Obito's Aftermath and Amegakure
__~MINATO~__
The blonde male slowly walked up the stairs toward his student apartment with grim eyes. The reminder of the loss of one of his own still aches, but now isn't the time for emotions. He stopped in front of the door to his destination and hesitated for a home before going inside. The apartment was untouched as it had remained for the last year, but his real destination was obito’s old bedroom. He opened the door, and his eyes softened as he took a look inside.
Kakashi was lying down on obito’s bed, hugging a brand new tanto with an empty look. The sword had been obito’s last gift to Kakashi, and once the silver head had found out, he refused to use it, much less remove it from its sheath in order to not damage it. His father was not much better off sitting against the door to obito’s closet with many of obito’s old clothing lying in heaps around him. It made Minato sad to see his friend and student in such a state, and had he had the option, he would have left them alone to grieve, but…
“Sakumo, we have to talk” Minato half expected to be ignored but much to his surprise, he saw the older hatake twitch and took that as his cue to go on. “The Uchiha Elders are getting angsty and are beginning to riot” The last thing Minato wanted to do was deal; with clan politics, but now it was near impossible ever since his team came back with one less member and Kakashi gained a sharingan.
“The only reason they have not arrested Kakashi or rioted is that Yamanaka-sama was able to go into Kakashi's memories and prove he didn’t steal a sharingan.” Minato was hesitant to continue, “...however, they still wish for obito’s eye back” The reaction was instantaneous as both Hatake began growling. The blond man sweatdropped and chuckled nervously.
“Yes, I know, but you need to set the record straight with them or else-” A deep gruff voice interrupted
“Or else what? Ruin my reputation? Take away my shinobi license?” Sakumo scoffed, teeth pulling back into a furious snarl. “I could CARE less about that clan’s opinions; after all, they did to obito- after all, they did to my PUP t-they I-” The older hatake’s voice slowly broke, and he took a shaky breath. Minato sighed and took a seat next to the silver head.
“I know…I wish obito had said something- I knew something was off, and yet-” Minato sighed, ashamed. He was Obito’s sensei, and he should have realized Obito’s home situation was bad. The signs were there! To obito’s reputation, to his handling of finances even though he was just a child.
“And yet…I keep failing him more and more” Minato’s thoughts began to head in a dark direction until he heard Sakumo speak.
“...his scent is almost gone….” The words were whispered like he was sharing a secret. “His scent is so stale…so faint…so wrong…it hurts minato. I lost a pup, and his fading scent just reminds me he is truly gone….” Minato knew a lot of the hatake’s instincts, and he could only imagine the agony he must have been feeling. After all, Sakumo and even Kakashi, despite his attitude, saw Obito as part of their pack, their family.
“I’m sorry….”
“Not…your fault…” Both adults' heads whipped toward the faint voice of Kakashi. The younger hatake had sat up sometime during their conversation and was staring at them with his only eye open and obito’s closed shut.
“It…it was my fault. He pushed me out of the way…it was because of my failure as a leader he- it was because of me t-that he- he…Shisui was- is right it was….” Sakmuo looked shattered, and he immediately stood to rush forward and scoop his son into his arms.
“Nonono!- Pup, it wasn't your fault, okay? Shisui is young and sad, okay? He didn’t mean it, so don’t ever say that. You know obito wouldn’t want you to say that. Kakashi, son, Pup, please tell me you understand '' Kakashi's silence made sakumo panic more. “Son, please tell me you understand. IT WASN’T YOUR FAULT”
“...”
“Please”
“It..it wasn't…my fault” Sakumo looked relieved yet saddened. The blond stared sadly, realizing this must have been on Kakashi's mind ever since he came back.
When he, Kakashi, and Rin had returned from his mission, both of Obito’s brothers were excitedly waiting for their older brother to come back. However, Minato never wished to see the devastated look on their faces as soon as they revealed Obito was dead.
“No, No, No! You're lying! He can’t- he isn’t-” Shsui's eyes were filled with tears, and he collapsed onto the ground with a wail. Itachi's reaction was the complete opposite of his brother, silently staring at the group with no expression as tears silently fell down his cheeks. Minato took a deep breath and prepared to comfort the children until shisui raised his head and glared vigorously at Kakashi. Kakashi took a step back but not from the glare but rather the fact that shisui’s had his sharingan activated, but it looked completely different from a normal sharingan. Not only that, but bloody tears ran down shisui face.
