhaps he was, in a sense.

They got an early start for an inability to sleep any more and they were in their disguises in the capital city in a matter of hours. Everyone around them had exposed skin, if only a little, so they stuck out as foreigners, but they needed to not be recognized more than not stick out, and they knew that they would not be the only ones. Walking down the frozen streets, they saw a trio of warmly dressed visitors audaciously postured on a nearby rooftop.

“Well, they’re not even trying,” he muttered. “Is it illegal for them to be here?”

#naruto fanfiction

[wind-becomes-lightning]

A present for making jonin

Kakashi x OC fanfiction snippet

Sayuri is a gutsy little girl.

Who is Sayuri Uchiha? The basics. [x]

Decided to publish some things from my 30k word Kakashi X OC fanfic I have written manically over the last few weeks. I hope you can bear with me, its not the greatest I just feel like sharing. (God I’m so fucking insecure ANYWAY)

It had been half an hour of waiting. Obito was late - again. Kakashi hated waiting for Obito. His teammate was always late to every meeting they had ever had together and no matter how many times he was reminded of punctuality he just couldn’t help but be too late. How annoying. Sometimes he picked Obito up himself. Making sure that he wasn’t late again. At least this way they had the opportunity to go onto missions as planned. Master Minato seemed as unbothered as always and Rin, well, Rin never was angry at anybody for anything. She was too kind to everybody. Come to think of it, he had never seen her angry. Her calm presence grounded their four person team. Obito and Kakshi were headstrong and constantly at each other's throat, but they still listened to her. It was a superpower. 

“As if he could ever come in time”, he grinded his teeth in anger “Especially today it would have been nice.” Minato smiled at him knowingly. Yes, I should be patient with Obito, the boy thought. I should understand that he is someone who is late. It happens. Master Minato had said that so many times that he could lecture himself on it. But today he had been promoted to Jonin and as such he had expected Obito to come congratulate him. Just today Obito should have been on time to support him. But I guess it was his fault for believing in the Uchiha. What a clan that one was. Always secretive and closed off and worst of all late. Or maybe that was just Obito. Who knows. He was not interested in finding out.

As if she had heard someone thinking negatively not only about Obito, but also about the Uchiha clan in general, Sayuri pushed through a line of trees and walked towards them.

This girl again, Kakashi thought and he carefully watched her movements. In any moment she could jump on him again like last time. “Senpai”, she said, waving and running at the same time. Ew, she was mocking him again. Rin started giggling. Kakashi felt embarrassed. Why would this girl not just leave him be. He had a reputation to maintain. But obviously those Uchiha girls did not know how to accept rejection. They were surprisingly popular among the boys of other clans. It was the eyes that enamoured them. But he was different. He didn’t care for this sharingan. He was strong on his own and made the rank of jonin on his own. None of it was for him.

She stopped an arms range away from him, unmistakably to avoid being thrown by him like last time. She smiled at him. Her hair was once again braided to both sides of her head. Those Uchiha clan members sure had deep black hair. Kakashi had never seen it anywhere else. “I’ve heard you actually became Jonin”, she said. “Hm”, he replied to confirm it. He still had no idea how news traveled so fast to her. Probably Obito. Yes, that was stuff he had time for, but he was late to missions. “I thought I’d give you a present”, she said and her smile now changed into a devilish grin. She had a plan for something. That can’t be good, he thought. Surely she just meant to prank him somewhat. He searched her eyes for a hint, but they were too black and deep to figure out. Rin giggled again and that pulled him back to reality.

“You don’t need to give me anything”, he said dryly and he tried to turn away from her. Sayuri quickly leapt forward to grab his wrist with her left hand. Once again he noticed how forceful and strong she was even though she was slightly smaller than him. Master Kushina really did make monsters out of girls. Everybody in their age group said so. “Senpai...”, she said again and pulled him closer to her. “Drop the senpai”, he said. He hated that sort of thing. None of them were in the academy anymore. How useless to be formal in this sort of position. He tried to wriggle himself out of her grip which just led her to hold his wrist tighter. 

Then many things happened at the same time. She quickly used her right hand to pull at his mask, which Kakashi was ready for. Instinctively he grabbed her hand and pulled her up, slightly lifting her off the ground. She moved her head forward and with his mask half down and - kissed him. On the lips. Then she let go of his hand and pulled the mask up onto his nose again. It all happened in a matter of seconds. “Congratulations again, senpai” she said, still being lifted up by his grip. This was not like him. He didn’t freeze in unknown situations. He was a Jonin now, a grownup, he knew how to handle things. A kiss. He had never done that before. He had never even thought about it before. He could feel his cheeks warm up, but it was not comparable to Sayuri. When he finally looked at her again he could see that the colour on her face could rival a ripe tomato. 

“I think you can let her down now”, Minato said softly from behind them,” I don’t think you have to worry about another, eh, attack”. He laughed at this statement and Kakashi immediately let go of Sayuris arm. She dropped back onto her feet and they just looked at each other for a second. Black eyes to black eyes. He could see her knees shaking. Stupid, brave, little girl. Gutsy, he had to give her that. This must have cost her all the bravery she could muster. He felt a kind of admiration for her in that regard. “I think I’m…”, she began saying quietly, but was cut off by a male voice saying “Sayuri, what are you doing here”, followed by someone running right into them. Completely out of breath and sweating: Obito had finally made it. 

She immediately turned on her heels and ran. She threw Obito a small “Nothing” and then she disappeared between the trees. Kakashi stared after her. All of this felt like it had happened to another version of him. Like a lighting clone. But Rin was still giggling so he knew that it had been real. “No lecture about me being late?”, Obito asked and looked from his teammates to his captain and back to Kakashi. “What's so funny?”, he smiled at Rin. “You missed quite a show”, she said, “Sayuri gave Kakashi a present for being Jonin, oh that reminds me! We all wanted to give you presents now.” Obito seemed confused at this, but before he could ask for further details Kakashi had already moved the conversation on. He didn’t want Obito to know. He really didn’t want this to make the rounds at all. He was a jonin now, he had other, more important things to worry about.

#naruto #naruto shippuden #kakashi hatake #hatake kakashi #wow there are double tags possible lmao #oc adventures #oc: sayuri #au: ikigai #fanfiction things