“YOU! It was your fault! He gave his life for you, and what do you do!?” Shisui was on his feet and was advancing toward Kakashi.
“He loved you! He cared for you! And all you did was throw it into his face! SO! Are you happy?!? Are you-” Small arms wrapped around shisui’s waist, stopping the Uchiha from walking forward and probably attacking the silver head.
“Shisuis…stop” The two words made shisui freeze in place better than any rope or trap. “Obito loved him...like he loves us, so we…shouldn’t get upset at him. SHisui looked betrayed and looked down at Itachi.
“But- he is the cause- '' Shiusi stopped when he saw that Itachi's sharingan was looking into his own, and rather than the singular tomoe, there were now three spinnings slowly. Just like that, the fight seemed to drain out of the older Uchiha.
“... you're right…let’s go itachi '' Shisui grabbed the younger Uchiha’s hand, and the two began to walk away leaving the team behind.
Minato and his team hadn’t seen the two children since then, and he had a feeling that even though shisui had specifically blamed Kakashi for obito death, it was clear that shisui blamed the whole team. Minato closed his eyes for a brief moment.
“I should…go visit Rin after” His only female student wasn't handling the loss any better than her teammate and childhood friend. She threw herself into her medical training, barely interacting with anyone and refusing to go out on missions until she was better "trained." The blond man blinked back to reality staring at the two hatakes before getting up.
“I’ll go and see if I can stall the Uchiha elders a little more” He turned to leave, trying to figure out what bullshit excuse he was going to give Obito’s clan.
“Wait,” Minato paused, curious, before turning around. Sakumo gave obito’s room a glance before looking at the blonde male with determined eyes. “I’ll go with you and deal with the Uchiha elders'' The yellow flashed blink.
“Ah! Are you sure? I’m pretty sure I can-”
“No, This…this is something I have to do” Sakumo looked down at his son, who had at some point fallen asleep. “This last year, I have been…absent and not a very good father…not only that, but I also gave up until I remembered that obito had tried so hard to help me, so my giving up would be an insult to him.” Sakumo gave him a soft smile “don’t you think?” Minato's eyes pricked with tears that did not fall, and he gave the older hatake a beaming smile.
“Yep! You are most definitely correct.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
__~OBITO~__
"You know…I know this place is called the land of rain, but I wasn't expecting it to be constantly raining every second of the day," Obito deadpanned, not amused at all and feeling like a drowned rat. The good news was that while his clothes were soaked to hell and back, his body was thankfully dry due to swirly being wrapped around him.
"Well, what did you expect, obito-kun?"The white creature questioned, and obito shrugged.
"I suppose maybe constantly cloudy skies with rain often; I was just not expecting it to be raining all the time."
"Maybe it doesn't. After all, we only arrived last week!"
"Swirly, buddy, I really appreciate your attitude, but it is not normal for it to be raining for a freaking week straight" Obito had been traveling for nearly two weeks, and he had learned a lot about the outside world.
The good news was that Madara had money and supplies in his cave for obito to survive, but the bad news was the war. Due to the war, people were constantly stressed, and supplies, food, and shelter were either expensive, hard to come by, or met obito with clear distrust. Especially since civilians seem to have a sixth sense for who was shinobi and who wasn't. That ment that despite obito being a child, he was met with fear or hatred.
"My scars probably won't help," Obito mused, remembering the looks of absolute horror people had on the right side of his face. His long hair covered most of his face, but not completely. Therefore obito had been resting inside caves or in the forest before he realized he could go inside Kamui. The Uchiha quickly came to realize how overpowered Kamui was during his travels. Once he realized he could go inside Kamui and leave his stuff and simply sleep there, it became his favorite spot ever. For one, no one could attack him since the only way to access this dimension was through either him or Kakashi (and the silver head didn't have the knowledge to do so). Second was that he could leave stuff in Kamui, where it could stay safe and free up space in his inventory! Sadly he could not leave food in Kamui because it would simply rot, but otherwise, It was a free game. Third, he also had the perfect trash can for anything, his void. He could throw bodies, trash, and broken kunai into the void in his dimension, and it would basically either be destroyed or fall for eternity; either way, not his problem anymore.
Obito continued walking down the road and checked his map idly to see that there was a village ahead. He looked away only to whip his head back when he realized that the village had multiple red dots mixed with the usual dots signaling civilians.
"Huh? Bandits or maybe other ninjas?" Obito narrowed his eyes in thought before deciding it wasn't his problem and was ready to go around the village until he noticed something else. Some of the villagers' dots were vanishing, and that usually meant one of two things. That they had used a technique to hide, but since these were normal people, that meant…
"They are dying…." Obito bit his lip and hesitated. After all, this was a war, and it wasn't his problem. He just wanted to protect his precious people. However, his decision was made when he spotted a white dot with black lines. His blood ran cold because that dot had been one he had personally designed to represent root members, which could only mean one thing. Obito immediately began to run through towards the village because why on earth was a root member here!?!?
"Obito! What's wrong?" Swirly asked, worried in his voice.
"Well, I can't really explain right now, but that bad man I told you about earlier? Well, one of his people is here for some reason that can't be good" He spotted the entrance of the village and began to slow down, so he sneaked around.
“obito-”
"Shh…be quiet swirly, please," Obito's single sharingan eye flickers around widely looking, searching.
"Why are they here?" Swirly quietly whispered. Obito tensed up when he caught sight of the bloody scene in front of him. As he had guessed earlier, multiple bandits ran across the village, chasing down some civilians or breaking into their houses. The Uchiha even spotted the corpses of a few laid across the floor with blood pooling around them like a helo. He winced at the screams and swallowed down his shock and disgust.
"What…why are they doing that? isn't it bad?" Swiry sounded lost, and obito couldn't blame him.
"Yes…very bad, but no matter where you go, there will also be some very bad people swirly. Very bad people" Finally, obito eyes land on a person wearing all black with a white mask of a frog crouched down on a tree branch staring at the chaos.
>Rei ???Inama??? (LV - 55) Frog _OP=0_
- Is gathering information…
- Mind is broken
- One of the 12 current root members
"I see…so this is an information-gathering mission" While that does calm obito somewhat, he needs more information. "And the only way I am getting that is from them." Obito braces himself and teleports behind the ninja through Kamui. He lands soundlessly behind the root member and swiftly hits their head, knocking them out. The body goes limp, and obito teleports the two into Kamui. He ties them up nice and tight, making sure they won't escape, and removes the mask. Once he is sure they won't be able to escape once they wake, Obito returns to the village with a critical eye. With a quiet sigh, he teleports behind a bandit and slits his throat. Obito throws the body into Kamui, then proceeds to go behind another man and repeat the process.
--Stealth Level Up!---
Slowly but surely, each bandit is taken out one by one. Eventually, a brown-haired bandit realizes something is wrong.
"Oi! Hasn't it gone a little too quiet? Where did Riku go?" Another bandit with black hair next to the man shrugs, throwing a bag filled with loot over his shoulder.
"Who cares? He probably found a cute girl to have fun with. Now come and help me. We have to be gone before those weird shinobi show up" Obito's blood boiled silently, and without another second, he was behind the brown-haired male and snapped his neck. The bandit with black hair looks back, confused.
"Hey, idiot! We have to go- Back-!" The male coughs up a handful of blood from the kick obito gave him. The older male dropped his bag and fell onto his knees, wheezing.
"Hello there! I have a few questions for you!" Obito cheerfully said towards the black-haired man who was struggling to breathe with 3 broken ribs.
"Who…the…h-hell?" Much to obito's surprise, there was no fear in the man's aura, just anger.
"Ah, aren't you rude? Well, I have just one question, then you may go. Sounds fair?"
"F-fuck…you" Obito grinned underneath swirly (he would question he new found sadistic nature later…much later)
"Great! My question is, why would you attack this village in particular- oh, and please be honest, or you'll be in a world of pain" The man stayed silent, and obito sighed disappointedly. "I guess you need some motivation. "The Uchiha raised his foot and slammed it down onto the bandit's leg. There was a sickening crunch, and a silent scream left the man.
"S-stop! I'll talk- I'll talk, please!" The man began to beg, and fear finally began appearing in the man's emotional aura.
"Great, now talk."
"W-we heard that a b-bunch of stuff was going to be heard a-and…and" Obito's lie detection skill went off, and obito raised an eyebrow.
"Nice try. I know you are lying now.." Obito raised his oot and broke the other man's leg "…would you care to try again?" The man sobbed
"I'm sorry! W-we were paid- to-..p-please stop…”
"Hmmm…by who?"
“By..b-by Hanzo…please…w-we were meant to c-cause a distraction t-towards his…competitors…”
"Hanzo? Isn't that…" Obito's mouth became a tight line. It had completely slipped his mind that the tyrant Hanzo was alive. That man would be a big reason the Akatsuki would fall apart and basically destroy both Nagato and Konan mentally. "How bad would it affect the future if I just killed him?"
"Please…please…l-let me… go" The bandit whimpered, and obito decided to take some mercy on him.
"Fine, I guess I spare you from more pain" The man perked up, tears falling and eyes full of relief.
"T-thank you- my- thank y-" The man went still as a statue, and slowly his head moved forward until it fell off the man's neck onto the ground. It was sort of funny to think about how just a few years ago, Obito would have felt sick at causing such violence but now? He just felt numb to causing the death of another. He was definitely not the same boy he was years ago. Obito shook his head to disperse his dark thoughts and went to go and get rid of the body before he was interrupted. The Uchiha instinctively jumped back in order to dodge whatever had just been thrown at him. He then turned around to face his attacker.
>Konan (LV - 70) The Paper Angel_OP=-45_
The purple head stood in front of him with a calm expression, and her cheek slightly peeled away into pieces of paper.
"That would mean…." Obito's eye slid to where he had been standing a few moments ago, and like he had been expecting, multiple paper shuriken lay there halfway dug into the ground. "Oh..those would have definitely caused damage" Despite that, weapons being made from paper then managed to somehow look more dangerous than any actual mental weapons.
"Who are you?" The Uchiha turned his attention back to the woman.
"You do know it is quite rude to attack somehow and then ask questions, right?" Obito replied sarcastically, only to quickly hide a wince when the purple woman's face tightened.
>Konan (LV - 70) The Paper Angel_OP=-45→-50_
"I will KINDLY ask again. Who are you, and why are you here?" Obito hesitated for a moment before deciding that it would be best to be truthful…partially.
"I came here because I was chasing someone down who has some information I need."
"And the village?"
"Originally, I wasn't gonna interfere since it wasn't my problem, but then I saw someone who wasn't here and decided to figure out why they were here" Konan looked at obito with a critical eye.
>Konan (LV - 70) The Paper Angel_OP=-50→-32_
"I see…did you gain what you needed?" The Uchiha shrugged.
"Kinda? The person I came for is still knocked out, so nothing yet, and this bandit-" Obito gestured to the headless body "-told me information about this Hanzo guy and why he and his bandits came here" Konan's eyes flickered to the body, to obito, the village, then back to him.
"… you're the one who dealt with the bandits, correct?"
"Yes"
>Konan (LV - 70) The Paper Angel_OP=-32→-67_
>Konan (LV - 70) The Paper Angel_OP=-67→-44_
>Konan (LV - 70) The Paper Angel_OP=-44→-38_
"Oh dear, getting her to trust me is not going to be easy. "Obito watched as Konan's expression seemed to become as still as a statue before it relaxed into something more natural.
"Would you…be willing to share what you learned? I would be willing to compensate you, of course," Obito felt a plan form in his mind.
"Sure, but I don't really want money. I would, however, be willing to trade information?" The tension in the purple head's shoulder was released by a fraction.
"Alright, those terms are agreeable. Who do you wish to learn?"
"Have you seen anybody around with all black clothing and a white animal mask?" konan thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"No"
"Disappointing but not surprising. After all, they are quite sneaky," Obito sighed before waving a hand toward her. "Okay, your turn."
"What information about Hanzo do you have?"
"Apparently, they were paid to come and attack this village to be a distraction towards someone called Akatsuki" Just as expected, Obito watched Koana tense up, and for a brief second, her poker face broke to reveal a hint of panic. However, just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, and her face was empty of emotions once more.
"...I see…"
"Going by your reaction, you know who that is?"
"..." she stared at him like she was trying to see his soul. "They are a shinobi group of amegakure" There was a tense silence, and obito was about ready to leave since he had to go and deal with Hanzo.
"Well…this was fun, but I gotta go now…so bye-"
"Wait," The Uchiha paused and waited for the older woman to continue, "...who are these masked shinobi going around, and what do they want."
"...and line, hook, sinker" Obito was surprised that his plan had worked so fast. He wanted the Akatsuki to be aware of Danzo's people and get them suspicious, but he wasn't expecting Konan to immediately fall for it.
"The answer is sort of complicated, but to put it into simple terms? A shinobi from Konoha is basically going behind his Hokage back to gain power."
"What" Obito shrugged
"Do you wish for a more detailed answer?" Konan seems to think it over for a moment before nodding.
>Konan (LV - 70) The Paper Angel_OP=-38-->-20_
"I…yes, that would be preferable."